in his Understanding Will Affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of St. John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinful Temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the Grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is said of many in the holy Scripture that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only right but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their Temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their unties so that they cannot be sedoced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of St. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. Cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving Doctrince once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient tranquility or assurance of mind It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Queen Maries Reign the Protestants were thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture than the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You said he have the Word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other ways as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is said to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments than in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their several Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Council of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Friezland Anno 1613. requiring and enjoying a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of all the Forces of those Vnited Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countreys made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continual Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrnats suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he march'd from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Countrey and the Rules of the Union This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Council which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of KIng James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held as Dort Anno 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissioned by King James to attend also in the Synod for th eRealm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the managing and conduct of it For as neither of them was assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more than all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Council of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion-sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part
the excellency of Divine Grace so the Second being that maintained by the Franciscans was plausible and populare and cherished humane presumption c. The whole passage we have had before in the Second Chapter Numb 4. but we shall answer to no more of it than the former Clause Concerning which it may be said that though Father Paul the Author of the History hath filled the Christian World with admiration yet it is obvious to the eye of any discerning Reader that in many places he savoureth not so much of the Historian as he doth of the Party and that being carryed by the Interest of his Native Countrey which was the Signory of Venice he seldom speaks favourably of the Jesuits and their adherents amongst which the Franciscans in these points are to be accounted Secondly that either Father Paul did mistake himself or else that his Translator hath mistaken his meaning in making the Second Opinion to be more pleasing to the Preaching Fryers than the understanding Divines the name of Preaching Fryers being so appropriated in common speech to those of the Dominican Order that it is never applyed unto any other And Thirdly That the Authority of Father Paul is no otherwise to be embraced in Doctrinal matters what credit soever may be given to him in point of History than as it is seconded by Reason And certainly if we proceed by the rule of Reason that Doctrine must needs more cherish humane presumption which puffeth men up with the certainty of their Election the infallibility of assisting and persisting Grace and the impossibility of falling from the attaining of that salvation which they have promised to themselves than that which leaves these points uncertain which puts a man to the continnal necessity of calling on God and working out the way unto his salvation with fear and trembling He that is once possessed with this persuasion that all the sins which he can possibly commit were they as many as have been committed by all mankind since the beginning of the World are not able to frustrate his Election or separate him from the love and favour of Almighty God will be too apt to swell with Pharisaical pride and despise all other men as Heathens and Publicans when such poor Publicans as have their minds humble and relying on God will stand aloof not daring to approach too near the Divine Majesty but crying out with God be merciful unto me a sinner and yet shall be more justified in the sight of God than the others are For this we need produce no proof we find it in the supercilious looks in the haughty carriage of those who are so well assured of their own Election who cannot so disguise themselves as not to undervalue and despise all those who are not of the same party and persuasion with them A race of men whose insolence and pride there is no avoid by a modest submission whose favour there is no obtaining by good turns and benefits Quorum superbiam frustra per modestiam obsequium effugeris as in another case was said by a Noble Britain And finally it is objected but the Objection rather doth concern the men than the Doctrine that the Arminians are a Faction a turbulent seditious Faction so found in the Vnited Provinces from their very first spawning not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a Commonwealth So saith the Author of the pamphlet called the Observator observed and proves it by the wicked conspiracy as he calls it of Barnevelt Obf. Observed p. 46. who suffered most condignly as he tells us upon that account 1619. And afterwards by the damnable and hellish plot of Barnevelts Children and Allies in their designs against the State and the Prince of Orange P. 37. This Information seconded by the Author of the Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. who tells us but from whom he knows not that the States themselves have reported of them that they had created them more trouble than the King of Spain had by all his Wars And both these backt by the Authority of King James who tells us of them in his Declaration against Vorstius That if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected than the Curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetual rent and destraction in the whole body of the State This is the substance of the Charge So old and common that it was answered long since by Bishop Ridly in Qu. Maries days when the Doctrine of the Protestants was said to be the readiest way to stir up Sedition and trouble the quiet of the Commonwealth wherefore to be repressed in time by force of Laws To which that godly Bishop returns this Answer That Satan doth not cease to practice his old guiles and accustomed subtilties He hath ever this Dart in a readiness to whirl against his adversaries to accuse them of Sedition that he may bring them if he can in danger of the Higher Powers for so hath he by his Ministers always charged the Prophets of God Ahab said unto Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel The false Prophets complained also to their Princes of Jeremy that his words were seditious and not to be suffered Did not the Scribes and Pharisees falsly accuse Christ as a seditious person and one that spake against Caesar Which said and the like instance made in the Preachings of St. Paul Confer between Kidley and Latimer he concludes it thus viz. But how far they were from all sedition their whole Doctrine Life and Conversation doth well declare And this being said in reference to the Charge in general the Answer to each part thereof is not far to seek And first it hath been answered to that part of it which concerns King James that the King was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his most excellent understanding as by Reason of State the Arminians as they call them were at that time united into a party under the command of John Olden Barnevelt and by him used for the reasons formerly laid down to undermine the power of Maurice then Prince of Orange who had made himself the Head of the Contra-Remonstrants and was to that King a most dear Confederate Which Division in the Belgick Provinces that King considered as a matter of most dangerous consequence and utterly destructive of that peace unity and concord which was to be the greatest preservation of the States Vnited on whose tranquillity and power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions Upon which reason he exhorts them in the said Declaration To take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion as he saith which was a matter so opposite to Vnity which was indeed the only prop and safety of their State next under God as of necessity it must by little and little
Saxons by such as he employed in that Holy work The instances whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church are handsomely summed up together by Sir Edward Cook in the fifth part of his Reports if I well remember but I am sure in Cawdries Case entituled De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico And though Parsons the Jesuite in his Answer unto that Report hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdom from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons yet all he hath effected by it proves no more than this That the Popes by permission of some weak Princes did exercise a kind of concurrent jurisdiction here with the Kings themselves but came not to the full and entire Supremacy till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire nay even the Emperors themselves under their command So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocation to K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his proper and original power invaded by the Popes of these latter Ages though possibly the Title of Supream Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an Innovation At which Title when the Papists generally and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos did seem to be much scandalized it was with much wisdom changed by Q. Elizabeth into that of Supream Governour which is still in use And when that also would not down with some queasie stomacks the Queen her self by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign and the Clergy in their book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years after did declare and signifie That there was no Authority in sacred matters contained under that Title but that only Prerogative which had been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before and tell me if you can what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion but what is warranted unto them by the practice and example of the most godly Kings of Jewry seconded by the most godly Emperours in the Christian Church and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdom till Papal Usurpation carried all before it And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation it was no Wrong to take that from him which he had no Right to and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner Neither prescription on the one side nor discontinuance on the other change the case at all that noted Maxim of our Lawyers that no prescription binds the King or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi as their own words are being as good against the Pope as against the Subject This leads me to the second part of this Dispute the dispossessing of the Pope of that Supream Power so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors To which we say that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient yet they were not primitive and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words Ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning For it is evident enough in the course of story that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supremacy within this Kingdom in the first Ages of this Church nor in many after till by gaining from the King the Investiture of Bishops under Henry the First the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice under Henry the Second and the submission of King John to the See of Rome they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea And though by the like artifices seconded by some Texts of Scripture which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased they had attained the like Supremacy in France Spain and Germany and all the Churches of the West Yet his Incroachments were opposed and his Authority disputed upon all occasions especially as the light of Letters did begin to shine Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Council of Constance one of the Imperial Cities of High germany that the Council was above the Pope and his Authority much curbed by the Pragmatick Sanction which thence took beginning But Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris wrote a full Discourse entituled De auferibilitate Papae touching the total abrogating of the Papal Office which certainly he had never done in case the Papal Office had been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ According to the Position of that learned man The greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papal power as an Excrescence at the best in the body mystical subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served though on self ends Reasons of State and to serve their several turns by him as their needs required they did and do permit him to continue in his former greatness For Lewis the 11th King of France in a Council of his own Bishops held at Lions cited Pope Julius the 2d to appear before him and Laustrech Governour of Millaine under Francis the 1st conceived the Popes Authority to be so unnecessary yea even in Italy it self that taking a displeasure against Leo the 10th he outed him of all his jurisdiction within that Dukedom anno 1528. and so disposed of all Ecclesiastical affairs ut praefecto sacris Bigorrano Episcopo omnia sine Romani Pontificis authoritate administrarentur as Thuanus hath it that the Church there was supreamly governed by the Bishop of Bigor a Bishop of the Church of France without the intermedling of the Pope at all The like we find to have been done about six years after by Charles the Fifth Emperor and King of Spain who being no less displeased with Pope Clement the 7th Abolished the Papal power and jurisdiction out of all the Churches of his Kingdoms in Spain Which though it held but for a while till the breach was closed yet left he an example by it as my Author noteth Ecclesiasticam disciplinam citra Romani nominis autoritatem posse conservari that there was no necessity of a Pope at all And when K. Henry the 8th following these examples had banished the Popes Authority out of his Dominions Religion still remaining here as before it did the Popes Supremacy not being at the time an Article of the Churistian Faith as it hath since been made by Pope Pius the 4th that Act of his was much commended by most knowing men in that without more alteration in the face of the Church
or putting their results into execution without his consent but put him into the actual possession of that Authority which properly belonged to the Supremacy or the Supream Head in as full manner as ever the Pope of Rome or any delegated by and under him did before enjoy it After which time whatsoever the King or his Successors did in the Reformation as it had virtually the power of the Convocations so was it as effectual and good in Law as if the Clergy in their Convocation particularly and in terminis had agreed upon it Not that the King or his Successors were hereby enabled to exercise the Keys and determine Heresies much less to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as the Papists falsly gave it out but as the Heads of the Ecclesiastical Body of this Realm to see that all the members of that Body did perform their duties to rectifie what was found amiss amongst them to preserve peace between them on emergent differences to reform such errors and corruptions as are expresly contrary to the Word of God and finally to give strength and motions to their Councils and Determinations tending to Edification and increase of Piety And though in most of their proceedings towards Reformation the Kings advised with such Bishops as they had about them or could assemble without any great trouble or inconvenience to advise withal yet was there no necessity that all or the greater part of the Bishops should be drawn together for that purpose no more than it was anciently in the Primitive Times for the godly Emperors to call together the most part of the Bishops in the Roman Empire for the establishing of the matters which concerned the Church or for the godly Kings of Judah to call together the greatest part of the Priests and Levites before they acted any thing in the Reformation of those corruptions and abuses which were crept in amongst them Which being so and then withal considering as we ought to do that there was nothing altered here in the state of Religion till either the whole Clergy in their Convocaton or the Bishops and most eminent Church-men had resolved upon it our Religion is no more to be called a Regal than a Parliament-Gospel 6. That the Clergy lost not any of their just Rights by the Act of Submission and the power of calling and confirming Councils did anciently belong to the Christian Princes If you conceive that by ascribing to the King the Supream Authority taking him for their Supream Head and by the Act of Submission which ensued upon it the Clergy did unwittingly ensnare themselves and drew a Vassallage on these of the times succeeding inconsistent with their native Rights and contrary to the usage of the Primitive Church I hope it will be no hard matter to remove that scruple It 's true the Clergy in their Convocation can do nothing now but as their doings are confirmed by the Kings Authority and I conceive it stands with reason as well as point of State that it should be so For since the two Houses of Parliament though called by the Kings Writ can conclude nothing which may bind either King or Subject in their civil Rights until it be made good by the Royal Assent so neither is it fit nor safe that the Clergy should be able by their Constitutions and Synodical Acts to conclude both Prince and People in spiritual matters until the stamp of Royal Authority be imprinted on them The Kings concurrence in this case devesteth not the Clergy of any lawful power which they ought to have but restrains them only in the exercise of some part thereof to make it more agreeable to Monarchical Government and to accommodate it to the benefit both of Prince and People It 's true the Clergy of this Realm can neither meet in Convocation nor conclude any thing therein nor put in execution any thing which they have concluded but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority But then it is as true withal that this is neither inconsistent with their native Rights nor contrary unto the usage of the Primitive Times And first it is not inconsistent with their native Rights it being a peculiar happiness of the Church of England to be always under the protection of Christian Kings by whose encouragement and example the Gospel was received in all parts of this Kingdom And if you look into Sir Henry Spelman's Collection of the Saxon Councils I believe that you will hardly find any Ecclesiastical Canons for the Government of the Church of England which were not either originally promulgated or after approved and allowed o either by the Supream Monarch of all the Saxons or by some King or other of the several Heptarchies directing in their National or Provincial Synods And they enjoyed this Prerogative without any dispute after the Norman Conquest also till by degrees the Pope in grossed it to himself as before was shewn and then conferred it upon such as were to exercise the same under his Authority which plainly manifests that the Act of Submission so much spoke of was but a changing of their dependance from the Pope to the King from an usurped to a lawful power from one to whom they had made themselves a kind of voluntary Slaves to him who justly challenged a natural dominion over them And secondly that that submission of theirs to their natural Prince is not to be considered as a new Concession but as the Recognition only of a former power In the next place I do not find it to be contrary to the usage of the Primitive times I grant indeed that when the Church was under the command of the Heathen Emperors the Clergy did Assemble in their National and Provincial Synods of their own Authority which Councils being summoned by the Metropolitans and subscribed by the Clergy were of sufficient power to bind all good Christians who lived within the Verge of their jurisdiction They could not else Assemble upon any exigence of affairs but by such Authority But it was otherwise when the Church came under the protection of Christian Princes all Emperors and Kings from Constantine the Great till the Pope carried all before him in the darker times accompting it one of the principal flowers as indeed it was which adorned their Diadems I am not willing to beat on a common place But if you please to look into the Acts of ancient Councils you will find that all the General Councils all which deserve to be so called if any of them do deserve it to have been summoned and confirmed by the Christian Emperors that the Council of Arles was called and confirmed by the Emperor Constantine that of Sardis by Constans that of Lampsacus by Valentinian that of Aquileia by Theodosius that of Thessalonica National or Provincial all by the Emperor Gratian That when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the French the Councils of Akon Mentz Meldun Wormes and Colen received both life and
charge to go teach all Nations Id. 28.19 And when he found them backward in pursuit thereof he quickned Peter by a Vision and called Paul as it were of purpose Act. 10.11 to bear his name before the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness unto light Act. 9.17 and from the power of Satan unto God So that although the Jews and Gentiles were not collected into one body in our Saviours time Act. 26.18 I mean the time in which he pleased to sojourn here upon the Earth yet being done by his Authority and by the conduct and direction of his blessed Spirit it can be said of none but him quod fecit utraque unum that he made both one bringing them both into one Church Ephes 2.14 and making both partakers of the same communion who were before at such a distance as was conceived to be irreconcilable Unto the constituting of which Church our Saviour brought not any thing of Rite or Ceremony determined nothing that we meet with in his holy Gospels touching the time or place of publick Worship the Form and manner of the same save that he gave a general intimation that Hierusalem should no longer be the place in which men should be bound to Worship Joh. 4.21 The pains he took were principally spent in points of Doctrin clearing the truths of holy Scripture from those false glosses and corrupt traditions which had been put upon it by the Scribes and Pharisees and setting forth a new and clearer body of Divinity than had been taught the people in the Law of Moses that the Father might be worshipped in succeeding times with a greater measure of the spirit and a more perfect knowledge of the truth Joh. 4.23 24. than he had been formerly As for the circumstances and out-parts of Worship he left them in the state he found them that is to say to the disposing of the Church in whose power it was to institute such Rites and Ceremonies as might apparently conduce to the increase of Piety and to the setting forth of Gods praise and glory Himself had given a personal and most exemplary obedience to the Church of Jewry conforming to such Rites and Ordinances wherein there was no deviation from the Law of God as had in former times been setled by the power thereof And therefore had no cause of his collecting a Church conducted in those points which pertain to godliness by such a visible co-operation of the Holy Ghost especially considering what a fair example of Conformity he should leave behind him Besides all people of the world both Jews and Gentiles were setled at that time in a full perswasion of the necessity of set times and determinate places for the assembling of themselves together in the acts of Worship and had their prescribed Forms both of Prayer and Praise their Rituals and established Ceremonies and therewith also an opinion that those things were to be eprformed by the Priest alone Which being agreed on in the general both people might be brought with more facility to fall on some particular conclusions to which they were inclined already by their common principles And so indeed it proved in a short event times places and set Forms for worship being unanimously and universally received amongst them within a very little while after our Lords departure The Jews already had their Synagogues their Proseuchas or Oratories as before was said How small a labour was it to the blessed Apostles and their successors in that work to turn those Synagogues of theirs into Christian Churches for Preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments accordingly as they did win upon the Jews to embrace the Gospel Nor is this only a bare speculation it was done de facto it being recorded in a book ascribed unto Athanasius that on the converting of the Jews Inhabitants of Beritus to the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de passione imaginis Dom. nostri To. 2. gr l. p. 631. that the Bishop who had laboured in it converted the Synagogue of the Jews into a Christian Church and dedicated it to our Lord and Saviour And for the Temples of the Gentiles when once their superstitions were suppressed and the Gospel countenanced by Authority they were converted also to the self-same use Vid. Bed hist Eccles 1. as the Jewish Synagogues had been in other places Gods Servants being in the mean time contented with such safe retreats as their necessities inforced them to make use of in those fiery times or with such publick places of Assembly but mean and under the degree of envy as either upon sufferance or by special leave they were permitted to erect As soon if not more suddenly all parties also were agreed on the times of worship which was reduced with general and joynt consent unto the first day of the week the Lords day or the Sunday call it which you will wherein all members of the Congregation were to meet together for Gods publick Service A business wherein the Church proceeded with great care and wisdom setting apart one day in seven to hold the fairer quarter with the Jews who were so zealous of a Sabbath but altering the day it self and paring off those legal Ordinances which had made it burdensome the better to content the Gentiles Yet so that they had also their daily meetings as occasion served for celebration of the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist in those fiery times Whereof as being instituted for the Christian Sacrifice and of the Evangelical Priesthood to attend the same we shall speak anon In the mean time the next thing here to be considered is the form and order wherein the Church did celebrate Gods publick Service in those purer times those Forms of Prayer and Invocation wherewith they did address themselves to the Lord their God That all Religious offices in the House of God should be performed in form and order 1 Cor. 14. is not only warranted but enjoyned by the Apostles Canon made for those of Corinth and consequently for all Churches else And that for the avoiding of Battologies and all effusions of raw and undigested prayers besides what hath been shewn before to have been generally in use both with Jew and Gentile in being bound and regulated by set Forms of Prayer We have a Form laid down by our Lord and Saviour both for our use and imitation And first that it was made for our imitation is generally agreed on even by those who otherwise approve not set Forms of Prayer Calv. in Harm Evangel Calvin doth so resolve it saying In hunc finem tradita est haec regula ad quam preces nostras exigere necesse est si legitimas censeri Deoque probari cupimus And in the words not long before Non jubet Christus suos conceptis verbis orare sed tantum ostendit quorsum vota omnia precesque referri
luca spatium omne quod Templo dicabatur evinctum vittis coronisque ingressi milites quibus fausta omina felicibus Ramis Dein Virgines vestales cum pueris puellisque Patrimis Matrimisque aqua rivis fontibus amnibusque hausta perluere That is to say on the 11th of the Kalends of July or 21 of June being a goodly fair day the whole Plot of the Temple was bound and tied about with Fillets and Garlands The Souldiers whose names had lucky significations entred in with Olive-branches in their hands for so I think the Author meaneth by felicibus ramis Afterward the vestal Virgins with Boys and Girls that had both Father and Mother alive washed it with waters fetched from Rivers and Springs and running streams It followeth in the Author Tum Helvidius Priscus Praetor praeeunte Plato Eliano Pontifice lustrata Bove Taurisque area or rather suovetaurilibus area c. Then Helvidius Priscus the Praetor Plautus Elianus the chief Pontifex dictating the solemn words of the Dedication for so I understand the word praeeunte in that place hallowed the Floor with a solemn Sacrifice of a Swine a Sheep and a Bullock and laying the Entrails upon a green Turf calling first upon Jupiter Juno Minerva and the rest of the Godsprotectors of the Empire That they would prosper the work exalt and advance this their own Habitation begun by the devotion of Men with their divine and celestial power the Magistrates and Priests the Senate and Gentlemen with a great part of the people pressing with great desire and joy to behold the Ceremonies And though this seemeth to be the Dedication only of the Area or Plot of ground on which the Capitol was built yet it shews very plainly withal with what solemnity and pomp of Ceremonies the antient Romans used to celebrate their Dedications But for the Christians it is evident and clear enough that they were no sooner freed from the tyranny of persecution in the time of Constantine but they kept those Dedications as with great Solemnties so also with magnificent Feastings called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb hist Eccl. lib. 10. c. 3. Dedication Feasts celebrated with a great concourse of Prelates and people from all parts and solemnized with publick Prayers and eloquent Orations one of which is extant still in Eusebius hist Eccl. lib. 10. cap. 4. So when the Emperour Constantine had founded the Temple of the holy Martyrs in Hierusalem he prepared himself for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dedication of the same inviting thereunto most of the famous Prelates of those parts all which he entertained and feasted in a sumptuous manner Which with the pomp and other the Solemnities of the Dedication see in Eusebius de laudibus Constantini lib. 4. chap. 40.43 44 45. as also in Theodoret hist Eccl. lib. 1. c. 31. To this Nicephorus thus addeth Erat is decimus quartu◠Septembris dies qui ab eo tempore in Ecclesia Hieresolymitana quotannis Hist Eccl. l. 8. c. 50. public ab omnibus Festus celebris agitatus est octo ex ordine diebus conventibus celebrandis as Langius the Translator reads it for I have not the Original now by me It was saith he the 14. day of September which from that time forwards was annually kept holy in the Church of Jerusalem by allsorts of people the Church being then assembled in an holy Congregation for eight days together But this belongs more properly to another place and there we shall again meet with it Nor was the Ceremony or Religious part of these Dedicatiosn performed with less solemnity than with joy and Feasting that part thereof belonging antiently to the Bishop as proper and peculiar to him and not communicable unto any of inferiour Orders and that as well to add the greater reputation to that sacred Action as to preserve the dignity and esteem of the Episcopal calling and of this the Dedication of a Church in Millain by St. Ambrose Bishop of that City spoken of before may be a very fit Example as indeed it is A matter of so high repute that the Popes at last began to draw it to themselves that so they might the better correspond in all manner of Prerogative with the old Pontifex maximus in the time of the Romans For thus Gelasius who entred on the Popedom An. 492. Nobis patefactum est Do Consec lib. cap. 27. quod absque praecepto sedis Apostolicae nonnulli factas Ecclesias vel Oratoria sacrare praesumant We are informed saith he that some amongst you do presume to consecrate Churches and Oratories without the leave and licence of the See Apostolick Which is to be understood with reference to the Bishop of the Roman Patriarchate which properly and Originally were under his jurisdiction as their proper Primate and not to any other Bishops of Italy much less of France Illyricum or remoter Countreys and so we are to understand him in his first Epistle inscribed to the Bishops of Lucania another of the Suburbicarian Provinces which made upon that Patriarchate in which he positively declareth Ne quis Ecclesias non petitis pro more praeceptionibus consecrare audeat that none of them should consecrate any new built Church without leave from him according to the antient custom where we may note that this restraint or prohibition was laid upon the Bishops only as they who only in themselves were capable of officiating in that sacred Action And being it was a sacred Action and such an Action as was to be performed by none but Bishops in their several charges I cannot doubt but that there was some set and appointed Form in which that Action was then celebrated by those reverend persons though what that Form was of what particular Ceremonies what Prayers and Benedictions it did then consist I have not found amongst the Authors of those times at least in such unquestioned Authors as I dare rely on Our third and last rank of Arguments to prove the reat esteem in which these Dedications were held of old is the observing of those Feasts annually in their several courses which had been once Celebrated in the honour of so great a work To this the first hint given in the state of Jewry was that of Judas Maccabeus who having kept the Dedication of the Altar eight days together ordained that the days of the Dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days c. The like done also by he Romans in the time of their Gentilism Maccab. c. 4. v. 56.59 which whether it were done in imitation of the Jews or that the Jews took up this custom to hold conformity with the Romans who then were grown considerable in the eye of the world it is hard to say But for the Romans sure it is that they observed the Anniversary of many of their Dedications in a Festival way whereof if we consult the Roman
Parliament who set so slight a value on their Constitutions the Title doth afford two things worthy consideration First that the maintenance of the Clergy here by Law established is said to be by giving to them the tenth part of every mans Estate And secondly that the blow goes higher than before it did and aims not only at the devesting of the Church of her ancient Patrimony but at the depriving of the Gentry of their Impropriations which many of them hold by Lease many by Inheritance all by as good a title as the Law can make them I know there hath been great pains taken by some Learned men to state the Institution and Right of Tithes and several judicious Tractates have been writ about it which notwithstanding have not found such entertainment as they did deserve partly because being written in an Argumentative way they were above the reach of the vulgar Reader but principally because written by men ingaged in the cause and such as might be byassed with their own interesse in it For my part I am free from all those ingagements which may incline me to write any thing for my private ends being one that payeth Tithes and such other duties as the Laws and Ordinances do injoyn And though I sit far off from the fountain of business and cannot possibly see at so great a distance what might best satisfie the doubts and clamors of unquiet men yet I shall venture to say somewhat in a modest way towards the Undeceiving of the People in this point of Tithes whose judgments have been captivated by those mis-persuasions which cunningly have been communicated and infused into them And I shall do it in a way if I guess aright which hath not yet been travelled in this present point such as I hope will satisfie all them of the adverse party but those who are resolved before-hand that they will not be satisfied For whereas the whole controversie turneth on these three hinges First that the maintenance allowed the Clergy is too great for their calling especially considering the small number of them Secondly that it is made up out of the tenth part of each mans Estate And thirdly that the changing of this way by the payment of Tythes into that of Stipends would be more grateful to the Countrey and more easie to the Clergy I shall accordingly reduce this small discourse unto these three heads First I will shew that never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England Secondly that there is no man in the Realm of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish Minister but his Easter-Offering And thirdly that the changing of Tythes into Stipends would bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended These Propositions being proved which I doubt not of I hope I shall receive no check for my undertaking considering that I do it of a good intent to free the Parliament from the trouble of the like Petitions and that the common people being disabused may quietly and chearfully discharge their duties according to the Laws established and live together with that unity and godly love which ought to be between a Minister and his Congregation This is the sum of my design which if I can effect it is all I aim at And with this Declaration of my mind and meaning I trust this short discourse of mine will be if not applauded yet at least excused First then I am to prove this point I. That never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England For proof of this we must behold the Church of God as it stood under the Law in the Land of Canaan and as it now stands under the Gospel in the most flourishing parts of Christendom Under the Law the Tribe of Levi was possessed of 48 Cities and the Territories round about them extending every way for the space of 2000 Cubits which in so small a Country was a greater proportion than the Rents received by the Clergy of all the Bishoprick and Chapter Lands in the Realm of England Then had they besides Tribes whereof more anon the first-born of Man-kind and all unclean Beasts which were redeemed at the rate of five Shekels apeece amounting in our money to 12 s. 6 d. and of the Firstlings of clean Beasts their blood being sprinkled on the Altar and the fat offered for a burnt-offering the flesh remained unto the Priests Of which see Numb 18. v. 15 16 17 18. They had also the First fruits of wine Levit. 2.3 7.5.7 oyl and wool Deut. 18. v. 4. yea and of all things else which the earth brought forth for the use of man the first fruits of the dough Numb 15. v. 20 21. the Meat-offerings the Sin-offerings the Trespass-offerings the Shake-offerings the Heave-offerings and the Shew-bread Levit. 7.33 34. Ib. v. 8. As also of all Eucharistical Sacrifices the Breast and the Shoulder of others the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw and the whole burnt-offering they received the skin Then add that all the Males of the Tribes of Israel were to appear thrice yearly before the Lord and none of them came empty-handed And that if any had detained any thing in part or in whole which was due by Law he was to bring a Ram for an offering to make good that which was detained and to add a fifth part to it in the way of Recompence Besides these duties were brought in to the Priests and Levites without charge or trouble And if any for their own ease desired not to pay in kind but to redeem the same for a sum of money the estimation of the due was to be made by the Priest and a fifth part added as before for full satisfaction Lev. 27 12 13. In a word such and so many allowances had the Priests and Levites that setting by the Tithes of their Corn and Cattel and of all manner of increase their maintenance had far exceeded that of the English Clergy and adding unto these the Tithes of all Creatures tithable it doth more than double it For in the payment of their Tithes by the Lords appointment there was not only a full tenth of all kinds of increase but such an imposition laid on all kinds of Grain as came to more than a sixt part of the Crop it self insomuch that of 6000 bushels 1121 accrued unto the Priests and Levites 4779 remaining only to the Husbandman For first out of 6000 bushels and so accordingly in all after that proportion a Sixtieth part at least and that they termed the Therumah of the evil eye or the niggards First-fruits was to be set apart for the first fruits of the threshing-floor which
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
for the other Dionysius the then Pope of Rome I find not any thing that he did to quench the flame Baron Annal. Eccl. Anno 1272. 18. For though Baronius being sensible how much it might redound to this Popes disgrace that he alone should be a looker on in so great a business wherein the honour of our Lord and SAVIOUR was so much concerned hath fained a Council to be held at Rome at the same time and for the same intent and purpose yet there is no such thing in Athanasius whom he cites to prove it neither doth Binius though in other things he takes up much of his Commodities on the Cardinals word speak the least word of such a Council It may be that the Popes then being had so much work cut out at home by the Novatian faction there that they had little leisure to attend a business so remote and distant which is the best excuse I can see for them And yet welfare the Cardinal and his Binius too For though the Pope was neither there nor had so much as sent his Letters for ought we can find and that the Synodical Epistle written by the Fathers Euseb hist Ecc. l. 7. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was inscribed to this Dionysius Maximus Bishop of Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to all other their Colleagues the Bishops over all the World and to the Presbyters and Deacons and the whole Catholick Church Bin. Annot. in Concil Tom. 1. p. 161. Baron in Annal An. 272.17 as the Title runneth yet they will needs inscribe it to the Pope none else Ad Dionysium Romanum Pontificem scripserunt so saith Binius Synodicam ad Dionysium Papam scriptam So Baronius hath it and both ridiculously false But to return again unto the Council the issue of the whole was this that Paulus was deposed from his place and dignity Domnus succeeding in the seat And whereas Paulus notwithstanding his abdication Euseb hist Ecc. l. 7. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still kept possession of his House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the House belonging to his Bishoprick as the story hath it the Emperour Aurelian being made acquainted with it did determine thus that it should be delivered unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom the Bishops of Italy and Rome should adjudg the same Now in this business there are these two things to be considered the man thus sentenced and those to whom the last part of the Sentence was to be put in execution both of them yielding matter worthy of our observation for the present business For Paulus first the Fathers of the Council laying down the course and passages of his behaviour Id. ibid. do describe him thus that being born of mean and ordinary parentage he had amassed great sums of money and full heaps of Treasure which he had gotten by bribery and corruption from those that were in Suits and differences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had repaired to him to be righted in their several causes next that he never went abroad in publick but that he was attended by a Cuard some of them going before him others following after to the great scandal of the Gospel And last of all that he had caused a Throne of State to be erected for him not such as did become one of CHRISTS Disciples but high and lofty such as the Princes of the World or rather secular Princes did use to sit in Which passages for I omit the rest that follow as not conducing to the story which I have in hand as they do manifestly set forth unto us the extream pride and base corruptions of the man so do they also give us no obscure light whereby we may discern the customs of the Church in these particulars For first I find it not objected against Paulus that he did deal sometimes in such Suits and differences matters of secular business out of question as were brought before him Id. nbid but that he took bribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and received money of such men as came for Justice and yet abused them too and did nothing for them So that it is not faulted by the Fathers for ought I can see that he made himself a Judg amongst his brethren or took upon him to compose such differences as were brought before him which certainly was no new matter in these times but that he was corrupt and base not Ministring but selling Justice to the People perhaps not selling Justice neither but making them pay dearly for an unjust Sentence The next thing I observe is this that Paulus is not charged by the Synod for being well attended for having many followers waiting on him according to the greatness of his place and quality Their words as in Eusebius they are laid before me will bear no such meaning though some indeed to raise an Odium on the Prelacy Smectymn p. 55. do expound it so as if a great part of his pride and insolency consisted in that numerous train which attended on him in the Streets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. He did not stir abroad without a Guard saith the Original Magna satellitum stipatus turba saith the Translator of Eusebius Cum satellitio publicitus ingrediens Niceph. Eccl. hist l. 6. c 30. as the Translator of Nicephorus hath it Now whether we look upon this passage in the Greek as given us in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the Latin Satellitium or Satellitum turba I must profess my ignorance to be such in both the Languages that though I find it charged on Paulus that he was guarded when he went abroad with a band of Spear-men I find it not objected that he was Attended by a Train of servants Last of all for his Throne the charge consists not as I take it in the thing it self for Bishops were allowed their Thrones in the Primitive times but in the raising of it to a greater height than had been accustomed Cassiodore Cassiodor hist tripart l. 7. I am sure doth expound it so Intra Ecclesiam vero tribunal in alto altius quam fuerat extrui thronum in excelsioribus collocari jubet secretarium quoque sterni parari sicut judicibus seculi solet He caused his Tribunal in the Church to be built much higher than it had been formerly and his Throne to be placed more aloft than before it was and a Closet also to be trimmed and furnished as secular Judges used to have By which it seemeth taking the Authors words as they lie together Euseb hist Ecc. l. 7. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was not the Throne but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state and exaltation of the Throne that gave the scandal A Throne he might have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as other Bishops Christs Disciples used to have before But he would have his Throne exalted adorned and furnished like a
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
out the mysteries of this number the better to advance as they conceive the reputation of the Sabbath Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in general In Gen. 2. that this day and number is most natural and most agreeable to divine employments and therefore in omni aetate inter omnes gentes habitus venerabilis sacer accounted in all times and Nations as most venerable and so have many others said since him But he that led the way unto him and to all the rest is Philo the Jew who being a great follower of Platos took up his way of trading in the mysteries of several numbers wherein he was so intricate and perplexed that numero Platonis obscurius did grow at last into a Proverb This Philo therefore Platonizing Tall. ad Attie l. 7 â—pl 13. 〈◊〉 opisiâ—â—o first tells us of this number of seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he persuâ—â—les himself there is not any man able sufficiently to extol it as being far above all thâ— powers of Rhetorick and that the Pythagoreans from them first Plato learnt those trifles did usually resemble it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to Jove himself Then that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven Ages â—aâ—â— age câ—nteining seven full years to which the changes of mans constitution are all framed and fitted as also that the Bear or Arcturus as they use to call it and the constellation called the Pleiades consist of seven Stars severally neither more nor less He shews us also how much Nature is delighted in this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De legis Alleg. l. 1. as viz. that there are seven Planets and that the Moon quartereth every se venth day that Infants born in the seventh month are usually like enough to live that they are seven several motions of the body seven intrails so many outward members seven holes or out-lets in the same seven sorts of excrements as also that the seventh is the Critical day in most kinds of maladies And to what purpose this and much more of the same condition every where scattered in his Writings but to devise some natural reason for the Sabbath For so he manifests himself in another place Ap. Euâ—â—b Praepar l. 8. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now why God chose the seventh day and established it by Law for the day of rest you need not ask at all of me since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft declared of what great power and vertue that number is as in all other things so specially on the nature and state of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus saith he you have the reason of the seventh-day Sabbath Indeed Philosophers and Physicians and other learned men of great name and credit have spoken much in honour of the number of seven and severally impute great power unto it in the works of Nature and several changes of mans Body Whereof see Censorinus de die natali cap. 12. Varro in Gellium lib. 3. c. 10. Hippocrates Solon Hermippus Beritus in the sixth Book of Clemens of Alexandria besides divers others Nay it grew up so high in the opinion of some men that they derived it at the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ab insita majestate So Philo tells us Macrobius also saith the same Apud veteres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocitatur De legis Allegor quod graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debitam numero Thus he in somnio Scipionis But other men as good as they find no such mystery in this number but that the rest may keep pace with it if not go before it and some of those which so much magnifie the seventh have found as weighty mysteries in many of the others also In which I shall the rather enlarge my self that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and contention that is between them in these needless curiosities we may the better find the slightness of those Arguments which seem to place a great morality in this number of seven as if it were by Nature the most proper number for the service of God And first whereas the learned men before mentioned affix a special power unto it in the works of Nature Respons ad qu. 69. Justin the Martyr plainly tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that the accomplishment of the works of Nature is to be ascribed to Nature only not unto any period of time accounted by the number of seven and that they oft-times come to their perfection sooner or later than the said periods which could not be in case that Nature were observant of this number as they say she is and not this number tied to the course of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore saith he this number hath no influence on the works of Nature Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the rest Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus Macrobius that it is numerus solidus perfectus De Republ. l. 4. Bodinus doth affirm expresly neutrum de septenario dici potest that neither of those Attributes is to be ascribed unto this number that the eighth number is a solid number although not a perfect one the sixth a perfect number also Now as Bodinus makes the eighth more solid and the sixth more perfect So Servius on these words of Virgil In Georgic 1. Septima post decimam foelix prefers the tenth number a far deal before it Vt primum locum decimae ferat quae sit valde foelix secundum septimae ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit Nay which may seem more strange than this Oratio secunda the Arithmeticians generally as we read in Nyssen make this seventh number to be utterly barren and unfruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to go forwards in this matter Macrobius who before had said of this number of seven that it is plenus venerabilis hath in the same Book said of this number of one that it is principium finis omnium and that it hath a special reference or resemblance unto God on high which is by far the greater commendation of the two And Hierom In Amos 5. that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven prima tamen beatitudo est esse in primo numero yet the prime happiness or beatitude is to be sought for in the first So for the third Origen generally affirms that it is aptus sacramentis even made for Mysteries In Gen. hom 8. and some particulars he nameth Macrobius findeth in it all the natural faculties of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rational 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or irascible Ad Antioch qu. 51. and last of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or concupiscible Saint Athanasius makes it equal altogether with the seventh the one being no less memorable for the holy Trinity than the other for
ferarum lachrymosa spectacula Etiam si in nostrum ortum aut natalem celebranda solennitas inciderit differatur Amissionem militiae proscriptionemque patrimonii sustinebit si quis unquam spectaculis hoc die interesse praesumpserit Given at Constantinople Martian and Zeno being Consuls 469. of our Saviours Birth Now for the things prohibited in these several Edicts we will take notice of two chiefly the sports accustomed to be shown on the Stage or Theater and those Spectacula wherein Men with Beasts and sometimes Men with Men did use to fight together in the Cirque or Shew-place 1. That we may know the better what these Princes aimed at and what the Fathers mean in their frequent invectives against Plays and Shews And first for that which first is named the Scene or Stage-play though they arose from poor beginnings yet they attained at last to an infinite impudence such as no modest eye could endure to see or ear to hear The whole contexture of the Poems wanton and lascivious the speeches most extremely sordid and obscene the action such as did not so much personate as perform all base kind of Vices Their Women as their parts were framed did many times act naked on the open Stage and sometimes did perform the last Acts of Lust even in the sight of all Spectators than which what greater scorn could be given to nature what more immodest spectacle could be represented to the eye of Heaven De theatro lib. 1. This Caesar Bullinger assures us and withal makes it the chief cause why both profane and sacred Authors did cry down the Stage as being a place of such uncleanness Authores omnes tum sacri tum profani spurcitiem scenae exagitant non modo quod fabulae obscenae in scena agerentur sed etiam quod motus gestusque essent impudici atque adeo prostibula ipsa in scenam saepe venirent scena prostarent So he Nor hath he done them wrong or delivered any thing without good authority Lactantius and Tertullian have affirmed as much and from them he had it moulding up into one relation what they had severally reported First for their Women acting naked De fals rel l. 1. c. 20. Lactantius saith that so it was in all their plays devoted to the memory of their Goddess Flora. Exuuntur vestibus populo flagitante meretrices quae tunc mimorum funguntur officio c. The Whores which used to act those parts for who else would do it were by the people importuned to put off their Cloaths which they did accordingly and being naked personated as the Mimicks used all shameless and immodest gestures till the most impudent eye amongst them was glutted with so foul a spectacle Then for the other filthiness De spectaculis cap. 17. Tertullian tells us that the common Prostitutes such as received the filths of all the Town like the common-sewers performed those beastly acts on the publick stage and which was yet more shameful in the sight and presence of the self-same Sex Ipsa etiam prostibula publicae libidinis hostiae in scena proferuntur plus misera in praesentia foeminarum De gubern Dei l. 6. as that Author hath it And sure there must be in them some extream impurities when Salvian a godly Bishop of this Age hath told us of them that such they were Vt ea non solum dicere sed etiam recordari aliquis sine pollutione non possit that none could speak no not so much as think of them without some infection Such that whereas all other crimes of what kind soever Murder Adultery and Theft and Sacriledg and others of that heinous nature might without any breach of Modesty be accused and censured Solae impuritates theatrorum sunt quae honeste non possunt vel accusari the baseness of the Theaters was so transcendent that no man could accuse them but must put off Modesty No marvel therefore if the Fathers both of this and the former Ages used to declame so much against them and to cry them down at least to wean the people from them as being the bane of Chastity the shipwrack of the Soul the Devils Temples the scandal of the World and the shame of Nature No marvel if the Council held in Carthage in the Age before or any of the Christian Writers of these present times Salvian and Chrysostom and the rest so highly censured those who left the Church and publick service of the Lord to go to those impure delights and unmanlike spectacles for that the Fathers in the same place assembled in this present Century agreed so well together to petition the Emperours then being to redress this mischief or lastly that the Emperours of these times sent out their Edicts to prohibit such unchristian sports As wicked as unchristian were those other shews against which the self-same Fathers do inveigh against the which the foresaid Council did petition and the good Emperors before remembred made their several Laws though of a very disterent nature those worthily abominated for their filthy baseness and these as much to be detested for their inhumanity It was the custom of the great ones in the State of Rome to court the favour of the people by entertaining them with several shews which in the end became repleat with all kind of cruelty which fashion afterwards was retained among the Emperours the better to content the vulgar and keep them in a good opinion of the present change Sometimes they entertained their humours by presenting them with divers sorts of crucl and outlandish beasts which being brought into the place appointed were chased and hunted up and down by such as were condemned to die or otherwise would adventure for reward and hire In which it hapned many times that many a man was made a prey unto Bears and Lions and other beasts of the like fierce and cruel nature and therefore in the Emperours Law before recited are justly called ferarum lacrymosa spectacula a most proper Epithite Sometimes again they would present them with a shew of Fencers not such as played at Cudgels or with Swords rebated only to shew their activeness and teach men how to use their Weapons but such as in good earnest were to fight it out and not give over till the Victory was made good by Death And these I take to be Cirque fights or the Circense certamen principally in the Law prohibited De spectac Tertullian tells us of the first ferarum voluptati satis non fieri nisi feris humana corpora dissiparentur that they conceived the Beasts had not sport enough unless they tore in pieces the wretched bodies of poor men And to the other we may well apply the words of Cyprian Quid potest inhumanius quid acerbius dici Epl. 2. li. 2. disciplina est ut perimere quis possit gloria quod peremit What saith the Father can be told that is more cruel more
had trespassed therein against the Sabbath he gathered the small chips together put them upon his hand and set fire unto them Vt in se ulcisceretur Matropol l. 4. t. 8. quod contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset that so saith Crantzius he might avenge that on himself which unawares he had committed against Gods Commandment Crantzius it seems did well enough approve the solly for in the entrance on this story he reckoneth this inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia amongst the monuments of his piety and sets it up as an especial instance of that Princes sanctity Lastly whereas the modern Jews are of opinion that all the while their Sabbath lasts the souls in Hell have liberty to range abroad and are released of all their torments Pâ—i ad Domivicum c. 5. So lest in any superstitious fancy they should have preheminence it was delivered of the souls in Purgatory by Petrus Damiani who lived in Anno 1056. Dominico die refrigerium poenarum habuisse that every Lords day they were manumitted from their pains and fluttered up and down the lake Avernus in the shape of Birds Indeed the marvel is the less that these and such like Jewish fancies should in those times begin to shew themselves in the Christian Church considering that now some had begun to think that the Lords day was founded on the fourth Commandment and all observances of the same grounded upon the Law of God As long as it was taken only for an Ecclesiastical Institution and had no other ground upon which to stand than the Authority of the Church we find not any of these rigours annexed unto it But being once conceived to have its warrant from the Scripture the Scripture presently was ransacked and whatsoever did concern the old Jewish Sabbath was applied thereto It had been ordered formerly that men should be restrained on the Lords day from some kind of labours that so they might assemble in the greater number the Princes and the Prelates both conceiving it convenient that it should be so But in these Ages there were Texts produced to make it necessary Thus Clotaire King of France grounded his Edict of restraint from servile labours on this day from the holy Scripture quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture contradicts it And Charles the Great builds also on the self same ground Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as the Lord commands us that on the Lords day none presume to do any servile business Thus finally the Emperour Leo Philosophus in a constitution to that purpose of which more hereafter declares that he did so determine secundum quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit according to the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles by him tutored So also when the Fathers of the Church had thought it requisite that men should cease from labour on the Saturday in the afternoon that they might be the better fitted for their devotions the next day some would not rest till they had found a Scripture for it Observemus diem dominicum fratres sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbato c. Let us observe the Lords day as it is commanded from even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath The 251. Sermon inscribed de tempore hath resolved it so And lastly that we go no further the superstitious act of the good King Olaus burning his hand as formerly was related was then conceived to be a very just revenge upon himself because he had offended although unaware contra divinum praeceptum against Gods Commandment Nor were these rigorous fancies left to the naked world but they had miracles to confirm them It is reported by Vincentius and Antoninus that Anstregisilus one that had probably preached such doctrine restored a Miller by his power whose hand had cleaved unto his Hatchet as he was mending of his Mill on the Lords day for now you must take notice that in the times in which they lived grinding had been prohibited on the Lords day by the Canon Laws As also how Sulpitius had caused a poor mans hand to wither only for cleaving wood on the Lords day no great crime assuredly save that some parallel must be found for him that gathered sticks on the former Sabbath and after on his special goodness made him whole again Of these the first was made Arch-Bishop of Burges Anno. 627. Sulpitius being Successor unto him in his See and as it seems too in his power of working miracles Such miracles as these they who list to credit shall find another of them in Gregorius Turonensis Miracul l. 1. c. 6. And some we shall hereafter meet with when we come to England forged purposely as no doubt these were to countenance some new device about the keeping of this day there being no new Gospel Preached but must have miracles to attend it for the greater state But howsoever it come to pass that those four Princes especially Leo who was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great who had as learned men about him as the times then bred were thus persuaded of this day that all restraints from work and labour on the same were to be found expressly in the Word of God yet was the Church and the most Learned men therein of another mind Nor is it utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or ground of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them First for the Church and men of special eminence in the same for place and learning there is no question to be made but they were otherwise persuaded Isidore Arch-Bishop of Sevil who goes highest De Eccles Offic. l. 1.29 makes it an Apostolical Sanction only on divine commandment a day designed by the Apostles for religious exercises in honour of our Saviours Resurrection on that day performed Diem dominicum Apostolì ideo religiosa solennitate sanxerunt quia in eo redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit And adds that it was therefore called the Lords day to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy worship giving this day due honor for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beda lib. de Offic. and by Rabanus Maurus lib. de institut Cleric l. 2. c. 24. and finally by Alcuinus de divin Offic. cap. 24. which plainly shews that all those took it only from an Apostolical usage an observation that grew up by custom rather than upon commandment Sure I am that Alcuinus one of principal credit with Charles the Great who lived about the end of the eighth Century as did this Isidore in the beginning of the seventh saith
King c. hath ordained and established that no Cordwainer or Cobler within the City of London or within three miles of any part of the said City c. do upon any Sunday in the year or on the Feasts of the Ascension or Nativity of our Lord or on the Feasi of Corpus Christi sell or command to be sold any Shwe Huseans i. e. Bootes or Galoches or upon the Sunday or any other of the said Feasts shall set or put upon the feet or legs of any person any Shwes Huseans or Galoches upon pain of forfeiture and loss of O shillings as often as any person shall do contrary to this Ordinance Where note that this restraint was only for the City of London and the parts about it which shews that it was counted lawful in all places clse And therefore there must be some particular motive why this restraint was laid on those of London only either their insolencies or some notorious neglect of Gods publick service the Gentle craft had otherwise been ungently handled that they of all the Tradesmen in that populous City should be so restrained Note also that in this very Act there is a reservation or indulgence for the Inhabitants of S. Martins le Grand to do as formerly they were accustomed the said Act or Statute not withstanding 14 15 of H. 8. cap. 9. Which very clause did after move King Henry VIII to repeal this Statute that so all others of that trade might be free as they or as the very words of the Statute are That to the Honour of Almighty God all the Kings Subjects might be hereafter at their liberty as well as the Inbabitants of S. Martins le Grand Now where it seemeth by the Proeme of the Statute 17. of this King Edward IV. c. 3. that many in that time did spend their Holy-days in dice Quoits Tennis bowling and the like unlawful Games forbidden as is there affirmed by the Laws of the Realm which said unlawful Games are thereupon prohibited under a certain penalty in the Statute mentioned It is most manisest that the Prohibition was not in reference to the time Sundays or any other Holy-days but only to the Games themselves which were unlawful at all times For publick actions in the times of these two last Princes the greatest were the battels of Towton and Barnet one on Palm-Sunday and the other on Easter-day the greatest Fields that ever were fought in England And in this State things stood till King Henry VIII Now for the doctrine and the practice of these times before King Henry the VIII and the Reformation we cannot take a better view than in John de Burgo Chancellor of the University of Cambridg I pitta Oâ—â—i Pl. 12. 11. D. about the latter end of King Henry the sixth First Doctrinally he determincth as before was said that the Lords day was instituted by the authority of the Church and that it is no otherwise to be observed than by the Canons of the Church we are bound to keep it Then for the name of Sabbath that the Lords day quaelibet dies statuta ad divinam culturam Id. lb. E. and every day appointed for Gods publick service may be so entituled because in them we are to rest from all servile works such as are Arts Mechanick Husbandry Law-days and going to Markets with other things quae ab Ecclesia determinantur I l ply 5.9 cap. 7. H. which are determined by the Church Lastly that on those days insistendum est orationibus c. We must be busied at our prayers the publick service of the Church in Hymns and in spiritual Songs and in hearing Sermons Next practically for such things as were then allowed of he doth sort them thus First generally Non tamen prohibentur his diebus faccre quae pertinent ad providentiam necessariorum c. We are not those days restrained from doing such things as conduce to the providing of necessaries either for our selves or for our Neighbours as in preserving of our persons or of our substance or in avoiding any loss that might happen to us Id. ib. J. Particularly next si jacentibus c. In case our Corn and Hay in the Fields abroad be in danger of a Tempest we may bring it in yea though it be upon the Sabbath Butchers and Victualers if they make ready on the Holy days what they must sell the morrow after either in open Market or in their shops in case they cannot dress it on the day before or being dressed they cannot keep it Id. ib. L. non peccant mortaliter they fall not by so doing into mortal sin vectores mercium c. Carriers of Wares or Men or Victuals unto distant places in case they cannot do it upon other days without inconvenience are to be excused Barbers and Chirurgions Smiths or Farriers if on the Holy days they do the works of their daily labour Id. ib. M. especially propter necessitatem eorum quibus serviunt for the necessities of those who want their help are excusable also but not in case they do it chiefly for desire of gain Id. ib. N. Messengers Posts and Travellers that travel if some special occasion be on the Holy days whether they do it for reward or not non audeo condemnare are not at all to be condemned As neither Millers which do grind either with Water-mils or Wind-mils and so can do their Work without much labour but they may keep the custom of the place in the which they live not being otherwise commanded by their Ordinaries Id. ib. O. secus si traciu jumentorum multuram faciunt but if it be an Horse-mill then the case is altered So buying and selling on those days in some present exigent as the providing necessary Victuals for the day was not held unlawful dum tamen exercentes ea non subtrabunt se divinis officiis in case they did not thereby keep themselves from Gods publick Service Lastly Id. ib. Q. for Recreations for dancing on those days he determins thus that they which dance on any of the Holy days either to stir themselves or others unto carnal lusts commit mortal sin and so they do saith he in case they do it any day But it is otherwise if they dance upon honest causes and no naughty purpose and that the persons be not by Law restrained Choreas ducentes maxime in diebus sestis causa incitanda se vel alios ad peccatum mortale peccant mortaliter similiter si in profestis diebus hoc fiat secus si hoc fiat ex causa honesta intentione non corrupta à persona cui talia non sunt probibita With which determination I conclude this Chapter CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords Day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
difference in this case betwixt a living man and a stock or Statua for so it follows in my Author Sed nullam prorsus voluntati tribuetant Actionem nec quidem adjuvante spirity sancto quasi nihil interesset inter statuam voluntatem In both directly contrary to that divine counsel of S. James where he adviseth us to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and to receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls Chap. 1. ver 21. That of S. Peter exhorting or requiring rather That we work out our salvation with fear and trembling And finally that golden Aphorism of S. Augustine si non sit liberum arbitrium quomodo Deus judicabit mundum With what justice saith the Father can God judg or condemn the world if the sins of men proceed not from their own free will but from some over-ruling power which inforc'd them to it Others there were who harbouring in their hearts the said lewd opinions and yet not daring to ascribe all their sins and wickednesses unto God himself imputed the whole blame thereof to the Stars and Destinies the powerful influence of the one and the irresistable Decrees of the other necessitating then to those wicked actions which they so frequently commit Thus we are told of Bardesanes Quod fato conversationes hominum ascriberet That he ascribed all things to the power of Fate August de Haeres cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 15. 70. And thus it is affirmed of Priscillianus Fatalibus Astris homines alligatos That men were thralled unto the Stars which last S. Augustine doth report of one Colarbus save that he gave this power and influence to the Planets only but these if pondered as they ought differed but little if at all from the impiety of Florinus before remembred only it was expressed in a better language and seemed to savour more of the Philosopher than the other did For if the Lord had passed such an irresistible Law of Fate that such and such should be guilty of such foul Transgressions as they commonly committed it was all one as if he was proclaimed for the Author of them and then why might not every man take unto himself the excuse and plea of Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not I that did it Homer Illiad but the Gods and Destiny Or if the Lord had given so irresistable a power to the Stars of Heaven as to inforce men to be wickedly and lewdly given what differs this from making God the Author of those vitious actions to which by them we are inforced And then why might not every man cast his sin on God and say as did some good fellows in St. Augustines time Accusandum potius esse Autorem syderum August de Gen. ad lit lib. 2. c. 27. quam commissorem scelerum That he who made the Stars was in the fault not the men that did it But this absurdity being as much cryed down by Augustine and other learned Writers of those elder times as the impiety of Florinus had been before were either utterly extinguish'd or lay concealed for many hundred years together Amongst the philosophical Heterodoxies of the Roman Schools that of the Maniches first revived by Martin Luther who in meer opposition to Erasmus who had then newly written a Book De Arbitrio libero published a Discourse intituled De Arbitrio servo In which Discourse he doth not only say That the freedom ascribed unto the Will is an empty nothing Titulus nomen sine re a name of no such thing in Nature but holds expresly that man is drawn no otherwise by the grace of God than Velut inanimale quiddam No otherwise than as a sensless stock or stone the Statua of the ancient Maniches in the great work of his conversion to a state of Righteousness And though Luther afterwards conformed his Judgment in this Point unto that of Melancthon as appeareth by the Augustan Confession in drawing up whereof he is acknowledged to have had a principal hand yet was he followed in this first Errour as in almost all the rest of his extremities by the rigid Lutherans headed by Flaccus Illyricus and his Associats in the City of Magdeburg at his first separation from the Melancthonian Divines who remained at Wittenberg and had embraced more moderate and sober counsels of which more hereafter But Luther shall not go alone and not take Calvin along with him how much soever they might differ in some other Points Luther revived the Error of the Maniches in denying all freedom to the will especially in matters which relate to eternal life and Calvin will revive the Errors of Bardesanes and Priscillian in charging all mens wicked actions on the Stars and Destiny not positively and in terminis I must needs say that but so that he comes close up to them to Tantamont ascribing that to the inevitable Decrees of Almighty God which Bardesanes attributed to the powers of Fate Priscillian Clolarbus to the influences of the Stars and Planets For if God before all Eternity as they plainly say did purpose and decree the Fall of our Father Adam Vt sua defectione periret Adam In the words of Calvin Calv. instit lib. 3. c. 23. sect 7. V. Synod Rom. There was in Adam a necessity of committing sin because the Lord had so decreed it If without consideration of the sin of man he hath by his determinate sentence ordained so many millions of men to everlasting damnation and that too necessario and inevitabiliter as they please to phrase it he must needs pre-ordain them to sin also there being as themselves confess no way unto the end but by the means The odious Inferences which are raised out of these Opinions I forbear to press and shall add only at the present That if we grant this Doctrine to be true and Orthodox we may do well to put an Index expurgatorius upon the Creed and quite expunge the Article of Chrins coming to Judgment For how could God condemn his Creature to unquenchable Flames or put so ill an Office upon Christ our Saviour as to condemn them by his mouth in case the sins by them committed were not theirs but his or punish the for that himself works in them unto which rather he decred them before all Eternity Falgent ad Monimum Nothing more true than that excellent saying of Fulgentius Deus non est eorum ultor quorum est Autor That God doth never punish his own actings in us Such were the men and such the means by which the blame of sin was transferred from man and charged on the account of God either expresly and in terms or in the way of necessary consequence and undeniable Illation by which lost man was totally deprived of all abilities for resisting Satan or otherwise concurring with Gods grace in his own conversion Nor wanted there some others in those elder times who did
ascribe so much to mans will and the powers of Nature as to make Gods Grace unprofitable or at least unnecessary in either of the Acts aforesaid The Fathers generally which lived before the starting of the Pelagian Heresies declared themselves so largely if not lavishly also in the present Point that the greatest Patrons of Free will in the Church of Rome were fain sometimes to qualifie their expressions and put a milder sence upon them than the words import For being to deal with the fatal necessity of the Pagans on the one side and the impiety of Maniches on the other side they gave themselves such liberty in advancing the powers of Nature as might best serve to the refelling of either Adversary not dreaming then that any Heresie could arise in opposition to the free Grace of God to the advancing of free will above all degrees of power and possibility But on the contrary Pelagius a Britain born either misguided by the lavishness of their expressions or otherwise willing to get a Name unto himself by some new Invention ascribed so much unto the freedom of the will in all Acts of Piety Vt gratiam Dei necessariam non putaret as Vincentius Lirynensis telleth us of him This man associated with Caelestinus and Julianus two of his Companions whom he had either drawn into the same Opinion with him or found them ready of themselves to promote the work began to spread abroad their Errours about the year 405. Amongst the which those that especially concern this purpose are these two that follow August Tom. 2. Epist 106. Viz. 1. Non esse liberum Arbitrium si Dei indiget auxilio quoniam in propria voluntate babet unusquisque facere aliquid vel non facere 2. Victoriam nostram non ex Dei adjutorio esse sed ex Libero Arbitrio That is to say 1. That there is no freedom of the will if it stand in any need of Gods assistance because every man hath it in the power of his own will either to do a thing or not to do it as to him seems best And 2. That our Victory over sin and Satan comes not of any help which we have from God but our own free will Add unto this that which must follow of necessity from the former Principles Orationes quas facit Ecclesia pro infidelibus aliis peccatoribus ut convertantur sive pro fidelibus ut perseverent frustra fieri That is to say That the Services of the Church which are made either for the conversion of the wicked or the perseverance of the Just are but labour lost because say they our own free will is able of it self to attain those ends and therefore it is to no purpose to ask those things at the hands of God which we may compass of our selves Quod ad illa omnia sufficere dicant nostri Arbitrii liberam potestatem Prattol Elench Heret in Pelag ita non opus esse à Deo petere quae nos ipsi consequi possumus as my Author hath it whose words I have laid down at large that we may see how much the world was carried to the other extream how much the Truth was lost on both sides and yet how easie to be found by those who went a middle was in the search thereof For looking on these last opinions as they stand in themselves we may affirm of them in general as Augustine doth particularly of the Stoical Fates Nil aliud agere nisi ut nullus omnino aut rogetur aut colatur Deus They seem to aim at nothing more than the utter abolition of the Worship and Service of God But these Pelagian Heresies did not hold out long being solemnly condemned in the two Affrican Councils of Cartbage and Milevis confuted by St. Augustine with great care and diligence and finally retracted by Pelagius himself in the Synod of Palestine So that the Heresie being suppressed the Catholick Doctrine in that Point became more setled and confirmed by the opposition such freedom being left to the will of man as was subservient unto grace co-operating in some measure with those heavenly influences And so much is confessed by St. Augustine himself where he asks this question Quis nostrum dicit quod primi hominis peccato perierit Arbitrium de humano genere August l. 1. contr Epist Pelagi cap. 2. Doth any man saith he affirm that free will is perished utterly from man by the fall of Adam And thereunto he makes this answer Libertas quidem periit per peccatum sed illa quae in Paradiso fuit habendi plenam cum immortalitate justitiam That is to say Freedom is perished by sin but it is that freedom only which we had in Paradise of having perfect righteousness with immortality For otherwise it appears to be this Opinion that man was not meerly passive in all the Acts of Grace which conduced to Glory according to the memorable saying of his so common in the Mouths of all men Qui creavit te sine te non salvabit te sine te That he who first made us without our help will not vouchsafe to save us at the last without our concurrence If any harsher expressions have escap'd his Pen as commonly it hapneth in the heats of a Disputation they are to be qualified by this last Rule and by that before in which it was affirmed That God could not with justice judge and condemn the World if all mens sins proceeded not from their own free will but from some over-ruling providence which inforc'd them to it After this time we meet with no such Enemies to the Grace of God no such Advancers of mans free will and the power of Nature as might intitle any man to the Crime of Pelagianism It cannot be denied but that Illyricus and some other of the rigid Lutherans upbraided Melancthon and all the Divines in a manner both of Lipsique and Wittenberge with teaching that a man by the powers of Nature may yield obedience to the Word embrace the Promises and make no opposition to the workings of the Holy Ghost as hath been noted by Lyndanus Lindan in Dial. 21. But then it must be granted that when their works came to be weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary it will be found that they speak only of such a Synergie or co-operation as makes men differ from a sensless stock or liveless statua in reference to the great work of his own conversion And thereupon we may resolve that at the last the Church in general concentred upon these Propositions 1. Man in the state of corruption hath freedom of will in Actions natural and civil 2. That considered in the same estate he hath free will in matters moral And 3. That man hath free will in Actions of Piety and such as belong unto his salvation that is to say Being first prevented by Gods Grace and having afterwards the assistance and support thereof which
rest of man-kind and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or Impenitency Art 2. Of the Merit and Effect of Christs Death That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect only Ibid. p. 29. having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Art 3. Of Mans Will in the state of Nature That by Adam's Fall his Posterity lost their Free-will Ibid. p. 33. being put to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evil being thereunto Predestinated by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God Art 4. Of the manner of Conversion That God to save his Elect from the corrupt Mass Ibid. p. 41. doth beget faith in them by a power equal to that whereby he created the World and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it Art 5. Of the certainty of Perseverance That such as have once received that Grace by Faith can never fall from it finally Ibid. p. 47. or totally notwithtanding the most enormious sins they can commit This is the shortest and withal the most favourable Summary which I have hitherto met with of the conclusions of this Synod that which was drawn by the Remonstrants in their Antidotum being much more large and comprehending many things by way of Inference which are not positively expressed in the words thereof But against this though far more plausible than the rigorous way of the Supralapsarians Gods love to Mankind p. 45. it is objected by those of the contrary persuasion 1. That it is repugnant of plain Texts of Scripture as Ezek. 33.11 Rom. 11.2 John 3.16 2 tim 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 Gen. 4.7 1 Chron. 28.9 2 Chron. 15.2 Secondly That it fighteth with Gods Holiness and makes him the cause of sin in the greatest number of men 1. In regard that only of his own will and pleasure he hath brought men into an estate in which the cannot avoid sin that is to say by imputing to them the transgression of their Father Adam Ibid. p. 53. And 2. In that he leaves them irrecoverably plunged and involved in it without affording them power or ability to rise again to newness of life In which case that of Tertullian seems to have been fitly alledged viz. In cujus manu est ne quid fiat Tertul. l. 2. contr Marcion c. 22. ei deputatur cum jam sit That is to say In whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done as a Pilot may be said to be the cause of the loss of that Ship when it is broken by a violent Tempest to the saving whereof he would not lend a helping hand when he might have done it They object thirdly That this doctrine is inconsistent with the mercy of God so highly signified in the Scriptures Gods love to Mankind p. 62. in making him to take such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men for ever and for one sin once committed to shut them up under an invincible necessity of sin and damnation For proof whereof they alledge this saying out of Prosper viz. Qui dicit quod non omnes homines velit Deus salvos fieri Ibid. p. 64. sed certum numerum praedestinatorum durius loquitur quam loquutum est de altitudine inscrutabilis gratiae Dei That is to say He which saith that God would not have all men to be saved but a certain set number of predestinate persons only he speaketh more harshly than he should of the light of Gods unsearchable Grace 4. It is affirmed to be incompatible with the Justice of God who is said in Scripture to be Righteous in all his ways according unto weight and measure Ibid. p. 65. p. 67. that the far greatest part of man-kind should be left remedilâ—sly in a state of damnation for the sin of their first Father only that under pain of damnation he should require faith in Christ of those to whom he hath precisely in his absolute purpose denied both a power to believe and a Christ to believe in or that he should punish men for the omission of an Act which is made impossible for them by his own decree by which he purposed that they should partake with Adam in his sin and be stript of all the supernatural power which they had in him before he fell And fifthly It is said to be destructive of Gods sincerity in calling them to repentance and to the knowledge of the faith in Jesus Christ Ibid. p. 58. that they may be saved to whom he doth not really intend the salvation offered whereby they are conceived to make God so to deal with men as if a Creditor should resolve upon no terms to forgive his Debtor the very least part of his debt Ibid. p. 76. and yet make him offers to remit the whole upon some conditions and bind the same with many solemn Oaths in a publick Auditory The like to be affirmed also in reference to Gods passionate wishes that those men might repent which repent not as also to those terrible threatnings which he thundreth against all those that convert not to him all which together with the whole course of the Ministry are by this doctrine made to be but so many acts of deep Hypocrisie in Almighty God though none of the maintainers of it have the ingenuity to contess the same but Piscator only in his Necesse est ut sanctam aliquam si mutationem statuamus in Deo which is plain and home And finally it is alledged that this doctrine of the Sublapsarians is contrary to the ends by God proposed in the Word and Sacraments to many of Gods excellent gifts to the Sons of men to all endeavours unto holiness and godly living which is said to be much hindered by it Ibid. p. 91. and tend to those grounds of comfort by which a Conscience in distress should be relieved And thereupon it is concluded that if it be a doctrine which discourageth Piety if it maketh Ministers by its natural importment to be negligent in their Preaching Praying and other Services which are ordained of God for the eternal good of their people if it maketh the people careless in hearing reading praying instructing their Families examining their Consciences fasting and mourning for their sins and all other godly exercises as they say it doth it cannot be a true and a wholsome doctrine as they say 't is not This they illustrate by a passage in Suetonius Sect. de vit Tyb c. 69. p. 180. relating to Tyberius Caesar of whom the Historian gives this note Cire à Deos Religiones negligentior erat quippe addictus
bring them to utter tuin if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that King James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruin of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Ally he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachful names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselves it must be proved by some better evidence than the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an Answer the speech being so Hyperbolical not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to in all this business was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to find out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the death of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of five or six men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their Wars with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000 of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having gotten him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States General who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest Subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Counsels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered Commonwealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Armanians faulty in their practice against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians it as relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practices And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their Enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melancthonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered and predetermined by the eternal Will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavours in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travels to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed than as they have been predetermined by the Will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monk to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsel of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos Manil. de Sphe lib. curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy Soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not being pleased wherewith Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise than they did will Which Opinions saith he Madam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithful Ministers do sit in Council to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that came to pass of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal Ann. 1625. Cabuba p. 116. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinins as some which are opposite and contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master
lay it upon the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance or say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical Opinion refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo ferus est c. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the World or for all mankind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sins of the whole World that Christ redeemed all mankind that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which restrains Predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs sufferings and death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irresistible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all mankind is either doomed remedilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the state of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessitated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sablapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain than if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Dr. Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the Article of predestination for the Church of Ireland Anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth Articles and yet subjoyn this very clause at the foot thereof Article of Ireland Numb 12.14 17. which can no more concorporate with it than any of the most heterogeneous metals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the Articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the Conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must behold another Argument which fights more strongly against the positive decree of Reprobation than any of the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of mankind by the death of Christ expresly justified and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace Cap. 10. or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods Elect aftec Conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far die for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of Reprobation Antecedaneous and precedent to the death of Christ as his great Masters in the School of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second Article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and hesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal Redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal Vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike And first as for the Doctrine of Universal Redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Catechism where the Child is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankind in that clause of the publick Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the World in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the Gloria in excelsis to the same effect Hom. Salvation p. 13. And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the World being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the World or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15. as plain as may be That
Monarchy unto a Tyranny they were in a fair way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overthrow themselves their subjects and their whole estates To prevent this at Sparta which he dearly loved and to preserve his Family and the State together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Epist 8. he set up the authority of the Senate as the only medicine to cure the miserable distemper which the State was in So far and somewhat further Plato of which more anon What the authority and power of this Senate was we see best from Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In Lycurge In this change of State saith he which Lycurgus made his chiefest alteration was in the constitution of a Senate which he made to have a Regal power and equal authority with the Kings in matters of the greatest weight and importance and was to be the healthful counterpoise of the whole body of the Common-wealth The other State before was ever wavering sometimes inclining to Tyranny when the Kings were too mighty and sometimes to confusion when the People did usurp Authority between which two the Senate was ordained as the fittest medium to keep even the scale and fortifie the State of the Common-wealth For taking sometimes the Kings part when it was needful to pull down the fury of the People and sometimes holding with the People against the Kings to bridle their Tyrannical Government they were the means that neither of the two did oppress the other This Court or Senate had the supream direction and command in all things of moment which did concern the Common-wealth both for peace and war and had the highest jurisdiction and dernier resort from which there could be no appeal in which regard Pausanias calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausanias in Lacon l. 3. the sovereign Court of the Republick It consisted of 28 Senators all chosen out of the Nobility and chief men of the City who together with the two Kings who were allowed their voices in it made up thirty in all and unto these it did belong to call the assemblies of the People to propound that to them which they thought convenient and to dissolve them too when they saw occasion Plutarch ibid. But for the People so assembled it was not lawful for them to propund any thing to be debated or determined nor to deliver their opinion in the point proposed there being nothing left to them but to testifie their assent to the propositions which either by the Senate or the two Kings had been made unto them So that whatever the Kings lost the People got little by the alteration being left out of all imployment in affairs of State and forced to yield obedience unto thirty Masters whereas before they had but two And as for the Authority which remained unto the Kings it consisted especially in the conducting of the Armies and the Supremacy in matters that concerned Religion for this hath always gone along with the Kingly office Nenophon de Repub. Lacedaemon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For it was ordered by Lycurgus that the King should offer sacrifice for the prosperity of the Common-wealth when the necessity of their affairs did require the same as one descended from the gods that they should participate of the thing sacrificed when the gods were served and have a Pig of every litter that they might never want a facrifice if upon any sudden accident the gods were to be advised withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It also appertained to them to command the Armies as oft as they were sent abroad on any military imployment and had a Pavillion allowed them at the publick charge for entertainment of such company as repaired unto them In these two points the honour and authority of the Kings consisted principally which Aristotle also hath observed Aristot Politic l. 3. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supremacy in Divine command in Military matters was all in which they differed from the other Senators and this command I mean in military matters was both perpetual and hereditary as the same Author tells us there Id. ibid. l. 2. c. 7. l. 3. d. 11. and in other places For matters which were meerly honorary they had some prerogatives the Kings being allowed a double Mess in all their Ordinaries the Senators and all the People arising from their seats to do him reverence when he came amongst them yielding him more than humane honours when he was deceased as to a Demi-god at least And for their maintenance and support when they were alive Nenophon in Repub. Lacedaemon there was allotted to them a proportion of the richest Lands in many of the Villages and Fields adjoyning enough to keep them out of want though not sufficient to make them either rich or powerful The Royalty and Power of the Kings being thus impaired the People absolutely discharged from having any hand at all in the publick Government and the authority of the Senate growing every day more insolent and predominant than at first it was by reason that they held their place for term of life Plutarch in Agesilao as we find in Plutarch the Kings resolved upon a course of putting the People into such a condition as might inable them to curb and control the Senators To this end Theopompus the ninth King of the second house with the consent of Polydorus his Associate ordained certain Officers being five in number Aristot Pol. l. 2.8 and chosen out of the body of the common people and annually renewed or changed Id. Polit. l. 2. c. 7. as occasion was to whom authority was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even in the highest points and of most importance as we are told by Aristotle and shall see anon Plutarch in Agesilao These Officers he caused to be called by the name of Ephori that is to say the Overseers and Superintendents of the State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they had the charge and oversight of the Common-wealth Aristot Politic l. 2. c. 7. Suidas And as amongst the Archontes in the State of Athens which were nine in number one of them was called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Archon in the way of excellency after whose name the year was called and their reckonings made as Titio Sempronio Coss in the State of Rome so had the Ephori their Eponymus one who by way of eminency was called the Ephorus But for this first reason of their institution take it thus from Plutarch Paâ—san lib. 3. in Lacon Plutarch in Lycurgo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lycurgus having thus tempered the form of his Common-wealth it seem'd notwithstanding unto those which came after him that this small number of thirty persons which made the Senate was yet too mighty and of too great authority Wherefore to bridle them a little they gave them as he cites from Plato a bit in their mouths which
was the Authority of the Ephori erected in the time of King Theopompus about 130 years after the death of Lycurgus A second reason which induced those Kings to ordain these Ephori was to ease themselves and delegate upon them that remainder of the Royal power which could not be exercised but within the City For the Kings having little or no command but in Wars abroad cared not for being much at home and thereupon ordained these Officers to supply their places Concerning which Cleomenes thus discourseth to the Spartans after they had destroyed the Ephori and suppressed the Office Id in Agis Cleomenes informing them that Lycurgus had joyned the Senators with the Kings by whom the Common-wealth was a long time governed without help of any other Officers that afterwards the City having great Wars with the Messenians the Kings were always so imployed in that War that they could not attend the affairs of the State at home and thereupon made choice of certain of their friends to sit in judgment in their stead whom they called the Ephori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for a long time did govern only as the Kings Ministers though afterwards by little and little they took unto themselves the supreme Authority Another reason hath been given of the institution which is that if a difference grew between the two Kings in a point of judgment there might be some to arbitrate between them and to have the casting voice amongst them when the difference could not be agreed And this is that which Lisander and Mandroclidas two that had been Ephori suggested unto Agis and Cleombrotus the two Kings of Sparta declaring Id. ibid. That the Office of the Ephori was erected for no other reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But because they should give their voices unto that King who had the best reason on his side when the other would wilfully withstand both right and reason and therefore that they two agreeing might lawfully do what they would without controlment that to resist the Kings was a breach of Law considering that the Ephori by Law had no power nor priviledge but only to arbitrate between them when there was any cause of jar or controversie And this was so received at Sparta for an undoubted truth that Cleomenes being sole King upon the death of Agis of the other house recalled Archidamus the Brother of Agis from his place of Banishment with an intent to make him King not doubting but they two should agree together and thereby make the Ephori of no power nor use So then we have three reasons of the institution and more than these I cannot find of which there is not one that favoureth the device of Calvin or intimateth that the Authority of the Ephori was set up to pull down the Kings And to say truth it is a most unlikely matter that the Kings of Sparta having so little power remaining should need more Officers to restrain them than they had before that they should make a new rod for their own poor backs and add five Masters more to those eight and twenty which Lycurgus had imposed upon them Which makes me wonder much at Tully who doth acknowledge that the Ephori were ordained by Theopompus as both Aristotle and Plutarch do affirm and yet will have them instituted for no other cause nisi ut oppositi sint Regibus but to oppose and curb the Kings Aristot Polit. l. 5. c. 11. Cicero de legibus l. 3. but more that Plato who had so much advantage of him both in time and place should ascribe the institution to Lycurgus and tell us that he did not only ordain the Senate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Ep. 8. edit gr lat To. 3. but that he did also constitute the Ephorate for the strength and preservation of the Regal power For out of doubt it is affirmed by Plutarch confirmed by Scaliger and may be gathered from some passages in Eusebius Chronicon and the Authority of Aristotle Plut. in Lycurgo Scalig. animadvers in Euseb Chron. who refers the same to Theopompus as before was shewed that the first Institution was no less than 130 years after the death of Lycurgus Who was the first that bore this Office hath been made a question but never till these later times when men are grown such Sceptics as to doubt of every thing Plutarch affirms for certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the first Ephorus that is to say the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Lycurgo who had the name of Ephorus by way of excellency for otherwise there were five in all was called Elatus and hereto Scaliger did once agree as appears expresly pag. 67. of his Annotations on Eusebius where he declares it in these words Primus Elatus renunciatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But after having a desire to control Eusebius he takes occasion by some words in Diogenes Laertius to cry up Chilo for the man first positively Primus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuit Chilon and next exclusively of Elatus Quibus animadversis non fuerit Elatus primus Ephorus sed Chilon To make this good being a fancy of his own and as his own most dearly cherished he produceth first the testimony of Laertius and afterwards confirms the same by a new emendatio temporum a Calculation and accompt of his own inventing The words produced from Laertius are these verbatim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is thus rendred in the Latine Diogen Lat. 1. l. 1. in Chilo and I think exactly Fuit autem Ephorus circa quinquagessimam quintam Olympiada Porro Pamphila circa sextam ait primumque Ephorum fuisse sub Euthydemo autore Sosicrate primumque instituisse ut Regibus Ephori adjungerentur Satyrus Lycurgum dixit If it be granted in the first place that Chilo was not made Ephorus until the 55. Olympiad as 't is plain it was not and Scaliger affirms as much it must needs follow upon true account that either Chilo was not the first Ephorus or that the Ephori were not instituted in more than twice an hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus had new molded the Common-wealth contrary unto that which is said by Plutarch and out of him repeated by Joseph Scaliger For from the time wherein Lycurgus made his Laws which was in the 25 year of Archelaus the eighth King of the Elder House unto the death of Alcamenes which was the year before the first Olympiad Euseb Chron. lib. post p. 114. of Scaligers edit were 112 years just none under From thence unto the last year of the 55. 220 years compleat which put together make no fewer than 332 years full a large misreckoning Whereas the second year of the fifth Olympiad in which Eusebius puts the Institution of the Ephori both in the Greek and Latine Copies set out by Scaliger himself Pag. 117. of the Latin and 35 of the Greek Edition that second
they were and by whom intrusted Next they attempt to place such Counsellors about the Kings as they might confide in beginning with such Kings as were under Age and the first trial which they made was in appointing one Cleandrides to be about King Plastonax the 19. of the elder House as his chief Counsellor and Director without whose approbation nothing must be done Plutarch in Pericles Another of their usurpations and incroachments was to restrain their Kings in the point of Marriage and to impose some fine or disgrace upon them if they presumed to marry against their liking Anaxandrides the 15. of the elder House had married a Lady of brave parts but it was her ill fortune to be barren a long time together Pausan lib. 3. in Lacon The Ephori command him without more ado 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give her a Bill of divorce and send her going Archidamus the 17. of the second House married a Wife which brought him Children But fault was found she was too little and thereupon the Ephori condemned him in a sum of money saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she would not bring them Kings but demy-Kings Plutarch in Agesilao And that you may perceive how difficult a thing it was to please them in this point Leonidas had married one that was neither barren nor too little and yet was quarrelled by the Ephori and in fine condemned for marrying with a Woman of another Nation The fundamental Laws of Sparta conferred upon the Kings the Supream command over the Military men in all Wars abroad Id. in Agis Cleomenes The Ephori did not only dispose it otherwise and gave it unto such whom they desired to oblige unto them as you heard before but kept the Kings at such a bay that they neither could lead forth the Armies without their consent nor tarry longer in the Camp than they list to let them and if the action did miscarry the Kings were either fined or imprisoned for it Agesilaus being a verry stirring Prince and desirous to get honour in the Wars was not permitted to set forwards till he had bought the Ephori with a sum of money and yet being in the height of his good success was called back again Id. in Agesilao and glad to be conformable to the said Commands And so it fared with Agis and Clcomenes both on the like occasions And for the fining of their Kings besides what we have seen before in the former instances Plistonax being betrayed by Cleandrides whom the Ephori themselves had placed about him and his Army forced to disband and turn home again is presently condemned in so great a sum that he was not able to discharge it Id. in Pericles Aristot Polit. l. 2. cap. 7. By means whereof the Kings were brought at last unto that condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle truly noteth that they were forced to court and bribe the Ephori upon all occasions to the great disservice of the State and sometimes to the fatal overthrow of their chief designs So that it is no marvel if considered rightly either that the Ephori kept their state and rose not up to reverence their King when he came before them though all the residue of the people and the Senate did it as we read in Xenophon De Repub. Lacedaem Plut. in Agesilao or that Agesilaus used to rise up to them as often as they came unto him about any business as we find in Plutarch or that the Kings esteemed it such a point of Sovereignty that when they were commanded to attend the Ephori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did refuse to go upon the first and second summons and stirred not till the third command as Cleomenes bragged in the said Historian Id. in Agis Cleomen Which trust me was a point of no small importance And yet they staid not here they went furrher still They thought it not enough to condemn their Kings in vast and unproportionable sums of money unless they laid restraints on their persons also and had command upon their bodies And therefore it is noted by Thucydides not without good reason that they did not only punish with imprisonment their great and principal Commanders Thucydid hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that it was lawful for the Ephori to do the like unto their Kings Which to avoid Pausanias was inforced to retire himself and live a voluntary exile in another Countrey Nothing remains but they take authority to depose Plutarch in Lysander and in fine to murther them and if they gain not this all the rest is nothing And this they are resolved to gain or be foully foiled nor did they fail in the attempt when they went about it They quarrelled at Leonidas as before I told you for marrying with a Woman of another Countrey without so much as seeking for their approbation And that they may be sure to effect their business Religion is pretended and a star must fall only to warrant their proceedings Which preparations bring past they cite him to appear before them and on default of his appearance they deposed him instantly and conferred the Kingdom on Cleombrotus Id. in agis Cleomenes But these men being out of Office he came out of Sanctuary and was restored again by the next years Ephori Who to make proof that their Authority was as great as their Predecessors thought it not argument enough to restore one King except they did depose and destroy another And thereupon laid hands on Agis of the other House and inhumanly haled him to the common Prison and there most barbarously murdered him with his Mother and Grand-mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. And this saith Plutarch was the first time that ever the Ephori put a King to death And so perhaps it was the first but the last it was not For Archidamus the Brother of Agis being recalled from banishment by Cleomenes to the end he might enjoy the Kingdom which did by right belong unto him was presently seised on by the murtherers and dispatched in private for fear he should revenge the death of his slaughtered Brother Id. ibid. By which it is most evident without further proof that the Spartan Aristocracie was become a Tyranny and of all Tyrannies the most insupportable because meerly popular Or if more proof should be desired both Aristotle and his Master Plato will not stick to say it though they both died before these two last Tragedies were acted on the stage of Sparta For Plato being to declare what he conceived of the Government of that Common-wealth resolves that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de legibus l. 4. approach more near to Tyranny than to any other Form whatever the Power and Empire of the Ephori being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly Tyrannical and no otherwise And Aristotle who had studied the condition of that State
exactly though at the first he seemed to think that it was very well compounded of the three good Forms yet upon full debate thereof he concludes at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Polit. l. 2. c. 4. that the Dominion of the Ephori was an absolute Tyranny Assuredly had they lived to have seen that day wherein the Ephori embrued their hands in the blood of their Princes under pretence of safety to the Common-wealth they would have voted it to have been a Tyranny in the highest degree and then the most unsufferable Tyrants that ever wretched State groaned under For though the Kings of Sparta were so lessened by Lycurgus Laws that little more was left unto them than the name and Title yet they were Kings and held so sacred by their Neighbours even their very Enemies that none did ever offer to lay hands upon them in the heat and fury of their fights Plutarch in Agis Cleom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reverence they did bear to those beams of Majesty which most apparently shined in them The Ephori being grown to this height of Tyranny were the more ready for their fall which followed not long after that most barbarous fact upon the persons of their Princes The Kings had long since stomached them and their high proceedings Id. in Agesil bearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Heritable grudge betwixt them as my Author calls it ever since they took upon them to controul their Masters but either wanted opportunity or spirit to attempt any thing to their prejudice and therefore thought it safer to procure their favours than run themselves upon a hazardous Experiment Pausanias the 20. of the Elder House was the first that ever did attempt either by force or practice to subvert the Office the insolencies of the which were then grown so great that being a stout and active Prince he was not able to endure them That he had entertained such thoughts is affirmed by Aristotle where he informs us that Lysander had a purpose to take away the Kingly Government or rather to acquire it to himself as we find in Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Lysandâ—o Aristot Polit. lib. 5. c. 1. and that Pausanias had the like to destroy the Ephorate But what he failed to bring about his Successors did at last accomplish Of which Cleombrotus and Agis joyning their hands and heads together did proceed so far that going into the Market place well attended by their Friends and followers they plucked the Ephori from their seats and substituted others in their rooms whom they conceived would be more pliant to their prefent Enterprises which was the first actual attempt Plutarch in Agis Cleom. that ever had been made against them by the Kings of Sparta But evulgato imperii Arcano when so great a mystery of State was once discovered that the Ephori were but mortal men and might as easily be displaced and deposed as any of the other Magistrates Leonidas immediately upon his restitution to the Kingdom made the like removal and displaced those who had taken part against him with the former Kings Id. ibid. So that the ice being broken and the way made open Cleomenes son unto Leonidas had the fairer way to abrogate the Office utterly which at last he did For being a brave and gallant Prince and seeing that the project he was bent upon for the reduction of the Common-wealth to its primitive honour could not be brought about but by their destruction he fell upon them with his Souldiers as they sat at supper and killed four of them in the place the fifth escaping shrewdly hurt to the nearest Sanctuary Id. ibid. That done he went into the Market place and overthrew all the Chairs of the Ephori saving only one which he reserved for himself as his Chair of State and sitting in the same in the sight of the people gave them an account of his proceedings and the reasons which induced him to it Declaring how the Ephori were at first appointed by the Kings themselves that for long time they governed only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings Ministers and no otherwise that many years after this Asteropus one of the Ephori building upon a new foundation and being the first Author of that dangerous change they took the Government unto themselves and exercised the same in their own names only that though they had usurped a power which belonged not to them yet had they managed it discreetly the might perhaps have held it longer and with better liking but that licentiously abusing the authority which they had usurped by suppressing the lawful Governors ordained of old by taking upon them to banish some of the Citizens and to put some to death without law and justice and finally by threatning those who were desirous to restore the Government to its antient Form they were no longer to be suffered that for his part he should have thought himself the happiest King that ever was if possibly he could have cured his Countrey of that foul affection withou grief or sorrow but being it was not to be done that way he thought it better that some should be put to death than the whole Common-wealth run on to a swift destruction This said he presently dissolved the Assembly and seriously betook himself to the Reformation which formerly he had projected and in short time reduced the people to the antient Discipline the staee and reputation of the Common-wealth to its ancient height Thus have we made a brief discovery of the Spartan Ephori upon what grounds first instituted and on what destroyed by what foul practices and unlawful means they gained the Sovereignty of the State and by what they lost it how and by what degrees they came from low and mean beginnings to so strange a Tyranny and with what suddenness they lost their power and their lives together But in all this there is not any shew or colour for that which is affirmed by CALVIN no ground for nor verity at all in that Assertion that the Ephori were at first ordained to oppose the Kings to regulate their proceedings and restrain their power but rather that they were ordained as indeed they were to curb the Senate to be the Ministers of the Kings and subservient to them to sit in Judgment for them and discharge such Offices as the Kings pleased to trust them with in their times of absence If Calvins popular Magistrates have no more Authority than the Spartan Ephori according to the rules of their Institution they will have little colour to controul their Princes and less for putting a restraint on the Regal power The most they can pretend to must be usurpation and that will hold no longer if it hold so long than they have power to make it good by blood and violence which I hope Calvin did not aim at And if they have no other ground
the matter so aimed at by his Predecessors The Tribunes had been insolent enough in the former times but the obtaining of these Laws made them more unsufferable Before they used to quarrel all the greatest Officers as if the State could not consist but by their contentions there being no Magistrate so great nor man so innocent whom they exposed not sometimes to contempt and scorn and made not subject to their Tyranny The renowned Scipio himself the very Atlas of the State when it was in danger a man in whom there was not any thing but brave and gallant could not scape so clear but that he was accused by these factious Tribunes and forced to live retired in his Countrey-house Livie hist lib. 28. far from the employments of that State which did not otherwise subsist but by his abilities Nor could they look on their Dictators but with eyes of malice although they had as much Authority as that State could give them or any of their Kings had enjoyed before whom they endeavour to make subject to their pride and Tyrenny by all means imaginable And to that end sometimes denied him the honour of a Triumph though he had deserved it in all mens judgments but their own and sometimes making their Magister Equitum Id. lib. 22. to be of equal power and authority with him and finally sometimes they declaim against him Id. ibid. to make him of no reputation with the common people And for their dealing with the Consuls in had been a complaint of old even if the dawning of the day of their new Authority Consulatum captum oppressum à Tribunitia postestate Id. lib. 2. that the Consulship was suppressed and captivated by the power of the Tribunes and we can no where find that they improved their modesty as they did their power Nor did they only quarrel with the Consuls and proceed no further though that had been an high affront to the Supream Magistrate but threatned to commit them to the Prison also and many times their threatnings were not made in vain Plutarch in Mario For thus we read that Caius Marius being Tribune threatned to send Cotta the Consul unto Prison but afterwards was taken off by fair persuasions and Sulpitius one as violent as he though not so valiant assaulted both the Consuls as they sat in the Senate-house Id. ibid. and killed one of their sons there who was not so quick of foot as to scape his hands Which though they were but bare attempts were yet lewd enough sufficiently to the dishonour of such eminent Magistrates and to the infamy and disgrace of the publick Government And therefore to make sure work of it and that the world might see they could more than threaten Quintius will tell you in the Dialogue with his Brother cicero Brutum P. Scipionem tales tantos viros hominum omnium infimum sordidissimum Trib. Pl. C. Curiatium in vincula conjecisse Cicero de Legibus lib. 3. that C. Curiatius a most base and unworthy person had caused such gallant men as Brutus and P. Scipio to be cast into Prison And if we make a further search we shall quickly find that M. Drusus being Tribune caused Philip the Consul to be cast headlong out of his Seat to the no small danger of his life only for interrupting him in the middle of a factious Speech which was an insolency beyond imprisonment To speak of their behaviour towards the other Magistrates were a thing impertinent For if the Consuls and Dictators could not scape their hands there is no question to be made b ut that the Praetors Censors Quaestors yea the Pontifices themselves were most abundantly debased and insulted on by these popular Tyrants Thus have we brought the Tribunes to as great an height both for power and insolency as were the Ephori before and thereby made them ready for the greater fall A sall which was not long acoming after they had made up the measure of their pride and Tyranny For Lucius Sylla having brought the Estate of Rome under his command and knowing full well how dangerous these men would be to him if they were suffered to continue in their former power set forth a Law by which they were reduced to their ancient bounds inabled only to relieve not to wrong the Subject Sylla Tribunis Plebis lege sua injuriae faciendae potestatem ademit auxilii ferendi reliquit as we read in Tully Id. ibid. A thing that much displeased the people and the Tribunes more But Sylla was no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no great applyer of himself to the peoples humers and therefore cared but little how they took the matter Pompey succeeding him in power and in purpose too took a course quite contrary and re-established them in that Authority whereof Sylla had of late deprived them For finding that the common people longed for nothing more than to see the Office of the Tribunes in the height again and being resolved to lay the foundation of his greatness on the affections and dependence of the common people Platarch in Pompeio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gratified them in that point and thought himself a happy man to find so fair an opportunity to oblige them to him On which deceitful grounds for they proved no other he set them in their power again as before was said for which he stands accused by Quintus Cicero de Legibus l. 3. and I think deservedly Certain I am that Pompey bought the short affection and applause of the common people at no less a price than his own destruction Plutarch in I. Caesare the Tribunes being the very men which pulled down his pride and set up Caesar to oppose him who going the same way to work that Sylla did and knowing that a Tribune and a Tribunitian spirit were no friends to Monarchy left them the name but nothing else The power and priviledg of the Office he kept unto himself for his own security as one that understood none better how many notable advantages he should gain thereby Dion histor Som. lib. 53. for the confirming of his Empire Which Course Augustus followed also taking the Tribunitian power into his own hands posito Triumviri nomine as soon as the Triumvirate was expired by the death of his Partners Tacitus Annal lib. 1. and from thence reckoned the years of his Government as Tribunitiae potestatis tertium quartum c. which his Successors did after his Example till the time of Constantine when the name of Tribune was laid by as a thing forgotten Rosin Antiq. Rom. The Empire was then cast into another kind of mould than it had been formerly new Offices ordained new Forms of Government introduced and a new Rome built and to what purpose should they keep the name when the thing was gone Let us look back on all that is said before and we shall find but little reason to
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
cannot be but that there must be many of them in that famous Session an equal number at the least with those who had been Polemarchi or the yearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Add here that we are told by Julius Pollux in his Onomasticon Lib. 8. cap. 8. sect 3. that it pertained to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rex Sacrorum besides the service of the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to endite those before the Court who were guilty or murther but then withal that having put in the Enditement and laid by his Crown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sat upon the Bench with the other Judges and passed sentence on them Thus was it with the Druides or the Priests of Gallia who did not only take the charge of all sacred matter which did relate unto the service of the gods but de omnibus fere controversiis publicis privatisque Caesar de Bello Gallico l. 6. they did determine in almost all suits and controversies as well publick as private particularly in matters of inheritance real actions capital crimes as murther and the like offences and also had a power to decree both rewards and punishments as they saw occasion And for the better dispatch of business both for their own ease and the Peoples too they chose some certain times or Terms in which they met together not far from Chartres being in the middle of the Countrey whither all sorts of People who had suits and differences did repair unto them eorumque judiciis decretis parebant and to their Judgments and Decrees did submit themselves And thus it also was with the Pontifices or Priests of Rome who had not only a chief place in the holy Mysteries such as concerned the publick worship of their gods but also a great power and sway in the greatest and most important businesses which concerned the State which Tully makes one of those Constitutions or Arts of Government which seemed to have been devised by the gods themselves Cicero in Orat. pro Domo sua Cum multa divinitus à majoribus nostris inventa atque instituta sunt tum nihil praeclarius quam quod Pontifices eosdem Religionibus Deorum immortalium summae reipub praeesse voluerunt And as the principal Priests in Athens had their place and Vote not only in the Court of Areopagites but in the Senate of five hundred as before was noted so some of the more eminent sort of Priests had the like preheminence of sitting and voting in the Roman Senate which was as high an honour as that State could give them For besides that Rosinus hath observed that some of the Priests were chosen out of the number of the Senators who doubtless did not lose the right of suffrage which before they had Rosin Antiqu. Rom. there is a memorable case in Livie touching C. Flaccus who was no sooner chosen the Flamen Dialis or Priest of Jupiter but presently he put in his title to a place in Senate which anciently belonged unto his predecessors in the right of their Office though of late years it seemed to have been forfeited by discontinuance The issue of which plea was this That though Licinius the Pretor did the best he could to cross the business alledging Non exoletis vetustate Annalium exemplis stare jus Livie hist Rom. lib. 26. that they were not to be guided in the case by Worm-eaten Precedents but by the late practice of the State yet it was otherwise determined by the Fathers generally and Flaccus setled in his place in the Roman Senate Magno assensu Patrum Plebisque with the joynt consent of all the People But what need these particulars have been brought to confirm this point whenas it is affirmed in generals by Synesius a right godly Bishop of the Primitive times Synes Epist 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in old times the same men were both Priests and Judges Which said he instanceth in the particulars of the Jews and Egyptians who for long time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been chiefly governed by their Priests This brings me on to the power and practice of the Priests in the Land of Judah who from the very first beginning of that State and Nation to the final dissolution of it were of great authority not only in composing of inferiour differences which casually did arise amongst the People but in the managery of the chief affairs both of State and Government and that not gained by Connivence of Frinces or by entrenching on the rights of the secular powers but by the institution and appointment of the Lord himself When Moses first complained that the sole Government of the People was a burden too heavy for him to bear it pleased God to appoint a standing Consistory of seventy Elders men of ability and wisdom Numb 11. v. 16 who were to have a share in the publick Government and to decide amongst themselves such weighty businesses great matters as the Scripture calls them Exod. 18. v. 22. which were reserved to Moses by a former Ordinance Of these the Priests as men who for the most part were at better leisure than the rest to attend the service and generally of more abilities to go through with it made always a considerably number and many times the major part In which respect it was ordained by the Lord when a matter did arise to be scanned in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea and stroke and stroke being matters of controversie within their gates the People should arise and go unto the place which the Lord should choose and come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew them the sentence of judgement Deut. c. 17. v. 8 9. The like is also ordered in the case of false witnesses where it is said that if a false witness rise up against any man to testifie against him that which is wrong then both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Lord before the Priests and Judges which shall be in those days Deut. 19. v. 17. Which passages are not understood of any particular Priests or Judges dispersed in their several dwellings up and down the Country but of the Priests and other Judges united and assembled in that famous Consistory of the 70 Elders conveened together in that place which the Lord should choose called by the Jews the Sanhedrim by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was the great Council of estate for the Jewish Nation To this Josephus doth attest where he informeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Priests of Jewry had the cognizance of all doubtful matters Joseph adv Appion lib. 2. more plainly Philo who knew well the customs of his native Countrey where he affirms expresly and in terminis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Priests had place and suffrage in this
great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de vita Mosis or Court of Sanhedrim And this is that which Casaubon doth also tell us from the most learned and expert of the Jewish Rabbins Non nisi nobilissimos è sacerdotibus Levitis caeteroque populo in lege peritissimos in Sanhedrim eligi Casaub Exercit in Baron 1. Sect. 3. that is to say that none but the most eminent of the Priests the Levites and the rest of the People and such as were most conversant in the Book of the Law were to be chosen into the Sanhedrim But to return again to the Book of God the power and reputation of this Court and Consistory having been much diminished in the times of the Kings of Judah was again revived by Jehosaphat Of whom we read that he not only did appoint Judges in the Land throughout all the fenced Cities of Judah 2 Chron. 19.5 but that he established at Hierusalem a standing Council consisting of the Levites and of the Priests and of the chief of the Fathers of Israel for the judgments of the Lord Ibid. r. 8. and for controversies according to the model formerly laid by God himself in the Book of Deuteronomy Which Court or Council thus revived continued in full force authority and power during the time of the captivity of Babilon as appears plainly by that passage in the Prophesie of Ezekiel where it is said of the Priests even by God himself Ezek. 44. v. 24. in controversie they shall stand in judgment compared with another place of the same Prophet where he makes mention of the Seventy of the Antients of the House of Israel Id. c. 8. v. 11. and Jaazaniah the Son of Shaphan standing in the midst as Prince of the Senate And after their return from that house of bondage they were confirmed in this authority by the Edict and Decree of Artaxerxes who gave Commission unto Ezra to set Magistrates and Judges over the People not after a new way of his own devising Ezra 6.7 v. 25. but after the wisdom of his God declared in the foregoing Ages by his Servant Moses In which estate they stood all the times succeeding until the final dissolution of that State and Nation with this addition to the power of the holy Priesthood that they had not only all that while their place and suffrage in the Court of Sanhedrim as will appear to any one who hath either read Josephus or the four Evangelists but for a great part of that time till the Reign of Herod the Supream Government of the State was in the hands of the Priests In which regard besides what was affirmed from Synesius formerly it is said by Justin Morem esse apud Judaeos ut eosdem Reges sacerdotes haberent that it was the custom of the Jews for the same men to be Kings and Priests Justin hist l. 36. and Tacitus gives this general note Judaeis Sacerdotu honorem firmamentum potentiae esse that the honour given unto the Priesthood amongst the Jews did most espeeially conduce to the establishment of their power and Empire And yet I cannot yield to Baronius neither Tacit. hist l. 3. where he affirms the better to establish a Supremacy in the Popes of Rome Summum Pont. arbitrio suo moderari magnum illud Concilium Baron Annal. An. 57. c. that the High Priest was always President of the Council or Court of Sanhedrim it being generally declared in the Jewish Writers that the High Priest could challenge no place at all therein in regard of his offence and descent but meerly in respect of such personal abilities as made himself to undergo such a weighty burden for which see Phagius in his notes on the 16 of Deuteronomy Thus have we seen of what authority and power the Priests were formerly as well amongst the Jews as amongst the Gentiles we must next see whether they have not been employed in the like affairs under the Gospel of Christ and that too in the best and happiest times of the Christian Church In search whereof it is not to be looked for by the ingenuous Reader that we should aim so high as the first 300 years after Christs Nativity The Prelates of the Church were suspected then to have their different aims and interesses from those who had the government of the Civil State and therefore thought uncapable of trust and imployment in it But after that according to that memorable maxim of Optatus Deschismat Donatist l. 3. Ecclesia erat in Republicâ the Church became a part of the Common-wealth and had their ends and aims united there followed these two things upon it first that the Supream Government of the Church depended much upon the will and pleasure of the Supream Magistrate Scorat Eccl. hist lib. 5. c. 1. insomuch as Socrates observeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the greatest Councils have been called by their authority and appointment And 2ly That the Governours and Rulers of the Church of God came to have place and power in disposing matter that appertained to the well ordering of the Civil State And this they did not our of any busie or pragmatical desire to draw the cognizance of secular causes into their own hands or to increase their power and reputation with the common People but meerly for the ease and benefit of those who did repair unto them for their help and counsel and to comply with the command of the Apostle who imposed it on them S. Austin tells us of S. Ambrose with how great difficulty he obtained an opportunity of conversing with him privately and at large as his case required Secludentibus eum ab ejus aure atque ore catervis negociosorum hominum August Confes l. 6. c. 3. the multitude of those who had business to him and suits to be determined by him debarring him from all advantages of access and conference Which took up so much of his time that he had little leisure to refresh his body with necessary food or his mind with the reading of good Authors And Posidonius tells us of S. Austin causas audisse diligenter pie that he diligently and religiously attended such businesses as were brought before him not only spending all the morning in that troublesome exercise Posidon in vita August c. 19. but sometimes fasting all day long the better to content the suitor and dispatch the business The like S. Austin tells us of himself and his fellow Prelates first that the Christians of those times pro secularibus causis suis nos non raro quaererent August in Psal 118. serm 74 Epist 147. did ordinarily apply themselves unto them for the determining of secular causes and chearfully submitted unto their decisions next that the Prelates did comply with their earnest solicitations and desires therein Tu multuosissimas eausarum alienarum perplexitates patiendo Id. de opere Monach. c. 29. by
honour of the Empire and the publick safety Nor is this any new authority which the Ecclesiastical Estate hath gained in the latter times but such wherein they were intrusted from the first beginning of that Empire It being affirmed by Aventinus a Writer of unquestioned credit that long before the institution of the seven Electors which was in An. 996. the Prelates the Nobility and the chief of the People had the election of the Emperour Aventini Annal Boiorum l. 5. And if the Prelates were intrusted in so high a point as the Election of the Emperour or the Soveraign Prince no question but they were imployed also in his publick Councels in matters which concerned the managery of the Common-wealth Next pass we over into France and there we find the Subjects marshalled into three Estates whereof the Clergy is the first Rex coactis tribus Ordinibus Sacerdotio Nobilitate Plebe Paul Aemilius hist Franc. l. 9. subsidia rei pecuniariae petiit that is to say the King assembling or conveening the three Estates viz. the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons demanded subsidies for the support of his Estate So Paulus Aemilius doth inform us Out of these three are chosen certain Delegates or Commissioners some for each Estate as often as the Kings occasions do require their meeting the time and place whereof is absolutely left unto his disposing and these thus met do make up the Conventus Ordinum or L' Assemblie des Estats as the French men call it in form much like the English Parliament but in nothing else the power and reputation of it being much diminished in these latter times especially since the great improvement of the Court of Parliament fixed and of long time fixed in Paris Which Court of Parliament as it was instituted at the first by Charles Martel Mayre of the Palace to the Merovignian line of France and Grand-father to Charle magne so it consisted at the first of the same ingredients of which the great Assembly des Estats consisteth now that is to say the Prelates and the Peers and certain of the principal Gentry which they call La Nebless together with some few of the most considerable Officers of the Kings houshold A Court of such esteem in the former time that the Kings of Sicily Cyprus Bohemia Scotland and Navar Andre du Chesne have thought it no disparagement unto them to be members of it and which is more when Frederick the second had spent much time and treasure in his quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth he was content to submit the whole cause in difference unto the judgement of this Court But being at last become sedentaire and fixed at Paris as other ordinary Courts of Justice were which was in An. 1286. or thereabouts the Nobles first and after them the Bishops withdrew themselves from the troubles of it and left it to the ordering of the Civil Lawyers though still the Peers do challenge and enjoy a place therein as oft as any point of moment is in agitation the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denys continuing constant members of it to this very day But for the Assembly des Estats or Conventus Ordinum made up of the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons as before I told you he that would see the manner of it the points there handled and that remainder of authority which is left unto them let him repair unto Thuanus Thuan. hist sui temp lib. and look upon the great Assembly held at Bloys An. 1573. He shall find it there Pass we next over the Pyrenees to the Realms of Spain and we shall find in each the same three Estates whose meeting they call there by the name of Curia Bodin de Repub lib. 3. c. the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminency consisting of the Clergy the Nobility and Commissioners of the Provinces and most antient Cities But we must tell you by the way that long before the institution of these Courts and long before the division of Spain into so many Kingdoms the Prelates of that Church were of such authority that a chief stroke in the election of their Kings did belong to them For in the eighth Council of Toledo summoned by Recesvintus the 25th of the Gothish race of the Kings of Spain An. 653. so long agoe in which were present 52 Bishops 12 Abbots and the Delegates of Vicars of ten other Bishops who could not personally attend the service it was ordered with the Kings consent that from thenceforth the Kings of Spain should be elected in the Regal City or in what other place soever the King should happen to decease by the joynt suffrages of the Prelates and the great Lords of the Court Majores Palatii as the Canon calls them Concil Tolet. VIII Can. 10. But take the whole Canon with you for the more assurance and you find it thus Abhinc ergo deinceps ita erunt in Regni gloria praeficiendi Rectores ut aut in urbe Regia aut in loco ubi Princeps decesserit cum Pontisicum Majorumque Palatii omnimodo eligantur assensu But after Spain became divided into several Kingdoms and that each Kingdom had its Court or Curia as they call their Parliament the Clergy were esteemed in each for the third Estate the first indeed of all the three and either in person or by their Proxies made up the most considerable part in those publick meetings For proof of which we need but look into the General History of Spain translated out of French by Grimston and we shall find a Court or Parliament for the Realm of Aragon consisting of the Bishops Nobles and Deputies of Towns and Commonalties having place in the said Estates conveened by King James at Saragossa Anno 1325. for setling the Succession and declaring the Heir another at Monson Gen. hist of Spain l. 14. Id. lib. 11. where the Estates of Aragon and Catalogne did conveen together 1236. to consult about the Conquest of Valentia and before that another Assembly of the Bishops and Noblemen called at Saragossa by Alfonso the Great touching the War against the Moores Id. lib. 9. And as for the Realm of Naples and Sicily being appends on this Crown there is little question to be made but that the Bishops and Clergy of both enjoyed the place and priviledges of the third Estate both Kingdoms being antiently hoden of the Pope and of his Erection and the Italian Bishops as lying directly under his nose more amply priviledged for the most part than in other Countries Thus for Castile we find a Parliament of Lords Prelates and Deputies of Towns summoned at Toledo by Alfonso the Noble An. 1210. upon occasion of an invasion made by the Moores another before that at Burgos Id. lib. 10. under the same King Anno 1179. for levying of money on the people to maintain the Wars that great Convention of the States held
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
Parliament in their own personal capacities and not as the representative body of the Clergy yet the poor Clergy found it some respect unto them to be thus honoured in their Heads and were the more obliged to obey such Acts as were established in that Court wherein these heads ha dopportunity of interceding if perhaps any thing were propounded which might be grievous to the Clergy and many times a power of hindring and divertring if not by Voice and Numbers yet by strength of reasons They were not altogether Slaves and Bond-men whilest the Church held that remnant of her ancient Rights for whilest the Heads retained that Honour the body could not chuse but rejoyce in it and be cherished by it But since they have been stripped of that by what unworthy Arts the World knows too well they are become of such condition that the most despicable Tradesman in a Corporate Town is more considerable in the eye of the State and hath a greater interesse in the affairs thereof than the greatest Prelate and to say truth than all the Clergy of the Realm For being there are three Ingredients which make up a Freeman as Sir Francis Bacon well observed in his speech concerning the Post-nati that is to say 1. jus Civitatis which did inable a man to buy and sell and to take Inheritances 2. jus suffragii a Voice in the passing of Laws and Election of Officers and 3. jus honoris a capability of such Offices and Honours as the State could give him the Clergy by this means are limited to the first right only and utterly excluded from the other two and thereby put into a worse condition than the meanest Freeman in the Kingdom Insomuch that whereas every needy Artizan if he be free of any Corporate Town or City every Cottager that dwelleth in an ancient Burrough and every Clown which can lay claim to forty shillings per Annum of Freehold either for life or of Inheritance hath a Voice in Parliament either in person or by Proxy and is not bound by any Law but what himself consents to in his Representatives the Clergy only of this Realm as the case now stands being out of the greatest States of this Kingdom as is acknowledged expresly in terminis by Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. are neither capable of place there in their personal capacities nor suffered to be there in their Procurators as of old they were nor have so much as any Voice in chusing of the Knights and Burgesses which represent the body of the people generally I know it hath been said in reply to this that the Clergy may give Voices at the Election of the Knights and Burgesses and that it is their own neglect if they do it not But I know too that this is only yielded unto such of the Clergy as are possessed of Lands and Houses in those several places where such Elections are to be made and not then neither in most places except it be to make a party for particular ends especially where some good man or the main cause it self it concerned therein which as it totally excludeth the greatest part of the Clergy from having any Voice at all in these Elections the greatest part of the Clergy the more the pity having neither Lands nor Houses to such a value in fee simple so it gives no more power unto those that have than what of necessity must serve I am sure occasionally it may to their own undoing For to say truth those that give out that the Clergy may give Voice at such Elections use it but as a shift for the present turn intending nothing less indeed as hath oft been seen than that the Clergy should be capable of so great a trust The reason is because there is not any Freeman of a City or a Corporate Town who hath a Voice in the Election of a Citizen to serve in Parliament nor almost any Cottager or Free-holder who hath a Voice in the Election either of a Knight or Burgess but is directly eligible to the place himself Of Citizens and Burgesses Elected from the very meanest of the people we have many instances and shall have more according as they find their strength and have received a taste of the sweets of Government And for the chusing of the Knights of the several Shires it is determined by the Statutes that as 40 s. Land of Free-hold per Annum 8 Hen. 6. c. 7. is enough to qualifie a Clown for giving a Voice at the Election so the same Clown if he have 20 l. Land per Annum is capable of being chosen for a Knight of the Shire as appears plainly and expresly by the Statute Law For though the Writ directed to the several and respective Sheriffs prescribe a choice of dues milites gladio cinctos yet we know well that by the Statute of King Henry 6. which is explanatory in this case of the Common Law such notable Esquires or Gentlemen 23 Hen. 6.15 born of the same Counties as shall be able to the Knights are made as capable as a dubbed Knight to attend that service and he that hath no more than 20 l. per Annum either in Capite or Socage is not only able by the Law to be made a Knight 1 Ed. 2. c. 1. but was compelled thereunto even by the Statute-Law it self until the Law was lately altered in that point 17 Carol. c. 1. And on the other side it is clera enough for there have been of late some experiments of it that though a Clergy-man be born an Esquire or Gentleman for they are not all born ex fece Plebis as the late Lord Brook forgetting his own poor Extraction hath been pleased to say and though he be possessed of a fair Estate descended to him from his Ancestors L. Brook against Episcopacy or otherwise possessed of some Lands or Houses in Town Burrough or City whereby he stands as eligible in the eye of the Law as any Lady-Gentleman of them all yet either he is held uncapable and so pretermitted or if returned rejected at the House it self to his soul reproach It is a Fundamental constitution of the Realm of England that every Freeman hath a Voice in the Legislative power of Parliament And so acknowledged in a Writ of Summons of K. Edw. 1. and it is a Rule in Politicks quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet Which being now denied to the English Clergy reduceth them to that condition which St. Paul complains of and makes them no otherwise accounted of by the common people than as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filth and off-scouring of the world to this very day This tempts me to a brief dicussion of a Question exceeding weighty in it self but not so much as thought of in this great Disfranchisement the slavery obtruded lately on the English Clergy that is to say whether that any two of the three Estates conspiring or agreeing
expresly and in terminis to represent the three Estates of the Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen This makes it evident that the King was not accounted in the times before for one of the three Estates of Parliament nor can be so accounted the present times For considering that the Lords and Commons do most confessedly make two of the three Estates and that the Clergy in another Act of Parliament of the said Queens time are confessed to be one of the greatest States of the Realm which Statute being still in force Statut. 8. Eliz. cap. 1. doth clearly make the Clergy to be the third either there must be more than three Estates in this Kingdom which is against the Doctrine of the present times or else the King is none of the Estates as indeed he is not which was the matter to be proved But I spend too much time in confuting that which hath so little ground to stand on more than the dangerous consequences which are covered under it For if the King be granted once to be no more than one of the three Estates how can it choose but follow from so sad a principle that he is of no more power and consideration in the time of Parliament than the House of Peers which sometimes hath consisted of three Lords no more or than the House of Commons only which hath many times consisted of no more than eighty or an hundred Gentlemen but of far less consideration to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever than both the Houses joyned together What else can follow hereupon but that the King must be co-ordinate with his two Honses of Parliament and if co-ordinate then to be over-ruled by their joynt concurrence bound to conform unto their Acts and confirm their Ordinances or upon case of inconformity and non-compliance to see them put in execution against his liking and consent to his foul reproach And what at last will be the issue of this dangerous consequence but that the Lords content themselves to come down to the Commons and the King be no otherwise esteemed of than the chief of the Lords the Princeps Senatus if you will or the Duke of Venice at the best no more which if Sir Edward Dering may be credited as I think he may in this particular seems to have been the main design of some of the most popular and powerful Members then sitting with him for which I do refer the Reader to his book of Speeches Which dangerous consequents whether they were observed at first by these who first ventured on the expression or were improvidently looked over I can hardly say Certain I am it gave too manifest an advantage to the Antimonarchical party in this Kingdom and hardned them in their proceeding against their King whom they were taught to look on and esteem no otherwise than as a Joint-tenant of the Sovereignty with the Lords and Commons And if Kings have partners in the Sovereignty they are then no King such being the nature and Law of Monarchy that si divisionem capiat interitum capiat necesse est Laciant Institut Div. l. 1. c. if it be once divided and the authorities thereof imparted it is soon destroyed Such is the dangerous consequence of this new Expression that it seemeth utterly to deprive the Bishops and in them the Clergy of this Land of all future hopes of being restored again to their place in Parliament For being the Parliament can consist but of three Estates if the King fall so low as to pass for one either the Bishops or the Commons or the Temporal Lords must desert their claim the better to make way for this new pretension and in all probability the Commons being grown so potent and the Nobility so numerous and united in bloud and marriages will not quit their interesse and therefore the poor Clergy must be no Estate because less able as the World now goeth with them to maintain their Title I have often read that Constantine did use to call himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop or superintendent of his Bishops Euseb de vita Constant and I have often heard our Lawyers say that the King is the general Ordinary of the Kingdom but never heard nor read till within these few years that ever any King did possess himself of the Bishops place or Vote in Parliament or sat there as the first of the three Estates as anciently the Bishops did to supply their absence By which device whether the Clergy or the King be the greater losers though it be partly seen already future times will shew This Rub removed we next proceed to the examination of that power which by our Author is conferred on the three Estates which we shall find on search and tryal to be very different according to the constitution of the Kingdom in which they are For where the Kings are absolute Monarchs as in England Scotland France and Spain Bod in de Repuô l. 1. c. the three Estates have properly and legally little more Authority than to advise their King as they see occasion to present unto his view their common grievances and to propose such remedies for redress thereof as to them seem meetest to canvass and review such erroneous judgments as formerly have passed in inferiour Courts and finally to consult about and prepare such Laws as are expedient for the publick In other Countreys where the Kings are more conditional and hold their Crowns by compact and agreement between them and their Subjects the reputation and authority of the three Estates is more high and eminent as in Polonia Denmark and some others of the Northern Kingdoms where the Estates lay claim to more than a directive power and think it not enough to advise their King unless they may dispose of the Kingdom also or at least make their King no better than a Royal Slave Thus and no otherwise it is with the German Emperors who are obnoxious to the Laws Thuan. hist sui temp l. 2. and for their Government accomptable to the Estates of the Empire insomuch that if the Princes of the Empire be persuaded in their consciences that he is likely by his mal-administration to destroy the Empire and that he will not hearken to advice and counsel ab Electorum Collegio Caesaria potestate privari potest Anonym Script ap Philip. Paraeum in Append ad Rom. 13. he may be deprived by the Electors and a more fit and able man elected to supply the place And to this purpose in a Constitution made by the Emperor Jodocus about the year 1410. there is a clause that if he or any of his Successors do any thing unto the contrary thereof the Electors and other States of the Empire sine rebellionis vel infidelitatis crimine libertatem babeant Goldast Constit Imperial Tom. 3. p. 424. should be at liberty
negandum as if it were not fit to deny them any thing Calvin in Jerem. c. 38. ver 5. Not so saith he it rather is amarulenta Regis querimonia a sad and bitter complaint of the poor captivated King against his Counsellors by whom he was so over-ruled ut velit nolit cedere iis cogitur that he was forced to yield to them whether he would or not which he expresly calls inexcusabilem arrogantiam an intolerable piece of sawciness in those Princes and an exclusion of the King from his legal Rights Let us next take a view of such Christian Kingdoms as are under the command of absolute Monarchs And first we will begin with the Realm of France the Government whereof is meerly Regal if not despotical such as that of a Master over his Servants which Aristotle defineth to be a Form of Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the King may do whatsoever he list Aristot Politic. l. 3. according to the counsel of his own mind For in his Arbitrary Edicts which he sendeth abroad he never mentioneth the cosent of the People or the approbation of the Council or the advice of his Judges which might be thought to derogate too much from his absolute power but concludes all of them in this Regal Form Car tel est nostre plaisir for such is our pleasure And though the Court of Parliament in Paris do use to take upon them to peruse his Edicts View of France by Dallington before they pass abroad for Laws and sometime to demur on his Grants and Patents and to petition him to reverse the same as they see occasion yet their perusal is a matter but of meer formality and their demurs more dilatory than effectual It is the Car tel est nostre plaisir that concludes the business and the Kings pleasure is the Law which that Court is ruled by As for the Assemblie des Estats or Conventus Ordinum it was reputed anciently the Supream Court for Government and Justice of all the Kingdom and had the cognizance of the greatest and most weighty affairs of State But these meetings have been long since discontinued and almost forgotten there being no such Assembly from the time of King Charles the eighth to the beginning of the reign of King Charles the ninth Thuanus hist sui temp which was 70 years and not many since And to say truth they could be but of little use as the World now goeth were the meetings oftner For whereas there are three Principal if not sole occasions of calling this Assembly or Conventus Ordinum that is to say the disposing of the Regency during the nonage or sickness of the King the granting Aids and Subsidies and the redress of the grievances there is now another course taken to dispatch their business The Parliament of Paris which speaks most commonly as it is prompted by power and greatness appointeth the Regent Contin Thuani An. 1610. View of France the Kings themselves together with their Treasurers and Under-Officers determine of the Taxes and they that do complain of Grievances may either have recourse to the Courts of Justice or else petition to the King for redress thereof And for the making new Laws or repealing the old the naturalization of the Alien and the regulating of his Sales or Grants of the Crown-Lands the publick patrimony of the Kingdom which were wont to be the proper Subject and debates of these Grand Assemblies they also have been so disposed of that Conventus Ordinum is neither troubled with them nor called about them The Chamber of Accompts in Paris which hath some resemblance to our Court of Exchequer doth absolutely dispose of Naturalizations Andr. Du Chesn and superficially surveyeth the Kings Grants and Sales which they seldom cross The Kings Car tel est nostre plaisir is the Subjects Law and is as binding as any Act or Ordinance of the three Estates and for repealing of such Laws as upon long experience are conceived to be unprofitable the Kings sole Edict is as powerful as any Act of Parliament Of which Bodinus doth not only say in these general terms Bodin de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 8. Saepe vidimus sine Ordinum convocatione consensu leges à Principe abrogatas that many times these Kings did abrogate some ancient Laws without the calling and consent of the three Estates but saith that it was neither new nor strange that they should so do and gives us some particular instances not only of the later times but the former Ages Nay when the power of this Assemblie des Estats was most great and eminent neither so curtailed nor neglected as it hath been lately yet then they carried themselves with the greatest reverence and respect before their King that could be possibly imagined For in the Assembly held at Tours under Charles the 8. though the King was then no more than 14 years of age and the Authority of that Court so great and awful that it was never at so high an eminence for power and reputation quanta illis temporibus as it was at that time yet when they came before the King Monsieur de Rell being then Speaker for the Commons or the third Estate did in the name of all the rest and with as much humility and reverence as he could devise promise such duty and obedience such a conformity of his will and pleasure such readiness to supply his wants and such alacrity in hearking unto his Commandments that as Bodinus well observes his whole Oration was nothing else quam perpetua voluntatis omnium erga Regem testificatio but a constant testimony and expression of the good affections of the Subject to their Lord and Sovereign Id. ibid. But whatsoever power they had in former times is not now material King Lewis the thirteenth having on good reason of State discharged those Conventions for the time ensuing Instead whereof he instituted an Assembly of another temper and such as should be more obnoxious to his will and pleasure consisting of a certain number of persons out of each Estate but all of his own nomination and appointment which join'd with certain of his Council and principal Officers he caused to be called L' Assembly des Notables assigning to them all the power and privileges which the later Conventions of the three Estates did pretend unto right well assured that men so nominated and intrusted would never use their powers to his detriment and disturbance of his heirs successors But to proceed Bodinus having shewn what dutiful respects the Convention of Estates in France shewed unto their King adds this Note nec aliter Hispanorum conventus habentur that the Assembly of the three Estates in the Realms of Spain carry themselves with the like reverence and submission to their Lord the King Nay major etiam obedientia majus obsequium Regi exhibetur the King of Spain hath more obedience and observance
inquisition or Impeachment the Lords in that of Judicature and determination with the consent and approbation of the King though many times without his personal assent and presence The King may be abused in his Grants and Patents to the oppression of the people or the dilapidation and destruction of the Royal Patrimony Judges and other the great Officers of Law and Equity are subject to corruptions and may smell of gifts whereby the passages of Justices do become obstructed The Ministers of inferiour Courts as well Ecclesiastical as Civil either exhaust the miserable Subject by Extortions or else consume him by delays Erroneous judgments may be given through fear or favour to the undoing of a man and his whole posterity in which his Majesties Justices of either Bench can afford no remedy The great Ones of the State may become too insolent and the poor too miserable and many other ways there are by which the Fabrick of the State may be out of Order for the removing of which mischiefs the rectifying of which abuses the Lords and Commons in their several ways before remembred are of special use yet so that if the King's Grants do come in question or any of his Officers are called to a reckoning they used heretofore to signifie unto his Majesty what they found therein and he accordingly either revoked his Grants or displaced his Servants or by some other means gave way unto their contentment the Kings consent being always necessary and received as a part of the final sentence if they went so far So that we may conclude this point with these words of Bodin who being well acquainted with the Government of this State and Nation partly by way of Conference with Dr. Dale the Queens Ambassadour in France and partly in the way of observation when he was in England doth give this resolution of the point in Controversie Bodin de Repub l. 1. o. 8. Habere quidem Ordines Anglorum authoritatem quandam jura vero majestatis imperii summam in unius Principis arbitrio versari The States saith he of England have a kind of Authority but all the Rights of Sovereignty and command in chief are at the will and pleasure of the Prince alone And to say truth although the Lords and Commons met in Parliament are of great Authority especially as they have improved it in these later times yet were they never of such power but that the Kings have for the most part over-ruled them and made them pliant and conformable to their own desires and this not only by themselves but sometimes also by their Judges by their Council often For such was the great care and wisdom of our former Kings as not to venture single on that numerous Body of the two Houses of Parliament whereby the Sovereignty might be so easily over-matched but to take with them for Affistants as well the Lords of their Privy Council with whom they might advise in matters which concerned them in their Sovereign Rights as their learned Council as they call them consisting of the Judges and most eminent Lawyers from whom they might receive instruction as the case required and neither do nor suffer wrong in point of Law and by both these as well as by the power and awe of their personal presence have they not only regulated but restrained their Parliaments And this is easily demonstrable by continual practice 4 Ed. 1. For in the Statute of Bigamie made in the fourth year of King Edward I. it is said expresly That in the prefence of certain Reverend Fathers Bishops of England and others of the Kings Council the Constitutions under-written were recited and after published before the King his Council forasmuch as all the Kings Council as well Justices as others did agree that they should be put in writing and observed In the Articuli super Chartas when the Great Charter was confirmed at the request of the Prelates 28 Ed. 1. c. 2. Earls and Barons we find these two claufes the one in the beginning thus Nevertheless the King and his Council do not intend by reason of this Statute Ibid. c. 20. to diminish the Kings right c. The other in the clofe of all in these following words And notwithstanding all these things mentioned or any part of them both the King and his Council and all they which were present at the making of this Ordinance do will and intend that the Right and Prerogative of his Crown shall be saved in all things In the 27th of King Edward the 3d. The Commons presenting a Petition to the King 27 Ed. 3. which the Kings Council did mislike were content thereupon to mend and explain their Petition the Form of which Petition is in these words following To their most redoubted Sovereign Lord the King praying the Commons that whereas they have prayed him to be discharged of all manner of Articles of the Lyre c. which Petition seemeth to his Council to be prejudicial unto him and in disherison of his Crown if it were so generally granted his said Commons not willing not desiring to demand things of him which should fall in disherison of him or of his Crown perpetually as of Escheats c. but of Trespasses Misprifions Negligences and Ignorances c. In the 13th of the reign of King Richard the 2d when the Commons did pray that upon pain of forfeiture the Chancellor or Council of the King should not after the end of the Parliament make any Ordinance against the Common Law 13 Rich. 2. the King by the advice of his Council answered Let it be used as it hath been used before this time so as the Regality of the King be saved for the King will save his Regalities 4 Hen. 4. as his Predecessors have done In the 4th year of King Henry IV. when the Commons complained against Sub-poenae's and other Writs grounded upon false suggestions the King upon the same advice returned this Answer that he would give in charge to his Officers that they should abstain more than before time they had to send for his Subjects in that manner But yet saith he it is not our intention that our Officers shall so abstain that they may not send for our Subjects in matters and causes necessary as it hath been used in the time of our good Progenitors Finally not to bring forth more particulars in a case so clear it was the constant custom in all Parliaments till the Reign of King Henry V. that when any Bill had passed both Houses Henr. 5. and was presented to the King for his Royal Assent the King by the abvice of his Privy Council or his Council learned in the Laws or sometimes of both did use to cross out and obliterate as much or as little of it as he pleased to leave out what he liked not and confirmed the rest that only which the King confirmed being held for Law And though in the succeeding
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
must needs follow thereupon that all which held their Lands of the Crown in Capite were capable in those times of a place in Parliament And so it seems they had in the Reign of King John and afterwards in the Reign of King Henry the 3d but in the last years of the said King Henry and by the power and prudence of King Edward the first were brought into a narrower compass none being admitted to appear and attend in Parliament but such as he thought fit to summon by his Royal Mandate And hereunto as well our choicest Antiquaries as our most eminent Lawyers do consent unanimously But here is to be noted saith Chief Justice Coke that if the King give Lands to any one tenendum per servitium Baronis de Rege he is no Lord of Parliament till he be called by Writ to the Parliament which as he there declares for a point of Law so is it also verified in point of practice out of the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum in which it is affirmed Ad Parliamentum summoniri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores Cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi Tenurae that all Arch-bishops Bishops Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either in right of their Counties or in right of their Baronages were to be summoned and come to Parliament in regard of their Tenures Where we may see that though they had a jus ad rem in regard of their Tenures yet they had no pretence to their Jus in re but only by the Writ of Summons And secondly whereas the Modus speaks of some Bishops which were to be called to the Parliament in the right of their Counties I think he means it of the Bishops of Durham and Ely which enjoyed all the Rights and priviledges of a County Palatine in their several Circuits By which we see that to the making of a Baron or a Lord of Parliament it is not only necessary that he hold by Barony but that he have his Writ of Summons to attend the service which puts a signal difference between Lords of Parliament and such as are called Lords in respect of their birth or in regard of some great Offices which they hold in the State of the first sort whereof are all the eldest sons of Earls and upwards who are not only honoured with the name of Lords but challenge a precedence by the Rules of Herauldry before all the Barons of the Realm and yet can lay no claim to the Rights of Peerage unless perhaps they may be summoned to the Parliament in their fathers life time And so it hapned in the Case of the Earl of Surrey the eldest son of Thomas Lord Howard Duke of Norfolk arraigned in the last days of King Henry the eighth and tried by a Jury of twelve men because not being called to Parliament in his fathers life-time he could not be considered as a Peer of the Realm And in the last sort we may reckon the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord Privy Seal the Lord President of his Majesties Council the Lord High Chamberlain the Lord Admiral the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and the three Chief Judges who if they be not otherwise of the Rank of Barons can plead no Title to their Peerage nor to Vote in Parliament and so it hapned in the Case of Sir William Stanly Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh tried by a Jury of twelve men in a case of Treason without relation to his great Office or Title of Lord. Most true it is that some of these great Officers have their place in Parliament and so have all the Judges of the Courts of Westminster the Master of the Rolls the Masters of the Chancery the Kings Attorney General and perhaps some others all summoned to attend the service by Especial Writs but they are only called to advise the Court to give their Judgment and Opinion when it is demanded but not to canvass or debate and much less to conclude in any business which is there discoursed of as both the Bishops and the Temporal Lords are impowred to do Which difference appears in the Writs themselves For in the Writ of Summons to the Judges and the rest here mentioned the words run thus viz. Quod intersitis nobiscum cum caeteris de concilio nostro and sometimes nobiscum only supra praemissis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri But in the Writ of Summons to the Bishops and the rest of the Peers we shall find it thus viz. quod intersitis cum praelatis magnatibus proceribus super dictis negotiis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri c. which Writs of Summons to the Bishops and the Temporal Peers are the same verbatim but that the Bishops are required to attend the service sub fide dilectione the Temporal Peers sub fide ligeantia quibus nobis tenemini Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that the Bishops of this Church were reputed Barons a Baron and a Barony being conjugata and being Barons have as good a Claim to the right of Peerage as any of the Temporal Lords who hold as well their Peerage as their place in Parliament by no other Tenure for that a Baron of Realm and a Peer of the Realm are but terms synonymous and that the Bishops of the the Church of England are both Peers and Barons hath been proved before and may be further evidenced from that which they affirmed to the Temporal Lords convened in Parliament at Northampton under Henry the 2d for the determining of the differences betwixt the King and Thomas Becket Arch bishop of Canterbury which the Temporal Lords would fain have thrust upon the Bishops as more competent Judges to which the Bishops thus replied viz. non sedemus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Pares hic sumus We sit not here say they as Bishops only Seldens Titles of Honour pag. â—18 but as Barons also we are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Their sitting in the Parliament was in a right of their Baronies And in the right of their Baronage they were also Peers and Peers to all intents and purposes as well as any others whether Earls or Barons who had Vote in Parliament This appears further by the words of Arch-bishop Stratford who being suspended from his place in Parliament by King Edward the 3d came boldly to the Doors of the House and turning towards those that attended there thus maintained his Claim Amice Rex me ad hoe Parliamentum scripto sua vocavit Antiq. Brittan ego tanquam major Par regni post Regem primam vocem habere debens in Parliamento Jura Ecclesiae meae Cantuariensis vendico ideo Ingressum in Parliamentum peto Which
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
doctrins An Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same ibid. 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale Page 627 CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled Page 628 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James Page 629 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition ibid. 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it Page 630 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession ibid. 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their Predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament Anno 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons of it Page 631 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-Calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland ibid. 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon Calvanists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud Page 632 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that King was more incensed heainst the party of Arminius than against their perswasions ibid. 10. The Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges Page 633 11. The publishing of Mountagues Answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his Appeal Licensed by the Kings appointment Page 634 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England ibid. A Postscript to the Reader concerning some particulars in a Scurrilous Pamphlet Entituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. Page 635 The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion c. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Obedience laid down by Calvin and of the Popular Officers supposed by him whereby he overthroweth that Doctrine 1. THe purpose and design of the work in hand Page 645 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin Page 646 3. And that not only to the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants Page 647 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it Page 649 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some particular Officers ordained of purpose to regulate the power of Kings Page 650 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine as to the point of Obedience Page 651 7. Several Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him Page 653 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and the Scholars ibid. 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience Page 654 10. The method and distribution of the following work Page 655 CHAP. II. Of the Authority of Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The King of Sparta absolute Monarch at the first Page 656 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government Page 657 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings ibid. 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate Page 658 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori Page 659 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages Page 660 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government Page 661 8. By what degrees the Ephori incroached on the Spartan Kings Page 662 9. The insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny Page 663 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them Page 664 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand Page 665 CHAP. III. Of the Incroachments of the Tribunes on the State of Rome and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Tribunes of the People why first Instituted in the State of Rome Page 666 2. And with what difficulty and conditions Page 667 3. The Tribunes fortifie themselves with large immunities before they went about to change the Government Page 668 4. The Tribunes no sooner in their Office but they set themselves against the Nobility and the Senate contrary to the Articles of their Institution Page 669 5. The many and dangerous Seditions occasioned by the Tribunes in the City of Rome Page 670 6. The Tribunes and the People do agree together to change the Government of the State Page 671 7. By what degrees the People came to be possessed of all the Offices in the State both of power and dignity Page 672 8. The Plots and Practices of the Gracchi to put the power of the Judicature and Supream Majesty of the Senate into the hands of the People ibid. 9. The Tribunes take upon them to commit the Consuls and bring all the Officers of the State under their command Page 673 10. The Office and Authority of the Tribunes reduced unto its antient bounds by Corn. Sylla and at last utterly destroyed Page 674 11. An Application of the former passage to the point in hand Page 675 CHAP. IV. Of what Authority the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of the danger and unfitness of the instances produced by Calvin 1. Athens first governed by Kings and afterwards by one Sovereign Prince under other titles Page 676 2. The Annual Magistrates of Athens what they were and of what Authority Page 677 3. By whom and what degrees the State of Athens was reduced to a Democratie Page 678 4. Of the Authority of the Senate and the famous Court of the Areopagites Page 679 5. What the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of what Authority Page 680 6. The Demarchi never were of power to oppose the Senate nor were ordained to that end ibid. 7. Calvins ill
every Kingdom when they are solemnly assebled whom he condemns as guilty of perfidious dissimulation and the betrayers of the Subject Liberties whereof they are the proper and appointed Guardians if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insuit on the common people This is the gap through which rebellions and seditions have found to plausible a passage in the Christian World to be dethroning of some Kings and Princes the death of others For through this gap broke in those dangerous and seditious Doctrines that the inferiour Magistrates are ordained by God and not appointed by the King or the Supream Powers that being so ordained by God that are by him inabled to compel the King to rule according unto justice and the Laws established that if the King be refractory and unreclaimable they are to call him to account and to provide for the safety of the Common-wealth by all ways and means which may conduce unto thepreservation of it and finally which is the darling Doctrine of these later times that there is a mixture in all Governments and that the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever we do call their meeting are not subordinate to the King but co-ordinate with him and have not only a supplemental power to supply what is defective in him but a coercive also to restrain his Actions and a Corrective too to reform his Errors But this I give you now in the generals only hereafter you shall see it more particularly and every Author cited in his own words for the proof hereof Many of which as they did live in Calvin's time and by their writings gave great scandal to all Sovereign Princes but more as to the progress of the Reformation so could not Calvin choose but be made acquainted with the effects and consequences of his dangerous principles Which since he never did retract upon the sight of those seditious Pamphlets and worse than those those bloody tumults and rebellions which ensued upon it but let it stand unaltered to his dying day is a clear argument to me that this passage fell not from his Pen by chance but was laid of purpose as a Stumbling-block in the Subjects way to make him fall in the performance of his Christian duty both to God and man For though the Book of Institutions had been often printed in his life time and received many alterations and additions as being enlarged from a small Octavo of not above 29 sheets to a large Folio of 160 yet this particular passage still remained unchanged and hath continued as it is from the first Edition of it which was in the year 1536 not long after his first coming to Geneva But to proceed in our design What fruits these dangerous Doctrines have produced amongst us we have seen too plainly and we may see as plainly if we be not blind through what gap these Doctrines entred on what foundation they were built and unto whose Authority we stand indebted for all those miseries and calamities which are fallen upon us Yet to say truth the man desired to be concealed and not reputed for the Author of such strange conclusions which have resulted from his principles and therefore lays it down with great Art and caution Si qui and Fortè and ut nunc res habent that is to say Perhaps and as the World now goes and if there be such Officers as have been formerly as the three disguises which he hath masked himself and the point withal that he might pass away unseen And if there be such Officers as perhaps there are or that the world goes here as it did at Sparta or in the States of Rome and Athens as perhaps it doth or that the three Estate of each several Kingdom have the same authority in them as the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes had as perhaps they have the Subject is no doubt in a good condition as good a man as the best Monarch of them all But if the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes were not appointed at the first for the restraint and regulating of the Supream Powers as indeed they were not and if the three Estates in each several Kingdom have not that authority which the Ephori and the Tribunes did in fine usurp and the Demarchi are supposed to have as indeed they have not perhaps and peradventure will not serve the turn The Subject stands upon no better grounds than before he did Therefore to take away this stumbling-block and remove this rub I shall propose and prove these three points ensuing 1. That the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not instituted at the first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author 2. If they were instituted for those ends yet the illation thereupon would be weak and childish as it relates of Kings and Kingdoms And 3. That the three Estates in each several Kingdom without all peradventures have no such authority as the Author dreams of and therefore of no power to controul their King Which If I clearly prove as I hope I shall I doubt not but to leave the cause in a better condition than I found it And in the proof of these the first point especially if it be thought that I insist longer than I needed on the condition of the Spartan Ephori the Roman Tribunes and the Demarchi of Athens and spend more cost upon it than the thing is worth I must intreat the Reader to excuse me in it I must first lay down my grounds and make sure work there before I go about my building And being my design relates particularly to the information and instruction of the English Subject I could not make my way unto it but by a discovery of the means and Artifices by which some petit popular Officers attained unto so great a mastery in the game of Government as to give the Check unto their Kings Which being premised once for all I now proceed unto the proof of the points proposed and having proved these points I shall make an end Haec tria cum docuero perorabo in the Orators Language CHAP. II. Of the Authority of the Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Kings of Sparta absolute Monarchs at the first 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government 8. By what degrees the Ephori encroached on the Spartan Kings 9. The
insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand I Know it is conceived by some that the Kings of Sparta were but titular that they were little more than Subjects at best of no more power and influence in the publick Government Unlawfulness of resistance p 90. than the Duke of Venice at this day in that Republick And to say truth they were but little better in the latter times though not altogether so restrained after Lycurgus first and the Ephori afterwards had by their power and practices intrenched upon them and pared away so many of the fairest Jewels in the Regal Diadem But ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning the Spartan Kings being at first as absolute Monarchs as any other of those times Tacit. Annal. ubi addictius regnabantur when men were most devoted to the will of Princes For if we look into the ancient stories of the States of Greece it will there be found that at the return of the Heraclidae into Peloponnesus under the conduct of Temenus Ctesiphon and Aristodemus the sons of Aristomachus of the race of Hercules Temenus possessed himself of Argos Ctesiphon of Messene and Aristodemus conquered the City and Dominion of Sparta which dying very shortly after he left unto his two sons Eurysthenes and Procles Pausanias in Lacon l. 3. with the authority and name of Kings So that acquiring the Estate by Conquest and claiming by no other Title than by that of Arms there is no question to be made but that they governed in the way of absolute Monarchs it being not the guise of such as come in by Conquest to covenant and capitulate with their Subjects but to impose their will for a Law upon them In the first times and in Dominion so acquired Justin hist l. 1. Arbitria Principum pro legibus erant as we read in Justin 'T is true the Royal Family was divided from the very first into two Regal Stems or Branches both honoured with the name of Kings both ruling the Estate in common by their mutual Councils of which the eldest House was that of Agidae so called from Agis son and Successor unto Eurysthenes the second that of the Eurypontidae denominated from Eurypon Pausanius l. 3. the third from Procles It was appointed so to be by Aristodemus confirmed by the Oracle of Apollo and so continued till the subjugating of all Greece to Macedon But this concludes no more against absolute Monarchie than if it should be said on the like occasion that the Roman Emperors were no Monarchs or that State to Monarchy because Carus and Numerianus Diocletian and Maximianus Constantius and Maximinus ruled the same together as after Valentinian and his Brother Valens and the two sons of Valentinian and Theodosius did by their Example And so it seems it was conceived by Cleomenes who having rooted out the Ephori and being grown almost as absolute in the State of Sparta as any of his Predecessors caused his Brother Euclidas upon the expiration of the Eurypontidae to be made King with him â—â—â—tarch in Agis Cleemeâ— which certainly he would not have done had he believed that the assuming of a partner would have made him less For that the Spartan Kings were as absolute Monarchs as any others of those times when there was almost no Form of Government in the World but that doth appear by Plutarch where speaking of the condition of that Government in the time of Eurypon whom he calls Eurytion he saith that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficiently Montarchical if it were not more Plutarch in Lycurgo And hereto Aristotle doth agree who stiles the Government of Sparta under Charilaus before whose times by reason of the negligence and connivence of some former Kings the People were become too head-strong to be kept in order Aristot Polit. lib. 5. cap. 12. by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tyranny or absolute command of Charilaus in the State of Sparta But whatsoever it was in the first foundation it held not very long in so good condition For Eurypon the Nephew of Procles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Lycurg affecting to be plausible and gracious with the common people improvidently let loose the reins of Government and was the first that laid aside that sole and absolute power of a King whereupon followed great disorder and distraction which continued long For the People finding themselves at liberty became very bold and disobedient some of the Kings which did succeed being hated to the very death because they did indeavour the recovery of their old authority others being forced to dissemble and wink at any thing either in hope thereby to gain the love of the People or because indeed they were not strong enough to rule them And this did so increase the stomach of the dissolute and rebellious multitude that Eunomus the Father of Lycurgus being the fifth King from Procles and the third from Eurypon was slain amongst them in a tumult As such a dear and costly rate did Eurypon procure the favour and good will of the rascal rabble by which he purchased nothing but the loss of Royalty besides the empty honour of having the second house of the Royal Family to be called by his name the Eurypontidae Things growing thus from bad to worse and both the Kings and People waxing weary of that disorder and confusion which did reign amongst them both parties cast their eyes upon Lycurgus of whose integrity and wisdom they had conceived a great opinion For the People finding that their Kings had nothing but the name and title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nothing else whereby they differed from the rest sent many a several message to him to require his counsel And on the other side the Kings were as desirous that he should return being then gone abroad to travel in hope that the authority of his presence would bridle and restrain the People from their insolency and disobedience towards them But herein they were both deceived Id. ibid. For Lycurgus seeing how things stood resolved to apply himself to neither party but presently began to project and cast how he might change and alter the whole frame of Government which to effect he armed himself and his Associates and possessed the market-place and so proceeded to the alteration which he meant to make Id ibid. et in Agis Cleomen Charilaus who was then King being forced to flie for sanctuary to the Temple of Juno But Plato saith there was another motive which induced him to attempt this change which was the ill success the other Kings his kindred of the house of Hercules had found at Argos and Messene where by degrees degenerating from a
people or actually did make head against them in behalf of the people if at any time they were oppressed and injured by it cannot be found I dare with confidence affirm in any Author of good credit either Greek or Latine 'T is true there were some People-pleasers in the State of Athens whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who by applying themselves to the peoples humour and seeming zealously assected to their power and profit could lead them whither they would and to what they lifted and sometimes did oppose themselves for the people sake not only against the Senate but all other Magistrates Of these it is that Arstotle doth make frequent mention in his books of Politicks and seems to prophecy that if not looked into in time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would change the State into a Tyranny But these were neither of Officers of State nor Justice Aristot Politic l. 5 c. ◠nor indeed any Officers at all though many times they did ill Offices to the Commonwealth the better to advance the hopes of the popular faction and by it themselves And it is true which Aristotle tells us in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the people had not only power to elect their Magistrates Id. ibid. l. 2. c. 12. but to call them also to accompt in case of mal-administration and had their proper Officers appointed to that end and purpose But then it is true withal but amongst them we meet not these Demarchi of whom Calvin dreams or any others which stood up in behalf of the common people but only in behalf of the Common-wealth Of this sort were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superadded to the nine Archontes and of authority to call them to an after-reckoning if they found them guilty of extortion Jul. Pollux l. 8. c. 9. sect 16. Id. ibid. sect 13. and of this sect were also those whom they called Logistae some of the which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith mine Author were purposely appointed to observe and enquire into the Acts of the Senate and to proceed against them when their time was out according as they saw occasion which kind of Overseers had an eye also on the Areopagites And this is that which is observed by Aeschines the famous Orator where speaking of the Fundamental constitutions of the Common-wealth he tells us that it was ordained by the Legislators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschin in Orat Contra Demosth Ctesiphon that even the Senate of five hundred should give up an account of their ministration and that the holy Council of the Areopagites should be obnoxious to the censure of the Logistrae for by that very name he calls them Of any account they were to give to these Demarchi or any thing they did de facto or might do de jure with reference to the case and benefit of the common people nothing but silence to be found in all Antiquity And to say truth it was not necessary that any popular Magistrates should be made of purpose to save the people from the pride and Tyranny of the higher Courts which were accountable to the people upon all occasions and were to be accountable to them according to the fundamental institution of the Common-wealth The State of Athens being one of the absolutest Democraties which was ever exant and so accounted of by all who write of Politicks had little need or use of such popular Magistrates which Calvin fancieth in that place which may be serviceable to the people in an Aistocratie but in a popular estate of no use at all Which makes we wonder by the way why Plato should affirm against right and reason that the State of Athens in his time and the times before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an Aristocratie Plato in Meneximo when by the current of all Writers and the course of story it appears most evidently that it was not only a Democratie but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Cimone the purest and most unmixt Democratie that was ever read of Thus have we proved the first of the three points propounded in the beginning of this work viz. that the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not ordained at first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author but more particularly that neither the Ephori of Sparta were first instituted to oppose the Kings nor the Tribunes first ordained to oppose the Consuls nor the Demarchi of Authority to oppose the Senate And we have proved which is directly contrary unto Calvins aim that the Ephori were at first ordained to ease the Kings and to be aiding to them against the Senate who began sensibly to encroach on the Regal power that the Tribunes were first instituted to no other end but to preserve the people from unjust oppression and that their opposition to the Consuls was accounted always to be against the rules of their Institution and a breach of Articles And as for these Demarchi whom we spake of last that neither by their Institution nor by Usurpation they did oppose against the Senate in behalf of the people but executed their commands upon the people as their duty bound them So that the great imagination which the Author had of shewing to the World a view of such popular Magistrates as might encourage men of place and eminence to think themselves ordained after these Examples to moderate the licentiousness of Kings and Princes is fallen directly to the ground without more ado as being built upon a weak nay a false foundation not able to support the building And more than so in case the instances proposed had been rightly chosen and that the Ephori in Sparta had been first ordained to oppose the Kings the Tribunes to oppose the Consuls and the Demarchi to keep under the Athenian State yet these would prove but sorry instances of such popular Officers as were ordained ad moderandum Regum libidinem to moderate the licentiousness of Kings and Sovereign Princes for proof of which they were produced The Ephori were not instituted in the State of Sparta till the Kings were brought under the command of the Senate and the State become an Aristocratie in which the Kings had very little left them of the Royal dignity but the empty name and were in power no other than the Dukes of Venice save that they were to have the command of the Armies which those Dukes have not And for the Tribunes 't is well known to every one who hath perused the Roman story that there were no such creatures to be found in Rome till the Romans had expulsed their Kings and were under their command of Consuls Monarchy being changed to an Optimatie and the peoplebound by solemn Oaths never to admit of a King amongst them The like may be affirmed also of the Demarchi of Athens supposing that they were of as great Authority as either the Ephori or the Tribunes
that they were instituted in a time when the affairs of State were managed by nine Annual Magistrates all of them chosen by the people and accomptable to them Livie hist lib. 2. In all these cases cum non in regno populus esset sed in libertate when the people had sued out their Wardship and thought themselves to be at liberty freed from those bonds which Nature and Allegiance formerly had laid upon them they did no more than what a wise and understanding people had good cause to do in taking the best course they could for their future safety And in my mind the people pleade most unanswerably in their own behalf when they alledged se foris pro imperio libertate dimicantes Id. ibid. domi à civibus captos oppressos that fighting valiantly abroad both for their own liberty and their Countreys honour against their Kings they were oppressed and wronged at home by their fellow-Citizens that their condition as things stood was better in times of War than in times of peace their liberty never more assured than when they were amongst their Enemies and therefore being no otherwise bound to submit themselves to that change of Government than as it had been introduced by their own consent they had all the reason in the World to get as good terms as they could and be no losers by the bargain Which though it were the case and plea particularly of the people of Rome might be used also very fitly by the Spartans and Athenians on the self-same reasons But this can no way be pretended or alledged by those who live in an established and successional Monarchy where there is one only to command in chief and nothing left to the Subject praeter obsequii gloriam Tacit. Annal. but the glory of obedience only and the necessity of submiting with a Loyal heart to those commands and impositions which may be laid upon them with an unjust hand So that admitting it for true as indeed it is not the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes were ordained for the ends supposed yet it can follow by no rules of Law or Logick that because such popular Officers have been sometimes instituted to keep the scale upright and the balance even betwixt the Nobles and the People in an Aristocratie therefore the like are to be fancied in a setled Monarchy for moderating the licentiousness that is to say for that no doubt must be his meaning for regulating the Authority of the Sovereign Prince Thus have we seen a manifest discovery of Calvins purpose for setting up some popular Officers in every Kingdom to regulate the Authority and restrain the power of Sovereign Princes and we may see a secret and more subtle danger included in that short Parenthesis than what is obvious at first sight to the unwary Reader For by the instances proposed and presented to us it seems to be his meaning that those popular Officers should not have powr only to restrain their Kings when they trangress the bounds of Law or Equity and either Tyranically oppress the Subject or wilfully dilapidate the Patrimony of the Common-wealth but that they should set themselves against them and controul their doings in the same way and after the same manner as the Ephori did the Kings of Sparta or the Tribunes did the Roman Consuls Now we have shewn before out of several Authors Vide Chap. 1. that the Ephori did not only take upon them to appoint such Privy Counsellors about their Kings as to them seemed best to limit and prescribe them in the choice of their Wives to send them out unto the Wars and recall them home as if they had been hirelings only and of no more reckoning to put them upon Fine and Ransom if they did any thing which was not pleasing to these humorous Gentlemen to have them at command both to come and go at often as they whistled for them or held up a Finger and finally to look for lowly reverence from them whensoever they vouchsafed to summon them to attend their pleasures but also to imprison next to banish and in fine to murder them And we have shewed you of the Tribunes that after they had fortified themselves with large priviledges and grew predominant in the affections of the common people Vide Chap. 2. they did not only quarrel and oppose the Consuls under pretence of setting forth new Laws for the peoples benefit nor were content to ut the people into the possession of all the Offices and honours of the Common-wealth which formerly belonged to the Nobles only whether the Consuls would or not but sometimes clap'd them up in Prison and sometimes forced them to fly the Senate-house for their lives and safety and sometimes threw them down headlong out of their Chairs of State to the great danger of their lives and disgrace of their persons Princes should be in worse condition than their meanest Subjects if they were under the command of such powerful masters who being exalted from mean fortunes and ignoble Families little acquainted with good manners and less with any thing which is brave and Rohal would think themselves unworthy of so great an Office should they not Lord it to the purpose and exercise all kind of Tyranny on their captived Kings which insolence and malice could suggest unto them If Jack be once in Office he must be a Gentleman and gallop to the Devil if he get on Horseback Juvenal Sat. Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum as the Poet hath it If once the Bramble come to have Dominion over the trees of the forrest he will not only rob the Olive of his fatness the Vine of his rich Wines and the Fig-tree of his sweetness but also will devour the Cedars even the Cedars of Lebanon Judg. c. 9. No King or other Supream Magistrate shall dare to stand before them or if he do a fire shall come out of the Bramble and consume him utterly Such popular Officers as those of whom Calvin speaks are of such credit and Authority with the common people whose Officers they are in name but in fact their Masters that if they do but blow the Trumpet and say We have no part in David nor no inheritance at all in the son of Jesse 2 Sam. 20. every man will unto his Tents and forsake the King or Supream Magistrate to follow after them though men of Belial And this I do believe the rather to be Calvins meaning because G. Buchannan who built on his foundation and pursued his Principles doth not only exceedingly commend the act of Theopompus in setting up the Ephori in the State of Sparta and the Answer which he made his Wife when she murmured at it but thinks it very meet and reasonable that a free people as all Subjects are in his opinion should be armed with the like Authority in reprimenda tyrannidis acerbitate De jure regni
together can conclude on any thing unto the prejudice of the third Bodinus that renowned States-man doth resolve it Negatively and states it thus nihil à duobus ordinibus discerni posse quo uni ex tribus incommodum inferatur Bodin de Rep. l. 3. c. 7. si res ad singulos ordines seorsum pertinet that nothing can be done by two of the Estates to the disprofit of the third in case the point proposed be such as concerns them severally The point was brought into debate upon this occasion Henry the 3d. of France had summoned an Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ondinum to be held at Bloys Anno 1577. the Form and Order of the which we have at large by Thuanus Lib. 63. But finding that he could not bring his ends about so easily with that numerous body as if they were contracted to a narrower compass he caused it to be mov'd unto them that they should make choice of 36 twelve of each Estate Tonanus in hist temp l. 63. quox Rex cum de postulatis decerneret in consilium adhibere dignaretur whom the King would deign call to Council for the dispatch of such Affairs and motions as had been either moved or proposed unto him Which being very readily assented to by the Clergy and Nobility who hoped thereby to find some favour in the Court and by degrees to be admitted to the Privy Council was very earnestly opposed by Bodinus being then Delegate or Commissioner for the Province of Veromandois who saw full well that if businesses were so carried the Commons which made the third Estate would find but little hopes to have their grievances redressed â—â—iin de Rep. â— 1. c. 7. their petitions answered And therefore laboured the rest of the Commissioners not to yield unto it as being utterly destructive of the Rights and Liberties of the common people which having done he was by them intrusted to debate the business before the other two Estates and did it to so good effect that at the last he took them off from their resolution and obtained the cause What Arguments he used in particular neither himself nor Thuanus telleth us But sure I am that he insisted both on the ancient customs of the Realm of France as also of the Realm of Spain and England and the Roman Empire in each of which it was received for a ruled case nihil à duobus ordinibus statui posse quo uni ex tribus prejudicium crearetur that nothing could be done by any of the two Estates unto the prejudice of the third And if it were a ruled case then in the Parliament of England there is no reason why it should be otherwise in the present times the equity and justice of it being still the same and the same reasons for it now as forcible as they could be then Had it been otherwise resolved of in the former Ages wherein the Clergy were so prevalent in all publick Councils how easie a matter had it been for them either by joyning with all the Nobility to exclude the Commons or by joyning with the Commonalty to exclude the Nobles Or having too much conscience to adventure to so great a change an alteration so incompatible and inconsistent with the Constitution of a Parliament how easily might they have suppressed the potency and impair the Priviledges of either of the other two by working on the humours or affections of the one to keep down the other But these were Arts not known in the former days nor had been thought of in these last but by men of Ruine who were resolved to change the Government as the event doth shew too clearly both of Church and State Nor doth it help the matter in the least degree to say that the exclusion of the Bishops from the House of Peers was not done meerly by the practice of the two other Estates but by the assent of the King of whom the Laws say he can do no wrong and by an Act of Parliament whereof our Laws yet say quae nul doit imaginer chose dishonourable that no man is to think dishonourably Plowden in Commentar For we know well in what condition the King was when he passed that Act to what extremities he was reduced on what terms he stood how he was forced to flye from his City of London to part with his dear Wife and Children and in a word so overpowred by the prevailing party in the two Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him as his case then was to deny them any thing And for the Act of Parliament so unduly gained besides that the Bill had been rejected when it was first brought unto the Lords and that the greater part of the Lords were frighted out of the House when contrary unto the course of Parliament it was brought again it is a point resolved both in Law and Reason that the Parliament can do nothing to the destruction of it self and that such Acts as are extorted from the King are not good and valid whereof we have a fair Example in the book of Statutes 15 Ed. 3. For whereasz the King had granted certain Articles pretended to be granted in the Form of a statute expresly contrary to the Laws of the Realm and his own Prerogative and Rights Royal mark it for this is just the case which he had yielded to eschew the dangers which by denying of the same were like to follow in the same Parliament it was repealed in these following words It seemed good to the said Earls Barons and other wise men that since the Statute did not proceed of our Free will the same be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. Or if it should not be repealed in a formal manner yet is this Act however gotten void in effect already by a former Statute in which it was enacted in full Parliament and at the self-same place where this Act was gained that the Great Charter by which and many other Titles the Bishops held their place in Parliament should be kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. it shall be holden for none CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or control the actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the Kings make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or