not many Noble are called which was indeed a good way to suppress the danger of malignity that looks not so much after poor estates and a good way to increase their number and propagate their design with more safety And as by this means the Church began to take root and to grow stronger and the wealthier nobler and wiser men began to be in love with the Christian Religion So then they loved nothing more than to build Churches answerable for their beauty How zealously the fi st Christians were affected how bountifully they contributed towards the building of their Churches to the dignity of their Religion and for their greatness to the number of their Professors And the devotion of these Christians was so large and did so liberally contribute towards the erecting of their Churches as the Israelites in the dayes of Bezaliel did chearfully present their Gifts and Free-will-offerings towards the setting up of the Tabernacle no man was backward and no man a niggard in this work which they conceived to be so profitable and so necessary for them to do and that in two special respects 1. The good that is effected 2. The evils that are prevented by the publick meeting of the people in these Churches The double benefit that we reap by our coming to the Publick meeting in the Church 1. The meeting of the Congregation publickly in a lawful place and a consecrated Church assures them they offend not the Laws either of God or man and so secures them from all blame and prevents the occasion to traduce and to suspect the lawfulnesse of the holy Duties that we perform when as Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth and the performance of just things and holy actions need not run and hide themselves in private hidden 1. Benefit and unlawful places but may shew themselves and appear so publickly as they might not be subject to any the least unjust imputation 2. Benefit 2. The meeting in a publick consecrated Church and not in a private Conventicle escapes those dangerous plots and machinations that are very often invented and contrived in those Conventicles that are vailed for that purpose under the mantle and pretence of Religion And it freeth the comers unto the Church from those seditious Doctrines and damnable Divinity which the Sectaries and Hereticks do scatter and broach in those unlawful Conventicles which are the fittest places for them to effect their wicked purpose and must needs be sinful and offend both God and man because they are contrary to the Laws both of God and man Whenas the coming unto the Church quits my conscience from all fear of offending because that herein I do obey and do agreeable to the Laws both of God and man And who then that hath any dram of wit would not avoid private and forbidden meetings and go to serve God unto the publick Church which is the House of God erected and dedicated for his Service CHAP. X. The Answer to the Two Objections that the Fanatick-Sectaries do make 1. Against the Necessity And 2ly against the Sanctity or Holiness of our Material Churches which in derision and contemptuously they call Steeple-houses ANd yet for all this and all that we can say for the Church of God I find Four sorts of Objections 4 Sorts of Objections against our Material Churches that are made by our Fanaticks and Skenimastices against our Material Churches As 1. Against the Necessity 2. Against the Sanctity 3. Against the Beauty Glory 4. Against the impurity Impiety of them 1. They do object 1. Objection against the necessity that we have no need of Churches there is no Necessity of any Material House or Church of God for his servants to meet in to serve God because the woman of Samaria discoursing with Christ about the place where God would be worshipped Whether in that Mountain where the Fathers worshipped or in Hierusalem which as the Jews said was the place where men ought to worship Our Saviour tells her plainly They worshipped they knew not what for the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Hierusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because God is a Spirit John 4.20 23. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth and such worshippers the Father seeks and such he loves And therefore so we have clean hearts and pure consciences and worship God with our souls and spirits faithfully to pray unto him and to praise his Name it is no matter for the place where we do it in a Church or in a Barn because God looks rather to the inward heart than to the outward place where we stand To this I answer Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum Sol. and our Saviours words gives them no colour to extort such consequences and to draw such conclusions from them for the words are plain enough that although formerly before Moses his time Jacob had a Well near Sichar and he with the other Fathers worshipped God in that Mountain and afterwards God required them to worship him in the place that he should chuse to put his Name there which after the time of David and the building of his Temple by Solomon was to be Hierusalem and no where else to perform the commanded Publick Service of God under the punishment of cutting off that soul from his people that should do otherwise Yet the hour cometh and now is that is coming or beginning to come that the partition-Wall betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles shall be broken down and the bounds and borders of Gods Church and the true worshippers of God shall be inlarged and they may lawfully without offence worship God not only in Jury where God was only formerly known aright but also in all the Nations and in any Kingdom of the World so they worship him in spirit and in truth as they ought to do But here is not one syllable intimating that they should not or needed not to meet to serve God in the Publick Church but that whensoever and wheresoever in any Kingdom of the Earth they should gather themselves together in the Publick Church to worship God they should worship him in spirit and in truth otherwise their worship is to no purpose and will avail them nothing though they should do it publickly in the Church This is the true meaning of our Saviours words Obj. 2 2. We have another sort of Sectaries that yield it requisite and convenient for the Saints and servants of God to meet and gather themselves together for the Service of God and do acknowledg the great benefits that may accrew and be obtained in a Congregation rather than by any single person but they think there is no necessity of their meeting in a Material Church or a Steeple-house as they call it rather than in a house or a chamber or a
for them that serve at mine Altar and yet notwithstanding all this that my Servants and Embassadors that are legati à latere should be in a poorer and a sadder condition than the servants of many mean Gentlemen and we shall answer It is true O Lord that thou art the Best Master in the World thy service is the most Honourable and the allowance that thou hast appointed for them is very ample and large and a most pentiful Royal Reward and we know that they which will faithfully serve thee shall want no manner of thing that is good Psal 34.10 But the sons of Belial the off-spring of Baalam that loved the wages of unrighteousnesse have violated the covenant of Levi and rose up against him and being too strong for him have taken away the Tythes and Oblations the lands and the houses of thee our God into their possession and left the Church of Christ bare and naked to cry out Pâ—llis ossa sum miser and that is the reason why we do not and cannot perform and do the service that thou requirest and we desire to do And then let the sacrilegious persons and the violaters of holy things The Souldiers that take away the goods and lands of the Church see what the Prophet saith of Levi and of his enemies for of Levi he saith Blesse O Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands And of his enemies he saith Smite thorough the loynes of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him Deut. 33.11 smite them thorough and thorow that they rise not again And I do wonder that this prayer of Moses doth not make the hearts of all Church-robbers to shake and tremble when they do consider it But the enemies of God's Church that care not how much they pill and pluck from the Patrimony thereof and would have the Ministers and Bishops that are like fixed Stars in God's right hand to be like the Planets in the Zodiack that have no setled place but are carried about by an erratical and uncertain motion Yet cannot they endure to be termed sacrilegious but they cry out and say No and God forbid that they should take away any thing from the Church that belongs unto the Church So like the Jews that cried Templum Domini Templum Domini when they prophaned the same most of all their words are smoother than oil when in very deed they are very swords and will not be kept back from piercing us and Christ himself through our sides Therefore I will endeavour to shew unto them the truth The equity of the large and liberal maintenance of the Clergy and the equity of that large and liberal maintenance that God alloweth and is therefore due and not to be denied to the Bishops and the Ministers of the Gospel and this truth the Holy Scripture confirmeth many wayes As 1. That they should have maintenance it is manifest and few but mad men will deny it because the labourer is worthy of his hire Luke 10.7 and the Apostle demandeth Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or Who feedeth a flock and doth not taste of the milk thereof 1 Cor. 5.7 And no man can deny but the Bishops and Ministers of God's Word are the Husbandmen and the Dressers of God's Vineyard and the Shepherds of his Flock And the same Apostle saith That they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Altar Even so hath the Lord ordained 1 Cor. 9.13.14 that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And the other reasons that this our Apostle produceth are 1. A minori the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corn is not to be muzled 2. A majori the Preachers of God's Word do minister unto the people spiritual graces therefore the people should not muzzle the mouths of their Preachers and keep back their carnal things from them They are so plain and so pregnant to prove that Ministers should have maintenance that our very adversaries cannot contradict it Obj. Yet for all this some fanatick spirits void of all reason do object That as Nehemiah because he feared God spared the people from those exactions of money and corn and wine which other Governours had taken from them Nehem. 5.15 16. v. 10 12. and prayed the Nobility that they should exact no such things from their brethren and called the Priests also and took an oath of them that they should do accordingly So the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should much rather spare their people and not exact such parts and portions from them as they do Sol. To this I answer That Nehemiah was a potent and a powerful man that was able to maintain at his Table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and Rulers Verse 17. besides those that came unto him from among the Heathen round about him and the people newly returned from their Captivity were very poor and miserable Verse 3 4 5. and the exactions that were taken from them were too heavy and very unjust therefore this godly Governour took pity upon them and in piety forgave it them But this particular example is no Precept for us to obey or Rule to follow it especially considering the disparity betwixt us and Nehemiah and betwixt our people now and the Jews at that time and the great difference that is betwixt their taking of most unjust taxations and our requiring the just reward and wages of them that are far better able to pay it than we to forbear it for our just and great pains Yet Obj. 2. They do object the example of the Apostles and especially of S. Paul who made the labour of his hands the porter that brought in his living and protested before the Bishops and Clergy Act. â—0 33.34 that he coveted no mans Silver or Gold 2 Cor. 11.9 or Apparel but his hands ministered to his necessities and tells the Corinthians That in all things be kept himself from being burdensome unto them Sol. 1 It is answered 1. That our Ministers cannot possibly do as the Apostles did unless they had the same spirit the same grace and the same extraordinary gifts of inspiration and in the same measure as the Apostles had for they were immediately and extraordinarily inspired with abilities to preach and to answer whatsoever should be demanded of them in illa hora even in an instant and to do miracles when need required But we cannot attain to any learning or knowledge without industry and study and great pains-taking And therefore we cannot be Preachers of Gods Word if we be forced to be Traders in the World to work with our hands and to live by our works Sol. 2 2. S. Paul doth not say That he never took wages of any Church but that he coveted no mans Silver and forbore to
would collect the testimonies of our best Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King James of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the Governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God for if it be not lawful for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much lesse lawful is it think you either for all the people or for some of them to usurp the sword whereof they have no right against the publique Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath been the Doctrine of all the Learned The obedient example of the Martyrs in the time of Queen Mary of all the Saints of God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ and therefore not onely they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that of late lived under Queen Mary and were compelled to undergoe most exquisite torments without number and beyond measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant-Queen that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent blood but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her authority they yielded their estates and goods to be spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloody Persecutors whom they knew to have their authority from that bloody yet their lawful Queen And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes open and will not with Balaam most wilfully deceive themselves Numb 24.15 Gen. 19.11 or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noon-day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men Magistrates Peers Parliaments Popes The conclusion of the whole or whatsoever you please to call them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences and so farre to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawful King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our souls or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirm it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be believed by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudencie of the Anti-Cavalier How the Rebels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Modern Writers that do with invincible Arguments confirm this truth But the Anti Cavalier would perswade the world Anti-Cavalier p. 17 18 c. that all those learned Fathers and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their own strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and R ssiâ— hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Julians army were Christians or befool themselves with the undue desire of over-valued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to inform them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawful authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth praiseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raign in Heaven but I hope the world will believe that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise arms against their Prince and to spill so much blood of the most faithful subjects But though the authority of the best Authours is of no authority with them that will believe none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homily of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but alwayes they came by the overthrow and to a shameful end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common-wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefs doth most destroy The Homily against rebellion p. 390. 301. or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of that Homily against wilful rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would work upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawful Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plain to pronounce them Traytors that take arms against their Kings as you may see in the Statutes of England 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. And as you know it was one of the greatest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford was beheaded that he had actually leavied warre against the King The Nobles and Gentry Lords and Commons of both Houses of Parliament in all Kingdomes being convicted in their consciences with the
Champions to enlarge his Kingdom would fain have our Souls to remain among Lions and all the means or defence to be taken from us our enemies to be our Judges and our selves to be murdered with our own weapons In the time of Popery there were many Laws de immunitate Clericorum whereby we were so protected that the greatest Prince could not oppress us as you may find in the Reign of King John and almost in all our Histories and when we renounced the Pope God made Kings our nursing Fathers and Queens our nursing Mothers and we putting our selves under their protection have been hitherto most graciously protected but now by this Act we are left naked of all defence and set under the very sword of our Adversaries and as the Psalmist saith They that hated us are made Lords over us to call us to assess us to undo us 3. Debarred of that right that none else are 3. Hereby they are made more slavish than the meanest Subject and deprived of that benefit and priviledge which the poorest Shoomaker Tailer or any other Tradesman or yeoman hath most justly left unto him for to be excluded debarred and altogether made uncapable of any benefit is such an insupportable burden that it is set upon no mans shoulders but upon the Clergy alone as if they alone were either unworthy to receive or unable to do any good 4. Made more contemptible than all others 4. Hereby they are made the unparalleled spectacle of all neglect and scorn to all forraign people for I can hardly believe the like Precedent can be shewed in any Age or any other Nation of the World no not among the very Infidels or Indians for in former times the Bishops and Clergy-men were thought the fittest instruments to be imployed in the best places of greatest truth and highest importance in the Common-Wealth and Kings made them their Embassadours as the Emperour Valentinian did Saint Ambrose And our own Chronicles relate how former times respected the Clergy and how our Kings made them both their Counsellours and their Treasurers Chancellours Keepers of the Great Seal and the like Officers of the chiefest concernment as Ethelbert in the year of Christ 605. Vt refert in tractatu suo de Episcopatu p. 61 62. M. Theyer Sir Henry Spelman p. 118. Idem p. 403. Idem p. 219. saith I Ethelbert King of Kent with the consent of the Reverend Arch Bishop Augustine and of my Princes do give and grant c. And the said Ethelbert with the Queen and his Son Eadbald and the most Reverend Prelate Augustine and with the rest of the Nobility of the Land solemnly kept his Christmass at Canterbury and there assembled a Common Councel tam cleri quà m populi as well of the Clergy as of the People And King Adelstan saith I Adelstan the King do signify unto all the Officers in my Kingdom that by the advice of Wolfelm my Arch-Bishop and of all my Bishops c. In the great Councel of King Ina An. 712. The Edicts were Enacted by the Common Councel and consent omnium Episcoporum Principum Procorum Câ—mitum omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae And in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour How former times respected the Clergy granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum With the Counsel and Decree of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls and other Potentates And so not only the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Councel without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common-Wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall read Mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livy Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latin Histories I dare assure him he shall find greater honour given and far less contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils than we find of this Faction left to the Servants of the Living God who are now dâ—it withall worse than Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of Bricks For these men would rob us of all our means and take away all our Lands and all our Rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Services as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiply our pains How the Clergy are now used and to treble the Sermons and Services that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospel And when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lamp that doth waste and consume it self to nothing while it giveth light to others they only deal with us as Carriers use to do with their pack-horses hang bels at their ears to make a melodious noise but with little provender lay heavy loads upon their backs and when they can bear no more burdens take away their Bells withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their laziness and then at last turn them out to feed upon the Commons and to die in a ditch And thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the Emblems of all misery and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kind of scorn and distresse and how that this being effected is but the Praeludium of a far greater mischief they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will chuse so to be than with such great cost and more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades or the lowest degree of all rusticks When as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law The Clergy alone are deprived of Magna Charta and a property in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them And the Clergy only of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great pains and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competency of means to maintain
in Publick throughout the whole Kingdom and they are not a little punished that neglect it and whatsoever Message Answer Declaration or Proclamation cometh from the King to inform his Subjects of the Truth of things and to undeceive his much seduced people they streightly forbid those to be Printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdom 6. They have publickly voted in their House 6. Wrong and accordingly indeavoured by Messages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to joyn in their assistance with these grand Rebels to rebel against their Soveraign but I perswade my self as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more Religious in themselves more Loyal to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of Rebellious Subjects such an unhappy war abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publickly that 7. Wrong as if they had shaken off all subjection and were become already a State Independent they have Treated by their agents with forraign States and do still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdom and such a Presumption as few men know the secret mischiefs that may lurk therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn Goodwin Burges 8. Wrong Marshal Sedgwick and other emissaries of wickedness to publish such Treasons and Blasphemies and abominable Aphorisms As that the negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the Affirmative vote of the King makes not a Law ergo the Negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and sensless things that are in those Aphorisms and in Prins book of the Soveraign power of Parliament whereby they would deny the Kings power to hinder any Act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those just prerogatives from him that are as Hereditary to him as his Kingdom compell him to assent to their conclusions for which things our Histories tell us that other Parliaments have banished and upon their returns they were hanged both the Spencers the Father and the Son for the like presumption Why the two Spencers died as among other Articles Per asperte vid. Elismere post-nati p. 99. for denying this Prerogative unto their King and affirming that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought for the good of the Kingdom he might be compelled by force to perform it which very thing divesteth the King of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first Kings and the judgment of all ages for we know full well Pag. 48. from the Practise of all former Parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the King in making Laws wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is still in the Kings power to refuse or ratify and I never read that any Parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the King in whom formally the power of making of any Law resideth ut in subjecto to make the Law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the Kings power are but a liveless convention like two Cyphers without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but joyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places which is confirmed by the Viewer of the Observations out of 11. Pag. 19 20 21. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowel inter verbo Praerog Sir Thomas Smyth de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. For if the Kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every Act The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucestershire p. 3. then certainly as another saith all those Bils that heretofore have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal assent have slept and been buried all this while would now rise up as so many Laws and Statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three States in Parliament is such as without any one of them the rest do but lose their labour Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. the Viewer p. 21. so Le Roy est assentus ceo faict un Act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum habetur nisi quod Rex comprobarit Nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-born question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set down that the whole Kingdom might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are Which be the three States of England 1. The King 2. The House of Peers 3. The House of Commons For I am informed by no mean Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowls of Henry the fifth Speed l. 9. c. 19. p. 712. Anno. 1 Ric. 3. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first year of Richard the third where the three States are particularly named and the King is none of them For it is said That at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and Commons of the Land Assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King is the very undoubted King of this Realm Wherein you may plainly see the King that is acknowledged their Soveraign by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Dean is none of the Chapter but is Caput capituli and as in France and Spain so in England I conceive the three Estates to be 1. The Lords Spiritual that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalf of all the Clergy of England that till these Anabaptistical tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporal in the right of their Honor and their Posterity And to make the World believe how justly and sufficiently legal they could do this they made another Ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of Northampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the four hundred
God of their bellies to cause all the other guests to leath their meat that they alone might devour all the dainties did use Narium mucum in catinis emungere so do these men spit all their poyson against the Revenues of the Bishops and that little maintenance that is left unto the Ministers and are as greedy to devour the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouths for so I heard a whelp of that litter making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deans and Chapters and the greatness of their Revenue Doctor Burges and concluding that all they should be degraded their means should be sequestred and distributed all without any diminution of what they now possessed but with the restitution of all Impropriations unto himselfe and the rest of his factious fellow Preachers which speech as it pleased but few in the latter clause so no doubt it had fauters enough in the former part when we see this little remnant of our fore-fathers bounty this testimony of our Princes piety is the onely mote that sticks in their eye the undigested morsell in their stomacks and the onely bait that they gape after for did our King yeild this garment of Christ to be parted among their Souldiers and this revenue of the Church to be disposed of by the Parliament I doubt not but all quarrels about the Church would soon end and all oâ—her strife about Religion would be soon composed What many men would willingly undergo to procure peace But would this end all our civil Wars would the unbishoping of our Prelates bring rest unto our Prince and the taking away of their estates settle the State of the Common-wealth and bring peace and tranquillity unto this Kingdom If so we could be well contented for our own parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say with a syncere heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that I believe many of us could be well contented our fortunes should be confiscated and our lives ended so that could procure the peace of the Church which is infinitely troubled redeeme His Majesties honour which is so deeply wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction The abolishing of Episcopacy would not satisfie the Factious which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacy root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest rank and the bringing of the Clergy to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eate with the dogs of their flock as Job speaketh will not do the deed because as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as virtues so vices have their encrease by use and progression Juven Sat. 2. primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as iron chain to draw on another For as Seneca saith nunquam usque adeò temperatae cupiditates sunt Seneca de Clem lib. 1. ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so far temperated that they end in that which is obtained but the gaining of one thing is a step to seek another And therefore cùm publicum jus omne positum sit in sacris as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things Plato de legibus lib. 12. and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to believe the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall find that Charles the fifth was then troubled with War when the Bishops were turmoyled and tumbled out of their Seas Scoti uno eodémque momento numinis principis jugum excusserunt nec justum magistratum agnoverunt ullum ex quo primùm tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the self-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledg any for their just Magistrate after they had once warred against Religion and religious men Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. â—3 which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus and in Fran e saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum Ecclesiae sustulerunt nec mirum si Regibus obloquantur qui sacerdotes flammâ ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Political Magistrate to have any rule The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto kings when they have shaken off the Ecclesiastical government neither is it any wonder that they should slander rage against and reject their King when they persecute their Bishops with fire and sword And I think the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdom at this time makes this point so clear that I need not add any more proof to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the World see that as soon as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soon the Faction fell upon the King after they had cast off their Bishops the gravest and the greatest of all with Joseph into the dungeon a thing that no story can shew the like president in any age and had voted them all contrary to all right out of their indubitable right to sit in the House of Peers an act indeed so full of incivility as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to pluck the sword out of the Kings hand and endeâ—voured to make their Soveraign in many things more servile then any of his own Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè vanus and to effect this you see how they have torn in peices all his Rights they have trampled his Prerogatives under foot they have as much as they could laid his honour in the dust and they have with violent warr and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their own most gracious Soveraign which cannot chuse but make any Christian heart to bleed to see such unchristian and such horrid unheard of things attempted to be done by any that would take upon him the name of a Christian Therefore to manifest my duty to
parte rex praeesset So Master Harding saith that the office of a King in it self is all one every where not onley among the Christian Princes but also among the Heathen so that a Christian King hath no more to do in deciding Church matters or medling with any point of Religion then a Heathen And so Fekenham and all the brood of Jesuites do with all violence and virulency labour to disprove the Prince's authority and supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes and the points of our Religion and to transfer the same wholly unto the Pope and his Cardinals Neither do I wonder so much that the Pope having so universally gained and so long continued this power and retained this government from the right owners should imploy all his Hierarchy to maintain that usurped authority which he held with so much advantage to his Episcopal See though with no small prejudice to the Church of Christ when the Emperours being busied with other affairs and leaving this care of religion and government of the Church to the Pope the Pope to the Bishops the Bishops to their Suffragans and the Suffragans to the Monkes whose authority being little their knowledg less and their honesty least of all all things were ruled with greater corruption and less truth then they ought to be so long as possibly he should be able to possesse it But at last when the light of the Gospel shined and Christian Princes had the leisure to look and the heart to take hold upon their right the learned men opposing themselves against the Pope's usurped jurisdiction have soundly proved the Soveraign authority of Christian Kings in the government of the Church that not onely in other Kingdoms but also here in England this power was annexed by divers Laws unto the interest of the Crown and the lawful right of the King and I am perswaded saith that Reverend ArchBishop Bancroft had it not been that new adversaries did arise Survey of Discip c. 22. p. 251. and opposed themselves in this matter the Papists before this time had been utterly subdued for the Devil seeing himself so like to lose the field stirred up in the bosom of Reformation a flock of violent and seditious men How the Devil raised instruments to hinder the reformation that pretending a great deal of hate to Popery have notwithstanding joined themselves like Sampson's Foxes with the worst of Papists in the worst and most pernicious Doctrines that ever Papist taught to rob Kings of their sacred and divine right and to deprive the Church of Christ of the truth of all those points that do most specially concern her government and governours and though in the fury of their wilde zeal they do no less maliciously then falsly cast upon the soundest Protestants the aspersion of Popery and Malignancy yet I hope to make it plain unto my reader that themselves are the Papists indeed or worse then Papists both to the Church and State For Opinion 2 2. As the whole Colledge of Cardinals and all the Scholes of the Jesuites do most stâ—fly defend this usurped authority of the Pope which as I said Of the Anabaptists and Puritans may be with the less admiration because of the Princes concession and their own long possesion of it so on the other side there are sprung up of late a certain generation of Vipers the brood of Anabaptists and Brownists that do most violently strive not to detain what they have unjustly obtained but a degree far worse to pull the sword out of their Prince his hand and to place authority on them which have neither right to own it nor discretion to use it and that is Where the Puritans place the authority to maintain religion 1 In the Presbytery either 1. A Consistory of Presbyters 2. A Parliament of Lay men For 1. These new Adversaries of this Truth that would most impudently take away from Christian Princes the supreame and immediate authority under Christ in all Ecclesiastical Callings and Causes will needs place the same in themselves and a Consistorian company of their own Faction a whole Volume would not contain their absurdities falsities and blasphemies that they have uttered about this point I will onely give you a taste of what some of the chief of them have belched forth against the Divine Truth of God's Word and the sacred Majesty of Kings Master Calvin a man otherwise of much worth Calvin in Amos cap. 7. and worthy to be honoured yet in this point transported with his own passion calleth those Blasphemers that did call King Henry the eight the supreme Head of this Church of England and Stapleton saith that he handled the King himself with such villany and with so spiteful words Stapl. cont Horn. l. 1. p. 22. as he never handled the Pope more spitefully and all for this Title of Supremacy in Church causes and in his fifty fourth Epistle to Myconius he termed them prophane spirits and mad men that perswaded the Magistrates of Geneva not to deprive themselves of that authority which God hath given them Viretus is more virulent How Viretus would prove the temporal Pope as he calleth the King worse then the spiritual Pope for he resembleth them not to mad men as Calvin did but to white Devils because they stand in defence of the Kings authority and he saith they are false Christians though they cover themselves with the cloke of the Gospel affirming that the putting of all authority and power into the Civil Magistrates hands and making them masters of the Church is nothing else but the changing of the Popedome from the Spiritual Pope into a Temporal Pope who as it is to be feared will prove worss and more tyrannous then the Spirituall Pope which he laboureth to confirme by these three reasons Reason 1 1. Because the Spiritual Pope had not the Sword in his own hand to punish men with death but was fain to crave the aid of the Secular power which the Temporal Pope needs not do Reason 2 2. Because the old spiritual Popes had some regard in their dealings of Councils Synods and ancient Canons but the new Secular Popes will do what they list without respect of any Ecclesiastical Order be it right or wrong Reason 3 3. Because the Romish Popes were most commonly very learned but it happeneth oftentimes that the Regal Popes have neither learning nor knowledg in divine matters and yet these shall be they that shall command Ministers and and Preachers what they list and to make this assertion good he affirmeth that he saw in some places some Christian Princes under the title of Reformation to have in ten or twenty years usurped more tyranny over the Churches in their Dominions then ever the Pope and his adherents did in six hundred years All which reasons are but meere fopperies blown up by the black Devil to blast the beauty of this truth for we speak not of the abuse of any Prince
admit them of their counsel and to undertake secular authority and civil jurisdiction 2. To allow dispensations of Pluralities and Non-residency which they may most justly and most wisely do without any transgression of the Law of God 3. To give tolerations where they see cause of many things prohibited by their Law to dispence with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressours For 1 Point 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light and declined from the sincere Religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certain impressions of the divine truth The great respect of the Clergy in former ages Saravia l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. 1. Among the Gentiles Osor p. 231. De tota Syria Paâ—estina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Strâ—bo lib. 12 Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellari Max. sacerdotem maximum regem Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Stob. d cit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopes reges suos del gebant ex numerâ— sacâ—rdotum Di odor l 3. c. 1. Titus Vespas Pontification maximum ideo sele prosessusest accipere ut puras servaret manus Sution i't Tito cap. 9. In Aricia regnum erat concretum cuâ— sacerdotio Danae ut iunuit Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Ecce suburbanae templum nemorade Dianae Paraiáque per gladios regna nocente manu Strabo lib. 5. that there was a GOD and that this God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith they were compeers with Kings in their Government so that nothing was done without their counsel and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in â—rbem compulit and put the difference betwixt Nobles Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were always selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publick counsels as the Divines sate among the Athenians and the South-sayers sate with the King among the Lacedemonians in all their weightiest consultations and Strabo tells us that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia for that Goddess was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himself and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsel of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth down of their care of Religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will refer you onely to what Tully writeth of this point where he saith that the greatest and worthiest thing in their Common-wealth was the priviledge and preheminence of the Divines which was joyned with the greatest authority for they dismissed the companies and the Councels of the chiefest Empires and the greatest Potentates when they were proposed they restrayned them when they were concluded they ceased from the affaires which they had in hand if but one Divine did say the contrary they appointed that the Consuls should depose themselves from their Magistracy and it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deal to repeal Laws not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or war without their leave or authority this was their Law though I beleive it was not always observed by their proud Consuls and unruly Magistrates Cicero de nat deorum l. 2. In like manner Caesar writeth of the Gaules and Britons that they had two sorts of men in singular honour the one was their Druides or Divines the other was their Souldiers or men of war and he saith that their Druides determined of all controversies in a manner both private and publick and if there were any crime committed any murther attempted if any controversy about inheritance or the bounds of lands did arise they also did set down their Decree and appointed the penalty and whosoever rejected their order or refused their judgement they excommunicated him from all society and he was then deemed of all men as an ungodly and a most graceless person Thus did they that had but the twilight of corrupted Nature to direct them judge those that were most conversant with the minde and will of the gods to be the fittest Counsellors and Judges of the actions of men and I fear these children of nature will rise in judgement to condemne many of them that profess themselves to be the sons of grace for comming so short of them in this point 2. The Jewes also which received the oracles of God 2. Among the Jewes were injoyned by God to yeild unto their Priests the dispensation both of dâ—vine and humane Lawes and the Lord enacted it by an irrevocable Law that the judgement of the High Priest should be observed as sacred Deut. 17. and inviolable in all controversies and if any man refused to submit himselfe unâ—o it his death must make recompence for his contumacy And Josephus saith Si judices nesciunt de rebus ad se delatis pronunciare integram causam in urbem sanctam mittent convenientes Pontifex Propheta Senatus quod visum sit Joseph contra Appi. lib. 2. pronuntient and in his second book against Appian he saith Sacerdotes inspectores omnium judices controversiarum punitores damnatorum constituti sunt à Moyse The Priests were appointed by Moses to be the lookers into all things the Judges of controversies and the punishers of the condemned And they were of that high esteem amongst the Jewes that the royall blood disdained not to match in marriages with the Priests as Jehojada married the daughter of King Jehoram 2 Chron. 22.11 and in the vacancie of Kings they had all the affaires of the Kingdome in their administration and when they became tributaries unto the Romans after Aristobulus the royall government was often annexed to the Priesthood and S. Paul argueth from hence 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9. that if the administration of death was glorious how shall not the administration of the spirit be rather glorious for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory or otherwise it were very strange that the Ministers of the Gospel should be deemed more base and contemptible because their calling is far more glorious and excellent yea so excellent that to all good Christians the Prophet demandeth quà m speciosi pedes eorum Esay 52.7 Priests imployed in secular affaires 1 Among the Jewes Psal 99.6 Priests and Prophets among the Jewes exercised secular jurisdiction And for the discharging of secular imployments we have not onely the example of the Priests and Prophets of the Old Testament but we have also
to be Moses and Elias did then appear unto the Apostles 5. David saith I will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord and yet David is dead and was buried therefore it is his Soul that liveth 6. The wise man saith that when a man dieth then shall the dust that is Eccl. 12.7 his body return to the Earth and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it and being with God it cannot be dead but remain immortal for ever 7. When Lazarus died he is said to be carried up by the Angels into Abrahams bosom i. e. in respect of his Soul Luke 16.22 for his Body was not carried up into his Bosom And so Dives being in torments must be understood in respect of his Soul for it is said that being dead he was buried in respect of his Body and therefore the Souls both of the good and of the bad do still remain immortal 8. Our Saviour saith Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul therefore the Soul is immortal whenas all the strength of man Mat. 10.28 and all the power of Hell is not able to kill it 9. The hope of Glory and Reputation and the desire that every man hath of the continuance and perpetuity thereof how vain soever it be yet doth it carry a great evidence of the Immortality of our Soules 10. The impression of that vice which robbeth a man of the knowledge of humane Justice and is alwaies opposite to the Justice of God and indelibly imprinted in every mans Conscience doth infallibly conclude that the Justice of God requireth the same should be chastised after death and therefore that our Soules must needs be immortal 11. In the Book of Wisdom it is most plainly said the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and there shall no torment touch them Sap. 3.1 2 3. in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die but they are in peace A place so plain that sense can desire no plainer And many more Reasons might be produced to confirm this Truth but these are sufficient demonstrations to shew unto you that although man in respect of his being in this life is altogether Vanity yet simply considered he is to be eternal and to have a perpetual Being because God never made man to have an end and to be reduced to nothing but as the wise man saith he created all things and much rather man that they might have their being Sap. 1.14 And what madness is it therefore that men will not believe this Truth especially considering it is most certain that the remembrance of their end and the shortness of their time here how their dayes do pass away like a Weavers shuttle or like a Post that tarrieth not will alwaies be such a corrasive to their Souls as will put an end to all their earthly Comforts whenas nothing in the world is left us to rejoyce in but in that thing only which is perpetual and remaineth ours for ever But then here you must understand that besides the prime Eternity which is God there is a twofold perpetuity of men That all men both good and bad shall remain and be perpetually 1. The one by our Unition with God which is perfect felicity 2. The other in our Separation from God which is the Extreamest Misery And Seeing the Souls of men are immortal and do naturally affect Eternity as not only Divinity sheweth but also the soundest Philosophers have sufficiently attested and every mans Conscience in the expectation of his reward for his Actions be they good or bad perswadeth him to believe it is most certain that those wicked worldlings which desire nothing but the Honours and the Prosperity of this present Life and those incredulous Hereticks both of the former times and of this present Age which against their Consciences do withstand this Truth shall notwithstanding be perpetual either in their Union with God or in their Separation from God and as it is the greatest Comfort of a Christian man to believe that he shall be everlastingly with God in all happiness so it is not the least torment unto a damned soul to consider that he shall be for ever and ever in Torments separated from God And therefore the Errour is not that men do seek for perpetuity which they shall be sure to have but that they seek the same amiss The twofold error of men in seeking perpetuity 1. Seecking it too late Either not that which is with their Union and Fruition of God or if that then either not as they should or not where they should seek it that is either not in the due time or nor in the right place where it may be found as 1. For the time many seek it but too late and so they miss it because that now is the time acceptable ex hoc momento pendet aeternitas and our perpetuity either with God or without God either in Joy or in Torments dependeth upon our demeanour in this present and little short time that we have here to live 2. For the Place you may see how most men purchase Lands build Castles gather Riches 2. Seeking it in the wrong place heap up Treasures and so lay down such Foundations of perpetuity here on earth as if they were to live here for ever and they do so rely upon these transient things and mortal men as if they were immortal Gods and so they seek for their perpetuity in the Regions of Vanity and they would find perfect Felicity in this Valley of Misery but as the Israelites by joyning themselves to Baal-peor separated themselves from El shadai the Almighty God so these men by seeking Eternity in these vanities shall never be able to find it and to be united with it because Eternity and Felicity are not to be found here on earth For as the Apostle saith we have here no continuing City and we are but as Pilgrims and strangers here in this world and our perpetuity is to be expected not in this life but in the life to come And so by this large Introduction that I have made you see that these words of the Prophet are not to be understood of man simply considered but of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of his State and Condition in this life for though man be to abide for ever yet as he is in this life verily every man And to prove this unto you you shall find the wisest King and the most learned Preacher that aver Israel had assuring you that there is nothing here in this world but vanity and vexation of Spirit and that you might the sooner believe this Truth he doubleth and trebleth his words saying Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity that is nothing else but meer vanity And lest proud Man should think that this is meant of Gold and Silver and the like inanimate things of this world or