know not unlesse it bee to the place whither their fellow traitour Iudas is gone before Act. 2.25 there to remaine among such as the Apostle speaketh of Phil. 3.19 For it can not bee imagined that there should bee any place in heaven for these wretches but as they hate Gods people here upon earth with a perfect hatred so it is to bee thought that the Lord will set a great gulfe and make an eternall separation between them the vessels of his mercy Luke 16.26 2. Thess 1.7.8.9.10 6 They have suppressed that famous worthy worke of buying in and restoring to the church Impropriations which was a most charitable and usefull hopefull busines and likely to have brought more advantage to the Ministery of England then any one thing of that nature which hath beene undertaken in any mans memory Divers were brought in brought back againe to the Church by those men which were trusted with that busines who caried themselves very faithfully in it many great summes lay ready which would have beene frankly and freely given for the buying in of moe if that worke had gone on as it began whereby much glory would have redounded to God as much comfort to thousands of poore soules which now are like to want it In many places where the maintenance of the Minister was short and scant the feoffees did out of those Impropriations which they had in their hands make a supply and addition to make the living competent for an able and an honest man In other places where there was most want of preaching they set up Lectures and put in men of good abilities and such as would teach the people to bee obedient to God and loyall to their Soveraigne And where there were Lectures before which had not a competency of meanes allotted to them they increased their allowance that so he Ministers might go on the more confortably in the worke of their Minstery But this made our Bishops sick of the splene They cried out that this would bee the ruine of the Church of England The truth is they feared but without cause that this would in time have clipped their wings have abridged their authority whereof they are much more jelous then of Gods glory and that caused them to set the matter so much to hart It is true that the fatall blow was given to that worke in another Court but these ungratious Prelats kindled the coles and blew that fire which hath consumed and brought it to nothing Wherein they have shewed themselves to bee like to their father the Devill who as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom hee may devoure 1. Pet. 5.8 They have put downe the meetings of the men of several shires counties now dwellers in London which were wont to assemble together once a yeere did a great deale of good to those countries where they were borne There they set up and do to this day maintaine at their owne charge Lectures in Market townes and other places of greatest resort where they supposed they might do most good and where there was greatest want of preaching which was a great ease and comfort to the Christians in those parts and more they would have done every yeere for the good of those places if these meetings of theirs had not beene thus unseasonably interrupted and broken off by these men which beare ill will to Sion But the name of a Lecture is ynough to crush quash any such pious good worke I know well that the places where they used to meete were denied them by another authority but the Prelats were the plotters and contrivers of this mischiefe out of that inveterate malice and hatred which they beare against preaching Wherein they resemble their Predecessours the Scribes and Pharises which shut up the kingdome of heaven against men will neither go in themselves nor suffer them that are entering to go in Mat. 23.13 8 They urge and presse upon Ministers a Subscription not onely against reason but directly against Law The statute of the 13. Elizabeth requireth of Ministers no subscription but to the Articles of religion and that also no further then they concerne faith and Sacraments onely But these troublers of Israel and disturbers of the peace of our church wil have them subscribe not onely to that whole booke but to foure other bookes also namely the booke of common prayer the booke of Ordination and two bookes Homilies in some one of which said bookes it is well knowne that there bee many hundreds of foule and grosse corruptions And if a man have subscribed in his younger yeeres when hee knew no better and was unable and it may bee unwilling also to examine and try things by the true touchstone and to weigh them in the ballance of the Sanctuary if afterwards hee renounce or do but revolt from his subscription and shall refuse to justify by his practise that to which ignorantly and unadvisedly hee did formerly subscribe with his hand though hee have done God faithfull service in his Church for the space of many yeeres and have taken more then ordinary paines in his ministery they turne him out with a great deale of wrath and indignation and expose him his wife children to misery beggery And if in these cases men bee content to leave their native soyle shall seeke to secure and safegard themselves in other nations from the fury of these Tigers yet thither will their malice follow them and their armes are now growne so long that even there also they can reach them But there will a time come when these wretches shall know to their cost and by miserable and wofull experience when it will bee to late that it is the Lord Iesus himselfe whom they persecute and that they kick against pricks Act. 9.5 And hee that hath those starrs in his right hand Revel 1.16 and accounteth of them as his Iewels will one day render into the bosome of their Persecutours and that with more then ordinary severity all the wrongs which they have done to those poore servants of his will then bee throughly avenged of all his and their malicious and despitefull enemies 9 They thrust Christ out of his chaire of Estate and will not suffer him to rule raigne amongst us according to his owne holy will revealed in his word by Pastours Teachers and Elders which hee hath ordained and appointed for the governing of his Churches and for the perfecting of the Saints c. till wee all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the soone of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnes of Christ Rom. 12.7.8 and 1. Tim. 5.17 Ephes 4.12.13 Wherein they plainely professe and proclaime openly to the whole world that they are fighters against God himselfe and maine opposers of his grace and goodnes How would the Gospel flourish in our land what glorious successe and
minister Math. 20.28 and the servant is not above his Lord Math. 10.24 Hee forbiddeth his disciples all such dominion soveraignty Math. 20.25 Marke 10.43 His Apostles receive equall power and authority from him Math. 18.18 Iohn 20.23 They clayme no superiority or primacy one above another but stile themselves servants 2. Cor. 4.5 Ministers dispensers 1. Cor. 4.1 and Ambassadours 2. Cor. 5.20 They send Peter and Iohn as their messengers to Samaria Acts 8.14 which argueth equality Peter disclaiming all such superiority equalleth himselfe with the Ministers and Elders of the Church calling himselfe their fellow elder 1. Pet. 5.1 and forbiddeth Ministers to usurpe any Lordship over Gods heritage ver 3. S. Iohn rebuketh Diotrephes for affecting preheminence Epist 3.9 Nor did ever any man take upon him to bee a Pastour of Pastours but that man of sinne and Lord Bishops which are his genuine ofspring are lineally descended from him As therefore their offices and functions were hatched in hell so it would bee a very happy thing for this state of ours if it would please God and our King that they might bee returned and sent back againe thither that our church which these many yeeres hath borne them as a heavy burden may bee no longer cumbred with them 2 No man living upon the face of the earth may presume to prescribe a paterne according to which the Churches of Christ should bee formed nor may any creature in heaven or earth without a commission from the sonne of God appoint lawes for the guilding and governing of his house that beeing a glory which the Lord Iesus Christ hath reserved in his owne hands and wil communicate neither with man nor Angel it belonging as properly to him to rule his church according to the good pleasure of his owne will as it belongeth to him to save it by the merit of his sufferings Hee by the appointment of his father is the onely head King Lord Lawgiver supreme Governour of his Church which hee hath washed and made white with his blond Ephes 1.22 Iames. 4.12 Revel 7.14 Hee hath not left his Church which is his body maimed or imperfect destitute of lawes and Offices needfull for the governing of the same but hath appointed a Ministery for it with a calling thereunto and with lawes limiting their function and governments leaving nothing therein to the will of man Col. 2.18 This government with ail the offices functions thereto appertaining are set downe in the written word of God the onely rule both of doctrine discipline in the church which is able to make the man of God perfect to every good worke 2. Tim. 3.17 The offices appointed by Christ for the ruling of his churches are those of Pastours Teachers and Elders whose severall gifts properties and qualifications are distinctly and at large set downe in the Scripture These offices and ministeries and the lawes concerning the same are sufficient for the ruling of Christ his Church here on earth and that forme and frame of government prescribed and left by our Saviour for the ordering of his house is every way complete of it selfe and needeth no helpe of man to make it perfect Else Christ can not bee honoured as a perfect governour of his Church and otherwise both the Scripture and Christs body are imperfect And if these bee not perfect then may man erect new offices and adde new Ministeries and hee may also take away and alter any of these at his owne pleasure Then also is the Church of the new Testament inferiour to that of the old which received all the lawes ordinances from God himselfe But to affirme all or any one of these it is impious and absurd And as this government appointed by Christ is sufficient and most perfect so is it perpetuall and may not bee altered by men or Angeles Timothie is commaunded to keepe this platforme and all the ordinances concerning it to the glorious comming of the Lord Iesus 1. Tim. 5.21 and 6.13.14 All the offices of this church mentioned Rom. 12.6.7.8 are called members of the body of the church ver 5. and 1. Cor. 12.27.28 which is the body of Christ Eph. 1.22.23 If therefore the church of Christ which is his body must continue perfect till his comming these offices and ministeries must also continue for if any one of them bee taken away his body is maimed and mangled And if Christ shall continue to bee governour of his churches hee must continue to rule and governe in them by his owne Officers and by those lawes and ordinances which hee himselfe hath prescribed in his word otherwise hee is not the governour of them If his Officers bee refused hee is rejected and if the order of government appointed by him bee thrust out another substituted in the roome of it then is hee upon the point deposed from his regency the scepter is taken out of his hands 3 If this holy government instituted and ordained by the sonne of God himselfe might bee erected and set up in our churches there would bee such a confluence concurrence of all good things contributing joyntly to the happines of this kingdome as our eyes have never yet seene Gods blessing doth ever accompany his owne ordinance But if that bee either sleighted or neglected though men take the wisest and the most politike courses that their silly and shallow braines can devise for the attaining of the same ends which God aimeth at the Lord bloweth upon them and blasteth them bringeth them all to nothing that they do no good as might easily bee exemplified in many other particulars as well as in this of Church government if neede required For hee destroyeth the wisdome of the wise bringeth to nothing the understanding of the prudent 1. Cor. 1.19 the foolishnes of God beeing wiser then men and the weakenes of God stronger then men ver 25. But to keepe to the point in hand This government of the church by Archbishops and Lord Bishops was first brought in and hath beene very unhappily continued in our land under a pretence of preserving the peace unity of the Church for the preventing of schismes and divisions in the same But the wofull experience of many yeeres sheweth that these strange Lords who by their places should bee fathers and fosterers of the church have beene and are to this day cruell and cursed Stepfathers to it and in stead of preventing distractions and dissensions among us they have beene from time to time the sole cause and originall of all those most lamentable divisions and of those heavy pressures which our poore churches have groned under ever since the Gospel came into this kingdome What errour and heresies have they of late brought in countenanced by their authority to the harts griefe of many of the best affected people of the land How do Arminianisme and Bellarminianisme prevaile by reason of that favour which these linsey-woolsey luke-warme Laodiceans shew
intertainement would it finde in the harts of men if the Lord Iesus might once bee permitted to rule in our Congregations by his owne Officers ordinances and if that holy governement of his might bee set up amongst us in perfect beauty What a goodly sight would it bee to see every Congregation of Christians in this kingdome to bee a complete entire spirituall body within it selfe without having any dependance upon these Romish Prelats and their Popish Canons It is that which the great God of heaven looketh for at the hands of our State to which hee hath vouchsafed so many and so great mercies The Lord Iesus Christ who is a great King and the Lord and Lawgiver of his Church hath fitted furnished men extraordinarily for this great worke service And the harts of all the people of the land which are any whitt well affected tooke that way as appeareth by their continuall labouring for it ever since the beginning of the raigne of Queene Elizabeth of pious and happy memory Onely these wicked Bishops oppose it which never did good nor ever will do They can not endure the name of Discipline but have alwaies set themselves with tooth and naile and with might and maine against the kingdome of our blessed Saviour and his sacred soveraignety But let them looke to it and remember what is like to bee their doome if they mend not their maners Those mine enemies which would not that I should raigne over them bring hither and slay them before mee Luke 19.27 10 They hinder as much as in them lieth the publishing of all bookes though never so modestly written in the defence of Christs holy cause and that unalterable government which hee in his last will and Testament hath prescribed to his Churches And if by their scoutes which they have in every corner they can discover finde out the Printer of any such Treatises they deale very rigorously and roughly with him Himselfe they commit close enough to Prison and there they let him ly as long as they please even till they have ruined him his wife and children they seize upon his Presse and letters and sell them away before his face for a song they rifle and ransack his house and cary away by those helhounds their Pursivants as much of his goods as they list without ever making any restitution of that which they do so wrongfully and feloniously take from him when as in the meane while they suffer the Printers of popish Pamphlets to go on in their way with out interruption Nay when such notorious Offenders are brought to them and put into their hands they send them away if not with a reward yet certainely without any check or punishment so well do many of these lazy lubbers and idle drones like of those Romish varlets and their Religion Yea whereas printing by the blessing of God hath beene a speciall meanes of spreading and divulging the Gospel in the Christian world in these later times it is verily beleeved by many that these wretches have a purpose if they can handsomely and cleanly accomplish it wholly to suppresse that rare mystery and most noble and famous Art Divers Printers complaine and I suppose not without cause that they can get nothing licensed They who are authorised and appointed for that purpose do not simply and absolutely deny to do it but they delay them extraordinarily and beyond all measure When they have attended them and called upon them moneth after moneth and one yeere after another their answere in conclusion is that they are not at leisure to reade over their treatises Nay it is reported by some but how true that is time will shew that they shall not bee suffered to print their old copies which they have formerly printed with priviledge till the Licenser do certify a-new under his hand that hee hath carefully read over every passage both in the body of those bookes and in the Epistles prefixed before them and that there is nothing in them repugnant to those tenents which these grand Clergy-masters do now hold Which if it bee true it is high time both for Printers and Bookesellers to go and learne some new Trade for they will not bee able to live of the old By this meanes these vipers do closely eate out the bowels of our church and they run a course directly and pointblanck contrary to that of the holy Apostle 2. Thess 3.1 whose desire was that the word of God might have free passage bee glorified It were to bee wished therefore that our King and State would turne out these Abby-lubbers pluck those fat morsels out of their mouthes and cause them to get their living by the sweate of their browes as other poore Ministers do which labour in the word and doctrine And it will manifestly appeare to bee a worke most fitt necessary to be done if these things following bee well weighed and rightly and duely considered of 1 Their places and callings are abominable accursed and Antichristian Gods Bishops out of all question they are not Hee knoweth no Lord Bishops nor will hee ever acknowledge and owne them for his Mans Bishops they themselves confidently affirme they are not though the discreetest and moderatest of theirs Predecessours have heretofore ingenuously confessed that their callings are of humane institution and that it in the power of the Magistrate to turne them all out at his will and pleasure that hee may do it without sinne against God But this our Prelats now-a-daies disclaime and will not indure to heare of it Beeing then neither Gods Bishops nor mans they must of necessity bee ordained and set up by the Devill whose eldest sonne is the Pope of Rome and these pety Popes our Bishops are all younger brethren to him there going but a paire of sheetes betweene them Their Lordly authority hath certainely no foundation nor footing in the Scripture but is directly contrary to the institution of Christ his blessed will and Testament and it hath beene the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchy of the man of sinne whom God will consume with the spirit of his mouth 2. Thess 2.8 Their civill power deserveth rather to bee exploded then refuted Christ expressely forbiddeth his disciples such Lordly dominion Luke 22.25 Hee himselfe refused to bee made a King Iohn 6.15 professing that his kingdome was not of this world Iohn 18.36 Hee refused to part an heritage betwixt brethrē Luke 12.14 Hee would not give sentence against the woman taken in adultery Iohn 8.11 What intolerable presumption is it then for our Prelats to exercise such authority as our blessed Saviour neither practised himselfe nor permitted to his disciples Nor is the ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which they usurpe over the Ministers of the Gospel any whitt better but is Antichristian and naught as well as the other Christ Iesus tooke upon him the forme of a servant Phil 2.7 Hee came not to bee ministred unto but to
to those which set their faces that way What a rent have they lately made in our church by their strict pressing of people to come to their owne Congregations when there is no preaching and by their urging of crouching and cringing at the name of Iesus before their Altars and other such like trumpery What a number of our best and most judicious Christians do they daily drive out of the land by their harsh and base and uncivill usage of them Sith therefore the Gospel is so much opposed and oppugned troden downe by these Antichristian Prelats what a blessed and worthy worke would it bee and how acceptable a service to God if it would please our most gratious King to depose thrust our these proud usurpers who have too too long domineered and tyrannised over Gods heritage and to set the Lord Iesus Christ upon his Throne and to take order that hee may rule his churches according to his owne will revealed in his word Which glorious and happy enterprise if his Maiestie would seriously set upon and go through with I dare be bold to say that the Lord would make good to him and this state as much as hee once promised and did accordingly performe to the people of the Iewes upon their onset and first beginning to sett forward the building of his Temple Hag. 2.18.19 Hee would from that very day remove all those heavy judgments which have these many yeeres waited upon that cursed government of Bishops and in stead of them hee would shower downe such abundance and variety of his choysest mercies and blessings upon our King and his kingdomes as would make all the world to wonder and to stand amazed at it Oh that his Maiestie would but try what the Lord would do in that case England would then bee as Ierusalem sometime was the praise of the world the perfection of beauty and the ioy of the whole earth Then would the Lord dwel amongst us and bee a father unto us and hee would rejoyce over us and delight in us to do us good Then would our exiles returne the poore despised and dispersed and distressed servants of God would sing for joy of hart and the voice of weeping would bee no more heard amongst us nor the voice of crying for these Wolves and Leopards Lions beeing throwne out of those places wherein they do daily such a world of mischiefe there would bee none to hurt or destroy in Gods holy Mountaine our land would then bee full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 4 Whereas his Maiestie hath at this time much use and many imployments for mony if hee would bee pleased to turne these brute creatures a-grazing and seize upon their Bishopricks and take into his hands the Cathedrall Churches as King Henry the eighth sometimes did the Abbies and those irreligious houses hee might to his owne harts content bee plentifully supplied at the present for all his occasions and have a large yeerly Revenue comming in sufficient to maintaine an Army in the field to suppresse subdue all the enemies of his Crownes and Kingdomes and to helpe downe with that man of synne who is drunke with the bloud of Gods Saints And why will our renowned Soveraigne suffer such a happy and golden opportunity to slip out of his hands It is thought by some that if King Iames had lived hee would have done it and would have tasted their flesh And why should not our noble and religious King who in other things is an imitatour of his fathers vertues effect that which his father so much affected had a good minde to do if time had served for it What should hinder him I confesse freely I know not These Lordly Prelats never did any good in the Church of God nor do they any at this time nor will they ever hereafter do any but a great deale of mischiefe Idle they are above measure and many of them grossely and palpably ignorant and they are growne to such an extreme height of pride and ambition and tyranny that it is a great wonder how the State can thus long beare them Most odious they are both to God and man and the very name of a Bishop beginneth now to stinke in the nosethrils of all the people of the Land that savour the things of God or have any relish of Religion though they looke not towards syncerity nor beare any love to it And for their Collegiate Churches what bee they for the most part but dennes of theeves and cages of uncleane Birds There is a great deale of superstitious and false worship nourished and maintained in them to the dishonour of Almightie God to the scandall of that holy Religion which is professed amongst us and to the reioycing encouraging of Papists who laugh in their sleeves and are in good hope to have their Ronish religion one day sett up againe in this Kingdome seeing wee retaine such monuments of their Idolatry and superstition still in the midst of us and do re-edify repaire them with such zeale as if therein wee did God good service What pitty is it that such an infinite masse of mony as is raised yeerely out of these Bishopricks and the livings belonging to those Cloysters should bee so vainely and basely and irreligiously consumed and devoured by such useles and worthies persons as are good for nothing but to cleave wood with their heads when as in the meane while our deare and dread Soveraigne wanteth it for better purposes What an advantage would it bee to our King and what an advancement of the revenue of the Crowne if the increase and profit which ariseth issueth out of these large and ample possessions which is now meerely and wholly to no purpose wasted might bee brought into his Maiesties Treasury there to bee preserved to his use and to bee alwaies in a readines to bee disposed of by him according to his godly wisdome to the glory of God and in the service of the State and might bee there carefully stored up as a meanes of supply and as a stock of provision for the accommodating of his Maiesty when and as often as hee shall have use of it and for the fitting and furnishing of those many necessary and just occasions which hee hath to imploy and expend the same upon 5 It would bee a marvellous ease for this Kingdome if by the mercifull goodnes of our God it might once bee freed from these Antichristian Prelats their Courts which robbe his Maiesties subjects of an exceeding great summe of mony every yeere One would not imagine how much they extort from Ministers Churchwardens and the rest of the people of the land for fees and by meanes of those unjust vexations which they put them continually unto Many men are perswaded that they and their Chauncellours Commissaries Officials Doctours roctours Registers Pursivants Apparitours and others of that cursed crew do rake and scrape from the