any Foreign State or Power Upon this Popish Foundation which hath not the least ground in Scripture stands our Darling Ecclesiastical or Church-Discipline and Regiment a meer Popish Relick and Hierarchy set up only not to minister unto but to domineer contrary to Christ's Precepts and Examples And our Ecclesiasticks have not as yet made it their concern or business to endeavour a farther Reformation thereof tho' designed even from the beginning of the Reformation in Henry the Eighth's Days but are very well pleased to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet thereof And tho' they know that their Incroachments and Usurpations have been all got by Popish Priest-craft and by which they have for above 1000 Years cajoled and fooled both Crowns and People out of their just Rights and subjected Caesars and great Princes and Principalities to their own Empire And instead of a pure Gospel Government have Established to themselves a mighty Throne of Iniquity and Abominations fitted for Pride Domination self-ends and Interest c. Which Priest-craft togegether with Antichrist began to work in the Days of the Apostles even from Judas's Purse and continues to this very Day which is demonstrably made out as by many Histories so more punctually and particularly by Father Paul s Treatise of Beneficiary matters shewing how and when and by what Priest-craft all their Acquisitions Friars Annals Arms Spiritual Benefices Unions and Vacancies of Benefices Canons Cardinals Coajutors Commendam's Election of Bishops and Priests Exemptions Goods Ecclesiastical Appeals Monks Monasteries Indulgencies Investitures Pluralities Non-residence Excommunication Episcopal Audience Absolutions Dispensations Prebends c. were acquired used and abused A foul Mistake and Crime to think to Establish the Church with good Government taken from human Reason as if t were a Temporal State The Church and Kingdom of Christ as it is more Excellent than any other Kingdom in the World the Scepter of Righteousness being the Scepter of his Kingdom and to which Kingdom all other Kings and Princes ought to bow down and be subservient so it and the Government thereof differs from all other Governments and Kingdoms First It hath but one Head and that not by Election or Succession but by everlasting Continuation Secondly This Head chose his Church or Kingdom and not the Church him John 15.16 Luke 32.23 Thirdly The Laws of this Kingdom are more excellent and more unchangeable than the Laws of any other Commonwealth or Kingdom as being the Dictates and Precepts of Christ the onely and Eternal Head and are the unchangeable Copies and Expressions of his Immutable and most Holy Will Fourthly The Obligements and Conformity of every Member thereof unto these Laws are far more strickt and severe than in any other Commonwealth or Kingdom viz. That every one should love his Lord and King above all and his Neighbour and fellow Citizens as himself should abstain from all appearance of Evil and resist unto Blood striving against Sin c. Fifthly In the visible Government of his Church and Kingdom he hath appointed a Priesthood by irrevocable Ordination in which it is dissimular to all Temporal Governments as Officers of his Church and Kingdom to continue after his Ascension viz. Priests and Bishops and soon after his Ascension the Apostles added Deacons also by Ordination What Powers Christ gave them what Duties be obliged them unto are visible by their Commission written in great and indelible Characters viz. Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you to the end of the world Matth. 28.19 20. and they were to Preach not themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves the servants of his Church for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4.5 This is the Summ of their Commission and Authorities that Christ left them Christ well knowing that his Apostles and Ministers and their Successors were to gather him a Church from among both Jews and Gentiles all bitter Enemies to him and his Gospel and to Establish it in the Bosom of their Kingdoms did prescribe them such a Government and Laws as they might any where execute peaceably without prejudice to the Subjects of any Commonwealth or Kingdom either in their Lives or Fortunes no other Subjects being subject unto that Spiritual Regiment but onely such as embraced the Christian Religion In this Christian Church Christ ordained Officers to Teach Baptize Ordain and Administer his Sacraments but for what concerned Honesty and Dishonesty doing Good and working Wiekedness and breaking the Laws of Morality Christ gave many general Rules and Precepts to the whole Church who were to Govern its own Body and the Officers thereof and not the Officers the Church or Body viz. to love one another even our Neighbours as our selves c. And if any did trangress the Laws not peculiar to them as Men but as Christians if the Offence were private then they were privately to be admonished If publick then they that transgressed openly were to be rebuked openly but if after Friendly Admonitions and Reprimands private and publick they still continued incorrigible then not to own them as Brethren nor keep company with them with such no not to cat and in sine pursue and proecute them as Publicans and Heathens i. e. Sue them in the Civil Courts And this is the Summ of the whole Government and Discipline which Christ left to his Church and any other there is not extant in Scripture nor is there need of any more or other as is hinted before Let the Pope Prelate or Paesbyter demonstrate any other Form of Church Government if they can they know they cannot but they will pelt us with Stories of another Government and of its Antiquity and general Use thereof for many Ages Be it so let them derive it as high as they can from that very Day and Date the very beginning of Popish Priest-craft will appear which by good management heaping Pelian upon Ossa now one thing and then another it early arrived at that monstrous heap of Irregularities nay Impieties it is now at in the Irregular use of the same in both Churches Take it as it is with the best Construction can be made of it What Concord what Agreement had it with the Government set forth in the Gospel even the same that Light hath with Darkness and Christ with Belial To Day to burn Books and Tenets of Men as pious and learned and having as precious Souls to save as themselves and to morrow suspend and extravagantly punish Ministers and others for writing Rebukes of Sin or not reading a Book of Sports or for Lecturing Excommunicate others for not paying Fees or not observing the Orders of their Courts and of their Officers Chancellors Surrogates Archdeacons Officials Sumners c. And if an Excommunicate Person come into the Church in the time of Divine Service the Celebration thereof is to
is not necessary for the Raising of Aids and Subsidies Rush 602. An. 1628. That there was a general fear of secret Working and Combination to introduce into this Kingdom Innovation and change of our pure Religion by Persons much favoured and advanced not wanting Friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Dr. Neal Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their Opinions that way It being generally held to be the High-way to Preferment and Promotion in the Church many Scholars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors that their Books and Opinions are suffered to be printed and published and others written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindered and prohibited And we find that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppress Popery which is the diligent Teaching and Instruction of the People in the true Knowledg and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage and yet their Preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits hardly permitted to Lecture 602 632 634. 1628. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Quae peperit saepè scelerata atque impia facta 195. And our high and mighty Church of England Men did in our memories so superciliously manage their own haughty Resolutions that they necessitated the Parliament to take away their High Commission and their Parliamentary Priviledge forbidding them to meddle with any Temporal Affairs And I do not find that they are grown much more prudent yet for that they manage themselves in this intricate juncture of time at such a rate that all Mens Mouths are ready and stand half cockt against them and I fear may in time provoke the Parliament to do the like or more again they monopolizing all Government over others of themselves which is far from being Apostolical for in the Apostles times and divers Ages after all the People being under the inspection of one Bishop vulgarly the the Pastor of a Parish were wont to meet together not only for Worship but other Church Administrations all publick Acts passed at the Assemblies of the whole People they were consulted with their concurrence was thought necessary and their presence required that nothing might pass without their Cognizance Satisfaction and Consent This was observed not only in Election of Bishops Priests and Officers but in Ordination and Censures in Admission of Members and Reconciling of Penitents and in Debates and Consultations about other Emergencies but not one plain word in Scripture that one Apostle was subject to another nor one gathered Church subject to another or that any Man had lawful Authority to forbid Assembling of the Brethren together whether with or without a Priest In summ when Priest-craft had enlarged their Territories beyond their ancient Bounds which was but one Parish or a select Number scarce exceeding 150 or 200 unto many whereby they became Cardinals and Diocesans c. They thereby cajoled the People of their undoubted Rights and Priviledges and necessarily introduced an essential change of the True and Primitive Government of the Church set up by Christ and set up one to fit their own turn and ends In the very next Ages succeeding the Apostles and so for 400 Years and more one Parish or single Congregation was thought sufficient for one Bishop or Pastor so that as Christians multiplied so separate Congregations Bishops or Pastors so that there were as many Pastors or Bishops as there were several Congregations or Churches in a Province and not one Church or Congregation subject to the Laws Usages or Ordinances of any other No Churches gathered by St. Paul were subject to those gathered by St. Peter nor è contra of them or of any other of the Apostles or of any Churches gathered by their Successors Hence came several and diversity of Rites and Usages in the Ancient Churches without being accounted Schismaticks Separatists Non-cons or Phanaticks and with perfect Love Unity and Uniformity because they held the same Faith and Doctrine And 150 or 200 Souls was thought as many as one Bishop or one Pastor could take charge and give a good account of So that a single Congregation or gathered Church was esteemed a competent Charge for an Episcopal Pastor for the Episcopal Churches were daily multiplied and each Church had Power to govern and order it self and so followed such orders as every Church or gathered Congregation thought fit without being obliged to conform to those of any other Church or Congregation they had no Rule or Order in things of this nature requiring observance or did they regard such Uniformity as later Ages have been fond of to the prejudice of the Unity and Peace of the Church even to the persecuting of Righteous Men in our Kingdoms none of those Churches used the same Prayers all of them had not the same Creeds they had not the same Rites in Baptism or the Lord's Supper nor the same way in Confirming Marrying or Burying they used not the same mode either in reading the Scriptures or Singing they observed not the same methods in admitting Members or preparing them for the Communion neither proceeding to Censures or reconciling Penitents they differed also in their Habits and Postures they varied in their Fasts both for time and manner and observed not the same Festivals This was the Uniformity of the more Pure and Primitive times and no Persecution ensued no Appeals allowed from one Bishop or one Congregation to another So that the Uniformity the latter Ages have been so fond of is a down-right Novelty and Innovation which hath broken the Bond of Charity and Unity and instead thereof hath brought in Animosities Divisions and Separations nay Persecutions on God's Holy People very unworthy and unbeseeming Christian Pastors to make such actings more their business than the suppressings of Sin and promoting of real and strict Holiness All this and much more is so plain in ancient Writers that none but Novices and Chits in Story can be ignorant hereof If you will believe one of the greatest Prelates of the West and at no less than 600 Years distance from Christ In una fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo saith Gregory the first where there is one Faith it s no harm to the Church if there be diversity of usages i. e. the Church hath no harm for want of Uniformity And before him Innocent the first who lived about the Second Century in his Epist ad Decen writes that diversè in diversis locis vel Ecclesiis obtineri aut celebrari videntur To the Justification whereof and to the constant Practice thereof even from the Days of the Apostles unto
in Parliament 4 Car. for that they tended to alter and subvert the whole Frame and Fabrick of this State and Commonwealth that they tended to infuse into the Conscience of his Majesty the perswasion of a Power not bounding it self with Laws which King James in his Speech March 21. 1609. to the Parliament calls Tyranny with Perjury he endeavours to perswade the Conscience of the Subjects that they are bound to obey commands illegal yea he damns them for not obeying them he robs the Subject of the Property of their Goods and seeks like Faux and his fellows to blow up Parliaments and Parliamentary Power c. That they hold it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such high Consequence as to be handled only in Parliament and that with moderation therefore upon the whole matter he was censured to be Imprisoned during the pleasure of the House Fined 1000 l. to make his submission at both Bars suspended three Years from the exercise of his Ministry disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Government or Secular Office for ever disabled to Preach at Court his Book to be burnt in London and in both Universities and the re-printing thereof to be inhibited by his Majesties Proclamation Notwithstanding all these Censures Reprimands and Judgment of Parliament yet such Juglers were the mighty Church of England Priests and Prelates and such was the Prevalency Potency and Impudency of the then Court Clergy no Nathaniels that they procured their Royal Pardons of all Errors heretofore committed by them either in Speaking Writing or Printing and Manwaring was immediately presented to the Rectory of Stampford Rivers in Essex and had a Dispensation to hold it together with the Rectory of St. Giles's in the Fields Rushwerth's Collect. when as the justness of the Nation required their severe Reprimands nay their Punishments nay the Muzling of their Mouths These and their Abettors no Nathaniels Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and others being of the same Quire and Chorus sung the same Tune and boasted themselves to be the true Church of England Men but the Archbishop-Abbot though Primate and Metropolitan of all England and multitudes of others both Bishops Priests and Lay much more Loyal and more True Church of England Men than themselves were branded for not being right Church of England Men and reviled as Puritanical Factious what not Under which Notion the Archbishop Abbot suffered being disgraced at Court commanded to withdraw into the Country Sequestred c. Whoever will seriously consider how Industriously Active and Instrumental the Bishops then in Vogue who were the Bishops of London and his Complices viz. Durham Rochester Oxon. St. Davids and others were to procure Dr. Alexander Leighton a learned Scotch-man Mr. Burton B. D. Mr. Pryn Barrister and Dr. Bastwick to be so inhumanly censured in the Star-Chamber and High Commission viz. Imprisoned Fined Whipt Pillored Ears cut off Cheeks branded with other Severities fitter for Infidels nay for Brutes rather than Christians and for what not truly for Crimes scarce Peccadilloes but rather for Rebukes of Sin as their Works do testifie in respect of what abominable Doctrines their own Priests preached countenancing and preferring those that Preached them espousing their Cause as their own and so became participes criminis tho' against the Interest and Sense of the whole Kingdom assembled in Parliament whereby and by their being a constant dead wait for the Court against the Kingdom they brought so great a Disdain and Contempt on their Hierarchy and those Courts that the Nation was not able to bear them and was forced to take away both these Courts and their Priviledge of Sitting in the House of Lords On which I shall only Remark thus much viz. That those Ecclesiasticks that preached Prerogative highest tho' to the ruine of the Nation and tho' condemned by the whole Kingdom in Parliament and that severely and with high Resentments yet when the Parliament was up Bishop Laud and his Complices no true but Mungril Church of England Men so improved their Interest at Court that they were preferred and others that did but Write and Preach against their violent and unconscionable Proceedings were barbarously censured and used which the Parliament so laid to Heart that they took away both these Courts And when those Three viz. Prin Bastwick and Burton returned from their designed perpetual Imprisonment they were met and caressed all along the Road and received by the City with great Joy and Acclamations And some while after Bishop Laud came to his unhappy Doom how deservedly I judge not If so to countenance and prefer those that Preach Doctrines so destructive to whole Nations and to Persecute learned and pious Men by the Character of a right Church of England Man I must confess that I cannot distinguish between Nathaniels and those that can swear by the Lord and Melcom I Appeal to the whole World whether of those two Contemporaries Archbishop Abbot or Bishop Laud were the Nathaniel the truest Church of England Man Abbot refusing and Laud granting an Imprimatur to Sibthorp's Sermon which was condemned to be burnt and yet Abbot Discountenanced Sequestred sent into the Country c. and Laud advanced Besides I verily believe that it cannot be proved by any plain place of Scripture that there is any Power under Heaven Ecclesiastick or Civil that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man lawfully qualified to Preach the Gospel or to Prosecute any Man for denying submission to the use of Ceremonies no ways Essential to the Salvation of Souls If so what are we modestly to think of those Ecclesiasticks and their Adherents that ever since the Reformation Persecuted our Dissenters for Non-conforming to such commands What made so many of our Learned Pious Conscientious Clergy and Laiety Orthodox both in Life and Doctrine cry Migremus hinc and plant themselves in Foreign Barbarous Countries but Persecutions for their Consciences and for Rebukes of Sin rather than for any Crimes or Sins And yet their Persecutors had the Impudency of Abab the son of Omri who did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him to tax them for Troublers of Israel when themselves Abab-like troubled it for they medled not with the Conformist but the Conformist with them not considering that Christ came to take away the heavy Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies and he and his Apostles never used nor prescribed any other and why any other Authority should impose any other Ceremonies and compel Obedience to them whereby they require other Conditions of Gospel-Communion than ever Christ himself did or his Apostles after him is past all Understanding They would oblige us to shew us by any one plain place of Scripture that Christ hath given any Charter to his Church or to any Officers thereof to require more Ceremonies to be admitted into his Fellowship and Worship than he himself hath done or to