triple Crown answerable thereunto and to support that he pretends to have a threefold Law The first is jus divinum Episcopacy by divine right and this he would have you thinke to be the Coronet next his head that which doth circle and secure his power Our Bishops have in an unlucky time entred their plea and pretended title to this Crown Episcopacy by Divine right The second is Jus huntanum Constantins donation the gift of indulgent Princes temporall power This Law belongs to his second or his middle Crown already also pleaded for by our Prelates in print These two Crowns being obtained he the Pope doth frame and make his third Crowne himselfe and sets that upmost upon the top This Crown also hath its Law and that is Jus canonicum the Canon law of more use unto his Popeship then both the other Just so our Prelates from the pretended divinity of their Episcopacy and from the temporall power granted by our Princes they would now obtrude a new Canon Law upon us They have charged their Canons at us to the full and never fearing that ever they would recoyle back into a Parliament they have rammed a prodigious ungodly oath into them The illegality and invalidity of these Canons as I conceive is easily discoverable by one short question viz. what do you call the meeting wherein they were made give it a name to know it by who can frame his argument aright unlesse he can first tell against what he is to argue would you confute the Convocation they were a holy Synod would you argue against the Synod why they were Commissioners would you dispute the Commission they will mingle all powers together and answer that they were some fourth thing that we neither know nor imagine Quo teneam nodo mutantem Protea unlesse they will unriddle themselves and owne what they were we may prosecute but hardly with concludent arguments Yet I venture I have conferred with some of the founders of these new Canons but I professe clearly that I could never yet meet with any one of that assembly who could in behalfe of their meeting well answer me the first question in the Catechisme what is your name Alas they are parted before they know what they were when they were together The sum of the severall answers that I have received doth amount to this They were a Convocationall Synodicall Assembly of Commissioners indeed a threefold Chimaera a monster to our Lawes a Cerberus to our Religion A strange Commission wherein no one Commissioners name is to be found A strange Convocation that lived when the Parliament was dead A strange Holy Synod where one part never saw never conferred with the other But indeed what use or need of conference if that be true of these Canons which I read of the former ones Notum est Canones formari Lambethae priusquà m in Synodo ventilentur Thus far preparatory I proceed to my argument whereby to manifest the invalidity of these Canons not borrowing but avoyding what hath formerly been instanded by others I will neither inveigh upon them as unnamed Commissioners nor infirme them as the work of a dead Convocation But will take them in the capacity of their own affected title of a Synod Such they bragged themselves to be whilest they sate such they stile themselves in the Title-page of these never to be Canonized Canons The words are Canons treated upon in Convocation agreed upon in Synod This treating in one capacity and agreeing in another is a new mould to cast Canons in never used before Canons bred in a Convocation born in a Synod Thus although we find not one good father here are yet two mothers to one illfavoured child never known before nor imagined but of Bacchus whom the Poets cals among other attributes Solúmque bimatrem I proceed if their meeting be a Synod either it is so by Donation by Election or only by Vsurpation Donation from the King is this title and authority indulged to them by his Majesty Look through all his Highnesse Letters Patent and they are not once saluted with the ambitious title of a Synod Yet in the Canons they have assumed it seventeen times it is their own pride their own presumption The King hath not done it pardon me no Prince ever did it or can do it no power Regall Imperiall or Papall did ever attempt it to ordaine that William and Richard Matthew and Iohn c. and I know not who more being met and assembled upon other summons shall by a Commission be on a sudden translated from what they were into an unthought-of Nationall Synod without voyce or choise of any man to be concerned this never was done this never can be well done As for due election for such meetings this indeed is or ought to be of the true esse to a Legitimate Synod But due election made up by voyces is so much a stranger to this Synod that their fatherhoods will confesse that they were never trusted to this Synod as a Synod by any either of the Clergie or of the Laity Concerning the choise of a few of them and but a few about 50. as I guesse chosen to the Convocation house that choice wil never render them a lawfull Synod untill they can prove metamorphosis and Transubstantiation For the votes of all their choosers upon expiration of the Convocation house returned backe home to every mans bosome from whence they breathed So that if you will en-live the same men to be now Synodall who were before but Convocationall you must renew the old Pythagorean Transmigration for they want the breath and life of an election A new one you have not and the old one is not to be had but by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Besides I do affirm and shall approve that the electors to a Convocation and to a Synod are not all one The Clergy only do and of right onely ought to choose unto the Convocation house The reason we of the Laity so they will call us have our House of Commons where our Trustees by vertue of our voyces do sit at the same time But in the choice unto a Synod we who must be bound by the determinations of the Synod ought also to be interested in the parties determining This is clear enough in reason and will be better oleared presently Of Synods I find five severall sorts first a generall or universall Synod secondly Patriarchicall thirdly Nationall fourthly Provinciall fiftly a Diocesan Synod I passe by the two first and last as not pertinent to this time and affaire Concerning Provinciall and Nationall Synods a word or two if I know which to call their late meeting They run on riddles and I want an Oedipus at every turn These Canons were they forged in one Synod Nationall or in two Provinciall were they two Provinciall Synods how then come their Acts and Canons to be imbodyed together how comes it to passe that all
own great cause in hand which they impiously doe mis-call the piety of the times but in truth so wrong a Piety that I am bold to say In facinus jurasse putes Here in this Petition is the Disease represented here is the Cure intreated The number of your Petitioners is considerable being above five and twenty hundred names and would have been foure times as many if that were thought materiall The matter in the Petition is of high import but your Petitioners themselves are all of them quiet and silent at their own houses humbly expecting and praying the resolution of this great Senate upon these their earnest and their hearty desires Here is no noyse no numbers at your door they will be neither your trouble nor your jealousie for I do not know of any one of them this day in the Town So much they do affie in the goodnesse of their petition and in the justice of this House If now you want any of them here to make avowance of their Petition I am their servant I do appeare for them and for my selfe and am ready to avow this petition in their names and in my own Nothing doubting but fully confident that I may justly say of the present usage of the Hierarchy in the Church of England as once the Pope Pope Adrian as I remember said of the Clergy in his time A vertice capitis ad plantam pedis nihil est sanum in toto ordine ecclesiastico I beseech you read the Petition regard us and relieve us The petition it selfe speaks thus To the Honourable the Commons House of Parliament The humble Petition of many the Inhabitants within His Majesties County of Kent MOst humbly shewing That by sad experience we doe daily finde the government in the Church of England by Archbishops Lord-bishops Deanes Archdeacons with their Courts Jurisdictions and Administrations by them and their inferiour Officers to be very dangerous both to Church and Common-wealth and to be the occasion of manifold grievances unto his Majesties Subjects in their consciences liberties and estates And likely to be fatall unto us in the continuance thereof The dangerous effects of which Lordly power in them have appeared in these particulars following 1. They doe with a hard hand over-rule all other Ministers subjecting them to their cruell authority 2. They do suspend punish and deprive many godly religious and painfull Ministers upon slight and upon no grounds whilst in the mean time few of them doe preach the Word of God themselves and that but seldome But they doe restraine the painfull preaching of others both for Lectures and for afternoon Sermons on the Sabbath day 3. They do countenance and have of late encouraged Papists Priests and Arminian both Bookes and persons 4. They hinder good and godly books to be printed yet they do licence to be published many popish Arminian and other dangerous tenents 5. They have deformed our Churches with popish pictures and suited them with Romish Altars 6. They have of late extolled and commended much the Church of Rome denying the Pope to be Antichrist affirming the Church of Rome to be a true Church in fundamentals 7. They have practised and inforced antiquated and obsolete ceremonies as standing at the Hymnes at Gloria patri and turning to the East at severall parts of the Divine Service bowing to the Altar which they tearm the place of Gods residence upon earth the reading of a second service at the Altar and denying the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to such as have not come up to a new set Rayle before the Altar 8. They have made and contrived illegall Canons and Constitutions and framed a most pernitious and desperate oath an oath of covenant and confederacy for their owne Hierarchicall greatnesse beside many other dangerous and pernicious passages in the said Canons 9. They doe dispence with plurality of Benefices they do both prohibite and grant marriages neither of them by the rule of Law or conscience but do prohibite that they may grant and grant that they may have money 10. They have procured a licencious liberty for the Lords day but have pressed the strict observation of Saints holidaies and do punish suspend degrade deprive godly Ministers for not publishing a Book for liberty of sports on the Sabbath day 11. They doe generally abuse the great ordinance of excommunication making sometimes a gaine of it to the great discomfort of many poore soules who for want of money can get no absolution 12. They claime their Office and jurisdiction to be jure divino and do exercise the same contrary to law in their own names and under their own Seales 13. They receive and take upon them temporall honours dignities places and offices in the Comonwealth as if it were lawfull for them to use both Swords 14. They take cognisance in their Courts and elsewhere of matters determinable at the Common law 15. They put Ministers upon Parishes without the patron and without the peoples consent 16. They do yeerly impose oaths upon Churchwardens to the most apparent danger of filling the Land with perjury 17. They do exercise oathes ex officio in the nature of an Inquisition even into the thoughts of men 18. They have apprehended men by Pursivants without citation or missives first sent they break up mens houses and studies taking away what they please 19. They do awe the Iudges of the Land with their greatnesse to the inhibiting of prohibitions and hindring of habeas Corpus when it is due 20. They are strongly suspected to be confederate with the Roman party in this Land and with them to be authors contrivers or consenters to the present commotions in the North the rather because of a contribution by the Clergy and by the Papists in the last yeer 1639. and because of an ill named benevolence of six Subsidies granted or intended to be granted this present yeare 1640. thereby and with these moneys to engage as much as in them lay the two Nations into blood It is therefore humbly and earnestly prayed that this Hierarchicall power may be totally abrogated if the wisdome of this Honourable House shall find that it cannot be maintained by Gods Word and to his glory And we your Petitioners shall ever pray c. Section V. Upon occasion of what I said of the late Canons I might easily have pressed the abolition of the founders and of the whole order of prelacy And surely if it had been my wish I would as others have so exprest my selfe Here followes my argument against these Canons and that chiefly aymed against the founders of them yet nothing of Root and Branch therein 14. Decemb. 1640. M. Speaker THat the late Canons are invalidous it will easily appeare and that they are so originally in the foundation or rather in the founders of them I will assume upon my selfe to demonstrate having first intimated my sense by way of preparative The Pope as they say hath a
in way of pursuit for this one argument that no Canons can bind the Laity where we have no voyce of our own nor choyce of the Clergy persons who do found them nor assent in the susception of them after they are framed Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet M. Speaker It remaines as a wish that every member of that meeting who voted these exorbitant Canons should come severally to the Bar of the Parliament House with a Canon book in his hand and there unlesse he can answer his Catechisme as I called it shew what is the name of their meeting and unlesse he can manifest that the Laity are no part of the Church Conceptis verbis in such expresse terms as that House should think fit to abjure his own ill-begotten issue or else be commanded to give fire to his own Canons Section VI UPon my motion November 23. it pleased the grand Committee for Religion to appoint a Subcommittee to receive complaints from oppressed Ministers which Subcommittee was shortly after made a Committee by order of the House It pleased the Gentlemen of this Committee to put the honour and the burden of the chaire upon me from hence severall Reports have been delivered in I shall only trouble the Reader with the first of them 18 Decemb. 1640. Mr. White This grand Committee for Religion did authorize a Sub-committee among other things to take into consideration the unjust sufferings of good Ministers oppressed by the cruell-used authority of Hierarchicall Rulers In this and in other points we have entred upon many particulars we have matured and perfected but one If we had lesse worke you should before this time have had more but complaints crowd in so fast upon us that the very plenty of them retards their issue The present Report which I am to make unto you is concerning M. Wilkinson a Batchellor in Divinity and a man in whose character do concur Learning Piety Industry Modesty Two hardships have been put upon him one at the time when he presented himselfe to receive Orders and that was thus The Bishop of Oxfords Chaplen M Fulham being the examiner for Bishops now do scorne to do Bishops work it belongs to himselfe he propoundeth foure questions to M. Wilkinson not taken out of the depth of Divinity but fitly chosen to discover how affections do stand to be novellized by the mutability of the present times The questions were these 1. Whether hath the Church authority in matters of faith 2. May the Kings booke of sports so some impious Bishops have abused our pious King to call their contrivance His Majesties book may this be read in the Church without offence 3. Is bowing to or before the Altar lawfull 4. Is bowing at the Name of Jesus lawfull The doctrine of the first affirmed will bring a dangerous influence upon our beliefe by subjecting our faith to humane resolutions The other three are disciplinarian in the present way of Novellisme As soon as M. Wilkinson heard these questions Lupum auribus he had a Wolfe by the eares And because unto these captious interrogatories he could not make a peremptory answer M. Fulham would not present your petitioner to the Bishop for ordination Thus you see Mr. White a new way of Simony Imposition of hands is to be sold if not for money yet to make a side a party a faction They will not confer Orders but upon such as will come in and make party with them in their new practices as is evident by these questions Take this in this kind as a leading case a first complaint more are comming and M. Wilkinson shall have the poore common comfort Solamen miseris socios habuisse I proceed to his second sufferance which was by the Vice-chancellor of Oxford for a Sermon preached in his course at S. Marys in Oxford Short to make he preached better then they were willing to heare the Sermon fell into the eares of a captious Auditour For this Sermon he stands now suspended by the Vice-chancellor from all the spirituall promotion that he had which was only the reading of a Divinity lecture in Magdalen-hall The Committee required the Vice-chancellor to send unto us the Sermon with his exceptions in writing They were brought and being received they are three in number great and weighty in the accusation none at all in proof Nay M. White there is nothing presented unto us wherein to finde a colour or a shadow whereby to make the accusation semblable and consequently the suspension just Ecquis innocens erit si accusare suffecerit The particulars insisted upon pickt and chosen out of that Sermon by the Vice-chancellor are three every one a hainous charge and the first sounding little lesse then treason Give me leave to read them as Mr. Vicechancellor hath sent them in writing 1. Our religious Soveraigne and his pious government is seditiously defamed as if his Majesty were little better then the old pagan persecutors or then Queen Mary 2. The government of the Church and Vniversity is unjustly traduced 3. Men of learning and piety conformable to the publicke government are uncharitably slandered The least of these being duly proved will make him worthy of suspension but if M. Wilkinson be guilty of the first he is not worthy to live The truth is the Vice-chancellor hath learned audacter criminare and fayling in proofe hath only fowled himselfe Your Subcommittee upon due consideration of the cause and circumstance have hereupon unanimously voted that M. Wilkinson is free from all and every of these exceptions made against his Sermon by the Vice-chancellor We are all of opinion that there is nothing therein that deserves Notam censoris nedum lituram judicis If M. White there be in a Sermon as there ought to be aliquid mordacis veritatis shall the Preacher be for this suspended His mouth shut up for preaching truth boldly It is contrary to their commission for Sir they have a great charter to speak freely it is warranted unto them Jure divino Saint Paul doth own it in his instruction of Timothy The words are I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine Here is our case exactly Here was reproofe here was exhortation here was preaching out of season to unwilling or to unprepared hearers and yet in season the Theame was necessary and fitted to their want of zeale But the only fault was that the time is come when sound doctrine will not be endured Thus the Committee found it thus have I faithfully but imperfectly reported it and do now subjoyn the opinion and request of your trustees to this grand Committee Mr. Wilkinson is innocent and free from this accusation He had just cause to petition The Vice-chancellor hath been without cause nay against cause rigid and oppressive The Sermon deserved
to inherit Glory in the Kingdome of Grace I feare that there are some Bishops do not know how sublime a vertue Christian humility is how full of Honour Every {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b Let the greatest be as the youngest that is the way to be a right Elder he must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c as he that serveth that is the way to be ministred unto He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} d a servant that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a prime or chiefe He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e a Minister that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a great one These antitheses our Saviour hath placed in the text upon the former occasion From hence may well be argued as a Corollary to these undoubted premisses that no Minister of the Gospell can lawfully assume hold or exercise that power which by the Lord of the Gospell is inhibited to his Ministers But our Saviour Jesus Christ Lord and onely head of his Church hath inhibited all temporall Lordship Magistracy and Dominion unto his servants in the lot of his Clergy Therefore no Minister of this Gospell may hold or exercise temporall Lordship or Dominion These words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It shall not be so among you doe so streighten the Bishops Miters that they sit uneasie on their heads to soften and as it were to line them for their ease the Bishops that are and would be all the papall and some of the Protestant doe quilt a gentler sence into these words then can beare analogy with the text They search the originall and pretend to finde another sence in our Saviours sentence The Text saies that the Lords of the Gentiles are called gracious Lords and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not tyrants but benefactors a title fit for the best Princes And yet this Text say they forbids not unto Clergy men the use and exercise of worldly titles power offices dignities Cōmands dominion Lordships c. but the abuse of them domineering tyrannizing with them not exercising and holding This they pretend to make firme out of the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which they would have taken in the worst sence of exorbitant power even for Tyrannizing So then they would teach us that Lord it they may and Lord it they may not Lord it they may with all pompe state power Lord it they may not with pride vanity and oppression But I shall easily prove this interpretation to be inconstant with the scope and analogy of the Context Will they frame their argument from the verbe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to rule or from the preposition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} added and united thereunto neither will serve And if the pompe of our Prelates cannot avoyd the power of this text they are downe for ever Let me therefore scan it to the full First {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to have rule or Lordship is never properly taken in that ill sence which they would here create as having unjust and oppressive power It is derived from the usuall and most frequent title of our Lord and Saviour whom the holy Scripture so often saluteth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord Here is no shadow for Tyranny The true sence of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is authoritatem habens one that hath authority being derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} authority which is known to be approved and ordained by God himselfe from whom all lawfull authority is derived Marke how well this word is sensed through all Authours Demosthenes calleth the heads and chiefe of the City {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A law in force and principall authority is called by Aeschines {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Galen calleth the chiefe and principall members of a mans body {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet one member doth not tyrannize over another Aristotle hath a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propria virtus that is a vertue properly or principally so called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is one that is Lord or master of himselfe not one that domineers over himselfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b The Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lords Supper c Saint Paul saith that d The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth he doth not meane that the Law is a Tyrant yet the word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e Christ both died and rose and revived that he might e be Lord both of the living and the dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} From {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord commeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lordship foure times mentioned by the holy Apostles but never taxed as a power tending to Tyranny but to be obeyed in them who duly are therewith invested as may be seen Eph. 1. 21. Coloss. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 2. 10. and Jude 8. Clearely then in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there is no print of usurpation or of oppressive and tyrannicall power If there be we are then well warned to beware of our Bishops who not onely owne the title {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but expressely plead for it as the f Bishop of Exeter in his late Episcopacy Secondly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the very word used by Saint Matthew and Saint Marke in these before alledged Texts whereby our Saviour forbiddeth his Apostles to exercise Dominion or Lordship is a compounded word of two {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is to rule as one that hath authority I may render it to be or to behave ones selfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} juxta Secundum according as one that hath authority This preposition in words compounded hath sometimes a signification of his owne sometimes none at all as in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. clearely it hath no speciall signification in this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} much lesse a force so exegeticall as to draw the lawfull power of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into the exorbitancy of a Tyranny That it hath no force here is by this apparent for that the speech of our Saviour recorded by the holy Ghost in S. Matthew and S. Marke by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are rendered by the same spirit in Saint
Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} So that plainely you must not pretend tyrannizing to be meant in the sence of one place except you can finde it also in both unlesse you will come to this that he forbiddeth tyranny in one place and worldly power in the other which if you do you grant the question This is enough alone yet for a further interpretation of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} looke in Genesis 1. 28. where God giveth unto man in the time of mans innocency the rule and dominion over all his creatures even whilest they all were a very good The name and word of power in that great Charter granted is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Now the time of this power granted the person to whom it is granted the creatures all good on whom it was to be exercised and above all the goodnesse of Amighty God who granted it do exclude all imagination of a Tyrannicall power and admit onely of a fatherly mastership over the new creatures of God The same word is used againe Psalm 110. 2. and there applyed to our blessed Saviour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rule thou in the middest of thine enemies Aquila hath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Invalesce prevaile over thine enemies Symmachus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} do thou correct or instruct thine enemies If then the frequent and constant sence of both {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be onely to have power and authority civill temporall and ordinary dominion and that all such authority is forbidden them how poore and weake is that evasion for our Bishops who would have this speech of our Saviour taken in a forced sence different from all these other places and would forge a new meaning as if our Saviour did not here forbid {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but onely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not a commanding Lordlinesse but a Tyrannous use of it when as it is hereby evident that Christ having ordained the Aristocracy of twelve did therein and in his reprehension here take away those severall benches of honour and that proud imparity of temporall power which our Bishops doe swell withall That the former speeches of our Saviour do destroy the Lordlinesse of our Prelates let us confirme it with a farther consideration which is thus Our Saviour Christ being a the wisdome of God must be thought to fit and suit his answer to the question and request made unto him by the two Apostles But what Bishop in defence of his usurped power dares affirme that two such admirable a Pillars as James and John should aske of such a Master iniquam dominationem a cruell dominion over their fellowes as if the meaning of their request were thus Master give us two leave to tyrannize over the other ten He had taught them before b Blessed are the meeke and c Learne of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart Can it then be thought that the beloved Disciple and his brother shall aske of the master of all humility a Tyrannicall power to oppresse their partners No man hath such a heart of Lead to thinke yet there have not wanted foreheads of Brasse to affirme so Certainly in that Kingdome of Christ by them as then supposed to be temporall they desired the honour to shine in civill dignity and eminency of power and authority which no question they intended to have exercised with all brotherly moderation yet are they and I wish our Bishops also were answered with his reprehension first d Ye know not what ye aske next with his absolute denyall and forbiddance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It shall not be so among you Will the practice of Saint Paul and the counsell of S. Peter serve for comment to this text Saint Paul saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a We Lord it not S. Peter himselfe an Elder to other Elders exhorteth them to feed the flocke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} overseeing it and that not by constraint {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b nor as being Lords Therefore my resolution stands cleare upon this vote That it may be declared that true and right Episcopacy is incompatible and inconstant with the authority of a secular jurisdiction They who give in their names to be labourers in Gods Vineyard must not goe out of the doore and thinke to returne at pleasure their whole time they have vowed to the great Master of the Vineyard and I finde no wages promised but to them who enter and continue there to the last houre c No man putting his hand to the plough and looking backe is fit for the Kingdome of God Let therefore this inhibitory Statute against Bishops holding the secular jurisdiction of temporall Lordships stand as it must stand irrepealeable {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It shall not be so among you Thus by vouching a divine Statute that Bishops should not be Lords I do plainely involve my selfe in this conclusion that Bishops are and ought to be Such is such ever was my sense so far am I from the Rooters God forbid that we should destroy the function of Episcopacy but God grant we may with his Majesties leave un-Lord them from a domineering power For to my sence Synesius doth very well deliver himselfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} To conjoyne the principality with the Priesthood is to close together things inconsistent And againe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Why doe you endeavour to joyne those things that are separated by God In this opinion I may receive as little thanks from the Prelates as I find full satisfaction in my own bosome Section VIII UPon thursday May 21. I subjected my selfe to the obloquy I suffer The Bill for Abolition of our present Episcopacy was pressed into my hand by S. A. H. being then brought unto him by S. H. V. and O. C. He told me he was resolved that it should goe in but was earnestly urgent that I would present it The Bill did hardly stay in my hand so long as to make a hasty perusall Whilst I was overviewing it Sir Edward Aiscough delivered in a Petition out of Lincolnshire which was seconded by M. Strode in such a sort as that I had a faire invitement to issue forth the Bill then in my hand Hereupon I stood up and said this which immediately after I reduced into writing Mr. Speaker THe Gentleman that spake last taking notice of the multitude of complaints and complaynants against the present government of the Church doth somewhat seeme to wonder that we have no more pursuit ready against the persons offending Sir the time is present and the work is ready perhaps beyond his
it To discharge my promise aforesaid I was then ready with freedome to have unbosomed my selfe as in this following discourse but that order being expired and not revived though moved for I aske pardon if I do interpose here that which was prepared for that day Excuse me Reader if I be willing fully to expose my selfe to the utmost The truth of my heart desires some friendly helpe to set me right if I be in any error I am sorry that I am prevented of publishing this in the house Master Speaker ME thinks I am now going to walke upon the ridge of a house a dangerous praecipice on either hand On the one side I must take heed that I speak neither more nor lesse then the inward dictate of my owne conscience on the other hand I shall be afraid to presume above your better judgements My path is narrow I must looke to my footing Dixi custodiam vias meas c. I said I will looke to my wayes that I offend not in my tongue Thus I preface because I foreknow that I shall speak to the dislike of some worthy members of this honourable House Sir Two questions are before us First in generall how farre an order of this House is binding deforis not upon our owne members here but upon the people the Kings subject abroad Secondly the validity and invalidity of your particular order of the eighth and declaration of the ninth of September last For the first I am clear in this opinion that we may enforce any thing that is undoubtedly grounded upon the law of the land Shew me that foundation and I will concurre with you in any resolution We may also declare against any thing that is introduced contrary to our lawes Farther then this I know no way unlesse it be by Bill and then I know no limitation no bound Thus in briefe for the generall I come now to your particular order Master Speaker I shall be afraid to arraigne your orders I have already beene controlled not for doing so but as if I had done so yet Sir I have often heard it in this House that we are masters of our owne orders and then I thinke we may in this place arraigne them that is question them try them approve alter reject or condemne them Was not our Protestation more sacred then an Order yet that was revised and to stop some objections new senced by us And I take it lawfull in this place to arraigne if that be the word even an act of Parliament and then a fortiori an order of this House Surely Sir I shall speake reverently of all your Orders when I am abroad I have done so of this I am resolved that my obedience shall therein be found good although my particular reason be rebellant to your conclusions This is my duty abroad but here in this House within these walles freedome is my inheritance and give me leave I pray at this time to use a part of my birth-right The seasonablenesse and the equity of your order both are controverted You all know this is a dangerous time to make any determinations in matter of Religion whether it be in the doctrinall or in the practicall part of Gods worship Men are now a dayes many of them more wise and some of them more wilfull then in former times The use and caution is this Let us take care that what we do we do with due and full authority I would have nothing new in this kinde but by authority of the three Estates and even then let us be wary that we suit the times with applications proper and seasonable Hear me with patience and refute me with reason Your command is that all corporall bowing at the Name Iesus be henceforth forborne I have often wished that we might decline these dogmaticall resolutions in Divinity I say it againe and againe that we are not Idonei competentes judices in doctrinall determinations The theame we are now upon is a sad point I pray consider severely on it You know there is a no other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved You know that this is b a Name above every name c Oleum effusum nomen ejus it is the Carroll of his own Spouse This Name is by a Father stiled Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde This it is the sweetest and the fullest of comfort of all the Names and Attributes of God God my Saviour If Christ were not our JESUS Heaven were then our envy which is now our blessed hope And must I Sir hereafter doe no exterior reverence none at all to God my Saviour at the mention of his saving Name Jesus why Sir not to do it to omit it and to leave it undone it is questionable it is controvertible it is at least a moote point in divinity But to deny it to forbid it to be done take heed sir God will never owne you if you forbid his honour Truly Sir it horrors me to thinke of this For my part I do humbly aske pardon of this House and thereupon I take leave and liberty to give you my resolute resolution I may I must I will doe bodily reverence unto my Saviour and that upon occasion taken at the mention of his saving Name JESVS And if I should doe it also as oft as the Name of God or Jehovah or Christ is named in our solemne devotions I doe not know any argument in Divinity to controll me M. Speaker I shall never be frighted from this with that fond shallow argument Oh you make an Idoll of a Name I beseech you Sir paint me a voyce make a sound visible if you can when you have taught mine eares to see and mine eyes to heare I may then perhaps understand this subtile argument In the mean time reduce this dainty species of new Idolatry under its proper head the second Commandement if you can And if I find it there I will fly from it ultra Sauromatas any whither with you The words are there Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image or any likenesse of any thing ullius rei that is in Heaven or in Earth Can you here find the Name of God in this description of Idolizing Surely sir my Saviour is neither {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nor {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of any thing there forbidden nor {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} neither Sculptile nor Simulachrum nor Idolum All these are here and none but these and every of these doth signify Spectrum aliquod some visible object And must do so for to speake properly an Idoll invisible is but imaginary Non sence When you can bring the object of one sence to fall under the notion and dishinguishment of another sence so that the eye may as well see a Name or sound as the eare can heare it then a name may be the object of