become more sensless of God's Glory Wrath and Indignation and the eternal Welfare of the pretious Souls of God's own People than was Balaam's dumb Ass The fatal mischief of such base Flattery and of such Pulpit Laws and Doctrines as it was foreseen punished and declared to tend to the ruine of this or any other Nation by the Wisdom of our Sage Predecessors so we did see it was fairly fulfilling in our late Days and times Such was the Imprudence nay Impudence of the then Court Clergy favourites and sycophants in those Days that tho' Sibthorp and Mainwaring were by King and Parliament so severely doomed to be punished yet no sooner was the Parliament up but by the Interest of those fawning time-servers the said Mainwaring and Sibthorp were preferred and Archbishop Abbot frowned upon because he would not License such pulpit destructive Doctrines And it is such only of the Clergy and other lewd Priests that are in contempt and vile esteem with the Nation whilst others true Church of England Men indeed are as highly in their Esteem and Veneration Thus to discover Crimes of some Priests is not to Calumniate the Church of England but that she may be purged of such Vermin The Reverend Dean of Rippon in his Sermon on 1 Kings 8.66 is of like Mind and Principles who therein declares That be the Kings Heart inclinable to any Religion or none yet it leaves him no Rival none to contradict him for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only declarative Kings must not be upbraided with their Promises which Promises are Donatives and it is reason the Donor should have the explaining of his own Mind that the King is major universis as well as singulis that the sole Legislative Power is lodged in the King and to him belongs the Interpretation of all Laws and Dispensing with them and that he may make a grant with a non obstante to them c. Pure Doctrine for a Reverend Dean to Preach and yet this pure Mungril Church of England Man preferred to be Bishop of Chester for these abominable Doctrines Whoever will seriously consider and compare those dismal Preachments and Prints destructive to all human Societies which our high Church of England Men pulpitted and printed heretofore and how highly they were disgusted by several Parliaments the greatest Wisdom of our Nation and dissatisfied therewith and how they stigmatized those very Doctrines and condemning the Authors of them to mulcts and punishments and yet when those Parliaments were up those very false Teachers were carressed with Pardons and Preferments whoever I say will compare those Doctrines with those Mr. Samuel Johnson printed and maintained even to the undergoing of Inquisition Torments and which the present Parliament and generality of the Nation now own justifie and practise with their Lives and Fortunes must confess that both the Reward and Punishment of the one and the other were mightily misplaced It is yet fresh in our own Memories when our Clergy were much more modest when but one Temporizing Sibthorp and another Court-Parasite Mainwaring durst Pulpit or Print such Doctrines under the Sacred Title of Apostolick Obedience Licens'd by the then Bishop of London and for which they received the just Censures of the King and the whole Kingdom in Parliament which in the truest sense is the Church or rather the Representative Governing part both of Church and State the Bishops and Priests being but Officers thereof which they do not love to hear of but now Confidence nay the Brow of Brass is the Temper and Complexion of very many Pulpits which Thunder every where with such Documents and Outcries as the High-ways to Preferments always having their Mouths half-cockt to let fly at all their gain-sayers not only in the Pulpits and Prints but also in all publick places and Meetings as Coffee-Houses Westminster-Hall Court of Request Lobbies in Parliament-time can witness whereby they have obtained a new name of Tory Church of England Men. They scorn to consider the black Characters they were then stigmatized and branded with by former Parliaments as serpens qui devorat serpentem fit Draco that they tended to the alteration and subversion of the whole Frame and Fabrick of the State and Common-wealth That they tended to the seducing of the Conscience of the King to increase his Royal displeasure against his Subjects to scandalize impeach and subvert the good Laws and Government of the Kingdom and Authority of Parliaments to avert his Majesty's Mind from calling of Parliaments to alienate his Royal Heart from his People to cause Jealousies Sedition and Divisions in the Kingdom c. Besides these Characters they held it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such a nature as to be handled onely in Parliament and that with moderation and therefore the said two Sermons called Religion and Allegiance were adjudged to be called in and burnt by the King's Proclamation the Author to make his submission and acknowledgment of his Crime to the imprisoned during the pleasure of the House to be fined 1000 l. suspended for three Years from the Exercise of the Ministery disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office and for ever disabled to Preach at Court A better Example to imitate and follow than either Fire and Faggot or the Address of the Universities or the Pulpit Doctrines of the 9th of September 1683 wherein both King Nobles Prelates and People were interessed in that Judgment Were such Tenets of such ill consequence by the Judgment of the whole Nation in those Days and are they not the same now where 's the difference The violation offered to plain Texts of Scripture by perverting the true and natural sense and meaning of them by such of the Clergy a Generation of Men that under the umbrage of that Sacred Canopy of Religion as being appointed Teachers and Ministers of the Gospel indued with the Power of Ordination set up for themselves in an opposite and distinct Interest separated from the rest or Body of the Church whereby they erect regnum in regno against the Purity and Sincerity of Religion and Interest of Mankind and this they have been upon the catch to compass by little and little almost ever since the Apostles Days and that by sinister means hath been the occasion of all Misgovernments by ascribing Divine Power to Kings and that they are accountable to none but God for any male-regiment False Prophets not considering if Rulers hearken to Lyes and such are all false glossers on Texts of Scripture all his servants will be wicked Prov. 9.12 such-like of the Clergy are the Time-servers and Court-Parasites that draw odium and contempt upon that Sacred Profession that ought to be had in Reverence by all the Sons and Daughters of Men. I could wish that they would first pull out the Beams that are in their own
King James the Parliament sitting Dr. Harsenet Bishop of Chichester Preached a Sermon at Whitehall upon Mark 12.17 Give unto Caesar c. wherein he insisted that Goods and Money were Caesars and therefore they were not to be denied unto him at which the whole Parliament stormed and took great Offence which that wise and peaceable Prince endeavoured to calm and qualifie by moderate Exposition thereof to the Lords and Commons for that purpose Assembled in the Banquetting-House viz. That the Doctor meant it according to the Laws and Customs of the Country wherein they did live This did mollifie but not satisfie and therefore the Sermon was burnt to satisfie their Indignation against such vile and destructive Doctrines for which he was well rewarded by being translated to Norwich Rush 177. then to York a shrewd sign that such Doctrines did please the Court tho' not the Parliament Likewise Mr. Ric. Montague who 21 Jac. printed an Answer to the late Gag of Protestants and about 22 Jac. printed another Book Entituled A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints 1 Car. 1. he printed another Entituled An Appeal to Caesar which Books contained so many Erronious and false Doctrines contrary to the very Articles agreed on in the Convocation held at London 1562. that they disobliged the whole Nation so much that the Commons House exhibited Articles against him 1 Car. and prayed that he might be punished This Cause began 21 Jac. when he had published a former Book called A new Gag for an old Goose and was then questioned in Parliament and committed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and ended in an Admonition only given to Montague by the Archbishop who disliked that Book and thought to suppress it but could not It was printed and dedicated to the King and his Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Oxford Rochester and St. Davids all mighty Church of England Men not Puritans whereby they espoused it as their common Cause and Concern and Montague is made his Majesties Chaplain yet his Majesty was so just and prudent as to leave him to the Parliament which did not please the Bishops and the Commons House did exhibit Articles against him and prayed his Book might be burnt and himself punished but the Bishops prevailed so much with the King on their own behalf that he was made first Bishop of Chichester and then Bishop of Norwich and his Book only called in by Proclamation yet so as all Answers thereunto by Preaching or Writing were forbidden For the several Answers made by Dr. Featly Dr. Gâ—ad in their Parallels by Mr. Burton Ward Yates Wetton Rouse in a Book called King James's Religion were all suppressed and some of the Printers questioned in the High Commission and Montague had a Royal Pardon which was inquired into 4 Car. by the Commons House In the same Parliament a Petition was exhibited from some Booksellers and Printers in London complaining of the restraint of Books written against Popery and the contrary allowed of by the only means of Dr. Land Bishop of London and divers of the Printers and Booksellers were sent for by Pursevants for Printing Books against Popery and the Licensing is only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains Ph. de Comines complained That tho' the King of France had a wise Council yet they rid all upon one Horse And must we be Priest-ridden by a Bishop and his Chaplains Upon which Mr. Selden declared That there was no Law to prevent Printing of any Books only a Decree in Star-Chamber and he advised that a Law might be made concerning Printing else one may be Fined Imprisoned prisoned and his Goods taken from him by vertue of such Decrees which is a great invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject About the same time also came out Cosins his Book of Seven Sacraments containing strange things against whom the Commons House exhibit 21 Articles whereof one was for calling some Gentlewomen Whores and Jades and Pagans and for tearing some of their Clothes when they were in their Seats in the Church because they would not bow to the Altar nor at the Name of Jesus c. Nalson 789. About this time the Clergy had wrought themselves with great Power and Interest at Court which encouraged the Inferior Clergy to great boldness and to pulpit any thing that might please as the very Road of Preferment Teach for Hire and Divine for Money Another that did appear bare faced and without any Vizard was one Sybthorp Vicar of Brackley scarce Batchellor of Art who preached Feb. 22. 1626. at Lent Assizes at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 Which Sermon called Apostolical Obedience tho' full fraught with many Theses destructive to all human Society yet had such countenance from the Court-Clergy that they procured his Majesty to send to the Archbishop of Canterbury to License it for the Press for the better grace of the business which his Majesty did feveral times by Mr. William Murrey but the Archbishop like a true Nathaniel refused to give it an Imprimatur but not without great Reasons humbly submitted to his Majesty for his so doing It was afterwards carried to Dr. Worrall Chaplain to the then Bishop of London who having hand over head Licens'd it afterward took advice of Councel who told him That if all in that Sermon were true there was no meum tuum left to Subjects and that he might be called to an Account for it and hanged Whereupon he blotted out his Name again and the Book was afterward Licens'd by Laud then Bishop of London who gave it a great and stately Allowance and caused it to be dedicated to the King and published upon his Majesties Commission for the Raising of Money by the way of Loan which was by such Royal Authority to give greater countenance thereto It taught that the King's Duty is to direct and make Laws that nothing may excuse from Active Obedience but what is against the Law of God or Nature or Impossible That all Antiquity was absolutely for Absolute Obedience in all Civil and Temporal Things Laud also allowed the Book called The Seven Sacraments with all its Errors which were afterwards expunged Another bold faced Priest that did appear about the same time was Dr. Manwaring who promoted the same Design in two Sermons preached before the King and Court at Wintehall called Religion and Allegiance in which he declared That the King was not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberty but that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without common consent in Parliament doth oblige the Subjects Conscience upon pain of Eternal Domnation that they who refused to pay this Loan offended against the Law of God and the Kings Supreme Authority and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion and that the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for Raising the of Aids and Subsidies c. for which he was impeached
When Paul writ his Advice about the incestuous Person he directed his Epistle unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours They perverted the Spiritual Arms of Excommunication which was used only for the Correction of Sinners into the defence of their Temporal Possessions The Law of Tithes is indeed Mosaically Divine but not a Law naturally Divine nor Christian and it obliged only that People at that time now it obligeth none In the many Troubles and Uproars occasioned by the Bishops confederating with the Popes against the Emperor the Bishops obtained the Publick Incomes and the Regal Rights or Duties and when the Differences were composed they had taken so firm Possession that the Princes were necessitated to grant them in feudo that which de facto they had usurped to themselves by which they acquired also the Titles of Dukes and Marquisses and Earls Many of them are still in Germany remaining such both in Name and Fact but in Italy in Name only The Canonists say That the Poor are obliged to pay Tithes for that which is given them by Alms in Begging at Doors and the Harlots are bound to pay Tithes of their gain by Whoredom The greatest and most frequent Legacies and Gifts are from Harlots Prohibitions for Alienating which were made against Clergy-men in favour of the Laiety are turned about against the Laiety in favour of the Clergy The Popes never failed to get any Abuse whatever to be justified by Doctrines Tho' the Popes ought to feed and not share the Sheep yet they make themselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Gods holy Church and People 1 Sam. 2.29 Having thus briefly declared the Government of the Church in general which is more at large set forth by Padre Paolo that incomparable Servite in his Treatise of Beneficiary matters let us consider how the Government of the Church of England now stands In brief thus First In the British times before the Conversion of the Saxons the particular modes of Administration as all things else concerning the British Church are very obscure But this is clear enough That the Popes Tyranny and Usurpation being then unborn and Princes enjoying their whole Power both in Ecclesiasticks and Civils nothing was ordained without their Authority and Permission who yet gave large Powers to their Clergy both for Debating and Judging in their own Consistories things proper to their Care and Inspection as at large appeareth in the Imperial Constitutions of Theodosius Justinian and others Seconldy The English Saxons Church being planted by Augustine the Monk through the care and direction of Gregory the Great did bear a respect to the Roman See but owned none of its Authority and Dominion in Ecclesiastical matters The Bishops and others of the Clergy assembled often and made Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions but not without the License and Allowance of the Kings who by their own Authority indeed by Ecclesiastical Usurpation and Tyranny enacted also many things of Religious and Ecclesiastical Practise as appeareth largely in the Saxon Laws collected by Lambert and others and Sir Henry Spillman's Councels Thirdly For about 1000 Years after Christ the English Church refused thus the Roman Yoke till that proud Priest Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury first was so bold as to shake off the King's Rule and Authority in matters Ecclesiastical denying him Obedience without the Condition of Salvo Ordine suo and so as much as in him lay destroyed the Liberty of the English Church and the King's Prerogative This appeareth from Anselm's 36 Epist to Paschalis Matthew Paris and others Peter Pence indeed were formerly paid out of respect to the Bishops of Rome but the Pope never obtained the Investiture of Bishops and the right of receiving Appeals and consequently that Soveraignty and Headship over the Church till such time as Becket being killed Henry the Second to get Absolution subjected himself and his Kingdom to the Roman Jurisdiction about An. 1172. Fourthly This Foreign Authority was after 200 Years restrained by the Statute of Praemunire and other Acts of Parliament yet the Pope still kept his Foot here tho' not his Body or rather his Hand which scraped up a World of Treasure The Canon Law was the Law of the Church Archbishops without the King's leave assembled their Provincial Synods the Decrees of which bound all Men by no other Authority than that meerly Ecclesiastical and provided that they were not contrary to the Jus commune as it is called of the Pope rather than that of the King Great were the Priviledges and Exemptions of the Clergy from Secular Courts and Jurisdictions as is to be seen in Articuli Cleri and other old Laws and the History of those times abundantly testisie Fifthly This Exorbitant and Foreign Power was in part banished by Act of Parliament in Henry VIII his time Now it s provided that the King should be ordained Supreme Head or Chief and Supreme in Ecclesiastical Affairs as the Jewish Kings of old and the Ancient Christian Princes were and it is made High Treason to deny it Now consideration being had of the old Canon Law it was considered how to reform and reduce it to such a temper as would sute with this new Alteration and it was then thought fit that it should rather be quite Abolished and a new intire Body collected for the Government of the Church Sixthly To this purpose it was Enacted that Thirty or more Persons should be deputed by the King to make this Collection But it being better to live where nothing than where every thing is lawful they were not so rash to run down Root and Branch and take away the old Building before a new one was modelled and therefore till this Model should be prepared and confirmed in Parliament it was Enacted That the Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws should stand in the same force as formerly they did at that time except in such Cases wherein they thwarted the Laws of the Land Seventhly This new body of Ecclesiastical Laws was by Edward the Sixth attempted and an Essay made by Dr. Haddon since printed by the name of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum but never was perfected nor confirmed by Act of Parliament and therefore the Canon Law is still in force as formerly but where it contradicts the Law of the Land Thus is the Crown with much ado pluckt out of the Paws of the Ecclesiastical Man of Sin and restored in Parliament to its Ancient Rights in matters Ecclesiastical It being by Act of Parliament Established That the Clergy should not Assemble without the King's License and Authority By all which it appears That the Kingdom the Church of England now hath a Supreme independent Right and Power within it self to make Coerceive Laws for the Welfare of it self without running to Rome or to
command was to have peace one with another Mark 9.50 and the unity of the spirit is preserved by the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 But the little self-ends of Earth and Interest of the Preferments Ambition and Domination is the cause of Controversies Animosities and Contentions to which Priests are as subject as others 2. I say There were false Prophets among the Jews and was foretold that as there were false Prophets among them so there should be false teachers among us 2 Pet. 2.1 And St. Paul forewarned the Bishop of Ephesus That out of your own selves should arise men speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 and Christ himself when he cautioneth us to beware of false Prophets by calling which shall be found false by their teaching St. Paul also granteth many to be ministers of Christ by profession and yet in words and deeds the ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. such false Apostles saith he are deceitful workers and transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and for certain these Priests of such different Perswasions Principles and Doctrines cannot both be in the right and therefore good Reason that if poor Laicks are to live and die Eternally according to the Doctrines our Pastors pulpit to us it is but just and right that we should try the Spirits as commanded John 1.41 and judg of Doctrine as directed Cor. 10.15 for certainly we are not to live by the deputy Faith of our Officers but by our own Faith and must stand and fall accordingly Now seeing our Teachers cannot agree Doctrines as in point of Resistance and Passive Obedience taking and refusing new Oaths Ceremonies Conformity as well as in many others they do not and both cannot be in the right then are their Flocks in a very sad condition Pulpit-rebels both to the one and to the other as the one or the other prevails for neither are Infallible so that we are clearly left to be our own Judges and both Priest and People have no other Divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for Holy living or decision of Controversies in Matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other within either Priest or People But the Illumination of the Spirit so interpreting the same Scriptures as warrantable both to Priests and People and to such whose Consciences they can so perswade can have no other ground in matters of Religion but only from the same Scriptures and these not being possible to be understood without Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in another and therefore the Scriptures being the only infallible Rule of life and of judging Controversies and the Light within us no farther Light than wherein it agrees with this Word if it do not it is Darkness not Light Now these things considered will justifie our taking up the Cudgels for our own Defence and Justification in these great and dangerous Disputes having Souls Lives Fortunes Liberties to save and enjoy as well as Ecclesiasticks Though the Church of England be the best constituted Church in the World wherein the lively Oracles of God are purely Preached and full fraught with many very worthy pious and learned Priests and Prelates yet there are amongst them many false Prophets and no wonder was not there a Judas among the Twelve and false Teachers nay very many time-servers that pimp for Domination Honors Preferments and other vile and base ends and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow any thing stick at nothing by School-quirks and false Reasonings perverting Scriptures to rob whole Kingdoms of their Laws Liberties and Religion that daub with untempered Mortar flatter Profaneness court and allure Royalties to Perjury and Robbery whilst they Preach Quod libet licet and Sovereignty absolutely Absolute to be in Kings and their unaccountableness betray Truths smothering and dissembling the Strictness and Purity of holy Ways I contend not here against the lazy Drones that suck the Hony from the Bees by their Non-residency nor against the Dammees Euphoniae gratia these are personal Sins and hurt others only by Example and such there are but my contest is against those Ecclesiasticks who living and had interest at the upper end of the World not only usurped more Powers than they had right unto but abused those Powers and that Interest they had at Court from which abuse of Power pulpiting Divine Prerogatives of Kings beyond measure their unaccountableness misconstruing and extending Passive Obedience beyond its just Bounds Which have been the Harrangues of Prints and Pulpits till their own Copiholds came to be concerned come all the disturbances of Government in Church and State to whole Kingdoms No wonder then if contempt be poured on such of the Clergy and on such of them only as Preach such destructive Doctrines as deserve the severe Reprimand of whole Kingdoms for thereby all Laws Liberty Property Religion and Honesty would be trampled under foot Therefore it 's no Crime in the Laity to stand up in the defence of their own Rights and Concerns As it is the duty of Priests Ministers of the Gospel to teach us with Wisdom and Knowledge so it is our duty to esteem them highly in love if they do so for their Works sake and they that labour in the Word and Doctrine are worthy of double Honour and double Revenue they cannot have too much but they that do not Teach us with Knowledge and Understanding are worthy of neither but when they abuse and usurp Powers they have no right unto and claim them as their due by the most Potent Claim in the World Jure Divino monstrum horrendum Witness Excommunication because there hath as of old so of more late Days so much ill use made thereof of which I shall only say with Erastus de Excommunicatione that there is no such thing as it is now used in all the Scripture in Sanctis Scripturâ—s nullum extat mandatum sed commentum est pure humanum p. 67. Which renders the Execution thereof abominable To wrest Scripture to maintain such unlawful Powers doth very ill become the Priests of the most High God As it is their Duty to Teach so it is our Priviledge and Right to judge of their Doctrines yea and to put them in mind and admonish them also of their duty Coloss 4.17 Mistake me not as if this were bent against the Bishops only no no Papist Presbyter Independant are all to blame in this Point and it 's no excuse to us if we are deceived by the cunning Crastiness of our Ghostly Fathers whereby they lie in wait to deceive Let us look a little back no farther than our own Times and Memories and let them stand or fall in the good Graces of the Kingdom according to their Merits or Demerits Rushworth 644 1628. In the time of
deny their Communinn that are as capable of Heaven without the use of them as themselves with the use of them To the Council met at Jerusalem Acts 15. consisting of Apostles and all the faithful in the Church and to the Holy Ghost it seemed good to lay upon them no greater burthen than things necessary yet some of our Mungril Church of England Men taking themselves to be wiser than either the Apostles or the Holy Ghost have dared to impose Ceremonies and Observances no way necessary nor conducing to the Saving of Souls or Edification yea and more strictly requiring Conformity unto them punishing more severely the breach of them than the breach of Gods Precepts Tho' to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly befal any Christian and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any worldly Interests yet so active is the Zeal of Priests of enlarging their own Phylacteries their Greatness and Impery that they make no Bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns which in plain English is to make Godliness wait upon Gain Pride and Ambition Let us now also add and consider the grand Pique these Priestly Court Parasites pure Church of England Men have had against Puritans the sober and thinking part of the Nation and Puritanism of old and the same under the names of Whigs and Phanaticks the Arts and Tricks they have used to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion by reviling their Persons decrying and suppressing Lectures on the Week-days Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Conventicles and giving encouragement to Idleness Looseness and Prophaness in the People Witness the Book allowing Sports on the Lord's Day Printed 1633. and the Countenance given thereto by the then Court Prelates and Prelatical Priests who procured a Royal Proclamation to justifie the same And Archbishop Laud sequestred Mr. Wilson four Years for not Reading that Book and prosecuted him in the High Commission Court for not Reading the Prayers of the last Edition commanded by the Archbishop Nalson 571. Who yet Countenanced Publick Sports on the Lord's-Day by the Examples of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the Publick Dances of our Youth upon Country Greens on Sundays after the Duties of the Day so Bishop Bramhall otherwise a pious Person and stout assertor of the Protestant Religion against Popery who sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of People who likewise takes the promiscuous License to unqualified Persons to read the Scripture to be far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists p. 641 642 643. This may be the Court Dialect and Prelatical Gospel but certainly not Apostolical for the same Equity for keeping the Sabbath strictly yea very strictly not Jewishly Ceremonious is as incumbent and obliging unto us under the Gospel at this Day as to the Jews under the Law I cannot understand such Liberty to be keeping of the Sabbath but rather a polluting of it Isai 56.2 6. Keeping of the Sabbath is not to rest only from bodily Labour but to abstain from doing our own pleasures and our own ways and not speaking our own words Isai 58.13 14. and abstaining from the delights of Sin as well as from the Works of our ordinary Callings What! weary of strict keeping the Sabbaths here and yet presume on the expectation of an Eternity which shall be nothing else but Sabbaths Certainly our Sabbaths here are but an Earnest and a Pledge of that Eternal Sabbath which we desire to Celebrate with Saints and Angels in Heavenly Places I wonder how so Pious a Prince and of such mighty Insight and Understanding could be so imposed upon by his Prelates and to Countenance such a Book by his Proclamation I wonder also how Bishop Bramball could shew such dislike of unqualified Persons Reading the Scriptures when to search them is a Precept Universal and to judge of Doctrines also and whereas there 's nothing in them of absolute necessity to Salvation to be believed but what is very obvious and intelligible to every indifferent capacity Bold Church of England Men that dare to be wiser than Almighty God by taking upon them to foresee Dangers that God never did foresee and to prevent them by such Methods as thwart God's own Appointments Beyond all peradventure such Doctrines such Practices such Methods can never conduce to the Benefit and Service of God's Holy Church and Chosen or to the Putity or Propagation of the Gospel but are rather a muzling of their Mouths who should tread out their Corn which should bring forth the food of Life Everlasting unto the People However tho' there have been such Priests and Prelates that have so acted yet I am not of their Opinion who therefore deemed them Papists in Heart No no some of them have given abundant Testimony to the contrary by their worthy Works as of Archbishop Laud Bramball and others But it is too plain that they improved what Interest they had at the upper end of the World towards tho Setting up and Advancing the Power Impery and Grandeur of the Church Men and to keep the Laiety under and did not improve their Interest towards advancing the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel or towards the making of a high way of Holiness through out the Land that way-fairing men though fools might not err therein Isai 35.8 that being certainly their greater Duty to have bestowed themselves and their Interest on the benefit and Service of the Church rather than of the Pride and Ambition of Church Men. Thus much by way of Caution to prevent the like for the future being of Opinion that the Persecuting Dissenters and Conventicles is as National a Sin as Drinking Drabbing and Swearing and ought to be as nationally to be lamented both by Clergy and Laiety For I must confess my self absolutely ignorant of any one thing or signal Constitution from the very beginning of the Reformation to this very day to which the Dissenters were required to conform and submit that was essentially necessary either to the Salvation of Souls or to the more pure and sincere Preaching of the Gospel unto which they deenid their Conformity or Submission They would yet very much oblige us if they would make known unto us such Constitutions if any such there be for if in truth they have not been such then the Imposers not the Dissenters are the Separatists and Schismaticks for tho very self same Reasons that the Papists are Schismaticks not Protestants And I am afraid that it is not Conscience but finister ends that makes Prelates contend so out of measure for things no way Essential to Salvation According to St. Cyprian In sinu sacerdorum ambitio dormit ibi sub umbrâ recubat in Secreto Tholami
the Ark c. 1 Chron. 13. which Officers because they represented the People it is said the People came together so the People rescued Jonathan whom Saul had appointed to die 1 Sam. 14.45 by which it appears that an Appeal did lie from the King to the People So the Kingdom of Israel was rent from Rehoboam by the People by which it appears that the Synedrium of Seventy one at Jerusalem had the Authority that as Kings did judge particular Persons so these had the Power to judge Kings The Hogen-Mogen words of Sovereign and Supreme are but verba solennia words of Course and Complemental but confer no Power what Great and Sovereign Powers Kings by Right have are given and limited by Laws of common Consent and not Absolute what other Laws of Sovereignty there are of Right that belong to them is past all Understanding absolute Sovereignty in Kings hath no warrant beyond any Divine Law that belongs only to God who is Lord of all the Kingdoms of the Earth And though Appeals to all the People may be Nonsence yet it is very good Sense to Appeal to their Epitomy their Representatives their Ephori and Tribunes to the Laws and to the Legislators which are the Supreme and Sovereign Power of the Nation and have an equal share in making our Laws The Commons House 4. Car. 1628 having prepared a Petition to present to his Majesty sent it to the Lords for their concurrence who returned it adding these words viz. With due regard to leave intire the Sovereign Power wherewith your Majesty is intrusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People Which terms of Sovereign Power were so distasteful to the Commons as looking being free from any condition and that they were no part of the Law no Parliamentary words that they weakned Magna Charta and all our Statutes that by intendment and implication they might give a Sovereign Power above all those Laws c. and therefore would by no means admit thereof tho' strongly contested for by the Lords Rush 568. These and such like were the things that made the Parliament in 1641 Remonstrate to his Majesty That the most Publick and Solemn Sermons before his Majesty were either to advance Prerogative above Law or decry the Property of the Subject and thereby lay a foundation of difference between the King and his People or else Invectives to make those odious who sought to maintain the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom and to have them weeded out of all Commissions or other Imployments of Power in the Government that the Bishops and others of the Clergy did by their Suspensions Excommunications Deprivations and Degradations of divers painful learned and pious Ministers oppress his Majesty's Subjects that the High Commission Court and the Courts of the Bishops did exceed in sharpness and severity little less than the Romish Inquisition that those were fittest for Ecclesiastical Preferments and soonest obtained them who were most virulent against Godliness and Honesty and used means to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion and to increase and maintain ignorance looseness and prophaness in the People that the Archbishops and other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation by a new Commission and turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard of Presumption they made Canons that contained in them many matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Altar-worship and those other Superstitions and Innovations which they formerly introduced without warrant of Law They imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesty's Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintaining their own Tyranny and laid a great Tax upon the Clergy for supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very affectionate to the War with Scotland which was the beginning of all our future mischief and by themselves stiled Bellum Episcopale all their pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with several censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the well affected People of the Kingdom and left an easie passage to their own design of Reconciliation with Rome Remonstr Decemb. 15. 1641. This is no new way of Remonstrating against such ill Church of England Men designing to enslave a free Kingdom by their Doctrines For in the Parliament 1625 the House of Commons did Article against Mr. Ric. Montague that he might be punished and his Book burnt for his impious and profane scoffing at Preaching Meditations and Conferrences which in plain English is Conventickling Pulpits Lectures Bible and all shew of Religion and for casting the odious name of Puritans on Orthodox Men. Rushworth 215. And in the Parliament 1628 the Commons did Remonstrate against Dr. Neal Bishop of Winton and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells 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 oppose both those which is the diligent Teaching and Instructing in the true Knowledge and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers how conformable soever and Peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage they be yet the preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious Courses and Punishments and hardly permitted to Lecture Rushworth 215 633 634. What were they also in their Opinion but high and mighty Church of England Men against whom the Parliament 4 Car. 1628. did Declare and Remonstrate That with a wicked and malicious intention to seduce and misguide the Conscience of the Kings most Excellent Majesty touching the observation of the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom and of the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects to incense his Royal Displeasure against his good Subjects so refusing to scandalize subvert and impeach the good Laws and Government of this Realm and the Authority of the High Court of Parliament to Alienate his Royal Heart from his People and to cause Jealousies Sedition and Division in the Kingdom who did Teach that his Majesty is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects And that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes and other Aids upon the People without common consent in Parliament doth so far bind the Consciences of Subjects that they cannot refuse the same without peril of Eternal Damnation that those who refused the Loan did therein offend against the Law of God against his Majesty's Supreme Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures that Authority of Parliament
to other Churches where they were received as their own Clergy and sometimes when some Minister of their own died a stranger if eminently worthy succeeded in his Ministry and was then said to be Incardinated whereas he that was first exalted to an Office was said to be Ordinated or Ordained but he who was disposessed of his own and provided with another was called Incardinated This began in Italy Hence in process of time came Cardinals from Parish Priests to be now equal to Kings and had their maintenance out of the common Stock accordingly of which there were Episcopi Cardinales Presbyteri Cardinales Rome and Ravenna being then the richest Churchs received most of the eminent strangers and therefore they had most Cardinals and they chose the most eminent Men strangers and were called Cardinals In Rome the name remains to this Day in Ravenna it lasted until 1543 and then was taken away by Paul the Thid. It is wonderful to see how from such a low beginning they have grown to such an excessive height even from that which had neither Degree nor Order in the Church but brought in by chance or rather by Clergy-craft and subtilty is raised to be so Supreme in the Church as we see it now a days Aequiparantur Regibus was the common saying of the Court Innocent the Fourth Anno 1244 gave them the red Hat and Paul the Second gave them the red Cap the Regulars excepted which was also granted to them by Gregory the Fourteenth Tho' at first none were Ordained without a Title which continued until a little before the Year 500 yet afterwards the Bishops Ordained without a Title or any Office and therefore without Benefice which sort of Clergy in progress of time grew so excessively numerous that thence arose a Multitude of Indecencies Irregularities and Scandals which did more especially arise from the desire of many to become Clergy men for increase of their Livelihood and to enjoy the Exemptions granted by Princes the other from ambitious Prelates desiring to have a multitude of Subjects whom they might command which disorder yet remains and makes the People loose their great Respect for Religion and their Charity Before the Council of Trent such Bishops swarmed but now much lessened Tho' so great Inconveniences and Irregularities arose by Ordaining without a Title yet the Jesuits will have it that the Pope may Ordain without any Title either true or feigned whereby the Reverence to that Order hath abated in respect to that it had when Ecclesiastical Orders were only Ordained to Offices for which reason all them resided and dwelt upon their Charges which could not be left vacant there being none to supply them all being occupied in their own Likewise the distinctions of Benefices Compatibile Incompatabile found out only to cheat the World was then unknown whether fatter or leaner the Possessor was obliged to serve it personally without Unions Reserves Commenda's and Devices found out only by Clergy Craft to avoid the old and best Canons and to bring all into the Popes Power There were many Provisions made by divers Princes to prevent the many Abuses occasioned by the Ambitious and Covetous Clergy but all in vain Clergy-craft quickly found out Distinctions and Subtilties and coined Evasions to avoid both Canons and Laws made for Redress of such and other Abuses which were before the Year 800. About which time Charlemagn having reduced under his Obedience Italy France and Germany reformed in some measure the Abuses in Ecclesiastical Affairs reducing them to an Uniformity which in divers places have been variously used renewing many of the old Canons and Councels worn out of use by Clergy Craft and making of Ecclesiastical Laws for the distribution of Benefices as they ought and partly restored unto the Parishes the Possessions which the Bishops had usurped unto themselves Ordaining that every Priest should have a sufficient Benefice according to that saying Beneficium datur propter officium He restored also to the Monks that Power of chusing their own Abbot He Established also That the Bishops ought to Ordain those Priests who were presented by the People of the Parishes He Established also the Pope of Rome in like manner as he had been instituted when the Emperors of the East had the Dominion over Rome viz. That the Pope should be Elected by the Clergy and the People and the Decree of the Election should be sent to the Emperour upon whose Approbation the elected was consecrated but to the Honour of the Clergy be it remembred there was never any Law made to remedy any of their Abuses but they soon found out a way to evade them About this time the Custom of giving Tythes unto Parish-Churches passed out of France over into Italy which soon were abused as well as other Provisions made by the free-will Offerings of the Faithful and so are to this Day But what should I say more of their Abuses in other things as of Abbies and Abbots Monkery and Monasteries Annates universally reputed grievous and condemned yet justified by some their Arms Spiritual Expectancies or Reversions Benefices Pluralities Comenda's Unions Reservations Cardinals Coajutorship Decretals Donations Elelection of Popes Priests Bishops and Deacons Exemptions Mendicants Regresses Indulgences Quindeniums Investitures Reserves Pensions plentitude of Power Non-obstante's Devolution Canons Dominion of Goods Ecclesiastical Resignations Renuntiations Alienations Reservations Symony Vacancies Titles of Dukes Marquisses and Earls given to Bishops c. but that the Clergy in those times did abuse that Power they had in the Gospel endeavouring rather to acquire Empire Grandeur and Temporal Estates by any indirect means than with Paul to have made the Gospel of Christ without charges by preaching the Gospel willingly A woe always attending the neglect thereof though they which minister about holy things ought to live of the things of the Temple and that they which wait at the Altar ought to be partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 16 17 18. It is an Observation of godly Men That in those times the Court would never be induced that a gainful Abuse should be abolished or corrected until it had prepared a greater and more profitable one So great Authority tends to no good because it appears thereby that almost all the Abuses have been introduced From hence proceeded the Commendums Pensions Regresses Unions Resignations Expectancies Reservations yearly Payments Quindeniums and other kinds which no Man defends The Government of the Church was first Democratical all the Faithful being present in the chiefest Councels and Deliberations Thus we see that all were present at the Election of Matthias unto the Apostleship and in the Election of the Six Deacons and when St. Peter received Cornelius a Heathen Centurion unto the Faith he gave an account of it to all the Church Likewise in the Councel celebrated in Jerusalem the Apostles the Priests and the Faithful Brethren were present and the Letters were written in the name of all the Three Orders
magis Deo quam heminibus Acts 5. What is this but to dally and to play fast and loose with Scripture by creating subtilties and distinctions where there needs none it being always to be understood of unjust Powers and Commands and to fight against Shadows to wrangle with their own Conjectures Consider also that when a Prelate so a Magigistrate in his Sphere abuseth the Power of the Keys he doth more disparage and injure the Keys and offends God more grievously than doth any Man subject to his Jurisdiction when he obeys not his Prelate And hence it follows that in such-like cases it is best to resist the Prelate to his Face as St. Paul did Peter The Reason is demonstrable for that a human Praecept subject to Errors ought not to come in Competition nor be laid in the Ballance with an express Precept from God Besides it is a greater sin to abuse Power than to disobey for that one abuse of Power and Authority gives a greater scandal to the World and is a cause of greater mischief than many disobediences and the Person of the Superior as more eminent is much more bound by his greater Obligation to God to do his Duty St. Paul'sgrave Rebuke to St. Peter instructs Inferiors how they ought to behave themselves towards their Superiors and no scandal can arise from such behaviour but what is taken not given Therefore Cajetan in his Tract De Authoritate Papae Concilii affirms That he ought to resist the Pope to his face when he abuseth his Authority and saith Abusui potestatis qui destruit obviam eant congruis remediis non obediendo in malis non adulando non tacendo sed arguendo Advocando illustres ad increpandaum exemplo Pauli c. The conclusion is certain That as they that obey not their Superiors commanding according to his Precepts that gave them their Authority are to be condemned so the Superiors that abuse the same Authority Notwithstanding such convincing Reasons yet it is wonderful to consider with what confidence the mighty Potentates of the Earth both Ecclesiastical and Civil do assume and appropriate to themselves Authority to lay that blame on others which indeed and in truth doth belong to and proceed from themselves and from their own haughty and false Opinions of I know not what Divine Authority to be appropriate to themselves that when they command what they have no Authority to do or command unlawful things if disobeyed yet have the impudent confidence to lay the fault on the disobedient and account and persecute them as Factious Schismatical Rebellious what not Whereas it is manifest to the whole World and Histories swell with examples of Commotions Tumults Rebellions as they are pleased to call them that have their primary Origine and Spring from the abuse of Power in the Governors Look but a little back to the very beginning of the Separation that fell out some hundred Years since in Germany which took not its Original from any disobedience of the Subjects but out of an abuse of Power and greatness in the Prelates backt and countenanced by the Civil Power It is very well known that it grew out of indiscreet and exorbitant Extortions and extravigant Fashions of granting Indulgences c. Whence began those great Differences betwixt Pope Paul the Fifth and the State of Venice but from the Abuse of Power Pride Insolence and Avarice of the Papacy and so adjudged by the Papists themselves Most strange that the Pope should claim Authority to innovate and change the course of Judicature and Laws of another Nation that had been used and established more than Twelve hundred Years past and the Laws that had their Original Three hundred years before wherein if he had prevailed what would the end have been even to have stripped all the Laity of their Laws Liberties Honour and their Goods as they have done already of their true Religion And in fine some few who have nothing else but the bare name of Church-men might without fear of Justice or controul offend other Men both in their Lives Honour and Estate As in the Ecclesiastical so in the Civil Government run to and fro far and near through the Christian World conslt all Histories consider with your exactest Minds and Judgments and you will certainly find all the Seditions Confusions and those called Rebellions have most especially been occasioned and proceeded from the abuse of Power and that the best and truest Historians assert the same What made the United Provinces quiet under the easie Government of Queen Mary their Governess to shake off the Spanish Yoke but the abuse of Power by the Duke of Alva raging against them with great insolence violently oppressing them by illegal Taxations c. What made Hungary revolt against the Emperor but his abuse of Power abridging their Liberties and not keep Covenants and Agreements most solemnly made with them What made the Subjects of the Duke of Savoy about the Year 1559 to take up Arms in their own Defense against him but his abuse of Power forbidding them by the instigation of the Pope upon pain of Death to exercise their Religion How faithfully the many Solemn Treaties and Conditions and Edicts of Peace for the Liberties and Religion of the Hugonots have been kept is so notorious that it 's enough only to name them v. Mars Gallicus I have now done most heartily wishing that Divines would not be so sawcy with the Word of God as to put corrupt and false glosses upon plain places of Scripture since to fall into open Errors repugnant to the Scriptures is a crime so great that whosoever falleth into it hath few sparks either of Godliness or true Knowledge For to err manifestly against plain places of Scripture is the greatest blindness that can happen to Christians and the greatest chastisement that God can impose in punishment of him whosoever shall make use of Divine Authority to serve his own turn in sinister ends for sublunary and worldly Interests I shall conclude with Judicious Hooker viz. That impossible it is that any should have compleat lawful Power over-Commonwealths but by consent of Men or immediate appointment of God because not having the natural Superiority of Fathers their Power must either be usurped and then unlawful or if lawful then either granted or consented unto by them over whom they exercise the same or else given extraordinarily from God unto whom all the World is subject That naturalDefence requires no Jurisdiction at all and doth not appertain to Magistrates only but to private Man also and that it is impossible that lawful Defence can be the Sin of Rebellion And therefore to conclude That they are to be condemned that obey not their lawful Superiors commanding lawful things lawfully and those Superiors to be condemned that abuse the Laws Powers Priviledges and Prerogatives of those who gave them such Authorities Opus exegi Liberavi animam meam FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 22. for Paetus Thrasea read Thraseas Paetus l. 35. r. abire p. 4. l. 2. been as of old so p. 5. l. 43. r. for the raising of p. 8. l. 32. dele to be l. 37. r. denied l. 44. r. fraudulenter se occultat p. 9. l. 30. is absol l. 55. r. commonly were refared ult dele were p. 14. l. 8. r. proceeding for hath proceeded p. 15. l. 5. r. abused l. 24. r. accused for abused l. 37. dele now p. 16. l. 2. r. metamorphosed l. 53. r. villaines antep r. think it should p. 17. l. 37. r. Talionis l. 43. dele and. p. 22. l. 1. r. during for ever l. 8. r. or so much as of p. 23. l. 14. r. Panagyrist p. 25. l. 21. dele Pauntheses l. 41. r. that rich City Marcion p. 27. l. 1. dele the first And. p. 28. l. 32. r. it for them p. 31. l. 4. dele 32. p. 32. l. 39. dele 32. p. 35. l. 60. r. Clergies