Thus this modest Apologist puts in their exception a Pag. 20. against our Church for committing the power of Excommunication to men that are not in holy Orders Which is notoriously false and the contrary I could shew him hath been acknowledged in their own Books But he needed have look'd no further than to a Book published not many years ago concerning the Practice in the Ecclesiastical Courts Where he might have been informed in express terms b Francisci Clark Praxis in Curiis Eccles Titul 20 an 1666. That the Judge of the Court having pronounced a man contumacious and decreed that he is to be excommunicated in punishment of his contumacy next proceeds to read the Excommunication if he be in holy Orders Otherwise he delivers it to be read by the Priest appointed by the Archbishop for this purpose Which Priest to this effect sits judicially with the Judge himself ☞ Of if he never heard of this Book yet he hath heard I am sure of the Third Part of the Friendly Debate Where if he had been pleased to read a Book before he had censured it he might have found this bold Error corrected in Philagathus and so avoided it himself But I see plainly and am heartily sorry for it there are more of that mans evil humour who love to talk of things upon Record out of their own drowsie imaginations The general cry against the continuation of the Friendly Debate was that it was a breach of the Act of Indemnity or Oblivion which was raised meerly out of their own brains that are stuft with words more than things without consulting the Act it self But this cry Philagathus followed with open mouth and now he hath got another to bear him company who deserves in like manner to be chastized for his bold folly Especially since he mentions this so often first in his Preface then at least five c Pag. 34 73 106. 112 150. times in his Book and in one place affirms my Book seems to be a continued breach of the Act of Indemnity in the very design of it And all this after I had evidently demonstrated in the further Continuation which he also mentions p. 150. that whatever it seems to him this is a gross and impudent Calumny But I shall spare him notwithstanding this boldness and have I assure him thrown away those apt illustrations of his Vanity which offered themselves because he hath more civility in him than the sober Answerer I shall only desire him to follow his own advice which he gives me on this occasion d Pref. p. 8. viz. To do justice upon himself and execute his own Book in the flames for committing such crimes For I must tell you there are a great many more of them He tells you confidently that the Notes commonly called the Assemblies came out before the Assembly convened p. 15. By which I see he is no better skill'd in Ordinances than in Laws For the Ordinance for their convention bears date June 12. 1643. requiring them to meet the next first of July And the Annotations came not out till two years after in 1645 e So it should be Printed in the Friendly Debate not 1646. But you may think perhaps they did not convene at the time appointed Know therefore that on June 24. 1643. all Ministers were required by an Order to pray on the next Fast for a blessing on the Assembly who were to meet on Saturday July 1. and that accordingly they did meet on that day as Mr. Fuller quoted sometimes by this man observes in his History And not long after f July 19. 1643. I find presented an humble Petition for an extraordinary Fast beseeching among other things that Justice might be executed on all delinquents and after this an Order * Aug. 10. 1643. that those of them who were Residents in the Associated Counties should be desired to go down and stir up the People to rise in their defence By which it appears they not only convened but began at least to be busie about that which did not concern them long before those Notes saw the light But let us pass by this And observe rather how he satisfies in the lame excuse he makes for their not calling the Apostles alwaies by the name of Saints In the judgment of our Church saith he it is not necessary as may hence be concluded That in all the Collects for the days set apart to commemorate the holy Apostles in there are but two wherein they are stiled Saints These are his words g Pag. 43. but if you love truth call to mind the Rule I gave you and remember not to trust Even they who call one another frequently by the name of Saints have not such a care as one would expect of common honesty nor of their own fame neither but will assert such manifest untruths as lie open to every eye Turn to the Prayers for particular days in the Service Book and you shall find that they who told him this for I charitably suppose he took it upon trust made no conscience of what they said For those glorious persons whose memories are celebrated in our Church and I hope always will be are called no less than nine times in the very body of the Collects by the names of Saints h St. Steven St. John St. Andrew St. Paul St. Mark St. Philip and St. James St. Peter and St. James Seven of which were Apostles and the other an Evangelist and the first Martyr And lest any one should imagine he made his observation by the old Common-Prayer Book and thence may justifie himself you may understand that there is no difference in this point but only in two of the Collects in one of which in stead of St. John the Evangelist as it is now the words were the blessed Apostle and Evangelist John and in the other instead of St. Philip and St. James it was St. Philip and other Apostles This may teach you to suspect the reasonings of these men which may very well be thought to be exceeding careless who are no more exact in reporting matters of Fact which lie before their eyes But as for their stories which they spread up and down and indeavour to propagate to posterity by stuffing their Books with them as this man doth there is the greatest cause to think that either they have no truth at all in them or are very much altered from their original You ought to let them pass for idle tales unless you have better authority for them than these mens Books who you see are so bold as to report notorious falshoods which every body can confute Their Traditions you should look upon as of no more credit than the Popish Legends It being so easie for men to forget the very words they heard and to place others in their room so common to add or leave out what is most material so hard and often impossible to know all
same Office to continue in them and their Successors to the end of the World But suppose all our Church-men had been silent or that they are of no esteem with our Adversaries yet since this Opinion of the Divine Right of Episcopacy hath been asserted by other Divines whom they respect it ought not to have been reproached Bucer declares in his Book of the Kingdom of Christ as I find him cited above 60 years ago y Regiment of the Church by Mr. Tho. Bell chap. 9. just as our Book of Consecration doth that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost that one to whom the name of Bishop was peculiarly attributed should take the care of the Churches and preside over all the Presbyters And nearer still to the very words of our Book in his Treatise of the power and use of the Ministry as he is alledged by Saravia These Orders of Ministers have been perpetual in the Church and were presently in the beginning appointed by the Holy Ghost of Bishops Priests and Deacons He that will see more to this purpose may read Bishop Mortons Episcopacy Asserted Chap. 5. Sect. 4. Nay this is the Language of Antiquity and they may as well call St. Gregory of Nazianzum a Hector as any of us For he sticks not to tell his Auditors in plain words that he held his Office by the Law of Christ You may find the passage in his seventeenth Oration z page 271. where after he had exhorted all the People to obedience he turns his speech more particularly to the Rulers and Magistrates asking them if they will give him leave to speak freely As truly saith he I think I may since the Law of Christ hath made you subject to my Power and to my Tribunal 3. This you may think is very high but I must let you know they who seem to lay their claim lower and speak in a more humble stile as some love to call it differ but in a verbal nicety in the different manner of expressing the same thing rather than in their different judgment upon the substance of the matter So that excellent Bishop lately mentioned Dr. Sanderson hath clearly resolved a Episcopacy not prejudicial to Regal Power p. 12 13. For sometimes this term Divine Right imports a Divine Precept which is the first and most proper signification when it appeareth by some clear express and peremptory Command of God in his Word to be the Will of God that the thing so commanded should be perpetually and universally observed And that the Government of the Church by Bishops is of Divine Right in this stricter sense is an Opinion saith he at least of great probability and such as may more easily and on better grounds be defended than confuted But they that chuse to speak otherwise understand by Divine Right an Authority for a thing from the Institution Example or Approbation either of Christ or of his Apostles c. which is a secondary meaning of the term but not much distant from the former For the Observation of the Lords Day depends on this Divine Right and there is as much to shew as he saith p. 19. if not more for such a Divine Right of Episcopacy as for the Divine Right of that day So that whosoever they be that either wave the term Divine Right or else so expound it as not of necessity to import any more than an Apostolical Institution Yet the Apostles Authority b Ib. page 39 40. in the Institution of Episcopacy being warranted by the Example and as they doubt not by the direction of their Master Jesus Christ they worthily esteem to be so reverend and obligatory as that they would not for a world have any hand in or willingly and deliberately contribute the least assistance towards the extirpation of that Government but rather hold themselves obliged in their Consciences to the utmost of their power to endeavour the preservation and continuance of it in these Churches and do heartily wish the restitution and establishment of the same wheresoever it is not c Now that Episcopacy is of such institution and so of Divine Right he further adds c v. Ib. p. 18. is in truth a part of the established Doctrine of the Church of England and hath been constantly and uniformly maintain'd by our best Writers mark these words and by all the Sober Orderly and Orthodox Sons of the Church This is sufficient to shew that there ought to be no such distinction made as we find in this man between high and low Conformists since all have spoken to the same effect and yet were no Swashbucklers but in this great persons opinion the Sober Orderly and Orthodox Sons of the Church 4. But let us suppose there is some difference yet they that have spoken the highest words of Episcopacy never thought Aerius a greater Heretick than Arius nor had more Charity for those that deny our Saviour's Deity than for those that scruple the strict Jus Divinum of Episcopacy No this is a suggestion from the Father of lyes the Calumniator of the Brethren and seem to me to be the words of one whose tongue is set on fire of Hell For though our best Divines have called it the Heresie of Arius d Doctor Crackenthorp Defens Eccl. Anglicanae p. 241 242 to affirm that there ought to be no imparity in the Church or distinction between Bishops and Presbyters and determined that this imparity was instituted and approved by the Apostles yet they have declared withal that they who think as Aerius did are so far from being in a worse case than Arius was that they are not in so bad Let but obstinacy and perverseness be wanting it will be no Heresie and if it be Heresie being about a point of Discipline it will not be among those which St. Peter calls damnable Heresies e Bishop Andrews 3. Letter p. 56 57. These are the words of one who was as vehement an Assertor of the Divine Right of Episcopacy as any hath been and there are none among us but will subscribe to them who is so far you see from making Aerius a greater Heretick than Arius that his words plainly make him less 5. But these perhaps are such Hectorly Divines you may think that they mind not what they say so belike if it be true which he says just before that they prefer Arminius before St. Austin A very strange humour that these high Episcopal men should set a Presbyterian Divine above a great Bishop But suppose upon other scores they should be so phantastical yet this part of his accusation will contradict the calumny next before it namely that they prefer the Romish Church before the Reformed Transmarine Churches How can that be when the Arminians are among those Reformed Churches for whom it seems they have such a great affection and when the Pope himself as every one knows that understands these matters is against the Divine Right of Bishops nay
observe sure with what a grave and serious impertinence this N. C. Catechism begins Alledging these words wherewith Bishop Bramhal concludes his Vindication of the Church of England for a reason why an Answer was not given sooner to my Book viz. We little imagine with what difficulties poor Exiles struggle whose minds are more intent on what they should eate to morrow than what they should write It was very unadvisedly done methinks to put us in mind at the very first dash how cruelly they used such excellent persons in time past who as the Bishop there feelingly complains in the words immediately following were chased as Vagabonds into the merciless World to beg relief of strangers a See pag. 275 and his Pathetick Address to England p. 277. He shews himself also a very careless Writer who in the very entrance of his Work confesses that extreme rigour and severity against the men of the Church of England which afterwards he denies telling us That scarce any man in those days who was able sober and peaceable but might if he had pleased have employment and a livelihood b Humble Apol. p. 23. 151. But to use the Bishop as their Advocate in this case as he speaks that is to make his heavy complaint a reason for their silence is such an absurdity as none could be guilty of but one whose wit is turn'd Vagabond and gone a wool-gathering For suppose he be an Exile which I do not believe are the rest of the Non-Conformists and they who are best able to write a Book either banished into a strange Land or exposed to those hardships which the Bishop there sighs under One would think rather that this Apologist for his part is in so good plight that he hath time to be idle and trifle or that he hath not yet lost that niceness and delicacy which I noted in this sort of men who complain of every little restraint as if it were the hugest oppression They are Exiles forsooth because some of them may not live within five miles of their former Dwelling They are banished because they are confined to a Country Town and may not dwell in a Corporation I can make no other meaning of his application of those words to themselves Unless you will have it that he had a mind to sport a a little as Luther sometimes did who was wont to call the place of his retirement when the Pope thundred against him by the name of his Patmos c Melch. Adam pa. 121 c. though it was a good Castle where he lay obscured from his Enemies was well entertained by his Friends had the liberty sometimes to gather Strawberries or to go a Hunting in the neighbouring places and which is best of all had there the happy leisure to translate the New Testament into the German Tongue And so indeed this Writer tells us p. 47. that the Non-Conformists are turned out to grass and for that cause the Circingle will not become them By which merriment you may see the Animal is in good case and that you are like to find wonderfully serious reflections on the Friendly Debate But let it be as he supposes that they are poor Exiles and that the Pasture into which they are turn'd out is but short yet I hope they are not such Evil Beasts slow bellies d Tit. 1.12 as the Cretians were that is as some understand their Character such great feeders but that they might have chopt a little Logick with me without pinching their guts and given an Answer to a Book that hath so little reason in it if he may be believed without indangering the defrauding of their stomachs The great work of eating might have gone on and this not have been neglected For it would not have cost much more time to confute than it did to read a Book in which as he tells you e Preface p. 5. the words are more than the matter the Rhetorick far beyond the Logick and which hath smitten them not so much with the Fist as with the Palms of the hands I should think it would cost him a great deal more to reconcile these words with those that follow in the end of his Preface That I have made so many hard and desperate thrusts at them which it is not easie to do with the Palm of ones hand that it hath forced them at last to draw in their defence O may some say but to what purpose had it been to draw sooner Besides that they are Exiles If an Answer had stoln forth without Licence would it not have been arrested for a seeming breach of a late Act about Printing c. This is another solemn piece of impertinence to say no worse wherewith he closes his Answer to the first Question of his Catechism why a Reply came out no sooner May not I better ask With what Authority this comes out now Was there a greater Priviledge for unlicenced Books this last Michaelmas than there was in Hilary or Easter Term before This very Apology confutes it self and lets you see how little you are to expect from this Undertaker who stumbles in such a lubberly manner at his first setting out For as that Bishop now mentioned speaks in another case It were strange if he should throw a good cast who soales his bowle upon an undersong f Reply to S. W's Refutation p. 1. If he had not wanted substantial matter to alledge in excuse of their faults he would not have faln I perswade my self into so many of the Vices of Philagathus whose sober Answer stands but for a Cypher in this Mans account being a little more modest He wants not his It may bee's g Pag 6. 29 34 c. it is possible for ought I know and such like words which signifie nothing but that he knew not what to say and yet was big with an Apology This barrenness of weighty matter made him serve us up the same insipid Coleworts twice or thrice over He begins his Preface and his Book too h See Ans to Quest 2. with the same complaint that I have smitten them on the right cheek and on the left And Bonners Beef and broth he sets before us three times at least i Pag. 42 89 131. He is for Cookery too Sauces and garnishing of dishes k Pag. 99. And tells vagrant stories very prodigally l Pag 38 41 62 64 65 68 74 89 100 104. out of their unwritten traditions from whence they furnished so many brazen Legends in the beginning of the late Tumults News from Hell News from Rome News from Court News from Ipswich Cathedral news from Canterbury and many more All which I shall pass by at this present because they are Peccadillo's in compare with the other faults that he hath committed He makes no bones for instance as modest and humble as he seems to talk of several things which he doth not understand nor hath examined at all The
that he should study rather how to give no account at all For he is grosly ignorant in other Learning as well as in this as appears by his discourse about Ordination by Presbyters which follows a little after The Friendly Debate gave him no occasion to mention any thing of this nature but he had a mind it seems to give us a taste of his skill in this great Question though it be so small that I know not how to excuse his boldness in medling with it He supposes that the Chorepiscopi which he makes the same with our Rural Deans may lawfully Ordain And next that Suffragans were but such Presbyters so that he who was Ordained by them had not Episcopal Ordination And then thirdly He would have you believe that Archbishop Vsher and other Learned men concurring in judgment with him were of this opinion Every one of which propositions are notoriously false as I will plainly shew you by demonstrating these three things 1. That those called Chorepiscopi Rural or Country Bishops never had the Power of Ordination being not of the Order of Bishops but Presbyters something advanced above the rest 2. On the other side that Suffragans had the power of Ordination being not meer Presbyters but Bishops as those in the City were And lastly That the late Primate saith nothing contrary to this For the first The Country Bishops saith the Council of Neocaesarea n About the year 314. Can. 13. were but of such a degree as the seventy Disciples and appointed after their Type to whom the Antients every body knows make Presbyters to be the Successors as Bishops are to the Apostles And therefore that Council calls them only Assistants to the Bishops in that part of their Diocess which was distant from the City But that they had only a part of the Episcopal Power committed to them not the whole we learn from the Council of Ancyra presently after Can. 13. which decreed that the Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops ought not to ordain either Ppesbyters or Deacons o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which purpose he that pleases may find many authorities in Justellus his notes upon that place And in the Council of Antioch Can. 10. the same is decreed again that they should know their bounds or measures and appoint Readers Sub-Deacons and Catechists but not dare to proceed further nor to make a Priest or Deacon without the Bishop of the City to which both he and his Region were subject The same Canons were in the Roman Church as appears by the Body of the Decrees p v. part 1. Distinct 63. c. 4. The words of which being abbreviated by Sigebert he calls them Arch-Deacons But afterward the Council of Laodicea decreed Can. 57. that this sort of Officers should be abolished and no Bishops should be appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Villages and in the Countries and that they who had been already constituted should do nothing without the consent of the Bishop of the City But instead of them there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitors that should go about to find out what was amiss and correct mens manners In like manner we find in the Body of the Canon Law q Distinct 68. c. 5. a Decree of Pope Damasus to this purpose That the Chorepiscopi have been prohibited as well by that See as by the Bishops of the whole world One reason of which prohibition might be that they did not r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know their own bounds as the Council of Antioch determined but ventured to appoint Church Officers without the Bishops Consent Upon which occasion St. Basil wrote a particular Epistle to the Chorepiscopi requiring that no Minister ſ Epist 181. p. 959. Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Readers and such Ministers as those Luke 4.10 whatsoever though of the lower rank should be made without him contrary to the Canons It is a sad thing saith he to see how the Canons of the Fathers are laid aside insomuch that it is to be feared all will come to Confusion The Antient Custom was this That there should be a strict inquiry made into the lives of those who were to be admitted to minister in the Church The care of this lay upon the Presbyters and Deacons who were to report it to the Chorepiscopi and they having received a good testimony of them certified it to the Bishop and so the Minister t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was admitted into Holy Orders But now you Country Bishops would make me stand for a Cypher and take all this Authority to your selves nay you permit the Presbyters and Deacons to put in whom they please according as Kindred or Affection inclines them without regard to their worth But let me saith he have a note of the Ministers of every Village and if any have been brought in by the Presbyters let them be cast out again among the common people And know that he shall be but a Lay-man whoever he is that is received into the Ministry without our consent By this it is apparent that Presbyters had not power so much as to make the lowest Officers in the Church and that the Chorepiscopi though above the rest of the Presbyters in Office yet were not so high as Bishops but were a middle sort of men between both An image of whom was remaining in the late Bohemian Church as I learn from Comenius who in his Book concerning the Discipline and Order among them tells us that beside the Seniors or Bishops u For they had Episcopal Ordination after they had been made Presbyters and Epicopal Jurisdiction and Succession from the Bishops of the Waldenses and Ministers or Presbyters they had certain Ecclesiastical Persons called Conseniors who were between the other two For they were chosen out of the Ministers presented by them to the Bishop and then solemnly ordained by him to the Office of Conseniors by a new imposition of hands But at the same time these Conseniors promised Obedience to the Bishop x Ratio Discipl Ord. Eccl. cap. 2. p. 37. as the Ministers when they were Ordained promised Obedience to them as well as to the Bishop z Ib. p. 33. Their Office therefore was among other things as we are told Chap. 1. page 23 24. to keep good Order to observe what was worthy of correction to inform the Bishop of it to provide fit persons for the Ministry to exercise Discipline with the Bishop and visit with him or without him if he required it to examine those that were to be ordained Ministers or Deacons to give them testimonials to the Bishop and in short To supply the place of the Bishop in businesses of lesser moment So it appears by the Book and by Comenius his Annotations upon that Chapter a page 92. Minoribus in negotiis Episcopi vices obirent Thus much may suffice for the Chorepiscopi who had not such
order and discipline of the Church of England and with all their heart would be glad to have it established among them but that could not be hoped for in their State Their hope was that seeing they could not do what they desired God would be merciful to them if they did but what they could Upon which speech one well notes q Answer to a Letter written at Oxford 1647. p. 13 14. that if they hoped for mercy that might pardon what they did then they supposed they were not in the best estate and that their necessity could not totally excuse them from fault for then in that particular there had been no need to hope for mercy Nor could they well think otherwise since being pressed they denied not but that Episcopacy was of Christs own institution To this necessity Mr. Calvin himself hath recourse declaring that their calling being an extraordinary thing ought not to be estimated by the common Rule It were to be wished indeed saies he in the same place r Epist ad Regem Poloâ—iae p. 142. that there were a continual succession of Pastors that the Function it self might be delivered as it were from hand to hand but the Pope having broken the succession of such as preached the uncorrupted Doctrine of Christ God provided a remedy exciting pious and learned men to reform the Church and committing to them an extraordinary Office This saith Melancthon Å¿ Enarratis in Evang Joh. Cap. 1. God did in antient times setting a greater value upon his Church than upon the ordinary Power in it If indeed the ordinary power would have done their duty He is worthy saith Mr. Calvin of any execration who will not submit himself to that Hierarchy that submits it self to the Lord. And I protest before God and in mine own Conscience saith Zanchy that I hold them no better than Schismaticks that account or make it a part of Reformation of the Church to have no Bishops t Both these cited by Dr. Peter Moulin the Son in whom you may read a great deal more Of this mind were the first Reformers who as the Augustane Confession saith had no intention to deprive the Bishops of their Authority but the Bishops refusing to admit them into holy Orders unless they would swear not to preach the pure Doctrine of the Gospel u Cap. ult de potest Eccles this compelled them the publick ordinary door being shut to enter into holy Orders in a private and extraordinary way Yea we have often testified say the Authors of it our great desire to preserve the Ecclesiastical Polity and even those degrees in the Church which are but of Humane Authority This we declare again and again to be our mind And this will and desire of ours shall excuse us before God and all the World to all Posterity that the overthrow of the Authority of Bishops may not be imputed to us It was meer necessity you see which drove them to Ordination without Bishops which somtimes makes that lawful which otherwise would be unlawful They are the words of the Gloss cited by Dr. Crakenthorp in this very business who compares the Case of the Reformers with that of Scipio * Defens Eccles Anglicanae Cap. 41. contra Spalat 1635. as others I find have done since in his very words without naming him There being as Valerius Max. tells us a need of money to defray some necessary Charges of the Common-wealth Scipio demanded a supply out of the Publick Treasury Which the Quaestors refusing to open because the Law seemed against it He opened it himself by a private Key and made the Law give way to utility and necessity The same was done in some Reformed Churches The Apostles had commended their Keys to Bishops nor were they ever lawfully used saith he by any others than Bishops before that time When the Roman Quaestors he means Bishops denying to open the door and admit any to the Office of Pastors unless they would ingage not to preach the pure Doctrine of the Gospel Some great men like Scipio chose rather to lay hold on the Keys and receive Ordination from the hands of private persons than that the Church should be unfurnished and the People perish They would not have gone out of the Rode if they could have avoided it as our Presbyterians did of their own accord Who ought therefore to acknowledge their error to return into the regular course from whence they voluntarily strayed and not stand upon the justification of their proceedings by the example of those who are nothing like them But with all their heart would have intertained such Bishops as our pretended Reformers thrust out of possession and joyfully received such Ordination as here they rejected But if they resolve still to continue to maintain what they have done I would wish them to get an abler Apologist than this man and you my good Friend I would advise to keep this old Saying in your mind Remember not to trust no not those that pretend to learning seriousness humility and modesty For you see by what hath been said that this person who makes a shew of these qualities is grosly mistaken to speak no harsher word and too boldly indeavours to lead others into errors I acknowledge indeed that there are both learned and modest men among them but they are the confident talkers who generally carry the Bell away and are cried up for all worth and excellency Do what I can I must think there is too much truth in the censure passed upon you by the Second fair warning to take heed of the Scottish Discipline y Printed at the Hague 1651 by Ri. Watson p. 152. That you are not wont to prick any in the List of the Learned but the best read men in Synopsis's and Systems in Common place Books and Centurists or in your own Reformed Fathers whom you believe to be more proper than the antients because standing as they tell you upon their shoulders When if set on even ground the longest arm they can make in true Learning and Eloquence will not reach half way up to their girdles But you may imagine perhaps that though the Apologist be not so well versed in the Laws of the antient Church yet he hath good skill in the Laws and Customs of our own Land So indeed any body would think that reads his Book and relies upon his bare word but he that hath so much distrust as to take the pains to examine what he saith will presently discover that he writes as if he were as unacquainted with them as with the Laws and Customs of Japan The same heady forwardness possesses men now that did in Gregory Nazianzen's days when as he tells us z Orat. 9. p 150. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all were wild to teach and talk about the Spirit of God without the Spirit and therefore no wonder they venture to talk of our Laws without any Law
the circumstances in a business which very much alter the case and lastly there being such a proneness in men to invent down-right falshoods and to publish them for their own advantage I have now given you an instance of it and I can give you more The three Covenanting Ministers I find in their answer to the Queries of the Divines of Aberdeen had the boldness to declare in Print and positively aver that his Majesties Commissioner rested satisfied with their Covenant according to their explication of it by which report they hoped to draw the people to a liking of it But this was such a calumny that the Commissioner thought it necessary to clear himself of it by a Manifest and Declaration i See his late Majesties Large Declaration 1638. p. 111 112. to the contrary Which brought them to a confession that indeed they never heard him say he was satisfied but had only some probable reasons whereby they were induced to believe that he was And indeed men easily believe what they have a mind unto They believed or at least gave it out even in the Pulpit saith his Majesty k Ib page 405 406. that we intended to bring in Popery into all our Kingdoms or at least a toleration of it It was preached that the service-Service-Book was framed at Rome and brought over by a Country man of theirs They told the people that all England was of their opinion And some desired them publickly to give thanks to God for the overthrow which the Hollanders had newly given the Spanish Fleet before Dunkirk assuring them that it was no less to be celebrated than the deliverance in 88. all that Fleet being prepared at the Kings charge for their ruine and subversion A most horrible thing that in the House of God and in that place of his House which they called the Chair of Truth men should deliver such things as either they did not know to be true or did know to be false But you will say we must be distinguished from the Scottish Presbyterians they and we are not all of a mind For they for instance believed Ruling Elders to be Jure Divino but I knew few in England saith this Writer if any that held that Office so save only in a large sense i. e. lawful and not contrary to Gods Word l See p. 141. Goodly he knew few or none therefore there were none here in England that held Lay-Elders to be of Divine right This is his reasoning for he satisfies a question by these words and a rare one it is built altogether upon his own Ignorance For we know not a few but many who were of this opinion And if he had not been negligent where he was concern'd and busie where he needed not have medled he might have more easily known the mind of the English than of the Scottish Presbyterians He being one of that Party should have here known one would think better than I that the London Ministers and Elders met in a Provincial Assembly Novem. 2. 1646. put forth a Vindication of the Presbyterial Government In the very Title Page of which they set this down among the Contents of the Book that the Ruling Elder is by Divine Right and that it is the will of Jesus Christ that ALL SORTS of persons should give an account of their Faith to the Ministers and Elders before admission to the Supper of the Lord. Which is more I hope than not being repugnant to Gods Word In like manner the Lancashire Ministers of the first Classis at Manchester declared after this m An. 1657. in the Book called Excommunicatio Excomm p. 46. that they could not consent to part with the Ruling Elder unless they should betray the truth of Christ Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 5. These are the places they alledge to prove the Divine Authority of this new Order of Ecclesiastical Officers By which you may see that I said they are Changelings with more reason than this Apologist had to excuse them from it For I wrote from what I knew and He from what he knew not But there is another thing which he apologizes for after the same manner in the very language of his predecessor Philagathus whom he was ashamed to own The horrid Murder of his late Majesty saith this Writer was never undertaken that I know of to be justified by any Minister in Print but by J. G. that great Goliah and Champion of the Arminians p. 74. It is very likely that he is ignorant of this as well as of other matters but he must excuse us if we know more of these men and such as were none of J. G.'s Disciples There was one L.S. for instance whom I have read who maintains that desperate Fact in a Book called Natures Dowry or The Peoples Native Liberty Asserted It was not Printed till the Year 1652. but written as he tells us in the Epistle three year before just upon the Kings Murder on occasion of a Question propounded to him by a Member of Parliament and Committee of State In the first Chapter he determines Should any one it is easie to know whom he means by a reserved and merciless obstinacy be shut up and barricado'd against the Law Counsel and Prayers I see not but a people may warrantably go about to break such a one seeing he will not be bended by reason But look farther and you will find this to be the Title of the tenth Chapter That Kings agreeable to the Law of God may in some cases be forcibly resisted by their Subjects and likewise deposed In some cases indeed he resolves it may be the prudence of the people to pardon their Prince not observing his stipulation but their promise is out of date and cannot bind them to further subjection Nay he saith A people whose Ancestors have for themselves and their posterity either gratis or upon inconvenient Articles promised subjection and obeysance to any one and his Heirs may lawfully renounce the ingagement and cast off the Yoke And at the end of that Chapter cites the Vote of Parliament at the beginning of the Wars to justifie his Doctrine That if the King raised Forces against the Parliament he forfeited his Trust But proceed further to the next Chapter and you will find he comes home to the business and determines That Kings may render themselves obnoxious to the penalty of death according to the Law of God in some cases to be inflicted by publick Authority in others by private men This is the Title of the Chapter And immediately he betakes himself to that very Scripture upon which Mr. J. Goodwin grounded his whole discourse For the Chapter begins thus That Law Gen. 9 6. Who so sheds man's Blood by man shall his Blood be shed reaches all the Sons of Noah Princes themselves though they be taller than their Brethren by the head and shoulders And he explains it thus Whether he shed it by himself or
declared when time was f Letter to his Legate in the Council of Trent See p. 646. Engl. Edit 1629. that the opinion which makes them hold by that Title is false and erroneous But not to leave the least speck of his dirt sticking on us which he blushes not to throw in our faces once more p. 34. you may know that the very same Bishop newly mentioned wipes it all off himself by clearing and excusing the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas from sinning against the Divine Right though they had no Bishops whom he thought to be of Divine Right in the strictest sense I said no such thing as his words are g Bishop Andrews Letter to du Moulin Ib. but only this that your Churches wanted something that is of Divine Right Wanted not by your fault but by the iniquity of the times for that your France had not your Kings so propitious at the Reformation of your Church as our England had In like manner the late Primate of Ireland Bishop Bramhall excuses those in the Reformed Churches who as I told you either had a desire or but an esteem of Episcopacy though they could not enjoy it And as for a third sort who were so far from either of those that they condemned it as an Antichristian Innovation and a rag of Popery whereby they became guilty he thought of most gross Schism materially he saith thus much may be alledged to mitigate their fault That they do it ignorantly h Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 71 72. as they have been mis-taught and mis-informed and I hope that many of them are free from obstinacy and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds because ready to receive it when God shall reveal it to them Nay Dr. Heylin himself whom this man thinks so fierce makes an Apology for their Ministers not being Ordained by Bishops at the first Reformation there being he thinks a necessity for it as you may read in his History of Episcopacy p. 164. And lastly a famous person now alive this Apologist cites afterward against his own self Master Thorndike I mean who he acknowledges i page 10. hath a charity for the Churches beyond the Seas though wanting Bishops whom he doubts not to be of Divine Right But he might have had recourse to a better place of his works for this purpose than that which he hath produced For he handles this question at large in his Book of the Rights of the Church k p. 194 198. where he excuses their necessity and concludes at last out of the abundance of his Charity that some excuse is to be made for those who have created this necessity to themselves by their own false perswasion Let this man therefore do open penance for his sin in laying such foul things to the charge of the men of the high Prelacy as he in scorn calls them p. 35. And let him forbear if he can to say hereafter That there is just cause to fear that some among us have a greater Charity for the Church of Rome than the Presbyterians l page 34. And to intimate that the high Conformists are warping from the Doctrine of the Church of England and lean more to that of Trent m p 80 81. For these are only old Calumnies now revived I wish it be not to serve the Good Old Cause We were told before the War that the Bishops were leaned toward Popery nay were driving fast toward Popery And no sooner was it begun but our neighbours were born in hand that we had a company of half Papish Bishops n Dialogue between an Englishman a Neatherlander written in Low-Dutch and translated into English 1643. p. 7. nay that they were altogether Papists one and the same brood with the Jesuits o p. 8. 16. and intended to bring Popery into England all which they affirmed was as clear as the bright noon-day p page 10. For to this end saith this impudent Libel they had stript all the Assemblies of their faithfullest Preachers and used many other means to banish wholly all saving knowledge out of the Kingdom that so they might the better draw the people to Popery From which considerations the Author desires the Lords and Inhabitants of the Vnited Netherlands q In the Dedicatory Epistle not to assist the King for if he prevailed the Government would be altered Religion suppressed the Bishops restored and put in force their Popish Canons And all this I must tell you was writ by a Presbyterian a modest Gentleman no doubt otherwise called a shameless lyar as appears by this passage p. 37. where he saith Our whole Nation is by the coming in of the Scots before the War yet more confirmed that they were led by Gods Spirit What was the woful issue of those suggestions we all know though there was nothing of truth in them as appeared by the stout opposition against the common enemy which some of those very men made who besides their other sufferings had layen as deep under the suspicion of being Popishly affected as any other of their Brethren whosoever r See Bishop Sandersons preface to 1. Volume of Serm. Sect 17. And what they now intend that begin again to buzze the same tale in the peoples ears we are not so doltish as not to understand and when opportunity shall serve they will more openly declare Then you may hear the complaints renewed which he remembers out of Mr. Fuller his Church-History of Popery Arminianism Socinianism and what not You may hear an Accusation against a Minister as the same Historian tells us there was on his own knowledge Å¿ Book the 11. page 224. merely for using the Gloria Patri though in all things else he conformed to the Directory 6. In which case truly there might have been some colour to charge the Accusers as more zealous for their Directory than for our Saviours Deity But to impeach any of us as more concerned for the Divine Right of Bishops than for the Divine Nature of our Lord the great Bishop of our souls is a bold-fac'd calumny for which there is no pretence at all And yet he thinks he hath not said enough for he tells you further that these High Conformists or Hectors can with more patience hear a Dispute against the very being of a Deity than about the taking away of a Ceremony Which is the very highest strain of railing that the wit of a modest Presbyterian can invent But to what pitch the more impudent may reach who can tell They may say that these Conformists are perfect Atheists since they are already it seems such Fools as to bear more meekly with those who go about to Dethrone the object of all worship than with those who only pluck away a Ceremony of it Dull Asses how should their Ceremonies stand if the very sense of a Deity fall down If he can find me any such
and removals or else there will be no peace I am heartily sorry for it since even those whom they call the most moderate Prelates have declared the removal of that which is well settled to be so dangerous as that it is not safe to remove an inconvenience the remedy of which may open a gap to let in others that may prove greater and more grievous Not only Bishop Sanderson a Episcopacy not prejudicial c. p 99. 100. but Bishop Hall likewise is of the mind that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sure Rule Let the antient customs stand Every novelty carries his Petition in the face of it b Bishop Hall's Sermonâ— 2 Sundâ—â— Lent 1641 p. 80. It was a good question of the Church in the Canticles Why should I be as one that turns aside to the flocks of the Companions It is the great and glorious stile of God that in him is no shadow of changing Surely those well setled Churches and States come nearest to his perfection that alter least But if with Lipsius you say what if for the better I must answer that in every change there is a kind of hazard It is a wise word therefore of our Hooker that a tolerable Sore is better than a dangerous Remedy And if any one say these words are not to be extended to Ceremonies let him consult a Letter of his to Mr. Struthers c One of the Ministers of Edinburgh whom he desires to consider how far it is safe for a particular Church to depart from the antient Universal Surely no Kingdom can think it a slight matter what the Church diffused through all times and places hath either done or taught For Doctrines or Manners there is no question and why should it be more safe to leave it in the Holy Institutions that concern the outward form of Gods Service Novelty is a thing full of envy and suspicion and why less in matters of Rite than Doctrine True it is every Nation hath her own Rites Gestures Customs and yet there are some wherein there hath been an Universal Agreement As every face hath its own favour it s own lines distinct from all others yet is there a certain common habitude of countenance and disposition of the forehead eyes cheeks lips common to all So as they that under pretence of difference shall go about to raise an immunity from such Ceremonies do no other than argue that because there is a diversity of proportion of faces we may well want a brow or a chin He instances in the antient custom of Solemn Festivities and of kneeling at the Holy Sacrament By all which it appears that one may be against a removal of the Ceremonies and yet be no Hector no more than He or Bishop Sanderson or Mr. Hooker d See â—â—e Preface to his fifth part of Eccles Pol. were And these men I must tell you have the least reason to complain or give such Characters as this Apologist hath done of those whom they call rigid or stiff Fathers or Sons of the Church of England they are his own words p. 34. who were so unyielding themselves in every thing which they had a mind to have established Nay some of whom heretofore were so fierce for their own inventions that every nicety seemed as if it were a Fundamental and if King James may be believed e Basilicon Doron cited in second Fair Warning cap. 1. p. 8. the smallest questions about their Ecclesiastical Discipline raised as great Disputes as if the Holy Trinity were called in question It would be only to tire you and my self to proceed any further to anatomise the rest of this vile Character the stench of which is already so offensive Nor is there any need to spend any more time about it for the bare reciting of it will proclaim it to be a Libel and an infamous one too unless you can believe that the chiefest Sons of the Church as they profess themselves dissent from its Doctrine transgress its Laws about Rites and Ceremonies look upon the Archbishops Grindal Whitgift and Abbot as Puritans and would unbishop some of the present Bishops for Presbyterians Who would think that a Book fraught with such language as this should be commended for a sober modest Reply by some of chief note among them Such men would have made excellent Parasites altogether as good as that Cynaethus who when he had spent all other waies of Flattery praised his Master for his Tissick and said he cought very musically Their Favourites may say and write what they please and still maintain the Reputation of godly men nay that which in us would be thought a Crime is commended in one of themselves as I have formerly shewn you That very Person who accuses another of writing Pasquils is not afraid to call several of the Bishops as this man in effect doth some of our Priests Amaziah-like Priests Tyrants rufling ceremonious and violent Ring-leaders f Anatome of Dr. G. 1660. He declaims also against the Cathedral Service reproaches the Dignified Clergy and that after he had confessed in other parts of his Book the Act of Indemnity had enjoyned him silence g Antidote against Antisobrius Oct 30. 1660. p. 15. 22 25. That which is bred in the bore as we say will not out of the flesh This sort of men have ever been wont to revile and so they cannot forbear it even when they know they should not and that it is their interest to give good words And if you will give me leave to speak my judgment freely I think there is also in this very Writer a great deal of that Hectorly swaggering quality which he unjustly charges others withal Witness that notable Vapour and High Rant page 28. where he tells you the chief Quarrel of the high Hierarchists against the Presbyterian Ministers should in reason have been nothing but this that they who would have thought it were the first in bringing the King back Which he joyns with a new cluster of calumnies against many of the Bishops and conforming Clergy affirming page 29. that their own interest it may be suspected had a considerable influence into their Loyalty and that they seem to express more and greater zeal against the Presbyterians than against the Regicides c. Who would not think that reads this that they were the men who but they who kept life and heat in the Kings Cause and that the Episcopal men many of them were cold and indifferent or that they were the sincere the well-affected to his Majesty and the others led by their own interest to follow the Presbyterian zeal for him Nay that they were the first movers towards the Kings Return even before those that were always in motion and never ceased their restless indeavours for it O most glorious Apologist He may tell us next as the men of Judah said The King is near of kin to us for that is as true as that they
his Goods and Personal Estate not leaving so much as his Childrens Pictures out of their curious Inventory k As he tells us there p. 57. ☜ to come to him for Assessments and monthly Payments for that Estate which they had taken away and took distress from him upon his most just denial Nay they vehemently required him to find the wonted Arms of his Predecessors when they had left him nothing and a little before came and disarmed him All this was over and above the many insolent affronts put upon him all this while which you may read there if you please page 62. which made that meek man conclude in these pathetical words l May 29. 1647. This hath been my measure wherefore I know not Lord thou knowest who only canst remedy and end and forgive or avenge this horrible oppression O but Bishop Morton adds the Apologist did get a thousand pound Right but when did he get it and by what means This Gentleman might seasonably ask himself a cross question Why he is pleased to remember this kindness and not withal the rigour that preceded it It would not have cost him or his Printer much pains to tell us his barbarous usage in the Tumults at Westminster when some cried pull him out of his Coach others nay he is a good man others again but for all that he is a Bishop Which made him often say that he believed he should not have escaped alive if a leading man among the rabble had not cried out Let him go and hang himself m Doctor Barwick in his Life p. 103. Wonderful civility to such a reverend person which was attended with ringing of Bells and making Bonfires upon their imprisonment and with scattering abroad as Bishop Hall tells us p. 50. scurrilous Pamphlets throughout the Kingdom and in Forein parts which blazoned their infamy and exaggerated their treasonable practices He might have remembred also that after this first imprisonment which I gather from Bishop Hall was from New-years-Eve till Whitsontide Bishop Morton was committed Prisoner again for six months more to their Serjeant And what do you think it was for Only for Baptizing the Child of a Noble Person according to the order of the Book of Common-Prayer n Ib. page 107. From whence this Gentleman may learn that which it seems he never knew before as you find page 24. one that suffered for the use of the Liturgy By these and such like means the good Bishop was reduced to great straights and thereupon sued for some maintenance and by the importunity of his Friends which I must tell you and nothing else brought the Primate into Lincolns-Inn got the thousand pound this Apologist speaks of not out of the Revenues of his Bishoprick but out of the Treasury of Goldsmiths-Hall after all his Lands and Revenues were sold Before this he had no allowance and could not live upon a Vote for an annual maintenance which making no mention by whom nor whence it should be paid o Ib. page 124. was as good as no Vote at all All which considered and many other things of like nature Dr. Sanderson did not stick to write and I hope he was no Slanderer that in those days They exercised an arbitrary Sovereignty without either Justice or Mercy p Episcopacy not prejudicial c. p. 51. But was there not a fifth part as the Apologist goes on allowed for the maintenance of the Wife and Children of those Ministers that were ejected No truly it was only Voted but seldom allowed Bishop Hall's Wife as you heard could not obtain it and others also not only went without that allowance but had better been without the Vote too which cost them dear and proved the greatest cruelty For they spent what they had left for a feeble support in suing for that which they could never get and sometimes that which was lent by their Friends was thrown away by this means after that which was taken from them Hear the History of the English and Scotch Presbytery chap. 25 q Written in French by a Divine of the Reformed Church translated 1659. There is indeed saith he an Ordinance of Parliament that the Wives and Children of ejected Ministers should have the fifth part of the Revenues of their Benefices but it is very ill observed for the new incumbents refuse to obey the Ordinance constraining them to plead before Judges their Adversaries who instead of speedy relieving them delay them with length of time and make them consume in Suits that which they borrowed to plead their cause By this expence and delays these poor desolate persons are constrained to desist their prosecution and many being ejected out of small Benefices dare not present their Petitions for the fifths because the expences will amount higher than the Principal You may read the rest there if you please or if you suspect this Author of partiality you may look into that Historian which this Apologist sometimes cites Mr. Fuller I mean who was none of the rigid Sons of the Church I dare say in his opinion And he will inform you more distinctly r Book 11. p. 228 c. that though the Parliament ordered in the year 1644. that their Commissioners in the Country should appoint means not exceeding a fifth part to the Wives and Children of Sequestred persons yet Clergy-men not being expressed by name they that enjoyed the Sequestrations refused to contribute to them The complaints of this begat a new Order of the House of Commons Die Jovis 11. Novemb. 1647. that the Wives and Children of Clergy-men should be comprehended within the Ordinance that allowed the fifth part for Wives and Children c. But Covetousness as he observes found many little holes to wriggle out at For if a Minister had a Wife without Children or Children without a Wife or but one Child they denied them payment Six other evasions besides these be there relates to which I refer the Reader by which the intention of the Parliament was deluded and most of the poor souls who were in want received no benefit of that Ordinance But rather as I said a great deal of mischief while they were shuffled off with litigious and crafty tricks and oppressed with charges when they came to demand that small Alms which was granted them out of their Husbands Estates What shall I say more Mr. Bridges himself confesses their rigour to the poor Episcopal Clergy for when the Converted Gentleman complains that many Learned Religious and Orthodox Divines were plundered c. While their Wives and Children begging their Bread are left to the mercy of those merciless times He denies not a word of it but answers roundly thus There shall be Judgment merciless to him that shews no mercy 2 Jam. 1.3 and a little after he repeats it again believe it Sir you have been bloudily merciless and the just God is now making Inquisition ſ Annotations on Loyal Convert published
profession which he supposes me to be not to meddle with these things and whether he be not bound in Conscience especially in case he live among a people distracted in opinion to declare himself expresly either for them or against them c. Others may resolve in this case as they see cause I have satisfied my self that I have done as became an honest man But I did not think to have said so much about this matter nor is it to any great purpose I see to labour to clear our selves of their vile suspitions say what we will many of them stop their ears or drown our words with their loud cryes against us We must have naughty intentions and they must be the very best of men the most loyally affected to his Sacred Majesty who would have thought it more then the very Bishops themselves as this Author would insinuate For they would not be offended as the Bishops you may think would if the Statute of King Edward the Sixth was revived whereby all Citations in the Courts Spiritual should issue out in the Kings Name and with his Seal And it would not displease them to have a Vicar-General in SPIRITV ALIBVS as he assures you p. 33. But he must give us leave to think as that Bishop now named speaks who hath demonstrated that Processes in the Bishops name no way intrench upon the Kings Authority r A Calumny long ago cast upon the Bishops in the humble Supplication for Toleration 1609. p. 10 17. Revived in the late times confuted by Bishop Sanderson that their meaning herein is rather to do the Bishops hurt then the King service and that their affections so far as by what is visible we are able to judge thereof are much what alike the same towards both This you may read in his Book concerning Episcopacy not being prejudicial to Regal power p. 3 4. And what he saith of the one I may say of the other motion which is of the same strain and then made to Queen Elizabeth when Martin Mar-prelates Book came out not to greaten her power but to depress the Bishops So the Book called the Ladened Ass tells us that there were Suitors then to her for a greater Authority if they could have got it then Cromwels General Vicarship over the Bishops and Clergy a Pag. 12 45. and that the very same men who câ—ntrived this were the favourers of the Admonition the frame of Discipline the Mar-all-Libels and other new Monsters which then were yearly bred and brought forth And truely there is some reason to think that such men as this would be no more displeased with a new Martin Mar-prelate then with a new Vicar-General For he is not ashamed to approve of such vile Books as Ladensium Autocatacrisis to which he sends us for information concerning the greatest Enemies of our Church and Religion those who bring in new and strange Doctrines i. e. plain Popery p. 80. A Book writ by that haughty and violent spirit which so often calls the excellent Bishop y Bishop Bramhal mentioned by this Apologist in the entrance of his Work by the scornful name of Dr. Bramble z Review of fair warning in the very Frontispiece of the Book and which puts Bishop Andrews and Bishop Hall among that Faction as he speaks whose avowed Popery was manifest from their Books And therefore the Author of it justly defended that Censure which was given of him and his Book long ago by a Reverend person now alive who saith the man had seen some Visions in Trophenius's Den Raptures and Embryo's of his own adled brain and out he came to vent them like Esops Ass jâ—tting in Purple He was high set in pursuit of fame and scorning to cope with a PIGMEE he challenges no less men then my Lords Grace of Canterbury and all the Learned Divines of England and much grieved he was that my Lord himself would not vouchsafe him the honour to confute him as if a Sky-towring-Eagle or Gyre Falcon should have stoopt to a Kite or Carrion a Dr. Creighton's Letter to Mr. R. Watson 1650 But perhaps the Apologist never seriously considered that Book as I am sure he hath not duly noted weighed mine For if he had he would have repeated my words more sincerely and not mis-represented them so often as he hath done at least not have put me in the number of those that are Enemies of our Church dissent from its Articles and bring in new and strange Doctrines So he would have it thought else why doth he oppose my words and the eleventh Article of our Religion the one against the other p. 85. The comfort of it is there is no clashing at all between them but onely in his own brains which understand not it seems that good Works may be necessary to our justification and yet no cause of it But thus he deals with me in other things what I said of Lawn-sleeves and the Black Cap and White first part p. 81 he translates to Surplesses and makes an idle discourse about them p. 47. He makes you believe I said that afternoon-Sermons were wholly superfluous p. 61. when I onely told you that they might be used or not as they should be found to be to Edification The same perverse representation he makes of what I said about experiences p. 70. Preaching of Obedience p. 77. Doing good out of fear of threatnings p. 84. Pious discourses also p. 96. which were not by me disgraced but their rash censures condemned If I did not begin to be tyred with following him in his rambles I could present you with a great many more Monsters of his own making just like that which a Cheat promised to show his credulous spectators they are the words of one whom he and I have often mentioned an Horse whose Head stood in the place of his Tail and when all came to all he himself had tyed the Horse to the Manger the wrong way Besides barely to show these misrepresentations would be a very dull business and indanger the tiring you quite and to make them appear ridiculous would much offend his seriousness For which reason I shall let these and a great many other things in his Book alone till he give me a further occasion But I intreat him as he loves himself to hold his hand till he hath learnt a little more Logick and knows better how to draw consequences At least let him forbear to draw any out of my Books till he hath diligently weighed every word and the occasion of it For his manner is to make very silly ones and then confute them as you may read in his Preface and p. 107 108. Mr. Hughes Mr. Vicars did thus and thus heretofore therefore the N.C. are all thus and thus now It this saith he good Logick and solid reasoning I say no it is childish and ridiculous but it is his own not mine who produced such mens sayings to other purposes
a power as he ascribes to them and as the Suffragans I shall now shew you were invested withal who were of the Order of Bishops as much as any other Some have called them Titular Bishops ordained to assist and aid the Bishop of the Diocess in his Spiritual Function and think they had their name from this that by their Suffrages Ecclesiastical Causes were judged But the better to understand what they were you must know that all the Bishops of any Province were antiently called by the Metropolitan his Suffragans being to advise and assist him in the common Affairs of the Church So the word is often used in the Canon Law and in latter times in the Provincial Council of Salisburg b An. 1420 Cap de Officio Ordinarii The Archbishop Everard speaks to all the Bishops as his Suffragans being called together with him in partem solicitudinis into part of the care of the people under his charge Which are the words of our Linwood also who saith the Bishops are called Suffragans because they are bound to help and assist the Archbishop c Archiepiscopo suffragari assistere tenentur Annor in cap. de Constitutionibus But since those times they only have been called Suffragans who were indeed ordained Bishops but not possessed as yet of any See and thence called Titular Bishops which kind of Bishops are no stranger than those Ministers at Geneva whom they call Apostoli who preach in the Country Churches and administer the Sacraments but have no certain charge Yet in England I must tell you it was otherwise as appears by the Statute of 26 Hen. VIII chap. 14. where provision is made for Suffragans which had been accustomed to be had within this Realm as it tells us both in the beginning and the middle of it And it is enacted that the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colchester Dover Guilford Southampton and twenty places more besides them should be taken and accepted for Sees of Bishops Suffragans to be made in this Realm c. For this end every Archbishop or Bishop being disposed to have them for the more speedy administration of Holy things had the liberty given them to name and elect two fit persons and present them to the King who thereupon had full power by the Act to give to which of those two he pleased the Stile Title and Name of Bishop of such of the Sees aforesaid as he thought most expedient and he was to be called Bishop Suffragan of the same See After which the King was to present him by his Letters Patents under the great Seal to the Archbishop of Canterbury or of York signifying his Name his Stile Title and Dignity of Bishoprick requiring him to Consecrate the said person so nominated and presented to the same Name Title Stile and Dignity of Bishop For which purpose either the Bishop that nominated him or the Suffragan himself was to provide two Bishops or Suffragans to consecrate him with the Archbishop and to bear their reasonable costs This Statute though repealed in the first and second of Philip and Mary d Chap. 8. yet was revived among sundry other in the first of Queen Elizabeth e See ch 1. And it is sufficiently manifest from thence that these persons had Episcopal Ordination being Consecrated by the Archbishop and two Bishops more as much as any other And therefore secondly had Episcocal Power and Authority as much as the Bishop of the Diocess though being dependent on him the Suffragan could not use or execute any Jurisdiction Power or Authority but by his Commission under his Seal as the Statute likewise provides Upon which score Mr. Mason calls them Secondary f De Minist Angl. l. 1. c. 3. Bishops and further observes truly that though in compare with others they may seem to have nothing but a Title because they had not their proper Diocesses to themselves yet if we speak absolutely they had both the Title and the thing signified by it For they had for their Episcopal Seat some great Town g Oppidum illustre lege Parliamentaria illis designatum appointed to them by the Act of Parliament in which and some certain adjacent places to which the Bishop of the Diocess limited them they exercised their Episcopal Function From whence also they borrowed the name of Suffragan of Bedford Suffragan of Colchester c. So that none of those who were Consecrated Bishops among us in England whether Primary or Secondary as his words are were meerly Titular but destinated all of them to the administration of a certain place according to the sixth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon Accordingly we find that such Suffragans being made acted like other Bishops in all things For the Register of the Consecration of Archbishop Parker tells us that at the time of it four Chairs were set for four Bishops one of which was John Hodgskin Suffragan Bishop of Bedford who assisted also in the Consecration of the Bishops of London Ely Lincoln and divers others which he could not have done had he not had Episcopal Power and consequently the Power of Ordaining Presbyters as well as of Consecrating Bishops And so much this Apologist might have learnt from him whom he calls a Learned Prelate if he had read his Books with care I mean Bishop Bramhall who writes thus of the Power of Suffragans h Romphaea Printed 1659. p. 93 The Office and the Benefice of a Bishop are two distinct things Ordination is an Act of the Key of Order and a Bishop uninthroned may Ordain as well as a Bishop inthroned The Ordination of Suffragan Bishops who had no peculiar Bishopricks was always admitted and reputed as good in the Catholick Church if the Suffragans had Episcopal Ordination as the Ordination of the greatest Bishops in the world Nay if he had but read their own Authors he would not have doubted that Suffragans were altogether to speak in their stile as bad as Bishops For the Admonition to the Parliament puts them among the Titles and Offices devised by Antichrist and declares that though they take upon them which is most horrible to rule Gods Church yet they are plainly by Christ forbidden and utterly with speed to be removed You may read more to the same purpose in the Preface as I find it cited in the Censure of the Pamphlet called Humble Motives for Association An. 1601. p. 23 25. In which year I find this a part of the Secular Priests complaint against the Jesuites that they would not be subordinate in any manner to the Ordinary Prelates of England as Bishops and Suffragans and that they withstood their endeavours to have Bishops or Suffragans i Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman p. 73. 87 90. By which you may see they were numbred among the Prelates to whom all Priests were to be subject which made those fiery Dissenters from our Church to declaim so
lowdly against them And all this serves to convince our Apologist of unskilfulness in these matters who pronounces roundly that Mr. Gataker k p. 13. of his Book never had any Episcopal Ordination because he was Ordained by a Suffragan of one of those places mentioned in the Statute viz. the Suffragan of Colchester Suppose he were * As Mr. Clark tells us he was Collect. of Lives of ten Divines p. 131. he had notwithstanding Episcopal Ordination as I have demonstrated and as good as if he had been Ordained by the greatest Bishop in the World But he did not understand I see by this what those Suffragans were and contrary to what became an humble and modest man and the Title likewise of his Book wrote about things which he had not studied or considered Which made him also confound these with the Rural Deans alledging the Primate of Armaghs judgment concerning the power of Suffragans to prove it to be his Judgment that the Chorepiscopi or Rural Deans might lawfully ordain In which he hath done him a notorious injury for there is not such a word in his Book as that the Rural Deans may lawfully ordain But only that the number of Suffragans which was 26 might well be conformed to the number of the several Rural Deanries and supplying the place of those who in the Antient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every month assemble a Synod of the Rectors within the Precinct and conclude all matters brought before them by the major part of voices These are his words which do not signifie that Suffragans were the same with Rural Deans or Chorepiscopi but that there might be as many of the one as there are of the other and Suffragans do all that which those antient Officers did though they had power to do a great deal more For I have proved a plain distinction between them The Chorepiscopi were made by one single Bishop viz. the Bishop of the City to whom they belonged as the Council of Antioch tells us Can. 10. But the Suffragans being real Bishops were made as other Bishops are by three at the least according to the fourth Canon of the first Council at Nice And so they had power to Ordain Presbyters and joyn in the Consecration of other Bishops which the Chorepiscopi had not Nor did our Church ever acknowledge any such power residing in the Rural Deans or any meer Presbyters subject to the Jurisdiction of our Bishops to ordain Priests But as Hadrianus Saravia tells the Ministers of Guernsey l See Clavi Trabales p. 142. in his Letter to them As many Ministers as were naturally of the Country being not made Ministers of the Church by their Bishop or his Demissories nor any others according to the Order of the English Church were not true and lawful Ministers Where by Demissories I think he means the Suffragans of the Bishop of Winchester to whose jurisdiction they belonged Yes may some say our Bishops have sometimes declared otherwise For this Apologist m Pag. 13. out of Archbish Spotswood alledges the story of the three Scots Bishops who never had been ordained but by Presbyters and yet Bishop Bancrofts opinion was that they need not be ordained again which hath often been alledged heretofore by others particularly by the Lancashire Ministers of the first Classis at Manchester in whom he might have found a great deal more than this amounts unto For they fly to a Letter of the late Primate of Ireland with the Animadversions of Dr. Bernard upon it n The judgment of the late Archb. of Armagh c. 1658. in which this Story is cited and the judgment of many other learned Divines but nothing at all to the business For as the Gentlemen to whom the Lancashire Ministers wrote their Letter well observe o Excommunicatio excommunicata p. the Primate did not make void the Ordination by Presbyters but it was with a special restriction to such places where Bishops could not be had Which are the very words also of Archbishop Bancroft in the case of the Scottish Bishops As for the Ordinations made by our Presbyters the Primate declared himself against them in the very same Letter which they craftily concealed as you may read p. 112. of Dr. Bernards Book The words are these You may easily judge that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn Canonical Obedience cannot possibly by me be excused from being Schismatical Which I find cited again in another Book of of his called Clavi Trabales p. 56. And both in that and the former Book p Judgment of the Archb. p. 122 c. Clavi Tiab p. 55. he tells us the Primate thought their Ordination void upon another score Because at the imposition of hands they neither used those antient words Receive thou the Holy Ghost c. nor the next Be thou a faithful dispenser c. nor any other words to that sense at least there is no order or direction for it And they also wholly omitted those words at the solemn delivery of the Bible inro the hands of the person ordained Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God c. So that there being no express transmission of Ministerial Power he was wont to say that such Imposition of hands by some called the Seal of Ordination without a Commission annexed seemed to him to be as the putting of a Seal to a Blank And if a Bishop had been present and done no more than they did he thought the same quere might have been of the validity of such Ordinations As for other Reformed Churches their case is widely different from that of these men as he might have learnt from another Bishop whom he cites now and then to no purpose viz. Bishop Bramhall * Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 71 72. who rells you that he knew many learned persons among them who did passionately affect Episcopacy and some of them acknowledged to him that their Church would never be rightly settled till it was new moulded And others he tells you though they did not long for Episcopacy yet they approve it and want it only out of invincible necessity And that their principal learned men were of this mind appears from hence that Dr. Carlton afterward Bishop of Chichester protesting in open Synod which then sate at Dort that Christ instituted no parity but made twelve Apostles the chief and under them seventy Disciples that Bishops succeeded to the Twelve and Presbyters of inferiour rank to the Seventy and challenging the judgment of any learned men that could speak to the contrary Their answer was silence which was approbation enough And after saith he discoursing with divers of the best learned in the Synod and telling them how necessary Bishops were to suppress their Schisms then rising their answer was That they did much honour and reverence the good