then when with a Martyr-like zeal and courage they put themselves into the happy state of a well-reformed Church paring off many superfluities or noveller fancies and onely retaining a few such ceremonies as they saw had upon them the noblest marks of best Antiquity Decency Nor may any man without discovering great folly and injustice find fault with those members of the Church of England who used those retained and enjoyned Ceremonies agreable to their judgements and in obedience to a publick lawfull command in which their own vote and consent was personally or virtually included so that He must by condemning such as were conformable either condemn himself and all others who were authors of this publick appointment or else he must prefer his own private judgement before them all The first is fatuous Levity the second is immodest Arrogancy I allow as much as these men demand and so oft impertinently decantate against the Ceremonies of the Church of England as to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spirituall and inward worship of God in the rationall faculties of mens souls which the Church of England chiefly intended and vehemently required beyond any outward Ceremonies of all true and sincere worshippers of God but withall It judged and so do I that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the outward man which ought to be conform to the heart and being most conspicuous to others ought also to be most exemplary and significant in those visible acts which necessarily accompany the religious visible and sociall service of God that this ought not to be rude slovenly negligent confused irreverent or uncomely by affecting various singularities and inconformities to others which occasion scandalls strifes factions divisions animosities disorders and confusions in particular Churches or Congregations for avoiding of which every private Christians spirit ought in Reason and Religion to be subject to the publick prophetick Spirit of the Church in its joynt counsels consents and determinations against which a man cannot bring any pregnant demonstration of right reason and morality or of Faith and Scripture-revelation as S. Austin in his Epistle to Januarius observes having learned as he tells us that principle of calmness moderation humility and Charity from S. Ambrose as an oracle from Heaven These considerations moved the Primitive Churches of the first and second Centuries in their severall grand combinations and ampler distributions even amidst their Martyrdomes and sharp persecutions while they had no leisure to be superstitious or superfluous in things of Religion but onely were intent to Piety Devotion and Charity these moved them to use and retain as they had received them from the Apostles and their successors some Ceremonies yea many more than were used in the Reformed Church of England which appears in Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian Clem. Alexandrinus and others Who tell us of the holy kiss and love-feasts of Water added to the Wine in the Lords Supper of Oyl Milk Honey a white garment used in Baptisme of Christians not washing a week after they were baptized of constant fasts on Wednesdayes and Fridayes of frequent signations with the Crosse both in religious and civil motions as Indications of their courage and constancy in professing Christ crucified I might adde their solemn stations and vigils their adorations and prostrations toward the East besides their strict zeal in observing Easter or the time of Christs Resurrection also their Quadragesimal or Lemen fast preparatory to it their not kneeling between Easter and Whitsuntide nor upon any Lords day on which they were forbidden to fast before and at the Nicene Council besides their severe forms of exercising Discipline and enjoyning Penances to such as were scandalous offenders the great respect observance which Christian people payed to their Bishops and Presbyters yea to their Deacons in many things who all joyned in an high reverence and submission to their Bishops or chief governours in the Church in order to which duties concerning the Churches order and peace most Councils of the Church spent much of their time care and pains next to the keeping of Faith entire and sound If the Ceremonies of the Church of England had been many more in that kind than they were yet since they were in their generall nature allowed by God and left by him to the prudent choice and use of this as other particular Churches certainly as learned Zanchy and other reformed Divines observe they ought not by sober Christians to have been put into the balance of their Religion so far as for their sakes to overthrow the peace and whole state of such an happy and reformed Church as this was bringing infinite greater mischiefs upon Religion the whole Church by violently removing such ceremonies as neither empaired the faith nor depraved the manners of good Christians than ever could be feared by the sober use of them which did not so much as occasion any scandall or inconvenience to those that had knowing humble meek and quiet spirits rightly discerning the nature of such things and that liberty granted to themselves of submitting in them to the determination of the Church nor can it be other than weaknesse of judgement or want of charity or a signe of schismaticall and unquiet spirits that list to be contentious rising either from ignorance or superstition or pride and petulancy for private persons in such cases peevishly to sacrifice to their private passions and perswasions the publick peace and prosperity of the Church which ought to be so sacred as the learned and pious Bishop of Alexandria Dionysius wrote to the zealous and factious Presbyter Novatus that it is not to be violated upon less accounts than those for which one would chuse to suffer Martyrdome there may be as Saint Paul confesseth a zeal in them and yet they persecute the Church of Christ After that Divine justice hath further punished and manifested the supercilious folly and inquietude of some men Times may come in which sober Christians would be glad to enjoy such a state of reformed Religion in England as they sometimes happily enjoyed and despised under these so tedious and terrible burdens of ceremonies as some complained who are greatly wronged if they have not since charged their consciences with far greater pressures than any Ceremonies can be imagined the least wilfull and presumptuous immorality being heavier than a thousand such formalities as much as milstones are beyond feathers and talents of lead more ponderous than the largest shadows Experience hath already taught us that the authentick ceremonies of the Church of England were either up hinderances at all or far lesse as to the advance of piety holiness and charity than the taking away of them and the consequences have been especially in such a fashion as instead of ripping off the lace hath torn the whole garment into rags and pretending to shave the superfluous hair hath almost cut the throat of the
fed in their cage or restraint than by wandring from them to be starved The best Bishops were wisely severe and most venerable when least remisse the most rigid of them were not more imperious or intolerable than some Presbyters have been to all Bishops The last but greatest terror to some men is that if any thing like a true Primitive Bishop should revive and authoritatively act again in England especially fortified and assisted with such a strength of wise and grave Presbyters orderly combined with their Bishops there might be great danger of the Clergies recovering the Lands and Revenues which once belonged to Bishops and other Church-men in England Thus the jealous hearts and mis-giving consciences of many men do beat within them who have bought Bishop◠〈◊〉 other Church-lands which do make them as vigilant over the Bishops Sepulchers as the Jewes and Souldiers were over Christs lest the second error of losing Bishops Lands should be worse than the first of taking them away not onely from very worthy Bishops then in lawfull and unforfeited possession but from the whole Clergy yea from the service of the whole Church and of Christ and of God who had a sacred interest in them By what right they were alienated and are now possessed let them see who first did seize upon them and upon that title have either sold or bought them For my part I can look upon Episcopacy in its Primitive poverty and present barenesse with as much respect and reverence as in its greatest pomp and superfluity I value it and desire it not for state but conscience not for secular ambition but spirituall satisfaction Let them keep the lands that have justly got them or paid a valuable consideration for them provided they will but help to restore Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy without which Ecclesiasticall authority yea and Ministeriall power seemes to me and to many wiser men if not wholly dead and void or null yet very defective dubious and infirme as one that is lame and maimed yet is still a man having an esse or being as a true man but yet esse defectivum a being short of that fulness firmness and perfection which might be were he so complete as he ought to be according to the pattern of God and nature The Herculean work of resuming Church-Lands and restoring either Revenues or civill Honors to Episcopacy is not to be expected without a miracle such as shall shake heaven and earth despising all humane opposition and making the unjust keepers to be like dead men for no thunderbolts of divine vengeance are more penetrant and irresistible than those which fall upon the head of sacriledge as both Humane and Divine Histories tell us True I think it were an act worthy of this Nations pristine piety and renowned munificence to add something comely for Hospitality and Charity besides civill respect to Bishops if they will have any Nor were it as I conceive a work lesse becoming the Honor and Devotion of England to repurchase and restore those ancient Church-Lands or patrimony to the Church than it was to take them away and sell them to lay-hands But in this I am not so solicitous the honor of all Bishops and so of Presbyters will be diligently and wisely to do the work of God which its probable will never want the respect love and liberality of all good Christians as was seen in Primitive times where Bishops were never poore if Christian people were in plenty peace and unity As Mephibosheth said to David so do I to all my Countrymen and brethren Let Ziba take all as to Bishops Lands so as those Bishops may returne in peace which are after the Lords mind and the Scripture-rule the Apostles pattern the Primitive judgement and Catholick practise in the Church of Christ The lesse there may be of riches and secular honors added to Episcopacy the more it must provoke both Bishops and Presbyters to holy industry and eminent virtues which are the best foundations of true honor CHAP. XIII MY chief ambition is not to procure civill honors or estates to Bishops but so to reconcile all sober Ministers and others to true Episcopacy as may promote that Christian union between all Ministers that are worthy of that name and office and all sober Christian people in England which may most remedy and avoid those miserable factions and sad divisions which we see are the pests of true religion the moths of all Reformation the advantages of superstition and nurses of profaneness against which St. Paul in his Epistles and St. Clemens in his to the Corinthians so much inveighs as carnall and not spirituall methods of Religion I should heartily rejoyce to see before I die the dry land to appeare this deluge of factious confusion not onely to abate but to be quite spent by which Christian Religion and true Reformation hath lost together with Episcopacy in one score of yeares very much of that publick Majesty and Authority that Power and Improvement that Love and Honor that Sanctity and Solemnity that Charity and Unity which they formerly had and held in England for above a hundred yeares highly to the glory of God to the happinesse of this Church and to the Honor as well as Peace of the Nation It is great pitty that any man who bears the name of a Minister of Christ should appeare to the world other then an able wise humble holy peaceable and orderly person that we may not cease to be sociable and reasonable creatures so soon as we undertake to be Preachers as if we presently turn'd Tragedians when we grew Theologians Divines in profession but Devils in our dissentions that none of us may be so far bereaved of our wits as to fancy that we Ministers or Clergy-men beyond all men may not enjoy nor endure that comely and holy subordination which is lawfull and most necessary in all other societies and fraternities of men and no less among those that are Presbyters or Preachers where we see God and nature age and gifts learning and prudence distinguish even these men so far as makes some one or few very fit to govern and the other though many more onely fit to be governed There is much folly rashness juvenility indiscretion presumption and vulgarity to be seen even among the community of Ministers as well as other common people who can never be safe or happy unless they be setled in some comely Government Ecclesiasticall as well as civill yea and governed by some men that are much wiser than themselves Certainly Religion cannot prosper or be glorious in the eyes of the world as Christian or Reformed if it be not uniforme as to the main both in its source and course its origination and dispensation For every notable difference especially in the same Church and State seemes to the severall parties and divided sides as a great deformity in their adversaries Religion will never be uniforme if the Ministers or
and defiance of all that went before who I beseech you of most ordinary Christians who are yet agitated by their youthfull lusts and unbridled passions will be so constant as to hold fast that profession which formerly they had taken up Who will continue to venerate that Church and Clergy whose heads they see crowned with thornes and their faces besmeared with blood and dirt whose comelinesse is deformed with the spittings buffetings and scornes of those that seek to expose them to open shame and to fasten them to the Crosse of death and infamy Alas they will not at all regard in a short time any orders of the Church or any ordination of Ministers or any sacred ordinances and mysteries dispensed by them since no pleas never so pregnant and unanswerable for the Antiquity Uniformity and Constancy of that way and method which was used in all ages and places of the Church of Christ since no gracious and glorious successes attending such ordaining Bishops and such ordained Presbyters since nothing prevailes against vulgar prejudices and extravagancies provoked by that impatient itch they alwaies have after novelties Many we see will have no Ordination no Ministers no Sacraments rather than Bishops should have any hand in ordaining The honor of that Ordination which was in all ancient Churches must be cruelly sacrificed with all ancient and Catholick Episcopacy rather then some mens passions for a parity or popularity or an Anarchy in the Church be not gratified All Bishops as such and all Presbyters and all Christians and all Churches and all holy duties performed by them in that station and communion must be cryed down yea thrown down as the adulteratings and prostitutions of the Churches Liberty and of the purity of Christs Ordinances The hands of Bishops and Presbyters too though joyned and imposed in Ordination must be declared as impure vile and invalid yea a flat novel and impertinent distinction must be found out to vacate the Bishops eminency and yet to assert the Presbyters parity and sole power as resting in any three two or one of them though never so petty poor and pittifull men in all respects naturall and civill sacred and morall Yet these forsooth some fancy as Presbyters may still ordain because a Bishop say they did so meerly as a Presbyter of the same degree and order not as having any eminency of office degree authority or jurisdiction above the meanest Minister which St. Jerom and all antiquity acknowledged as a branch of Apostolicall dignity and eminency peculiar to a Bishop above any one or more Presbyters Which reproches against the persons power and practise of Bishops in England as usurpers and monopolizers in this point of ordination which they ever challenged and exercised as their peculiar honor office and dignity in this as all Churches if they could by any Reason or Scripture by Law of God or Man by any judgement or practise of any one Church or of any one godly and renowned Christian in any age or History of the Church be verified so as to make their power of ordination to be but a subtile or forcible usurpation in Bishops it would have been not onely an act of high Justice to have abrogated all the pretensions of Bishops to that or any power in the Church but it will be a work of admiration yea of astonishment to the worlds end in all after-ages and successions of Christian Religion which will hardly last another 1500 yeares to consider the long and strong delusion which possessed the Christian world in this point of Ordination as onely regular and complete by Bishops where their presence and power might be enjoyed Nor will it be more matter of everlasting wonder to ponder not onely Gods long permission of such a strong delusion but his prospering it so much and so long as a principall meanes to preserve and propagate the Ministry Order Government Peace and Power of true Religion and the true Churches of Christ which were never without Bishops as Spirituall Fathers begetting as Epiphanius speakes both Presbyters and people to the Church Nor will it be the work of an ordinary wit whether Presbyterian or Independent to salve all those aspersions and diminutions of either ignorance and blindness or fatuity and credulity or weaknesse and impotency which must necessarily fall from this account not onely upon the wisest and best Church-men but upon the most Christian and wise Princes the most zealous and reformed Parlaments of England who in the grand Reformation of this Church and ever since for neer an 100. yeares have after grave counsell and mature debate approved and appointed countenanced by a law and incouraged by their actuall submission the ordination of Ministers chiefly by the authority of Bishops never without them And this they did certainly not out of policy but piety not in prudence onely but in conscience convinced not only of the lawfulnesse of Bishops but of the necessity of them where Providence doth not absolutely hinder or deny them as it never did in England or elsewhere by the example of the Apostles by the ancient constant and uniform practise of this and all Churches by the suffrages of all Learned and Godly men of any account in all ages To all which were added as great preponderatings in behalfe of Episcopacy the many and most incomparable Bishops that have been in all successions of the Church the many Martyrs Confessors excellent Preachers Writers and Governours of that order lastly the unspeakable blessings which by their Ordination Consultation and Jurisdiction have been derived to the Church of Christ If all Estates in the Reformed Church of England have been hitherto deceived as to this point of Episcopall Ordination by Bishops sure they are the more excusable because they have erred with all the Christian world Nor could they be justly blamed if when they reformed superfluous Superstition they yet abhorred in this point so great and dangerous an innovation which must needs shake and overthrow the faith of many if the peculiar office and power of Bishops to ordaine Ministers and governe the Church were either onely usurped or wholly invalid as some of late have pretended not with more clamor than falsity But if all these jealousies and reproches cast upon Bishops and their Authoritative Ordination as a peculiar office and exercise of power eminently residing in them be most false and by some mens calumnies heightned to such impudent lies that no eructations of Hell or belchings of Beelzebub had ever more blackness of darknesse in them or more affrontive to the glory God and the Honor of the Catholick Church whence I beseech you O my Noble and worthy Countrymen is that dulness stupor and indifferency come upon us in England so far as not onely connives at the arrogancy of some Presbyters who without Scripture-precept or Catholick-patterne challenge this ordaining and Governing power as onely and wholly due to themselves discarding all Episcopall Eminency and Authority above them but
the very beasts of the people are so far flattered as to be suffered with their foule feet daily to trouble and confound that cleare fountain and constant streame of Ministeriall Authority and Ecclesiasticall succession by way of Episcopall Ordination which was ever of so solemn and conspicuous use in all Churches of so venerable a succession of so ancient and uninterrupted a derivation from the very Apostles dayes and hands that it never failed to keep its course as some rivers do through salt waters amidst all the confusions which either heathenish hereticall or schismaticall persecutions raised in the Church Yea no Hereticks no Schismaticks except Aerius and his few complices who discontent for not obtaining a Bishoprick which â—e sought and turning Arrian was the first the onely and the fitâ—â—st engine to oppose Episcopacy as Epiphanius observes were ever so wild so fanatick so desperate as to cast off all Episcopall succession Authority over them both in Ordination and jurisdiction yea they knew no meanes to keep their confederacies and factions better together than that which they saw had alwaies been serviceable to preserve the true Churches communion Though the Manicheans Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Pelagians and others together with the Novatians Donatists withdrew from or were justly excluded by the Bishops of the sound and orthodox profession yet still these Heterodox Opiniasters had not onely Deacons and Presbyters but Bishops of their own Some of which Bishops afterward returning to the Catholick Communion were not degraded from their Episcopall power but onely suspended from the exercise of it in another Bishops jurisdiction or Diocese without his leave which being granted to some of them gave occasion to those Chorepiscopi which were Bishops without particular title and locall jurisdiction but yet enjoying and using this power of Ordination in some Country-Townes and Villages by the permission of the Bishop or Metropolitane of the Diocese or Province residing in the chief City which indulgence was after as the Church-Histories tell us taken away from the Chorepiscopi when it was found to occasion great inconveniences by admitting two Bishops in one Precinct or Diocese Certainly what is so pregnantly Catholick and usefull that not onely all good men but even such as were evill could not but approve and use it it were not onely folly but frenzy to cast quite away if it were the full vote and free act of the Nation What Apology could be sufficient to excuse this Nation either among Churches abroad or to posterity at home when they should see that by a rash partiall and popular precipitancy we have been hurried against all Reason Honor and Religion to forsake or to stop up the ancient fountaines of living waters which have alwaies flowed from Episcopall Ordination supplying this as all Churches in all places and offices with orderly Presbyters and usefull Deacons onely to try what those pits will afford which novellers have digged to themselves and which they eagerly obtrude upon this Church notwithstanding they are already found by sad experience to hold no such cleare and pure waters either for Doctrine or Discipline for Authority or Unity for Order or Peace as those were which the Apostles digged and the Catholick Church ever used and esteemed for sacred In this great point then of Right Ordination and true Ministeriall Authority of which the Learned Mr. Mason professeth next his salvation he desires to be assured it is as I humbly conceive not onely piously but prudently necessary for our Reformed Church Religion and Ministry to be effectually vindicated and by all possible meanes fairly united If there were ever any other way of Ordination used or allowed in the Church of Christ let the Authors Histories and instances be produced either as to their grounds or their practise If there were never any other either used or approved or thought of besides that which was in the Church of England managed by Bishops as necessary and chief agents in it truly it is but Justice Reason Conscience and Honor to own this Truth to follow this Catholick precedent to returne to an holy conformity with pious Antiquity which neither invented nor induced Bishops or Episcopall Ordination and jurisdiction as an affected novelty or a studied variety but they followed doubtlesse herein what was received from the very first Bishops who succeeded to the Apostles as authorized and placed by them So that as the succession of Bishops was lineally reducible to the Apostles which Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Nicephorus and others evidently prove not onely by their publick Registers but by their private memories when the names of Bishops were fresh in Christians minds and not very numerous as in the second and third Centuries No lesse may be affirmed of Ordination by Bishops it had its precept and pattern from the Apostles expresly committed and enjoyned to some persons as chief Bishops never trusted to meer Presbyters alone much less to people in common so far as any Record of the Church Sacred or Ecclesiastick doth informe us whose constant silence in this case is a better Testimony against all innovation of Ecclesiasticall Ordination than all the Sorites the Rhapsodies heapes and scamblings of I know not what broken scraps and wrested allegations out of any Scriptures or Fathers can be by which I see some men have sought with much dust sweat and blood to bring in their new uncertaine unaccustomed and unauthentick formes of Ordination exclusive of any President or Bishop who ever was as the principall Verb in a sentence which cannot be wanting without making the sense of all other words very lame defective incoherent and insignificant These grand perswasions joyned to the sad experiences made in Englands late variations do thus far command me to be more intent and earnest that in this point of valid complete undoubted and most authoritative Ordination we might be made uniform that all Ministers like currant money might have the same image and superscription upon them It is most certaine that the Christian and Reformed Religion will never be able to shine either clearly or constantly or comfortably upon the consciences of Christians either as Ministers or people while it is in this great point of Ordination so darkned clouded and eclipsed that it lookes like the Sun wrapped in sackcloth or the Moon turned into blood What Ministry what Ministers what Ordination what Ordained what Ordainers what Ordinances of Christ will in time be much esteemed in England by the Nobility Gentry or Yeomanry when they shall see various waies of Ordination daily invented and obtruded pittifull Novelties induced uniform Antiquity discarded Primitive Episcopacy exautorated a subordinate Presbytery scorned a popular parity and petulancy indulged every where to make what extemporary Priests and Preachers they list of the dregs and meanest of the people as little God knowes to their own soules benefit as to the Churches peace or to the honor of this Nation though they do it with as much
Seates they had most evidently continued in all Churches without any interruption or variation of the forme or power however the persons had been oft changed by mortality Certainly it is most easie for all learned honest and unbiassed men to see what the uniform and Catholick form then was of all Churches orderly combinations I dare appeale to Independents and Presbyterians as well as Episcopall men to declare bona fide what they find it was in the first and best times after Churches were once fully formed and setled in their severall partitions No man not more bold than bayard or more blind than a beetle but must see and confesse that according to the first platform which we read of in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles the Order Polity and Government of the Church was completed setled and continued first in Deacons who had the lowest degree of Church-office order and Ministry consisting in reading the Scriptures in making collections for the poor in distributing of charity in visiting the sick in providing things necessary safe convenient and decent for Christian Ministers and people when they met to serve the Lord in one place which place or house from hence was called Dominicum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church or House of the Lord. Next these in order degree and office were Presbyters that is ordained preachers to whom was committed by the Apostles first and after by Bishops their successors the Charge and Office of Catechizing the younger of Preaching to the elder of Baptizing believers and their children of consecrating the holy Elements of the Lords Supper and of admitting worthy Communicants to receive them besides the grave and venerable Presbyters had as brethren the priviledge of electing their Bishops also of counsell confessions and assistance with their respective Bishop's in publick concernment and grand transactions of the Church Above both these in eminency of place degree and power as to gubernative Authority were those prime Bishops or overseers of the Church first called by the name of Apostles as immediately set by Christ in that Episcopacy next were those that were personally appointed by the Apostles to supply their absence or to succeed them in that ordinary presidency and constant jurisdiction which was necessary for the Churches peace union and good Government of which we have two pregnant instances in Timothy and Titus who to be sure had Episcopall power given them not as Evangelists or Preachers but as Ordainers and Rulers of many Presbyters After these Bishops of a lesser size constantly succeeded being first chosen by the Presbyters of each grand Church or Diocese to that power and office and then consecrated to it or confirmed in it by neighbour-Bishops who solemnly imparted to them and invested them in that Eminency of Ordaining and Ruling power which is properly Episcopall not onely for the dispensing of holy mysteries for the preaching of the word and absolving penitents as Presbyters who were a minor sort of Bishops but for confirming those who had in infancy been baptized for solemn excommunication and absolution for examining and ordaining Presbyters and Deacons for transmitting that Episcopall and Ministeriall power in a constant and holy succession according as they had received it so for judging of and inflicting publick censures and reproofes likewise for all Synodal Conventions and representations of the Churches lastly for the authoritative enacting and executing of all Ecclesiasticall decrees and Church-disciplines all which things Bishops did as a Major sort of Presbyters though a Minor sort of Apostles if we may believe the judgment practise and testimony of all Antiquity in the purest times which are diligently collected evidently set down and unanswerably urged by many late writers who have brought forth such a cloud of witnesses as to this point of Ecclesiasticall Order and Government by Deacons Presbyters and Bishops a threefold cord not to be broken that men may as well deny the Evangelicall History as the Original Institution and Succession of the Evangelicall Ministry and the orderly constant Government of the Church by the service of Deacons the assistance of Presbyters and the superintendency of the Apostles whom no sober man denies to have been while they lived the eminent Rulers authoritative Overseers and chief Governours and Bishops of all the Churches where they were fixed or which they had under their particular care and charge Nor may it with any more shadow of reason or truth be denied that Bishops in a distinct place and eminent power were a successive and secondary sort of Apostles inferiour to them in their immediate call in their extraordinary gifts and the latitude of their power but equall to them in that ordinary constant and regular jurisdiction which was and is ever necessary for the Churches good Order and Government If all sorts and sides would look beyond their own later prejudices and presumptions to this holy patterne this so cleare constant and Catholick prescription they would be ashamed of such grosse ignorance or impudence such peevishnesse or partiality as should beyond all forehead or modesty affect any novelty or variety from an Ecclesiastick custome and an Apostolick precedent so undeniably Primitive so famous so glorious so prosperous so never altered or innovated as to the maine that all true believers all humble Deacons all orderly Presbyters all Confessors all Martyrs all Synods all Councils submitted and subscribed to the same form and kind of Government in its severall stations and degrees according as the wisdome of the Church saw cause to use its prudence power and liberty as Calvin Zanchy and Bucer tell us in having not onely Bishops but Metropolitanes or Arch-Bishops Primates and Patriarchs ad conservandam disciplinam as Calvin ownes for the better Order Unity and Correspondency of the Church in all its parts which were never quarrelled at till pride begat oppression and envy schisme in the Church till foolish and factious spirits chose to walk contrary to the true principles and proportions of all right Reason and Religion of all prudence and polity which are to be observed in all Societies sacred or civil which the Divine wisdome as St. Jerom observes had exemplified in the ancient Church of the Jewes and directed us to as Salmasius confesseth in all successions of Churches by the Spirit of wisdom which Christ gave to his Apostles and all their immediate successors the Bishops who were conform to them and impowered by them to be a kind of Tutelary Angels of presidentiall Intelligences in the larger circles and higher orbes of the Church where as in Ephesus and the other grand Metropolitane Churches which are denominated by the Spirit of Christ and the pen of the Apostle from the chief Cities in those Provinces there were no doubt many Christian people Presbyters and Deacons yet all these subject as Beza glossing on St. Jerom confesseth to that one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Provost or President as their
same Faith Spirit Power and Authority was it that made the just and valid sentence of Excommunication in Primitive times so terrible and that of absolution so comfortable to all good Christians even as the sentence of Jesus Christ at the last day which Tertullian Cyprian the first Council of Nice and others tel us of Because it was no private spirit of any Christian or Congregation or Church or Presbyter or Bishop or Metropolitane or Patriarch that properly did excommunicate but it was the Spirit Power and Authority of Jesus Christ given to diffused among and shed abroad in his whole body of the Catholick Church and in that name dispensed by the particular Bishops and Pastors of it in their severall Stations or Places as the visuall and audible powers or faculties which are in the soul are exerted and exercised onely by the Eyes and Eares Hence was it that whoever was by any one Catholick Bishop with his Presbyters and his people excommunicated was thereby cast out of that and all other Churches Communion in all the world nor was it lawfull as the Nicene Councill and African Canons tell us for any Bishop Presbyter or Christian people to receive into Church-fellowship or to the holy Communion of the Eucharist any one that was thus secluded Then did this great and weighty Thunderbolt of Excommunication seemingly lose its Primitive virtue and value not really for it holds good still according to the Originall Commission when lawfully executed in binding or loosing in opening or shutting as Christ deposited it with his Apostles and their successors when Factions or Schismes being risen in the Church contrary sentences of Excommunication were on all sides passionately bandied against each other not from that unity of the Spirit which kept the bond of Truth and Love but from the private Passions Presumptions Prejudices and Opinions of such as either openly deserted or occasionally declined from that Catholick Community and Unity of one Faith one Lord one Baptisme one Spirit for gifts and graces for the Authority and Efficacy of Christs holy Ministry After these preposterous and partiall methods not onely many particular Christians but some Presbyters and Bishops yea whole Synods and Councils have sometimes passed the sentences of Excommunication both as to declaring the guilt and merit of it also to the act and execution of it very precipitantly partially passionately and uncharitably even against such Doctrines Practises and Persons as were orthodox and peaceable really in Communion with Christ and with the Catholick Church of which one early great and sad instance was that in the second Century of Victor Bishop of Rome who in the case of Easter grew so zealously exasperated against the Greek and Eastern Churches as Quartadecimans that he thought them worthy to be excommunicated in the name of all the Latine Churches notwithstanding that many grave and Learned Bishops with their Churches testified that in observing the fourteenth day of the month they followed the Primitive Custome and pattern delivered by the Apostles to them wherein St. Irenaeus according to his name with greater Moderation and Charity sought not onely to appease but to represse the inordinate heats of that Pope and his adherents who had a zeal but not according to Charity breaking Christian Communion while he urged too much conformity in all outward things beyond the liberty which was granted and had been long used in the Church concluding that difference of times or daies not divinely determined in the observation of the same duty ought not to make any breach of Catholick Unity Christian Charity but rather assert exercise that Christian Liberty which may in Circumstantialls as to outward Rites be in the severall parts of Christs Church untill all think fit to agree in that Circumstance of time as well as they did in the substance of the duty which was the Eucharisticall Celebration of Christs Blessed Resurrections which was the reviving of the Christian faith and hope After this example did St. Cyprian in Africa excommunicate those that would not rebaptize or did communicate with such as Hereticks and Schismaticks baptized herein being contrary to the sense of the Catholick Church At length these and the like passions or surprises even of some Orthodox Bishops were made patterns and encouragements to any pragmatick Hereticks and arrogant Schismaticks These as they grew to any bulk and number like Snow-balls by rouling ventured to handle this hot Thunderbolt of Excommunication when they had most cause to fear it because their Petulancy Obstinacy and Contumacy against the true and Catholick Churches Judgement and Communion most deserved it if their first error did not Hence Excommunication was at last every where reduced and debased to private spirits full of pride revenge and partiality the Catharists or Novatians the Donatists and Arrians feared not by their Pseudoepiscopal Conventicles and Schismatical Assemblies to denounce these Terrors and Anathema's and to use the sharp sword of spiritual curses against the soundest parts of the Church as some dared to do against Athanasius and all the Orthodox both Bishops Presbyters and People This made in after-times all Excommunication very much slighted and despised while it either served to little other use than to execute the Popes wrath for many hundred years of great Darkness and blind Devotion or afterward in times of more Light and Heat it was uâ—ed as Squibbs are rather to scare and smut than much to burn or blast those who either used it or abused it rather to gratifie their own private spirits than to execute that publick power and Authority which Jesus Christ hath committed with his Spirit and Word to his Church and the Rulers of it by which who so was justly cut off cast out and given over to Satan was looked upon as separate from the comfort of Communion with Jesus Christ and the true God as well as the true Church in all the World Nor was this onely a declarative act as to the merit of that fearfull doome and state confirmed by the consonant suffrage of all the Church as damnablâ— without Repentance and Reconciliation of which every private Christian might easily make a verbal report and oral denunciation but it was an authoritative and effectual act executive of the just and deserved judgement of God so as to be ratified in Heaven according to the original tenor and validity of Christs Word and Commission without Repentance just as what is by virtue of their Office done by any publick Judge Notarie or Herald is not onely declarative but also executive of the Will and command of the Prince specified in the authentick Commission or mandate under the Broad seal which is not onely the voice of the King and his Councel but of the Law and publick Justice it self yea of the whole Republick or Community as every man lawfully condemned by any Judge or cast by any Jury is virtually cast and condemned by the Will suffrage and consent of the Body politick
well as in a triumphant Chariot Ambitious vanities are never seasonable or comely for any humble Christians and least for the Ministers of Christ who ought to be crucified to the world and the world to them Gal. 6.14 especially at my years and in my condition 'T is honour and grandeur enough for Me if I may next the advance of Gods glory promote Your and my Countries common good which I must tell you doth not a little depend upon the good order unity and government the honour peace and safety of the Reformed Religion duly established in this Church and Nation of England Of whose festred scratches and deep wounds since I cannot but have a great sense both of Grief and Shame and toward whose healing since I am indeed very ambitious to drop one drop of soveraigne balsome before I die I have here endeavoured to seek Your face and to recommend Her distress to Your compassions It is for Her sake and for Yours in Her that I again adventure for truly it is an adventure and no small one in this age thus to appeare in publique possibly with more forwardnesse and zeale than prudence and discretion in some mens censure Who it may be have not so much charity or courage in them as to own an afflicted friend an impoverished father or a distressed mother Yet to justifie my discretion this may be said That nothing seems to me in Policy as well as Piety more rationally and religiously necessary than a publique tender regard to the state of the Reformed Religion in this Church and Nation To me Noblemen and Gentlemen Citizens and Yeomen all sorts in their private and publique capacity seem if not to want yet to expect something in this kind from some of us Ministers of the Church of England which might handsomely excite to honest industry those sparks of piety and generosity which heretofore flamed in their Fore-fathers liberall breasts toward this Church of England as Christian and as Reformed Nor are they I presume quite extinct in yours who now succeed them whom I doe not arrogantly instruct as if I thought you ignorant but humbly provoke to doe what you know when opportunity shall answer your abilities and good will Not but that I have also pleasing speculations many times of that silent safetie and secure latencie in which I see others my betters or equals hug themselves I know there are men otherwayes of good worth and parts who dare not speak one good word either of or for the best Bishops the best Presbyters or the best Nationall Church in the world as this of England was These over-bred and too much Gentlemen may consider That a good man may be more wary than wise more fearfull than faithfull more cautious than consciencious The Prophet Jeremie resolved by reason of the danger and ingratitude of the Jewes to speak no more to them in the name of the Lord but the word of God was as fire in his breast he could not hold his peace and keep peace in his soule I could as easily wrap my self up in silence and privacie as some others doe if I did not feare sins of omission as well as commission which was the jealousie a most learned and godly person had of himself lately dying who yet had been an earnest intercessor for the relief of many distressed Ministers in England I would also covet the reputation of a wise man by keeping silence in an evill time if I had not many and great stimulations while my life is declining and my death approching to give what further constant and comely proofs I may to this and after-ages of my zeal for God of my love to my Saviour of my communion with his Catholick Church of my particular respect to this noble part of it The Church of England and in this of my due observance to my Reverend Fathers and beloved brethren the godly Bishops and orderly Presbyters of this Church yea and lastly of my charitable ambition to heap coals of fire not scorching and consuming but melting and refining even upon the heads of those who still professe to be remorslesse enemies to my calling and to the whole Church of England who seem to me as if they sought totally to debase the Clergie of England yea utterly to destroy the ancient Catholique order and government succession and authority of the Evangelicall Ministery in this Reformed Church while they endeavour to remove able ordained and autoritative Teachers into corners and to obtrude I know not what volâ—ntiers new and exotick intruders into that holy function These will certainly in a few years make the Sun goe down upon England at noon-day bringing upon this Nation the shadows of the night Superstition ignorance profanenesse irreligion and confusion leading Posterity to Popery by the way of popularity poverty parity despiciency and Anarchy falling upon the Ministery and the Reformed Religion of this Church In which blacknesse of darknesse debasings and disorders the Seers of this people will in time grow blind the guides unguided the teachers will be untaught the Pastors unbred the flock unfed by a mushrome and novell Ministery multiforme miserable mechanick Grows-up neither duly ordained nor decently maintained nor much deserving either of them being crest-faln in themselves and contemptible to others I cannot be satisfied in Reason or Religion in honour or conscience in policy or piety how it can be happy for You your Posterity and this whole Nation to live after a vagrant loose and indifferent way of Christian administrations and profession according to every mans private fancy choice and humour without any such Nationall setling and combination such publique Ecclesiasticall union as hath in all Ages and Nations best edified and fortified counselled and corrected excited and increased both gifts and graces in a most comely and most Christian order with such harmony unity majesty and authority as best becomes the Disciples and Churches of Christ I confesse I am ashamed to see and heare any Gentlemen of honour or other persons of commendable qualities of good estates of ingenuous parts and breeding poorly and meanly to forsake the waters of Siloah and to follow the brooks of Teman to discountenance at least if not quite discard their learned grave godly and experienced Ministers who are of the true metall and stamp too which a Minister of the Gospel ought to be that is really enabled and duly ordained or authorized to that great work And this most what not out of any serious advice and consciencious choise becoming Christians in so great a concernment but rather out of easinesse levity curiosity popularity or some pittifull complyances with novell upstarts and rude intruders into that Sacred office Among whom if they doe save their purses which is by some deserters of their lawfull Ministers much looked after yet I am afraid they too much venture their souls I am sure they lose much of their credit both in present and after-ages
man in comparison seeketh after her bruise is almost incurable and her wound is very grievous There are few to plead her cause she hath no healing medicines her lovers have forgotten her since God hath wounded her with the wounds of enemies and with the chastisements of cruell ones who in her dust and captivity require of her to sing the songs of Sion commanding her to call her ruines Reformations and to account their persecutions her perfections It is time then for all that have any regard to the Church of England to cry mightily both to God and man to give them no rest till they return to be gracious to this much afflicted impoverished despised divided disordered Church It is high time for all honest English Christians to pitty her ruines to favour her dust to speak comfortably to her to put an end to her warfare to bind up her wounds to make up her breaches to repaire her losses as Jobs friends did his with their kind and munificent compassions that Posterity may not read in the sad ruines divisions and desolations of this famous and reformed Church of England pristine liberality and modern sordidnesse the bounty beauty and order of former times the deformity sacriledge and confusion of these later Who can consider without shame and regret how much more generous and large-hearted even those Ages were which had some rust and dimnesse of superstition growing upon their Religion then these are in which the English world is filled and confounded with the noise and shews of brightnings and reformations in which by new most preposterous methods some of our late unlucky Architects or Antivitruvian Builders have endeavoured with their axes and hammers to break down more good Church-vvork in twice seven years than the best master-builders can hope to repair in seventy seven I doe not mean onely as to the materiall and mechanick fabricks of goodly Churches which in many places lie sordidly wasted shamefully desolated but as to that which was the rationall politicall morall the prudentiall and truly pious structure of this well-reformed Church of England of whose ruines I shall give you afterward a more particular account But it is now time for me in order to work upon your affections to give over such tedious Prefacings and to present You with as true and lively a prospect as I can of Her sad posture There being more pathetick power in your hearing or seeing one of her own sighs and tears O what is there in her wounds than in the greatest seas of any mans oratory to stir up in You those filiall compassions which most become You to so deserving and now so distressed a Mother as is this Church of England The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick Catholick EPISCOPACY coâ—â—… with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church ΔΕÎΔΡΟΛΟΓΙΑ The Embleme of the Trees explained In which is briefly set forth the History and Chronology of Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency as pretenders to Church-government their first planting growing and spreading in the Christian World THe design of this Figure or Embleme is to instruct Christians of the meanest capacities who have less abilities or leisure to read large Discourses touching the due Order Way and Method of Church-union and Communion which Subject is now multiplyed to so many parties and opinions that ordinary people as in a Wood or Maze and Labyrinth are unable to disentangle themselves of those perplexed contentions and confusions which have of late so miserably divided and almost destroyed the Harmony and Happiness of the Church of England upon the disputes not so much about saving Faith and holy Life as those of a Churches right constitution in its Divine Original Apostolick Derivation Catholick Succession Regular Subordination and Brotherly Communion First most people learned and unlearned were heretofore prepossessed with the Catholick use and approbation of Episcopacy as ubique semper ab omnibus ever and onely used in this and all other Churches from the first planting of Christianity After this many weaker Christians came to be dispossessed of their former perswasions by the violent obtrusions of such a Presbytery as challengeth Church-government not in common with Bishops but wholy without them This forreign plant not taking any deep root in this English soyle was soon starved and much supplanted by the Insinuations of a newer way called Independency At last many heretofore well-meaning Christians finding such great Authorities even from Christ pretended on all sides for these diversities of Bishops Presbyters and People each challenging the right of Church-government Rule and Jurisdiction as principally due to them and from Christ immediately committed to them have by long perplexed and sharp disputes been brought to such doubtings as have betrayed them to strange indifferencies as to all Ecclesiastical Society and Order which is the very band of Christian Religion so far that they care for no Church no Christian Communion no setled Government no sober Religion By this Figure Type or Scheme every one may easily see in one view their rise growth and proportions what in the beginning was what ever since for above 1500. years hath been and what in right reason ought to be the authoritative and constant Order Polity and Government of every particular Church as a part of the universal if we regard either Scripture-direction or Christs institution or Apostolical prescription or universal practise of all Churches in all Ages and places till of later dayes wherein the factious Ambitions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abortive and divided Novelties have either in too indulgent or in troublesome times strangely warped from or contested against uniform Antiquity either usurping upon or denying those just Interests which ought to be preserved joyntly in every well-ordered Church to Bishops to Presbyters and to faithful people who as Members of one Body and Branches of one Tree or Root ought to be but one in an Ecclesiastical harmony though they have different uses and offices for the common good The Catholick Church of Christ which all true Christians believe to be Sponsa unica dilecta the Spouse and Body of Christ one and intire as united to him the Head of all by one Faith so to one another as Members by one Spirit one Baptism one Bread and one Cup which are visible symbols or signs of that invisible Communion in Truth in Love Charity which every true Christian hath with Jesus Christ and all true Believers in all the world This Catholick one and uniform Ch. is here set forth under the similitude of one fair straight well-grown fruitful flourishing uniform Tree as the Cedar of the Lord full of sap rooted in Christ from whom it derives the spirit life and radical moisture of Grace by such outward means and Ministers as the Lord hath appointed to be workers together with him as some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for planting propagating watering
to excommunicate here and there several Christians and their families as single Slips and Off-sets of Christianity which might grow apart by themselves but their aim was with preaching Verity to plant Unity and with true Faith to graft fraternal Charity which conjoyned them to and with Christ and all Christians in the world This being a most visible mark of Christs Disciples also a special means for mutual assistance and comfort amidst the many persecutions which Christians would meet with sufficient utterly to discourage them if when they were scattered from each other they were presently without any joynt harmony greater combination and ampler communion of Saints by which means whereever Christians fled from one place to another if they met with Christians they were sure of hospitable friends bringing as they ever did letters of communication or commendation from their Bishops which presently made their way to such a kind reception and communion in all holy duties as that station permitted as Catechumens or Penitents or Eucharistical Communicants in which they stood whereever they had lived Therefore as the Apostolical wisdom so all their successors diligently gathered single believers and private families of Christians into greater Congregations these they led on to larger combinations which comprehended the Christians of many Villages Towns Cities and Territories according as the Spirit of Christ directed them for the greater conveniency and benefit of both Ministers and people who scattered in small bodies or parcels must needs be both more cold and more feeble but so united in grand Societies they would be both warmer stronger and safer and besides more eminent and conspicuous in the eyes of all the world Such beyond all doubt were those Apostolical and famous Churches distinguished by the Spirit of God according to the chief Cities which were the centre of their Religious addresses for Church-Order Authority and Communion as the Church of Jerusalem Antioch Rome Ephesus Corinth Sardis Smyrna Colosse with many more whose Cities being most-what Metropolitan or Mother-cities as to secular power and distribution of civil justice they were chosen as meetest for the principal residency of Religious Order Polity and Authority wherein as was meet the blessed Apostles did during their lives preside as Bishops either in their persons or by those faithful Apostolick men whom they as St. Paul did Timothy Titus Archippus others appointed as Rulers or Bishops under them for the carrying on of the service of Christ his Church partly by the common duty and office Ministerial which was to preach baptize celebrate other holy Mysteries in an orderly way even in lesser Congregations yea to private Families and single persons as occasion required which was the work of Bishops and Presbyters in common and partly to manage that presidential power and Episcopal Authority over both Presbyters and people united in larger combinations and Churches as might best preserve the Purity Unity and Honor of the Church and Christian Religion in doctrine and discipline also derive by way of right Ordination after the pattern given to Timothy and Titus and others a continued succession of an holy and authoritative Ministry by such an eminent power of Order as was specially delivered to the chief Apostles and by them to their principal successors as Bishops in those great Apostolical and complete Churches where as Christians increased many Presbyters were ordained by the chief Pastor or Bishop to be both Counsellers and Assistants to him in that Evangelical work of teaching and governing the Church committed to him First as appointed immediately by the chief Apostles while they lived and after as chosen by the surviving Presbyters in every precinct or Diocese to succeed so far in that Apostolical eminency and presidential authority as was necessary for the Churches constant Order and good Government according to that precedent Charter and Commission which all Churches had received from the Apostles and they from Christ not as a temporary Ordinance but such as for the main end and method the Lord would have continued till his coming again by a succession of ordinary Bishops who are a lesser or second sort of Apostles in many things short of their gifts yet having the same ordinary power to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to appoint them their offices and places in the Churches Ministry and to see they execute the same as is meet for the edifying of the Church in Truth and Love to rebuke and reject them in case of failing and obstinacy As the Church daily thus increased spreading its boughs even to the utmost seas still its Polity or Government as the bark or rinde of the Tree enlarged with the body or bulk being most necessary for the preserving both of lesser and greater branches to knit and bind all together to convey the sap and juice to every part and to the whole This once peeled or broken or cut wounds the tree weakens and oft kills that part which is so injured Trees may as well thrive without their bark and bodies live without their skins as Churches without setled and united Government Therefore that all true Christians might still keep a Catholick Correspondence Subordination and holy Communion between the whole and every branch or member they had not onely Deacons above the people but Presbyters above Deacons and Bishops above Presbyters yea and as the borders and numbers of the Church so increased that not onely Presbyters but Bishops grew many and so fit to be put into some method and order they had Archbishops or Metropolitanes above ordinary Bishops and Patriarchs above Archbishops or Metropolitanes and a generall Council above all thus still drawing nearer to a center of union and mutuall intelligence So that first three afterward five Patriarchs had the general Episcopacy Superintendency and Inspection over all the Christian world Nor were these Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs any ambitious affectations or forcible intrusions of pride or tyranny upon the Churches of Christ but by a wise and general consent on all sides Christian Bishops did so cast themselves into comely rancks of Subordination after the Apostolical pattern as might most suit to the good order correspondence and unanimity of all Christians as but one Church there being in the first 300. years of sore persecution no other motives to these eminent places and regular orders in the Church of Bishops Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs but onely those of Labours and Cares of Sufferings and Martyrdoms which still pressed most upon the Presidents and chief Governours or Bishops of the Churches as was evident in the glorious marks of the Lord Jesus to be seen on the Faces Hands and other parts of the Bodies of those venerable Bishops 318 which met at the first great gaudy-day of the Church in the Council of Nice which all made but one Episcopacy and were Representers as well as Presidents or Rulers of but one Catholick Church After which time by the favour of
Christian Emperors the Churches Polity and Government being carried on by the same Apostolical power and Episcopal spirit was highly promoted even to secular Dignities and Estates Bishops being not onely every where unfeignedly venerated by all sorts of Christians as chief Pastors and spiritual Fathers succeeding to the chief Apostles by an uninterrupted and undoubted succession of which every Church had pregnant Records and Memorials but they were invested in such civil honors as make them Peers to the Senators Nobles or Patricians of the Empire which was more to their pomp and lustre but not more to their Episcopal authority and that filial respect which was paid to Bishops by all good Christians even then when they and their Clergy had nothing to live upon but the dona Matronarum oblationes Communicantium the contributions and offerings of devout people In this fair and sun-shine-weather as secular Peace and Plenty increased to the Church so Christianity spread very far as to the Fashion Profession and Form of it in branches and leaves but grew among many less fruitful in the real effects of Piety and Charity many now thronged into Christs Church but fewer touched him with the hand of Faith so as to heal their infirmities Yea as in the very first times under the Apostolical Episcopacy the Simonians Nicolaitans Gnosticks Corinthians and others afterward during the still-persecuting Ages the Marcionites Carpocratians Valentinians Montanists and others so in the most prosperous times the Manichees Novatians Donatists Arrians and Pelagians with diverse others became as branches either miserably split and slivered by their own schismatick and separate humors or quite wholy broken off by blasphemous Apostasies and the just sentences of Excommunication from that one Catholick Church and the unanimous Bishops of its communion for whom one Bishop did rightly excommunicate by the lesser or greater câ—nsure all Bishops Presbyters and Christians in all the world did the same virtually Hence many lesser and greater branches even some Bishops with their whole Presbyters and Churches grew sometimes scare and withered twice dead and pulled up by the roots by Error and Obstinacy by voluntary Desertion and Ecclesiastick Abdication as many Arrian and Donatist Bishopâ— Yet still by the correspondence and care of the excellently learned resolute and unanimous Bishops of the fourth fifth and sixth Centuries with their orderly Presbyters and faithful Flocks the Church ceased not to flourish for the most part in Verity and Unity in Piety and Charity as well as in civil Peace Plenty and Honour the holy and good Bishops every where still clearing the mosse and cankers which grew upon this fair Tree they pruned the Excrescencies and superfluities both of Jewish presumptions and Heathenish superstitions all and every one being prudently intent as far as times and the manners of men would bear to preserve his lot part or Diocese committed to him by consent of the people by the choice of his Presbyters and by the comprecation or consecration of his collegues the Neighbour-bishops so as became the relation they had to the whole Church after the grand patterns and models received from the blessed Apostles who first as Bishops of equal size and authority yet as men using an orderly precedency sprang from that one Root Christ Jesus and by their united Ministry spread abroad the Church far and neer 'T is true the primitive severity and rigour of Christian discipline much abated in times of greater peace and plenty many primitive signs of Christian love and communion as the Holy Kisse their Love-feasts their Oblations their Hospitality to all Christian strangers and the like were crowded out by the Wantonness Factiousness Hypocrisie Luxury and Avarice of some Christians besides Church-mens Ambition and Hereticall Furie none of whom would indure the sharp yoke of primitive Pennances Abstentions Castigations and many wayes of Mortification by Watching Sackcloth Fasting Prostrating Weeping Confessing c. At length Mahometan poyson and power cruelly pressed upon the divided and debauched Eastern Churches after this the Papal policy and power by insensible degrees in ignorant and turbulent Ages so prevailed upon the blindness and credulity of these Western Churches who were much wasted also with wars in Spain Italy Franee and here in Britanny by domestick Rebellions and barbarous Invasions that the face of this goodly Tree was much battered and altered from the primitive floridnesse and fruitfulnesse the Roman Church and its Bishop or Patriarch being like an Hydropick body swoln by secular Pride and Usurpation so much beyond its pristine comelinesse and honor that in stead of an holy and humble Apostolick Bishop of the same Order and Authority with his other brethren he must be owned in a superecclesiastical and a superepiscopal and a superimperial height as Lord and Soveraign and Prince above that is called God in Church and State Yet still while this Papal branch presumed thus to grow beyond its proportions to the over-dropping and dwindling of all other parts of the Church its form or fashion as a Tree in its winter or less-thrifty state remained even under those sad seasons of Papal perturbations and presumptions God never suffering the Church to be quite deformed much less hewen down because it was never so barren even in those dayes but it brought forth some tolerable Bishops Presbyters and other Christians yea many of them very commendable ones Neither Papal Foxes nor Mahometane Wild Bores had ever power to lay it quite wast or overthrow it both root and branch as to its saving foundations or its orderly constitutions or its authoritative successions in Bishops Presbyters and Deacons still holy Mysterys and holy Orders the holy Ministry and holy Scriptures holy Examples holy Doctrines holy Duties and holy Lives were continued in such order and by such conduct as easily represented the primitive pattern and Apostolick figure of this Tree though with many accressions and some deformities which time and ignorance and superstition or humane policy and secular pride had affixed to some main Branches of it in these Western parts of the Church yet the ancient Lineaments and true Model were very visible in Christian People Christian Deacons Christian Presbyters and Christian Bishops directed into several stations as Helps for the more orderly carrying on of the Churches Government in grand and national combinations In this posture stood the state of the Catholick Church as in all other places where the Vastations of Saracens and Turks had left any miserable Remnants of Christian Churches so most eminently in this Western world which the Providence of God had not yet wholly delivered over to Gog or Magog none of these Churches were without their Deacons Presbyters and Bishops untill that great Reparation rather than Alteration of Christian Religion began in these Western Churches about the Year 1520. which was justly called a blessed Reformation in many respects as to clearing the corruptions of Doctrine and Manners which had been contracted every where which
by learned and godly men Bishops and other Ministers were notably discovered and by some Christian Princes or States happily amended with great order and by due authority as in other places so no where with more Wisdom Justice and Moderation than in England Where as in most of the Churches protesting against the Roman deformities especially those of the Lutheran denomination the ancient Orders and Authority both of Bishops and Presbyters were preserved as is evident in the Augustane confession which finds no fault with but highly approves the Government of the Church by Bishops under Episcopacy provided Bishops would joyn in a just Reformation of those gross abuses which were the Churches intolerable grievances as well as the dishonour of Christian Religion and Christian Bishops whose deserved Honours Estates and Eminencies in Authority they saw no cause to envie grudge or diminish So far were these first Reformers from hewing down Episcopacy as if it cumbred the ground that they onely digged about it and mended it that it might bring forth good fruit as it did in England and elsewhere While the Western Churches Reformation was yet but crude and in motion by Luthers means there arose Mr. John Calvin about the Year 1541. a man of good Learning acute Wit copious Eloquence great Industry quick Passions sharp Pen of reputed Piety and of no less Policy Him the people of Geneva thought the fittest man in the world to settle their distracted Church and State after they had with the wonted arts of tumultuating and discontented people forced Eustace their Bishop and Prince to flye from his Palace and City his Bishoprick and his Seigniorie because he would not presently gratifie them with such a Reformation as they imperiously demanded rather than modestly desired Mr. Calvin as Mr. R. Hooker hath excellently set it forth undertook with much difficulty and after many indignities worthy of popular levity fury and petulancy put upon him to settle their Church-affairs together with the civil State in such order as he thought not most Scriptural primitive and Catholick but most prudential plausible and probable in humane reason and honest policy to take and hold the tumultuating inconstancy of that people so to bring them to something of civil and religious order acting herein not upon any Wiclefian or the after Presbyterian and Antiepiscopal Principles as imagining either Episcopacy to be unlawful or sole Presbytery to be necessary as of Divine Institution neither of which were his judgement as is sufficiently and vehemently declared by his passionate approbation of reformed Bishops and his esteeming so honourably of regular Episcopacy that he passeth all Anathemas or curses on those that are against them so far was Calvin from laying the Axe to the root of this Tree which with Christianity had ever as he confessed born Episcopacy But he rather went upon Erastian principles and politick grounds looking it seems upon the Government of the Church as he did upon the Lords-day which is not elder nor more authentick or Catholick as to the Churches use and observation than Episcopacy to be in their nature mutable as of Ecclesiastick yet Divine prescription according as Times Occasions and Minds of men might fall out He well knew being a learned man and oft confesseth in his Writings the primitive blessing and universal authority of presidential Episcopacy in all Churches yet he neither thought it nor any forme of Government any more than clothes to be essential to the substance and body or any Church or of the Christian Religion but variable to several forms and polities as prudence might invite or necessity require so that he never set up any soveraign and unepiscopal Presbytery as an Idol or Moloch to which not onely the children but the Fathers of the Churches even very godly and reformed Bishops were all sacrificed He thought it did not misbecome his policy and prudence to serve the times and humors of the Citizens so far as to seem to vary the outward mode of their and all other Churches ancient government provided he served the Lord and that people in setling such a government as might preserve the Christian Reformed Religion among them in true Doctrine and good Manners which was the main work which Calvin seemed to mind most To have reconciled the City and their former Bishop was a matter impossible unless he or they had changed their minds in Religion to have perswaded them to elect a new Prince and Bishop of their own profession and opinion had been very imprudent considering either the fair offers they made to himself of being not titularly indeed but virtually and really both the Prince and Prelate or remembring that strong fancy of Liberty which had now so filled and intoxicated all sorts of Citizens In the last place to have set up himself in the pomp and formalities of a Bishop and a Prince had been an act of too much Impudence and Envy for a person of his Ingenuity Policy and Dexterity in publick managements it sufficed his design so far to gratifie both the Populacy with seeming Liberty and the Optimacy with some civil and Magistratick Authority all of them with such reformed purity in Religion as most pleased them and yet to keep up himself and his collegues of the Ministry to such an height of Ecclesiastical Influence and Church-power as made them far from being either slaves to the Vulgar or cyphers to the Government for all cases civil and criminal as well as religious were one way or other reducible and so responsible either by way of comprimising or upon scandal or repentance or satisfaction to the cognizance and consistory of him and his collegues himself being as the Caesar they as his Bibuli In effect his Wisdom Reputation Eloquence and Courage set him up in Geneva and other places to so high an eminency of respect and authority as he equalled yea exceeded most Bishops however his pomp train and pension were but small after the usual bounty expectable from any State or City that list to make their Reformations of Religion compleat by robbing the Church and Clergy of their ancient Lands and Revenues which doubtless in that City had been so great and princely as upon the confiscation of them to their Town-box or Exchequer they might well have allowed Mr. Calvin their great Reformer and chief Pastor and his Associates a Salary much beyond an hundred pounds per ann with a little provision of Corn. But he wisely dissembled this Indignity finding that as Riches Pomp and Luxury had undone former Bishops so a voluntary kind of Poverty and Austerity would now best conciliate to him and his collegues a greater Reverence and Authority nor was it considerable to have a gay or rich scabbard provided they had sharp and well metall'd swords their Ambition was rather to intend Gods work in reforming Religion of its Leprosie with Elisha than in taking mans rewards with Gehazi In this Presbyterian Prelacy or Prelatick Presbytery
which seemed to bow Church-government to the ground and make it like a Bramble take root at the neather end Mr. Calvin lived and died at Geneva never either rigid for a parity of Presbytery as of any Divine Institution nor against a comely eminency of Episcopacy which he owned as a very commendable useful venerable ancient and universal Order of Church polity and Government where it was paternal not imperious as an elder Brother among brethren not as a Master among servants Such Bishops presiding as Fathers among Presbyters yet gravely and kindly advising with them and assisted by them in all the grand and joynt concernments of the Churches wellfare these he never wrote nor said nor thought nor dreamed to have any thing in them Papal Antichristian Intolerable or Abominable to God or good men as some hotter and weaker spirits afterward declaimed Episcopacy and so Presbytery had indeed as other holy Mysteries Orders and Customes of the Church suffered very much smut soyle darkness and dishonour by the Tyrannies Fedities Luxuries Sotteries and Insolencies of some Bishops and other Church-men under the Papal prevalency but Reformed Episcopacy which in many Churches continued with reformed Doctrine never received the least blame or blemish from Mr. Calvins Tongue Pen or Judgement no nor from any of his collegues and successors in Geneva who were learned men and of sober minds But from the reputation of Mr. Calvins name this new and rather necessitated than elected project of Church-government and Discipline under the name of a Presbyterian parity or Consistorian conclave grew to be looked upon with very favourable eyes by other free Cities petty States and Princes as their Interest lead them each crying it up together with the reformed Doctrine to such an height as if the new paper and packthred in which Mr. Calv. had wrapped those old yet good spices were of equal value with them Several Interests advanced the businesse shews of Liberty with the people parity of Empire and power with the ordinary Preachers and hope of gain by confiscation of Church-lands and Bishops Revenues with some States and Princes as in the Palatinate Hassia and other parts of Germany so in Scotland with some Suitzer Cantons and Hans-towns the zeal for Reformation which was very plausible the zeal for Imitation after the copie of so renowned a person which was very popular and the zeal of Confiscation where so opulent and profitable a booty would fall into some mens purses and Coffers all these together carried many men with ful sails to Presbytery and with a strong tyde against Episcopacy by whose spoiles many hoping to be enriched they rather chose to ruine than reform it that extirpating might justifie their stripping of it which had more Revenues but not more deformities than Presbytery had under Episcopacy To make this Transport of some men good which not onely deserted but defamed despised and in some places destroyed the Ancient Catholick and Apostolick state of the Churches polity of old by Episcopacy hereby varying even from the Lutheran Moderators and Superintendents which were reformed and qualified Bishops as well as from all the present Roman Greek Armenian Abyssine and all other ancient Churches in the world to their great and insuperable scandal yea and from some eminently reformed Churches as England and Ireland were in which Episcopacy was still continued as the Honour Centre and Fixation of all Ecclesiastical Order Unity and Authority to avoid the odium and envy of this scandal all plausible wayes were taken by the great Admirers and Adorers of the new Geneva-platform to set further glosses and titles upon this new Presbyterian-government and discipline finding that the water-colours of Prudence Necessity Policy and Conveniency which Mr. Calvin had used would not hold long especially where Episcopacy now kept its pristine power and possession in so many famous reformed Churches and States as Denmark Sweden Saxony Brandenburg and others besides England which outshined them all All these so asserted the honour of true and reformed Episcopacy that all sober men saw Prelacy was no more of kin to Popery than Regality is to Tyranny or Magistracy to Oppression or Presbytery to Popularity or natural Heat to a Fever or Wine to Drunkenness or Good cheer to Gluttony or Good order to Insolency or due Subordination to Slavery 'T is true great Indulgencies and soft Censures were carried by those Churches which were Episcopal toward such of their reformed Brethren who were not opinionatively but practically Presbyterial pleading for themselves not choice so much as force and urgency of their present Affairs and Condition considering either the pressures even to Persecution which some were under or peoples impatiencies or Princes sacrilegious aimes all which made their deviation from the confessed Catholick and primitive pattern of Episcopacy so long venial as their Judgements were right and their Charity candid toward Episcopacy either approving of it or deploring their want of it or wishing for it as the best Government where it might be enjoyed with the Reformed Religion While Presbytery continued thus humble and poor in spirit it was esteemed honest and excusable upon Christian charity pleading not pervicacy but necessity not a schismatick Faction or Usurpation against Episcopacy but an humble submission to a condition which as Peter Moulin owns was far short of the happinesse they desired under good Bishops But this equable and charitable temper was too lukewarm and cold for some hotter Zelots for the Presbyterian way they did not like that their new platform which they called the pattern in the Mount should thus take any quarter from Bishops any where but rather be in a capacity to give no quarter to any Bishops or any presidential Episcopacy From private and amicable contests which began at Franckfort and so by degrees were fomented in other Cities between some reformed Divines it grew to higher flames of contention than those between Paul and Silas at length it rose to a Rivalry to Reproches Menacings Fewds Despites and bitter Animosities between such as adhered to ancient Episcopacy and those that admired the new-sprung plant of Presbytery To dig about to muck and mend this last the Learning Wit and Credit of Mr. Beza contributed not a little who first of any man openly inscribed Presbytery with a Title looking very like to Divine as Christs true and onely Discipline in which yet he was not so punctual and peremptory as many that followed him in his supposed Opinion but came far short of his real Learning which still forbad him to deny primitive paternal and reformed Episcopacy its due Honour Use and Place in the Church of Christ or to demand the extirpation of it where it was setled and reformed which he deprecates as an intolerable arrogancy in him or any man To which moderation if his Judgement and Conscience had not led him yet he was shrewdly driven by the notable charges of learned Saravia a man of veterane courage of
violence wrested the staffe out of its hands Presbytery seeming like the plant called Touch me not which flies in the face and breaks in the fingers of those that presse it but Independency as the sensible plant rather yielding to then resisting any hand that is applyed to it This later and softer plant no sooner almost began to be set on foot in England about the year 1650. but it soon gained much ground of Presbytery which had been an old bitten shrub ill rooted and never very florishing or fruitfull and lesse apt to be now at last transplanted But Independency as a new slip or full-shoot springs up apace spreads its roots and branches without any noise erects its Churches as fast as Presbytery could its Consistories out of the ruines of Presbyterians Parishes as well as of Bishops Dioceses Independency hath no great line or out-work to maintain and so can do it with fewer numbers and lesse noise it desired onely in Peace to enjoy it self affecting no forced ambition or unvoluntary Rule over others as did Presbytery it professeth to aime at nothing but a nearer and greater strictnesse of Sanctity Unity and Charity among Christians in their Church-way than it thought could well be had among the larger combinations of Presbyterian or Episcopall Churches which they think are not easily managed without much labour and toile besides offence and complaint because they urge many things as of duty and by constraint when this is onely by every ones free will and consent Nothing is more soft and supple than Independency in its first render branches and blossomes nor is it other than a little Embryo of Episcopacy in a little Parish or Diocese For Bishops Presbyters and People did of old and at first so neerly correspond as Fathers Brethren and Sons of a Family when they were but few and scarce made up one great Congregation in a City where one Minister at first was both Pastor and Teacher Bishop and Presbyter who as Christians increased ordained them Presbyters to carry on the work and yet to keep a filial Correspondency with him and respect to him as became them The pomp and solemnity of Independent Episcopacy is lesse but the Power and Authority Ecclesiasticall is though broken and abrupt yet full as great and absolute as to all Church-uses and intents as ever Bishops challenged How far this willow will grow an oake more rough and robust as it growes Elder Bigger Higher and Stronger no man knowes I presume it cannot have better beginnings of Order Unity Purity Piety Charity Meekness and Wisdom than Episcopacy had in its first Institution which is owned by all learned men to be at least Apostolicall both as to the enlarged Churches made up of many Congregations and the enlarged Authority of one Bishop placed by the Apostles over many Presbyters and Congregations so gathered by them into one Ecclesiastick Society or Combination as those Primitive Churches were in the Scripture Nor can it have more specious and modest beginnings for Purity and Sanctity than some former sects have professed such as were the Novatians and Donatists of which St. Cyprian and Optatus with St. Austin and others give us liberall accounts whose procedings did not answer their beginnings either in Modesty Charity or Equity but from rending from they fell to reviling and ruining all Churches but their own From the rise and advantages which these two new and now almost parallel plants in England Presbytery and Independency neither of which are yet any way grown up comparable to the Procerity Height and Goodliness which Episcopacy had and yet hath as in many Churches of Christ so in many English mens minds notwithstanding that both of them as notable suckers strive all they can to draw away all sap and succour from the old root of Episcopacy that it may quite wither and be extirpated every where as it hath been lately with Swords and Pickaxes terribly lopped and almost quite stubbed up in England From these two I say which have so much pleased either some Ministers or People with shewes of Novelty Liberty and share of Authority other Parties Sects and Factions have began to set up their scaling ladders and for a time staying one of their feet either on the standards of Presbytery or Independency they fall amaine with their hatchets to hack and hew down the remaines of all Episcopal order and Communion in Churches to cut off the battered stript and bare branches of that Ancient and goodly Tree which contained once the Catholick Church under its boughs and shade Thus these petty planters begin their new plantations that every one set up new Churches and Pastors after their own Hearts Opinions and Fancies making use of what seare barren and Schismatick slips or abscissions they are able to break or cut off aiming still to plant as they say further off from the root and bulk of Episcopacy as a notable character of more perfect Reformation than either Presbytery or Independency seem to have done who sometime professe they can comply with something in Episcopacy Hence first Erastians or Polititians begin to resolve all Churches into States all Ministry into Magistracy making no other origine of Church-power than that of the Common-wealth nor of any Ministers Bishops or Presbyters Authority than of a Justice or a Captaine or a Constable After this Anabaptists Quakers Enthusiasts Seekers Ranters all sorts of Fanatick Errors and lazy Libertines pursue their severall designes and interests under the notions of some new-found Church Sprigs and better plantations filling all places in England like a wood or thicket with Bushes and Briers and Thornes of Separations Abscissions Raptures Ruptures Novelties Varieties Contentions Contradictions Inordinations Reordinations Deordinations and Inordinations no Ordinations scarce owning any Church or Christians which are not just of their way and form as Optatus tells us the Donatist Bishop Parmenian and his party did All of them agreeing with Presbytery and Independency in this one thing however differing in others as in the matter of Tithes which these are reconciled to that they are enemies against all Diocesan Ruling Episcopacy quarrelling even the Honesty and Credit of Primitive Churches on that account despising all the Fathers and all the Councils and Canons of all Churches as levened with Episcopacy The reason in all of them is one and the same because true Episcopacy was a notable curb and restraint and remedy equally against all Schisms and Innovations in the Church of Christ as St. Hierom tells us And further by its venerable Authority so Famous so Ancient so Universal so Primitive so truely Apostolick it infinitely and intolerably upbraids all their Novelties and Extravagancies besides they are conscious that they shall hardly ever one for a hundred either equallize or exceed in many Ages the useful and excellent Abilities Gifts Graces and Miracles or the Benefits and Blessings which by and under regular and holy Episcopacy the Lord was pleased to bestow if ever any were
mischiefs as small parties cannot avoid or remedy In like manner Christians have in all ages grown up from the first Apostolical Plantations of Christianity which were in particular persons and private families to such holy Associations Charitable Combinations and regular Subordinations as reached not onely to the first Families or lesse Congregations and Neighbourhoods which as I said may be called Churches in their Infancy Youth and Minority but they grew up spread and increased by the spirit of Prudence Peace Order Love and Unity even to great Cities large Provinces and whole Nations To all which more publick and extensive relations Christians finding themselves obliged by the ties not onely of their common faith and love but of their own wants and mutuall necessities for Order Safety and Peace they ever esteemed themselves so far bound in duty to every relation both greater and lesser as the generall good and more publick concernments of those Churches of Christ did require of them which were ever esteemed as Ecclesiae adultae Churches in their full growth beauty harmony procerity vigour and completenesse both as to the good to be enjoyed and the evils to be avoided by all Christians not onely in their private but publick and politick capacity 'T is happy indeed when one Sinner or one Family one Village or Congregation give their names to Christ at which the Angels in Heaven rejoyce But how much more august must their joy be how much more magnificent must the glory of Christ and the renown of his blessed name be when whole Cities Countreys and Nations willingly give themselves and be joyned to the Lord and to his Ministers or Ambassadours This carries more proportion as to the merit of Christs Sufferings price of his Blood and power of his Spirit so to the accomplishment of those many cleare and munificent promises foretold with so great pomp and majesty by the Prophets of Gods giving in the Nations with the glory and fulnesse of their multitudes to Christ for his Inheritance so far that many and mighty Kings and Queens should be nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Churches of Christ which should be not onely diffused and scattered according to the latitude and extent of their civil Dominions but piously owned prudently governed and orderly preserved by their princely and paternall care in their severall distributions and orderly jurisdictions according as all true prudence and polity Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil doth require of wise and good men Namely to such a grandeur beauty comelinesse and safety as was and is infinitely beyond any of those modern Models and petty Inventions which seek to slip goodly Boughs into small Twigs or Branches to reduce ancient Churches of long growth of tall and manly stature to their pueriles their long coats and cradles Such famous and flourishing Churches for instance were those in the Apostles times and long after which received their denomination or distinction from those great â—â—ties of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica Corinth Rome and the like Mother-Cities According to whose latitude and extensions in point of civil distinction and proconsulary jurisdiction the union and communion of Christians there first converted and formed into severall Churches did extend by the holy and happy Association of their respective Bishops Presbyters Deacons and people into one Ecclesiasticall polity whose orderly and united influence contained in it not onely some one particular Congregation whose number might fitly meet in one place to worship God but it comprised all Christians and Congregations in that city how numerous soever yea and extended not onely to the walls of that city but to the suburbican distributions yea to their several Territories and Provinces appertaining to them in which although there were no doubt many thousands of Christians who were divided into severall Congregations according to the nearnesse of their dwellings and conveniencies of their meetings in one place to serve the Lord yet were they still but one Church as to that Polity Order Authority Government Inspection and Subordination which was among them which cast and comprehended them by a native kind of right and spirituall descent as children to fathers under the care rule and guidance of that Apostle or Apostolick Teacher who first taught and converted them which Apostle afterward committed them together with his own ordinary Authority over them to his Vicegerents Suffragans or Successors in that chief city who residing there was called the Angel Apostle Bishop President or Father of that Church even by the Apostles themselves and by the Spirit of Christ writing to the seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Sardis Pergamus Thyatira Smyrna Philadelphia and Laodicea All which were ever reckoned by Pliny Strabo Stephanus and others as chief Cities or Proconsulary Residencies to which many other Villages and Towns yea some lesser Cities and Countreys were subordinate and united as first in civil dependence and jurisdiction so afterward in Ecclesiasticall Communion and Subjection So that it is most evident by Scripture-dialect by the wisdome of Christs Spirit by the Apostolick prudence and the subsequent practices of all famous Churches as at Alexandria Constantinople Carthage and many other instances that the compleatnesse and perfection of Church-polity order union power and authority was never thought to be seated or circumscribed in every particular congregation of Christians as they were locally divided in their lesser conventions which would make all Churches as small twigs both feeble in themselves and despicable to others but it was placed in those great branches those strong and extensive boughs which had in them the united power or authority not onely of many Christians but of many congregations in which were many godly people many grave Deacons many venerable Presbyters and one eminent Bishop or Father who continued in that Presidentiall authority to water propagate increase preserve and â—overn in order peace and unity those Churches which the Apostles had so planted fixed and established in their severall polities and limits as to Ecclesiasticall union order and jurisdiction In which the chief Pastor President or Bishop so presided in the place power and spirit of the Apostle yea and of Jesus Christ that no private Christian no Deacon no Presbyter yea no particular congregation might as Ignatius and other Ancients tell us regularly doe any thing in publique doctrine discipline worship or ministration without his respective authority consent and allowance Yea all good Christians did ever make great conscience of dividing from the principall succession seat and Pastor who was the centre and conservator of that Church-union and government which was first setled by the Apostles in Primitive Churches and imitated by all others which grew up after them Primitive Christians ever esteeming it as the sin of schisme the work of the flesh a fruit of pride and factious arrogancy for any Christian or any company of Christians to dissolve to divide from and so to destroy that
popular Conventicles where either Piety or Prudence or Learning or Gravity besides authentick and due authority yea Civility and all good manners many times are prone to be very much wanting or if they be there in some few yet a thousand to one but they are quite over-born routed silenced over-voted and cryed down by the plebeian confidences of those many whose ignorance and rudenesse delights in nothing more than either to smother and crowd to death by numbers or to assassinate by downright clamours and brutish violence any thing that looks like sober Reason holy Order just Restraint and due Authority all which the vulgar esteem as their implacable enemies and intolerable burdens So little do those men seem masters of true Reason pious Policy Christian Prudence or sociable Charity who advise endeavour or encourage to divide and consequently to destroy Episcopall Metropoliticall and Nationall Churches by dissolving the noble frames the ancient and harmonious junctures of them onely to make up small Independent bodies or Presbyterian Classes Parochiall Consistories as the sole and supreme Tribunals or ultimate Judicatories beyond any remedy or appeal in Church-affairs which is much like the digging down of Mount Lebanon with a design to make it into many fine mole-hills In which a few poor yet pragmatick Christians like so many ants may busie themselves solely and absolutely about themselves as arrogating to themselves though but two or three or seven at most the perfect name complete nature entire power and highest emphasis of a Church of Christ to all uses ends and purposes without any regard to any other higher authority or to any greater and completer Society further than they list to advise or associate with them for a time as occasion serves and till some new invention offers it self Mean time they are not ashamed or concerned as to that rude and ingratefull violation of those duties which they owe and those relations which they ought to beare as Christians by the right of an holy propagation spirituall descent and ecclesiasticall derivation of their baptisme faith and religion to that Church which was their Mother and to those chief Pastors or Shepherds which were their spirituall Fathers by an Apostolick title designation and succession both in place order and power Which spirituall relation certainly imports no lesse duty love thanks reverence and submission than those of naturall and civill relations doe since the blessing is at least equall if not far beyond to those that value their souls or their Saviour who will not easily abdicate their ghostly parents or renounce their spirituall Fathers though they should see many infirmities and some frowardnesse in them I shall not need to instance in the many defects inconveniences disorders and mischiefs incident to these Ecclesiolae and Congregatiunculae little Churchlets and scattered Conventicles which cannot but be as S. Jerome observes the Seminaries of Schisme Nurseries of Faction strife and emulation since the Sire of them seems to be Ignorance and Weaknesse or pride and arrogancy as the Dam of them usually is faction private ends and popularity Nor will their Issue faile to multiply and swarm in a few years with grosse ignorance and rudenesse with all manner of errors and heresies accompanied with vulgar petulancie atheisme irreligion anarchy confusion and barbarity which like vermine will devoure both themselves and those completer Churches from whose communion order light strength discipline integrity and safety they have withdrawn themselves by needlesse divisions to the weakning shaking subverting and endangering of the faith charity and salvation of many thousands of poore soules the strength beauty honour safety and comfort of particular congregations as of private Christians and families consisting in that orderly conjuncture as parts with the whole body politick which may best preserve both It and themselves there being not onely more virtue in the whole than in any part but more vigour in each part while it is continuous to the whole than when it is divided Which as all Reason and Religion so most sad experience in the Church of England sufficiently assures us For however private Christians have indeed some power as to counsell admonish reprove comfort pray for and by charitable offices to help and edifie one another also private congregations have yet more advantages being many in their number to joyn in publique duties to comprobate and execute Ecclesiasticall censures further each single Minister or lawfull Presbyter hath yet greater authority in his place and office to administer holy things by preaching baptizing consecrating binding loosing exhorting rebuking likewise every Bishop hath still an higher order and authority regularly to ordaine to confirme to examine to censure to rebuke to suspend to absolve to excommunicate any private Presbyter or other Christians under his inspection Yet where the Bishop is assisted with the desires consent and approbation of many Christian congregations also with the joynt assistance of many learned and godly Presbyters yea and with the united suffrages and authority of many Bishops as in cases of great and generall concernment in matters of doctrine censure and discipline is requisite O how ponderous how solemn how celebrious how powerfull how Apostolick how divine must the majesty and authority of such transactions be in any Church thus combined established and fortified against both secret contagions and violent incursions of any mischiefs which easily grow too hard for private Christians and petty Congregations yea many times for particular Presbyters and single Bishops Nor can the remedy expectable from these in their solitary capacities and small proportions either cure or encounter the pregnancy and potency of those maladies which many times infest the flock of Christ as was evident in those Epidemick pests of Arianisme Nestorianisme Donatisme Pelagianisme and others which malignities required not onely the influence and authority of a few private Presbyters with their Congregations or of particular Bishops and their Churches but of Provinciall Synods and Nationall Churches yea of the Catholick Church as much as could be united in those General Councils which were as grand Ecclesiasticall Parlaments by their majority deputation inspection and authority representing all Churches in all the World that so the salve might still be wisely commensurate to the sore The danger of a divided Church being no lesse than that of of a divided State or Kingdome which our Saviour tells us cannot stand it must not be imagined that Christ hath left his Church destitute of defence and help in such cases of distraction These grand combinations of Christian people Presbyters and Bishops convening as occasion required not onely to serve God in the piety of his daily worship but for the right ordering and guiding of themselves and others in such publick concernments as Christian polity and gubernative prudence required these made Christian primitive Churches appear in their Synodicall Provinciall Nationall and Oecumenicall Assemblies as the fairest sides and goodliest prospects
of the Temple and city of God were wont to do to the joy or amazement of all Spectators so grand so stately so august so amiable so venerable so formidable that no man could with any modesty despise them or with any ingenuity refuse their sense and sentence Whereas Schismaticall scraps and scambling separations of Christians either in their persons or parties as disjoyned and Independent from these Primitive polities and Catholick integrations of Churches make their scattered fractions unsociable societies appear not onely to the scornfull world and to perverse minds but to all sober Christians and rationall men like so many poor Cottages or like the late ruined pieces of our Cathedralls like a flock of Sheep or Pigeons scattered by Wolves or Kites or like the parts of a Lamb or Kid which a Lion or Bear hath torn without that Grandeur Majesty Authority and Efficacy which ought to accompany Ecclesiasticall judicatures and Christian Churches In which pitiful posture so feeble so desolate so despicable if the wisdom of our blessed God and Saviour had intended to have alwayes kept his multiplied Church and numerous people which were to beas the Stars of the Firmament that they should ever be like the small parties of wild Arabs and wandering Scythians certainly those Primitive and purest Churches nominally distinguished and locally defined by the Word of God the Spirit of Christ and the Pens of the Apostles would never have grown by an happy diffusion and holy coalescency to such great and goodly combinations such vast yet comely statures and extensions to so large combinations and harmonious subordinations as contained great Cities Provinces and whole Countreys For such Churches those are which are signally described and punctually circumscribed in the New Testament as well as in all other records of the Primitive Churches Which fair and firm models of Churches comprehending many Christian people Deacons Presbyters and Congregations under one chief Pastor Bishop Angel or Apostolick â—resident who was as the nave of the wheel the centre of Union the anchor of Fixation I make no doubt but the Spirit of Christ in the Apostles which so framed and setled them did intend to have them so preserved as much as morally prudentially and providentially they could be yea rather to have them ampliated and enlarged as time use and the Churches occasions required than curtailed like the garments of Davids messengers or pared and divided into small shreds and shavings The reason is evident because the life and spirit the truth and charity the honour and vigour of Christian Religion and Church-polity like Wine are better preserved in great quantities than in small parcels in Tuns than in Terces Christian people Presbyters Congregations and Bishops like live-coals united glow to a more generous fervour scattered they cool and extinguish themselves unlesse in cases of persecuted Churches where Martyrly fervencies are kept high and intense by the Antiperistasis of persecution the most heroick love and ambition of suffering and dying for Christ and his Church then uniting Christians spirits most when their persons are most scattered BOOK I. CHAP. II. THe Primitive Piety and Charity so perfectly abhorred all fractures and crumblings of Churches that we see they kept for many hundred of years as Ignatius Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Cyprian Eusebius and all Ancient both Fathers and Historians tell us their respective Combinations Fraternities and Subordinations to their Bishops Patriarchs and mother-Churches according to those Sedes principales Cathedrae Apostolicae or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limits or boundaries which were laid out and distinguished either by the Apostles first lots and Episcopall portions or by their chief residencies and setled inspections governed either by themselves or their Vicegerents and Successors most of them Primitive Martyrs and Confessors which was done even till the famous Council of Nice which in the point of distinguishing Churches and keeping their severall Dioceses or bounds took care to preserve to after-ages and successions of the Church those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient customes measures or dimensions some of which begun by the Apostles and carried on by their Successors had passed through and endured the hottest persecutions without ever being so melted and dissolved as to run into any such new moulds and fashions as this last Century in these Western Churches and these last seventeen yeares in the Church of England have produced to such frustula fragments chips and fractions as look more like factious confederacies and furtive subductions of yesterday than like those Primitive combinations and that ancient and ample Communion of Christians and Churches The endeavour of many People and Preachers too being now like that of Plagiaries to entice and steal children from the care of their mothers and the custody of their fathers to ruine as Tertullian speaks rather than to edifie themselves or the Churches of Christ to that full measure and complete stature which the love of Christ and the wisdome of his Apostles first designed and assigned to the Church of Christ in its severall limits and distributions In order to preserve which Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace not onely as to private veracity and charity but as to publick polity and harmony for strength and safety we find the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters forewarned by S. Paul of grievous Wolves who first divide then devour such as should be authors and fautors of Hereresies and Schismes too affecting to lead Disciples after them apart from the Churches setled order and communion The Roman Christians are commanded to mark with the black brand of schismatick pride those that caused divisions among them not onely as to private differences in judgement opinion and affection which are of lesse danger and easily healed among Christians where the health and soundnesse of the whole as to publick order and entireness is preserved which as the native Balsam easily heals green wounds in any part of the body But the Apostles caution as to the Corinthians seems chiefly against those that divided the publick polity and unity of the Church of Corinth which having many Christians many Congregations and many Preachers in the city and countrey adjacent was united by one Church-communion under some one Apostle or such a Vicegerent as in the Apostles absence was over them in the Lord To break which holy Subordination Harmony and Integrality the simplicity or subtilty of some factious spirits made use of those Names which were most eminent in that Church as Planters Waterers or Weeders of it such as Paul Apollos Cephas were seeking by factious sidings and adherings to those principall Teachers to withdraw themselves into severall Churches or Bodies from that grand Communion and Subordination which they received first from the Apostle converting them next from that chief Pastor or Bishop which had the rule inspection and authority over them by his appointment Which practises in the Churches
of Christ were ever esteemed the fruits of carnall not Christian minds of such as had more subtilty than sanctity in them As the Apostles so their Primitive successors ever looked upon the mincing and mangling of Churches as the reproch pest poyson and deformity of Religion being diametrally opposite to those holy customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian and sixty years after him the great Council of Nice so command and recommend as Ancient Primitive and Apostolick For they were not such children as to fancy those to be ancient customs and usages in the Catholick Church which were not older than their own beards or the Gibeonites bread and bottles which a late Writer of Schisme seems to suspect of those renowned Fathers who were not above three descents from some of the Apostles Some Bishops in the Council of Nice might very easily know Irenaeus as he tells us he did Papias and Polycarpus who both knew St. John so that the traditions and customs so evident by matter of fact to all the world could neither be dark nor dubious nor justly called Ancient then if not Primitive The greatest glory and most conspicuous character of the first famous Churches was as Ignatius tells us for Christians to love one another to be of one mind and one heart for their lesser Congregations to be subject to their severall Presbyters or Preachers for their People and Presbyters to be meekly subordinate to their respective Bishops for their Bishops to correspond with one another and all Christians by them in their joynt Councils and publick Conventions also by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendatory letters and testimonials which presently admitted every good Christian to communion with any part of the true Church or any congregation in all the world upon the testimony and account of their Baptismal covenant and orderly conversation or profession of the same faith once delivered to the Saints and that one hope or common salvation by which they stood related to the whole Church as one Body and to Christ Jesus as the onely Head of it without any new imposition or exaction of any other explicit covenants and formall professions or private engagements to any one Congregation or Preacher which must be renewed so oft as a Christian changeth his abode and may for ought I see as well be required by every private Family before they will pray or eat or drink with any stranger-Christian as by every particular Congregation which listeth to call it self a Church and so fancies it self to be absolute soveraign independent without any communion with or subordination to those greater Ecclesiasticall polities which in the primitive style and esteem were called and counted the onely regular politick organized and completed Churches the priviledges and benefits of whose communion every Christian was in charity presumed capable of and so allowed to enjoy who having been duly baptised instructed and confirmed in Christian mysteries did continue to professe the same by word and deed neither justly excommunicated out of that particular Church to which he was orderly joyned nor excommunicating himself by voluntary Schisme declared abscession separation or Apostasie To such Christians as thus professe the true faith and keep that comely order communion and subordination which is publickly professed and maintained in their respective nationall Churches and the several parts lesser Congregations contained in them to which private Christians are more immediately for order sake related there is no doubt but a just right and claim belongs according to their severall aptitudes and capacities as younger or elder catechised or fuller instructed novices or veterane and old Disciples to partake in due order of any ordinance and institution given by Christ to his Catholick Church as a mark and priviledge of his Disciples Nor can it seem lesse than a petulant and partiall if not a proud Schismatical and sacrilegious practise for any Minister or people to deny or rob any such approved Christian professor of the comfort of partaking such Christian rights as he duly requires meerly because he will not gratifie such a Minister or such a little Congregation in a new exotick way of bodying that is formally covenanting verbally engaging with them to them beyond the baptismall bond vow Thereby owning first a greater right and priviledge to be received by him from such covenanting with them than he had before as a Christian baptised and in Catholick communion with Christ and his Church next he must own an absolute soveraign and entire Church-power among them to the prejudice division and discarding of those higher relations by which he stands united and subordinate to the Church of Christ in order to higher ends and uses under greater notions and denominations as they are distinguished into severall bounds and orders both for Episcopal inspection and nationall correspondency or communion which are of far greater vertue and more publick concernment and benefit than that congregating or meeting together which is onely locall and onely followes the aptitude of a Christians residency or particular station in one place Undoubtedly the grand ecclesiastical relations and sacred generall bands of Christianity in one Body one Spirit one Faith one Baptism one Lord and Father of all c. are of a far higher and nobler nature than those which arise meerly from cohabitation or personall convention which are very variable humane and uncertain whereas the other are fixed divine and immutable except through mens own default by Infidelity Apostacy and Immorality Christian people owing to their Bishops or chief Governours as subjects do to their Princes a duty of love reverence and subjection also of due acknowledgement and holy obedience although they never see their faces nor meet them in any particular place as thousands of Christians never did at all or not for a long time and never any more after the Apostle S. Paul's departure from them who yet were subject to his orders and mandates instructions and traditions according to the mind and spirit of Christ declared by his own Epistles or such other Messengers and Apostles Bishops and Governours whom the Apostle sent to them and set over them as he did Timothy among the Ephesians Titus among the Cretians Epaphroditus among the Philippians Archippus among the Colossians These and such like with under and after the Apostles as eminent Pastors Bishops and Governours of such Churches and Christians as were contained in one great city and its Territory or Province which were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did take care that every Christian every Congregation every Presbyter or Preacher in those precincts should both do their duties keep their stations preserve the private and publick order and unity enjoy the priviledges of safety peace and assistance as parts or members of that Polity or Ecclesiasticall Body which still stood further related and so was subordinate
and Reformation Notwithstanding the shew of all these I abhorred Her as a Synagogue of Satan a den of Thieves a cage of unclean birds a very Babylon worse than that Church was from which Peter wrote his first Epistle I called Her sacred things execrable I counted her Ministers no better than the Magicians of Egypt and Baals Priests Her ministrations as Magick enchantments Her Sacraments insignificant neither sanctified nor sanctifying So far am I from being a poor and sneaking Schismatick which like a viper secretly gnawes the bowels where it is bred and lodged That out of an higher spirit of Zeal and Reformation I have like Saturn or Time quite devoured the old and wholly begat a new Church notwithstanding that I saw heretofore many seeming notes of a true and reformed Church in England many specious fruits of Christs holy Spirit in many formall good words and works of his seemingly gracious servants in Doctrine Faith and Manners by which temptations I sometimes had been a great Zelot and eager Professor having an high esteem both of the Ministers and Ministrations of the Church of England But afterward a new light breaking in upon me I first began to scruple some things in the Church of England after to suspect more at last I was jealous of all things but my own heart From jealousie I soon fell to enmity from enmity to a divorce from being divorced to prostitute the name honour peace and patrimony of that Church to the most insolent spoilers profaners and persecutors from cavilling I fell to calumniating then to condemning at last to contemning all its professed Christianity and noised Reformation as meer nullities uncapable to invest any man in the priviledges honour and happinesse of a true Christian Church or holy Society Thus bogling cruelly at the too great authority and revenues of Bishops scared also with some ceremoniall shadows and no lesse frighted with the late Presbyterian rigour and severity I was so driven by I know not what impulse but I am prone to believe well of it because I have got well by it that I at last fled from the very substance shew and name of the Church of England chusing rather to be a rank Separate a meer Quaker an arrant Seeker or nothing at all of an old-fashioned Christian than to continue in any visible communion with so corrupt so false so lewd so no Church by which high-flown resolution all this while I thank God I am become no Schismatick because neither being nor owning and therefore not being because not owning my self as any member of that Church from which I rather chose boldly to separate than poorly to schismatise in it Having a while wandered alone as Lot when he fled out of Sodom and standing by my self as holier than others finding none meet to joyn with me in Church-fellowship but growing weary and a little ashamed of my solitude neither hearing nor praying nor receiving with any Christians for many moneths nay yeares at last I had an impulse to preach and prophecy that so I might erect and create a pure and perfect Church after my own heart and call it after my own name In which though I began but with a little handful whom I gleaned most-what out of the Presbyterian late harvest which proved too big for their barns and so was never yet well inned yet we two or three met together in Christs name though upon our own heads and by our own authority expecting yea challenging his promise to be in the midst of us with all that plenitude of his spirit with those clear illuminations and assurances with that divine power and supreme Church-authority which next and immediately under Christ we judge to be in and among us as the first subject capable of it and is by us to be dispensed to what Pastors Members and Officers we list to chuse Being thus happily agreed as men we further covenanted as Saints to live together in this Church-fellowship we organized our body with all Church-Officers some of us ordained our selves to be Ministers of the Gospel others of us begat our Fathers and formed our Pastors we equally exercised Church-discipline upon one another so long as we could hold together some indeed went out from us because they were not of us the remaining faithfull Members of Christs little flock still cemented themselves and kept together as a Church where was prophecying and dipping and breaking of bread and excommunicating and all manner of censuring and discipline to far better uses and effects than ever were in that spurious as well as spacious and over-grown Church of England All this I have ordered and done by a power of Christian liberty with my Church or Body without any check or controll from any above us in a way indeed new and strange to the world but more pure free and perfect than ever was used or known in this of England or any other pretended Reformed Church which were all grosly deformed yea we are gone beyond any of those famous Primitive Churches which were by some called pure but I find them leavened with the mysterie of iniquity universally governed by Bishops our bitter enemies and Presbyters our not very fast friends The Lands of Bishops are now happily sold and some of us have bought a good part of them the Livings Tithes and Places of Presbyters we now gape for and crowd into yet are we neither guilty of sacriledge nor schisme the two Prelatick scare-crows or Episcopall bug-beares because nothing could be sacred which was never consecrated or devoted to the true God in a right way as nothing could be which was given to maintain Episcopacy with and Presbytery a meer Idol which we and so God no doubt perfectly abhors however it got footing so early in all Churches and immediately perked up in the place of the Apostles This seems to be the summarie sense of that pious Apology lately offered in behalf of all through-pac'd Separates and perfect Apostates from the order and constitution of the Church of England where either these men extremely dissemble or they first learned Christ and became Christians at least in profession many yeares being baptized and instructed confirmed and communicated in this Church from which being now totally divided they thus most ingeniously seek to wipe off the shame ingratitude levity sin suspicion of Schism by their owning no true Church at all in England and declaring plenary Separation or Independency fancying that he is lesse blameable who quite burns up his neighbours coat than he that onely singeth it and he that flayeth off ones skin is lesse insolent and injurious than he that onely scratcheth it as if every Schisme were not a partiall Separation and every Separation a plenary Schisme How justifiable the ground of such a plea is I leave to wiser men to their own more coole and impartiall spirits and to the great judge of all hearts whose Word hath much deceived his Church in
reformed profession which is truly Christian ancient and Catholick thereby justifying that mercy and truth that grace and peace of God which was plentifully manifested and faithfully dispensed to the people of this land by the piety and wisdome of the Church of England notwithstanding that the Lord seems now to hide his face from Her the want of whose favour which her great and sore afflictions have seemed to cloud is far beyond the triumphs of her enemies or the coldnesse of her friends the oppositions of many the withdrawings of some and the indifferencies of others who have all contributed to her miseries but none of them have yet convinced her that ever I could see of any sin or errour as to ignorance or iniquity superstition or irreligion dangerous defect or excesse If the Church of England had as many Mouths as she hath Wounds as many Tongues as Maims as many hearty Mourners as she hath cruel Destroyers if there were as many that durst pity and relieve her as there are that dare spoile and ruine her these would fill not England onely but all the Christian world with the bitternesse of her Complaints as a learned and pious Minister for his part hath lately done If the Church of England had many such pious Orators whose potent and pathetick eloquence were more proportionable to her calamities than the narrownesse of my heart and tenuity of my pen are like to be certainly heaven and earth would be moved with compassion flints would melt and rocks be mollified with commiseration the upper and the nether milstones partiall Presbytery and popular Independency between whom she hath been so ground to powder that Papists and Anabaptists and Familists and Quakers and Seekers and Ranters with all the rabble of her proud and spitefull enemies hope to fill their sacks with her grist those I say might possibly repent if they have not much mended their fortunes by this Churches ruines of their occasioning her so long and sharp a warfare so many and sad Tragedies while by infinite jealousies grievous reproches and unjust scandals cast upon their and your Mother this Reformed Church of England they have made her implacable enemies the Papists and others to blaspheme her for a meer Adulteresse all this while to condemn all her Children as a Bastard brood of illegitimate Christians from the first Reformation to this day Her most desperate deserters of late in order to take away their own reproch to expiate as they imagine the sin and shame of their former profession have laboured first to destroy the eldest brethren and chiefest sons in this Church next to cast out and exautorate the principall Stewards and dispensers of holy things after this they have endeavoured to rob her both of her dower and patrimony hoping at last to famish the whole Family when there shall be neither nursing fathers nor nursing mothers in this Church neither milk left for Babes nor stronger meat for the elder ones neither plain catechising nor profitable preaching neither ordaining Bishops nor ordained Presbyters CHAP. IV. SUch as have eares to heare and charity to lay to heart may with me hear the Church of England thus lamenting and bemoning Her self while she sits upon the ground covered with ashes clothed with sackcloth besmeared with blood drowned in teares and almost buried with her owne ruines O all you that pass by me stand and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow if it hath been done to any Christian Reformed Church under Heaven as it hath to me in the day wherein the Lord hath afflicted me with his fierce anger My Wounds my Wasts my Ruines my Deformities my Desolations are not by the barbarous inundations of Goths and Vandals not by the rude invasions of Saracens and Turks not by the severe Inquisitions and cruel persecutions of Papists I do not ow my miseries to the incursions of Forrainers to a nation of a strange Language of professed Enmity of different Interests and Religion They are not professed Neroes Domitians Diocletians and Julians Heathen Princes and Persecutors that have done me this despight for then perhaps I and my children could have born it with a like heroick patience and Christian courage as those did their Primitive Persecutions the splendour and constancy of whose Martyrdomes contributed more than all their preaching to the honour advantage and propagation of the Christian Religion when Churches and Christians being happily united in love and onely persecuted by professed enemies they knew in what posture of defence to cast themselves so as to suffer and die becoming Christians But I alas am ambiguously wounded by those that are of my own house family and profession Such as have been washed at my baptismall fountain of living water such as have freely and fully tasted of my Sacramentall Bread and Wine feasting at my Table which is the Lords these these have lifted up the heel against me Such as have been bred and born by me taught and brought up in the same true Christian Faith and reformed Profession by these am I hated and despised by these am I stripped and wounded by these am I torn and mangled by these am I impoverished and debased below any Church Christian or Reformed by these am I scorned and abhorred by these am I made an hissing and astonishment to all that see me by these am I made a derision and mocking-stock to my enemies round about me by these am I in danger to be quite devoured and destroyed who envy me so much breath and life as serves me to complain of my calamities Hear O heavens and give ear O earth be not ye also cruel or uncompassionate since one of you cannot but behold the deformity of my Sufferings the other cannot but feel the burthen of my complaints one of you is blasted with my Sighs the other is bedewed with my Tears Be not ye also accessory to my injuries by concealing them or guilty of my Blood by covering it which cries aloud against my ungratefull my unnaturall my rebellious children Those that came forth of my own bowels these have risen up against me to whom I liberally afforded milk when they were babes and stronger meat as they were able to bear it for whom I provided the sacred Oracles of God in a language they best understood I furnished them with such formes of wholsome devotion agreeable to the mind and Word of God as might best suit the common necessities of all and the capacities of the meanest I concealed no part of Gods sacred Counsel from them nor detained any necessary saving Truth out of any principle of unrighteous policy I neither denied nor diminished nor deformed any Ordinance of Christ to them I coloured no errours with shews of truth nor disguised any Truth with fallacious sophistries I set forth to them with all plainnesse and freedome the blessed fulnesse and excellencies of my Lord Jesus Christ in such a manner
and measure as I received from his Word and Spirit for I learned not those manifestations of Divine love from any other Church Pristine or Modern so much as the speciall dispensations and discoveries of Gods Graces and Gifts to me in which few equalled none seemed to exceed me in all the world From this great and pure fountain of all perfection and comfort the sweetnesse merit and fulnesse of my Saviour I recommended to my children every Grace every Vertue every holy Duty every necessary Precept every precious Promise every imitable Example and this was done with all the advantages of good Learning of sound Knowledge of most potent and pathetick eloquence which at once was able to inform the weakest capacity to satisfie any sober curiosity and to silence the subtilest adversary To this purpose that the great work of saving their souls might be effectually carried on with order power and authority I furnished them not with precarious praters bold intruders or pitifull pieces of Plebeian oratory in whom ignorance and impudence inability and inauthoritativeness contend which shall be greatest but I provided and prepared for them with much study and industry with many prayers and teares with long education and diligent care excellent Bishops orderly Presbyters able and authoritative Ministers workmen that needed not be ashamed of a lawful ordination and right descent of a mediate divine mission after the Apostolick line and Catholick succession after the form of an uninterrupted and authentick commission duly and truly exemplified in the consecration of Bishops and ordination of Presbyters and Deacons through all ages of the Church agreeable to that originall Institution which was from Christ Jesus the great High Priest the unerring Prophet the soveraign King of his Church the chief Preacher of Righteousnesse and Bishop of our souls who instituted first his twelve Apostles afterward the seventy Disciples whose commission was not so large nor their mission so solemn as that of the twelve whose Episcopacy and number was to be completed and upon whom the promised power from on high specially came in the miraculous and ministeriall gifts of the Holy Ghost After this pattern which was ever followed by all Churches in all the world I supplied those under my care with such a succession of Bishops and Ministers of holy things as for solid learning for powerfull preaching for devout and discreet praying for reverend celebrating for acute disputing for exact writing for wise governing and holy living were no where exeeded in all the Christian world and hardly equalled in any age since the Apostles times whose ministeriall sufficiencies and successes were sometime highly magnified and almost deified by many of those that now would stone them and destroy me by a late transport of malice as much unexpected as undeserved by me which looks more like a fascination and fury than any thing of true Zeal and sober Reformation For no men of any weight or worth for parts and piety for judgement and ingenuity for conscience and integrity have hitherto convinced me or those men that were my prime servants sons and supports of any Heresie or Idolatry of any Superstition or Apostasy of any just scandall or notable defect What some have urged for my not exercising a more severe and strict Discipline after the manner of some ancient Primitive Churches it is not imputable to any unwillingnesse in those worthy Bishops and Presbyters whom I employed but to the general wantonness or refractorinesse of all sorts of people in that point who were so farre from enduring a stricter discipline to be set up that many grudged at any Ecclesiastick authority exercised over them though it were established by their own publick consent and lawes If any of my Bishops Presbyters or people failed to do the duties which I required or rather Christ commanded them it was to be reckoned as the fruit of mens private temptations and personall infirmities but not of my constitutions or directions which were so pious and perspicuous that people could not justly plead invincible ignorance to excuse their immoralities and impieties which indeed they owed to their own negligences or corruptions Yea where the seeds of Religion were thinnest sown and thrived least in some parts of this nation it was not so much from the want of labourers as from the labourers wants the poverty of many places and barrennesse of the soyle was such that either impropriations or sacriledge or both had not left for any competent workman a competent maintenance both my Dower and Patrimony Glebes and Tithes being almost wholly alienated by hard lawes and evil customes from my use and enjoyment that holy Portion which is Gods being oft perverted to feed Hinds and Dogs and Horses which was originally devoted to feed such Shepherds as might feed my flock in every place Nor could in those cases either my prayers or teares the sordid necessities of many poor Ministers or the cryes of poor peoples famished souls ever yet move the civil State effectually to restore or remit or to make other necessary supplyes for Pastors and peoples good Yet even in this distresse which befell too many places much against my will my care and endeavour was so to keep up the life health and soundnesse of the true Reformed Christian Religion that people every where had what was necessary wholsome and decent for their souls good though possibly they had not nor was it needfull the same plenty variety dainties and superfluity in a constant way which some places did so long enjoy untill as with the Jews the Manna and Quailes Sunday Sermons and week-day Lectures came out of their nostrils while the heavenly food was rowling in their curious palates and wanton jawes the wrath of God brake forth upon them and upon me as upon Moses for their sakes who was indeed as jealous of their surfeitings of holy things as of the others famishings both being contrary to my care and desire which were God knows first to preserve the Foundation of necessary and saving Truth among them next to adde the beauty of holinesse to humility to joyn decency to sincerity to maintain the power of godlinesse with the wholsome formes of it that so Truth and Peace Order and Unity the leaves and the fruits of the tree of life might grow together for the nutriment muniment and ornament of piety Nor do I doubt to plead and affirm before Gods Tribunall That if those people who seemed to fare hardliest though the greatest complainers against my treatment of them were such as enjoyed most and fared deliciously every day wantonness being more querulous than want if they had made so good use as they might and ought to have done of that holy light and rule which was duly held forth to them in the plain parts of Scripture every year read to them in the Sacraments duly administred among them in the Articles Creeds Homilies Catechise and Liturgy with which they were
of England O venerable censors O severe Aristarchusses of a more than Catonian gravity to whose ploughs and looms and distaffs and clubs and hammers 't is meet as to so many sacred scepters this later English and Christian world should no lesse submit their souls than the Jews and Gentiles Greeks and Barbarians Romans and Scythians did to the nets and fish-hooks of the Apostles who were authorized with miraculous gifts and assisted by the speciall power of the holy Spirit of Christ to plant settle and reform and purge Christian Churches To whose holy Doctrine and Divine Institutions delivered in the Old and New Testament and followed by all the Primitive Catholick Churches notwithstanding that the Church of England did in its first Reformation diligently and exactly conform it self if we may believe the integrity of those Reformers who had the courage and constancy to be Martyrs whose learning worth piety hath been confirm'd by the testimony of so many wise religious Princes by the approbation sanction of so many honourable and unanimous Houses of Parliament by the suffrages of so many learned and reverend Convocations by the applauses of so many Sister-reformed Churches if we may believe the preaching living and dying of so many hundred excellent Bishops and Presbyters or the prayers praises and proficiencies of so many thousands of other good Christians or lastly if we may believe the wonderful blessings and speciall graces of a merciful God attesting to the verity sanctity and integrity of this Church-Reformation and Christian Constitution for many happy years Yet against all these some peevish Momusses some spitefull Caco-zelots some evil-ey'd Zoilusses some insolent and causelesse Enemies of the Church of England have not so much modesty as to conceale their malice or to smother their insolent folly and intolerable arrogancy which dares to put the ignorance giddinesse emptinesse vulgarity rashnesse precipitancy and sinisternesse of their silly censures into the balance of Religion contrary to the renowned learning piety gravity grace and majesty of all those who have had so great favour love respect and honour for the Church of England Whom her spitefull and envious adversaries now presume to follow with nothing but Contumelies and Anathema's with pillagings and spoylings with railings and revilings with waste and ruine to the excessive joy of Her Papall enemies whose deeply-designed policies have a long time desired and hoped to see that wofull day befall the Church of England in which her Bishops might beg her Presbyters be starved her Ministry contemned her Liturgie ejected her Unity dissolved and broken her Ancient and Primitive Government abolished her undoubted ordination and succession of Ministers interrupted her whole Christian Frame and Nationall Constitution which was for the main truly Catholick Primitive and Apostolick destroyed dissipated desolated What invincible Armadoes could not atchieve what monstrous Powder-plots could not accomplish what wily Jesuits and other subtile Sophisters despaired to attain having been oft defeated and repelled by the learned care and vigilant puissance of wise Princes sober Parlaments reverend Bishops and other able Ministers of the Church of England that the weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse of some of our own petty Sectaries Schismatick Agitators superâ—reforming Reformers is likely to bring to passe whom the most admired and devout Lord Primate of Armagh a great Prophet of God and Pillar of the Reformed Religion sometime told me he esteemed no other than Factors for Popery and Engines for Roman designs by divisions and domestick confusions of Religion to bring in Popish Superstition and Tyranny Indeed a prudent Conjecturer may in this case easily make a true Prophet For the Roman Eagle a watchfull powerfull and voracious bird can never fail at last to seise on these parts of Christendome for her prey where she shall see Ignorance prevail against Knowledge Barbarity against Learning Division against Unity Confusion against Order People against their Priests Novelty against Antiquity Anarchy against Catholick Authority and infinite deformities ushered in under the title of speciall Reformations That cunning Conclave which overlooks the Christian world as the greatest constellation of policy in the West knows full well that such feaverish distempers in any Church or Christian State as now afflict the Church of England will not faile if they long continue to bring it to such an hectick consumption as will quite destroy its former healthfull constitution and prepare it for those Italian Empiricks who will come then to be in request with common people when they find no good to be got by the best-reputed Physicians the most specious Reformers when these are at their wits ends so differing in their judgements and practise that they know not what to do by reason of the madnesse impatiency and petulancy of people those foraign Mountebanks will alwayes promise men help and cure at an easie rate for they require no more of the most desperate patients than to credit their receipts to be confident of and reconciled to the skill and artifice of the Church of Rome their Mother and the Pope their Father CHAP. VI. I Cannot believe that any of you who are persons of Learning Honour and Integrity lovers of your Countrey and the Reformed Religion can be wholly strangers to the sad and dangerous condition of the Church of England Nor can you if rightly set forth to you be unaffected with it unlesse your designs and fortunes are to be advanced by the rents and ruines of this Church of England In which as the Lord liveth before whom we all stand distempers are risen not onely to Divisions but Distractions not onely to Injuries but Insolencies not only to Obloquies but Oppressions not onely to Schismes but Abscissions not onely to Factions but Confusions not onely to Lapses but Apostacies not onely to rude Deformities but they tend to absolute Nullities as to any Christian Harmony Fraternity Order Beauty Unity Strength Safety and publick setling of that Reformed Religion which was once professed in the Church of England And this by reason of the Envies Despites Rudenesses Animosities Seditions Strifes Separations Raylings Reproches Contumelies Blasphemies and prophane Novelties every where pregnant and predominant among vulgar spirits and odiously cast upon all things that you and your forefathers esteemed as religious and sacred in this Church of England The torrent of rebukes and troubles like Ezekiels waters is now risen not onely to the ankles and knees but to the loyns and neck growing too rapid and deep for the common people to wade over or venture into nor are they safe for any to engage upon but those who as S. Christopher is represented in the Legendary Emblem are heightned by their own integrity and supported by Gods heroick Spirit for it is a black and dangerous a red and dead Sea upon which he adventures who will now seriously assert the Church of England whose troubled state is more stormy than those waters were on which S. Peter ventured to walk or
Trinity for the justification sanctification and salvation of Sinners in all these I never found by my reading and experience nor do I know where to seek for any thing beyond or every way equall to what was graciously dispensed in the Church of England Upon which grounds appearing to me and all the unpassionate Christian World most certain no man can wonder if I so much magnifie and prefer the Church of England that in the communion of its Doctrine Worship Ministry and Order I chuse to live in the communion of its Faith Hope and Charity I desire to die Let my soul be numbred among those Martyrs and Confessors those renowned Bishops and orderly Presbyters those holy Preachers and humble Professors whose labours lives and deaths whose words works and sufferings helped to plant and propagate to reform settle and preserve to so great a conspicuity of piety grace and glory the Catholick Church of Christ in all ages and places and particularly this part of it which we call the Church of England I am so far from envying or admiring any novel pretenders who boast of their folly and glory in their shame in their endeavours to destroy and devour this Church that I rather pity their childish fondnesses their plebeian petulancies their insolent activities their unlearned levities their ingratefull vanities who have demolished much and edified nothing either better or any way so good as what they have sought to pull down as to the order honour tranquillity beauty and integrality of a Christian Church So little am I shaken or removed from my esteem love and honour to the Church of England that I am mightily confirmed in them by all the poor objections made against it by the unreasonable indignities cast upon it which are as dirt to a Diamond but the further test and triall of its reall worth and splendor nor do I conceive that by those afflictions which are come upon us God pleads against the Church of Engl. but rather for Her against the lewd manners of her ungracious and ungratefull children for whose wickednesse He makes so fruitfull a Mother to grow barren so fair an House to become desolate so flourishing a Church to decay and wither It is no news where the lives and manners of Christians are much depraved from the holy rule of Christ evidently set forth among them to see famous Churches like the Moon in the wane or eclipse clothed with sackcloth and turned into blood to see Order subverted Unity dissolved Peace perverted Beauty deformed Holy things profaned It is no news to read of holy Prophets blessed Apostles orthodox Bishops and godly Presbyters ill treated and despitefully used by Heathens Hereticks Schismaticks No men but ignorant and unlettered can wonder at Bibles and other holy Books burned at Church-lands alienated the houses demolished and the Preachers silenced banished destroyed All Church-histories tell us it was many times so even among the Primitive Churches even then when their pious and Apostolick constitution was no doubt at best it was most violently and desperately so just before the Churches enjoyed the greatest prosperity longest tranquillity the blackest darkness usually going immediately before the welcomest break of day as was remarkable in the serenity of Constantine the Great 's time succeeding the dreadfull storm of Diocletians persecution which was looked upon and intended as an utter extirpation of Christian Religion Which distressed estate of the Primitive Churches of Christ in all the Roman world Eusebius Bishop of Caesaria who lived in those worst dayes describes with so much pious oratory and so parallel in many things to the temper of our times that I cannot but present you my honoured countrey-men with the prospect of them because the fury and darknesse of that tempest reached even to the then British Churches in England under which many Bishops and Presbyters Noblemen and Gentlemen perished and among others that famous Martyr S. Alban who as Bede tells us in his History l. 1. rather then he would deliver or discover a pious Presbyter whom he had hid in his house by whom he was either converted or much confirmed in the Christian Faith chose to offer himself in the Priests habit to the Inquisitors and owning himself for a Christian though yet unbaptized he died for that profession Hereby the world may see how much poor mortalls are prone to mistake in their calculations of Gods judgements upon any Church both as to their own sins and other mens sufferings where the greatest sufferers are commonly the least sinners and the greatest inflicters are the least Saints Having in the former seven Books sayes Eusebius set forth that holy succession of Bishops which followed the Apostles in all the famous Primitive Churches in their several limits and proportions under the various seasons and storms of times the Churches had now in the Roman Empire so great liberty serenity and quiet that Bishops in many places were much honoured even by the civil Magistrates the Temples and Oratories of Christians were every where full and frequented new Churches were every day erected more goodly costly and capacious nor could the malice of men or Devils hinder the growing prosperity of the Churches every where while God was pleased to shine upon them with his favour Afterward too great liberty and ease degenerated to luxury and idlenesse these betrayed Christian Bishops Presbyters and people to mutuall emulations and contentions these sowred to hatred and malice these brake out to fury and faction Christians persecuting each other with words and reproches as with armes and weapons murmurings and seditions of governed and governours justling against each other grew frequent arising from desperate hypocrisies and dissemblings At last being generally less sensible of their sins than their sides and factions and less intent to the honour of the Church and its holy Canons than to their private passions and ambitions the wrath of God overtook them all Then saith that Historian as Jeremy complains did the Lord bring darknesse upon the beauty of the daughter of Sion then did He cast down to the ground the glory of Israel He remembred no more the place of his footstool in the day of his wrath then did he profane the habitation of his honour in the dust and made Her a reproch to all her enemies c. then were Churches commanded to be pull'd down to the ground holy Books and Bibles to be burnt the Bishops and Pastors some banished others imprisoned tortured and killed all silenced impoverished disgraced abhorred by the Emperour with his followers and flatterers Christians were forbidden all holy meetings and duties commanded and forced to sacrifice to popular Idols and plebeian Gods upon pain of death and torture seventeen thousand Christians slain in one month an utter extirpation of Bishops Presbyters Professors Churches and Christianity it self designed enjoyned and publickly solemnized by a triumphant pillar erected in Spain with this Inscription An Imperial monument of
honour merited by the Emperours Diocletian Galerius for their extirpating Christian superstition restoring the worship of the Gods No pen saith Eusebius could equall the atrocity of those times against the Church of Christ Yet even then the gracious spirit of sincere Christians as the Ark in the deluge rose highest toward heaven then godly Bishops and Presbyters were as another Historian writes more ambitious of Martyrdome than now Presbyters are of being all made Bishops then were Christians more then conquerours and true Christianity most triumphant when it seemed most depressed despised and almost destroyed as Sulpitius Severus writes of the same times in his short but elegant History Thus Eusebius and others describe that horrid storm and black night which was relieved by the blessed day-star of Constantine the Great appearing In which dismall times learned men do not quarrell at the profession and state of Religion but at the irreligion and scandall of Christians lives the fault and provocation was not from the Faith Doctrine Liturgy Order and Government then established in the Churches of Christ but from the degenerous depraved and ungoverned passions of men as they all blamed these last whenever they appeared so they constantly asserted the other as was evident in the Synod of Antioch in which a little before Diocletians time the heresie of Paulus Samâ—satenus denying the Divinity of Christ was condemned by all being confuted by Malchion a learned man an accurate Disputant The Author or Heresiarch was excommunicated not onely from the Church of Antioch but also from the Catholick Church and separated from all Christian communion throughout the world by a just and unanimous severity Holy men then rightly judged that the meritorious cause of all those sore calamities arose not from the frame of Christian Churches which was holy uniform and Apostolick as yet but from the wantonness and wickedness of Christian professors neglecting so great means of salvation and abusing such Halcyon dayes as had been sometime afforded them Which censure I may without rashnesse or uncharitablenesse pass as to the present distresses incumbent upon the Church of England whose holy wise honourable and happy Reformation must ever be vindicated as much as in me lies against all such gain-sayers as make no scruple to condemne as all the generations of Gods children in former ages so those especially who worthily setled and valiantly maintained the Christian reformed Religion in the Church of England as against all Heathenish and Hereticall profaneness so against the more puissant and superstitious Papists also against the more peevish but then more feeble Schismaticks CHAP. X. IT were as impertinent a work for me in these times to insist upon every particular in the frame of the Church of England or to cry up every small lineament in Her for most rare and incomparable as it is unreasonable and spitefull in those that deny Her to have had any one handsome feature in Her or any thing grave comely Christian-like or Church-like in her main constitution and complexion Mr. Richard Hooker one of the ablest Pens and best Spirits that ever England employed or enjoyed hath besides many other worthy men abundantly examined every feature and dress of the Church of England asserting it by calm clear and unanswerable demonstrations of Reason and Scripture to have been very far from having any thing unchristian or uncomely deformed or intolerable which her then enemies declaimed and now have proclaimed whose wrathfull menaces the meekness and wisdome of that good man foresaw and in his Epistle foretold would be very fierce and cruell if once they got power answerable to their prejudices superstitions and passions against the Church of England which he fully proved to differ no more from the Primitive temper and prudence than was either lawfull convenient or necessary in the variation of times and occasions The excellent endeavours of that rarely-learned and godly Divine so full of the spirit and wisdome of Christ one would have thought might have been sufficient for ever to have kept up the peace order and honour of the Church of England also to have silenced the pratings and petulancies of her adversaries But alas few of those plebeian spirits and weaker capacities to whose errour anger and activity the Church of England now chiefly owes her miseries tears and fears were ever able to understand or bear away the weight strength and profoundnesse of that most ample mans reasonings and his eloquent writings Others of them that were more able were so cunning and partiall for the interest of their cause and faction as commonly to decry for obscure or to suspect as dangerous because prejudiciall to their interest or to bury in silence as their enemy that rare piece of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiasticall Polity which many of them had seldome either the courage or the honesty to read none of them the power ever to reply or the hardiness so much as to endeavour a just confutation of his mighty demonstrations Yea I have been credibly informed that some of the then-dissenters from the Church of England had the good or rather evil fortune utterly to suppress those now defective but by him promised and performed books touching the vindication of the Church of England in its Ordination Jurisdiction and Government by the way of Ancient Catholick Primitive and Apostolick Episcopacy Which one word Episcopacy hath of late years cost more blood and treasure in Scotland and England than all the enemies of Bishops and of this Church had in their veins or were worth 20. years ago whose importune clamours of old and endeavours of late to extirpate Primitive Catholick and Apostolicall Episcopacy out of this Church and to introduce by head and shoulders the exotick novelties and vanities of humane invention have brought themselves and this whole Church to so various and divided a posture as makes no setled or uniform Church-government at all by a popular precipitancy ruining an ancient and goodly Fabrick whose temporary decayes or defects might easily and wisely have been amended before they had agreed of a new model or seriously considered either their skill or their authority to erect a new one if they could find out a better which hitherto they have not done nor will they I believe ever be able to do as destitute in this point of any just commission direction power or precedent either from God or man I am sure the Supreme power of regulating all Ecclesiasticall affairs was under God by the laws of England invested in the Chief Magistrate and Governours of this Church without and against whose judgements consents and consciences no innovations were to be carried on nor indeed begun in this Church whose events or successes hitherto have been only worthy of such tumultuary beginnings the effects of them being full of dissolution confusion to all of injurious afflictions to many worthy men besides penall and perpetuall divisions among the Innovators themselves who
varying in this as in other things from the whole ancient Churches constitution no less than from this of England are likely to differ among themselves even till Doomesday unless they return under some new name and disguised notion of moderators and superintendents to what they have rashly deserted the true pattern in the Mount that paternall Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which was the centre and crown of the Churches unity peace order and honour which imports no more after all this clamour and terrour than one grave and worthy Presbyter duly chosen in the severall Dioceses limits to be the chief Ecclesiastick Overseer and Governour succeeding in the managing of that Ecclesiasticall power and authority which without an Apostolick President or Bishop properly so called Presbyters alone in parity or equality never did enjoy and so never ought to exercise in the Churches of Christ as to ordination and jurisdiction no more than Bishops regularly may without the counsel and assistance of Presbyters Which ancient Order eminent Authority of Primitive Episcopacy if neither right Reason nor the Word of God either in the Old or New Testament did clearly set forth to us as best if neither Apostles at first nor the Primitive Fathers after them if neither Church-history nor Catholick custome nor Primitive Antiquity nor the approbation of the best Reformed Churches and Divines if all these did not commend it as they evidently do to my best understanding yet the late mad and sad extravagancies in Religion do highly recommend it yea the great want of it in England shews the great use necessity and excellency of it especially if advanced to its greatest improvement of counsel order and authority I may adde the votes of all sober and impartiall Christians even now in England who are grown so wise by their woes as generally to wish for such Episcopacy whose restitution would be more welcome to the wiser and better sort of Christians in this nation than ever the removall of it was or the medlies of Presbytery and Independency is like to be Nor do I believe that the restauration of a right Episcopacy would be unacceptable to many of the soberest men even of those two parties if any expedient could be found to salve and redeem the reputations of some lay-leaders and popular Primates of those sides whose credits lie much at pawn with the people upon this very score as having been by them rashly biassed against all Episcopacy the abusing of which Apostolick order on one side and the abolishing of it on the other side were I think two of the greatest Engines the Devil used to batter the Church of Christ withall pride and parity insolency and Anarchy being equally pernicious to Church-polity and Christian piety The overboylings of some mens passions which the Scotch Thistles being set on fire under them chiefly occasioned having now almost quenched themselves by bringing infinite fedities and deformities upon the whole face of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Church as well as otherwhere these sad events may save me the labour of further asserting in this place the use and honour of Catholick Episcopacy in the Churches of Christ which is already done as by my owne so many abler pens as it was also done by Mr. Hooker sufficiently proving that the Church of England deserved not upon the account of its retaining the Catholick and Apostolick order of Episcopacy to have suffered these many calamities which have ensued since the Schismes and Apostasy of many from this Church and from that Primitive Government other than which was not so much as known or thought of in the Catholick Church of Christ for 1500 years nor then when the Church of England began its wise and happy Reformation which did not indeed abolish but reform and continue as became its wisdom that Ancient and Apostolick government of the Church which was primitively planted in these British Churches as in all others throughout the world long before the Bishop of Rome had any influence or authority among them being highly blessed of God and honoured of all good men nor hath yet any cause appeared why it should be blasted or accursed or scared by Smectymnuan terrors CHAP. XI AS for the Doctrinals of Christian Religion this Church of England ever had so high an approbation from the best Reformed Churches and so harmonious a consent with the most Orthodox and Primitive Churches that it must be extreme ignorance or impudence on this part to esteem the present miseries of this Church as merited by Her wherein it was indeed most exact and compleat as wholly consonant to the Word of God so nothing dissonant from the sense and practise of the ancient and purest Churches Yea I find that the bitterest enemies of the Church of England do in This least shew their teeth or clawes except onely in the point of Infant-Baptism not for want of ill will for nothing more pincheth them then the Doctrine of the Church of England which was according to godliness teaching all men that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live righteously soberly and godlily in this present world but for want as of just cause so of skill and abilitie most of them being such as have no great stock of knowledge learning or judgement nor very capable on this side to assault the Church of England whose strength and shield is the invincible Word of God rightly understood Therefore the cunning Adversaries and Vastators of the Church of England drive a lesser trade of small cavellings and bitings rather as the serpent at the heel than head not much engaging themselves in any grand controversies of Divinity which are generally above the reach of their capacities whose feeble assaults the Church of England hath no cause to fear against the Doctrine set forth in Her 39. Articles Her Catechisme Her Liturgy and Her Homilies since She hath so many years mightily maintained this post of her Doctrine against the Learning Power and Policy of the Roman party who are veterane Souldiers and mighty Troopers weightily armed in comparison of whose puissance these light-armed Schismaticks and small Skirmishers are like Pot-guns to Canons or Pigmies to Giants seeking to deface the Pinnacles and Ornamentalls of Religion but not capable to shake the foundations of it as it was happily established and duly professed in the Church of England CHAP. XII NOr have they had either more cause for or better successe in their disputings against the Devotionals of the Church of England in its publick worshipping of God by Confessions Prayers Praises Psalmodies and other holy Oblations of rationall and Evangelicall Services offered up to God by the joynt devotion of this Church the subject and holy matter of which ever was is too hard for their biting therefore most of them contented themselves to bark at the manner of performing them chiefly quarrelling at that prescript form or Liturgie used in this Church under the title
extemporary prayer which to the hearers hath the same aspect of a crutch or staff no less than that set form which by many is composed and proposed to the congregation As for the humours of common people they are an ill compass to steer by in concernments of Church or State It is no wonder to see wontedness breed weariness and weariness wantonness wantonness loathing of the most holy duties and heavenly dainties as of Manna to the Jews unless the hearts of men be alwaies humbly devout and sincerely fervent and such can I am sure daily follow wonted wholsome forms with new fervours and give a fresh Amen to known oft-repeated petitions as well as a fiduciary assent to such precepts and promises as they have heard or read from Gods Word a thousand times Without which sacred flames of constant zeal and successive devotion upon mens hearts as the holy fire which was never to go out upon Gods altar not onely the extemporary varieties of mens own inventions will prove perfunctory and superficiall but even Scripture it self and the Oracles of God will grow to be meer Crambe yea the repeated Celebration of the most divine and adorable mysteries of the blessed Sacraments which Christ instituted as constant solemn Services in his Church will prove nauseous burdens and hypocriticall loades to the dull and indevout spirits of men whom if they be such in their hearts and tempers no variety or novelty will quicken ther niauseous and lazy hypocrisy if they be not such no constancy or wontedness will dull their sincere fervency and holy fragrancy of their affections The late ramblings barrenness and confusion of some mens sad and extemporary rhapsodies their rude and rusticall devotions are especially in solemn and Sacramentall Celebrations observed by many wise Christians to be such since the Cadet or younger Brother of the Directory if it deserves the honour of that name which to many seems but as a by-blow the illegitimate issue of partiall spirits Apostatizing from their former conformity to the Church of England in that point of its Liturgy since I say it crowded or as Jacob supplanted its elder brother out of the house of God though it self be now little used and less regarded even by its first patrons and sticklers that it makes them and me highly admire and more magnifie the wisdome of the Church of England in first composing after perfecting and prescribing that excellent Liturgie to common people which contained the very quintessence of all that we find used by the ancient piety and charity of Churches agreeable to Gods Word which is the onely pattern pillar and support for Christians prayers both publick and private Nor did the Church of England ever intend as I conceive by Her Liturgie so to stint and confine any discreet and able Minister or private Christian but they might further pour out their souls to God in prayers and praises publickly and privately so as occasion required and good order permitted onely it judged as I doe with pious Antiquity and all the most learned Reformers particularly Mr. Calvin that it is a great and reall concernment in every true and Orthodox Church that care be taken to settle and preserve wholsome forms and solemn Devotionalls for the publick celebrating of Prayers Praises holy Duties Christian Mysteries Sacraments and Ordinations next to the care of propounding and establishing sound Doctrine or true Confessions and Articles of Faith Which care of all Christians good in that behalf first induced the Ancient and Primitive Churches as S. Austin and others tell us next to their laying of Scripture-grounds in their Creeds and Confessions to enlarge and fix their Liturgies and Devotions finding that fanatick Errour and Levity would seem an Euchite as well as an Eristick Prâ—yant as well as Predicant a Devotionist as well as a Disputant insinuating it self with no less cunning under a Votary's Cowle than in a Doctors Chair in Prayers Sacraments and Euchologies as well as in Preachings Disputations and Writings This I am sure The Liturgie of the Church of England was so usefull so well advised so savoury so complete so suitable so solemn and so significant a form of publick Worshipping God so highly approved by wise and worthy men at home and abroad as composed by the speciall assistance of the holy Spirit of God in the judgement of the first Heroes and Martyrs of this Reformed Church so reverently used by many even lesse conformable in some things ceremoniall to the Church of England that beyond all question it deserved a longer question a more calm debate a more serene serious and impartiall triall before it should have been so utterly abdicated or expulsed out of the Church as Hagar was out of Abrahams family I humbly conceive that neither Recusants should have had so great a gratification to their refractoriness nor this so famous flourishing and wel Reformed Church should have had so great a slurr aspersion cast upon its Princes its Parlaments its Bishops its Presbyters all its faithfull people as if they had hitherto served God so far superstitiously irreligiously and unworthily that the very Book it self containing the method form matter and words of their publick service of God must be first vilified and scorned by the vulgar insolency next utterly abrogated and quite ejected out of this Church by such as passionately undertook to abett and patronize the present humours and distempered fits of popular surfeitings and inconstancy lately risen up not onely against their own former approbation and practise but against the piety wisdome and gravity of this Nation and all other setled Churches in the world Yea further the partiality and immoderation of some men seems in this most excessive that to shew their implacable despite against the Liturgie of the Church of England they cannot endure nor would if they had power permit any Christians to use it though they find it as our Marian Martyrs did very beneficiall to their souls comfort and therefore earnestly desire highly value and duly use it So imperious Dictators would some men be over other mens liberties and consciences even in Religion who are rigid asserters of their own impatient to be imposed upon by others and yet most insolently ambitious to impose upon other men how far they may or may not serve God in a religious way and manner fancying that nothing can please God which doth not please them What some men have preached and printed against the English Liturgie and all set forms of Prayers never so good and fit as if they were stintings and dampings of Gods Spirit c. I must confess I understand rather the jeer and contemptuousness of their words than the wit reason or Religion of them for certainly the same may be said against all Scriptures Psalms Sermons preached or printed against Ministers own Prayers and any other proposed helps for the advancing of knowledge or devotion in mens hearts And however some
reformed Religion as to its unity order stability and constancy either in doctrine or duty Sure it was far better to have the holy complete and reverent Sacrament of the Lords Supper administred and received by humble devout and prepared Christians meekly kneeling upon their knees than to have none at all celebrated for twice seven yeares both Ministers and people willingly excommunicating themselves and starving one another as to that holy refection It was much better and more Christian-like to have infants baptized with the ancient signe of the crosse as a token of their constant profession of the Faith of Christ crucified than to have them left wholly unbaptized and so betrayed to the Anabaptistick agitators who boldly nullifie that Sacrament when they see others either vilifie and wholly reject it as to infants or dispense with so great partiality as if every petty Preacher were a Lord and Judge not a Servant and Minister of the Church of Christ It was better to have some things lesse necessary yea inconvenient that looked like order decency and harmony in the Church than daily to run thus to endlesse faction ataxie confusion and irreligion Better that Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons officiate after the ancient manner in Eastern and Western Churches in white garments under which form Angels who are ministring spirits are represented to us and Christ himself in his transfiguration duly administring holy things to the people of God than to have no true Ministers no divine or due ministrations at all as is now in many places of England and Wales where either Churches and people are desolatâ— or pitifull intruders neither truly able nor duly ordained dare to officiate in their motley and py-bald habits as they list superciliously affecting such odde and antick fashions as they most fancy to please themselves or amuse the people with over whom they seek to have an absolute dominion If those few ceremonies appointed and accustomed to be used in the Church of England were not herbs of grace or of the most fragrant and cordiall sorts of flowers yet certainly they were never found to be so noxious and unsavoury weeds as some pretend the squeamishnesse of some people was no argument of any thing pestilent or banefull in them There are noses that have Antipathies against Roses and some will faint at any sweet smell If a few modest Christistians could lesse bear the sent or sight of them for my part I could willingly indulge them such a connivence and toleration as might consist with the publick peace order and rules of charity but I can never approve the counterscuffle of those who for their private disgusting of one sawce or dish rudely overthrow an orderly feast and well-furnished table who upon the suspicion of weeds root up all the good plants in a garden who jealous of briars and thorns destroy the vines and fig-trees Ceremonies if they bear no great or fair fruit yet they may as hedges be both a fence and ornament to Religion which truly for my part I esteemed them and so used them nor did they grow so offensive as now they have proved untill over-valuing on the one side and under-valuing on the other side pertinacy and obstinacy as S. Austin expresseth his sense and sorrow like a pair of alternative bellows kindled such flames of animosity as instead of bearing and forbearing one another in love sought to consume each other in those heats and flames which would not have risen had both sides more intended the substance and lesse the ceremonies of Religion There were infinite more obligations to Christian union by the true faith they joyntly professed than there were occasions of dividing by the ceremonies about which they differed But one sharp knife will easily cut in sunder many strong cords if it be in a mad or indiscreet mans hand Although Ceremonies of mans invention be no more to be made rivals to Religion than Hagar was to Sarah or Ismael to Isaac yet it is hard to cast them out having been sons or servants to the Churches family with scorn unlesse they be found to grow too petulant either jeering or justling pure Religion of whose genuine substance indeed they are not yet they may as hair is to women and men too be given It for an ornament nor do they deserve to be suspected for superstitious much lesse irreligious untill Christians make more of them then they deserve or the Church intended either so much contending for them or against them as takes them off from intending those main things wherein the grace and kingdome of God doth consist It doth not become the children of God either so to please themselves with toyes and bagatelloes as to neglect their meat or so to wrangle about them as to forget either the mutuall love they owe as brethren or the duty they owe to their parents But those little scratches which some Anticeremoniall mens itching fingers heretofore made upon the England's beautifull face would never I believe have so far festred and deformed all things of Religion in this Church if some men had not mixed of late some things of a more venomous nature and malignant design in order to gratify the despite of those rude Demagorasses of Rome who have most ill will and evil eyes against the beauty of this Parthenia the Church of England I know the common refuge of many who eagerly opposed the Church of England in this point of its Ceremonies was when they could not answer those arguments which learned and godly men brought to justifie the lawfull nature of the things in themselves also for the Churches undoubted liberty and power in chusing and using them lawfully they then flew to that popular and plausible argument which is in it self very fallacious arguing a mind rather servile to mens persons and enslaved to their opinions than enjoying the freedome of its own reason and judgement Namely that some learned and many godly men did greatly scruple those ceremonies being so scandalized with them that they either never used them or with very great regret others bitterly inveighed against them petitioning God and man for the removall of them Thus do most men plead who were but coppy-holders under the chief Lords of this Faction against the Ceremonies of the Church of England Ans I do not unwillingly grant as having been no stranger to some of them that many of those who were no great friends to the Ceremonies were yet learned grave and godly men such as they are reputed to be by those who pretend to be their followers and have rather out-gone them in the rigour of non-conformity than kept pace with them in that moderation gravity and charity which those men seemed to have who were not therefore sworn enemies against the Church of England because they were no great friends to Ceremonies yea I am perswaded there were few of them who truly deserved in former ages the names of godly and wise
think their own refractoriness to be Religion and other mens honest devotion to be but superstition of which I confess I never thought either this Church or any other to be in the least degree guilty while they did observe such holy memorials with publick celebrity as were appointed to the honour of God and to the imitation of those graces which were remarkable in the eminentest servants of God renowned in the Gospel such as are the blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord as also his prime Apostles by whose means the light of the Gospel shone through all the world Nor do we find our Saviour himself withdrawing in such cases his conformity to the Churches practise in those Encaenia or Feasts of dedication which were thankfull and joyfull memorials of the restauration of that material Temple which was to be demolished whereas these holiday-celebrations used in this Church have respect to such things as are never to be forgotten abolished or changed while the world continues and Christ hath any Church upon earth which I believe he will have to the end of the world according to his promised assistance to all his faithfull Ministers who continue in the fellowship and succession both for doctrine and authority of the blessed Apostles But I have done with these long and unhappy debates about the sacred Festivalls and other Ceremonies authorized by the Church of England on which some flesh-flies mistaking them for galls and sores when they were but decent variations of beautifull colours in its garment have so importunely fastened especially in the hotter season of these late dog-dayes that they have very much flye-blown the reformed Religion and endangered not onely the putrefaction but the utter corruption of the whole state of this Church of England whose quarrel and right in these things I should not have thus far revived or vindicated if I had not thought it necessary by this salt of sound speech to represse those further putrifying principles which upon this account are daily suggested to simple and well-meaning people against the whole frame and constitution of the Church of England Whose publick commands and setled constitutions as I alwayes approved and obeyed but most readily since I best understood them in their late fiery triall because I have found them in great and weighty matters serious solid scripturall in lesser things moderate discreet and charitable so I never had either heart or hand tongue or pen to assert any thing that was by private or particular mens fancies brought in either to a peevish non-conformity or to a pragmatick super-conformity Though I willingly allow many of my calling to be much wiser and better than my self yet I cannot look upon them as wiser than the whole Church of England which saw with many more eyes both forward and backward than any one Bishop or Presbyter can do whose reall Innovations in later times beyond what either the letter or usage of this Church which best interprets Its meaning did enjoyn and authorize I am no way concerned to maintain nor was I ever discontent to have them both gainsaid and removed as insolencies mis-becoming any Church-man never so wise or great to impose upon the Majesty of so famous a Church as England was which never needed any other additions innovations or decorations either in Doctrine or Discipline or Worship than those which It self had soberly chosen as a wise Mother and grave Matron which justly disdains to be made gayer or finer by such ribbands feathers and toyes as any of her Children shall list to pin upon her It had better become in my judgement the learning gravity and discretion of those men who most admired and obtruded their own supernumerary and unwonted ceremonies to have confined themselves to the Churches known Injunctions and Customes for it were endless if every man never so good should be gratified in his Church-projects and religious inventions which became the great pest and oppression of the Western Churches when the Bishops of Rome by their own incroachments and other Bishops connivence undertook to innovate or regulate all things in all Churches which should have been ordered either by generall Councils or by the Synods of particular Churches as was most convenient for them Nor in England could ever prudent men with reason have doâ—ed on any of their novelties when they plainly saw that even those few sparks of ancient Ceremonies with which the Church of England contented her self and which neither made nor marr'd Religion being rather spangles than spots on the Churches garments even these I say have a long time been made beyond their merit not onely occasions for some to rail others to scorn a third sort to blaspheme the purity and honour of the Church of England but also to schismatize in Her and separate wholy from Her Yea from the later obtrusions of some mens either renovations of things antiquated or innovations of Ceremonies never enjoyned by the Church those dreadful conflagrations have grown which have almost quite consumed Her the quenching of which deserves as it needs not onely these drops of my pen but of all your tears and prayers most worthy Gentlemen who find your selves as I am very much concerned for the honour and happiness of this Church which was in all points prudently reformed and excellently constituted CHAP. XIV A Second grand Objection very popular and plausible which the enemies of the Church of England have made great use of to decry and destroy if possible the whole frame constitution of It is taken from the private infirmities personall failings male-administrations which some men have either suspected or really observed in some of the Clergie either Arch-bishops Bishops or Presbyters of the Church of England against whom it is objected that either they were not so warm and voluble Preachers as those men do most fancy or possibly less learned and industrious then was fit for Ministers or not so prudent it may be and compassionate toward weaker Christians as became those that were stronger in the faith or lastly not so morally strict unblamable in their lives as indeed all Ministers of the Gospel ought to be at all times Hence the Adversaries of the Church of England do conclude that both head and heart were sick that there was no sound part that all was full of bruises and putrified sores that in the Church of England nothing could be found worthy of a true Church a true Minister or a true Christian My answer is That all the modest Clergie in England desire to be so humble so ingenuous so impartial as not to forget their own infirmities while they coÌ„plain of others injuries For my self being conscious how little removed I am from fallings as a mâ—n and Minister I shall willingly confess and strive to amend what any mans charity shall with truth convince me of and for others my Fathers and Brethren I presume I have because I humbly crave their leaves to
serve the turn which consisted not in study meditation and reading but in a bold look a confident spirit and a voluble tongue so that neither such preaching nor praying seemed many degrees removed from meer vulgar prating from triviall extemporary chat 'T is true few Bishops few Presbyters among us but may confess that either in our accesses to that great and terrible work unfitted and unfurnished in great part or in our converse and exercises in it with less mortified affections and less exemplary actions either by our ambitions or our envies or our covetousness or our impatience by our looseness or luxury or laziness or vulgarity we have too much abased the dignity of our calling and the honour of our profession whence justly and necessarily follows the darkning and eclipse of our credit esteem and reputation among the people when they see their Physitians themselves infected their Surgeons ulcerous their Antidotes poysonous their Ministers helping to fill up the measure of the sins of the people doing wickedly in a land of uprightnesse while justice was done to them while all favor shewed them in plenty peace dignities honours while the fruits of Gods and mans indulgence were bestowed upon them and continued to them then for Clergie-men and Pastors to wax wanton to feed themselves and to neglect the flock which was purchased with the precious blood of Christ Who can wonder if the wrath of God break out against us when as the sons of Aaron and Eli the Priests of the Lord adventure to approch the glory of God with strange fire with dead and unreasonable instead of living and acceptable sacrifices Who of us can doubt or complain that we bear the iniquity of our holy things while the anger of the Lord is thus gone out against us and presseth sore upon us in the saddest wayes of temporall calamities loading us at once with poverty reproch and contempt cast upon us by popular fury and plebeian despite which knows no bounds of justice moderation pity or charity much less of any reparation and restitution which possibly might have been hoped from the magnificence of Princes and great men when once their anger had been asswaged and their displeasure pacified against the distressed and despised Clergie But vulgar fury like the fire of hell is consumptive and unquenchable when once it hath leave to rebell and rage against their betters especially such as have been their Governours and Teachers the reprovers or restrainers of their ruder lusts and follies nothing is more insolent precipitant boysterous brutish implacable inexorable irreparable 'T is like that divine vengeance which was executed by the earths opening its mouth as it did upon Korah and his complices scaring all and threatning to swallow up the whole Congregation of the Lord as it doth at this day still gaping upon the whole Clergy and the remnant of this Church of England which yet hath escaped the bayardly blindness of common people being such that they are neither able nor willing to discern between what is precious and what is vile to distinguish between the use and abuse of things between persons and their functions between divine Authority and humane Infirmity between the essentiall constitution of things and their accidentall corruptions The headiness of such Reformers would seek to put out the seeing eyes of all Bishops and Ministers because of the weaknesse or wantonnesse of some Nor do these popular flames know at length how to spare their own Idols and Teraphims their Lares and Penates those Houshold and familiar Gods whom they formerly most dearly embraced adored and doted upon but now they have cast them to the Moles and Bats For it is very observable in these times that the plebeian rudenesse coldnesse mutability licentiousnesse petulancy and ingratitude of some men hath vented it self against no sort of Ministers more spitefully and insolently than those who heretofore were their great favourites and darlings because they soothed them up many times contrary to their own private judgements and the Churches publick appointments either in a weak and wavering non-conformity or in a wilfull and wanton refractorinesse even to a despising calumniating and separating humour against the whole Church of England 'T is evident many Ministers have found those their keenest persecutours of whom themselves were sometimes the greatest flatterers and compliers slightly healing or lightly skinning over those raw sores of non-conformity even to a greater pain and festring as now it hath proved which they should have seriously searched throughly healed by sound demonstrations asserting at once both their own judgments and the Churches wisdome in the pious use of its power and liberty All which Ministers did then shamefully betray when they daubed with untempered mortar complying for their private interests and advantages both with this Churches injunctions and Its enemies oppositions which shuffling at last put the common people into such a confusion and uncertainty of mind that they knew not what to chuse or refuse whom to believe or follow what to preserve or what not to destroy severely punishing even the authors occasioners and abettors of their irresolutions resolving at last to be destructive of all things that had any mark of the Church of Englands wisdome and authority upon them not content to prune off superfluous suckers they concluded to lay their rude axes to the root as well as branches of this Church Yea while the Clergie or Ministers of England do justly and humbly in the freedome and integrity of their souls thus make their penitent agnitions to the Divine Justice every one seeing his own sins in his and the Churches sufferings and best knowing the plague of his own heart while they are with Daniel humbly prostrate before the majesty of God and the throne of his grace some people are of such impotent malice that they make them the more the foot-stool for their pride and insolency thereby to exalt themselves the more against us I would have such monsters of cruelty and uncharitablenesse to know that however the Clergie of England do shrink to nothing before God condemning all their own righteousnesse and themselves as unprofitable servants that they may be found clothed with the righteousnesse of Christ yet as to the exorbitancies of some mens malice revenge passion covetousness cruelty and ingratitude which hath vented it self beyond all bounds of Christian charity modesty and equity against the whole frame of the Church of England against all its Ministry and Ministers as well Presbyters as Bishops great and small good and bad one and all no man can hinder me or them from this just plea for our selves in the words of sobernesse and truth First whatsoever the Clergie of England either as Bishops or inferiour Ministers did enjoy and act according to the lawes established and agreeable to their own consciences they are in those things not to be blamed in the least kind by any sober and
wife mans censure yet even for these chiefly it is that some subtil and silly people do most bitterly inveigh against them and in them against this whole Church and Nation which must either be guilty with the Clergie or the Clergie must be free and unblameable with the Parlaments and whole people of the land who chose and by law imposed such orders upon themselves and their Ministers Secondly for the Clergies private failings and personal infirmities either immorall or indiscreet to which as frail men they may be subject in these they desire to be the first accusers and severest censurers of themselves which ingenuity is sufficient to silence the malice of the worst to satisfie the justice of the best and to merit the pity as well as pardon of all charitable Christians who are not strangers to their own excess or defects Thirdly Beyond these which are but personal and occasional so venial failings the Clergie of England do defie and challenge their severest adversaries to charge and convince any considerable number of them either in private parties and conventions or in more publick Synods and Convocations of having at any time conspired to broach or abet any Heresy or false Doctrine any gross Errour Schisme or Apostasy any Immorality or Exorbitancy contrary to Truth Faith and good manners That liberty which some of the Clergie conceived might honestly be indulged to such people as were tired and exhausted with hard labour in the six dayes for their civil and sober recreation on the Lords day or Christian Sabbath thereby to counterpoise those Jewish severities which they saw some men began to urge and obtrude upon Christians both as to the change and rest of that day which quarrell is not yet dead in England this I am prone in charity to believe neither arose from any root of immorality in the advisers nor intended any fruits of impiety in the publishers who were not ignorant how far in such a Toleration they did conform to the judgement and practise too of some forreign reformed Churches and to the chief instruments of their Reformation who neither did nor do even in Geneva abhor avoid or forbid modest honest and seasonable recreations to servants and labouring people on the Lords day Although for my part I confess I approve rather according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Homily of the time and place of prayer that holy strict observance generally used by the most cautious Christians in England which yet doth allow such ingenuous relaxations of mind and motions on that day as are neither impious nor scanlous being at once far removed from Judaick rigours and from Heathenish riots which medium was the sense and practise too of the best and most of the Clergie in England as to that one point of the Christian Sabbath or Lords day which Justin Martyr calls Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so sharply objected against some of them So then as to any reall enormities of opinions or scandalous practises in Religion the Clergie of England taken in their polity and integrality neither are nor ever were guilty since the Reformation either in Doctrine Worship Discipline or Manners which justification is as clear as the noon-day's light if not our selves nor our home-bred enemies but the Reformed Churches abroad or the ancient and Primitive Churches might be our Judges None but Papists and Separatists or Anabaptists and Schismaticks have ever condemned or suspected the Church or Clergie of England of any corruption in Doctrine of any flaw in the Foundation of any fraud in holy Institutions of any allowed licentiousnesse in our Conversations of any undecency in our Devotions of any superstition in our religious Administrations in all which according to the directions of Gods Word by the assistance of Gods holy Spirit through faith in the merits and mediation of the Son of God our onely Saviour Jesus Christ we worshipped the onely true God who is blessed for ever As to the point of Church-Discipline wherein some men were so clamorous and importune as if there had been no health in this Church because it did not take their physick which it needed not as the laws had not enjoyned all those ancient severities and strictnesses of penances because neither the temper of the times nor mens spirits would bear them so the wise Bishops and discreet Ministers under them did so manage this point of Church-discipline for many years by their care and vigilancy their good doctrine and exemplary lives their fatherly monitions and charitable corrections as far as the laws gave them leave that they happily attained to the reall use and best end of all Church-discipline which is the Churches peace and preservation in purity and honour in sincerity and conspicuity of true Religion whose interests might possibly have been carried higher as to the point of Discipline if the Clergie of England had been furnished with such a latitude of power as Primitive Bishops and Presbyters both enjoyed and exercised which the softness and delicacy of this Age would hardly endure especially when once the passions novelties ambitions of men were carried on under the pretexts of Reformation and new Discipline in which some men resolved never to be satisfied till all things fell under the tuition and gubernation of their own factions unless all Church-power be in some mens hands no Church-government is worth a button Not but that the remissness of some Church-governours and the rigours of others according to their private tempers judgements and passions might sometime by their excesses or defects possibly displease more calm and moderate men as warping too much on either hand from that medium and rectitude of charity discretion legality and constancy which the Canons of the Church intended Its constitution health and peace required especially in the peevishness and touchiness of those times when many Philistins and Dalilahs lay in wait to betray and destroy the Church of England Yet amidst these seeming exorbitances of some Church-men it may with truth be affirmed and is by all experience confirmed that the state of Christian and Reformed Religion for doctrine manners and government for piety charity and proficiency was far better both in England and in Wales than it now is or is ever like to be under those sad effects to which some mens fury faction and confusion seek to reduce this Church So then the male-administrations truly charged upon some Church-governours heretofore had not so bad an influence upon this Church and the Reformed Religion as the later want of able and fit Governours after the ancient way of Church-government hath now produced every where For the defects and inordinacies of some private Ministers which can be no wonder where there were above ten thousand of them I neither approve nor patronize them in the least kind onely I plead in behalf of the whole order and function as it stood in this Churches constitution that a few Ministers faults ought not in
any justice or reason to be odiously charged upon the whole Church or their profession no more than the fall of some Angels is imputable to the whole Angelick nature Nor do I see any reason why the infirmities or deformities of some Clergie-men and those not many in comparison should be more a stain and reproch to their calling than other mens misdemeanours are to their either civil or military professions in which though there ever will be some Cheats and Pettifoggers others Quacks and Mountebanks a third cowards and traitors yet these do not diminish the just honour and use of learned Lawyers discreet Physicians or gallant Souldiers whose imployments are then liberall and ingenuous when they are honest and usefull to the Common-wealth It were a madness to quarrel with all Candles and put them out because some are small others want snuffing a third sort burn dimly and have as we say Thieves in them the foggs and vapours rising from the earth and oft darkening the Suns light are no diminution to its native lustre which is the greatest visible blessing in the world as a good Bishop and Ministry is in the Church nor may the miscarriages of some Bishops and Presbyters in the Church of England be cast as reproches or made disparagements to their holy orders much less to the whole Church especially when we consider that the defects and faults of some Clergie-men in England were mightily recompensed yea and over-balanced by that learning piety industry and virtue which was generally competent and in many of them so eminent that I believe the whole world did not exceed them and few in any Church did match them yea many both Bishops and other Ministers who seemed less plausible or popular in their preaching were yet not less sound in their doctrine potent in their writing prudent in their governing and exemplary in their godly lives having that in height and depth which others had in breadth and length Who but persons of egregious ignorance or profligate impudence without wit modesty or conscience can or dare deny what blessed be God is and ever will be most evident to all the world that ever since the happy Reformation of the Church of England there have been and still are though their number seems now much diminished by death and other disorders without any due recruiting such Clergie-men both Bishops and Presbyters who for all worth divine and humane will be had as they deserve in everlasting and honourable remembrance After-ages more remote from partiality passion and faction will better know how to value them by the want of them than this Age hath done which did sometime enjoy them and still might if having had so liberall experience of their other Christian vertues and Ministeriall abilities in preaching praying writing and living it had not sought further to satisfie its curiosity by trying the patience and perseverance of many grave and good Ministers to which purpose the most heavy log-end of Christs Cross is laid upon many of them not onely supplicia but ludibria silence prisons and poverty which have befaln some of them but undeserved shame with popular contempt and this from their own countrey-men and from many of their own converts these now press upon their persons and profession too threatning an utter extinction of their ancient order authority and succession in this Church and Nation if their enemies might have their wills upon them which God be thanked they have not yet obtained to the latitude of their malice though it hath reached very far God help us I know that the present sufferings of Bishops and other Ministers as chief members of the Church of England have been and still are in many mens eyes the greatest signs and indications of their sins vulgar justice ever judging those men criminous whom they see calamitous like dogs in a countrey village which are ready to flie upon any strange one not for any offence he gives them but because they see some currs have begun not onely to bark at him but to bite and worry him The plebs or common people are first injurious and then censorious Prosperity and Power are their great Idols they easily trample upon those Gods whose hands and feet are off they conclude them unworthy of any Resurrection who are once cast down and buried by them Nothing is more common with the community of people than to condemn the generation of Gods children who have generally been rather passive than pragmatical Holy Polycarp is called for as an Atheist to be sacrificed in the fire of vulgar zeale S. Paul not fit to live Christ himself worthy to be crucified if the rabble may have their vote the chief part of whose innocency consists in finding fault with others that are vastly better than themselves I believe that if the Bishops and Ministers of this Church had been stoned by none but such as had not faults and infirmities equall to nay exceeding theirs they had to this day been untouched To whose score and account this now is added that they must needs be great sinners since they are so great sufferers they cannot but be murtherers on whose hands people see such vipers hanging Thus carnall and sensuall Christians are prone to judge who are strangers to the crosse of Christ not understanding that the afflictions of Christians are mysterious as well as then faith and their Sufferings as well as their Sacraments that God doth as our heavenly Father many times love most where he most rebukes that they have oft most of his heart from whom he most hides his face as to temporal prosperity and on whom his hand lies heaviest as to visible chastisements which if they mend us they argue not enmity but love It is no token that because he punisheth our faults therefore he hates our persons much less our calling and profession the rod and staff of God lying upon us or lifted up against us is not to drive us from him but as a Shepherds crook to draw us neerer to him nor is it with any design to scare us from our duties or to make us desert our station or to force us to renounce our Ordination to his holy service as some have shamefully done but as with goads to excite us the more to persist in our office stedfastly and to discharge our Ministry the more diligently so that it is but a plebeian and fanatick fancy from hence to imagine that the God of order is now after 1600. years grown out of love with Primitive and Apostolick Episcopacy or with regular and orderly Presbytery in his Church because he afflicts both Bishops and Presbyters or that Jesus Christ the Ancient of dayes the Alpha and Omega of immutable wisdome now designs to set up a meer novelty of parity and popularity in his Church which tend experimentally and so most apparently to the fedity nullity and Anarchy of Religion in this and all other Churches
whose constitution may be commendable although the execution of things may be blameable and punishable upon the merit of personall defaults not Ecclesiasticall defects No Chaldean no Magician no Soothsayer no Astrologer no Enchanter can spell any such meaning as to Gods displeasure against the frame and constitution of the Church of England out of that hand-writing which seems to be directed against the Clergie and Ministers of England 'T is true every one ventures to read and interpret it as they list to flatter their own parties opinions passions and interests so did the Philosophers the Heathens the Atheists the Idolaters the Scoffers the Julians the Apostates the Hereticks the Schismaticks of old grosly mistake the meaning of those hot and sharp persecutions which oft befell the Primitive Christians and Orthodox professors of faith in Christ crucified concluding they deserved true Crosses who so much gloried in the Cross of Christ not knowing what Theriak God makes out of those Serpents that sting us nor what Antidotes he extracts out of those deadly poysons which destroy us The royal Title over Christs head was never more deserved than when he was hanging upon the Crosse for on that as a King on his Throne he most conquered and after triumphed over both his and his Churches greatest enemies nor were his sufferings the least of his solemnities and glories his Father being never better pleased with him than when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I am perswaded in like sort that the great afflictions now incumbent upon the Clergie and Church of Engl. do no way signifie that It or they are forsaken of God any more then Christ then was nor do they import any dislike that the God of peace and order hath against the respective office and subordination of Presbytery or the ordination and eminent gubernation of Bishops as they were designed and established in the Church of England according to the Primitive and Catholick pattern for both these God hath heretofore highly and signally approved if imploying blessing and prospering of them in his Church if accepting so many holy sacrifices and services from them be as much a sign of Gods approving their function as his now afflicting them is a sign of his reproving their faults But the plain sense of our sufferings is as S. Cyprian observes The Lord punisheth us that he may bring us to repentance for our sins both personall and professionall for those disorders by which we blemished or prophaned our holy orders 'T is not the government in it self but our own mis-governments that have offended God he aims not to consume that primitive and pure gold that is in this Church but to refine us from that dross we had as men contracted Nor do I doubt but God intends to improve us to his service in better times of which we may not despair if we find our selves amended by those bitter potions which in bad times and by evil men a good God administers to us for our health How glorious will both godly Bishops and orderly Presbyters in England appear to this Church and to all the world when coming out of this fiery furnace they shall shine brighter than ever they did with the love of Christ and of his Church both as to the care of those private charges and publick inspections committed to them in excellent order and administred by due authority when neither pride nor envy pomp nor popularity neither the upper nor the lower springs of ambition rising from Prince or people shall distract the counsels or divide the hearts or cross the endeavours of venerable Bishops and worthy Presbyters and pious people from that Christian subordination unanimity and conjunction which best becomes them as men and Christians which Ignatius so highly commends and which is so necessary both as to counsel and order government and proficiency for the good of all sorts of Christians in any Church Mean time it is no small mercy that exacts from some Ministers and enables them to give publick experiments of true Christian courage patience magnanimity and constancy which are our highest conformity to Christ by which the world may see that the honour of true Christian Bishops and Ministers doth consist as much or more in their sufferings as in their speaking and doing well in their losses as well as in their injoyments of all things Then will Princes Parlaments and People think us most worthy to enjoy the ancient estates honours liberties priviledges and immunities which the pristine piety charity munificence and gratitude of your and their fore-fathers bestowed upon the Clergie and devoted to God when they shall see that without these we are not onely willing but zealous to serve God and solicitous to save their souls as the greatest reward and wages of our work nor will the incumbent distresses upon the worthy Clergie of England much abate the love and value of them with those that are worthy of them certainly as mens sins should be esteemed their greatest afflictions so no mens sufferings are to be counted their sins If any Ministers have justly suffered as unable and so intruders as incorrigible and so unworthy having had the justice of being accused by two or three witnesses and the charity of receiving two or three admonitions before they were suspended silenced sequestred and ejected giving no hopes of their being amended yet even the grossest defects and immoralities of such Clergie-men who are indeed the shame and reproch of their profession may not be imputed to or revenged upon the whole calling and Church considering that the Church of England by her good Lawes wholsome Canons and wise Constitutions did strictly require not onely the best minds and abilities but the best manners and examples both from Bishops and Presbyters agreeable to those respective duties and instructions set before and charged upon them at their ordination which they were not onely to know but to do not onely to believe but to live that so the Ministers of this Church might appear not only the best of civil men but the best of Christians who ought to be holy men and the holiest of holy men as specially consecrated to the service of Christ and his Church It was by the Church intended that Church-men should be the most savoury salt in themselves and carefull seasoners of others if some proved unsavoury yet I am sure it is most unseasonable and unseasoned rashness to cast all Bishops and Presbyters yea the whole order and oeconomy of the Ministry and Church of England upon the dunghill of vulgar contempt among whom beyond all dispute were so many most accomplished Preachers and excellent Practisers of true Christianity whose breath was so good that their lungs could not be bad But if there had been a visible and generall Apostasy in many or the most part yea in all the Bishops and Ministers of England from their duty yet I conceive this is no argument
to destroy that holy order and Evangelicall function from whose declared rules and injunctions in the Church they had degenerated for neither the infirmities nor the presumptions of men ought to annull that office or abolish that authority which is Divine Christs commission which is given to the Church must not be voyded or cancelled by reason of any Ministers omissions Sacred institutions such as the Ministry and government of Christs Church are ought to continue notwithstanding the intervening of mans ignorance errour profaneness or Idolatry The plagues and leprosies arising from mens persons and adhering to them are not imputable to that place power station and authority which they have in the Church Men may be unworthy of their holy function but the function it self is not made unworthy no more than Aarons joyning with the people in making the golden calf did disparage the sacred dignity of that Priestly office to which he was by the Lord designed The enormous folly of Eli's sons did not make the sacrifices they offered of none effect nor yet nullifie the honour and office of that Priesthood wherewith they were duly invested Judas his being an Hypocrite a Thief a Traitour and a Devil yet did not abrogate that Apostolical office and Episcopall authority which he had received from Christ equally with the other Apostles untill by open Apostasy he fell into open rebellion desperation and perdition Which gross and open Apostasy either from Christ or his Gospel from the Christian faith or their Ministeriall office and ordination cannot with any truth or fore-head be charged upon the Clergie or Ch. of England who for the main both in the consecration of Bishops and ordination of Presbyters in the administration of holy duties execution of their offices generally and for the main kept to the Ancient Primitive and Apostolick customes of all the Churches of Christ since the Apostles dayes so that whatever blame charge or reproch is cast upon the Clergie or Church of England must equally lie upon all Christian Churches since the first complete and setled constitution of any Church I know the mouths of some men like moths and their tongues like worms are prone to corrode by infinite scruples scandalls and reproches all the beauty of the Church of England with all the merit and honour of its Clergie but blessed be God we stand or fall with the Catholick Church of Christ with the whole order race and Apostolick succession of Christian Bishops and Presbyters we more fear the rudeness and heaviness of mens hands than the sharpness of their wits or weight of their arguments which are as spiteful and yet as vain as the vipers biting of the file when from some Ministers personall failings they fasten their venomous teeth upon the whole state and constitution of the Church of England In whose behalf I am neither afraid nor ashamed to appeal to you my most honoured countrey-men as the nearest and best Judges in the world of this matter First as to the Church of England in its godly care and Christian constitution whether you do believe or really find that in any thing it hath been wanting which is necessary for the good of your souls Next as to the Bishops and Ministers of England whether abating personall infirmities they have not generally been ever since the Reformation both able and faithfull in the work of the Lord whether as Mr. Peter du Moulin confesseth you and your fore-fathers do not chiefly owe to them both the beginning and continuance of the Reformed as well as Christian Religion next under the mercy of God and the care of your pious Princes whether the tenuity or weakness of some Ministers who had less abilities and perhaps too little incouragements were not abundantly supplied by the eminent sufficiencies of many others and if every Diocese had not an excellent Bishop at all times or every Parish enjoyed not a very able Preacher yet I am sure neither of the two Provinces in England nor any one County ever wanted since the Reformation either excellent Bishops or excellent Preachers in them to a far greater store than was to be enjoyed in Primitive times when Dioceses were larger and petty Parishes not at all in the Church of Christ So then I may justly quere whether one odious century of Ministers branded some of them for scandalous because they were more exactly conform to the Laws and Customes established in the Church of England were a just ground to reproch the whole Clergie or to abolish the order function and succession both of Bishops and Presbyters which some men aim at officious compilers of that uncomely Centâ— Whether they might not with as much truth and more reason have enumerated the scandalous livings of England as so many not convicted but supposed scandalous Ministers many of whose maintenance was worse than their manners and more unworthy of their profession Whether any thing truly objectable against any Bishop or Minister of England as scandalously weak wicked and unworthy may not with as much more truth be objected against their severest enemies No man in England not grosly ignorant or passionately impotent can deny what I here affirm and proclaim to all the world That the Clergie of England both Governours and governed taking them in their integrality or unity as they were esteemed a third estate in the Body politick or as an Ecclesiasticall fraternity and corporation have been not onely tolerable but commendable yea admirable instruments of Gods glory and the good of mens souls in this Church and Nation That as they did at first in the morning of the Reformation so ever since during the heat and burthen of the day they have with great learning and godly zeal with Christian courage constancy integrity and wisdome every way asserted vindicated and maintained the truth purity and power also the peace order and honour of Christian and Reformed Religion against Atheists and Infidels against the superstitions of the Romanists on one side and the factions of the Schismaticks on the other Nor have they onely built with the trowel but fought also with the sword of the Word What Giantly error what Papal Goliah hath ever appeared defying this Reformed Church whom some excellent Bishops and other learned Divines who were Episcopal have not encountred prostrated confounded and beheaded the spoiles and trophies of them are still extant in their works as eternall monuments of the incomparable prowess worth and merit of the English Clergy What wholsom saving and necessary truth did they ever wilfully deprive You of In what holy institution and ordinance of Jesus Christ have they ever conspired to defraud or diminish you In what holy work or duty have they come short of any In what excellent doctrine gift grace or vertue have they been so defective as not to give your forefathers your selves and all the world most illustrious proofs and generous examples To which testimony no ingenuous knowing and conscientious
Christian can deny his assent if he hath ever made use of their excellent lives or labours to which as I formerly touched God himself hath set to the broad seal and great witnesse of his own Spirit upon the hearts and consciences of many thousands both still living and long ago dead These at the grand Assize or day of Gods righteous judgement will I am confident highly justifie before men and Angels the Church of England and its Clergie or Ministry as blessed means of their salvation these will convince the gainsayers enemies blasphemers and destroyers of this Church and its Ministry of their envy partiality blindness unthankfulness and malice also of their unreasonable lusts and injurious passions for nothing but such black and hellish clouds could ever hinder men after an hundred years experience from seeing owning esteeming and enjoying so great and glorious a light of grace and mercy truth and peace as hath shined in the Church of England ever since the Reformation while the golden Candlesticks were unbroken the beautifull order and proportion of their branches unconfounded the burning lamps of Bishops and Presbyters in them either not wholy extinguished or not snuffed so close as might put them quite out in respect of that pristine beauty and lustre love and honour which they formerly enjoyed and deserved in this as all well-composed Christian Churches What wise and gracious Christian comparing as the builders of the later Temple former times with these doth not with sadness of soul see and confess that the generall state of this Church the visible face of the Christian Reformed Religion the tempers of mens hearts and the praâ—â—ses of their lives were heretofore both as to truth order and peace to piety morality and charity incomparably beyond what now they commonly are or are like to be while so much emulation faction and confusion prevail among us which are the dry nurses of ignorance Atheism and irreligion Blessed be God in former times while worthy Bishops presided and discreet Presbyters assisted them in the great work of teaching and governing the Church of God in Eng. O what beauty what order what harmony what unity what gravity what solidity what candor what charity what sobriety what sanctity what sincerity what improvements what perseverance what correspondency what constancy was there generally to be seen among Christian Pastors and true Professors under their potent Ministry and prudent inspection Who is able to express or conceive unless he had some experience of those blessed times and tempers what sound and judicious knowledge what fruitfull faith what hearty love what discreet zeal what severe repentings what fervent prayers what earnest sighs what godly sorrows what unfeigned tears what just terrours what unspeakable comforts what well-grounded hopes what spirituall joyes what heavenly meditations what holy conversations what humble softnesses what diligent assurances what longing desires what unwearied endeavours what patient expectations what tender compassions what meekness of obedience what conscientious submissions were observable in the general frame of good Christians carriage as to God and their Saviour so to their Superiours both Civil Ecclesiastical in order to their own souls and their neighbours good And all this blessedness was enjoyed while some mendid pitifully complain that a few Ceremonies pinched their consciences that a white garment dazeled their eyes that the ancient transient signe of the Crosse crucified both the Sacrament and their senses that kneeling at the Communion bowed down their souls even to the ground that the devout Liturgie loaded their spirits that grave godly Bishops pressed Church-order and Discipline too hard upon them Yet then even then it was that Learning flourished Knowledge multiplied Graces abounded excellent preaching thrived Sacraments were duly administred and most devoutly received the fruits of Gods Spirit were every way mightily diffused Justice and common honesty were practised hospitable kindness exercised Christian charity maintained plain-heartedness and good works abounded without any such crafts and policies such frauds and factions such jealousies and distances such malice and animosities such rudeness and disorders such insolencies and hypocrisies such indignities and diminutions as are now of later years generally cast upon the Reformed Religion and those Preachers of it that adhere to the constitution and communion of the Church of England who are implacably maligned by those men who in persecuting and oppressing them and this Church do boast as if they had done God very good service and highly advanced the interests of Jesus Christ Which Themselves will then begin to doubt and disbâ—â—ieve when the heat of their passions is allayed when their popular fallacies and froths are vanished when their secular designes are frustrated when their high metal is abated when their strength begins to fail them when their sectators flatterers feeders and abettors are scattered from them when the tide of successes is come to its ebb when the terrours of death are upon them when their consciences shall give them a true and impartiall prospect of their actions and passions when they shall see how little holy fire there was amidst so great a smoke how much dross and trash hath been their superstructures how much their pragmatick spirits have ruined how little they have edified as to any thing of true serious solid and usefull Religion beyond what was formerly enjoyed to a satiety in England while they make it their master-piece of piety and reformation utterly to debase the Clergie to divide Christian people and to demolish the whole frame of the Church of England The great day of burning and refining will best discover and determine what the hearts and works the purposes and practises of such men have been Mean time that I may not be deceived in my own perswasions or prejudices who possibly may be partiall to my mother the Church of England I crave the favour of your upright judgement as wise Gentlemen and worthy Christians who remotest from all designs and discontents have most impartially observed the rise and progress the variations and depravations the folly and fury the divisions and confusions of some mens spirits and practises in England who have earnestly sought and still do to obtrude their fancifull deformed and many-formed Reformations upon this Church as much God knows against Her will as a lothsome potion is against the stomack of an healthfull patient Do you O my noble Countrey-men bona fide apart from fears and flatteries which are below persons of true honour and piety do you in earnest find the temper and constitution of Religion as Christian or Reformed either its inward power or its outward polity any way bettered and advanced in this Nation as to the visible form of it in essentials or ornamentals in Doctrine or Discipline in faith or good works in profession or reputation in order or peace in solidity or decency in authority or charity Do you find it in your own present comforts and enjoyments or in your hopes of after-blessings
for which no Apology but made and affected necessity is alledged which none but God Almighty can convince confute and revenge hence those convulsions faintings swoonings and dyings which are befaln the Church of England and its holy profession the Reformed Religion which heretofore was a pure and unspotted Virgin free from the great offence constant to her principles and duties both to God and man alwayes victorious by her patience This seems now besmeared all over with blood this is sick deformed and ashamed of her self so many sanguinary and sacrilegious spirits pretend to court and engross her such foul spots are found upon Her which are not the spots of Gods children which no nitre no sope no fullers earth no palliations or pretensions of humane wit policy or necessity can wash away or make clean til He plead Her cause take away Her reproch whose love induced him to shed his own precious blood for his Church a noble eminent uniform and beautifull part of which I must ever own the Church of England to have been Of whose former holy and healthfull constitution I am daily the more assured by those modern eruptions and corruptions defections and infections errours and extravagancies blasphemies and impudicities which have so fiercely assaulted and grievously wasted the Truths the Morals the Sanctities the Solemnities the Mysteries and Ministrations the Government and Authority the whole Order and Constitution of the Church of England clearly evincing to me that this Church was heretofore not onely tolerably but most commendably reformed and happily established upon the pillars of piety and prudence verity and unity purity and charity Nor do I doubt but the blessed Apostle S. Paul with all those Primitive planters and Reformers of Churches would have given the right hand of fellowship to the Christian Bishops Presbyters and people of this Church of England cheerfully communicating with us in all holy things blessing God and greatly rejoycing to have beheld that power and peace that stedfastness and proficiency that beauty order and unity which was so admirably setled and happily preserved many years in this Church by the joynt consent and suffrage of the Nation Princes Parlaments and People cheerfully giving up their names to Christ and willingly yielding themselves to the Lord and to his Ministers Nor do I believe those Primitive and large-hearted Christians who brought the price of their estates and laid it down at the Apostles feet testifying their esteem of all things but as loss and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ that these would have ever repined or envied at the riches plenty civil honours peace and prosperity wherewith the Governours and Ministers of Christs Church were here endowed No those first-fruits of the Gospel had too good hearts to have evil eyes because the eyes of Princes Peers and people had been good to the Clergie investing them with that double honour which the Spirit of God thinks them worthy of while they rule well and labour in the Word and Doctrine so as the godly Bishops and Presbyters of the Church of England did abundantly since the Reformation nor was their labour of love in vain in the Lord. What was really amisse or remisse in any Ministers as to their minds or manners as some Errata's we find even in those Pastors and Churches which were of the Apostolicall print the very first best Edition certainly there wanted not sufficient authority and wisdom skill or will in the Governours of Church and State to have reformed all things in such a way of Christian moderation as should have gratified no mens envies revenges ambitions covetousness and the like inordinate passions but have kept all within those bounds of piety justice charity and discretion which would have satisfied all wise and honest mens desires and consciences Such an Apostolical spirit and method of Reformation as would have cleared the rust and not consumed the metall sodered up the flaws but not battered down the whole frame of so goodly a Church this spirit might have mended all things really amiss in England at a far easier and cheaper rate than either calling for fire from heaven or calling in the Scots to quench our intestine flames with oyl To purge the English floor from all chaff there was no need to raise up such fierce winds as the Devil did when he overthrew the whole house and oppressed all Jobs children with the rubbish and ruine both of superstructures and foundations No work requires more wary wise and tender hearts and hands too than Church-work or that which men call Reformation of Religion which easily degenerates to high deformities if bunglers that are rash rude deformed and unskilfull undertake it Nothing is more obvious than for Empiricks to bring down high and plethorick constitutions to convulsions and consumptions by too much letting blood and other excessive evacuations those are sad purgations of Churches which with threatning some malignant humours do carry away the very life spirit and soul of Religion the whole order beauty unity and being of a Church especially so large so famous so reformed so flourishing an one as the Ch. of Engl. was which some mens ignorance malice and excess hath a long time aimed at impatient not to forsake yea and quite destroy both It and all its true Ministers to whose learning and labours they owe whatever spiritual gifts Christian graces priviledges or comforts they can with truth pretend to All which I believe they have not much bettered or increased since their rude Separations and violent Apostasies by which they have shewed themselves so excessively and unthankfully exasperated against the Fathers that begat them and the Mother that bare them more like a generation of vipers full of poysonous passions which swell the soul to proud and factious distempers than like truly humble meek and regenerate Christians who cannot be either so unholy or so unthankfull as to requite with shame despite and wounds the womb that bare them and the breasts that gave them suck not feeding them with fabulous Legends superstitious inventions or meer humane Traditions but with the sincere milk of Gods word as it was contained in the holy Scriptures which were the onely constant fountain from whence the Church of England drew and derived both its Doctrinals and its Devotionals its Ministry and Ministrations Of which truth having such a cloud of witnesses so many pregnant and undeniable demonstrations before God and the world before good Angels and Devils before mens own consciences in this Church and before all other reformed Churches round about I suppose these are sufficient Testimonies in the judgement of You O my worthy Countrey-men and of all other sober Christians to vindicate the Church of England that it never deserved either of Princes Parlaments or People so great exhaustings and abasings as some men have sought to inflict upon Her Over which no tongue is
Luciferian hereticks flatter themselves that they are meet and competent judges since they find themselves no way directed by any Catholick interpretation nor limited and circumscribed by any joynt wisdome and publick profession of this Church and Nation which heretofore was established and set forth in such a publick confession of their faith such Articles and Canons rules and boundaries of Religion as served for the orderly and unanimous carrying on and preserving Christian Doctrine Discipline Worship Ministry or Government This wide doore once opened and still kept open by the crowding and impetuosity of a people so full of fancy and fury spirit and animosity so wilfull and surly as the English generally are besides that they are naturally lovers and extremely fond as children of new fashions as in all things so in Religion it self it is not I say imaginable as at the pulling up of a great sluce or opening of a flood-gate what vortices voragines opinionum floods and torrents of opinions what precipitant rushings and impetuous whirlings both in mind and manners have every where carried a heady and head-strong people quite headlong in Religion not onely to veniall novelties softer whimsies and lesser extravagances in Religion which are very uncomely though not very pernicious but also to rank blasphemies to gross immoralities to rude licentiousnesse to insolent scandals to endless janglings to proud usurpations to an utter irreligion to a totall distracting confounding and subverting of the Church of Engl. All this under the notion of enjoying whatever liberty they list to take to themselves under the name and colour of Religion which anciently imported an holy Obligation of Christians to God and to each other carried on by a Catholick confession an unanimous profession an uniform tradition an holy ordination and orderly subjection but now they say it is to be learned and reformed not by the old wayes of pious education and Ecclesiastick instruction not from the Bishops or Ministers of this or any nationall Church but either by the new wayes of every private spirit's interpreting of Scriptures or by those new lights of some speciall inspirations which they say are daily held forth by themselves and others of their severall factions or according to the various policies of Lay-men and those pragmatick sanctions which serve the prevalent interests of parties This this is the project so cried up by some men for propagating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdome of Jesus Christ so rare so new so untried so unheard-of in any Christian Church ancient or later that it is no wonder if neither the Church of England nor its learned Clergy nor its dutifull children can either approve admire or follow such dubious and dangerous methods or labyrinths rather of Religion any more than they can canonize for Saints those vagrants and fanaticks of old who were justly stigmatized for damnable hereticks or desperate schismaticks for their deserting that Catholick faith tradition order and communion of the Churches of Christ which were clearly expressed in their Creeds and Canons founded upon Scripture and conform to Apostolick example The Gnosticks Cerinthians Valentinians Carpocratians Circumcellians Montanists Manichees Novatians Donatists Arians and others were esteemed by the Primitive Churches as Foxes and Wolves creatures of a wild and ferine nature impatient of the kindest restraints not induring to be kept in any folds or bounds of Christs flock which ever had an holy authentick and authoritative succession of ordained Bishops and Presbyters as its Pastors and Teachers also it had its safe and known limits for Religion in faith and manners Doctrine and Discipline for order and government both in lesser Congregations and larger Combinations The true Christian liberty anciently enjoyed by Primitive Christians and Churches was fullest of verity charity unity modesty humility sanctity sobriety harmonious subordination and holy subjection according to the stations in which God had placed every part or member in those bodies they were the farthest that could be from Schism Separation mutiny novelty ambition rebellion while every one kept the true temper order and decorum of a Christian Certainly if either particular Congregations or private Christians liberty had consisted in being exposed or betrayed as Sheep without their Shepherds to all manner of extravagancies incident to vulgar petulancy and humane infirmity those Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers those godly Bishops and blessed Martyrs those pious Emperours and Christian Princes of old might have spared a great deal of care cost pains and time which were spent in their severall Councils and Synods Parlaments Diets and Conventions whose design was not to make new but to renew those Scripture-Canons and Apostolicall constitutions which were necessary to preserve the faith once delivered to the Saints and to assert not onely the common salvation but also that Catholick succession communion and order of Churches transmitted from the Apostles in which endeavour the piety and wisdome the care and charity of ancient Councils expressed in their many Canons made for the keeping of the unity of the Spirits truth in the bond of peace among Christians were so far in my judgement from being meer heaps of hay straw and stubble burying and over-laying the foundations of Christian soundnesse and simplicity which seems to be the late censure of one whom I am as sorry to see in a posture of difference from the Church of England as any person of these times because I esteem his learning and abilities above most that have appeared adversaries to or dissenters from Her that I rather judge with Mr. Calvin a person far more learned judicious and impartiall in this case They were for the most part very sober wise and suitable superstructures little deviating from no way demolishing any of those grand foundations of Faith Holiness or Charity which were laid by Christ and his blessed Apostles which ever continued the same and were so owned by their pious successors however they used that liberty and authority in lesser matters which was given them by the Scriptures and derived to them by their Apostlick mission or succession for the prudent accommodating of such things as concerned the outward polity uniformity order and peace of the Church or for those decent celebrations and solemnities of Religioâ— which were most agreeable to the severall geniu'ses and civil rites of people and the mutable temper of times all which who so neglects to consider will never rightly judge of the severall counsels customes and constitutions of either ancient or later Churches The best of whose piety and prudence the Reformed Church of England chose to follow as exactly as it could first in Her decerning declaring determining translating and communicating to her children those Canonicall Books of holy Scripture also in the owning professing and propounding to them those Ancient Catholick and received Creeds which are as the summaries and boundaries of Christian Faith containing those articles which are necessary to be believed by all after this it used those
liberty as to endanger their own and other mens safety they are like Porpuices pleased with storms especially of their own raising they joy in the tossings of Religion and hope for a prey by the wrecks both of well-built Churches and well-setled States they fancy it a precious liberty to swim in a wide sea though they be drowned at last or swallowed up by sharks they triumph to see other poor souls dancing upon the waves of the dead sea to be overwhelmed with ignorance idleness Atheism profaneness perdition which is the usual and almost unavoidable fate of those giddy-headed mad-brain'd people who being happily embarqued and orderly guided in any well-setled Church do either put their ablest Pilots under hatches or cast them over-boord which hath been of late years the religious ambition of many thousands in order forsooth to recover and enjoy their imaginary Christian liberties which soon make common people the sad objects of wise mens grief and pity rather than of their joy or envy For like wandring sheep they naturally affect an erroneous and dangerous freedome from their shepherds and their folds that they may be free for foxes wolves and doggs yea some of them by a strange metamorphosis that they may seem Christs sheep turn wolves seizing upon and destroying their own shepherds which the true flock of Christ never did either in the most persecuted or the most peacefull times of the Church but were ever subject with all humility and charity to those godly Bishops and Presbyters which were by Apostolicall succession and Divine authority over them in the Lord whom they were so far from stripping robbing or devouring that both Christian Princes and faithfull people endowed them with most gratefull and munificent expressions of their loves and esteem even in primitive and necessitous times as a due and deserved honour to men of learning piety and gravity who watched over their souls being both wel enabled and duly ordained to be their rulers and guides to heaven But now who sees not by the sad experience of the Church of England how the plebs or common people yea all persons of plebeian spirits of base and narrow minds who are the greatest sticklers for those enormous and pernicious liberties who sees not how much they would be pleased to set up Jeroboams calves if they may have liberty to chuse the meanest of the people to be their Priests or some scabbed and stragling sheep to be their shepherds if they may make some of their mechanick comrades to be their Pastors and Ministers examined and ordained by their silly selves O how willing are they poor wretches in their thirst for novelty liberty and variety as Theophylact observes to suffer any pitifull piece of prating impudence who walketh in the spirit of falshood to impose upon them so far as to be their Preacher and Prophet if he will but prophecy to them of liberty and soveraignty of sacred and civil Independency of corn wine and strong drink of good bargains and purchases to be gained out of the ruines of the Church and the spoils of Church-men O how little regret would it be to such sacrilegious Libertines to have no Christian Sabbath or Lords dayes as well as no Holy-dayes or solemn memorials of Evangelical mercies How contented would they be with no preaching no praying no Sermons no Sacraments no Scriptures no Presbyters as well as no Bishops with no Ministers or holy Ministrations with no Church no Saviour no God further than they list to fancy thē in the freedom of some sudden flashes and extemporary heats There are that would still be as glad to see the poor remainder of Church-lands and Revenues all Tithes and Glebes quite alienated and confiscated as those men were who got good estates by the former ruines of Monasteries or the later spoylings of Bishops and Cathedrals nothing is sacred nothing sacrilegious to the all-craving all-devouring maw of vulgar covetousness and licentiousness O how glorious a liberty would it be in some mens eyes to pay no Tithes to any Minister much more precious liberty would it be to purchase them and by good penniworths to patch up their private fortunes Nothing in very deed is less valuable to the shameless sordid and dissolute spirits of some people than their souls eternall state or the service of their God and Saviour whom not seeing they are not very solicitous to seek or to serve further than may consist with their profit ease and liberty They rather chuse to go blindfold wandring and dancing to hell in the licentious frolicks of their fancifull Religions than to live under those holy orders and wholsome restraints which in all Ages preserved the unity and honour of true Christian Religion both by sober Discipline and sound Doctrine In the later of these the Clergy of England most eminently abounded and in the former of them they were not so much negligent which some complaine as too much checkt and curbed few men being so good Christians as to be patient of that severe Discipline which was used in the Primitive Churches which if any Bishop or Minister should have revived how would the rabble of Libertines cry out Depart from us we will none of your wayes neither Discipline nor Doctrine neither your Ministrations nor Ministry neither Bishops nor Presbyters let us break these Priestly bonds in sunder and cast these Christian cords from us our liberty is to lead our tame teachers by their noses to pull our asinine Preachers by their luculent ears to rule our precarious Rulers if they pretend to have or use any Ecclesiasticall authority so as to cross our liberties to curb our consciences or to bridle our extravagancies we look upon them as men come to torment us before our time who seek to lead us away captive to deprive us of our dear God Mammon as Micah cried out after the Danites or of our great Goddess Liberty according to the jealousie which Demetrius and the Ephesine rabble had for their Diana against the Apostles This is the Idea of that petulant profane and fanatick liberty which vulgar people most fancy and affect for the enjoying of which they have made so many horrid clamours and ventured upon so many dangerous confusions both to their own and other mens souls in matter of Religion CHAP. V. I Shall not need by particular instances further to demonstrate to You my honoured Countrey-men what your own observation daily proclaims namely the strange pranks cabrioles or freaks which the vulgar wantonnesse hath plaid of late years under the colour and confidence of liberty in Religion provided they profess no other Popery or Prelacy than what is in their own ambitious hearts insolent manners Nor is this petulancy onely exercised in the smaller circumstances or disputable matters of Religion but even in the very main foundations such as have been established of old in all the generations and successions of
preach that Gospel which Christ hath taught he industriously omits the use of that prayer which Christ hath not onely commended but enjoyned and commanded as an Evangelicall institution Which shamefull compliance of many Ministers with vulgar levity and licentiousnesse seems to me so far from really advancing their own honour or the true interests of the Christian and Reformed Religion that in earnest they have by these and the like mean desertings of their own judgements duties very much exposed themselves and the Reformed Christian Religion to the insolencies and contempts of the meanest people which as easily crowd and prevail upon them as waters do against crazy and yielding banks when once they see Ministers so stoop and debase themselves to the dictates and censures the fears and frowns the fancies and humours of giddy and inconstant people who naturally affect such liberty or looseness in Religion as may have least shew of divine Ligation and Authority but onely such as being of mens own choice and invention they may as easily reject as others obtrude The very Directory and its ordinances which gave the supersedeas or quietus est to the Liturgie of the Church of England doth not yet seem to intend any such severity as wholy to silence sequester eject the Lords Prayer ten Commandements or the Apostles Creed out of childrens Catechisms Ministers mouths or Christians publick profession and devotion in which they seem to me to appear a rich and invaluable Jewels giving the greatest lustre price and honour to their religious Solemnities CHAP. VII I Have already shewed you O worthy Gentlemen one great and evil instance of that inordinate liberty which some people have challenged of late to themselves in England to the great dishonour and detriment of the Christian Reformed Religion besides the disgrace and indignity cast upon this sometime famous and flourishing Church while they have endevoured to abolish all those holy Summaries and wholsome Forms which are the best and meetest preservers of true Faith holy Obedience and mutual Charity among the community of Christian people Nor are these the onely extravagancies of vulgar licentiousnesse whose inordinate and squalid torrent like an inundation of waters knows not how to set any bounds of modesty reason or conscience to it self but they have farther adventured as a rare frolick of popular freedome to invade and usurp upon to confound and contemn to divide and destroy the office honour authority the succession and derivation yea the source and original of that sacred Priesthood or Evangelical Ministry and mission which was ever so highly esteemed reverenced and maintained among all true Christians as well knowing that Its rise and institution was divine from our Lord Jesus Christ as sent of God his Father who alone had authority to give the Word and Spirit the Mission and Commission the Gifts and Powers that are properly ministeriall Which as the blessed Apostles first received immediately from Christ so they duly and carefully derived them to their Successours after such a method and manner as the Primitive and Catholick Churches in all places and ages both perfectly knew and without question exactly followed in their consecrating of Bishops and ordaining of Presbyters with Deacons as the onely ordinary Ministers of Christs Church whose ministeriall authority never was any way derived from depending upon or obnoxious to the humour fancy insolency and licentiousness of the common people To which miserable captivity and debasement as the Aaronicall or Levitical Priesthood was no way subjected so much less ought the Melchisedekian Christian and Evangelicall Priesthood which is no less soveraign and sacred nor less necessary and honourable in the Church of God So that those licentious intrusions which some people now affect in this point of the Ministry cannot be less offensive to Gods Spirit than they are directly contrary to those holy rules of power and order prescribed in the New Testament which both the Apostles and their successors both Bishops and Presbyters together with all faithfull people precisely observed in all those grand Combinations and Ecclesiasticall Communions whereto the Church of Christ was distributed in all nations where if sometime the peoples choice and suffrage were tolerable as to the person whom they desired and nominated for their Bishop or Presbyter yet it was never imaginable that either Bishop or Presbyter was sufficiently consecrated and ordained that is invested with the power office and authority ministeriall meerly by this nomination and election of the people which indulgence in time grew to such disorder as was intolerable in the Church much less was any esteemed a Minister of Christ onely because he obtruded himself upon that service The late licentious variations innovations invasions corruptions and interruptions even in this grand point of the Evangelicall office and Ministry in England have partly by the common peoples arrogancy giddiness madness and ingratitude and not a little by some Preachers own levity fondness flattery and meanness of spirit not onely much abated and abased to a very low ebbe that double honour which is due but they have poured forth deluges of scorn contempt division confusion poverty and almost nullity not onely upon the persons of many worthy Ministers but upon the very order and office the function and profession whose sacred power and authority the pride petulancy envy revenge cruelty and covetousness of some people have sought not onely to arrogate and usurp as they list but totally to innovate enervate and at last extirpate For nothing new in this point can be true nothing variable can be venerable that onely being authentick which is ancient and uniform that onely authoritative which is Primitive Catholick and Apostolick both in the copy and originall in the first commission and the exemplification I confess I formerly have been and still am infinitely grieved to hear and ashamed to report what enormous liberties many men have of late years taken to themselves in this point of being Ministers of the Gospel what contradictions of sinners what cruell mockings sawings asunder what buffetings strippings crucifyings and killings all the day long the Ancient and Catholick Ministry of this all Churches hath lately endured in England since the wicked wantonness of some men hath taken pleasure to be as thorns in the eyes goads in the sides of the Ch. of England and Its Ministers be they never so able successfull and deserving whom to calumniate contemn impoverish and destroy in their persons credits estates liberties yea and lives hath seemed like Mordecai to Hamans malice and wrath so small a sacrifice to the fierceness and indignation of some men that they have aimed at the utter extirpation of the Nation the nullifying cashiering and exautorating of their whole office and function either owning no Ministers in any divine office place and power or obtruding such strange moulds and models of their own invention as are not more novell and unwonted than ridiculous and preposterous
piety than in the barren heights of uselesse sublimities Then was it that the sweet and fruitfull dews of heaven crowned those true Ministers labours with all spiritual proficiencies and heavenly blessings then was the Church of England and thousands of pious souls in it like Gideons fleece full of holy distillations or like the garden of Eden liberally watered with the rivers of God I mean the faithful endeavours of able honest and Orthodox Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters duly ordained and divinely authorized for that service then was the time common people had less of curiosity and liberty but more of piety and charity they were more kept to their bounds and inclosures but enjoyed far better pastures than they now find in the ramblings and extravagances of those commons where they have chosen to enjoy their Pastors and Preachers after their own heart Nor is this insolency of people any wonder though it be a great grief to sober Christians when they consider how far this gangrene of abused liberty hath spread among men and women too the meanest and most mechanick He or She as Tertullian observes of some bolder Hereticks and Schismaticks in his dayes dare contrary to all Primitive pattern and Scriptural precept to preach to baptize to consecrate to censure to excommunicate scorning and opposing all things that are not branded with their schismaticall marks their novell badges and factious discriminations Wherewith so soon as any silly men or women come once to be dubbed and signalized their first vow and adventure is against the whole frame and constitution of the Church of England but specially against the orderly ancient and Catholick Ministry of it which is the rind or bark of Religion by which the sap life and nourishment of it is preserved and conveyed from the root Christ Jesus to the severall branches of his Church in every place This this must by all means be peeled round stripped off and cast away under pretence of Christian liberty and a better because freer course of deriving Chirstian Religion to peoples eares and hearts by another Ministry than that Ancient Apostolick Catholick and Primitive way of an orderly ordained Ministry which consisted of Bishops Presbyters Deacons be brought in Against the constitution succession of all these as corrupt adulterous Popish Babylonish spurious and superstitious in England whole troops of plebeian spirits have been and still are engaged whose fierce onsets and encounters were at first begun and are still carried on with as great resolution and errour as his that assaulted a Windmill instead of a Giant The great alarm given by their chief leaders is First to rail bitterly against the whole Clergie and all sacred orders used in the Church of England thence they proceed to wipe off their Baptisme as vain and invalid to vomit up their Lords Supper as nauseous and superstitious to read their Creeds backward to an unbelief of all things have been preached next they cancell the Decalogue as a Judaick phylactery a legall prescription lastly they learn to account and call the Lords Prayer a kind of spell and conjuration being perfect enemies to any thing that looks like a Liturgy or set form of prayer and devotion After this with stiff necks and haughty looks they scornfully defie all ancient ordination all Catholick succession all Apostolick commission derived to any Bishops and Presbyters as Ministers of Christ altering and annulling as much as in them lies all the order descent and power of the Evangelicall Ministry both in this and all other Christian Churches since the Apostles dayes the right of resumption and redemption of which they challenge to themselves according as their severall fancies list to make themselves or others Ministers or to have none at all which is the highest pitch of their Christian liberty counting all Ministers to be but their curbs and manacles Having thus commenced Masters of mis-rule their next work is to tuâ—n the garden of God any setled Church as this of Engl. was into ruinous heaps or a very dunghil to expel the Priests of the Lord out of his Temple to make Churches of Stables and Stables of Churches to bring in the lips of bleating calves there where the calves of learned devout and eloquent lips were wont to be offered It is not liberty enough for them to separate from the Church of England and apostatize from those Ministers that baptized them unless they utterly destroy them both setting up instead of one National and renowned one uniform and flourishing Church in which were truth and order unity and beauty strength and safety all Christian gifts and graces every good word and work to admiration innumerable little swarms in severall Conventicles with Ministers strangely multiform mutable and mis-shapen in which novell confederacies both Preachers and people rather catch and hang together by chance like burres in confused knots than grow like Olive-branches or the kernels of Pomgranates with order and comeliness from the same root Christ Jesus after the methods of those ancient Churches which were the prime and exemplary branches whereto after-successions should conform themselves As these factious people are so must their new Priests and Ministers be Grave and godly Bishops with their learned Presbyters must be set aside as broken vessels that they may set up by popular and plebeian suffrages some miserable mechanicks some antick engines some pittifull praters and parasites of the vulgar who have had no higher breeding or degree in Church or State than that of poore tradesmen for the better bred and more ingenuous sort of men abhor such impudence and usurpation their shop hath been their school their hammers or shuttles or needles have been their books At last coachmen footmen ostlers and grooms despair not to become Preachers by a rare and sudden metamorphosis coming from the office of rubbing horses heeles to take care of mens souls as some Farriers in time turn Physicians It matters not how sordid how silly how slovenly how mercenary how illiterate they are provided they have cunning enough to pretend a call impudence enough to display their ignorance and hypocrisie enough by much talk of Gods grace in them to supply the reall wants of all competent ability as well as authority to be Ministers of the Gospel Yet these these O my noble Countrey-men are in many places rude intruders insolent usurpers doughty undertakers to discharge the duty of Evangelicall Ministers in any one of these you must seek and may find as they pretend a Bishop a Presbyter and a Deacon all Evangelicall power Ecclesiasticall offices and Ministeriall authority these are the new-invented Machines or Engines which the Church of England and all others since the Apostles times were not so happy as to know or use which must set up the decayed Kingdome of Jesus Christ these must propagate the glorious Gospel these must exalt Christ crucified these must consecrate for you holy Elements these must administer to you the blessed Sacraments
these must exercise all Church-power and Divine authority over your consciences whereas for my part I do not think that the best of these new Masters and Ministers can have from their own fancies or peoples forwardness so much authority because they have none either from God or the Church of Christ or the laws of this Land as would make them petty Constables or Bom-baylies a Lay-elder or an Apparitor This I am sure that in the purest and primitive times as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and others assure us the holy mysteries of Christian Religion the power of the Keyes the sacrating of Sacraments the pastorall ruling and preaching as of office duty and necessity to any part of Christs flock was esteemed the peculiar and proper work of Bishops and Presbyters in their order and degree as the true and onely Pastors and Teachers that succeeded the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples in their ordinary Ministry nor were men branded for other how able soever than insolent and execrable usurpers who did adventure to officiate unordained that is not duly authorised as Ministers Such intruders Tertullian notes both some men and women to have been in his time who were leavened with Schisme and Heresie so Epiphanius and S. Austin tell us of the Quintilliani Pepuziani and Colliridiani who were confounders of the Ministeriall order Sozomen Socrates Nicephorus and other Church-historians sharply censure one Ischyras or Ischyrion who unordained pretended to be a Presbyter and so to officiate calling him a detestable person and worthy of more than one death whom Athanasius finding about to consecrate or rather desecrate the Eucharist he in an holy and heroick zeal as Christ in the Temple brake the Communion Cup overthrew the Table and repressed his insolent impiety counting him as another Judas Iscariot a traitor to Christ and the Church Yet in the place of the Ministers of the Church of England I beseech you how few Athanasiusses how many Ischyrasses may you now see challenging to themselves the care of mens souls as Ministers of Christ undertaking the managerie of mens eternall interests confident to interpret Scriptures to resolve doubts to decide controversies to satisfie mens consciences to keep up the truth power and majesty of Christian Religion by new undue and exotick wayes against the torrent and impetuous force of ignorance Atheism profaneness errour malice and madness of men and Devils For all which grand designs of Gods glory and the Churches good those men are as fit agitators as Phaeton was to drive Phoebus his Chariot and truly with like success they will do it for instead of enlightening the world these Incendiaries will set all on fire as far as they meet with any combustible matter in which sad conflagrations begun and blown up by them in this Church of England some of them are so vain as to glory calling them the spirituall day of judgement an invisible doomesday a coming of Christ in the spirit of burning and refining to purge his Church For this purpose they say the Sun must be turned into darknesse and the Moon into blood government of Church and State must be subverted nor do they according to their severall fancies and interests fail to presage and expect a glorious Resurrection to their parties which they hope shall reign with Christ if not a thousand years yet as long as they can prevail so as to get power and preserve those liberties they have ravished to themselves CHAP. VIII NOr are these novell undertakers ever more ridiculous than when they sow pillowes under their own rustick arms and others elbows excusing yea abetting their illiterate rudeness and idiotick confidence with the primitive plainness and simplicity of the Apostles when Christ first chose them who were Fishermen Tent-makers or the like Which is truly but very impertinently alledged as any parallel case with these impotent and pragmatick intruders unless they could manifest to the world which they never yet did nor ever will such miraculous endowments such power and anointing from above as came upon the Apostles which in one moment was able to furnish them with more sufficiency and authority than all study and industry can ever do any of us which are the now ordinary means appointed and blessed by God succeeding in the place of miraculous gifts where Churches are once fully planted and Christianity setled To all which the constant testimony of an uninterrupted Ministery and holy succession of ordained Bishops and Presbyters from the very Apostles as they from Christ is a more pregnant witnesse and conviction than any new miracles could be much more than any such pittifull accounts can be as these wonders of ignorance and arrogancy can give to the world of any extraordinary matters they say or do either as Ministers or Christians The best of some of whose lives would deform I fear the golden legend which seems to be written by a man of a brazen forehead a leaden wit and an iron heart We the despised Clergie of England do profess to use and pray God to bless our long preparative studies meditations writings readings also our immediate care concomitant labours in this kind habitually to fit us for that dreadfull work and for every actuall discharge of it We find these methods practised by the most famous lights of the Church recommended by S. Paul to Timothy though a person in some things extraordinarily gifted that he should attend didiligently to those exercises that his profiting might appear We do not now expect fire from heaven with Elias to come down upon our sacrifices but we are glad to take the ordinary coals of Gods altar which may by his Word and Spirit going along with our pains and prayers both enlighten our minds and kindle our hearts so as to make us burning and shining lights in Gods house which is his Church Truly those proud and poor wretches who know no coals but those of their own chimney-corners may possibly have a few embers on their hearths or in their potsheards they may like dark lanthorns have a bit of a farthing-candle in them that shines with a little dim and dubious light on one side onely as in the smatterings of some plain primer-knowledge which they have gathered either by superficiall reading the Scriptures or by hearing some Sermons heretofore from the able Ministers of England or by gleaning a little out of the plainest of their writings but 't is most apparent that on three sides of them that is for Grammaticall skill historicall knowledge and polemicall learning they are so horridly black and dark that they seem fitter implements to bring in such ignorance irreverence Atheism superstition and confusion as shall quite put out the Christian and Reformed Religion in this nation reducing all to pristine darkness deformity and barbarity than probable ever to be either propagators purgators or preservers of it which had long ago been over-run with the rank weeds of
Idolatry Heresie Schism and Apostasie in all the world if God had not in the place of primitive miracles supplied the Church with such Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters whose admirable learning undaunted courage indisputable authority uniform order and constant succession was beyond any miracle which did at once both wonderfully attest and mightily preserve the sanctity mystery and majesty of Christian Religion from the subtilty of persecutors the sophistry of Philosophers the contumacy of Schismaticks and contumelies of Hereticks being too hard by Gods assistance for the malice of men and the wiles of Satan All which are then under severall new notions and disguises probable to prevaile over this or any Christian Church when such liberty shall be used by vulgar spirits and inordinate minds as shall not onely diminish and abate but quite in time destroy and vacate the divine reverence and inviolable sanctity of religious mysteries and holy ministrations which will inevitably follow where the Catholick order and divine authority of Ministers derived through all ages is not onely questioned and disputed but denied despised variated prostituted usurped by whosoever list to make himself a Minister in any new way which cannot be true if new nor authentick if it be exotick unwonted in the Church of Christ either broken off or different from that primitive commission and constant exemplification or Catholick succession which was owned and observed in Bishops and Presbyters throughout all the Christian world For my part I abhor all intrusion and obtrusion of dangerous Novelties both from Papists and Separatists either in Doctrine Discipline or Government of the Church and those I account dangerous yea detestable Novelties which not upon any plea of ignorance or necessity but meerly out of wantonness and wilfulness seek to alter the sacred streams and currents of Ecclesiasticall power authority and order from those fountains where Christ first broached it and those conduits by which the Apostles derived it which unquestionably was by Bishops and Presbyters I know that the sacred office and Angelick function of the Evangelicall Ministry as it is from my Lord Jesus Christ and is in his name and stead so it ought to be managed reverenced esteemed transmitted and undertaken among all true Christians as a visible supply of Christs absence in body as an authoritative embassie or delegation from Him as a sacred dispensation of that Ministry to his Church by chosen and duly ordained men setting forth his History his Precepts Promises Sacraments and other holy Institutions together with the Ministrations and Gifts of his holy Spirit by which he promised to his Apostles to be with them to the end of the world in that holy work wherein he employed them and their lawfull successors to be his witnesses among all nations whither he should send them So that every true Minister as with the ancients Mr. Calvin observes in his proper place and order as Bishop or Presbyter is first a Prophet to teach and instruct in the truths of God that part of Christs Church over which he is constituted next he is as a Ruler Shepherd and Governour over them in the Lord to feed and guide them in that holy order and discipline which becomes the lesser and the greater the single and sociall parts of Christs flock according as they are under their several care and inspection lastly every true Minister is in his proper station to perform in Christs stead those offices of his Evangelicall Priesthood which he hath assigned to be dispensed for his Churches good as the solemn consecration and celebration of that Eucharisticall memoriall of the great oblation of Christ to his Father upon the Cross for the redemption of the world by which all mankind is put into a conditionall capacity of salvation and upon their true faith and repentance Christs body and blood with all his meritorious benefits are evidently set forth signally confirmed and personally exhibited in that great Sacrament and most venerable mystery to every worthy Receiver He is further to offer up upon the altar of Christs merits the spiritual sacrifices of the Church in prayers praises thanksgivings alms and charities Besides this there is in the true Pastor or Minister of the Church of Christ according to their proportion and degree their line and measure as Bishops and Presbyters a power of mission and propagation in order to maintain that holy succession of an Evangelicall Priesthood which Christ Jesus hath appointed and which the Apostles with their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in all the world have to this day continued without any interruption or any variation as to the maine of the power and practise of Ordination So then as these three offices are eminently in Christ as the great Prophet Prince and Priest of his Church to all which he was consecrated by the mission of his Father by his own Blood-shed and Passion also by the anointing of his eternall Spirit which filled him with all divine Graces ministeriall Gifts and miraculous Power necessary for so great a work so the Lord Christ being absent in body but present in his power and Spirit had derived and committed the outward ministeriall execution of these his offices to chosen and ordained men as over-seers and workers together with Christ of themselves but earthen vessels yet the fittest instruments for the present dispensations of his Gospel and grace which yet are to be carried on according to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh in such darkness weaknesse and meannesse as may most set forth the present excellency of Gods gracious power and set off the future manifestations of his glory to his Church which even in this inferiority and obscurity of the Gospel hath yet as three that bear witnesse to its truth in heaven the wisdome of the Father contriving the love of the Son effecting and the power of the holy Ghost applying Evangelical mercies to poor sinners so it hath three that bear witnesse on earth to that glorious truth and mystery of the Gospel the water of Baptism which sprinkles to Regeneration the blood of the Lords Supper which feeds and refreshes believers also the Spirit of ministeriall Power and Authority which hath been and still is from Christ continued in all true Christian Churches As the first three are one in an essentiall unity of divine nature so these later three as S. John tells us agree in one that is in one Soveraign author Jesus Christ and in one sacred order and office of Church-Ministry or Evangelical dispensations successively derived from the Apostles Elders and Deacons by a power and commission peculiar to those who are duly ordained to be Christs Deputies Lieutenants and Vicegerents in his Church for those holy offices and divine ministrations whereto they are severally appointed in an higher or lower degree as Apostles or Elders as Bishops or Presbyters as Pastors or Teachers either over-seeing as
Rulers and Guides or attending as Deacons and Servitors CHAP. IX IN reference to which sacred grand employments St. Paul's modesty and humility asked with trembling that unanswerable question Who is sufficient for these things Whereas now in Engl. there are such insolent intruders who act as asking quite contrary Who is not sufficient for these things as if forwardness boldness and confidence were all the sufficiency required in a Minister of the Gospel in which plebeian and pretended sufficiencies as these novell intruders do most abound so I am sure there were really never more blunt and leaden tooles in any age applyed to Church-work than many if not most of them are they come indeed with their beetles and wedges their swords and staves their axes and hammers to beat down all the carved work of Gods house rather than to prepare or polish the least stone or corner of that sacred building Who being not a little conscious to themselves that they are grosly defective in all those reall abilities of good learning sound knowledge sober judgement orderly method grave utterance and weighty eloquence which all wise and sober Christians expect should appear in every true Minister of the Church of Christ in such a competent measure evident manner as they may be able comfortably to discern them and usefully to enjoy them these crafty Intruders do first cry down all those reall and visible abilities as meerly naturall humane carnall as enemies to the Cross Grace and Spirit of Christ for as the apes in the fable these deceitfull workers having no tails themselves they would fain perswade all other creatures which have that ornament to cut them off as burdens and superfluous After this rude essay of craft and malice in vain attempted against the fruits of learned industry wherein the Ministers of the Church of England have and still do so vastly exceed these Mushrome Ministers of the last and worst editions they cunningly flie to the pretentions of speciall callings extraordinary inspirations illuminations and graces ministeriall which they well know are not easily to be discerned by any other but a mans self even there where they may possibly be real Who knows not that as to the point of inward Graces they are far more easily pretended and voiced than discerned and enjoyed in ones self much less can they be so proved and manifested to others as to satisfie their conscience in the points of anothers power and their own duty I am sure neither gifts nor graces ministeriall are by wise and sober Christians to be much supposed or expected there where men evidently silly and weak mean and vain ignorant and arrogant dare yet to disdain all that ancient order and uniform succession of the Evangelicall Ministry which hath been visible in all Churches as in this of England for 1500. years and to salve their credit or gain reputation as Teachers they bring for the satisfaction of their own and other mens conscience in point of that office duty and power ministeriall which they challenge and undertake no other signature and character of their commission and investiture into that office save onely what themselves pretend to be within them of secret impulses which being to mans judgement undiscernable are utterly insignificant nor ought they to bear any sway in the Church of Christ where the power ministeriall was first declared by miraculous gifts and endowments also by evident signs wonders sufficient to confirm its first commission and to authorize its after-succession from those onely with whom it was deposited to be transmitted by them and their successors to the Churches of Christ in all ages by such gifts and ordinary endowments as might be first duly tried and approved in men before they were ordained to be Ministers in the Church of Christ But these Heteroclite Teachers for the further corroboration of their dubious title and claim to the office of the Ministry are content to accept of some appointment from that power which is meerly military or civil and magistratick which powers in Primitive Churches for 300. years were so far from making any Minister either Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon in the Church of Christ that they sought by all means to persecute and destroy the whole profession of Christianity yea when the Empire became Christian as in Great 's time neither He nor any Christian Emperour Prince or Magistrate after him was ever so impertinent as to imagine that because they could derive civil and military power to others they had also power to make Christian Ministers or to invest them with the Ecclesiasticall power of holy orders nor did they think they had any thing more to do with the Clergie by way of authority save onely to take care for their due and comfortable discharge of that Ministery to which they were by another principle and power ordained according as the peace honour and order of the Church required which so conformed to the State and Common-weal that all Ministers were humbly subject to the Scepters of Princes in the severall places and stations Ecclesiasticall to which they were applied The Clergie owe to Princes the civil endowments of honour and revenue given to them as the temporall reward of their spirituall work but they are not the sources of their orders nor can their broad seal confer that power of the holy Spirit which onely makes a Minister of Jesus Christ not by way of graces or gifts so much as by way of mission and authority flowing onely from the Spirit of Christ as the chief Pastor Bishop and Minister of his Church Others of these new-modell'd Ministers in a way not more preposterous than ridiculous seek to deduce their ministerial power from meer plebeian suffrages from vulgar examinations approbations and elections which commonly are factiously begun foolishly carried on and schismatically concluded having not less weakness but less madness or possibly a little more seeming order civility or tameness than those whose who pretend no other warrant or authority for their being Ministers but what is to be had from their own blindness and boldness their proud conceit and flattering confidence of themselves which emboldens them by a self-ordination to take this holy power to themselves beyond what Aaron or the true Prophets or the Apostles or Christ himself as man did who were not self-sent or ordained but chosen and appointed solemnly consecrated and inaugurated to their office and Ministry either by clear prophecies accomplished or visible miracles wrought in the sight of the people or by some such other signall token ordinary or extraordinary by word or work as God was pleased to use for the manifestation of his will and for the satisfaction of his Church as to those persons which were to minister to the Lord and to whom his Church was conscientiously to submit as to the Lord. Agreeably to which holy pattern and as a full answer to all those clamours envies and despites which the
Ravens must not be hoped for to feed us where Providence gives us opportunity to get our bread by honest industry Where then there are so many intruders and deceivers gone out as Ministers of the Gospel it is a matter of conscience as well as necessary prudence in all good Christians to be cautious and inquisitive whom they allow and follow as Ministers to be first satisfied in that question which the Jews rationally asked of Christ By what power or authority dost thou these things No discreet person in civil affairs will obey any warrant or order which hath no other authority than a private and pragmatick activity and can it be piety or prudence in Christians to be deluded by any pretenders in the great concernments of their souls to have no more of Sacraments or any other holy duties than the meer sensible shell and husk of them for the spiritual life and power of them is no where to be had but from such dispensers of them as have the authority and power the mission and commission of Christ rightly derived to them which was evident first in Christ after in his holy Apostles and their lawfull successors Certainly the cheat and falsity of such mock-Ministers and Pseudo-pastors is of far greater danger and detriment than those of spurious and supposititious children or of embased coin and counterfeit money Some people have been so wicked as to change their own children steal others from their parents but it was never heard that children of any discretion were so foolish and unnaturall as to abdicate their true Fathers and genuine mothers that they might adopt false parents and superinduce upon themselves the Empire of bastardly progenitors The mischief abuse is not less in Churches than in Common-weales in Christian Congregations than in families Due respect of paternall care and filiall love such as ought to be between Pastor and People can never be mutually expected where the relation is either supposititious or presumptuous or meerly imaginary or at best but arbitrary which is inconsistent with humane much more with divine Authority the measure of which is not the pleasure of man but the will of God whose will is asserted by his power For my part I firmly conclude that as no true Christians may admit of any Gospel or Sacraments or holy Institutions other than such as have been already once delivered to the Catholick Church and preserved by her fidelity against which the preaching of an Angel from heaven is not to be received or believed but accursed so nor may any Church or good Christians either broach invent or admit any new ministeriall power order mission or authority beside or beyond that which the Church of England and the Catholick Church of Christ hath received and transmitted in a constant succession That sacred ordination which began in Christ and flowed from him as the effect of his Melchisedechian Evangelicall and eternall Priesthood must never be interrupted innovated or essentially altered no not under any pretense or removing or reforming what corrupions may possibly be contracted by time and humane infirmities which are but accidentall as diseases to the body to Catholick prescriptions founded upon divine institutions Fields once sown with good corn must not be rooted up or fired because tares may be sown by the enemy while men slept Trees that are full of moss missletow through age yet bearing good fruit ought not to be cut down but pruned and cleared The decayes or dilapidations of the Temple before Hezekiah and Josiah repaired it were no excuse for peoples neglect to frequent it much less were they justified and to sacrifice other where than there onely as the place which the Lord had chosen to put his name there nor did those pious Princes set that house of God on fire because it was decayed but duly repaired it with great cost and care And such indeed was the excellent piety and prudence of the Church of England such wisdome and moderation it observed as in all other things so in this of the ministeriall order and office What injuries it as other holy things had suffered in the darkness of times by the dulness of Presbyters the negligence of Bishops or insolence of Popes it wisely reformed not abrogating the authority or breaking the Catholick succession of Bishops and Presbyters in this as in all Churches not broaching a new fountain not obstructing as Philistins the wells their fathers had digged not diverting the ancient course and conduits of the waters of life but cleansing the fountains and continuing the streams of primitive holy orders in the constant descents degrees and offices of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons They did not raise up new Ministers like Mushromes out of every mole-hill noâ— force them like Musk-melons out of the hot beds of popular zeal and novellizing faction without any regard to the ancient stock and root of Ecclesiasticall power and Ministeriall authority from which as Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and all the ancients clearly tell us Bishops and Presbyters were ever derived as slips and off-sets of the twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples No time ever did or ever shall render that Primitive plant and root of Evangelicall Ministry so dry dead and barren that they may or ought to be quite stubbed up or new ones set in their room No they are only to be pruned and trimmed that so they may be worthy of that honor which indeed they have to be by an uninterrupted succession derived and descended from the blessed Apostles whom Christ first planted by his own hands nor may any mans presumption undertake to pul up that holy plantation as those design to do who endeavour to destroy the derivation and succession of the power Ministeriall The truth sanctity and validity of which as to the Ministry of the Church of England by its Bishops and Presbyters hath been fully and clearly asserted by able pens against both Papists on the one side and Novellists on the other The one confining all Episcopal and Ministeriall power to one head and origin the Bishop of Rome as if there had not been twelve fountains and foundations of prime Apostles but onely one S. Peter appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ the other lewdly scattering that sacred office and divine authority even among vulgar and plebeian hands that every man may scramble for it as he list according as he fancies that his abilities and liberty in these times may extend The putid and pernicious effects of which in their present usurpations divisions confusions debasements discouragements upon the Clergie and Church of England as I shall afterward in the third Book more fully set them forth so I cannot here but justly condemn those partiall unreasonable and irreligious principles from whence so pragmatick an itch or thirst of novelty in so grand a concernment of Religion must needs arise that fond men should be so eager to stop up the ancient fountains
which I am sure give all the seeing world in this point so clear so perfect so full a light and so uniform a testimony that no learned impartiall and conscientious Christian can desire more nor can they but acquiesce in these unless they dare to doubt and deny the veracity and fidelity of all authors that have given us account of any Ecclesiasticall Catholick affairs and customes since the Apostles times in all which no one point or practise hath less doubt or dispute less variation or diversity than this of Ecclesiasticall order both as to the Ministry and government of the Church What the ignorant vulgar who are the bran and courser sort of people may endlesly fancy and affect or what others of better parts but as base passions may cunningly pretend I know not the better to bring in their new modelings of Ministers and Churches but I am sure it will very ill become you O noble Gentlemen who are the best and finest flower the beauty and honour the strength and stability of this English Nation who are the choice and chiefest sons of the Church of England it ill becomes you to suspect all those burning and shining lights both Bishops and Presbyters Fathers and Historians single and sociall in their Closets and in their Councils even in the first innocent ages when the Church was most pure and persecuted as if they had all been either grosly ignorant of or supinely negligent in following the mind of Christ and methods of the blessed Apostles as to these great affairs of the Church which were openly uniformly universally both preached and practised by the Apostles also delivered to and received by their successors as in other things so most indisputably in this which so much concerned not onely the right ordering and well-being and polity of the estate of the Church militant but it s very being and Essence in Doctrine Ministry Duties Discipline and Government Can it I beseech you without great uncharitableness and pervicacy unworthy of any ingenuous soul be imagined that from the beginning during the life of some Apostles and their scholars the whole Church and the most eminent persons in it Ministers Martyrs and Confessors did all conspire to delude themselves and to deceive all posterity in so clear great and sacred concernments as those of the Churches Ministry and Polity were ever esteemed The incomparable and unanswerable Mr. Rich Hooker who is not to be read without admiration nor named without veneration long ago urged this Absurdity against the then more modest Sticklers for their Disciplinarian Innovations in the Ministry and Polity of the Church of England Sure saith he it were a very strange thing that such a Discipline meaning the Presbyterian as ye speak of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God and no Church hath ever found it out nor received it till this present time or contrariwise that the Government of the Church against which you bend your selves should be observed every where through all generations and ages of the Christian world and no Church ever perceive it to be against the word of God We require you to find out but one Church upon the face of the earth that hath been ordered by your Discipline or that hath not been ordered by ours that is Episcopall government for ordination and jurisdiction since the times that the blessed Apostles were conversant upon earth This unanswered challenge did that excellent person heretofore make in order to prevent if possible these innovations and mischiefs which are now grassant in England to the hazard of quite overthrowing all that ancient Order Ministry succession and Government which had been conserved in this Church conform to all parts of the Catholick Church If your other employments and studies have hindred you from being so well acquainted with the authentick works and authoritative testimonies of the ancientest writers of Church-affairs as those grand Authors deserve and your ingenuity cannot but desire yet far be it from your prudence piety and charity to derogate from the honour and credit of your own Countrey-men who have in the Histories of England both Civil and Ecclesiasticall to which you cannot well be strangers sufficiently shewed from the originall of these British Churches what Ministry and Orders they had If you are yet strangers to those eldest ages times and authors of your own and so cannot maturely ground your judgements upon their testimony yet what think you of the learning piety honesty and courage of those later and reall and renowned Reformers of this Church whether Clergie or Lay-men who lived in your fathers memories whose blood and ashes as Martyrs and Confessors against Papall innovations and corruptions is still warm and precious These did not lay new foundations of a Christian Church a true Religion or an authentick Ministry here in England but they onely repaired the decayes of the old and lightned them of those either erroneous or dangerous superstructures with which long ignorance and superstition had over-laded them and not so much built upon them as almost quite buried them These Heroes these worthy men I say who were worthy of the name of Christians English-men and Reformers did not ever design or go about to broach new fountains nor to cut new channels nor to lay new pipes by which to convey the Ecclesiasticall order and Ministeriall authority here in England but they cleansed the foulness they removed the obstructions they sodered the ruptures of the former Catholick way which was very good as well as very old yet not the antiquity but the veracity and divinity of it attested both by Scriptures and by the Catholick usage of all Churches made those blessed Reformers now an hundred years ago cheerfully subscribe to that polity Ministry and authority Ecclesiasticall which they mended but changed not these they recommended to all estates in this nation by whose Parlamentary votes and sanction they were established as the best means to preserve this Church both Christian and Reformed After these famous Fathers of England's happy Reformation whose judgement is manifest in the point of ministeriall power and holy order to be carried on by Bishops and Presbyters can you suspect that their later successors in office and judgement I mean all those learned grave and godly Ministers of England whom your eyes have seen and your ears have heard heretofore with great respect love and admiration dispensing the word of God and holy mysteries to you who till the divisions and deformities of these last and worst dayes have baptized instructed and guided both you and your hopefull posterity in the way to heaven and happiness in truth and peace in faith and repentance in humility and holiness in all graces vertues and good works powerfully set forth to you by their excellent Sermons and fervent Prayers by the blessed Sacraments and worthy Examples they have communicated to you can you I say suspect that all these together with the
Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church the East and West the old and new the Greeks and Latines the Roman and Reformed that all these have conspired to erre so great so universall so constant an errour themselves and to mis-guide you me and all the Christian world in such wayes of receiving and conferring Ecclesiastick order Evangelicall Ministry Church-government as were unchristian yea Antichristian diverse from Christs mind yea contrary to it offensive to the godly odious to God himself as some men have lewdly declamed whose tongues I judge to be no slander since they appear persons of so little conscience and less forehead either grosly ignorant of the practise and platform of Antiquity or most uncharitably impudent in branding so many thousands of godly Bishops and other gracious Ministers both in England and all other places who were justly famous in their generations for their learning and piety as if they were either so many blind guides or so many bold intruders meer usurpers juglers impostors hypocrites as if to gratifie their own private ambitions they had from the very beginning in the sight and in despite of S. John and other Apostolick Pastors perverted the way of Christ as to that Ministeriall power Church-order which he had appointed setting up of their own heads a paternall presidency or Episcopall eminency instead of these newly discovered wayes of either a Presbyterian parity or a popular Independency by which Presbyters and people in common challenge to themselves the sole possession dispensation and managery of all Ecclesiasticall office power and authority inventions so pragmatick so turbulent so contrariant to one another as well as to the ancient orders of the Church that we in England were happily unacquainted with them till of late years as were all other Churches in the world till this last century who cannot be thought in all former ages to have wanted such Pastors and Teachers such Rulers and Governours as were after Gods own heart to carry on his great work of saving souls in the preserving and propagating of his Church by the Ministers of it If the great cloud of ancient and Catholick witnesses who ever owned all Ecclesiastick power to be magisterially indeed and primarily in Christ but ministerially and secondarily in the Apostles and their successors as to all Church-ministration ordination and jurisdiction which power resided chiefly in Bishops and from them was regularly derived to Presbyters if these I say can fall under your hard censure as either deceived or deceivers yet truly their errour in this point may be the more veniall because the case was not so much as once doubted or disputed for three hundred years in those best and first ages of the Church It will be more charity in their censurers to suspect they wanted ability to see the light of Christs mind and the Apostles examples than honesty to follow them But for my self and other Ministers my Fathers and Brethren of the Church of England who after so high contests about the Ministry of the Church both as to ordination and jurisdiction in which we have examined all Scriptures and rifled all Antiquity if we do still bona fide humbly honestly and conscientiously chuse to follow what seems to us Christian Catholick and uniform antiquity rather than any partiall and divided wayes of novelty I hope we are excusable to you if not commendable how ignorant or obstinate soever we seem to others who think we ought to be confounded if we will not be converted or rather perverted by them But if you do indeed judge that after so clear demonstrations and potent convictions from Scripture and Antiquity which either Geneva or Edenburgh or Amsterdam or New-England have alledged we do still persist in our Primitive opinions and Catholick Errours touching the office power and derivation of the Evangelicall Ministry and Authority such as was established in this Church of England meerly out of either passion pertinacy and obstinacy or for private interests sinister ends and secular policies if you can think us so base and false such sots and beasts so unworthy of the names of Ministers Christians Englishmen or men if this be your sense of us truly you and the whole State shall do but an act of high Justice speedily to cast us all out as well Presbyters as Bishops for unsavoury salt to expose us yet more upon the dunghill of vulgar contempt and worldly poverty which some Satyrick tongues and pens have earnestly importuned and petulantly endeavoured against all the ancient Ministers and orderly Clergie of England under the name of Prelaticks and Episcopall If the bitter and bold invectives of spitefull Papists and fierce Separatists of rash Presbyterians and rude Independents of Erastians and Anabaptists if these have been or can be made good to you against the Ministry and ordination of the Church of England against all its Bishops and Presbyters both in office and exercise as if we had not either before or since the Reformation any due ministeriall office or authority no true ordination or succession little of ministeriall gifts and less of graces no sound doctrine faithfully preached no Sacraments rightly consecrated no holy mysteries lawfully celebrated no Church-discipline dispensed no right government constituted no true Ministry or authoritative Ministers any way deserving either love or honour from you and your posterity If all your and our faith repentance charity and other graces be in vain if your Christian peace and hopes be all but imaginary if neither we are made true Ministers of Christ nor you true Members or Disciples of Christ if all your and your fore-fathers piety devotion charity Christianity hath been onely a fantastick pageantry a mummery and mockery of Religion Christianity and Reformation if hitherto you have onely been deluded and abused in so high concernments of your consciences and souls to eternity truly 't is but high time for you and your new Common-weale to offer up the wretched remnant of those Bishops and Presbyters who have yet survived the calamities and contempts of these times and who yet retain their former judgement ministeriall office and holy orders conformably to the Church of England to be an acceptable Sacrifice a welcome Holocaust or much longed-for Burnt-offering to the malice of their adversaries and persecutors both Gog and Magog first to the more secret but implacable despite of Papists who have infinitely longed and no less rejoyce to see poverty obscurity silence scorn division confusion extirpation to be the portion of the English Clergie whom they heretofore either envied or dreaded beyond the Ministry of any Christian or Reformed Church in all the world next you shall in so doing highly gratifie the bitter and bolder enmity the fouler-mouth'd fury of all other sharp-tongu'd brazen-fac'd and heavy-handed Schismaticks who have a long time grudged at the Clergie of England envying both Bishops and Presbyters their honours liberties livelihoods and lives prompted hereto partly by their own
pride covetousness and other discontented lusts and partly by Jesuitick arts and Papall policies whose joynt aims are at this day to extirpate the whole race root and branch of the Reformed Catholick Christian Church and Ministry in England They conspire nothing more than that they may serve both the Bishops and Presbyters of England as Elias and Jehu did Baals Priests for this is the sense some men have of us and this is the sentence they have passed and seek to execute upon us as upon so many Cretians not Christians as if we were onely liars evil beasts and slow-bellies either imperious masters or unprofitable servants to the Church that so these new Masters may on all sides freely enjoy those superstitious and fanatick liberties which they have designed for their divided parties who despaired to prevail in England untill they had brought the English Clergie to undergo all manner of indignities and injuries CHAP. XII ALl which Tragedies that the people of England might behold and bear with the greater patience and stupidity they must by popular orators be perswaded 1. That all Bishops or presidentiall Fathers and Over-seers among the Clergie such as the Apostles and their immediate Successors first were are Antichristian truly so are Fathers in families Magistrates in cities and Chieftains in armies 2. That the ordaining of Presbyters by Bishops is meerly Popish so is the celebrating of Baptisme or the Lords Supper or the Lords day 3. That Christs Ministry appropriated to one order of men is a monopoly or a taking too much upon mens selves when others of the congregation may be as holy and able so is all order office and authority civil and military a meer monopoly when others may be as able and wise as the best Magistrates and Commanders 4. That all humane Learning is not onely superfluous but pernicious in the Ministers of the Gospel so is all skill industry and ability in all other workmen 5. That Ministers maintenance by Tithes Glebe-lands and other oblations is Jewish so is all justice and gratitude in paying labourers their wages 6. That the distinction of Clergie and Laity is arrogant and supercilious so are the titles of Master and Scholar Teacher and Disciple Priest and People Minister and ministred 7. That it was proud and insolent for any Clergie-men to be invested with honour to be stiled and respected as Lords Truly if it be no dishonour to any temporall Lord to become a Minister or Christs glorious Gospel nor doth he thereby lose his civil Lordship and dignity no more is it misbecoming learned grave and venerable Ministers of the Gospel the chief Fathers and governours of the Church to be adorned with honours and to enjoy as the favours of Christian Princes and States both the Titles and Revenues of their temporall Baronies and Lordships which they might for ought I could ever see as well deserve and use as any other Lords who had their Lordships by birth by purchase or by favour nor did Honour less become Ecclesiastick Rulers than it doth those military Commanders who I see can endure themselves to be called treated as Lords I confess under favour I do not understand how Church-government should be less capable of degrees and distinction in Governours than those which are civil or military since order and subordination must be in them all nor do I more understand how such chief Governours of the Church-militant as Bishops were and ought to be might not as well both merit and manage such honours and estates as any men who by far less abilities or pains do get to be Major-generals or Colonels and chief Commanders in an Army over poor Souldiers Sure the saving of souls is every way as hard and honourable a work as the killing of mens bodies which is the worst of a souldiers work or as the saving of mens temporall lives and estates which is the best of that employment nor is it less of true valour vigilance and resolution in learned and good Scholars to fight with and overcome the ignorance errours and barbarity of mankind than it is fortitude in good souldiers to suppress the rapines and injustice of mens extravagant actions But these and such like are the envious cobwebs the thin and ridiculous sophistries formerly used by some men of evil eyes and worse hearts out of principles full of ignorance or envy or covetousness or licentiousness or Atheism whereby to perswade silly people to follow these novell easie and more thrifty methods of saving souls which some swelling Libertines propound who have the confidence earnestly to invite this noble Nation to commit the whole managery of Christian Religion and of their souls eternall salvation to such new cheap and bold undertakers who adventure to minister in Christs name without any such character commission or conscience of divine authority which as Irenaeus and all the Ancients tell us were ever in a solemn visible and orderly manner derived by the hands of Bishops to the Presbyters or lawful Ministers of the Church as from Christ and the Apostles in an undoubted and uninterrupted succession of which Tertullian gives so excellent an account in his Book of prescription against Hereticks Their ostentations of naturall liberty of civil indulgence of rationall abilities of speciall gifts and undiscernable graces or which is most incredible of extraordinary calls from God All or any of these if they were really true yet will not be allowed as a justifiable ground for any mans usurpation or intrusion into any office military or civil without a visible commission derived from the supreme power in both much less are they sufficient pleas for any man to officiate in the Ministry Ecclesiasticall whose Supreme Authority is confessedly in Christ and the derivation or deduction of it in all ages is so visible constant and uniform that no man honestly learned can be ignorant where it resided or how it was derived Certainly it never was dispensed by the hands or power of Emperours Kings Protectors Princes or any civil Magistrates whose duty I conceive if they will act as Christians is not to alter or innovate this sacred authority and method used by Christ the Apostles and the Catholick Church but to preserve it as sacred and inviolable much less was it left to the spontaneous confidence the passionate suffrages and confused petulancies of common people who are the great and infallible prostrators of all Religion vertue honour order peace civility and humanity if left to themselves but it was divinely setled by Christ in the Apostles and by the Apostles in their successors the ordained Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church in its severall branches and combinations who ever have been and ought to be under Christ the great Conservators the onely complete and regular Distributers of this holy ministeriall power as they have been to this day in this and all other orderly Churches of Christ without any controversie or contradiction without dispute or doubt
who are set up by them as the great rivals and Antagonists of the Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Ministers of Christ and Vastators of the whole frame of the Church of England Can you O worthy Gentlemen or any sober Christians who are not strangers to the prayings preachings and writings heretofore brought forth by the worthy Ministers Bishops and Presbyters of the Church of England can you think that either the godly Ministers or the Christian people in England were ignorant of or strangers to those spirituall influences those inward powers and secret experiences of Religion till these new Pedlers of piety began to open their packs or till these rare Rabbies turned their shops into Synagogues and their Conventicles into the onely true spiritualized Churches of Christ Did we never know before these new Illuminates and Spiritaties rose up what belonged to the humble seeking the happy finding and holy acquaintance with God by the union and communion of Gods Spirit working and witnessing with ours Had we neither the root nor the fruit of true Religion till these new planters sprung up Were we utterly strangers to Faith Repentance Charity and good works or to that joy love peace blessed hopes sweet satisfactions evident sealings sincere sanctifyings and undoubted assurings of the holy Ghost which are wrought by and conform to the Word of God first casting the Christian into that holy mould and then filling him with such comforts as are unspeakable and glorious whose nature is rather to be humbly enjoyed modestly owned and tenderly treated in a gracious soul than vulgarly discovered and vapouringly ostentated in a rude and vain-glorious fashion The brightest lustre of Gods Jewels is rarely shewn and hardly seen being most glorious within the richest wares are least set upon the stalls or shop-boords These Arcana magnalia sublimia Dei secrets of the Lord these whisperings of the blessed Spirit these oscula Christi kisses of Christ as S. Bernard calls them these aromata gratiae perfumes of his soft breath these glowings of grace in the heart these holy fervours and heavenly raptures of humble devout meditative fervent souls who the more they believe the more they love and the more they love the better they live more humanely and more divinely more justly more charitably and more orderly these real pregustations of glory and anticipations of heaven blessed be God were long ago known and experimentally set forth in the Prayers Sermons writings and actions of thousands of good Christians both Ministers and others long before these novell and exotick masters began to lisp out the Soboloths of fine phrases before they dared to assault and not onely cry but beat down this and all National Churches all Clergie of the ancient and right order all Universities and Nurseries of good learning together all Tithes all Liturgies all studied Sermons and premeditated prayers all wholsome forms and sober compendiums of religious duties and devotion as if all these were meerly carnall literall formall and superficiall naturall and papall meer husks and shells the rind and out-side of Religion Yea we had the comfort and God the glory of his grace in the Ch. of Eng. long before either Anabaptists or Familists or Seekers or Quakers or Ranters or any other spawn of Libertinism and Independency of Schism and Separation had amused the silly vulgar as S. Austin tells us by his own experience the subtill but sordid Manichees were wont to do with their new motions and strange expressions of being Godded with God Christed with Christ Spirited with the Spirit and the like affectations which are either barbarities and simplicities or blasphemies insolencies and impossibilities of speaking for no sober Christian ever did or in Religion ought or in true reasoning can understand that by a believers being partaker of a diviner nature through Christ he is presently Deified that is personally invested and plenarily possessed with all the infinite Attributes essence and glory of God which are incomprehensible by any finite understanding and personally incommunicable to any creature excepting Christ Jesus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immanuel God Incarnate who onely may without robbery be equall with God esteemed called and adored as God So that they can religiously mean no more by all this pomp of their words than what was long ago far better understood and expressed in more humble wholsom and intelligible words also better enjoyed by sober meek just and quiet-spirited Christians who well knew the glorious priviledges of every gracious and sincere Christian which is to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to whom being related by faith they are in some sense united to God As the eye that sees the suns light and glory by its beams is in some sense truly enlightened by it united to it partaker of it not as to the vastnesse of its Globe essentiall glory which is far too big and too bright for the eyes small capacity but as to its pleasing influences in like manner the Christian that is illuminate and regenerate by Baptism instructed by the Word of God and sanctified by the Spirit of God is so drawn to Christ by the sweet attractions of the cords of his love and engraffed in him that he is not now his own but Christs not enslaved to his own sinfull and depraved nature but endued with the new powers and principles of an holy and heavenly nature which is truly and soberly that divine nature of which S. Peter speaks which while we behold by true faith and obedience we are changed into the same image from Glory to Glory CHAP. XVI IF then a wise and serious Christian who is not so idle or impudent as to play with Religion to trifle in holy things or to mock with God if such an one will lose so much time as to sift all that these new masters vent that these vapouring Prophets say or write as rare and precious spirituall and heavenly beyond all the fleshly forms learned ignorance and litterall darknesse under which they say we other Christians and Ministers in England have lain long and laboured all night in vain if he will do himself and them so much right as to winnow away the chaff of their affected language their bumbast tearms their insolent expressions drive them from the refuge and confidence they have in the sillinesse of their Auditors the easinesse of their Disciples and the sequaciousnesse of their followers who most admire when they least understand this done he shall find that either nothing remains that is wholsome and good in their swoln heaps of new notions and expressions which are many times the gildings of some of their pills the palliations of their poysonous opinions the daring-glasses or decoyes to bring men into the snares of their dangerous or damnable doctrines or at best all this froth and swelling this noise and ratling of their Novellizings is reducible into a few drops a
the firm ground less indeed to vulgar admiration but more to their own safety and others benefit S. Paul seriously represseth the vanity of knowledge falsly so called when men intrude themselves into things they understand not being puffed up as those primitive Gnosticks in their fleshly minds not holding the Truths as they are in Jesus nor content with the simplicity of the Gospel as it hath been delivered received understood believed and practised by the Catholick Church of Christ this check the Apostle gave to humane curiosities and Satanick subtilties even then when speciall gifts and revelations were at the highest tide CHAP. XVII THe better learned and more humble Ministers of the Church of England both Bishops and Presbyters ever professed with S. Austin and the renowned Ancients an holy nescience or modest ignorance in many things no less becoming the best Christians the acutest Scholars and profoundest Divines than their otherwayes vast knowledge and accurate diligence to search the Scriptures and find out things revealed by God which belong to the Church The modesty and gravity of their learning commends the vastness and variety of it as dark shadowes and deep grounds set off the lustre of fair pictures to the greater height They were not ashamed to subscribe to Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfathomable depth the divine Abyss of unsearchable wisdome and knowledge they were not curious to pry into things above them or to stretch their wits and fancies beyond that line and measure of truth which God had set forth to his Church in his written Word and in those Catholick summaries thence extracted as the rule of Christian Faith Manners and Devotion whereto the spirits of all good Christians great and small learned and idiots were willingly confined of old as Irenaeus tells us they never boasted of raptures revelations new lights visions inspirations special missions and secret impulses from Gods Spirit beyond or contrary to Gods Word and the good order of his Church thereby to exercise their supposed liberties and presumptuous abilities that is indeed to satisfie their lusts disorders and extravagances in things civil and sacred to discover their immodesties and impudicities like the Cainites Ophites Judaites and Adamites to gratifie their luxuries and injuries their sacriledges and oppressions their cruelties against man and blasphemies against God their separations divisions and desolations intended against this Church The godly Pastors and people of Christs flock never professed any such impudent piety or pious impudence because they were evidently contrary to sound Doctrine and holy Discipline beyond and against the sacred precepts and excellent patterns of true Ministers sincere Saints and upright Christians whose everlasting limits are the holy Scriptures sufficient to make the man of God and Minister of Christ perfect to salvation They were not like children taken with any of these odde maskings and mummeries of the Devil who is an old master of these arts in false Prophets and false Apostles with their followers whose craft ever sought to advance their credits against the Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and professors of true Religion by such ostentations of novelties and unheard of curiosities in Religion which never of old or late made any man more honest holy humble or heavenly they never advanced Christians comforts solitary or sociall living or dying but kept both their Masters and Disciples in perpetual inquietudes perplexities and presumptions which usually ended in villanies outrages and despairs Nor will these new Masters late discoveries prove much better whereof they boast with so insolent and loud an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all their rarities are but dead carkases which are become mummy by being long dried in the sands or wrapped up in searcloths they are not less dead though they seem less putrified to those whose simplicity or curiosity tempts them thus to rake into the skulls and sepulchres of old Hereticks idle Ecstaticks such as the very primitive times were infinitely pestred withal but blessed be God they were all long ago either extinct of themselves and gone down to the pit or crucified dead buried and descended into hell by the just censures Anathemaes and condemnations passed against them by the godly Bishops and Ministers of the Church in those ages Nor have these Spectres ever much appeared in this Church of England till these later years in which by the ruines and rendings of this Church they have gained a rotten kind of resurrection not to their glory but to their renewed shame and eternall infamy I trust in Gods due time when once the honour of the true Christian and Reformed Religion once happily setled and professed in the Church of England shall be again worthily asserted and re-established by your piety and prudence my noble and religious Countrey-men who have been and I hope ever will be the chief professors and constant Patrons of it under your God and your pious Governours Your prudence and piety your justice and generosity is best able to see through all those transports which are so transparent those specious pretences those artificiall mists and vapours which are used by some novel Teachers to abuse the common people that engaging them into eternall parties animosities and factions they may more easily by many mouths and hands not onely cry but utterly pull down this Reformed Church of England in its sound Doctrine wholsome Discipline Catholick Ministry sacred Order solemn Worship and Apostolick Government All which must now be represented to the world by these new Remonstrants as poor and pittifull carnall and common meer empty forms and beggarly elements fit to be cast out with scorn as reaching no further than Christ in the letter Jesus in the flesh Truth in the outward court Religion in the story or legend but they say the Ministers and other Christians of Old England are not come within the vaile to the Spirit and Mystery they have not that light within which far out-shines the paper-lanthern of Gods word without them CHAP. XVIII THese and such like are the uncouth expressions used to usher in under the names of liberty curiosity sublimity nothing but ignorance idlenesse Atheisme barbarity irreligion and utter confusion in this Church or at best as I shall afterward more fully demonstrate they are but van-courriers or agitators for Romish superstitions and Papall usurpations the end of all this gibberish is Venient Romani Put all these fine fancies and affected phrases together with all those strange phantasms in Religion which of late have haunted this Church like so many unquiet vermin or unclean spirits truly they spell nothing but first popular extravagances which are the embasings and embroylings of all true and Reformed Religion next they portend Popish interests and policies prevailing against this Church and State whose future advantages are cunningly but notably wrapt up in these plebeian furies and fondnesses as grocery wares are in brown paper Be confident the spirit of Rome which is
zelotries Anarchicall furies deformed reformings and desperate hypocrisies by which some men have like very foul chimneys not onely taken fire themselves according as their own lusts kindled them but they have sought to set this whole house of God the Reformed Church of England on fire under pretence forsooth of cleansing the soile and soot of it which appear now to have been more in their own hearts than any where else Have we not had enough of insolent railings bitter calumnies odious indignities and endless divisions brought upon this Reformed Church of England upon its Apostolick Ministry and all its Evangelical Ministrations as invalid superstitious Popish Antichristian abominable Besides the tragick depressions and undoings of many sober Ministers in their persons credits and estates who were justly esteemed by good Christians for very pious painfull and peaceable men yet have the storms of times not onely faln heavily upon them during the paroxysme of our civil wars but even since that tempest hath been allayed many poor Ministers beyond all other men have been afflicted with the strifes of tongues with schismatical despites with opinionative and disputative besides operative persecutions so far that many a grave and godly Minister hath not known whither to flie not so much for employment as for his safety or quiet that he might in any corner or cottage of the land be free from the molestations of those importune wasps those ill-natur'd Factionists who are his eternall Antagonists who first separating from him at length they preach or prate against him against his office orders and function counting themselves as a new swarm of Teachers sent of God to be to the former stock of Preachers like the hornets sent against the Canaanites that driving all the ancient orthodox duly ordained and well-learned Ministers out of the employment and communion of the Church this Canaan of England this good land this famous Church may wholly be in their possession Have we not had enough and too much of petulant practises scurrilous expressions and blasphemous insolencies cast even upon that God that Saviour that holy Spirit that blessed Trinity whom we adore and admire besides the neglects contempts and profanations cast upon our Sacraments our Sermons our Prayers I need not to adde and repeat the diminutions and indignities under which many worthy Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters do lie together with that whole Evangelical order and office which planted preserved and reformed this Church of England How many have questioned others derided a third sort divided from and not a few have utterly denied and as much as in them lies destroyed them all Hence many are grown to esteem all our Religion all our Reformation all Christian duties all Worship and Devotion no better than meer politick frauds specious fables popular fallacies cunning captivities witty mockeries and delusions of the people Yea that nothing might be wanting which malice can invent or act there are some so fierce and cunning enemies of the Church of England that to bring our Reformation into further defiance and disgrace among Papists Atheists and profane livers they dare to impute even their most putid errours their most extravagant fancies their most factious and flagitious practises either to reforming principles or to Gods Spirit and divine impulses O what astonishment what stupor what a lethargie what a dumbnesse what searednesse what deadnesse must needs possess the spirit of any Nation so Christian so Reformed so knowing and enlightened as the people of England sometime was to hear with patience yea with silence yea with connivence yea with smiles and seeming approbation such insolencies such extravagancies imputed to their Religion yea to their Reformation nay to the Spirit of their God and Saviour horrid and black enormities which deserve to be expiated with teares of blood as Gregory Nazianzen speaks of some abuses of Religion in his times O blessed God stir up such a pious shame sorrow and abhorrence in the generality of the people that these fedities may not become the sins of the nation Have we not had enough and too much of scepticall disputes and unedifying contests of unhealing questions and uncharitable quarrellings of bitter strifes and bloody contradictions of evil eyes and envious emulations prevailing like gangrenes or cancerous distempers even among those that profess to be godly and contend for the superiority of Sanctity By all which as S. Hilary passionately complains after the Arian fury had poysoned the Church in his times not onely unkind distances but mutuall defyances and damnings the Christian Reformed Religion sometime setled uniform and flourishing with verity charity decency divine authority and publick majesty in the Church of England is now made an annual menstruall and diurnall Faith or Religion as S. Hilary aptly deplores All things are either so snarled and intangled by infinite doubts and scruples or so wire-drawn by popular and petty disputes or so broken in sunder by factious divisions or so horrid by reciprocall Anathemaes like thunder-bolts cast on all sides in each others faces that the common sort of people know not what to make of Christian or Reformed Religion nor to what Ministers or Ministry to apply themselves with comfort and conscience The solid masse of pure gold which was the highest riches and honour of this nation the true and invaluable treasure of your souls while Religion as Christian and Reformed was carefully preserved as a precious and holy depositum this well-refined gold is now so dim and embased with dross or so malleated and beaten thin by perverse disputations that most men use Religion onely as leaf-gold to tip their tongues or gild over the superficies of their conversation withall or to set off as S. Austin observed of old in the crafty Manichees and others both Hereticks and Schismaticks of his time with the shew and lustre of Christian Religion all the new fancies projects policies and opinions of severall parties which are presently by their authors and abettors cryed up as the pure Ordinances of Jesus Christ the perfect mind of the Spirit the true meaning of the Scripture Gospel-truths hidden treasures Evangelick rarities yea that nothing might be thought to have been Christian Catholick clear and constant setled and indisputable as to Religion in this or any other Church of any other frame and fashion some men have sought not onely to shake and batter but to demolish and utterly overthrow the whole house of wisdome beating down all the grand and goodly pillars on the one side of faith repentance charity good works on the other side of Scriptures Ministry Worship and Sacramentall Mysteries as to the validity authority majesty sanctity solemnity and saving efficacy of them all Upon which the Catholick Church was every where anciently built even then when it was by the hands of the Apostles their successors the Primitive Bishops Presbyters Martyrs Confessors hewn out of the rock of heathenish barbarity idolatry polished by
heavy sharp persecutions fixed by the solidity and patience honoured by the charity and constancy of Christian people even all these solid supports of Religion are sought by some men to be either sawn in sunder or to be cut into chips and shavings by their infinite scrupulosities by their importune longing after novelties by their affectations of Schisms and separations and usurpations Alas how many poor souls rather weak than wicked of easie heads yet honest hearts have in these later years since the vertigo of Religion befell this Nation ravelled out their time and ended their dayes in Obs and Sols in cavilling and contending in shifting their sides and parties in seeking and shaking in ranting and raving in quarrelling and jangling about their Religion What new models of Churches what new methods of worshipping God what new forms for Ministry and Ministers have distracted and distorted them while they have been picking and chusing what way they could best fancy and with most advantages follow Thus poor mortalls who have infinite sins to be pardoned and infinite wants to be supplied who have precious and immortal souls to be saved by the happy improvement of their short uncertain moment are by a pragmatick vanity continually itching and scratching while they should be cleansing and healing sceptically and miserably disputing and doubting while they are decaying and dying while they should in all piety and prudence by sound faith and serious repentance be doing that great work which is evidently set forth in the Word of God and faithfully delivered unto them by the Ministers of his Church Behold the terrours of death prevent them Eternity presseth upon them before they are resolved what side to take when to begin where to fix what to hold fast the flower of age passeth gray hairs are here and there giddiness in their heads stupor in their minds hardness in their hearts searedness in their conscience a Manichean dotage and delirancy seiseth upon them before ever they are resolved whether the Scriptures be the true onely and sufficient revelation of the Word and will of God whether it be their duty to live righteously soberly and holily in this present world toward all men whether this Church of England and all the Churches of Christ in all ages have not till now cheated them and all the world whether there be any Ministers in the Church of England that are duly set over Christian people in the Lord to whom they owe double honour whether they may not in some cases follow their own fallacious fancies and other mens flattering suggestions rather than the Scriptures plain and pregnant precepts in order to carry on the covetous ambitious factious fanatick and novell designs of such as call themselves godly whether they may not in some junctures of times and things when opportunity suits with their lusts and worldly interests dispense with Gods revealed will in his word that they may fulfill his secret will hinted as they suppose by his providences whether in order to advance the glory of God men may not sometimes break his express commands presuming that then they please God best when they most please or profit themselves as the onely people of God These strange scrupulosities or extravagancies rather in Religion do ordinarily not onely intangle but debauch the minds of common people when once they please themselves with inordinate liberties and ramblings in Religion which fill their heads and hearts with such snarlings and intrigues as resemble those deformed knots of burres which colts get upon their manes and tails when they run loose upon heaths or commons they are easily got on but very hardly shaken off or cleared mens interests lusts and passions once leavening their Religion and blinding no less than biassing their judgments it is not imaginable what sport the Devil makes with them and with what compasses and fetches of godliness he plays his game by them Have we not enough and too much hitherto in England of verball sanctity and titular Saints not after the Catholick Christian account which was Scripturall and orderly unblamable and charitable most imitable and honourable in an uniform and constant holiness full of equity and charity purity and sincerity but upon new notions names and factions We have sects of self-canonizing Saints as well as self-ordaining Ministers every petty Schismatick every solitary Seeker every extatick Quaker every Independent Noveller every Presbyterian temporiser each of these have learned of late to tip their tongues crown the heads of their parties with these precious names which are the ambition of Angels the beauties of heaven and glory of God himself And this they do not in a way of charitable communion and Christian emulation as allowing others with them an interest in that honour which I have the charity to believe some of the soberest in most of those sects may deserve but peculiarly and exclusively as if none that had or still have communion with the Church of Engl. either as Bishops or Presbyters or people ever had or have any right or claim to be called or esteemed Saints yea some of the most noysome weeds of late grown up in the garden of this Church the most vile polluted and profane wretches affect to style themselves the onely herbs of grace hereby causing the silly people to mistake hemlock for parsley and to gather hen-bane for hearts-ease Thus while either with great superstition many men scruple or with great pride they disdain to give the name honor of Saints to those holy men and women whom the judgement of the Catholick Church or the Scripture-Records have ever counted and called Saints yet they very superciliously and Pharisaically arrogate nay some monopolize these Titles to themselves and their comrades as absolutely and magisterially as Popes have done that of His Holinesse though they be never so black and abominable as some Popes even by Roman writers are reported to have been in the darkness and degeneracy of times very monsters of men and prodigies of all impiety such as Guicciardine describes Pope Alexan. the sixth a Father worthier of such a Son as Caesar Borgia or the Duke of Valentinois was than to enjoy so high a place of paternal presidency in the Church of Christ For what I pray can be more unsaintly than to desire yea delight and glory as some in England now do in most unjust and uncharitable actions in immoderate revenges in the poverties disgraces and dejections of their lawfull Pastors in the divisions distractions and destructions of that nobly Christian and Reformed Church in whose bosome they were duly baptized and instructed legitimately begotten wholsomely nourished and carefully educated as Christians and as Reformed to all excellent proportions of piety What is less Saintly than for Christians to mutiny nay rebell as S. Cyprian calls it against those reverend Fathers orthodox and godly Bishops and other worthy yea excellent Ministers to whom they and their fore-fathers do really owe themselves as
fanatick triflers troublers of Religion which no sober Christian can tolerate in their publick and religious meetings they presently meditate the most desperate separations they instantly fall to set up new Churches and Pastors after their own heart their full revenge must be had not onely by dividing themselves but by seducing and poysoning other silly people as much as may be withdrawing them from that good esteem they had and respect they formerly bare to the Church of England and their lawfull Ministers Then the followers of these pragmatick Preachers are taught to bear with patience as horses are the noise of drummes and trumpets all manner of scurrilous railings against the Church and Clergie of England At last they are by troops brought up in front to charge them with such insolency of speech and behaviour of writing and acting as sufficiently discovers their evil hearts to be like mines or Petars full fraught and charged with all kinds of bitterness contempt and animosity against them in order to destroy them utterly as soon as they have power and opportunity to do it In the room of whose orderly beauty learned gravity sober sanctity and exemplary piety so famous conspicuous and prosperous heretofore these bold extirpators and bitter Antagonists have hitherto produced as the eructations of Aetna and earth-quakes are wont with much swelling noise and terrour nothing but darkness smoke and thick vapours full of sulphureous obfuscations Sure their executions and conclusions must be full of mischiefs subversions confusions desolations to the Reformed Religion because there is not one dramme or iota that ever I could observe of sound knowledge of usefull piety of gracious effects of holy patterns of Christian principles to be found in them any way comparable to those proportions of wisdome and good understanding of justice and charity of meekness and moderation with all which the English world was heretofore well acquainted by the learned industry and exemplary piety of its reverend Bishops and other godly Ministers who were ever highly honoured passionately loved and worthily treated by pious Princes peacefull Parliaments and unpassionate people long before either tumultuary rabbles or schismatick agitators or the Scotch sword or the Smectymnuan juncto or a sifted sequacious Assemblie or covenanting Houses or Committee-Consistories or Military Superintendents undertook by an unwonted authority and severity not onely to catechise but to chastise the Church and Clergie of England even all the Bishops and most of the Presbyters among whom many one person might be found whose learning and worth every way might modestly be put into the balance against all that any or all those parties can pretend to or ever yet discovered to the wiser and better world who have been and are the most rigid exactors severest censurers and sorest enemies to the Reformed Clergie and Church of England Whos 's more crafty rivalls and cruellest persecutors finding themselves as heretofore so still vastly exceeded and infinitely out-done as to all reall endowments commendable practises and visible sufficiencies for learning knowledge utterance prudence for praying preaching writing and living they are now of late after the way of those old fanaticks who called themselves the pure elect inspired and spirituall ones flown to the retreats and refuges of their inward graces to more secret and spiritual perceptions to hidden and unseen acquaintances with God Which are as I formerly touched the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of elect Manichees and paraclete Montanists meer shifts and sleights blinds and evasions where the light of mens works and gifts shines not to the glory of God as our Saviour speaks for these are a nemo scit as easily denied as they are rashly affirmed being indiscoverable and incommunicable to any but Gods and a mans own spirit The hidden manna the white stone the new name which none can read but he that hath it these if meant of Graces are best asserted or most confuted by mens works No man is of God who doth not the will and works of God as they are revealed in his Word in all righteousness and holiness with meekness and humility with sobriety and good order in all which if any the best of these Novellers do at any time come neer to the parts graces and merits of those that were and are dutifull sons and servants to the Church of England yet I am sure they cannot without intolerable impudence pretend to exceed them so far that no fair quarter may be allowed to the former Preachers and Professors in this Church that no place or naile should be left them in Gods sanctuary here in England CHAP. XXII INto which as I have by many instances evinced some mens folly or fury hath of later years sought to bring so much filth and confusion that they have almost made this Church an Augean stable so that it is an Herculean work to cleanse it of all those debordments and debasements faln upon Christian Religion of those fedities and deformities brought upon its reformed profession of those disorders and undecencies which have invaded Ecclesiastick duties and mysteries all which necessarily follow the invasions and usurpations of popular libertie in Religion which though already full of squallor and sordidness yet are still eagerly challenged loudly clamoured and fiercely asserted by the common people and their parasites the most plebeian spirits Who not capable to comprehend or not willing to understand the gracious beauty the holy modesty and divine majesty of true Christian liberty which most excludes all base licenciousnesse as the brightest light doth all darkness and the perfectest health all sickness have excessively doted in later years upon this Image of imaginary liberty as if it had newly come down from heaven in a whirlwind of Civil war and Schisme whereas in good earnest the most vociferant vulgar who most cry up this their Diana like the riotous rabble at Ephesus do least know what the matter is nor what true Christian liberty means which undoubtedly puts the severest restraints that may be upon it self as to doing any thing offensive to God or injurious to its neighbour in private and single much more in publick and sociall respects in civil much more in religious relations which as men and Christians we bear to one another True Christian liberty is as far as heaven from hell from any thing that looks like incivility rudeness barbarity inhumanity frenzy fedity disorder deformity Rationall and religious liberty is not the freedome of an untamed heifer of an unbridled horse of a mad dog or an unyoked hog which will ramble and wallow and bite and root up where they list which seeks to subvert not whole houses onely but famous Churches to infect as many as they can with the plague and contagion of mens own evil hearts It is not Christian liberty but an earthly sensuall and devillish lazinesse or licentiousness for men and women that have been baptised in the name of Christ and so
use of any such plank or rafter which might serve to buoy them up from utter sinking and starving though it were but teaching school in a belfrey yet after all these personall sufferings and extremities behold they must live to hear and see their very calling and orders their whole function and fraternity disgraced and disordered yea as to some mens desires and endeavours quite routed and abolished the primitive pipes and ancient conduits of all Ecclesiastick power quite broken and new cisterns set up which hold no water comparable to that brazen sea of Apostolick Episcopacy and orderly Presbytery which ever served the Sanctuary of Christs Church in all ages places and offices It might possibly break the quiet the cheerfulness the estates of many worthy Ministers to see their persons preaching pains prayers and holy ministrations neglected by many despised by some and trampled under foot by not a few who after the rate of plebeian spirits following the revolutions of mens fortunes think there can be no worth meriting their value and respect either civil or religious but onely under the characters of riches honour and power soon ebbing in their love and esteem of the Clergie when they see the tide of honour and munificence so turned and abated even to the lowest water-mark almost as now it seems in England But it breaks the very hearts and spirits of worthy Ministers like old Elies to hear and see Philistines take by violence the Ark of God and carry it captive to their Dagons the Idols that every ones fancy lists to set up in private Conventicles under the title of Ministeriall power and holy ordination this at present infinitely dejects all sober Christians and true Ministers this for the future quite sinks them in despair CHAP. XXXII O How high and holy an ambition I beseech you my worthy Countrymen will it be in after-times and already is for any man of parts of learning of conscience guided by Scripture and by all ancient practices of the Catholick Church no lesse than that of this Reformed and famous Church of England to devote himself to be a Minister of the Gospel when he shall see no Reverend Bishops no subordinate Presbyters left to ordain him few or no people left to entertain him with due respect to his calling some doubting others denying a third sort wholly despising all his Ministeriall power and authority of which next to our salvation Ministers and other Christians should study to be assured that it is valid and divine upon good and authentick grounds which may both merit their acknowledgment and oblige them to submission If any man that is fit and willing to be a Minister in England if I say he can dispense with the Novelties irregularities and inconformities of his ordination as to all Antiquity no less than the orders of the Church of England which ever was by Bishops as the Apostolick Conduits the chief Fathers and proper Conveyors so confessed by all Reformed Churches if he can bear the tedious journeys from the remoter Counties the long delayes the unexpected scrutinies and the strange questions he shall meet with before he be allowed and admitted to officiate which are very hard trials to men that are tolerably learned and not intolerably necessitated for a small living if these difficulties can be digested which we see of late have deterred many good scholars and hopefull students from entring upon the Ministry rather diverting their thoughts to other employments which are more easie profitable and honourable now in England yet still whatever doore he comes in at he is a great and bold adventurer daring at once to undertake so tedious and dreadful an employment in which he must daily undergo many oppositions many abuses many injuries many indignities incident from one side or other to any Minister what stamp soever he bears He must be fortified with invincible patience with heroick resolutions with humble constancy with Hermeticall content with Martyrly charity while he contends with many causeless enemies with all those difficulties of poverty and contempt which are very unwelcome to flesh and blood though never so spiritualized and refined these do and ever will attend him as a Minister while common people take so great liberties and confidences to baffle to dispute to despise to disturb and to undo their Ministers besides their daring to obtrude themselves into his place and office The meanest tradesman or handy-craft mechanick bears the labour of his hands and that sore travail of his soul during his mortall pilgrimage cheerfully and comfortably while being willing and able to work for his living he gets his wages without any mans grudging and enjoyes himself without any envy or obloquy in honest wayes of industry though possibly it reach no further than making of ribbands or points or buttons or babies for the use of the Common-weal onely the poor Minister especially if he dare own the Church of England or assert his authority from an higher origine than what is novel secular and popular after twice seven years rigging and preparing himself for so rough and hazardous a voyage after he hath many nights and dayes by studying watching fasting praying weeping furnished himself as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed before men after he hath wholly and onely devoted himself to that heavy plough and employment the care and culture of mens souls which are naturally hard as fallow grounds full of weeds and thorns which work may well take up the whole time ability and industry of the best of men after he hath so followed this holy husbandry as to neglect all other means and opportunities to advance his worldly condition thinking it would be enough for him to merit well of his Countrey and the publick and as a learned grave and serious Minister to serve God and mankind by setting forth and communicating to the world the inestimable riches and excellencies of his and their Saviour which service might well deserve as good salaries and encouragements as those enjoy who have offices in the Customes Excise Exchecquers and treasuries of unrighteous mammon after he hath thus denied exhausted and macerated himself in order to promote the highest interests of God and man which is the eternall salvation of sinfull souls and this at no great charge or expence of mens estates after his modesty charity and hospitality hath convinced all men that he covets them not theirs condescending oft below himself in order to captate the love and civil favour of people that he might gain more advantages to save their souls Yet still this good Ministers condition will of all mens in Engl. be most miserable for while he is daily doing his duty and doing it well with meekness of wisdome with good conscience and discretion yet he shall be sure to contract many enemies without a cause Many that are meere strangers to him will hate him out of anti-ministeriall Antipathies and Epidemick principles which are so rife and in fashion
foot by the very beasts of the people Hence it is that the Christian and Reformed Religion appears to many great spirits and young Gentlemen not as a matter of eternal truth of infinite weight and highest concernment to them not as having the Catholick testimony of the wisest and best of mankind in all ages the expectation of the Patriarchs the prediction of the Prophets the preaching of the Apostles the signatures of Martyrs and characters of Confessors by their bloodshed and sufferings which they chose rather to endure than the least abnegation Apostasie or swerving from so great so holy so constant so necessary so divine principles as the Christian Religion is grounded upon Many good wits of later years in England look upon Religion with a supercilious eye with a squeamish coynesse with a nauseating and huffing aspect so far are they from fear and trembling as if they did God a good turne to own him in any fashion or Religion were beholden to them if they were but civil to it not considering the majesty of Miracles the admiration of Angels the accomplishments of Prophecies the manifestation of the Messias the expresse image of Gods grace and glory mercy and truth upon it in the holiness of the precepts in the honour of the examples in the preciousness of the promises in the astonishing love compassion wisdome and goodness of God contained in it laying out gracious and glorious methods of reconciling and saving sinfull mankind by such a way of propitiation satisfaction and merit as no whit blemisheth or diminisheth his justice but every way advanceth and magnifieth his mercy All this divine beauty majesty glory and extasie of true Religion so highly valued heretofore in England by Princes and Peers by Noblemen and Gentlemen of all degrees is now looked upon by many as a mimicall play a popular pageantry a business so scepticall and litigious so mutable and various so childish and impertinent so trivial and plebeian that many think it a point of gallantry and greatnesse of mind totally to undervalue all Religion as a meer fabulous flourish set forth with some pomp and solemnity heretofore now with specious liberties and indulgences in order either to amuse and over-awe or to please and gratifie common people whose brutall strength and refractory rudeness is found to be such by all wise Governours in all ages that nothing can over-awe or bridle the populacy so much as the opinion of some Religion derived from a Deity whose power being represented as omnipotent can onely give either terrour and check to vulgar presumptions or fixation to their everlasting revolutions Which volatile temper of common people some cunning men of later years having observed how in nothing of received Religion they were setled they have flown anew to the old craft of those heathenish Legislators to pretend Nymphs and caves to dreams and visions to extatick grotts and groves to converse as Sibyls with Demons or Spirits and to keep immediate intelligence with God himself by special inspirations beyond any thing of traditionall Religion anciently received and constantly delivered by this or any other Church of Christ Nor doth this sorry artifice fail to take some simple birds that are more silly and incautious who hardly ever get out of these snares and lime-twigs of pretended new Religion till they lose their feathers much of their time and estates besides the hazard of their souls and consciences But others of more bold and robust tempers are from these temptations and scandals of snarled and entangled or loose and unsettled or arbitrary and nulled Religion betrayed to down-right Atheism from thence they are carried down the stream of all sensuall debaucheries without any stop or check of conscience as to God or any Religion by which they stand obliged and responsible to a Divine power above them All which comes to pass by reason that they fell into such unhappy times as to their Religion education and imitation as offered them for many years very little but novelties and in them nothing worthy of the name of true and solid Religion as to any publick certainty harmony unity or authority Nothing must be owned as the uniform piety of this Nation or the consent of the Church either as from wise men or good Christians nothing fixed as becomes the majesty of a glorious God and a gracious Saviour an immutable goodness and unerrable truth held forth by the most idoneous and credible witnesses in the Catholick Church through all ages and successions but as if all Christians had been either ignorant or impostors in this and all Churches as if no Christian Princes no Presbyters no Bishops had had either wit to discern or grace to retain true Religion so have many people on all sides run up and down to pick and chuse to begin and invent to contrive and cut out what they listed to call their Religion yea many rigid Reformers and most severe pretenders to Religion upon new accounts as schismatizing in or separating from the Church of England even these are daily found either split upon the rocks of uncharitablenesse or beating upon the quick-sands of change and uncertainty not onely their several factions but the same persons having as many faces successively of Religion as Proteus had shapes The stakes and cords of that Christian and Reformed Religion which was fixed in the Church of England these are pulled up quite ravelled and broken into pieces by many Nor are these new modellers such as made modest trials and essayes of truth but they are generally fixed to their unsettled fancies constant in their inconstancy pertinacious in their extravagancies and hardly ever to be perswaded by any experience of their own folly to recant or repent of their apparent and imprudent transports much less to return from their exotick novelties and fanatick inventions they have lately chosen to that solemn sacred uniform and majestick primitive and Catholick posture of Religion in which it was for many years illustrious in the Ch. of Engl. and in all other famous Churches CHAP. IV. THe very light of nature and common reason commands mankind to be serious and setled grave and reverent in the publick service and veneration of their God to which end they added as Varro Tully and Isidore Hispalensis tell us not onely many Ceremonies to adorn their Devotion but a publick consent and sanction to authorize and confirm and fence their Religion against all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that affected to be rude or dared to be profane For right reason tells us that Novices strangers or beginners in Religion must be miserably betrayed to all manner of irreligion where they see all things of Religion presented to them like a kind of Matachin dance or counter-skuffle full of fraction and novelty of change and contradiction of intricacy and incongruity of emulation and faction of strife and envy of hatred and enmity of contempt and confusion debased to meanness and prostituted to vulgarity
its strength and materialls from the Scripture its model manner and composure from the counsell wisdome experience and authority not onely of this Church of England but of the Primitive Ancient Catholick Church in all ages and places against all which few men had heretofore the confidence or indeed impudence in any grand part much lesse in the whole to oppose their private fancies and suggestions Now no petty people are so clownish or inconsiderable but they dare to cavil question or deny almost every point owned as Religion in the Church of England I shall not need to instance in the grand Mysteries of the Trinity Christs Divinity his satisfaction to divine justice in the resurrection of the body or the souls immortality nor yet in the point of Originall Sin or naturall depravedness and defects of the necessity of Divine Grace of Christians imperfection in the best state of this life of the right use of the Morall Law and the true bounds of Evangelicall Liberties All which with many other grand concernments of Religion are daily not onely ventilated and discussed but contradicted and denyed by many Modern Arrians Socinians Pelagians Antinomians Novatians and others besides the constant Controversies of Papists so far that nothing almost is left sound or setled among us nothing that any Minister can preach or practice as Religion but somewhere or other it finds much snarling quarrelling and gain-saying Every crosse-grain'd piece of pride or peevishnesse or ignorance adventures to bark at what they list yea to bite tear and worry the reputation and integrity together with the learning and ability of any yea all the true Ministers of England who are become miserable not onely by that great and unintermitted pains which they must take if they will be faithfull to their own and other mens souls nor yet by that biting poverty or tenuity of their worldly condition for the most part of them which is so hardly to be relieved by those dribliting pittances which with tedious attendings and shamefull importunings they can get in But beyond both these Ministers are in such a state of perpetuall inquietude as is like that of very poore people who are onely rich in vermine and so troubled with them that they are not permitted night or day to take their rest or to enjoy that sweet sleep and quiet repose indulged to all creatures by which they might sometime deceive their sore labour and forget both their miseries and their sorrowes For when all is done that belongs to a sober Ministers ministeriall duty and charge after indefatigable paines continuall studies invincible patience which like Ostridges must digest the iron morsels and manners of this age when despairing and made incapable of any honorary rewards in Church or State answerable to his gravity and merit every way he onely covets for some ingenuous rest and tranquillity under the shadow and protection of that Church and State which he hath a long time faithfully served yet then even in his age and at all times he must be summoned with daily alarmes and provoked to successive duels by all sorts of factious and fanatick Spirits new or old who list to be contentious T. though he be wearied and almost tired with the long and constant fatigations of his Ministery though he be almost naked and unarmed as to the polemick or controversall part of Divinity yet must he be compassed with Briars and Thornes frequently molested with the perverse disputes and endlesse janglings of those who have no reverence to this Church nor the Catholick Churches constant opinion or practise grounded upon Scripture and manifested by undeniable Tradition The Ministers of England are the common Butt at which every fooles bolt is presently shot If any be lesse apt for disputation through unwontednesse weaknesse depressions poverty and infinite dis-spiritings and so possibly lesse able on the sudden to defend that truth and that Church for which he hath dared to be a suffering Martyr and Confessour against the bitter arrowes and subtill Sophistries of his many-mouthed Adversaries modern Sectaries who make what use they can of the Philistines files and grindstones the wonted cavils sophistries and fallacies of the Papists and Jesuits against this Church the seeming disadvantages of any one Minister when he is publickly surprized and in the very Church assaulted by such impudent Antagonists these are presently voted among the vulgar as the totall rout baffle and disparagement of the whole Ministeriall order yea and of the Church of England As if none of its Fathers or Sons its Bishops or Presbyters so cried up heretofore for their excellent learning dexâ—â—rous fortitude were able to encounter these doughty Champions these men of Gath whose glory now is rather to defie and over-awe the Israel of God by force than to fight lawfully by the rules of right disputation from Scripture or Reason If the enemies of the Church of England would lay aside their Swords and Pistols their Troopers and Musketeers their Guns and Canons which have been so oft their Seconds and so alwaies a terror to the true Clergy of England if they would keep to the lists and weapons of Scripture and reason of Catholick example and constant tradition which armes are proper for Religious contests I believe they would be easily so matched in every point that they would have no cause long to boast of having the better of any Learned and Grave Minister who undertakes to assert the cause of the Church of England both in its Doctrine and Discipline Which is indeed assisted not onely by the Spirit and suffrage of all estates in this Church as Christian and reformed as ancient and modern but also by the wisdome and consent the judgement and practise of all the famous and flourishing Primitive Churches throughout the world so that the justification and honour of the Church of England depends not upon any one Ministers weaknesse or ability but upon that solidity juncture and conformity it hath in all the main parts of it with the Catholick Church of Christ in all Ages He that fights against one fighteth against all he must confute them all before he can justly condemn the Church of England which hath for so many years laboured between the Furnace and the Anvill under the restlesse files and hammers of its various Adversaries who have resolved sooner to die than to suffer the Church of England or its orderly Ministers to live in peace CHAP. VI. AMong other Sects that like swarms are of late risen up against the Church of England and its ancient Ministery none are more numerous petulant and importune none more busie bold and bitter than the haughty-spirited and hotter-headed Anabaptists For all of them have not at least shew not the like horns and hoofs some are persons of more calm grave and charitable tempers These novel Disputers against and despisers of all Infant-Baptisme whom no ancient Church ever knew no lateâ— Reformed Church but ever spewed out and abhorred
were in it self free and indifferent so as men might be baptized when they will and so baptize their children sooner or later as they please deferring it as some of old did even to their decrepit age and death-beds because they would not sin after it if this were left to an indifferency which I doe no way think it is any more than all other duties of the Lords Supper prayer hearing the Word preached c. are which have no precise measure and limited time set because they oblige alwayes as opportunity is offered Gods favours and indulgences import mans duty to accept and use them as soon as the Lord offers them to us and ours though Baptisme be not as S. Cyprian tells Fidus confined to the eighth day after infants birth nor yet to the eighth year yet when it may be duly had in the way of Gods providence it may not be delayed to the death of the child unbaptized without a great detriment to the infant so dying and crime to the parents or guardians so delaying and by their sottish negligence depriving the child of that visible means of grace which God hath allowed in his Church both to parents and their children which is the judgement of Gregory Nazianzen one of the ablest Divines that the Church ever had As a due debt unlimited to any day of payment is every day due so the favours of God and priviledges of his Church not precisely confined but daily offered us and not accepted contract upon us a great sin either of unbelief under the means or affected negligence undervaluing and ingratitude toward Divine Mercies sins under which no Christian of a truly tender conscience will dare to lie seven yeares no nor seven dayes meerly upon the delayes and scruples of his own or other mens both foolish and sluggish hearts As that soul among the Jews was precisely cut off from the Church of God both parents and children who was not unlesse in Gods connivence and speciall dispensation as in the fourty yeares pilgrimage in the wildernesse circumcised the eighth day so may those among Christians justly seem to be cut off from the Church of Christ here and hereafter which do presume to slight neglect and so not at all use Baptisme to their children according as God gives them in the uncertainties of life both opportunity and conveniency Gods leaving some things to our choice discretion and ingenuity must not be any remission but an excitation to speedy duty especially in setled Churches where daily at least weekly opportunities are offered which if denied by hot persecutions the delay is more excusable and it may be in some cases commendable where parents have just cause to fear lest their baptized children shall never attain by their paternall care such education as is correspondent to their Baptisme In which cases I conceive it was of old deferred not because it was thought either unlawfull or undesirable in it self to baptize infants born in the Church but for feare of the mischiefs attending persecution and sometimes the parents were cold and negligent in their duty If I say the time of Baptisme were left to our freedome which it is not as I have shewed yet still the black brand and grosse impudence of such a reproch contempt and errour as the ruder and spitefuller sort of Anabaptists cast upon this and all other Christian Churches is most intolerable while they dare to re-baptize such who have been once duly baptized if it be indifferent when in their infancy which re-baptizing of such as were once duly baptized in the Church was ever judged as much a monster and most insolent in all Christian Churches as it would have been to renew or repeat circumcision among the Jews which was not so much in expresse letter of Scripture forbidden as made indeed impossible in nature nor is repeating of Baptism so expresly forbidden in the Word of God where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Baptisme is mentioned which place the Hemerobaptists or daily dippers slighted as indeed it is and alwayes was excluded by the interpretation tradition and practise of the Catholick Church which no more allowed any to be twice baptized in Religion or twice ordained to the Ministry than twice born in nature yea this fancy heresie and novell insolency was looked upon as the setting up of a new Gospel another Jesus and more Gods than one as the ancient Councils and Fathers alwayes determined even in the case of S. Cyprians candid errour Against whose judgement for invalidating and so repeating Baptisme where administred by Hereticks and obstinate Schismaticks the Councils both of Africk Europe and Asia determined upon the ground of Scripture and Primitive custome both as to the use of Infant-baptisme and the not repeating of that or any other true baptisme once received Both which being such Catholick determinations of the Church it is with me not in the least degree disputable whether I should chuse to conform to the Churches universall testimony constant practise and primitive tradition in this and other modern disputes as that of the government of Churches in larger distributions by Bishops above Presbyters and Deacons so the use of the Lords day instead of the Judaick Sabath c. which are conforme to the generall scope tenour and direction of Scripture or rather comply both sillily and shamefully with those modern captious novelties and perverse disputings of some private spirits of yesterday who dare to cast so great jealousies blame and dishonour upon the Catholick Churches of Christ in all ages and places as not onely to suspect but to proclaime them both socially and singly to have been either grosly ignorant or most basely unfaithfull as to what the Apostles had delivered to them for the mind and will of the Lord either by Epistle word or Example No I had far rather with humility and charity though in infirmity and ignorance conform to the Catholick Church in errours and mistakes not fundamentall or immorall of which it never was guilty nor will be rather I say than by proud and pernicious curiosity or by scepticall and schismaticall novelty either blemish the Churches Integrity or break its Unity Both which the Anabaptists ever have done and ever will doe since their first eggshell and spawning in Germany by their endlesse and peevish litigations touching Infant-baptisme which though to some it seem but a small and circumstantiall businesse in point of time yet the scorn contempt and abhorrency of the Sacrament as applied to infants is an errour as I have shewed of so spreading a venome and dangerous consequences that it tends to overthrow all that is or hath been of religious polity and power too of essence and order in this and all true Churches of which we have any record in Scripture or other Writers CHAP. XIII BEsides this poysonous and now so swoln errour of the Anabaptists in Engl. against Infant-baptism is further sowred by other seditious principles
as to question the usual and approved practise of it from all times which S. Austin so vehemently affirmes that in his Epistle to Volusia he sayes The custom of our Mother the Church in baptizing Infants as it is not to be neglected as superfluous so nor would it have been either practised or believed unlesse it had been so delivered by the Apostles as their undoubted sense and practise which Pelagius did not yea could not with any colour deny as S. Austin observes though it had much served his design about original sin if he could in that point have baffled the credit custome and authority of the Catholick Church which S. Cyprian who lived in the second Century so beyond all cavill or scruple so industriously and fully sets down that if there were no other testimonies of the Ancients that alone would satisfie any sober man being written not upon any heat of dispute but calmly and clearly as of a matter ever done and never under dispute in the Church to his dayes But I have in this part done more than I designed in order to advance not strifes and further contention but Christian peace and charity on all sides in this Church and Nation as to those religious differences which are a great occasion of our miseries CHAP. XIV FRom the Deformities Divisions and Degeneration of Religion also the Falsifications Usurpations and Devastations which of later years have been made by the violent sort of Anabaptists and other furious Sectaries against the Unity and Authority the Sanctity and Majesty of the Church of England destroying its Primitive Order and Apostolick Government its Catholick Succession its holy Ordination its happy and most successfull Ministry to the great neglect and contempt of all holy ministrations and duties of Religion I cannot but further intimate to your piety and prudence O my honoured Countrey-men that which is most notorious and no lesse dangerous both in religious and civil respects namely the great Advantages Applauses and Increases which the Roman or Papal party daily gain against the Reformed Religion as it was once wisely honourably and happily established professed and maintained here in England which is now looked upon by the more subtill superstitious and malicious sort of Papists as deformed divided dissolved desolated so conclamate for dead that they fail not with scorn to boast that in England we have now no Church no Pastors no Bishops no Presbyters no true Ministry no holy Ministrations no Order no Unity no Authority no Reverence as to things Divine or Ecclesiastick Insomuch that we must in this sad posture not onely despair of ever getting ground against the Romanists by converting any of them from the errours of their way to the true Reformed Religion but we must daily expect to lose ground to the Popish party and their Proselytes there being no banks or piles now sufficient to keep the Sea of Rome from over-flowing or undermining us in order to advance their restlesse interests which have been and still are mightily promoted not by the reverend Bishops and the other Episcopal Clergie who are men of Learning Piety Prudence and Martyr-like constancy as some men with more Heat than Wit more Spite than Truth have in their mechanick and vulgar Oratory of late miserably and falsely declaimed but by those who have most done the Popes work while they have seemed most furiously to flie in the Popes face as popularly zealous against Popery and yet at the same time by a strange giddinesse headinesse and madnesse they have risen up against that Mother-Church which bare them and those Fathers in it who heretofore mightily defended them and theirs from the talons and gripes of that Roman Eagle and this not with childish scufflings or light skirmishings to which manner of fight the illiterate weaknesse and rudenesse of our new Masters and Champions hath reduced those Controversies but with such a Panoply or compleat Armour of proof such sharp Weapons such ponderous Engines such rare dexterity of well-managed Powers raised from all Learning both Divine and Humane that the high places and defences of Rome were not able to stand before them heretofore when they were battered by our Jewels our Lakes our Davenants our Whites our Halls our Mortons our Andrews and the late invincible Usher who deserved to be Primate not onely of Ireland but of all the Protestant Forces in the world All these were Bishops Worthies of the first three seconded in their ranks by able and orderly Presbyters as Whitakers Perkins Reynolds Whites Crakanthorps Sutliffs and innumerable others while our Regiments were orderly our Marchings comely and our Forces both united and encouraged Whereas now there is no doubt but the mercilesse mowing down and scattering of the Clergie of England like Hay with the withering and decay of Government Regularity and Order in this Church these have infinitely contributed to the Papall harvest and Romish agitations the gleanings of whose Emissaries will soon amount to more than the sheaves of any the most zealous and reformed Ministers in England By the Papall interests and advantages I doe not mean the Roman Clergies preaching or propagating those Truths of Christian Doctrine Duties which for the main they profess in common with us and all Christian Churches if any of them be thus piously industrious I neither quarrell at them nor envy their successes but rather I should rejoyce in them with S. Paul because however Christ crucified is preached by some whom common people will either more reverence or sooner believe than they generally doe the decayed despised divided Ministers of Engl. who seem to have many of them so small abilities and carrying so little shew or pretence of any good authority for their work ministeriall nor can they be potent or esteemed abroad who are so impotent and disesteemed at home But I mean that Papall Monarchy or Ecclesiasticall Tyranny by which the Church or rather the Court of Rome by such sinister Arts and unjust Policies as were shamefully used and discovered in the Tridentine conventicle seeks to usurp and continue an imperiall power over all Churches and Bishops as if there had been but one Apostle or one Apostolick Church planted in the world also to corrupt abuse that ancient Purity Simplicity and Liberty of Religion which was preserved among Primitive Churches and their coordinate Bishops Further without fear of God or reverence of man opposing some Divine Truths and undoubted institutions of Christ also imposing such erroneous Doctrines and superstitious Opinions upon all Christians to be believed and accordingly practised as become not the severity and sanctity of true Religion adding to that holy foundation which was indeed first laid by the great Apostles and continued happily for many hundred years by the successive Bishops of Rome those after superstructures not of ceremonies onely which are tolerable many of them like feathers making but little weight in Religion but of corrupt Doctrines and
is the root of all evil for it doth not onely famish the souls of such rapacious wretches of all true grace and comforts rising either from the love of God or the care of their own and their brothers spiritual and eternal good but it prompts them to all manner of injurious evils it being impossible they should be truly holy in any kind who are so unjust and unthankfull in the highest degree despising their God whose property or peculiar Church-revenues are also his chief Ministers who being by God and man appointed to feed the flock of Christ ought not themselves to be famished or debased no nor should they want much lesse be undeservedly deprived of those temporall encouragements in the work of the Lord or Gods husbandry which give both credit authority and comfort to true Religion in times of Peace and in a land of Plenty Of which Blessings when once true Religion is miserably spoyled and so exposed in its Ministry and Order to all Distresses and Scorns no man can wonder if Popish Superstition and all Factions of ungodly Appetites do mightily thrive and improve by the ruines of such Reformed Religion no wonder if Atheisme and Irreligion if barrennesse and leannesse if Egyptian darknesse and death prevail in a short time over such people and their poor plebeian Pastors too whose blood will be required of those sacrilegious Reformers who shall thus deform reformed Religion impoverish a famous Church and flourishing Clergy embase a rich a renowned and an ancient Christian Nation to the indignity and injury of the publick as well as the danger of their own private souls to whom that sin of Sacriledge is rarely forgiven because they seldome have the grace truly to repent of it for Repentance cannot be true as S. Austin saith unlesse restitution be made which few Sacrilegists ever do or dream of Hence as the learned Sir Henry Spelman observes by instances of his particular experience in many Families further growes that moth not onely of mens consciences but of their Estates which devours them unsensibly a secret pest of Families which destroyes at length all their encrease which that learned Knight had observed within sixteen miles compasse of his own dwelling in Norfolk where so many Estates first raised out of Abbey-lands were now quite extinct or almost undone but so many others in the same compasse continued in flourishing or competent conditions who were of far ancienter standing and not enriched with any Sacriledge for so he esteemed the dissolving of religious Houses destroying of Churches c. of whose Superstition and Forfeiture true Religion should have had the advantage as the censers were holy in which strange Fire was offer'd Yet might that former Confiscation which devoured so many Churches Chappels and Religious and Superstitious Houses seem modest and veniall in respect of some mens later attempts and designes against all setled maintenance of Ministers A Christian Church might well subsist as those in primitive times did without Monks and Nuns without Monasteries and Nunneries without Abbots and Abbesses without Abbies and Priories but not well if at all without Pastors and Governours Bishops and Presbyters these were Primitive Apostolick after Christs own pattern followed by all Churches in the world necessary to the well-being yea to the complete being of a Church in any Order Polity and regular Communion Nor is the honourable support of Church-Governours and Ministers more comely than necessary upon politick as well as Ecclesiastick Principles either by occasionall Donatives and spontaneous Oblations as in times of primitive Zeal and Persecution or else by setled Dedications and fixed Revenues which were afterward in times of Peace plentifully given to God and his Church for the support and honour of an Able Hospitable and Charitable Ministry As it had been high Sacriledge to have taken away by stealth or force those portions which were given to Ministers when their Presbyters were yet sportularii depending on the bag and basket of Christians oblations and the Bishops dispensations so is it no less sin to take away those setled Revenues which were invested in God for the use of his Servants the Governours Guides and Ministers of his Church both for their Maintenance and Honour Injuries are no less in taking away Lands than Goods from men that are the just owners of them nor doth the Clergy in these evil times more stand in need of convenient Sustenance than due Respect and Reverence which is hardly had where Poverty appeares Yet since the noon-day of Reformation hath gloriously shined and continued in this Western world this Meridianus Daemon sin of Sacriledge as rankest vermine breed in warmest weather and horridest Monsters are gendred in richest Soiles hath grown most bold and violent an Epidemicall unblushing sin aspiring to so full and unrestrained a Liberty as hath not onely much afflicted other Reformed Churches long ago of which great complaint was made by Luther in Germany and Knox in Scotland before they died but the venome and infection is come into the rich and generous Nation of England to so pernicious a measure and degree that it reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Heretofore indeed Sacriledge was not so much a Plebeian as Princely sin the attempt not of Pygmies but of Giants not of the Populacy but of Popes of Kings of great Noblemen and Gentlemen these onely durst adventure to put so rude affronts on God and his Church by alienating defrauding detaining impropriating confiscating what they could of holy things against which adventurous Sin many learned and worthy men in all Ages and Countreys as in Engl. as well Lay-men as Ecclesiasticks have wrote by most unrepliable demonstrations from the Law of Nature and Nations from principles of Reason and Religion from Scripture Canons and imperiall Constitutions all which nothing but a covetous violence and blind fury can gainsay or resist But now while the Prince abhorred Sacriledge no less than Idolatry every petty pragmatick yea poor pesant dares to adventure upon sacrilegious projects and practises 't is sport to common people to plunder pull down Churches to deprive Ministers of their legal Evangelical Maintenance to strip this Church of its ancient Portion and honorable Patrimony which is the fewel and oyl to keep the holy Fire of Devotion on the Altar of God and the bright-shining Flame of true Doctrine in the Lamps of the Temple 't is now the Presumption and Ambition of mechanick and vulgar Spirits to rob God of his Service People of their able and honourable Ministers the Flock of Christ of its worthy Shepherds and the Souls of people of those sacred Portions and Provisions which are in order to an Eternal Life The meanest peoples impudence dares now to dispute detract usurp profane confound and challenge as their own all things sacred both the Work and the Reward by a Spirit so licentious and insolent that it is thought by many
and employing those advantages of Estates and Honours which they lawfully enjoy as any of those are like to doe who would by force or under specious pretensions deprive them of those enjoyments who can think it strange that such persons of eminency with all their Relations Friends Clientels and Dependences are very unwilling to come under the hands of such rifling Reformers such mad shavers of Religion who design not onely to cut off some part of the long locks and over-grown haire of Church-men I mean the Riot and Luxuriancy of their Manners which are the reall deformity of any Christian much more of any Clergy-man but they intend to treat them as Hanun did Davids Messengers or as the Philistins did Sampson shave them so bare and close make them so curtailed and cropt that all their strength beauty esteem and honour shall depart from them not onely in the sight of people of better quality but even before the very abjects of the people who may afterward safely contemn and scorn them as persons unable to doe them good or hurt Who sees not that some mens cruel severities and rude reformings if they had their wills are not to be satisfied with the wooll and fleece of Church-men but they study to flea off their very skins They gape like the pit and enlarge their mouthes like hell while any Estate is yet left to the Church not onely goodly mannors and fair houses which have properly belonged many hundred yeares to Church-men and the Church of Christ but Glebes Tithes yea the material Churches and Chappels must all goe down the unsatiable gulphs the sacrilegious Gules of some lack-latine Reformers nothing ample or setled must be left to any Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters be they never so sound in Doctrine exemplary in their Lives of excellent Abilities and charitable Spirits as many were heretofore and still are in England The greedy godlinesse of some Reformers would have all Preachers such spiritual persons as should like Chameleons live onely upon the aire their own and the popular breath with little or no corporal sustenance urging much that primitive poverty which armed with the conspicuity of miracles and attended with primitive charity in Christian people was no diminution but advantage to the Bishops and Ministers of the Gospel for they then lived among believers of so generous liberality grateful beneficence that they were the cream and flower of Christianity esteeming their Preachers dearer than their right eyes But we alas are faln among unsatiable leeches tenacious vultures in an age ingeniously wicked to mock God to rob the Church to deceive and damn their own with others souls full of the dregs of hypocritical cruelty covetous formality which loves the goods of the Church of Christ as much as those in former times did the good of it when by their munificent bounty Christian Princes Nobility and Gentry bestowed those many ample and honourable endowments on the Church of Christ and his Ministers in all Countreys where the state of Christians was peaceable and plentifull which gifts now were the great baits of some sacrilegious Reformers who to be sure love the world themselves and their mammon very well how they love God and Christ the Church and the Clergy I list not to judge but leave it to be known by their good works by the great things they have either done or suffered for Religion by the cost and charges they have been at from their private purses to make a gainfull Reformation by that zeale they have to eat up the Houses of God to serve God in a way that may cost them nothing to be sure and next get them some good Booty and Advantage from the Church while any is to be had I therefore appeale to all men of any equitable honest or ingenuous Senses Is it expectable that persons of so much Learning Reason Prudence and Experience as the Roman Clergy generally are should ever think of approving much lesse of embracing such a Reformation which besides other foul spots cast by some upon it unsuitable to any thing of true Religion evidently threatens the utter ruine of their Honour and Livelihood yea of their very Order and Function Will any sober Papist wash in this Jordan in order to be clean which he sees not onely so troubled and tumultuary but so violent and excessive that like a rapid Torrent it overflowes all banks of Modesty Moderation Equity and Charity carrying down all before it and overwhelming at once both Churches and Church-men it hurries them away without ever hearing them plead for themselves into the gulph and precipice of Poverty and Basenesse of Dishonour and Contempt of Disorder and Confusion What grave and well-advised Romanists wil not be much upon the reserve as to any thoughts of Reformation when they see that under that colour they are sure to be undone They must lose all those personall acquisitions and honorary enjoyments which they have obtained by the will of the dead by the lawes of any Christian Nation by the proportions of Equity and Gratitude by the indulgence of God the merits of Christ yea though they should be content to admit of all reall Reformations in doctrine and manners yet still they must by a pious stupidity and asinine sanctity consent to have themselves and their whole Order deprived of all those necessary Supports comely Ornaments and just Honours which were most fitting for the Christians God and Saviour for Christian Churches and Ministers of the glorious Gospel all these must be wasted alienated and embezelled from God his Church and his Ministers in order to gratifie either the exorbitant luxury of some riotous Prince or the more thrifty covetousnesse of some State and Common-wealth or the ever-craving and envious necessities of some private mean-spirited people till they see Deformity Beggery Contempt Confusion and all Irreligion dancing like Satyrs and evil Spirits among the Ruines of Religion and amidst the Desolations not of the pomp so much as of the very power and profession of true Christianity Which dreadfull effects must needs be much in the eye and abhorrence of every pious and prudent man who sees by evident experience what some mens Reformations doe mean when they not onely grudge at all setled just and honourable maintenance of Ministers which they would fain swallow up and divert another way but they are further as studious to demolish and devour as ever their fore-fathers were to build even those publick Monuments of pristine Devotion Gratitude and Magnificence which became Christians above all men to their bountifull God and blessed Saviour Even those goodly Cathedrals and other materiall Churches which never cost their defacers one penny to build or repaire them these must if some men may have their wills and they have had it God knowes too much be so robbed of all their great endowments and ancient Revenues that nothing must be left so much as to repaire them or keep them up
plat-forme of so-disciplined Churches but not therefore any way the more or better reformed For these are rather as Cyphers adding some number traine and company to the Ministers than signifying ought of themselves further than prudence policy may make use of them But certainly no Religious necessity commands them as a duty and of divine Institution there being an impossibility to find them in every parochial congregation where there is seldome any one man of the Laity who is meet in any kind to be joyned with the Minister in any such authority which claimes to be Sacred and Divine for which God ever provides fitting instruments where he commands to have any use of them God gave the word and great was the company of Preaching Elders Bishops and Presbyters in all ages but of Lay-Elders and Ruling onely we read so little so no use in any Church or age that we may conclude God gave no such word for them The wise God abhors unequall mixtures such as the plowing with an Ox and an Asse and such seems the joyning of Preachers with these Lay-Elders in the discipline and government of the Church the Asse both disgracing and overtoyling the laborious and more ponderous Ox who hath more hindrance than help from so silly and sluggish an assistant Motly and unsociable conjunctions in sowing mislane or wearing linsy-wolsy garments are also forbidden by the Lord as emblems of his abhoring all things that make any uncomely and unsociable confusion which ought chiefly to be avoided in Church-affaires that order solemnity ability and prudence might keep up the Majesty of Religion the Churches venerable discipline and the Ministeriall divine autority even there where no civill Magistrate would own it Yet if any Presbyter be so wedded to these Lay-Elders that he will never be reconciled to Primitive Episcopacy if he be wholly divorced from his dear Elders for my part he shall have my consent to enjoy them upon a politick and prudent account where he may conveniently have use of them For I do not think the outward Government of the Church to be made of such stuffe or fashion which will not in any case either stretch or shrink as those garments might do on the Jewes bodies when they ware them forty yeares in the wildernesse provided all things be done decently and in order with due regard to the maine end and the best examples But if any contend for these Elders upon a divine and strict account of Religion my answer is with St. Paul we had no such custome in England nor the other Churches of Christ in the world for 1400. yeares who were fed and ruled by Bishops and Presbyters as the onely Elders Pastors and Presidents in Ecclesiasticall Government This is sure Presbytery was at first so confident of its sure standing in England where it never yet had any footing since Christianity was planted that it doubted not to make use of such a wooden leg or crutch as Lay-Elders are to support its new Government and discipline which was hereby rendred very popular and specious to many Ministers and other men of vulgar Spirits who were more ambitious of any small pittance of Church-Government to passe through their fingers than judicious to measure and design the true proportions of it or themselves which certainly ought to be most remote from a Democratick temper Church-Government depending not upon many strong rash and rude hands but upon wise heads and holy hearts of which no great store is ordinarily to be found among common and Country-people upon which crab-stocks neverthelesse this graft of Presbyterian government was to be every where grafted on the one side not without mighty applause and great expectation from the meaner-spirited people of England in every parish some of which were to be found not onely among the very Mechanick and Rustick Plebs onely but among some Citizens Gentlemen and Noblemen too who began to have very warme and devout ambitions to enjoy the title of a ruling Elder as a divine honour added to their other civill honours gently submitting their and their posterities tamer necks to such a yoke as neither they nor their fore-fathers ever knew by which one little Minister with two or three of his Elders might be impowered to excommunicate a King and all his Councell as King James expresseth in his sense of their arrogancy But while the common people of Engl. were every where preparing themselves to admire adore or dread yea to entertain and feed with double honour which was required for its due this new and strange beast of Presbytery which rose out of the sea of Scotish broyles and English troubles being as was thought adorned with seven Heads and ten Horns coming forth conquering and to conquer in the midst of so great glory swelling confidences and superfluity of successes behold a little stone of Independency cut out by no hand of Authority riseth up against the great mountain of Presbytery as its Emulator and Rivall This in a short time hath so cloven it in sunder that it hath quite broken its hoped Monopoly of Church-government and Independency having never had any Patent from any Christian King or people heretofore pleads a Patent as doth Presbytery from Christ Jesus which hath been it seems dormant and unexecuted these 1640 years This some more grosse and credulous spirits do easily believe though they never saw the Commission Only as the more acute and nimble Independents besides the more profound and solid Episcopalians eagerly dispute against the usurped Authority of Presbytery alledging that Classicall Provinciall and Nationall Presbyteries are to them much more Apocryphall than Deanes and Chapters Bishops and Arch-bishops so do both of them no lesse urge a pure Novelty besides the fractions and parcellings of Government against Independency tokens of weaknesse imprudence and inconsistency in Government Yet amidst all this stickling the puny of Independency which enjoyed at first the smiles and cajolings of Presbytery counting it an harmless and innocent Novelty because yet unarmed grew up by strange successes and unexpected favours of power to such a stature procerity and pertness that it not onely now justles with Presbytery but it makes it in many places glad to comply yea to curry favour with and to truckle under Independency which challengeth Seniority before Presbytery with much more probability than Presbytery can alledge any authority for its rejecting Catholick Episcopacy it being more evident that particular Congregations were first governed by one sole Apostle Pastor Teacher Bishop or Presbyter present among them than that many Presbyters ever governed the large and united Combinations of Christian Congregations and Churches without some one Apostle or eminent Bishop as chief President among them to which all Church-history consents without any one exception in all the world Thus hath Independency as a little but tite Pinnace in a short time got the wind of and given a broad-side to Presbytery which soon grew a slug when
oath that he aimed at no more than his Duchy yet afterward aspired gained the Kingdom of England by the name of King Edward the fourth so some Presbyters at first pretended onely to claime a coordinate exercise of Counsell and assistance with Bishops in some things consisting with a modest and orderly subordination to them as chief Fathers of their Ecclesiasticall Tribes and Families yea I knew some chief Rabbies of them have professed that they cryed down and covenanted onely against the Tyrannick Government of Prelates and the over-grown train of their Officialls shewing some reason to regulate Episcopacy by reducing it to the modesty of Primitive patternes Yet this motion was no sooner begun among us but we see it increased to such a violence as kindled the ambition of some people and Presbyters so hot against all Bishops that the best of them and many of them were incomparable men excellent Christians and most admirable Bishops were counted Refractory Popish and Antichristian with all their abetters because they would not tamely contribute to their own utter destruction and presently consent to the reproch of this and all ancient Churches where Bishops I think were as well known and as long used as the Sacraments or the Scriptures Yea at last the contention grew so sharp that it not onely whetted many tongues and pens but it came to swords ending if it be ended in much blood Presbyters challenging to have not only a meet share and concurrent influence as was ancient in Ignatius and St. Cyprians and St. Austins times and which might be very fitting and usefull in Church-Government but they will have all or none and this upon Christs title Bishops as usurpers for 1600. years must have no faire quarter nay none at all but persons and power must be wholly exautorated extirpated impoverished contemned abased undone Though they had done nothing but what either the Lawes commanded or the Prince in whom by law was the chief Ecclesiasticall as well as civill power indulged yea and required them to do yet no medium no moderation can be expected between Caesar and Pompey Sylla and Marius Antonius and Augustus when mens Spirits are heightned by jealousies and emulations to seek each others destruction After all this the peremptory reign of Presbytery which cost this Church and Nation so deare was not long-liv'd nor could be well established though at first it looked so big and grasped on the sudden even at three Kingdomes For before it was warme in its nest or well seated in its Throne we see Independency got hold on one end of its Scepter or quarter-staffe rather threatning in the right of Christ Jesus and in the behalf of all Christian common people to wrest it quite out of the hands of Presbytery either by legerdemaine or maine force unlesse it might go at least halfe with it in the spoiles of Episcopacy and that share of Church-Government which they pleaded was due not onely to a few Preaching Parsons and ruling Elders but to the whole congregation as being holy the Lords people the body of Christ in particular This check made Presbytery much more tame and tractable than it was wont to be when it first whetted its tushes so sharply and brisled so fiercely against all Episcopacy root and branch hoofes and hornes no regulation no remission no moderation no merit of so many Godly Learned Moderate yea Martyrly Bishops heretofore and even then in England would serve the turn After all this trouble the more grave and sober sort even of those Presbyterian and Independent Ministers are brought as we see into no small straits and reduced to this great Dilemma of policy whether they should choose to put their heads again under the Bishops hands or under the common peoples feet whether it be more for the honor of their Ministry to be subordinate to grave and worthy Bishops as Learned Moderators Presidentiall Fathers and elder Brothers or to be thus everlastingly haunted with evill and unclean Spirits to be thus hampered with the giddy and ungratefull vulgar who are very petulant and saucy companions very soure and insolent masters Nor is this Triumvirate of Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent Antagonists and rivals the boundary of mens religious Ambition and contentions in England There are other Names and Titles and daily will be more and more new Sects and Factions which will have their Godly agonies and pretentions no lesse than those three have had Yea the least and most unsuspected the feeblest and silliest of them will serve either to kindle new or to continue successive fires of jealousies troubles seditions and wars in this Nation Take them all together and leave them equally to their severall principles and contrary operations they will be like the complication of many diseases in one body as the Quartanes Dropsies Scurvys Hectick Feavers and Consumptions of this State and Church not onely shaking oft and daily dispiriting but in time quite destroying the Beauty Health Strength Peace Safety and Honor of this Nation whatever it be Common-wealth or Kingdom Aristocracy Democracy or Monarchy For while mens Spirits are sharpned by daily contentions in Religion to anger emulations and ambitions who shall be greatest in popular esteem in prevalency of parties in number of Sectators in novelties of opinions and in presumptuous practises they not onely sowr to secret animosities but break out to open enmities from the least differences For the true life and power of Religion which consists in a Knowing Humble and Charitable Zeal for Gods glory and each others good this is taken off and extremely dulled as the edge of sharp knives by cutting of cork while mens head and hearts are wholly busied in whitling and hewing those small points and softer parts of Religion which consider at first it may be onely the ritualls externals and polities of it yet in time these continuall droppings undermine and overthrow the very fundamentals which consist in the Unity of the Faith the Sanctity of Manners and the Sincerity of Christians Charity to each other which held better in Unity Health Beauty and Strength amidst heathenish persecutions than they ever did or can do amidst Christians contentions needlesse and endlesse janglings of Preachers and Professors among themselves For these rising most-what not from the holy and humble warmth but the wantonnesse and luxuriancy of mens Spirits especially after long peace and setling upon their Lees do naturally break out to such boyles and tumors of Factions as swell every Opinionist and his party to the hope of having a turne or share at least in rule and Empire wherein the present prevalent party is ever jealous and impatient of having any equall or rivall either to affront or disturb them and the depressed parties still conceive they are injured and oft complaine of being persecuted Nay they are filled with Whisperings and Murmurings with Envies and Animosities though they be let alone and connived at by way of Toleration when they see the publick
Communion This mortall life with its highest naturall ornaments and civil accomplishments is no blessing separated from the meanes of a better life or from the enjoying of them in such a way of Unity Order Decency and Charity as not onely becomes a Christians conversation best but most advanceth his comfort Our miserable moment is no further valuable than it may be serviceable to a blessed Eternity True Religion and the sweet enjoyments of it sets humane societies and soules above the form and fate of beasts much more than common reason and civility can do which the Heathens and Infidels in all ages have enjoyed for a time Secondly next you cannot but conclude that whatever civill peace you and your posterity may enjoy not setled upon religious grounds it cannot be either very secure or sincere and so not long lasting for it must needs be either very Tyrannous if any one Factions power and ambition gets uppermost and seeks to force all others to obey or comply against their judgements and consciences or it must be very querulous and quarrelsome if all enjoying an equall toleration yet each side nourisheth such Distances Defiances and Jealousies against others as puts them alwaies upon their guard and fence breathing them as it were with daily contests private skirmishes thus preparing them for blood and war at last When they have sufficiently preached and prayed and scribled against each other when they have disputed and discommuned and unchurched and unchristened one another then if they are numerous they are ripe and ready to rifle and plunder to kill and destroy to despise and devour one another as mutually damning each other All Histories of the Church do loudly proclaime to us That neither Church nor State Kingdom nor Empire Monarchy nor Common-wealth can be long-liv'd or flourishing where true Religion once generally professed and venerated among them growes to be divided and despised abased and impoverished even by Christians themselves The sad experiments of which Eusebius tells us when he sets forth the meritorious causes and originals of all those dreadfull vastations which befell Christian Churches under Diocletians persecutions Also of those barbarous inundations which followed in St. Austins dayes who died while the City in which he was was besieged The chief rise and occasions of those hostile incursions sprang from the factions inquietudes and contentions so rise among Christians neither Bishops nor Presbyters nor People agreeing as they should but oft breaking forth to tumults riots and seditions by the popular furies of Manichees Novatians Donatists Arians Circumcellians and Pelagians or by the discontents and ambitions of Presbyters or by the pride and oppressions of some Bishops to the infinite dishonour of Christianity and to the inviting of contempt and insolence from the common enemies of it For who can think those Christians worthy of any Peace Honor or Respect from strangers who so little love or value their Brethren yea their Mother and Fathers as not onely to despise them but to destroy them The African Asiatick and European the Eastern and Western the Greek and Latine Churches if we had not the late testimonies of our own and our neighbours calamities sufficiently tell us that no comet presageth greater calamities or more publick mischiefs to any Nation than these dissensions in Religion which setting mens hearts most on fire are hardly quenched but with their blood tending and oft ending in the ruines both of Churches and States These these gave opportunity to that raging Sea of Mahometan pride and perfidy which easily swallowed up so many famous Christian Churches in Asia Africa and Egypt and at last the whole Grecian Empire when the banks of Christian Unity as well as Piety were broken down by Christians themselves who in vaine boast of Piety Miracles and Martyrdome unlesse they keep true Charity among themselves As no men deserve more noble and durable monuments to be made not of marble-stones but of thankfull hearts than they whose wisdome successefully endeavours to compose unhappy differences as to Religion in any Church or Nation so no men are more and more justly to be blamed than they who sitting long at the helme of government in Church and State and being sufficiently furnished with power to prevent or speedily remedy such distempers yet have either occasioned and exasperated them by needlesse and unseasonable rigors or else connived at and too much indulged them by carelesse remissions and negligences from whence some small vipers or faction which in my memory were so charmed that they seemed quite dead in this Church have so revived that they have grown to such vigor and activity as with their teeth and clawes forcibly to make way for their own unhappy birth by the corrosions or eating through at last of those very bowels of the Church of England in which they were tacitely and indeed either by too much confidence indulgence or indiscretion most unhappily bred and fostered No Christian State or Church can be too vigilant or unsecure in this point the suppressing and preventing of all religious fewds and disturbances whose first conception commonly springs from either some odde stroke in the heads or some putid humors in mens hearts wherein long peace and plenty makes men either wantonly refractory against other mens forms and opinions or pertinaciously zealous for their own inventions many times not more superciliously than unseasonably every one being so loth to sweep away the cobwebs they or others have made either late or long since that they rather choose to set on fire and burne down the whole house in which they all had their safe abode and first breeding Certainly such petty serpents in Religion which afterward swell big with their uncharitable poisons should by wise Governours in Church and State be charitably and timely prevented and if possible stifled in their birth which had been I think no hard matter in England if such discreet and seasonable applications of piety and power had been used as all Charity allowed and all honest policy commanded before ever those popular and many-headed Hydras came to such a prodigious birth as scared both Fathers and Mothers yea and those very mid-wives who most officiously waited to assist those strange and monstrous productions which were scarce ever seen or heard of heretofore in England What prudent and Heroick Spirits there are yet left whose power managed with Christian justice and wisdome with piety and charity may haply quell these licentious vastators of Christian and reformed Religion also of the peace honor and happinesse of this Nation I must leave to the all-wise and almighty God of whose mercy we may not despaire while we have leave and hearts to pray to him Nor can I yet give over the Church of England as quite forsaken of God and good men or onely to be pittied and deplored by the best of my Countrimen since no wise or worthy man who hath observed the sad and bad effects of religious factions and
dissensions among us but must needs be now not onely out of love with them but in as great feare and abhorrence of them as he hath any favour and good will to the peace and prosperity either of his Country or this Church to the promoting of which as conscience binds him so all prudence and policy invites him CHAP. IV. THirdly to these I may further adde that great spur of generous industry which we call Sense of Honor or an impatience that worthy persons have to come short in any thing of that which doth best become them or is by God and good men expected from them I know how touchy even small minds and petty-spirited men are in point of reputation there where no true honor lies But meer shadowes and imaginary punctilio's deceive them under the notions of honor after that vulgar rate and esteem which gives many Gentlemen quicker resentments of any affronts neglects indignities or injuries done to themselves than of blasphemy to their God and Saviour more sensible for the honor of their mistresses of pleasure than for their Mother or Fathers I mean not so much naturall and politicall as Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall the Church and the Pastors of it such by whose care they have been bred and born to Christ baptised in the Name of the blessed Trinity brought up in the true Christian Faith nourished confirmed and sealed by the body the blood and Spirit of Christ directed in the waies of Holinesse and Eternall Happinesse Certainly the Command binds all Christians to Honour these parents as much as any No sense of Honor should be more quick and sensible than that which reflects upon our highest concernments in which not onely our private but our publick not onely our temporall but our eternall welfare is wrapped up and so confined that if in this we faile or miscarry all is lost that a great and gracious soul can consider If you were a Nation pinched with poverty over-awed with slavery despicable for your weaknesse base for your cowardise brutish for your ignorance dull with stupidity dejected by tenuity or barbarous through want of learning and civility if you were now to begin the principles of Christianity and knew not what belonged to true Religion which is the highest honor and happinesse of any Nation if that were the present State of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of England that they were now beginning to be Civilized and Catechized I should think my labour lost my oratory vaine and my importunity improper thus to conjure you by the highest sense of Honor to study the settlement of true Religion before you were acquainted with the sense of Civility Religion or Honor Or if I thought you had not so much pregnant light of Religion as might make you sensible of the truest and highest points of honor or not so much apprehension of honor as might make you most zealously tender in the behalfe of true Religion I would not be so impertinent as to think to move you beyond your inward principles But when I consider you as a people pampered with plenty exalted with liberty renowned for strength dreaded for valour enlightned with knowledge in all kinds accurately vigorous actively industrious as the chief of the Nations as the princesse of all Islands heightned to all magnificence polished with all good literature and civility old Disciples of Jesus Christ many hundred yeares agoe converted to Christianity and never wholly either perverted by Hereticks or subverted by the many barbarous invasions and warlike confusions which you have endured when I contemplate the grandeur the power the wisdome the majesty the publick piety heretofore of this Nation the antiquity of this Church and the prosperity of its reformed condition heretofore I cannot but with all humble and faithfull respects tell you That it is not worthy the name and honor of the English Nation so famous for Learning and Religion for Scholars and Souldiers for Magistrates and Ministers for Christian Princes and Christian people scarce to be parallel'd in all the world It is not for the Honor of such a Nation to halt between not two but twenty opinions to variate thus between the true God and the many new Baalims between Christ and the many Belials who will endure no publick yoak of Religion or Church-government but what themselves fancy and frame though never so different from that which this and the Catholick Church in all ages not onely used and submitted to but highly rejoyced in as the onely order that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had setled in all parts of his Church It is a shamefull posture for wise and sober men for ancient and renowned Christians to be thus inconsistent as divided between a doting upon former superstitions which some impute to us and indulging moderne innovations which others reproch us for 'T is ridiculous to be alwaies dancing the rounds of Religion and giddily moving in the mazes of endlesse Innovations which are but private and for the most part Childish inventions the effects either of proud and imperious or of peevish popular and plebeian Spirits who aime not at the publick Peace Piety and Honor of the Nation so much as at the gratifying their own little Fancies Humors Opinions and interests whose Novelties never so specious and plausible at first yet soon appeare pernicious to the publick so farre from mending and reforming the State of Religion that they threaten to marre all if the goodnesse of God and the moderation of wise men do not prevent Private formes and inventions never duly examined or solemnly allowed by the publick Representatives of any Church in Nationall Synods or Councills nor from thence recommended to and approved by the Representatives of the civill States in full and free Parliaments but surreptitiously broched at first afterward Magisterially obtruded by some pragmatick Preachers upon any Church or Christian people these prove no other in the end than like the ashes scattered over Egypt productive of sores and boyles swelling to great paine and insolency Especially in such a Church and Nation as this which was of the highest forme both for Christianity and reformation where God had to our admiration and his eternall praise blessed the former setled State of Religion and the Churches excellent constitution under those reverend and renowned Bishops assisted by Learned Orderly and Worthy Presbyters whose pious and profitable endeavours had long agoe advanced this Churches honor and happinesse to as high a pitch in point of Doctrine and Devotion and all spirituall experiences as any Church ever attained and further had improved its welfare in point of Discipline if they had not been ever curbed and hindered by the jealousies and impatiences of some Princes or people who would by no meanes endure the ancient just and holy Severities of Christian Discipline should be exercised by the Clergy against their Haughty and Licentious manners no not when the Ecclesiastick State of England was in its highest elevation and
lustre for Learning Honor Order Estate and Unity How much lesse are they now to be exercised by poore pusillanimous and petty Preachers with their pittifull Lay-Elders Yet amidst all the obstructions either in Doctrine or Discipline which either the pride and policies of men or the subtilties of devils have hitherto put amidst the peevishnesse of Schismaticks and the spite of Romanists amidst all the damps and dispiritings that this Church of England and the worthy Clergy thereof have long found and felt from all sides that were factious and had evill eyes or evill wills against them yet even then did the Lord of his Church so highly exalt them and this Nation in the eyes of all the world to such degrees of Piety Learning Peace Plenty Honor Love and all prosperity that could blesse any Christian Church or Nation that in good earnest there was no need any of these new patches should be put as deformities to that old garment which was so goodly and gracefull for true Christian Religion and due reformation that no novelty from private heads or hands could mend it especially when obtruded as a rent or forcibly pinned upon it as rags and hangby's of Religion by every petty Master whose fingers itch to be medling and innovating in Church affaires without any publick and impartiall counsell and authority Such preposterous endeavours no way worthy of the honor of this Nation nor contributive to its happinesse God hath already soon all sides blasted that they have been not onely unprosperous but many waies pernicious dishonourable ridiculous divine vengeance at once discovering their follies and confuting their confidences which instead of further setling or better Reforming Religion as was on all sides vapored and pretended have as much as in them lyes reduced a famous and flourishing a well-reformed and united Church almost to ruinous heaps and sordid confusions to the great shame and dishonour of this Nation both reproching your pious progenitors and you their posterity as if for this last hundred yeares none of them or you had served God as they and you should have done with holy and acceptable service because neither they nor you did permit every man or Minister to choose what Religion he would broach what Opinions he liked or to use what Discipline he pleased or beget what Churches and Pastors he fancied best and this after every free-man had either in Person or by his Proxy consented to that religious establishment which bound all men either actively to obey or passively to submit with silence and patience because it was of his own appointing being the result of all Estates in this Nation who without doubt were much more able to consider and conclude what was best for the publick Piety Peace and Honour of this Church and State than any private man could do whose self-overvaluing and overweening is generally the first step of their own and other mens undoing yea many times from these practises which at first are not much regarded much mischief accrews to the publick as the plague is thought to begin first in private alleys and by-lanes or from some one man or woman that hath a foul body or a very stinking breath which easily poysons the ambient ayre in which they walk especially when disposed to putrefaction and so diffusive of the Infection to others The stop and cure of which Epidemick pestilence which beginning from some mens ill lungs or lives hath now seised upon Religion it self and this whole Nation by your applying seasonable Antidotes and safe defensatives is a work most worthy of the Wisdome and Honor of this Nation which can be in no point more concerned or conspicuous than in this of true Religion so setled and maintained as best becomes both the Majesty of Religion and the renowne of the Nation Fourthly to which great and good work you stand obliged not onely in duty to God in love to your Saviour in charity to posterity and in just respects to your selves all which are great ingredients in true Honor but further give me leave to tell you something of Gratitude and just retribution lyes upon you as to the ancient Clergy or Ministry of this Nation who have faithfully served God and his Church you and your forefathers for many yeares in all Ecclesiasticall duties and religious offices If you and your Forefathers most honored Gentlemen and beloved Countrymen did well and worthily in a grave and orderly way of publick consent and by due Authority purge this Church and redeeme this Nation in its Doctrine and Duties its Ministry and Worship its Discipline and Government its just Liberties and immunities from the drosse and druggery of Romish errors and superstitions of Papall Tyrannies and Usurpations reserving or restoring that Purity Decency Authority Order Uniformity of Christian Religion which became the wisdome and honor of this Church and Nation by the exactest conformity with the Catholick Church in its purest and primitive constitution If you have effected and enjoyed this happinesse by Gods blessing chiefly upon the pious Counsells devout Prayers potent Preachings and learned Writings as of the first reformed and reforming Bishops and Presbyters subordinate to them so of their worthy Successors in the same Orders Offices and Functions who have many thousands of them confirmed their Doctrine sealed their labours asserted and authorised their Ministry by their holy lives and comfortable deaths yea some of them with their patient sufferings and Martyrdomes If the Clergy of this Reformed Church in their severall stations and degrees have by the Divine assistance ever since preserved this holy depositum of the true Christian Religion duly Reformed according to the Primitive gravity and Scripturall verity for above one hundred years to your and your forefathers inestimable honor and happinesse and this as with great Learning and all sorts of holy abilities so with no lesse industry and fidelity though not wholly without humane frailties and personall infirmities which God in mercy will pardon and man in charity ought to passe by where there was so much integrity and proficiency so much of commendable worth and constant excellency as to the maine If you cannot deny the many signall testimonies which God hath given of his being well-pleased with this Churches Reformation with the Ministry Worship and publick Profession of Religion in this Nation not so much by that long peace plenty and prosperity which you and your pious predecessors have to a wonder enjoyed at home besides the great Honor and renowne abroad nor yet by those nationall and signall deliverances from deep designes and imminent dangers which threatned the utter subversion of Church and State these preservations and lengthnings of our tranquillity being then surest signes of Gods favour and approbation of our waies when they are honestly obtained thankfully received and modestly enjoyed but beyond these conjecturall fruits of common providence we have those speciall tokens and testimonies wherein the Lord hath as I conceive evidenced
most clearly his good pleasure and liking to this Church of England its Religion Reformation and Ministry namely by those eminent gifts and undeniable graces of his Spirit which in great and various measures he hath plentifully poured forth upon the Godly Bishops and other good Ministers of this Church who were subject to them to the edification of his faithfull people among you in all spirituall blessings even to the admiration of our neighbours the joy of our friends and regret of our enemies If the excellently Learned and Godly Bishops whose names and memories are blessed assisted by other able orderly and painefull Ministers of this Church who being duly sent and ordained by them were humbly obedient to them as to spirituall Fathers if they have carefully and happily steered for many yeares the sometimes faire and rich Ship of the Church of England in which so many thousand precious soules have been imbarked for heaven and eternity between these two dangerous gulphs the Scylla and Charybdis of Papall Superstitions and uncharitable Separations steering it by the compasse of Gods word with such Christian prudence order and decency as is therein commanded or allowed in which happy conduct they and their successors were still very able willing and worthy to have proceeded if the wrath of God highly offended for the wantonness wickednesse and unthankfulnesse of the generality of people under so great meanes and mercies had not justly suffered so rude stormes of both religious factions and civil dissensions to arise which having torne the tackling rent the sailes loosened the junctures unhinged the rudder broke the maine mast cast the chiefest Pilots and skilfullest Marriners over-board quite defaced the lesser card or compasse of Ecclesiasticall Canons and civill lawes have at last driven her within the reach and danger of both these dreadfull extremes which she most declined leaving this poor weather beaten Church after infinite tossings like a founder'd ship in a troubled Sea of confusion attending one of these two sad fates either a Schismaticall dissolution or a Papall absorption either to be utterly shattered in pieces by endlesse factions or to be swallowed up at last in the greater gulph of Romane power and Policy which cannot but have alwaies a very vigilant and intentive eye what becomes of the Church of England If the Ministry of the Church of England whilest it was yet flourishing and entire as a City united in it self as an orderly family or holy corporation consisting of Fathers and Brethren of Bishops and Presbyters might justly challenge before God and all good men this merit and acknowledgement from you and your fore-fathers that for Learning and Eloquence both in preaching and writing for acutenesse and dexterity in disputing for solidity and plainnesse in teaching for prudent and pathetick fervency in praying for just terror in moving hard hearts to softnesse and feared consciences to repentance for judicious tendernesse in comforting the afflicted and healing the wounded Spirit lastly for exemplary living in all holy and good waies in all which particulars becoming a Christian Church neither you nor they have had any cause to envy the most Christian and best Reformed Churches in the world as to that honour and happinesse which consists in the excellent abilities honest industry due authority regular order of Ministers also in the decency usefulnesse and power of holy Ministrations all which blessings experience sufficiently tells you were formerly enjoyed by many gracious and judicious Christians farre beyond what hath been or ever can be hoped under these moderne divisions deformities distractions and dissolutions which do indeed threaten in time utter desolation to this Church and the true Reformed Religion if Gods mercy and wise mens care do not prevent If nothing but ignorance or malice blindnesse or uncharitablenesse barrennesse or bitternesse of Spirit in any men can deny this great truth this honest humble just and modest boasting to which the injuries indignities and ingratitudes of these last and worst times have compelled sober Ministers as they did St. Paul who ought to have been better valued and commended by them If you O Noblemen Gentlemen and Yeomen of England are so knowing that you cannot be ignorant of this truth and so ingenuous that you cannot but acknowledge it in behalfe of the Church of England and its worthy Clergy while you and they enjoyed Piety Peace and Prosperity if beyond all cavill or contradiction this right ought to be done to Gods glory this Churches honour the ancient Clergies merit and your own with your fore-fathers renowne that after-ages may not suspect them for Hereticks or Schismaticks nor you for Separates or Apostates as forsaking that good way in which they were reformed and established in the purity power and polity of true Religion If all these suppositions be true as I know you think they are how I beseech you can it be in the sight of your most just God and mercifull Saviour who so abundantly blest this Church and his servants the Ministers of it in teaching comforting and guiding you and your pious predecessors soules to heaven to change and cast off such a Ministry and such Ministers Yea how can it be in the censure of pious and impartiall men other than a most degenerous negligence a Mechanick meannesse a most unholy unthankfulness for you or any Christians to passe by with silence and senselesnesse with carelesnesse and indifferency all those sad spectacles of Church-divisions and distractions of Church-mens diminutions debasements and discouragements lately befaln them by a divine fatality and justice partly through the imprudence of some Clergy-men severely revenged by the malice or mistake of some Lay-men whose heavy and immoderate pressures have faln chiefly upon those Ecclesiasticks who were Christs principall Vicegerents Messengers Ministers and Embassadors his faithfull Stewards his diligent Overseers his vigilant watchmen his wife dispensers of heavenly Mysteries to your Soules From whom so many Apostasies have been commenced and carried on by infinite calumnies indignities and injuries against them and their orderly authority and function as if you and your Children had lately found more grace and virtue better Ministeriall sufficiencies and proficiencies in some Tradesmen Troopers in Mechanick ignorance illiterate impudence in the glib tongues the giddy heads empty hearts of such fellowes as are scarce fit to be your servants in the meanest civill offices as if these were now fit to be your Pastors and Teachers your Spirituall inspectors and rulers of your Soules beyond any of those Reverend Bishops and Learned Doctors and other Grave Divines who heretofore through the grace of God dispensed to you by their incomparable gifts and reall abilities those inestimable treasures of all sound knowledge and saving wisdome of grace and truth which were carried on with comely order and bound up with Christian unity Doubtlesse the forgetting of those Josephs who have been so wise storerâ—s and so liberall distributers of the food of eternall life to our hungry soules
who have brought forth as good Scribes instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven out of the good treasuries of their hearts things both new old the Learning of the ancient Fathers Councills and Historians set off with later Experiments and Improvements of all spirituall operations and gracious comforts the forgetting I say of these Ministers cannot be worthy of that pious gratitude which becomes noble-minded Christian How meane uncomely and much below you must it needs appeare to all wise and sober Christians in the present age and all posterity if you suffer their holy orders to be despised their spirituall offices to be neglected their divine authority to be usurped their primitive orders and constant succession to be interrupted their persons to be abused and shamefully treated their support as to double honour to be so abuted that their maintetenance shall be very small sharking and uncertaine also their respect and esteem none at all especially among the common people whose civil and religious regards are much measured either by the bag and bushell or by the examples of their betters their Landlords and Governours The wilfull dividing debasing discrediting disordering and discarding of the ancient Clergy as to their Ordination Government Ministry Authority and succession in England which was most Christian Catholick and reformed must needs be as the sin and shame so the great injury and misery of you and your posterity being the ready way to bring in First a scrupulous unsatisfiednesse and unsetlednesse as to our former Religion as if either not true or not reformed Secondly next it raiseth a jealousie and suspicion of any Religion under the name of Reformation as if it would not long hold and had no bottom or bounds Thirdly after this followes a lukewarmenesse coldnesse and indifferency as to all Religion whatsoever as Reformed and as Christian Fourthly then will there creep in by secret steps a generall Apostasie at least from our pristine wise Reformation and happy constitution of Religion to the Roman errors superstitions and usurpations which wait for such a time and temper in England whereby to make their advance upon peoples mindes wildred and confounded when they shall see the shamefull retreates recoilings and variations made in England by the Reformed Religion upon it self whose disorders disgraces and deformities necessarily following the contempt of their Ministers or the change and rupture of their Ministeriall descent and succession will make most if not all men in time to recede from it and rather adhere to its grand Roman rival its implacable enemie Popery whose policies will bring you and your posterity by the contempt and want of true Bishops to have no Pastors or Ministers of any uniforme validity of Catholick complete and most undoubted authority If any man may be a preacher that listeth to pirk up into a Pulpit certainly in a few yeares you shall have no Preachers worth your hearing no Ministers of any reputation and authority either among the Idiots and vulgar or among the more ingenious and wiser sort of people who are not naturally either very solicitous or industrious in the concernments of Religion or the choise of their Ministers If neither God nor good men have any further pleasure in their servants the ancient Clergy of England if they really are as uselesse and worthlesse as they have been made vile and reproched by some mens tongues and pens if they have deserved to be thus tossed in an eternall tempest of factious divisions vulgar depressions and endlesse confusions beyond any other order or rank of men if this be their evill fate and merit after all their studies and paines after all their Praying Preaching Writing and Living to the honor of this Nation and the great advantages of the Reformed Religion if to have equalled at least if not exceeded the Clergy of any Church in any age since the Apostles departure be the unpardonable fault of the Reformed Bishops and their Clergy in England if their very sufferings as the vipers seizing on St. Pauls hand make them appear to barbarous and vulgar minds as sinners therefore despicable because they are so much despised and so thought fit to be destroyed if this lingring and shamefull death of being thus Crucified is that by which the Clergy of England must glorifie God if this bitter cup must not passe from them truly it will be a mercifull severity to hold them no longer in ambiguous calamities but rather wholly to expose them to the last outrages of Fanatick Popular and Schismatick fury the Lions that hunger and roare to have these Daniels wholly cast into their dens and jawes that so your eyes may no longer see your poor despised distressed and miserable Clergy many of whom both Bishops and Presbyters are forced as you know to embrace the dunghil being destitute of order honour and estate some of them having neither food convenient nor any abiding place nor any fitting employment that so that Episcopall Clergy now rendred so odious who under God formerly redeemed you and your fore-fathers out of the bondage and darknesse of Egyptian superstition may by an Egyptian Magick and fate be drowned in the Red-Sea of vulgar contempt popular confusion and inordinate oppressions that thus the new Jannes and Jambres may not onely resist but wholly prevaile by their inchantments against your Moses and Aarons But if your Consciences O worthy Gentlemen who are the Beauty Strength and Honour of this Nation do on the other side tell you not with faint and dubious whispers but by loud and manifest experiences proclaiming to all the world that the ancient Clergy of England have generally deserved better of you by their Learning Preaching Praying Writing and Living what I beseech you can be more worthy of the Wisdome Justice Piety Honour and Gratitude of this Nation than to assert with their publick love and favour the dignity of their worthy Divines the honour of their Clergy the Sanctity of their Religion and Reformation against that plebeian petulancy and insolency which hath so pressed upon them and daily depresseth all their Authority not onely by reason of some Lay-mens folly and insolency but even by their variations and inconstancy who presumed to be Preachers and challenge upon what score they please a share or lot in the Evangelicall Ministry Truly it is high time to redeeme the Sacred Orders the Divine Authority the Catholick succession the ancient and authentick dignity of the Evangelicall Ministry in the Church of England from the obloquies contempts and oppressions of ignorant and unreasonable men who are great enemies to the piety and prosperity of this Nation and but back friends to the Reformed Religion being at so deadly a fewd against the ancient Clergy and Catholick Ministry of this Church whose totall extirpation both root and branch Bishops and Presbyters they have so resolutely designed and restlessely endeavoured that they long for nothing more than the natural death of all the reverend Bishops and all Episcopall
Ministers who yet survive being civilly dead and buried in obscurity O how infinite jealous are all Novellers lest the English world should at last see the dangerous mistake of exchanging gold for copper Learned Grave Orderly duly-ordained and authoritative Bishops and Presbyters of a primitive stamp and Catholick Edition for a scattered and tattered company of new-coyned Pastors and Teachers who have either not the metal or to be sure not the mint and Character of such a Ministry as was ever current in England and in all the Christian world whose care was not to broach every day new fountaines as Sampson did with his Asses jaw-bone of Ministeriall office and authority when ever factious Presbyters or fanatick people thirsted after the novelties of parity or popularity but they ever kept to that cisterne those conduits or pipes which were first laid by the Apostles and derived from Christs grand Commission as the source and fountain of holy orders which was deduced by orderly Bishops and Presbyters to all parts and places where any Christians owned themselves to live in any Church-order fellowship and communion which was never known in the Christian world for 1500. yeares to be any where separated from the Episcopall over-sight regulation presidency and jurisdiction if all Scripturall and Ecclesiasticall records do not deceive us which never shew us any Church of greater or lesser dimensions without some greater or lesser Apostles as Bishops presiding and ruling over Presbyters Deacons and people which neither Aerius nor St. Jerome himself of old nor the disguised Wallo Messalinus or Blondel of later dayes did ever so much as endeavour to disprove by any one credible instance of any Church in any age Upon so deep and large a foundation did the Clergy Ministry and Church of England formerly stand till the Scotch Pioneers and other Engineers undertook with their pickaxes to undermine and overthrow the Catholick antiquity of Episcopall authority which work some novelizing Presbyters beginning to transgresse gave occasion to puny Independents to go beyond them Neither of which parties have yet nor are ever like for ought I see so to mend the State of Christian or Reformed Religion in England beyond what it enjoyed in former dayes as to make any learned or wise man so much in love with their various novelties that they should abhorre that uniforme antiquity to which the Episcopall Clergy of England did conforme The enjoyment of whose renowned worth learned labours and everlasting Monuments of true piety this nation hath so little cause to be ashamed of or repent that there is no Jewell in the Diademe of English glory which it ever had or will in any age have so much cause to boast of and glory in as the excellency of its Clergy or Ministry both Bishops and Presbyters for the last Century whose private failings and personall infirmities the crambe oft alledged to an impudent hoarsenesse by some detractors whose uncharitable Synecdoches impute the faults of every part to the whole will never be sufficient to justifie this nations generall unthankfullnesse to the memory and merit of its former Ministry and Ministers taken in the completion of their harmony and orders as made up of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons that threefold cord of Ecclesiasticall polity and unity which is not easily and ought not rashly much lesse rudely ingratefully be broken by any Nation proâ—essing Christian and reformed Religion but rather it should be carefully twisted and wisely recomposed where either prelatick extravagancie or Presbyterian arrogancy or popular petulancy have ravelled unloosned or dissolved the intirenesse of its meet subordination and its ancient constitution CHAP. V. TO which temper and method of Ecclesiasticall Unity Order and Authority as piety policy honour and gratitude do invite the wisdome of this Nation which I have hitherto in many instances demonstrated so my next endeavour is to encourage all sober and good Christians to desire and advance in all worthy waies that happy Restitution and Primitive settlement in our Religion by setting before you and them the possibility of effecting so great so good so necessary a work while many difficulties do not yet run us upon that rock of utter despaire which shipwrecks all industry but they are easily counterpoised by that not onely possibility but hopefull probability which seems to appeare in the inclinations of the wisest and best men of all Religious interests and parties in this Nation who have learned wisdome either by their own or other mens follies For this Good the wise God hath brought out of the evill of our follies and miseries that the sad consequences possibly not intended by many but pursuing our late deviations and transports on all sides in this Church where the projects and practises of particular men rather served their private passions and presumptions than the Divine Institutions Christs glory or the Churches generall good these have already so fully confuted their Authors and abettors confidences by the sin shame weaknesse and fatuity of them that they need no blacker marks or deeper brands of dislike than those which they have with their own hand set upon their fore-heads having brought the things of Religion to so great a deformity as it is this day by their praeter subter or super-conformities either beyond the use intent or indulgence of the lawes or beyond the constitutions and customes and interests of this Church Thus while either restive and sullen or busie and pragmatick Spirits will needs be breaking that hedge which their wise fore-fathers made serpents have bitten them while they would take burning coales from the Altar without tongs which the Seraphin used as the ordinary meanes they have shrewdly burned their own fingers in so much that many if not most of them I believe would be glad they were every way fairly healed to as great a soundnesse of Order Honour and Unity as they formerly enjoyed of which they were as weary as unworthy whose indiscreet forsaking that medium and measure of their happinesse which was wisely established by publick counsell and authority hath been of late so many waies unblest and unsuccesseful that their very going out of the right way which was the way of Peace Truth and Order hath somewhat prepared their feet for an happy returne Every one that is so blest as to see their unlucky extravagancies hath learned to esteem the good old way better than heretofore they did when private presumption tempted them to preferre their own novell fancies before the publick establishments of such a famous Church and renowned Nation as England was I make no question but many men are grown wise by their own woes others at a cheaper rate have bought wisdome by observing the fruits of their neighbours folly rashnesse and weaknes Some have deeply suffered for their former Hydropick fullnesse restivenesse and lazinesse in Religion contracted by long peace great plenty and high preferments which it is farre more honour to use piously and profitably moderately and
seat faire Cathedrall or Mother-Church with which England formerly abounded to the great honour of the Nation no lesse than of the Clergy and Ministry of all degrees the Slips and Shrubs of Churches which some have lately planted thrive so ill that they wish them fairly removed and reingrafted into that ancient stock that goodly and venerable tree of Episcopacy which was so flourishing and so fruitfull to all orders of Christians in England and in all ancient Churches ever since the first plantation of Religion in this Island or the other world O how would all sober Ministers and others rejoyce to come under that shade and superintendency which might not sadly over-drop but gently protect every Minister and member of the Church in their severall branches and boughs Who sees not by experience that verified which St. Jerom told them long agoe That a regular Episcopacy is the best if not the onely defensative both in the Catholick and particular Churches from the scorching heates of factions and schismes to keep men from those shiftings and tossings in Religion from those uncharitable rendings and separations which are so uncomely and inconvenient yea so noxious to the Churches of Christ and therefore to be conscienciously avoided by all good Christians Besides this constitution containing in its bosome the true interests of Presbyters and people as well as of Bishops redeemes the Clergy beyond any other form of Church-order and Government from that which is very intolerable to men of learned piety and ingenuous Spirits that is the sordid dependence upon yea and slavish subjection even in religious concernments unto those Lay-dictators and plebeian humors who are generally very crosse-grained and spitefully peevish to men of more learning than themselves Vulgar minds are alwaies contemptuous to their teachers and rugged to their Monitors but most unsufferably insolent when they find either Magistrates or Ministers dependants upon their benevolence never triumphing more unfeignedly than when they see those deformed spectacles which this last age hath oft shewen them namely those grave and worthy Ministers who taught them in the name of Christ on the Lords-day the very next day pale and trembling to appeare before them in some Country Committee compounded of Lay-men yea and of some Trades-men who are generally not guilty of much learning in any kind and least in Divinity yet these are the men that must catechise examine censure and condemn Ministers in the sight of their people both in points of Doctrine and in practises Ministeriall for which some one Minister is able to say more in one houre than most of those Assessors or silly Spectators can understand in ten or ever have read in all their lives What ingenuous Christian blusheth not to see Ministers of excellent learning and lives so disparaged so degraded so discouraged by the Incompetency of those who must be their Judges when many of them cannot so much as understand the state of the question or matter in dispute What Christian is there of so popular plebeian triviall and mechanick a spirit as not to desire to see proper and meet judges set to examine and determine matters of Religion for doctrines manners and discipline in all which there are many cases so obscure and intricate that they require men of very good learning of composed minds of sober judgements and unbiassed consciences to debate and determine them being very dubious and disputable in truth and holinesse in faith and morality which when some silly Saints and devout bunglers will undertake to manage and modelize beyond their line and measure after their rash rude and slovenly fashion it is not to be expressed how much detriment both Religion and its sacred Ministry suffer through the ignorance and passion the rusticity and confidence the petulancy and impertinency of such ridiculous arbitrators and incompetent judges who are so farre from being fit for any such Authority and Judicature that they are not onely not equals but in most points very much inferiours to those whose doctrine and manners whose callings and consciences they presume not so much to search as to insult over with as much unfitnesse and unreasonablenesse as if Divines should arrogate to themselves the Judicature of Common-Law or of persons and cases Martiall so that both Pleaders and Judges Souldiers and Commanders should fall under Ministers decision in all debates incident to their functions and affaires Every man not ambitiously vain and fulsomely foolish doth now wish in his soul to see that grave solemne idoneous and equable dispensation of Religion both in its Mysteries and Ministry its Doctrine and Controversies its Scandals and Indignities as may best become the Honour and Majesty of Christianity most avoiding those improprieties and absurdities which have been sufficiently manifested in our late confusions which have chiefly risen from want of that wise settlement in Religious administrations which would lay out every part and parcell of them so as is proper for them both as to persons places and proportions after the order and method anciently used both in Gods Tabernacle and his Temple Indeed nothing can be managed orderly and happily in Church or State in Civill or Ecclesiastick affaires unlesse they passe through such wise hearts and pure hands as can both well understand them and discreetly discharge them so as may conciliate in all mens mindes an inward reverence to their persons that do dispence them Which respect ariseth not from parchment Commissions or popular approbations but from personall and reall sufficiencies which appearing to all sober men both in reason and Religion give them the greatest satisfaction and thereby as it were charme the common people not more by feare than love and shame to preserve that peace and to observe those orders which they see wisely setled and authoritatively used in any Church or Christian Common-wealth CHAP. VI. THe happinesse and honour of which religious harmony and authoritative order as every Christian is ashamed not to seem at least to desire and all honest men no doubt do really intend as their chiefe end and designe so the greatest differences now perpetuating our Religious distractions in England seem to arise from the severall meanes propounded and methods prosecuted by men possibly of honest meanings but of differing minds who each presuming their own waies to be best for the Reforming reconciling and establishing of Religion grow so divided in the use of their meanes as still to hinder the attaining of the end just like Physitians who honestly and heartily aime at the cure of their patient but every one of them so urgeth the taking of his particular receipt that either they give him no physick at all or so various and contrary prescriptions as first confound and at last kill him more by the mutuall repugnancy of their Medicines than by the Malignity of the disease Such is the state and fate of the Church of England as to my observation having I hope many honest and upright hearts in it but
have hitherto so little justified their inventions or discretions that their mutuall divisions and severall diminutions besides the generall abatement and abasement both of Religion Reformation and Ministry do make the whole face of this Church appeare rather like Babel than Jerusalem which was a City at unity in it self not made up with patches and botches by fits and jobs with deformed angles crooked walls and swelling windowes like some narrow lanes in London whose sides seem built in spite to defie and darken one another but designed and wrought by such a juncture of wise Counsell from grand Architects as had well fore-cast and fore seen their work as those did by divine revelation who were to build the Ark Tabernacle and Temple for God as Moses David Salomon Zerubbabel and Ezekiel who had leisurely and exact visions sober and orderly revelations after due and Mathematicall proportions or plat-formes given them and were not hurried on by sudden raptures extemporary snatches and passionate surprises which are the Convulsions of Religion no fit tempers or motions to build or repaire the Church of Christ which even in Primitive defections as we read in the Epistles Correptory or Consolatory to the seven Asian Churches or others were taught by the Spirit of Christ and the Apostles not to seek out new Formes Fashions and Inventions to make Divisions Schismes and Separations either in or from the Respective Churches or from their Angels or Bishops the Presidents or Presbyters But in their Reformations they were to keep their former Church-communion in the grand and Apostolick Combinations which were constituted and proportioned by the guidance and wisdome of Christs Spirit both Pastors and people were to remember from whence they were faln to have due regard to their severall Rulers and Overseers in the Lord to returne to their first love of truth and peace to restore what was decayed to preserve what remained and was ready to dye to hold fast what was wholesome sound and good while they tryed and pared off what was evill and superfluous to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to them to keep to that forme of Doctrine with those Catholick Traditions and Customes which they had received They were not to invent new waies of Churches or Pastors any more than new Doctrines or new Gospels I am for Primitive Sanctities and Severities in all sorts or degrees of Ministers no lesse than for Primitive subordination and communion Ambitious I am for restoring the Piety and Purity as well as the Polity and Unity of Pristine times And although I find many Ministers so ill natured so peevish and crosse-grained that they can sooner vomit up the meate they have digested than recall or recant any error or extravagancy they have adopted and fomented yet I hope better things of the major part of my Fathers and brethren who are men of more calme and ingenuous tempers furthest from juvenile fervors from private designes and popular dependences Nor do I doubt but all Ministers that are worthy men will easily recede not from their Religion and Consciences but from their various superstitions and presumptions from their immoderate values and Idolatrous adorations of some petite opinions and novel imaginations which they have of late years taken up if once they could happily meet and parley together not in arbitrary Junctos and Associations but being thereto called and incouraged by the command and Counsel the Gravity and Authority of those their Superiours who are most able to advance the good of this Church and the restitution of the Reformed Religion If you O worthy Gentlemen should find us Ecclesiasticks more restive pertinacious or obstinate than becomes us either to retain our needlesse indulgences or superfluous severities and rigors of opinions and practises it will be your honor and candor to supple us and by your exemplary perswasions gently to compell us to be such as best becomes us and your selves You cannot give us the Ministers of England a more signall and ample testimony of your love and regard to us than by your exacting from us in our severall places not onely all morall severities and sanctities of life which are indispensible to our calling and duty but all those reall Ministerial strictnesses in all points of holy Ministrations to which our greatest enemies do so much pretend themselves and complaine of us as most defective in them either as to care or diligence or love towards our people But I beseech you let these sacred exactions as to our lives and Doctrines as to our ordination and Ministration be first Scripturall as to the maine ground rule and end of them next Rationall as to Order Decency and Gravity of them lastly let them be Primitive and Catholick not Novel and Fanatick but as much as may be conforme to the patterne of all ancient Churches who had their formations and fixations from the Apostles long before any of these moderne disputes and factions arose or passion had seized any Ministers judgements as to their particular sides and interests But let us not for Gods sake be urged as some designe utterly to forsake the Church of England to renounce our own former both practises and perswasions our standings and understandings too as Ministers which were so much grounded upon Scripturall directions Apostolick exemplifications Catholick imitations and nationall constitutions onely to conforme to some private mens modern fancies or to preferre as to Church-ordination Ministration and Government the novelties of Amsterdam or Geneva before the antiquities of Antioch and Jerusalem Nor yet may you leave us so far to our selves as to suffer every one of us to invent and do whatever seems good in his own eyes Alas many of us are weak in our Learning Religion and Reason strong onely in our Passions Prejudices and Presumptions easie and soft in our Judgements heady and obstinate in our opinions prone to be biased with private interests and abused with popular pretentions While we meane well yet we are ready to do very ill having much in us either cold and doting or young and raw or over-hot and uncomposed never worse governed than when we are left every man to governe our selves or our private flocks after our own various fancies and affectations which are most-what very partiall plebeian imprudent impolitick not many of us understanding the proportions of true Church-Government any more than we do the designes and dimensions of the most noble and magnificent buildings which were never erected and perfected by the occasionall concurrence of every spontaneous workman that listed to joyne his head and hand to carry on what figure and form he thought best but they are the effects of mature Counsell and grand advise from wise Master-builders who first agree in the whole model or Idea before they put the parts in execution The truth is no sorts of men are lesse tractable generally than we that professe to be Ministers If we have little Learning we are envious
conferences occasion better understanding between many of them and so by Gods blessing in time produce some such counsels as may be worthy of them and the publick But if their aime be slily to get into some hands such popular advantages by their soft insinuations of seeming equanimity and moderation as shall further displace and disparage the former Catholick Government of this and all ancient Churches they will be but as new patches put to an old garment which will make the rent and deformity the greater Certainly the state of the Reformed Religion in England will never be happy till it is setled nor setled till it be uniform nor uniform till the office and authority of Ministers be valid and venerable nor will this ever be untill the sanctity and samenesse of ordination together with the use of Ecclesiasticall power and holy Ministrations be rendred so August so Sacred and Complete as may be most conforme to Scripture and to pure Antiquity for while Ministers are of diverse makes and moulds they will be of diverse minds nor can they produce other than multiforme Christians of different fashions and deformed factions in Religion which do as necessarily bring forth infinite mischiefs in any Church or Christian State as the itch breeds scratching and scratching fetches blood As the blessed Apostles so their holy successors kept to one way of Religious Order and Power which preserved the unity of faith and love among Christian Bishops Presbyters and people I confess I do sometimes in my sad and retired solitudes hope that our common calamities may by Gods softning and calming grace upon mens spirits make both all Godly Ministers and all good people so wise as humbly sincerely and charitably to search into the cleare steps of Primitive prudence Apostolicall order and Ecclesiacall Authority which had due and tender regard to all sorts of Christians so as to keep up a meet subordination with a Christian communion To which end I was willing to hope this shew of Association might conduce But when I find in some of them nothing that looks civilly upon Episcopacy many things cast reprochfully and scornfully upon the excellent Bishops of England and all the Episcopall Clergy who were not inferiour in any regard to the best Associators when I find that some of them have the confidence to exclude all that have of late yeares been ordained by any Bishop with Presbyters though such an one as the late most venerable Bishop of Norwich Dr. Hall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I see that some rigid Presbyterians and popular Independents affect with great Magistery to Duopolize all Church-power to grasp into their hands and bosomes as the sides of a drag-net meeting together all Ministeriall Authority not onely not owning the best surviving Bishops with any respect nor yet in any faire way applying to any of them after all their undeserved indignities but spitefully and professedly abdicating all communion with them under the name of Bishops reducing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the levell and parallel of Presbyters which the 630. Orthodox Fathers in the fourth generall famous Councell of Chalcedon which all Ministers of England approved and I think subscribed to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd and unreasonable practise yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great sacriledge and Zonaras upon that Canon makes it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighting as Giants against God as a dethroning of Christ the Bishops eminent authority and presidency in the Church being a lively representation of Christs sitting in the midst of the throne who did undoubtedly delegate his visible authority of governing the Church to the chief Apostles above the 70. and all other Teachers after which manner and proportion these chief Apostles who were the first and great Bishops after Christ did both commit and derive their authority to the following Bishops their successors who were a lesser sort or second edition of Apostles when I see what an Idol some Ministers and people make of their Scotch-Covenant by which great Engine or Military Ram they still think themselves bound to batter Episcopacy as if their Covenanting against it as it then stood in England were an obligation to persecute all Episcopacy for ever when in earnest the least variation of its former constitution both satisfies and absolves from that bond which some men still superstitiously venerate as if it were an image faln from heaven a matter of divine precept and institution and not rather of humane machination and politick invention which we are sure it was as if it were the solemn result of the pious or of the peaceable and publick sense of this Nation and not rather the issue of troubled braines and broken times indeed many forget that the Covenant smells more of fire smoke of sulphur and gun-powder than of the Spouses myrrh and perfumes of Christian Love and Charity Again when I consider how passion and pride betrayes many men to rashnesse rashnesse to folly folly to obstinacy obstinacy to presumption presumption to animosities and these to unchristian fewds everlasting despite and bitternesse which must still be vented as cholerick humors once in a month against the most innocent and Primitive Episcopacy yea against the most deserving and yet most suffering Bishops of this Church and of all the world old and new when I see the personall errata's and exorbitances or infirmities of some few Bishops by most uncharitable Synecdoches which put a part for the whole are in a pittifull fallacious way of vulgar oratory urged against all Episcopacy and Bishops in any orderly eminency or presidentiall authority in the Church contrary to the faith and honour of all antiquity and the former happy experiences of this Reformed Church when I find how wary and shy some Ministers are in their zeal and forwardnesse for their petty Associations to seem to own even their own judgements and reall inclinations toward any such condescentions and close with Episcopacy as may reflect upon their former transports how loth they are really and freely to offer such proposals as are equable and ingenuous pure and peaceable to the Episcopall party who aim at no more than such a paternall presidency and order as may best preserve the undoubted power of ordination and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction as it was Primitively setled in and transmitted by the hands of the first Bishops who immediately succeeded the Apostles When I see as I plainly do this partiality restivenesse and cowardise in some Ministers of good parts then do I almost sink in despaire ever to see or enjoy while I live in England any thing in the Order Government and Discipline of this Church that may look like the Primitive pattern which was indeed a Catholicon approved in all Churches used in all ages and submitted to by all sorts of good Christians the onely proper Antidote I think against the poysons of our times farre beyond any of these kind of new confections which tampering and partiall Empiricks
may make or boast of and prescribe to those that list to be their tame and credulous customers who will find that all these new Balsames of Covenanting and Associating against Episcopacy are not onely not soveraignly or solidly healing but full of noxious festering and pernicious qualities scalding one place while they seem to skin over another So that if I should onely look to the arme of flesh or at some Ministers inconstant ingratefull violent partiall and intractable spirits there is little hopes that either they or their Sectators will return to any happy close and generall accord without a miracle and indeed it would be as strange to see some Ministers return with meeknesse and submit to their lawfull and worthy Bishops as their Fathers or Chief Heads and Rulers of their Ecclesiasticall fraternities and families under any the most innocent qualification and temper of Episcopacy as it was to see Saint Dennis his Corps or trunk take up his head and carry it 3. miles after it was cut off as the French Legends report of that Martyr so prepossessed and prejudiced some Ministers and their Disciples are against the Order and Honour of their own calling and function no lesse than against the happiness of this Church both Ministers and people against the peace also and prosperity of the reformed Religion of this Nation all which are so concerned in a right Episcopacy wherein the reall interests of Christian people sober Presbyters and worthy Bishops should be all preserved that in earnest I cannot see how they can without such an orderly Communion and venerable Authority ever be happy because not united either in principles or practises in opinion or affection I believe no good Christian is so blind as not to see that faith cannot in this world be separated from charity that Churches divisions are their confusion as leaky and unhooped vessels let out much if not all the good liquor in them CHAP. VIII THerefore leaving these my hotter-spirited brethren to take breath after their earnest pursuits against Episcopacy and their zealous agitations for either Presbyterian or Independent interests by the new juncto's of their Associations expecting in time to find them in a much cooler temper as already I do all sober and moderate Ministers who unfeignedly approve and heartily pray for Episcopacy in its Primitive proportions I shall in the next place apply my self to You of the Magistracy Nobility and Gentry of this Nation if possibly your spirits less engaged and so less imbittered in Church-contentions may incline to the meditations and embrace the motions of Ecclesiasticall peace and accord in this Church and Nation Saint Paul saw in a vision a man of Macedonia coming to him and calling for Help It is not a vision in the night or a dreame of distresse but the noon-day or meridian of this Churches miseries which presents to you many thousands of poor people daily overgrown with Ignorance Lukewarmness Licenciousnesse Unsetlednesse Superstition Faction Atheisme and all manner of Irreligion also many hundreds of poor Ministers for none is to be esteemed rich or renowned where all are either envyed or condemned by one side or other of all perswasions Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent many of them endued with excellent parts most of them with competent and usefull abilities all these and in them the whole Church and Nation call to you Come and Help us Help to redeem us from that vulgar insolency reproch and contempt into which we are faln both our persons and profession by our mutuall divisions our childish contentions our uncharitable factions our unseasonable ambitions our unreasonable revenges by our immoderate popular and implacable passions Help us as Constantine the Great did those Bishops and other Church-men who were met at the famous Councill of Nice to burn and bury all those complaints quarrels libels jealousies disaffections reproches dissentions and mutuall disparagings under which the Ministers and Ministry of England now lie and labour Manasseh being against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and Judah against both Episcopall Ministers against Presbyterians and these against Episcopall and Independents against both and some against them all Help to restore us to a condition beyond slaves and villaines reduce us to the state of ingenuous freedom such as the Law affords all honest and industrious men Reform and reunite us if it be possible but not with Swords and Staves with Pistols and Prisons not by the arbitrary Discipline of Souldiers and absolute Tribunals of Committee-men not by plundering sequestring silencing and ejecting us out of all upon meer politick jealousies or onely veniall infirmities when for the main we carry our selves in all things Righteously Soberly and Peaceably Do not expose us to men of new lights to men of erratick judgements and fanatick fancies who lay as much Religion upon their new Disciplines and Church-modellings as upon all the Doctrine Piety and Charity of Christianity Leave us not to the novel and illegall power and partiality of such men who will try us with passion and judge us with prejudice destroy us with pleasure undoe us without appeal or remedy who greedily receive accusations against us as Ministers without letting us see or hear our accusers which are not alwaies two or three according to Gods command both in the Law and Gospel but many times testis singularis onely one sometime none besides some mens jealousies disaffections and surmises against us who seldome give us two admonitions after the Apostles order but at first dash they quite blot us out of their book of life utterly routing us and our families disabling us ever after to plead our innocencies or exercise our abilities or supply our necessities in any convenient way of living Help to redeem if not our persons which are made by vulgar scorn as the filth and off-scouring of all estates in this nation yet at least our Function and Profession which was ever esteemed holy redeem it from those invasions intrusions and usurpations which are made upon it by illiterate mechanick sordid and simple people who can have no true or tolerable authority to be Ministers of holy things when they have no competent abilities and who being on no hand duly consecrated set apart sanctified or ordained for such holy Ministrations cannot but profane abuse and abase them by their abominable arrogancies and sacrilegious usurpations which are the greatest abuses of you and the whole Nation Help to restore the dignity and Authority of the Evangelical Ministry to its Pristine honour and reverence to that Sanctity and Majesty which becomes the deputation and vicegerency the Command and Commission of your blessed God Saviour Let not that lie despicable and trampled under the feet of vile men which is a means and the onely ordinary to instruct to convert to sanctifie to confirme to comfort to save your and your childrens soules Let not that office and function be made triviall despicable and execrable among men
the Lords prayer and the ten Commandements to all which I suppose they all are ready privately to say Amen How sad a prospect is it to see those men who professe such zeal for Church Government and good Discipline to be so little governed or correspondent in any wise communion and discreet subordination among themselves And all this while every plausible preacher is ambitious rather to ordain and governe others after his own fancy than to be ordained and governed as a Minister after the Apostolicall pattern and that one ancient forme which was universally owned and uniformly used in Christs Church both for the ordination and subordination of Ministers CHAP. IX IN order therefore to invite all able Orthodox and honest Ministers to some Christian correspondency and fraternall accord it will not be amisse for me to present both to your equanimous wisdome O worthy Gentlemen and to your piety what I humbly conceive the best Medium to be used in so great and good a work which must be tenderly and impartially carried on by a serious discovery and discerning First what is really good usefull and commendable in any party that this may be allowed and preserved agreed to and embraced by all Secondly what either is or seems defective or superfluous evill or inconvenient scandalous or dangerous on any side that this may be either pared off and removed since it may be well spared or else in reason and Religion in piety and charity so qualified and moderated as may comply with what is truely good and usefull for the publick on all sides First then to begin with Episcopacy not as it enjoyes or loseth the benefits of secular favour in estate honour or jurisdiction which are not essentiall to it any more than cloths are to the man but as it appeares in its Apostolick primacy of Order in its Catholick centre of Unity in its chief power for Ordination and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction which it ever enjoyed among good Christians though it were never so poore and abased by civill powers as it was in Primitive times of persecution for 300. yeares The reall good of true Episcopacy which undoubtedly hath the clearest best and most ancient title to ordination Church-Government according to the custome and prescription of all Ages for 1500. years is Decency Order Unity Authority Stability Paternall Presidency Grave Government with subordination of younger to the elder and inferiours to superiours agreeable to the rules of right reason and the measures of the best polities military civill and religious Here are the aptest remedies and conservatives against Schismes the fittest mediums for Catholick Councils for correspondencies conventions and Communion of Churches not in popular rabbles and heady multitudes but in their chief Presidents and representatives In this is best kept up as an Uniformity of particular Churches so a Catholick Conformity to the Church universall when Primitive purest and most persecuted which without any peradventure did follow the Apostolick prescription and pattern in all things of so universall use and reception Upon the head of Episcopacy as upon the hill of Hermon hath the dew of heaven the blessings of God as in temporall enjoyments so in all spirituall gifts and graces most plentifully faln and from that to all the lower valleys and inferiour parts of the Church To this it is that all the most learned moderate and wise men in all the Christian world of what ever party or side they are in other things whether Latine or Greek Lutheran or Calvinian Protestant or Papist all agree in this that Episcopacy is the ancientest and aptest the wisest and noblest the onely Apostolick and Catholick consequently the best and compleatest of Governments in the Church containing in its right constitution and use all the pretended excellencies of all other Governments and something more than any of them as the crown and perfection of all The evills defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy and rising not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops are pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously arbitrarily and alone without any due regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was anciently given to Christian people or to that fraternall counsell and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters or such Consistoryes of choise Ministers who possibly may for wisdome piety and ability be equall to the Bishop however they are inferiour in order and authority As the complete good of presidentiall and paternall Episcopacy deserves above all other formes to be esteemed desired and used in the Church so it may easily and happily be enjoyed if the personall faults and failings of Bishops be prevented and avoided which is no hard matter where Bishops are chosen as anciently they were by the suffrages of the Presbyters or Ministers of the Diocese either personally present or to avoid noise and tumult incident to many by their proxyes and representees chosen and sent from their severall distributions The Bishop thus chosen is easily kept within bounds of moderation if he do nothing of publick concerne validly and conclusively without the presence counsell and concurrence of his appointed Presbyters being further responsible for any misgovernment to such conventions of the Clergy as are meet to be his judges and are by the Laws appointed so to be Certainly these limits supports and ornaments of Episcopacy would easily restore it to and keep it in the compasse of its Primitive beauty honor and usefulnesse to the Church The good of Presbytery especially in conjunction with Episcopacy is grave and impartiall counsell serious discussion and well-advised deliberation arising from many learned and Godly men which is as the joynt and concurrent assistance of all the Clergy whose publick suffrages may carry all things Ecclesiastick as with lesse partiality so with more authority most satisfactorily to Ministers and people too yea and with lesse odium or envy upon any one man as Bishop or President in cases that seem lesse popular or in censures that are more heavy Beyond all this some men cry up Presbytery in its Aristocratick influence as the great Choak-peare of Antichrist as the best receipt in the world to make the Pope burst in pieces like the pitch and haire which Daniel mixed to split Bel and Dagon This this they say is the strongest sense against all tyranny usurpation and ambition in Church-men the great conservative not of an absolute parity but of those ancient priviledges which are due to all Ministers also of those liberties and indulgences which are the peoples darling while they see all Church-matters managed not by private and partiall monopolies but by publick and generall complacencies of all sober and good men at least the major part of them The evils of Presbytery in a parity or
part of the whole body so it exerciseth this authority with such confusion and passion with so much Childishnesse and petulancy that there is little or nothing of due subordination feare reverence and submission as to any Divine Authority as of Conscience of or for Christs sake but every one takes offence when he listeth growes froward and insolent divides and so destroyes as much as in him lyes and at as easie a rate as one doth crush a worme those petty bodies and puny Churches which are indeed but Infants Embryo's and Pygmies compared to that stature and strength that procerity and puissance which of old was preserved and ever ought to be in the Church of Christ when it hath its peace and growth not shred into poor patches and pittifull parcels but united maintained and managed in conspicuous combinations in ample and august proportions in which may well be contained many thousands of Christian people some hundreds of worthy Presbyters and Deacons under some one or more venerable Bishops in so holy so happy and so handsome a subordination or dependency as was of old that whatever was done by the Authority of those that ruled or the Humility of those that obeyed all was done with Charity and Unanimity while excellent Bishops knew how to keep the true temper of Christian Government and both Presbyters and people concurred with them in filial obedience and fraternall love CHAP. X. THus we see every party or side however it justifie or magnifie it selfe yet it falls under either the blame or jealousie of its rivals as defective or excessive yet not so much in the fundamentals of Religion or main points either for Doctrine Worship Duty or Manners as chiefly in matters of Ordination Discipline and Government Nor is the difference here so broad that any side denies them as necessary both in the parts and whole in greater and lesser proportions for the Church of Christ but the reall dispute is who shall mannage and execute them in whom the chief power and Authority shall reside whether eminently in Bishops or solely in Presbyters or supremely in the people as the Alpha and Omega the first recipient and the last result of Church-power All sides except Fanaticks Seekers and Enthusiasts seem to agree as in the Canon of the Scripture so in the soundnesse of the faith in the sanctity of divine mysteries in the celebration of them by such as are some way ordained and authorised for that holy service also in the participation of them by such onely as are in the judgement of Charity worthy or meet to be partakers of them All agree in the main Christian graces virtues and morals required in a good Christians practise yet still each party is suspected and reproched by others the brisk Independent boasts of the Liberty simplicity and purity of his way yet is blamed for Novelty Subtilty Vulgarity Anarchy the rigid Presbyterian glories in his Aristocratick Parity and levelling community which makes every petty Presbyter a Pope and a Prince though he disdain to be a Priest yet is taxed for petulancy popularity arrogancy and novelty casting off that Catholick and ancient order which God and Nature Reason and Religion all civill and military policy both require and observe among all societies Episcopacy justly challengeth the advantages right and honor of Apostolick and Primitive Antiquity of universality and unity beyond any pretenders yet is this condemned by some for undue incrochments and oppressions upon both Ministers and peoples ingenuous Liberty and Christian priviledge by a kind of secular height and arbitrary soveraignty to which many Bishops in after-ages have been betrayed as by their own pride and ambition so by the indulgence of times the munificence of Christian Princes and sometimes by the flatteries of people Take away the popular principle of the first which prostrates Government to the vulgar Take away the levelling ambition of the second which degrades Government to a very preposterous and unproportionate parity Take away the monopoly of the third which seems to ingrosse to one man more than is meet for the whole each of them will be sufficiently purged as I conceive of what is most dangerous or noxious in them for which they are most jealous of and divided from each other Restore to people their Liberty in some such way of choosing or at least approving their Ministers and assenting to Church-censures as may become them in reason and conscience restore to Presbyters their priviledges in such publick counsel and concurrence with their Bishops as may become them lastly restore to Bishops that Primitive precedency and Catholick presidency which they ever had among and above Presbyters both for that chief Authority or Eminency which they ever had in ordaining of Presbyters and Deacons also in exercising such Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Censures that nothing be done without them I see no cause why any sober Ministers and wise men should be unsatisfied nor why they should longer stand at such distances and defiances as if the Liberties of Christian people the Privileges of Christian Presbyters and the Dignity of Christian Bishops were wholly inconsistent whereas they are easily reconciled and as a threefold cord may be so handsomely twisted together that none should have cause to complaine or be jealous all should have cause to joy in and enjoy each other Bishops should deserve their eminency with the assistance counsel and respect of their Presbyters Bishops and Presbyters might enjoy the love reverence and submission of Christian people both people and Presbyters might be blessed with the orderly direction and fatherly protection of the Bishops all should have the blessings of that sweet subordination harmony and unity which best becomes the Church of Jesus Christ both in the Governors and Governed in Ministers and People wherein we see the most Antiepiscopall Presbyters and refractory people cannot but be so sensible by their own sufferings of the want of some principle of order some band of unity and some ground of due Authority among them that they are forced to make use of some Moderator Chaire-man or Prolocutor as a kind of temporary Pilot and arbitrary Bishop there being no regular moving of popular bodies in Church or State without such an head or President as the rudder of a ship whose order as it is usefull so then most when it is fixed and confirmed with a valid power and venerable authority which are the maine wheeles of all Government As for the Sacramentall scrutinies and other holy severities to be used in any part of Christian Discipline with charity and discretion however the Presbyterian and Independent preachers have very much sought in this point to captate popular applause and exalt themselves above measure as if they exacted farre greater rigors of preparatory sufficiency and sanctity than the Episcopall Clergy ever did or do either require or practise Yet is this but either a vapour or a fallacy or a calumny in respect of the
the Master of the harvest the blessed God tolerates as to mans Discipline those to grow in the same field of his visible Church in this world who differ as much in point of true grace as wheat and tares do in their nature and worth So that as the curiosity and confidence of Episcopall Divines is far lesse than that of those other preachers so their candor modesty and charity is much more becoming wise grave and sober Ministers whose care must be humbly to do that work which God hath required of them and to leave his own operations discoveries and judgements to his all-seeing eye and Almighty power as St. Cyprian expresseth the sense and practise of Christian Bishops and Presbyters in his time as to Church-scrutiny and examination The strictnesse of worthy Episcopall Divines is such in things that are rationall grave wise and truly religious that no man exceeds their desires designes endeavours and principles in soundnesse and diligence of preaching in the warmth and discretion of praying in the sanctity and solemnity of celebrating Christian mysteries in the serious dispensation of Ministeriall power and the usefull execution of Church-censures or Discipline even to fasting prayers teares penitentiall mortifications in themselves and due restitutions to others in cases of injury so for reconciliation and some speciall works of bounty and charity which may testifie a self-revenge and most satisfaction to others They are ambitious to excell in nothing more than in well-doing and patient suffering in all the waies and offices of Piety Humility Obedience Peace and Charity yea such is their moderation concession and recession from their wonted practise and indulged priviledges or power by mans law that they not onely approve but desire the joynt counsell and concurrence of grave and worthy Presbyters in all things of Ecclesiastick Ministry and publick concernment yea they allow Christian people their sober Liberty as of presence and conscience so of objection and approbation in all proceedings where they are interessed that they may either fairely testifie their full satisfaction or else produce the grounds of their dissatisfaction in all things that concern their advantages in Religion All which the glorious Primate of Armagh testifies in his late printed Treatise of reconciling Episcopall and Synodicall power in the Church-Government If the earnest pleaders for Presbytery and the sticklers for Independency which are the professed extirpators of Episcopacy had the same equanimity and calmnesse in them as the moderate Episcopall men have I do not see what could hinder them from giving the right hand of fellowship to each other certainly it cannot be the reall concernments of Christs glory and the good of Christian soules but particular factions oblique biasses and some partiall popular respects which continue such mis-understandings distances and animosities between the Episcopall Divines the Presbyterian Preachers and the Independent Teachers who thus severed from each other lose all the great advantages and blessings which they and the whole Church might enjoy if they could wisely humbly and meekly close in one subordination and harmonious order as did all Christian Bishops Presbyters Deacons and People in Primitive times of which St. Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Jerom with many other writers give us a thousand clear instances and happy experiences The inordinate heates of the chief patrons and ring-leaders as to any of these new waies and parties would soon allay and coole if their petty policies secular interests self-seekings and popular complacencies were wholly laid aside if these wedges were once pulled out of mens hearts their hands would soon close together Momentary advantages would soon give way and vanish if all Ministers were possessed with that great and good Spirit which directs all believers to things that are eternall chiefly looking at Gods glory Christs honor the Churches peace and the salvation of all mens souls Petty spirits opinions and projects are the pests of the Church and of Christian Religion these betray it to the enemies of it such as seek to abase it to divide it and to destroy it CHAP. XI And here because I suspect and see that the designe of the new Associating parties seems chiefly to unite Presbyterian and Independent principles and interests together that Presbyters and people as Teaching and Ruling Elders might fully possesse themselves of all Church-Power though to their own confusion and this Churches desolation excluding all Ministers of Episcopall principles pleas and perswasions further than they list humbly to submit to truckle under and comply with those Ministers who resolve to ordain to censure and suspend to excommunicate and anathematize to dictate and regulate all things in Religion without owning any authority in or making any ingenuous offer or addresse to the venerable Bishops yet surviving in Engl. or to those Divines who are still conform to the Church of England but all the claimes and interests of Episcopacy must be either smothered or slubbered over or shuffled into the meteor of a moderator and the phantasme of a Prolocutor as if there never had been nor yet were any thing considerable either in the persons of these Bishops and Ministers or in those many strong pleas and cleare allegations of Scripture-pattern and divine prescription of Apostolick practise and imjunction of Catholick imitation and perswasion in all the consent of ancient Councils Fathers and Historians yea in the judgment of all the best Christians Presbyters and people of old nay nor in the confessions votes and desires of the most learned pious Reformers both at home and abroad that either enjoy Episcopacy or feel their want of it and heartily wish for it but all must be slighted as childish or popish as obsolete or ridiculous which is brought and believed by so many excellent persons in behalf of Episcopall eminency and authority Yea as if all the losses sorrowes and sufferings of so many pious learned reverend and most excellent Bishops in England together with the miseryes of many orderly and worthy Clergy men that were subject to them and the laws were so just that they were never to be pittied nor any way relieved as if all the insolencies of many Presbyters and the petulancies of many people were highly to be commended as great helps and furtherances to a new Reformation of Religion as if there were nothing of uncharitableness oppression revenge sacriledg and exorbitancy so much as to be thought on or repented by any one of them no lesse than complained of by their Episcopal brethren who are become their enemies because they have told them the truth and charge them with inconstancy immoderation popularity schisme faction sedition and the like so stiffe and unrelenting are some Antiepiscopall men to this day who after all these representations of truth wipe their mouthes and harden their hearts as if there were no error evill or transport in their hands or hearts alwaies aggravating by a vile and vulgar oratory the rigors
of all holy men in all Churches before your time Can you prefer the factious fancies of one Aerius or Acolythus or Ischyras of old before all the famous Bishops Presbyters and Councils Can you honestly plead St. Jerom for your Presbytery till you reconcile him with himself who is plaine and punctuall for Episcopall eminency and onely pleads at most for the joynt Counsel and assistance of Presbyters in which rank himself was which I and all sober men do earnestly desire as best and safest for the Church yea and for Bishops too Shall one David Blondel or Walo Messalinus that is Salmasius men indeed of excellent Learning yet obliged as Pet. Moulin confesseth of himself in his Epistolary dispute with the most Learned Bishop Andrewes to plead what might be for the enforced stations and necessitated conditions of those Presbyterian Churches with which they were then in actuall fellowship and Church-Communion shall I say these two men which are the greatest props for Presbytery who yet are allowers of Episcopacy though not as absolutely necessary yet as best for the Polity and Government of the Church where they may be had be put into the balance against all the ancient and modern assertors of Episcopacy or shall the votes of the late Assembly be a just counterpoise against all the chief Reformed Divines at home and abroad as Calvin Peter Martyr Bucer Zanchy Chemnitius Gerard and many others who are all well known to be for Episcopacy and Bishops if they will be Fathers and Fautors of the true Christian and Reformed Religion as Bishops in Engl. were Did not Deodate from Geneva Salmasius from Leiden write hortatory though concealed letters to the chief sticklers of late for Presbytery in England advising them to acquiesce in and blesse God for such a regulated Episcopacy as had obtained and might best be retained in England Have not others abroad much deplored their want of such Episcopacy and such Bishops as England happily enjoyed since the reformation and ever before Can the late Scotized Assembly modestly pretend to better light clearer spectacles more discerning eyes or more honest hearts for Religion and due Reformation for Christs honor and this Churches happinesse than all the ancient Councils or the modern Convocations and Nationall Synods of Engl. Or can it now at last seem either an unreasonable expectation in Episcopall Ministers or an unconscientious condescention in those of the Presbyterian and Independent parties to turne their Extemporary Presidents or Momentary Moderators into fixed and deserving Bishops can it be an hard matter for them to conforme to uniforme Antiquity who have so long gratified various novelty What great matter were it for them so far to satisfie the consciences of Episcopall men yea and the interests of all sober Ministers as not to suffer any further Innovation or longer abscission or total interruption or final abruption to befal the Catholick Order and Authority of Episcopacy in this Church the restoring of which would no way injure their own true interests as Presbyters or patrons for the people who might both have and enjoy all those ingenuous Liberties and Priviledges which they justly claim short of an absolute sole and soveraigne power in Church-Government which is never to be trusted either in common peoples or common Presbyters hands I ask these Acephalists who will indure no head but that on their own shoulders whether the City of London is worse governed because it hath a Lord Maior among and above the Aldermen and Common Councel whether the Colledges in the Universities or the Companies and Fraternities in Cities are lesse happily ordered because they have Presidents or Masters and Wardens in them and over them whether they think it were better for an Army to have no Colonels or Commanders in chief but all military Counsels and transactions should be managed in war and peace by a meer Democratick or popular way as every souldier fancied his own valour and ability I doubt not but in all these parts and proportions of good Government sober men stand convinced that they are then best when Counsel and Order make up the Majesty and completenesse of Authority by subordination of all and the suffrages of many joyned to the eminency of one worthy person in their severall precincts stations and jurisdictions Nor can I think that chief Governors can be hereticall irrationall irreligious or Antichristian onely in the point of Church-Goverment as if this polity and fraternity beyond any other were exclusive or incapable of that order and eminency which is the Crown and completion of Government which is used in all other Societies and ever was so in the Churches of Christ In order therefore to draw the designed plat-forme of Ecclesiasticall Communion from the novelty partiality and popular policies of Associations to its just proportions and due dimensions my last quaere or proposall to my brethren the Ministers is whether all things considered in cool thoughts and consciencious tempers it were not worthy of all Learned Godly and sober Ministers first to unite themselves in their judgements counsells and desires with all singlenesse of hearts and mutual brotherly kindness and then humbly to crave leave of the civill powers to permit them to cast themselves into such prudent and orderly combinations for Church-Government as might best suite as with the peace and prosperity of this Church so with the Primitive and Catholick way of Christs Church thereby satisfying all honest desires and pious interests of all considerable parties That neither Bishops should be wholly ejected as superfluous nor yet Presbyters despised as meer ciphers nor Christian people any way oppressed as slaves or beasts who having each of them their severall honest interests and just uses wil better attaine their desires in an happy conjuncture than in any separations which first weaken them apart then destroy them all Nor may this model of Church-union and Government be thought a meer Idea or Utopian fancy experience of all times and the best times for Religion as Christian and reformed that ever England or any Nation enjoyed assures us that it is not onely feisable but every way most commendable as most agreeable to every honest interest and indeed every way completest for the glory of God the honor of Christ the good of this Church and the Communion with all other either Christian or Reformed For by this meanes the scandall and shame of late Schismes would be removed the ancient Ecclesiacall succession continued the grand power of Ordination will be neither various nor defective neither innovated not altered the Ministeriall Office and Authority will be most authentick and undoubted the minds of all Learned and sober men will be satisfied their heads hearts tongues and hands united Christian charity and brotherly Communion best restored the reverence and Majesty of Religion also the honor and dignity of the Ministry as Christian and Reformed would be mightily recovered the Peace and Unity of this famous and well-reformed Church
would be established and the tranquillity of the Nation highly setled and confirmed upon the best foundation of peace that can be among mankind In all which things we have and do on all sides so far extremely suffer as we differ by such unreasonable distances and uncharitable defiances first among Ministers which are presently followed with all disorder lukewarmenesse irreligion profaneness arrogancy Atheism Affectation and Faction among the people in England chiefly as I conceive upon this account The needlesse variating shifting and changing of that Primitive plat-forme that Apostolick and Catholick order and succession of Ecclesiasticall Authority and Ministeriall power in this Church which hath ever been owned with religious reverence and conscience in Engl. ever since it was Christian preserved as sacred by the most pious Princes honored as Divine by the most Religious and reformed Parlaments prospered by the speciall benignity and grace of God peaceably enjoyed by all devout judicious and humble Christians to the unspeakable comfort of their souls living and dying when they knew who were their Bishops Pastors and spirituall Fathers owning them with all due respect and love as in Christs stead submitting to them for conscience sake as to the Lord and receiving from them good instructions just reproofes holy comforts and heavenly Mysteries not as from man but God after the rule of the Scriptures and the example of the best Christians in all ages who looked upon Episcopacy or the Government of the Church as fixed completed and exercised chiefly by Bishops assisted with worthy Presbyters not onely as a book of a larger volume greater print and fairer binding than Presbytery or Independency that is the sole power of Presbyters or people by themselves but they looked upon the Episcopall eminency as having more in it of Apostolick power and Ecclesiasticall Authority both in point of ordination and jurisdiction than is either in Presbyters or people by themselves Bishops and Presbyters being as the eyes and hands which are not more members of the body than the leggs and feet yet they are the more noble parts and have more of publick use and virtue as to inspection direction and operation for the common good of all parts in the body No wonder then if the honor of all Religion be much abated if the renown of this Reformed Church be thus abased no wonder that Presbytery it self is so baffled and Independency despised no wonder that all the Office Power and Authority of Ministers together with their persons be reduced to such a low ebb and almost quite exhausted when Bishops the grand Cisternes and chief Conduites of all Ecclesiasticall Orders and Ministeriall Authority as derived from Christ and his Apostles are not onely bruised and crackt but utterly broken cut off and cast away whom yet no Presbyter or Independent of any learning or forehead can deny actually to have been in all ages used and esteemed as the constant successors and immediate substitutes of the Apostles first invested with that power by the Apostles themselves after their decease chosen by the Presbyters and after consecrated by other Bishops to be as the prime receptacles conservators and conveyers of all Ecclesiasticall Power and Ministeriall Authority not onely as Teachers of Divine truths preachers of the Gospell and dispensers of holy Mysteries in common with Presbyters but as chief Fathers Pastors and Rulers of those larger flocks which constituted those famous ancient Churches which were not limited to the bounds of one family or one congregation or one little parish in which one Preacher or Presbyter may in ordinary duties suffice but they extended to such ample combinations as contained large Cities and their Territories in which were many thousands of Christians many congregations and many Presbyters who all made but one Church or polity Ecclesiasticall under one chief Pastor or Bishop residing with the Presbyters at first in the chief City afterward these were fixed to particular parishes or villages by the care of the Bishops Without whose authority and consent nothing of consequence was done by any in the publick managing of Religion without the just brand and censure of Schismaticall arrogancy it being ever judged that Bishops had derived to them an higher degree of Apostolick power and Church jurisdiction than ever was or could be in any one or many Presbyters or people without them who could not regularly nor never did unblamably ordaine of themselves or by their own sole Authority any Ministers or exercise the censures of the Church in a plenary and absolute jurisdiction without deriving their power from their respective Bishops without whom and against whom few ever acted in any age of the Church and never any good Christian refused subjection to and communion with their lawfull and orthodox Bishops no nor did ever any Hereticks or Schismaticks proceed to such extravagancy as to reject and disclaime all Episcopall order till of later yeares whose example hath little in it to make it compared with much lesse preferred before Catholick customes and Primitive patternes of all ancient Churches what ever glosses the wit of men or their craft or their successes or their Godly and necessary pretences may put upon their variations and schismes CHAP. XII IT is not now my design either to spin out or to wind and summe up that long and tedious thread of dispute which hath been so much snarled and entangled of late yeares in England by popular pens or cleared and unfolded by more able learned and impartiall Writers Who is not weary now and ashamed of those thread-bare allegations drawn from the samenesse or promiscuous use of Names which we know vary with time and must yield to use and custome as if Apostle Evangelist Bishop Presbyter Pastor Preacher Teacher and Ruler they may adde Deacon and Servant and Minister were all one in the equivalency of their power order and authority in the Church For any one nay all these names are in the latitude of their sense given to some one man or officer in the Church yet in the more strict precise and Emphatick sense they denote different gifts orders authorities dispensations and functions as well as degrees in the Church of Christ which did never confound Deacons with Presbyters nor Presbyters with Bishops nor all with the Apostles because the chief Apostles who contained in their ample authority and commission all Ecclesiasticall powers eminently under Christ are sometimes called Presbyters Compresbyters and also Deacons or Ministers of Jesus Christ and servants of the Church deriving all these powers in their severall degrees and orders to Bishops Presbyters and Deacons after them To the first as to a lesser sort of Apostles but chief Rulers or Overseers in the Church they gave the eminent and peculiar power of ordaining Presbyters and exercising spirituall jurisdiction over them as is evident in the power that Timothy and Titus had given them by Commission from the great Apostle St. Paul who certainly in this was conforme to
the Church to judge of a Bishops sufficiencies for that place and charge yet it no way followes that any Bishop hath his Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power from them as the originall of it any more than of his temporall Barony and revenues to which he is admitted by the Presbyters election of him but only he is by their election and comprobation duly admitted and regularly enabled to exercise that power whose roote as that of Presbyters rise and foundation is from a far higher principle and greater authority Just as the Fellowes of a Colledge choose the Master President or Warden at least they admit and accept of him to the possession enjoyment and use of that power which is not in them joyntly or singly without their Master nor yet is it derived from them to the Master but he hath it from the first Founders Will and the Statutes or Customes of the Colledg In like manner the chief Magistrate of any City or Corporation though he be chosen by the Commons or Fraternities in it to his chief place and office yet his power and jurisdiction is not from them but from that Charter or Grant which gave the first constitution to that power and polity So in an Army Officers may choose their Generall to a power above them which he enjoyes and exerciseth beyond what any one or all of them hath right unto or any capacity to use yet doth that power accrew to him from those principles of Right Reason Order Polity and Authority which is derived and vested in him by the suffrage or consent of many who have right and reason thus to advise for their common order and safety by preferring one above themselves by whose suffrages and consents as by the Suns beames united in the centre of a burning-glasse a greater heat and luster of authority is raised than is in any one or many beames scattered and divided By vertue of which principles of reason order and polity as these other civil instances which act by their severall Charters and Statutes are neither left at liberty to choose or not choose any to be their chief Magistrate or Governour nor yet may they in right reason or law exercise that paramount power without him but they are bound in conscience and duty as well as by custome and charter to choose such a chieftane and so to invest him in that power paramount above them yet do they not give the power to that elect person but the person to that power which was setled before them So in the Church of Christ Presbyters of old did freely choose indeed their Bishops at least they consented afterward to accept of him whom the Prince or possibly the people in some cases nominated as a worthy and deserving person yet neither people nor Prince nor Presbyter did conferre upon any Bishop that power Episcopall or that eminent Ecclesiasticall Authority which he had properly in himself to use and exert it after he was thus chosen consecrated and installed No he had it from that grand Charter and Catholick Custome which was in the Church of Christ by which the first Apostolick Canons or Scripture-Statutes and Institutions not only founded but derived this Authority as received from Christ and by the Spirit of Christ conveyed it to their Successors the Bishops in the name and power of Christ for the orderly governing of his Church in all places which hath been and I think ought where God hinders not to be continued in the Churches of Christ by the like successive choise or approbation of Presbyters in the want and vacancy of their Bishops Nor do I doubt but Ministers are sinfully wanting to that duty which they ow to Christ and his Church when they cease to do as much as in them lies what they ought in this point to do might do if themselves did not hinder their choosing and having their lawful Bishops as well as people their Presbyters according to the Primitive rule and Catholick pattern which hath the force of a law it being no lesse necessary for the Church to be orderly governed and thus united than to be taught and communicated to in holy things Nay those two or three Bishops which after the great Nicene Councill were required to joyne in the more solemn consecration and investiture of every Bishop did not impart of their own power but solemnly declared and blessed as good and worthy the choise and investiture of him that was first duly elected by the Presbyters and then further confirmed by their publication and benediction which benediction was never that I read done by any Presbyters as being now inferiours to him whom their consent and suffrages had chosen to that Episcopall degree and eminency above them who as Presbyters might choose their Bishops but yet not depose him this work requiring their appeal to the higher power of a Council or Synod of many Bishops who were in that joynt capacity above any one Bishop and so onely capable to be his judges upon the complaint of Presbyters or people against him As Presbyters have their Office and Authority by Bishops ordination as conduits but not from them as fountaines of it there being but one spring of it which is Jesus Christ so Bishops have their power by Presbyters election as instruments or mediums but not from their donation as the source and originals of their power and authority which is Christs Thirdly Some Presbyters and Independents do with great brow and confidence urge that Bishops are wholly superfluous because Presbyters and any ordinary Preachers two or three or more of them are very able and willing every where to beget their like every petty Presbytery is become a seminary or spawner to ordain Ministers and conferre all degrees of holy orders for which they think themselves no lesse fitted than for preaching and administring Sacraments which they say are employments requiring greater abilities and no lesse authority yea many Country-Presbyters have made themselves and one another of late Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops ordaining Ministers when where and how they list without any Bishop among them And this they say with very good success and acceptance to Country-people who besides the pleasure they take in any daring novelty and insolency in Religion protest to find no lesse judgement discretion and gravity than was heretofore pretended to be in Bishops for that service Nor is it to be doubted say they but the ordination authority and Commission of such Presbyters is as valid as that done by Bishops since these Godly Ministers do so try and examine such as come to be ordained that they commonly pose the best Schollars and soberest men that come to them Further they pray and preach as well as most Bishops did yea they very gravely exhort and charge the ordained brother with as great weight and severity both for gifts and graces Ministeriall as ever the Bishops did though it may be not with so much pomp and formality Hence they deny
the necessity and use of Bishops yea they deny any flaw or defect to be in their new Presbyterian and popular ordinations for want of any other Bishops but themselves who are as pert in their novelty as ever any Prelates were in their antiquity That these Heteroclite or equivocall ordinations have of late been acted in England with much self applause and popular parade by meer Presbyters I well understand but quo jure by what right from God or man by what authority civill or Ecclesiasticall I could never yet see yea I am sure no law of God or men heretofore ever was thought to give any such power to meer Presbyters without yea against their lawfull Bishops insomuch that many learned and sober men have much blamed at least suspected these Presbyterian transactions for Schismaticall presumptions these ordinations for disorderly usurpations at least in such a Church as England was where there were and still are venerable Bishops of the orthodox faith reformed profession and ancient constitution willing and able to do their duty in the point of ordination Which in all ordinary cases appeares to have ever been their peculiar right specially derived to them as Bishops from the Apostles through all successions of times and Churches without any interruption except when some factious and insolent Presbyters ventured to be extravagant and usurpant whom all the learned Fathers venerable Councils and good Christians in the Church every where condemned as most injurious because usurping that Authority which no Apostle no Councill no Bishop ever gave to any that were meer Presbyters in their Ordination and Commission no more than the Lawes or Canons of this Church and State Nor is there as far as I can perceive any one place in Scripture that by any precept or example invests either one or more simple Presbyters with the power of trying and examining of laying on of hands of giving holy orders as from themselves alone of committing or transmitting what they had received to other faithfull men that should be able to teach All which were given to Timothy and Titus as chief Bishops The Pope of Rome indeed animated by those flatterers which would make him the sole Bishop by Divine right and all other Bishops as surrogates to him dependants upon him and derived from him as if there had not been 12 or 13 but onely one â—â—sion â—lick Chaire or prime seat of Episcopacy hath some â—eath given power of ordination to such as were but Presbyters as â—nd read of some Abbots and Priors but it was alwaies to the great scandall of the best Bishops and Presbyters of the Church as contrary to all ancient Orders Canons and Customes of the Church unlesse he first made them as Chorepiscopi or suffragane Bishops But in earnest it is hard to judge whether Popes or Presbyters be most enemies to Catholick Bishops As for the pious pomp and the specious apparences the formall dressings and verball adornings which they say are used by Presbyters in their late Ordinations in England though I never saw any of them yet I have heard and read so much of them as gives me to judge far less to be in them of authority true complete and valid than ought to be For besides the persons not impowered or commissionated to that office there is as I heare no transmitting and so no receiving of the holy Spirit as to that Ministeriall Order and Power which is thereby derived to Ministers as from Christ whatever there may be of godly solemnity and plausible formalities which are usually more studied and affected to please the people there where men are most conscious to the defect of authentick reall and righteous power But all these saintly shewes to wise men signifie nothing no nor the personal abilities either of the ordainers or ordained who cannot by their personall power knowledg virtues graces or private gifts make any Officer in State or in Armies in War or in Peace much lesse in the Church and Ministry of Jesus Christ Alas no private capacity in any man can make the least petty Constable or Bailiffe or Corporall or Serjeant without they first have a publick and lawfull Commission from the fountains of Authority to give them an Authority far beyond any private arrogancy and presumed sufficiency of their own Possibly extraordinary cases may in time be their own excuses in such Churches where Bishops may be all dead or banished or where such as are Orthodox cannot be had and they that are will not ordain any Presbyters without imposing upon them such things as are erroneous and unlawfull but nothing can be pleaded that I yet see no nor doth the candor and charity of Bishop Usher know how to excuse such Presbyters from being Schismaticks factious presumptuous and disorderly who first cast off and forsake such Bishops as are of the same faith and reformed profession worthy and willing able and ready every way authorized by Church and State to do their duty The contempt and rejecting of such Bishops is I fear a great sin before God I am sure a great grievance to such Churches as first suffer those distractions And no doubt it is as a great so a needlesse scandall to most Churches and the best Christians in all the world nor can it be other then a foule reproach and scorn cast on all pious antiquity nor will it prove other than a lasting misery to any Church and Nation that wilfully continues that guilt and defect upon themselves and their posterity especially when God â—s them sufficient meanes to remedy that mischief to supply thâ—â—fects and to compose those differences which are ever followâ—â—he waâ— much more the needlesse expulsion of Primitive Episcopacy For whose power and authority while either Presbyters or people are scrambling they do but make Religion a May-game bring as we see both themselves and their Ministry into contempt for no Presbyters or people can while the world stands ever stamp such an honor and Authority Ecclesiasticall upon themselves as was in all ages and by all Churches consent besides the Scripture-Character and Apostolick signature set upon Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which ever united centred and confirmed power in one man not over all which the Pope affects but over their Dioceses or Provinces A 4 th Objection much flourished by some popular Preachers against Bishops and all Episcopacy in any Authority and eminency above Presbyters is that Episcopacy is the root of Popery that Prelates were the parents of Antichrist that every Bishop hath a Pope in his belly and that the Pope is no other than an overgrown Bishop that to rout all Popery and raze the foundations of Romes pride all Prelacy or Episcopacy must be stubbed up My answer to this is that this objection sounds as little of truth as it savours much of malice especially in any Presbyters of any learning and ingenuity who well know the abasing of Bishops is the design and hath
been the magnifying of the Popes of Rome beyond their line and measure of old That if Episcopacy could have held its Primitive and ancient parity according to the Apostolick seates and paternes that one Chaire of Rome had not so far exalted it self in this Western Church above all those that are therefore called Gods because the power of Christ and the word of God came to them as much as to Rome and is to be derived by them to their successions T is certain that Bishops did not at first as Nimrod set up themselves by any private ambition they were either constituted by the Apostles yet living as Irenaeus Eusebius Tertullian and others tell us or when the Apostles were dead the Presbyters of every chief city and Territory or Diocese did as S. Jerom tells us choose some Apostolick and eminent person from among themselves to be their Bishop not compelled hereto by any civill powers nor by any popular force or faction but meerly moved so to do by the precept and pattern the constant custome and imitation of the Apostles which were so full of pregnant reason necessary order and holy policy that nothing could be better If any then be to be blamed for giving occasion to the Papal ambition and what some count the great Antichrist who is as Isid Hispal defines by so much the more Antichrist by how much more he professeth Christ yet lives or teacheth contrary to the rule and example of Christ it must be either the Apostles themselves who first designed Bishops as their successors or the succeeding Presbyters of every Church who to avoid Schisme and Confusion first chose successive Bishops in every Church after the death of the Apostles not onely in obedience to their commands and conformity to their pattern but in order to preserve necessary polity Primitive unity and Apostolick authority in the Church of Christ And yet now behold by a strange vertigo or change of Counsels Presbyters must in all hast pull down all Bishops the better to avoid Antichrist who lies as much in confusion as error in schisme as in heresie none of which will ever advance Reformation or setling of true Religion So that it is an intolerable insolency and rudenesse of some men to say or suspect that every Bishop whom the Apostles themselves or the Presbyters after them first constituted were but spawnes and embryo's of Antichrist when many yea most if not all the first and best Bishops for 300. yeares were not onely excellent preachers and wise governours after the way of the Apostles but such resolute Martyrs and confessors as few of the more delicate Presbyters and softer-fingred Independents of our age would willingly carry the least stick of their fagots or touch the least coale of their fires or bear the least stroke and burden of their torments As then the Papall Tyranny so the Presbyterian Parity and Independent Anarchy may and will give I fear greater advantages to Antichrists than ever Episcopall order and eminency either did or can do while wisely setled and managed Fifthly another great bugbeare or terriculament which scares some from looking back with the least cast of favour on Episcopacy is the terror they pretend to have had of some Bishops sharpnesses and severities of which say they many godly men feel the smart to this day My answer is I do not go about to justifie or excuse any unreasonable unseasonable indiscreet or uncharitable actions of any Bishops who are justly to be blamed so far as they exceeded their Commission and power by the Lawes of man or Christ and the Church given to them not for destruction but edification Though some Bishops might shew themselves to be but men yea and some of them to be harsh and rash enough in their passions yet these failings and infirmities they neither had nor discovered as they were Bishops no more than tyrants do tyrannize as they are Magistrates or Judges are corrupt as they are Judges or Presbyters are partiall popular and imprudent as they are preachers It must still be granted that not onely some but very many yea most Bishops in England since the Reformation were as Angels of God in their light and love in their excellent learning and worthy living every way which sufficiently proves that piety and Episcopacy may as well meet in one man as piety and Presbytery or sanctity and Independency If any of these good Bishops seemed sometime too severe to some that were rudely refractory against the lawes then in force in this Church and State possibly those very persons that most complaine of them will be found not short of the sharpest of them if any of these complainers have suffered by any Bishops rigors I am sure they have had their full and excessive revenge upon them But to avoid the feared exorbitancy of Episcopacy for the future it will be sufficient effectually to restore that Commune Consilium Presbyterorum common Counsel and concernment of worthy Presbyters to their pristine use and assistance without which Bishops should do nothing publick and authoritative according to the Canon of the Councel of Cartharge and agreeable to the judgement as of St. Jerom so of St. Cyprian Ignatius and all the ancients This as I formerly touched is the best preservative of Bishops authority of Presbyters priviledges of peoples liberty and the Churches safety As I believe Episcopacy by this time sees it did it self as much wrong as any men could design in doing many things of publick concern without the presence counsel and concurrence of their gravest and most discreet Presbyters and as I think that modest and sober Presbyters shall do not onely themselves a right but the best Bishops too in their Christian advise and assistance to bear partem solicitudinis part of the care trouble odium and envy which is prone to offend all good Bishops as all good Governours in Church and State so I conclude that violent Presbyters have done themselves the Bishops the people and this whole Church as much injury and indignity as they well can by rudely rejecting and obstinately refusing as much as in them lies to readmit the Order and Honor of Episcopall Presidency which indeed was the common Honor of the whole Clergy Episcopacy we know preferred many Ministers of the Gospel to be as Lords and Peers in England whereas Presbytery Independency have purely levelled and abased all Clergy-men to a plebeian condition if not to be slaves and vassals yet to be very vile and servile even in the esteem of the vulgar Certainly it was in prudence to be desired by all wise Presbyters and other Ministers rather to bear much under the burden of the Episcopal yoak which was to them more honos than onus a dignity than any depression than thus by a precipitant impatiency to run themselvs their whole Order or function into a plebeian slavery while they affected an inordinate liberty It is better for birds to be
desire may be extended to themselves The contentions and confusions in Religion must needs be endlesse if they be left to the naturall passions of most men Then they may find happy conclusions when those that are Rulers and Teachers of others and so not onely more learned but more prudent unpassionate and composed as Magistrates and Ministers ought to be beyond any men when I say these men do apply the utmost of their Piety Power Parts Zeal and Discretion by fit meanes to compose all controversies among themselves which will then soon decay and dye among the common people The Spirits and reputation of Ministers are commonly the chiefe sparks and bellowes that first kindle and after increase to publick flames the fires of dissentions and disaffections both among themselves and the people once extinguish or moderate these enormous heates among Ministers there will be no such conflagrations of Religion among ordinary people which have of late been more like the black and confused eructations of mount Aetna than the sweet and holy fires of mount Sion or the flames and perfumes of Gods Altar and Temple Which that I might be some meanes to restore to this Church and Nation I have thus made my amicable humble and Christian addresse as to all good men so chiefly to all my Brethren and Fathers of the Ministry in England who are persons of any competent abilities and considerable worth as to the duty and dignity of that great and holy that dreadfull Angelick Divine employment I confesse I cannot but passionately deplore as other mens so my own solitude for these many yeares by reason of that uncorrespondency as to any fraternall meeting with any of them in any publick way being hereby deprived of that great Comfort Improvement Joy and benefit which might be had by those excellent abilities and graces which are in many of them It is great pitty good and able Ministers should be longer severed whose brotherly union and frequent convenings in orderly and publick meetings would not onely set a greater edge and brightness on their studies and parts which alone and confined onely to Country-auditors and associates grow rusty flat and dull but they would highly advance the progresse of the Reformed Religion both in profession and power giving hereby a mighty check as to the encrease of profaneness atheism so of Popery and superstition mightily conducing also to the generall peace of the Nation by allaying those unchristian feuds and uncivill heates which every where so much at present affect infect and disaffect the minds both of Ministers and people But these meetings of Ministers must be authoritative not arbitrary not precarious but subpenall otherwise the restiveness laziness wantonness and factiousness of some will mar all either forbearing all meetings or perturbing them if they be not kept in some awe as well as order by their betters and superiours If I knew any Motives more prevalent any words more pathetick any charmes of love more effectuall any grounds of piety or polity more pregnant if Writing Preaching Praying Beseeching if any Words any Teares any Sighs might work upon Ministers of all sides to bring them to this blessed accord to publick friendly and fraternall meetings to grave orderly and comely conventions which would be of great use as well as honor to them I should in nothing be more prodigall of my time spirits and paines Then would Ministers be able to redeeme their Persons their Office their Orders their Sacred Authority their Religion from vulgar contempt from mechanick arrogancy from those base prostitutions and levellings to which those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrae filii sons of the earth vile and mâ—ane men have of late yeares debased as the holy Ministry so all heavenly Mysteries then would that rust and rusticity that plebeian Spirit and ungenerous temper which possesseth many Ministers out of feare and flattery be removed then would that scurfe and mosse that barrenness and canker which is now upon Christian and Reformed Religion be taken away and that floridness with fruitfulnesse that beauty with holinesse be restored which Tertullian so excellently sets forth among Primitive and persecuted Christians in their assemblies In which were highly conspicuous a reverentiall fear of God a modest and mutuall regard to each other a most intentive diligence to duties a most solicitous care of themselves and others a most prepared and deliberate communicating in holy things carried on by the most deserving eminency of some and the most religious subordination or consciencious subjection of others all parts of the Church and Clergy were happily united and God was all in all his glory the centre his love the circle or band of all their aimes and actions their hearts and thoughts The venerable piety and almost Divine Majesty of such conventions wherein Bishops Ministers and people were of one heart and one mind in the Lord advanced the reverence of their censures monitions reproofes abstentions and excommunications to so great a regard and just dread that no good Christian great or small disdained the authority of the Bishop or slighted the judgement of the Clergy which judged and declared the mind of the whole Church because according to the mind of the Lord Christ and of God himself Then was it that lapsed and scandalous sinners were soonest brought to be penitents in so humble yet comfortable a manner that as St. Jerom saith of Fabiola and St. Ambrose of others They furrowed their faces with sorrowes and plowed their cheeks with teares they paved the Churches with their prostrate bodies which were so penitently pallid and deplorable that they seemed only living corpses and breathing carkases So few Christians did then entertain their sins with smiles or laugh at those Teachers that reproved them or schismatically separate from those Orthodox Bishops with the Clergy that justly censured them as obnoxious to Gods judgements and unworthy of Christian Communion till they amended no man or woman ever lived or died in peace of conscience whose soul was justly wounded with these arrowes the censures of the Church they either drank up their sensuall and proud Spirits and brought them to repentance or they sank them into a desperate state both of obstinate sin and eternall horror Such holy and happy Assemblies of Ministers consisting of authoritative Bishops and orderly Presbyters were farre more to their honor and comfort more befitting their breeding and learning their labours and industry their parts and worth their sacred function and dignity than to be pittifully scared and over-awed by Country-Committees and a new sort of Tryars where grave Ministers are oft catechised chastised and contemned by such men as are some of them at least of very moderate that I say not meane abilities except their estates be instead of all reason and Religion all learning worth and wisdome very incompetent judges God knowes of the Doctrine and Manners of Ministers unlesse in matters of civill misdemeanors for which there
Roman Communion must not the fate of your either miscreant or miserable posterity necessarily be such that their teeth will be so set on edge by the sowre grapes you have eaten and left for them that they will not endure sound Doctrine much lesse wholesome Discipline Thus untaught and ungoverned unbred and unfed in Religion can you expect other from them than all debaucheries immoralities and such Atheisticall indifferences and impudencies as the heart of man easily runs into if left to it self as the Horse and Mule without bit or bridle of Religion and conscience to restraine them May they not have cause in their sad reflections upon the Beauty Order Honor and Happinesse of Religion in England which they may read of in former daies besides the many afflictions and civill dissentions which have and will inevitably follow divided Religion to an irreligion in any Nation may they not in their doubting dying and despairing retreates have cause to count you yea and to curse you as their carelesse and cruell parents who are never quiet or content till you settle your honors estates and civill affaires in some safe posture as you imagine but are wholly negligent as to any religious establishment which many men feare oppose and abhorre lest in cleare waters their faces should appeare the fouler varieties and uncertainties of Religion being most fomented by those whose piety is wholly resolved into policy who never tasted how gracious the Lord is in the waies meanes and fruites of true Religion But for you O my noble Countrimen that have seen and rejoyced in that glorious light of Reformed Religion which shined so long and illustriously in the Church of England how can you with any conscience or comfort leave the world and leave your posterity with your Country exposed to such variety uncertainties distractions deformities and confusions as to the Reformed Religion and its Ministry which makes them look like the Temple of God in Jerusalem after Nebucadnezzar and Nebuzaradan had visited it with fire and sword so defacing and deforming it that it was the pitty of all good men and the scorn of the wicked As Augustus Caesar was wont in his most impotent passion of grief and vexation to teare his haire and cry out Ridde Vare Legiones O Varus restore the Legions of brave and veterane souldiers which thou hast so unadvisedly or unworthily lost when they were slaine by the Germane surprises so may you heare the soberest Christians and truest-hearted English-men in their grief and shame cry out Reddite nobis Religionem Reformatam Uniformem Christianam primaevam Catholicam Reddite Ecclesiae Anglicana priscam pietatem pacem ordinem pulchritudinem patrimonium regimen Majestatem debitam decus antiquum Reddite nobis patres fratres filios spiritales Episcopos atate virtute authoritate venerandos Presbyteros literatura industria humilitate unitate ordine conspicuos Plebem probe instructam modestam sobriam mutua charitate amulam non effrâ—nem infrunitam laceram non erroribus lascivam non novitatibus foedam non scabie rigentem non nimia petulantia deformem non irreligiose Religiosam c. This was the voice of the Church of England while it dared to speake Latine which being now scandalous and reprochfull to many as the language of the Beast not understood by them She is forced to expresse her Prayer in English for mens better understanding Restore restore I beseech you to me to your selves to your country to your posterity the purity the peace the sanctity the solemnity the sobriety the order the honor the unity the solidity the stability the power the efficacy the fruites and works of true Christian and Reformed Religion Restore to us the happinesse of living not onely united in one civill polity as men but in one Ecclesiasticall Correspondency Combination and Communion as Christians It is more for our honor and peace to be Members of one Church than of one Commonwealth to have the same Religion and Devotion than the same Lawes and Statutes Restore to us those prime veines and Catholick conduits of Ecclesiasticall order of Church-power and spirituall authority under Christ those paternall Pastors those Primitive Bishops those successive Apostles That so we may have such Presbyters as have the Catholick Character of due Ordination and the most undoubted Derivation of Ministeriall Authority upon them being at once able and willing duly proved and empowered by Christs deputed Ministers and the whole Church to consecrate and dispense holy Mysteries to us not in the new names of Presbyters or people or Parlaments or Princes onely but in the name of Christ and his Church according to the commission he first gave to the Apostles and they transmitted to their successors in a constant undoubted and uninterrupted succession to this day Redeeme this ancient Church and renowned Nation from those lice and flies those locusts and frogs whose importune malice and wantonnesse seeks to deface and devour whatever yet remaines of the Reformed Religion in England Redeeme all sober Christians whose little life affords them no leisure to play with Religion redeeme them from the Rents and Schismes the raggs and tatters the breaks and divisions the fragments and fractions the chaines and fetters the childish and ridiculous janglings the scandalous and pernicious liberties with which pragmatick Spirits seek to poyson and to imprison their judgements and consciences Nothing is at least ought to be more pressive and urging upon your Honors and Consciences who are persons sensible of these two great regards to God and man than these concernments of true Religion whose influence reacheth to the eternall interest of your own and your posterities soules Nor is their lapsed estate to be helped by faire words and soft pretentions by demure silences and â—ary reserves by State-stratagems and politick artifices by vaporing of reformations and conniving at popular insolencies as if they were tendernesses and liberties due to conscience No the recovery of Religion is to be effected by potent convictions and impartiall suppressions of all enormous opinions and actions by serious trying of errors and establishing of sound Doctrine by just restraining all inordinate liberties by incouraging an able and uniform Ministry by discountenancing all fanatick novelties by composing al uncharitable divisions and by punishing all pragmatick arrogancies which evidently vary from or run counter against that truth order ministry authority and holy Discipline of Religion which Scripture and all Catholick conformity to it have commended to all Christians as Christs will and appointment which being accordingly setled in this Church and State ought not to be contradicted or rudely contemned by any new lights by pretended inspirations or the novel inventions of any man or men whatsoever seem they never so holy so devout so well-affected so sincere so saintly This and other true Churches of Christ did know very well what belonged to the unity sanctity charity and constancy of Religion as Christian and Reformed long before
the new fry of any Factionists or Enthusiasts were known in the English or Christian world Then will the honor of the Reformed Religion recover take root flourish and fructifie again in England when it is by due authority and just severity cleared of all that rust and canker that mossy and barren accretion which of later yeares it hath contracted chiefly for want of those Ecclesiasticall Councils sacred Synods and Religious Conventions which being called and incouraged by civill authority will best do this great work of God and the Church freely and impartially solidly and sincerely learnedly and honestly discussing all things of difference disorder or deformity in Religion These these would by Gods blessing and your encouragement remove in a short time all that putid matter from which the scandals offences and factions do chiefly arise and by which they are nourished in the licentious hearts and lives of some men who dare do any thing that they safely may against Religion These as the ablest and meetest Judges of Religion would soon discerne between the vile and the precious and separate the wheat and the chaffe in Christs floore wisely using the flaile and fan of his word and Spirit CHAP. XV. THerefore is our Religion so miserably lapsed and decayed through the ignorance negligence and impudence of men because it hath not for these many yeares been under such hands as are most proper either for its care and preservation or its cure and recovery Courts of Princes and Councels of State the Spirit of Armies and the Genius of Parliaments are not alone apt agents or instruments for this work though they may be happy promoters and authoritative designers and contrivers of it Saint Ambrose and others of the Ancients observe that it never went well with the sound part of the Church when the disputes of Religion as between the Arrians and the Orthodox were brought into Princes Courts and determined by their Counsellors and Courtiers It was not more piety and modesty than prudence and generosity in Constantine the Great when he had conquered Licinius with other enemies and entirely obtained the Roman Empire when he had power absolute and soveraign enough to have made what Edicts he listed for Religion yet that he then called the Bishops of the Church throughout the Roman world and other venerable Teachers attending them to discusse the differences in Religion to compose the breaches to allay the jealousies to reforme the disorders to search and establish the true faith to confirme the ancient Government to adde vigor to the just Discipline of the Church and due authority to its true Pastors or Bishops All which were happily done by the wisdome piety and moderation of the famous Nicene Council in which Constantine himself was oft present as to his person and Counsell though he never voted or determined any thing of Religion among the Fathers of that glorious Assembly lest he should seem to over-balance or over-awe the truth by his authority or to eclipse the Church by the State This this was that Primitive and Catholick way of Ecclesiasticall Councills and Synods used first by the Apostles and after by all their successors the Martyrly Bishops and Pastorly Confessors of the Church which endured the fiery trialls of heathenish and hereticall persecutions who had Ecclesiasticall Councills and Synods of Church-men for their reliefe and remedy before they had the favour of Christian Princes for their refuge or defence To this proper method for Reforming of any Church and restoring Religion all Princes that were true Patrons and Protectors of the true Church have applied their powers and counsels for the repairing of decayes rectifying disorders condemning heresies vindicating fundamentall truths composing differences and restoring peace in the Church of Christ calling together such Synods and conventions of the Clergy as did beare most proportion to those inconveniences or mischiefes which they sought to remedy either in greater or lesser circuits according as the poyson and infection of Heresie or Schisme had spread it self The welfare of Religion and healing of the Church of Christ was never heretofore left to every private Christians fancy or to particular Presbyters nor yet to single Bishops to act according as their opinions passions and interests might sway them nor was it ever betrayed into the hands of onely secular men either Civill Magistrates or Gentlemen or Tradesmen who are as fit generally for Church-work as Clergy-men are to marshall Armies or to manage battels The building of Gods Tabernacle and his Temple required men of extraordinary gifts and excellent Spirits proper and proportionate to those works As the Leviticall Priests of old did judge not onely of plagues and leprosies but of all controversies about the Law and Religion to whose determination all men were to submit under paine of death And as Aaron standing between the living and the dead stopped the spreading of a plague and mortality among the people even so hath the Lord ordained the Evangelicall Ministers to be as shepherds feeders defenders and rulers in his Church also as Physitians and Fathers of the flock of God whose lips ought to preserve knowledge so as to discerne both the contagion and the cure applying as their duty is such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound Doctrine and Discipline as are both wholesome food and healing physick Certainly all other Lay-undertakers and tamperers with Reformation and Religion are but as Empiricks and Mountebanks having neither that ability nor that authority which is requisite in Religious undertakings But after much paines and charge they alwaies leave Reformation and Religion Church and Clergy more unsearched and unsound unbound and ulcerous than they found them God never following those with the blessing of the end who disdaine to use those orderly meanes which his holy wisdome hath directed them to who lay the Ark of God upon the cart and think to draw it by the beasts of the people when it should be orderly and solemnly born by the shoulders and hands of those that are consecrated to that holy service as the Priests of the Lord which method is not onely more for the honor and solemnity of Christian Religion than for the glory of the blessed God that his name might be sanctified even before the world in the managing of true Religion not flightly or slovenly not with unwashen hands and preposterous confusions but with that holy respect and humble reverence which is due to the Majesty of that God and Saviour whom Christians professe to worship T is ridiculous for Princes and States-men to have the best Musitians for their pleasure the most learned and experienced Physitians for their bodily health the most able and renowned Lawyers for their secular Counsels the gallantest souldiers for their military officers the best Mathematicians for their Engineers and the best Mariners for their Pilots that so these things might succeed to their worldly honor and happinesse and yet in matters of Religion
to content themselves either with no idoneous Physitians and fit medicines or with such quacking applications and applicators as are no way apt for the work having neither skill nor dexterity to handle so tender yet so dangerous sores and wounds as those of Religion many times are not onely affecting the heads of men but coming neerest the very hearts of them yea and I may say these Church-distempers affect the very heart of Christ himself both God and man We find secular Magistrates and Judges many times with Herod and Pilate ready to set Christ at nought and condemne him souldiers we know have mocked him buffeted him crucified him and parted his garments among them But they were his choise Apostles with other ordained Ministers that professed and preached him These these first planted fenced and watered Christian Religion these preserved propagated and pruned the Church of Christ to this day as the husbandmen or labourers of Christs own sending into his vineyard as workers together with God in the great work of saving soules with these Apostles and Ministers he promised to be meaning them and their true successors to the end of the world as he hath been to this day never failing to assist Godly Bishops and other faithfull Presbyters of his Church to do his work as in private so in publick when they did orderly meet as his servants in his name to his glory and his Churches good suffering themselves to be impartially guided by his word and Spirit without serving the factious interests and sinister policies either of Prince or people Then then was it that Councils and Synods appeared to all sober-minded and humble-hearted Christians as the Starre did to the wise men at Jerusalem guiding them to Christ with exceeding great joy in orderly waies of truth and peace becoming Christian Ministers and people which was the blessed effect of the first Church Council we read of where James Bishop of Jerusalem with the Apostles of the Lord as chief and other Elders or Presbyters being met in the presence of Christian people did so consult discusse and resolve the dissensions then risen in the Churches as to send their determinations with this style and title It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us whose Canons were read and received not onely with reverence and conscience but with joy and consolation So welcome and usefull to all good Christians are those meanes which are fitly and wisely applied after Gods method and the Apostles pattern to the reliefe and recovery of the Church The care of summoning and convocating such Ecclesiasticall Parlaments when need requires is worthy the piety and Majesty of Christian Princes and soveraigne Magistrates in whom that Authority resides as nursing Fathers of the Church but certainly the management and transaction of Religious affaires in them by way of devotion disputation and determination is the proper work of Church-men that are Godly Learned Wise and Honest both of Bishops as fixed and chief Rulers of the Church and of grave Presbyters as the Representees of the other Clergy chosen deputed intrusted and empowered by them fully and freely to deliberate and determine in those great concernments as Gods word and their own consciences shall direct them without any to over-awe them or to dictate to them I am not ignorant of the jealousies and prejudices that many even wise and good Christians have of such Assemblies Synods Convocations or Councils as are made up onely of Ecclesiasticks or Clergy-men Whos 's oft unhappy successes Gregory Nazianzen that great Divine and good Bishop complaines of in his dayes when the Arrian faction by the partiality of Emperours infected with their poyson strongly vyed in their Conventions against the Orthodox decisions the ancient Faith and Catholick customes of the Church setting up ever and anon in their juncto's and conventicles as St. Hilary expresseth it Diurnall Creeds and Menstruous Faiths being many times but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theevish Synods furtive Conventicles suborned and slavish Assemblies either transported by humane passions or biassed by partiall affections or levened with popular factions or over-awed by secular powers and sacrilegious policies which made such conventions as the hills of the robbers predatorious oppressors of true Religion pillagers and spoilers of the Church of Christ of which too many sad instances have been in ancient and later daies both at home and abroad Especially when such Assemblies meet not summoned by lawfull Authority not chosen with Ecclesiastick freedome not sitting with completeness of members not voting or disputing with rationall ingenuous and Christian liberties but all things must be carried not after the Nicene but Tridentine fashion as if the holy Ghost were sent to the Assessors in a carriers cloke-bag or a souldiers knapsack the most learned and sober men must be mute and not dare freely to speak their minds without being posted and exposed to popular hatred even to the outraging and hazard of their persons unlesse they speak to that key and tune to which the organe of faction is set These methods of Church Councils and Assemblies I confesse are so Mechanick so Tyrannick so Satanick that nothing is more mischievous to the Church of Christ and true Religion whose condition instead of being thus mended is alwaies marred and betrayed to further errors factions and confusions I pray God deliver his Church from such Conventions where either Lay-men shall over-number and over-awe the Clergy or Clergy-men shall vassalate their consciences to gratifie any potent party and novell faction to the prejudice of that truth faith order ministry and government which were once delivered to the Churches of Christ Not onely England but all Christendome hath cause to curse the day when such snares and stratagems of Satan began to be laid in Synods and Assemblies from thence to take effect on the whole or any part of the Christian Church as eminently in the second Council of Nice the last of Trent and that at Westminster the first setting up Images in Christian Churches to the scandall of Religion the other a thousand new imaginations never owned before as of Christian faith the last which is the first of any that cryed down Episcopacy or Prelacy But the abuses incident to good things through the distempers of men and evill hearts must not exterminate or deprive us of the right use of them for then we should not onely forsake our wits and reason but our meat and drink our clothes and sleep yea and the light of the Sun and breathing in the aire yea our very Sacraments and Scriptures our frequent Sermons and extemporary as well as set prayers yea our Presbyters as well as our Bishops for in all these hony-combes or hives do hornets wasps and drones very oft shrowd themselves by these as St. Austin observes all errors heresies and schismes seek to support and shelter themselves But where such Ecclesiasticall Synods and Councils as were the first so famous Generall ones of
Church in all Ages and places of which we have two expresse witnesses and great exemplifications in the commissions given by Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus both as to ordination and jurisdiction Such as hath been preserved in the Church through all times and places as a sacred depositum of Spirituall power enabling Bishops and Presbyters to act as Ministers of Christ in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit in those holy Offices and Mysteries which are instituted by them for the calling collecting constituting and governing of the Church in a regular society and visible polity which least of all affects or admits any novelty or variety in its holy orders or authority Which great Trust Power and Commission for duly ordaining and sending forth Ministers into the Church of Christ no man not wilfully blind but must confesse that it hath been in all times parts and states of the Church of Christ executed if not onely yet chiefly by the Ecclesiasticall presidents or Bishops in every grand distribution of the Churches polity So as it was never regularly warrantably or completely done by any Christian people or by any Presbyters or Preachers without the presence consent or permission of their respective Bishops in the severall limits or partitions Nor was this great sacred and solemn work of Ordination ever either usurped by Bishops as arrogant and imperious or executed by them as a thing arbitrary and precarious but it was alwaies owned esteemed and used by all true Christians both Ministers and People as an Authority Sacred and Divine fixed and exercised by way of spirituall Jurisdiction and power Ecclesiasticall specially inherent and eminently resident in Bishops as such that is so invested with the peculiar power of conferring holy orders to others even from the hands and times of the Blessed Apostles who had undoubtedly this power placed in them and as undoubtedly ordered such a transmission of it as to Timothy and Titus so to all those holy Bishops that were their Primitive Successors who did as they ought still continue that holy succession to all ages by laying on such Episcopall hands as were the unquestionable Conservators and chief distributers of that Ministeriall power ever esteemed Sacred Apostolick Catholick and Divine being from one fountain or source Jesus Christ and uniformly carried on by one orderly course without any perverting or interrupting from any good Christians either Presbyters or people Nor were they ever judged other than factious schismaticall irregular impudent and injurious who either usurped to themselves a power of Ordination or despised and neglected it in their lawfull and orthodox Bishops upon any pretence of parity or popularity as Learned Saravia proves unanswerably against Mr. Beza when to make good the new Presbyterian Consistory at Geneva he sought in this point to weaken the ancient Catholick and constant prerogative of Episcopall Ordination which never appeares either in Scripture to have been committed or in any Church-History to have been used by any Presbyters or People apart from much lesse in despite and affront of the respective Bishops which were over them This great power of Ordination which the Author to the Hebrewes signifies by the solemn ceremonie or laying on of hands is esteemed by that Apostolick writer as a maine principle or chief pillar of Christian Religion in respect of Ecclesiastick Order Polity Peace Authority and Comfort necessary for all Christians both as Ministers and as people in sociall and single capacities For there is ordinarily no true and orthodox believing without powerful and authoritative preaching and there can be no such preaching without a just mission or sending from those in whom that Sacred Commission hath ever been deposited exemplified and preserved which were the Bishops of the Church beyond all dispute who did not ordaine Presbyters in private and clandestine fashions but in a most publick and solemn manner after fasting preaching and praying so as might best satisfie the Presbyters assistant and the people present at that grand transaction both of them being highly concerned the first what Ministers or fellow labourers were joyned with them in the work of the Lord the other what Pastors and Teachers were set over them as from the Lord and not meerly from man in any natural morall or civill capacity whence the authority of the Christian Ministry cannot be since it is not of man or from man but from that Lord and God who is the great Teacher and Saviour of his Church who onely could give power as gifts meet for the Pastors Bishops and Teachers of it These serious weighty and undoubted perswasions touching one uniforme holy and divine ordination being fixed in the consciences of all wise and sober Christians it will follow without all peradventure that true Religion as Christian and Reformed will never be able to recover in this or any Christian Nation its pristine lustre and Primitive Majesty its ancient life and vigor its due credit and comfort much lesse its just Power and Authority over mens hearts and consciences untill this point of Ordination or solemn investiture of fit men into Ministeriall Office and Power be effectually vindicated and happily redeemed from those moderne intrusions usurpations variations and dissentions which are now so rife among Preachers themselves whence flow those licentious and insolent humors so predominant in common people who by dividing the other by usurping both by innovating in this point of Ordination have brought those infinite distractions contempts and indifferences upon Religion and its Ministry as Christian and Reformed which are at this day to be seen in England beyond any Nation that I know under Heaven It is most certain that the major part of mankind yea and of formall Christians too do not much care for the power of any Religion nor for the Authority of any Ministry no nor for any serious profession or form of Religion further than these may suite with their fancies lusts and interests If custome or education have dipped them in some tincture of Religion during their minority if the cords of counsell and example have bound them up to some form of godlinesse in their tender yeares and tamer tempers yet as they grow elder they are prone to grow bolder to sin and to affect such refractory liberties as may not onely dispute and quarrell some parts but despise and trample under feet all the frame of Religion that is not indulgent to their humors or compliant to their inordinate desires and designes Especially when once they find publick disorders distractions and disgraces cast upon that very Religion in which they were instituted when they see contumelies and affronts cast upon that whole Church in which they were baptized and all manner of contemptuous insolencies offered to those chief Church-men by whom they had received the derivations and dispensations of all Holy Orders Truths and Mysteries When men see new Religions new Churches new Ministers and new modes of Ordination set up to the reproch
faith or manners they may more testifie their distances from and animosities against each other as Ministers Men of very good parts yea and of piety many times as Saint Jerome and Ruffinus from lesser disputes and differences are transported to wide and sharp defiances not onely as to their persons but as to their perswasions Hence we see Ministers of different descents commonly affect to be known by some different points Doctrines Presbyterians and Independents are thought generally to follow Mr. Calvin in all points as sworne to his dictates or determinations who was a man though of excellent parts yet not of Divine and infallible perfections but mixed with humane infirmities passions and imperfections Episcopall Divines are suspected most-what to have at least a tang and relish of Lutheran Arminian Pelagian opinions some are said to run out to a ranknesse of Socinianisme though the most and best of them I know do confine themselves to the Doctrine of their Mother the Church of England which was neither inconstant curious nor superfluous but cleare necessary and constant owning no Dictator but Christ and no Canon of Faith but the Scriptures doing and determining all things of Religion with great gravity counsell moderation charity and circumspection besides a just soveraigne Authority which swayes much with the Episcopall Clergy As the Church of England did not despise Luthers Melanchthons or Calvins judgement so it justly preferred its own before theirs or any one mans being alwaies guided by the concurrent Wisdome and Piety of many Learned and Godly Clergy-men both Bishops and Presbyters no way inferiour to those or any forraigne Divines and in some things far their superiours not onely as to the eminent places they held in this Church but as to the great discretion and temper of their Spirits which made many of them fitter for the glorious Crown of Martyrdome which they enjoyed than either of those two hotter-spirited yet renowned men who died in their beds who had not onely to contend with the Papall errors and superstitions which then extreamely pestered them and all Christendome but with their own passions and transports yea and with those many popular extravagancies which they rather occasioned I hope than designed among the vulgar who presently fancyed that they had the precepts and patternes of those great men Luther and Calvin to animate them to popular seditious rude injurious and rebellious methods of Reformation in which the very plebs or populacy imagined themselves better able to judge of Religion than any of their Governours in Church or State and because they had more hands therefore they must needs have better hearts and heads to do that work when and how they listed Which mad methods as the Church of England never used in its practise so it perfectly abhorred in its Doctrine to which few Ministers do heartily ingenuously and fully conforme who have forsaken its Discipline and Ordination from which who so flies furthest commonly wanders and wilders most in Enthusiastick Familistick and Anabaptistick opinions In order to this designe of restoring an uniforme and Authoritative Ordination O how ingenuous how religious how prudent how just how charitable how noble a work would it be on all sides for wise and worthy men to have some regard to those few clusters of Episcopacy which are yet remaining in England as a seed in which may be a blessing if the learned and venerable Bishops yet living among us were fairely treated and invited to such a concurrence and common union in this point of Ordination as might transmit both it and their Authority without any flaw or scruple of schisme interruption or fraction as most valid complete and authentick to posterity according to the Catholick and Primitive patterne O how great a security and satisfaction would this conjuncture and derivation completion of holy orders by Bishops with Presbyters give to many learned mens scruples and to many good Christians consciences without any injury or offence that I know to such of any party as are truly pious and peaceable who no doubt would be glad to see that no disorder or discord might be in holy orders from which as from a good well-tempered spring in a Watch all the regular motions of the wheeles and the true indications of the hand are derived directed and depending There can be nothing but clashings enterferings and confusions in any Church or society of Christians where there are crosse-grained contradictive or counterfeited Ministers as to their Ordination Here must be laid the principall and corner binding-stone of our happy Constitution and Communion as a Christian Church or Ecclesiasticall polity The affecting of novelty and variety in this as to the maine of the Ministeriall Order Power and Authority had been the way to have made at first a very crasie and weak Reformation in England and is now the way to deforme yea to destroy all again giving infinite advantages to the projects and policies of Rome also to the licentious distempers of mens own hearts and manners which considerations have made me the more large and importune as in a point of no lesse consequence and importance as to the visible constitution and managery of any Church than the unity and uniformity of civill power or Magistratick Authority is necessary for any Commonwealth or Kingdom where divided magistracy doth certainly tend to distraction and so to destruction as our own late miseries do abundantly convince us as to our civill peace and secular interest And truly no lesse will a divided Ministry infallibly tend to the distraction first and then the destruction of this Church and the Reformed Religion a new Ministry portends either no Ministry or no true one And where most Reverend Episcopacy which hath so many glorious marks of Primitive Antiquity Rare Piety Signall Prosperity Undisputable Universality Apostolick Order Scripturall Authority and Divine benediction upon it where this comes after 1600. years of Christianity and one hundred yeares of an happy Reformation to be questioned baffled exautorated there is no great likelihood that the novices and punyes Presbytery or Independency or Anabaptisme or Enthusiasme should take any great root in the love and esteem of any Christians who if Learned Wise and Upright must needs have greater confidence of and reverence for an Episcopall Ministry than for any new-modes which never yet had at their best any thing either very desirable or very commendable in them as to Wise and Grave mens affections and judgements And take them in their passions pragmaticalnesse popularities partialities novelties varieties inconstancies confusions and injuriousness and insolencies by which they have either begun or increased their parties waies and designes in many places many times against the will and Authority of lawfull Magistrates and Soveraigne Princes no lesse than against the dignity authority of the Bishops and Fathers of the Church look upon the best of them I say under these marks which are almost inseparable from them
especially in the height of their lusts and hopes which are as their rutting time which secular ambitions and popular acclamations raise them to I believe as they will never obtaine the consciencious respect of the wisest and best men so nor will they in conclusion constantly enjoy the vulgar flatteries and applaudings of weak or wicked men who having not cast any anchor of fixation to their judgements and affections either in clear Reason or sound Religion in Equity or Charity in Faith or Love in holy Antiquity or Primitive conformity but preferring factious and fancifull novelties before Catholick and Uniforme Antiquity they must needs be everlastingly fluctuating in their endlesse inventions ambitions inconstancies and vertiginous Reformations of Ministry and Religion which are commonly biassed by some private advantages over-swaying them to invent or embrace some gainfull novelty contrary to that due veneration and humble submission which all sober Christians owe to Primitive simplicity and that Catholick Authority which is indelebly stamped upon the Universall Churches custome consent and practise agreeable to the Scripture-Canon or rule which it ever was All which are in no one thing more evident than in this of the Originall constitution derivation and transmission of the Ministeriall Order Office and Authority by the way of Episcopall eminency where Bishops with their Presbyters did ever rightly ordaine Evangelicall Ministers but Presbyters without any Bishops above them never did by any allowed example or usuall practise in any Church from the Apostles daies till the last Century CHAP. XVII THe Essentials or Being of true Ministers thus restored and preserved both in their Ability and Autority the first to be searched by due Examination the second conferred by lawfull and Catholick Ordination the next thing which craves your counsell care and charity most worthy Christians is the bene esse well-being of your Clergy both for their maintenance and their respect for their single support and their sociall consorting For poor and alone or rich yet scattered like disjoyned figures and cyphers they will signifie not much as to publick reputation or gubernative influence But together their Competency and Communion will make up that double Honor which the Apostle by the Spirit of God requireth as due to such Evangelicall Bishops and Ministers as rule well labouring in the Word and Doctrine according to the place and proportion wherein God and the Church have set them The personall maintenance of Ministers by which they may comfortably subsist diligently attend and cheerfully dispense the things of God to their severall charges I put in the first place not as the more noble in respect of the common good and joynt honor of the Clergy but as naturall and most necessary for as Ministers will have no great spirit or ability for private employment so much lesse joy or confidence in any publick Church-Government if they have not such convenient support as may countenance and embolden them to appear in publick Without doubt nothing is more unbecoming the Honor and Grandeur the Plenty and Piety of any Christian Nation than to keep their Clergy poor indigent and dejected so beyond measure is it vile for any Christian people to rob their able Ministers of that honorable maintenance which once they have been lawfully possessed of and long enjoyed as devout donations given to Gods Church and his more immediate Servants the Ministers of the Gospel by pristine piety for the publick good of mens soules but above all things to be abominated is that Atheisticall Hypocrisy whose fraud pretends to Reforme Religion as Herod promised to worship the babe Christ when he intended to kill him by reducing the dispensers of it to sordid poverty and sharking necessity by compelling Preachers to use Mechanick Trades and extemporary preachings yea and after all this by laying the weight even of Church-Government upon such weak and low shoulders either of such poor Bishops or Pygmy-Presbyters who must forsooth live upon popular contributions and arbitrary Almes after the Primitive and Apostolick pattern as some men urge even of St. Paul and of other prime Preachers at first who they say preached gratis having no set salary and exacting nothing as due from the people Which Primitive and Apostolick patterne is not more impertinently and injuriously than falsely and impudently urged by illiberall men in sacrilegious times For they may easily find that the justice and power of demanding hire or wages as due for their work was urged and owned by St. Paul as due by the Law of God under the Gospel as well as before it though sometime remitted in tendernesse to the temper of mens hearts and Estates in those hard yet charitable times when there was so much of gratitude and charity in zealous Christians that there needed nothing as of compulsion and necessity and in which very cheap though extraordinary gifts did most-what enable the Apostles and others beyond what Ministers may now expect under the rate of much Time Charge Study and Paines Alas those Primitive Preachers needed not to be very solicitous for their support or salary among true Christians when t is evident that Christian people had generally such largenesse of hearts as offered not onely the Tithe but the Totall of their Estates Goods and Lands too to the support of their Preachers and their poor However it is not to be doubted but that as the Apostles so all Bishops and Ministers of the Gospel may with as much equity as modesty demand receive and enjoy whatever was then or afterward either occasionally or constantly conferred upon them by any Christian people or Princes the distribution of which was in Primitive times chiefly intrusted to the care of the Bishops who appointed both rewards to Presbyters and relief to the poor So that it must needs be barbarously covetous and Judasly sacrilegious for any Christian people violently and unjustly to take away from their Learned and deserving Clergy either such other Lands and Revenues or those very Tithes which people have once put out of their power by giving them to God by an act of solemn and publick consent testified in their nationall Lawes every way agreeable to the Will and Word of God to the Light and Law of Nature to the Patriarchicall Tradition and Practise before the Law of Moses to Gods own proportion and appointment among the Jewes to the Apostolical comprobation and the parallel ordaining of the Lord under the Gospel or to the right and merits of Jesus Christ beyond the type of Melchisedech whose Evangelicall Priesthood being to continue in the Church surely deserves no lesse honor and maintenance than the Aaronicall and Leviticall and much more sure than any Priestly office among the heathens Yet who hath not either heard or read in all Histories that the very heathens out of an instinct of gratitude and Religion did every where offer the Tenth of their Fruites Corn Spices Gumms Minerals Metals and spoiles in war to the Temples
and Priests of those Gods as Ceres Apollo or the Sun to Diana or the Moon to Mars Jupiter Bacchus c. by whose Divine influence and bounty they believed themselves to enjoy those good things And can any true Christian people have so base and penurious hearts as to fancy that they then honor Christ most when they part with least of their substance to his service that of all Priesthoods which have ever been in the world among civill or barbarous Nations Christs shall appeare the most beggerly and necessitous Can any true believer thus requite the Lord that bought them and gave himself a ransome for them will they compell the blessed Jesus who while he was on earth became poore to make them rich now he is risen and ascended to Glory in Heaven to suffer poverty hunger thirst nakednesse shame and contempt in his Ministers to whom Christ professeth who so giveth ought in his name as to his servant and Minister giveth to himself And no doubt who so taketh any thing from them taketh from Christ and is a robber of his Saviour So that nothing is or can be more impudent and abhorred in the sight of our God our Saviour and all good Christians than for a Nation that is fat and full ample and opulent in all plenty forraigne and domestick to debase and impoverish their Bishops Pastors and Ministers to force them to live on popular pittances and vile dependances to make them as mercenary and arbitrary hirelings to expose them to all those sordid flatteries which attend sharking necessities How must this abase that sacred Honor and Divine Authority which is and ought to be highly regarded and reverenced in true Bishops and Ministers Which of them thus haltred and tamely led by the vulgar shall dare to speak the word of God with all comely boldnesse and Christian freedome How can such poor and petty preachers have the confidence and courage without being ridiculous to reprove the faults of any men great or small Experience hath taught us how miserably even poor Ministers must crouch and comply for morsels of bread not onely to good Lords and Ladies but to very sorry Masters and Dames in Country as well as City who all affect this glory to be thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patrones and benefactors to their preachers as to their servants not of right and duty but of almes and charity so supercilious are these gratitudes of almost all sorts of Christians when they count them not debts but gifts not a legall or a Religious Tribute to God and their Saviour but a contribution to their poor Minister the streame of whose tongue must set the mill of his teeth on work he shall feed little to his own pleasure in this if in the other he please not his gracious and inconstant contributors This station and posture of Ministers as to popular dependance and arbitrary Almes is the most intolerable turpitude and vilest dehonestation that can befall any ingenuous man in the world and most of all incongruous to those who pretend to any publick place of Government or imployment with conspicuity and under any notion of authority either Civil or Ecclesiastick Do but make for triall sake O my noble Countrymen your criminall Judges your civill Magistrates your country-Justices your Committee-men your Military officers your Bayliffs Majors and chief Burgers in the meanest Corporation make these of pittifull poor hungry thred-bare wretches let them be alwaies shifting and sharking digging or thatching spinning or weaving scraping and begging for their subsistence and living upon precarious salaries such as people list to give them for which they shall have no more legal right or claim than Mountebanks and Juglers have for those rewards from their gentle spectators and benevolous auditors would any thing I beseech you be more putid abject vile and despicable in the eyes of the people of England or any Countryâ—â—an such mushroome Magistrates such Go-by-ground Governours noâ—tanding they may possibly have the formalities of a Broad Seal a â—te Staffe a Paper or Parchment Commission will they not in time be as noysome to a Country and noxious to Justice as the dead frogs were in Egypt To avoid which deformed and ridiculous spectacles in Civill-Government doth not the wisdome of this as of every Nation either find those men invested with Honorable estates whom it chooseth to or placeth in Magistratick place and power or else if their merits be beyond their Estates are they not presently endowed with such salaries and pensions either out of the Princes Exchequer and publick Treasury or out of the emoluments and perquisites of their places as may bear out their Authority with some form of Majesty and respect At least they may redeem both their place and persons from that popular scorn scurrility and insolency which is never more malapert than when it finds want and poverty like vermine pinching the backs and oppressing the bellies of those men who undertake to rule or restraine to curb or controll common people Which is no very welcome office to the vulgar among whom true Religion finds so much to oppose so little to please or correspond as to the humors lusts fancies and passions of men that its Ministers must naturally and necessarily be subject and exposed to all manner of opposition despite and despiciency unlesse those so obvious and innate mischiefs be as in all piety and policy they ought to be avoided not onely by the conspicuity of Ministers approved learning good abilities prudent demeanour and due Authority conferred in their regular and uniform Ordination but further by that comely entertainment and competent maintenance of which common people have a more lively sense and reall tast as the dunghill-cock had of the barly-corn than of all their other internall jewels and ornaments intellectuall which will not signifie much as is evident in many hundred instances of worthy Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters in these times if people find them cloathed in thred-bare coates and almost starved by the straightnesse and tenuity of their worldly condition which aspect makes even parents themselves who are our naturall Princes and Gods very prone to be despised by their children Nor can it but ill become any ordinary Minister that is worthy of that name and office but worst of all will it suite with those who affect to be or indeed are or ought to be chief Governours and Bishops in the Church whose publick entertainment ought to be such as might extend beyond their private and domestick necessities to something of publick Hospitality Charity and Magnificence which were the proportions heretofore allowed by the noble and generous temper of the English Nation to its Clergy both Bishops and Presbyters the better to bear up their dignity and authority among the people The words of a poor man though wise are forgotten or unregarded as Solomon observes boldnesse and freedome of speech in poor men seems impudence an authoritative carriage in 〈…〉
pitty being tenderly severe and most compassionately cruell when it is compelled to exert the sharpest authority doing all things according to the word example and Spirit of Christ Jesus in Meeknesse of Wisdome not to the destruction but edification of the Church in truth and faith in charity and unity To these Presbyters Bishops and Christian people are Deacons subordinate and servient in all things necessary for decency conveniency charity and carrying on of the Churches Autority both in private congregations and more ample conventions part of whole office we see time and custome had devolved upon our Church-Wardens and Overseers for the poor These ends and meanes this order and proportion this constitution and execution of Churchâ—Government by Episcopacy as far as it is conform to Catholick Antiquity and setled by the consent of any Christian Church and Nation by its Synods and Parlaments I do in no sort conceive to be arbitrary precarious or mutable as to the maine however it may be reduced and reformed in its deviations except in cases of invincible necessity which may dispense with Sabbaths Sacraments and all publick externall duties of Polity yea of Piety so far am I from judging it any part of prudent Piety or true Reformation for men rudely to baffle and despise wholly to abrogate and extirpate it because I cannot but look upon it as Scriptuall and Apostolick sacred and binding Christians consciences to due approbation obedience and subjection to it for the Lords sake who undoubtedly intended the right constitution and constant regulation of his Church with Order and Honor no lesse than that of States and Common-weales for whose peaceable Polity the Gospel hath set so many bounds and bonds of subjection Sure neither Church nor State can be honestly or handsomely governed in any way of parity or popularity where every one thinks himself fit to command and so disdains to obey according to those innate passions which are in all men and oft in good men and in good Ministers too who being many are as prone to run into many distempers and dangerous exorbitances if they be left to themselves As Mariners are without a Pilot or sheep without a shepherd or souldiers without a Commander or people without a Prince even so are Christians without ordained Ministers and Ministers without Authoritative Bishops exposed to all manner of Schisms Disorders Factions and Insolencies Which must necessarily follow where the Clergy is either not at all governed by any Grave and Worthy Ecclesiasticall persons or by such Ministers as have none but a popular and precarious Authority or where Ministers are onely curbed and crushed by the imperiousnesse and impertinency of meer Lay-men yea and of such as are not fit to be Judges or Rulers in the least civill affaires much lesse over Learned men whose Place Office and Concerns are properly religious as they stand related to God and his Church Nor can the Clergy be in much better case when they are by a Democratick or Levelling spirit cast into such spontaneous Associations and Confederacies as give to no Minister that orderly and eminent power respect and due authority which is fitting for the Government of the Churches nor yet teach common people that modesty and submission which are necessary for such as desire to be well and worthily governed When all is said and tried that can be in point of Church-Government I doubt not but it will be found true as Beza expresseth it in the happy State of England that Episcopacy is singularis Dei beneficientia Gods singular bounty and blessing to this and any Church which he prayes it might alwaies enjoy where it may be rightly enjoyed and religiously used which the Augustane Confession and all Reformed Churches with their most eminent Professors did desire to submit unto as a most speciall meanes to preserve the Honor Unity and Authority of the Church and its Discipline which as a great River growes weak and shallow when it is drawn into many small channels and rivulets How suitable and almost necessary a right and Primitive Episcopacy is for the temper of England I shall afterward more fully expresse at present it may suffice to shew how easie the restauration of it would be if all sides would sincerely look to the Primitive pattern of Church-Government First if the Diocese committed to the presidential inspection of one worthy Bishop were of so moderate an extent as might fall under one mans care and visitation and be most convenient both for the private addresses and dispatches also for the generall meetings of the Clergy in some principall place of it it would much remedy the great grievance of long journies tedious expectation and many tims frustraneous attendance at Westminister to which all Ministers are now compelled to their great charge and trouble many times for a small Living and sometime for a meer repulse Such Counties as Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent Middlesex with London may seem proportionable to make each of them one Episcopal distribution greater Counties may be divided and lesser united Secondly if the generality of the Clergy or the whole Ministry of each Diocese might choose some few prime men of their Company to be the constant Electors chief Counsellors Correspondents and Assistants with the Bishop to avoid multitudinous tedious and confused managings of elections Ordinations and other publick affaires Thirdly if in case of Episcopall vacancy the generality of the Clergy meeting together might present the names of three or four or more prime men out of which number the Electors should choose one whose election should stand if approved by the Prince or chief Magistrate if not they should choose some other of the nominated Fourthly the person thus chosen and approved on all sides should be solemnly and publickly consecrated by other Bishops in the presence of the Ministers and people of the Diocese By these meanes as there will be no crowd or enterfering among the Clergy so there will be great satisfaction to Prince and people without any clashing between the Civill and Spirituall power which must be avoided considering that not onely the exercise of all Church-power must depend on the leave of the Prince in his dominions but also the honorary setled maintenance of the Bishops as of all the Clergy is but Eleemosynary in the originall from the pious concession and munificence of the Prince or State who as they will not in conscience or honor deny competent allowances to all worthy Ministers of the Gospel so no doubt they will not grudge to adde such Honorary supports to every Bishop or President as may decently maintaine that Authority Charity and Hospitality which becomes his Place Worth and Merit for certainly no men can do more good or deserve better of their Nation and Country than excellent Bishops may do as by their Doctrine and example so by their wise and holy way of governing the Church with such Honor and Authority as became them which could
ownes as the badg or bond of his admission into Communion with Christ and his Church both Catholick and congregationall generall and particular This it seemes must now not at all be owned or slighted nulled and forgotten by the superfetation of a new form of Christian confederation more solemn sacred and obliging as they fancy to Christian duties than that was which was solemnly made in the presence of the congregation ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ and testified in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost yea and after this the poor Episcopall Divines if they will gently comply and for feare Associate must quietly permit either the community of the people or the parity of the Presbyters in their severall lesser bodies and congregations or in their greater classes and conventions to challenge to themselves the plenary sole absolute perfect and unappealable power of not onely ordination which of old they never had as St. Jerom confesseth but of all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Discipline and this under the conduct and auspicious management of onely some Diurnall Dictator some temporary prolocutor or extemporary moderator who is forsooth to have the Image of a superficiall Bishop and the shadow of a short-liv'd superintendent a thing meerly occasional and unauthoritative as to any office or power inherent in him or of right to be challenged or exercised by him enjoying onely an horary arbitrary and humane presidency for fashion and civility sake without any Ecclesiasticall eminent or constant Authority residing in him as derived from Christ the Apostles or their successors or any Churches custome designation and consent in former times Such as was ever committed to owned in and used by the Bishops of the Church as regularly succeeding to the Apostles in that ordinary eminency of power which was necessary to keep both Presbyters and all Christian people and Churches good Order Peace and Unity which blessings they never more enjoyed or more happily than under a right Episcopacy Whose cause however of later yeares it hath been run down and trampled in a hurry under foot by some men in England Scotland and Ireland yet hath it suffered no reall diminution as to the true Honor of its Apostolick Authority its Primitive Antiquity its Catholick succession its high descent and its holy Originall which was never denyed or much disputed by any men of any considerable Learning and Piety till these later Dog-dayes in which not onely some single Stars of nebulous and dubious light but whole Constellations of them like Sirius or the Canicular Juncto erected under the new name and figuration of Smectymnuus to calculate the Nativity of a new Reformation became Lords of the Ascendent being filled contrary to their former Conformity and declared submission with a very unbenigne that I say not malignant influence not only against Episcopacy but in effect against the whole visible Constitution of this Church in which as Goods in a sunk ship all things are much wasted and abased by the ruine of Episcopacy Their destructive fires kindled from the colder parts of this Island first flamed into strange Logomachies thredbare cavillings and triviall strifes about Words and Names as if after sixteen hundred years all the Christians and Ministers of England its Princes and Parliaments its Synods and Councels yea all the Christian world elsewhere were to be Catechized by a few petty Presbyters in comparison and their Scot-English Assembly what the names of Bishop and Presbyter of Pastor and Teacher of Elder and Ruler of Helps and Governments of Apostle and Evangelist of Ecclesiastical Stars and Angels did mean which not onely all Writers but all times and practises of all Churches had sufficiently interpreted and cleared from the first promiscuous use of some general names which called the chief Apostles Prophets Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Elders Ministers and Deacons too in whose offices authorities and duties there were real and great differences to more proper and peculiar distinctions according to the several ranks degrees orders offices and powers then established in the Church After the Squibbs and Crackers of paper had been lighted and cast in the face of venerable Episcopacy at last as the manner is things came to dreadful Chiromachies such scufflings and fightings with hands and arms of flesh against that Government which is as the Ancient of dayes that they looked more like that Gigantomachy the Giants assaulting Heaven and the Gods than that Good fight of faith which ought to contend earnestly onely for that which was once uniformly delivered to all true Saints and received by all true Churches of Christ in doctrine order and government among whom all lesser disputations and differences circumstantial rising among good Christians were wont to be fairly debated and determined in lawful Assemblies in Ecclesiastical Synods and National or general Councils from which Christian and Orthodox Bishops were never either terrified or excluded but principally called and admitted as the chief Fathers of those holy Oeconomies or Christian Polities Nor was Episcopacy ever condemned by any of those Councils Synods or Assemblies in any Age of the Church much less was it ejected and extirpated as uselesse unlawful and abominable no not by any Synods and confessions of any Protestant and reformed Churches of note notwithstanding they could not conveniently enioy the blessing of it for so they accounted it either by reason of the petulancy of people or the impatience of civil Magistrates or the Sacrilegious humours and designes of all against the Clergy After all these prepossessions and just presumptions thus challenged to the cause and state of Episcopacy in point of its venerable and undeniable Antiquity I cannot but offer to its still scrupulous or implacable Adversaries these following Quaeres 1. How sad I beseech you and wretched how confounded and astonished must the awakened Consciences of those men be who have been the chief Authors and Fautors of our late troubles variations and miseries chiefly upon the account of their Antiepiscopal Antipathies if after all these combustions perturbations and plunderings of Religion which have rather pleased mens private passions and opinions than any way profited the publick welfare of this Church or State if I say these great sticklers against Episcopacy should be either grosly mistaken or malitiously perverted from the right path that good old way of which former Ages can better inform us then those that are but of yesterday and can know nothing but by their light 2. What if it should be as true as it is most probable because generally so believed in all Ages parts and places of the Church that the cause of Primitive Episcopacy is indeed the cause of God of Christ and of the whole Church the cause of all the Apostles of all Primitive Bishops their immediate successors yea the cause of all true Presbyters and all true Christians a cause in which the glory of God the wisdome of Christ the honor of the Apostles the fidelity of their successors the
credit of the Church Catholick the comfort and authority of all true Ministers the surest test and Character of due Ordination the peace and unity of all good Christians are bound up and mainly concerned 3. What if these new masters these sharp censors and imperious dictators whom perhaps not Piety so much as Policy not Religion but Reason of State not reforming severities but needlesse jealousies and imaginary necessities have put upon such violent sticklings against Episcopacy and reprobating all worthy Bishops what if they have been deceived themselves and deceivers of others in that point which is much more veniall to think and say of the very best of them than to passe any such censure or suspicion of error or ignorance upon all Churches even in their purest and Primitive Antiquity when one spark of Martyrly zeal which was as holy fire from Gods Altar had more divine light and heat in it than all the blazes and flashes of Moderne Zelotry 4. I do in all Christian candor demand of the severest Presbyterian and sharpest Independent whether when they ask of the generations of old and enquire of all Ages from the beginning of Christian Churches whether ever they find any Christians or congregations at any time either Christening or Churching themselves either by their own vote choise and authority or by separating from their ordained Presbyters and Bishops which were sound in the faith and regular in their administrations who had duly taught baptized confirmed and ruled them in the Lord. When did any Presbyters or Ministers ever pretend to ordaine themselves or one another without some Apostle or Bishop When where and by whom was the first Schisme Rupture or Chasme of Ecclesiasticall parity as to Mission and Commission begun When and where was the first intrusion or encroachment upon the pretended authority of Presbytery made by Episcopacy Did not all Presbyters owe ever own their legitimate birth breeding to their respective Bishops whose Authority was ever as much above meer Presbyters in degree and office as it was before them in the order of nature and causality no lesse than in time and antiquity 5. If then all the novel presumptions pretentions and objections of either Presbytery or Independency against Primitive Catholick and Apostolick Episcopacy should in earnest be nothing but passionate false and frivolous mistakes arising from ignorance and error carried on by envy and arrogancy in many men O what needlesse troubles what heedlesse angers what inordinate furies what dreadfull disorders must they all this while have been guilty of what causelesse contentions innovations confusions vastations have they brought into the Churches of Christ what cruell and uncharitable contentions have they raised as elsewhere so in this famous and flourishing Church of England without any just cause God knowes and beyond the merits of Episcopacy even in its greatest defects declinations and deformities to which as all holy Institutions may in time be subject so they ought to be humbly wisely and moderately reformed by the prayers teares counsels honest and orderly endeavours of all sober Christians of all sorts and sizes in their places and stations with due regard to the first pattern and originall But certainly as the whole order and office of Presbytery which may have had its personall depravations also so the ancient and venerable Authority of Episcopacy as to its Primitive Institution and Catholick succession ought not on any hand to be utterly ruined rased and extirpated root and branch by any tumultuary rashnesse or popular precipitancy which can never become any Church of Christ or any wise and godly Christians nor can such methods of sharp and soure Reformations ever end in the peace or comfort of good men who if they find themselves guilty of excesses so dangerous and destructive to the true Church true Religion and true Reformation have nothing lesse to do than to persevere in their extravagancies or pertinaciously to assert their former transports yea they have nothing more to do speedily and conscienciously than humbly to recant seriously to repent and effectually to amend as much as lies in their power the affronts and assaults the breaches and wasts they have made of the Churches Peace and Unity Power and Authority by returning to that duty which they owe to God and that obedience they owe to their spirituall Governours and that reverence which they owe to uniform antiquity which so fully commends the presidentiall authority of Apostolicall and Primitive Episcopacy Their first errors may be weaknesse but their obstinacy must needs be wickednesse who still sin when they are convinced silenced and afflicted 6. What if after all this dust and noyse which hath so blinded and deafned the eyes and eares of many Presbyters and people that they cannot and will not see the Truth and Testimony of Antiquity which is no lesse cleare for the presidentiall authority and eminency of Episcopacy than for the subordination counsel and assistance of Presbytery what if it should be the mind of God the order and Institution of Jesus Christ the designation and direction of his blessed Spirit evidently signified and setled in and by the blessed Apostles in all Primitive Churches and so continued to this day according to the measures of Divine Wisdome and Order though not without mixtures of humane infirmities and disorders incident to all holy Institutions 7. What if after all these seditious and schismaticall distempers in Ministers and people the Lord should say to these refractory and irreconcilable spirits against Episcopacy as he did to the Jewes when they revolted from Samuels Government They have not rejected you O my faithfull servants the Bishops whom I have constituted and used in all ages as vigilant Over-seers and wise Rulers of my flock but they have rejected me who in this point of Episcopacy have so sufficiently declared my will and pleasure to all the world that no Church was ever ignorant of it or varied from it being manifested from heaven First in the evident instances of divine wisdome among the Jewish Church and Priests yea as it is an orderly and gubernative method in all societies where right reason and so true Religion necessarily command and commend superiority and subjection Secondly in the paterne and Rules of Ecclesiasticall Polity set down by my Son Jesus Christ and followed by his Apostles who setled all Churches in such an orderly subordination Thirdly in the constant custome and Catholick testimony of all succeeding Churches whose joynt suffrages and uniform practises in cases of any darkness dispute or difficulty where Scripture-precepts may seem lesse clear and explicite ought by all sober Christians to be esteemed as the safest measures of conscience and surest rule of religious observance especially as to things of outward Polity Order and Government nor may any novel inventions or pretentions never so specious be put into the balance against the Authority of the Catholick Church which is the pillar and ground of Truth the great
Directory of Ecclesiasticall prudence and practise 8. What if the Great God of order peace and truth as well as so many learned and godly men so many famous and flourishing Churches in all Ages should by beating or scaring men from their popular prejudices pitiful subterfuges and sinister designes thus mightily plead the cause of true Episcopacy against all those who have spoken and done so many perverse things against that excellent government What if he should by some powerful means rebuke their confidences as he did Job's justly demanding of these Destroyers Where is that Wisdom that Modesty that Gentleness that Charity that Moderation that Humility that Gravity and Christian Caution which became godly men to their betters to such a Church and to such worthy Bishops as were the Governours of it under God and the King Could you be ignorant of the learning graces virtues merits and worth which were in Bishops suitable to their lawful Autority Did you not know and with some repining see how justly they were preferred before Presbyters and People as every way fittest to be over and above them Are these immoderations and injuries the wayes of true Religion and Reformation Can there be true piety without charity yea without equity or pitty If evil men are not to be injured much less good men good Ministers and least of all good Bishops which were not wanting among you May not thus the lightnings of Gods rebukes be clearly seen and the terrors of his thunders be justly heard and the blastings of his displeasure be felt by all the unjust tumultuary malicious and implacable enemies of venerable Episcopacy Methinks I hear the Divine Majesty thus uttering his glorious voice against them O foolish People O unthankful Nation O degenerous Christians or deformed Church not worthy to be beloved of God or happily governed by wise men Do you thus requite the Lord and thus despise all the ancient Churches of Christ by forsaking yea rejecting your own mercies and happiness Is it a small thing that you have broken through all Laws and the arm of mans civil authority but will you also contend against the power of God and the wisdom of Christ whose out-stretched arm in the way of Episcopacy hath been in all Ages a defence and refuge to his Church Should you beyond the boldnesse of Balaam dare to curse what God hath not cursed or to defie what God hath not defied but signally owned with his blessing in all Ages and Churches In seeing do you not see and in reading do you not understand the constant methods of Gods guiding and governing both this and all other Christian Churches How hath a novel zeal but not according to knowledge blinded your minds Who called the first Apostles to be chief Bishops over all Churches Who supplied the Apostasie of Judas by the Election of Matthias to his Episcopacy Upon whom did the power of the Holy Ghost first come Who placed Bishops immediately after them in all completed Churches through the world What planted preserved united and reformed them but that Apostolical that is the Episcopal autority assisted by such Presbyters whom they ordained to part of the Office Labour Honour and Ministry Who were the chief Champions of the Gospel but the venerable Bishops in all Ages Who were the most resolute Confessors holy Bishops Who the most glorious Martyrs excellent Bishops Who were the most Learned and Valiant Asserters of the Orthodox faith Primitive purity sanctity order and harmony becoming Christian Churches but admirable Bishops Who were counted the prime Starres in the hand of Christ Who were called by way of eminency Angels by him but the chief Presidents and Bishops of the seven Churches To whom was Divine Power first given and after derived not onely to teach and feed but to ordain Presbyters and Deacons also to rebuke rule and govern both Presbyters Deacons and People as St. Paul enjoynes but to holy Bishops in the persons and patterns of Timothy and Titus Archippus and others whose Authority as such no man ought to despise Who were they that wounded and destroyed the Great Behemoth and Leviathans of prodigious errors and spreading heresies in the four first Centuries but incomparable Bishops such as were Irenaeus Athanasius Epiphanius Augustine Ambrose Hilary Prosper both the Cyrils the Basils the Gregories and others Who quenched the wild-fires of Schisme and faction among Christian people and Ministers but excellent Bishops such as Clemens Ignatius Cyprian both the Dionysiu's Austin Optatus Fulgentius and others By whose sweat and blood next after the Apostles were the plantations and necessary Reformations of Churches watered and weeded but by the vigilancy and industry of worthy Bishops both in their single capacity and in their joynt Synods or Councills wherein Bishops as the Representatives or chief Fathers of all Churches as the families of Christ might orderly meet duly deliberate and autoritatively determine what seemed good to the Spirit of God and to them for the Churches Purity and Peace according to the Scriptures precept and Catholick practise Who were those renowned Pastors and Preachers of old that mitigated the Spirits of great Princes that converted many Nations that baptized mighty Kings and Emperours that advanced the Gospel beyond their Empires and set up the Crosse of Christ above their Crownes not in soveraignty or civill power but in the Divine Empire of Verity Sanctity and Charity Who moderated the Spirits and passions of persecutors Who convinced them of their errors resolved their scruples who condemned their sins who terrified their consciences and who either raised or restored them through repentance to the peace of Christ and his Church but heroick wise and invincible Bishops Who have been the chief Luminaries in all Churches in all Ages the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel the prime Pillars of Piety and Peace of Hospitality and Honour of Order and good Government but wise and renowned Bishops Who furnished all Churches with fervent Prayers devout Liturgies convenient Catechises learned Homilies practical Sermons accurate Commentaries and excellent Epistles with sound Decisions of Controversies and Cases arising in the Church or any private Conscience Who made up with charitable Composures all uncomfortable breaches and unkind differences among Christians but pious and prudent Bishops whose autority was ever esteemed as sacred being experienced in all Ages to be sanative and soveraign to Religion and the Church where they had freedom and encouragements to act as became the chief Pastors Counsellors and Governours of the Church in all Ecclesiastick concernments Sure if God would have them utterly destroyed he would not so long have accepted such sacrifices from the hands of Bishops both ancient and modern nor thus mightily have pleaded the cause of Episcopacy in all Ages and in this both as to Gods wisdom in and his blessing upon that way of Church-government and Governours But possibly our later Bishops especially in England whose cause is here chiefly pleaded were such
degenerous persons as deserved not to bear the name or knew not how to use the Office of a Bishop Doubtless their Enemies being Judges no place no Age no one Nation or Church in the world since the Apostles ever exceeded the Bishops of England for piety and learning for useful and exemplary vertues of which I shall afterward give more exact account no Church ever more happy flourishing or prosperous then the reformed Church of England was under such worthy Bishops as some men so despitefully used Could Bishops in this and all Churches be so blessed of God and yet Episcopacy deserve to be so abhorred of men Were the Evangelical labours of godly Bishops so plentifully watered with the Dew of Heaven and yet doth their function deserve to be rooted out of the Earth If Episcopacy in its secular riches and honours must needs be destroyed in order to confiscate the Churches Lands yet at least primitive though poor Episcopacy might have been preserved whose ancient eminency would have been both authoritative and conspicuous among good Christians through the Clouds of such undeserved poverty Though some men might presume to deprive Bishops of their deserved and lawful Estates yet sure they were too bold to rob the Church of all excellent and deserving Bishops such as England ever afforded both before and since the Reformation which the Romish and Jesuitick policies never hoped more effectually to deforme and destroy than by helping to carry on the routing of Episcopacy Certainly the excellent Bishops of England were the greatest Eye-sore of the Pope and his Conclave nor did they care to fight by their secret and open Engines against small or great Presbyters so much as against these Prelates who had so long stood in their way They knew when these chief Shepherds were smitten the Sheep would soon be scattered nor were Papists ever more gratified than when Episcopacy was extirpated out of England What if the God the Lord of his Church the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath laid the Government of it on the Shoulders of Christ Jesus and he derived the external administration or dispensation of it to the Apostles and they to succeeding Bishops as spiritual Pastors and venerable Fathers of his Church what if he should thus plead the cause of Episcopacy in the eminency of its Apostolical order and primitive authority against all those that have spoken acted and written so many peevish spiteful popular partial and perverse things against it What if he should lay to their Consciences what is visible to their and all mens eyes the sad divisions miserable confusions and horrid vastations of this Church and the Reformed Religion which have followed the destroying of harmlesse honourable ancient venerable useful and necessary Episcopacy Would they not be infinitely ashamed and mightily confounded for the new Modes which they have taken up for the Oakes which they have chosen to over-shadow themselves yea for the Briars and Brambles which they fancy as fittest to rule themselves and the Church of Christ in this Land either by way of parity or popularity which are not fit methods to rule their own families withall Will a few arbitrary precarious Presbyters and unautoritative Preachers or their new Associations serve their turn Or will a few petty Congregations or Schismatizing Conventicles here and there scattered and scrambled together in Cities and Countries be able to countervail the damage or to recompence the unspeakable defects and detriments which this Church and Nation which all estates and degrees of Christian people have sustained by the totall loss and overthrow of primitive Episcopacy which was as it were smothered to death in a crowd and huddle never legally examined or fairly condemned by the free and full suffrages of all estates so as its Antiquity worth and honour did deserve What learned prudent and conscientious Ministers or other Christians can be fully satisfied with those new-fashioned ordinations and ministrations of holy things which neither they nor their Fore-fathers nor any ancient Churches ever knew and wherein that Divine Authority which they challenge is so justly doubted or disputed as by no Catholick hand or regular course committed to them If that Ministeriall power which is challenged and exercised upon such new accounts of humane policies and later inventions if it should really be none at all or as weak and defective as it is dubious for Ordination as it is for Jurisdiction which is very much feared and suspected by very wise and good men especially where not want and necessity deny but wantonnesse and wilfulnesse seek to deprive Christians of their true Bishop O how vain how invalid how arrogant how insignificant must those Ministers and all their holy Ministrations appear to many Christians who have of later years set themselves up by a Presbyterian Commission or Popular Election not onely without but against their lawful Superiours who were every way so able so worthy and so lawfully authorized for that office and eminency not onely as they were ordained Presbyters but as they were further consecrated Bishops that is placed by Christ and appointed by the Church in an higher degree capacity use and exercise of Ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction then ever was in any Presbyters Of which eminency Episcopal as that famous Council of Nice took such care to have it continued after the cient mode and patern of publick Election and solemn Consecration or the Churches Benediction so all this formality must have been very superstitious and ridiculous if it added nothing of authority and power peculiar to them as Bishops but onely what they formerly had received in common as Presbyters Doubtless reordination as rebaptization to the same office and degree in the Church was ever condemned in the Church of Christ as impious because superfluous a meer mockery of Religion a taking the name of God in vaine forbidden by the African Canons and many Councils never practised by any but such as St. Basil the Great reports one Eustathius of Sebastia to have been whom he calls an infamous Heretick a notorious deserter of the Churches Catholick Communion If St. Chrysostome in the fourth Century had judged it enough to complete him in his Episcopall power and Authority to have been once ordained a Presbyter as he was in Antioch where he so lived twelve yeares sure he would not have troubled himself to have been after ordained or consecrated a Bishop by Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria and others of that order when he was chosen to be Bishop of Constantinople Nor would St. Austin a person no lesse pious and learned who had been ordained Presbyter by Valerius Bishop of Hippo been ordained anew by Megalius Patriarch of Numidia when he was chosen to be Bishop of Hippo. In like sort was one Alexander a Presbyter ordained by St. Chrysostome to be Bishop of Bassinopolis according to the uniforme method of Antiquity which judged that the Presbyters chusing the peoples approving and the
next Bishops consecrating or blessing of the Elect Bishop made up that complete power and eminent Authority in which he that was formerly but a Presbyter was now invested as a Bishop or President of any Church which made Epiphanius brand Aerius for a mad man and subverted by the Devill upon his discontent for being repulsed from a Bishoprick of which he was ambitious because he made Episcopacy and Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of equall dignity efficacy and authority yet is Epiphanius often and highly commended by St. Jerom who was but a Presbyter and lived in his Diocese sometime as a person sanctae venerabilis memoriae of holy and happy memory This then appearing so pregnantly to have been the judgement and practise of all Antiquity which preferred Episcopall dignity and Authority above simple Presbytery I do not see how learned modest and ingenuous men can lightly esteem or actually oppose so Ancient and Catholick an order in the Church so usefull so necessary for any Churches well-being which is unseparable from its good Government Lay aside then passions prejudices partiality love of novelty and childish pertinacy I cannot but hope sober men will cheerfully returne in their judgements desires and endeavours to correspond with Primitive and paternall Episcopacy acknowledging the ancient Rights of it as well as the use of it to be Catholick and Apostolick so delivered to us in all Ages and successions not onely by Bishops but by Presbyters and Deacons too such as Clemens of Alexandria Tertullian Origen and others were from all which wholly to vary and recede cannot be other than shaking and in great part subverting the very foundations of Unity Charity and Stability in the Catholick Church as to its visible Order Communion and Government wherein all good Christians should not so much study the temporary satisfaction of particular parties and interests as the constant and common good of the whole Polity and Society wherein all honest mens private concernments are best preserved by such a publick Authority as is most venerable and least disputable What some have alledged to weaken and baffle the Catholick Antiquity of Episcopacy as to its Primitive and Apostolick plantation by bastardizing all the Epistles of Ignatius as wholly supposititious and so interpolated at best with the oft-repeated Crambes of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons to a kind of nauseous affectation savouring they say more of later subtilty than Primitive simplicity All this hath no weight in it considering the high esteem was had of Ignatius in the Churches of the second and third Centuries besides what the learned Usserius and Vossius do own in their late Examens not onely for his Martyrly constancy but for his so holy and generous Epistles so full of devout flames and sacred fervors of love to Christ of Charity to his Church and zeal for Martyrdome that it were a thousand pitties this lukewarm Age should want the warmth of Ignatius his spirit glowing in his Epistles such as were often owned and cited by the first Ecclesiastick Writers St. Jerom Eusebius and others as genuine Nor doth it seem so probable that any in those or after-times which had no dispute either for or against Episcopacy should studiously adde those frequent testimonies for it which are seen in the most unsuspected parts of Ignatius but rather that Holy man was directed by Gods good Spirit in his Martyrly zeal and extasies of love to Christ and the Church to reinforce and reiterate as he doth the validity of his testimony for Order and Unity in the Church as foreseeing the quarrels which might be about Episcopacy and that the Communion of the Church would be much dissolved when the reverence and submission to Episcopall order and eminency should be so remitted disputed or denied that either Presbyters or people should run to parity and popularity the certaine high-waies to Anarchy Truly Ignatius is not more frequent for the honor and eminency of Episcopacy than for a venerable Presbytery in its due place and rank which might make him seem lesse fulsome to some Presbyters if they were not their own enemies out of excessive transports against all Bishops Vedelius of Geneva who had as good a nose and quick a sent as most men would not have so studied Ignatius his Epistles and sifted them as he doth if he thought them all drosse or refuse yea he is so evicted by them that he cannot forbear to subscribe to many of them in many places yea and to such an Episcopacy as that holy Martyr joynes with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a venerable Presbytery which he hardly doubts much lesse denies to have been in that first Century after Christ when Ignatius wrote those Epistles being Bishop of Antioch after Eâ—odias constituted there by Saint Peter when he left that Church to go to others Nor is there any more force in the fancies that some men draw from St. Clemens contemporary with St. Paul who in his Epistles ownes no Bishops as distinct among or above Presbyters in the Church of Corinth to whom he wrote that divine letter upon occasion of Schisme or Sedition risen among the Presbyters of that Church Sure the enemies of Episcopacy are hardly driven to find testimonies in Antiquity against it when they are forced to wrest them out of such Writers who were undoubtedly themselves Bishops as Clemens was in the Church of Rome in whose person he writes that Epistle to the Corinthians as Eusebius St. Jerom and all Antiquity before them do witness It is true St. Clemens then wrote when the Name of Bishop and Presbyter were not so distinct as afterward Episcopal eminency being either in the Apostolicall persons and power yet surviving or conveyed under the Names of Bishops and Presbyters to lesser Apostles and Apostolick successors whom St. Clemens calls the first fruits of the Apostles placed by them as he saith to be Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in all Churches to serve and oversee or Rule the Church according to Christian order and Ecclesiasticall comelinesse as the State of the Churches required Which he represents by those three orders among the Jewes which God had appointed namely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Priests the Priests and Levites which Orders as he sayes God confirmed by the miracle of Aarons Rod against the factious and seditious spirits among the Jewes so the Apostles foreseeing the contention that would arise about the name of Episcopacy did place those worthy persons to be their successors whom others in like order might follow to execute as he expresseth the proper ministrations and offices which are to be performed in the Church not confusedly but by such persons and in such times and places as the Lord had appointed So that either the Corinthian Presbyters were then as so many particular Bishops attended onely with their Deacons in their severall Charges which might be many and large enough in that ample
City and Territory after the Apostle St. Pauls death or they were still under some surviving Apostles generall care and inspection as St. John who yet lived in Domitians time when Clemens wrote this Epistle to those Corinthian Presbyters who possibly for want of some chief Bishop or President chosen and placed among them thus fell into emulations and factions which afterward were remedied by Episcopall eminency in that Church as St. Jerom tels us This is certaine as no Primitive Church had more early factions and more carnall divisions or more needed Episcopall Presidency that is Apostolicall Authority to represse the turbulent and contentious humors among both people and Presbyters so none had more eminent Bishops among whom one was that famous Dionysius whom Eusebius and all Antiquity so commend for a Bishop of most Primitive and Apostolick temper full of Majesty and Humility of Authority and Charity To conclude I find no disadvantage brought against Primitive Episcopacy but much for it by either of these most Ancient Writers to which all others after them do so unanimously and clearly agree for asserting the Venerable Authority and Catholick Antiquity of Bishops above Presbyters that for any man of parts to listen to the partiall novel and pittifull allegations which some Presbyters have made against Episcopacy and all Presidentiall Bishops contrary to those ancient Authors who were most of them yea almost all of them of that Episcopall order in the Church is certainly as senselesse a superstition and as vaine a divination as that was for which Hannibal reproched Prusias King of Bithynia when being advised by Hannibal to fight with the Pergamenians he refused because the entrailes of the calfe then sacrificed seemed not propitious Sure Sir sayes he to the King you cannot be well advised in your warres who rather regard the entrailes of a young calf than the Counsels of an old souldier and veterane Commander Nor is it lesse impertinent for any sober Christian to credit the pittifull Rhapsodies or scraps forced out of the Scriptures or Fathers and corraded by a few Neotericks to wrest them against Episcopacy and themselves too who were actually Bishops rather than to believe that uniform concurrence which makes wholly for it out of all Antiquity as in perswasion so in practise so far that not one person or Author Father or Historian Synod or Councill of any Name or Note Worth or Eminency can be excepted No not St. Jerom himself whose judgement and practise is cleare in many places for Episcopall Eminency and Authority however as a Presbyter he challenged an interest as in the Election so in the Counsell and assistance of Presbyters to be joyned with Bishops which is as prudent as ancient and not denyed by any sober man who adheres to Primitive Episcopacy For which St. Jerom himself gives so pregnant and ancient a Testimony as none clearer can be desired in the person of St. Mark the Evangelist who first planted and setled a Christian Church at Alexandria where he died and was buried After whom by his advise and direction no doubt the Presbyters of Alexandria chose Anianus as their Bishop a man endeared to God and man of admirable Piety and Charity who in celsiori gradu collocatus placed and owned in a higher degree than any Presbyters did govern that Church twenty two yeares as Bishop whose succession continued as St. Jerom saith to his daies in Dionysius and Heraclas Bishops of Alexandria One such testimony for a ruling and unepiscopall that is an unruly Presbytery or Independency without any Bishop would be worth considering but is not to be found in all Antiquity CHAP. XX. MY second argument or plea by which to reconcile sober men to Apostolick Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy is from that Evangelicall temper and true Christian spirit which is in it and was ever both owned and used by it as to the peaceable principles and obedientiall practises of all worthy Bishops and all Mininisters of that subordination in all Ages and places toward Civill Powers and Magistrates who both in first planting and after in reforming of any Church wherein they had a chief influence never applyed any popular rude and violent meanes to set up their opinions or parties any Church-way or power any Order Discipline or Authority nothing pragmatick mutinous or seditious was prayed preached or practised by them contenting themselves with sober sermons and devout prayers with doing well cheerfully and suffering evill patiently They never used any sinister policy or power no fraud or force nor any methods or engines to introduce Episcopacy other than such as were necessary to bring in Christianity in the true faith and holy mysteries of it which have ever been embarqued with steered by and either persecuted or prospered together with Episcopacy whose diligence and devotion peaceablenesse and patience both in their Dioceses and in their Synods or Councils assisted by Presbyters of the same adherence and Communion hath planted preserved propagated and best restored true Religion to all Nations by such demonstrations of meeknesse and wisdome as were loyall just pure peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated They never did any thing menacingly and boysterously against their Superiours with threatnings or tumults with sedition or hostility with faction or partiality They did not presently let fly bitter arrowes at the faces hands heads and hearts of all that refused their offers and motions but onely shook off the dust of their feet and quietly departed if need were as Christ commanded his Apostles and Disciples This was and is the temper of Primitive and true Episcopacy as to civill peace and subjection It is an observation not so strange as too true that all Spirits which are Antiepiscopall are in some respects antimagistraticall and most-what antimonarchicall enemies to Bishops are easily enemies to all Magistrates that are not of their own straine and way The first and great instance of which truth was and is in the Papacy since the Bishops of Rome forsook the first humble holy and martyrly principles of their predecessors and challenged in Christs Name a Soveraignty Monarchy and Tyranny above all Bishops not content with a primacy of order civility and precedency which was anciently allowed as to other Metropolitanes Primates and Patriarks so principally to the Bishops of Rome not for the honor of their first founders St. Peter and St. Paul nor for the renowne and orthodoxy of the Romane Churches faith for these might be and were as remarkable in other Cities as Jerusalem where Christ in person had been so in Antioch c. but it was consented and yielded to for the secular honor and glory of that mighty City which was as it were the confluence summary and center of all worldly greatnesse as the Queen of all Nations whence all Lawes and soveraignty flowed to the civilized world and terror to the other parts that were barbarous or enemies The Imperiall power and Majesty of that City induced
can be proper to usher in true Christian Religion and Reformation these methods have made them so stunted and ricketly that they are come to a stop-game so that in these last and worst Ages of the world there hath been little or no progresse made to the true propagating of the Gospel among any heathen Nations or of any Reformation among the decayed Christians because Religion is every where even among many Christians and Reformers too much managed as the Spaniards did among the West-Indies with force and fraud with covetousnesse and cruelty with faction and ambition with regard to worldly interests of men more than to the true precepts and holy concernments of Christ and his Church Who is there that will entertaine Christianity or any Reformation when it comes in like Turcisme and Barbarisme with fire and brimstone with swords and canons pretending to convert and save soules but to be sure it will first pervert the Lawes ravine mens Estates and destroy at last mens lives if they do not submit even against their consciences as well as the Lawes to strange Innovations Truly these are engines onely fit to be used by such spirits as are Antichristian who know not of what Spirit Christ and his Apostles with their successors the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters were Nor did the Popes of Rome ever more staine the honor of that Apostolick See and the glorious name of Catholick Episcopacy than when they forgot to follow their pious predecessors holy and humble Bishops of that famous Church for 600. yeares who were Martyrs or Confessors or true Professors of the Gospel and betook themselves to such arts of secular policy and power of sedition and ambition as made some after-Bishops of Rome seem rather Monsters of men as their own writers confesse than Ministers of Jesus Christ imitators of Sylla Marius and Caesar more than of St. Peter or St. Paul or St. Clemens when they sought by Hildebrandine arts to exalt themselves above all that is called God in civil Magistracy which justly claimes under God and from him as did the Kings of Judah that supreme visible power which within their respective dominions doth orderly and duly manage all ministrations Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil for the publick peace and welfare Certainly since Christianity it self in its grand Articles Ministry and Mysteries must not thus be brought in by head and shoulders by force and affronts upon any Prince or State whatsoever much lesse may any Reformation never so desirable and just As for some little defects or veniall deformities they ought not in any sort to be so urged as should carrie Religion beyond good manners or Reformation to rudenesse Not persecuting but persecuted Bishops and Presbyters are the ablest preachers and aptest propagators of the Gospel such as while they lift up their voyce like a trumpet not to give the alarmes of war but to tell Judah of their sins and Israel of their transgressions do also lift up holy hands and pure hearts to God in prayer for all men but chiefly for Kings and all in Authority In the greatest depressions of Christianity and Episcopacy for they ever went together as Truth and Order Ministry and Authority both of them being necessary for the being or well-being of any Church never any godly Bishop or orderly Presbyter who were still the foremost and stoutest Champions for Religion did make any seditious appeales scurrilous libels or declamatory invectives against the powers that were by whatever meanes they either obtained or held or exercised their soveraignty They never thought it their duty as Christians or Ministers to stir up the spirits of any men great or small many or few to any unlawfull commotions and so they esteemed all to be which had not the consent and Commission of those in civil dominion who were supreme and the present Powers ordained of God When any of those holy Bishops and Presbyters were necessitated not out of revenge or anger but out of charity and pitty to their persecutors to bring forth their strong reasons by way of Learned Grave and unanswerable Apologies for their Religion as many of them did hoping thereby to buoy up the cause of Christianity not onely from unjust persecutions but from false prejudices they did write them indeed with an heroick kind of freedom yet with all due respect dedicating their writings by way of humble supplications or cleare yet comely Remonstrances to the Emperours or Senates to the Princes and supreme Magistrates themselves so did Justine Martyr his first Apology to the Senate of Rome his second to the Emperour Antoninus Pius so Tertullian his to the Emperour Severus and his Son so Quadratus Bishop of Athens to Adrian the Emperour and in like manner did others But never any Primitive Bishop or Presbyter did use any Satanick Stratagems or such seditious practises as were to advance Religion by any thing that tended to or intended popular tumults and rebellion no impudent libellings and scurrilous pamphletings to make either the persons of Princes odious or their Government infamous Episcopacy never used any such conjurations as would either bring down fire from heaven or stir up Earth-quakes neither exciting the Optimacy and Nobility nor the Populacy and Communalty against any either supreme or subordinate powers they never made the waters above the firmament and those under it so to meet by breaking up the great deeps of subjection or by opening the fountains of plebeian Liberties as to bring in terrible inundations upon Kingdomes or Common-wealths No they alwaies by the word and Spirit of Christ which were their onely swords and these two as Christ said to St. Peter were enough for that work set bounds to the proud waves of that raging Sea the tumultuating people and rather repaired the banks and breaches that others rashnesse as the Circumcellions and Euchites somtime made than either assisted or countenanced those horrid deluges of sedition They never wrested the Revelation or any other places of Scripture so as to animate the earth that is the common and meanest people to help the Woman that is whatever some list to call their Church and Religion in its agonies that by their unlawfull motions they might bring forth something that faction lists to call Reformation a word that is never out of the mouths of John of Leiden and his complices though far from their hearts Godly Bishops and Presbyters never either taught or thought those practises to be any helping of the Lord against the mighty No they ever judged and preached after St. Pauls St. Peters and our Blessed Saviours Doctrine and example that such inordinate motions upon pretexts of Religion are cursed and damnable resistings of those powers which God hath ordained by the civil Lawes and customes of any Church or State The Lord and true Religion are onely to be helped by laudable and lawfull actions the measures of which are not to be sought in every mans private breast and
fancied themselves to be swoln to Giants are charged of old by many grave learned and honest men as very much treading in the Popes steps that is either upon the toes or heeles or hands or necks or heads of Kings and Soveraigne Magistrates The experience of which gave it seemes to King James such dreadfull apprehensions of that way that he equally feared Presbytery and Popery when they thundered with Excommunication and great guns too which had so filled Scotland many yeares with great inquietudes in his Mothers reigne and in his Minority that he thought them no better than godly rebellions in order to promote private and partiall factious and deformed Reformations Nor was Queen Elizabeth without her feares on this side when she not onely heard the Tragedies of Scotland but saw and felt the menacings and agitations in England even upon this account which the event hath taught us and all the world were no childish terriculaments nor brutish thunderbolts So that both high Presbytery and low Independency are by many wise men judged inconsistent with a just and complete Monarchy no lesse than with a right Episcopacy standing in the same posture of enmity against these as they pretend to do against the Papacy or Popery It will be very well if Reformed Presbytery can wipe off those staines and suspicious as easily and truly as Primitive Episcopacy did avoid them and our late Reformed and Reforming Bishops in England who alwaies joyned together fear God and honor the King without any Ifs or And 's without any reserves or salvo's save onely those which betray men to serve sin and Satan rather than to suffer with and for a good conscience in the service of God And however some Christian Bishops as St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Athanasius St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Basil and others did sometime in weighty and exemplary cases vindicate the honor of Christian Religion and the Authority of Ecclesiasticall Discipline before and against some Christian Princes whose errors or passions had either swerved them from or transported them beyond that Orthodoxy Charity Justice and Moderation which became Christians as in the revenge taken by Theodosius upon the Citizens of Thessalonica and in other passages of State which tended to the publick scandall of Religion then countenanced by the Lawes and professed by the Princes yet still those great and good Bishops both preached and practised all civill respect and loyall subjection to them as their Soveraignes they never divided what God had joyned together they followed Christs Oracle to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods the first were set out by the Imperiall Constitutions the second by the cleare Canons of Gods word interpreted not by every private mans new imagination but by the Catholick judgement and practise of the chief Fathers of the Church All Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and people ever held it to be a Vile Unchristian Antichristian Diabolick petulancy to speak evil of dignities either Civil or Ecclesiastick to curse the Gods or Rulers of Church and Common-weale to use railing accusations against their Superiours The rough garb of Satyrs was never thought comely for the Pens Pulpits or hands of Church-men it was a Solecisme in Christian Religion to have Ministers tongues sharp swords their mouths open sepulchers their sermons sarcasmes their prayers pasquils their invocations of God invectives against their Governours whose Authority was still sacred though their exorbitancies might be blameable What good Bishops and Presbyters eares would not have tingled then to have heard those filthy and dirty ditties which were tuned in England to the pipe of Martin Mar-prelate and Penry's Supplication to the Devil to which some men danced who were then thought zealous for Presbytery making sport at such lewd and infamous scurrilities against their Governours in Church and State as were fitter to have fetched teares from their eyes when they saw not onely worthy and Reformed Bishops but the whole Reformed Church of England and the Majesty of the Prince so torne and bespattered by those Borborites those uncleane Spirits The grave and modest sort of Bishops Presbyters and People who otherwaies much desired a just and orderly Reformation of Religion yea and valued the notable parts and zealous industry of Luther yet they extremely blushed at and disliked that outragious reply which his over-boyling heat made against our King Henry the Eighth when he wrote for the defence of that which he thought true Religion whose error in Luthers judgment did in no sort deserve so rude so scornfull so scurrilous and uncomely a reply in which sober men pittied Luthers native passion and rusticity which were more like an unbred and unbridled Monk than a meek Disciple of Christ or a zealous Preacher of his Gospel or an exact follower of St. Paul who publickly checked himself for the reproch and disdainfull speech he used ignorantly against the High Priest Ananias who probably had attained that dignity as then the fashion was among the Jewes by very sinister meanes yea and had upon the place done St. Paul a palpable injury commanding him to be smitten on the mouth when he should have heard his defence T is true Luther afterward used some soft recantations to the King but in vain it being looked upon as his Policy more than his Piety or Humility hoping thereby to advance his party to which he saw the King in some points was now driven more than enclined by the breach he had made with the Pope But it is hard to wash the hands of any person or party cleane whose insolency hath once cast dirt in the face of Soveraigne Princes or chief Magistrates who are the brightest visible image and glory of God among mankind being the Lords annointed as David called Saul now forsaken of God for his forsaking God first Although the actions or opinions of our Superiours in some things be lesse commendable as were those of Constantius and other Arrian Emperours yet are they not to be reviled in any case by those that will not deserve the name and fate of Shimei whom Abisha's loyall zeal cals a dead dog for his barking against his Lord the King now in his Eclipse and distresse whose cursing insolency that valiant Commander would presently have revenged with the lesse of his head and however Davids humility and clemency did pardon him at present yet afterward vengeance pursued him while he foolishly following his fugitive servants beyond his bounds and teddar forfeited his word and life to King Solomons just and wise severity the royall pardon not availing to protect so petulant and insolent a disloyalty which God would have punished though it were by man pardoned Yea some grave men have thought that those two learned and eloquent Bishops St. Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nazianzum the one in his resolute but rough carriage to the Empresse Eudoxia the other in his sharp Steleticks against Julian
the Emperour did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men suffer their native passions to carry them somewhat beyond tha discretion and temper which became grave and godly Bishops while they did too much proscind and prostitute as it were the Imperial purple vilifying that Majesty which ought to be sacred to Christian Subjects although the persons wearing them may be Tyrants Persecutors and Apostates as the Censers were to be holy in which Incense had been once offered though with strange fire Bishops Miters and Crosiers ought in no case to clash with the Crowns and Scepters of Soveraign Princes however their discreet zeal may seasonably represent to them and in Gods name reprove their misdemeanors as Christians much less may any Presbyters pert upon them who are of a far lesser size and never had any ensignes of honor and autority as chief governours of any Church Be Bishops or Presbyters never so zealous and gracious yet they are not beyond the ancient and best Bishops of Rome and of other chief Cities who with Gregory the Great owned the Emperours as their Soveraign Lords So did St. Ambrose respect both Theodosius and Valentinian so did the venerable Council of the Nicene Bishops reverence the Emperour Constantine the Great Neither their number being three hundred and eighteen nor their publick representation of the Catholick Church did encourage them to do or meditate any thing beyond prayers and petitions recommending all their Counsels to God the Emperour and all the Church No Preachers or Christians warmth needs go beyond the pitch of Christ and his Apostles who are so absolutely for obedience respect and civil feare to Princes whether heathen or Christian that no supreme power whatever need to fear the overthrow or shaking of their Empire Soveraignty and Dominion by admitting true Christian Religion and true Christian Bishops nor need they feare it as any sin persecution or injustice in them to curb represse and punish by all meanes the inordinate pragmatick and seditious zeal as of Bishops so of any Presbyters or people who shall pretend to bring in any Religion or Reformation against their will and permission it being the work and mark of true Religion and undefiled to establish the Thrones of Princes to preserve the publick peace to teach subjection not onely of purses and persons but of soules and consciences so far as Princes do not require them to disobey God and in these cases they need not rack their wits to find out rebellious remedies or disloyall evasions the onely lawfull and laudable refuge is neer at hand namely Christian patience which sets men furthest off from railing or resisting both which are but the scorchings and soote of black and over-burning zeal which makes a kind of Charcoale of Religion What wise sober and humble Christian then can sufficiently love honour and admire the modesty humility and loyalty of true Episcopacy ever expressed by the carriage of the best Christian and reformed Bishops towards all Princes And who can sufficiently abhor the petulancy and insolency of those Novellers and Reformers who shall dare to lift up either the Presbyterian virgula or the Independent ferula or the Anabaptistick flail not onely to threaten but to chastise Soveraign Princes that list not to admit their wayes into their dominions before they can approve them in their Consciences and Judgements following the disciplining methods and penance used by some Monks of Canterbury against our King Henry the second Surely Christianity and the Clergy are never so healthy and comely as when their complexion is rather pallid with the fastings and prayers the studies and pains of humble Bishops and Presbyters than purpled or sanguine with blood and fury The over-hot breathings of Ministers like the chaud of Charcoale stifle and suffocate the vital spirits of true Religion Godly Bishops and Presbyters ever abhorred as Hell and damnation to teach Princes their Religion their Canons Catechises and Directories as Gideon did the men of Succoth with Briars and Thornes or to discipline Soveraigne Majesty with Swords and Pistols in order to perswade them to submit to the Gospel-Scepter and Discipline No they never did attempt so to do either in the Primitive and persecuting times when Magistrates were most froward and injurious or in those times which were afterward more propitious and prosperous when the Clergy fed highest and was most indulged by the munificence of Christian Emperours and Empresses devout Kings and Queens who as good nurses never repined at the fulness of their own breasts or the hearty sucking of their dear nurslings joyning the Prince to the Prelate and adding Lordly Honors with Estates to Christian Bishops never fearing hereby to make them too wanton or insolent while they saw them keep to the sober principles of Christianity conformable to that Apostolick and Primitive Episcopacy which was alwaies pure and peaceable faithfull to God humble and loyall to man so Ruling the Church of Christ as not to be Masters of mis-rule in any Nation State or Kingdom Yea in the amplest enjoyments of that pious munificence and those generous liberalities which Christian Princes Noblemen Gentlemen and inferiour persons devoutly afforded to Bishops and the rest of the Clergy as tokens of their gratitude to God their honor to their Saviour their love to their spirituall Fathers and their value of their own and other mens soules however some few Clergy-men among many might possibly surfeit sometime and as Jesurun grow petulant sensuall and sottish through fulness of bread idlenesse and luxury yet still the generall face of the best Bishops and Clergy was comely and venerable there wanted not in all Ages such Bishops and Presbyters both in England and all Churches for Gravity Learning Sanctity Charity Fidelity and Loyalty as kept up the Office Name and Honor of the Clergy and of Episcopacy to an high degree of honor and veneration both with Princes and people that were good Christians No men were more usefull or more imployed for the good ordering both of Church and Common-weale than Bishops were none were better Counsellors to Princes and greater Benefactors to their fellow-subjects none further from faction sedition popularity sacriledge and rebellion none did greater service or better offices for their King their Church and their Country How loyal resolute and religious a Remonstrance did the Bishop of Carlile make in Parliament against the deposing of King Richard the Second when the whole stream ran against him Was not Morton first Bishop of Ely and after of Canterbury the first designer and a principal effecter of the union of the White and Red Roses the two great houses of York and Lancaster to the blessed extinguishing of those long flames of civil war which drank up the blood and consumed the flesh of this Nation whose greatest miseries rise from its own bowels Was not Richard Fox Bishop of Durham the chief Counsellour Promoter and Actor of that other union between the two Crowns of England and Scotland by treating
and concluding a match with our King Henry the Sevenths daughter and James the Fourth King of Scotland a foundation certainly of very great honour and happiness to both Nations if wise and religious superstructures had been built upon it Now by a strange revolution of Divine Justice that holy Thistle which lately vied for an Equality with if not a Superiority above the Roses is become not so much united in a Parity as subdued to an Inferiority Nor were the English Bishops less loyal to true Religion as Christian yea and to the true Reformation of it then to their King and Country How notably did that renowned Lincolniensis Grostest Bishop of Lincoln assert the freedom of his Conscience against the Popes unworthy commands How many other Bishops in the contests between the Popes and our Princes about Investitures asserted the rights of their Soveraigns After the Roman darkness and Tyranny vanished and the light of an orderly and loyal Reformation appeared how many godly Bishops then did abide the fiery Tryal of Martyrdom How many of them and their Clergy were banished and imprisoned as Confessors How many of them as Jewel Abbot Andrews Davenant White Morton and others have wrote with incomparable study and unanswerable strength against the Papal Usurpations Errors and Superstitions and none beyond the last Archbishop of Canterbury for clearness and exactness of the Controversies stated With how great a resolution and loyal freedom did George Abbot his immediate Predecessor write a notable letter to King James against all toleration of Popery when the Spanish match was hot in treaty At which time with what thunder and lightning did Dr. Senhowes afterward B. of Carlile preach the two famous Sermons against the great Diana of Rome as well as of Ephesus to such a degree of eloquent zeal and becoming courage that he pleased even those whom he offended In the very last Convocation in England anno 1640. which gave occasion to so great flames in this Church meeting with times and minds which had both wood and fire ready and onely wanted a Sacrifice even this so decryed Synod which had in it as learned honest and venerable Church-men Bishops and others as ever were in England had among other things concluded a full and firme defiance against Popery for ever as well as an establishment for Episcopacy which they then found tottering and shaken but had not the happiness to use the right means of establishing it which was not by building it a story higher but by taking it rather a story lower at least abating its Pinnacles Turrets and Battlements what it wanted in ornament and height it might have enjoyed in strength and setledness Yet their design and endeavour was very prudent foreseeing as was easie that the overthrow of Episcopacy in the Reformed Church of England would be the greatest gratification to Rome that could be at present expected by the Papists And certainly the Romish party were never more pleased then with those Convulsion-fits which so tortured first and afterward destroyed not onely that Convocation but all the former Stability Honour Peace Plenty Order and Government of this Church and its Clergy which alwayes feared and foretold no less danger from Scylla then Charybdis I might adde further the humble yet resolute Remonstrance made by the Bishops of Ireland to the Governours and Councel of that Kingdom in the Lord of Straffords time fully and freely declaring the inconsistency of any open and avowed toleration of Popery with the honour of God with the power and purity of the Reformed Religion and with the peace of the Kingdoms Thus when the Bishops of England were Capital or Dominical letters both in the Church and State their Piety Loyalty Courage Zeal and Constancy made I think as fair and as goodly ashew as any of their enemies have done they were legible afar off at home and abroad and will be so to present and after-Ages many an one of them signified more as to exemplary Piety and useful Vertues then one hundred of petty Presbyters or puny Preachers either then did or now do or ever will be able to do who were indeed never so considerable or commendable so useful to the Church or serviceable to the State as when they kept to an humble subordination and wise communion with their Bishops whose honour and peace was the Presbyters honour as the honour of the head is the honour of every member of that Body Doubtless their temporal happiness was bound up together neither could Bishops be happy without the assistance of venerable Presbyters nor Presbyters without the governance of reverend Bishops neither should be without other in the Lords Church I might here further adde to the consideration of the obedientiall and peaceable principles and practises of true Episcopacy its Charitable Hospitable and Generous disposition which are best expressed in times of peace and a state of plenty As Bishops had a firm loyalty to their Princes and obedience for conscience sake to their superiours not examining their morall vertues but their civil Rights which are the onely measures of duty in like manner Bishops had generally great charity to their equals and benignity to ther inferiours which is a great fruit of a subjects loyalty to his Prince and love to his Country relieving many poor people in their pressures and thereby keeping them from those discontents which usually attend the distresses of mens conditions the afflictions of Princes oft rising from the dust the meaner sort of people when necessities animate them to animosities and such insolencies as turne dust into lice as Moses did to the plaguing of Pharaoh and all Egypt None but evil eyes and worse hearts could with unthankfullnesse and uncharitablenesse grudge the excellent Bishops of England those Honors and Revenues which they highly deserved while they worthily employed them rather for others good than their own private enjoyments in any way of luxury or gallantry or debauchery the frequent gulfs of many other mens great Estates and Honors when they are enjoyed and abused by very small and sensuall minds Generally Bishops neglected their own private interests and gaine to advance the publick How few of them in many yeares of peace and plenty raised any considerable fortunes to their particular families or posterities I am sure not comparable to what Judges and Lawyers in all Ages yea and Military men have done in a few yeares whose thrifty swords have gathered better Estates in one seven yeare than any Bishops or other Church-mens liberall words and works ever did or aimed at in twenty yeares though their yearly Revenues were as good or better I think than most Commanders pay and I conceive as much deserved by them in order to the publick good and service which they might do and really did in all Ages both as to Church and State to Superiours Equals and Inferiours For Bishops beyond all men in their times were guilty of building repairing and endowing many Churches which other men
Custom and Canons of this as of all Churches also by the ancient Lawes of this Nation thus splitting even their dear Presbytery in pieces which was best embarqued with Episcopacy while they ran this on ground upon the Rocks Quick-sands the oppositions of power and the despiciencies of people between which all Church-government and publick respect is now removed from both Bishops and Presbyters Alas how pitiful a part of any Government have any of these Ministers now to act and please themselves with who affected to play a new game at Chesse in this Church onely with pawns and rooks without Kings or Bishops whose unseparable fate at least as to the Genius of England King James very wisely foresaw would stand and fall together if he had as wisely prevented the danger and damage of both it being very hard for any Soveraign Prince to govern such an head-strong people unless he have power over their minds as well as their bodies This a Prince cannot have but by Preachers who as the weekly Musterers Orators and Commanders of the populacy do exercise by the Scepter of their tongues a secret and swasive yet potent Empire over most peoples soules These preachers he knew were not easily kept either in good order or in just honor being men of quick fancies of daring and active confidences great valuers of themselves and ambitious to be many Masters yea popular and petty Monarchs in the Thrones of their Pulpits and Territories of their Parishes unlesse there were some men over them who are fittest to be above them as being too hard for them in their own sphere and mystery best able to judge of Ministers Learning Opinions Preaching Praying and Living men for yeares of Gravity and Prudence rewarded with Estates and Honors And such were Bishops without whom Christian Monarchs are like those Kings who had their thumbs and great toes cut off it being not possible for a Prince immediately to correspond with every petty Presbyter nor is it comely to contest with them nor can he be quiet from their pragmatick janglings unlesse they be curbed by some such Learned Authoritative and Venerable Superiours as are properest for them who were the fittest mediums between the King and his other Clergy both to perswade Princes to favour the Church and to perswade Church-men to preach and practise loyalty toward their Princes which tends to the honor of both Magistracy and Ministry So that it was no other then an obvious conjecture to foretel No Bishop no King since the same Scriptures and Principles of both reason and religion piety and policy lead men to obey both as rulers over them in the Lord or to reject both by affecting popular parities and communities as in Church so in State Which abatement of Kingly or Soveraign power in one person as to its civil Magistratick and Monarchical eminency hath by late experience been found so inconsistent with the Genius of this English Nation that the Representatives of the People have not onely importunely petitioned the restitution of Monarchical yea Kingly government but they have actually setled the main authority in one person under an other Name and Title justly fearing lest the dividing and diminishing of Soveraignty Majesty and Authority as to the chief Governour should in time make a dissolution of the civil Government by frequent emulations and ambitions incident to any such Nation as England is which hath so many great and rival Spirits in it prone to contemn or contest with any thing that looks like their Equal Nor do I doubt but Time will further shew us if it hath not done it already sufficiently that no less inconveniences and mischiefs both as to Church and State may follow the debasing and destroying of Ecclesiastical power and authority in England dividing and mincing it so diverting the ample and fair the ancient and potent stream of Episcopacy which flowed from the Throne of Christ and of Christian Kings into the new rivulets small channels and weak currents either of Presbytery or Independency The Scepter of Government in Church or State like the staff or rod of Moses when it is cast out of his hand on the Earth or populacy turns to a serpent Democracy being a very terrible Daemogorgon untill it be resumed into Moses his hand as King in Iesurun it doth not return to its former beauty strength and use which that did after it had justly devoured the rods and serpents of the Magicians as in time Monarchical Government will do all other kinds or essayes in Engl. which are but the effects of popular passions and encroachments carried on more by some Preachers Inchantments then by Lay-mens Ambitions Strabo and others tell us that the people of Cappadocia when the Romanes had conquered their Kings and offered them their Liberty as a Province or free State under them they refused the favour affirming the temper of their Country was such that the people in it could not live if they were not governed by a King So pertinacious were they as indeed most people in the world have been and are at this day to retaine the sacred Tradition of Kingly or Monarchicall Government which being parentall and Patriarchall is most naturall and divine derived to us by nature and confirmed by good experience ever since Noah and Adam who had their just Soveraignty as Fathers and Kings over all mankind derived to them from God the Great Father and Eternall King over all from whom Monarchy and so Episcopacy derive their Majesty and Authority Primogeniture carrying with it as Princely so Priestly power which made the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 41.45 Exod. 3.1 to signifie both Prince and Priest The want of either of which and the swerving from either of them commonly occasioneth infinite distractions in any Nation and Church especially if they have been in all times wonted to be governed by them To avoid which miseries among Mankind the Wisdom of God hath guided as most Nations to Monarchy so this and all primitive Churches to the royall Priesthood of Episcopacy from the very cradle or beginning of Christianity At which time S. Jerom to Euagrius confesseth it was toto orbe decretum a Catholick Decree and Order through all the Christian world which could be no other then Apostolical at least And however other Reformed Churches may make a shift to live and some of them thrive without the formal name and title of Bishops though most of them have the efficacy of the power and the reality of the authority in their Superintendents yet I am confident till English Spirits are wholly cow'd and depressed with war and such exhaustings as utterly dis-spirit and embase the Nobility Gentry and Communalty nothing will be more inconsistent with them than what savours of parity and popularity in Church-Government They will rather affect to have every one what they list which in effect will be no Government properly Ecclesiastick further then they may be commanded
not worthy to be their Rulers in the least kind This submission cannot be expected unless Englishmen are now to be subdued by fine words and made obedient by the formal and supercilious looks of some men who affect in their Churches and Parishes to govern all and are not fit alone to govern any unless they had been more able and willing to govern themselves and to have kept within that compasse of Ecclesiastical Order and subjection to their Bishops and betters which the example of all Churches and all worthy Presbyters and true Christians in all Ages commended to them besides the particular Laws and constitutions of this Church and State These considerations of the unproportionableness of any other Church-government than a right Episcopacy to the temper of England moved the supercilious yet very learned Salmasius in his advice to the Prince Elector then in England and to some other of the long Parlament and of the Scotized Assembly who desired his judgement upon the then hot and perboyling yea passionate and over-boyling debates touching Episcopacy to tell them That as the Episcopal Government rightly constituted and executed is very agreeable to the Word of God and most conform to all Antiquity so it was of all other most suitable to the English spirit and constitution The want of which he already foresaw was and would ever be the cause of much disorder and distraction of infinite Factions Heresies Schismes and Confusions Thus the great Dictator of Learning as he esteemed himself was pleased in this passage and other-where graciously to express his judgement and pleasure according to the humour he was in or to the Interest which he was pleased to adopt Sometimes he is Walo Messalinus and ashamed to own his Name against Episcopacy he was in that disguise to gratifie the pretentions of Presbytery and the adherence or dependence which he had to the French and Dutch Churches otherwhile he puts off the vizard and with open face owns the eminency authority antiquity and universality of Episcopacy yea the incomparable utility of it when joyned with a grave and orderly Presbytery besides a particular aptitude in it to the English Genius For he well saw that all Government and Church-Government as much as any is a beame of Divine Majesty and requires not onely something of a Diviner sufficiency as to inward abilities and endowments but also of a Diviner conspicuity and lustre for Authority civil eminency and ornament We read that God besides his choice of Aaron and his Sons to be complete persons to make them chief Priests according to his Command and Commission gave also strict order for their garments to have them made with such comelinesse cost and curiosity as should be for glory and beauty even before the eyes of the people over whom they were placed And we further read that God forbad to his people the Jewes all birds that did creep and yet fly they were uncleane and abominable to be eaten An Emblem that nothing is lesse comely in Gods Church than to see those men ambitiously affect to fly high in governing others whose condition is low and creeping on the ground Indeed no Government can be carried on in Church or State especially in Engl. but either by the absolute terror of the sword and secular power commanding or by such legal injunctions and religious perswasions as bind good men in conscience to submit first to God and for his sake to those whom he as Lord of all is pleased to set over us Then is government in Church or State most complete and constant when it hath first that rational Empire and religious prevalency over mens hearts which ariseth from the perswasion that people have of the worth abilities right and authority which Governours have by their laws as from God in the State so from Christ in the Church Which perswasion as it brought all Christian people Presbyters and Bishops to be so wholy subject to their civil Magistrates and Soveraigns so it made all Christian Presbyters and Professors to be filially submiss to their Bishops as to Fathers given them by Christ even then when Bishops were rich in graces and gifts of the Spirit but low as to worldly greatness and under much persecution yet then did the Majesty of Episcopal authority prevail on which the lively Characters and pregnant Memorials of the Apostolical pattern designation and succession were still fresh and most remarkable then did it draw all true Believers and good Christians to venerate their Bishops or chief Pastors for Conscience sake by so much the more by how much Presbyters and People had more of the power of Godlinesse in them whereas now it is made a new mark of Godliness and Saintship with many to cast off to hate abhor despise and destroy all Bishops and all eminent Episcopacy Sure either primitive purity or modern dreggs must be very much out of the right way and which of them erres I leave to all sober men to judge As for other Christians of looser Consciences and Conversation which were prone in all Ages to be as weeds in the garden of the Church especially in times of Peace Plenty and Prosperity the piety and wisdom of Christian Princes and other godly people ever took care to keep them in the more awe and reverence toward their Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governours by investing these in such outward and visible enjoyments for estate and honour which might adde some outward respect and authority to them and that no small one before those that had most need to be so restrained overawed and dazled Hence the piety and policy of Constantine the Great not onely gave liberal supports to the Bishops of the Church but gave them places and honors equal to the Patricii the Senators in order and degree which were the Roman chief Nobility It is not onely an imprudent but an impious presumption and a tempting of God to needless miracles for any people to invest those men in any Government as in State so in Church who are as St. Paul saith little esteemed because deserving little who have neither personal abilities for the Office nor any clear and undoubted commission to authorize them in it from God or Man from Christ and his Church which I conceive can hardly if ever be found in any wayes of Church-government which are suspected for Novelty or tainted with Parity and Popularity contemners of Catholick Custom Primitive Antiquity and Apostolical Succession in an holy Uniformity From all which depravations as venerable Episcopacy is sufficiently known to be farthest removed of any so it cannot but seem to all impartial Christians to be as every way best in it self so fittest for the native temper of England where mens spirits are more accurate and acute more inquisitive and searching into the rights foundations and grounds of all authority over them then in other Countries where meannesse and easinesse servility and credulity of common people makes them venerate
of many particulars that Episcopacy is no enemy to Piety no way prejudiciall to Church or State yea a maine pillar to support the welfare of both Many Bishops may have been bad yet is Episcopacy good as many Priests of old were like Elies Sons vile men yet was the Priesthood Honorable and Sacred many Judges and Justices may be base and corrupt yet is Judicature good many Magistrates unworthy yet is Magistracy an excellent and necessary Ordinance of God He that should sift all the Presbyters or Ministers of any sort that have been or now are even the greatest zealots against Bishops and Episcopacy I believe he would find among them drosse enough yet must not the Office of Presbytery or the Function of the Ministry be cast off or abhorred He that shall examine by right Reason Religion Conscience and Honor what some Princes yea some Parlaments have been and done as to the persons of men will find they have been neither Gods nor Angels nor Saints nor Saviours alwaies but poor sinfull men of common passions and infirmities yet is the honor and use of Soveraigne power in Princes and supreme Counsel in full and free Parlaments of admirable concern to the publick good So is it in point of Episcopacy notwithstanding that many Bishops were but men yet some yea many nay I hope the most of them especially since the Reformation were as Mortall Angels Faithfull Pastors and Venerable Fathers There are upon account reckoned up by Bishop Godwin and others 1479. Bishops in England and Wales for above 1100. yeares of which time some Histories remaine though Bishops were long before but of these there are some Records both before and since the Reformation Who will wonder that in so great an harvest in so large a field there be found some light some empty some blasted eares This is certaine that till these last tempestuous times Bishops in England had given so ample and constant experiments of their Prudence Piety Worth and Usefulness in all Ages and States for Ecclesiasticall and Civil Affaires that they did abundantly conciliate and conserve those great measures of Love Respect Honour and Estate both publick and private which their Persons and Function by Law enjoyed Insomuch that as there were no where to be found better Bishops so no where had they better entertainment before and since the Reformation while they enjoyed the favour of Princes and the love of Parlaments who never heretofore listned to the plebeian envy or petulancy of those who sometime petitioned and prated against Bishops and Episcopacy as Diotrephes did against St. John The Wisdome Gravity Piety and Honor of this Nation never thought it worthy of them to overthrow so Venerable so Usefull so Ancient so Catholick so Honorable an Order meerly to gratifie the peevishnesse or passion or revenge or discontent or ambition or envy of inferiour people or inferiour Presbyters who were at their best every way when kept in compasse by wise Bishops No men heretofore never so much fly-blown with faction could so far prevaile by their insinuations and agitations as to have any Vote passed in England against Episcopacy all men of Learning Gravity and Prudence for these thousand yeares and more in England as in all Christian States owned and highly reverenced as Episcopacy in generall so good Bishops as the chief Conduits that had conveyed to them their Fore-father and their Children all Christian Ministry and Ministrations all Christian Mysteries and Comforts yea Christianity and Christ himself Which Spirituall Divine Eternall and Inestimable blessings this as other Nations and Churches ever owed as chiefly to Gods mercy so instrumentally to the hands of Bishops by whose Ministry they were taught by whose Authority they had many other Ministers duly ordained and sent into the harvest when it was great and required many Labourers These in their order assisted as Presbyters their respective Bishops in Teaching and Governing the Church but without or against their Bishops they never acted upon any account of Parochiall or Congregationall pretentions of Ministers Equality or peoples Immunity and Liberty Alas what ground was there for either of these pretenders in England when there were no Parishes divided as now they are till the yeare of Christ 634. when Honorius an Archbishop of Canterbury began that way for the more easie and orderly carrying on of Religion among the Country-people who had now generally received the Christian faith and Baptisme Till then the Pagani or Country-people either repaired to their Bishops and his Clergy in the Cities and chief Townes where they resided or they occasionally attended their Bishops in their visitations of them or such Presbyters as were sent out by the Bishops to officiate among them There was then no fancy nor many hundred yeares after of any petty Churches either of Associated Presbyters or Independent people without yea against the Episcopall Ordination Inspection and Jurisdiction still Bishops and Episcopacy were preserved and honored in England And this not onely by private persons of all ranks and qualities who were considerable for their honesty or Devotion but by our most admired Princes our noblest Peers our wisest Parlaments who did ever keep up the use and honor of Episcopacy in England nor did they ever disdaine to have Bishops their Assessors and Assistants in Parlaments esteeming it a rustick and plebeian temper to admit men to publick Counsel and Honors for their Valour and Estates and not for their Learning and Religion by which all worthy Bishops did as much ennoble themselves in all wise mens esteem if they wanted that of blood and descent which many of them had as those who most swelled in the conceit of their great Ancestors who left them great noble Estates but many times ignoble minds little wits and lesse honesty or vertue which hath been the fate of some who have most puffed against Episcopacy and despised those Bishops who were in all Morall Rationall Religious and reall Excellencies not their equalls but far their betters What Prince was ever more sage in her Counsel or more solemn in her Government more advised in her favours and frownes than our Augusta Queen Elizabeth what Soveraigne ever more reconciled Empire and Liberty or held the balances of Justice more impartially and more prosperously between all interests and degrees of men both in Church and State between Clergy and Laity Nobility and Communalty for neer half an hundred yeares In all which time she had no greater blemish than her yielding sometime too much to the sacrilegious importunities of begging Courtiers who terribly fleeced and sometimes flayed the Estates of some Bishopricks in England and Wales not so much out of her malice or covetousness as out of her mistaken munificence For never any Prince did more really religiously and constantly honor her Bishops as Fathers in God one of whom She had for her God-Father namely Archbishop Cranmer another I think it was Archbishop Whitgift she called her black Husband most-what
upon this Church for want of that vigor and authority of Episcopacy which had been the great defense under God the King and the Laws against those foul and filthy inundations A state of Church-religion and Reformation which his Majesty saw was at present and was ever likely to be far distant from that which was enjoyed in England under his Princely Predecessors and in some part of his own reign when England was filled and overflowed with good Christians good Scholars good Presbyters and good Bishops of which order England ever afforded and specially since the Reformation so many learned and commendable yea some rare and admirable instances Insomuch that this Church had cause to envie none in the World ancient or modern as for other things so for this the blessing of excellent Bishops as well as orderly Presbyters and sincere Christians Indeed no Nation for many Ages if we may feel the temper of any people by the pulse of their Parlaments either had more cause or seemed to have more disposition to value and actually did venerate its excellent Bishops than England did yea I have known those Noblemen Gentlemen Ministers and other people who were as to some Ceremonies less satisfied or more scrupulous than the Church and State was yet these men how have they commended how courted how almost adored such Bishops as they thought godly and grave good Preachers and good Livers as well as good Governours But as to the general sense and vote of the Nation which was audible and legible in its Laws and Constitutions for above a thousand years it ever did it self this honour and its Clergy this justice that no where in any Christian or Reformed Church Bishops were more ample more remarkable more reverenced more honoured even to the highest honour of Peerage yea the Archbishop of Canterbury had place next the Royal Blood never diminished or degraded by any Prince or by any Parlament in any Age. Nor is it the least of the Riddles of Providence how Bishops and Episcopacy having so resolute a Prince and so great a King to be their patron and protector should now in England fall under so great diminution dejection yea utter destruction considering that there never had been worthier Bishops in any time of the Church than have been in England this last Century nor in any part of that Century were there more excellent Bishops than were to be found among them at that very time when all their Palaces with Episcopacy were pull'd down about their ears and the best of them buried in the dust and rubbidge by which some men hope that the Names Merits and Memories of all Bishops and the ancient honour of Episcopacy shall be for ever smothered in obscurity or obloquie in scorn or oblivion whose Resurrection Reputation and Eternity as to their deserved honour and to the publick honour of this Church and Nation ever since it was Christian and ceased to be either barbarous or unbelieving I do here endeavour which if I cannot recover to life â—et I have brought these pounds of Spice and sweet Odours for the Enterrement and leave a fair Inscription or Epitaph upon the Grave-stone or Monument of Episcopacy if it must be ever buried in England an Office of Piety in a Son to his Fathers being my self a Person every way as free from suspicion of flattery or partiality as can well be found never either injured or obliged by any Bishop as to any publick advantages further than my Ordination as a Minister which I count a great and holy Obligation because by no other hands I conceive I could have lawfully received Holy Orders in the Church of England Free therefore from all biassings either for against the Episcopal Order which hath now no sinister temptations attending it I do affirm that Episcopacy could never have fallen into its terrible Fits and Convulsions into such excessive and mortal Agonies in a worse time as to the undeserved ruine of so many worthy men nor yet in a better time as to the eminent worth of those Bishops and other Church-men of their subordination who might well have born up the Cause and Honour as well as the weight of the Contest and Ruine of Episcopacy A wise man would wonder how in a full free and fair hearing before competent complete and impartial Judges it was possible for Episcopacy which was founded and supported by so strong foundations and supports to which all Churches all People all Presbyters all Princes all right Reason all due Order all politick Honour all Scriptural Patterns and Divine Precedents gave concurrent ayds besides the Laws and ancient Customs of this Church and State how it should suffer such a rout and reprobation instead of due Reformation where ought was amiss when it was able to bring forth such Armies at that time in England of learned grave godly venerable and incomparable Clergy-men Bishops and others of their perswasion which like so many Heroes and Atlasses were capable to have born up the falling Skie if it had not been over-charged with the Sins of the Nation Doubtless the whole world did not afford in any National Church more excellent Bishops or more able Divines for any Ecclesiastical Convocation Synod or Council singly they were mighty men both of Stature Vertue and Valour higher by head and shoulders than most of the Presbyterian Champions but socially they had been invincible if they had not been encountred with the sword which regarded not the greatness of their Learning or the soundness of their Judgements or the gravity of their Ages or the sanctity of their Lives but jealous of their firmness to Episcopacy presently set up a new Assembly no way representing because not chosen by the Clergy of England according to the wonted custom in which the Clergy of England had their priviledges as well as the Commons of England to chuse their Deputies according to Law and the Kings Commission yet these were to do the Journey-work of Presbytery as well as they could in broken times undertaking to Directorize to Unliturgize to Catechize and to Disciplinize their Brethren their Fathers their Countrymen and their Soveraign without any contradiction there being none among them that either would or could or dared to plead the cause of primitive Episcopacy which had so resolute a patron and so many able defenders at that time in England as among the inferiour Clergy so among those of the Episcopal Degree Among whom we have onely to excuse the indiscretions frailties defects or excesses of two or three later Bishops who possibly forgat the Counsel of Phoebus to use lesse stimulations and more restrictions Do but consider with compassion the great temptations of these Bishops by that favour place and power they had besides their native tempers which might be too quick and passionate also the Scholastick privacy and bluntness of their education not having taught them so well to dissemble at least not to moderate their passions take all together
be destroyed by vermine as that brave man Simon of Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury was whom the rabble at seven or eight blowes hacked in pieces A valiant man will not cry out for assistance when he is to encounter with his match but if many beasts of the people unprovoked run upon him he may without cowardise call for succour where he thinks it may be had Such was the case of those Bishops at that time when they not onely fancied but actually found promiscuous and rude heapes of people not onely threatning but offering indignities to their persons as well as to their place and function through whose sides they saw the malice and insolency of such Riotous Reformers sought to strike at the whole frame and constitution of the Church of England which they as all good men had great cause to value more than their lives if they might lay them down in an orderly deliberate way not in a tumultuary and confused fashion Whatever miscarriage those Bishops were guilty of in that particular yet I am sure it was somewhat excusable by the greater Misdemeanor of those who gave them occasion so to complaine Nor doth it any way blemish that excellency which in their more calme and composed actions they did discover worthy of themselves and their Predecessors to whom Erasmus long agoe in Archbishop Warhams daies gave this commendation that England of all Churches had learned Bishops I will not go beyond the Reformation of Religion to find worthy Bishops in England it may suffice here to register some of the well-known names of them which possibly the vulgar never heard of though men of reading and breeding cannot be ignorant of them What was more gentle ingenuous and honest-hearted than Archbishop Cranmer whose native facility made him in rough times lesse fixed till he came to be tyed to the stake of Martyrdome where he took a severe revenge on his inconstancy by burning his right hand first but his sincere though fraile heart was unburned amidst his ashes What was more down-right good than Bishop Latimer who joyed to sacrifice his now decrepit body upon so holy an account as the Truth of Christ What was more holy than Bishop Hooper or more resolute than Bishop Ridley What more severely yea morosely good than Bishop Farrar All of them Martyrs for true Religion by whose fires it was fully refined from the Romane Idolatry drosse and superstition This foundation laid by such gracious and glorious Martyr Bishops in England God was pleased to build a superstructure worthy of it in other most worthy Bishops even to our daies Time would faile me to give every one of them their just Character It may suffice to place an Asterisk of honor to some of their names What man had more Christian gravity than Archbishop Parker who had more humble piety than Archbishop Grindall who more Christian Candor Courage and Charity than Archbishop Whitgift who overcame his enemies by wel-doing and patience deservedly using that triumphant Christian Motto Vincit qui patitur Who had more of pious prudence and commendable policy than Archbishop Bancroft who did many Ministers good that never thanked him for it Who had more of an honorable gravity and all vertues than Archbishop Abbot to whom I may joyne his brother Bishop of Salisbury All these were as chief of the Fathers Metropolitanes of Canterbury Primates of all England as to Ecclesiasticall Order and Jurisdiction according to the ancient pattern of the Church of Christ in all Ages and places Nor were the Archbishops of York inferiour to them such as Sandes Hutton Matthewes and others men of great and good spirits Learned Industrious Hospitable Charitable good Preachers good Livers and good Governours After these came those other Bishops who were equal to them in Gifts Graces and Episcopal Power but so far inferior to them in Precedency and some Jurisdiction as the good Order and Polity of the Church required No Age or History of the Church can shew in any one Century a more goodly company of Bishops than here I could reckon up To omit many that were worthy of honourable remembrance who had been some of them Confessors and Sufferers others constant professors of the true reformed Religion these I may not smother in silence without sacriledge robbing God of his glory this Church of its honour and these Bishops of their deserved praises most of whose works do yet speak for them and loudly upbraid the ingratitude of those that cast dead flies of indignities upon such Bishops whose names are as a pretious Oyntment poured out What was ever more pretious more resplendent in any Church than Bishop Jewel for Learning for Judgement for Modesty for Humility for all Christian Gifts and Graces What one or many Presbyters ever deserved so well of this Church and the Reformed Religion as this one Bishop did whom God used as a chosen arrow against the face of the enemies of this Church and the Reformed Religion What man had more of the Majesty of goodnesse and Beauty of holinesse than Bishop King Who was more venerable than Bishop Cooper though much molested by factious and unquiet spirits Who had more ampleness and compleateness for a good Man a good Christian a good Scholar a good Preacher a good Bishop than Bishop Andrews a man of an astonishing excellency both at home and abroad How shall I sufficiently express the learned and holy Elegancie of Bishop Lake whose Sermons are so many rare Gems or the holy Industry and modest Piety of Bishop Babington Or the Nobleness by Grace by Gifts by Birth and by Life of Bishop Montacute How acutely profound are the Disputes and Decisions of Bishop White How full of equanimity moderation was Bishop Overall How clear compendious and exact was Bishop Davenant How fragrant and florid are the Writings as â—â—s the Life of Bishop Field whose Labours God did bless with the Dew of Heaven he long agoe asserting the honour of this Church by an unanswerable Vindication What can be more beautiful for Learning Judgement and Integrity than Bishop Bilson whose excellent works if some in England had more studied they had not so easily opposed the perpetual Government of the Church which he proves to be Episcopacy Was there any man more Saintly than Bishop Felton who had been a good Patron to some Ministers that since have helped to destroy his Order What could be more devout and thankful to God than Bishop Carleton who hath erected a fair pillar of Gratitude for the remembrance of Gods mercies to this Church and State How commendable for ever will the learned Industry of Bishop Godwin appear to impartial Posterity who hath with equal fidelity diligence and eloquence preserved the History of our English Bishops for above a thousand yeares from oblivion Nothing was beyond the couragious and consciencious freedom of Bishop Sinhouse whose eloquent tongue and honest heart were capable to over-awe a Court and to make Courtiers modest
fatter than Presbytery or had a better fleece and therefore was fitter for a sacrifice O no but Presbytery they say is a plant of Jesus Christs which Episcopacy is not and therefore to be weeded out Truly it may as well be said by the partiall Presbyterian that the seventy Disciples were of Jesus Christs appointment but the twelve Apostles were not that God created the lesser Stars and Planets but not the Sun and Moon that God made people but not Princes that he formed the feet and hands but not the eyes and heads of naturall bodies This is the great question which is not to be thus begged or supposed but should have been solidly proved before judgement had been so severely passed against Episcopacy we should have seen the time and place when and where Episcopacy usurped when and where Presbyters ruled in this or any Church by way of parity without any Bishop President or Apostle above them The constant streame of this Jordan which hath flowed from the first springs and fountaines of Christianity ever flowing and over-flowing in the Catholick Church this should have been miraculously divided before that Presbytery should have boasted of its passing over dry-shod and of its drowning all Bishops and all Episcopacy as the Egyptians in a Red Sea between the returnings and closings of the waters of Independency and Presbytery Whenas it is well known even by their own confessions that have any graines of Learning in them that Presbyters were ever as Cyphers in all Churches insignificant as to Church-Government without Bishops being set over them and before them as Capitall Figures Bishops were ever esteemed as the chief Captaines of the Lords host in this Militant State principall Stewards of Christs House-hold head-shepherds of his flock the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first-ordained and first-ordainers of the Evangelicall Ministry the first consecrators and distributers of all sacred mysteries the prime Conservators and Actors of all Ecclesiasticall Authority These were in all Ages next the Scriptures the Churches chiefest-Oracles and Interpreters these were the grand Divines in all Times and Places not superficially armed with light armour onely for the preaching or Homilisticall flourishes of a Pulpit but with the weighty and complete armour of veterane and valiant souldiers who were to stand in the fore-front of the Lords Battailes to receive the first charge and impressions from the Churches enemies of their force cunning and malice these were the fairest transcripts or Copies of Apostolicall Mission and Evangelicall Commission these were the great Magazins of sound and vast Learning these the Centers Refuges Sanctuaries Succour of both Ministers and people in all Churches these gave as holy Orders to Presbyters and Deacons so decent Ceremonies to all the Church also fatherly Counsels and friendly incouragements to all worthy Ministers when young and novices weak and defective when fearfull and dejected these gave Vigour and Authority to that Discipline which was necessary to punish and repress scandalous livers these these worthy Bishops such as we had good store in England even now at the last cast were the Chariots and horse-men of Israel these alwaies by the help of God recovered the Ark of God after the Philistines had taken it these recollected the flocks of Christ after they had been worried and scattered by grievous wolves and foxes being persons of more publick influence of more eminent example of larger hearts and greater spirits commonly than most or any private Ministers most mens spirits shrinking with the tenuity of their place and condition and enlarging with the ampleness of them God usually giving of that spirit of Government and Authority to those that are placed justly in it as he did to Moses Aaron Joshua Saul David Samuel and others both Princes and Prelates Judges and Magistrates who but equal it may be to inferiour persons in sanctifying Gifts and Graces as the Bishops of England might be to the many godly Presbyters yet in this they exceeded them not because placed above them in worldly Place and secular Honour but because they from the Apostles pattern were particularly appointed and commissioned by the Church of Christ and so fitted to execute those eminent Offices of Church-government in Ordination and Jurisdiction beyond what was ever given to any Presbyters without their Bishops Having then such a cloud of Witnesses both at home and abroad of former and latter times by which to justifie the deserved eminency of Episcopacy and to condemn the insolency of Presbytery I cannot forbear with St. Paul to demand in the behalf of our worthy English Bishops who have been so distrusted so discountenanced so dejected so despised so desolated so depressed Wherein did they come short of the very best of those Presbyters who were known sufficiently to my self who hâ—â—e so studiously sought their ruine and so ambitiously usurped against them Were Presbyters good Preachers so were Bishops Were Presbyters able Writers Bishops were more Were Presbyters zealous Opposers of Popery so were Bishops Were Presbyters devout Men so were Bishops Were Presbyters unblameable Livers so were Bishops Were Presbyters Martyrs and Confessors so were Bishops Were Presbyters Instruments for a just and orderly Reformation of Religion Bishops were more Were Presbyters useful to Church and State by word and example in their petty Parishes Bishops were more in their primitive Parishes or larger Dioceses which were long known and of force in the Church of Christ before lesser Parishes were in use or in being Were Presbyters hospitable and charitable without which all Religion Faith and Fervency is nothing Bishops were more equal in their Affections beyond them in their Liberalities as much as their Revenues Are Presbyters that were able faithful humble and orderly gone to Heaven so no doubt through Gods mercy are those holy Bishops who have been cast upon Dunghills as Lazarus and Job by the cacozelotry of some men in our times who have so much houted and outed despised and destroyed them Many Presbyters have done well and learnedly but many Bishops have exceeded them all who were so far from losing or abating the Gifts and Graces they had when but Presbyters that they increased them and improved them when made Bishops above other Presbyters who were then at their best when they most kept within that place and station in which God and the Church and the Laws and their own proportions had set them in an holy and humble a rational and religious a pious and prudent subordination to their respective Bishops as their lawful Superiours and reverend Fathers whose names are and ever will be pretious to all those that understand what belongs to excellent Learning to eminent Vertue to Christian Courage to admirable Patience to what is Primitive Catholick and complete in the Order Honour Polity Government and Happiness of the Church of Christ No Learned or Worthy Writer Forreign or Domestick who can fly above the Parasitisme of popular Pamphlets which will soon be condemned to Chandlers shops to
Darknesse Truth and Falshood Error and sound Doctrine between the Institutions of Christ and the sacrilegious Inventions of Men between the infallible Rule and Oracles of Gods Word in the Scripture and the variable Canons of poor men between the Catholick Custom of pure and Primitive Churches and the particular practises of later Usurpations brought in in the twilight of dark and depraved times These diametral distances ought ever to be preserved by all godly Bishops who may not come neerer to Popery than Popery is neer to Christianity or then Antichristian policies may correspond in some things with Christian piety Which just bounds as far as ever I could understand our pious Bishops in England from the first Reformation till now have religiously observed not one of them much less all deliberately or openly owning any communion with the Church of Rome where they saw the Church of England had made a just clear and necessary separation yea the learned Bishops of England have generally so fully confuted the Falsity Injury and Indignity of that calumny both by their Preaching Writing Living and Dying that men must be blind with despite mad with malice or drunk with passion when they vomit out so foul calumnies against all Bishops and Episcopacy in England as if they were Pandars for Popery and Pimps to the Whore of Babylon for this is the language of some mens oratorious Zeal against our Bishops and all Episcopacy which will in time much more agree with Presbytery and Independency I fear than ever it did with Episcopacy But it wil be demanded of me whence then arose this smoke of Jealousie which was so popular and spread abroad that it made so many pure Eyes to ake and smart yea to grow watry and blood-shotten not onely among the vulgar but even among our greatest Seers and Overseers Was there no fire where there was so great a smoke My Answer is these jealousies of some Bishops and other Ministers who most imitated them being Popishly inclined never had so far as ever I could discern any farther ground than this Some Bishops pleased themselves beyond what was generally practised in England with a more ceremonious conformity than others observed first to the Canons and Injunctions which they thought were yet in force in the Church of England being not repealed but onely antiquated through a general disuse next being aged and learned men and more conversant in the Antiquities of the Church than younger Ministers they found that such ceremonious Solemnities in Religion were then very much used without any sin or scandal no godly Bishop Presbyter or other good Christian ever making scruple of using the sign of the Cross in Baptism and at other times of Bowing Kneeling Prostrating himself or of putting his mouth to the ground and kissing the Pavement when he came to worship God or to celebrate holy Mysteries expressing thereby that Humility Faith Fervency sense of his own sinful Unworthiness and that unfeigned Reverence which he bare in his heart toward God and his Service This I suppose made some of our Bishops hope that they might with the like inoffensivenesse add such Solemnity to Sanctity and such outward Veneration to inward Devotion and yet be as far from Popery or Superstition as the ancient Christians were yea as those Ministers and others now pretend to be who make so much of lifting up their eyes and hands in Prayer or who are pleased to be uncovered in Praying Preaching Singing or Celebrating the Sacraments Besides this many Bishops found a secret genius of Rusticity and Rudenesse of Familiarity and Irreverence strangely prevailing among Country-Preachers and People so far that they saw many of them placed much of their Religion in affecting a slovenly rudenesse and irreverence in all publick and holy Duties loth to kneel not onely at the Sacrament but at any Prayers or to be uncovered at any Duty enemies to any man and prejudiced against all he did if he shewed any ceremonious respect in his serving God They saw some were grown so spiritual that they forgot they had bodies and pretending to approve themselves to God onely as to the inward man they cared not for any thing that was regular exemplary orderly comely or reverent as to the outward celebration in the judgement and appointment of the Church of England Hence some men grew to such great applaudings of themselves as if this were the onely simplicity of the Gospel that they thought every man went about to cut the throat of Reformed Religion who applied any Scissers or Razor to pare off rudeness and rusticity or to trim it to any decency in the outward Ministrations according to what seemed best to the Church of England Many Bishops thought that Religion would grow strangely wild hirsute horrid and incult like Nebuchadnezzars hair and nails if it were left to the boysterous Clowneries and unmannerly Liberties which every one would affect contrary to the publick appointment of the Church If some Bishops pleased themselves in using such outward and enjoyned Ceremonies beyond what was ordinary to some men yet certainly a thousand decent and innocent Ceremonies such as those enjoyned by the Church of England were declared to be do not amount to one Popish Opinion nor are they so heavy as one popular erroneous Principle which tends to Faction Licentiousnesse and Profanenesse Ceremonies may possibly be thought superfluous because not of the substance of the Duty but they are not to be charged as superstitious where the Devotion of the heart is holy and the Duty is sincerely performed for the Essentials of it as it is instituted by Christ enjoyned by the Word of God who hath left the ceremonious part of Religion more or less very much to the prudence of his Church according to the several forms and customs of civil respect and decency used in the world which St. Austin and St. Ambrose with all the Ancients declare placing no further Religion in any Ceremony of humane invention and use than it served aptly to excite or express inward sincerity of Devotion and an outward conformity to the decent customs of any Church Which keeping to the Truth Faith and holy Institutions of Christ for the main were not blameable for that variety of Ceremony which was and might be observed without any damage to Truth or breach of Charity As to the maine charge then that Bishops in England were Popish that is warping from the Reformed Doctrine of the Church of England as it was and is stated opposite to the Romish errors and corruptions I do believe that the Bishops of England were in all Ages since the Reformation and in this last as much removed and as free from Popery as the most rigid censors of them who dare accuse every man for Popish who is not boyled up to the same superstitious height and Ceremonious Antipathy with themselves or who do not presently adopt every mans new fancy opinion and form of Religion though private
and Reformed hath suffered very much in England when it was best setled we have upon us the wounds both of peace and war As our former long peace and undeserved prosperity treasured up much morbifick matter so the civil war by mutual chafings and exasperatings did breed higher inflammations and festrings yea and our late truce rather than tranquillity hath been so far from a serious consideration and well-advised setling of our distractions in Religion that many men have had but more leisure and liberty to scratch their own and other mens scabious itchings and to make wider the gaping corifices of our religious Ulcers Indeed private hands can do no other who besides their petulant passions being under no publick restraint and modesty have infinite partialities both as to self-flatteries and designs It must be the Gravity and Majesty the Nobleness and Ampleness of publick Wisdom and Authority which must by prudence and impartiality both in counsels and actions reach the depth and equal the proportions either of our maladies or our remedies to which if wise and worthy men do not in time contribute their counsels prayers and endeavours for the help and healing of our Religious Affairs doubtless the disorders and sinister policies of either weak or wicked men will utterly ruine the very remains and ruines of this Church Nor can the Civil State be ever steddy or permanent where Prince and Subjects Preachers and People are so divided in their principles and practises of Religion both as to their Ministry and Ministration as to the original and exercise of all Ecclesiastical Authority and Communion that they still think it a great part of their Religion either to reform or ruine each other It is observed to be one main pillar of the Turkish Polity Peace and Empire which is so vast and diffused yet generally so peaceable and unanimous that their Religion or Holy Law as they call it being once setled is never permitted by any man to be shaken or disputed much less altered or innovated in the least kind I know it is not fit for Christians to follow all Mahometan rigors and severities no more than their follies and simplicities yet if the setledness of so wild a Rhapsody of Religion as the Alcoran contains which is made up of Truth and Falshood of Fables and Fancies of Dreams and Dotages be of so great moment to preserve their civil peace where no wise man can be much concerned what is believed or disbelieved by him or any man in such a meer Romance of Religion of how much more consequence and conscience would it be to all Christians in any Polity or Nation to have their Religion well fixed and setled which is so Ancient so Holy so True so Venerable so Divine so in its Nature Centre and Circumference but one so deserving to be most United and Uniform both as to its Doctrine and Profession It is a shame to see Mahometans wiser in their generation than Christians who are or ought to be the children of that Wisdom and that Light which shines upon them all by the Scriptures as the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness It is childish for us who are cunning careful enough to preserve civil peace to be so careless of religious Unity and Harmony as to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine according to the sleight of men who lye in wait to deceive the hearts of the simple serving not the Lord but their own bellies We should rather study to be rooted and grounded in the Catholick Truth which is according to Holiness Justice Order and Charity after the primitive pattern and constant practise of all true Churches Preachers and Professors whose Authority and Reverence ought to sway more with us than any new and private mens Inventions which no man will admire that well understands the old which were so founded upon Verity so fortified by Charity so edified in Unity so reverend for Antiquity so permanent in their Constancy according to the particular constitutions of every Church which still kept the great and Catholick Communion as to the main amidst some little varieties of outward profession not as to substance but onely in Circumstances or Ceremony For as to the main every Christian Layical or Clerical Catechumens Penitents and Communicants Deacons and Presbyters kept the stations in which God and the Church had set them Every member kept to its Congregation every Congregation to its ordained Presbyter or lawfull Minister every Presbyter to his own Bishop every Bishop to his Metropolitane every Metropolitane to his Patriarch every Patriarch not to the Pope but to the Generall Councills and every Generall Councill to the Scriptures and those Apostolick Traditions which were Catholick and so agreeable to them All which orderly gradations were certainly in the Catholick Church as lawfull as those which the policy of Presbytery hath invented for Congregationall Classicall Provinciall and Nationall Consistories I am sure they were much more usefull For those of old preserved every private Christian every Family every City every Country every Province every Nation that was Christian not onely in a Church-way or Ecclesiasticall Communion and Correspondency as to their particular bounds and neerer relations in every Parish or Congregation or City or Country but as to that Catholick bond of Charity which binds up all Christians in all the world in one fellowship of one body and one Church whose head is Christ to whom every true believer and visible Professor in the whole latitude of the Church being by the Word and Spirit of Christ fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part doth both edifie and increase it self and others in Truth and Love without which all Churches all Religion and all Reformation are but like parts or members separate from their body not without flesh sinewes substance or bones but yet without blood and Spirits Life and Soul For as the particular parts and members of the naturall body do not live thrive and move onely by that particular substance spirit life and aptitude which is apart in them but by a concurrence with an influence from and a participation of that common Spirit Life Virtue which they have from the whole while they are in Communion with it so is it with Christians singly and severally considered their virtue is small and separated none at all because they want so much of Authority and Validity as they want of Catholick Unity and Ecclesiasticall harmony which keep Christians and Churches intire to Christ and to each other by that one and common spirit which runs through all true Christians by virtue of which and not of any private spirit all publick transactions which concern any nobler part or portion of Christs Church are to be carried on and anciently were in all orderly Churches as branches of the Catholick This this great and publick Communion in the
who are all consenting to the Law and concerned that justice be duely executed on some evil Members for the good of the whole So that the several degrees and subordinations in the ancient Church of Christ even long before the first Nicene Council as there is expressed among Churchmen and Bishops against which some have made so loud and ridiculous clamors were chiefly for this end as Mr. Calvin and others have as ingenuously as truely observed that the holy correspondency of all Christians and all Churches in one Faith and Truth in one Spirit and Power might not onely be most evident to the world but most aptly carried on and preserved against all Factions Variations and Divisions that they might by these means be known to be of one heart and mind in the Lord that they might all speak the same things and walk in the same steps that what one condemned all might in the same spirit condemn what one forgave all might forgive that none might upon any private passions either excommunicate others by injurious abscission or themselves by voluntary separation or make new confederacies and associations with those who are either deserters of the Catholick Communion or justly excommunicated from it which distempers of Ignorance and Impatience and Imprudence among Christians have brought as we see this great power of the Keyes and this exercise of Christian Discipline so far into contempt that no man almost regards it from any hand every one daring to make what retortions they please and to excommunicate any one or more yea and whole Churches that do excommunicate them for any the most notorious errors and insolencies Thus as the Popes of Rome heretofore so the people now in many places challenge to themselves this power against their Neighbours and Brethren yea against their Preachers and Bishops against the Fathers that begat them and the Mother Church which did bear them So that I confesse there is not so much cause of terror as of pitty in most Excommunications as they are now managed by private and unauthoritative spirits O what sorrow what shame is it to see so Sacred so Solemn so Divine so Dreadfull an Institution vilified and nullified which was designed for the health and welfare of the Church of Christ by just and necessary severiâ—ies when it was as it ought to be soberly applyed by wise holy and impartiall Governours of the Church in the name of Christ in the Catholick Spirit or consent of all Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and people which was able to shake Heaven and Hel to open and shut the Everlasting doores of Salvation or Damnation according as the penitency or impenitency of offenders did appeare To see this flaming sword which was put by Christ into the Cherubims hand those that were the Angels of his Church to keep the way of the tree of life to see this made the scare-crow and scorne of vile men the sport of petulant and peevish Spirits who neither fear to inflict Excommunication upon whom they list as much as lies in their impotent malice nor yet to suffer it from the most Just Impartiall and Authoritative hands in the world from whom being once proudly separated they fancy they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reach and danger of this just terror and the others true Authority as lawfull Bishops or Governours of the Church whose heavy sentence if I should incurre so far that any one true Bishop with his Clergy should passe it against me upon just grounds of my scandalous and obstinate sinning against God and his Church according to the ancient rightfull and lawfull way of such proceedings in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ to which all true Christians in this Church and in all the world do submit and assent I confess I should much more fear living and dying to lye under such a censure and sentence than to be condemned in my Estate Liberty or Life by any Court of humane Justice which reacheth not to the Souls eternal estate as Excommunication rightly managed doth it being a most undoubted Oracle of our Lord Jesus Christ that whose sins the Apostles and their lawful successors as Rulers of the Church do bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven Who their lawful and authoritative successors have been are and ought to be in all Ages and places of the Church is evident to all that have any fear of God or reverence of his Catholick Churches Testimony This is certain as Excommunication carries with it the joynt spirit and suffrage of the whole Church and every true Member of it either explicitly or implicitly so the regular and authoritative managing of it was ever from the respective Bishops Authority and Order as chief Pastors in every Church to whose fatherly care and Inspection with the counsel of their Presbyters the Flock of Christ is committed especially as to the discreet use of such Discipline as highly concerns the salvation or damnation the hopes or despair the binding or loosing the abscission or restauration of any part which ought not to be judged determined and executed by every private spirit of Minister or people but by such venerable Bishops and their Presbyters as have the authentick transmission of the Apostles ordinary governing power delivered to them as from Christ being in this like the Judges in commission for Life and Death though the Sentence be the Laws and the power the chief Magistrates and the transaction or publication in the Face of the County to which all the Bench of Justices the Jury and other honest Men do tacitly give their votes and assent yet is the Cognizance and Examination of the merits of the Cause and the judicial solemn Declaration of the Sentence committed specially to the Judge both in respect of his learned Abilities and known Integrity also for the Honor and Order which are necessary to be observed in proceedings of so great concernment to Mankind as are matters of Life and Death Such is the power such ought to be the procedure of all due Excommunication such they were in the purest and primitive times when all Christians all Congregations all Presbyters all Bishops all particular Churches were so united that as many Spokes make but one Wheel and many Stones one Building and many Members one Body so these made but one Church in the same Faith the same Baptism the same Ministry the same Spirit the same Order the same Power the same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ From which Blessed Harmony and Spirituall Communion if any Christian or any particular Congregation or any part of the Church as those of the Donatistick party and the Novatians in Africa with others either proudly passionately and peevishly did separate themselves or were deservedly separated by the just censure of any part of the true Church and thenceforth falling to mangling of all by mutuall Excommunications so as to fly in the faces of their lawfull Bishops and Pastors or else turne their backs on them
this Venerable resolver of No Sacriledg in selling Bishops Lands O! but this he tels us freely and with some earnestnesse as concerned had been horrid Sacriledg because of those he hath a good share those he hopes to enjoy together with his Bishops Lands Thus this irrefragable D. resolves that to rob the lesser Gods is Sacriledg but not to rob the greater Bishops were but Egyptians whom the Presbyterians as true Israelites might strip and spoyle So it were a sin to take any thing from an ordinary Citizen and common souldier but not from an Alderman or a Colonel It is lawfull to deprive Governours in Church or State of what they have but not the Governed Presbyters must jure divino have meat and drink and clothes to maintaine them that they may eate and preach but they need no Over-seers or Church-Governours to take care they preach no strange Doctrine nor live scandalously They must have victualls as beasts but they need no Government as Men Christians and Ministers O thrifty project O Blessed Paradox If it hold in all societies Civil and Military as well as Ecclesiastick it will spare the State many thousands of pounds upon the Civil account as it hath got it many upon the Church-account by taking away Bishops and their Revenues there being no need of such Governours and such Maintenance of Honor in the Church no more will there need any Judges in the Law nor Captaines and Colonels in the Army their places their pensions their pay may be spared if these be necessary why were not Bishops so for Order and Honor and Government and Judgement among the Clergy But he fancies that himself and other doughty Presbyters can do the work and govern without Bishops Possibly he may do it the better not onely for his grave carriage and reverend fashion of Living for his moderate meek and quiet Spirit for his great Learning and rare Endowments for the high Esteem that is had of him but especially because he is rich and hath a good part of the old Bishops Lands it may be a Spirit of government may go with them as a Spirit of prophesie did with the High-priests Office in Caiaphas but as for other poorer Presbyters and petty Rulers of his brethren the Antiepiscopal Ministers how fit they will be to govern in common how well they have managed Phoebus his Chariot since they undertook to drive it I leave to all wise and sober men to judge But it may be this purchaser is not against Bishops but against landed and Lorded Bishops he would have primitive and Apostolick Bishops which had no Revenues or Lordships or Lands or Palaces How sad is it that so good a man should have so evil an eye against the good hand of God and the bounty of good Christians onely as to their munificence to the Bishops and chief Pastors of Christs Church But why so blind and partial against Bishops when it is as primitive and Apostolical for Presbyters to have no Tithes or Glebes or Livings These were the setled blessings of the Church after the glory of Constantines time whom the Revelation seems so much to set forth to the Beauty Rest and Honor of the Church If this Pleader will be honest and impartial let him conform himself a Presbyter as well as Bishops to the primitive pattern They have not left but forcibly lost all let Presbyters leave also their Livings let this great Example begin let him turn sportulary Presbyter as well as he would have beggarly Bishops let him and others depend upon the Basket of Charity and the Bishops Distribution as was of old both for occasional contributions of Decimal Oblations and Imperial pensions of which Presbyters at first had no parochial portion or right which now this Pleader so much challengeth as if it had been his purchase or penny-worth and not the Alms of the Nation excited hereto chiefly by the piety of primitive Bishops and other Ministers in imitation of Gods ancient portion which they thought still the right of Jesus Christ Lord of all as to his merit and priestly portion to be kept in his Churches possession for his Ministers enjoyment especially since it hath by the devotion of the Nation been legally dedicated to his service and the support of his Servants which may be as well said of Bishops and other Church-lands as of Presbyters little Livings unless this Pleader think that those were too much for Christ and any of his chief Ministers to enjoy or that there was less of Law and publick consent as well as of private gift in them than other Donations or lastly unless he fancy there is not as much need of Government Order and Discipline and consequently of meet Bishops as chief Pastors or Shepherds for Christs flock as there is of pasture It seems he is more for the Bag Scrip and Wallet than for Crosier Crook or Shepherds staff O! but his blessed Tithes his rich Glebe his fat Parsonage these these he challenges as his right in Gods name as patrimonium Crucifixi Christs patrimony the Presbyterian Churches Dowry the Priests portion the Levites wages the Labourers hire the most holy things and utterly unalienable even Impropriations seem to him sacrilegious Alienations derived from no other title than the Popes Usurpation annexing them to Monasteries and by a continued succession of Sacriledge given to the Crown and so at last become Lay-fees Thus he seems to make Princes and Parlaments guilty at the second hand of this foul sin of Sacriledg which onely lies against Tithes Glebes and Parsonage-Houses the onely preferment it seemes that this plaintiffe hath been capable of or now aspires to O how far is reason from some mens Religion and justice from their Consciences And what I beseech all wise sober and upright men were Bishops Houses and Revenues but greater Glebes and Livings given to men of the same calling for the same holy and good ends for the service of God and the Church though to some higher degree of Duty and Dignity of Office and Authority not onely to preach the Gospel and administer the holy Sacraments in common with Presbyters but further to preserve a right succession of Ministers and to dispense the power of holy Orders by a Catholick Ordination which ever was Episcopall also to manage duly that Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Government which ought to be carried on as by men of greater Age Gravity Ability and Authority than ordinary Presbyters use to be so with a proportionable conspicuity for Honor and Estate for Hospitality and Charity all which are as lawfull just and becoming a Bishop or chief Governour among the Fraternities of Ministers as a greater pay or Salary is to Judges Colonels and Captaines not for their doing more drudging work and duty than common men or souldiers may do but for that eminent worth and prudence and sufficiency which they are presumed to have in order to Rule and Command others who are men equall as themselves and
well he hath digested these Bishops Lands which now seem as a Lay fee to nourish the Beast and Man not the Presbyter Minister or Bishop as him will give the world cause in after-Ages to look as narrowly to him and his posterity how they thrive as the Roman Souldiers did to the Jews Guts and Excrements when they searched for the Gold which they had swallowed as Josephus tells us Some are so superstitious as to imagine that Bishops and all Church-lands or Revenues properly such as pertaining to the support of that Order Government Authority Ministry Charity and Hospitality which ought to be in Clergy-men are like Irish wood to Spiders and venemous beasts prone to burst them so that vix gaudet tertius haeres nay though they possesse them yet they do not enjoy them for nothing temporal can be enjoyed without a serene Mind an unspotted Fame and an unscrupulous Conscience all which if this gallant purchaser enjoyes together with his Bishops Lands and other fine things which he hath bought truely he is an object of most unfeigned Envy where I leave him and his Vindication This I am sure some men Ministers and others are so scrupulous in such a case that they never think a good penny-worth can be had of Bishops or Church-lands nay they would not have them gratis to stuff their Feather-beds fuller lest they should lye and sleep less at their ease highly magnifying that one thing recorded as commendable among the Jews in their greatest Hard-heartedness Madness and Sedition that during the siege straitness and famine of Jerusalem under Titus-Vespatian yet they were not wanting to furnish the Temple Priests and Altar of God with that juge sacrificium daily sacrifice Morning and Evening which God had once required till the great sacrifice of Messias had finished all by his once Oblation of himself which their blindness and unbelief would not understand Nothing can be too much for his Service who is the Giver of all But I return whence I was forced to digress CHAP. XXVII BEsides the Preservation of the Churches patrimony and Ministers maintenance which needs more an honourable Augmentation than any sordid Diminution there is in the second place great need O my worthy and honoured Countrymen of your redeeming this Church its Reformed Religion and its worthy Ministers from plebeian Arrogancies and Mechanick Insolencies from private Usurpations and popular Intrusions whereto both some Peoples Petulancies and some Preachers Pragmaticalness or Easiness are prone to betray them to the utter dissipation and destruction of that Order Honor Power and Authority of Religion which ought by wise men to be preserved as much as in them lyes It is certain that the Ministers of the Church of Christ which are made up of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons duely ordained and united in an orderly Subordination are as the Arteries of the Body politick in any Nation State or Kingdom which is Christian these carry from the Head which is Jesus Christ the vital and best that is the Religious spirits to all the parts as good Laws do in respect of civil Justice and Commerce like veins convey the animal Spirits with the blood and grosser nourishment from the Heart or Supreme power Once check abate or exhaust those vital Conduits of Piety and true Religion all parts of Church and State both noble and ignoble will soon be enfeebled abased mortified neither Common-people nor Yeomen nor Gentlemen nor Noblemen nor Princes neither Governours nor Governed will ever have either that Esteem Love and Honor for Religion which becomes it and them nor will they receive that Vigour Influence and Efficacy from it which is necessary for them while in the general Levelling Impoverishing Shrinking and Debasing of Scholars and Clergy-men none shall have either discreet Tutors for their Children or learned Chaplains for their Families or able Preachers for their Livings or grave Reprovers for their Faults or prudent Confessors for their Souls relief or reverend Governours to restrain them or spiritual Fathers to comfort them for none of their petty Pastors Preachers or Ministers will appear to them much beyond the proportions of Country-pedants not under any such character of eminent worth either for their personal Abilities or any such beam of publick Dignity and Conspicuity as may either deserve or bear the love respect and value of either Nobility Gentry or Communalty in England which are all high-spirited enough Not onely the civil and visible Complexion but the inward Genius and religious Constitution of this Nation will extremely alter in a few years as it is already much abated and abased by reducing all Scholars that are of the Clergy or Ministry to a kind of publick Servility Tenuity and Obscurity beyond any men of any ingenuous profession none of whom are so excluded but that by their industry and Gods blessing they may attain such eminence and encouragements as may make them most useful both to Church and State both in Policy and Piety neither of which can thrive or flourish to any Respect Power or Splendour of Religion in any Nation where the Clergy are made the onely Underlings and Shrubs condemned everlastingly to the basest kind of Villenage which is a sneaking and flattering Dependence which posture not onely streightens and shrinks but aviles and embaseth the spirits of any men there being nothing left them as to publick Favour Employment or Reward under any notion of hope which might heighten their parts or quicken their spirits to any such generous industry as might at least seek to merit them though they never attained them for still the Publick will hereby have the benefit of Ministers improved abilities however few Ministers obtain the deserved eminency the merit and capacity of which is many times better than the real enjoyment Having thus commended to you the publick interest of Church and State as they are very much depending upon the Honor and Happiness of your Clergy in the last place I beseech all persons of sober sense and judgement not to suffer themselves to be so far scandalized against the true Reformed Religion or this Church of England by its present distempers and sufferings as to abate of you former value and esteem of Her or of your present pitty for Her nor yet of your prayers and endeavours to repair Her O give not such advantages to your own innate corruptions or to other mens fond Innovations or to the Papists Triumphs or every Jesuits Machination or the Devils Temptations as either to discountenance or desert or decry or distrust the former excellent Constitution and Reformation of true Religion in the Church of England in which I am fully perswaded in my conscience there was nothing wanting to the being and well-being of a true Church and true Christians The first your own inordinate Lusts will be well enough content with no Religion or at least such an one as shall most find fault with the Church of England and all its
such Those are of an other sphere and of other principles which I neither censure nor it may be understand I quarrell with no particular mens persons I encounter onely that colluvies of factions parties and novel principles which like the sewers collected from many sinks and kennells have met together to besmeare or over-beare the Church of England I despise no mans Religion so far as it is Religion deserving that holy name in any Catholick and Christian sense But I abhorre an unreasonable immodest unjust and licentious way in any I esteem and embrace with all Charity whatever of Gods Spirit of Christs Truth of Grace and Vertue of Gifts and Parts of Morall Honesty and Humanity I find in any men of any side But I am too old and serious to be abused with vaporings with affectations with popular pretentions with rude and rash Reformations I am for solid sober orderly humble constitutions or restitutions rather of Order Honor and publick encouragement to Religion the Church and Clergy No man hath justled or offended me in all these turbulent times worth owning nor have I an evil eye or an ill will against any man What I write as to my Ecclesiastick Calling Honor and the Church of Englands common concernments may possibly have something of salt but nothing of gall there may be some corrosive to mortifie and meet with the diseased and proud flesh but no venome to poyson or hurt either the diseased or the whole parts It extremely grieves me to see how far the contagion of Ignorance Impudence Profanenesse Irreligion Faction Division Levity Popularity Disorder and Uncharitablenesse hath spread among some of my brethren of the Ministry and many of my Countrymen without any present advance that I can see or future hopes I say not as to their own Honour or Profit but as to Gods glory or the publick interests of the true Christian and Reformed Religion or the good of mens soules or the improvement of any grace and vertue What any side offers as really good or convenient I allow what they partially cry down and causelesly condemn or change that I defend upon the account of this and all Churches Wisdome Honour and Happinesse If what I have written may do any good to the present or after-Ages I have my designe if not I shall by Gods help hereafter redeem this waste of time and labour by applying to studies more suitable to my Genius Spirit and Age which may more improve those graces which are least in dispute among good Christians yet in this I have not wholly lost my labour because I have hereby further discharged my own soul my conscience and reputation from any approbation of what I judge to be either the sins or imprudencies the wickednesse or weaknesse of this Age in which I do not so much live as dye daily weary that my soul finds so little hope of an happy rest or composure unity or harmony in our Church which I had rather see and enjoy before I dye than to have the greatest preferment in the world I envy no men that have wrapped up their worldly interests in their religious policies and daily gaine by the shrines of godlinesse they have made I do indeed boldly rifle their godly principles and pretentions as to their novelties for I see no reason as yet to yield to any of them no not for an hour though they seem never such pillars while they import as if the Church of England had heretofore consisted of a company of silly people and silly Priests whose either ignorance or superstition or sottishnesse or basenesse had hidden the beauties and blessings of true Religion from all peoples eyes so that neither Bishops nor Presbyters nor Princes nor Parlaments nor Convocations ever till now saw what was fit to know and do in Church-matters which are now to be taught and brought to light by the new methods of Presbytery and Independency or by Anabaptism Quakerism and other rarities of Religion untried and untamed Novelties every way as short of the Piety Prudence Unity and Majesty of the Religion and Church of England heretofore as they are wide of or beyond the true ancient bounds and Catholick grounds of Order Government Unity and due Authority I may adde and of the Blessings or Prosperities internal or external spiritual and temporal which attended Episcopal Order and Paternal Presidency which I profess to value as now it is in its rags and ruines far beyond the others in their silks and sprucenesses Episcopacy is now far from being the object of any sober mens Flattery or Ambition yet I cannot but look upon it with such an eye of pitty and reverence as primitive Christians were wont to do upon their Bishops such as Polycarpus Ignatius Irenaeus Cyprian and other Martyrs when they saw them imprisoned beaten tormented destroyed I know yet I plead for those men and for that cause which was once strong but now is weak was honourable and is now despised was favoured but is now frowned upon by many yea I fear most men of ordinary spirits yet I plead for that reverend Order and those reverend persons who have been made a spectacle to Angels and Men such as to this present hour suffer both hunger and thirst are naked and buffeted having no certain dwelling-place which being reviled do blesse being persecuted have suffered with patience being defamed do intreat and being the Glory of all Churches as to Order Unity and Government in all Ages are now looked upon by many as the filth and off scouring of all things yet am I one of those Angels which attend Lazarus on his Dunghil I have chosen to follow the clear though now more exhausted stream of Antiquity rather than the troubled torrents of any Novelties which may be as short-lived as they have been suddenly started I have looked upon all mens principles and pretensions as to Ecclesiastick affairs with what Candor Equanimity and Sincerity I could If in any thing I was inclinable to be partial it was neither for Presbytery nor Independency I confess which I never was catechized in nor accustomed to nor convinced of as to any such Piety or Policy Wisdom or Worth in them which might make me see cause to desire or esteem them but I was swayed against some things not in the constitution so much as some mens administration of Episcopacy I was originally principled to no small jealousies of Bishops actions when they were in their greatest glory and power nor do I yet think but that some Bishops might have been greater Masters of pious Arts than they have proved yet I find now that in many things people were more afraid than hurt For the main I conclude no Ministers or Governours no Superintendencies or Presbyteries in any Reformed way exceeded the Usefulness Merit and Excellency of our English Bishops and Presbyters nor is any thing as to Church-government comparable to a primitive Episcopacy which includes the just Rights Liberties or
Primitive Piety and Prudence utterly against Schismatick dividing or mincing of Churches into small bodies or parcels a Age jam qui voles exercere curiositatem in negotio salutis tuae percurre ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticâ— literae recitantur Tert. de praes c. 30. Ecclesia ab ipso Christo inchoata per Apostolos provecta certâ successionum serie usque ad haec tempora toto terrarum orbe dilatata Aug. l. 28. cont Faust b Act. 1.17 20 c Episcopi per omnes provincias singulas urbes ordinati sunt in aetate antiqui in fide integri in pressurâ probati in persecutione proscripti c. Cypr. ep 52. d Hoc negotium est illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi Ita fit ut ruinas facilius operentur stantium aedificiorum quam extructiones jacentium ruinarum Tert. de praes ad Hae. Eph. 4.3 Acts 20.28 29 30. Rom. 16.17 1 Cor. 1.10.3.3 a 1 Cor. 3.3 b Sophistae magis verborum quà m discipuli veritatis Irenaeus c Qui à principali absistunt successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere oportet ut vel haereticos malae sententiae vel scindentes elatos sibi placentes omnes isti decidunt à veritate sophistae magis verborum esse volentes quà m discipuli veritatis Irenae l. 4. c. 43. lib. 3. c. 40. Jampridem per omnes provincias per singulas urbes ordinati sunt Episcopi in aetate antiqui in fide integri â—n pressura probati in persecutione proscripti Cypr. ep 52. d Iren. l. 5. c. 33. Irenaeus vir Apostolicorum temporum Papiae discipulus Polycarpi amicus Episcopus ecclesiae Lugdun Hieron Catalog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.1 Jude 3. Eph. 4.4 Corpus sumus de conscientia religionis disciplinae unitate spei foedere Tert. Apol. c. 39. a Eph. 4.4 5 6. Heb. 13.17 Col. 2.1 Acts 20.38 Sicut Smyrnaeorum ecclesia habens Polycarpum à Johanne constitutum refert sicut Romamanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit perinde utique caeterae exhibent ecclesiae quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatu constitutos Apostolici seminis traduces habent Tert. de Praes c. 32. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. ep ad Corinth 1. p. 53. Gal. 5.20 1 Cor. 12.25 Phil. 3.2 Heb. 10.25 1 Cor. 12.15 Magnum gloriosum Christi corpus conscindunt dividunt quantum in ipsis est interficiunt Irenae l. 4. c. 62. 1 Pet. 5.13 Isa 65 5. Mat. 18.20 a So Tertul. of the Marcionite Churches Habent ecclesias sed suas tam praeposteras quà m adulteras Quarum si censum requiras sacilius ApostaticuÌ„ invenias quà m Apostolicum Marcione scilicet conditore vel aliquo de Marcionis examinâ— faciunt favos vespae faciunt ecclesias Marcionitae Li. 4. c. 5. adv Marcion Judicabit Dominus eos qui schismata operantur non habentes dilectionem suamque utilitatem potius considerantes quà m unitatem ecclesiae Iren. l. 4. c. 62. a 1 Cor. 3.3 b Jude 19. Psal 133.1 Ignat ep ad Romanos The Urbicarian Region in which the Praesectus urbis did exercise his jurisdiction extended to 100. miles about the city in which there were 69 Bishops under the Bishop of Rome Vid. Prim. of Arm. the orig of Metropolitans Acts 21.18 Act. 1.20 1 Pet. 2.9 The present afflictions of the Church of England no argument against Her Nationall and well-Reformed Constitution a Jer. 1.14 Ab aquilone exardescent mala super omnes habitatores terrae Septentrionalis regio officina hominum Gentibus Australibus infesta unde in proverbium exiit Omne malum ab Aquilone Hiero. b Isa 49.23 1 Sam. 30.13 Luke 10.33 Psal 74.4 Gal. 4.26 Psal 35.16 Zach. 1.15 Psal 137.7 Isa 34.4 * See Mr. Râ—y his Gemitus plebis or Mournful complaint in behalf of the poor people of England printed 1656. The Church of England's Complaint Lam. 1. â—2 Psal 55.12 Erat ante in operibus fratrum candida ecclesia nunc facta est in cruore Martyrum purpurea Floribus ejus nec rosae desunt nec lilia Certant nunc singuli ad utriusque honoris amplissimam dignitatem ut accipiant coronas vel de opere candidas vel de passione purpureas Cyp. ep 9. Isa 1.2 Isa 1.2 2 Tim. 2.15 Heb. 5.10 1 Pet. 2.25 Luke 6.13 Luke 10.1 Act. 1.21.2.1 Numb 11.20 Deut. 4 21. Rev. 22.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.18 1 Cor. 6.19 Jer. 22.19 See B. Ushers answer to the Jâ—suits praying for the dead Psal 153.1 1 Cor. 14.40 1 Cor. 14.33 Rev. 2.14 Gen. 9.22 Mat. 13.25 Epist to Coâ— Galat. Rev. 2. 3. ch Psal 44.19 Micah 7.8 Psal 136. Job 13.15 Jer. 17.14 17. The cruel and unjust enmity of some against the Church of England a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. in vita Tib. Neronis Erat ei in oblectamentis serpens Draco quem quum consumptum à formicis invenisset monitus est ut vim multitudinis caveret Pruritus disputandi scabies Ecclesiae Mat. 15.14 Job 30.8 Isa 1.5 The causeless malice and ingratitude of the Church of Englands enemies Ezek. 47.4 Mat. 8.25 a Ubi ecclesia ibi Spiritus ubi Spiritus Dei illic ecclesia omnis gratia Iren. l. 3. c. 40. b Judicabit eos Deus qui schismata operantur qui sunt immanes suam utilitatem potiùs considerantes quâ—m unitatem ecclesiae propter modicas causas magnum gloriosum Christi corpus conscindunt dividunt quantum in ipsis est interficiunt Irenae l. 4. c. 62. c 1 Tim. 1.13 Job 2.13 Lam. 1. Jer. 9.1 Of the excellent constitution of the Ch. of Engl. and her undeserved calamities * Jer. 2.11 Ad injuriam Deorum spectat rerum sacrarum irreverentia Isid è Varrone Deos peregrinos ne colunto Lex 12. Tab. a Non tam Atheus est qui Deos non agnoscit quà m qui agnitos contemnit Sen. * Spiritus Sanctus Arrha incorruptelae confirmatio fidei nostrae scala ascensionis ad Deum ubi enim Spiritus Dei illic ecclesia c. Iren. l. 3. c. 40. 1 Cor. 9.2 2 Cor. 3.2 Exod. 28.30 Mal. 2.7 1 Cor. 15 1 Cor. 11. 1 Cor. 5. a 1 Cor. 1.11.3.3 b 1 Cor. 6.1 c 2 Cor. 10.11 12. ch Jude 18 19. Rev. 2.20 2 Pet. 2.19 Tit. 1.10 11. 1 Cor. 14.33 Gen 18.32 Jer. 5.4 Pag. 16. Dii aut non habentor aut rite colantuâ— A further scrutiny and discovery of the Church of Englands miseries and enemies Zach. 11.10 2 Cor. 5.20 1 Cor. 12.18 Rev. 15.6 James 3.14 1 Tim. 4.2 1 John 3.12 A generall Vindication of the Church of England's former excellent Constitution although it be now afflicted * Jude 9. Rom. 11.33 Flagellat nos Deus erudit nos Dolor
all ages if his prohibition be not against Separation Apostasy and total forsaking of the Churches communion both in Discipline and Doctrine in Polity and Verity as well as against Schisme The difference is not much between S. Pauls censure of Schisme and division as carnall and a work of the flesh Gal. 5.20 and that of S. Jude against such as separate as being sensuall and not having the Spirit especially where such communion is offered and required by a Church Christian and Reformed as is no way against the Word of God the Apostles example and the Primitive Catholick practise of all Churches such I believe and hope to prove that of the Church of England was and is as to those main essentialls of Religion which constitute a true Church both in the being and well-being But I needed not and therefore I crave your pardon worthy Gentlemen have spent so much breath to blow up and break the late thin bladders or light bubbles these new Corpusculas of separate Churches compared to the Catholick eminency unity and solidity of the Church of England and others of like size An easie foot will serve to beat down such new-sprung Mushromes of late perked up in this English soyle through the licentiousnesse of times and luxuriancy of mens humours since it hath been watered with Humane and Christian blood whose ambition seems to be not onely to divide and share but wholly to possess and engross this good land or else to leave desolate that field out of which they are sprung which bare far better fruits than now it doth long before their name was heard of under the new titles or style of bodyed and congregated associated or independented and new-fangled Churches Who have now the confidence to cry down the Church of England in its late visible polity harmony order and unity as a meer name and notion an insignificant Idea and empty imagination as if it were neither bonum nor jucundum good nor pleasant for Brethren in Christ to dwell together in unity or for men in one nation to be Christians in one Church as if bonds of civil polity reached farther than Ecclesiastick Some are so vain and vulgar as to boast that all Church-fellowship in England is no better then floten milk when once they have taken off the cream of some Saintly professors which they think worthy to make up and coagulate into their new and small bodyed Churches which are carried on by some with so high an hand and brow that a young master of that sect hath been heard to say not more magisterially than uncharitably he would sooner renounce his Baptism than own the Church of England to be a true Church And this notwithstanding that it is evident these new Rabbies have added nothing new and true to the Doctrine of the Church of England nor yet to the divine Worship and holy Ministrations or Duties used and professed in it with as much solemnity judgement and sincerity I believe as they can pretend to without blushing on mans part and with infinite more spirituall blessings and proficiency in all graces so far as yet appeares on Gods part Nor have they ever shewn any cause why It should be denyed the name honour priviledge and comfort of a true Church of Christ both in its principall parts and in the whole visible community or polity afflicted indeed at present but sometime famous and flourishing as in favour both with God and good men nor did it ever recede from its love or apostatize by any publick act or vote from such a profession of Christian and Reformed Religion as gives her a good Title to be and to be called a true Church of Christ in spight of men and Devils If any still list to quarrell at the name of a Nationall Church the same schismaticall sophisters may as well slight all those proportions and expressions used in all the grand Combinations and visible Constitutions of such ancient Churches throughout all descents of Christian Religion which never doubted to cast themselves into and continue in such Ecclesiasticall forms and parallel distributions as they found laid out by the blessed Apostles and the Spirit of Christ which without doubt most eminently guided those Primitive Churches When these new projectors have answered the Scripture style and the Apostolick patterns and pens followed by all antiquity which call and account all those Christians conjoyned in one Churches communion in point of Ecclesiasticall polity subordination chief power and jurisdiction who yet were dispersed in many places and so distinguished no doubt into many congregations as to the duties of ordinary worship throughout their Cities respective Provinces which I am sure were many of them far larger than any one Diocese or Province in England yea and possibly not much lesse than all England as Ephesus Crete Jerusalem Antioch whose province was all Syria as Ignatius tells us so Corinth Philippi Laodicea Rome c. with their Suburbs Territories and Provinces which extended as far as their proconsulary jurisdictions reached in one of which that learned and pious but fancifull interpreter Mr. Brightman doubted not to find a prophetick Type representing the Nationall Church of England with much more aptitude than his other Satyrick correspondencies were applied When the wit and artifices of Independent brethren if they allow me that relation have shrunk those great and famous Churches so distinguished and nominated by the Scripture line and record into little handfulls such as one mans lungs can reach at one time in one place when the Presbyterian brethren who have cast off yea cast out their Fathers the Bishops can manifest that the severall Congregations of Christians in those Parishes Classes or Associations which they fancy had as many Bishops properly so called and fully impowered as there were Presbyters or Preachers when by their joynt skill and force they can evince out of any Ecclesiasticall Records or Scripturall that there was not some one eminent person as the Apostle Angel Bishop and President or chief Governour among them over all those people and Presbyters who lived within such large Scripture-combinations as Churches such as was Timothy in Ephesus Titiâ— in Crete S. James the Just in Jerusalem either succeeding the Apostles after death or supplying their places during their absence from particular Churches who in their severall lots portions or Episcopal charges and divisions had while they lived the chief inspection rule authority and jurisdiction When I say these grand difficulties are cleared and removed as scales from our eyes who still honour the Church of England then we shall be willing and able to turn the other lessening end of the Optick glasse and to look upon the great and goodly Church of England as fit to be shrunk into decimo sexto volumes or to be divided into small pamphleting Congregations and bound up in Calves leather which heretofore by an happy deception of sight appeared to us at
exercised to each other their numerous conventions their fervent devotions their reverent attentions their unanimous communions their cheerfull Amens those blessed hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in the obedience to and communion with the Church of England All these holy fruits and blessed effects as most certain seals and letters testimoniall were I conceive most pregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and of a true Church so happily setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of this Nation that it was not in reason or conscience in modesty or ingenuity to be suddenly changed much lesse rashly deserted and rudely abandoned chiefly upon the giddinesse of common people or by the boysterousnesse of common souldiers whose buff-coats and armour cannot be thought by any wise and worthy Souldiers to be like Aarons breast-plate the place from which Priests and people are to expect the constant oracles of Urim and Thummim Light and Reformation Such of that profession as are truly Militant Christians that is humbly wise and justly valiant as I hope many Souldiers may be will think it enough for them modestly to learn and generously to defend as Constantine the Great said to the Nicene Bishops not imperiously to dictate or boldly to innovate matters of Religion in such a Church and Nation as England which was I am sure and I think still is furnished with many able Divines many Evangelicall Priests and Ministers of the Lord whose lips preserve saving knowledge who have many a one of them more learning and well-studied Divinity in them than a whole Regiment nay than an whole Army of ordinary Souldiers whose weapons are not proper for a spirituall warfare nor apt as Davids hands either to build or repair a Church otherwaies than as Labourers who may possibly assist the true Ministers who are and ought to be the Master-builders of Gods house whose skill is not to destroy mens bodies but to save their souls not to kill but to make alive It must ever be affirmed to Gods glory because without any vanity or flattery that the Church of England for this last golden century came not behind the very best Reformed Churches nor any other that profess Christianity in any part of the world which is not my particular testimony who may seem partiall because I unfeignedly professe my self a son and servant of it but it is and hath been the joynt suffrage of all eminent Divines in all forraign Reformed Churches who have written and spoken of the Church of England ever since its setled Reformation not with commendation onely but admiration especially those who coveting to partake of the gifts and labours of English Divines have taken the pains to learn our hard and untoward language Yea I may farther with truth and modesty affirm that saving the extraordinary gifts of Tongues Miracles and Martyrdomes the Church of England since its setled Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory came not much short of the Primitive Churches in the first and second Centuries Which had at least some of them as I shall after shew rather more than fewer ceremonies partly Judaick partly Christian yea far greater errors and abuses were found among some of them than were generally among any professors in communion with the Church of England witnesse those touching the Resurrection of the body and in the celebrating of the Lords Supper among the Corinthians The first some denied the other many received covetously uncharitably drunkenly disorderly undecently in the Church of Corinth Besides the scandalous fact of the incestuous person with which they were not so offended as became Christians they were also full of factions and carnall divisions going to law one with another before Infidels undervaluing the blessed Apostle S. Paul and other faithfull labourers preferring false Apostles and deceitfull workers with no lesse folly than ingratitude challenging in many things disorderly and uncomely liberties which amounted to clokes of malice and a licentiousnesse tending to confusion These and other corruptions were among Christians of an Apostolicall Church newly planted carefully watred and excellently constituted Nor are there lesse remarkable faults found by the Spirit of God in six of the seven Asian Churches mentioned in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation while yet they were under Apostolicall inspection For the Devil who is a great rambler but no loyterer began betimes to sow his tares in Gods field by false Apostles unruly walkers deceitfull workers meer hucksters of Religion schismatick Spirits proud Impostors sensuall Separatists wanton Jezebels curious and cowardly Gnosticks with all the evil brood of Nicolaitans Simonians Cerinthians and other crafty Hypocrites brochers of lies patrons of lewdnesse extremely earthly and sensuall yet vaunters in proud swelling words of spirituall and heavenly gifts but more covetous of filthy lucre and sedulous to serve their own bellies than zealous to serve the Lord or to save souls In all which instances of diseases growing even upon any of those Primitive Churches however Christians are commanded to repent and do their first works to keep themselves pure from contagion private or epidemick yet are they no where put upon the pernicious methods of reproching rending and separating from the very frame and constitution of their respective Churches as they were holy Polities Constitutions or Communions setled by the Apostles in decent subordinations and convenient limits of Ecclesiasticall order government authority and jurisdiction without which all humane societies civil or sacred run to meer Chaosses and heaps of confusion Which as the God of order and peace perfectly abhors so he no where by any Divine precept or approved example recommends any such practises to Christians under the name notion or intention of reforming abuses crept into any Churches presently to rend revile contemn divide destroy and make desolate the whole order polity frame and constitution of them which is very Christian and very commendable If the grand example of Divine Mercy was ready to spare Sodom upon Abrahams charitable intercession in case ten righteous persons had been found in that city and Jerusalem in case one man could have been found there who executed judgement and sought the truth how little are those men imitators of Gods clemency or Abrahams pity who have studied and still endeavour by all acts of power and policy utterly to destroy such a Church as England was in which many thousands of good Christians may undoubtedly be found who are constant adherers to the Faith gratefull lovers of the Piety and most pathetick deplorers of the miseries of the Church of England Whose excellent Christian state and Reformed constitution deserved much better treatment from those at least who were her children carefully bred born and brought up by her however now they appear many of them better fed than taught more puffed up with the surfeits of undigested Knowledge than increased in humble
upon your posterity If I had the opportunity to see your faces O honoured Gentlemen and beloved Countrey-men I should no doubt easily discover by the clouds and dejections of your looks what your thoughts fears griefs and sympathies are in the behalf of the Reformed Religion and the present state of the Church of England While some of Her destroyers walk with haughty looks triumphant spirits and threatning eyes You are full of tears sighs and sorrows to see the Church of England sometimes so amiable venerable and formidable for the beauty authority and majesty of Christian and Reformed Religion in it so much now divided impaired debased deformed and in danger to be destroyed And this after so many publick protestations so many specious pretensions so many pious precipitations so many Parlamentary heats and votes Ordinances and Acts to maintain the true Religion established in the Church of England After all which little other effects appear save onely these the hypocrisie formality coldness and unprofitableness of some Christians have been punished by the rudeness rashness fancifulness and uncharitableness of others who neglecting cordially to advance the great and joynt interests of Gods glory this Churches peace their own and others souls good have rather raised fomented small factions and carried on the poor concernments of different and divided parties in order to their own private profit and sinister advantages Hence hence these luxations distortions dislocations weaknesses deformities and almost dissolutions which have befaln the Church of England and the Reformed Religion once happily established professed and prospering in it which pejorations as to the piety peace and honour of this Nation no man that hath eyes to see and a heart to be sensible of can behold without sad and serious deploring While he sees not onely the outward order polity and harmony of Religion worsted torn and shattered but the inward bands of Christian love and charity so ravelled broken and cut asunder that almost all people in all places in Cities in Parishes in Families in Churches are full of bitter feuds envies enmities animosities and Antipathies Christians of different principles and parties do not love the presence or aspect of each other they look with jealous supercilious contemptuous evil eyes upon one another they do not willingly meet in one place nor correspond in civil affaires As for religious unity and mutual society they perfectly abhor as needles touched with the different poles of the load-stone any communion with one another in any sacred duties and Christian mysteries they thunder out Anathema's against each other they have different Churches or Bodies different Ministers and Bishops different designs interests different spirits and principles each studying as much to depress and destroy their rivals and dissenters as to advance their own sides and parties which dream much more of swords and pistels of fights and victories of blood and vastation whereby to set up that Empire and dominion which each affects in their new wayes of Religion than of humility obedience charity and other Christian graces The Evangelicall exhortations of Christ and his blessed Apostles to all Christians to love one another to live in peace to be of one heart and one mind in the Lord to speak the same things to walk worthy of their holy calling to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace to be gentle meek courteous tenderly affected forbearing forgiving one another these holy charms these pious and pathetick conjurings these divine prayings and charitable beseechings are much forgotten Those Scriptures which joyn faith and repentance zeal and meekness righteousness and true holiness piety and charity patience and perseverance together are practically interpreted as if they were meer Apocrypha unfit rules blunt tools weak engines to carry on the great designs that some pretend for Christ and His Saints who take their modell for a new Jerusalem more out of the dark descriptions of the Apocalyps than out of the clear revelations of all the Gospels and Epistles So that Christian Reformed Religion being very much resolved into fancy and faction there must necessarily follow great abatings not onely of Christian charity but even of morality infinite degeneratings as of mens passions and affections so of their actions from Christian sincerity to hypocrisie from common equity and humanity to mutual insolencies animosities cruelties Plead to some men Scriptures or Statutes lawes of God or man they reply Providences Power Successes urge the commandements of the second Table the holy Precepts the humble meek and orderly examples of Saints in Old or New Testament there are that retort new lights inward dictates spiritual liberty special impulses extraordinary cases In which they hold as once a person of very supercilious gravity also of versute and vertigenous policy a true Protestant Preacher who had passed through all shapes Episcopall Presbyterian Independent and is now ready for the metamorphosis of a Lutheran Superintendency he told me as his opinion That it is in many cases lawful for Moses to do what Pharaoh may not and for the Israelites to do what the Egyptians as men might not do that there are after the Gnostick principles which Irenaeus tells us of Gospel-liberties which holy men may sometimes take upon heroick motions and extraordinary impulsions upon their spirits fancies which those that are yet under legall bondages and restraints may not venture upon nor are capable of because they are psychici not pneumatici they may have principles of law and reason but have not the privy seal or warrant of Gods Spirit dictating or moving within them This was answered to me by that sage Dictator whose answers have more of the Heathen oracles ambiguity than of divine infallibility when I sillily urged those fixed rules of justice and unflexible bounds of equity and charity of righteousness and true holiness which I simply conceived were impartially given in the written Word of God to all mankind and specially to all Christians to whom that Word is now delivered and owned by them as onely able to make the man of God perfect to every good word and work Certainly it was ever esteemed strange Divinity among Orthodox Christians to hold that there are some special indulgences and providential temporary dispensations given to some sort of Christians above others to act at some times and conjunctures in such wayes as themselves must needs confess to he by the clear letter of the Law and word of God injurious unjustifiable and unwarrantable that is in plain terms unlawfull wicked and abominable which evils ought not in any case to be done that good may come thereby no more than Lot's daughters might lie with their father to prevent their barrenness or the defect of posterity Hence have followed those strange rapes which some mens lusts have endeavoured to commit upon the Christian and Reformed Religion against the known lawes both of God and man hence those presumptuous sins those enormous impieties
enemies rivals and extirpaters of the ancient Clergie and Ecclesiastick order in England can pretend the true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters of this Christian and Reformed Church doe challenge use and maintaine no other power priviledge or authority Ecclesiasticall than what they have duly and constantly received in the way of holy orders from their predecessors hands who have descended from the very Apostles dayes Nor are they such Monopolizers or appropriators of this power and office ministeriall to their own persons or to such onely as are formall Academicks professed Scholars and University Graduates as not willingly to admit into that holy Order and Fraternity by the right and Catholick way of due ordination not onely any worthy Gentlemen of competent parts pious affections and orderly lives whose hearts God shall move to so holy an ambition to desire so good a work but even those that are of plebeian proportions of meaner parts and less improved erudition provided they be found upon due trial to have acquired such competent abilities by Gods blessing upon their private industry and studious piety as may render them meet for any place or work in Christs husbandry where one may sow another may water a third may weed a fourth may fense the Church and Vineyard according to the severall gifts and dispensations ministred by the same Spirit and power of Christ which ought to be dispensed and carried on not in an arbitrary rude and precarious usurpation and intrusion but in an authoritative orderly and decent derivation succession for the honor profit peace of the Church of Christ Certainly no worthy Minister or sober Christian can so undervalue and debase those Evangelicall offices of Christ which are exercised by his ordained Ministers as to think that every self-flatterer and obtruder is presently to officiate without any due examination approbation and ordination from those with whom that commission and power hath been ever deposited in a regular and visible succession from Christ the great exemplar or Original which visible order mission and delegation is as necessary for the outward unity authority solemnity and majesty of Christs militant Church and Ministry upon earth as the workings of his blessed Spirit are for the inward operation and efficacie of true grace in mens hearts So that as no private and good Christian hath any cause to complain in this part of the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England who in dispensing of holy orders or ministeriall power acted after the Catholick pattern of Primitive Churches no less than the particular constitutions of this Church allowed by all estates and degrees of men no more have any secular Powers or civil Magisrates who are or shall be professors of true Christian Religion any cause to be jealous of the ancient Bishops and Ministers of the Church nor shall they need either out of conscience or reasons of state to pervert and innovate that pristine course and regular succession of ministeriall authority yea as worthy Christians and wise Governours they ought both in piety and policy in honour and conscience to be no less exact in preserving this sacred order and divine authority from alteration invasion and usurpation than they are for their own civil power and secular jurisdiction which the renowned patterns of Christian Potentates Constantine Theodosius and other great and godly Princes were so far from arrogating to their imperiall power that they humbly submitted themselves to the order and power Ecclesiasticall in the things of Christ highly esteeming and venerating that Apostolick race of Bishops and Presbyters in the Church as the great Luminaries of the world the constant witnesses of Christs life and death the celebraters of his mysterious sufferings grace and glory the ministerial Fathers and confirmers of Christians faith as terrestiall Angels as Gods gracious Ambassadors for pardon and peace as Christs speciall commissioners appointed for to carry on the great work of saving mens souls Just and generous Princes if they be truly Christian cannot be so partial as to forbid any man under the highâ—st pain and penalty of high treason and death it self to challenge to himself any part of their civil or military power without a due commission derived either from themselves immediately or from those to whom they have deputed power for such ends and purposes which order they permit no man to violate or usurp however conceitedly or really able he may seem to be to himself or others for the managing of such power and yet permit such persons as are for the most part heady and high-minded insolent and disorderly to intrude themselves by a meer usurpation upon that sacred office authority and Ministry which is Christs without any due and solemn derivation of this power in such a way as hath ever been Apostolick Primitive Catholick and onely authentick in the Churches of Christ Certainly the rude innovation and usurpation upon this office and honour merits above any boldness as Nilus in Balsamon expresseth it that black brand of the last and perillous times when men shall be emphatically Traytors not onely to men but to Christ not onely to Common-weals but to Churches disobedient to parents not onely naturall and politick but also spirituall and ecclesiastick violating and betraying not onely the visible peace order uniformity and successive authority of the Church but the invisible comforts quiet and grace of poor peoples souls who must needs be at a great loss in a very sad and shamefull case as to their Religion where their spirituall leaders and shepherds are usurpers intruders clamberers not coming into the sheep-fold by the door of right ordination but climbing some other way as thieves and robbers when their titular and intruding Pastors prove either grievous wolves or miserable asses as they commonly are found to be who are not admitted by due ordination but crowd into the Ministry by rude and novell obtrusions so domineering over the flock of Christ over whom not the holy Ghost by an ordinary derived power and authority but their own unruly spirits have made them not so much over-seers of others as either stark blind or grosly over-seen in themselves CHAP. X. THe sense of this High Treason against Christ and of those sinfull disorders which men bring on themselves the Church of Christ by their intrusion usurpation upon this ministeriall power and office makes me here seriously suggest to You my honoured and beloved Country-men this religious caution That it very much concerns you for your own and your posterities souls good to be very wary not to be imposed upon and abused by vulgar pretensions of zeal and Christian liberty in this point of the Ministry but to be vigilant with whom you intrust as Ministers your own your childrens or any other peoples souls where you are Patrons of Livings And since your own prudent abilities for learning piety and experience are so modest as not rashly to adventure upon this
of living waters which they digged not that they might dig to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold little or no water And this they delight to do not onely against those daily instances which miserable and manifest experience gives them of the sad and decayed condition of the Christian and Reformed Religion in this Ch. of Engl. since these new Ministers have intruded and divided but contrary also to all those pregnant testimonies undeniable demonstrations which both our pious fore-fathers in Engl. and all other Christian Churches in all ages have afforded us in the practises and writings of the Fathers testimonies of all Church-historians who with one mouth every where unanimously tell us what was the Apostolick ancient true and onely beginning of the Ministeriall order what the holy and happy way of its descent derivation and succession by duly consecrated Bishops and ordained Presbyters Contrary to all which plain and perpetual remonstrances for nothing is in them dubious or dark I am amazed I confess to see not the giddy and heady vulgar ungratefully engaged who are alwaies like tinder ready to take fire at any sparks of innovations diminutions and extirpations especially of their laws and governours but I find some men of worth yea and Ministers of good learning and seeming ingenuity either so over-awed by the vulgar or over-biassed by their own private interests inclinations and passions that after so much light of Scripture and antiquity shining both in the divine Originals and the Ecclesiastick copies of Ministeriall order and succession after their own former solemn approbations and subscriptions after their late experience of the sad consequences already too much felt in this Church as fruits of those innovations and usurpations made upon that unity power and authority of the Evangelicall Ministry yet I grieve and am ashamed to see that such men should still pitifully comply with consent to yea and promote those dangerous alterations and desperate extirpations which are designed by the enemies of this Church whose aim is to baffle and deprive this Reformed Church in so main a point and hinge of Religion as the ancient sacred orders the constant Ecclesiasticall methods of the Evangelicall Ministry must needs be which what they ever have been in this and all Catholick Churches no man of moderate learning humble piety and honest principles can be ignorant of CHAP. XI THose new unwonted and exotick fashions which some men have studied of late to introduce or incourage in England as to this point of Ministeriall office and power besides that they are all of them new some of them monstrous to this and all ancient Churches they plainly savour more of humane faction than of Christian faith else they would not they could not in any conscience or charity be so mischievously bent and malapertly spitefull against those worthy Bishops and other excellent Ministers who still adhere to the Ancient and Catholick order of the Church of England nor yet could they be so mis-shapen multiform and many-headed in themselves changing every day almost as Proteus by an innate principle of mutability which follows the fancies and interests of new and present projectors but not the judgement and grave example of our ancient and impartial predecessors And however some of these new ways not of successive procreating but new creating Ministers may seem first brewed by domestick discontents next broached by a forreign sword at length fostered by a partiall and over-awed Assembly at last fomented for a season by scattered and divided houses Parlaments in very broken touchy and bloody times when every new thing was made triall of which might as toyes and bables best please the peevish and petulant parties of people in England however others have further challenged to themselves a particular liberty and arbitrary authority such as best likes them in this point of the Ministry which no man of any wisdome piety or gravity can allow under any pretensions of gifts or graces ministeriall in any man Yet all these novell inventions whatever title they pretend from God or man from policy or necessity may not in any reason or Religion in any honour or conscience in any piety or prudence be put into the balance with much less be thought fit to out-vie that clear primitive pattern that Catholick constant succession that Apostolick and divine prescription which do all preponderate for the Ministry of the Church of England in the true scale of regular and authentick ordination of Ministers who are never so completely and indisputably invested with that power as when by the imposition of hands solemnly done by Episcopall Presidents and Presbyterian Assistants who after due examination and serious monition and fervent supplication do in prescript words commit that ministeriall power spirit and authority of Christ which ought to be rightly imparted to those that undertake Evangelical ministrations in Christs name to any part of his Church if they desire to avoid the sin and scandall of being intruders traitours usurpers and counterfeiters of Christs ministeriall dignity and authority Secular or civil powers which are but the products of the sword and managed chiefly by the policy and arm of flesh may indeed confer what honour office and authority they please on any man in civil things yea they may and ought in conscience to take care of and regulate the exercise of Ecclesiastical power in reference to Gods glory and the publick good both of Church and State but they cannot as from themselves by any naturall morall or civil capacity confer holy orders or bestow Ministerial authority on any man much less may they or as Christian Magistrates will they make a new broad Seal of Christianity or commence any new way of ministeriall authority nor may they in conscience cancel or abrogate the good old way no nor yet alter in any materiall part the Catholick way of its right derivation and succession which was by the hands of those who had first received that holy deposition which certainly is of as much higher nature orb and sphere beyond any naturall moral or secular power as the celestial light of sun and stars is above that which is from candles or that holy fire on Gods altar was above that which is but culinary All good Christians agree that its originall is in Christ its commission from Christ its first delegation to the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples from the Apostles we read its transmission to others in the Apostolicall Acts and Epistles How it was afterward continued and by what means derived to an uninterrupted Catholick succession in all Churches for 1500 years is not indeed to be learned so not decided by Scripture whose records except the Apocalyps extend not above 28 or 30 years after Christs ascension but being a thing now of late so hotly disputed in this and some other Churches there is no rationall satisfaction to be had as to matter of fact but by the after-histories of the Church
filiall subjection or fatherly inspection when no good Christian was to seek what Pastors what Preachers he should apply to nor any Deacon or Presbyter did doubt to what Bishop he owed a respect as to his Superiour in Ecclesiastick eminency order and authority This this blessed harmony this Catholick and in primitive times undoubted as well as uniform and constant order did then keep up or recover by Gods blessing the majesty of Christian Religion the love together with the honour and authority of the Evangelical ministry amidst the heaviest distractions and persecutions and so no doubt it would have done in England amidst all plebeian insolencies and popular prostitutions But alas though all this evil be come upon us Ministers of all sorts and sizes from without from civil warres and unhappy publick differences in secular interests which spare no men as also from the private covetousness inconstancy malice revenge impatience ambition and ingratitude of some vulgar people not onely to the great injuring of many Ministers persons credit and estates but to the menacing of an utter subversion even to the whole tribe office and function as it was founded on Divine Institution built up by Apostolicall Tradition and preserved by Catholick Succession yet in our distresses and afflictions many Ministers as Ahaz have sinned more and more and as if it were a small matter that plebeian spite and petulancy could ambitiously inflict upon Ministers themselves have added much fewel to their fires encouraging their malice by wretched complyings with them flattering of them in the very abuses of their liberties in their rude arrogatings and usurpations upon the Ministry infinitely to the disgrace of their holy calling to the disparagement of their own judgements and to the prostrating of their due authority which is as I have proved divine or none at all that I mention not Ministers betraying of their own honest interests and enjoyments as to this world in point of profit honour and reputation All which the gulf of secular avarice and the Abyss of Lay-mens sacriledge daily gapes to devour after the pattern which some Achans and Ananiasses of the Clergie have set them the poor remainders of which as they are already forfeited by the sordid and shamefull debasing of themselves to the humouring of people in their lusts and licentiousness so they will in a few years be utterly lost and confiscated by the advantages which will be given to peoples covetous cruelty through those mutuall animosities jealousies distances and varieties which are now maintained by the severall sides and sorts of Ministers in England all pretending to be Preachers of the Gospel under reformed and super-reforming names What infinite swellings disdains envies and pertinacies are open to all mens observations even among those men who would be thought grave wise learned holy and every way able to teach and rule the vulgar How have their innovations mutations levities and divisions so clearly manifested their weaknesse folly and factiousnesse that as it cannot be hid from vulgar eyes and censures so it is already many wayes confuted and sorely punished not onely by the palpable frustratings of some of their novell designs but by their being generally debased far below their former station and extremely worsted in all points as to that handsome if not honourable condition which they might in unity and order as heretofore have enjoyed in England If once the Ministers of any Church who are as the walls and sea-banks do make cracks and breaches upon themselves or suffer the moles and water-rats of the people so to do no wonder if the high tides of vulgar insolency and rapine soon break in upon them make their ruines not more deplorable than irreparable CHAP. XXV YEt after all this sharp and sad experience which hath rendred the profession of Ministers on all hands contemptible their ordination disputable their enjoyments miserable their necessities irreparable their dependences poor plebeian almost sordid by their mutuall and unhappy divisions yet still many who glory to be called Ministers of whatever odde ordination or new edition they are do fancy it a great part of their piety to be pertinacious in those new opinions wayes and factions which they have adopted yea much of their sanctity is made to consist in their scorning all antiquity and of all Reformation heretofore in the Church of England If they can find nothing else to quarrel at in the old Clergie of England whose doctrine was found whose ordination most Catholick valid and unquestionable by Bishops whose learning and lives were most commendable yet they must find fault with their very clothes and rather than not differ they must disguise themselves from the gravity of Gowns and Cassocks of black caps and black clothes to military clokes to Scotch jumps to white caps and all mechanick colours in which posture being as Preachers once got into a Pulpit then both they and the silly people fancy they see great Reformations of Religion more looking at the gay and strange colours of a foolish bird than minding how it speaks especially if these new Ministers do gratifie the plebs of the Laity and the plebs of the Clergie with any influence or stroke in their ordination and consecration to the office of the Ministry if they have highly cried up popular rights and liberties in making and marring in electing and rejecting in ordaining and deposing their Pastors if they have gently condescended to such popular transports and real novellizings in England as are contrary to all practises of ancient and best Churches O what an high mountain do these new Masters and their new Disciples fancy they are ascended to what a glorious transfiguration do they imagine themselves to be changed what a new heaven and new earth do some of them either more silly or more subtill than others glory they have created in their godly corporations their rare associations and blest ordinations how strange novell and disorderly soever they are as to all ancient customes of this and all Churches Nor do they think it worth considering how much they deviate from all Antiquity how much they desert yea reproch the wisdom of this Church and all estates in this Nation ever since it was either Christian or Reformed how much they go beyond the duty they owed to the civil peace of this Nation as also that modesty humility ingenuity reverence and subjection which by the lawes of God and man by all sanctions civil and Ecclesiasticall they owed to the Governours and guides Pastors and Preachers the peace and wellfare of this Church of England besides that prudence and policy which they ought to maintain in order to the honour and respect which is indeed due to their calling and authority when it is truly ministeriall and authentick What sober and impartial man doth not see how the despites arrogancies and insolencies first expressed in tumultuary heats and furies against all Bishops whatsoever though never so learned
grave godly and industrious men fit to govern and apt to teach the Church of Christ are still maintained and repeated daily yea raked up and increased by the popular oratory of some novel Ministers so far as to raise eternall prejudices and antipathies even against all those Presbyters which were or are of Episcopall ordination And the better to justifie these Novelties and Schisms in the Church of England which some were so eager and easie to begin so loth and unwilling to retract they still entertain their nauseous credulous and itching Disciples with all those odious stale and envious Crambes which are most welcome to vulgar ears and sacrilegious aims as how unfit it was for the Ministers of Jesus Christ who was the great pattern of piety and poverty to have great revenues stately Palaces and noble Lordships which more godly men do want for Preachers to have any titles of honour and respect as Lords to have any part of civil power or indeed of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction All which honest employments and enjoyments I conceive under favour the excellent Bishops and other deserving Clergie-men in England were as worthy to enjoy and as able to use with honour conscience and charity as any of those men either military or civil who were most zealous to deprive to debase and to destroy the Hierarchy or just honour of the Ecclesiastick state in England Nor do I think it was any way displeasing to God or in the least kind unbecoming the name of Christ for Bishops and other Ministers of his Church to have such ample estates and honourable preferments for their double honour in so plentifull a land as England was this I am sure it was far less beseeming any good Christian to repine at them and unjustly to deprive them of them If this envious vein of popular oratory grow at length fulsome vile and ridiculous as it is now to all sober and judicious auditors then the Anti-episcopall parties of Ministers devoutly rip up and sadly repeat whatever they have heard or others invented of any Bishops faults or the Episcopall Clergies past infirmities whatever they can they rake up though long ago buried as it ought to be in the charitable forgetfulness of all good men who either consider their own frailties or remember how many holy Bishops were Martyrs and Confessors in all ages of persecution how learned how diligent how commendable how admirable how useful they were to this Church for their preaching writing and living in times of persecution as well as peace even here in England All good Bishops and other Clergie as I have formerly expressed confess themselves as men to be subject to infirmities and temptations the best Bishops and Ministers least deny this truth being every day most vigilant to resist the one and amend the other These allegations then like the Devils quoting of Scripture though they may have some squint-ey'd truth in them yet they are spitefully partially and most impertinently alledged against all Bishops especially by those fierce Presbyterians or other implacable Preachers who have now liberally taught the English world that however the riches pomp and honours of Presbyterian or Independent or other Preachers are much against their wills far less than those which God and man reason and Religion order and polity devotion and gratitude Law and Gospel allowed to Bishops and Presbyters heretofore that the eminency of their office and place in the Church might have something of honourable splendour and hospitable magnificence proportionable to its venerable authority and great antiquity yet men are not so blinded by that popular dust stirred up against the faults and names of Bishops as not to see that the pride covetousness and imperiousness of the most furious and factious Anti-episcopall Ministers come not one jot behind any of those Bishops whom they look upon and represent with the most malignant aspect O how magisteriall are many new masters in their opinions how authoritative in their decisions how supercilious in their conversations how severe in their censures how inexorable in their passions how implacable in their wrath how inflexible in their factions how irrevocable in their transports though never so rash heady plebeian and unsuccessfull by which they at once forsook their duties to others and their own mercies And this many of them did to please others or themselves contrary to their former judgements their sworn and avowed subjection to Bishops for many years when they paid that respect to those Fathers and Governours of this Church which the laws of God and man required long before either Presbytery was hatched or Independency gendered in England The sharp severities and early rigours of both which parties and their Consectaries grew quickly both remarkable and intolerable to sober Christians for as they were bred and born like Pallas armed full of anger revenge and ambitious fierceness so they have acted even in their infancy and minority far beyond what regular sober and true Episcopacy ever did in its greatest age and procerity here in England yea its greatest passion and transports did not exceed the aims of these new masters both Ecclesiastical civil which was either to rule all or to ruine all Bishops commonly justified their reall or seeming severities by those lawes either civil or Ecclesiasticall which were in force against all such as did not conform to them Hence were occasioned much I am confident to the grief and against the desire of the most grave and godly Bishops sometimes those so oft declaimed against and aggravated persecutions of some unconformable yet otherwayes godly Ministers by silencings suspensions deprivations c. which sometimes were but just and necessary exercises of Discipline as I conceive if men will maintain any order and government in any Church or State sometimes it may be some Bishops pressed too much upon the strictness and rigour of law aggravated by their private passions beyond what might with charity and moderation safely have been indulged to some able and peaceable Ministers though in some things dissenters yet as to the main good and usefull to the Church Yet all these old Almanacks these stale and posthumous calculations of Episcopall severities did not upon true account no not in one hundred years equal the number and measure of those pressures and miseries which have been acted or designed in one fifteen years by such as now profess Presbyterian and Independent principles against all Bishops and all those Ministers which are of the Episcopal perswasion I think it may without any stroke of Rhetorick or Hyperbole be said with sober truth that the little finger of Presbytery and Independency with the warts and wens of other factions growing upon them hath been heavier upon the Episcopal which was the onely legal Clergie of England of late years than the loins of any sober and godly Bishops ever were for any one century yea and equal to the burdens of the most passionate and immoderate Bishops whatsoever in any age
nature and in regard of the offer of Evangelick grace by Christ as much need and as much capacity of Baptisme as the Jewish children had of Circumcision so far as both those initial Sacraments betoken the taking away of sin the supply of righteousness and other benefits attainable by sinners young or old through the covenant made in the blood of J. Christ between God and his Church both Jewish and Christian Only they put in these three popular barres against Infants partaking of those benefits which they need and are otherwayes capable of by Christ but not as the Anabaptists say in the way of Baptisme at that age in which they have no right or capacity to be baptised because First They alledge there is no precise or nominall command in the New Testament to baptize any Infants by name Secondly Baptisme is limited to such as are first taught and professe to believe which must ever exclude Infants Thirdly There is no one expresse and nominall instance of any one example where Christ or his Apostles baptized any infant which if they could finde they confesse they should then with us interpret all places in favour of infants as contained under the expression of all nations and whole housholds and you and your children c. since they confesse the tenour of the Gospel the extent or proportions of Evangelicall mercies the sufficiencie of Christs merits and the sinfull state of infants by nature yea their damnable estate unlesse they be washed and saved by the blood of Christ all these make much for infants enjoying the Sign and Seal as well as the Thing signified Grace and Glory too if they had but one example or could be convinced that ever any Apostle did baptize any one infant CHAP. VIII THis in brief is the whole strength as I conceive of the Anabaptists whereto they so pertinaciously hold meerly as to the literall silence of the name Infant in the point of Baptisme and at the same rate they may deny many other points of Christian doctrine and practise which yet I suppose they do not which not having the express and individual letter of the word for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the generall tenour and inclusive command namely the reason of the Scripture and Analogie of Faith to justifie them besides the constant practise and judgement of the Catholick Church whose fidelity is not to be questioned by any sober man upon such slight and captious pretensions of the Scriptures silence in point of particular enumerations when yet it is full as to generall and comprehensive expressions which are many and valid foundations on which to build Infant-baptisme no more to be justly overthrown by the most subtill Anabaptists in the world than the Saducees might deny and overthrow the resurrection against Christ or the Psychopannuchists the souls immortality or the Antidominicarians the Lords day or the Antiscripturists the received Scriptures or the Antitrinitarians the Trinity or the Arians the coessentiality of the Son with the Father as God because none of these are as the Arians urged in those very words names and syllables so set down as possibly cavilling Sophisters would require or else they will not believe The silence or not express naming of Infants is no more to be urged against them in this case than the silence of Christ as to the partakers of the Lords Supper who gave it onely to the twelve Disciples with command to them to do it c. without speaking of any Women or Lay-men yet were not these hereby excluded from the Communion as to matter of fact before it was so recorded in the Acts as an History The Church of Christ alwayes understood the latitudes of Baptism expressions as well as graces to include Infants of Christians no less than the institution of the other Sacrament did Lay-men and Women which were neither present at first institution nor are nominated in any particular command of Christ As for the condition limiting persons baptizable which is actual believing this also the Church of Christ understood in a limited temporary sense as reaching only to those who were the first fruits or plants of the Christian Church who were first as Abraham to be taught the nature of the covenant duty and seal before they could reasonably receive the sign or communicate it rightly to their children who come to their claim and priviledge as of Circumcision so of Baptisme not by vertue of their personal knowledge and faith which Abraham and men grown but not their children first had and so the first called and converted Christians as parents ought to have but by that federal relation which they have even in their ignorance and infancy to believing parents and by them to God as his people part of his flock and Church And this not by a naturall or civil right which yet descends to and upon children when they know nothing but by an Evangelicall right as to that covenant made by God in the blood of Christ with his Church both of old and of late with Jews and Christians inclusive of children yea even Infants of eight dayes old as is evident in Circumcision which signified the same grace under another signe or ceremony as the Apostle declares it at large Rom. 4. Leaving therefore the cavilling and pervicacious insistings of the Anabaptists about the letters names and syllables which they must have or they will not believe Infant-Baptism more than Thomas Christs Resurrection till he felt his wounds although we grant what they alledge as to the nominal silence of the word Infants wrested by their perverse disputations yet nothing is abated as to the right and use of Infant-baptisme which is grounded upon so many grand reasonings and right deductions from Scripture-sense which being explicite and clear in many places ought to over-rule that silence of the name Infants and seeming but misunderstood limitation of taught and believing which is all the force upon the point that ever the Anabaptists could muster together against the Churches Catholick judgement and practise conform to the whole tenour of Gods mind and will his love and mercy Christs grace and merits dispensed to his Church by some initiall Sacrament including Infants as well as the adulti of riper years That you may better see upon what little mole-hills the Anabaptists stand so on tip-toes as of late they have done in England pretending to over-top the mountain of the Lord which hath been established in all lands I mean the judgement and practise of the Catholick Church I will briefly set down as in a matter largely handled by many others both late long since what are the grand deductions and Scriptural reasonings upon which the Church of God hath as I conceive alwayes maintained the right priviledge and comfort of Infant-baptisme and this without any scruple or dispute for 1500 years not but that the Anabaptists objections from the silence of
of them a great offence for any man to write or preach against this enormous and crying sin of Sacriledge yea many Ministers in other things of hot spirits and sharp tongues yet in this are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mealy-mouth'd of soft and silken tongues and therefore doe not because they dare not in the least sort quetch against this odious sin of Sacriledge Which the very light of Nature abhorred as Parricide and Heathens condemned as the Murther of Parents which the true God implies by his earnest expostulation and sharp redargution to the Jews Will a man rob God that is any man that is not a Beast but ye have robbed me even this whole Nation by acting and assenting for the Sin is not less crying or criminous because a popular or nationall sin The Jews granted it parallel yea superiour to Idolatry as the Apostles Appeal to a mans Conscience inferres Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Idolaters own a God or Gods under the Names and Figures of Idols whom they honour and adorn with costly Temples great Gifts and large Revenues even to a prodigality but Sacrilegists either own no God or they mock their God making a spoyl and sport a play and a prey of their Numen which is the highest indignity can be offered to the Deity as rising from such vile and Atheisticall Principles which worse presume thus to defraud and abuse their God than not at all to own him or deny him Nor have theâ— been wanting such signall strokes of providence in all Ages avenging this Sin even in the eyes of the Heathens that men could not but confesse Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth And certainly as among Christians this sin of Sacriledge is at this day a great scandall to all Jews Mahometans and Heathens so among Protestants or the Reformed Christians it is no less offence to Papists and an obstruction to their Reformation for as Averroes chose rather to bequeath his soul to herd at last with Philosophers than with the Papists who profess to worship and yet to eat their breaden God so many Papists resolve rather to live and die in their liberall superstition than conform to these penurious Reformers who make no scruple to worship and yet to rob their God to steal from him with their hands like holy Cut-purses while they speak to him and look him familiarly in the face as Friends That I may speak my mind freely in this point before I die out of love to my God and Saviour to his Church to my Countrey to the honour of true Reformed Religion and the happinesse of Posterity I confesse this sin of Sacriledge seemes to me as of the greatest magnitude so of the saddest weight and most malignant presage against not onely private Persons and Families but against any Church and Nation that owns the true God and his Son Jesus Christ in their Worship Ministry Order and Service Nothing portends greater Maladies and Plagues of Religion than when this Comet blazeth in any Christian Church or State Commonly great Ebbs of Learning and Religion with great Floods of Ignorance and Atheism do follow when nothing is counted sacred and inviolable when all things are counted godly which are gainfull and reforming which are ravening when upon any civil Fewds and Breaches wherein Church-men cannot but be one way or other involved Lay-men presently think they have as the plunder of War a good title not onely to the Libraries and Lands the personal Goods and Estates of particular Ministers but even to the constant Revenues and perpetual Patrimony wherewith the Church is endowed in the name and right of God Almighty for the Order Honour and Support of his Worship and Service Nor do many covetous wretches make any scruple what they do in this kind if they have an Order under the hands of such as have power in their hands as if any Order or Act of any poor Mortals made but yesterday could either prejudice and annull or out and dispossesse God or his Church or his lawfull Ministers of those just Rights Titles Donations Possessions and Acquisitions which either a Ministers private and honest Industry hath by Gods blessing and the favour of the Laws obtained and no way forfeited or which other mens Piety and Bounty hath humbly and thankfully long ago devoted to God his Church his Service and his Ministers agreeable to the lawes of the Land and the will of God who commands us to honour him with our substance graciously accepts such gratefull oblations from us and precisely forbids us so far to mock him as not to pay our own vowes much more to rob him of the fruits of other mens devotion and vowes whose Donors sealed and confirmed those their Anathamâ—ta holy Gifts and Consecrations to God and his Church with dreadfull execrations and just imprecations of Divine Vengeance on any that shall presume to alienate the Gift from God and violate the last Will of those pious Benefactors who are dead many ages ago Truly I cannot see how either Committees or Souldiers or Parliaments or Princes all of them but momentary poore worms clothed in specious pompous Titles can pretend any good Title or Authority to Gods derogation and diminution who is the Lord Paramount the principal and proprietor in the Churches Estate and in Church-mens publick Goods which they have upon the account of his service as his salary and reward for which his Word is not onely a sufficient Justification to Givers and Enjoyers but it ought to be a sufficient Caution from ever sharking and alienating those things which are not bona caduca mobilia but successiva perpetua momentary and movable goods but ought to be as lasting as true Religion and the Service of God among mankind Nor do I think this execrable sin of Sacriledge more desperate and damnable in its chief Authors first Actors and Abettors dying impenitent that is without restitution than infectious pestilent damageable to Posterity and After-ages who after this example will like Locusts and Caterpillers in time not onely devour all things that are holy and leave nothing but Beggery Contempt Plebeian and Stipendiary Dependency for the Alimony Honor and Encouragement of Gods constant Ministers and holy Ministrations but infinitely discourage all Christian Liberality Gratitude and Munificence from dedicating any thing of setled Emolument to the Service of God and use of his Church which will be in worse condition than the ordinary Hospitals or the Halls and Companies of London who are capable of any Endowments Which I more fear because I find that the most popular panick and compliant Preachers who in all those ruffling times wherein this Sin marched most furiously and triumphantly have had many opportunities to have given some check and stop to it by their preaching or writing before both the great and the many yet not one of all those grand Masters otherwise Boanergesses Sons of
much letting of blood as these last Calentures which have infinitely wasted the people and spirits of these three Nations taking their first popular heats or pretending so at least from the zeal each party had for its Religion not as Christian which all professe but as discriminated by particular marks of lesser Opinions and Perswasions which occasion more discords than all their agreement in other main matters can preserve of Love and Concord as men as Countrey-men or Christians How oft since the Reformation in England began and was perfected to so great a beauty for Justice Piety Order Charity Moderation and Honour as became the Glory of God the Majesty of Christian Religion and the Wisdome of this Nation have the struglings of Religion threatned and began civil broyles not onely in eighth's dayes both in the North and West when yet Reformation was much unhewn and unpolished people being unsatisfied because untaught as to the just grounds of necessary Alteration but afterward in succeeding Princes dayes especially in Queen Elizabeth's long and happy reign how infinitely did religious discontents boyle in some mens breasts insomuch that for want of vent in open flames of Hostility which the publick Power Policy and Vigilancy of those times repressed they bred all sorts of foul Impostumations even to the study of Assassinations Empoisonings and Treasons some so black and barbarous as are unparallel'd in former and will be scarce credible in after-Ages Nor did the discontented Papists onely meditate first revenge then Soveraignty by blowing all up at one blow that was sacred or civil in this Nation but even that little cloud which at first seemed but as an hands breadth of difference in some outward Forms Ceremonies and Circumstances of Religion as Christian and Reformed this in time grew so full of sulphurous or hot vapours that it looked very black when it was not yet very big in England either by schismes or separations being much cooled and allayed yea in great part dissipated and vanished through the excellent temper of that Government both in Church and State which that renowned Queen and her wise Councel preserved which suffered neither Conformity to grow wanton and lazy nor Non-conformity to be presumptuous or desperate nor yet too popular by out-vying the other party either in Piety or Industry Episcopacy as the ancient and onely Catholick Government of this and all other Churches for 1500. years was then had in due veneration allowed its double honour both in Church and State in Parlaments and Synods it was treated with great gravity and respect by that incomparable Princesse afterward it was asserted with greater indulgence and passion by King James who began that Proverb which his Son saw verified No Bishop no King yet in the beginning of the late Kings dayes Episcopacy and the state of the Church was even pampered and cosetted by so excessive a favour and propensity as made it seem his chief Favourite not onely for reasons of State but of Conscience The Episcopall throne and dignity seemed as immutable as the Kings Scepter and Majesty so zealously devoted he was to assert it so fearfull by any sacrilegious act to diminish it such a Patron such a Champion for the State Ecclesiastick that upon the matter he was resolved to venture Kingdomes Life and all upon this cause and either to swimme or sink with the Church of England against the Tide of all Faction What could be desired of greater advantage and security than such an immensity of favour from so potent a Monarch for the indemnity and stability of the Episcopall interests and its friends in England which in the Beginning of King Charles his reign had what they could hope or desire his benignity exceeding the very hopes of Church-men his Royall favour confirming all those Immunities Honours Jurisdictions and Revenues as sacred and inviolable which they enjoyed by the Lawes Priviledges and Customes of England to which the Learning Gravity and Merit of many worthy Bishops and other Church-men in England bare so great and good a proportion that few were so impudently envious as not to think that many yea most of them well deserved what they soberly enjoyed The heat of the opposite Factions as Non-conformists or Separatists was so much allayed that it seemed quite extinguished nor possibly could it have revived to so sudden and dreadfull flames if the immoderations of some mens passionate counsels and precipitate activities had not transported them beyond those bounds which politick and it may be pious prudence did require which easily re-inkindled those old differences which had been so much suppressed that they seemed quite buried in England till they took fresh and unexpected fires from the cold climate but hot spirits of Scotland which finding prepared and combustible matter there and here too soon brake out to such flames as were not to be quenched but with the best blood in England and the overthrow of the ancient Government both of Church and State even then when both seemed to be in their greatest height and fixation So dangerous even beyond all imagination and expression are the sparks of religious dissentions if they be either by preposterous Oppositions provoked or by imprudent Negligences permitted to ferment and spread in any Church and State or if they be not by at powerfull way of reall Wisdome and true Piety which is the best and surest policy so quenched and smothered as may take away from all men of any Worth Modesty and Conscience any just cause to endeavour or desire any such Innovations as those did who upon Presbyterian principles first aimed at not a totall change of Doctrine but onely an amendment of Discipline and Government in this Church which as they seemed in a short time to have obtained beyond their first designs so in no long time after they were as much frustrated and soon defeated by other subsequent parties which sprang up upon the like grounds of religious differences After Episcopacy was thrust under hatches what I pray could be more absolute and Magisteriall bigger in words lookes enterprises in terrours of others in boasts and confidences of it self than the Presbyterian party was after once that Leven by a Scotch maceration and infusion had diffused it self and sowred many peoples simplicity here in England against the Episcopall constitution and administration of this Church How did this high-flying Icarus in a short time disdain any rivall puffing at all its Prelatick adversaries setting its feet on all the Bishops and the Episcopall Clergies neck as the Israelites did on the five Kings of the Amorites before they were to be slain which thing was done at Josuahs command who was the supreme Magistrate but these forward Spirits tarried not for any such command or consent to their dominion from the Prince of the people but their new soveraginty fought to spread it self like lightning in a moment to the latitude of these three Kingdomes impregnated and palliated with many popular petitions
infinite detriment and damage as of our selves and our neighbours at present so of posterity to after-ages Who will with astonishment and horror read the Histories of our times so desperately ingaged to reforme Religion that they well-nigh ruined it so pertinacious to retaine their Christian and Reformed profession that they almost made a shift to lose both as hunters do that game which they onely scare from them while they eagerly but indiscreetly pursue it Secondly besides conscience to the Glory of God the honor of our Saviour and the good of Soules all civill prudence and true policy not onely invites but necessitates sober and worthy men to study and endeavour the restitution and establishment of true Religion in this or any Nation to its true proportions and just fixation as Christian and Reformed Now although nothing can in true Oratory be among Christians added after the weighty considerations of Gods glory Christs honor the hazard of our own and others souls to eternall darknesse ignorance confusion and misery all motives being as the dust of the balance compared to these yet because I must levell the force of my perswasions as arrowes to the proportions of most mens principles and designes in point of temporall interests as well as draw them home to the head and height of Spirituall and Eternall concernments give me leave to represent and inculcate that consideration as to Religions necessary setling which of all other makes the quickest and deepest impression on mens minds the neglect of which will certainly forfeit all that reputation of wise Men great Statists and good Polititians even after the worlds calculation of wisdome which Magistrates and Gentlemen are ambitious to obtain and leave to the honor of their Names and Memories It is this There is no hindge upon which the civil Peace and Secular welfare of you and your posterity doth so much depend and move as this of True Religion which is at no hand to be left to a plebean Liberty and vulgar latitude but to be confined and setled upon its own weight and basis to its Verity Certainty Sanctity Solemnity true Ministery and due Authority In vaine shall you hope to enjoy the Peace of men in worldly affaires if you want the peace of God if you have nothing but wars and jarrs distances and defiances as to Religion both with God your Ministers your selves and with one another Which Sacred Fires will infallibly kindle horrid conflagrations not onely from those hot disputes and attritions which concerne the principall Articles and more solid parts of Religion which are held necessary to salvation but even from the lightest and smallest materialls which seem but as the chips and parings the bark and leaves of Religion even these like tinder and touch-wood are prone to strike and entertaine such sparks in small and vulgar minds as will set all on a light fire at last Which is most evident in our late Holy Warrs where few men of any modesty or honesty did at first stickle so much about the weighty points of Religion in Doctrine or manners tending to true Faith or practicall Holinesse objects too deep and weighty for the weak and shallow braines of most Novellers and Vastators few I say or none of any worth did or do contend about true Grace or reall Virtue who shall be most Holy Penitent Humble Faithfull Pure Patient Just Charitable Meek Devout Sincere inoffensive to God and Man No the Lord knowes a little touch or dash and colour of these serves the turne with most men that are most eager for any side and party of Religion in their rude disputes and uncharitable janglings The greatest strifes the sharpest emulations and most unfeigned feudes of Religion arise from principles of Envy Revenge and Ambition in mens Spirits when once they are divided upon any spark or pretext of Religion their ambitious Zeal like fire presently ascends and lifts them upward The grand interest of their Godlinesse is like the Sons of Zebedee who shall be chief what person what party shall prevaile and rule over others who shall sit on the right hand of Christ judging the rest not as brethren but as subjects and vassals For all pregnant factions in Religion are not onely solicitous to preserve themselves in some honest liberty and modest tranquillity as a candle whose confined flame keeps within its own socket and compasse but they presently meditate the extinguishing of all others They aime indeed at Conquest and Soveraignty every ones fingers itch at the Scepter of Jesus Christ that is at such power and authority as may governe the soules and bodies too the consciences and carkases of other men both in Church and State that they may in Christs Name have Dominion over the opinions and judgements the minds and spirits of all men subduing them if not at first by disputation and arguments yet at length by Fightings and Armes by silencings and imprisonings by plunderings and undoings For which purpose each party the better to justifie its insolency and cruelty against all others holds forth some Ensigne and Flag as of difference so of defiance either as to some lesser matter of Opinion and Doctrine or rather than faile of some meer outward Form and Discipline yea of some sorry Ceremonie and Custome no way essentiall to true Religion Yet from hence the eager but weaker Zelots on all sides Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent have and do foment those miserable flames which have not onely scorched but almost consumed this Church of England For these petty contests readily fall under vulgar capacities as more obvious and sensible these fit the humors of the minue people and petty Preachers too who are naturally as proud and imperious as masterly and surly as the greatest Clerks or Scholars whose learned abilities may better excuse their pertinacies ambitions and other insolencies Who is so blind as not to see that from the first differences which were spawned at Frankfort and hatched at Geneva about non-Conformity and Church Discipline the Presbyterian and popular Spirit hath alwaies grumbled and mutined at that eminency and government which Episcopacy for the maine hath enjoyed from the beginning not of Reformation onely but of Christian Religion From whence some other mens Spirits too high perhaps and Prelaticall out of jealousie have on the other side sought to engrosse and exercise more of a sole arbitrary and absolute power not onely above but apart from all Presbyters and people than was ever challenged or used in the Primitive Constitution in the first and best practises of Episcopacy which seems to have had more of Aristocracy by the joynt Counsell and assistance of select and Grave Presbyters than of absolute Monarchy or soveraigne and sole authority further than an eminency of Office Order Place and Presidencie might keep an united and regular power in their more ample and combined Churches which consisted of many Christian congregations and Presbyters But as the Duke of York first professed with
possibly not so many wise heads and wary hands which in all publick healings do well to be joyned together these as fittest to effect what the other designe God forbid I should be so vaine as to imagine there is any thing in my tenuity fit to be offered to that piety and prudence which I know is in many of my Countrymen so great a presumption of wisdome were my greatest folly I onely crave the leave and pardon of all wise men so farre as I adventure to expresse their sense as I suppose to the publick which every man will not do although he heartily ownes it and every one is not apt to do although he vehemently approves it Many men yea all men naturally have the same principles of Mathematicks in them but not the same leisure and genius to study and dilate them as did Archimedes Euclide Ptolemy and Alphonsus Some that have capacity and leisure enough yet may want calmenesse and composure of mind being partly agitated by their passions partly biassed by their worldly affaires and private interests and not onely prepossessed by their sides and parties but wholly ingrossed and addicted to them My leisure being great my private partial interests being none my temper neutrall and indifferent addicted to no side or party that either shoots wide or short or beyond the Church of England the onely mark or Butt which is and ever hath been the measure of my best aimes and actings my words and writings possibly I may obtaine so much favour of you my wise and worthy Countrymen as you will at least bear with my folly so farre as I shall represent to you and others your inferiours what is my sense and I presume yours too in order to reconcile our differences and compose our distractions in matters of Religion The methods of our Healing and Recovery must have regard to the originalls and progresse of our maladies and distempers which I impute to Ministers Divisions Peoples Distractions and Magistrates perhaps not indifferences so much as Diversions hitherto by reason of many secular Incumberances so pressing upon them that they have not yet had time and leisure since they had power so to intend the settling of Religion in England and Church affaires as the matter it self deserves as God commands and as all sober men in the Nation both desire and expect My first addresse must be to men of my own Profession who own themselves as Ministers of the Gospel For these are so generally charged to be the fountaines fautors and fomenters of our English troubles both in Church and State that few men pitty them but rather justifie the miseries befaln them on all sides as the grand occasioners of their own and other mens calamities which they say had not their first fire or flame from civill ambitions or discontents so much as from those which appeared in Church-concernments Indeed all ages of Jewish and Christian succession have shewed us that from Prophets and Priests from Bishops and Presbyters from mal-admissions and mal-administrations of Holy Offices and Functions evill hath gone out into the whole Church and State No sooner hath God by the preaching and sufferings of worthy Bishops and other Ministers planted and setled purged and reformed his Church in any Nation but the Devil crowds some of his Chaplaines into Christs Chappel such were Arrius Eutyches Paulus Sâ—osatenus Apolinaris Novatus Donatus and many others Church-men by their Profession but pests to their Churches by their presumption Thus did those drones or wasps rather of Religion follow and infest the first Lutheran essayes of Reformation in Germany when he had as Sleidan tells us notably triumphed over Eccius and other Sophisters of the Popish bran and Monkish bellies then had he to contend with those peevish and hot heads which brake out into Fanatick fancies and Anabaptistick furies such as Carolostadius Murecer Storkius and others were whose Names and Effigies are alike terrible Nor have there been wanting in England since our true Reformation the most perfect and best in the world because the least popular most orderly graduall and authoritative such strange spirits so curious and captious so quarrelling and reproching so perpetually tampering and botching with this Church and its reformed Religion that no sooner had this Church any setled plantation and quiet but it had on every side many petty pruners perturbers supplanters who from the first to this day cannot be made to believe that this whole Nation in all Estates both civill and Ecclesiastick ever had either so much piety purity or policy as themselves halfe a dozen fierce non-conformists who had kindled their matches at Francfort or Geneva were alwaies confident of themselves and cryed up by their Disciples to be greater lights for burning and refining of Religion than all the Kings and Queenes all the Lords and Commons all the Bishops and Convocations all the Martyrs and Confessors whose cruell fires ayming to consume the very vitals of the true reformed Religion were no sooner quenched but these forraign infected Ministers began other fires of lesser fagots which at first did pretend onely to singe the over-long haires of the reformed Religion in England but now at last we see they have roasted it round and turned this Church like Saint Lawrence from side to side over the gridirons and burning coales of various factions which have each their Anti-Ministers their cata-Cata-Presbyters or counter-preachers bandying one against the other and setting all people together by the eares as well as themselves The first and most effectuall meanes to recover the setled State of the reformed Religion in England to a peace and uniformity following the methods of our miseries must begin with us of the Clergy or Ministry what names or titles what principles or patternes soever we pretend to follow T is true many if not most of us were loth to see and hard to be convinced of our pristine errors and indiscretions our immoderations and transports our Popish and popular compliances our Jesuitick evasions and pretentions our politick Salvoes and distinctions our pompous and empty formalities by which we made either the power of godlinesse odious or factions popular innovations pious and factions plausible untill God overtook us all with his just though sharp chastisements Some Church-men â—hought their hill so strong it could never be removed whereas no policy availes without true and exact piety to bear up the honor of Church-men when once people see without spectacles Other Ministers fancied that if the high places of Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Deanes and Chapters were taken away presently their vallies would ascend as the earth is said to have done under St. Davids feet as he was preaching in Wales that their Molehills would swell to be all Mountaines of God of equall height on which their Jerusalems should be built after new Church-models either of a Presbyterian or Independent fashion whose small and as to the Publick peace and benefit ineffectuall pâ—oductions
peevish and jealous against those that have more if we have much we easily grow proud high-conceited dictatorian Some of us are very rusticall morose and refractory others of us very imperious supercilious and magisteriall few of us of so wise calme and safe tempers as to be left to our selves in things of publick Office and Order lest we grow heady and extravagant Nor are we of so humble and meek Spirits as to be willingly led by others If left free we grow insolent popular and factious if under any Government or restraint we grow touchy refractory and petulant not easily kept within our own or others bounds untill by pregnant reason and prevalent power meeting together in wise and resolute magistrates we are at once convinced and commanded perswaded and over-awed to keep those honest bounds of order and subjection which do not onely best become us but ought to be least arbitrary because most necessary both for our own and the publick good most of us will be good subjects even to Church-Government as well as State when we see we must be so and few of us will be either quiet or content when we find that we may be what we or the vulgar will by loose Tolerations and indiscreet indulgences which betray Ministers no lesse than other men to many dangerous extravagancies To cure therefore the distempers of Religion and to restore some Health Beauty Order and Unity to this sick deformed disordered and divided Church of England the first applications as I humbly conceive must by wisdome and power be made to those that professe to be Ministers of the Gospel who must have as broken or started and dislocated bones whose flesh and muscles are highly swoln and enflamed not onely wholesome diet and Physick given them but such splinters and ligatures as may be at once gentle yet strong not bound so hard as may occasion paine or mortifying nor yet so loose as may suffer any constant dislocation or new flying out To such ruptures and inordinacies the many notions and raptures that Scholars and Preachers get by reading and conversing besides the pregnancy of their wits and ambition of their own Spirits are prone to tempt them no preacher is so meane but he would faine appeare some body if he despaire of his own merits as to publick notice and preferment then he applies to popular arts and lesser engines Discontent and ambition are observed both in old times and of later to have been the great perturbers of the Churches peace which some have written even of Mr. Cartwright himself a man of excellent Learning yet unsatisfied when he had not the good fortune to be so much favoured and preferred by Queen Elizabeth as others were who bare a part with him in publick Acts at Cambridge before that popular yet politick Princesse Who had no greater art in her Government than this to give not onely shrewd guesses at mens tempers and geniusses but exactly to calculate the proportions of their spirits and parts and accordingly either to refuse them or imploy them in Church or State Nor could she easily have kept this Church of England from flying in pieces in her dayes when many notable Ministers wits did work like new beere or bottled Ale to blow up the Government of the Church unlesse she had besides the Canons agreed in Synods and the good Lawes passed in Parliament applyed such wise able and resolute Governours to the Helme of the Church as were Parker Grindall Whitgift Sands Matthewes and others whom the stormes yet safety of the Church in those times shewed to be excellent Pilots and excellent Prelates no lesse than excellent Preachers Whose names and autority had then been made as odious and unpopular as now all Bishops and Episcopall Clergy have been if under God the resolute power and ponderous authority of the Princesse had not preserved them besides the Gravity Piety and prudence of their own carriage which abundantly stopped the mouthes of their clamorous enemies then and further justified them to all posterity to have been as the true Sons of wisdome so deservedly the venerable Bishops and Fathers of this then famous and flourishing Church I well know that Ministers in England above all sorts of men do stand bound in conscience and prudence to use all faire meanes for the speedy setling and happy restitution of the State of Religion in this Church because however many of them professe to be great patrons of piety and sticklers for Reformations either old or new yet most if not all our Church-deformities and miseries have been and still are imputed chiefly to their immoderations passions or indiscretions when too much left to themselves Some driving so furiously to conformity that they went beyond it not onely over-shooting themselves but the good Lawes Canons and Customes of this Church hereby putting the common people into high jealousies of superstition by their too great heats and surfeits of ceremonious innovations and affected formalities Other Ministers were so jealous and impatient of what they fancied rather than felt to be burthens in Religion that they not onely cast off some superfluous loades of new ceremonies but the very comely Garment Girdle and Government of this Church yea some of them at last flung off all their clothes and tare off as Hercules in his fiery shirt much of their own skins by a frantick kind of excesse severely revenging even other mens reall or imputed faults upon themselves and upon the whole Church committing greater injuries than ever they did or indeed could suffer while they possessed their soules in patience and peace whereas now they have left themselves and this whole Church as the Tortoise did that was weary of its shell and put it off almost nothing for safety comelinesse or honour but are nakedly exposed to all those dangers and deformities which attend any Church Religion and Ministry which being once ungirt as to order unity and Government will soon be unblest as to all holy improvements either in Piety Verity or Charity Hence hence it is that such a crowd of importune and insolent mischiefes have as the Sodomites upon the Angels and Lot at his doore not onely rudely pressed but notoriously prevailed too farre upon all Ministers and the State of the Reformed Religion chiefly the jealousies feuds factions animosities immoderations indiscretions divisions and dissociations among Ministers who can never expect to see common people return from their madnesse and giddinesse to sober senses untill they see their Preachers to recover their wits and their pastors to become patternes as of piety and zeal so of humility and order of charity and unity of gravity and constancy of meeknesse and wisdome and not to be like mad dogs so daily snarling and snapping at one another so biting and infecting their own and others flocks with their poysonous foam and teeth that at last they disorder the whole frame of the Church and endanger the civil peace of the Nation whence some
polity and prudence but was further commended and confirmed by the ancient patternes of Gods own appointment among the Jewes by Christs Doctrine and example together with his Apostles practise and appointment evident in their writings and in the imitation of all Churches from the beginning The want and waste of which Primitive and Catholick Government as I do unfeignedly deplore in the Church of Engl. so I am glad to see any of my brethren so sensible of it as to make what handsome shift they can for a while to unite and defend themselves til the mercy of God and the wisdome of Governours shall restore such ancient order unity and authority to us as may be most happy for us on all hands And although I think these Associatings to be as incomplete as they seem partiall yet they are so far considerable and commendable as they seem to invite and draw Ministers to some Ecclesiastick union and fraternall society which may be in time much for their own Honour Safety and Happiness as well as the peoples peace especially if such closures arise not from a continued confederacy of factious Spirits against true Episcopacy but rather as preparations for it so farre as times may bear or bring on the due restitution of it not to its pristine pomp and splendor which is not expectable but to its Primitive Order Power and Spirituall Authority in the Church which without doubt is the Conservative the Crown the Consummation the Centre of all Churches Government Short of which what ever popular and plausible prefacings these projects of Associating may make to endeare some Ministers by the parity of their Oligarchies in Presbytery or to draw in common people by their specious Democracies in Independency yet I confesse I expect no great or durable good from either of their partialities First because they are but private mens projects not the results of the publick counsell and united wisdome of this Church and Nation Secondly they are in their constitution defective as to the true proportions of good Government and Polity which must have ability order intirenesse and authority which are not to be found in the parity or plebs either of Ministers or people Thirdly they are as new so precarious and arbitrary therefore unauthoritative and unauthentick easily baffled and despised by any that list to be recusant and refractory Fourthly as they are divided no lesse than Oligarchie and Democracy so they may be dangerous to the Authors abetters and executors of them when ever those that aâ—e or shall be in civill power list to bring them to the triall of a Prâ—munire which statute binds up the hands of all Pragmatick Presbyters and people from acting of their own heads in Church-affaires without Law This I am sure the policies of States-men are easily jealous of Church-men nor can the Clergy discreetly act any thing by way of publick influence in things Ecclesiasticall for which they have not the publick Counsel and consent Possibly these Associations if friendly and ingenuous may be some seeming shelter to some poor Ministers from the urgent stormes of popular contempt and insolency like the undergirding of that crazy and weather-beaten ship in which St. Paul was imbarqued and ready to perish untill the tossed vessell of this Church may be brought into a more commodious haven and fully repaired But if the aime of Associatings be no more than a cunning complicating of Presbyterian and Independent principles and interests together that they may rule in their Duumviracy exclusive of all primitive Presidency and slighting all pleas for Episcopacy which hath the onely Catholick and Classicall precedents for authentick ordination and full authority in the Church all will be no more than daubing with untempered morter by which they may foule their own fingers and other mens faces but they will never erect any stately and durable structure capable to supply the roome of that Primitive Apostolick and Catholick Government in comparison of which these precarious and poor Associatings of Ministers are but a setting up a stanty hedge instead of a good quick-set or a brick-wall for the sense of Christs vineyard Presbytery hath been already so baffled in England and Indepency hath so little place or credit both are such exotick novelties and so incompetent for Church-Government that neither single nor sociall ravelled nor twisted they will ever have any considerable power nor be able to give any protection to either Ministers or people much lesse will they promote the Reformed state of Religion or the peace of the Nation The community of Ministers and people though never so much Associated in such levelling factions will still appeare both to their enemies and friends but as so many silly sheep who fearing to be further worried by wolves and dogs do flock together indeed with great eagernesse and crowding but they are not thereby much the safer if they have neither fixed folds nor able valiant and watchfull shepheards to oversee and defend them with such eminent power and lawfull Authority as becomes the masters of such Assemblies and the chief Fathers of those Families which make up the most complete Churches of Christ As it is hard to draw a true circle unlesse the centre be fixed or to build a firm arch without the binding and centre-stone be added to the rest so I firmely believe that neither the interests of people by Independency nor of Presbyters by Presbytery will ever be advantaged to any honourable happy or durable condition by these Associations if they arrogantly and factiously usurp the rights and power of Primitive Episcopacy which hath been alwaies as usefull as venerable in the Church of Christ either used or approved or desired by all learned and sober men and asserted by infinite pregnant and unanswerable testimonies both ancient and late Nor will I hope the Antiquity Sanctity and Majesty of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy ever want such Princes Peers such Presbyters and people as both in true polity and in good conscience will so approve it as to preferre it no lesse before all modern models than the first temple was preferrable before the second or either of them before the Tabernacle If these Associations do onely intend as some of them pretend to take in all interests with reservation of latitudes and freedomes both of different principles and practises to all sorts of Ministers will they not prove at last Dissociatings and amount to no higher edifying of this Church than the laying of brick and sand without lime which will never make a durable and strong building For they will soon divide and dissolve who are held together by no other bond than their own will and pleasure Possibly thus farre they may be of use as means somewhat to discover more the rubbish and ruines of our late distractions which have made Ministers so much strangers that they are enemies to each other yea possibly they may by drawing them to some amicable conventions and Christian
all other Apostles in their severall Bishopricks or Distributions To the second as Presbyters or a lesser kind of Bishops and Apostles over private and particular congregations they gave power to preach the Gospel administer Sacraments and assist their chief Pastor or Bishop in governing the Church according as they were required and appointed to their severall duties and charges But no where in Scripture that I see do we find either the sole or chief power of ordaining Ministers or of exercising any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over them by correption or rejection given to any one or more Presbyters as such unlesse men list for ever to play the children and cavill with the identity or samenesse of the names used of old which calls Apostles Presbyters as a word of honor and Presbyters Bishops as overseers and all of them Deacons as servants to Christ and the Church and all may be called Apostles too in some sense as sent by Christ on his work Which Crambe is so fulsome a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cavilling about words to confound all good sense and order that all sober men are now weary of it when they clearly see that all ages and actions of the Catholick Church have sufficiently declared beyond any fallacy of identity as to Names and titles the reall and actuall differences of persons and duties or offices to which words may at first be indifferently applied without implying any such confusion of places and powers in the Church any more than when the name of ruler is applyed to supreame and subordinate Magistrates or when the name of Officer is given to Corporalls Lieutenants Captaines Colonells and Generalls or that of Alderman to such as are so by age or office or estate just as if one should obstinately maintain that the petty Constables of every parish the High Constables of every Hundred and the Lord high Constable of England or France were the same things as to office power and honor because the same name of Constable is applyed to all of them It may with as much reason be urged that every Master of Arts in a Colledg and the Master of the Colledg are the same in office place and power or that every one who is called Father by nature age affinity adoption merit or relation either Domestick Civil or Ecclesiasticall presently may challenge the same Authority over us and the same Duty or Obedience from us as our naturall parents have and do expect because all are called Fathers So we shall have many Gods and Lords to justifie the Polytheisme of the heathens because there are many that are in Scripture called Gods and Lords as the Apostle tells us These Sophisticall equivocations from names and words have been indeed the bushes or thickets the borrowes and refuges a long time of those men who aimed to bring in all factions innovations and confusions into this and other Churches onely under such empty colours and fallacious pretentions out of all which they have been lately so stripped ferreted by many learned unanswerable assertors of Episcopacy in its just presidency and authority that they are now naked and ridiculous to all sober spectators who see that all the judgement and practice of antiquity besides the Scriptures analogy is so clear and distinct against all their petty cavillings and popular levellings that the reall differences of the powers orders degrees and offices in the Church as begun by Christ exercised by the Apostles also continued in that method and series through all ages are not lesse evident than their peevishnesse and pertinacy are who list to urge the first indifferency or latitude of words against the after and evident distinctions of things declared and confirmed by the constant judgement and practice of all Churches which is in my judgement the best and surest interpreter and distinguisher of what ever seems wrapped up or any way obscured and confused in Scripture-expressions otherwaies we must with the Papists own as many Sacraments and Mysteries as these words are applyed to in Scripture either in the Greek or Latine Presbyters might well enough be then called Bishops in a generall and lower sense when there were so many Apostles as chief Bishops above them which Name of Apostle the modesty of after Bishops refusing they contented themselves with the peculiar title of Bishops and confined that of Presbyter to that second order or degree of Clergy-men as that of Deacon to the third which yet in their latitude are applyed to Bishops and Apostles themselves I know there have been many things speciously urged for Presbytery and odiously against Episcopacy all which have been so abundantly answered that it is time they were forgotten and all enmity buried with them My aime in this pacificatory addresse to all worthy Ministers is not to revive the cavils and disputes but to reconcile all interests to compose all differences and to satisfie all demands Onely because I know there is no closing or glewing of pieces together with firmnesse where there is not first made an evennesse and smoothness on all sides for their apt meeting I shall here further endeavour fairly to take away some remaining roughnesse swelling and protuberancy which possibly may be still in some sober mens minds as great hinderances of the desired closure and composure of all sides I know it is further urged by some that every Presbyter singly and much more socially that is in a joynt body and Associate fraternity may be rationally thought to have the full power and divine authority of a Bishop to all ends offices and purposes since it is well known in all antiquity as St Jerome tells us and it is confessed by all Episcopall men that Presbyters as such primitively chose their respective Bishops as at Antioch Jerusalem Alexandria from S. Marks time in other places so that Bishops may seem primarily to receive all their authority and eminency from Presbyters who certainly can conferre no more upon any of Bishop than is radically seminally and eminently in themselves as a superiour Magistrate that nominates an inferiour or a Corporation that chooseth a Major or chief officer or as Fellowes of a Colledge who choose a Master or President over them or as an army which is St. Jeromes instance who choose their Imperator or Generall From this ancient and well-known priviledge of Presbyters to choose their respective Bishops many conclude their joynt power at least to be equall to any Bishops yea superiour to them as causall and efficient insomuch that they may if they please exercise it apart from and wholly without any Bishop by choosing none to be over them or among them but serving their occasionall meetings with a temporary Moderator rather than a constant Superintendent To this it is easily answered That however Presbyters of old did and of right as I conceive ought by the leave and permission of Christian Princes to choose and appove the persons of their Bishops as being the fittest men in
corners and dissolved the face of any visible Church on earth if after the severall sad dispersions and vastations of them the chief Pastors and Bishops of the Church succeeding to the ordinary power of Apostles had not either in Oecumenick Councills or in their particular Diocess Provinces taken care with their brethren to call together and settle in Holy Communion of faith and manners the remaines of their dispersed Presbyters and disordered people To which good work of calling Councils and Synods for the rectifying and restoring of Religion all good Christian Emperours besides the Bishops did cheerfully contribute both their favour and Treasure as the most noble way in the world to employ them Shall the Counsels and powers the tributes and revenues of Christian Magistrates and people be onely laid out in making war at home and abroad onely to recover or keep up their civill peace or to build their own houses and is nothing to be laid out to maintain the Faith of Christ to keep the fort of Sion and to build the Towers and Temple of Jerusalem to restore and preserve the Purity and Peace the Sanctity and Solemnity the Order and Authority of Christian yea Reformed Religion Must that be left like Pauls to impaire or repaire it self as well as it can or onely be committed to the care of such men as are commonly better at pulling down than building up Churches who neither know how to begin nor how to end any Church-work having neither heads nor hands materialls nor skill line nor rule fit for such businesse And when they have done all they can in bungling and new waies neither the Clergy or Ministers under their power nor the Laity or people under their command will much more regard as to conscience what is so done by only Lay-mens magisterial decrees and imperial appointments than they now do consider the Covenant and Holy League or the Directory and Engagement new models for Religion cut out not so much by nationall Synods and Councils as by swords and pistols and accordingly both esteemed and used by all men that are of sound and judicious minds not corrupted with partiality credulity popularity and novelty For how can those bind the conscience of the Nation in the most indifferent things of Religion who never had the choice counsell or consent of all Estates in the nation either to advise or determine or enjoyne any such things which require to make them valid and conscientiously obligatory the Soveraignes call the Clergies counsell and the Parlaments sanction CHAP. XVI I Well know how hard a work it is for the best and wisest of men to stop the leakes of Religion to repaire a broken Church or to buoy up a sunk and lapsed Clergy when once they are either overwhelmed with the corrupt Doctrines and licentious manners of Preachers and Professors or split with intestine Schismes and Divisions or debased with vulgar usurpations and presumptions or oppressed with the secular policies and sacrilegious injuries of violent and unreasonable men who are alwaies afraid lest the renewed light and restored vigor of true Religion with the due Authority of its Ministry in the Church should give any stop or check to their extravagant lusts and enormous actions To which purpose such pragmaticks will be sure either utterly to hinder all good meanes that may effectually recover the true interests of Religion and its Ministry or else they labour impertinently to apply such onely as they know will render them more uncurable and set them next doore to an impossibility Which will be the State of the Church of England if the Recovery of Religion as to its visible Beauty Order Unity and Polity be either managed by Lay-mens Counsels and activities onely excluding all Ministers from all publick equall and impartiall consultations or if on the other side Church-affaires be wholly left to the various heads divided hands and partiall designes of such as are now called Preachers and pretend to be Ministers among whom commonly the weakest heads have the most pragmatick hands and men of least abilities are greatest sticklers though it be but more to puzzle confound and destroy themselves and others On the other side such Clergy-men as have most of solid Learning sober Piety sacred Authority and real Sufficiencies for such a work will be either afraid or ashamed to act or assist in it if they have not some publick Commission with equall and impartiall incouragement from those in power For certaine meer mechanick and illiterate preachers such as some people now most affect will never be able if willing to do any good in so great and good a work no more than wasps are like to make honey Ignorance and disorder faction and confusion being for their interest as muddy places are best for Eeles Other Ministers though never so willing and able yet as tooles that are blunt and have no edge set on them can never carry on such a work handsomely unlesse their late rust and dis-spiriting their poverty and depression be taken off unlesse their mutuall contempts distances and jealousies be fairly removed unlesse they be restored to such Charity Comfort and Courage as becomes Learned and Godly Ministers Such a constitution as was heretofore most eminently to be seen in the Ecclesiasticall Synods and Convocations of the English Clergy while they enjoyed by the favours of munificent Princes and the assistance of unanimous Parlaments those many noble priviledges both of Honor and Estate together with their undoubted Ecclesiasticall Authority which were by ancient and moderne Lawes setled upon them which kept up the Learning and Religion the Credit and Comfort of the Clergy of this Nation to so great an height both of Love and Reputation that neither the petulancy of people nor the arrogancy of any parasitick preachers either dared or were able thus to divide and wound them and the Church through the pretences of such Liberties and Reformations as knew no bounds of modesty or common honesty so far were they from any true grounds of piety or Christianity Nor will the divided and depressed State of Religion in this Church ever recover its pristine vigor its due authority its holy influence or its honorable esteem unlesse you O my noble and honored Countrymen who are persons of most publick eminence and influence be pleased to make it one of the chiefest objects of your Counsells Prayers and endeavours to revive the drooping Spirits to raise the dejected estate and to re-compose the shattered posture of the Clergy or Ministry of England in whose ruine the Reformed Religion will be ruined and in whose recovery true Christian Religion will be recovered to its just harmony stability and honor for it is impossible that Religion as Christian and Reformed should enjoy either unity reverence or authority while the chief Pastors Preachers and Professors of it are in so dubious debased and divided a condition Since then the Religious happinesse of this Church and Nation chiefly depends
facility as children make little babies of clouts or statues of clay as Nazianzen alludes For what I pray you will these new propagators with all their progeny of new-ordained new-fashioned new-coyned and new-commissioned Preachers signifie to the more sober sort of mankind or indeed to the very plebs and vulgar especially among people so curious so querulous so proud so pragmatick so petulant so insolent as are in England Will sober Christians ever much care for any Ministers unlesse they be commended to them as meet to be such not onely by the highest wisdome and civill orderings of this Nation but also as set over them in the Lords Name and Christs Authority by an holy and solemn Ordination such of which they have the least and indeed no cause to have any doubting or slighting thoughts which is the case onely of Episcopall Ordination English Christians of any estate worth weight or wisdome will never be contented to be taught and reproved to have their children baptized at the Font or themselves communicated at the Lords Table by such Ministers as shall have onely the petty tickets of an humane act or State ordinance No they will and justly ought to require the grand Charter of Divine Authority conferred in the way of Catholick and true Ordination That so Ministers may be able to justifie their function and actions not onely in Law but in conscience not as Emissaries from men but as Embassadors from God Commissionated by Christ and his Deputies imployed in his work and armed with his power There goes much more to make a Minister of Jesus Christ than to make a Constable in an Hundred or a Parish or to make a Captaine in a Troop or a Justice on a Bench who yet cannot expect to be owned as such unlesse they can evidence their Commission and Authority to be rightly derived from the soveraigne originall of civill power no more may Ministers unlesse they can shew the right source and course of their sacred Authority While Ministers preach and practise Baptize and Consecrate with divided tongues distracted hands and distorted heads as to this point of their Ordination they are likely to produce no better successes either to this Church or Nation than those morter-men did whose work deserved the nick-name of Babel or Confusion The essentiall forme and difference the whole life and operation the proper virtue and efficacy of a Christian Ministry and Minister depending as I have shewed upon the truth sanctity and validity of that Authority with which he is invested and by that enabled to do the work and office of a Minister without which no man hath any more to do than his meanest groom or foot-man with the acts properly Ministeriall Military or Magisteriall whatever abilities or call he fancie himself to have So that if once your Wisdome and Piety O worthy Gentlemen could find a way to put the Clergy or Ministry of this Church as formerly we were into an uniform way of sacred complete and undoubted Authority as to their Ordination then and not before will they appeare like the Angels of God ascending and descending in their orderly courses then will they be enabled and esteemed powerfully to pray to God for you powerfully to preach from God to you powerfully to consecrate and exhibit holy mysteries to you Then will they be like the Lamps of the Temple or the shafts of the Golden Candlestick which were all of the same make and fashion and supplied with holy oyle from the same source shining with a lustre more than humane in your severall congregations how much more will they appeare like Angelick and Celestiall Quires in their Ecclestastick Convocations and Synodall Conventions Whereas now Ministers are in all Places Cities and Countries wretchedly divided monstrously deformed and miserably disabled mutually accusing and clamoring against each other alwaies barking or biting or howling either tormenting or tormented as the Devils in Hell One superciliously abhorrs what another devoutly adores One vilifies what another venerates One Minister with his party pulls down what another builds up One execrates what another consecrates One nullifies what another magnifies One formally officiates who is counted no Minister and really is none another is thought to be but halfe a Minister or a kind of mungrell a third is reputed for more than an ordinary Minister as having his Commission by inspiration or conspiration One is thought superfluous yea superstitious in his Ordination because he had a Bishop with Presbyters to ordaine him another is judged defective and dwarfish for want of a Bishop a third hath neither Bishop nor true Presbyters to ordaine him but either begets a body to himself as an head or is chosen by a popular body to be their head This makes both Preachers and people at such distances and defiances in Religion that one counts that sacriledge which another boasts of as sacred One is called a mocker of God an usurper in holy offices and a contemner of the Churches Primitive and Catholick Custome another is derided as a doting Antiquary a superstitious Priest or proud Prelate who can relish no bread but what is old and moldy nor any drink but what is out of a Gibeonitish bottle Thus are all holy mysteries and duties which any Ministers performe made either very disputable or despicable to the people while all their authority on all sides as dispensers of them is so much questioned doubted divided and denyed in the great point of their mission and Ordination which is most essentiall to a Minister and most fundamentall to any Churches Peace and Polity requiring next the maine Articles of Faith to be setled in the clearest and most unquestionable way with most uniform Authority most conforme to all pious Antiquity whose ancient and Catholick patterne as to Episcopall that is Apostolicall Ordination is no more with prudence to be changed either into Presbyterian or Independent new formes than the Church hath cause to exchange Davids Psalmes for any such godly Balads or moderne Hymns as we see some Ministers with more piety I hope than good poetry have sometime commended to the harsh and unharmonious voyces of ill-tuned and ill-stringed Congregations Adde to all these not onely the inconveniencies but mischiefes which are not more uncomfortable than pernicious to the interest of the true and Reformed Religion For from the divisions of Ministers as to their rise and descent or Ordination follow not onely strangeness but strifes and emulations evil eyes and secret feudes against one another each being either jealous of or contemptuous toward another But furthermore from this difference in their Ordination they are tempted to affect to broach and to preach different Doctrines For those peeled rods which alwaies lye before their eyes as to their Orders or Characters their Ministeriall Admissions and Stations do occasion their conceiving and bringing forth a ring straked and spotted kind of Religion even as to Doctrine that by the discriminations of their opinions either in
they ever turne any lawfull Prince out of doores to make way for themselves and their Episcopall Authority or party Which method as I touched appeares to have been used even by the first Presbyterians in the world even at Geneva as some report where popular fury violently expelled not onely the Bishop but the lawfull Prince of that City who had of right not onely the spirituall jurisdiction but also the civil dominion of that Place and Territory as Bodin and Mr. Calvin confesse After this copy in many places turbulent spirits did endeavour arte vel Marte by power or policy by hook or by crook to bring in that new way into Cities and Countries and no where I find more remarkably than in Scotland during the minority of King James and the raigne of his mother How little regard was had to the Lawes or Religion then established to the Will or Authority of the supreme Magistrate how insolent petulant imperious audacious were some Presbyterian spirits there against Princes as well as Bishops is no newes to those that have read the histories of that Church among which none exceeds that of Dr. Spotswood Arch-Bishop of St. Andrewes set forth by the care of Dr. Duppa the Learned and Reverend Bishop of Salisbury a person of such Piety Patience and Prudence under his undeserved sufferings that not onely his friends but his and all Bishops enemies admire the Christian gravity and heroick greatnesse of his mind as well as others of his Order How far the like spirit plotted threatned acted and attempted in England in Queen Eliz. time so afterward in K. James his raigne and now at last in K. Charles his compleat Tragedies ful sore against his will and conscience no lesse than against the Lawes not then by any power repealed both Mr. Hooker Bishop Bilson Bishop Bancroft Archbishop Whitgift Mr. Cambden and many more of old together with our own late sad experience sufficiently informe us They of old began with scandalous petitions scurrilous libels bold admonitions rude menacings cunning contrivances which were followed at last with fire and sword with blood and ruine with sad division and great devastation to Church and State to Prince and People Which events are no wonder when any new thing pretending to Religion and Reformation may be carryed on by principles and practices of violence and force and these not because lawfull but because they are said to be necessary for Gods interest yea as instances of the highest zeal and most conscientious courage as if there never were nor could ever be any truth or faith any piety or sanctity any Christ or Christianity any Grace or Gospel in the Church or any Christians hearts unlesse Anabaptisme or Presbyterisme or Independentisme had not gently contested but rudely justled Episcopacy out of the Church of England as well as Scotland though full sore against the will of the Chief Magistrate Certainly military or mutinous methods of Religion and Reformation were never preached or practised meditated or endeavoured by any worthy Prelates Presbyters or people of that perswasion For they doe not think that Secular Arms are fit Engines to set up Jesus Christ or his Kingdome in this world which is not of this world nor after the methods of worldly power and force yea they hold that Soveraigne Princes as Christians ought not by brutish force to compel but by reason and due instruction to perswade their Subjects at first to the true Religion much lesse are weapons in the hands of Subjects meet instruments to convince or convert Princes forcibly to yield to any popular presumptions and meer innovations in Religion especially when contrary not onely to the Catholick Customes of all Churches but to the present constitution of that Church of which the Prince is a chief part yea against that personall oath by which a Prince hath sworn to preserve the setled and just rights and priviledges both of that Church and those Church-men which are in his Dominion What is more horrid than to have Reformation or Religion never so good and true thus crammed down the consciences of Kings or States whether they will or no which is the way to make all secular powers jealous of all Christianity and Reformation to set their faces and their forces against them as seditious injurious mutinous and rebellious against the publick peace the civil Rights Honors and Authorities of all Governours in Kingdoms and States The Episcopall and Evangelicall methods have been quite other as I have said by preaching and praying by patient sufferings and frequent Martyrdomes by attending Gods leisure and their Princes pleasures Thus they obtained the protection and favour of the Lawes other projects or policies other arts or armes were never known to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ or its unseparable attendant Episcopacy Thus did Evangelicall Bishops and their Clergy conquer by a meek gentle and unbloody Conquest the vast Roman world and that part of it which was here in Britany no people were so barbarous no Princes so tyrannous whom they did not soften and sweeten by that Evangelicall way and spirit which is called an anointing because it is a sacred balme or oyle which breaks not heads but hearts wounds not the bodies but the spirits of Princes and others with an healing stroke with a soft and mercifull wound Thus did the Crosse of Christ and the Crosiers of Bishops ever go together into all places not pulling down but exalting not shaking but setling the Crownes of Kings and Princes Though they were Heathens Unbelievers and Persecutors as all at first were yet did holy Bishops and their Clergy so far submit to their civil power as to pray and preach not onely faith in Christ but fidelity to Kings teaching not onely Religion but Allegeance yea they made the Allegeance of Christian subjects and souldiers even to heathen Emperours as Tertullian saith a great part and note of true Religion which perfectly abhors all rebellion against God or man as the sin of witchcraft it being as an apostasie from and an abnegation of the true God and true Religion when upon any godly and specious pretentions of Piety or Reformation as by so many charmes and enchantments of the Devil turning himself into an Angel of light Christian Preachers or Professors do begin and carry on factious tumultuous and rebellious motions against the civil Powers Lawes and Polities of any Prince or State It is upon the point a denying of the faith and setting up a new Gospel a Judaick or Mahometan not a Christian Messiah whose true servants and souldiers were alwaies armed with weapons that were spirituall not carnal ministerial not military or martial which in Church-men rather stab and wound all true Religion and Reformation to the heart by infinite scandals injuries and deformities than any way advance it either to a greater power or approbation and acceptance among men of any sober reason or morall sense of things No violence and injustice
and their Communion certainly there could nothing hence be expected but such sad effects as alwaies follow the dividing or any part from the whole whose integrity is the common Safety Beauty and honor All breakings severings and dissociatings among any Christians or in any Church are the fatall fore-runners of much misery decay and death as to that Truth and Love which are the life and vigor of all Christian societies And such I feare in time will be the state of this languishing and lamenting this broken and bleeding Church of England where every mans hand of late yeares hath been and still is lifted up against his brother and the Sons against their Fathers wounding and tearing destroying and devouring one another where none are afraid either to Excommunicate themselves or others whom they list or to deserve any the justest sentence of Excommunication from any others in whom the true power and judgement under Christ resides This this seemes to be the state of the Church of England which heretofore was ever justly esteemed as a Noble Ancient Renowned and Principall part of the Catholick Militant and visible Church of Christ untill it came to be thus torne and mangled into many Churches thus wounded and divided by uncharitable factions thus swoln and inflamed by proud and passionate separations thus deformed and dying by continued and uncured Distractions which will destroy the whole as to all Honor Beauty Unity Integrity and Authority while men study to foment and advance their private and severall parties contrary to the reall and publick interests of the whole Church of England both as Nationall and as a Member of the Catholick In whose behalf I know not how to expresse before I dye a greater zeal for Gods glory or love to my Redeemer or Charity to my Country than by thus recommending to your Pious Princely and Generous care O my Worthy and Honored Countrymen the state of the Church of England and of the Reformed Religion sometime so professed in her that she was the Glory Crown Rejoycing and Triumph of all Christian and Reformed Churches CHAP. XXVI BEseeching You again and again as persons of Wisdome and Power of Piety and Honor of Grandeur and Candor first by all meanes to redeem the Interests of this Reformed Church of true Religion and its true Ministers from those undeserved diminutions and sacrilegious depredations to which they are still exposed by the Envy Malice Injuriousnesse Presumption and unsatiable Covetousnesse of many men of later yeares grown up in England Alas poor and despicable men will as certainly make poor Ministers as leane hackneys in long travelling will tire you may as soon mix Oyle and Water Clay and Gold as fix any Honor or Regard upon that Ministry or Clergy which is depressed in these last and worst these brasse and iron times to popular dependence and its necessary consequents Poverty or which is worse Flattery Such as make no scruple to take away from Ministers even from the best and chiefest of them one part of their double Honor a setled competent and honourable maintenance will never make conscience to deprive them of the other part which is civill respect and verball value which are but the shels and shadowes of Honor men will make no bones to take away fleece and all who will venture to steal the carkase of the sheep You cannot but with me see that there are many men of a new light and sight too who look upon nothing which hath been given to the Church either for its Instruction or Government for its Ministers Education or Entertainment for Charity or Hospitality for Decency or Honor under any notion I do not say of sacred as devoted to our God and Saviour alas this is blasted for superstitious and superfluous as neither needfull nor acceptable to God but not so much as just in any civil Right or common Equity so far as the proprietors have the use and possession of them according to as good law as any man hath his Lands and Goods of which they cannot in justice be disseised unlesse they are convicted by law to have forfeited them by Felony or Treason or such Misdemeanour as the law thinks fit to punish by such deprivation Who almost is there of these new Illuminates that makes any scruple or conscience to shark to defraud to detaine to delay to deny any thing that belongeth to thâ— â—ergy or Ministry comply they never so much with the populâ—â—ther what they requâ—re as their Right by Law as well as 〈…〉 â—ewish or Superstitious or Popish or Pompous or Super◠〈…〉 or Abused and so may better be turned to other 〈…〉 other men of civil Trades and Professions 〈…〉 â—ssary to the Common-wealth than any Ministers 〈…〉 â—riledge is in every corner yea and in Market-place 〈…〉 yea oft in Churches and Pulpits Murmuring 〈…〉 Repâ—ing Coveting and Plotting how to eate up not onely all the Houses of God in the Land but all his chief servants the Rulers and Ministers of his Son Jesus Christ the Pastors and Teachers of his Church We have already seen if some men like to have no Bishops as chief Fathers Presidents and Governours nor any Deanes and Chapters as their constant Presbyteries and Counsell which all Reason and Religion all Policy and Order all Practise and Custome of the Church of God old and new all Wisdome Divine and Humane either commands or commends in all Polities Societies and Fraternities of men presently away with all these Amalekites their Revenues Houses and Honors must be sold and converted to other uses If others or the same genius like to have no Presbyters or Ministers as set apart and ordained for that Office and Calling will not nay do not their Teeth ake and fingers itch to take away all Glebes and Tithes from all Ministers though never so industrious and deserving and by Law invested in them as to all civil Right Would not some men either have Ministers fall to Spinning and Carding to Thrashing and Digging to Begging and Stealing to Starving or Hanging as well as to Preaching or else they will bring Diggers and Thatchers Combers and Weavers with other Godly Mechanicks who will preach all things and demand nothing as due however no Tithes which are to some as abominable as feeding upon Mice and Rats So if others like to have no Scholars bred to Humane Learning which they say doth but obstruct the teachings of Gods Spirit and puffe up Ministers with the leaven of Philosophy Arts and Sciences above the simplicity of the Gospel and above the Plowes Carts and High-shoes of their silly neighbours O how do they grieve and pine away day by day as Amnon did for love of Tamar or as Ahab did for Naboths Vineyard that they might once seize upon the Lands and Colledges of both Universities and all Free-Schooles which go beyond Writing Reading and Cyphering O what fine Estates what pretty Dwellings might be picked out of those needlesse seminaries of Scholars
the Bishops hands and Authority as holy and valid else the Tithes and Glebes and Spirituall Livings cannot be so sacred and inviolable in his use and possession as he affirmes them to be I say it had become such an one at least to have been silent who is too rich and knowing to be a Liveller or an Anabaptist or a Quaker or a disowner of all Order and Office Ministeriall He should not have cast oyle by his eminent example and eloquent plea on that fire which he sees is ready to consume even all Presbyters as well as Bishops setled maintenance However if he could not avoid this rock of purchasing Bishops Lands his modesty had been some expiation and his silence a great abatement of the scandall he might have swallowed those holy but now desecrated morsells in secret and not have proclaimed on the house-top to all the world the rost-meat he hath gotten the Venison or part at least which he hath taken together with his great appetite and good digestion The world is not much concerned to know all these things nor much pleased at his swallowing down without chewing any bit of Bishops Lands or Deanes Houses or a whole Colledg or a Cathedrall Church if he can compasse them by his purse or policy for where a crum of this kind goes easily down in time a loaden cart with six horses may follow Were there not others States-men Lay-men and Military-men enough to have bought those Bishops and Church-lands if they must needs have been sold They might possibly have some Reasons of State and solutions of deeply Learned Lawyers which such an one as I and other simple Divines know not of and therefore may not censure But as to the principles of Schollars and the conscience of all Church-men generally we resolve that if it be but a disputable case where sin lies at the door if there be but any notable appearance of evil we are above all men to abstaine from it If it may be veniall in others pleading their ignorance or urgent occasions yet it must needs seem a most uncircumcized act for a grave Minister and of the Church of England a great Doctor and a Reverend Divine Church-men ought in any things of pregnant scandall to be most circumspect and cautious because their example is most contagious allowing as it were of course many graines of further liberty to Lay-men who never think that their girdles ought to be so strait as Ministers if ours be loose theirs will be unbuckled and at last quite thrown off Hence many of our Domestick and new started Presbyterians whom I well knew Mr. C. Mr. W. Mr. S. and others with all the Smectymnuan Legion who were earnest enough at first for the pruning of the over-grown or seare or too much over dropping boughs of Episcopacy and afterward they so far served the times and their Lords as to conspire to the felling down of those ancient and stately Standards in the Church yet I well know they never intended that Lay-men should have gone away with the Bark Tops Timber Bodies Chips and all no they good men intended very honestly and zealously that these superfluities of Bishops and Deanes Estates c. should have been applyed to buy in all Impropriations to augment poor Livings to put Presbyters generally into so good a plight and habit for back and belly that they might be fit to rule in common and have some Majesty as Aldermen of Cities and Burgesses of Townes usually have in their Cheeks and on their Backs for starveling and thred bare Governours like Consumptionary Physitians discredit their profession and deprecate their dignity We other poor Ministers who follow the sense of all the ancient Fathers and Councills of the Canon and Civil Lawes of School-men and Casuists of Reformed and not Reformed Churches both Greek and Latine we wonder what Angel from Heaven hath whispered to this purchaser and pleader to tell him of Gods non acceptance of Bishops lands Persons or Profession of which he was pleased to make so much and so good use to his glory and his Churches good both in England and all the Christian world for a thousand yeares yet now he is content it seemes they should all be Alienated Extirpated Destroyed Possessions Persons and Function of Bishops as unnecessary yea pernicious to the Church and Ministry in Honour Order Government Charity and Hospitality all which are better Reformed to Parity Popularity and Poverty This he reports as from the Cabinet-Counsell or Committee of Heaven where it seemes he hath been since he purchased Bishops lands Truly if an Angel from Heaven had told some Divines and other Gentlemen thus much they would not have believed him because they are perswaded so much of the Evangelicall Order the Apostolick Authority and the Catholick Succession the prudent necessity the honorable decency of Bishops in the Church of Christ upon which presumptions if not sure perswasions they conceive it had been a modesty in all Learned and weighty Ministers who had received their Ordination from Godly Orthodox and Reformed Bishops such as Calvin and Beza and Vedelius would have honored and submitted unto without any envy or diminishing of their Estates and Honors not to have touched so much as a shooe-latchet of what by Right Law and Merit had been theirs that it might at least have been upon Record to after-Ages for the Honour of the English Reformed Clergy in their lowest ebb and depression Ecclesiae Episcoporum bona inter Presbyteros Ecclesiasticos non invenerunt emptorem There is no doubt there would have been buyers enough beside men of larger Estates yet not of stricter consciences even this great and glorious purchaser who though he hath paid his mony yet hath not so put off his Armour hitherto as to have any great cause to boast seemed not at first so satisfied as to be forward not coming at the beginning of the Faire when sure the best peny-worths for example sake would have been sold to so eminent a D. the better to decoy on other purchasers but alas he seems obtorto collo renitente Minerva against his genius to be drawn in driven and necessitated at the fag end of the Market to take such eggs for his money as had been sate upon by a Bishop so many hundred of yeares and may as it seems be either addle or eggs of contention to this purchaser now so resolved and triumphing in his conscientious freedom to buy and sell in the Temple when other poor Scholars are still wind bound and narrow-soled as imagining that Christ long agoe drove all such kind of Merchandize out of the Church as ill becoming Christians as it did the Jewes yea and St. Paul teacheth Believers equally to abhorre Sacriledg as Idols To conclude this long digression whose scandalous occasion lay so high in my way that I could not avoid it this one great instance telling to all the world what this purchaser hath swallowed and how
22.22 Grand motives to a publick restitution and fixation of the Reformed Religion 1. Reason from the glory of our God and Saviour Lib. 2. c. 4 5. 2. Reason from prudence and civil policy Euseb l. 8. hist cap. 1. Sense of true Honour calls for the establishment of Religion Sense of gratitude invites to restore and establish Religion The hopefull possibility of restoring true Religion to unity and settlednesse in England Of meanes to recompose the differences of Religion in England 1. From Ministers or the Clergy Anno 1527. Revel 3.2 Jude 3. 2 From Magistrates and Lay-men Mr. Fullers History of the Brit. Church History of the Church of Scotland by Sâ—otswood Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Of the late Associations projected by some Ministers Acts 27.17 Concil Chalcedon Can. 29. Of civill assistance from Lay-men to restore this Church and Religion Act. 16.9 Euseb in Vita Const Tit. 3.10 A scrutiny of what is good or bad in all parties 1. The best and worst of Episcopacy 2. Triall of Presbytery 3. The Triall of Independency The reconciling of the reall interests of Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency Of Sacramentall scrutinies to be used Cypr ep 10. 26. Prosanâ sacilitate Sanctum Christi corpus prosanare 1 Cor. 2.10 1 Joh. 4.2 13. Rom. 10. 9 10. Acts 8.13 1 Sam. 6.7 Facies singuloruÌ„ videmus corda scâ—utari non possumus dâ— his judicat occuliotum scrutator câ— to venturus de arcanis cordis jud catuâ—us Cyp. ep 53. True Episcopacy stated and represented to its Antagonists Phil. 4.5 * PostquaÌ„ comperisset Presbyterialem statum citra Episcopalem in iis ecclesiis coâ—sistere non posse c. Vide Salmâ—siii vitam p. 50. Consulebat Episcopos non omnino tollendos c. Objections against Episcopacy discussed 1. Object From the samenesse of their Names Bishop and Presbyter signifying but one office and power 1 Cor. 10. Obj. Secondly that Presbyters did chuse and impower their Bishops of old Ans Obj. 3d. That Presbyters are as able and willing to ordain as any Bishops Ans 2 Tim. 2.2 Obj. 4. That Episcopacy was the root of the Papacy Ans Obj. 5. That Bishops are prone to be severe and tyrannick Ans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Concil Carth. 4 can â—3 Consessus honorem cum Episcopo habent Presbyteri Cyp. ep 46. 55. saepealibi Communi Presbyterorum consilio regebantur Ecclesiae â—en Epist ad Euag. Obj. 6. The jealousie lest Bishops should recover their lands Ans Earnestly exhorting Ministers of all sides to an happy composure and union 1 Cor. 3.3 4. Sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oâ—ulis deligatur dignus atque idoneus omnium publico judicio ac testimonie comprobetur Cyp. Ep. 68. Tertul. de praes c. 43. Ubi metus in Deum ibi gravitas modesta diligentia attonita cura solicita communicatio deliberata promotio emerita subjectio religiosa ecclesia unita Dei omnia Hier. ep 36. Amb. de poen .1 c. 16. Sulcarunt lacrim's genas vultum fletibus exarabant mortis speciem in spiranti corpore praeferebant Num. 16.3 Humbly exhorting Magistrates to assist in so good a work Isa 40.2 Zech 3.3 4. Jer. 38. Sueton. in vita Aug. Councâ—ls or Synods the proper means to restore lapsed Religion Euseb vit Const Of Ecclesiastick Councils called by Christian Princes Deut. 17.8 to v. 14 Numb 16.48 1 Sam. 6.7 c. Mark 15.16 17. Luke 23.11 Mat. 2.9 Act. 15.22 ver 28. The great use of Nationall and frequent Synods The method of restoring a setled Church and united Ministry The essentials of a true Ministry 1. The Subject matter of the Ministry must be able and apt men 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Cor. 4.7 Secondly The essential Form of a true Minister right Ordination Ordinatos suisse Presbyteros à solis Presbyteris nullo exemplo nulla authoritate probari potest Sarav Cont. Bez. de grad Min. c. 22. Heb. 6.2 Eph. 4. Mr. Mason Preface to his Defence c. Tertul. l. de Praes adv Haer. l. 32 34. Cont. Marci l. 4. c. 5. Euseb hist l. 5 6 7. Irenaeus l. 4. c. 6. lib. 5. c. 20. Cyp. ep 52. passim Which authorities are afterward at large cited in this Book Veritatis praedicatorem unius diei spatio velut è luto statuam fingunt Nazian Of the well-being of the Clergy or Ministry 1. In point of maintenance and support 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 9.6 Act. 4.34 35. Gen. 14.18 Num. 18.20 21. Deut. 10 9. 1 Cor. 9.14 Gal. 6.6 Heb. 7.9 Mat. 10.42 Eccl. 9.15 Theod. hist l. 4. c. 4. Of meet order Government and subordination among the Clergy 1 Cor. 11.16 Episcopatus aemulatio sâ—hâ—smatum mater Tert. de Bap. c. 17. Reperiemus veteres episcopos non aliam regendae ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ— quam verbo suo Deus praescripsit Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 4. Act. 6. 1 Tim. 3.8 Deacons Presbyters Bishops Act 1.20 1 Ep. to Tim. cap. 3. 5. and Ep. to Tâ—tus cap. 1. Episcopi quos Apostoli successores relinquebant ipsis suum magisterii locâ—m tradentes Irenae l. 3. c. 9. Habemus enumerare eos qui ab Apostolis constituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores corum usque ad nos Irenae l. 4. c. 6. lib. 5. c. â—0 Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit Authorem Tertul. adv Marc. l. 4. c. 5. Sicut Smyâ—naeorum ecclesia Polycarpum à Johanne colloâ—atum refert sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit perinde utique caeterae exhibent ecclesiae quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutâ—s Apostolici seminis traduces hubent Tertul. lib. de praesc adv Haer. c. 32. 34. De Johanne Apost Clâ—mâ—ns Alexandrinus narrat post mortem Domiâ—â—anâ— reditum suum à Patmo in Ephesum in vicinas gentes abiit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopos constituens Ecclesias in ordinem digerens Lib. de Div. Sal. Origeni falsò ascripto ex judicio cl Usserii Armachani Jampridem per omnes provincias urbes ordinati sunt Episcopi c. Cyp. ep 52. Successiones Episcoporum qui Apostolos sequuâ—i sunt 7. libris descripsimus Euseb l. 4. hist cap. 1. So. Theod. hist l. 5. c. 27. * Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 4. (a) Apud nos Apostolorum locit tenent Episcopi Hier. ep 54. Ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento quod Aaron filii ejus Levitae in Templo erant hoc sibi in ecclesiis vindicent Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi Hieron ad Euag. (b) Episcopus ecclesiis regendis unicus praepositus est qui pluâ—ibus unius ecclesiae presbyteris praeesser Bono fine hoc institutum esse nemo negat quum optima ratio fuerit ita instituendi Salmas Walo Messal pag. 413. (c) Neque enim Hieronymus quum diceret ecclesias initio fuisse communi presbyterorum consilio
it self both as to the actors and permitters If such inordinate liberty which naturally men affect and which imposeth on mankind the necessity of having publick laws and magistratick powers above all private mens fancies if it be so pestilent in civil and secular regards that the indulgence of it is no more to be permitted by wise and good men for one moneth or one day than a fire may be left to its freedome for one hour in any private cabbin or chamber to the endangering of the whole ship and house how I beseech you can it be convenient or profitable to the common interests of Religion or the honour of any Nation that desires to be called Christian to let every man pick and chuse their severall doctrines opinions forms and fashions of Religion as they best fancy or to suffer them to set up to themselves what Prophets Pastors or Preachers what Churches Congregations Conventicles they most affect one being of Paul another of Apollos a third of Cephas one Episcopall another Presbyterian a third Independent a fourth owning no Ministers no Religion at all Specious names and godly pretensions may be very pernicious to the peace of the Church the honour of Christ and the good of mens souls as the blessed Apostle there observes through the folly and factiousness of people Better the most deserving names how much more the most flattering Novellers in the world should be buried in eternal oblivion than they should be set up in the Church of Christ as so many apples of contention so many wedges of division so many rivals to the glory of Christ so many moths to religious unity and the Churches beauty so many Molechs or Idols through whose fires your posterity as Christians that are not yours onely but Gods children and as it were Christs seed and off-spring should be forced to pass with popular noyses and incondite acclamations of liberty onely to drown the sad cries of those poor souls who are to be tormented in those flames those Tophets of uncharitable novelties and factious liberties Christian liberty as vulgar spirits commonly use it is but a corroding salve spread on a silk plaister it is a confection of carnal projects wrought up with spirituall mixtures it is poyson presented in a gilt cup the Devils rats-bane mingled with sugar The sad effects already upon us in England and further threatning us do promise nothing upon this account but envies wraths strifes jealousies animosities whisperings swellings tumults seditions oppressions and mutual persecutions with every evil work among us as men and Christians CHAP. XXVI NOr are these mischiefs only rife among Lay-men or ordinary people whose ignorance meanness and discontent are prone to tempt them to any thing but even among those who desire to be called the Ministers Teachers Pastors leaders of the people for even these in many places either mis-led by the people or sadly misleading them are very much bitten and infected with this epidemicall disease of mistaken corrupted and abused liberties in matters of Religion both as to Doctrine and Worship as to Ecclesiasticall order and Ministeriall authority many of these otherwise men of worth for soundness and integrity no way unfit for the work or unworthy to have the honour of being Ministers of the Gospel yet are miserably tainted with these divisions distractions and deformities even among themselves Which contagion among the Pastors as well as the Flocks as a farther sad and evident instance of the grand causes or occasions of this Churches present miseries and of the great decayes of the Reformed Religion I crave leave without offence to any of my worthy and deserving Brethren in the Ministry of what name or title of what stamp or metall soever they are a little to insist upon that I may by further discovering the rise and progress of our mischiefs the better make way for such remedies as your wisdome O my noble Countrey-men shall see fittest for the recovery of health strength and beauty to this deformed Church and the remnants of Reformed Religion in it As all experience tells us poor mortalls that our greatest enemies are many times nearest to us and oft lie in our own bosoms so the greatest mischiefs that have or can befall the Christian Reformed Religion in England do chiefly arise from some Preachers or such as would be accounted the Ministers of Christs Church under severall notions and formations Vulgar reproches plebeian contempts the injuries of Lay-men yea the persecutions of great and mighty men the Clergie or true Ministers of Christs Church in England might possibly have born with patience constancy comfort and honour though much to their outward diminution if they had had the grace wisdome and understanding to have kept among themselves that harmony constancy and integrity in judgements practise and affections which became men that should be both wise and warm prudent as serpents and innocent as doves if they had as Christs Disciples loved one another though the world hated them if they had as one man held together like a well-turn'd Arch surely they might at once have upheld themselves and easily sustained any pressures laid upon them by the levity violence and ingratitude of other men the Clergie being as the cable and anchor of Religion which firmly twisted together and fraternally combined in truth and love will in time bring the people to quiet and calmnesse in Religion however they may have their storms and tossings sometime partly by innate fluctuancy as the rollings and tidings of the sea and partly by outward winds and tempests What Nation hath there been so barbarous what heathens so truculent what persecutors so inhumane whom godly Bishops and other Ministers have not by their exemplary faith patience unity and charity with Gods blessing in time softened and sweetened convinced and converted to be Christians while they all spake the same things carried on the same interests of Christ as it were with one shoulder These once broken in their orderly and uniform methods varied in their Catholick succession and authority divided in their fraternall concord and harmony the peoples minds soon grow distracted and are violently driven as ships from their anchors and cables upon a thousand dangers When primitive Pastors and people were most cordially united though they were most cruelly persecuted yet Christianity spread and prospered what the fury of men pull'd down that the care and charity of their Ministers built up twisting what others ravelled either as Idolaters Hereticks or Schismaticks which reparations of Religion were easily effected while the sheep knew their true shepherds following them or flying to them in case of any danger when the people knew their proper Presbyters and orderly Presbyters owned those Bishops to whom they were duly subordinate when all ranks and orders in the Church of Christ as parts in the body kept their stations and ranks their orders and correspondencies their proportions and duties either in