they had exalted above the ranke of others within the bounds of their câ—lling And agreeable hereunto what paines have the men we named ever denied to consecrate unto the Church Have they ever thwarted the Rules of their first Institution And if the name they beare speakes them engaged to a perpetuall taske in managing of publicke affaires have they not ever applied all the powers of their soules to the pursuance of the same Yes they have done it with a flaming and saint-like zeale and have made the world read in their Actions their constant readinesse to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to the good of their Brethren But they are traduced for countenancing Popery where it was already and scattering some new seeds thereof where it had been extirpate This may be true of some but is a grosse slander upon the most of them If it had a simple toleration this was done mostly out of a charitable regard towards the Reformed Churches in Popish Dominioâ—â— nay further for the good of the Papists themselves whom they so tolerated Their examples their conversation their affable deportment might happily one day draw them over to a Profession from which banishments and other the like rigorous courses doe commonly divert them Religion cannot be forced upon the soule God must either Infuse it himselfe or perswade it by men Had the Bishops leaned never so little to the Popish Party and could they have been induced by any warping in opinion to favour those of that Religion when the Protestants were overborne in Ireland they would certainly have used them with more humanity when they had them at their mercy as an argument of that good correspondence betwixt them But the case was much otherwise so as never were any in a more deplorable condition then they There is no manner of reproach disgrace losse persecution which hath not befallen them Had the Bishops there beene such as the common voice proclaimes them would they not have beeâ— spared And if they had not been Protestants indeed would they not have gone over to the Conquetours and have followed the prevailing party was there for all this I will not say a Bishop but even any well affected to Episcopacy whom the threats of Fire and Sword could prevaile with to embrace Popery and renounce the Reformed Religion They further tell us that they doated too much upon titles of pride and ambition and such honours as the superstition and Idolatry of blinder times bestowed on them Beshrew their hearts that did so But the Innocent have reason to complaine of hard dealing if they must be listed with the guilty were there indeed any such at all You will pardon me if I shall hereupon avouch that many even of our owne men have sometimes picked a quarrell where there needed none I remember we once fell in discourse upon this argument and how after some slight debate you agreed with me in the upshot that the Overseers of the Church ought in all reason to be invested with some distinct and peculiar character to draw respect from inferiours That this was ever the practice of the Church and the very intention of those that established a superiority therein Whence arose the severall appellations of Father Paternity Pope Holinesse with many such in use with antiquity Nor is Episcopacy and the respects due unto it commended unto us with more earnestnesse then formerly they were As God seemes to have graven his image in a more eminent manner upon the face of such as are in authority thereby representing his unity an unity not to be parallell'd with any thing in the world in like sort hath the Church universall honoured them with such prerogatives as might best denote the obedience due to God himselfe who conferred that function upon them Hence doth the Author of that Epistle to the Trallians which goes under the name of Saint Ignatius use these expresse tearmes Reverence your Bishop as yee doe Christ reserving also a share in the honour to the Presbyters that so by your subjection to the Bishop and the Presbytery yâ— may be sanctified in all things This Presbytery as he there interprets it himselfe is the Colledge of Presbyters a sacred Assembly the Bisoaps Councellors and such as we call Assessours in civill Courts to whom he enjoynes obedience as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ Where the distinction he makes betwixt the honour due to Bishops and that appertaining to Presbyters is worth our observation For he saith that the former are to be reverenc'd as Christ the other as his Apostles which he would never have done had he not presumed that they who were intrusted with the care of the Church did governe it according to the rules of their Master surrendring themselves to the obedience of his holy spirit and these holding fast to their head won authority to their Ministery and all their instructions by that conformity betwixt them I am not Ignorant that some cavill at this exhortation and take occasion hereby to condemne that age of having first attempted upon the honour and respect due unto Christ as if by such expressions the Bishops were put into the ballance with him but these men consider not how all this was grounded upon Scripture He that heareth you heareth me They have not rejected you but mee Obey thâ—â— that have the rule over you And besides what Ignatius enjoines in behalfe of Bishops Polycarpus a disciple of the Apostles expressely recommendeth in behalfe of Preists and Deacons in that excellent Epistle he wrote to the Philippians which we have only seene in manuscript Abstaining saith he from these things be ye subject to the Preists and to the Deacons as unto God and Christ the like expression was used by the Primitive Doctours of the Church in exhorting the People to obey their Kings and Princes which they borrowed from an Epistle fathered upon Barnabas not * This Epistle of Barnabas was 〈◊〉 first printed at Oxford by the Lord Primate of Ireland and since at Paris yet published to the world What inconvenience can there be in bestowing that upon one which hath beene given to many and allowing as much to a Bishop as hath beene granted an Assembly of Presbyters seeing that in the language of antiquity the care of the Church which was dispersed in the whole body is united in him and that authority which had beene scattered amongst so many wholly devolved upon him Suppose this corruption in manners they talke of were such indeed or worse suppose farther that the Bishops were guilty of some errours in Doctrine may we for all this suppresse them nothing lesse nay we are not so much as to decline theirs or any manâ— company upon this ground alone if we will beleeve one of our most able and judicious writers 〈◊〉 I meane who in his Lectureâ— Of the Church hath this passage that we ought not to deny a diseased Person the benefit of our society if the malady be not mortall and
severall corruptions in it hath ever since maintained At least we may shrewdly suspect that he afforded this name a place there as the print or shadow at least of a Function which had beene before and the seed or basis of that which ought to have beene established among the Churches in his time then especially when it might be done with the least prejudice to manners or doctrine both which it was constantly beleeved were most of all undermined by Episcopacy The truth is all the Divines of greatest note with us have beene driven upon this conclusion whensoever they have fallen upon the same Question They all joyntly condemned with extreamest rigour the corruptions which in their times were in a sort the individuall companions of that Profession but they never deny it its due reverence considered abstractively in it selfe Calvin after he himselfe had executed the Office of a Bishop in Geneva * Instit l. 4. c. 4. § 4. discourseing of the ancient institution of Bishops in Cities of Arch-Bishops above them in Provinces and in fine of Patriarchs advanced at the Councell of Nice above both the former saith that this was done â—â— order to the discipline of the Church and withall acknowledgeth that Antiquity notwithstanding such innovations had not the least thought of obtruding upon the Church any other forme of government then what God himselfe had prescribed in his word That howsoever they bestowed on that forme of their owne the name of Hierarchy a word not extant in Scripture yet we are not to dwell upon the notion but to weigh the nature of the thing it selfe By which passage Sir you may easily inferre how this worthy Author stood affected to the Order we speake of That of Beza an able judicious writer if we reflect upon the times he liv'd in is no lesse for our purpose then the former He grants in one place that Episcopacy was usefull in the Church and that the distinction of Bishops and Arch-bishops was first instituted for the readâ—er convâ—â—â—ing of Synods and managing the affaires of the Church with more steadinesse To wave what this able Auth or hath farther delivered upon the Question who will not hence conclude if he cast but an eye upon the many difficulties they meet with that are to steere the inclinations of men either in Religion or Policy that he was so farre from disallowing Episcopacy that on the contrary he approv'd it as an Institution of highest consequence to Christianity And in the particular case of England every body knowes that these two eminent Persons absolutely subâ—â—â—ibed to its continuance there The one of which hath published so much to the world in a Tract against Saraviaâ— and doth not the other also speake expressely in behalfe of those in that Kingdome which the men of this generation would quite extirpate But let us farther examine their opinion who speake of the thing in generall Polâ—â—â—â— is peâ—emptory that to make up those breathes in the Church which happened after the Apostles times there was one set ever the rest of the Presbyters and call'd by way of eminence Bishop whereto he subjoyneth that in relation to that primitive order and discipline of the Church there hath ever beene one ranked before the rest of his Brethren to keepe them within compasse and to prevent the broaching of any new doctrines Melanchton is yet more expresse The policy of the Church saith he that is the exteriour face thereof is compounded of two ingredients The first is the Ministery a thing of Gods owne immediate institution and it containes five parts 1. The right of calling and ordaining Ministers 2. The injunction to preach the Gospell 3. The power of remitting sinnes 4. of administring the Sacraments and 5. The right of exercising Jurisdiction upon Offenders by excommunication The second is the humane Constitutions of Bishops and Councells who are to regulate the degrees of Ministers and the difference of time and place when and where to execute their Functions Now saith he those constitutions are to be maintained for the cherishing of good Order yet so as they be drained from all tincture of superstition And he gives the reason because they have a kinde of right naturall the very law of nature obligeing us to the constant observation of good order in the conduct of our lives A passage very part for Episcopacy as noting unto us the impossibility of composing any Church disorders without it For the Members will then teare one another in peices and the body which kept them together in so close and strict an union cannot long malâ—taine the peace and harmony which that order as the soule infused into them as Saint Basil somewhere speaketh I cannot wave neither a passage I have sometimes read in Hierome Savanarola a bitter enemy to the corruption of the Clergy and one that vehemently declaim'd against the disorders of the Church If faith he in his booke de veritate Fidei there shall happen any knoâ—ty difficult scruple in the Assemblies of the faithfull the Bishops are they that must decide the Question which must needes be construed of that superiority whereby they are to bridle the boldnesse and insolence of such as being hurried on with a spirit of confusion disquiet â—he Church with maladies hard to be cured This mov'd the other Hierome about 1200 yeares agoe to avouch that the prosperity of the Church did so mainely depend upon the superiour Minister that were it otherwise there would be as many Schismes among Christians as Presbyters Which consequent saith the Arch-bishop of Spalata is manifestly seene in such of the reformed Churches as have abandoned Episcopacy This was the reason why the Princes and all those of the Clergy that subscribed to the Ausburge Confession did joine in such an open Protestation before God and Man that they sought not for the extirpation of it They were as well acquainted as we with the corruption of the Bishops and had as much at least to feare from their continuance as we can possibly have And yet to prevent the unavoidable necessity of that confusion into which they would otherwise have fallen they unanimously agreed upon the defence of that Ancient Order and to oppose with all eagernesse such as should endeavour the abolition of the same This they hotly pursued not barely in order to Religion which they laboured to rescue from Romish slavery but also for some secular considerations intwisted with Religion it selfe as the union and concord of the People without which it would be a very hard taske for them to preserve their severall Rights and Prerogatives entire This also is the reason why the succeeding Emperours made so many attempts to bereave the German Protestants of this Order being taught by experience that Episcopacy keepes them closer together and that this union of the People is the greatest obstacle to their ambitious designs Had there been any Bishops in the Palatinate all the rest of the reformed parts in Germany
would have strucke in for their defence and engaged themselves in the same quarrell France it selfe would not have suffered them to be made such an easy prey to the house of Austria But all things seemed to conspire the ruine of that State which to the prejudice of it's owne particular interests the interests of Christendome and of all those of the North who had declared themselves both against Rome and against all such as aim'd at an universall Monarchy would needs set on foot new maximes and pursue the project of a reformation from which it had so many visible evills to feare I have long since exceeded the bounds of a Letter and contrary to my first thoughts have well-nigh swelled it into a Volume The feare I have to trespasse upon your patience makes me passe by a whole cloud of our first Reformers all jointly subscribing to the same conclusion And besides the small remnant of time behind will not suffer me to recall into your memory what those of our Age determine upon the Question I have scarce heard of any able and judicious Divine with us who values not this Ancient Order as the band and instrument of that peice which Christ preached I know very well that all your narrow and popular Judgements doe leane another way and that the number of these exceeds by much that of the more knowing sort Nor am I ignorant that there be some able malicious heads amongst us which clearely see the truth but cannot affect it they are so transported with the love of an unlawfull and counterfeite liberty that they never busy themselves about the prevention of that disorder which it will inevitably sooner or later pull upon them and all such as adhere to them Mounsieur du Mouliâ— is none of that number This gallant man whom God honoured with so many eminent gifts above all that were either the Authors or Abettours of such corruptions as had crept into the Church is peremptory in the point appealing to the generall suffrage of Ecclesiasticall story that immediately after the times of the Apostles or indeed while they were yet living there begun in every City to be one of the Pastours set over the rest distinguished by the Title of Bishop and invested with a power above his fellowes to prevent that confusion which ordinarily flowes from equality this institution met with a generall approbation whence saith He we cannot excuse Aërius for opposing the determination of the Church in his time when the difference stood onely in point of Discipline A little after he concludes that in England God made use of certaine Bishops out of the Church of Rome for accomplishing that glorious worke of the Reformation whereupon the name and dignity Episcopall hath beene derived successively unto such his Ministers whom he hath raised up to discover the errours and corruption of men That in other places where God made choice of Presbyters and Doctours the Pastours of the Church are barely stiled Ministers the People with us being not able to digest the names of Preists and Bishops the bad conversation of such as went under that name having rendred them so extreamely â—dious Which yet is but a slender ground for their extirpation as I shall cleare anon Antonius de Dominis an able mâ—n without question and a professed adversary to the Romish Tyranny under which in fine he perished maintaines with great force of reason that the Election of Ministers to wit of Bishops and Preists was made by the Apostles according to the institution of Christ that the Church hath alwaies acknowledged and professed a difference betwixt them the diversity of their functions and the generall practice of antiquity having ever ranked Bishops before Presbyters And in the same place he takes the paints to collect and salve the severall passages of Scripture which seemingly speake the contrary as also those in the Fathers and Canons of Councels Whereupon he gives us a very remarkeable observation which I gave you a light touch of before and 't is this That all such as forsooke the Communion of the Catholicke Church as the Novatians and Donatists would yet still retaine their Bishops knowing very well that the Church could not possibly subsist without them as being absolutely necessary in the Catholique Church of which every one in particular would pretend to be a Member And hence is it that in Rome there have sometimes beene three at once one of the Catholiques who was the lawfull and true one the other two of those two bodies or rather dismembred peeces of the Church which they set up for no other reason but because they would otherwise have beene convicted to be without the pale of the Church of Christ I hope Monsieur Blondell and Salmasius when they have once purged Episcopacy from such corruptions as the spirit of lying had fastened upon it on purpose to render it as pernicious in the use is it was sacred in the institution will no longer keepe aloose in thâ—â— opinions from us â—ut sadly laying to heart the evills which will inevitably oppresse the whole Church if once it be deprived of it's ancient forme of government they will contribute such advice to this miserable Country as their knowledge and honesty shall suggest unto them nor continue to stifle a knowne truth as many at this day strangers to neither of us so unconscionably doe Let the Monkes grumble as long as they please against that Order to which they cannot endure their owne extravagant rules should be any way subordinate Let the insolent and saucy Jesuite oppose their authority and slinke out of their sight for feare they should take notice of his Corruption But let us whose thoughts ought to be most pure and actions most regular submit unto those maximes to which these fifteen last Centuries have paid an universall obedience Who knowes not that if the Power delegated to the Ministers of the Gospell should be equally shared amongst all Confusion and Division must needs be the issue Had not the Jewes who were but an inconsiderable Body in respect of us Christians their High Preist answerable to our Bishop in every particular Church who marched before the rest enjoyed divers peculiar prerogatives above his Brethren and had certaine distinct functions in point of Religion apperteining to him Doth not even reason informe us that 't is impossible for any Congregation or Society of men to keepe long together if there be not some one set over the rest that like an indissoluble chaine is to restraine the severall members how different and disagreeing soever among themselves within the limits of their proper callings What would be the issue of all our Assemblyes had they not a president over them by meanes whereof we still retaine an Idea of that Churches practise which we have abandoned for it's impurities And this indeed is the onely Antidote for all sores and distempers in the Church no remedy so present and Soveraigne it being impossible for the
the Spirit of Union and Concord is the Moderatour as that of Christians is there may be called thither the most eminent Protestants from forraigne parts by whose assistance all doubts and scruples may be solved This in my judgement is the way to maintaine the severall rights of each order in the State of England as also in the whole body of Christendome entire I know none that can dislike the project but your new Independants and the fanatique Illuminatâ—es commonly called Brownists who in truth are no other but the Brats or Brethren of the Munster-Faction These men have fancied to themselves a monstrous Common-wealth an absurd and motley State in which there should not be the least cognizance of civill Authority nor any other spirituall power acknowledged but such as the Sonne of God should by an insensible and â—idden influence exercise over them Collect now from these Premises how such kinde of people stand affected to Royalty and then what reckoning they make of Councels and the Persons they consist of Their aime indeed is to ruine both to have no Rulers or Overseers at all either Temporall or Spirituall Secular or Ecclesiasticall They want no specious colours to blanch the blacknesse of their Designe They make their King a Demy-Apostate and little better then a Tyrant They proclaime to the world that he had a resolution to violate Religion and to destroy their Liberties and Priviledges That he hath supplanted the Fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and falsified the Oath made to his Subjects the observation of which alone must entitle him to a Dominion over them As for the Overseers of the Church it hath no need say they of any at all in as much as the Founder and Head thereof hath skill enough to governe as he had to establish it That 't is enough if there be meere Pastours only to preach without being lifted above others or others above them Such be the Authors and Abettours of this Fancie who gave the first blow at Episcopacy A strange thing that some even of the honester sort should so rashly mingle with the enemies of that Order transported in the simplicity of their hearts by this groundlesse conceit that 't is the Prelates alone who have opened the gap to wickednesse in the Church as if where there are no Bishops at all Innocence and purity bare an absolute and soveraigne command in the Soules of men Ferrier Pâ—tes with many more besides in France will be perpetuall attestours to the world that your Church Government lyes no lesse open to the assaults and stratagems of the Devill then that which hath beene setled from all Antiquity Were it my drift to search it to the bottome it would be easie to demonstrate this with advantage and that had it beene a few yeares elder and liv'd in a Country where the Lawes of the Prince are not so rigorous against Innovatours as they be in France which permits but two sorts of Religion or at least if God had not from time to time raised some eminently guifted Persons therein in which respect I must needs confidently affirme that it flourisheth now more then ever there could not have wanted matter through the many visible inconveniences thereof to embroyle the Church in a tedious and perpetuall taske I shall but point at one 't is the equality of Pastours which indeed at first blush presents you with a comely glosse and hath a wonderfull influence upon the fancy when it beholds it at a distance but in truth is the source of disorder the fountaine of negligence and the bane of that laudable emulation among the virtuous to out-strip one another in goodnesse It is to shut the doore against the perfection of life in denying the strictest observers of their masters injunctions those advantages and prerogatives which himselfe hath designed them What a block is it in the way to all those eminent persons without who were a coming toward us You know better then I how memorable to this purpose is the example of the Arch-bishop of Spalata Being to be honoured with no ranke at all above others can you thinke they will quit that which they enjoy where they are There can be no humility so great but may justly take offence at this How can any Genius acquainted thoroughly with it selfe and borne to a preheminence over others with some singular endowments of Nature be allured over to a profession whose sweetest baiâ—e is but a voice with the meanest and where its resolutions shall be valued as cheape as those of any other particular Personâ— The world is not to learne what a traine of inconveniencies attend these kind of suffrages and Deliberations and how there must needes follow many farre worse upon the neck of those so long as there is nothing but a baâ—â— supputation of Votes without any endowed with Power and Abilities to poyse them Put case their Assemblies consist of a hundred Persons will there in truth be found ten who will not rather be opinionate to cover their severall defects then be conformable to the example of their fellowes or endeavour to better themselves by their Counsells Such is that selfe-love and radicall inclination we have to sooth our selves that we do not easily hearken to the commands of reason till we be awed thereunto And seeing this distinction of degrees is so necessary for the good of the Church how shall that end be obtained if there be not some delegated both in and out of those Assemblies to represent the power of the whole to exact upon all emergencies an account of their proceedings to have the right of proposing and collecting Votes of ratifying Decrees of promulgating and putting them in execution and daring to the field whatsoever opposers of the same Is this feisible without a Bishop seeing that in such Synods as ours all enjoy an equality of Power and Authority and where according to that proverbiall censure of the Assemblies of Carthage The greater number carries it from the better Besides when the Synod is dissolved each Minister is left to his owne liberty to do what his fancy shall suggest unto him Put case he be found hipping either in manners or Doctrine he iâ— accountable to none but those of his owne Consistory who are allwaies in readinesse like so many rotten Pillars to support a crazie Wall or so many blinde guides that will needes undertake to reduce straglers into the way or such as leade men upon a praecipice So that by this meanes the offender wants no invitations nor advantages to invâ—igle those that lend an care to him he being no way accountable but to another Assembly In the interim he is proling for parties to his crimes and Abettours to his Opinions so that instead of fearing the rigour of a Judge in the Synod he is often provided of an Advocate which would be altogether impossible were there one enabled to stifle such disorders in the wombe This hints me of what I have read in
inviolable among all the Nations of the earth for well nigh the space of fourteene hundred yeares together not a man in all this time opening his mouth against it what ever difference of opinions Schismes and Heresies the Spirit of blindenesse introduced within the pale of Christianity till this age of our Reformers who perswaded themselves they could by humane prudence setle among the Ministers of the Gospell an equality of merit of zeale of charity and affection by ordaining an equality of Power and Authority and were further confident by this meanes to cut the throate of that Tyranny under which our Fathers for so long a time had groaned as also to re-invite into the world that sweetnesse and â—ffability wherewith the founders of the Church so expressely charged it should be governed And lastly they presumed that if the Prelates were once outed integrity innocence and good manners would be restored to their place in the Church againe nor should luxury incontinence or any other kinde of leudnesse usurpe their Roomes any more for ever These indeed were good wishes and desires but the meanes of persuing them starke naught Neither did they meet with a generall likeing divers having rejected them as fighting with that successe which others had promised themselves in the use of them Did not Germany which first threw the Pope out of the Saddle and where the purity of the Gospell was first restored to its ancient Liberty retaine still in her Churches that superiority against which they declaime here 'T is inviolably maintained in most countries of the North. Did the Patriarch of Constantinople abjure or condemne it Cyrill when he reformed himselfe after the example of the Protestants in the West Or dare any of us deny him our Communion because he retained it Nay was he ever so much as advised to forgoe it The lustre and majesty of the title he bare was no impediment to him from being both a confessour and a martyr of the same Christ we worship But let us herein consult with our most eminent Reformers Luther a most violent opposer of the Authors of ruine and corruption in the Church after he hath spent himselfe in heaping reproaches upon the Bishops calling them Idolls and dumb Statues idle puppets deceitfull maskes trunkes without branches or rootes empty shadowes stage-players such as were so farre from knowing the honour of their Function and how to discharge it aright that they did not understand the Etymology of the name they bare wolfes breifly trayâ—ours 〈◊〉 murtherers the monsters of the Vniverse the burden of the earth the Apostles of Antichrist moulded and fitted for the destruction of the world and extinguishing the light of the Gospell at last he comes to himselfe againe and tells us that he inveighs onely against the corruption of their liver and their palpable Ignorance as for the râ—st thâ— he harboured not a thought against the Order and frame of the Church and that nothing he had spoken of those idle drousie Animalls and filthy belly 〈◊〉 Gods ought to be applyed to the honest Pastours and reall Bishops whom he there calls the Headâ— and Over-seers of the Christian Church In other places as namely in his Captivity of Babylon he overthrowes the sacrament of Order and rejecteth as a groundlesse fancy their indelible character But he quarrells not there with Bishops alone but even with Preists and Deacons avouching all the faithfull equally to be Preists and Deacons and endowed with equall Authority Notwithstanding recollecting himselfe he concludes for the exellency of Episcopacy acknowledging the name thereof to be sacred and ancient and that if he deny it those against whom he declaimes 't is because he thinks it unlawfull to bestow it on such whose corruption and filthinesse vendors them so unworthy of it In the Tract he compiled for the instruction of Ministers he closeth hiâ— reformation with an establishment of Bishops to which he would have the Cities of Bohemia conforme themselves in electing one or two and enabling them with Authority over the rest to goe in visitation about the Churches after the example of Saint Peter in the Acts which he stileth a lawfull and Evangelicall Archiepiscopacy But if men â—e so vainely timerous that they dare not adventure upon the reestablishing of an Apostolicall Institution he permits them to retaine the custome of Rome in having Bishops to call ordaine and confirmâ— such a they shall finde capable according to the platforme and Doctrine of Saint Paul So likewise you may see divers examples of that age which testify that the opinions of those times were much different from ours about the point in Question We finde in one of Peter Martyrs Epistles to Beza that a certaine Bishop of Troy making a scruple of continuing in that profession after his conversion to the Reformation was unanimously received and acknowledged of all for a lawfull Prelate whose Authority together with his Piety prov'd a maine advancement of the Churches good This worthy Author not condemning Episcopacy in generall passeth only this verdict upon it that in as much as none are raised to that dignity but by the favour of Princes Christians can have but faint hopes of reaping any great benefit thereby In the same place he concludes for the necessity of their visitations as a present remedy to curethe naturall infirmity of man who is ever declining from bad to worse and be speakes there of Primates and Arch-bishops as of those who for Sanctity of life and Purity of Doctrine were designed to this Function in the severall Cities and Sees of greatest note withall condemning those who intrude at their owne pleasures into the Ministery concludeing it is not without some emphaticall ground that in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus the severall conditions and qualifications of Bishops Preists and Deacons are so punctually described Where it is worth your observation that he marshalls all three in their proper ranks a pregnant evidence that he made more then two degrees of Ecclesiasticall Order And so likewise doth the Author of our reformed discipline in France who in the first Article acquaints us with three sorts of Ministers Bishops or Pastours Deacons and Presbyters quoting to this purpose the same Epistles with Peter Martyr Where two things deserve our notice first the name of Bishops and next that of Presbyters As for the former I cannot but wonder why he should confound it with that of Pastours then after distinguish both from Presbyters if it be true as many would have it that Presbyters Pastours and Bishops were but one and the selfe same thing in the Primitive Church As for the name of Presbyters it is misapplyed with us to such whose Function speakes them to be no more then Deacons A thing utterly repugnant to the practice all ages Whence it appeares that he was somewhat ashamed to baulke an Order which he knew the Primitive and purer Christians held in such singular estimation and the Church maugre the
same man to differ from himselfe We see that Families are ever at unity when they beare an orderly subjection to the Master of the House be there never so many private jarrings of opinions among the severall members Examine we the matter yet a little further Is there any thing more agreeable to reason then that the lesse depend upon the greater the weake and feeble upon the strong in a word to behold that subordination in the world that where any prejudiciall counselâ—â— or resolutions shall happen to â—e proposed they may be timously check'd by some intervening authority and kept within the bounds prescribed them How many may we every day see attempting to passe the bounds of their abilities and professions and of what a banefull consequence the impunity of such irregularities may prove I leave it for any man to determine This I 'me sure made the Divine Providence speake by the mouth of Saint Paul that * 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the Prophets speake there should be some to judge That which followes is very observable * v 33. The spirits of the Prophets are subject unto the Prophets whereof presently he renders the reason For * v. 34. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints Behold Sir at a nearer distance the reasons for which this Order was first established which in my judgement are of equall force for the continuance of it to all ages seeing you have as great cause now as ever to feare those inconveniences which attend on equality You have Councels to be assembled Schismes to be composed Heretiques to be convinced and many ill appointed Churches to be visited But there is yet a more speciall and pressing motive in the case of England to wit the Genius of the People who being accustomed to gaze upon a gorgeous outside will not without much reluctancy be drawne to yeild any manner of reverence and submission to such as stand not upon the vantage-ground of honour Witnesse their Divines and all the gowned tribe Let their vertues be never so legible the Great ones looke upon them but as so many silly fellowes in blacke extracted out of the scumme of the People who for their part thinke they doe them a great honour if they shall vouchsafe to use them as their companions The case being thus what may we thinke would attend the extirpation of Episcopacy out of that Kingdome but the utter contempt of Christianity From vilifying the persons 't is ordinary to proceed next to a slighting of the Profession though never so sacred And if they put such a cheape esteeme upon the Persons of those that are to direct the Conscience and watch over the soule with what oscitancy and indevotion will all their counsels and instructions be entertained amongst them 'T is indeed the dignity of the Prelates which hath hitherto supported the dignity of Religion and if any manner of respect hath beene paid them it was first excited by the Majesty and lustre of that superiority wherewith God hath invested them as the most naturall meanes to keepe in an Evangelicall awe a People whose very Genius seconded with excesse of riches and security hath merited them the name of the most insolent People in the world But they tell us that the Bishops of meere Overseers were become absolute Lords and of Rulers had transformed themselves into Tyrants which indeed may be true of some but not of all How many have there beene in England since the Reformation so farre from the least smacke of their Predecessours or any of their fellow brethrens vanity that on the contrary in examples of modesty and and humility they have left most of the truly Reformed Pastours in Europe behind them who knowes not that the now Bishop of Durâ—aâ— notwithstanding the large revenues he formerly enjoyed and the severall titles of honour particularly annexed to that Bishopricke hath manifested to the world that he is cast in the same mould with those untainted soules of the Primitive Church All men may reade his temper and what spirit swayed him in his greatest prosperity inasmuch as now sharing in the common calamity depriv'd of all his livelyhood and brought to indigence thrown downe from so high a pitch of greatnesse to so low an ebbe from so much honour to so much infamy shut up as it were in a prison without ease without liberty and almost without a freind too aged about fourescore and five or six yeares he beares it all out with such composednesse of spirit such an absolute resignation of himselfe to the Divine Providence in the midst of these his trialls that he seemes to have no part in the corruption of the Times and those impurities wherewith they charge his Brethren such a large portion he hath in the innocence and vertues of the Primitive Martyrs Did ever any man behold a more Apostolique man then the present * Bishop vsher Primate of Ireland I applaud not now the learning either of the one or other I speake onely of their piety that characteristicall vertue of the Saints Could any the most active and noted adversaries of Episcopacy ever blemish the conversation of Doctor Bromhall Bishop of Derry of Jewell Bilson Hall Downham Davenant Sands Abbot Andrewes Vsher Prideaux and a large Catalogue besides of such whose vertues are not yet come to my knowledge no more then their names For all those prerogatives they enjoy above other men by reason of the Character they beare for all that superiority and those titles full of pompe and magnificence the Lawes of the Land have allowed them did ever any know them give the least scandall to the most scrupulous conscience or the least occasion for the meanest Subject to complaine of them On the contrary the whole course of their lives is a copy worthy the imitation not onely of such as had need to reforme themselves but even of the most unblameable persons I should but wrong their modesties in proceeding any further And I would be loath to distast them having no other intent then simply to describe them However I shall confidently a vouch thus much that they live in Episcopacy with much more integrity then any of their Persecutours do in their professions as being conformable to their intention who first gave life unto it The Divine Authours of so sacred â—n Ordinance knew well enough what high conceits are apt to surprize the soules of men when once they are lifted up above others and hence was it that of so many names wherewith the Apostles invested the Rulers of the Church they pitch't upon the name of Bishop for such as were to fit at the Sterne There were others that carried more state and lustre with them as that of â—astour wherewith homer honours his King of Elder of Doctour of President of Cheife But this is a name of toile and diligence by which the first imposers of it intended to containe such as
enjoyed plenty the wildnesse and debauchednesse of many of their Princes in former times could doâ— There be some I know that lay all the blame upon the negligence of the Prelates accusing them of betraying that care where with they were entrusted for the good of the People and are therefore urgent to have thâ—â— made the first examples of Justice as having 〈◊〉 led the Churches with a company of scandalous debâ—ist fellowes instead of honest and faithfull Pastours But were this true the evill they complaine of would have shewed it selfe during their Authority aâ—d while these monsters were in place and not onely within these few yeares as it hath done Not would this shamelesse caâ—umny deserve any other answer were it not expedient to let the world know that at the very moment the peace of the Church was molested the Devill shooke off his chaines and hath ever since without all controule disgorged his venime in the midst of it So long as there was a perfect harmony of affections betwixt the People and their Pastours and an absolute conformity to those rules which were unanimously observed for the space of a whole age and upwards such as had any seeds of a corrupt and depraved soule were at least over-awed and so not daring to appeare abroad they were made uncapable of doing any mischeife Those who are best acquainted with the Innovations of the times and that make any conscience of a Lye will all conclude with me that the disorder which at this day hath overcast all England with an everlasting shame owed it's beginning to none but such as have usurped the place of those ancient Divines and Pastours which they drive to their Cures They are for the most part but a schismaticall and factious Crew which the madnesse of a brutish and seditious People hath confusedly thrust up into the pulpit Men of a farre different temper from those who were in a peaceable and Legall way preferred to those places before Such at Lond. were Holdsworth Hacket Featley Marsh Shoote Squire all men of abilities and such as the Puritans themselves before ever these troubles began followed with admiration These worthy persons who have by their learning and conversation so much advanced the Protestant cause when to satisfy their Conscience and discharge the duty of their callings they endeavoured to prevent the growing evils and to choak the Ieeds of that fatall and deadly division among all the members of this Kingdome were shamefully debarred of their Liberty the exercise of their profession and to compleate their miseries having first made them spectatours of such ignorant malicious and turbulent Firebrands as were preferred to their Benefices and possest of their Houses they thrust them into Dungeons where they still continue loaded with chaines and â—â—ons bemoaâ—ing their owne and their Countryes misery The most of the Cambridge Doctors have well nigh beene in as bad condition for refusing to take up armes against their Prince Above all Doctor Ward who after he had beene Professour of Divinity in that famous University for the space of thirty yeares reputed generally for one of the most pious and knowing men â—â— his time and who had with much vehemence opposed Popery and Arminianisme and all other Innovations of our age hath suffered divers torments by their cruelty who endeavoured to extort his approbation of that tyranny which they exercised upon the Soules of all those they sought to engage in their faction In fine he died having beene kept in bonds as a vile Malefactour His last words acquaint us sufficiently with the nature of his crime I will never said he giving up the Ghost be a Rebell to my King nor well I ever contribute to that outrage which is done to my Prince Those be the debâ—ist fâ—llâ—wes the Bishops set up these be the Monsters whom they chase out of their Pulpits and banish the Churches The 〈◊〉 which the Parliament or rather a franticke people have put in theâ—â— roomes are such as I have formerly describ'd you who preach nothing but injuries and denounce nothing but cursings and yet for all this talke of agreement with us in France Certainly it highly concernes us to entertaine no manner of commerce or allyance with them I speake onely of the outward conformity as for that within what fellowship and unity of spirit can there be betwixt us aâ—d those that are enemies to all Order and harbour so many impurities amongst them These are they of which your Synods must henceforth consist if the Independents doe not quite suppresse them and who must prescribe Rules to Christendome These be they who must mould the Discipline and dispose of the Government of the Church Judge now with what wisedome and holinesse it is like to be governed Let them ordaine or execute what they please the Magistrates must be no better then Lookers on in as much as the Clergy and themselves are two distinct bodies which must needs draw along with it such consequences as are most pernicious both to Church and State For by this â—â—nes a doore is opened not onely to sedition tumults aâ—d civill warres but even to all excesse of 〈◊〉 and licentiousnesse to which that Nation is naturally devoted There would be lesse cause to feare any such disorder might the Bishops be still continued and enjoy their Priviledge of sitting in Parliament The People would entertaine better correspondence one with another and Peace would sooner flourish amongst them The Prelates like faithfull Pastours preaching innocency as well by their practise as their doctrine and as members of a Convention representing the whole State would by their authority nourish good agreement and perfect harmony in all the inferiour Clergy This your Boutefeus and opposers of Episcopacy perceive well enough and therefore would have no Rulers at all neither Bishop nor Magistrate In which respect they are farre worse then the Ministers of that Tyrant of the Church who in shaking off as much as in them lieth all obedience to secular Princes acknowledge a multiplicity of Heads amongst themselves and by the severall ascents and power of superiâ—â—ity which they call Hierarchy and which they have prudently established for prevention of discords and confusion they arrive at last at one to whom all indifferently are bound to submit as to their spirituall Monarch They bragge withall of an intended conformity to Geneva But let me tell them before they can doe this they must abjure that Independence which they are so hot in pursuit of and in stead of being Masters and Lords Paramount in their Consistories they must submit to their just Authority whom God hath in every State deputed to represent his Authority to wit Princes and their Vicegerents For so it is in Geneva where in the place they issue forth their spirituall censures one of the cheife Senatours is alwaies appointed to passe sentence upon offenders without the concurrence of any one besides which denotes the subordination of the Consistory and it's subjection
moderation and to indeavour the recalling of some humanity into the mindes of men is the ready way to be accounted a Malignant and they that have attempted any such matter have beene used accordingly Witnesse the many Members of Parliament who being returned thither upon a free Election according to the Lawes of the Land have neverthelesse beene chased thence some by the bare Votes of such as complyed with the popular madnesse and others by some out-rage or injury done to their persons And how many of these have for their honesty and integrity sate in six or seven Parliaments with a generall applause What kinde of People now have they substituted in their places Even such as the lawes of the Realme did ever exclude thence â—â— the knowen instruments of malice and fury They have not indeed quite suppressed the House of Peeres but they have notoriously vilified it in so much as they will no longer allow them a share in the publique consultations No share I say there being but two or three of the Lords left to their liberty and that for no other reason but because they combine with the faction The rest are forced to swimme with the streame and they have not spirit enough to contradict the major part in any thing though their Conscience prompt them never so much unto it Things could ne'r have come to this passe had not the Bishops beene outed and therefore as I informed you before they begun at them a peice of the most notorious violence and injustice that ever was heard of condemned by all the honest men I know that are acquainted with the Principles of Christianity and the Lawes of a well-grounded Policy agreeable to both which they were first seated in Parliament and ought to have beene continued there as the only Pillars to support Order and Uniformity and consequently to hinder the State from falling to peices especially to prevent the downefall of Monarchy all other formes of government being hereso utterly repugnant to it But I ground not only upon those advantages which Monarchy enjoyes in their conservation to worke your dislike of those that outed them nor upon the sole interests of the whole Church which was so much concerned to keepe them in their places I stand altogether for their personall rights which are as ancient as those of the State the Bishops having as strong a title to a place in Parliament as either the Lords or Commons For if with the rest of the Clergy they make a part of the State as undenyably they do who can question their share in the rights of the State So that to exclude them is to set up one distinct State in the midst of another which is all one as to dismember and divide the same State from it selfe and by consequent to engage it to its owne inevitable destruction Besides as the Nobility and the Clergy though both concurring cannot without violation of the Publique Right exclude the Commons from publike conventions where Lawes are to be made for all so neither can the Nobility and Commons though both agreeing debarre the Clergy no more then the Clergy and the Commons can exclude the Nobility The case being thus who sees not that in the expulsion of Bishops all the rights of the State are infringed that this is the act of an unruly multitude which being empoysoned with a spirit of Libertinisme did at the first extort the approbation of those Lords that stayed amongst them and then rewarded their Cowardice with the losse of their Power and reducing them unto such a low contemptible condition that they could scarce be more vilified were they quite expelled the House Weigh a little I beseech you with what pretences they maâ—ke this outrage They will needes perswade us that Holy orders are inconsistent with secular employments and that it is a thing below the Ministers of the Gospell to intermeddle in civill Affaires To which purpose they quote us severall passages of Scripture and urge with all the example of a certaine Church man whom Cyprian would not allow any commemoration because he had taken upon him to be Guardian to a ward But this rigour which they presse so hotly upon the Clergy is neither consequent nor character of true Sanctity 'T is indeed the issue of an Anabaptisticall braine Henderson and Marshall two of their most able and expert Divines proclaime to the world by their secular employments in England and Scotland that they make but a mocke of these Arguments and that they beleeve those of their profession may without wounding their conscience or transgressing the rules of Christianity embrace all opportunities to promote the good of the Church though it be in the conduct of temporall affaires They have their generall Commissions as if they had never entered upon holy Orders by which they are enabled to heare and determine any matter of State even to the advanceing of a warre But granting these men the inconsistence they dreame of would not you concurre with me in this that though the Bishops Votes in Parliament be not simply necessary as a part of the civill government yet they ought to be granted them as the undenyable consequent of that universall priviledge which all free-borne Subjects enjoy which is not to be bound by any Law they never assented to either in their owne persons or by their proxies Besides it was ever till now thought but reason and equity that to such conventions where both spirituall and temporall affaires are to be joyntly agitated there should be summoned not onely your secular Scaâ—â—â—-men to judge of the utility or as they phrase it here the convenience of Lawes nor such onely as are skilfull in that profession to give verdict of their legality but withall some wise and honest Divines to judge for matter of piety in enacting them The truth is these cavillers bewray both in their speeches and in all their proceedings an absolute incapacity of any sound judgement blindly hurried on to an alteration of government out of a fond conceite that their designe will succeed so fortunately as to leade the dance for all the people in Europe to follow to which they solliciâ—â— them in their Covenant But they have more wit I trow then to be their Apes They have better rules to follow of their owne especially we Protestants of France * When they of London were told that the rigorous courses they â—ooke against the Papists here would sooner or later be practiced upon the Protestants in France their answer was Let others looke to themselves and let us alone for looking to our selves with whose interâ—â—s those Gentlemen were very little affected when they used the Papists with so much inhumanity so as it seems they would not acknowledge us for their brethren or that their charity was very cold towards us We have learned both from Christ and his Apostles the Doctors of the Church and all our first Reformers that such as be Incendiaries either