in this point is notoriously erronious as both is proved before and which the Prelates own words here will sufficiently convince of fashood For first Christ left none when he went into heaven but his Apostles and Disciples such as he inspired with his Spirit to instruct and governe his Church But the Prelate a * little after confesseth that one of these visible Iudges Arch-bishops and Bishops are infallible Therfore Christ left no such Iudges and when he went into heaven there were no Prelats extant nor yet hatched and therfore Christ cannot be so much as thought much lesse beleeved to have left any such visible Iudges as the Prelate mentioneth Secondly it cannot be safe to beleeve that Christ left any such to be visible Iudges in matters of faith and Religion who are in their judgement not onely erronious but in their affections malicious against Christ and his word and his trile Church For the universall and constant practise of Prelates and especially ever since Antichrist hath been exalted in his Throne in persecuting the Professors of the Gospell doth proclaime them to be of the malignant Church and of ‡ the bendwoman that where of Babylon whose â—eed doth persecute the true Church and Children of God and therefore Christ would never appoint such to be visible Iudges in matters of Faith and Religion in his Church Thirdly the Prelate in making such visible Iudges besides Christs Law-booke the Scripture as he saith doth hereby deny and exclude the Scripture from being the Sole Iudge in all matters of Faith and Religion And the Church of England formerly before this her Metropolitan started up was of this beliefe that the Scripture was the Sole Iudge and Rule of Faith and admitted of no other Iudges to sit on the same Bench with it This the many learned works of our English Divines yet extant can abundantly testifie Therfore except the Church of England hath lost her wits and hath no more grace left her then the grace and faith of Canterbury she cannot be so madde as to beleeve Christ left any such visible Iudges as her Prelate speakes of Fourthly it can never be beleeved of any sensible man much lesse of any even common Christian that Christ would leave notorious hypocrites to be Iudges in matters of Religion who under a faire pretence of Truth and Peace doe labour utterly to destroy both Truth and Peace in his Church As here the Prelate names Truth and Peace as the end of his Hierarchicall Government but his practises doe prove him to be the greatest enemy both of Truth and Peace that ever Sate in the Chaire of Canterbury For first for Truth as the Truth of the Doctrines of Grace layd down in the Articles of Religion of the Church of England hath he not in the Declaracion before those 39 Articles but set forth in the Kings Name for all must be under a gracious King baffled it making the Articles to speake nonsense or in the language of the Delphick Oracle ambiguous that may be taken either way as favouring the Arminian aswell as the Orthodox so as by this meanes his Arminian Crew may prove their Heresies out of those Articles aswell as the Orthodox can the Truth Is this visible Iudge then for Truth Againe how doth he suppresse all preaching of the Doctrines of Grace by terrifying Ministers in all the Visitations of these visible Iudges So cleare it is that he governes for Truth Secondly for Peace What Peace I pray you hath either the Church or State of England had since this Polypragmatick began to stirre and stickle both in Church and State Nay what Peace hath the Neighbour-Kingdome had since his Arme hath been imped out to put his hot coale under the Eves of that Church also So as now when Scotland burneth is 't not time for England to looke out and to cast on water and to quench the fire not with more fire to consume all but by quenching the coale that both first kindled and still fomenteth the flame Thus we see what a Governour here is under a Gratious King For Truth and Peace But fiftly he addeth According to the Scripture This is something And yet as good as nothing for he immediately annexeth And her own Canons and Constitutions Canons enough to batter the Scripture and Constitutions to undermine and blow it up For what Scripture can stand in any force where his Canons come And much more where these Canons of his Church of England are seconded by his Catholike Church Wherein his Church of England and that of Rome are become according to his * own words one and the Same Church of one and the Same Faith and Religion And thus indeed the Church of England may enter Common with Rome in her Canons as namely in her Canon Law and so make Corpus Cononicum the Rule whereby to governe this new Corporation of the Two Churches now become one againe So as let but the Canons of the Church of England be seconded with those of her Prelates Catholicke Church and then all Scripture is gone in Common Law So vaine is it that with Scripture he names and yoakes his Canons of England and Rome by which his Figures of value he conjures the Scripture within the circle of a meere Cypher But Sixtly he concludes with this qualification which crosse not the Scripture and the just Laws of the Realme But first for the Scripture who shal be Judge whether the Canons doe crosse it Who but the Canon-makers and Canon-masters the Prelates And will they trow you turne the mouth of their own Canons against themselves Nay their Canons though never so crosse to Scripture yet are like to Darius his Decree which though against the Scripture yet rather then it shal be broken Daniel must to the Lions denne to try whether the Lions or the Kings Decree be more cruell So the Prelates Church Catholick Canons are like the Laws of the Medes and Persians all the Daniels in the world shall rather to the Lions denne then the Canons be reversed To give but one instance for many That Canon De Haeretibus comburendis Of Burning the Hereticks which is one of those speciall Canons of his Catholick Church and a most damnable Canon as any in all the packe and such as if Christ and his Apostles were now upon the earth and did Preach as once they did they should by vertue of that Canon be brought to the Stake as Christ was by the High Priests * Law to his Crosse that Canon I say though it crosse the Scripture as being against all true Chistians whom this Canon calls Hereticks and burnes for the Scripture-sake yet shall it not be for ever in force so long as there is one Hereticke remaining upon the face of the earth and one Pope or Prelate to discharge the Canon But the Prelate addes And the just Laws of the Realme If the said Canons crosse not the just Laws of the Realme This is as
good as the former and no better For what Laws of the Realme doth he account just Those that crosse any Prelaticall practises and Antichristian lawlesse courses of his Spirituall Courts Surely those are not to be ranked among the just Laws of the Realme those must needs be unjust Laws which are made to restraine the Infolencie and Lawlesse proceedings of Prelaticall Courts Which is the reason that now of late under this Archprelate Prohibitions out of the Kings bench to the High-Commission are so gueason so well Schooled are both Lawyers to move and Judges to grant any such thing Thus the Prelates practises are a sufficient Commentary of his owne words So as the Summe of this his whole passage is That his Church of England must submit her beliefe to her Arch Bishops and Bishops as visible Iudges left by Christ to governe and to determine all matters of difference in point of Faith and Religion and that according to Scripture too so farre as they crosse not her own Canons and those of the Catholicke Church wherein England and Rome are one and the Same one Church of one Faith of one Religion And all this if we may beleeve her Metropolitan the Church of England beleeves O miserable Church CHAP. IIII. Wherein some other Passages of the Prelate in his Booke touching the Authority of his Hierarchie are met withall and confuted by evidence of Scripture IN his * Epistle Dedicatory he hath these words She the Church of England practises Church-Government as it hath been in use in all Ages and all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline So he A bold Speech and the more bold because most false and hath nothing but his bare Ipse dixit his naked affirmation as Authority sufficient Whence I note sundry particulars First that he calleth the Hierarchie or Ecclesiasticall Government therof the Church of England A thing familiar with Prelates to make themselves the Church And such a Church as that of Rome the Pope and his Priests or Prelates are the Church as themselves affirme Whereas indeed as Iunius hath well distinguished â— they are not the Body it selfe of the Church but â—â—ennes or swellings grown up and so incorporated into the Body as overspreading it like a Leprosie it assumes the denomination of the Body And such are Prelates who in the Church of England are Strumae great swellings like the Kings Evill which are commonly next the Head or about the necke in the most principall parts of the Body Onely in this they will not be called the Kings Evill because they claime their Originall from Christ as before is noted and therfore though they be but certaine Abscessus or Apostemes and so indeed Apostatâ—s from the true Church of Christ which not onely deforme the Body but greatly in danger the life thereof yet the name of Church they challenge in peculiar to themselves But surely the true Church of Christ in England disclaimes communion with such a false Church as the Hierarchie calls it selfe Secondly he saith that his Church or Prelaticall Government hath been in all Times and Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting Here he finely excludes all the Protestant Reformed Churches as no Churches of Christ because they have weeded out those * bittet roots whereby many are defiled and rooted up those plants ‡ which our heavenly Father hath not planted to wit all Prelates with their Hierarâ—hicall Government which being rooted out of those Churches the Gospell blessed be God and so the true Church of Christ hath taken the deeper and firmer rooting and brought forth the more abundant ‡ fruits of holinâ—sse But the Prelate in thus unchurching all true Reformists is as good as his word which he openly spake at Dr. Bastwicks Censure in High-Commission saying The Protestant Churches beyond the Seas were no Churches as having no Bishops calling Calvin a plaine Rascall But so long as those Churches have the true Bishops namely Orthodox and Sound Pastors to feed their severall â—locks it is not the Arch-prelate that can so easily degrade them from being Christs true Churches as he can deprive those Ministers both of Ministry and Meanes who are obnoxious to his Church-Goâ—ernment Thirdly where he saith that his Church-Government hath been in use in all Ages and in all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both In and ever since the Apostles times although this be most false yet were it true it would not therupon follow that this his Church-Government is either Apostolicall or jure divino or from Christ For first every thing that hath been in use in the Apostles times and in the true Church of Christ is not therfore Apostolicke or such as the true Church of Christ alloweth of For we read that the Mistery of Iniquity began to worke in the Apostles times and even then there were § many Antichrists and that in the very midst of the Church in those dayes †And if Prelates shall prove to be those Antichrists which the Apostles detected and described by their qualities as will appeare anonâ— then because such Antichrists were extant and their Church-Government in use in the Apostles times will the Prelate therfore conclude such were Apostolicke and had their Originall jure divino Secondly neither can the Prelate ever prove that his Prelaticall Government as now of later and of long time it hath been is any thing like to the Church-Government exercised by those who took upon them to be the first Diocesan or Provinciall Bishops in those ages succeeding the Apostles He that shall read the Centuries Catâ—lagus Testiunâ— veritatis and other true Church Stories shall find as vast a difference between those poore ancient Bishops both in their manner of life and Church-Government and the moderne Prelotes since Antichrist mounted aloft in his Pontificalibus as the * Poet makes between the Silver Age and the Iron Age or as the ‡ Prophet shews between the brazen brest of the Image of the Babylonish Empire and the feet mixt of iron and clay And that Image may well resemble the State of the Spirituall Babylon or Hierarchy which had its rise of simple and small beginnings but by degrees Successively it grew and got strength and both height and bredth and so became at length of a blind Brooke a goodly navigable River so as the Church turned a City of Traffique and Trade in all worldly pleasures and riches as Babylon is described Revel. 18. and so the more worldly it grew the more wicked proud tyrannicall lordly and imperious and of a Militant Church turned Triumphant as the Prelate himselfe saith of Rome so as now the Church Government of the Prelates in regard of their great Courts and Consistories and doing all things without the Presbyteryâ— is as much unlike that ancient
Church-Government of those Bishops of old as our moderne Prelates themselves are unlike them in manner of life for these are persecuters of the Gospel those were persecuted and suffered Martyrdome for Christ Thus it is false that he saith that the Church-Government now in England was in usâ— in the Primitive Church For to instance in one thing In those ancient Times Excommunication was not used for every trifle nor done in a blind Court nor denounced by a dumb Priest But enough of this Fourthly whereas he saith And yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline First as for the Seperatist as he calls him I thinke the Prelate with this his Book and other his Prelaticall practises hath made more Separatists from his Prelaticall Church of England then ever any that hath sit in the Chaire of Canterbury ever since his Predecessor Augustine first sate in it Nor doe I see how any Christian living in England can with a safe Conscience have communion with that Church which professeth as the Prelate doth in her Name to be one and the Same Church with Rome of one and the Same Faith and Religion Yea were it no more but that the Church of England professeth to be a Hierarchicall or Prelaticall Church which in that very respect is no true Church of Christ it were argument and cause sufficient to Seperate from her And that because Secondly he that is a true Seperatist from her for the former respects may justly condemne her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline For first She exerciseth She professeth no other Discipline but that which Antichrist the Pope and the whole Antichristian Romish Church exerciseth and professeth and that in all points Cap a pied from top to toe And this her Discipline is Antichristian as being of Antichrist and so against Christ and exercised in the maintenance of Antichrist For instance The Prelaticall Church of England hath lately found out a Discipline to censure punish imprison fine excommunicate degrade deprive and all these together him that shall dare to deny the Pope and Prelates to be jure divino Dr. Bastwicke did thus and so the High-Commission served him as aforesaid What Discipline then in the world can be more Antichirstian or more forcible to drive Christians from having any more communion with that Church which exercising such an Antichristian Discipline how can She shift off the just condemnation of Antichristianisme which they shall cast upon her Againe Secondly the whole Discipline of the Church of England as it is the Discipline which Antichrist and his Church exerciseth and therfore Antichristian So it is that which hath no footing but is expresly forbidden in the word of God as Antichristian and Tyrannicall For the Church of Englands Discipline stands most upon the imposition of sundry Ceremonies of humane invention and Antichristian observation which She presseth upon all mens Consciences and for default of Conformity layes grievous Censures upon them as Excommunication and the like Now all such Ceremonies so imposed both Christ himselfe condemneth * In vaine they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men and the Apostle also throughout that whole Chapter of the Epistle to the Collossians doth charge Christians not to put their necks under any such yoake as whereby they are deprived of the benefit of Christs death and beguiled of their reward and spoyled of their Christian liberty and the like Againe the Prelates in imposing their Ceremonies are Antichristian because in so doing they usurpe Christs throne and therein fitting doe exercise a Tyranny over mens Consciences intolerable to be borne which if men will not yeeld unto they doe in as much as in them lyeth make them Anathemaes shut them out of the Church by Excommunication c. And lastly their Excommunication not onely in regard of the matter and cause for which it is namely because men will not renounce Christs service to take the Tyrannicall yoake of Antichrists Ceremonies upon the shoulders of their Consciences but for the very manner of it as it is used in the Church of England is a Discipline Antichristian as being against that form of Excommunication which is prescribed in the word of God and was practised in the Apostolicall Churches It was Christs rule Tell it to the Church that is to the Congregation and if the Offender will not heare the Congregation he is Excommunicate by and out of the Congregation And the Apostles rule is for such Offenders as deserve Excommunication * I verily saith he as absent in body but present in Spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed In the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ Whence I note that Excommunication is a Solemne businesse not to be inflicted for every trifling matter much lesse as the Pharisees did who excommunicated all those that confessed Christ nor to be done in a blind Court and by a single soled Priest nor the Offender to be released for the payment of his fees or by way of committing or the like all which are practised in the Discipline of the Church of England But Excommunication must not be but for a great offence nor done but by the whole Congregation nor released but upon the publique repentance confession and promise of reformation before the said Congregation where the offence was given and by whom the penalty is taken off Therfore the Discipline of the Church of England in this case is wholly Antichristian Lastly forasmuch as Prelates doe necessarily draw after them a Traine of Ceremonies as a Chaine of so many links wherwith they captivate ensnare and enslave the Consciences of men as their Motto is No Ceremonie no Bishop for they goe inseperably together like Tobie and his Dogge and the Church of England in her Discipline and Church-Service is wholly captivated by the Masters of such Ceremonies the Prelates and some Ceremonies are such as even doe deny the Lord that bought them as namely Altars and their Service and all the Ceremonies imposed upon the Conscience deny Christ to be the onely King of his Church all these taken together what between the Prelates and between their Ceremonies the Church of England and her Discipline is become Antichristian and therfore no marvail if for this cause good Christians that have knowledge and make Conscience doe Seperate from communion with any such Church CHAP. V. Wherein some other Passages of the Prelate are taken tripping though he would run away with it That his Hierarchie is Jure Divino HE saith * For the Calling and Authority of Bishops over the inferiour Clergie that was a thing of known use and benefit for preservation of unity and Peace in the Church And so
First Protest against the Hierarchy as an Antichristian Tyranny over the Soules Bodies and Estates of all the Kings Subjects and therefore ought to be rooted out and not suffered in any Christian Church or Common Weale Secondly and consequently Protest against all Altars Images and such like Popish Idolatrous Reliques utterly unlawfull to be erected in any true Christian Church Thirdly Protest against all humane Rites and Ceremonies whatsoever imposed upon mens Consciences in the worship of God as being all of them Antichristian bringing into bondage mens Soules which Christ hath redeemed with his precious blood who is the onely Lord of the Conscience and the onely Law-giver to his Church for all matters of Faith and of the worship of God Fourthly Protest against all such generall Taxes layd upon the Subjects as whereby both their ancient Liberties and the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome are overthrowne and so vindicate the Honour both of the King and of this noble Kingdome that it may not be recorded to Posterity for a State of Tyranny and Slavery Fiftly and consequently Protest against all those wicked Iudges which have in such wise declared their opinions for intollerable Taxes expresly contrary to the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdome as thereby they have given occasion for the betraying of all and the bringing of the whole Land under perpetuall Slavery Sixtly Protest against that Prelaticall Declaration set forth in the Kings Name before the 39 Articles wherein those Articles of the Dostrines of Grace are made voyd and so all preaching of them suppressed Seventhly Protest against that Booke for Sports on the Lords dayes as whereby both the fourth Commandement and the fifth are most desperately overthrown as also against all those Bookes that have been set forth for the maintaining of such profanation as whereby God is greatly dishonoured and his wrath provoked even to the Spewing out of such a Nation out of his mouth Eightly Protest against all that Prelaticall Tyranny in oppressing the preaching of Gods Word on the Lords dayes in the after-noone and other dayes in the week and their Antichristian persecuting and putting out of all godly and painfull Ministers such as will not conform to their lawlesse Ordinances Ninthly Protest against that most terrible and odious shedding of the innocont blood of those 3 forementioned now perpetuall Exiles and Closse Prisoners even their very Wives most lawlesly detained from them with aâ—â— their other severe punishments one of them being a Minister who in discharge of his duty first preached in his own Church and then published his Sermons in Print against the Prelates notorious practises and Popish Innovations for which he underwent punishments so great so many as no Ageâ— no Christian State can parallell so as their blood doth incessantly cry against this whole Land as guilty thereof though shed onely by the Prelates instigation as aforesaid untill it be purged Tenthly Protest against that accursed Booke Relation of a Conference c. published in Print and Dedicated to the King by the now Prelate of Canterbury wherein he belyes and so blasphemes God Christ the Holy Ghost the holy Scriptures the Church of England in saying it is one and the Same with that of Rome of the same Faith and Religion with that Whore of Babylon and many such like impious assertions the whole Booke professedly tending to reconcile England and Rome and so to bring the whole Land backe againe to Popery Eleventhly If this great and Warlike preparation be by the Prelates Diabolicall Instigation as by no other it can be except by the Pope and his Iesuiter and his Nuncio's Negotiation have also a hand in it to goe against the Scots and if the cause shal be found to be no other but that they have abandoned and Remaunded to Rome all their Prelates as the grand Enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and of the peaceable and prosperous estate of the Realme and consequently of the Kings Crown and Dignity and that they stand for the maintenance of their just Laws and Liberties the continuance whereof is the Kings honour and the establishment of his throne If I say no other cause can justly be alledged and yet they shal be invaded as Rebells Protest against all ayd and assistance of such an Invasion as being against the Law of God of Nature and of Nations and as being a Warre directly against Jesus Christ in the maintenance of Antichrist and his Antichristian Hierarchy and so such as must needs recoyle and that in divine fury upon England it selfe which having burned her neighbours house exposeth her owne to the flames Yea for England to Invade Scotland for no other cause in truth then before mentioned namely for their maintaining of the true Faith and Religion of Christ and their just Lawes and Liberties which all true Christians and Civil States ought to lay down their very lives for as the light of Nature taught the very Heathen Pugnare pro Aris ac focis and that Grecian could say A'iresomai teleutan mallon è a'neleutheros sun I choose rather to dye a Free-man then to live a Slave And the Monarchicall estate governed by good Laws was ever preferred and opposed to Tyranny were to renounce and give up her own ancient Liberties and to betray and persecute and destroy the true Faith and Religion of Christ and so set up and professe the Infidelity and Idolatry of Antichrist and so with him and his cursed Crue to goe into perdition The Primitive Christians under Julian the Apostata served him in the Warres against his Enemies but when he Commanded them to goe against Christians who refused to worship or offer Incense to his Idols they cast down their Weapons acknowledging the Emperour of heaven And when Saul * commanded his Servants to fall upon the Lords Priests none of them would doe it And I read of a Secretary to an Empresse who being commanded by her to draw an Edict againg the Christians he still found delayes but at length she growing instant upon him for it so as he could no longer delay it he tooke off his Military girdle the Ensigne of his service and cast it at her feet and so discharged himselfe from her Court Thus if you make and leave these Christian zealous and just Protestations among the Recods of Parliament in case it shal be by the malice and inchantments of the Prelates unhappily dissolved before you can produce them into a full Act and establish them for a Law though otherwise ye cannot effect a reall Reformation of all the mischiefes and maladies which the Prelates in speciall have filled the Land withall yet forasmuch as you have thus publickly both for your own persons and as the Body representative of the whole State of the Land solemnly protested against all these things there is no question to be made but that God in his mercy and favour will accept of your will for the deed it selfe and will still preserve both you and your
or Bishops as most sutable for those Apostolick Times and Persons Content they are to take the Name of Bishop upon them but for the qualities there required they are not Prelaticall enough such as will â—uit with a Lord-Bishop For those were poore Bishops or Overseers and Feeders of one Flocke in this or that City but these are Lord-bishops over a whole Diâ—â—â—se as before is noted To these places we might adde others as Phil. 1. 1. With the Bishops and Deacons Where the Apostle nameing no more Orders but of Bishops and Deaconsâ— the same which he nameth and describeth in the forecited places 1 Tim. 3. and Tit. 1. makes it cleare unto us that by those Pishops in Philippi he meanes the same in kind that were in Ephesus and Creete to wit so many Presbyters as were also called Bishops or Overseers And naming Bishops which were at Philippi it argues there were many Bishops of that one Church as we noted before of the Church of Ephesus And in other places also they are called Elders For 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule will be counted worthy of double honour maliâ—ta oâ— kopiontes especially thâ—se that take greatest paines in the Word and Doctrine Now those Elders Chap. 3. he calls Bishops Implying they are both oâ—e as also that there were many of those Bishops in the Church of Ephesus where Timethy then was And those Presbyters or Bishops some were more industrious in the word and Doctrine did kopian labour more hard therein as the word signifieth then ordinary and therefore such the Apostle would have to be counted worthy of double honour Now is it thus with our Lord-Bishops First do they kopian â—oyle hard at Gods Plough to use Laâ—imers Comparison do they desire no more honour but such as is proportionable to their paines in Preaching Gods word Tussi their honour is according to the honour of the City whereof they are Lord-Bishops as the Prelate himselfe ‡ tells us The Honours of the Church should follow the Honours of the State or according to the greatnesse of their revenâ—â—s or according to their great favour and place in Kings Courts and not according to their yeares or vertues or good deserts which are neither required in them nor respected of them Thus still all along quantum abludunt how much distance is there and what infinit disparity between our Lord Bishops and Scripture-bishops And lastly these Bishops so called by Paul are called also by Peter Praesbyteri Presbyters or Elders where he saith ‡ The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder and a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of the glory that shal be reveald Feed the Flocke of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof Episcopountes not by constraâ—nt but willingly not for filthy luore but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Ensamples to the Flocke And when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare ye shall receive a Crown that fadeth not away Where First he notes the Ministers and Pastors by the Title of Presbyters or Elders as also he stiles himselfe He saith not My Lords or Right Reverend Fathers or the like Secondly he useth no imperious language unto them but saith parakalo I exhort or beseech you Not as the Prelates to their Priests These are to will and require you upon paiâ—â—e of Episcopall Censure c. Thirdly the thing he exhorts them unto is to â—eed the flocke of God committed to their Charge But our Lord-Prelates command their inferiour Ministers to feed their flocke as sparingly as may be as at the most to preach but once upon the Lords day or once a moneth will serve and for Catechising in the afternoone altogether to forbeare expounding and for the sound food of the Doctrins of Gods free Grace which is the very Summe of the Gospâ—l never to preach of them at all as being too Puritanicall and the like Fourthly He exhorts them to feed each his own Flocke Feed the Flocke of God which dependeth on you He saith not Flocks as if one Presbyter or Bishop were set over many Flocks or Congregations as our Lord Bishops are as is noted before Fiftly he exhorts them to oversee their Flockâ— not for filthy lucre but of a free and ready mind But our Lord Prelates and their Curate Priests are of another mind as being hirelings and noe true Shepheards so as it is with them No penny no Pater noster they looke more to their tithes then to their taske and more after the sleece then for the good of the flocke Sixtly Not as Lords over Gods Heritage yea Mud oâ—s katakurieâ—ontes nor as Lording it ever Gods Heritage The same word is used in Mat. 20. 25. Mark 10. 42. Where such Heathen-like Lording is by Christ himselfe forbidden his Disciples as * before is sheâ—ed But the Pontificians and so our Lordly Prelates say that this word katakurieuein signifieth onely a tyrannicall Lordship which they doe not use I answere that in Luke kurieuâ—in to Lord it at all is forbidden And being put for katakurieuin it noteth that all manner of Lordship over the Flocke of God is forbidden to Christs true Ministers Nor can the Prelates whether Pontifician or Protestant in Name so easily cleare their Lordly Dominion over Gods people from Tyranny For even our great Prelate himselfe sticks not to charge the Church of Rome with ‡ Tyranny And can he discharge himselfe of it Wherein comes the Primate of the Church of England short of the Papall Tyranny but in this that the Pope tyrannizeth over the universall Church of the great world and the Metropolitan or Metropolitician of all Enâ—land tyrannizeth over that whole Church which the Pope called the other world The difference I say is onely in the Magiâ— Minus which alter not the nature of the thing For for the Popes Inquisition the Prelate hath his High-Commission by the Law whereof though he cannot bring his Heretick Puritans to the Stake attended with fire and fagot as the Popes Inquisition doth yet he can make their life more miserable then death it selfe by his pecpetuall close Imprisonments and the like Nor wants he either Canons and Ceremonies as snares to catch nor Pursuivants as Beagles to hunt out the poore Sheep and to hale them to his Shambles for refusing to be fed with such hemlocke instead of Gods wholesome word Yea where his High-Commission cannot reach to suck the blood and crucifie the bodies of Christs Servants as upon the Pillory he can easily remove the Cause into another Court where himselfe sitting a grand and Powerfull Swaying Judge will satisfie his blood-thirsty longing And as in * another place of his Booke he twitteth the Church of Rome for being a Tryumphant Church Saying Now She must be a Triumphant Church here Militant no longer So no lesse Triumphant hath the Prelate made his present Prelaticall Church of
England Oh how doth he triumph in his Chaire as in his Charet Yea more specially how did he triumph over those Three his Remarkable men whom he looking out at the Court-window beheld standing on the Pillory and loosing their Eares and Blood how did he then applaud his politicke pate and potent credit in Court that he could thus anékesta without rememedy as the ‡ Story saith of the Tyrant Licinius a persecuter of the Christians overthrow the most innocent Cause and therein the most innocent Persons and without all colour of contradiction the Minister that ever was Judged in any Christian Court Thus he triumphed over them though their triumph over him and all his Antichristian lawlesse cruelty in that their most constant couragious and invincible cheerfullnes in suffering was as much more glorious and noble as his was most Ignoble and Base But thus I say the Prelate with his Prelaticall Church must be Triumphant Militant no longer but in warring against the Lambe and his poore followers So as this Prelate with his Confederates are the Successors of the High-Priests Scribes and Pharisees and of Edmund Bonner and Stephen Gardiner those bloody Butchers and Wolves which devoured and destroyed Christs Sheep in Queen Maries dayes and therein were the Church-Triumphant in England But this by the way Returne we now whence we have a little as it were digressed though not impertinent to our Purpose in hand which is to shew the true difference between the true Ministers of Christ and those of Antichrist Seventhly therefore Not as Lording it â—ver Gods Heritage but being Ensamples to the Flocke Now wherein are our Lord Prelates Ensamples to the Flocke In their humble carriage In their meeknesse of spirit In the moderation of their government In their continencie and contempt of Riches Honours Pleasures Ease and the like Nay are they not Examples to the world farre be it from Gods Flocke of extreme Pride Ambition Covetousnesse Voluptuousnesse Idlenesse Profanesse Lawlessenesse extreme Cruelty barbarous Injustice implacable Malice and intolerable Tyranny palpable Hypocrisie and such like Prelaticall vertues and graces the most proper and peculiar indowments inseperable qualities of their Hierarchie Eightly and lastly true Elders or Bishops that with a good Conscience feed Gods Flocke both with the wholsome food of sound Doctrine and with the holy Example of a good life shall when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away Where I observe two particulars that Iesus Christ is the onely Chiefe or Arch-Shepheard O' A' rkipóimen So as here is no place either for Pope over the universall Church or Metropolitan over a whole Kingdome or for Arch-prelate over the Provinciall or yet Prelate over all the Shepheards in his Dioceseâ— for then such should be A' rkipoÃmenes the Cheif Shepheards but this Title and Office is peculiar to Christ alone and incommunicable to any other Nor did Peter himselfe arrogate to himselfe any such Title but was content with * oâ— tumpresbúteros a Fellow-Elder as if an equall to those Elders or Presbyters to whom he writ The second particular I note is that all such Presbyters or true Bishops as aforesaid may and do most certainly expect and shall most surely receive at the appearing of the Chief Shepheard an immarcescible Crown of Glory-Behold here is such a Reward as no Lord Prelate can expect or hope for For these are rightly resembled by ‡ Dives to whom being in hell torments and desiring one drop of water to coole his tongue Abraham answered Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things c. For he had gone in his purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day while mercilessy he suffered poore Lazarus to lye at his gate full of sores yeelding him no reliefe or comfort at all saving that his dogs came and licked his Sores Aâ—d doe not our Diveses our rich Lord Prelates and which of them is poore goe in their Purple Satten Velvet and the finest lynnen as their Lawn sleeves and Rochet and faire deliciously every day not induring once in their lives with their good wills to keep one extraordinary Fast day so zealous are they of the observation of Lent and other Embers wherin they can faire deliciously with the choycest Fish and Fruits and Wines and other Cates So as with Dives they have their good things here Only these come short of and outstrip Dives in some things For First Dives yet suffered Lazarus to be layd at his doores but these beat away the true Lazars from their doores 2. Dives suffered his dogs to shew so much compassion as to lick Lazarus his sores but our Lord Prelates doe set their dogs at the true Lazarusses to teare them in pieces 3. Lazarus brought his sores with him Dives did not cause them but our Lord Prelates doe fill Gods Lazarusses full of wounds which they carry away with them not scaping from their Gates with a whole Skin 4. Lazarus was willingly layd at Dives his gates but Gods Lazarusses never come to the Lord-Bishops Gates but with an ill will when they are hayld and pull'd 5. Dives denyed his Crummes to Lazarus because they were of his bread to feed his dogs but the Prelates doe not onely deny any one Crumme of mercy when they are offended or to doe right when the Lazarusses are injured but they doe also rob pill and poll them stripping them of all they have and so doe not relieve but make Lazars Againe on the other side Lazarus in some sort may be an Embleme of Gods true Ministers For Lazarus had all his evill things in this world So the good and faithfull Ministers of God must undergoe manifold afflictions tribulations and persecutions in the world as our Saviour * Christ forewarned his Disciples and so their true Successors to wit Godly and painfull Ministers of the Word who find their Masters words verified in themselves by manifold experince of tributations and persecutions which they mainly and chiefly suffer at the hands of Antichrist and his Antichristian Prelates as the world it selfe is able to beare witnesse In the Kingdome of England at this day who are the great persecuters yea and the onely oppressors of Gods faithfull and painfull Ministers and of all true Professors but these Lordly Prelates who will not suffer any one Minister or other to burrow within their Diocese if he doe but smell of a Puritan as they call them but do ferrit them out and hunt them to the death Where by the way it is cleare to all men that have but common sense that the Prelates which are and ever have been â—at least since Antichrist hath been aloft the most furious and fiery Persecuters of Gods good Ministers and people even for Religion sake are false Bishops falsely pretending their Iurisdiction from Christ and their Succession from the Apostles They might aswell say that they have Authority from Christ and his