strange Religion is built on this rotten foundation Whereas the Church of Jerusalem on whom the Holy Ghost descended chang'd their Opinions if not their Canons concerning the observation of Circumcision and the Mosaical Ceremonies for Acts 15. they required not those Ceremonies but Acts 21. they did require them nay St. Peter himself would not eat with an uncircumcised Christian Gal. 2. if a Jew was present notwithstanding he was one that made the Canon to the contrary Acts 15. Gal. 2. Acts 21. Acts 15. And St. Paul that reprov'd his inconstancy Gal. 2. and would not Circumcise Titus yet had Timothy Circumcised Acts 21. If the Pillars of the Church warp can we think any other Canon-makers of the Church are infallible so that we must believe all they Decree in spight of our Teeth or else by Excommunication Take him Devil and forty days after Take him Jaylor This is like the Muscovites that acknowledge no Christians but themselves and the Greek Church or like the Donatists that confined the Church of Christ to themselves at least within the bounds of Africa which was a larger extent than was afforded by the Family of Love Gratian. Dist 16. and many of our Sectarists whose Opinions in this kind are derived from Rome like that of Pope Agatho l. That commanded that all the Popes Decrees should be taken for the Oracles of God and as true as if pronounced by the Mouth of God though contrary to Holy Writ Thus the Council of Trent Decreed Conc. Trident Sect. 5. Can. 2. that the Church that is themselves had power to change the Sacraments And the Council of Constance did change the Institution of the Lord's Supper by Robbing the Laity of the Cup with a non obstante to Christs command But now henceforth this being premised I 'le keep to our own Canons and Canon-makers of which Query I. Whether Ecclesiastical Canons that want the Stamp of Legislative-power or Acts of Parliament are necessarily binding and of force to us English-Protestants And this Inquiry was occasioned by a late Discourse or Sermon Mischief of Separation Preached by the Reverend Doctor Stilling fleet May 2. 1680. at Guild-hall upon that Text Phil. 3.16 Whence he exhorts in the words of his Text his Auditory to walk by the same Rule or Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mischief of Impositions yet Canon is not found in some Greek Copies as one has in answer to the Doctor already very ingeniously observed But the accurate Mr. Baxter very pertinently in a Letter to the Doctor puts him upon declaring what is this same Rule or Canon and who makes it which one would think should be very necessary and one of the first things as a foundation on which should be built any pertinent or rational Discourse For if one certain Rule or Canon be not agreed upon it is impossible to know when we straggle and walk disorderly deviate and err And also if Preachers exhort as they ought to walk by the same Rule and yet do not declare what that same Rule is and who is the Rule-maker the Canon-maker or Law-maker they had as good say nothing at all But the wary Doctor waves the answer to Mr. Baxter and either would not or could not or durst not declare what is the Canon and the Rule and Who are the Rule or Law-makers very wisely foreseeing that Mr. Baxter had got him upon the Lock For it had been dangerous for a Protestant Doctor to deny the King and Parliament to be the only Law makers or Rule and Canon-makers But on the other hand if the Doctor had declared against the Pastoral-Head and Synod who stil'd themselves the representative-Church and no man in pain of Excommunication Can. 139 140 141. Anno 1603. to dare to derogate from their Authority possibly he might fear to come within dunger and reach of the Bishops Canons at least he might fear he had in so doing arriv'd at the Pillars ef Hercules and the streights the nè plùs ultrà of his Preferments But no private-ends ought to byass any man or stop his mouth from speaking out and plain such a necessary Truth for want of adjusting this Query What is truth What is the Canon the Rule this same Law we ought all to walk by that we may all speak the same things For if the Trumpet give an uncertain sound an undistinct sound who shall prepare himself to the Battle 1 Cor. 14.8 1 Cor. 14.8 If one Clergy-man sounds a Retreat whilest others sound Boots and Saddles To Horse To Horse Into what confusions will the distracted-people run and no wonder For certainly this is the great cause of our Divisions not to be remedied at least not till agreed among our selves and till we walk after the same Rule For uniformity in Religion ought to be the endeavour as well as Prayer of all true Christians that all of us may Rom. 15.6 with one mind and one mouth too glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 But how is this possible or that Christians should speak the same things and walk by the same Rule when this Rule is not agreed upon no not as aforesaid among our selves For if the Acts of Parliament the universally confessed-Law of England even in Religion be the Rule or Canon and the King and Parliament the only Law-makers or Canon-makers as who dare deny now that the Popes Hierarchical Head is cut off without Incurring a Praemunire and that can and being the only Representatives of the People of England alone ought to make Acts of uniformity in Religion and of all other things especially to have a care of Religion and a watchful eye over Religious men Then how comes the Convocation to call themselves the representative-Representative-Church of England and thunder out Excommunication which with them is eternal Damnation Can. 139 140 141. An. 1603. if men die before they recant and publickly repent their wicked Error in thinking to the contrary And ask any of the Convocation at this day if they also do not look upon themselves and value themselves as the representative-Representative-Church of England and they will not surely deny it For if they be not that what are they But though those that made the Canons in 1603 might in some sense be called the representative-Representative-Church of England and so also were that Synod of London that made the Canons Anno Dom. 1640. which are commonly called the Lambeth-Canons and are Damn'd already as I 'le demonstrate beyond all contradiction if any dare deny so great and evident a Truth Yet the Synods and Convocation now adays have not the Authority they had they are scarce the shadows of those Synods and yet the Authority also of those Synods in 1603 and 1640 and all they did is now abrogated and taken away by Acts of Parliament and their very beings annihilated and made of no force power strength nor vertue as I shall shew hereafter much
though never so high-mounted look upwards still to Heaven they 'l say with King David in all humility I am a worm and no man The Contemplation of the Vastness and Glory of Heaven as Cicero observes in Somnio Scipionis will make them best see what a pitiful Spot in comparison the whole Globe of the Earth is and the glory of it and much more with humble Eyes reflect upon their own pittiful punyships But if they are alwayes looking downwards upon the many under them their Brains usually Crawl with scorn pride and disdain and turning Giddy they forget themselves till they catch a fall if not their Ruine And though they may pride themselves and strut in their High Shoes and take delight in exposing their Inferiors whom they ought to protect to contempt and scorn or for sport suffer them to be baited by Dogs and perhaps cry Hollou 'T is ten to one but they meet at some time or other with so Rugged a Repartee as to make them sick of such Unchristian Games and sometimes to their shame expose also the knotty side of their own gay Arras and prove that all is not Gold that glisters Popery and Mahometism were born both in one and the same Century and had one and the same Midwife namely Ignorance or Barbarism Truth and the Press would stifle them both and the Turk knows it as well and therefore Politickly prohibits Printing so also doth the Pope prohibit what he can all Printing but what passes with his own Imprimatur's and some others also would have the Press at the same lock and they alone to keep the Key And thus whilst men hear but of one Ear and from one Mouth they are kept in ignorance and seldom grow wiser than the Pope and Conclave that Excommunicated Galileo I think it was for holding the Motion of the Earth For Errors and Superstition Tyranny and Oppression like Owls and all other works of darkness hate the light and cannot endure to be seen by day-light whereas the Naked Truth feeks no Corners is bare indeed but is not nor needs not to be ashamed Lording over Gods Heritage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominantes Cleris 1 Pet. 5.3 Domineering over Gods People was never the mind of Christ nor St. Peter nor had ever any Bishops any such lawful Commission even when the High-Commission-Courts were up whereby alone they had Authority and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical to Lord it over Gods Heritage No no It is the Reliques of the Luciferian Pride of that Grand Impostor that ridiculously stiles himself The Successor of St. Peter yet imitates him in nothing but in denying his Master that sets his insulting Toe upon the Necks of Kings and Emperors enslaves mens Bodies and Estates as well as Souls wheresoever he can domineer 'T is this Prelatical Pride this Exercising Dominion Luke 22.24 like the Princes of the Gentiles which is here condemned and is but a Brat of Popery whereever the Changeling is found and which our Blessed Saviour would banish from amongst his Clergy Luke 22.25 It shall not be so amongst you But say some It shall be so though let Christ and Laws let God and Man say what they will at least some men would practise it still which is worse than saying so but Rome was not built nor cannot be destroyed in one day THE Naked Truth The Second Part. THE Bishops and Convocation held at London Anno Dom. 1552. in the Reign of King Edward VI. whereof many of them were Martyrs at their Death as well as the first Reformers in their life-time in their Articles now usually called The Articles of the Church of England the 19 20 21. I meet with very remarkable Passages to begin this Discourse ARTICLE 19. ECclesia Christi visibilis est coetus fidelium in quo verbum c. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly Administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Where note by the way that a Parish Church may be the right Church of Christ by this Definition As the Church of Jerusalem of Alexandria and of Antioch hath Erred so also the Church of Rome hath Erred not only in their living but also in matters of Faith ARTICLE 20. IT is not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to Decree any thing against the same so beside the same ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation ARTICLE 21. GEneral Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they be gathered forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all be not Governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may Err and sometimes have Erred not only in worldly matters but also in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things Ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the holy Scripture Whence it is evident that by the Articles of the Church of England men the best of them are subject to Error which if true and very few except the Pope and Papists do deny Then with what Front can any Synod or Assembly of men Anathematize and Damn and by Excommunication deliver to the Devil all that obey not their Canons and Decrees except those Decrees be evident from the plain and undisputed sense of Holy Scriptures For if it be acknowledged that they may be in the wrong then others that they condemn may be in the right and owned by God though disowned by frail men The Popes whereof their own Writers say some have been Arrians and denyed the Divinity of Christ as Pope Liberius some Idolaters as Marcellinus some Atheists as Alexander VI. and Leo X. that said Hem quantum reddit nobis haec fabula Christi and Sextus IV. that built a Male Stew for Sodomy some Conjurers and Socerers Platina c vit Pap. as Martin II. Silvester II. John XIX John XX. John XXI Silvester III. Benedict VIII Sergius IV. Gregory VI. and many others which see at large in the lives of the Popes writ by one of their own Secretaries Platina But I love not to rake in this sink nor had I mentioned it here but as necessary to my design in shewing first all men are Erroneous none Infallible no not the Pope himself as the * Test Rhem. Annot. Mat. 23.2 a Enchir. Cont. cap. 3. de Sum. Pont. b Stella in Lucae cap. 9. Rhemists vainly vaunt and suppose And so says a Costerus the Jesuite and also b Didacus Stella Suarez Stapleton and many others and indeed the whole Fabrick of their
more the Synods and Convocations at this day who are so far from being the representative-Representative-Church of England that the people of England have not the least vote or suffrage in their Election they have not any hand I had almost said nor heart neither in the choice I am sure nor head in it I mean their advice is not askt about it Nor indeed as I shall prove hereafter are these Synods fairly Elected by the votes and suffrages of the Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and so also are not so much as the Representatives of the Clergy For though the Generality of the people heed them not so much yet they look upon the Inferiour Clergy to be at their Beck and still within their Clutches And to that purpose to make them easie and gentle to be ridden and to bear like Issachar all the burdens they impose without daring to kick them off they mouth them before they back them with an c. Oath in the 6th Can of 1640. of Canonical obedience which if they had not a good Swallow would choak them in the going down But finally my Babe of Grace forbear c. Cleveland's Poems will be to far to Swear For 't is to speak in a familiar Stile A Yorkshire Wea-bit longer than a Mile This pretty c. Oath of obedience Canonical is in these words Can. 6. of 1640 I A. B. Do Swear That I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as concerning all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so established nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and Swear according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the Faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ And if any man Beneficed or Dignified in the Church of England or any other Ecclesiastical person shall refuse this c. Oath the Bishop shall give him a Months time to inform himself and at the Months end if he refuse to take it he shall be suspended ab officio and have a second Month granted and if then he refuse to take it he shall be Suspended ab officio beneficio and have a third Month granted him for his better Information but if at the end of that Month he refuse to take the Oath abovenamed he shall be deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Promotions whatsoever and execution of his Function which he holds in the Church of England Solomon says The mercies of the wicked are cruel Prov. 12.10 but whether the Imprudence or the Impudence the ignorance or the audaciousness be greater for men at this day to dare to put those Canons in execution and to Quote them and give them in charge as Rules and Canons and Laws to the present Clergy when they are condemned by 17 Car. 1.11 and also by 13 Car. 2.12 Query What Penalty they do incur that dare set up Laws in Defiance of the Statutes of this Realm to enthral the Kings Liege People For both Laity and Clergy are in a fine Dilemma at this wicked rate Since that whosoever denies the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators or affirms that the ancient Hierarchy of the Pope is yet in being or that any other have power to make Laws in this Realm contrary and Repugnant to the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Customs and Laws or Statutes of this Realm shall be punisht c. on the one hand For what skills it to cut off the Popes Prelatical Hierarchical or Pastoral head and set up with a new-name another in the Room of it whether Presbyterian Fifth-monarchy Prelatical or any other Bigots this is to cut off Hydra's head when another as bad and alike as two Twins starts up in the Room of it But on the other hand if either Clergy or Laity derogate from Holy Synod and do not acknowledge it to be the representative-Representative-Church of England Can. 139 140 141. Anno 1603. and that dare affirm that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and the rest or c. is Antichristian or contrary to the word of God shall be Excommunicated never to be absolved until they repent and publickly revoke this wicked Error I know some that have as good a Swallow us the best Latitudinarian of them all Can. 7. 1603. but of all cornute things they most dread a Dilemma for though you escape one horn you are catcht and tost upon the other To affirm the Pope or any thing like the Conclave any other Pastoral head to be the Supream head and Governour of the Church is to incur a Praemunire by denying the Kings Supremacy as also by denying the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators And there is not a Protestant in England if a Lay-man that dares or does deny the Kings Supremacy and that the King and Parliament are the only Legislators Law-makers or Canon-makers Nay the Lay-men are not much afraid to say that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops c. or Reliquos whether Commissaries Officials Arch-Deacons Sumners or Apparitors Surrogates Registers deputy Registers Canons Petty canons Prebends Residentiaries Non-Residentiaries Chapters Chanters Precenters Rural-Deans Sub-Deans Vicar-Generals Lay chancellors c. which last are a kind of Lay-elders which we laugh at in the Presbyterians are not sound nor in the least mentioned in the word of God although they are threatned with Excommunication which in their sense is eternal damnation until they recant publickly and within 40 days after Excommunication the Gaol But the Clergy men poor Souls they are hamper'd with an c. Oath of Canonical obedience dare not say any thing in defiance of that c. Oath though it be condemned which they honest men do not know at least very few of them by Act of Parliament namely by the 13 Car. 2.12 as aforesaid The Statute 25 Hen. 8.19 condemns the Popes Supremacy and all Hierarchy and Canons which were prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative Royal 25 H. 8.19 and to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and gives Power and Authority to the King Hen. 8. to nominate and assign at his pleasure thirty two Persons of his Subjects whereof sixteen to be of the Clergy and sixteen of the Temporality Some Lay-elders then in those times of the upper and nether House of the Parliament to view search and examine the Canons Constitutions and Ordinances
himself founded in the Prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Text both of the Old and New Testament as is asserted Can. 1. of 1640 Did ever any Protestant or Popish Divines assert any such thing before this Synod decreed it Was not the first Government by Moses the Priest changed by God's express Command into an Aristocracy Did not Moses complain to God for redress Num. 11.11 12.14 as unable to bear the burden of Government himself alone because it was too heavy for him and made him weary of his life Wherefore the Lord chang'd the Government into a kind of Aristocracy or King and Parliament if you will and took the Spirit of Government that was upon Moses and gave it unto the seventy Elders Vers 16 17. That a mixt-Monarchy is the best Government is the opinion of most That the English-Constitution of Monarchy is the best kind of Government and one King and not seven Kings as of old and Established upon the Divine positive Laws of the Land on which it was first founded and on which it stands the most steddily and that it is not contrary to Holy Writ is not only my opinion but the opinion I think of all English-men nay almost of all the world that envy our happiness Every thing stands surest on its own bottom but when men to mount it higher will make it stand upon imaginary Crotches and weak props 't is the way to ruine The Holy Scriptures say expresly that there is no power but of God whether the Monarchy of Poland or the Aristocracy of Venice Genoa c. they are all of God and the Powers that be are ordained of God one as well as another and as much as another 'T is well the King and Parliament condemn'd these Canons as soon almost as born For if it once had been an allowed and an avowed Doctrine of the Church of England that Monarchy in opposition to Aristocracy is of Divine-Right founded in the Prime-Laws of nature and by express Texts both of the Old and New Testament and yet name not one such Text Then all the States of Europe must by our Doctrine be condemn'd as held jure Diabolico contrary to Divine Right and the Prime-Laws of Nature and contrary to express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments and if so what assurance could they have in affiances and Leagues with a People that in their publick Doctrines condemn them in their very Constitutions and Foundations as contrary to God Nature and holy Scripture But into what follies and extravagancies will not men run when blinded with flattery and Sycophantry and how dizzy-crown'd are some men when they are climbing or have climb'd too high till their Brains are Turn-sick This 't is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Busis in other mens Dioceses and to meddle with things above our understanding at least above our Cognizance The wringing of the Nose bringeth forth blood and straining the strings too high breaks them at least spoils the Musick and endangers all such Politicians as prefer Flattery before Truth and things Pleasing before things Profitable do never bring good to themselves nor others in Conclusion for magna est veritas praevalebit At long run Truth is always strongest Thus you see how needful it is not only to count Moneys but opinions too and Doctrines after our Spiritual Fathers Then for the Canons of 1603. Who does always bid the Prayers before Sermon as Can. 55 How is the Canon of 88. observed Prohibiting the prophaning of Churches when I could instance that without molestation some at this day are made Courts of guard for Souldiers some are made Shops of many lie desolate Who mind Can. 109. that prohibits Common-Swearers Common-Drunkards notorious Whoremasters and Whores c. from the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper Do not even Bishops hear men Swear a thousand Oaths in their hearing and either do not or dare not use any discipline against them and yet they pretend their great business is discipline and if they be not good at that what are they good for more than the Inferiour Clergy that bear the burden and sweat of the day The 112. enjoyns Ministers and Church-Wardens to present every one of their Parish that took not the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being 17 years of age of either Sex at Easter last Is this done or if it be what comes of it more than to help the Registers to a little money sometimes and in the Interim brings all the Parish about the ears of the Minister and Church-Wardens The 119. commands all Church Wardens to make a true Presentment of all and every the Articles given them in charge and to which they are Sworn and not perfunctorily and for form sake only But let but the Church-Wardens give the Registers their money and subscribe omnia benè though all be amiss yet all is heal'd up with two or three shillings The 120th Canon decrees that all Citations of quorum nomina should be sent out subscribed by the Judge or Surrogate of the Court and not only by the Register But who observes it The 135. and 136. enjoyns a Table of Fees to be hung up in the place where the Ecclesiastical Courts are kept that every one may at his pleasure take a Copy but works of darkness hate the light The Statute enjoyns upon great penalty that they shall not take above 6 d. for any Letters of Administration or Probate where the Goods of the Deceased amount not to 5 l. But they will have 17 s. 10 d. though the Goods come not to 40 s. and 18 s. 2 d. where the Goods amount to above 40 l. And for engrossing the Inventory and one Story or other they 'le make the Administrator pay at the least 17 s. or 18 s. when the Goods come not to 40 s. And when the Goods come to above 40 l. they never take less than six and twenty shillings sometimes 30 s. sometimes 40 s. sometimes 50 s. sometimes more as I can instance in very many particulars And if a poor man Indict them upon the Statute they have so many Holes to ereep out as and great friends that go snips with them perhaps that little good is to be done upon them as well as little good by them But I confess that the Canons of 1603. and 1640. stand upon weak Foundations for the reasons aforesaid in comparison of those Canons made by the Four first General Councils wherein all consent and also all other Canons Provincial and Synodical made before 25 Hen. 8. are all by the 19. of 25 Hen. 8. confirmed so that they be not contrary and repugnant to the Laws of this Realm Yet in the 15th and 16th Canon of the first General Council of Nice it is provided that no Bishop shall remove from one Bishoprick to another that is fatter and better nor that any Presbyter remove from one Benefice to another because the great Tythes fill a
and make Canons and Laws by themselves alone as if they alone were the Church Thus when Magna Charta says That Holy Church should be free They always meant and it is so construed at this Day Let the Clergy be free from Taxes Impositions c. So that by the Church of England is meant the Clergy of England A little Church then surely in so great a Realm and a great pity that so many Lay-Brethren should dye out of the Pale of the Church And yet the Dignitaries of the Church not content to be onely amongst the Croud of other Clergy-men the Church streighten the Bounds and take in the Pale to more scanty Limits making themselves when in Synod especially and Convocation at least the Representative-Church and of power to see for all the rest and to bind them to what Decrees and Laws they list Thus the Articles of Religion Regn. Eliz. Anno Domini 1562. Articuli de quibus convenit c. Articles agreed upon in the Synod of London By and Between the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Both Provinces and all the Clergy What little share the Inferiour Clergy have in making such Articles I have shown already and also that 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed on which those Articles seem to be founded Which yet I say not to weaken the force and vertue of them they are so good so moderate so charitable so Christian-like in themselves that they need no voucher no Statutes to vouch them they are so honestly come by For Pride and Passion Prejudice and Peevishness Malice and Revenge the wonted Inmates were excluded the Convocation-House when those 39. Articles of the Church of England were composed and nothing but the Naked-Truth permitted entrance 'T is strange you 'l say and in a Synod too compos'd of Clergy-men and of the few too But I care not for that once it happened to be so it seems But still I say under favour The Holy Apostles never took so much upon them to make Canons and Constitutions but by assent and consent as well as joint Promulgation in the names of all the Lay-Brethren or when the multitudes of Disciples were encreased at least they might I hope have a vote in chusing who should represent them in this representative Church Which if true and It is before sufficiently prov'd then surely as the Church of Corinth Ephesus Galatia c. were the Christians of Corinth Ephesus Galatia c. Clergy and Lay together though those distinctions were not then known so really and truly The Church of England are all the Christian's of England over them under Christ the King is the Visible Head and Supreme Governour in the Executive power and the King and Parliament in the Legislative or Canon-making Power With what tollerable modesty then can the Clergy alone much less a few of them arrogate to themselves the Title Priviledges and Immunities of the Church of England Tell not me that it was so when the Pope usurp't the Supremacy what is that to us now I know that when Magna Charta was made by Holy Church being Free was meant Let the Clergy be free from Taxes c. but how little did the Prelates value that Law for though the Clergy by that Statute was free from Impositions and Burdens yet the Prelates did not so much regard it seems but that they notwithstanding would venture to Pill and Poll the Inferiour Clergy by Procurations Synodal's Visitations and many more vexations as if the Clergy was free for no body to fleece but for themselves alone and that too arbi trarily Better it is for them much better to be thrown up in Common as of yore amongst the Laity again and take Neighbour's-fare by Acts of Parliament than by being an Inclosure and exempt be made the peculiar of arbitrary-Impositions though by the men of their own Cloth none were so unkind to Joseph as his own Brethren he had fairer Quarters from the Gypsees As the Clergy all of them have as much His Majesties Protection as other folk and the benefit of the Laws nay and the benefit of the Clergy too if they need it as much as any Lay-men good reason therefore they should contribute equally with others to Taxes and Arms and to the Poor c. But 't is sad when this will not suffice but for enjoying the name and nothing but the name of the Church They shall not only pay First-Fruits and Tenths to His Majesty as bound by Law but to pay without end and without Law all the Arbitrary Impositions that Rich and great Men of their own Cloth shall lay upon them for Letters of orders Institution Induction Licences to Preach Procurations Synodals Visitations and then again for shewing these Letters of Orders Institutions c. 't is that makes you so poor and beggarly generally and consequently contemptible world without end I cannot but with some complacency read the Statute of 16. Rich. 2.5 where the King and Parliament when Popery was in its Zenith did not forget that they and the Clergy the Inferiour Clergy too were English-men namely That Whereas the Commons of the Realm in this present Parliament have showed to our redoubted Lord the King grievously complaining That whereas our said Lord the King and all his Liege People ought of right mark that and of Old time wont mark that too to sue in the King's Court to recover their Presentments to Churches Prebends and other Benefices of Holy Church to the which they had right to Present The cognizance of Plea of which Presentment belongeth only mark that too to the Kings Court of the old Right of his Crown used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors Kings of England And when Judgments shall be given in the same Court upon such a Plea and Presentment mark that too The Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Spiritual Persons which have Institution of such Benefices within their Jurisdiction be bound mark that too and have made Execution of such Judgments without Interruption mark the Reason for another Lay-Person cannot make such Execution And also be bound of right mark that too to make Execution of many other the King's Commandments c. too long here to insert but concluding That against the offenders Process by Praemunire facias should be made and not only against the offenders but against their Procurators Executors Maintainors mark that too as in the Statute of Provisors 27 Edw. 3.1 and against All other which do sue in any other Court mark that too in derogation of the Regality of our Lord the King Whence it appears That even in those Popish times Patrons most whereof were Lord of the Mannors and gave the Tythes and Glebe should present right and good reason and give their own may they not do what they will with their own to what Clerk they please giving him thereby Jus ad rem and then the Bishop and Archdeacons by Institution and Induction as Instruments in Law because a Lay-person as
The Naked Truth The Second Part. In Several INQUIRIES Concerning the CANONS AND Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Canonical Obedience Convocations Procurations Synodals and Visitations ALSO OF THE Church of England AND Church-wardens AND The Oath of Church-wardens AND OF SACRILEDGE The Second Edition Corrected and Amended Blanditur Cathedra Speculaest Inde denique superintendis Sonans tibi Episcopi nomine non Dominum sed officium Alta sedens non alta sapiens sed humilia de te Sentiens humilibusque consentiens Praesis ut prosis debitor non Dominator Bernard lib. 2. de Consideratione London Printed for Francis Smith and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1681. THE EPISTLE TO THE READERS Courteous Reader NO man does more Reverence Good Bishops than my self nor does any man less dread them with a slavish fear I admire them at my distance but I do not Idolize them I honour them but I do not fall down and worship them I can say My Lord and yet not add My God Nor will you find in this ensuing Inquiry the least Tang of Bitterness or yellow Choler No nor so much as one tart or harsh Expression being so far from justly disgusting any that I shall not so much as set their Teeth on Edge so insipid and simple an humour have I cherisht all along through this whole Discourse for fear of any Satyrical mixtures that I doubt you will scarce find any Salt Savour or Smacky Rellish here 't will scarce bite the Tongue of a Sinner Solomon sayes Prov. 17.27 That men of understanding are of excellent Spirits To render the words litterally from the Original Men of understanding are long-nos'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint Translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A man of understanding is Long-breasted metaphorically put for Patient His heart is not near his month he is not easily Provoked and therefore men will neither shew their Wit nor Grace to be angry without a cause without a good and honest cause at what is here Writ Let us rather say with that good German Emperor We ought to be angry with our Sins not with our Friends that tell us of them Yet I cannot say in truth that I have concealed my name because I have no skill nor strength to bear good and evil report with Equanimity For I bless Almighty God that as his Providence has exercised me with both in no small measure so I have found by long and large experience His strength in my weakness that I can say without vain boasting I walk without much concern by Honour and Dishonour by evil Report and good Report Nor is it because I am afraid or ashamed at any thing here writ that I thus appear on the publick Stage in Masquerade in such Disguise to walk Incognito But the Subject of my Inquiries leads me necessarily to rake in a Nest of Wasps and Hornetts peevish by nature more enraged by Interest thus to be disturbed of a warm nest and therefore would certainly buzze about my Ears if I were not thus muffled and Hooded up Yet I hope I have here disarmed them of their Weapons by taking the Sting out of their Tails at least the Venom that though they may yet make a Humming Noise yet they shall be as Stingless as Drones Besides I am neither of the Race of the Decii nor of the Curtii to sacrifice all my quiet to the Publick good in this thankless Age wherein many men are of so currish a disposition and so used to the Collar about their Necks that they are ready to snap at those Fingers that would pull it off But however in short what wise man would be content to be a Butt to be shot at though Armed Cap-a-pee with Armour of Proof The inconvenience for it wants not some of allowing to the Press this Liberty so natural and agreeable to our English Complexion and Constitution and the Common-mother of the Naked Truth which is usually begot betwixt this bandying Pro and Con cannot possibly equal that of making a Monopoly of the Press taking in the Common and confining it to a certain set of men that would seem to keep the Key of Knowledge and the Press and they neither enter in themselves and they that would enter in they hinder like surly Porters that usually keep out better men than they let in Magistrates and good Bishops should say with St. Paul We can do nothing against the Truth 2 Cor. 3.8 but for the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is We have no power as the Original imports to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Nor have all the Bishops in England any power over us although they had as lawful a Commission for their Spiritual Courts and Jurisdiction as once they had more than St. Paul had over those Corinthians which he confesses in the Tenth Verse was for Edification not for Destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 A good Magistrate may do a man good so may a good Bishop but neither of them have power any lawful Power given them to do harm or wrong And if they chance to find me out notwithstanding my Disguise I 'le answer for every tittle here declared with the words of our Blessed Redeemer If I have spoken Evil bear witness of the Evil but if Well Why smitest thou me And I am sure what is here pretended has no design in the world but purely in all Humility and Love to Truth the Publick-weal And if in any thing I be mistaken my Errors shall never be Heresies none shall upon a rational Conviction more readily and willingly retract them than my self One would wonder a little at first at that Passage 1 Tim. 6.17 1 Tim. 6.17 where the Apostle gives the Charge to Rich men that they be not high-minded since Poor and Proud is true to a Proverb The Latines by one and the same word expresse a man humble in mind and humbled with afflictions they are so near a Kin and the way God usually takes to make a man humble is to humble him as he did Nebuchadnezzar by afflictions For Prosperity puffeth up and swells a man naturally and if through Grace a Rich man be not high-minded he had need keep a constant Watch and Ward over his mind for height will tempt his mind to be high-minded and proud as Lucifer Thus have I seen a man stretch and stand on tip-toe and stalk in High Shooes upon a Church-Steeple and look with scorn on all below and yet if he had stood on even ground and measured fair with those Inferiors he despis'd as Pigmies he would not be able to reach their heads In climbing Masons and Carpenters well observe whilst men look upwards they cannot be giddy crown'd vertiginous and turn-sick but if they look down 't is odds but their Brains turn round till they fall 'T is most true in Morals and in Divinity whilst men
nor his Successors shall never grant them any more Repealing 1 Eliz. 1. their great Foundation So that we are come at length to an easie Resolution of the Query For if the Spiritual Courts be askt the question By what Authority they do these things and who gave them this authority Whether God or man Not God for certain because there is not the least Specimen of Chancellors Registers Sumners Officials Commissaries Advocates Notaries Surrogates c. or any ejusdem farinae in Holy Writ Nor from Man because his Majesty has by Statute Enacted never to empower them with any more Commissions to the worlds end But if they pretend they have it ab origine as was their original from that old Hierarchy of the Pope that founded them they incur a Praemunire the greatest of punishments on this side death nay any might kill a man attainted in Praemunire without being prosecuted as an Homicide till Eliz. 5.1 took away that severity but at this day they forfeit goods and liberty but not life So that if the Question I say be put to them concerning their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Spiritual Courts as in another case it was put by our Blessed Saviour to the Pharisees Is it from Heaven or from men I fear all their Learned Doctors of their Canon-Law must answer as the Pharisees did We cannot tell And if so I think they have brought their Hogs to a fine Market if after all this Cry there appear to be so little Wool who 'le give five hundred pounds for a Chancellors-place and as much or more for a Registers-place And though the Clergy or others might by the Kings Commission make Laws and Canons while 1 Eliz. 1. was in force and which lasted all her and King James his Reign and till 17 Car. 1. yet then the branch of that Statute of 1 Eliz. 1. being taken away and also Repealed by his present Majesty 13 Car. 2.12 till which time the Canons in 1603 and 1640. were in force but now that their Basis is taken away that branch 1 Eliz. 1. I cannot discern where their Authority lies more than in the said days of Queen Mary when they confest they had none But this I do not peremptorily assert but leave it to the consideration of men of greater abilities reading and leisure than my necessary Diversions and constant Employs will at present admit And I wish with all my heart if wishes would do that most of the Canons of 1603. and also some of 1640. were of more Authority than indeed they are And if the Reader knew me he would also know it is my Interest which can never Lye to have them and the Clergy and the Hierarchy too of greater and more justifiable Authority than they have at present Yet nevertheless as I have Christened this my Discourse in the Title-page The Naked Truth it shall never be said whatever be the Consequence that it derogates from the name I have no Picque no Design no Interest against Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but on the contrary I have one of my own where my Predecessors have exercised as much Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction though not so often it being but a little one as any Bishop in England and therefore if the Naked Truth did not silence Interest I would not enlarge one Syllable more And I will further add that the first Reformers whereof many of them were Martyrs do seem to be so divinely Inspired in composing the 39 Articles of the Church of England that is of the Doctrine of the Church of England that there is scarce one Fanatick in England so Foppish as to differ or deny so evenly have they cut a hair betwixt the Remonstrant and Anti-remonstrant and other diversity of opinions that though they differ toto Coelo from one another yet they all concenter and agree in those 39 Articles of the Church of England But when the said Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. gave power to the Queen and her Successors to set up a High-Commission Court They made work I 'le promise you woful work sometimes and about trifles too So that I must say of them and the Canons of 1603 and 1640. as is usually said of a great Wit viz. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixturâ dementiae And this will appear if we further consider that even those men of the Hierarchy that most vaunt those Canons and Impose them upon others Though a burden too heavy to be born yet they themselves will not touch them with one of their Fingers when thwarting their Interest of which take a few Instances that first occur and come into my mind Who regards or observes Can. 2.4.5.7.9.11 14. of 1640 For are all Socinian-Books and also those of Brownists Separatists Anabaptists Familists and other Sects burnt Are none kept bought nor sold as Can. 2. 4. does enjoyn Is the Communion-Table every where plac'd Altar-wise and Rail'd in as recommended Can. 7 Indeed the 6th Canon with the c. Oath is too much kept and a shame it should be suffered indeed to be Imposed upon the Consciences of the Clergy being disallowed by Act of Parliament as aforesaid But pitiful is the case of young Clergy-men especially if they be put to the sad choice either to swallow the Oath of Canonical obedience with the c. to-boot and into the bargain or else starve for want of Institution to a Living Are all Conventiclers Separatists and members of gathered-Churches Excommunicated and every three Months declared to be such to put the Zealots in mind to take out a Writ de excommunicato capiendo against them and put them all in Gaol And who will lay out money to build Gaols enough to hold them all Can. 9. and 11. and Can. 65. 1603 who reads Prayers upon the Inauguration-day of King Charles 2. as enjoyned Can. 2 who furnishes all the Parishes with two Books of Common-Prayers compiled for that purpose as decreed Can. 2 Who does upon every Eve of the Festivals and Saints days in the year as well as upon all Holy-days read Prayers publickly or if they do a little in some places in the Morning how few in the Afternoons and yet enjoyn'd Can. 14 How many Spiritual Courts do take care to put into the Condition of the Bonds of Security given by the Party to be Married by Licence That the Parties or one of them have or hath been a Month commorant in the said Jurisdiction immediately before the said Licence granted look the Condition of their Printed Bonds there 's not a word of it but catch that catch may they know among themselves the weakness of their Canons and therefore every one makes his own Market and the best he can of them yet this is decreed Can. 16. 1640. Who can make the States of Venice Holland Genoa Switzerland c. believe that the most High and Sacred order of Kings if taken in opposition to Aristocracy and other modes of Government is of Divine-Right being the Ordinance of God
16 17 nay the Holy Ghost fell upon the whole Auditory Acts 10.44 And that there should be no mistake St. Peter you must know it was before he was Pope he confesses there was no difference nor Preference nor Prelacy for like Priest like People The people have received the Holy Ghost as well as we The Disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 13.52 so also the Gentiles Acts 15.8 and the Holy Ghost made no difference vers 9. no no 'T is Pride and ambition that makes the difference The Holy Ghost in his gifts made none in Temporal affairs there must be a difference but to Spiritual gifts the poor are entituled as much as the Rich. A Deacon a Presbyter or Priest are names wherewith the Apostles and Primitive Christians were well acquainted but Arch Deacon and Arch Priest c. are but modern coyn and did not pass currant in the Primitive times of Christianity Yet if the ambitions of men did not extend nor aim at any higher reach than to vye with or out vye their equals contemporaries or betters it is still but humane ambition and pardonable But most of the Councils whether Oecumenical Provincial or Synodical since the Primitive times have ever since the Gifts extraordinary of the Holy Ghost left the Church vy'd with the Apostles for the Infallible Spirit in their Assemblies not an ace less would they go Nay which is an ambition not less groundless than vain and ridiculous they would outvy the Apostles in Monopolizing the infallible Spirit to themselves alone the Clergy forsooth Whereas all the people all the brethren as aforesaid received the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles and they were consulted and their advice askt in framing Canons as aforesaid It being meet that they that were oblig'd should have a hand and a heart a vote and a consent at least by their Representatives in those Decrees that obliged them to obedience But no such matter no for when the French or Spanish faction prevails in the Conclave when an Arrian Emper or makes an Arrian Council and consequently an Arrian Creed as at Ariminum and when an Homousian Emperor makes an Athanasian as in the first General Council of Nice when an Idolatrous Empress makes Canons for worshipping of Images Harangu'd to it by some of her favourite Priests as in the second Council of Nice when Simony Flattery Hypocrisie or Sorcery creates a Pope and a thousand Fopperies Partialities and Interest of Princes swayes in the Conclave of Cardinals yet none of them all will bate a Tittle of the old Preface to their Canons namely It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Constantine the great was no Arrian nor yet Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea before praised whatever some men imagine but without dispute he made the greatest part of the Creed for the whole Council of Nice As may be seen at large in his Epistle to the people of his own Diocess Theod. lib. 1. c. 12. which the great Constantine very well approved of But the Council of Nice had a hand in altering it a little and made some little addition of the word Homousios or Consubstantial which neither Eusebius nor any Orthodox man does gain-say nevertheless that un scriptural word though according to the sense of Scripture made the greatest Schism in the Church that ever was and was at last the great cause of the Turks Conquests and Triumphs over Christendom The Arrians which once was the Major part of Christendom chusing rather to turn Turks that owned and to this day own the Lord Jesus Christ to be the great Prophet of God and with whom they met with fairer quarters than amongst some of the Orthodox so fatal has it been to Christendom to impose unscriptural words upon mens Consciences under the Title of the Infallible Spirit and Holy-Ghost in meer disputable points that will endure Contest to the worlds end As if God and our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost The Holy Trinity did condemn all men as fast as one man condemns another and meerly too because they cannot see to split a hair as few men of all mankind are so quick-sighted betwixt Homousion and Homoiousion or betwixt one substance with the Father and alike substance with the Father I 'le only add the words of Eusebius Theod. l. 1. c. 12. namely Therein in the said first Council of Nice It was Prohibited that any man should make use of any Terms which the Custom of the Scriptures do not allow by which Phrases or Terms have happened all these Revels and Disorders wherewith the Church is thus disturb'd Observe how agreeable that Note of Eusebius is to that Divine 20th Article of the Church of England set down at length in the beginning of this Discourse And how careful our first Reformers were and tender of laying Stumbling-blocks before the weak not delighting to make them fall in hopes to get a top of them or get some booty from them much less did they cram unscriptural Articles Canons and Creeds down mens throats and ram them down with a Curse an Anathema or Excommunication However no c. Creeds and Canons are so ramm'd down Again by what Authority do they lay Injunctions and Burdens Canons and Decrees on all mankind that are Christians Whilst the Roman-Emperour had the universal Monarchy there might be General Councils to whom he gave Command to sit approv'd or disprov'd their Acts and gave life and vigour to their Canons when Enacted But now it is next to Impossible now that both Emperour and Pope have such a Precarious sway that there should be an Oecumenical Council the Old House is too much broken to pieces and divided against it self Besides if there were a General-Council what Tokens are upon them of the Holy Ghost more than upon a Parliament who pretend not to be Bigots nor to have the people Bigotted but ruled by God according to the Laws of the Land they live in in all quietness godliness and honesty and in Righteousness and Holiness according to the Divine Laws of the Land Men live in For if once Men come to dispute Authority and the wisdom of the Laws and Law-makers the next step is Confusion and Rebellion nor did or can any Government under Heaven subsist when they are not able to avow and execute their Laws against all Gainsayers This notwithstanding does not urge that Governours if wise should be wanton in Power and lay unnecessary Burdens upon their people though weak for they are the least able to bear and if the Laws or Canons they impose be nothing but some necessary things as did the said Synod of Jerusalem there are none but obstinate and querulous persons that will refuse Obedience and such must be made to know themselves or else the Government sits very unsteady as being precarious the condition of Supplicants not of such as bear Sway and Authority And one would wonder that those that have Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction if now
there be any such thing should desire to hold it at this Precarious Rate they do I say not this that I grudge any Power they have but wish them more But Power though fading is so pleasant to some Men that they are loth to part with it or like frank Gamesters venture it for a better and as much more rather like drowning Men they lay hold of that that does but help to sink and drown them in conclusion And is it not worth the greatest care to give relief in this Extremity or set the Church that is the Kingdom to rights which has gone so long lame and limping on the right side But how shall this be done there 's the skill or who shall do it The Synod sure that call themselves the Representative Church of England in pain of Anathema to all that dare deny Ay but the Laity the Laity have got generally an odd opinion to see with their own Eyes and not by Spectacles especially not Spectacles of Clergy make which of old they were so long us'd to they thought it spoiled their eye-sight and so being kept blind the Clergy led them by the nose whilst the ignorant Laity pinn'd their Faith upon the Clergy-mans sleeve and Ignorance was the Mother of their Devotion Besides The naked Truth is uniform but Canons and Decrees of Clergymen do so differ and clash one with another that it is impossible they should all be truth Truth which never yet was patcht and Pye-bal'd or wore a Party-colour'd Coat But how has one Council condemn'd and curst another to the pit of Hell How usual for one Pope to dig up the Carcase of his immediate Predecessour and either hang him up in Effigie at least or throw his dead Body after it has been sufficiently abused at farewell into Tyber Again why do Clergy men only Represent in Council and not all the Brethren the Laity as of old How come Synod men to be so lickt that all others compar'd to them are but an ugly shapeless Lump of deformity Or how come they the Clergy to be the Representative Church of England when met in Synod though the Lay-people never gave any Votes in their Election nor so much as any of their Advices consulted about the chusing those Members of the Convocation And if not how come they obliged to obey their Decrees and Canons when they never gave them their Suffrages and consent Though the Clergy chuse some of them the Nether-house for so they distinguish Parliament like yet the Vpper house is made up of Bishops and the Richer Dignitaries Deans Arch-Deacons c. which make up by far the major part the Inferiour Clergy of the Kingdom have no Vote in their Election and yet must be concluded by them their Canons and Decrees as if they really had given their Suffrages to their Election and the Constituting of the Synod for it is all but umbrage As for Example In the Diocess of London there are Five Arch-deaconries namely the Arch-deaconries of London Essex Middlesex Colchester and Hartford In each of these Arch-deaconries Two of their Inferiour Clergy are chosen Procurators for the ensuing Synod Elected de novo as often as there is a new Parliament chosen And these Ten one would think should be a very fine ballance to the Hierarchy and Richer Dignitaries the Bishop Dean Five Arch-deacons the Chapter c. and almost but not altogether able to turn the Scales But I thank you when it comes to there 's no such matter for it is five to one that not one of those Synod men which with such ado are Elected shall sit For the Bishop out of these Ten chuses and culls out Two and sends the rest home again as if they never had been chosen And how then should these Synod men be called properly and in pain of Damnation so owned for the Representative Church of England since they are not at all Elected by the Laity nor any of the Vpper-house chosen by the Clergy and of the Nether house but Two of Ten that are chosen are suffered to sit Besides that said Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. on which the Convocation did once flourish being now wither'd and made of no effect what does a Convocation signifie all these things consider'd together towards a Representative Church of England and to lay Burthens and Impositions necessary or unnecessary upon the Natives without his Majesties Commission Besides since 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed whereby the High-Commission-Court had so great Power as by vertue of that Statute to dispense with the said Statute of 1 Edw. 6.2 after it was revived by 1 Jacob. 25. all the Reign of King James and part of Car. 1. so that they never did admit the King's Arms into the Seal of the Court nor yet vouchsafe to send Process and Citations c. in any other Name no not the Kings but their own only is to be attributed to the dreadful awe in which Nobles Lawyers Gentry and Commonalty were kept by the Terrors of a Star-Chamber and High Commission-Court Which being now Dissolved Quere whether they must not be accountable for the neglect of that Statute of 1 Edw. 6.2 whenever Authority shall reckon with them in good time But in other cases 't is said Forbearance is no Acquittance These Oecumenical Provincial Synodical Classical c. Assemblies and Synods with their Directories and Impositions Canons and Decrees have made a great deal of noise and bub-bub in the World Theod. lib. 1. c. 6. which brings to my mind that passage of Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia an Arrian to the Lord Paulinus Bishop of Tyrus namely Some approved one Party some another The Actions of both parts lookt not only like a Tragedy but also deserved much weeping and lamentation The case was not now as in former times for they were not Forraign Enemies that took Arms against the Church but Men of one Houshold of one Kindred yea and such as were Fellows at one Table instead of Lances they whetted their Tongues one against another Nay moreover when they were Members compacted and united into one body yet for all that they were armed to Battle within themselves Then since as must be confessed men whilst humane are subject to erre and especially in their own cases and for their own Interest to be partial cruel and passionate since one Canon contradicts another one Synod another one Assembly another and perhaps all of them repugnant to Truth Holy Scripture and the Laws of this Realm Until it please God to send us the Infallible Spirit God grant us the humble meek and milde Spirit not this bloody cruel Horse-leach Spirit of imposing upon men and making them believe in spight of their teeth and putting out their eyes because they are not so good and clearly discerning or more quicksighted than our own calling one another Heretick to the end of the Chapter which has as aforesaid caused most of the Miseries Wars Mutinies Bloodshed and Calamities in the
each other by Articles and informations endeavouring to make each other more black that were black enough already and by blemishing their Reputations with the General get them turn'd out of their Livings Constantine had work enough says the Historian to keep the Peace amongst them and to keep them quiet and as the best Expedient he call'd them all before him and every ones heart leapt with joy and fear with joy that the Articles he had put in against his adversary should be first read and consider'd but yet in a trembling fear lest the black-lot should be his own from which sears the Emperour forthwith deliver'd them all by making a Bonefire of all the Indictments and charging them thenceforth to keep the Peace And blessed be God for this piety and prudence of the Emperor or else with what strange dismal features had these Holy Fathers been decipher'd to posterity if their Pictures as they had drawn and pourtrayed one another in their Informations had been transmitted to after-Ages instead of being committed to the fire Yet the Clergy The Clergy what by the Piety of some Princes and the simplicity of others got such Immunities and Priviledges to sin and offend the Laws and yet be free from the Cognizance or Jurisdiction of the Lay-Magistrate that they begun to distinguish themselves in Habit from other men and colour of their Clothes as did the Pharisees of old that a man thought himself never so safe as when he had got on a Cassock and Girdle or some such distinguishing weed I doubt not but St. Peter and St. Paul were as good Clergy-men as the best of them and yet after they were Apostles who could distinguish them for such as the word Clergy is now taken that had found St. Peter a fishing with his Fishers Coat tuckt about him and St. Paul in his Loom a weaving But in process of time the Presbyters or Priests begun to call themselves alone the Church themselves alone the Council and Synod and themselves alone God's Heritage or God's Lot or which is all one his Clergy But since this word Clergy has so long obtain'd in the world how properly I have already discuss'd and also is become part of-some Statutes in England I that hate Innovation without great cause will even let it go as it is and take it in its common acceptation hereafter I only have said thus much to show that neither the Name nor the Thing neither the word Clergy nor yet God's Heritage belongs any more to this Tribe of Levi than to other Christians if so much nor that they alone above all others nor some of the few and odd ones amongst them much less are the Representative Church of England and must needs be acknowledged so to be in pain of Excommunication the Gaol and Damnation And by the premises it seems to be evident that there is no Law or Canon at this day in force or of force sufficient to make them such a Representative One Head we all acknowledge viz. Imperial but the Pastoral Head was Beheaded as aforesaid when the Popes Head was cut off And where is that Hydra that dare put his Prelatical Fifth-Monarchy or Presbyterian Head in his room Laymen cannot see so readily the Tokens of the Infallible Spirit amongst these Clergy and Synod-men that they boast of but that they are faulty and frail at least as much as other prudent Men even in that first general Council before praised Arrius had some friends amongst them to the last and such that refused their Bishopricks no common Bigots I 'le promise you and contemning the glorious Caresses and gifts of an Emperour that seem'd to be enamoured and in love with those Reverend Fathers even almost to sin rather than they would subscribe to keep their High seats the Nicene Creed And when after the death of Constantine when the Arrian Creed and Religion came to be uppermost and the State-Religion and the opinion countenanc'd preferr'd and infashion at Court as it did in the days of his Son and Successor Constantius many of the Nicene-Creed-Bishops fac'd about kept their Bishopricks and their Livings being not now neither Non-Conformists like the Vicar of Bray only Athanasius alone stood it out to the last with great constancy In the Seventeenth Canon of the said first Council of Nice it is ordained that no Bishop shall ordain any that are not of his own Diocess without the consent of the Bishop of that Diocess to whom he appertains or if he does the Ordination is null and void Whence note how easie was the Remove from being a Clergy-man back again as you were a Lay-man where was the indelible Character in those days that the Papists prate of The Eighteenth Canon is made against Clergy-men that are Usurers the penalty was loss of his Bishoprick or Living and also the Clergy-man for his Usury was made a Lay-man again so small was the leap from Clergy to Laity In the Twentieth Canon being the last it is piously ordained that no man shall pray kneeling upon the Lords-day or in the days of Pentecost But enough of the Canons and these first Canons and Canon-makers I 'le conclude them as St. Bernard does Homil. 4. super missus est Videas plerosque in Ecclesiâ de ignobilibus nobiles de pauperibus divites factos subitò intumescere pristinae oblivisci abjectionis genus quoque suum erubescere infimos dedignare parentes c. Video alios quos non sine dolore videri debet post aggressam Christi Militiam rursùs saecularibus implicari negotiis rursùs cupiditatibus terrenis immergi cum magnâ curâ exigere muros negligere mores c. You may see quoth he very many Church-men of mean Parentage now made equal with Noblemen of poor Fellows now made Rich and swell so suddenly and look big that the Priest forgets that ever he was Clark nay he 's asham'd of his own Parents and the stock he came on And some Money'd-men you may see fly presently into high Ecclesiastical Dignities and then presently admire themselves for their worth and holiness when alas they have got indeed richer Copes not richer Brains thinking themselves Men of Worth and deserving that great Dignity to which they arriv'd through the assistance of great friends and flattery And if I durst say which they purchast with their Money not with their deserts Not to speak of those that are so hoodwink't with Ambition that their places makes them proud and high and unsociable c. coveting to involve themselves in Secular Affairs and Ambitious Designs after they have listed themselves Souldiers in the Camp of Christ which I am very much troubled to see they being more careful to Erect stately Mannors than to correct their evil Manners c. Query III. Of Procurations Synodals and Visitations Query WHether since by the Laws of this Realm no man ought to take a Purse or exact any Money but by Act of Parliament Procurations Synodals and
Visitations may be exacted of and paid by the Inferiour Clergy to the richer Dignitaries Answ Procurations are certain Impositions exacted from the Clergy by the Bishops and his Eyes called Arch-Deacons in their Visitations claiming the same by ancient Custom but no Law The original of these Procurations is pretended to be a Compact or Agreement made betwixt the Incumbent and the Visitor viz. the Bishop or Arch-Deacon whereby each Incumbent charged himself or his Benefice with such a yearly Rent to the Visitor to defray his and their Charges at some great Town fit for their reception at a publick Meeting or Visitation of the Clergy rather than be pestered with entertaining the Visitor and his Train which grew like a snow-ball the further it roll'd in their Ecclesiastick Visitations which of old were the only Visitations But he that has but a life-Estate as no Parson or Vicar has any more in his Benefice can never grant a Rent for ever out of such Benefice and bind his Successors nil dat quod non habet it is not so much as an Annuity or Rent-seck much less can the Incumbent or Termer grant a Rent-charge no not with the consent of the Patron Spiritual Livings being surely incorporeal things You see then if some do but of any fashion get in one foot it is hard getting them out again perhaps they 'l say as some have done that no Clergyman Benefic'd Rector not Vicar has any Freehold in his Living but all is the Bishop's and the Inferiour Clergy that do the great Work are but the Bishops Curates and Journey-men I 'le assure you some of them are so ignorant that they know no better and dare not value themselves nor behave themselves in his presence at a higher rate And yet this Lording over the Clergy this exercising Dominion one Clerg man over another as the Princes of the Gentiles and usually call'd Prelacy is not only absolutely forbid by our Blessed Saviour as aforesaid but as much care and provision made against the Pride and Avarice of the greater sort of Clergymen if such cob-web and net-work Laws or Canons could hold the mighty as heart can wish To instance in a few that first come to my mind at present for some men will never take warning until their Iniquities become to be hateful to all Mankind Our Blessed Saviour warns them the Apostle Peter warns them not to play the Bishop for filthy lucre but of a ready mind the ancient Councils Fathers Canons Laws and Statutes warn them and command to forbear this more than bestial rapacity but surdo fabulam for of all spoyls none are made with more ease and safety than when the Inferiour Clergy become a Prey to the great ones yet no spoils are so unchristian unhumane nor so unnatural Tygers spare their own whelps Eagles Hawks and Kites use not their sharper Talons against Birds of their own feather Dogs indeed and Swine only of all Brutes have a stomach to feed upon eat up and devour their own kind Dictum est etiam quod in plerisque locis Archidiaconi super Fresbyteros exerceant Dominatisnem ab eis censum exigant Cabilonens Synod 2. cap. 15. quod magis ad Tyrannidem quà m ad Rectitudinis ordinem pertinet Si enim Episcopi juxta Petri Apostoli sententiam non debent esse dominantes in clero sed farma facti gregis ex animo multò minùs isti boc facere debent Sed contenti sint regularibus disciplinis teneant propriam mensuram quod eis ab Episcopis jungitur hoc per parochias suas exercere studeant nihil per cupiditatem aut avaritiam prasumentes that is It is reported that in many places Arch-Deacons domineer over Parish Priests and will have Money of them which exaction borders upon Tyranny rather than right Order and Justice For if Bishops in the opinion of the Apostle Peter ought not to Lord it over the Clergy but take the oversight of the flock not by constraint but willingly much less should these Fellows do the same but be content with good Discipline and the Corps of their Arch-Deaconry keeping within their own bounds and endeavour to put the Bishops Injunctions in execution all over the Diocess not daring to do any thing through Avarice or greediness There is a like Order made in Concil Lateran sub Alexandro 3. Concil Lat. par 2. c. 3. to the Archbishop of Canterbury against Exactions of this nature and the Extortions of the Arch-Deacon of Coventry Object If it be objected that these Synods are none of the Four first General Councils Answ It is readily confest for how should they make Laws against the Exorbitances of Arch-Deacons when there was no such Creature in nature exercising any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Anast in vit Sixt. Rom. Episc and therefore could not abuse their Authority till they had it to abuse I read indeed Anno Dom. 260. of St. Lawrence an Arch-Deacon Martyr'd in that year saith Anastasius But this Arch-Deacon had nothing of our Arch-Deacons but the Name he was indeed Arch-Deacon in English the Arch-servant or Chief Deacon to the Bishop of all the Servants or Deacons about him He was Chief Turn-key Prudent de Coronis saith Prudentius describing his Office at best but Chief Porter or Door keeper that kept the Keys of the poor mans Box and the Church-doors Claustris sacrorum praeerat to use the words of Prudentius coelestis arcanum domus fidis gubernans clavibus votasque dispensans opes The Arch-Deacon was chief Turn-key or chief Steward among the Deacons and chosen by themselves from among themselves The next Arch-Deacon I read of was one Stephen Anno 255. Arch-Deacon to Cornelius Pope of Rome St. Ambrose had got one about the year 400. Afterwards the Name by the favour of the Emperors of Constantinople became a Name of some repute for till then Mr. Arch-Deacon was not suffered to sit nor yet to be cover'd in presence of a Parish Priest But about this time as before Diocesans began to appropriate the Name of Bishops to themselves alone which in the Apostles days signified no more than Presbyter as appears by 1 Pet. 5.1 Tit. 1.5 6 7. where the Presbyter in the fifth verse is called Bishop in the seventh verse and Acts 20. the Elders or Presbyters verse seventeen are called Bishops verse twenty eight Take heed therefore unto the flock over which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Bishops also Arch-Deacons and the Bishops-Dean or Deacon was chosen though very improperly out of the Presbyters who had lost that servile name in that of Priest or Elder than which the Church never knew a greater Title of honour but as Diocesses did increase so did the profit also of being the Bishop's Deacon or Dean and what Priest or Rector that could would not strive to be the Favorite-Dean or Arch-Dean Though as we esteem in England such Men are more properly called Arch Priests And these Arch-Deacons
Christian Burial And all this exemplified by the R.R. Father in God Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester But above all those Admirable Collections the greatest wonder is how any Man durst Print and revive as he does the Proclamation of King Charles I. wherein the Proceedings of His Majesties Ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers are Proclaimed to be according to the Laws of this Realm Indeed when that Proclamation was put out They were so The Star-Chamber and High-Commission Court being then in being and 1 Eliz. 1. not repealed but in force But now the Case is alter'd and these Courts and that Law that founded them is taken away sure the structure then built upon it must follow the same fate and the Church left but with just the same Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical they had in the days of Queen Mary a little before the 1 Elizabeth 1. which by their own Confession was taken away from them as aforesaid And therefore It is high time surely That these Doubts were clear'd and resolv'd that both the Bishop's Jurisdiction might not be so precarious as it is And also that the People might know at length How much of the Canon-Law and How many Canons or whether any Canons be in force at this Day and when and for what Ecclesiastical matters they are lyable to be Excommunicated and Goaled or whether the Wisdom and Piety of the Realm does not think it most fit to make the same use of this same two-edged Sword as the Ancient Jews did of Goliah's Sword which was carefully preserved in the Temple and laid up behind the Ephod and never to be made use of but by David himself and not by every Whipster that knows not how to wield it no nor by David neither but in Cases of Vrgent Necessity The Apostle Paul that had the Gift of Discerning of Spirits and therefore never drew this Sword in a wrong cause as now adays but against the Enemy of Christ onely never drew it neither but Twice and that against Horrible Sinners An Incestuous Person and Blafphemers And therefore though Excommunication was in use in the Church whilst the said Gifts of Discerning of Spirits were frequent and onely against Notorious Offenders and Offences yet Quaere Whether every Commissary and Lay-Vicar-General though he has a Priest by him sometimes for fashion-sake did ever wield this sharp-Weapon or draw it upon every Occasion as when the Register's Fees and Sumner's Fees are not paid especially in these Days when Men may justly scruple whether they ought to obey their Processes as not being in the King's Name and under the King's Seal as the Law enjoyns 'T is sad thus to send Men to Satan because they do not pay the Knave a Groat especially when the Sumner does not Cite Men according to Law and to make Appearance before a Court too that does not pretend to Sit by His Majesties Commission nor by Vertue of their Original Constitution and ordinary Jurisdiction from the Pope This to Assert would make them incurr a Proemunire what can they say for themselves The Apostle Paul did many things that we cannot do our Blessed Saviour did many things which would be sin in us to Attempt to do He walk't upon the Waters he Fasted 40 Days and 40 Nights he commanded his Servants to take away a Man's Ass and Colt tyed we may not Attempt these things they are above our Skill And so I fear it is beyond our Skill and Abilities to wield and draw sheath and unsheath that Goliah's Sword of Excommunication Especially when Men offend onely our Interests and not the Law of the Land and yet it is often brandished against this sin of Sacriledge Sacriledge and by those many times that do not or will not know what Sacriledge is Nay I have heard some Men speak great Words against the King and Parliament in Hen. 8. time and against all Parliaments ever since that Alienated or consent to Alienate these Abbey-Lands and Nunneries as if they would smite them with this Thunder-bolt of Excommunication as guilty of Sacriledge if they durst It was as safe for Naboth and his Vineyard to lye conveniently and next Hedge to Ahab's as sometimes to have had Lands bordering upon St. Petèr's Patrimony why so what can't St. Peter or his Pretended Successors do Oh! this Religion this Engine of pretended Religion this Dart of Excommunication when 't is out of the Magistrates keeping shall wound and mawl them wonderfully Ask the Excommunicated Venetians when Dandalus their Ambassador came with a Rope about his Neck to beg their Peace ask the poor Duke of Ferrara if this be true Let the King Command a Becket or a Woolsey to his Allegiance They will be his Humble Servants with a Salvo honore Dei And say others in omnibus nisi rebus Christi so that these kind of Religious Bigots always keep in Reserve a Starting-Hole a Loop-Hole a Sally-Port always ready and open when their Forces and occasion calls to Attempt against the King's Supremacy especially when their Humours are cros't or their Pride Affronted or their Revenge unappeas'd or their Covetousness unglutted And 't is a hard matter to Glut it The Popish Religious Houses had once a third part of the Land and were they Glutted Bishops and Arch-Deacons have enough to live on without sharing with and pareing every Benefice in the Diocess yet though they know not how they came honestly and lawfully by their Procurations Synodals and Visitations though it be against Law Conscience and Compassion for the Rich thus to pinch the Poor yet take it from them And 't is a hundred to one if they do not plead Jure Divino for the Tenure and cry out Sacriledge Sacriledge Of the Church of England Quaere What it is THere 's nothing more ordinary than for People to say in these days of Part-taking and distinguishing who Men are for I am for the Church of England Whereas there is not one of a Thousand understands what he means or who he means in saying so In the Days of Popish Prelacy Men were Taught to believe as the Church believes meaning as the Clergy believes So that for Salvation they needed no further Knowledge or Insight than a blind Implicite Faith in the Church that is in the Clergy To see with Clergy-mens Eyes to believe as they pleas'd to prescribe to be led thus by the Nose to Heaven was the Divinity of Old And so a Man did but follow his Nose in the dark no matter for Eyes The Arch-Deacons those oculi Episcoporum together with the Bishops they could see and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Oversee for us all 'till at last the Church had no other Members but Head and Eyes a monstrous Church sure And though the Holy Apostles and Elders had as good Eyes one would think as these Pretenders and pretended Successors yet they never had the Forehead that those Men put on who confine and Monopolize the Church of Christ to themselves alone
the Sheriffs c. cannot as the Law then was and now is make such Execution and give the Clerks presented Jus in Re or possession And if a Bishop or Arch-deacon for they are but men do refuse the same wantonly or through prejudice or design for a Kingsman or a Friend of his own when modestly requested by the Clerk presented and will not admit him habilem then the Law has provided a Writ called Quare Impedit to force him to shew a Lawful cause in the Kings-Courts and by them approved or otherwise to force the Bishop to make Execution according to the Patrons Presentment Thus we see in Times of greatest Popery our Ancestors did assert their own Proprieties against Arbitrary Proceedings of Men that call'd themselves the Church the Church I le give but one Instance more to show what little pretence the Clergy alone have to entitle themselves alone the Church Representative of England distinct from the Lay-Brethren and that is in making a Canon to Cringe to the East and Bow at the Name of Jesus Object How now will some say Of all instances you might have forborn this For can any good Christian do too much Reverence to the Name of Jesus We now know what you would be at Phil. 2.10 11. for does not the Apostle say that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow c. this might have been let alone Answ But I will not let it go so yet must acknowledge readily and chearfully That there is no other Name under Heaven by which we can be saved nor any other name except that of God and Jehovah that deserves more signal Reverence And yet notwithstanding Bernardus non videt omnia nor the Church the Church I mean the Clergy in her Placet's always rational much less Infallible The words in Phil. 2.10 11. are That at the Name of Jesus every knee not every head should how of things in Heaven therefore not litterally to be understood for there is no knees there to bow and things in Earth and things under the Earth there is no knees there neither except those in Graves and they are too senceless at least too stiff to bow And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Therefore such as take the words litterally ought at the same time that they bow the head or knee to use also their Tongues and confess at the same time that Jesus Christ is Lord. But I say in obedience to this Holy Scripture or rather some Clergy-men's Comment thereon Men at this day at the Name of Jesus bow their heads not their knees yet the Text speaks not one word of that nay in all discourse as well as in the Church men that understand it in the litteral sence ought to bow the knee and not dop the head and also at the same time they ought with their Tongues confess That Jesus Christ is Lord. Thus when we hear a Common-Swearer 100 times in an hour swear by Jesus as is usual and often we ought by this Interpretation to make a Legg every time and with our Tongues Eccho to him and cry out Jesus Christ is Lord. But such was the wisedom for want of comparing the Words with the Context For by the Name of Jesus there is understood the Power and Soveraignty of Jesus to which God hath highly Exalted him not those 4. or 5. Letters but a Power above every Name that is above every Creature or above all created Powers whether in Heaven or in Earth or under the Earth that they might how the knee to him that is adore him So Prov. 18.10 The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower not the Letters Jehovah or Jah is a strong Tower or the found and noise of those words but The Power of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous run unto it and are safe not into the Letters or found of the Name Yet notwithstanding if any man will show Reverence at the Name of Jesus I am not offended so he shew as much Reverence at the Name of God and at the Name of the Holy Ghost It is a hard and harsh saying of some and borders upon Blasphemy to make distinctions in the Holy Trinity as if we were more beholden to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity than to the First or Third Person This Grates to make a difference in Reverencing The Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity But in this Instance I only show that the Clergy the Clergy much less a few of the Clergy because Higher and Taler have shown no Charter hitherto nor reason to have such a Charter granted to them to be without the Laity The Church The Churth of England The whole Oecumenical Council of Nice had erred shamefully but for one single ey'd man Paphnutius And it is pretty reading in the Council of Trent to see how at a loss the Fathers were for a Resolution 'till Post-Night till the Packet return'd from Rome one said with their Holy Ghost in a Cloak-bagg So that the next day after the Post came in People repair'd to the Counsel-House for News and to know how squares would go as men do now to a Country Coffee-house on a Post-night to know how things go above But is it not strange Impudence Atheism and Effrontery thus to take Gods holy Name and Spirit in vain by making the Holy Ghost father all our Escapes and By-blows adulterately begotten by Self-Interest Pride Passion Revenge crasty Fetches covetons designs whether the French or the Spanish Interest carry it still The stile is It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us God forgive them And this is the Church The Church that is the Clergy the Clergy or rather the Few the Few the least in number I will not say I cannot say the worst of the number nor the Idlest of the number But add to them Lay-Chancellors or Vicar-Generals Sumners Registers c. To make up this Church the Church of England And you make them worse and worse I look upon the Church of England as the greatest Bull-Work against Popery what This latter sort of men are they such a Bull-work no the Protestants of England The Protestant Laws of England embodied with the Fundamental-Laws of the Realm Ruine one and you ruine the other for they must live and die together Thus have I evidenced that the Laity in the Apostles times were the Church and as much Canon-makers and Rule-makers and had the conduct of the infallible Spirit and gifts of the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles and therefore certainly the Christian People as well as the Clergy of England are the Church of England Nay In Hen. 3. time when the Popish Prelates were most Rampant and Othoben the Pope's Nuncio had almost Beggar'd that King keeping him poor and doing what he list with him yet when they were to be excommunicated that Infringed Magna Charta The Clergy nor the Synod did not make it but the King and