works of the spirit 2. More plainly doth he speak in the second place of Universal Redemption Id. in cap. 1 6. telling us that all men which either for their Original sin or for their Actual sin were out of Gods favour and had offended God should by Christ only be reconciled to Gods favour and have remission of their sins and be made partakers of everlasting life that Christs death was a full and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Id Ibid. 〈◊〉 1. and for all them that shall be sanctified and saved that Christ by his death once for all Id. Ibid. 〈…〉 hath fully and perfectly satisfied for the sins of all men and finally that there re this is an undoubted truth ever to be believed of all Christians that Christ by his Passion and Death hath taken away all the sins of the World In the next place he puts the question with reference to the application of so great a benefit for what causes God would not have his Word preached unto the Gentiles till Christs time and makes this answer thereunto First That it is a point not to be too curiously searched or enquired after Secondly That it is enough for us to know that it was so ordered by Gods Will Id. Ibid. G. 2 3. But thirdly That it might yet be done either because by their sins they had deserved their blindness and damnation as indeed they had or that God saw their hard hearts or their stiff necks and that they would not have received it before Christs comings if the Gospel had been preached unto them or finally that God reserved that mystery unto the coming of our Saviour Christ that by him all goodness should be known to come to us Id. cap. 2. H. 7. c. As for the necessary influences of Gods Grace and mans co-working with the same he telleth us briefly That no man ought to ascribe the good works that he dâ—th â—s himself or to his own might and power but to God the Author of all goodness but then withal that it is not enough for men to have knowledge of Christ and his benefits but that they must encrease in the knowledge of God Idâ—â— cap. 4. which knowledge cometh by Gods Word And finally as to the point of falling away he gives us first the example of Demas who as long as all things were prosperous with S. Paul was a faithful Minister to him and a faithful Disciple of Christ but when he saw Paul cast into Prison he forsook Paul and his Doctrine and followed the World then he inferreth that many such there be in the World c. of whom speaketh Christ Matth. 13. Many for a time do believe but in time of tribulations they shrink away And finally he concludes with this advice That he that standeth should look that he did not fall and that he do no trust too much to his own might and power for if he did he should deceive himself and have a fall as Demas had And so much for the judgment and opinion of Master L. Ridley in the points disputed who being Arch-deacon of Canterbury as before was said may be presum'd to be one of those who concurred in Convocation to the making of the Articles of K. Edwards book 1552. to find the true and natural meaning of which Articles we have taken this pains CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Catechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Ann. 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrines were the true genuine and ancient Doctrines of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Pointer in most of the Controverted Points 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon. as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed SEcuri de salute de gloria certemus Having shewed the cause by so many pregnant Evidences derived from the Articles and Homilies Tacit in vita Agric. and backt by the consenting Testimonies of Learned men and godly Martyrs it would add something at the least in point of Reputation if not of glory also to gain Bishop Poinet to the side of whom as to his personal capacity we have spoken already and must now look back upon him in relation to a Catechism of his setting forth Printed by Wolfe in Latine and by Day in English Anno 1553. being the next year after the Articles were agreed upon in the Convocation a Catechism which comes commended to us with these advantages that it was put forth by the Authority of King Edward VI. to be taught by all School-masters in the Kingdom By another of the same persuasion Prin. Anti-Armin Pag. 44. that the King committed the perusal of it to certain Bishops and other Learned men whom he much esteemed by whom it was certified to be agreeable to the Scripture and Statutes of the Realm that thereupon he presixt his Epistle before it in which he commands and charges all School-masters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority Anti-Armin Page 48. and as they would avoid his Royal displeasure to teach this Catechism diligently and carefully in all and every their Schools that so the youth of the Kingdom might be setled in the grounds of true Religion and furthered in Gods worship The Church Historian seems to give it some further countenance Ch Hist lib. 7. fol. 421. by making it of the same extraction with the book of Articles telling us that by the Bishops and Learned men before-mentioned we are to understand the Convocation and that it was not commanded by his Majesties Letters Patents to all School-masters only but by him commended to the rest of the Subjects which cost these several Authors have bestowed upon it out of an hope of gaining some greater matter by it towards the countenancing and advancing of the Calvinian Doctrine Predestination as the true genuine and ancient Doctrine of this Church certain I am that both Mr.
Examination of the mistakes falsities and defects in some modern Histories Lond. 1659. Certamen Epistolare or the Letter-Combat managed with Mr. Baxter Dr. Bernard Mr. Hickman 8. Lond. 1659. Historia Quinqu-Articularis 4. Lond. 1660. Respondet Petrus or the Answer of Peter Heylyn D. D. to Dr. Bernards book entituled The Judgment of the late Primate c. Lond. 4. 1658. Observations on Mr. Hammond L' Estranges History of the Life of King Charles I. 1658. Extraneus Vapulans or a Defence of those Observations Lond. 1658. A short History of King Charles the First from his Cradle to his Grave 1658. Thirteen Sermons some of which are an Exposition of the Parable of the Tares printed at London 1659 and again 1661. A help to English History containing a succession of all the Kings Dukes Marquesses Earls Bishops c. of England and Wales first written in the Year 1641 under the name of Robert Hall but now enlarged and in Dr. Heylyns name Ecclesia Vindicata or the Church of England Justified c. 4. 1657. Bibliotheca Regia or the Royal Library 8. Ecclesia Restaurata or the History of the Reformation Fol. Lond. 1661. Cyprianus Anglicus or the History of the Life and Death of William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Fol. Aerius Redivivus or the History of the Presbyterians Fol. ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England JUSTIFIED I. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation II. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy III. In prescribing a Set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons IV. In her Right and Patrimony of Tithes V. In retaining the Episcopal Government And therewith VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons By PETER HEYLIN D. D. PSAL. CXXXVI 6 7. Si oblitus fuero tui O Jerusalem oblivioni detur dextra med Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis si non proposuero tui in principio laetitiae meae LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. A General Preface TO THE READER CONCERNING The Design and Method of the following WORK 1. The Authors Address to those of the same persuasion with him 2. As also to those of different Opinion 3. His humble application to all such as be in Authority 4. Persecution a true note of the Church verified in the Jews the primitive Christians and the Church of England 5. The several Quarrels of the Genevians and Papists against the way and manner of our Reformation 6. The Authors Method and Design in answering the Clamors and Objections of either party 7. The first Quarrels against the Liturgies of King Edward the sixth and the grounds thereof 8. The Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth approved by the Pope subscribed by the Scots and the Church frequented by the Papists for the first ten years of that Queens reign 9. The Puritans and Papists separate from the Church at the same time and the hot pursuance of this Quarrel by the Puritan party 10. The Quarrel after some repose revived by the Smectymnuans and their actings in it 11. The Author undertakes the Defence of Liturgies as also the Times and Places of Publick Worship against all Opponents unto each 12. The Prayer prescribed to be used by Preachers before their Sermons the reasons why it was prescribed and the Church justified for so doing in a Brief Discourse upon that subject of the Authors making 13. An Answer to the Objection touching the free exercise of the Gift of Prayer 14. Set Forms of Prayer condemned in Churches by the Devisers of the Directory and prescribed for Ships 15. The Liturgy cryed down by the Lay-Brethren in Order to the taking away of Tithes 16. The same Design renewed by some late Projectors the Author undertakes against them and his Reasons for it 17. The first Bishops of Queen Elizabeths time quarrelled by the Papists and the grounds thereof 18. Covetousness and Ambition in the Presbyterians the two main grounds of their Pursuit against Episcopacy 19. Set on by Calvin and Beza they break out into action their violent proceedings in it and cessation from it 20. The Quarrel reassumed by the Smectymnuans outwitted in the close thereof by the Lay-Brethren without obtaining their own ends in advancing Presbytery 21. The Author undertakes against Smectymnuus and proves Episcopacy to be agreeable to all Forms of Civil Government 22. His History of Episcopacy grounded on the Authority of the Ancient Fathers and what the Reader is desired in Relation to them 23. Ordination by the Imposition of Hands generally in use in all Churches and how the Ordinance of March 20. 1653. is to be understood as to that particular 24. No Ordination lawful but by Bishops and what the Author hath done in it 25. The close of all and the submission of the whole to the Readers judgment READER of what persuasion or condition soever thou art I here present and submit unto thee these ensuing Tracts If thou art of the same persuasion and opinion with me I doubt not but thou wilt interpret favourably of my Undertakings and find much comfort in thy Soul for thy Adhesion to a Church so rightly constituted so warrantably reformed so punctually modelled by the pattern of the purest and most happy times of Christianity A Church which for her Power and Polity her sacred Offices and Administrations hath not alone the grounds of Scripture the testimony of Antiquity and consent of Fathers but as good countenance and support as the Established Laws of the Land could give her which Laws if they be still in force as they seem to be thy sufferings for adhering to the Church in her Forms and Government may not improperly be said to have faln upon thee for thy obedience and conformity to the Laws themselves Smectym Answ 85. For though it may be supposed with the Smectymnians the Author of The True Cavalier c. and some other of our modern Politicks that Government and Forms of Worship are but matters of humane appointment and being such may lawfully abrogated by the same Authority by which at first they were Established yet then it must be still by the same Authority and not by any other which is less sufficient for that end and purpose And I presume it will not be affirmed by any that an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons occasionally made and fitted for some present exigent is of as good authority as an Act of Parliament made by the King with the consent and approbation of the three Estates in due form of Law Or if it be I would then very fain know the reason why the Ordinance of the third of January Anno 1644. should be in force as to the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer and yet be absolutely void or of no effect as to the establishing and imposing of the Directory thereby authorized which bears an equal share in the title of it or why the Ordinance of the ninth of October Anno 1646. for abolishing Arch-bishops and Bishops should be still in
in person or sent from place to place on his occasions and dispatches as may appear by looking on the concordances of holy Scripture Now that Titus was ordained the first Bishop of Crete hath been affirmed by several Authors of good both credit and antiquity For first Eccles hist l. 3. c. 4. Eusebius making a Catalogue of Saint Pauls assistants or fellow-labourers and reckoning Timothy amongst them whom he recordeth for the first Bishop of the Church of Ephesus adds presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so was Titus also the first Bishop of Crete Ambr. praef in ep ad Titum Saint Ambrose in the Preface to his Commentaries on the Epistle unto Titus doth affirm as much Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum the Apostle consecrated Titus a Bishop and therefore doth admonish him to be solicitous for the well ordering of the Church committed to him Saint Hierom writing on these words in that Epistle Hieron in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete c. doth apply them thus Audiant Episcopi qui habent constituendi Presbyteres per singulas urbes potestatem Let Bishops mark this well who have authority to ordain Presbyters in every City on what conditions to what persons for that I take to be his meaning Ecclesiastical orders are to be conferred Which is a strong insinuation that Titus having that authority must be needs a Bishop More evidently in his Catalogue of Writers or in Sophronius at the least Id. de Scrip. Eccles in Tit. if those few names were by him added to that Catalogue Titus Episcopus Cretae Titus the Bishop of Crete did preach the Gospel both in that and the adjacent Islands Apud Oecumen Praef. ad Tim. Theodoret proposing first this question why Paul should rather write to Timothy and Titus than to Luke and Silas returns this answer to the same that Luke and Silas were still with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those had entrusted with the government of Churches But more particularly Titus a famous Disciple of Saint Paul Ap. eund in Praef. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was by him ordained Bishop of Crete being a place of great extent with a Commission also to ordain Bishops under him Theoph. in praef ad Tit. Oecum in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. Theophylact in his preface unto this Epistle doth affirm the same using almost his very words And Oecumenius on the Text doth declare as much saying that Paul gave Titus authority of ordaining Bishops Crete being of too large a quantity to be committed unto one alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having first consecrate or made him Bishop Finally the subscription of this Epistle calls Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians which evidence though questioned now of late is of good Authority For some of late who are not willing that Antiquity should afford such grounds for Titus being Bishop of the Church of Crete have amongst other arguments devised against it found an irreparable flaw as they conceive in this Subscription Beza Annot at in Ep. ad Tit. in fine who herein led the way disproves the whole Subscription as supposititious because it is there said that it was written from Nieopolis of Macedonia A thing saith he which cannot be for the Apostle doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will winter here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illic I will winter there and therefore he was somewhere else when he wrote this Epistle But Athanasius who lived neerer the Apostles times In Synopsi sacr script Ad Paulum Eustochium Comment in Ep. ad Tit. affirms it to be written from Nicopolis and so doth Hierome in his Preface unto that Epistle The Syriack translation dates it also thence as is confessed by them that adhere to Beza Theophylact and Oecumenius agree herein with Athanasius and the ancient Copies As for the criticism it is neither here nor there for Saint Paul being still in motion might appoint Titus to repair unto Nicopolis letting him understand that howsoever he disposed of himself in the mean time yet he intended there to Winter and so he might well say though he was at Nicopolis when he writ the same That Titus is there called the first Bishop of Crete Smectym p. 54. or of the Church of the Cretians is another hint that some have taken to vilifie the credit of the said Subscription asking if ever there were such a second Bishop Assuredly the Realm of England is as fair and large a circuit as the Isle of Crete And yet I do not find it used as argument that Austin the Monk had neither any hand in the converting of the English or was not the first Archbishop of the See of Canterbury Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. because it is affirmed in Beda's History Archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est that he was ordained the Archbishop of the English Nation Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for an answer to the question we need but look into Eusebius where we shall find Pinytus a right godly man called in plain terms Bishop of Crete Cretae Episcopus saith the Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Original the self-same stile which is excepted at in Titus Now whereas it is said that Titus was left no otherwise in Crete than as Pauls Vicar General Commissary or Substitute to order those things in such sort as he had appointed which he could not dispatch himself when he was there present this can by no means be admitted the Rules prescribed unto him and Timothy being for the most part of that nature as do agree with the condition of perpetual Governours and not of temporary and removable Substitutes As for the anticipation of the time which I see some use relating that Saint Paul with Titus having passed through Syria and Cilicia to confirm the Churches did from Cilicia pass over into Crete where the Apostle having preached the Gospel left Titus for a while to set things in Order although I cannot easily tell on what Authority the report is built yet I can easily discern that it can hardly stand with Scripture We read indeed in the 15. Chapter of the Acts that he went thorow Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches ver ult and in the first words of the following Chapter Acts 14.6 Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find him at Derbe and Lystra Cities of Lycaonia the very next Province to Cilicia Northward from which it is divided by a branch of the Mountain Taurus Now whether of the two it be more probable that Paul should pass immediately from Cilicia unto Lycaonia upon the usual common Road or fetch a voyage into Crete Smectymn p. 50. as these men suppose and be transported back again into Lycaonia being an in-land Countrey far from any Sea which could not be without
as Sundays whereby we see the Church had no less care of one than of the other And so indeed it had not in this alone but in all things else the Holy days as we now distinguish them being in most points equal to the Sunday and in some superiour Leo the Emperiour by his Edict shut up the Theater and the Cirque or shew-place on the Lords day The like is willed expresly in the sixth general Council holden at Constantinople Can. 66. Anno 692. for the whole Easter week Nequaquam ergo his diebus equorum cursus vel aliquod publicum fiat spectacum so the Canon hath it The Emperour Charles restrained the Husbandman and the Tradesman from following their usual work on the Lords day The Council of Melun doth the same for the said Easter week and in more particulars it being ordered by that Synod that men forbear Can. 77. during the time above remembred ab omni opere rurali fabrili carpentario gynaecaeo caementario pictorio venatorio forensi mercatorio audientiali ac sacramentis exigendis from Husbandry the craft of Smiths and Carpenters from Needle-work Cementing Painting Hunting Pleadings Merchandize casting of Accounts and from taking Oaths That Benedictines had but three mess of Pottage upon other days die vero dominico in praecipuis festivitatibus but on the Lords day and the principal Festivals a fourth was added as saith Theodomare the Abbot in an Epistle to Charles the Great Law-suits and Courts of Judgment were to be laid aside and quite shut up on the Lords day as many Emperours and Councils had determined severally The Council held at Friburg Anno 895. did resolve the samne of Holy days or Saints days and the time of Lent Nullusomnino secularis diebus dominicis vel Sanctorum in Festis Conc. Fribâ—riens Can. 26. seu Quadragesimae aut jejuniorum placitum habere sed nec populum illo praesumat coercere as the Canon goeth The very same with that of the Council of Erford Anno 932. cap. 2. But what need private and particular Synods be produced as witnesses herein when we have Emperours Popes and Patriarchs that affirm the same Ap. Balsam tit 7. cap. 1. To take them in the order in which they lived Photius the Patriarch of Constantinople Anno 858. thus reckoneth up the Festivals of especial note viz. Seven days before Easter and seven days after Christmas Epiphanie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Feasts of the Apostles and the Lords day And then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on those days they neither suffer publick shews nor Courts of Justice Emanuel Comnenus next Ap. Balsam Emperour of Constantinople Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We do ordain saith he that these days following be exempt from labour viz. the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Holy-rood day and so he reckoneth all the rest in those parts observed together with all the Sundays in the year and that in them there be not any access to the seats of judgment Lib. 2 tit 〈◊〉 feriis cap. 5. The like Pope Gregory the ninth Anno 1228. determineth in the Decretal where numbring up the Holy-days he concludes at last that neither any process hold nor sentence be in force pronounced on any of those days though both parts mutually should consent upon it Consentientibus etiam partibus nec processus habitus teneat nec sententia quam contingit diebus hujusmodi promulgari So the Law resolves it Now lest the feast of Whitsontide might not have some respect as well as Easter it was determined in the Council held at Engelheim Anno 948. that Munday Tuesday Wednesday in the Whitsun-week Cap. 6. non minus quam dies dominicus solenniter honorentur should no less solemnly be observed than the Lords day was So when that Otho Bishop of Bamberg had planted the faith of Christ in Pomerania and was to give account thereof to the Pope then being Urspergens Chronic. he certifieth him by his Letters Anno 1124. that having Christned them and built them Churches he left them three injunctions for their Christian carriage First that they eat no flesh on Fridays Secondly that they rest the Lords day ab omni opere malo from every evil work repairing to the Church for religious duties And thirdly Sanctorum solennitates cum vigiliis omni diligentia observent that they keep carefully the Saints days with the Eves attendant So that in all these outward matters we find fair equality save that in one respect the principal Festivals had preheminence above the Sunday For whereas Fishermen were permitted by the Decretal of Pope Alexander the third as before was said diebus dominicis aliis festis on the Lords day and other Holy-days to fish for Herring in some cases there was a special exception of the greater Festivals praeterquam in majoribus anni solennitatibus as the other was But not to deal in generals only Isidore Arch-bishop of Sevil in the beginning of the seventh Century making a Catalogue of the principal Festivals begins his list with Easter and ends it with the Lords day as before we noted in the fifth Section of this Chapter Now lest it should be thought that in sacred matters and points of substance the other Holy-days wee not as much regarded as the Lords day was The Council held at Mentz Anno 813. did appoint it thus that it the Bishop were infirm or not at home Non desit tamen diebus dominicis festivitatibus qui verbum Dei praedicet juxta quod populus intelligat yet there should still be some to preach Gods Word unto the People according unto their capacities both on the Lords day and the other Festivals Indeed why should not both be observed alike the Saints days being dedicated unto God as the Lords day is and standing both of them on the same authority on the authority of the Church for the particular Institution on the authority of Gods Law for the general Warrant It was commanded by the Lord and written in the heart of man by the pen of nature that certain times should be appointed for Gods publick worship the choicing of the times was left to the Churches power and she designed the Saints days as she did the Lords both his and both allotted to his service only This made Saint Bernard ground them all the Lords day and the other Holy-days on the fourth Commandment the third in the Account of the Church of Rome Serm. 3. Super Salve reg Spirituale obsequium Deo praebetur in observantia sanctarum solennitatum unde tertium praeceptum contexitur Observa diem Sabbati i. e. in sacris feriis te exerce So S. Bernard in his third Sermon Super salve Regina The Lords days and the Holy-days or Saints days being of so near a kin we must next see what care was taken by the Church in these present ages for hallowing them unto the Lord. The
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. ◠Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
Patriarch Jacob there being otherwise many places in his new gotten Kingdom of more convenience for his Subjects and less obnoxious to the Power of the Kings of Judah than this Bethel was The Act of Jacob in consecrating the Stone at Bethel gave the same hint to Jeroboam to profane the place by setting up his Golden Calves as Abrahams Grove gave to the Idolatrous Jews and Gentiles for polluting the like places with as impure abominations And probable enough it is that by these Acts of Abraham and Jacob the Macchabees proceeded to the Dedication of the Altar when profaned by Antiochus though they made use only of their own Authority in honouring that work and the celebration of it with an Annual Feast of which see Macc. 1. Chap. 4. v. 59 c. Which Feast being countenanced by our Saviour as is elsewhere said gave the first ground unto the Anniversary Feasts of Dedication used in the best and happiest times of Christianity De Eccles Officiis l. 1. c. 3. of which thus Isidore of Sivil Annuas Festivitates dedicationis Ecclesiarum ex more veterum celebrari in Evangelio legimus ubi dicitur facta sunt Encoenia c. Where we have both the custom and the reasons of it that is to say the antient practice of Gods people amongst the Jews occasionally mentioned and related too in the holy Gospel This being repeated and applyed we must next see by what Authority Gods people afterward proceeded on the like occasions Greater Authority we find for the Dedication of the Tabernacle than for the consecrating the Grove or Pillar which before we spake of even the command of God himself who though he had appointed it to be made prescribed as well the matter as the Form thereof descending even unto the nomination of the Workmen that were to take care of the Embroydery of it did not think fit it should be used in his publick Worship till it had first been dedicated to that end and purpose For thus saith God to Moses in the way of Precept And thou shalt take the anointing Oyl and anoint the Tabernacle and all that is therein and shalt hallow it and all the Vessels thereof and it shall be holy and thou shalt anoint the Altar of the Burnt-offering and all his Vessels and sanctifie the Altar Exod. 40.9 1. and it shall be an Altar most holy c. And thus did Moses in conformity to the Lords Commandment of whom it is affirmed Thus did Moses according to all that the Lord commanded him so did he That is to say he reared up the Tabernacle Verse 16 and disposed of every thing therein in its proper place hallowing the Tabernacle and the Altar and the Vessels of it as the Lord commanded and then and not till then was it thought fit for the Acts of Sacrifice and to be honoured with the presence of the Lord their God For as it followeth in that Chapter first Moses offered on the Altar so prepared and consecrated a Burnt-Offering and a Meat-Offering as the Lord commanded ver 29. And secondly A Cloud then covered the tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle v. 34. No Fathers need be called in here to explain these Scriptures which every one can understand who is able to read them and every one who understandeth them may conclude from hence that God had never took such order for consecrating of the Tabernacle the Altars and other Vessels of it had he not meant to leave it for a Document and Example to succeeding times that no place should be used for his publick Worship till it was sanctified with Prayer and set apart by some Religious Ceremonies for that holy purpose According to which great Example we find a solemn dedication of the Temple when first built by Solomon performed by Prayer and Sacrifices in most solemn manner 1 Kings 8. A second Dedication of it when first restored by Zorobabel in the time of Ezra where it is said That the children of Israel Ezra 6.16 the Priests and the Levites and the rest of the children of the Captivity kept the Dedication of this House of God with joy And finally Josephus telleth us Antiq. Juda. l. 15. c. 14. that when Zorobabels Temple was pulled down by Herod and built again after a more magnificent manner than before it was with what alacrity and pomp the Jews did celebrate the Dedication of the same A Temple gloriously set out to the outward view immensae opulentiae Templum it is called by Tacitus as before was said and dedicated by the Founder with as great magnificence of which more hereafter Sufficient evidence to prove that whether the Temple be considered as a House of prayer or a place for Sacrifice it was not to be used for either not sanctified and set apart for those holy Actions Having thus seen what was done in those solemn Acts of Dedication by the Lords own people as well before as under the Law of Moses let us next see how far those Actions of Gods people have been followed by the antient Gentiles who though without the Law of Moses yet were instructed well enough by the light of Nature that Sacred Actions were not to be used in unhallowed places And here to go no further than the Roman story being the best compacted and most flourishing estate among the Gentiles we have in the first Infancy thereof a Temple dedicated by Romulus unto Jupiter Feretrius of which thus Livy Jupiter Feretri inquit Romulus haec tibi victor Rex Regia arma fero Templumque iis Regionibus quas meo animo metatus sum dedico sedem opimis spoliis quae Regibus Ducibusque hostium caesis me Autorem sequentes posteri ferent Unto which words of Romulus being the formal words of the Dedication Livy adds his own Hist Rom. Dec. 1. l. 1. Haec Templi est origo quod omnium primum Romae sacratum est That is to say this is the Original of that Temple which first of all was dedicated in the City of Rome Concerning which we are to know that Romulus having vanquished Tolumnius a poor neighbouring King in the head of his Army and brought his Armour into Rome in triumphant manner designed a Temple unto Jupiter from hence named Feretrius for the safe keeping and preserving of those glorious Spoils And having so designed the Temple thus bespeaks the gold viz. O Jupiter Feretrius I by this favour made a Conquerour do here present unto thee these Royal Arms and dedicate or design a Temple to thee in those Regions which in my mind I have marked out for that great purpose to be a seat for those rich Spoils which Posterity following my example having slain Kings or such as do command in chief shall present unto thee Which formal words did so appropriate that place to the service of Jupiter that afterwards it was not to be put unto other uses This done by Romulus
of work since the time of the old Martin Mar-prelat began to teem again with a new brood of Libellous Pamphlets the Females of Sedition as a Learned Gentleman truly calls them in which the Bishops were reproached with Innovating in the Worship of God here by Law established in order to some dark design to bring in Popery The antient usages of the Church grounded on Law required by Canon and Authorized by the stamp of Supream Authority had lien so long under the Rubbish of neglect and discontinuance by the remisness to say no worse of it of the former Government that the endeavour of reducing them to use and practice was forthwith clamorously branded with the odious name of an Innovation though when it came unto the trial the Innovation lay at their doors who had raised he clamor Amongst which Innovations so unjustly charged there was none made a greater and more general noise than the requiring a set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons imputed by H. E. to the late Archb. as an act of his and yet confessed so much he was transported by his spleen and passion to be prescribed in the Canon of 603. full 30 years before that Prelate had attained the See of Canterbury During these heats I was requested by the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of W. to ease him of some pains in searching into the constant practice of this Church since the Reformation as to that particular as also to consider of the grounds and motives which might induce the Bishops of those times to compose the Canon in which that Form had been prescribed that haing satisfied himself in all points which concerned that Argument towards which my poor endeavours were not likely to contribute much he might with greater confidence require the Clergy of his Diocess to conform unto it An employment which I undertook with a ready chearfulness as one that had been always trained up in the School of obedience and looked upon the just motions of my Superiors as in the nature of commands What satisfaction this discourse then gave unto hisLordship I forbear to add and what contentment it may give to the Reader now I forbear to guess The fate of Books depends not in these times as in those before on the capacity of the Reader but on his private interess so as it is not to be hoped that such as are approved by some will be liked of all though most of those who may mislike may give no sufficient reason for it All therefore which I have to do is to submit it to the judgment of the equaland unbyassed Reader from whom I am as willing to receive satisfaction in any controverted point as to use my best endeavours to give it to him And so good Reader I conclude with those words of the Poet Tu vergo si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum If thou hast better reasons lend me thine Or otherwise make bold with these of mine A BRIEF DISCOURSE Touching the Form of Prayer c. 1. The Introduction to the whole 2. The Canon of the year 1603. 3. The meaning and purpose of that Canon 4. The Injunction of Qu. Elizabeth to the same effect 5. The Injunction of King Edward VI. to the same effect 6. The like Injunction of King Henry VIII 7. The ground and reason of the Injunction of that King and the exemplification of it in the practice of Bishop Latimer 8. The difference between Invocation and that bidding of Prayer which is required by the Canon 9. The Canon justified by the practice of Bishop Andrews 10. By the practice of Bishop Jewel in Qu. Elizabeths time 11. By the practice of Archbishop Parker in King Edwards time 12. By the like practice of Bishop Latimer in that Kings time also 13. More of the practice of Bishop Latimer in this point 14. The same proved also by the practice of Bishop Gardiner 15. The result arising both from the precept and the practice of the Church herein 16. How the now Form of Prayer by way of Invocation was first taken up 17. No Prayer by way of Invocation used by the Antients in their Sermons 18. The Prayer appointed by the Canon and Injunctions used rather heretofore as a part of the Sermon than as a preparation to it 19. Bidding of Prayer more consonant unto the meaning of the Law than any set Prayer in the way of Invocation 20. Bidding of Prayer more proper for the place or Pulpit which was not made for Prayer but for Exhortation 21. The like concluded from the posture of the Preacher also 22. Some inconveniences arising from the Form of Prayer by Invocation 23. More inconveniencies of that nature by accusing the Liturgie as defective 24. The conclusion and submission of the whole to his Lordships judgment INventae erant Epistolae ut certiores faceremus absentes si quid esset quod eos scire aut nostrum aut ipsorum interesset Epistles were devised as Tully writes to Curio to this end and purpose that we might certifie the absent of those things which are most proper for their knowledge and our relation They are our Messengers for love our Posts for business our Agents in the managing and dispatch of the weightiest Affairs such as most nearly do concern us which being a chief Use and Benefit of Letters no marvail if they have been used in all former Ages not only to maintain an intercourse between Friends in point of Amity but to lay down in them our resolutions as occasion is in point of Controversie The several Writings in this kind of the antient Authors as well the Christian as the Gentile what are they but so many precepts and directions by which to regulate our Conversations or reasons and authorities on the which to rest our judgments Upon which ground my most Honoured Lord I have adventured to declare by this way of Letter what I have found upon due search in answer to the proposition which your Lordship recommended to me touching the Form of Prayer appointed in the Canon to be used by Preachers before the Sermon Of which such question hath been made in these busie times whether it ought to be by way of Invocation as a formal Prayer or else by way of Exhortation as a bidding of Prayer For resolution of the which I shall first lay down the very Canon and after briefly shew unto you what is most like to be the true intention of it out of the publick Monuments of this Church and constant practice of those men who are above exception for the point in hand and also by such other pregnant reasons as I have thought most proper to confirm the same Now for the title of the Canon it runs thus Can. 55. The Form of a Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons The body of it is this Before all Sermons Lectures and Homilies Preachers
Craec in Martii 14. was by him ordained Bishop of Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words there are a region full of fierce and savage people and that having there setled the Church and ordained Presbyters and Deacons in the same he did there also end his life The Reverend Primate of Armagh out of a fragment attributed to Heleca De Britannic Eccl. prim c. 1. sometimes Bishop of Saragossa in Spain doth recite a passage wherein it is affirmed of this Aristobulus missum in Angliam Episcopum that he was sent Bishop into England for so the Author calleth this Countrey according to the name it had when he writ the same But these things which relate to the British Churches I rather shall refer to our learned Antiquaries to be considered of more fully than affirm any thing my self But to look back on Timothy and Titus whom we left lately in their several Churches I hear it said that notwithstanding all those proofs before produced from the ancient yet being Evangelists as they were they could be no Bishops Smectymn p. 48. Bishops being tied to the particular care of that flock or Church over which God had made them Overseers but the Evangelists being Planetary sent up and down from place to place by the Apostles as the necessities of the Church required Besides that moving in an higher sphere than that of Bishops and being Co-partners with Saint Paul in his Apostleship or Apostolical function Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 36. it had been a devesting of themselves of their Apostolical jurisdiction and preheminence to become Bishops at the last and so descend from a superiour to an inferiour Office For answer whereunto we need say but this that the gift of being an Evangelist might and did fall on any rank of ordinary Ministers as might that also of the Prophet Philip one of the seven a Deacon as it is generally conceived but howsoever Ministring unto the Church in an inferiour place or Office was notwithstanding an Evangelist and Agabus though perhaps but a simple Presbyter one of the Seventy past all question was a Prophet too Philip as he was one of the Seven was tied to a particular employment and of necessity sometimes Acts 6.12 must leave the Word of God to serve Tables Yet the same Philip as he was furnished by the Lord with gifts and graces for gaining Souls to God Almighty and doing the work of an Evangelist must leave the serving of those Tables to preach the Word And Agabus Acts 11.27 28. 21.10 if he were a Presbyter whether of Hierusalem from whence he is twice said to come or of some other Church that I will not say might notwithstanding his employment in a particular Church repair to Antioch or Caesarea as the Spirit willed him there to discharge the Office of a Prophet So then both Timothy and Titus might be Bishops as to their ordinary place and calling though in relation unto their extraordinary gifts they were both Evangelists As for their falling from a higher to a lower function from an Evangelist unto a Bishop I cannot possibly perceive where the fall should be They that object this will not say but Timothy at the least was made a Presbyter for wherefore else did the Presbytery which they so much stand on lay hands upon him And certainly if it were no diminution from an Evangelist to become a I resbyter it was a preferment unto the Evangelist from being but a Presbyter to become a Bishop But for the Bishopping of Timothy and Titus as to the quod sit of it that so they were in the opinion of all ancient Writers we have said enough We will next look on the authority committed to them to see what further proof hereof may be brought for that CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given by the Word of God to Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops 1. The Authority committed to Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the judgments of the Fathers 3. Bishops alone both might and did Ordain without their Presbyters 4. That Presbyters might not Ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Coluthus and Ischyras 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas declared and qualified 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peouliar to the Bishop 9. To whom the Ministration also of the Saoraments doth in chief belong 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains that way 11. Bishops to silence and correct such Presbyters as preach other doctrines 12. As also to reprove and reject the Heretick 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters doth belong to Bishops 14. And of Lay-people also if they walk unworthy of their Christian calling 15. Conjectural proofs that the description of a Bishop in the first to Timothy is of a Bishop truly and properly so called THEY who object that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and so by consequence no Bishops Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 60 61 c. have also said and left in writing that the authority committed to them by Saint Paul did not belong to them at all as Bishops but Evangelists only But this if pondered as it ought hath no ground to stand on The calling of Evangelists as it was Extraordinary so it was but temporary to last no longer than the first planting of the Church for which so many signal gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit were at first poured on the Disciples I know not any Orthodox Writer who doth not in this point agree with Calvin Com. in 4. ad Eph. v. 11. who in his Comment on the Epistle to the Ephesians gives us this instruction Deum Apostolis Evangelistis Prophetis Ecclesiam suam non nisi ad tempus ornasse that God adorned his Church with Prophets Evangelists and Apostles for a season only having before observed that of all those holy ministrations there recited Postrema tantum duo perpetua esse the two last viz. Pastors and Teachers which he takes for two were to be perpetual But on the other side power to ordain fit Ministers of what sort soever as also to reprove and censure those that behaved themselves unworthily authority to convent and reject an Heretick to punish by the censures of the Church all such as give offence and scandal to the Congregation by their exhorbitant and unruly living this ought to be perpetual in the Church of Christ This the Apostle seems to intimate when he said to Timothy I charge thee in the sight of God 1 Tim. 6.14 and before Jesus Christ that thou keep this Commandment without spot
far more express Episcopos vocat stellas c. Paraeus in Apocal cap. 1. v. 20. The Bishops are called Stars saith he because they ought to out-shine others aswell in purity of Doctrine as sincerity of Conversation in the Church of God eosdem Angelos vocat quia sunt Legati Dei ad Ecclesiam and they are also called Angels because they are the Legats or Embassadours of God to his holy Church And lest we should mistake our selves and him in the word Episcopus he laboureth to find out the Bishop of each several Church as we shall see hereafter in that inquisition for those who speak to the particular Beza Annot. Apoc. c. 2.1 we begin with Beza who on those words unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus gives this Annotation Angelo i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oportuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri c. To the Angel that is saith he to the chief President whom it behoved to have the notice of the charge there given and by him to the rest of his Colleagues and the whole Congregation but fearing lest this Exposition might give some advantage for the upholding of the Hierarchie which he so laboured to pull down he adds de proprio that notwithstanding this acknowledgment Episcopal authority being a thing of mans invention hinc statui nec potest nec debet nor may nor ought to have any ground from hence Finally Marlorat himself on those very words Marlorat Eccl. Expâ—sit in Apocal c. 2. v. 1. shews that however there were many things in the Church of Ephesus which required Reformation both in the Clergy and the people Non tamen populum aggreditur sed Clerum yet the Apostle doth not apply himself unto the people but the Clergy Nor doth he fashion his discourse to the Clergy generally Sed ad Principem Cleri Episcopum utique but to the chief or principal of the Clergy which was the Bishop Nay Marlorat goes further yet and he as he layeth down his interpretation so he doth also give a reason of it and such a one as may well satisfie any man of reason Idem Ibid. His reason is Nam Pastor non modo pro propriis c. Because the Pastor is not only to render an account to the supream Judg for his own sins alone but for the sins of all his flock if any of them by his sloth or negligence do chance to perish And certainly this reason is of special use and efficacy to the point in hand For if the Lord do look for an account at the Pastors hand for every sheep that shall be lost by his sloth or negligence it must needs follow thereupon that those of whom so strict a reckoning is expected must not have power only to persuade and counsel but also to correct and censure and by their own proper and innate authority to rectifie such things as are amiss in their several charges The Son of God is neither so unjust as that the Pastor should be charged with those enormities which he hath no authority to amend or rectifie nor so forgetful as to threaten and rebuke the Pastor not only for the peoples faults but the Errata of the Presbyters in case he were not trusted with a greater power than any of the rest for that end and purpose Which being so and that our Saviour by Saint John doth send out his summons neither unto the Church in general nor to the Presbyters in common but to the Angel of each Church in the singular number it is most plain and evident as I conceive that in the time of writing the Apocalypse as long time before it the Church of Christ had certain Pastors of more eminent note when they as we intituled Bishops which governed as well the Presbyters as the rest of the Flock and those the Son of God acknowledgeth for stars and Angels And howsoever the inferiour Pastors both are and may be called Angels in a general sense as Messengers and Ministers of God Almighty yet if it be the Angel in the singular number the Angel in the way of eminence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is peculiar only to the Bishop Now that each Church of those remembred in that Book had his proper Angel and that they were not governed by a Corporation or Colledg of Presbyters to whom those several Epistles might be sent by the name of Angels the word Angel being to be taken collectively and not individually as some men suppose is in the next place to be shewed And first for proof Smectymn p. 52. there is a pregnant evidence in a Discourse or Treatise touching the Martyrdom of Timothy the Author of the which relates that after Saint John the Apostle was revoked from his exile by the sentence of Nerva Apud Phot. in Biblioth n. 254. he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being assisted with the presence of the seven Bishops he took upon himself the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians and there continued preaching the Doctrine of salvation till the time of Trajan Which as it is an evident and convincing proof that the seven Churches had their several Bishops to each Church one Bishop so is it no such difficult matter to find out most of them by name and what Church each of them did govern And first for Ephesus Paraeum in Apocal cap. 2. some have conceived that Timothy was still alive and Bishop at that time when the Apocalypse was written which hotly is defended by Alcasar against Ribera Lyra and Pererius who opine the contrary But surely Timothy it could not be as doth appear in part by that which was alledged out of the Treatise of his Martyrdom which if it were not written by Polycrates is yet very antient and authentick wherein he is conceived to be dead before but principally by the quality and condition of that blessed Evangelist so plentifully endued with the Holy Ghost so eminent in piety and all heavenly graces that no man can conceive him lyable to the accusation with which the Angel of that Church is charged And therefore it must either be that John when on the death of Timothy as I conceive Saint John ordained Bishop of this Church as is reported in the Constitutions Constitut Apost l. 7. c. 48. ascribed to Clemens or else Onesimus another of the Successors of Timothy in the See of Ephesus who is intituled Bishop of it in the Epistle of Ignatius written to that Church within twelve years after the writing of the Revelation In which Epistle Ignatius blessing God for so good a Bishop Igna. in Epist ad Ephes admonisheth the people of their duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in submitting themselves unto his judgment or concurring with it as their whole Presbytery did which harmony of the Bishop and his Presbyters he doth compare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the concord of the
with handling of worldly affairs And so far I agree with them that Presbyters and Bishops are to be restrained from these worldly matters so far forth as they are a molestation to them whereby they are disabled from the executing of their holy function as this Faustinus seems to be ab Altari avocatus Cypr. Ep. 66. quite taken off from the attendance of his place so far forth as the ancient Canons on the which Cyprian grounds himself they are and ought to be restrained V. par 2. c. 1. But we have shewn before that many secular affairs were not inconsistent with the true meaning of those Canons as neither possibly might this of Faustinus had it hapned at some other time been reputed by him But at this time partly by reason of the persecution and partly on occasion of the factious the Church was almost destitute and unprovided This as he intimates in his 35 Epistle Desolata Presbyterii nostri copia ep 35. Cypr. Ep. 24. touching the admission of Numidicus into the number of their Presbyters so he affirms the same at large in another place where he declareth plurimos nostros absentes esse paucos vero qui illic sunt vix ad ministerium quotidiani operis sufficere that many of the Presbyters did absent themselves and that those which did remain upon their Charge could not suffice for the performance of the daily offices So that the Church being in that necessity and such a manifest need or want of Presbyters as then appearing in the Church Faustinus could the less be spared from the attendance on the Ministry and consequently Geminius Victor the more unadvised in putting him on such a business by which he was ab administratione Divina avocatus Cypr. Ep. 66. quite taken off from the employment of his calling in Gods holy Service And this I rather take to be the true condition of the business and that which gave S. Cyprian so great cause of Anger than with Saravia De honore Praesul debito c. 16. to affirm that the Decree or Canon whereof Cyprian speaketh was but particular and provincial illi tempori loco serviens calculated for the Meridian only of the Church of Carthage and fitted to the present time the Canon being ancient and universal as before was shewn Another point in which S. Cyprian exercised the height of his Episcopal Authority and an high point it was indeed as the times then were was in restraining of those Indulgences which usually the Martyrs or such as were prepared for Martyrdom did too promiscuously bestow on collapsed Christians For in the Primitive times the Discipline of the Church being very rigid and severe such as in time of Persecution had denied the Faith either by offering unto Idols or by some formal abnegation under their hand-writing Albaspin de Eccl. ritibus whom they called Libellatici were doomed unto perpetual penance no restitution being to be hoped for to the Churches favour and to the benefits and comforts of it until the very moment of their last departure Yet such was the regard which was born to those who did already suffer duresse and imprisonment and were resolved to suffer death for the sake of Christ that such to whom they gave their Letters of recommendation Cypr. Ep. 11.13 14 15. were by the Bishops readmitted into the bosom of Church And this at first was done without any sensible inconvenience following thereupon the Martyrs or Confessors rather being very wary on whom they did bestow those favours and very sparing of them also But when that it was grown so general that either they did pacem lapsis dare receive such men into their favours and the Churches peace promiscuously without care and difference Id. Ep. 17.19 20 21 22. or that the Presbyters taking their warrant for sufficient without the leave and liking of their Bishop admitted them to the Communion then did the Father manifest his dislike thereof whereof consult Ep. 11.13 14 15. For when it once was come to this he first addressed himself unto the Confessors or Martyrs to be more sparing of the like Indulgences and after to the Presbyters and People severally for the repressing of this foul disorder And when that would not serve the turn he resolved at last that for the time to come Cypr. Ep. 15. Quamvis libello à Martyribus accepto such Bills or Letters notwithstanding as they had received from those Martyrs they should stay his leisure and the whole business concerning them be respited until his return Which check thus given and certain of the Presbyters rebuked and threatned by him for their officiousness in this kind as before we saw it came to pass that in a very little time as well the Discipline of the Church as the Authority of the Bishops reverted to its former rigor especially after that on the sight of this inconvenience the Lapsi or Collapsed Christians were by the general consent of holy Church admitted unto penance like to other Sinners which as it hapned chiefly by S. Cyprians means so was it brought to pass in S. Cyprians time But here take notice by the way that though these Indulgences had been granted by these Confessors whilst they were Martyrs but in voto they were not yet to take effect Albaspinae de rit Eccl. li. 1. obseru 2. as the late Learned Bishop of Orleans very well observed till that they had received the crown of Martyrdom which he proves very evidently out of certain places of S. Cyprian compared together for which I leave you to that Author It is enough that the first check that had been given to that promiscuous liberty which the Martyrs took of doing what they pleased with the Churches Keys was given by Cyprian Whose foot-steps one of his Successors following after brought to pass Baro. in Annal. Eccl. Anno. 302. n. 126. that none should have the honour of being counted Martyrs after their decease but such whose life and sufferings and the occasion of those sufferings were first reported by the Bishop of the place in which he lived to his Metropolitan or Primate and by the Metropolitan to the chief Primate who was he of Carthage who on deliberation was to decree Cuinam Martyris cultus deberet impendi who ought to have the honour and repute of Martyrs as Baronius noteth And this he proveth out of a passage in S. Austin Brev. Coll. die 3. c. 5. wherein Mensurius Bishop of Carthage writing unto Secundus Primate of Numidia for all the Metropolitans of Africa were called Primates is said to have disliked of those which without cause or questioning exposed themselves to open danger Et ab iis honorandis prohibuisse Christianos and that he did prohibit the Christian People to give them that regard and honour which was due to Martyrs And indeed Optatus speaks of one who was reputed for a Martyr Opta◠de Schism lib. 1.
or to the seventh precisely from the Worlds Creation Constitui potuisset quod in die sabbati coleretur Deus aut in die Martis Aut in altera die God saith Tostatus might have ordered it to have his Sabbath on the Saturday In Exod. 20. qu. 11. or on the Tuesday or any other day what ever what any other of the week and no more than so No he might have appointed it aut bis aut semel tantum in anno aut in mense once or twice a year or every month as he had listed And might not God as well exceed this number as fall short thereof Yes say the Protestant Doctors that he might have done He might have made each third or fourth or fifth day a Sabbath indeed as many as he pleased In Exod. 20. Si voluisset Deus absolute uti dominio suo potuit plures dies imperare cultui suo impendendos So saith Dr. Ryvet one of the Professors of Leiden and a great Friend to the Antiquity of the Sabbath What was the principal motive then why the seventh day way chosen for this purpose and none but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep God always in their minds so saith Justin Martyr But why should that be rather done by a seventh day Sabbath than by any other Dial. Cum Try phone Detsest Paschal hom 6. Saint Cyril answers to that point exceeding fully The Jews saith he became infected with the Idolatries of Egypt worshipped the Sun and Moon and Stars and the Host of Heaven which seems to be insinuated in the fourth of Deut. v. 19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be Gods workmanship eos opificem suum imitari jubet he willeth them that they imitate their Creator that resting on the Sabbath day they might the better understand the reason of the Festival Which if they did saith he in case they rested on that day whereon God had rested it was a plain confession that all things were made by him and consequently that there were no other Gods besides him Et haec una ratio sabbato indicatae quietis Indeed the one and only reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandment which reflects only on Gods rest from all his work which he had made and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than the sixth or eighth or any other Which being so it is the more to be admired that Philo being a learned Jew or any learned Christian Writer leaving the cause expressed in the Law it self should seek some secret reason for it out of the nature of the day or of the number De Abrahamo First Fhilo tells us that the Jews do call their seventh day by the name of Sabbath which signifieth repose and rest Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because seven is found to be both in the world and man himself the most quiet number most free from trouble war and all manner of contention A strange conceit to take beginning from a Jew Problem loc 5 5. yet that that follows of Aretius is as strange as this Who thinks that day was therefore consecrated unto rest even amongst the Gentiles quod putarent civilibus actionibus ineptum esse fortasse propter frigus planetae contemplationibus vero idoneum Because they thought that day by reason of the dulness of the Planet Saturn more fit for contemplation than it was for action Some had it seems conceived so in the former times whom thereupon Tostatus censures in his Comment on the fifth of Deuteronomy Qu. 3. For where it was Gods purpose as before we noted out of Cyril to wean the People from Idolatry and Superstition to lay down such a reason for the observation of the Sabbath was to reduce them to the worship of those Stars and Planets from which he did intend to wean them I had almost omitted the conceit of Zanchie See n. 1. before remembred who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather because that on the same day he had brought his People out of Egypt In case the ground be true that on this day the Lord wrought this deliverance for his People Israel then his conceit may probably be countenanced from the fifth of Deuteronomy where God recounting to his People that with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm he had delivered them from Egypt hath thereupon commanded them that they should keep the Sabbath day Lay all that hath been said together and it will come in all to this that as the Sabbath was not known till Moses time Annal. d. 7. so being known it was peculiar unto Israel only Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cultum nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse as Torniellus doth conclude it For that the Gentiles used to keep the seventh day sacred as some give it out is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the Writings of the Gentiles The seventh day of the moneth indeed they hallowed and so they did the first and fourth as Hesiod tells us Opera dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the first day and the fourth and seventh of every week for then they must have gone beyond the Jews but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it of every month à novilunio exorsus laudat tres the first fourth and seventh And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier than the other two because the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems joyned unto it the Scholiast takes away that scruple à novilunio exorsus tres laudat omnes sacras dicens septimam etiam ut Apollinis natalem celebrans and tells us that all three are accounted holy and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollos birth-day For so it followeth in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Flamines or Gentile Priests did use to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the God born on the seventh day Dies Geniales l. 3. c. 18. For further proof hereof we find in Alexander ab Alexandro that the first day of evry moneth was consecrated to Apollo the fourth to Mercury the seventh again unto Apollo the eighth to Theseus The like doth Plutarch say of Theseus that the Athenians offered to him their greatest Sacrifice upon the eighth day of October because of his arrival that day from Crete and that they also honoured him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the eighth day of the other moneths because he was derived from Neptune to whom on the eighth day of every month they did offer sacrifice To make the matter yet more sure De Decalogo Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews that divers Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh
one other Reading of it publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year for ought we find in holy Scripture Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath which much about those times began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation First in Hierusalem and after by degrees in most places else as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues Houses selected for that purpose to hear the Word of God and observe the same Of which times and of none before those passages of Philo and Josephus before remembred Chap. 6. n. 4. touching the weekly reading of the Law and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of Assembles are to be understood and verified as there we noted For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law before these times besides what hath been said already we will now make manifest No Synagogue before these times for there is neither mention of them in all the body of the old Testament nor any use of them in those days wherein there were no Congregations in particular places And first there is no mention of them in the old Testament For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues in the time of David and for the proof thereof they produce these words Psal 74.8 they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land the supposition and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not composed in reference to any present misery which fefell the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time as is there complained of Therefore if David writ that Psalm he writ it as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy and in the spirit of Prophecy did reflect on those wretched times wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God and ransacked his inheritance To those most probably must it be referred the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble as it was in this Magis probabilis est conjectura ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias as Calvin notes it In Psal 74. And secondly there was no use of them before because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course and on the Sabbath days For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day we either should have found some Commandment for it or some practice of it but we meet with neither Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary We read it of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.7 that in the third year of his reign he sent his Princes Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathaneel and Micaiah to teach in the Cities of Judah These were the principal in Commission and unto them he joyned nine Levites and two Priests to bear them company and to assist them It followeth And they taught in Judah Verse 9. and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah and taught the people And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them This must needs be a needless labour in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant and extant must it be if it had been read in every Town and Village over all Judaea Therefore there was no Synagogue no reading of the Law every Sabbath day in Jehosaphats time But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this 2 Kings 12. That godly Prince intended to repair the Temple and in pursuit of that intendment Hilkiah the Priest to whom the ordering of the work had been committed found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses This Book is brought unto the King and read unto him And when the King had heard the words of the Law he rent his cloths And not so only Verse 11. Chap. 23.1 2. but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God or that the finding of the Book had been related for so strange an accident when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them Or what need such a sudden calling of all the Elders and on an extraordinary time to hear the Law if they had heard it every Sabbath and that of ordinary course Nay so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath that as it seems it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of years as Moses had before appointed For if it had been read unto them once in seven years only that vertuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof Therefore there was no Synagogue no weekly reading of the Law in Josiabs days And if not then and not before then not at all till Ezras time The finding of the Book of God before remembred is said to happen in the year 3412. of the Worlds Creation not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted there could be nothing done that concern'd this business Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra unto the Council holden in Hierusalem there passed 490 years or thereabouts Acts 15.21 Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that we may conclude for certain that till these times wherein we are there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days and in these times when it was taken up amongst them it was by Ecclesiastical institution only no divine Authority But being taken up on what ground soever it did continue afterwards though perhaps sometimes interrupted until the final dissolution of that Church and State and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretation of the holy words which did at last divide the people into sects and factions Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or in private De repub l. 2. ca. 17. yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla But in
every Kingdom when they are solemnly assebled whom he condemns as guilty of perfidious dissimulation and the betrayers of the Subject Liberties whereof they are the proper and appointed Guardians if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insuit on the common people This is the gap through which rebellions and seditions have found to plausible a passage in the Christian World to be dethroning of some Kings and Princes the death of others For through this gap broke in those dangerous and seditious Doctrines that the inferiour Magistrates are ordained by God and not appointed by the King or the Supream Powers that being so ordained by God that are by him inabled to compel the King to rule according unto justice and the Laws established that if the King be refractory and unreclaimable they are to call him to account and to provide for the safety of the Common-wealth by all ways and means which may conduce unto thepreservation of it and finally which is the darling Doctrine of these later times that there is a mixture in all Governments and that the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever we do call their meeting are not subordinate to the King but co-ordinate with him and have not only a supplemental power to supply what is defective in him but a coercive also to restrain his Actions and a Corrective too to reform his Errors But this I give you now in the generals only hereafter you shall see it more particularly and every Author cited in his own words for the proof hereof Many of which as they did live in Calvin's time and by their writings gave great scandal to all Sovereign Princes but more as to the progress of the Reformation so could not Calvin choose but be made acquainted with the effects and consequences of his dangerous principles Which since he never did retract upon the sight of those seditious Pamphlets and worse than those those bloody tumults and rebellions which ensued upon it but let it stand unaltered to his dying day is a clear argument to me that this passage fell not from his Pen by chance but was laid of purpose as a Stumbling-block in the Subjects way to make him fall in the performance of his Christian duty both to God and man For though the Book of Institutions had been often printed in his life time and received many alterations and additions as being enlarged from a small Octavo of not above 29 sheets to a large Folio of 160 yet this particular passage still remained unchanged and hath continued as it is from the first Edition of it which was in the year 1536 not long after his first coming to Geneva But to proceed in our design What fruits these dangerous Doctrines have produced amongst us we have seen too plainly and we may see as plainly if we be not blind through what gap these Doctrines entred on what foundation they were built and unto whose Authority we stand indebted for all those miseries and calamities which are fallen upon us Yet to say truth the man desired to be concealed and not reputed for the Author of such strange conclusions which have resulted from his principles and therefore lays it down with great Art and caution Si qui and Fortè and ut nunc res habent that is to say Perhaps and as the World now goes and if there be such Officers as have been formerly as the three disguises which he hath masked himself and the point withal that he might pass away unseen And if there be such Officers as perhaps there are or that the world goes here as it did at Sparta or in the States of Rome and Athens as perhaps it doth or that the three Estate of each several Kingdom have the same authority in them as the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes had as perhaps they have the Subject is no doubt in a good condition as good a man as the best Monarch of them all But if the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes were not appointed at the first for the restraint and regulating of the Supream Powers as indeed they were not and if the three Estates in each several Kingdom have not that authority which the Ephori and the Tribunes did in fine usurp and the Demarchi are supposed to have as indeed they have not perhaps and peradventure will not serve the turn The Subject stands upon no better grounds than before he did Therefore to take away this stumbling-block and remove this rub I shall propose and prove these three points ensuing 1. That the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not instituted at the first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author 2. If they were instituted for those ends yet the illation thereupon would be weak and childish as it relates of Kings and Kingdoms And 3. That the three Estates in each several Kingdom without all peradventures have no such authority as the Author dreams of and therefore of no power to controul their King Which If I clearly prove as I hope I shall I doubt not but to leave the cause in a better condition than I found it And in the proof of these the first point especially if it be thought that I insist longer than I needed on the condition of the Spartan Ephori the Roman Tribunes and the Demarchi of Athens and spend more cost upon it than the thing is worth I must intreat the Reader to excuse me in it I must first lay down my grounds and make sure work there before I go about my building And being my design relates particularly to the information and instruction of the English Subject I could not make my way unto it but by a discovery of the means and Artifices by which some petit popular Officers attained unto so great a mastery in the game of Government as to give the Check unto their Kings Which being premised once for all I now proceed unto the proof of the points proposed and having proved these points I shall make an end Haec tria cum docuero perorabo in the Orators Language CHAP. II. Of the Authority of the Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Kings of Sparta absolute Monarchs at the first 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government 8. By what degrees the Ephori encroached on the Spartan Kings 9. The
six Military Tribunes should be chosen by them to be possessed of all the Consular Authority and they to be promiscuously elected out of the Patricians and the People Livie l. 4. as they saw convenient and having got this ground they went on a main For not long after P. Licinius Calvus a meer Plebeian is made one of these Military Tribunes and shortly after that the Magister Equitum or the Commander of the Horse Thus Silius and Aelius are made Questors those of Patrician rank having had the canvass and next that followed a Decree that the Decemviri Sacrorum who had the custody and charge of the Sibyls Books Id. lib. 6. partim ex Plebe partim ex Patriciis should be indifferently chosen out of both Estates In little time the Tribunes pressing hotly for it L. Sextus obtains the Consulship Id. ibid. Id. lib. 7. Id. lib. 8. C. Martius Rutilius is first made Dictator afterwards one of the Censors also and P. Philo is advanced to the place and dignity of the Praetor Having thus taken possession of all Civil Magistracy which were of any power and dignity in the Common-wealth the Tribunes would not rest nor content themselves until the Commons were made capable of the Priesthood also which after some slight opposition made by Appius Claudius a Family that never yielded any thing to advance the people was conferred upon them five Augures and four Pontifices being added to the former number all chosen and for ever to be chosen by and out of the Commons Id. lib. 10. There were only now two places of respect and credit that of the Maximus Curio and the Pontifex Maximus both which the Nobles did pretend to belong to them but the Tribunes were resolved to have it otherwise According to which resolution Id. lib. 26. C. Manilius got the Office of the Maximus Curio and in the close of all Rofin Antiq. Rom. l. 3. c. 22. but a good while after Omnibus honoribus plebi communicatis after all other honours were conferred upon them or rather communicated to them one T. Coruncanius was declared the Pontifex Maximus All this and more they had but it would not satisfie For there was wanting still both the power of Judicature and the Supream Majesty of the State to make all compleat and to gain this the Tribunes must bestir themselves both with Art and Violence or else they could not hope to estate it on them A business of so high a nature that it was never in a way to be brought about till the two Gracchi undertook the contrivance of it who being men of excellent parts and great abilities did most unfortunately fall on the undertaking and being fallen upon it did devise all ways which either Art or Wit could present unto them to effect the work Of these Tiberius was the eldest who stumbling in the way on the Lex Agraria as being a means to make the poor people more considerable and the rich less powerful and finding that Octavius one of his Colleagues did oppose him in it deposed him from his Office by force and violence only because he stood upon the right of his negative Voice Plutarch in Tib. Calo. He had before inflamed the people by making a seditious speech to prefer their business and now he takes a course to inflame them more for the advancement of his own For one of his Friends being found dead upon a sudden not without some suspicion of poison as he gave it out he put on mourning Apparel and brought his sons before the people into the common Forum beseeching them to have compassion on his Wife and Children as one that utterly despaired of his own safety having for their sakes got the hatred of the Noble-men And sometimes he would be the first man in the Market-place apparelled all in black his face swelled with Tears and looking heavily upon the matter would pray the people to stand to him saying he was afraid his Enemies would come in the Night and overthrow his House to kill him By means of which Devices he so wrought upon them that many of them bought Tents and lay about his House continually to keep him from the hands of his deadly Enemies So that being sure of their concurrence and assistance in any project which he should set on foot to advance himself under pretence of doing service to the Common-wealth he presently proposed a Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that any man that would might appeal from the Judges to the people in what cause soever And that he might be sure to embase the Senate to the improvement and increase of the peoples power he had prepared another of an higher nature which was to add unto the Senate an equal number of the Equites or the Roman Knights who were to be of equal power and to have liberty of Voting in all publick businesses with the antient Senators In passing which and other of his popular Laws he got this Trick and he was very constant to it that if he found the sense of the House to be against him and was not like to carry with him the major part of the Voices he would quarrel with his fellow Tribunes to spin out the time till his party were all come together and if that could not do it neither then he adjourned the Assembly to some other day But yet for all these Artifices and unworthy practices he could not compass the design but left it to be finished by his Brother Caius Who taking the same course to engage the people which his Brother had pursued before brought those designs about which Tiberius failed in Id. ibid. For first whereas the Senate were the only Judges in matters which concerned the affairs of the Common-wealth which made them no less reverenced by the Roman Knights than by others of the common people Caius prevailed so far that he gained a Law for adding three hundred of these Equites to as many Senators for the Senate did consist of three hundred anciently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving them equal power of judging in all causes which were brought before them So that by gaining this and the former Law of appealing to the people upon all occasions the people were estated in the power of Judicature and the dernier resort as the Lawers call it was in them alone The only point now left was the Supream Majesty and that did Caius very handsomly confer upon them without noise or trouble For whereas all other Orators when they made their Speeches turned themselves towards the Palace where the Senate sat he on the contrary turned himself towards the Market place where the people were and taught all other Orators by his Example to do the like And thus saith Plutarch by the only turning of his look he gained a point of infinite consequence and importance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changing the Common-wealth from an Aristocratie to a meer Democratie which was