good King ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and Churches under his Government Rex With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my part and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonicall priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdome by right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under his Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where he makes a solemne Oath in sight of all the â—â—opâ—e to observe the premises and laying his hand on the Booke saith The Oath The Things that I have before promised I shall perform and keep so p 〈…〉 me God and the Contents of this Book The Contents CHAP. I. VVHether the King may lawfully consent to the abrogation of Episcopacy 1. CHAP. II. Whether the Kings Oath taken at his Coronation be an unlawfull Oath 4. CHAP. III. Whether Prelacy in the Church of England were an usurpation 9. CHAP. IV. Whether the King may consent to the abrogation of Episcopacy if so that calling be lawfull 18. CHAP. V. Whether ye have not bound your selves by your Solemne League and Covenant to maintaine Episcopacy 22. CHAP. VI. Whether the King without impeachment to his Oath at Coronation may consent to the abrogation of Episcopacy 31 CHAP. VII Whether the King may desert Episcopacy without perjury 37. CHAP. VIII Whether the Kings Oath to the Clergie be injurious to his other subjects and inconsistent with his Oath to the people 41. CHAP. IX How far forth and wherein the Clergie is subject to a Parliament and to what Parliament 52 CHAP. X. Whether it be lawfull for the King to abrogate the Rights of the Clergie 60. CHAP. XI Whether the Clergie and Laity be two distinct bodies or one body Politicke That Church-men in all ages had some singular priviledges allowed them 69. CHAP. XII Whether to sit and Vote in Parliament be incongruous to the calling of Bishops 78. CHAP. XIII Certaine light and scandalous speeches concerning Prince Preist tenderly touched 87. CHAP. XIV Whether the Lands of the Church may be forfeited by the misdemeanour of the Clergie 93. CHAP. XV. Whether it be lawfull to take away the Bishops Lands and to confer them upon the Presbytery 104. CHAP. XVI How far forth the King ought to protect the Church Bishops 114 CHAP. XVII Whether there be two Supremacies in this Kingdome 127 Mr. GEREES Case of Conscience SIFTED CHAP. I. Whether the King may lawfully consent to the abrogation of Episcopacy 1. I Find a Case of Conscience proposed by Mr. Geree and this it is Whether the King considering his O that Coronation to protect the Clergie and their Priviledges can salvâ conscientiâ consent to the abrogation of Episcopacy But why I pray you is the question proposed here when you have determined it before For doth not your Title page speak thus In this Case of Conscience it is cleared that the King may without impeachment to his Oath touching the Clergie at Coronation consent to the Abrogation of Episcopacy Thus you have full magisterially determined before the question be so much as proposed Is this the fashion first to resolve and then to argue the case This may be the course of Hereticks it is otherwise with good Catholicks But you are resolved to maintain that a Christian may swear and forswear without the least prejudice to his soul 2. And your practice is accordingly witnesse the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which you with your great Masters have taken more then once And those of your perswasion have taken up Arms against their Soveraign Lord without impeachment to their Oath of Allegiance and maintain that The Parliament is subordinate to no power under Heaven without any breach of the Oath of Supremacie And your self like a good Preacher of Gods Word have taken the Oath of Canonicall obedience to the Bishop and yet endeavour the abrogation of Episcopacy and the extirpation of that Order from whence you had your Orders and without which you could have had no Orders 3. Me thinks the Smectymnuans should not endure this Proposition since with them a Bishop and a Presbyter are one and the same Thus while you endeavour to ruinate Episcopacy you subvert the Presbytery according to their tenets I wonder much how your case hath passed so long unsifted and uncensured by the Divine Masters of your learned Assembly 4. But I shall take it for your best advantage as it is distinguished or as we say a distinct order from Presbytery I shall also take into consideration the severall motives which you produce for the Abrogation of Episcopacy 5. Whereof your first is this that there is no hope of the Kings or Kingdoms safetie without an union between our King and Parliament I must confesse with anguish of spirit as matters have been handled the King and Kingdom are driven into a great streight and an Vnion between our King and your Parliament hath been prayed for and sought for by all commendable or tolerable means The hope left us is onely in our God and Saviour whose custome it is to scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts to pull down the mighty from their throne and to exalt the humble and meek Thus can he shew strength with his arm and do great things for us And this I hope in his due time he will do and reduce this Kingdom from irreligion and sacriledge and not cast off the innocent with the prophane blasphemers Oh that we might begge that blessing from Heaven to see a Parliament rightly regulated religiously minded and with-out any by ends of their own men of courage fearing God men dealing truly hating covetousnesse Such as will not be led by a multitude to do evil or to subvert the truth I am certain we should then have an Union a blessed Vnion between King and Parliament 6. But by you it seems that there is now no probable or possible means of reconciliation left in mans judgement unlesse the King yeeld to the extirpation of Episcopacy You should have added unlesse he lay down his Lands Royalties and just Prerogatives at his Subjects feet unlesse he abandon the wife of his bosome and become a stranger to the Children of his loins unlesse he sacrifice his friends to the malice of his foes and the ruine of whole families to their avarice unlesse he cast off the Service of God that most excellent form of Common Prayer and give up the houses and lands of God and all that is accounted holy to satiate their sacrilegious appetite 7. But in sober sadnesse do you beleeve that the Abrogation of Episcopacy is that they yawn at You are mistaken good brother the Episcopall houses and lands as also what ever belongs to Deans and
Bishops And in both ye lay the whole work upon the Presbytery as if they were the men that could discharge all sacred and Ministerial duties No such matter the contrary is manifested Can any man imagine that a common souldier or an ordinary marriner doth performe the cheife work in an army or ship because they take the greater toile to the outward eye No no it is the Pilot in a Ship the Colonel in a Regiment the Admirall in a Navy and the Generall in an Army that discharge the cheife duties Without these there would be wise worke by Sea or Land Evâ—ry one that can pull a gable or manage an oare is not fit to be a Pilot. Every man that can and dare fight and charge with courage is not fit to be a Commander But the Church is both a ship and an armie And I dare say that every one that can talke lavishly or make a rhetoricall flourish in the Pulpit is not fit to be a Bishop or Governour in the Church of Christ And yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting ordain Presbyters in every City These are the duties of a Bishop without which the Church will suddenly be out of frame and crumble into nothing 16. In a ship or regiment no man comes to sit at the stern no man attempts the cheife command the first day if he do both ship and regiment suffer for it No they are trained up in their severall professions and by degrees they rise till they come to the highest Thus was it in the ancient and thus is it in the present Church If any be suddenly raised to a Bishoprick it is seldom for the good of that Diocese 17. But you and your fellow Presbyters want congruous and sufficient maintenance down therefore must the Bishops and their Revenues must be divided amongst such good Pastors as you are The Levellers doctrine right the Nobility and Gentrey have too much the godly of the land to little all therefore must be shared that Jack and Tom may have a congrurus maintenance If the great men of the Land will not yeeld to this the Parliament shall be garbled the Nobility and Gentry shall be turned aside and then look for a new Covenant and a fresh extirpation Dukes descend from profane Esau Marquesses Earles Vicounts c. are but heathenish titles invented by the children of darknesse and the children of light defie them What Are we not all Adams sons Are we not brethren in Christ Is it not fit that we should all have share and share like as had the children of Israel in the land of promise As long as the Church onely was strook at it was well liked of but now patience perforce we must be leveled both in Church and State We shall find that there is such a sympathy between them in all Christian Common-wealths that they stand and fall swimme and sink together 18. What talke we of Levelling That is enough to destroy the State and face of a Kingdome But in your project there will be no danger How No danger No danger say you of sacriledge No danger in the subversion of the Church Surely this must be ruine to Episcopacy and consequently to the Church For no Bishop no Church Ecclesia enim super Episcopos constituitur for the Church is founded and settled upon Bishops So S. Cyprian Think not that we exclude Christ Christ it is that layd the foundation and settled the Church so And it is not for man to unsettle it or to lay another a new foundation For other foundation can no man lay then that is layed by Jesus Christ But we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets And Bishops and Apostles are of the same order they are one and the same Apostolos id est Episcopos Praepositos Dominus elegit So S. Cyprian the Lord made choice of APOSTLES THAT IS OF BISHOPS Prelates When therefore our Saviour founded the Church upon the Apostles he founded it upon Bishops Who dare then after this foundation He that endeavours it doth not build but destroy the Church 19. Is there no danger of sacriledge in robbing father and mother The Bishop your father and the Church your mother For as in the Church you were born anew of water and the Holy Ghost so if you be a Presbyter as a Presbyter you have your being from a Bishop or else you have no such being But you return that ye rob not the Church for you intend that these revenues shall be settled upon Church-men that is upon Presbyters Suppose you rob but one but your Father the sacriledge is detestable For doth not the Lord say Who so robbeth his father or mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a murtherer But to make the sacriledge more odious I shall manifest that ye have not onely robbed your Father but your Mother also The Bishop your father is the husband to his particular Church If then you rob him of his meanes who will succeed in his roome and become an husband to that Church For though there be a thousand Presbyters in a Diocese yet if she be without a Bishop that Church is a widow So that great Councell of Chalcedon Thus ye rob the Bishop of his means that Church of her husband And wile a widow she can bring forth but a bastard brood Consider that 20. Upon these motives I must tell you that if his Majestie shall gratifie either the Parliament or the Assembly in the abolition of Episcopacy and in sacrificing the Church-lands to your or their sacrilegious avarice it will be such a work for which following generations shall have just cause to pitie lament him that so good a man should either be cheated or enforced into so foule a sin His children and the whole Kingdome would rue it and the generations to come unlesse the world turn Presbyterian will speak of Him as of King Henry the eight with this difference that King Henry wilfully plunged himself into this sin and King Charles was driven into it by an Atheisticall and bloody faction But I am confident his Majestie is seasoned with better principles he knows it was no excuse for Saul to confesse that he had sinned because he was afraid of the people and obeyed their voice not Gods directions This King knew Gods Word rejected it God therefore rejected him from being King and his seed from the throne A lamentable case to be frighted by a multitude out of Gods favour and the Crowne But I hope you have no Saul in hand Our good Kings Crowne you may cause to totter but not his resolution Ye may and have robbed him of his Prerogatives revenues and liberty but you cannot imprison or force his conscience that will injoy her ancient priviledges freedome and these disasters shall end in a Crowne of glory His memory shall be honoured in our Annals and his posterity flourish in these thrones Amen Amen CHAP. XVI How far forth the King ought to protect the Church and Bishops 1. IT is confessed to my hand that the King is
ingaged to his power to protect the Bishops and their priviledges as every good King ought in right to protect defend the Bishops Churches under their Government Reason requires no more and Religion requires so much For by that God whom we serve Kings are made Guardians and nursing fathers to the Church and by the same God this ingagement is put upon them Not by man not by the Author as you seem to intimate nor yet by the Bishops One of the Bishops indeed in the behalfe of his brethren and the whole Clergie humbly beseecheth his Majestie to protect and defend to them and to the Churches committed to their charge all Canonicall priviledges and due Law and Justice The King with a willing and devout heart premiseth to be their protector and Defender to his power by the assistance of God And afterwards at the Communion table he makes a solemne Oath upon Gods own book to observe the Premises This ingagement then is not put upon the King but with a willing heart he takes it upon himselfe acknowledging that he ought to do so if he be a good King Yea saith Sir Edward Coke the King is bound and sworn to the observation and keeping of Magna Charta His Majestie then is but intreated to do what he is sworne and bound to do And since sworne and bound he may not with a safe conscience give them up to the wild boares of the forrest to root up the plants or suffer the wild beasts of the field to devour this Vine which the Lords right hand hath planted 2. That the King is bound no further to exercise his power in the protection of the Church then he can do it without sinning against God is most undoubtedly true and it were not the part of a Christian to desire more For we know that the King receives his power from God which is to be used not against but for God Not to protect the Church to his power is to break his Oath it is to desert that trust which God hath committed to his charge and is not this to sin against God In the discharge of this dutie he is so far from being injurious to the rest of his people that if he should forbear it it would prove the greatest mischeife that can be imagined to his people and to their posterity in their soules in their estates and a perpetuall infamie to this Nation I need not prove it now it is already done Cap. 8. Sect 10. 11. c. 3. That his sacred Majestie hath interposed his Authority for the Bishops put forth all the power he hath to preserve them is that which vexeth your confederacy And yet you cannot deny but that every good King is bound in right to do so What we ought to do is our bounden duty and what we do in right is justly done Oh that this had been done in the right time Indeed he is not onely bound but he finds it more then necessary to protect and preserve them for in protecting them he protects himself his throne and his posterity Alas he was strook at thorough the Bishops sides His wise Father descried this long since No Bishop no King What the Father spake his Sonne our good King hath found true by woefull experience His Crowne hath sunke with their Miters 4. Well by your own confession what our gracious King hath done is right and what good Kings are bound to do to the extent of their power Thus our good King is justified by his enemies as our Saviour was by Judas If his Majestie have endeavoured to do that which is right what are they that have hindered him from doing it Have not they done wrong How can they excuse themselves before God or man that have so manacled our betrayed Soveraigne that he cannot do what good Kings are bound in right to do Is this to be good Is this to be just Then have all the Saints of God been utterly deceived 5. If after all this He must perforce let the Bishops fall you and your Schisme have much to answer for that have driven him to this necessity You seem to pitie his good subjects who with their blood have endeavoured to support Episcopacy Their swords were not drawn to maintaine this Government or the Religion established they never learned to fight for Religion What they did was done in submission to his Majesties just commands and to manifest their allegiance But if these be good that have indangered their lives to uphold Bishops what are they I beseech you that have spent their blaod to root them out Surely in justifying the former Mr. Geree hath condemned the latter and when the waspes find it he must look to his eares 6. I must confesse it is an hard case for one man to ingage his life for the maintenance of other mens privileges But who did so Not a man ingaged himself but the Kings command the Oath of Allegiance and the Laws of the Land ingaged every good Subject to assist his Soveraign to the utmost The King according to his Oath endeavoured to maintain the Laws of the Land to protect the Members of both Houses driven from Parliament to support the Bishops and to suppresse those seditious and sacrilegious persons which plotted and covenanted the ruine of Religion root and branch Though much the greatest part of the Nobility Gentrie and learned in the Law were deservedly moved to see Majestie dethroned and blasphemed Religion spurned at and vilified the Fathers of the Church scandalized and persecuted the Laws of the Kingdom and liberties of the Subject sleighted and trampled on yet not a man of these took up the Sword till he was commanded by him to whom the Laws of the Land and the Word of God have committed the power of the Sword This may not be called backwardnesse or unwillingnesse but pious discretion which ever waits upon the Soveraigns call When therefore His Majesty had set up his Standard I may truly say the governors of our Israel offered themselves WILLINGLY among the people they did the King service to the utmost Had there not been a back-doore to let in a forrein Nation to divide the Kings forces had not some of the Nobles of Judah conspired with Tobiah held intelligence with him and acquainted him with Nehemiahs secrets there never had been so many Thanksgiving dayes nor so much boasting that God prospered the cause God suffered David his own chosen servant his anointed and a man after his own heart to be hunted as a Partrige upon the mountains to be frighted from his throne and to live like a
beare in the Church Let Salmasius speake They at that time were mamed Apostles revera erant EPISCOPI JVRE EODEM ET ORDINE QUO HODIE HABENTUR qui Ecclesiam regunt Presbyteris praesunt and indeed were BISHOPS IN THE SAME RIGHT AND OF THE SAME ORDER WHEREOF AT THIS DAY THOSE ARE ACCOUNTED Who govern the Church and rule Presbyters But this very Office was none of those which were extraordinary and to continue for a season onely no no in Beza's judgement it is quotidianum munus an Office of daily use of necessity therefore it must be perpetull in the Church And yet the duties of that Office were such quibus sustinendis non alius quilibet e vulgo pastorum par fuisset as none of the vulgar Pastors no ordinary Presbyters were meet to undertake And what are these Even to redresse what is amisse and to ordain Presbyters These are matters of moment and require more then ordinary discretion For this cause S. Paul left Titus at Creete and for this very end he sent Epaphroditus to Philippi though at that time there were in that Citie many Bishops Phil. 1. 1. If then there needed no ordination but every man without orders might have discharged Presbyteriall duties or if the Presbyter-Bishops of that Citie might have set that Church in order and therein ordaine Presbyters Why did S. Paul send Epaphroditus to Philippi to do those things which might either have been left undone or at least have been done as well without him Surely S. Paul imposeth not needlesse businesses upon any 16. Bishops there were you will say before in that Church if then it belong to the Episcopall Order to ordain and reforme in the Church what is amisse why was Epaphroditus sent thither Take notice I beseech you that those Bishops were but Presbyters or Presbyter Bishops which Order never had the power either of Ordination or Jurisdiction S. Paul therefore sends unto them Epaphroditus an Apostle-Bishop who could performe both This you see acknowledged by your most able and subtill advocate 17. Well let it be what it will lawfull or unlawfull t is all one in this exigent or distresse that his Majestie is put to notwithstanding that his oath the King say you without impeachment may in this circumstance consent to the Abrogation of Episcopacy His Majesties oath now falls in question and I shall be willing fairely and calmely to consider wherein and how far forth a Christian King is bound to keepe or breake his Oath CHAP. VI. Whether the King without impeachment to his Oath at Coronation may consent to the Abrogation of Episcopacy 1. THis question hath two branches The first Whether a Christian King be bound to keep his Oath The second Whether he may notwithstanding his Oath consent to the Abrogation of Episcopacy His Majesties Coronation deserves also to be looked upon since an oath deliberately and solemnly taken deserves the more seriously to be thought on and will draw from God the heavier doome if despised or slighted 2. By your own confession it is evident that an oath against Christs Institution is vinâ—u um iniquitatis an impious oath and ought not to be observed but to be cut off with shame and sorrow since all bonds to sin is frustrate Confesse we must that an oath against God revealed will or honour is a bond to sin and therefore no sooner made then void and to be abhorred Such is your Covenant against Episcopacy And had the King either through misunderstanding ill advice or fear taken that irreligious Covenant he had been obliged by your confession to have made it frustrate since it is a bond to sin because it is against Christs Word and Instituition as is manifested c. 2. 4. 3. But an oath taken in truth and righteousnesse and judgement because it is of such things as may justly and lawfully be performed yea because God approves ratifies this oath is vinculum aequitatis necessitatis such a bond as equity and conscience bind us necessarily to performe to the utmost of our power But such is his Majesties Oath at Coronation concerning the Church the Spouse of Christ 4. No unrighteousnesse can ye shew in it the lawfulnesse of Episcopacy as also their just right to govern Presbyters is sufficiently justified c. 4. No untruth for our Soveraigne hath sworn to maintaine an Ordinance of truth of Christ himself And sub paenâ judicij upon paine of judgment he is bound to make good this his Oath so justly taken least he fall into the hands of God and so into eternall judgement For Justice requires that every man much more a Christian and a King keep his Oath made upon such grounds though it be with hazard both of Crown and life and all that may be indangered upon earth 5. Consider I beseech you how in an oath we call God to record and we make him not onely our witnesse but our suretie that we will with his blessing performe what we have vowed or sworne in his name And not onely so but we call upon him to be our Judge and the Revenger of our perfidiousnesse if so we wittingly depart from this Oath With what face then can we fall back and wilfully incurre perjury Is not this as Philo Judaeus hath it to make God a shelter for our wickednesse and to cast our sin upon him That so to the infamie of Christian Religion we may â—oder up a faire repute before men Is not this to cast aside not onely a fore-head but all conscience and the fear of God Oh saith S. Austin What blindnesse can equall this to hunt after a little vaine glory by deceiveing man while in thy heart thou sleightest God the searcher of all secrets As if his error who thinks thee good were comparable with thine who seekest to please man with a show of good whilest thou displealest God with that which is truly naught 6. But this is no new thing to you that have dispenced so long so often so variously with so many Oaths of Supremacie Allegeance and canonicall obedience That have done so many strange acts contrarie to your faith and subscription Take heed in time lest not onely your oaths but your own hand-writing arise in judgement against you for casting off the Book of Ordination For renouncing the Booke of Common-Prayer For disclaiming the Articles of the Church of England with those three Creeds the glory and hope of all good Christians Thus you and your brethren are become Apostata's and renegadoes to all Religion and piety gracelesse faithlesse perjured men God of his mercy give you a sence of these sins that so you may in time repent and make some satisfaction to the Church of Christ by an open confession and by a full detestation of those presumptuous and crying sins 7. This Oath his Majestie took solemnly before God in the house of God in the presence of
yet Joseph is not king Pharaoh keeps his throne and therein is he greater then Joseph who still is but Pharaohs deputy though Lord of all Egypt And though he be a father to Pharaoh yet is he still at his command Thus is it with the Parliament of England though they are put in highest trust by the King yet are they still at his disposing either to be adjourned prorogued or dissolved at his pleasure and are at his command in all things lawfull and honest To this great Councell we are no further to submit then in those things they are sent for by the King and so far forth as they have commission from him S. Peter saies the same Submit your selves unto THE KING AS SUPREME or unto Governors AS UNTO THEM THAT ARE SENT BY HIM by the King So far forth and in such things for which they are sent I owe them obedience but no further 9. How far forth the King is sworn to maintain the Laws of the Land and upon what grounds they may safely be repealed we have alreadie seen Now we are called upon to descend to the Rights of the Clergie whereof your resolution is this by way of consequence So the King by his Oath is bound to maintain THE RIGHTS OF THE CLERGIE while they continue such But blessed be God such they do continue the King therefore by Oath is bound to maintain them 10. But say you if any of their Rights be abrogated by just power he stands no longer ingaged to that particular Why I beseech you do you leave out something here that you held necessary for the abrogation of the Laws of the Land Before it was that the Laws might be abrogated by just power in a regular way But here you grant that the Rights of the Clergie may be abrogated by just power But what 's become of the regular way Was it forgotten or left out on set purpose Surely there is a my fiery in it for your argument ought to procede thus By what means the Laws of the Land may be abrogated by the same means may the Rights of the Clergie be abrogated But the Laws of the Land may be abrogated by just power in a regular way Ergo The Rights of the Clergie may be abrogated by just power in a regular way Thus the Syllogisme stands fair for the form and the Major or Minor Proposition must be denied by the respondent otherwise he is at a non-plus and convinced But your conclusion is So or Ergo the Rights of the Clergie may be abrogated by just power But this so is faultie and so is the Syllogisme because the minor terminus is maimed in the conclusion it comes not in whole as it should do The reason why is plain because you are not able to set down a regular way wherein or whereby those Rights you aim at may be abolished 11. And what wonder that you can finde no regular way for the Clergie and their rights since you have put them clean out of the regular the right way And when ye will find the regular way God knows for plain it is that ye are out of the way Ye wander this way and that way like men in a Maze or mis-led by an Ignis fatuus by Jack in a lantern No rule at all you have to be guided by but onely this that the Book of Common Prayers must down and Episcopacy shall not stand So farewell heavenly devotion and all true faith and farewell Church If this be not to be possessed with the spirit of giddinesse and impietie I know not what is 12. But I pray you give me leave before I passe further to tell you that Just power goes alwayes in a regular way And when it leaveth that way it ceaseth to be just unlesse inforced by such necessitie as cannot be provided for in a regular way That power onely is just which doth nothing wittingly but what is just and distributes to every man and societie their severall dues If it do otherwise we cannot call it just unlesse we desire to incur that sentence of the Almighty He that saith unto the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse Nations shall abhor him 13. Well be it just or unjust be it never so much cursed at home or abhorred abroad you are resolved to justifie the Abrogation of the Rights of the Clergie What A Clergie-man and a Preacher of the Word of God and altogether for ruine and destruction Surely you are not a Preacher of that Word which S. Paul taught for he professeth that authoritie is given to men of our calling not for destruction but for edification Shew me one Preacher in the word of God besides Corah and his confederates that ever spake or wrot any thing against the Rights of the Clergie You cannot possibly unlesse you bring in Judas with his Ad quid finding fault with that cost which was bestowed upon our Saviours person Indeed no man so fit for your turn he robbed and betrayed the head and you the body But you know what censure is passed upon him for it This he said because he was a theife and did carrie the bag He did and you would It is private not publick interest that stirres up ambitious and greedy spirits against Christ and his Vicegerents I can shew you S. Paul magnifying his office and justifying the priviledges therof But you are none of S. Pauls followers Demetrius and Alexander silver-smiths and Copper-smiths are your good Masters and with them I leave you 14. But what are these Rights that you are so eagar to have abrogated Every subject in his severall place and degree hath right to his lands to his goods to his liberties and privileges and so hath every Clergie-man unlesse we of the Clergie be no longer subjects but slaves Would you have all these or onely some of these abolished A question it was at first but now I see what they are First Episcopacy 2ly The Clergies priviledges immunities 3ly the Bishops Ecclesiasticall or sole Jurisdiction in so large a circuit 4ly The Bishops great revenues Thus the Rights of the Clergie are precisely inventoried that so neither root nor branch may scape their fingers Episcopacy we have already taken into consideration now let us take a survey of the rest 15. But first let us observe the course you propose to strip us of these Rights Your method is subtil and your expressions at first view seeme moderate you put us in equall balance with the rest of our fellow-subjects Thus you argue It is not unlawfull to abrogate ANY of the Laws of the Land It is not therefore unlawfull to abrogate ANY of the Rights of the Clergie Thus far your argument seemes to proceed fairely But how comes it to passe that out of this Any of the Kingdome you conclude against All the Rights of the Clergie For what have
hath often protested before God and the world that the Rights and Liberties of Subjects they do and will defend with their lives and fortunes Why then are our Rights and Liberties so strook at and exposed to contempt and sale Are we no subjects Surely we were borne so How then did we forfeit our birth-right By taking Orders Then is it better to be Mr. Gerees groom then himself And it may be this is the reason why so many step up into the Pulpit without Orders lest perchance they lose their birth-right 21. It may be you will say that we were not born Priests or Clergie-men You say right neither is any man born a Lawyer a Goldsmith or a Draper And yet when any of our brethren undertake these professions they enjoy the Rights and Liberties they were born to with some additions And why not we And yet we poore Clergie-men are the onely free-born Subjects that are out-lawed as it were and cast forth as dung upon the face of the earth Surely it is better to be a Parliamentarians foot-boy then a Steward of the mysteries of Christ And yet such we are Little do these men consider that all Subjects are born alike capable of these Rights if so they be fit to take Orders The wrong therefore is done alike to all free-born Subjects perchance to Mr. Speakers grandchild Since then the Kings Oath as you confesse is against acting or suffering a tyrannous invasion on Laws and Rights it must necessarily follow that as he may not act so he may not suffer any such tyranny to be used Hitherto he hath withstood these temptations and God I hope will ever deliver him from them and from the hands of his enemies Even so Amen Lord Jesu CHAP. XI Whether the Clergie and Laitie be two distinct Bodies or one Body Politick That Church-men in all ages had some singular priviledges allowed them 1. THat with some colour you may perswade the people that it is lawfull not onely to clip the wings but to pick the carkasse and to grate the very bones of the Clergie you tell them that this Oath was so framed when the Clergie of England was a distinct Society or Corporation from the people of England When was this Oath I beseech you framed You should have done well to have pointed out the time and not tell us that this distinction is a branch of Popery But this is the fashion of such as you are when you intend to disgrace alter or destroy any thing that concerns the Church then presently 't is Popery Thus you cast a mist before the peoples eyes that loath Popery and yet know not what Popery is 2. But this His Majesties Oath is grounded upon the Word of God who hath made promise to his Church spread among the Gentiles that Kings shall be her nursing fathers and Queens her nursing mothers When therefore Christian Kings are inthroned they take a most solemn Oath not onely to administer true justice to the people but that they will also maintain the Rights and priviledges of the Church and Clergie as by right they ought to do The reason is because there are so many envious mischievous eyes upon the Church because the Edomites and Ishmaelites the Moabites and Hagarens have cast their heads together with one consent and conspired to take her houses and lands into possession Gods Word prevails with few the Kings sword therefore must stand between the Church and such sacrilegious spirits 3. If they fail in this duty then will the Lord enter into judgement with the Ancients of the people and the Princes thereof What for this cause Yes for this very cause For ye have eaten up the vineyard the spoil of the poore is in your houses Is this any thing to the Church Yes marrie is it the Geneva Note tels you so Meaning saith the Note that the Rulers and Governors had DESTROYED HIS CHURCH and not preserved it ACCORDING TO THEIR DUTY Those who are guilty of this mischief let them beware His Majesties comfort is that he hath withstood these impious designes according to his duty For whosoever shall gather himself IN THEE AGAINST THEE shall fall Meaning the DOMESTICALL ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH as are the HYPOCRITES Dear brother take heed to your feet and remember that it is a dreadfull thing to FALL into the hands of the everliving God But view we your reason 4. The Clergie and Laitie say you were distinct bodies but this distinction is taken away and Laity and Clergie are now one body Politick One body Politick Are we so Whence is it then that the Bishops are thrust out of the House of Peers and that none of us may vote or sit in the House of Commons Are we of the same body and yet have no priviledges with the body In at subjection out at immunities In at taxes out at privileges This is one of those even Ordinances which your blessed Covenant hath hatched Of the same body we are under the same power subject to the same Laws and yet not capable of the same privileges Is this equalitie Scoggins doal right some all and some never a whit 5. Neither do we say that we are a severall or distinct body but we are a severall state or Corporation in the same body One body but severall members in and of the same body In Ecclesiasticall persons of this Kingdom are commonly three qualities or conditions one is naturall the other two are accidentall 1. Englishmen and denisons of this kingdom we are by birth 2. Vniversitie men by matriculation and education and 3. Clergie men by Ordination By the first we have an interest in the privileges of the kingdom By the second we have an interest in the immunities of the Universitie By the third we have an interest in the Rights of the Church The later privileges do not annihilate that right or claim which we have by birth Neither cease we to be the Kings Subjects because Clergie men In taking Orders we put not off Allegeance we rather confirm and inlarge it For a shame it is for us to teach others what we do not our selves And our duty it is to put every man in minde to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates 6. That there are severall relations in us of the Clergie and that we have severall privileges by these relations will appear evidently in S. Paul who was an Israelite by blood a Roman by freedom but an Apostle by Ordination By his Orders he lost none of his former privileges but acquired new whereto he had no right as Israelite or Romane Yet as occasion serves he stands upon his privileges as a Romane and both the Centurion and the Commander in chief were afraid to offend against that law or privilege But we with blâ—shlesse foreheads trample upon Gods Laws and the privileges of his nearest servants
forlorn man and yet in his good time he restored him to his Scepter in peace and subdued the people to him 7. And whereas you term them others privileges as if they concerned no man but the Clergie I dare boldly say they concern every man as he is a member of this Church and Realm If we have sown unto you spirituall things is it a great matter if we reap your carnall things And if we reap not your carnall things how shall we sowe unto you spirituall things This is worthy of consideration unlesse you have layed aside all care of the soul Have we some privileges that the Laity have not They are not ours alone they are every mans that enters into Orders And Orders are indifferently proposed to all of all families whatsoever so they be sufficiently qualified High and lowe noble and ignoble have reaped the benefit of these privileges I have known some of high birth in Orders and some of good rank that have taken Sanctuary under a Priests coat And we read of a young man of the tribe of Judah of the most remarkable family that was glad to turn Priest and to serve by the yeer for ten shekels of silver a double suit of apparell and his victuals If then our Calling suffer all families suffer in it and with it 8. But what if the Laws of the Land what if Magna Charta do oblige all men to stand up for the due observation of these privileges If so then must every man readily acknowledge that all good Subjects are bound to obey His Majestie when he commands that which the Law requires View we then the words of that Great and justly magnified Charter which are these Reserving to all Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons and all persons as well Spirituall as Temporall all their liberties and free customes which they have had in times past And all these customes and liberties aforesaid which we have granted to be holden within this our Realm as much as appertaineth to us and our Heirs we shall observe And ALL MEN of this our Realm as well SPIRITUALL AS TEMPORALL as much as in them is SHALL likewise OBSERVE THE SAME AGAINST ALL PERSONS Mark that are we not all both spirituall and temporall bound to maintain each others privileges as much as in us lies 9. I know you will return that Abbots and Priors are provided for by the same Law and yet they have since been taken away by Act of Parliament I confesse it but I shall desire you to observe in the first place how they prospered that were the contrivers and procurers of that Act. 2ly I cannot but take notice that you with your Master Beza call that dissoâ—ution detestandum sacrilegium detestable sacrilege and such as was cried out of all the Christian world over It is not therefore to be drawn into president 3ly consider I pray you that they who did so are stiled Enemies of our Soveraign Lord the King and his Realm 4ly that great Councell of Chalcedon consisting of above 600. Bishops resolves that no Monastery consecrated with the Bishops liking may be turned to a secular dwelling And those that suffer any such thing are lyable to the Canonicall censures 5ly you will I hope make a difference between our Saviours institution and mans invention Bishops are of our Saviours own institution but Abbots and Priors are titles and orders of mans invention And yet hospitalitie and alms and other works of charity for which these fraternities were erected failed much with them How those means were imployed I shall not enquire but I am certain that good and pious men have wished that the abuses had been pruned off and that the lands had been disposed of according to the Doners intentions This indeed had been pietie not sacrilege 10. How oft have the Kings of this Realm ingaged themselves to observe Magna Charta and to maintain the rights and liberties of the Church Are not these the words of the Statute We take the Prelates and Clergie with their possessions goods and chattels INTO OUR SPECIALL PROTECTION AND DEFENCE The Princes of this Land have bound themselves strictly to keep this Great Charter and have provided that if any other shall do or procure to be done any thing contrary to this Charter it is to be accounted void as soon as procured Take the words of the Charter We have granted unto them the Spirituall and Temporal persons of this Realm on the other part that neither we nor our Heirs shall procure or do any thing whereby the liberties in this Charter shall be infringed or broken But suppose they shall make any such grant through ignorance wilfulnesse or evill counsell shall it be of force The Law saith no. For it follows immediately And if any thing be procured BY ANY PERSON contrary to the premisses it shall be holden OF NO FORCE NE EFFECT You and your great contrivers what have ye laboured for all this while What have ye fought for what have ye shed so much blood for For wind nothing but wind For all the Westminster Orders and Ordinances contrary to this Charter shall be holden of no force ne effect You had best then keepe your paper for a more necessary use 11. And yet you tell his Majestie that it is not equall to ingage the lives of some to uphold the honour of others Is it equall then I beseech you to ingage the lives of some to destroy the honour and estate of others All this while you have been on the destructive part all for rooting up what the Lords right hand hath planted and for alienating the Lords inheritance And that ye might effect what ye have subtilly projected ye have ingaged the lives of many who were very unwilling to uphold the honour of some at Westminster that had overlashed ran themselves upon dreadfull rocks I would to God the Commons of this Kingdome would lay it to heart how cruell ye have been to many thousands to be indulgent to a few to uphold the honour of a few Consider how many thousands in England and Ireland have been plundered sequestred imprisoned maimed and murdered because they would not submit to the illegall unjust and irreligious decrees of the men at Westminster A compleat Mercurius Rusticus will make after ages stand amazed and their hearts bleed within them to consider that such a Nation as this so blessed with peace and plentie should be so miserably deluded as to undoe themselves willfully and sheath their swords into one anothers bowels to save a Lord and five Members from tryall by Law 12. That you may perswade us some way or other that the King ought to give up the Bishops and their lands since he hath hitherto protected them to the utmost of his power you argue by supposition Suppose say you a King put a Commander into a City and give him an Oath to maintaine the priviledges of it and
Rights of the Clergie As if this were a sound and unanswerable argument It is lawfull for the King to abrogate the Rights of the Clergy Ergo It is lawfull for him to abrogate Episcopacy It is for all the world as if one should say It is lawfull for the King to take away the Rights of Lawyers Ergo he may also take away Judicature Yet all men would say that this were flat tyrannie since without Judicature no man can compasse or enjoy his own with peace 2. But I shall return your argument so upon you as shall concern you more neerly It is lawfull for the King to abrogate the Rights of the Clergie it is therefore lawfull for him to abrogate Presbytery How like you this Is it not your own argument changing terme Episcopacy into Presbytery Ye have strooke out the former set up the latter in the place of Episcopacy And your scholers by the same argument may live to root up thut too if any lands be annexed to this great Diana of Geneva Thus you have made a rod to scourge your selves with 3. But you will say that though it be legall for the King to take away the Rights yet he may not destroy the Order And why so Because the Rights are granted by man but the Order was settled by God And what God hath ordained is not lawfull for man to abrogate I must return you the same answer since t is sufficiently justified C. 4. 5. That the Order of Episcopacy is the immediate institution of our B. Saviour and Ministeriall root from whence all Orders spring Though then this be the usuall way of cleering this your assertion and you conceive it to be a sound resolution yet learned men see that you have said just nothing unlesse you confesse that the Order of Presbyter may likewise be exâ—iâ—pated by Royall authority 4. But return we to the Rights of the Clergie and take notice upon what grounds you suppose it lawfull for the King to abrogate those Rights which he hath vowed so solemnly to maintain The King say you is sworne to maintaine the Laws of the Land in force at his Coronation Yet it is not unlawfull for him after to abrogate any of them upon the motion or with the consent of his Parliament I am glad that you acknowledge it to be the Kings Prerogative to maintaine the Laws of the Land and that it is not unlawfull for him to abrogate any of them with the consent of his Parliament If he be bound by Oath either he hath power to maintain these Laws or not If he hath not power it is a senselesse Oath If he hath power where is it What is become of it Hath he resigned it We know the contrary Hath he forfeited it To whom To his subjects He can no more forfeit his Regall power to his subjects then a father the right of fatherhood to his children He is no more a King upon condition then a father is a father upon condition His power he hath not from the people but from God Per me Reges regnant by me Kings reign saith God And I hope God speaks no untruth His substitute the King is for He sits on Gods not on the peoples throne and King he is for the Lord in his stead 5. If you object misdemeanours or bearing armes against His Parliament your self say that He is sworne to maintain the Laws of the Land The Laws Liberties and Properties were all at stake they were trampled upon by his faithlesse but potent Subjects This enforced him to take up that sword which he ought not to beare in vaine but to execute wrath as the Minister of God upon them that do evill upon such as plunder his good subjects and turn them out of house and home For the King is made by God the Supreme Governor for the punishment of evill doers as also for the praise of those that do well But suppose the King were a tyrant as bad as bad may be yet we ought from our hearts to give him all due honour so Beza and not to rob him of his just power If he sin it is against God onely and to him onely he must account not to his Subjects 6. Well bound he is by Oath to maintain the Laws while they are Laws As yet then the rights of the Church are safe and the King is bound to maintain them But how long are these Laws in force Till they are abrogated BY JUST POWER IN A REGULAR WAY They are your own words and we subscribe them But the just power is in His Majestie by your own confession both to maintain and to abrogate Laws And the regular way say you is at the motion or with the consent of HIS PARLIAMENT But with all our loyall Predecessors we say at the petition or humble suit not at the motion of His Parliament And His it is his they are all though Members of Parliament since the Parliament is His. They are not then a Parliament of themselves at their own choice or disposing nor yet without him His they are I am sure they should be so I would to God they were so The King is the fountain of honour and power within his own Dominions And who may say unto him What doest thou Why doest thou honour this man and not that Why doest thou call a Parliament at this time and not at that Impius est qui Regi dixerit inique agis He is impious that saith unto the King thou dealest unjustly or unequally So the Fathers read that place No obbraiding no controulling of a King He can do no wrong So the Law 7. His the Kings they are when they are met and set in Parliament His great Councell Magnum Concilium Regis His Houses His Parliament And therefore called so that they may Parlar la ment speak their minds freely for the generall good Him they may entreat not controul advise not command perswade not enforce Suppose the King grants them power and authoritie he grants them none either over or against himself this he cannot do This were to set the Members above the Head and to make his Subjects superior to himself This were to despoil himself of the power of the Sword But this he may not do since God hath made him supreme and given him the charge of the Sword And His Majestie may not invert that order which God hath set neither may he repeal Gods ordinance or make it void God hath laid the charge upon him and he cannot with a safe conscience decline it or neglect it 8. Observe I beseech you though Pharaoh set Joseph over his house and over his people to rule and arm them at his pleasure though Joseph were so made Ruler over all the land of Egypt yet without him no man might lift up his hand or foot within that land