be prevented and hindred or if they might be easily spoiled of their Freedom We have taken the liberty to suggest what exceptions the forementioned Proposals that were made by Dr Vsher are lyable to and without any intention to reflect in the least measure on so reverend a Person whom in regard of his Piety and Learning we honour though herein of a different apprehension from us we believing he propounded what he did with an honest intention as we have sayd before And we hope there are no moderate Episcopall Men that will entertaine any Animosities against us in this respect wee never intending thereby to set up a Wall of Partition betwixt them and us as we have used this Freedome only to shew what danger there is least if moderate Episcopacy should be admitted again it should within a while grow to that height that they as well as we growing weary of it would be ready to cast it off as an insufferable Yoke We are the fuller of Jealousies in this respect when we consider how far short the Proposals mentioned do fall of the strong Bonds that were layd upon Episcopacy in Scotland and yet it burst them all And because it may be here of use to mention them particularly we shall give the Reader an account of them as we find them expressed in a short Discourse going under the Title of the unlawfulness and danger of limited Prelacy or perpetuall Presidency in the Church briefly discovered Printed in the year 1641. and this the rather because we do not know the things now not being common that sundry Readers might ever come to the knowledge of them if we should not be at some pains to transcibe them thence but there they may be found Page 10 11. by such as have the liberty to peruse that Discourse And thus they run In the year 1600. the Church of Scotland being met in a generall Assembly at Montross these Cautions and Limits were agreed upon the Kings Majesty consenting First That the Minister chosen to this place speaking of him who as constant Moderator was to be in the place of the Bishop shall not be called Bishop but Commissioner of such a place 2. That he shall neither propound to the Parliament any thing in name of the Church without their express Warrant and direction Nor shall he keep silence or consent to any thing prejudiciall to the Weale and Liberty of the Church under the pain of Deposition 3. Under the pain of Infamy and Excommunication he shall at every Assembly give account of the discharging of his Commission and shall submit himself to their censure and stand to their determination whatsoever without Appellation 4. He shall content himself with that part of the Benefice which shall be assigned him not pre-judging any of the Ministers in their Livings 5. He shall not dilapidate his Benefice 6. He is bound as any other Minister to attend his particular Congregation and shall be subject to the triall and censure of his own Presbytery and Provinciall Assembly 7. He shall neither usurp nor claim to himself any power of Jurisdiction in any point of Church-government more then any other Minister 8. In Presbyteries Provinciall and generall Assemblies he shall be have himself in all things and be subject to their censuring as any of the Brethren of the Presbytery 9. At his Admission to his Office he shall swear and subscribe to fulfill all these Points under the pains aforesaid otherwise not to be admitted 10. In case he shall be deposed he shall no more Voice in Parliament nor enjoy his Benefice 11. He shall not have Voice in the generall Assembly unless he be authorised with Commission from his own Presbytery 12. Crimen ambitus shall be a sufficient cause of Deprivation 13. The generall Assembly with the advice of the Synod shall have power of his Nomination or Recommendation 14. He shall lay down his Commission annuatim at the foot of the generall Assembly to be continued or changed as the generall Assembly with his Majesties consent shall think fit 15. Other cautions to be made as the Church shall find occasion One would have thought judging according to the Rules of humane wisdome that these Bonds had been strong enough to have shackled and fettered Episcopacy if it could have been bounded but as it follows in the forementioned Discourse the godly and sincere Ministers disliked this course and some did protest against him foreseeing what afterward came to pass and as it is further there declared for those that did love preheminence above their Brethren c. did afterwards break all those Bonds and finding themselves unable to give account according to the counsell given to Pericles they procured that there should be no free generall Assemblies least they should be called to account and when they were challenged of their Perjury and perfidious dealing their printed Apology declared their Perfidy to be double and which is expressed in their own words to teach us what in this Land might be expected from their Fellows Conditiones aliae pro tempore magis quo contentiosisrixandi ansa praeriperetur quam animo in perpetuum observandi acceptae By this account we may see what Scotland to their sorrow had experience of and what we also may expect would be the Issue here if after Episcopacy hath been thrown out there should be a recidivation and a tampering with it again especially considering that generally the sound and godly Party throughout the Land were heretofore so deeply sensible of those intolerable Burthens they had groaned under through the exorbitances of the Prelates that they not onely did remonstrate their grievances to the Parliament before the Wars begun but did also humbly suggest by way of remedy not the meer clipping of the Bishops Wings or the lopping of some Branches from Episcopacy as sufficient for the redressing of their Grievances but the taking it away both Root and Branch And whereupon the Parliament that then was which will be renowned to all Posterity for easing of the Church of their intolerable Pressures and vindicating the Civil Liberty of the English Nation did proceed to an utter extirpation of it And we hope what ever may be your expectations with whom we have to do in these Papers that neither the good People of this Land nor any succeeding Parliaments will so soon grow weary of their dear-bought liberty as to admit that which might endanger the bringing of their Necks again under the old Yoke 3. But yet further we desire it might be considered that the admitting of moderate Episcopacy would breed great dissatisfaction to sundry godly and conscientious Ministers and Christians at home in these three Nations and occasion much strife and contentious Debates that were likely to arise about it some conceiving it to be utterly unlawfull as being the Introduction of an Officer into the Church that is not of Divine Institution Others that were satisfied touching the lawfulness of it in
is proved from the grounds already layd For this Jurisdiction of theirs above Presbyters did not belong unto them by Divine Right we having proved that the Scripture makes a Bishop and a Presbyter to be both one And therefore the Parliament that by Law gave them their power might seeing just cause for it by Law take it away They had also just reason for to take it away in regard of the oppressiveness and burthensomness of it both to Ministers and People to this whole Church and Nation as hath been proved before And therefore what they herein did was justly yea piously and prudently done and for which the Church of God in this Land both Ministers and People do for the present and will for the future see great cause to bless God for many Generations And that they had the concurrence herein of a reverend and learned Assembly of Divines is clear from their Exhortation annexed to the Ordinance of Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament with Instructions for taking the League and Covenant in the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales In this Exhortation of the Assembly of Divines in answer to some Objections they apprehended might be made against the taking of the Covenant they thus express themselves If it be sayd for the extirpation of Prelacy to wit the whole Hierarchiall Government standing as yet by the known Laws of the Kingdome is new and unwarrantable This will appear to all impartiall understandings though new to be not onely warrantable but necessary if they consider to omit what some say that this Government was never formally established by any Laws of this Kingdome at all that the very life and soul thereof is already taken from it by an Act passed this present Parliament so as like Jezabels Carkass of which no more was left but the Skull the Feet and the Palmes of her hands nothing of Jurisdiction remains but what is precarious in them and voluntary in those who submit unto them That their whole Government is at best but a humane Constitution and such as is found and adjudged by both Houses of Parliament in which the Judgment of the whole Kingdome is involved and declared not onely very perjudicial to the civil State but a great hinderance also to the perfect reformation of Religion Yea who knoweth it not to be too much an Enemy thereunto and destructive to the power of Godliness and pure administration of the Ordinances of Christ which moved the well-affected almost throughout this Kingdome long since to petition this Parliament as hath been desired before in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James for a total abolition of the same And then a little after And as for these Clergy-men who pretend that they above all other cannot covenant to extirpate that Government because they have as they say taken a solemn Oath to obey the Bishops in licitis honestis they can tell if they please that they that have sworne Obedience to the Laws of the Land are not thereby prohibited from endeavouring by all lawfull means the abolition of those Laws when they prove inconvenient or mischievous And yet if there should any Oath be found into which any Ministers or others have entred not warranted by the Laws of God and the Land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such Oathes call for repentance not pertinacy in them Thus far the Assembly of Divines in their Exhortation for the taking the solemne League and Covenant and which we have thought requisite to transcribe that so it may appear how fully they concurred with the Parliament in what they did touching the abolition of Episcopacy as it doth also confirme by their Testimony severall things that have been mentioned by us wherein the Reader may perceive their concurrence in Judgment with us From all which it is clear that seeing Diocesan Bishops did but obtaine that Jurisdiction they exercised over Presbyters by the Law of the Land and Canon of the Church The Parliament finding this Government of Episcopacy to be very oppressive to this Church A great hinderance to the perfect Reformation of Religion and prejudiciall to the civill State they might both lawsully and laudably being therein also backed with the advice of a reverend and learned Synod take it away And hence it will follow that if the Ministers of this Land for severing themselves from the Bishops and with-drawing their Canonicall Obedience from them as some speake the Parliament according to the reverend Synod having before taken away from them all that Jurisdiction over Presbyters that did belong unto them must needs be accused of Schisme It is a good Schisme yea a blessed Schisme to use the words that Gerhard did defending the Protestants with-drawing from the Pope and the Church of Rome that they will be found to be guilty of The blot whereof as it is not to be much regarded so it is easily wiped off and as we think it is already done in the Eyes of all impartiall and unbyassed Readers by these Considerations which we have layd down We have onely one thing more to add which is the third generall Head we offer to the Reader here before we leave this first Argument with which you would perswade us to returne againe to our former Yoke of Bondag 3. For we offer it to the consideration of all impartiall men whether considering what hath been spoken touching the nature of Schisme in the generall and how lawfully and laudably the Parliament did abolish Episcopacy and how they passed by Ordinance the forme of Church-Government Anno 1648. establishing the Presbyterian in roome of the Episcopall and that how it was set up in this County by their Authority If they but observe what your actings have been and what your expressions are in your Papers they will not thereupon see just cause to impute Schisme taken in the worst part and as it is taken most usually unto you who have been so forward though without reason to fasten this blot upon us But we are sure during the prevalency of Episcopacy those that were not guilty of any such disturbance of the peace of the Church by any such boisterous Ventings of the Distempers of their Spirits as you are were counted and called by the Prelates Schismaticks And from which Aspersion though sundry of those being peaceable and godly however Non-conformists were free yet you being very unlike them are not thereby quit But we have now done with the first of those Arguments we promised to speak to particularly whereby you would perswade us to admit againe of Episcopacy and hope we have sayd to it that which is sufficient 2. We therefore now come to the second wherein you still rise higher for therein you insinuate a thing of a farre greater and more dangerous consequence if Episcopacy be not restored For you intimate that it is necessary That the Church of God may be continued amongst us from Age to Age to the
Government to be changed which saith he however devised at first for a remedy against Schisme yet many holy and wise men have judged it more pernitious then the Disease it self and although it did not by and by appear yet miserable experience afterwards shewed it First Ambition crept in which at length begat Antichrist set him in his Chair and brought the Yoke of Bondage on the Neck of the Church The sence of these Mischiefs made Nazianzen wish not onely that there were no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Dignity or tyrannicall Prerogative of place but also that there were no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no principall Dignity to wit in the Church of which he is speaking But now saith he contentions about the right hand and the left about the higher and lower places c. have bred many inconveniencies even among Ministers that should be Teachers in Israel Thus far our reverend Brethren of the Province of London which we thought good to transcribe that so it might appear to the wise Reader upon what grounds the Bishop came to have Superiority over Presbyters at the first and that however it was given him upon prudentiall Reasons and particularly for the prevention of Schisme yet it not being a way of God the device failed as sad experience in after times shewed the remedy proving worse then the disease as not only those reverend and learned Authors quoted by our Brethren shew but also Church Story makes forth abundantly and which was reason sufficient why we should not so readily submit to re-admit moderate Episcopacy as you expected 2 But as you may perceive by this account given that the Superiority of a Bishop above a Presbyter was at the first introduced on prudentiall grounds onely so we shall here forbeare at present to add any other Arguments but onely prudentiall ones why we cannot consent to admit of moderate Episcopacy as we shall referre both you and the Reader to what hath been solidly and learnedly writ against Episcopacy in the height by reverend and godly Mr. Banes in his Diocesan Tryall Mr. Parker Dr. Blondell Salmasius Bucerus and others together with our reverend Brethren of the Province of London in their Jus divinum Ministerii Evangelici And whom we here cite not for their bare Testimony though that were not to be sleighted but because they have learnedly discussed this Point and may present such things unto you concerning the same as may be worth your weighing And so we come to give the Reasons we here insist upon why we dare not admit of moderate Episcopacy as the tearms of accommodation with you according to your proposall 1 And the first that we shall here urge is The sad experience that we of these Nations have had of the Tyrannicall Bondage and wofull Slavery that thousands of Gods precious Servants were brought under during the prevalency of Episcopacy We cannot but remember how when Prelacy was at the height all the Godly in this Land Conformists as well as Non-conformists did grievously sigh under that heavy and intolerable Yoke Though you in your next Paper tell us you are not so sensible of the multiplicity of Canons and burthensomness of Ceremonies under which in the time of Episcopacy any truly conscientious did sigh and groan But we cannot but be grieved to heare you express your selves after this manner What! to say nothing of many thousands that were but in a private Capacity who groaned under the burthensomness of the old Ceremonies that were rigorously pressed upon pain of Excommunication if not submitted to and who we doubt not however you judge of them are by God many of them received up into Glory Shall not â—artwright Brightman Ames Parker Baines Bradshaw Dod Cleaver Hildersham Hooker Cotton and in these parts Burne Midgly Bate Langly Rathband Paget Nichols and sundry other old unconformists that in their times were glorious lights in the Church of God and such as this Land was not worthy of that were cast out suspended and silenced by the Prelates for not subscribing and conforming to the Orders of those times not be reckoned with you in the number of those that were truly conscientious Or have you been such strangers in our Israel that you have not heard what those have suffered under Episcopacy Or if you have heard did their Sufferings never pierce your hearts Certainly you do hereby sufficiently discover the temper of your Spirit but we wish you may be found in a better frame before you die as in the mean season we are sorry that your own sufferings we speak of some of you that adhered to the late King have had not more kindly working on your hearts to the humbling of them no not to this very day But however you judge we doubt not but there are many Myriads of people in these Lands yet alive that will give testimony with us touching the piety zeal faithfulness conscientiousness of very many Ministers and thousands of Christians of all sorts that suffered grievous things at the hands of the Prelaticall Taskmasters even to the undoing of many Families the robbing of severall Congregations of their faithfull and painfull Ministers that were driven from their places forced into Corners or out of the Land meerly for not conforming to such things as were then acknowledged by the most that did conform to be but things indifferent not in their own nature or by vertue of divine Precept necessary Nay it was grievous to the godly Conformists of those times to see their deâ—r Brethren thus cruelly and unmercifully dealt with even for very Trifles But at length though we deny not but there have been some godly Bishops the Pride and Exorbitancy of the major part of the Prelates grew to that height that old Conformity not serving the turn except men would prostitute their Consciences to be subservient to their base lusts to cringe bow at the Altar read the Book for Dancing and other Sports on the Lords-day temporize and do what ever was appointed Nay if Ministers would be faithfull in the discharging the Duties of their Ministeriall Function in Preaching Catechising and the use of conceived Prayer before and after Sermon though godly and painfull they were outed of their places and thousands of Conformists both Ministers and Christians were driven out of the Land till at length the Yoke began to be so heavy and the Cries of the Oppressed so loud in the Ears of God and men that the Parliament taking the heavy pressures of the Lords People into their pious and serious thoughts did cast out of this Church with these Task-masters this Tyrannicall and Lordly Government that suiting with the Pride Ambition and Avarice of those that managed it and backed with the Favour of the Prince to the serving of whose will and pleasure being put into their places by him but too many of them were wholly devoted as that was also unto him a strong temptation though to his own undoing to
power of excommunication Some we know there are that would make the Diocesan Bishops the onely Pastors of the Church and that other Ministers do but officiate by deputation from them and under them We hope you are not of the minde of these For then as the dissent in judgement betwixt you and us would be farre greater than as yet we apprehend it is so hence it would follow that till Prelacy should be restored there must not if you would provide for the safety of the persons and estates of them that should mannage the Government be the dispensing of any Church censures at all For you may easily know that not only by Acts and Ordinances of Parliament before made for the abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops c. and which are confirmed by the late humble Advice assented unto by his Highnesse sect 12. the office and jurisdiction of Diocesan Bishops is taken away But there is yet a further Barre put in against Prelacy in the 11. sect of the aforesaid humble Advice where it is expresly cautioned and we judge it was out of a conscientious mindfulness of what had been in those very termes covenanted against that the liberty that is granted to some be not extended to Popery and Prelacy And therefore if any Diocesan Bishop should exercise his jurisdiction and excommunicate any person within this Land wherein by Authority as you may see afterward there is also an appointment of another Government we leave it to those that are learned in the Law to determine whether such Diocesan Bishops would not run themselves into a praemunire But if you do not restrain lawful Pastors to these onely out doubt yet is Whether you mean not onely such Ministers as were ordained by Diocesan Bishops excluding those out of the number that since their being taken away have been ordained by Presbyters only If this be your sense we shall onely at present minde you of what is published to be the Judgement of Doctor Vsher late Primate of Ireland in a Book lately put forth by Doctor Bernard Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne and whom though a stranger to us and one of a different judgement from us in the point of Episcopacy yet we reverence for his moderation and profession of his desires for peace wishing that such as do consent in substantials for matter of Doctrine would consider of some conjunction in point of Discipline That private interests and circumstantials might 〈◊〉 keep them thus far asunder In which wish as we do cordially joyn our selves so we heartily desire that all godly and moderate spirited men throughout the Land would also close But the book which the said Doctor hath lately published is intituled The Judgement of the late Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland c. In this Book this Doctor tels us that the late Primate in Answer to a letter of his sent to him as it should seem for that purpose declares his Judgement touching the ordination of the Ministry in the Reformed Churches in France and Holland There he saith that Episcopus Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine And consequently that in places where Bishops cannot be had the ordination by Presbyters standeth valid And in the close of his Answer about this point he saith That for the testifying of his Communion with the Churches of the Low-Countryes of whom he had spoken immediately before and which he there professeth He doth love and bonour as true members of the Vniversal Church notwithstanding the difference that was betwixt him and them about the point of Episcopacy he doth professe That with like affection he should receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Dutch Ministers if he were in Holland as he should do at the hands of the French Ministers if he were in Charenton See pag. 125. and 126. Hence you may perceive that the Judgement of Dr. Vsher was That the Ordination of Presbyters where Bishops cannot be had standeth valid And consequently if you be of his opinion and you must have stronger reason then ever yet we have seen to bear you out there in if you judge otherwise they ought to bee esteemed lawful Pastors to whom you grant the power of Excommunication Bishops being now taken away and may not therefore ordain according to the present Laws of the Land The said Doctor Bernard hath some animadvertisements upon this Leteer in which Doctor Vsher doth deliver his judgement as abovesaid and there shews that he was not in this judgement of his singular He alledgeth Doctor Davenant that pious and learned Bishop of Sarisbury as consenting with him in it in his determinations quaest 42. and produceth the principal of the Schoolmen Gulielmus Parisiensis Gerson Durand c. and declares it to be the General opinion of the Schoolemen Episcopatum ut distinguitur a simplie◠sacerdotio non esse alium ordinem c. see pag. 130. of the aforenamed Book as also pag. 131 132. Where the concurrence of Doctor Davenant with Doctor Vsher in his judgement about this matter is declared more fully He addes also others as in special Doctor Richard Field in his learned Book of the Church lib. 3. cap. 39. and lib. 5. cap. 27. And also that Book intituled A defence of the Ordination of the Ministers of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas maintained by Archdeacon Mason against the Romanists And further he saith He hath been assured it was not onely the Judgement of Bishop Overal but that he had a principal hand in it He tels us that the fore-mentioned Author produceth many testimonies The Master of the Sentences and most of the Schoolemen Bonaventure Thomas Aquinas Durand Dominicus Soto Richardus Armachanus Tostatus Alphonsus a Castro Gerson Petrus Canisius to have affirmed the same and at last quoteth Medina a principal Bishop of the Council of Trent who affirmed That Jerome Ambrose Augustine Sedulius Primasius Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact were of the same judgement also But you may see these things your selves in Doctor Bernard pag. 132 133 134. We have been onely at the pains to transcribe them We could alledge many more Testimonies to prove this But we count these sufficient and doe alledge these the rather because brought by one that is of the same Judgement with you as we suppose But having declared how farre you accord with us in Judgement touching the way of informing the ignorant and reforming the wicked persons and schismatical c. you tell us That you are not therein so wavering and unsettled in your apprehensions of the Case as to submit either it or them either wholly or in part to the contrary Judgement and determination of a general Council of the Eastern and Western Churches much lesse to a new termed Provincial Assembly at Preston wherein you professe no little to differ from us That which we submitted wholly to the Judgement of the Provincial Assembly was not whether Catechizing was a way appointed by
Government continued such during the time of the late Prelacy which yet was taken away in other reformed Churches that the Pastors were deprived of that power of rule that our Church acknowledgeth did belong to them of right and which did anciently belong to them however the exercise thereof did after grow into a long disuse as hath been shewed before And therefore when we consider on the one hand that the superiority which the Bishop obtained at the first above the Presbyter in the ancient Church and which was rather obtained consueâ—udine Ecclesiae then by Divine right did at the length grow to that height that the Pastors were spoiled of all power of rule so we cannot much wonder on the other hand that the ruling Elder was quite turned out of doors For the proof of the being and exercise of whose office in the purer times there are notwithstanding produced testimonies of the ancients by Divines both at home and abroad that have written about that subject and to which we do therein refer you As there doe remain some footsteps and shadow of their office in the Church-wardens and Sides-men even to this day And so upon the whole the premisses considered and that we are commanded not to follow a multitude to do evil though it were of the best of men and that therefore the examples and practises though it were of whole Churches are to be no further a rule for us then they follow Christ and as their examples be approved of in the Word of Christ notwithstanding the univerfality and long continuednesse of such practises Whereas you say that you pray for the establishment of such Church Government as is consonant to the will of God and universal practise of primitive Churches we believe you might cut the matter a great deal shorter and say That you are for the establishing of that Government that is most consonant to the will of God revealed in the Scriptures and that the Word of God alone and on which onely Faith must be built and into which at last be resolved when other records of Antiquity that yet are not so ancient as it is have been searcht into never so much shall determine what that is and so those wearisome and endlesse disputes about what is the universal and constant practise of primitive Churches and which if it could be found out in any good measure of probability for the first 300. years after Christ could never yet be so farre issued as to be a sure bottom whereon our faith may safely rest may be cut off It being a most certain rule and especially in matters of faith that the Factum is not to prescribe against the Jus The Practice against the Right or what ought to be done And it being out of all question the safest course for all to bring all doctrines and practices to the sure and infallible Standard and Touchstone the Word of God alone And after you have more seriously weighed the matter and remember how you professe that in the matters you propose in your Pâ—per You rest not in the Judgement or determination of any general Council of the Eastern or Western Churches determining contrary to what you are perswaded is so fully warranted by the Word of God as well as by the constant practice of the Catholick Church although what that was were more likely to be resolved by a general Council then by your selves the proposal of having the Word of God alone to be the Judge of the Controversie about Church Government cannot we think in reason be deny'd by you And we with you shall heartily pray That that Church-Government which is most consonant to the will of God revealed in Scriptures might be established in these Lands Although we must also professe that we believe that that Government which is established by Authority and which we exercise is for the substantials of it this Government and which we judge also to be most consonant to the practice of the primitive Churches in the purest times And therefore as there was some entrance made by the late Parliament in regard of establishing this Government by ordinances as the Church Government of these Nations And as to the putting those Ordinances in execution there hath been some beginning in the Province of London the Province of this County and in some other places throughout the Land So when there shall be the opportunity offered we shall not be wanting by petitioning or otherwayes to use our best endeavours that it may be fully settled throughout these Lands that so we may not as to Government in the Church any longer continue as a City without wals and a Vineyard without an hedge and so to the undoing of our posterity endanger Religion to be quite lost And upon which consideration we do earnestly desire that all conscientious and moderate spirited men throughout the Land though of different principles whether of the Episcopal or Congregational way would bend themselves so far as possibly they can to accommodate with us in point of practice In which there was so good a progresse made by the late Assembly as to those that were for the Congregational way And as we think also all those that were for the lawfulnesse of submission to the Government of the late Prelacy as it was then exercised and that are of the Judgement of the late Primate of Ireland in his reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government mentioned before might doe if they would come up towards us so far as we judge their principles would allow them As we do also professe that however we cannot consent to part with the Ruling Elder unlesse we should betray the truth of Christ Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 5. as we judge and dare not give any like consent to admit of a moderate Episcopacy for fear of encroachments upon the Pastors right and whereof late sad experience lessons us to beware as we judge also that the superiority of a Bishop above a Presbyter in degree which some maintain is no Apostolical institution and so have the greater reason in that respect to caution against it Yet we do here professe we should so farre as will consist with our principles and the peace of our own consciences be ready to abate or tolerate much for peace sake That so at the length all parties throughout the Land that have any soundness in them in matters of faith and that are sober and godly though of different judgements in lesser matters being weary of their divisions might fall in the necks one of another with mutual embraces and kisses and so at last through the tender mercy of our God there might be an happy closure of breaches and restoring of peace and union in this poor unsettled rent and distracted Church to the glory of God throughout all the Churches SECT VII BUt now as to you and what follows in your Paper and in the mean season till this can be accomplished and
truely qualified with a just power of conferring Orders Now these according to what you have declared in your former Paper are the Bishops without whom you there insinuate the Church of God cannot be continued amongst us in a succession of a lawfully ordained Ministry and so at once cashier out of the numbet of law-full Pastors all such Ministers either of our own or other reformed Churches that are ordained by Presbyters onely and to whom you allow not the power of Ordination as you here also do plainly declare your selves But we have in our answer to that clause quoted out of your former Paper sufficiently as we hope the Reader will judg declared the absurdity of this your opinion And you your selves as all men may see may hereby perceive how vain a thing it is for you and us to labour in any way of accommodation whilst you retain these principles they being destructive to union and your communion in severall of our Churches either in Baptisme or the Lords Supper For how can you have communion in those Ordinances dispensed by such Ministers amongst us as being ordained by Presbyters onely you on this ground will conclude to be no lawfully ordained Ministers And therefore if you be cordiall for union we wish you to revise what you have as touching this matter asserted and weigh what in our former Paper we have opposed unto it But as touching the power of ordaining Presbyters by Presbyters onely you will have it to be our opinion onely and that in this we are singular for you say we and you believe it is none but we presume one Presbyter may confer orders upon another And here indeed 1. If we held that one Presbyter might ordain another Presbyter you had reason to accuse us of singularity but we are professedly against all solitary power in ordination as well as in jurisdiction by whomsoever this power is or hath been exercised 2. But if your meaning be that it is we onely that hold Presbyters alone without any Bishops may ordain Presbyters 1. You might have known that this was and is the judgment of the reformed Churches abroad as well as ours 2. And further you may remember we alleadged out of Dr. Bernard the testimony of severall Episcopall men as well as of Dr. Usher asserting and proving that in places where Bishops cannot be had the ordination of Presbyters standeth valid which speciall restriction we mentioned in our Answer as the Reader will finde and which though added would not have hindred if you had been of the same opinion with them but you might have acknowledged that such as are with us ordained by Presbyters onely are notwithstanding lawfull Pastors Bishops being now taken away by the power of the civil Magistrate and excluded from having any liberty to ordain by those acts where Prelacy is exempted from that indulgence that is granted to some others If also that Catalogue of Divines Schoolmen and Fathers that we cited out of Dr. Bernard who are cited by him also out of others be consulted they will be found to affirm as we said in our Answer though you take no notice of it that Episcopacy non est ordo praecisè distinctus a Sacerdotio simplici Bishop Davenant as he is alleadged by Dr. Bernard for this purpose producing the principall of the Schoolmen Gulielmus Parisiensis Gerson Durand c. for this opinion Whence also it is evident that they are not by us frustraneously cited though it be an easie matter for you to assert the same without any reason or ever answering to what they were alleadged for to affirm We shall not here deny but Dr. Usher saith that the ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn canicall obedience could not possibly by him be excused from being schismaticall But yet he doth not say that the ordination by them is null and void although in his judgment there was thereby a schisme made There may be schismes in the Church yea some particular Churches may be schismaticall and yet for the substance of them continue true Churches of Jesus Christ as if it were to our purpose might be cleared both from Scriptures and also Fathers But as touching the aspersion of schisme that is cast on such Presbyters that have severed themselves from the Bishops we hope it is sufficiently wiped off by what we have already spoken in our answer to your second Paper 7. However it seems that charge was not high enough and therefore in this you proceed further charging us with perjury and obstinacy for you having mentioned that speciall restriction of Dr. Ushers of not invalidating the ordination by Presbyters where Bishops cannot be had add and say but this we must desire you to consider is ex necessitate non ex perjurio pertinacia and however you would smooth up the matter by bidding us examine our selves in this particular and saying you shall not judge any man yet it is plain enough to any discerning Reader who they are that are charged by such expressions But as touching the thing it self we shall now examine the justness of the charge And first we shall begin with that of perjury unto which we shall need to say the less considering that the grounds layd in our Answer to your second Paper proving that such Presbyters as since the Parliaments abolishing Prelacy have severed themselves from the Bishops or cast off Episcopacy are not justly to be charged with schisme do here also take place to acquit such Ministers that did swear Canonicall obedience to the Bishops from the guilt of perjury We shall here onely minde you and the Reader of two things 1. That seeing the superiority which the Bishops chalenged and exercised above Presbyters in this Nation did belong unto them onely by the Law of the Land we having proved in our Answer to your second Paper that a Bishop and Presbyter in Scripture sense are both one and was taken away from them by the Legislative power of this Nation as they might lawfully take it away that power which they exercised not being due to them by Divine right nay being an usurpation upon the Pastors office as hath been also shewd and so their whole Office as Diocesans together with their jurisdiction as sundry also of their Persons are all extinct and as is manifest in particular touching him that was the Bishop of this Dioces we wonder much and we think every Reader will here wonder with us that your great heat for Prelacy should thus farre have transported you as to charge us with perjury for which there is not the least colour Consult Dr. Sanderson de juramenti promissorii obligatione consult all other Casuists and you shall finde that the best and soundest of them do determine with one consent that when the matter of an Oath ceaseth the obligation by vertue of that Oath ceaseth also and therefore Prelacy being taken away by
an express Repeal of it there also in these words All Laws Statutes Ordinances and Clauses in any Law Statute and Ordinance so far as they are contrary to the aforesaid Liberty be repealed Doth not this take from you what you may conceive was granted by former Ordinances Doth your Presbyterian Government for all your Glosses upon it receive strength from hence Doth the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for setling Presbyterian Government throughout the Land remain yet unrepealed for any thing you have seen or heard to the contrary Yea so you affirm and would have us credit you The Animadversions of the Class upon it 1 IN the first place you charge us that our professions and expressions for peace and unity were not as cordial and real as yours but how is this proved scil because in that answer we gave to your second Paper we put you upon the invalidateing the civil sanction for our Government being before warned by you of not running our selves into a praemunire But let the Reader judge what incivility or unsatisfactoriness there was in this answer or whether there was any thing that did not become cordial wishers of peace and unity godly sober and moderate spirited men as we do not only pretend but hope to approve our selves to be both to God and men If it be indeed inconsistent with either an hearty desire of unity and peace or with godliness and sobriety to insist upon the authority of that Parliament that was instrumental for our freedome from Prelatical bondage and that setled the Government wherein we have acted and that doth fully awarrant us for whatever we have acted therein and to insist upon this authority when we were challenged as transgressors in making Laws and Edicts contrary to the Laws in force then we must confess we pretended only to be for peace and unity when in our hearts we were not real for it But as our own consciences accuse us not of dissembling professing that which we never intended so we believe whatever your censures of us be others will be more equal judges then to say the answer we gave to your first Paper was any evidence thereof and such as know what some of you were in time past will rather conclude that the urging the authority of Parliament for the setling of our Government and the awarranting of our actings was that indeed which you could not brook Secondly But as you judge our answer to your second Paper was uncivill and not suitable to that moderation we made profession of so still you will have the answer we gave unto your first to be full of darkness although even as you here represent it it is very plain to any ordinary understanding to hold forth thus much that because the mistakes we saw you had run into might perhaps some of them arise from your unacquaintedness with the rule we walk by although we said we were not to be blamed for any mistake that might arise ab ignorantiâ juris i. e. in you as the whole tenour of the discourse shewes and therefore we added whether simple or affected that we determined not but left it to you to judge of who were most fit to be judges in a matter of that nature you therein knowing your own hearts best we were willing to be at some pains to acquaint you with it This we desire might be taken notice of because what is here manifestly our meaning even from your own representation is afterwards most grosly perverted by you for you would make the world to believe that we assert such an absurd position as this that we were not to be blamed for our ignorance of the Law and then cry out of it as a strange saying But you did warily forbear the imputing any such thing to us here where our words are too plain to be so wrested and reserve this for another place hoping the Reader would by that time he came thither have forgotten what you had here represented us to have said and there take the matter wholly upon trust from you believing us to be so farre devoid of reason as you would there make us to be But this is but a small part in comparison of the injury you do us yet we desire you might see it that you might not hereafter be charged with it by him that is to be the supream Judge betwixt you and us at the great day Thirdly As touching the pains that we have taken and of which you do here again complain as having swelled our answer to so great a bulk yea so as that the most considerable part thereof as to the bulk insists thereon as you say scil to prove our Presbyterian Government to be warranted by the civil anthority and which you say was not by you oppugned nor so much as questioned by you as also touching your judging this discourse to be impertinent we referre the Reader unto what we have already said in the sixth seventh eighth and ninth Animadversions on the first Section of this Paper as also to what we mind him of in the first Animadversion on the third Section thereof by perusal of all which he will find how much you forgot your selves when you come over and over again with such assertions they having in them no more shew of truth then only to evidence that it is wearisome to you to hear of Ordinances of Parliament especially such as are for the setling of the Presbyterian Government or what makes for our own necessary vindication and to manifest that our actings in the management of that Government have been regular and orderly according to the forme of Church-Government appointed by authority and to see that we took off that Objection that is commonly made against the Presbyterian Government as being established by the Parliament but for three yeares only and unto which purposes all the Orders or Ordinances of Parliament or Rules by them given and by us recited tended and all which in the fourth Section of it to which the complaint here refers takes not up above four leafes of our answer which yet in your Preface your selves say is seven sheets Fourthly But what you cannot make out with any colour of truth you hope to do by scoffs and jeers and therefore you say we wheel about and are come to the pole we first started at like an horse in a mill that travels all day and is no further at night then he was in the morning in which also there is as little truth as in your other assertions we having already shewed that our first essay was to give you some account how the termes when we called this the first Class within the Province of Lancaster which you had called ours were no other then the Parliament had given us by their Order That which we attempted in the fourth Section of our answer to which you here reply was to shew that the Ordinances of Parliament for the
to what we here assert be pleased to take notice that we meet with a Book printed in this very year 1658. Entituled A collection of Acts and Ordinances of general use made in the Parliament begun and held at Westminster the third day of November 1640. and since unto the adjournment of the Parliament begun and holden the 17th of Septem Anno 1656. and formerly published in print which are here printed at large with marginall notes or abreviated being a continuation of that Work from the end of Mr. Poltons Collection by Henry Scobell Esq Clerk of the Parliament examined by the Original Records and now printed by speciall Order of Parliament In this book as we finde the Ordinance for the Directory of Worship recited at large and likewise the Ordinance above mentioned for the abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales so likewise we meet with the Ordinance of Aug. 29. 1648. establishing the form of Church Government to be used in the Church of England and Ireland after advice had with the Assembly of Divines and this recited at large as will appear to any that will peruse that book And being the design of that book was to make a continuation of a Collection of Acts and Ordinances of generall use from the end of Mr. Poltons Collection as appears by the Title of it the Parliament that appointed this book to be printed by their speciall Order and Mr. Scobell the Clerk of the Parliament who collected these Acts and Ordinances and examined them by the originall Records were much mistaken in the putting forth this book that is also printed in a large black Character after the manner of the Statutes if no Ordinances of Parliament have in them any force to oblige the people of this Nation 3. We have onely one thing more to add sc that in the 16th Section of the Humble Advice and whereof we minded you in our Answer it is expresly provided that the Acts and Ordinances not contrary thereunto shall continue and remain in force Now that there is nothing in the form of Church Government contrary to any thing contained in the humble Advice we shall make out anon But thus we hope we have said that which may be sufficient for answer to your first exception against the Ordinances of Parliament for Church Government as not having the concurrent consent of the three Estates and to what you alledge out of the Lord Cooke As touching what you urge out of Judg Jenkins saying an Ordinance of both Houses is no Law of the Land by their own confession meaning the Parliament 1. part Coll. of Ordinances fol. 728 we cannot give that credit to his representation of the Parliament he having been an opposer of it as to conclude thence there is no force in any Ordinance of Parliament to oblige the people of this Nation considering that in some of their Ordinances they do as we have said expresly repeal former Acts of Parliament made by the concurrent consent of the three Estates and considering that if they have any where any expressions to that purpose they may be understood either of Ordinances of Parliament made in cases ordinary when the King had not withdrawn himfelf from it or concerning such as were of no long continuance but for the present emergency or of such as were but temporary and long since expired and which sort of Ordinances Mr. Scobell in his Preface to the Book above mentioned saith he collected not but onely such whereof there is or may be daily use as he there speaks We have now donewith your first exception against the Ordinances by us recited for the establishing Church Government and come to your second for admitting Ordinances of Parliament to have an obligatory force in them yet those that concern the establishment of the Presbyterian Government you would have to be repealed Indeed here you said something if you could bring forth any of those subsequent Acts that you speak of granting liberty to pious people in the Land that did repeal the Ordinances for Church Government either implicitly or expresly For we shall not deny that Leges posteriores priores contrarias abrogant but in this you fall short as in the former There is not any subsequent Act or Ordinance that we have seen or that you mention that grants any liberty to any which is denied in the form of Church Government The Act made 1650 for relief of Religious and peaceable people from the rigour of former Acts of Parliament in matters of Religion and which you will have to be an express repeal doth not make void the Ordinance which we actâ—on It onely repeals the poenall Statutes that imposed mulcts and punishments on the offenders against those Laws in their bodies or estates It doth not at all refer to the Ecclesiasticall censures nor so much as mention them as will be clear to him that will peruse it And so the Ordinance establishing the form of Church Government stands whole and entire and untoucht at all by this Act. But here we desire two things might be observed 1. That if this Act stood good against our proceedings repealing the Ordinances establishing the Presbyterian Government so as that the persons mentioned in it were thereby exempt from all Ecclesiasticall censure then it must needs much more stand good against all other sorts of persons that have no such Ordinance awarranting their proceedings and would be a barr in their way that they could not censure with Church censures any of their members 2. That being you in your Papers do fully declare your selves for Episcopacy and that the Acts granting some indulgence to some persons yet do still provide that the liberty granted by them should not be extended to Popery and Prelacy neither this nor any other Act for the relief of any pious or concientious Christians can with any colour be alledged by you to the purpose for which you urge them As touching the eleventh Section of the humble Advice to which you referre us we had throughly perused it and seriously weighed it before you minded us of it but we never did neither do we as yet see any contrariety betwixt it and the forme of Church Government established by Ordinance of Parliament We finde still as we told you in our answer though you here neither take notice thereof nor make any reply thereto that it seems clearly to own the Directory for worship and the forme of Church Government as the publique profession of the Nation for worship and Government as we also said in our answer there were the like expressions in the Government of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland as it was publikely declared at Westminster Decemb. 16. 1653. pag. 43. Sect. 37. And if you had pleased you might have found that whatever indulgence is granted to any in this Sect it is there expresly provided that that liberty be not extended to Popery and Prelacy And