the Judges But Ministers have no remedy to help themselves there being none of the Clergy upon the Bench in any authority CHAP. II. Of the Government of the Church and State of Israel by Moses and Aaron and their Successors until Christ about 1500 years That there were not two several Iurisdictions one Ecclesiastical the other Civil WHen God delivered his chosen people out of Aegypt and conducted them through the Wildernesse towards the promised Land of Canaan He began first to publish his Law And by Moses delivered them many Laws in Five Books Whatsoever Lawes he gave either moral ceremonial or Judicial they are all contained in the Five books of Moses and no man could better understand them then the Priests and Levites For God made his Covenant with Levy of Life and Peace The Law of Truth was in his mouth The Priests Lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his Mouth Mal. 2. 5 6 7. and so Ezekiel 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the Holy and prophane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean and in Controversie they shall stand in judgement and they shall judge according to my Iudgements and they shall keep my Lawes and my Statutes in all mine Assemblies They being the principal Judges and Lawyers in that Common-wealth of Gods own Constitution And whereas it is now granted on all hands that there were three Courts of Justice in that Kingdome 1. The great Council of the 70. Elders 2. The Court of Judgement which was in in every good Town where there were many families 3. The Court of three or some few more The Priests and Levites were principal men both Judges and Officers in all Courts Scophtim Scoterim as 1. Chron. 23. 4. both to give sentence and judgement and also to execute the same So the Divines do affirm in their late Annotations upon 1. Chron. 26. 29 30. 2. Chron. 19. 8. 11. They did study the Judicial and politick Laws and had power to see the Law of God and Injunctions of the King to be observed and to order divine and humane affairs And they held also other honourable offices for we read that Zechariah a Levite was a wise Counsellour and Benjah a Priest Son of Iehojadah was one of Davids twelve Captains being the third Captain of the Host for the third month and in his course consisting of 24000. was his Son Amizabad Benjah also was one of Davids principal worthies having the name of the three mighties He was also Captain of the guard to David and after the Death of Ioab he was made Lord General of the Army by King Salomon in Ioabs room 1. K. 2. 35. It is recored 1 Chron. 26. 30. That of the Family of the Hebronists Levites there were a thousand and seven hundred Officers on this side Iordan westward in all businesses of the Lord and in the service of the King and two thousand and seven hundred chief Fathers and men of valour whom King David made Rulers over the Reâ—bonists the Gaditeâ—s and the half Tribe of Manasses for every matter pertaining to God and affairs of the King v. 31. 32. Whereby it manifestly appears that the same Judges and Officers being Priests and Levites most of them did hear and determine all sorts of causes pertaining to God and affairs of the King both Ecclesiastical and Temporal so that there was not several Courts the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil as in these times some do affirm too peremptorily according to the Common practise and usage of these days as Godwin in his Moses and Aaron lib. 5. Beza Iunius and divers others with the Kirkmen of Scotland lately Rutherford Gillespie Baily and others So also the Papists generally who that they may establish the Popes Supremacy above Kings and their Common-laws do affirm that Regimen Ecclesiasticum est distinctum a politico as Bellarmine de Romano pontifice lib. 1. cap. 5. so our zealous party for the like ends and reasons would maintain a Government in the Clergy seperate from and independent upon the Civill Magistrate and such as ought to be directed and ruled only by the word of God and his Spirit ruling as they suppose in their classical Assemblies where they think the Throne of Christ is only to be advanced and all his holy Ordinances put in execution Whereas the King is Custos utriusqne tabulae and the Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal is acknowledged by our Statutes and annexed to the Crown For Execution thereof an Act was made 1. Eliz. cap. 1. But if the Statute had not been made to annexe the Supremacy to the Crown yet as the Lord Cook saith 4. Instit. p. 331. King Iames hath and Queen Elizabeth had before him as great and ample Supremacy and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical ase ver King of England had before them and that had justly and rightly pertained to them by divers other Acts and by the ancient Law of England if the said clause of annexation in the said Statute 1. Eliz. had never been inserted But Iohn Pym in his Speech in Parliament 4. Caroli as Rushworth hath it in his late Collections saith that the high Commission was derived from the Parliament As if the Parliament gave the King the Supremacy as a gift of their own and that it was not vested in the Crown but as they gave it so they may take it away when they please and suppresse the Court of high Commission as they have done The duty of the Court was to reform and correct all Heresies Schismes Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities But now upon Suppression of the Court all Heresies and Schismes in the world are broke out and such abominable abuses offences and enormities as never were known in this Kingdome with allowance and toleration This follow 's upon the new light and doctrine of Iohn Pym and all the rest of the Presbyterians who have stirred up all these troubles and of late they called the House of Commons the Supream power of the Nation in all Addresses and Petitions made unto them It was a great Error of Calvin and Beza and many others that follow them to affirm that there was one Court Ecclesiastical and another Civil in Israel Calvin upon Ieremiah 19. 1. pag. 152. saith Scimus duos fuisse ordines publicos vel duplex regimen ut loquuntur sacerdotes erant praefecti Ecclesiae nempe quoad legem ita ut spiritualis esset eorum gubernatio erant seniores populi qui prae erant rebus politicis utriusque vero quaedam inter se communio Calvin understood only the plain Hebrew not the Rabbins and Talmud nor the Jewish Antiquities Therefore in several places he is mistaken as upon Numb 11. 17. Where God appointed first the 70. Elders to be joyned as Assistants to Moses He doth interpret the Text I will take off the Spirit that is upon thee and put
Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same ordaineth establisheth and enacteth that from henceforth the same evection and making of the same Duke and all the Names of dignity to the said George or to Iohn Nevil befor henceforth void and of none effect c. And much more the Lord Cook addeth to the same purpose as also York the Herald pag. 223. The late Lord Brook who was slain at Lichfield when he was ready to batter the Cathedral Church in his book against Bishops speaking much against them and magnifying the Temporal Barons saith that though their Honours are derived from the King yet being once made Lord their Honour is vested in their blood and cannot be taken away but his Lordship was not learned in Law or Herauldry He might have taken notice what Lord Bacon saith in his Apopthegmes That blood is no better then the blood of a black Pudding that wants Fat and Suet Honour is vested in the lands Mannors and Revenues which when they are lost and gone farewell Honour and Title Edward Lord Cromwell Grandchild to him that spoyl'd the Church sold the head of his Barony Oukham in Rutland and wasting his whole estate left himself as little land in England as his Grandfather left to the Monasteries by the Feudal Law his Barony is lost The last Edward Lord Zouch who dyed 1. Caroli who was a very great Baron anciently sold the Head of his Barony Haringworth in Northampton-shire and all the Lands which he had insomuch that Henry Howard Earl of Northampton said He was a Baron sans terre Whereupon he bought again some other lands but having no Sons his Barony his extinct Henry Daubeny Earl of Bridgewater created 20. Iuly 30. H. 8. dyed without Issue Anno ... Edw. 6. and so his Name Family and Dignity extinct This Earl was reduced to that extream poverty that he had not a servant to wait on him in his last sicknesse nor means to buy Fire or Candles or to bury him but all was done for him in Charity of his Sister Cicely married to Iohn Bourchier the first of that name Earl of Bath Many more might be alleadged but these are enough to shew that when Lords have lost their Lands and Revenues then they are not fit men to fit and vote in Parliament and many there are who though noâ— wholly impoverished yet so decayed that they are not so fit as the Bishops to be present in Parliaments who if they might have enjoyed their ancient Lands and Mannors were indeed the most able and worthy to be Members in Parliament both in regard of their great estates and their Knowledge and Learning in all kinds far beyond the Temporal Lords Lastly Whereas Dr. Burgesse saith the Bishops are Barones Eleâ—mosynarii and would thence infer that they are but as Arbitrary Almsmen like the poor Knights of Windsor who may be abated or taken away at pleasure This is but a spightful inference upon the bare word Eleemosyna without the true sense of it For as the Learned Glossary sheweth Barones Eleemosynarii apud Stanfordum in jure nostro dicuntur Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Priores qui praedia suae Ecclesia a Rege tenent per Baroniam Baronias etiam suas ex Eleemosyna Regum perhibentur accepisse licet ipsa praedia aliorum saepe munificentia consequuti fuerint And sometimes not only by the gift of other noble persons but also themselves did buy and purchase many Mannors and Lands conferring them on their Successours and being so bought they cannot in justice be taken away as if all had been given by the King and others as meer Alms. Lanfranck Arch-bishop of Canterbury bought and recovered 25. Mannors and left them to his Successors Harvey the first Bishop of Ely in the time of Hen. 7. bought and left many Mannors to his Successors and so likewise did many other Bishops enriching much their Bishopricks and leaving besides many testimonies of their piety by building Colledges and Hospitals And other good works to the benefit of all men They founded also almost all the Colledges in both Universities to their eternal honor so long as Learning shall flourish in this Kingdome CHAP. VI. Concerning the Legislative power and Votes of the Bishops in making Laws Concerning the Statute 11. H. 7. Whereby Empson and Dudley proceeded and what great Treasures they brought to the King Calvin and Beza at Geneva were Members of their Chief Council of State consisting of 60. and so many Bishops in England be Members in Parliament King David appointed Priests and Levites in all Courts of Iustice. The Clergy had many priviledges as Lord Cooke sheweth upon Magna Charta 2. Instit. pag. 2 3. Ambition and Covetousnesse of the Presbyterians the principal cause of all our Troubles BUt concerning the Legislative power and Votes of Bishops in making Laws to regulate the Kingdome and to preserve peace and justice among all sorts of men there is not to be forgotten an ancient Law of King Athelstan Concil pag. 402. c. 11. That worthy King in his Laws hath one De Officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad Officium ejus Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet ac seculi imprimis debet omnem ordinatum Dei instruere quid ei jure sit agendum quid secularibus judicare debeat Debet enim sedulo pacem concordiam operari cum seculi judicâ—bus qui rectum velle diligunt in compellationum adlegationem docere ne quis alii perperam agat in jurejurando vel in â—rdalio Nec pati debet aliquam circumventionem injustae mensurae vel injusti ponderis sed convenit ut per Consilium Testimonium ejus omne legis scitum Burgi mensura omne pondus ponderis sit secundum ejus institutum valde rectum Ne quis proximum suum seducat pro quo decidat in peccatum Et semper debet Christianus providere contra â—mnia quae praedicta sunt ideo debet se magis de pluribus intromittere ut sciat quomodo grex agat quem ad Dei manum custodire suscept ne diabolus eum laniet nee malum aliquid super seminet c. Christianis omnibus necessarium est ut rectum diligant iniqua condemnent saltem sacris ordinibus evecti justum semper erigant prava deponant Hinc debent Episcopi cum secularibus judicibus interesse judiciis ne permittant si pessint ut illius culpa aliqua pravitatum germina pullulaverint Et sacerdotibus pertinet in sua diocaesi ut ad rectum sedulo quemcumque juvent nee patiantur si possint ut Christianus aliquis alii noceat non potens impotenti non summus infimo non praelatus subditis non dominus hominibus suis vel servis aut liberis molestus existat secundum Episcopi dictionem per suam mensuram convenit ut servi testamentales operentur super omnem
Commanders joyned as the Count of Bucquoy the Count of Tilly the Count of Papenheim the Count of Maradas Besides other great Captains of note having an Army of 40. thousand men and fought the great Battle neer Prague and prevailed powerfully Next day the City of Prague was surrendered the Palsgrave fled away and of 30. Committee-men in Prague which directed all businesse twenty seven were apprehended and the next year after they had been tryed and condemned by the common-Common-law of the land for rebellion and raising armies and Committees they were put to death upon one stage the same day Not long after ten thousand protestant Ministers and Churches were suppressed and the Ministers banished out of the Kingdome and the provinces annexed of Moravia Silesia Lusatia and other Countties of the Emperor The Covenanters who had seised on the Lands and Revenues of the Bishops and Deans aud other societies by way of Sequestration first which word they used in one article of their Covenant were forced to yield up those lands and to restore them to the former owners and so also in many other parts of Germany Lands and Houses of the Clergy which were taken away an hundred years before were restored to the right owners And for the Godly Covenant they renounced it aâ—d would have been glad to have enjoyed the favours which the Emperors formerly permitted them out of his Clemency But since they raised such a bloody War he would not suffer them longer to enjoy his former favours So that the Bohemians and most parts of Germany who enjoyed peace and great happinesse in all respects lost all by striving to overthrow the Bishops and the Ecclesiastical Laws and to take their Lands This miserable event might well have forewarned us in England not to offend in the same kind as they did to overthrow Bishops and all the preferments of the Church to bring in Preâ—byterian purity and lay elders and to impose a godly Covenant wich was indeed a wicked combination and Conspiracy far worse then the Covenant of the low Countries or that of France against Hen. 3. Hen. 4. which had almost confounded all France and was at length the destruction of those two great Kings who were both miserably murdered and put to death as our King Charles was in most abominable manner and in many respects more horribly then those two Kings for they were stabbed on a suddain by two villaines and without the consent of the people and severe punishments were inflicted upon them speedily But King Charles in a deliberate manner by men that pretended Justice and upright dealing who called an high Court of Justice never heard of before no Judges of the Land consenting or approving and so openly in the face of the sun and of all the world with an high hand and professed malice and outragious fiery zeal that the Emperor Maximilian did justly say that the Kings of England were Kings of Devils And though the Presbyterians would excuse themselves that they never intended the Kings destruction yet that is a frivolous and foolish excuse for as Sir Walter Raleigh saith truely Our law doth Construe all levying of war without the Kings Commission and all force raised to be intended for the Death and Destruction of the King not attending â—he sequel and so it is judged upon good reason for every unlawful and ill action is supposed to be accompanied with an ill intent Lord Coke 3. Instit. pag. 12. speaking fully of all kinds and degrees of treason saith Preparation by some overt Act to depose the King or take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison him until he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt Act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this upon the matter is to make the King a subject and to despoile him of his kingly office of royal government And so it was resolved by all the Judges of England Hill 1. Iac. Regis in the Case of the Lord Cobham Lord Gray and Watson and Clark seminary Priests and so it had been resolved by the Justices Hill 43. Eliz. in the Case of the Earls of Essex and Southampton who intended to go to the Court where the Queen was and to have taken her into their power and to have removed divers of her Councel and for that end did assemble a multitude of people this being raised to the end aforesaid was a sufficient overt Act for compassing the death of the Queen and so by woful experience in former times it hath fallen out in the Cases of King E. 2. H. 6. E. 5. that were taken and imprisoned by their subjects The Presbyterians did offend in this kind notoriously and therefore committed Treason manifesty for they imprisoned the King in divers places and at length in a remote place in the Ifle of Wight and what followed after is well known And all this done by them that were for the most part Presbyterians out of their design to compell the King to yeild to their projects to overthrow the Bishops and to take their Lands and Revenues which they account to be the flesh and bones of the whore of Babylon which they must devour and make the old whore naked bare and desolate The excellently learned Grotius who did perfectly understand and discover the practices of the Presbyterians as appears in many places of his works hath one remarkable passage in his treatise de Anti-Christo pag. 65. which shall here follow Iam vero fi illi qui dicuntur Dii intelligendi sunt Reges liber flagitiosissimus Boneherii de abdicatione Hen. 3. Galliarum Regis non argumentis tantum sed verbis desumptus est non ex Mariana aut Santarillo se ex Iunio Bruto quis is sit sat scio sed quia latere voluit lateat ex viris doctis quidem at factionis ejusdem Dictis facta congruunt haec est illa mica salis de qua infra aget Borborita quae facta est in mare salsum faetens apud Reges omnia circumsata corrumpens Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam saeculum tot vidit subditorum in principes bella sub Religionis titulo horum Concitores ubique reperiuntur ministri Evangelii ut quidem se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nuper optimos Civitatis Amstelodamensis Magistratus conjecerit nihil hic narrari opus est sapientibus dictum sat est Laudanda omnino est Regis Christianissimi prudentia virtus qui suos paris sententiae subditos tam solennia insanire vetuit Videat si cui libet de Presbyteriornm in Reges audacia librum Iacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus Peter Moulin who was well versed in the Controversies of the times and suffered much in the late wars
having the name among the three mighties He was also Captain of the Guard to David and after the Death of Ioab he was made Lord General of the Host by King Solomon in Ioabs room 1. King 2. 35. And this is fully to be proved by excellent learned men As Sigonius Bertram Casaubon Moulin especially by the learned Hugo Grotius upon Mal. 5. 21. Where he doth accurately shew out of the Text Iosephus Philo and other Monuments of the Jews that there was no distinction of Courts the one Ecclesiastical the other Civil as Calvin and Beza and some others that follow them would have it but the Judges and Courts were united and the Priests and Levites the principal Judges and Officers in every Court to whom the people were to be obedient upon pain of Death Deut. 17. 12. They being appointed to hear every cause between blood and blood between plea and plea and between Stroke and Stroke being matters of Controversie within thy Gates And as our Laws call them Pleas of the Crown and Common pleas or whatsoever else did arise among them pertaining to God and the King 1 Chron 26. 30. 32. for which purpose God did scatter them in every Tribe and turned the curse of Iacob into a singular blessing to be divided in Iacob and scattered in Israel Appointing 1700 to be on the West-side Iordan and 2700 on the East-side The ancient frame of our Kingdome for 500. years beforre the Conquest was thus disposed and governed As Spelman sheweth fully in his learned Glossary and Councels and happy had it been if things had continued so still But now the Law being otherwise setled and the Courts divided it is not safe or easie to make alteration Only without change of Law or Courts the Benches may continue as they are though some more Judges be added in most Courts and some Eclesiastical persons among them as in the Saxon times Comes praesidebat foro Comitatus non solus sed adjunctus Episcopo hic ut jus divinum ille ut hnmanum diceret alterque alteri anxilio esset Consilio Praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi annimadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere Idem igitur utrique territorium jurisdictionis terminus Glossarium in Comes pag. 111. The Bishop and Earl of the County were joint Magistrates in every Shire and did assist each other in all Causes and Courts and so Mr. Selden in his History cap. 14. Sect. 1. By this means there was great union and harmony between all judges and officers whereas now there is great contention for jurisdiction and intollerable clashing in all Courts by Injunctions prohibitions Consultations and crosse orders to the great Vexation of the Clients and Subjects And by multiplying several Courts the number of Lawyers is greatly increased as Lord Cook sheweth 4. Instit. p. 76. Where he gives divers reasons of the increase of Suits in Law and in the same Book reckoneth up no lesse then 74. Courts of Law and justice of all sorts in the Kingdome besides the Ecclesiastical Courts Which are not many for the number and had little businesse to do when they were in greatest power For commonly two or three proctors were enough to dispatch the businesse of any Bishops Court without Advocates But in the Courts of Common Law there is a farâ— greater number of Lawyers in these times whereas there was but an 140. Lawyers and Attorneys appointed by that Martial and Legislative King Edw. 2. When he distinguished the Courts and appointed the number of Lawyers and Attorneys for the whole Kingdome whereof the Writ is referred unto by Lord Cook 4. Instit. pag. 76. But the writ it self is put down by Spelman in his Glossary pag. 44. 58. Sed hodie forte in uno Comitatu tot solummodo Atlornati reperiantur But the Division and Separation of the Ecclesiastical Courts from the Temporal seems to have proceeded first from Pope Nicholas the first as is mentioned in Gratian. Com. Cum ad verum 96. Distinct. about two hundred years before the Conquest which was imitated among us by William the Conquerour whose Statute for that purpose is recited and illustrated by Spelman in his Glossary and lately also published by Mr. Selden and Lord Cook 4. Instit. c. 52. So that as the Pope hath been the Authour of much evill in the World oftentimes so in this particular when he came to the height of his greatnesse having de facto the Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical matters he made the Clergy subject only to himself and his Deputies and Legates and such officers as he sent among us But at length Hen. 8. Contested with the Pope and recovered the Supremacy of his Crown though it cost much blood and opposition in his time But he having recovered it and it being approved by Parliament it is fully setled upon the King and vested in his Crown And as Lord Cook saith 4. Instit. pag. 331. His Majesty hath and Queen Elizabeth before him had as great and ample Supremacy and Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical as ever King of England had before them and that had justly and rightly pertained to them by divers other Acts and by the ancient Laws of England if the Clause of annexation in the said Statute of 1 Eliz. had never been inserted Wherefore the Speech of Iohn Pym as in Rushworths Collections 4. Caroli That the Supremacy was given by parliament to the Crown and as he seemeth to understand it may be taken away by parliament is a dangerous opinion not to be endured Lord Cook saith 4. Instit. pag. 325. The Act 1. Eliz is an Act of Restitution not a gift meerly given which was not formerly due and belonging to the jurisdiction of the Crown If therefore the King hath his Supremacy vested in his Crown so firmly and is Custos ntriusque Tabulae by the Word of God as the Arch-bishop sheweth Then this Ecclesiastical Head must be allowed to have some Ecclesiastical Sences to be consulted withal excellently learned and principal persons of the Clergy And as he addeth truly If Cranmer the Arch-bishop had been thus dealt withal and suppressed in the minority of our young Iosias Ed. 6. What had become of the great work of our Reformation and also if Ridley Latimer Hooper and the rest of the protestant Bishops Martyrs afterwards had been set aside and neglected the Reformation could not have been effected Therefore unlesse the King have good choice of Ecclesiastical persons excellently Learned Bishops both in the ancient Councels Fathers Histories and Controversies and in Canon and Civil Laws requisite to determine of great difficulties that will continually happen in the Church whereof the Conusance belongeth to the Spiritualty as Lord Cook sheweth out of the Statute 25. H. 8. cap. 21. and commendeth them for their Knowledge Integrity and Sufficiency and if so then much more at this day I saith Coke When all kind of Learning is eminently advanced to an higher
and Piety was fervent and abounded with good works of all kinds insomuch that they thought no honour or respect too much to be given to the Clergy especially to the reverend Fathers and Bishops of the prime order From what hath been said it is manifest that the Bishops were equal to the greatest persons and estates of the Kingdome and had their votes and suffrages for making laws and Constitutions for the first 500. years before the Conquest Whereby it appears that it is a very rash and ignorant assertion of the Examiner Dr. Burgesse That Bishops at first were but casually mounted to that height of extent and power by William the Conquerour the more to endear and oblige them And that it is onely of Grace that Bishops were first allowed place in Parliament And that they crept in by favour to serve a Conquerours turn and can derive no higher for sitting as now they do in the House of Peers then an Act of Parliament if so high Whereby it is manifest by all the Laws of the Saxon Kings both in the edition of Lambard and of the English Councels by Sir Henry Spelman that the Bishops were the principal men in all ages for ordaining of Laws and Consulâ—ations in all the great Assemblies of the Kingdome then in use And when matters in question were only Ecclesiasticall concerning the Church and Religion the Clergy sate by themselves but when there was any thing to be given and confirmed to the Church then the Kings and Nobles did afford their presence and assistance as appears by divers Councils Vide Concil Glocestriensiae pag. 230. CHAP. V. Concerning Barons and the Title thereof and how the Bishops became Barons being no addition of Honour to them but inforced upon them by the Conquerour and since continued to this day AS for the Title and Original of Barons and the old signification of the Word Selden in his Titles of Honor 2. part cap. 7. Especially Sir Henry Spelman in his learned Glossary upon the word Baro hath so accurately shewed divers particulars that I need not here repeat them But touching the Title and Name as it is now commonly used I will say something as it is now understood it came among us since the Conquest as the Glossary sheweth pag. 81. Ad Anglos pervenisse videtur vocabulum Baro vel cum ipsis Normanis vel cum Edwardus Confessor auras moresque imbibisset Normannicos Huntingtoniensis aevi sui vocabulum usurpans Histor. lib. 5. Adolwaldum qui occisus est An. Dom. 903 Baronem Regis Edwardi senioris vocat sed Author antiquior Florentius Wigorniensis eundem Ministrum Regis appellat quo etiam vocabulo scriptores ipsi Saxonici passim usi sunt So in the Saxon Councils and Charters divers great men who were no lesse then Thanes do style and subscribe themselves Ministros Regis as in the Charter of Edgar p. 486. Ego Oswald minister confirmavi Ego Elfwurde minister corroboravi And the like frequently occure These being the same in degree and substance as Barons are now whereof the Learned Glossary maketh three sorts Hodiernos itaque nostros Barones è triplici fonte triplices faciamus 1. Feodales seu praescriptitios qui a priscis feodalibus Baronibus oriundi suam hodie praescriptione tuentur dignitatem 2. Evocatos seu rescriptitios qui brevi Regio ad Parliamentum evocantur 3. Diplomaticos qui Regio Diplomate hoc fastigium ascendunt Feodalium originem inter eos collocavero quibus Willielmus senior Angliam totam dispertitus est de se tenendam quorumque nomina in Domesdei paginis recognovit Rescriptitios ab aevo Regum Iohannis Henrici tertii caput extulisse censeo Diplomaticos initium sumpsisse perhibent sub Richardo secundo qui anno Regni sui 8. 1. Christi 1387 Iohannem Beauchamp de Hall in Baronem de Kinderminster suo evexit diplomate Now the Bishops may be reckoned both as Feudal Barons in regard of their estates and Baronies annexed to their Bishopricks and also they are Evocati summoned by Writ as Barons and principal persons by the Kings to come unto Parliaments and also they are created by Patent which is presented to the Arch-bishop at their consecration But all the Feudal Barons were not summoned to Parliaments Quorum ingens erat multitudo quae plus minus 30000. nullo tecto convocari poterat William the Conquerour brought in Tenures inforcing all men of estates to hold by one Tenure or other and having made 30 thousand to hold by Barony yet he never called so many to a Parliament seeing no Houses could hold so many and as not all the Feudal Barons were called so not all the Abbots or Priors though they had great estates but a convenient number sometimes more and sometimes lesse as in 49. Hen. 3. Which is the first Parliament upon Record there were called to Parliament of the Clergy 102. besides five Deans saith Spelman Glossary pag. 4. Anno. 1. Edw. 2. there were 36. Abbots Anno. 4. Edw. 3. about 33. and all other times more or lesse Yet not so few as the Examiner relateth out of Sir Edward Cook pag. 33. who though he were a great Master of law yet in matters of Antiquity must yeild to the Author of the Glossary whom in private he would call his Tutor as well he might Cambden writing of the Degrees of States in England pag. 170. speaking of the Bishops by right and custome it appertained to them as to Peers of the Kingdome to be with the rest of the Peers personally present at all Parliaments whatsoever there to consult to handle to ordain decree and determine in regard of the Baronies which they hold of the King For William the first a thing which the Church-men of that time complained of but these in the age ensuing counted their greatest honour ordained Bishopricks and Abbeys which held Baronies in pure and perpetual almes and until that time were free from all secular service to be under Military or Knights Service enrolling every Bishoprick and Abbey at his will and pleasure and appointed how many Soldiers he would have every of them to find for him and his Successours in the time of Hostility and War Thus William the Conquerour being very rigorous imposed upon the Bishops and Abbots that held their estates by Barony great impositions to maintain arms horses and furniture for War enrolling them as he thought them able but it seems the lesser Abbeys that did not hold by that Tenure of Barony and Parish priests were not taxed as now they are But under the Saxons when the grievous imposition of Dangelt was imposed and raised from ten thousand pounds yearly to thirty thousand pounds and in the year 1012. to forty eight thousand pounds which was a great sum for that age when mony did not abound as it doth now yet the Church was then free De hoc Dangeldo libera quieta erat omnis Ecclesia quiâ— magis in Ecclesiae
now there is a generation of men who do not think the Clergy necessary Men to be consulted that will interpret Scriptures remove the Ark of God as it were and do things without the presence vote and suffrage of the Chief Fathers of the Levites which how it agreeth with this pious Example of King David and King Iames's Meditations upon it I leave to be Considered CHAP. VII I◠the first frame of our English Common-wealth the Bishops in every Diocess were the principal Iudges The Charter of William the Conquerour for the dividing the Courts The Statute of Circumspectè agatis 13. Ed. 1. and Articuli Cleri 9 Ed. 2. appointing what Cause shall belong to the Ecclesiastical Courts THe first frame of our English Common-wealth was so setled and ordered by the Saxon Kings when once they became Christians That the Bishop of the Diocess together with the Aldermen of the County and so their Deputies in-inferior Courts under them should be equal Judges together upon the same Bench in the same Courts and there determine all Causes in the forenoon Church-matters and in the afternoon secular business as Selden sheweth in his notes upon Eadner p. 166. and Bishop Iewel in part observes in his Defence of the Apology Part 6. p. 522. This Course continued till William the Conquerour and perhaps it had been very happy for our Kingdome if the frame of our Laws and Courts had so still continued joyned together for many reasons that I will not now further insist upon Gulielmus primus sacrum à Civili discriminavit forum etenim florente Saxonum imperio mutuas injure dicundo veluti tradebant operas atque eodem utebantur his quotannis for◠Dioeceseos Episcopus simul provinciae Praeses seu vice-Comes quem Sheriffe nunc dicimus interdum Ealderman nominabant c. The Conquerour first separated the Temporal Courts from the Ecclesiastical yet not diminishing the authority of the Churches Jurisdiction which by his oath he confirmed and promised to preserve affirming Quod per Ecclesiam Rex regnum solidum habent subsistendi fundamentum So that he subverted rather Ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction but as formerly in the County or in the Hundred so now in the Bishops Court all Ecclesiastical Causes were heard and determined For the old manner the Laws of King Edgar do shew it Cap. 5. Intersit unusquisque Hundredi Gemoto ut superius est praescriptum habeantur burgemottitres quotannis duo vero scire-gemotti de istis adsunto loci Episcopus Aldermannus doceatque alter jus divinum alter saeculare In Hundredo aderant Thani quos Barones vocant posteri ut patet e. L. Ethelredi Cap. 1. ipsique judices Ecclesiastici cum partis illius Clero in Hundredo enim non minus quà m in Comitatu unà haec agebantur quae ad forum pertinent Ecclesiasticum quae ad saeculare donec Gulielmus Conquestor divisis jurisdictionibus hanc ab illa separavit For the Division of the Courts and the Erection of the Ecclesiastical to sit by themseves under the Bishop and Arch-deacon it appears by the Charter of King William to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln And though it be sent in the direction by name to them only yet it seems it grew after to be a general law no otherwise then the Statute of Circumspecte agatis that hath a special reference onely to the Bishop of Norwich as Lord Coke saith 2 Instit. 487. The Bishop of Norwich is there put but for example but it extendeth to all the Bishops within the Realm And so Selden telateth in his History of Tithes Cap. 14. Sect. 1. and in his Ianus Lib. 2. Sect. 14. And in his notes upon Eadner p. 167. The words of it as they are recorded are Willielmus gratia Dei Rex Anglorum Comitibus vice comitibus omnibus Francigenis Anglis qui in Episcopatu Remigii Episcopi terras habent salutem Sciatis vos omnes coeteri mei fideles qui in Anglia manent quod Episcopales leges quae non bene nec secundum sanctorum Canonum praecepta usque ad mea tempora in regno Anglorum fuerunt Communi Consilio Cousilio Episcoporum Abbatum omnium principum regni mei emendandas judicavi Propterea mando regia authoritate Praecipio ut nullus Episcopus vel Archidiaconus de Legibus Episeopalibus amplius in Hundret placita teneant nec causam quae ad regimen animarum pertinet ad judicium secularium hominum adducant sed quicunque secundum Episcopales leges de quacunque causa vel culpa interpellatus fuerit ad locum quem ad hoc Episcopus elegerit nominaverit veniat ibique de causa sua respondeat non secundum Hundret sed seeundum Canones Episcopales leges rectum Deo Episcopo suo faciat Which I the rather transcribe saith Selden because also it seems to give the Original of the Bishops consistory as it sits with us divided from the Hundred or County Court wherewith in the Saxon times it was joyned And in the same Law it is added further Hoc etiam defendo ut nullus laicus homo de legibus quae ad Episcopum pertinent se intromittat Thus Selden Only the words of the Charter are more fully recited out of the Records by another Learned Author Si vero aliquis per superbiam elatus ad justitiam Episcopalem venire noluerit vocetur semel secundo tertio Quod si nec ad emendationem venerit excommunicetur Et si opus fuerit ad hoc vindicandum fortitudo justitia Regis vel vicecomitis adhibeatur Ille autem qui vocatus ad justitiam Episcopi veniro noluerit pro unaquaque vocatione legem Episcopalem emendabit Hoc etiam defendo mea authoritate interdico ne ullus Viceeomes aut praepositus aut minister Regis nec aliquis laicus homo de legibus quae ad Episcopum pertinent se intromittat nec aliquis laicus homo alium hominem sine justitia Episcopi ad judicium adducat Iudicium vero in nullum locum portetur nisi in Episcopali sede aut in illo loco quem ad hoc Episcopus constituerit And the punishment for disobedience to the Ecclesiastical Judges was much alike as formerly was enacted under the Saxon Kings as by King Alured Si quis Dei rectitudines aliquas deforciot reddat Lathlite cum Dacis Witam cum Anglis And the same Law is afterwards confirmed and renewed by King Canutus and by other Kings Whereby it appeareth how before the Conquest and likewise after for a long time the authority and jurisdiction of the Church was maintained and upheld by the setled Laws of the Kingdome How they had power in their Courts to excommunicate and further by the help of the King and the Sheriffe to proceed against stubborn offenders and such as opposed or contemned their authority so that here is
the Councel of Clarendon under Hen. 2. Wherein the Clergy were inforced to appear in the Temporal Courts one Canon thereof being Clerici accusati de quacunque re summoniti a Iusticiario Regis veniant in Curiam responsuri ibidem de hoc unde videbitur Curiae Regis quid ibi sit respondendum in Curia Eeclesiastica unde videbitur quod ibi sit respondendum It a quod Regis Iusticiarius mittet in Curiam sanctae Ecclesia ad videndum quomodo res ibi tractabitur si Clericus vel confessus vel convictus fuerit non debet eum de caetero Ecclesia tueri But touching this and the rest of the Constitutions in that Council Math. Paris doth sharply inveigh against them Hanc Recognitionem five Recordationem de Consuetudinibus libertatibus iniquis dignitatibus Deo detestabilibus Archiepiscopi Episcopi clerus cum Comitibus Baronibus proceribus juraverunt And as he addeth His itaque gestis potestas laica in res personas Ecclesiasticas omnia pro libitu Ecclesiastico jure contempto tacentibus aut vix murmur antibus Episcopis potius quam resistentibus usurpabat And this appeareth also by that which Selden relateth in his notes upon Eadner pag. 268. that long after in Edward the seconds time the Clergy had so many oppositions and hinderances in their proceedings from the Temporal Courts that they exhibited a petition in Parliament wherein they recite the grant and constitution of Will 2. allowing them their own Courts by themselves and specify their complaints particularly which he calleth Gravamina Ecclesiae Anglicanae and saith they are those mentioned in the proem of Artiâ—uli Cleri And in this age we have great cause to complain of Prohibitions but thereof I will say no more now as for the Temporal Courts the Conquerour appointed them to follow his Court royal which Custome continued for many years till under King Iohn at the instant request of the nobility it was granted Ut Communia placita non sequerentur Curiam i. e. Regis sed in loco certo tenerentur That the Court of Justice for Common Pleas should not follow the Kings Court Royal but be held in a place certain as now commonly they are in Westminster-Hall Whereas before the Kings appointed one Grand Lord Chief Justice of all England who for his authority and power was a greater officer both of State and Justice then any in these last ages and ever since that the greatness of that office was abated by King Edw. 1. most of those great Justices were Bishops as Sir Henry Spelman sheweth in his Caralogue of them Glossar pag. 401. Dignitate omnes Reges proceres potestate omnes superabat Magistratus De potestate valde inter alia claret quod quatuor summorum judicum hodiernorum muneribus solus aliquando fungeretur scilicet Capitalis Iustitiarii Banci Regis id est plâ—citorum Coronae seu criminalium Capitalis Iusticiarii Banci Communis id est placitorum Civilium Capitalis Baronis Scacarii hoc est Curiae ad sâ—crum patrimonium fiscum pertinentis c. Most of these great Justices were Bishops as appears by the Catalogue of them they being the principal men for Knowledge and Learning in those dayes and had no doubt power of voting in all Parliaments Councils and assemblies of State And so in these later times Lord Coke sheweth their abilities and rights 4. Instit. pag. 321. The King is well apprised of all his Judges which he hath within his realm as well spiritual as temporal as Arch-bishops Bishops and their officers Deanes and other Ministers who have spiritual jurisdiction It is declared by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in full Parliament That the spiritualty now being called the English Church always hath been reputed and also found of that sort that both for knowledge integrity and sufficiency of number it hath been alwayes thought and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of it self without the intermedling of any exterior person or persons to declare and determine of such doubts and to administer all such offices and duties as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain The Adversaries have made divers objections against our Arch-bishops and Bishops Ever since saith Coke But these pretences being in truth but meer Cavils tending to the scandal of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of the realm as it is said in the Statute of 8. Eliz. cap. 1. are fully answered by the said Statute and Provision made by authority of that Parliament for the establishing of the Arch-bishops and Bishops both in praesenti in futuro in their Bishopricks By the Statute also of 39 Eliz. cap. 8. the Arch-bishops and Bishops are adjudged lawful as by the said Act appeareth And by these two Statutes these and all other objections against our Bishops one hath answered which we have thought good to remember seeing we are to treat of their jurisdiction Ut obstruatur os iniquae loquentium saith Lord Coke Yet the fury and rage of these times have stirred up more anger which in the issue will turn to the Confusion and Dishonour of them that began these wars and broyles against the Church and Bishops and fundamental Laws and Statutes which have so fully asserted their rights and authority Thus the Lord Coke premiseth being to treat of the Ecclesiastical Courts and all the jurisdiction belonging to the Clergy and established by the fundamental Laws of the Land against both Papists and Puritans and first he beginneth with the Court of Convocation and of the high Commission in Causes Ecclesiastical which is absolutely necessary for the suppression of all manner of Errots Heresies Schismes abuses offences Contempts and enormities But upon suppression of this Court by the late long Parliament there hath broken forth such an infinite number of heresies schismes sectaries and a rascal rabble of factions as is prodigious to relate and intolerable to be suffered For as it is in the Common Law if there were not Assises and Sessions to punish Malefactors Theeves Cuâ—purses Offenders and Rogues of all sorts the Land would be so Oppressed with the Multitudes of them no man could enjoy his house or goods freehold or life therefore in London they have every moneth a publick sessions to punish Condemn and Execute all sorts of Malefactors And Corporations in principal Cities have the like authority by Commission and Patent from the King But for the high Commission to punish Offenders against Religion and the Church Lord Coke saith pag. 331. That the Kings Majesty hath and Queen Elizabeth had before him as great and ample Supremacy and jurisdiction Ecclesiastical as ever King of England had before them and that had justly and rightly pertained to them by divers other Acts and by the ancient Laws of England if the said clause of annexation in the said Statute of 1. Eliz. had never been inserted That it was a gâ—osse Error
of all the Clergy out of Temporal offices is a motion of the first impression and was never heard of in the English Common-wealth before this Bill I come in the third place to the main part of this cause the things to be severed from all men in holy orders which are as I told you of three kinds First matters of Freehold as the Bishops votes in parliament and Legislative power Secondly matters of favour as to be a Judge in Star-chamber to be a privy Counsellour to be a Justice of peace or a Commissioner in any Temporal affairs Thirdly and mixt matters of Freehold and Favour too as the Charters of some Bishops and many of the ancient Cathedrals of this Kingdome who allow them a Justice or two within themselves or their Close as they call it and exempt those grave and learned men from the rudenesse and insolency of Tapsters Brewers Inn-keepers Tailours and Shoomakers which do integrate and make up the bodies of our Country Cities and Incorporations And now is the Axe laid to the very root of the Ecclesiastical tree and without your Lordships justice and favour all the branches are to be lopt off quite with those later clauses and the Stock and root it self to be quite grâ—bb'd and digged up by that first point of abolishing all Vote and Legislative power in all Clergy men leaving them to be no longer any part of the people of Rome but meer Slaves and Bondmen to all intents and purposes And the priests of England one degree inferiour to the priests of Ieroboam being to be accounted worse then the Tayle of the people Now I hope no English man will doubt but this Vote and Representation in Parliament is not only a freehold but the greatest freehold that any Subject in England or in all the Christian world can brag of at this day that we live under a King and are to be governed by his Laws that is not by his arbitrary Edicts or Rescripts but by such Laws confirmed by him and assented to by us either in our proper persons or in our Assignees and Representations This is the very Soul and Genius of Magna Charta and without this one spirit that great Statute is little lesse then Littera occidens a dead and uselesse peice of paper You heard it most truly opened unto you by a wise and judicious Peer of this House that legem patere quam ipse tuleris was a Motto wherein Alexander Severus had not more interest then every true born English man No forty shillings man in England but doth in person or Representation enjoy his freedome and liberty The prelates of this Kingdome as a Looking-glass and Representation of the Clergy have been in possession hereof these thousand years and upwards The princes of the Norman race for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with men and money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in that House with their double capacities about them the later invented for the profit of the prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy Which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambard and Sir Henry Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to parliament in use to this very day We have many preceedents upon the Rolls that in Vacancy of Episcopal Seas the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple priest hath been called to sit in this Honourable House by reason of that former Representation and such an officer I was my self over that Sea whereof I am Bishop some 25 years agoe and might then have been summoned by Writ unto this Honourable House at that very time by reason of the Spiritualty of that Diocesse which then as a simple priest I did by virtue of the aforesaid office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God representative that in this time floates in great danger in this deluge of waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burthen but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus his sake who hath built it in this Kingdome for saving of people and your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those ministers whose persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no parcels or fragments of this Commonwealth No saith Gregory the last trick the Devil had in this world was this that whâ—â— he could not bring the word and Sacraments into disgrace by errors and Heretical opinions he invented this project and much applanded his wit therein by casting slight and contempt upon the preachers and ministers And my Noble Lords you are too wise to beleive what the Common people talk that we have a vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the Noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no vote in these elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and these contrary assertions are so slight and groundlesse as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore right Honourable Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point and as God hath made you the most noble of all the peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that ever have been seen in the Christian Church since the passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends to sever from persons in holy orders viz. votes representations in parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a much baser mettal and alloy sittings in Star Chamber sittings at Councel-Table sitting in Commissions of the peace and other Commissions of secular affairs which are such favours and graces of Christian princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fortunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiastical persons But my Noble Lords this is the Case Our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Head-ship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque Tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Sences at all No Ecclesiastical person to be consulted withal not in any Circumstances of time and place If Cranmâ—r had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young Iosias King Edward the sixth
born mininster to intermeddle with secular affairs and therefore it is likewise lawful for the mean born so to do And so in my Conscience I speak it in the presence of God and great noble men it is most lawful for them to intermeddle with secular affairs so as they be not intangled as the Apostle calls it with this intermedling as to slight and neglect the office of their calling which no minister noble or ignoble can do without grievously sinning against God and his own Conscience It is lawful for persons in holy orders to intermeddle it is without question or else they could not make provision of meat and drink as Beza interprets the place It is not lawful for them to be thus intangled and bound up with secular affairs which I humbly beseech your Lordships to consider not as a distinction invented by me but clearly expressed by the Apostle himself And thus my noble Lords I shall without any further molestation and with humble thanks for this great patience leave this great Cause of the Church to your Lordships wise and gracious consideration Here is my Mars-Hill and further I shall never appeal for justice Some assurance I have from the late solemn vote and protestation of both Houses for the maintaining and defending the power and priviledges of Parliament that if this Bill were now to be framed in the one House it would never be offered without much qualification as I perswade my self it will not be approved in the other Parliaments are indeed omnipotent but no more omnipotent then God himself who for all that cannot do every thing God cannot but perform his promise A Parliament under favour cannot unswear what it hath already vowed This is an old Maxime which I have learned of the Sages of the Law a parliament cannot be felo de se It cannot destroy or undo it self An Act of parliament as that in the 11. and another in the 21 Rich. 2. made to be unrepealable in any subsequent parliament was ipso facto void in the constitution why Because it took away the power and priviledges that is not the plumes and feathers the remote accidents but the very specifical forme essence and being of a parliament So if an Act should be made to take away the Votes of all the Commons or of all the Lords it were absolutely a void Act. I will conclude with the first Epistle to the Corinthians Cap 12. Vers. 15. If the Foot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the Body is it therfore not of the body Vers. 20. But now are they many Members yet but one Body Vers. 2â— And the Eye cannot say unto the Hand I have no need of thee nor again the Head unto the Feet I have no need of you Some Annotations upon the Arch-Bishops SPEECH WHereas the Arch-bishop saith Sect. 3. That the Bishops sate in parliaments and all publick Assemblies of State a thousand years it is certainly true as appears fully by the Subscriptions of their names to all constitutions Laws and Ordinances made in the several great Councels of the Kingdome in the times of the Saxon Kings the manner being then to give their assent not by verbal voting but by subscribing their names as fully appears in Sir Henry Spelmans Edition of the Councells at the end of all such Assemblies and Councells as were then held And whereas the Arch-bishop saith that the princes of the Norman race erected the Bishopricks into Baronies it is very true as Cambden sheweth in his Britannia pag. 170. And so the great Abbots also heretofore by right and custome were peers of the Kingdome and did sit in parliaments to order decree and determine But the Conquerour ordained both Bishops and Abbots to be under military Service erecting every Bishop and Abbey at his Will and pleasure and appointing how many Soldiers he would require of them to be furnished for him and his Successors in times of Hostility and War So that the Tenure and Title of Barons being imposed on them it was no addition of honour to them they being superiour to Thanes or Barons though as Cambdon saith out of Mathew Paris That which was then complained of by the Cleagy and accounted as a burden in the age ensuing was accounted as the greatest honour And so it hath continued as a Title of Honour â—o the Bishops Whereas the Archbishop saith That the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will not be effectually received from those Ministers whose persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no parcels or fragments of the Common-wealth This doth certainly prove too true Religion it self is vilified and the Word of God and his Sacraments neglected almost in every parish because the persons that should perform the duties and offices are become contemptible for want of that Honour and Respect which they enjoyed legally heretofore Therefore God anciently in the Kingdome of Israel did greatly honour the Tribe of Levi when he made the priests Levites the principal officers Judges in every Court to whom the people were to be obedient upon pain of Death Deut. 17. 12. The Administration of law and Justice throughout the Kingdome depended oâ— them principally For God made his Covenant with Levi of Life and Peace The Law of Truth was in his Mouth The Priests Lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his Mouth Mal. 2. 5 6 7. and so Ezekiel 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean and in Controversie they shall stand in iudgement and they shall iudge according to my Iudgement and they shall keep my Laws and my Statntes in all my Assemblies They beiâ—g the principal Judges and Lawyers in that Common-wealth of Gods own Constitution And whereas it is now granted on all hands that there was three Courts of Justice in that Kingdome 1. The great Councel of 70 Elders 2. The Court of Judgement consisting of 23. 3. The Court of some three or some few more The Priests and Levites were principal men both Judges and Officers in all Courts both Scophtim Schoterim as 1. Chron. 19. 8 11. both to give Sentence and Judgement and also to execute the same So the Divines do affirm also in their late Annotations upon 1 Chron. 26 29 30. 2. Chron. 19. 8 11. They did study the Judicial and â—olitick Laws and had power to see the Law of God and injunctions of the King to be observed and to order divine and humane affairs And they held also other Honourable offices for we read that Zechariah a Levite was a wise Councellour and Benajah a priest son of Iehojadah was one of Davids twelve Captains being the third Captain of the Host for the third moneth and in his course consisting of 2400 was his son Amizabad Benajah was also one of David's principal worthies
as Lord Coke saith it may be done without the help of a Parliament as the King appointeth Judges and great Officers in all the Courts in Westminster-hall without consent of Parliaments The Learned Lord Herbert in his History of Hen. 8. relating some passages of the Kings Reformation of some abuses affirmeth that the first fatal blow the English Church received was when the Redress of her was referred to the House of Commons Complaint was made for probate of testaments and mortuaries of pluralities non-residence and priests that were farmers of Lands c. But the King lost or let go for the present a principal point of his Supremacy whereby he might have reformed what was fit to be done in these and many the like businesses without referring to the House of Commons and we find that they never left off reforming till they have utterly deformed all and wholly suppressed all Ecclesiastical Law Courts and Jurisdictions The King by his Supremacy might have reformed and prescribed Laws for probate of Wills non-residence pluralities and many more such matters the Concurrence of the Metropolitan had been sufficient to regulate such matters according to the Laws Ecclesiastical for there are Laws Ecclesiastical in this Kingdome as well as Temporal and as ancient and fundamental as any part of the Common Law and therefore fit to be duly kept and observed Linwood doth gloss upon the Constitutions made by the Archbishops of Canterbury which are accepted for good Laws by the Common Lawyers in Ecclesiastical matters and so there are also Constitutions for the province of York and the Northern parts all which are allowed for good Laws Ecclesiastical by those that are truely learned in the Laws Two SPEECHES spoken in the House of Lords by the Lord Viscount Newarke The first concerning the right of BISHOPS to sit and vote in Parliament May 21. 1641. MY LORDS I Shall take the boldness to speak a word or two upon this subject first as it is in it self then as it is in the consequence For the former I think he is a great stranger in Antiquity that is not well acquainted with that of their sitting here they have done thus and in this manner almost since the conquest and by the same power and the same right as the other Peers did and your Lordships now do and to be put from this their due so much their due by so many hundred years strengthened and confirmed and that without any offence nay pretence of any seems to me to be very severe if it be jus I dare boldly say it is summum That this hinders their Ecclesiasticall vocation an argument I hear much of hath in my apprehension more of shadow then substance in itâ— if this be a reason sure I am it might have been one six hundred years ago A Bishop my Lords is not so circumscribed within the circumference of his Diocesse that his sometimes absence can be termed no not in the most strict sense a neglect or hindrance of his duty no more then that of a Leiutenant from his County they both have their subordinate Ministers upon which their influences fall though the distance be remote Besides my Lords the lesser must yield to the greater good to make wholsome and good Laws for the happy and well regulating of Church and Common-wealth is certainly more advantagious to both then the want of the personal execution of their office and that but once in three years and then peradventure but a moneth or two can be prejudicial to either I will go no further to prove this which so long experience hath done so fully so demonstratively And now my Lords by your Lordships good leave I shall speak to the consequence as it reflects both on your Lordships and my Lords the Bishops Dangers and inconveniences are ever best prevented elonginquâ— this precedent come near to your Lordships and such a one that mutato nomine de vobis Pretences are never wanting nay sometimes the greatest evils appear in the most fair and specious outsides witness the Shipmony the most abominable the most illegal thing that ever was and yet this was painted over with colour of the Law what Bench is secure if to alleage be to convince and which of your Lordships can say then he shall continue a member of this House when at one blow twenty six are cut off It then behoves the Neighbour to look about him cum proximus ardet Ucalegon And for the Bishops my Lords in what condition will you leave them The House of Commons represents the meanest person so did the Master his Slave but they have none to do so much for them and what justice can tie them to the observation of those laws to whose constitution they give no consent the wisdome of former times gave proxies unto this House meerly upon this ground that every one might have a hand in the making of that which he had an obligation to obey This House could not represent therefore proxies in room of persons were most justly allowed And now my Lords before I conclude I beseech your Lordships to cast your eyes upon the Church which I know is most dear and tender to your Lordships you will see her suffer in her most principal members and deprived of that honour which here and throughout all the Christian world ever since Christianity she constantly hath enjoyed for what Nation or Kingdome is there in whose great and publick Assemblies and that from her beginning she had not some of hers if I may not say as essential I am sure I may say as integral parts thereof And truly my Lords Christianity cannot alone boast of this or challenge it onely as hers even Heathenisme claims an equal share I never read of any of them Civil or Baâ—barous that gave not thus much to their Religion so that it seems to me to have no other original to flow from no other spring than Nature her self But I have done and will trouble your Lordships no longer how it may stand with the honour and justice of this House to pass this Bill I most humbly submit unto your Lordships the most proper and only Judges of them both The Second SPEECH about the Lawfulness and Conveniency of their intermedling in Temporal Affairs MY LORDS I Shall not speak to the preamble of the Bill that Bishops and Clergy men ought not to intermeddle in temporal Affairs For truly My Lords I cannot bring it under any respect to be spoken of Ought is a word of Relation and must either refer to humane or divine Law To prove the lawfulnesse of their intermedling by the former would be to no more purpose then to labour to convince that by reason which is evident to sense It is by all acknowledged The unlawfulnesse by the latter the Bill by no means admits of for it excepts Universities and such persons as shall have honour descend upon them And your Lordships know that circumstance and chance alter not the
the Chancery and Courts of Equity in charge of a Divine Minister So ran that Channel till Sir Francis Bacons Father had it from a Bishop and now a Bishop had it again from Bacon And had King Iames lived to have effected his desires the Clergy had fixed firm footing in Courts of Judicature out of the road of Common Law and this was the true cause of Williams Invitation thither To prevent many Complaints and Mischiefs there can be no better way then to follow the Example of Gods own chosen people of Israel where the chief fathers of the priests and Levites were Judges in all Courts both high and low sitting together with some chief men of the other Tribes of the Laity as they are now called And though our Law be otherwise of late years and the jurisdiction of Courts divided yet it was not so anciently and the King may put some of the Clergy in some places and Courts at least of Equity as King Iames did design if he had lived longer and that without any prejudice to the Law or Courts of Justice CHAP. IV. Concerning the Honour and Dignity of the Bishops in the time of the Saxons and so continued to these times FOr the Dignity Order and Estimation of the Clergy they were from the beginning reckoned and accounted equal with the best as appears by the Laws of divers Kings as first of the first Christian King Ethelbert who in his Laws doth provide in the first place for their rights and priviledges and what Satisfaction shall be made for any wrong done to the Church or Bishops or Clergy Quicunque res Dei vel Ecclesiae abstulerit duodecima componat solutione Episcopi res undecima solutione Sacerdotis res nona solutione Diaconi res sexta solutione Clerici res trina solutione Pax Ecclesiae Violata duplici emendetur solutione Volens scilicet tuitionem eis quos quorum doctrinam susceperat praestare saith Bede These being the first Laws of our first Christian King of the Saxons they ought to be reverenced for their Antiquity piety and Christian Justice in rendering to every man his own due though some men talk not only of taking away superfluities but of cutting up both root and branches O Tempora O Mores And afterwards about the time of King VVithred there were laws made Quomodo damna injuriae sacris ordinibus illata sunt compensanda And often elsewhere in the Councils many Laws do ordain what satisfaction shall be given to the Church and Bishops for several offences committed for then the Bishops had a great part in all fines and shared in forfeitures and penalties with the King Furthermore for point of Honour and Dignity it appears by the Laws of King Athelstan that every Archbishop was equal to a Duke of a Province Every Bishop to an Earl and so esteemed in their valuations Vide K. Athelstani Regis apud Lambardum p. 71. Concil Britannica pag. 405. cap. 13. de Weregeldis 1. capitum aestimationibus The Title of Baron was not then known or used among the Saxons but they called the Nobility Thanes Vid. K. Inae pag. 187. Sect. 9. and the Bishops were equal or rather superiour to the Thanus Major and the priest to the Thanus minor The Bishop and Earl are valued at eight thousand Theynses Messe-Theynes and Worald-Theynes id est Presbyteri secularis Thani jusjur andum in Anglorum lege reputatur aeque sacrum cùm Sacerdos Thani rectitudine dignus est The Priest was then accounted equal to a Knight or Lord of the Town and was commonly styled by the name of Sir as a Knight was though now it be derided and out of use Out of these Laws and some others doth the learned Antiquary who is so well versed in the Antiquities and Monuments of our Laws and Kingdome fully set down the ancient dignity and order of the Clergy Magno sane in honore fuit Universus clerus cum apud Populum Proceres tum apud ipsos Reges Angliae Saxonicos nec precaria hoc quidem concessione sed ipsis confirmatum legibus Sacerdos ad altare Celebrans minori Thano i. e. Villae Domino atque militi aequiparabatur in censu capitis pariter aestimatus pariterque alias honorandus quia Thani rectitudine dignus est Inquit Lex Abbas sine Câ—nobiarcha inter Thanos majores quos Barones Regis appellarunt posteri primicerius fuit Episcopus similiter inter Comites ipsos majores qui integro fruebantur comitatu juribusque Comitivis Archiepiscopus Duci satratrapae amplissimae Provinciae pluribus gaudenti comitatibus praeficiebatur Vt caeteri omnes Ecclesiastici comparibus suis omnibus secularibus Amplectebantur Reges universum clerum laeta fronte ex eo semper sibi legebant primos a consisiis primos ad officia Reipublicae obeunda Quippe sub his seculis apud ipsos solum erat literarum clavis scientiae dum militiae prorsus indulgerent laici factumque est interea ut os sacerdotis oraculum esset plebis Episcopi oraculum Regis Reipuâ— Primi igiâ—ur sedebant in omnibus Regni comitiis tribunalibus Episcopi in Regali quidem palatio cum Regni magnatibus in comitatu una cum comite Iusticiaerio comitatus in Turno Vicecomitis cum Viceâ—omite in Hundredo cum Domino Hundredi sic ut in promovenda justitia usquequaque gladius gladium adjuvaret nihil inconsulto sacerdote qui velut saburra in navi fuit ageretur Mutavit priscam hanc consuetudinem Gulielmus primus c. After the Conquest William the first divided the Ecclesiastical Courts from the secular not with a purpose to diminish the Ecclesiastical authority Imo jurejâ—rando confirmavit leges sanctae matris Ecclesiae quoniam per cam Rex Regnum solidum habent subsistendi firmamentum Yet the Bishops and Clergy do not now expect or desire to enjoy their ancient splendor amplitude and dignities seeing the greatnesse of their Revenue which should uphold the dignity is long since taken away So that well might Bishop Latimer in his Sermon before King Edward say We of the Clergy have had too much but that is taken away and now we have too little For there was no lesse in the whole taken away from them then many hundred thousands sterling too incredible to be here briefly expressed I will only mention one for example the Arch-bishoprick of York from which was taken 72. mannors and Lordships at one instant by one of the last statutes of Hen. 8. and the like happened to Canterbury London Lincoln and all the rest which me thinks should be enough to satisfie that men should not go about to strip them of these poor pittances that are left unto them being but small fragments in comparison of their ancient patrimony which the liberality and piety of the primitive times haâ— conferred on them when Charity
servnm cui praest Et Rectum est ut non sit aliqua mensurabilis virga longior quam alia sed per Episcopi mensuram omnes institutae sint ex aequatae per suam diocaesim Et omne pondus constet secundum dictionem ejus si aliquid controversiarum intersit discernat Episcopus And much more is there added It is manifest hereby that by the ancient Laws of this Kingdome what trust care and charge is reposed in the Bishops not only to direct matters Ecclesiastical but also to assist rule and guide Temporal Affairs to preserve peace Justice and upright dealing just and true administration of several offices and duties whereby Religion is much advanced and adorned when men are honest and upright in their Actions Contracts Bargains and civil dealings among themselves So that they may not clash or oppose Religion For all publick Statutes Acts and Constitutions for the most part do in some degree more or lesse trench upon Religion and the furtherance or hinderance thereof So that they can hardly be duly and rightly enacted and framed without the advice counsel and assistance of Bishops and the Clergy Whereas Dr. Burgesse replieth that the Bishops were present but did not Vote It is a very simple and frivolous answer For the manner was not then in the time of the Saxons to vote to and fro as they do now but at the conclusion and end of every Council Publick-meeting or Assembly when their Acts or Constitutions were written all the Lords present did subscribe their names and testified thereby their Votes and Consents and approbation of all that was done Whereas the Custome is now in most businesses to vote and declare themselves by word of mouth which is more uncertain and many may be absent especially some dayes or out of the way at the time of voting but by staying till the end of a Session or Parliament and then subscribing their names it was a more certain way to testifie who were present and consented to all laws that are made and posterity may know whom to thank if the Statutes be good or whom to blame if they be unjust or unreasonable As that Act 11. H. 7. c. 3. which gave power to Empson and Dudley those two infamous Committee-men to proceed upon information without Indictment by their discretion and not secundum Legem Consuetudinem Angliae as all proceedings ought to be By virtue of this Statute which Cook hath printed 4. Instit. pag. 40. 41. Empson and Dudley did commit upon the Subject unsufferable pressures and oppressions A good Caveat to Parliaments to leave all causes to be measured by the golden and streight metwand of the law and not to the uncertain and crooked cord of Discretion And much more to admonish Parliaments Cook doth there add in very earnest manner but our late long Parliament hath highly offended against all his severe admonitions and have far exceeded any ill doings of Empson and Dudley For as Lord Chancellor Bacon saith of them They kept the half face of Justice in putting up indictments against many men but they would not suffer any man to traverse them and they had Jurors ready that would find any thing for fact or valuation But now in the proceedings against the Clergy especially there is not the half face of Justice observed nor the outside But only voting upon any information and upon the Votes of Committees or Sub-committees and such like not of either House men are cast out by Sequestration of their Livings and Freeholds especially the Clergy are oppressed beyond example of any former age All which unjust and horrible proceedings would not have been suffered if the Bishops had been permitted to enjoy their ancients rights places and power in Parliament they would have protested against it and declared their dissent and found means to have hindered such detestable doings far beyond the wickednesse of Empson and Dudley Empson and Dudley did not cast men out of their Houses Lands and Estates as is now done by voting Only they did tamper and trouble men till they could get some mony or fines upon the breach of some obsolete Statutes which they called mitigations saith Bacon But now mens freeholds and Estates are taken away upon pretences only and bare informations without Jurors for Trial or witnesses upon Oath or any legal proceeding Empson and Dudley though they offended highly against Law for which they were severely punished yet there came some good to the publick by their doing for they filled the Kings Exchequer with great sums of money some millions of pounds as Lord Cook sheweth 4. Instit. pag. 198. And Lord Herbert in his History pag. 9. Greater sums doubtlesse then any King of this Realm before had in his Coffers and such as may be thought effectively quadruple to so much in our age But our Long Parliament and Committee-men have spent many more millions of money then can be imagined more then ever David left for the building of the Temple viz twenty and three Millions of our money and a thousand pound A matter but for the testimony of Scripture exceeding all beliefe saith Sir Walter Rawleigh 2. Book Cap. 17. Sect. 9. But our long Parliaments have spent more to pull down Temples and have raised such a rabble of Sectaries as are ready to pull down and destroy all the Churches in the Land and to make spoyl of all the materials and Revenues of them Empson and Dudley brought so much money to the Kings Coffers that King Hen. 8. was exceedingly enriched insomuch as Bacon saith of him upon the death of Hen. 7â— That there was the fairest morning of a Kingdome that ever was seen in this land or any other but by his prodigal expâ—nces and Sacrilegious doings there followed the foulest evening of a Kingdome that ere was known Bancroft in his Survey cap. 6. saith that at Geneva they had a cheif Council of threescore which is as a Parliament in their Government and that Calvin and Beza were Members of that Council and had vote and voice among them and why may not a Bishop among us be present in our great Council as well as Calvin and Beza at Geneva who carried all matters there under their Gowâ—s as Dr. Williams Arch-bishop of York saith in his Speech in Parliament which gave occasion to Dr. Burgesse to write against him and impudently to call him the pragmatical Arch-prelate of York being an eminent person of extraordinary parts both of Nature and Art and by reason of his great Honour being Lord Keeper of the great Seal and his education in former times was by many degrees far above Dr. Burgesse who never had any honourable place and was but a little time in the Universitie never fellow of any Colledge as is well known and how poorly and pitifully he had performed his Exercises in Oxon. when he took his degree is very well remembred and particularly mentioned by the Learned Dr. Heylin pag. 182.
Civitates Provincias judicia Ecclesiastica civilia exercuâ—runt and so Peter Martyr in 2. Reg. cap. 11. Neither will it hinder the study of Divinity or care of preaching the Gospel if some fit men be imployed sometimes in the Government of the publick as to be Justices of the peace for the well ordering of the publick and preservation of Peace and Justice will more advance the Gospel and abundantly countervail some intermission of preaching which cannot possibly be so continually attended but that there will be some hinderances not only by sicknesse and private businesses of ones Family and Estate but also by publick meetings Convocations Synods and such general assemblies Besides the Common-wealth and Church is a mixt Government and consisteth of all manner of persons of infinitely several conditions Trades and Courses of Life and seeing the Clergy are mingled among them and infinitely entangled especially of late days being made subject which they were not formerly to all temporal laws Suits Arrests Executions Imprisonments Impositions Taxes Charges and Subsidies it is but reasonable that the Clergy should have some of their own Tribe in place of Judicature and Office to see the inferiour Members defended and fair carriage shewed to them Aristotle saith lib. 3. Polit. cap. 1. Civis nulla re alia magis definitur quam participatione judicii ac Magistratus Whosoever are Citizens in a Kingdome meaning properly Citizens and of the better sort not Labourers Porters Scavengers they ought to have voice and suffrage and to be capable of Magistracy and Office if they be worthy and fit for it by any excellent parts of Learning Knowledge and Wisdome wherein the Clergy have some opportunity to excel others and often go beyond the ordinary sort of men that are not bred up in Learning Arts and Sciences Sir Francis Bacon observeth out of the ancient Roman Law that there belongs to every Subject certain common rights and priviledges which cannot be taken away from any of them 1. Ius Civitatis 2. Ius Connubii 3. Ius Suffragii 4. Ius Petitionis Ius Honorum These four ordinary rights and freedomes are by the Customes and original principles of humane Societies due to all Citizens of quality Such as ever the Clergy have been esteemed â—nd still ought to be if men will professe themselves to be true Christians indeed and to honour the Messengers and Ambassadours oâ— our Saviour Christ whom he hath appointed to instruct and govern his Church and people The Pope deprived his Clergy of the two former rights by accounting them separate and exempt from the Common Laws of all Kingdomes and forbidding marriage to them And now our zealous professors would deprive out Clergy of the two laâ—ter priviledges the right of voice and suffrage in all principal businesses and the right of Honour and Office whereof they would make them uncapable and render them base and equal only to the inferiour multitude and scum of the Common-people Lord Coke 2. Instit. cap. 2. pag. 3. Upon Magna Charta Concessimus Deo quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia sua jura integra libertates suas illaesas True it is that Ecclesiastical persons have more and greater Liberties then any other of the Kings Subjects wherein to set down all would take up a whole Volume of it self and to set no examples agreeth ill with the office of an expositor therefore some few examples shall be here expressed There he putteth down many particulars which are very considerable and I refer the Reader to him But in the end he concludeth that all the liberties of the Clergy are lost or not enjoyed But why should the Clergy be deprived of so many liberties rights and priviledges being so fully setled upon them by the fundamental Laws of the Land We may thank such unworthy fellows as to please the vulgar people will be content to see the Clergy stripped of all their rights and liberties from the first to the last as it happens in these troublesome times But the true reason is because that Dr. Burgesse and such as he is could not obtain the principal dignities and preferments of the Church that so they might with the preferments have had the benefit of the priviledges and liberties Ambition and Covetousnesse hath always been the bane of the Church Whereof there are many examples in all ages as in the beginning of the Jewish Churches Corah beingâ— Levite of the Cohathites which was the cheif Family of the Levites as is observed on Numb 3. 38. he took offence as S. Iarchis noteth on Numb 16. and envied at the preferment of Elizaphan the Son of Uzziel whom Moses had made Prince over the Sons of Cohath Numb 3. 30. When he was of the youngest Brother Uzziel and Korah himself was of Izkar elder then he See Numb 3. 29. 30. But by the Sequel it appeareth that he lift up himself not only against Elizaphan but against Moses and Aaron and sought the priesthood also pag. 10. as Ainsworth observeth on Numb 16. So in the Christian Church Arrius the infamous Heretick was displeased because he could not obtain the Bishoprick of Alexandria and thought himself as worthy as Alexander and being discontented at his loss of so rich a bishoprick raised that Heresie which plagued the Church 300. years So Aâ—rius offended because he could not obtain a Bishoprick took exception against the Dignity of Bishops As Epiphanius sheweth and many more such examples are obvious in the Ecclesiastical Histories And so at this instant of our Troubles the Presbyterian Divines were offended because they could not obtain the cheifest dignities of the Church Mr. Stephen Marshal a principal Presbyterian did once petition the King for a DeanÌ„ry and at another time for a Bishoprick Which because he could not obtain as the King told him at Holdenpy where he attended upon the Commissioners therefore he would overthrow all Doctor Twist was an earnest Suiter for the Deanry of Salisbury which because he could not obtain nor a Prebend in Windsor which he once desired but failed of it Mr. Hales of Eaton Colledge being preferred before him therefore he was angry and discontented that he must rest and sit down upon his living at Newberry Doctor Burgesse was one of the same shape he never had a fellowship or any like place of Continuance in any Colledge but left the University after he was Master of Arts yet he got two livings St. Magnus in London and Watford neer St. Albans and then endeavoured to be made the Kings Chaplain which once he obtained but was shortly put out by means of the Archbishop So that he being offended did only watch for a time when he might fish in troubled waters when the late troubles began he became the cheif Leader of the rascal rabble out of London to cry out for Justice against the Earl of Strafford and against the Bishops and at length he iâ—vaded the Deanty of Pauls being allowed a
first among us by William the Conquerour And why should there not be judges partly Spiritual as well as Temporal in all Courts As it was anciently among our Ancestors the Saxons or at least why should not the Supream Court of justice which is to give Law to all other inferiour Courts be well tempered and mingled with all sorts of men Ecclesiastical and Civil the most learned wise and choicest that can be found in the whole Kingdom Why not Priests and Levites admitted into the number as well as in the Sanedrim of the Iews which was equal to our Parliament and was first instituted by God himself And I take it there can be no just exception but that our Christian Kingdomes may most safely follow the general Rules of Policy and Government which God ordained among his own chosen people without any imputation of judaism Now among them some cheif Fathers of the Priests and Levites were not only judges and elders in their own Cities which were allowed them to the Number of forty eight in the whole but sate with the Elders of other Cities and were Iudges and Officers over Israel Yea many things by Gods law were wholly and cheifly reserved to the Knowledge and Sentence oâ— the Priests As Leprosie Iealousie Inquisition for Murder Falsewitnesse and such like which now among us for most part belong to the Common-law in which cases the People and Elders were to consult the Priests and take direction from them And so Bertram in his Treatise De Politia Iudaica cap. 9. doth make it manifest Prorsus est extra Controversiam judices manicipales cujusque Civiâ—atis ut vocantur seniores fuisse Chiliarchos Centuriones quinquagâ—narios decuriones tot quot esse poâ—erant in quaque Civitate ita ut ex illis Levitae quidam in praefectos assumerentur si modo in ea aliquot erant Levitae sin minus ex proxima urbe Levitis assignata advocabâ— ntur And again in his Cap. 10. David in Civili politia dicitur ex Levitis destinasse judices prafectis sexies mille Ex Levitiâ— judices praefecti assumpti sunt hac ratione ut primum essent ex Levitis quidam qui Adsessores essent Iudicum Ordinariorum Municipalium qui seniores dicebantur Qui aliquando de plano ut vulgo loquuntur judicarâ—nt de rebus leviâ—ribus quales erant pecuniariae vel soli vel assumpto uno aliquo ex loci vel Vrbis seâ—ioribus Deinde ut essent etiam quidam alii qui judicatas res exequerentur Vel certe quod verisimilius est qui assessores erant judicum ordinariorum qui ut ipsi de rebus pecuiariis cognoscerent judicarent ipsamque rem judicatam exequerentur c. Ex eadem familia adhibiti sunt ad regendam ad Civilem politiam gubernandam Ita tamen ut nulla esset utriusque politiae confusio permixtio Et cap 11. Ad utrumque judicium tam civile quam Ecclesiasticum adhibiti sunt Levitae in praefectos eodem videlicet modo quo eos ad id muneris desig naverat David c. Thus and much more to this purpose Bertram doth often throughout his Book deliver his judgement that the priests and Levites were Judges in the civil Courts of Justice and not only in the Ecclesiastical To this Sigonius agreeth lib. 6. Repub. Hebraeâ—rum cap. 7. speaking of the Sanedrim Inivêre hoc Concisium Rex cum principibus populi ac septuâ—aginta senioribus populi Pontifex cum principibus sacerdotum scribis id est legis doctoribus ut per spicere liqueat ex Evangeliis ubi agitur de judicio Christi Voco autem principes populi duodecim princâ—pes tribuum qui Regâ— assidebant Quare Ioseph ab Arimath Senator sive decurio nobilis idem Concilii particeps fuit siquidem scriptum â—st ipsum cum caeteris assensum damnationi Christi non praebuisse Principes autem sacerdotum dico illos qui vicenis quaternis sacer dotum classibus seu vicibus singuli singulis praeerant Scribas vero ipsos legis Doctores quos Prophetas Iosephus vocavit It is manifest hereby and by the reasons alledged already in cap. 2. that is a gross error of Doctor Burgesse who affirmeth that in Numb 11. There is no foot-step appears that the Priests were any of the 70. Elders appointed by Moses Now seeing David appointed no lesse then six thousand Levites for the outward businesses it could not be but that many of them were employed in their secular and civil affairs whereas now there is not one hundred of the Clergy imployed throughout our whole Kingdome there being not above two or three Justices of peace in a whole Shire But their presence and assistance at publick meetings of Justices as at the Assises and Quarter-sessions and other occasions is very necessary to the rest of the inferiour Clergy who wil otherwise be crushed and trampled on in many businesses debates and contentions that do happen continually from the perverse and obstinate party of the Laity For Laici semper sunt infesti Clericis is a true saying in the Common Law The Priests the Sons of Levi saith God shall come neer or forth out of the Cities where they were placed in every Tribe and by their word shall all striâ—e and plague be tryed Remembring alwayes that doubtful and weighty matters were reserved to the great Council of Priests and Judges that sate in the place which the Lord did chuse for the Ark to rest in as Deut. 17. 8. 9. c. If there come a matter too hard for thee in judgement between blood and blood cause and cause plague and plague of matters in question within thy gates thou shalt arise and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse and shalt repair unto the Priests and Levites This Council or Senate of the Elders residing at Ierusaâ—em in Iehosophats time who no doubt did not infringe but rather observe the Tenour of the Law consisted of Levites and of Priests and of the heads of the Families of Israel And had Amazias the high priest cheif over them in all matters of the Lord as Zebediah a Ruler of the House of Iudah cheif for all the Kings affairs and was a Continuance of the 70. Elders which God adjoyned unto Moses and bare the burden of the people with him And this Court cannot be better resembled among us then to our Parliament for there was but one Council of that nature in the whole Land of Iury and that consisting of some of the cheifest of every Tribe and they not only debated and concluded the highest affairs of that Realm as War peace appeals from all inferiour Courts punishments of whole Cities and Tribes and such like but also ruled and rectified all cases omitted or doubted in Moses Law and were obeyed throughout the Land â—pon pain of loosing goods or life or being for ever excluded from the people of
the present practise and Law confirmed by the continual practise of many hundred years The Law being thus made by the Conquerour to separate the Ecclesiastical Court from the Temporal there followed after in succeeding times Statutes to direct and appoint what causes shall belong to the Bishops Jurisdiction As the Statute called Circumspecte agatis made 13. Edw. 1. and Articuli Cleri 9. Edw. 2. which besides others Coke doth expound in the 2. Instit. at large pag. 489. 599. So that the Ecclesiastical Laws and Courts being thus setled by ancient Statutes and Magna Charta and besides long use and Custome the Laws are Fundamental and necessary as well as any part of the common-Common-law and cannot be wholly taken away without great injustice confusion and great disorder in the Kingdome and Church as it happen'd most pitifully in these troublesome times But Parliaments are obliged to maintain the Fundamental Laws of the Land as they have often professed solemnly in many of their Declarations Protestations and Remonstrances But in conclusion they have overthrown all Ecclesiastical Courts and Laws though never so ancient and Fundamental and now they would pretend to set up new laws and orders which they call Presbyterian Government by Lay Elders in every Parish a fond and foolish project contrary to the Laws of God and Man such as they have heard to be at Geneva and some other places beyond Sea where there are no Lords Knights Esquires or Gentlemen as with us in England But their new States are popular without degrees of Honour and distinction of Gentry They do as their Neighbours at Strasborough and the Switzers of whom Bodin saith lib. 6. c. 4. Argentinenses Caesa prostrata nobilitate cum imperium populare invasissent legem communibus suffragiis tulerant ne quis summos in Civitate Magistratus adipisceretur nisi a cerdonibus aut coriariis aut id genus sordidis opificibus stirpem traxisset idenim veteribus Grâ—cis usit atum erat ut in iis civitatibus quae popularia imperia stabilire ac tueri vellent cives omnes quantum quidem fieri posset opibus honoribus imperiis ac vitae conditione exaequarent ac si quis prudentia justitia fortitudine aut ulla virtute caeteris praeluceret ac emineret hunc ostracismo exterminabant aut ne virtutitam aperte bellum indicere viderentur accusationibus calumniis opprimebant atque id unum efficere conabantur ut singuli Cives non magis sui similes essent quam omnes omnium They either banished or put to death all their Nobility and so made themselves a popular state and further made a law that no man should bear any publick office among them but such as would derive their Discent and Pedegree from some base Trade a Cobler or Carrior or such like Among such people Presbyterian Government may be better allowed then in a Kingdome flourishing with all degrees of Honour Dukes Marquesses Earls Barons Knights c. But where only Tradesmen are chapmen Pedâ—ars and Artificers as they are at Geneva there any government in the Church may better be tolerated then in a Monarchy The Glossary sheweth to that purpose that Tradesmen are base fellows in Herauldry and among base fellows any base government may serve the turn Burgenses Mercatores sunt sordidum hominum genus as Tully said Burgenses dum cauponandis mercibus rei Mechanicae navarent generosae turbae militiam omnino admiranti despectui erant adeo ut cum illis nec connubia jungerent nec Martis aleam experirentur and so also the Civil law saith patritii cum Plebeis conjugia ne contrahunto And in our law it is reputed a disparagement for a Ward in Chivalry which in old time was as much as to say a Gentleman to be married to the Daughter of one that dwelt in a Burrough as Lambard sheweth in his perambulation of Kent pag. 504. So the old Statute of Merton Anno Dom. 1235. cap. 7. De Dominis qui maritaverint illos quos habent in custodia sua Villanis aliis sicut Burgensibus ubi disparagentur c. Lord Coke sheweth what causes belong to the Court Christian viz. Probate of Wills and Testaments Legacies Reparation of Churches and Church-yards Tyths Oblations Mortuaries and such like duties Matrimonial causes degrees of Affinity or Consanguinity Divorces and what else belongeth thereunto And divers other particulars as appears in divers statutes and the Books of the Civil Lawyers as punishment of Adultery Fornication and Incontinency Incest with many other the like as Heresies Schismes Errors Abuses Offences Contempts and enormities as Lord Coke saith 4. Instit. pag. 325. and so also the excellently learned Lawyer Dr. Cosin Dean of the Arches in his Apology for Ecclesiastical Courts and their proceedings against Simony Usury Defamation Sacriledge Disapidations c. But now the Presbyterians neglect and cast off most of these particulars that there is no punishment for those gross offences and sins which are not fit to be mentioned among Christians saith the Apostle There is of late an infinite number of bastards gotten and the Justices of peace only take care for keeping the Bastard But there is no punishment or correction for the scandal to Religion and the vulgar people go together like Dogs and Bitches without licence or publication of banes in any parish The Holy Communion is cast aside and neglected in most parishes most shamefully The Common-people in most parishes will rather be without the Sacrament then give one penny to buy Bread and Wine for it that they are become Atheists in most places and many Sectaries professe publickly that they will not have Churches or Stone-houses nor Ministers or Magistrates And yet the Parliament pretended to reform all according to the word of God in all things to advance the Throne of Christ and the Tribunal of Christ with all his holy ordinances in full force and power as the Language is of the Presbyterian Ministers CHAP. VIII Some Observations out of the Civil Law in the Empire concerning the separation of Courts and some also out of the ancient Statutes as Selden hath related them Lord Cooks Defence of the Bishops being in Parliament and of the Convocation and High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts AS the Courts Ecclesiastical and Temporal were separated in our Kingdome so anciently there was some such division in the Empire yet the Emperour gave great power and authority to the Ecclesiastical Judges according to that which Iustinian saith of spiritual Causes in the Novell 123. si pro Criminal si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit â—ullam Communionem habento Civiles Magistratus cum ea disceptatione sed religiosissimi Episcopi finem imponunto If it be an Ecclesiastical Suit let the Civil Magistrates have nothing to do there with that plea but let the Bishops end it Whereby it appears that prohibitions from the Temporal Courts were not then allowable which certainly came not into use till after
and a notorious offence of I. Pym to affirm as he did in his Speech in Parliament 4. Caroli That the high Commission was derived from the Parliament An impudent ignorant and seditious speech which if it had been spoken in the time of Henry the eighth when he recovered his Supremacy from the Pope the King would quickly have hanged or burnt him as he did many in his Reign upon that point of his Supremacy For though Parliaments may submit and acknowledge the Kings Supremacy yet they are not the Donors or Authors of it it is originally vested in the Crown and is a principal Flower thereof that cannot be denyed ot taken away from the King by any of their Votings or Ordinances And the King may again restore the Court of High Commission without the help of a Parliament and appoint such Judges and Commissioners as he shall think fit without direction or assistance from the House of Commons as the King doth appoint Judges in all other Courts without their consent and so may doe still in this Court Which is absolutely necessary to be done to suppresse the abominable and detestable increase of Sectaries and Schismaticks that are now risen up in this Inter-Regnum of the Kings Authority CHAP. IX The Example of the late warrs in Bohemia Germany France might well have forewarned us in England The Godly Covenant of Bohemia might well have given us Caution to take heed of a Covenant without the Kings consent The Church Lands taken away formerly are restored by the Emperour Grotius his Censure of the Presbyterians for raising Wars TO return again to our former matter of the separation of the Courts it is to be considered that the Courts being now divided in the Kingdome many hundred years since the ancient manner of their union is forgotten and unknown save only to the Learned and the scars of the Norman Conquest are so overgrown that few men are sensible what reliques of Slavery do still remain upon us by changing the order of the Courts the Language of the Law in great part with other things that I will not now mention But being so setled by the Conquerour and continued by his Successors the Temporal Courts in process of time grew too powerful for the Ecclesiastical and by their injunctions and prohibitions stopt many proceedings especially after the Councel of Clarendon under Hen. 2. Wherein the power of the Clergy was much abated and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so crushed that it continued lame ever after Though the Clergy by appeals to Rome and the Popes Legats that were often sent hither did oftentimes help themselves and much molest their Adversaries At length under Hen. 8. upon his breach with the Pope the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was much abridged and restrained in many particulars and reduced to a narrow compass becoming much more subject and obnoxious to the Injunctions Orders and prohibitions of all the Temporal Courts that now I mervail that any should complain and envy at their power and greatness there being no cause of any value or moment but by one order or other is drawn from them to the Temporal Courts And now at last there want not some that would have all Ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction either wholly suppressed from the first Court to the last or at least so abated mingled or changed that what form or force of Government shall be left remaining seems very uncertain But if Presbyteries and such like Consistories of the forraign and new fangled devising were erected there will follow great confusion and disorder to the infinite disturbance of peace and quietnesse in the Kingdome by alteration of so many laws and customes and of the Common Law it self whereby the Kingdome hath been governed so many years and setled in peace and all mens estates and Lands held in certain possession For such great and universal changes as will follow upon the dissolution of the Hierarchy and taking away the Votes of Bishops in Parliament and other eminent parts of Government will produce such ill events and troublesome distractions as will not be pacified and composed within the compass of any mans life now living And what further mischeif may follow is uncertain but surely great troubles are like to ensue as indeed it hath happened in a most lamentable manner But if our Nation could have taken warning by the example of the late wars that happened these last 40. years in France Germany and Bohemia they might have prevented much evil for there the Wars began by men of the same spirit and humours as our Presbyterians are among us and had the same ends and purposes as ours had which is to take away the Honours Lands and Revenues of Bishops and all that belonged to them The ill sâ—ccesse of their names might well have forewarned us if there had been men among us wise and knowing of the Histories of the present age When we saw the Flame and Smoke of â—he Bohemian War ascend to heaven in our sight in most hideous manner And in the end all the zealous party were utterly undone and confounded that began the war against the Emperor to take away the lands of all the Clergy Bishops Deans and Chapters c. Which they account to be the flesh of the Whore of Babylon and the bones of the old Whore that is of the Pope So Brightman and Pareus and other zealous men do interpret the Text Revel 17. 16. All the Lands of the Church and Revenues among which they reckon Tythes are the flesh of the Pope which they must eâ—â—e and devour not Physice but Mystice saith Pareus in his Commentary For otherwise to eat the flesh of the Pope naturally being commonly an old man and perhaps full of Diseases would be no good meat or pleasing Diet But mystically to eat him that is to take away the lands revenues and riches of the Church will bring in profit and money that will provide better diet to feed upon then the body and flesh of an old Pope This Sacrilegious appetite and outragious covetousness to get the lands of the Church and Bishops proved very tragical to Bohemia and most parts of Germany And to shew a little their manner of proceeding I will digresse a little because it is so remarkable and fresh a Case within these last 40. years First therefore the Bohemians in the year 1619. assembled a Parliament without the Emperors Consent They raised a great army and put Garrisons also in all the best Towns and Castles They made a Godly Covenant consisting of an 100 articles just the same in Substance with our late Scottish Covenant they raised great Taxes and excise to maintain their armies and garrisons For two years they prevailed much and brought in a new King the Palsgrave but at the end of two years the Emperors great armies came upon them and fought the great Battle of Prague 8. Novemb. 1620. The Duke of Bavaria came with twelve thousand men and other great
preserve is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew or heard of a man of most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow up and devour I know for I have the Monuments in my own Custody what Oath or rather oaths his Majesty hath taken at his Coronation to preserve all the rights and Liberties of the Church of England And you know very well that Church-men are never sparing in their Rituals or Ceremonials to amplifie and swell out the Oaths of Princes in that kind Your Lordships then know right well that he is sworn at that time to observe punctually the laws of K. Edward The first Law whereof as you may see in Lambards Saxon Laws is to preserve entirely the peace the possessions and the rights and priviledges of the Church And truly I shall never put my Masters Conscience that I find resenting and punctillious when it is not bound up with oaths and protestations to swallow such Gudgeons as to fil it self with these doubts and scruples 2. My second Reason is that if his Majesty were free from all these Oaths and Protestations I durst not without some fair invitation from himself advise his Majesty to run shocks and oppositions against the Votes of both these great Houses of Parliament 3. And lastly if I were secretly inviâ—ed to move his Majesty â—o advise upon the passing of this Bill yet speaking mine own heart and sense and not binding any of my brethren in this opinion if I found the major part of this House to pass this bill without much qualification I should never have the boldnesse nor desire to sit any more in any judicial place in this most honourable House And therefore my Honourable Lords here I have fixt my Areopagus and dernier resort beign not like to make any further appeal Which makes me humbly desire your patience to speak for some longer time then I have accustomed in a Committee In which length I hope notwithstanding to use a great deal of brevity Some length in the whole and much shortnesse in every particular head which I mean so to distinguish and beat out that not only your Lordships but the Lords my brethren may enlarge themselves upon all the particulars which neither my abilities of body can perform nor doth my intention nor purpose aim at at this time I will therefore cast this whole bill into six several heads wherein I hope to comprehend all that I shall say or any man else can materially touch upon in this bill The first is the Rise or Motive of this Bill which is the duty of men in holy orders For the words are persons in holy Orders oâ—ght not to intermeddle c. And this duty of ministers may be taken in this place two several wayes either for their duty in point of Divinity or for their duty in point of Convenience which we commonly call policy In regard of either of these duties it may be conceived that men in holy orders ought not to intermeddle in secular affairs c. And this is the Motive Rise and Ground of this bill The second point are the persons concerned in this bill which are Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all other in holy orders The third point contains the things inhibited from this time forward to such persons by this Bill and they are of several sorts and natures First Freeholds and Rights of such persons as their suffrages votes and legislative power in parliament Secondly matters of princely favours as to Sit in Star-chamber to be called to the Council-board to be Justice of peace c. Thirdly matters of a mixt or concrete nature that seem to be both Freeholds and favours of former princes as the Charters of some of the Bishops and some of the ancient Cathedrals are conceived to be And these are all the matters or things inhibited from those persons in holy orders by this present bill Fourthly the manner of this Inhibition which is of a double nature first under a high and severe penalty and secondly under a Cains mark an eternal kind of disability or incapacity laid upon them from enjoying hereafter any of these Freeholds rights favours or Charters of former princes and that which is the heaviest point of all without killing of Abel or any Crime laid to their charge more then that in the beginning of the bill it is said â—oundly and in the style of Lacedemon that they ought not to intermeddle in secular affairs The fifth point is a Salvo for the two Universities but none for the Bishop of Durham nor for the Bishop of Ely not for the Deâ— of Westminster their next Neighbour who is established in his Government by an especial Act of parliament that of the 27. of Q. Elizabeth The sixth and last point is a Salvo for Dukes Marquilses Earls Viscounts Barons or Peers of this Kingdom that either may be or are such by descent which clause I hope in God will prove not only a salvo to those honourable persons whereof if we of the Clergy were but so happy as to have any competent number of our Coat quot Thebarum portae vel divitis ostia Nili This bill surely had perisht in the womb and never come to the birth yet I hope that this clause will prove to this bill a felo de se and a murtherer of it self and intended for a Salvo for noble ministers only prove a Salvo for all other ministers that be not so happy as to be nobly born because the very poor minister for ought we find in Scriptâ—re or Common reason is no more tyed to serve God in his Vocation then these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nobly born ministers are And therefore I hope these noble ministers will deal so nobly as to pull their brethren the poor ministers out of the thorns and briers of this bill And these are all the true heads and contents of this bill And amongst these six heads Your Lordships shall be sure to find me and I shall expect to find your Lordships in the whole tract of this Committee And now with your Lordships honourable leave and patience I will run them over almost as breifly as I have pointed pricked them down For the first the rise and motive of this bill which is the duty of men in holy orders not to intermeddle with secular affairs must arise either from a point of divinity or from point of conveniency or policy And I hope in God it will not appear to your Lordships that there is any ground either of divinity or policy to inhibit men in orders so modestly to intermeddle with secular affairs as that the measure of intermedling in such affairs shall not hinder and obstruct the duties of their calling They ought not so to intermeddle in secular affairs as to neglect their ministry no
degree then in the time of Hen. 8. Iohn Pym in another Speech 4. Caroli would have the Arminian points setled and determined in parliament viz Concerning Predestination Absolute Reprobation Universal Grace Free-will and Final perseverance before the King should have Subsidies granted Tunnage or poundage But if they would give no money to the King till those difficult poins be cleared and resolved the King must never have any Subsidies granted For those Questions are so mysterious and abstruse that all the Divines in the world cannot yet resolve fully upon them But these and such like difficult questions in Divinity belong to the Convocation of the Clergy as Cook sheweth Instit. pag. 322. and they are to be called in time of parliaments by the Kings Writ and are to proceed juxta legem divinam Canones sanctae Ecclesiae saith Cook ibid. And they are divided into two parts viz. The Upper House where the Arch-bishops and Bishops sit and the lower House where the rest do sit And they have two prolocutors one of the Bishops of the Higher House chosen by that House another of the lower house and presented to the Bishops for their prolocutor Cook ibid. The Convocation of the Clergy made the thirty nine Articles of Religion the Common prayer Book and the Book of ordination of Bishops priests and Deacons and the Book of Canons To all which what subscription is required by Law Lord Coke sheweth pag. 323. But in the late long parliament all these Books and good orders are cast aside and neglected and nothing established in stead thereof But it is hoped that the most excellent and gracious King Charles the Second will so confirrm the Truth of our Religion and all good orders Laws Customes and Rights as there shall be a full and happy Conclusion of all differences and the peace of the Kingdome and Church established to the advancement of Gods glory and the rejoycing of all that are truly wise and religious Lord Cook sheweth pag. 325. How the Commission Court for causes Ecclesiastical was setled That such Iurisdiction Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or lawfully may be exercised or used for the Uisitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons And for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever be united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm But not to the House of Commons or any others but by the dissolution of the high Commission and all other Courts Ecclesiastical there is risen up such an infinite and prodigious number of sectaries factions divisions in Religion enormities and disorders as is lamentable to behold and all scandalous sins as adultery fornication incest and such as ought not to be named among Christians go unpunished dayly If a bastard Child be gotten the Justices of the peace do only take care for keeping of the bastard but for the offence and scandal given to Religion they do nothing that belongeth to the Ecclesiastical Court to injoyn what pennance is fitting according to Ecclesiastical Laws which have been neglected too much of late though they are ancient and fundamental as well as any Common Laws But it is testified fully by the best learned Divines in forraign Countries that our Church of England was the onely Church reformed by peaceable means and gracious Princes whereas others in France Germany and other places were reformed most part by tumults and violent wars Beza from Geneva said of the Reformation by Queen Elizabeth Doctrinae puritas viget in Anglia pure sincere so said Peter Martyr and Zanchy and Damens when they saw the Confession of our faith in the thirty nine Articles and others parts of our Reformation so excellently defended by the Renowned Bishop Iewell in his Apology and Defence thereof against Harding the Papist books far more excellent and pious then ever Cartwright or any Presbyterian published and of late times the learned Deodatus professor at Geneva doth magnifie the Church of England as the most eminent of all the Reformed Churches stiling it Florentissima Anglia ocellus ille Ecclesiarum peculium Christi singulare Perfugium afflictorum imbellium Armamentarium inopum promptuarium spei melioris vexillum splendidae Domini Caulae and much more he addeth speaking of our happiness before these troubles and so it might have continued still if the Clergy might have enjoyed those rights and priviledges which the priesthood of God did anciently enjoy in all ages for in the Law of nature before Moses the priesthood was honourable Priests being then the first born and eldest sons of the Family not younger Brethren or poor fellows of the basâ—st of the people How honorable the Priesthood was in the tribe of Levi is well known Sir Iames Sempill a learned Knight of Scotland doth shew it fully in his book of Sacriledge in many places Cap. 6. Sect. 4. speaking of the dignity of the Church ministry of old For tithes inheritance in the person of one Royal Melchisedeck Royal I say in regard of the great odds between that and this our age now For of old as writeth Iosephus the true mark of nobility was to derive a mans Pedigree from the Priesthood so Iosephus was a Gentleman because 〈◊〉 sanguine sacerdotali And in our time the onely best Tenure and Holding of Possessions was to hold of the Church but now all to the contrary For Rome hath frustrate her ministry of Matrimony and we at home ours of their patrimony She can bring forth no well begotten Children and we but few well beneficed Church men No Iosephs in her and all Iobs with us and instead to hold of the Church we hold all from the Church both much amiss And as he saith in his preface to King Iames Truely it never goeth better then when the Church Courteth it and the Court Churcheth it for Moses and Aaron were Brothers Well might the Learned and Religious Knight complain that things are much amiss when in the times of the light of Learning and Religion reformed hath in great measure flourished among us but of late been so defaced and deformed that it is lamentable to report more of it the Enormities being so great and scandalous that unless the Kings Majesty out of his singular piety and wisdome do resume the ancient Jurisdiction of his Crown Who onely hath the proper power and authority to reform and correct all manner of Heresies Schismes Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormitie as are the express words of the Statute 1 Eliz. as they are recited and inforced by Lord Coke 4. Instit. Pag. 325. there can be little hope of Redress but as the Queen then did assign and authorise Commissioners to execute this Jurisdiction so it may be now done Commissioners may be appointed by the King to perform and execute his power in as full and ample manner as Queen Elizabeth did and
nature and essence of a thing nor can except any particular from an universal proposition by God himself delivered I will therefore take these two as granted first that they ought by our Law to intermeddle in temporal affairs Secondly that from doing so they are not inhibited by the Law of God it leaves it at least as a thing indifferent And now my Lords to apply my self to the business of the day I shall consider the conveniency and that in the several habitudes thereof but very briefly first in that which it hath to them meerly as men qua tales then as parts of the Common-wealth Thirdly from the best manner 〈◊〉 constituting Laws and lastly from the practise of all 〈◊〉 both Christian and Heathen Homo sum nihil humanum á me alienum puto was indeed the saying of the Comedian but it might well have becom'd the mouth of the greatest Philosopher We allow to sense all the works and operations of sense and shall we restrain reason Must only man be hindered from his proper actions They are most fit to do reasonable things that are most reasonable For Science commonly is accompanied with conscience So is not ignorance They seldome or never meet And why should we take that capacity from them which God and Nature have so liberally bestowed My Lords the politick body of the Common-wealth is analogical to the body natural Every Member in that contributes something to the preservation of the whole the superfluity or defect which hinders the performance of that duty your Lordships know what the philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natures sin And truly my Lords to be part of the other body and do nothing beneficial thereunto cannot fall under a milder term The Common-wealth subsists by Laws and their Execution and they that have neither head in the making not hand in the executing of them confer not to any thing the being or well being thereof And can such be called Members unlesse most unprofitable ones onely fruges consumere nati Me thinks it springs from Nature it self or the very depths of Justice that none should be tyed by other laws then himself makes for what more natural or just then to be bound only by his own consent to be ruled by anothers will is meerly tyrannical Nature there suffers violence and man degenerates to beast The most flourishing estates were ever governed by Laws of an universal constitution witnesse this our Kingdome witnesse Senatus Populusque Romanus the most glorious Common-wealth that ever was and those many others in Greece and elsewhere of eternal memory Some things my Lords are so evident in themselves that they are difficult in their proofs Amongst them I â—â—ckon this Conveniency I have spoken of I will therefore 〈◊〉 but a word or two more in this way The long experienâ—â— that all Christendome hath had hereof for these 1300. years is certainly argumentum ad hominem Nay my Lords I will go further for the same reason runs through all Religions never was there any Nation that employed not their religious men in the greatest affairs But to come to the businesse that now lyes before your Lordships Bishops have voted here ever since Parliaments began and long before were imployed in the publike The good they have done your Lordships all well know and at this day enjoy For this I hope yee will not put them out nor for the evil they may do which yet your Lordships do not know and I am confident never shall suffer A position ought not to be destroyed by a supposition à passe ad esse non valet consequentia My Lords I have done with proving of this positively I shall now by your good favours do it negatively in answering some inconveniencies that may seem to arise For the Text No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life which is the full sense of the word both in Greek and Latine it makes not at all against them except to intermeddle and intangle be tearms equivalent Besides my Lords though this was directed to a Church-man yet it is of a general nature and reaches to all Clergy and Laity as the most learned and best expositors unanimously do agree To end this Argumentum symbolicum non est argumentativum It may be said that it is inconsistent with a spiritual vocation truly my Lords Grace and Nature are in some respects incompossible but in some others most harmoniously agree it perfects nature and raiseth it to a height above the common altitude and makes it most fit for those great works of God himself to make laws to do Justice There is then no inconsistency between themselves it must arise out of Scripture I am confident it doth not formally out of any place there nor did I ever meet with any learned Writer of these or other times that so expounded any Text. But though in strict terms this be not inconsistent yet iâ— may peradventure hinder the duty of their other calliâ—g My Lords there is not any that sits here more for prâ—aching than I am I know it is the ordinary means to salvation yet I likewise know there is not that full necessity of it as was in the primitive times God defend that 1600. years acquaintance should make the Gospel of Christ no better known unto us Neither my Lords doth their office meerly and wholly consist in preaching but partly in that partly in praying and administring the blessed Sacraments in a godly and exemplary life in wholsome admonitions in exhortations to virtue dehortations from vice partly in easing the burdned conscience These my Lords compleat the office of a Church man Nor are they altogether tied to time or place though I confesse they are most properly exercised within their own verge except upon good occasion nor then the omission of some can be termed the breach of them all I must add one more an essential one the very form of Episcopacy that distinguisheth it from the inferiour Ministry the orderly and good government of the Church and how many of these I am sure not the last My Lords is interrupted by there sitting here once in 3. years and then peradventure but a very short time And can there be a greater occasion than the common good of the Church and State I will tell your Lordships what the great and good Emperor Constantine did in his expedition against the Persians he had his Bishops with him whom he consulted about his military affairs as â—uscbius has it in hâ—s life lib. 4. c. 56. Reward and punishment are the greatest negotiators in all worldly businesses these may be said to make the Bishops swim against the stream of their consciences and may not the same be said of the Laity Have these no operations but only upon them Has the King neither â—rown honour nor offices but only for Bishops Is there nothing that answers their translations Indeed my Lords I must needs say that in charity it is a supposition not to be supposed no nor in reason that they will go against the light of their understanding The holinesse of their calling their knowledge their freedome from passions and affections to which youth is very obnoxious their viciniâ—y to the Gates of death which though not shut to any yet always stand wide open to old age these my Lords will surely make them steer aright But of matter of fact there is no disputation some of them have done ill crimine ab uno discant omnes is a poetical not a logical argument Some of the Judges have done so some of the Magistrates and Offiâ—ers and shall there be therefore neither Judge Magistrate nor officer more A personal crime goes not beyond the person that commits it nor can anothers fault be mine offence If they have contracted any filâ—h or corruption through their own or the vice of the times cleanse and purge them throughly But still remember the great difference between reformation and extirpation And be pleased to think of your Triennial Bill which will save you this labour for the time to come fear of punishment will keep them in order if they should not themselves through the love of vertue I have now my Lords according 〈◊〉 my poor ability both shewed the conveniencies and answered those inconveniencies that seem to make against them I should now propose those that make for them as their falling into a condition worse than slaves not represented by any and then he dangers and inconveniencies that may happen to your Lordships but I have done this heretofore and will not offer your Lordships Cramâ—en bis coctam FINIS Pag. 314. â— 2. part Caus. in dors n. 4 1. Chr. 16. 14. 1. Chr. 27. 5. 1. Chr. 11. 22. Pag. 659. 〈…〉 Lambard pag. 1. Council p. 186. Lambard pag. 57. Council p. 402. Council p. 423. Concil p. 486. 4. Instit. Lib. 5. p. 197. Concil Britannica Concil p. 127. Bede â— 2. c. 5. Concil p. 206. H. Edw. Confessor c. 3. Decanus Episcopi reliquas decem partes habeat K. Athelstani pag. 406. Epist. ad Regem Tum in vita tum in favore Concil Thansam pag. 525. K. Edw. Confes. c. 3. K. Gulielm in proaem 37. H. 8. cap. 16. pag. 42. pag. 43. pag. 44. Concil in Sussex p. 309. pag. 40. pag. 45. 〈…〉 Cap. 11. Hist. H. 7. Centur Magdeb. 4. p. 371. Haeres 75. De Rom. Pontifice l. 1. cap. 5. pag. 19. 1 Chr. 19. 1 Chron. 27. 5. 1 Chron. 11. 22. 2 Sam. 6. 1 Chron. 11. 26. Proem â—ul 1. Glossar p. 315. Lambar p. 80. Concil p. 568. c. 17. pag. 110. An 1164. If so then much more at this day saith Coke 4. Instit. C. 20. Sect. 31. Lib. 2. Doc. 2. Quae fuit plenaria Conciliarum forma Novel 83 Cap. 10. Bacon Argum. 1 2. Cor. 10. 4 5 6 Act. 12. 23. Apoc. 2. 1. Argum. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. 2 Tim. 3 4. 1 Tim. 2 2. Rom. 13. 3 4. Argum. 3. Argum. 4. Argum. 5. De opere Monachâ—r 28. 1 Cor. 3. 13. Sect. 1. Sect. 2. Sect. 3. Sect. 4. Sect. 5. Sect. 6. Sect. 1. Sect. 2 Sect. 4. Sect. 5â— Sect. 6. 1 Chron. 26. 14. 1 Chron. 27. 5 1 Chron. 11. 22. Gen. 49. 7 Object 1. Object 2. Object 4. Object 5.