preferre the publick good before any personal enjoyments or private interests as freely to declare to your Lordships and all the English world That we are so little devoted to the meer Honour or Profit of our places and see so little cause to be greatly delighted in this burthen full of business envy and importunity That if any men of other Principles or any other Forms of Church-Government according to their several new models and inventions which as Childrens Babies are almost as soon broken and defaced as they are made and adorned be able to do this Church and Kingdome better service than the Episcopal Order Presidency and Authority with which we are now invested Or if the wisdom of his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament by any good experience have ever found them and accordingly should judge them more proper to attain His Majesties and Your great designs for Gods glory and the common good in Gods Name let these new Masters and their new Models take our places and share our Bishopricks once again among them Let them by some new and better experiments of their art and office expiate the former prodigies of their rude actions and desperate essays which had almost destroyed all that was sacred and civil among us Let not our personal and private Concerns be put into the Balance against the publick interest We willingly recede we disrobe we degrade our selves we will as far as we can by the ancient Canons of the Church submit to those new Presbyterian and Independent Projects and Projectors if his Majesty upon due advice with his Parliament shall discern them to have a better Call from God and man better skill or will to do Gods work and the Kings service in reference to the publick welfare if there be any thing in them more conform to Gods Word to principles of right reason to perfect rules of Politie to the necessary grounds of Government to the harmony of good order to the universal practice of the Church of Christ to the ancient Laws of this Kingdom or to the temper and constitution of the English people All which are highly and justly prejudiced against any novelty and wholly conformed to Episcopal Antiquity Unanimously confirming his Majesties and this Parliaments Wisdom in re-establishing of that to which no new form is to be compared much less preferred Your Lordships and all the English world have already tryed for some years full sore against the wills of the most and best men what the rigid Presbyterian or Aërian designs are what the plebeian practices of some Ministers and people are You have found and felt of what metal those new Masters and their Lay-Elders are who as Acephalists or Polycephalists headless or many-headed creatures affect to rule all first without Bishops next without Kings at length without Parliaments at last without people by a meer stratocracy of Military Myrmydons or Mamelukes when indeed they are in all their forms and figures found not more unfit for government than most unwelcome under that notion to the Commons Gentry and Nobility of England besides most unsafe for this or any Monarchy and wholly inconsistent with this Churches National Unity which as St Jerome observes will soon run into as many Schisms as there are Parishes and Preachers Out of the spawne of Schism fedition will soon rise and out of those egges such Crocodiles will grow as will swallow up Kings and Kingdomes Not that any men more highly esteem sober Presbyters or good Ministers yea and other Church-Officers such as the Law hath appointed in a due subordination to and orderly conjunction with Bishops than we do We shall ever advise with them as with friends tender them as sons and love them as brethren But we cannot allow nor can either the King or people of England bear that malipertness of Antiepiscopal Presbytery which hath of late like Reuben by a most inordinate lust ascended to its Fathers bed and against all Law usurped all Episcopal Authority in Ordination Censures and Jurisdictions Whose strength we see was soon powred out like water not to be gathered up exposing as it self to contempt so the whole Church to confusion Antiepiscopal or Headless Presbytery had indeed at first such a great belly or tympany in some mens high pretensions and rare expectations as if it would bring forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnum Jovis incrementum some prodigie of piety Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto some rare and heavenly off-spring was coming No less than Christs Kingdom Throne Scepter and Discipline was voted resolved and expected It was further attended when it drew neer the time of its travel and all our pains with a strange and new Nurse-keeper the Solemn League and Covenant sent for so many hundred miles out of Scotland which brought with it such swadling clothes as were thought fitter for that lusty babe than all the sacred bands of Baptism and Confirmation which Leaguer bands certainly could bind no man that is in his wits beyond or against his duty to God the King this Church and his Country any more than the green withes could bind Sampson to his hurt For fear of miscarrying in the birth for its Dam had hard labour it had the help of a Man-midwife who looked like a Mahometan a military and armed hand a means never used God knows in the true Church of Christ or in the Concerns of his Kingdom which is not of this world nor after its gladiatory methods the Gospel being first planted by Fishermen and watered by the blood of its prime Preachers and Professors Yet after all this Parado Presbytery proved a kind of untimely birth a most unblest abortive and although it was not still-born but cryed aloud for a while with a strong and terrible voice yet it was by a merciful providence as Monsters commonly are short-lived sucking blood instead of milk for its infant nourishment Neither the English soil nor air nor geny was for this upstart pert and presumptuous Presbytery which instead of the venerable gray head of primitive and paternal Episcopacy had got a new long tail of popular ruling Lay-Elders but it soon gave up the Ghost and being never Christned for it naturally abhorred Creed Ten Commandments and Lords Prayer it was over-laid as was thought and almost smothered to death by its Puny Independency that is the nurse was oppressed by its nursling by a sate as new and unheard of as it self was in England This stripling also even Independency was another by-blow of Church-Government a new but illegitimate brood begotten between fancy and faction schism and rebellion seeking to reduce Church-Government from its toga virilis manly magistratick and politick Constitution besitting well-grown great and National Churches to its hanging sleeves or swadling clouts again But these two spurious Progenies having neither lawful father nor honest mother neither the advice of a National Synod nor any Royal Assent and so neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical Authority to
Bishops have been to the detriment and dishonor both of this Church and Kingdom the recent memory of your and our late Troubles and Miseries will sufficiently tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen As a just History of their Tragical Counsels and Tyrannical effects will for ever warn your amazed and almost incredulous Posterity when they shall see the different yea destructive Fortunes of our Laws and Religion of our Kings Lords and Commons of the sober Clergy all degrees of honest men in these three Kingdoms under an affected Novelty and Parity of Usurping Presbyters with some presumptuous People whose dominion in Church or State neither your Lordships nor your Forefathers ever knew in ENGLAND nor can ever bear compared with that Paternal Government of learned godly and venerable Bishops counselled and assisted by their reverend Brethren of the Clergy in a way and form of Ecclesiastical Government now happily restored by his Majesty as most conform to the Catholick Church ever approved by our Parliaments established by all our ancient Laws and duly subordinate to our Kings as Sovereign Lords who are owned by us Bishops and all the Orthodox Clergy of ENGLAND to be under God the onely supreme Dispensers of all Juridical or Executive Power in Church and State No way subject either to the Papal Triple Crown or to the hundred Eyes of any Presbyterian Class nor yet to the hundred Hands of any Independent Junto By the Christian Care and Courage Piety and Charity of which Bishops next after and ever since the Apostles and Apostolique men Christianity it self was first planted in Britany as in all other Countries when the Crown of King Lucius above 1500. years ago first of any King in all the World did wear the Cross as the noblest Gem and highest Ornament of his Royal Diadem Accordingly we read of our British Bishops present at ancient Councils as that of Arles in France where Restitutus Bishop of London and Eboracus Bishop of Yorksate So in the Council of Arminium about the year 350. as Sulpicius Severus and others tell us By a like Succession of holy Bishops and their subordinate Clergy was Christian Religion and its orderly Ministry preserved in Wales after many barbarous Invasions and Persecutions had almost desolated those first planted Churches of our Britany as venerable Bede and Guildas the wise tell us By godly Bishops were the Saxons and Angles themselves at length converted both Kings and Subjects to that Christian Faith which as Saul they formerly persecuted and made such havock of By grave Bishops as good Physitians was Christian Religion in its Fundamentals of Faith and good Manners kept alive to some degree of saving health and holy Order amidst the many distempers corruptions and deformities of those dark times which went before and followed after the Norman Conquest by reason of the Roman Superstructures Usurpations and Apostacies By excellent Bishops were the Decays of this Church and Deformity of Religion now above one hundred years past duly repaired and orderly reformed from those Romish Dregs of Superstition which had spread upon the face of these Western Churches and sowred the Sanctity as well as sullied the Serenity of Christian purity and simplicity both in Faith and Manners By worthy Bishops was our English Liturgy fitly composed our Bibles well translated our Reformation soberly compleated our Religion by Law and due Authority peaceably established yea and at last all was sealed and confirmed by many of those godly Bishops bonds and banishments by their Bloods and Martyrdoms By our English Bishops how many rare Books have been written in all kinds of good Learning and especially in Divinity Dogmatical Polemical and Practical How hath the Orthodox Faith of the Reformed Church of ENGLAND yea of the true Catholick Church been by our admirable Bishops and other Episcopal Divines valiantly maintained against all kinds of Heretical Novelties and Schismatical Machinations both forreign and domestick They have neither feared Rome nor flattered Geneva nor courted Amsterdam securing this Church at once against all Papal Policies Disciplinarian Devices and Popular Impostures How many great and good Works of pious Munificence of durable Hospitality and useful Charity to Colledges Cathedrals and other Churches to Free-Schools to Hospitals and Alms-Houses have by our English Bishops been founded at their own Charges and many more by their grave Counsels and good Examples as our English Histories fully inform us By some of our learned Bishops as Anselm Bradwardine and others the Glory of Gods Grace was notably maintained against the Pelagian pride and presumption So was the Liberty of this Church and Kingdom by the great head and greater heart of Robert Bishop of Lincoln and others against the Papal Arrogancy By the loyal and resolute Bishop of Carlile was the Sovereignty and Life of Richard the second King of ENGLAND in open Parliament vindicated by Scripture Law and Reason against the potent Usurpation of Henry the fourth By a wise Bishop of Ely was that Counsel first given which united the two Roses and composed our long Civil Wars Lastly by a worthy Bishop was that foundation of Union laid in a Marriage with a Daughter of Henry the seventh which in time brought both Kingdoms of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND under one Scepter and Monarch as they are at this day I do not mention these few of many instances of worthy and most deserving Bishops of the Church of ENGLAND for I omit Cranmer Hooper Ridley Latimer Matthews Whitguift Bancroft Jewel Bilson Andrews King both the Abbots Davenant White Morton Babington Carlton Hall and others nor yet do I reckon up the many late great Sufferers with much Christian patience courage and constancy some of whom remain to this day I say I do not so mention those former as I might with a particular emphasis to each nor yet these later Bishops as if I here meant to plead the merits of Bishops or Episcopacy either before God or Man I know the best Bishops were sensible that they did but their Duty to God their Kings this Church and their Country of whom as of Parents none can merit few requite them Nor is it for me to blazon their wel-known worth by any pomp of words when their greatest worth consisted in their modesty and humility as their greatest merit in their thinking they had none though their Works do at once praise them in the gates and follow them to Glory Onely thus far I have with equal truth and modesty yea and without any offence I hope touched upon the wel-known Deserts of some of our English Bishops In the first place to justifie this Honor and Favor which his gracious Majesty by the Advice of the House of Peers and the generous Piety of the House of Commons hath now done to us Bishops and in US to all the Clergy and in them to this whole Church and in this to all Christendom and in that to all the World After the famous Examples of the first Christian
in Church and State as free God knows from Superstition or Will-worship or unlawful humane Inventions as some other mens affected words and modes ceremonies and forms are in their eyes hands speeches and gesticulations When His Majesty Your Lordships and the Worthy Gentlemen of the House of Commons together with all the sober English World shall see Us Bishops demeaning our selves as they would have Us and as you have deserved of Us in the way of great and good examples proportionable to our pious and venerable Predecessors before and since the Reformation no doubt Your Lordships and all Worthy Persons will be as far from repenting of Your restoring Bishops to their government and jurisdiction also to their ancient honour and capacity of Sitting in the House of Peers and therein of restoring this Church and Christian Kingdom to their pristine honour peace and safety by Gods blessing as some others are from rejoycing or not repining at Gods mercy the Kings benignity this Parliaments generosity and piety as well as policy and discretion in preferring the gray head of primitive and venerable Episcopacy before the beardless striplings of Presbytery and Independency with which new wines if any weak heads in England be still so in love as to chuse them before the old wine which is better certainly they will have this happiness in their unlucky errour as to have no learned and honest man to be their rival If any things have seemingly or really been amiss in any of our Predecessors or our selves through humane frailty or passion which easily besets the best of men in this life as our desire is not to deny or dissemble them so truly they cannot now with any modesty be remembred or objected by these Adversaries against Us or any Bishops heretofore since the covetousness ambition pride tyranny cruelty and implacableness of some Anti-Episcopal and Anarchical spirits have been so excessively insolent and outragious even to a wantonness of wickedness and to all manner of injastice far beyond the worst actions of the worst of Bishops in the worst of times since the Reformation But whatever hath really been amiss our caution shall be to avoid or amend all faults as much as Your charity and Nobleness hath this day covered and forgot both their infirmities and any of our failings What was eminent as much was in many of them and commendable in most of them our endeavour shall be to imitate where we despair to exceed That while Your Lordships or others behold us either in the Parliament or the Pulpit or the Press or the Consistory you may not have much cause to deplore the absence of our famous Predecessors whom you cannot but love and admire as we do for their piety learning industry and charity In sum we shall strive that neither Bishops nor Episcopacy shall be any burthen but a great blessing as it hath been to this Church and Kingdome to King and Subjects to the good and bad to encourage the former and to restrain and amend the latter Which happy effects will easily be attained First If we may be guided and circumscribed by good Laws and Canons beyond or short of which no Presbyter or Bishop may go no not in any exemplary ceremony or affected novelty to a super-conformity Secondly If we may be defended in doing our duties by his Majesties just power without cramping or benumming the sinnews of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by needless prohibitions Thirdly If we may be still assisted and adorned with your Lordships and the other Gentlemens love and favour Fourthly If we may be duly fortified by the desired counsel and meet assistance of our aged learned and reverend brethren of the Clergy Lastly If we may be daily commended as the Church-Liturgy hath appointed and for which passages it is so unwelcome to many who love Church Lands better than they do the best Church men or Bishops more devoted to prey upon them than for them to the marvellous workings of Gods grace by the prayers of all good Christians which we do not more want than passionately and humbly desire That since we the Bishops of this Church are again brought to this high mountain and thus transfigured our faces may so shine in good words and works that your Lordships and all this Church of England may glorifie our Father which is in heaven That we may abhor that Soloecism of Honor sublimis vita deformis Lordly Titles and Peasantly actions And since there is no greater sign of a thankful heart for mercies which our selves have received than a charitable sense of our Brethrens miseries that in the day of our Exaltation as Bishops to Estates and Honours we may not forget the depressions and afflictions of others Give leave to as many of us as are thus compassionate to present our supplication to your Honours the two Houses of Parliament and by your mediation to his Majesty A great one indeed it is and therefore worthy of so great an address to persons of large hearts and hands who are ready to answer great desires and to effect great designs It is in the behalf of many of our poor Brethren the Clergy of England and Wales That there may be some effectual means used worthy of the Wisdom Piety and Charity of His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament to relieve the meanness tenuity and incompetency of their scandalous livings which makes many of them as more needing so less capable of Discipline Objects also of vulgar contempt depressing their spirits starving their studies discouraging them in their duties betraying them to sordidness of living exposing them to many temptations and lastly subjecting them to all popular servilities complacencies and dependancies which are the nests and brests the seminaries and nurseries of all faction There is no way to redeem them their Ministry and this Reformed Church from these burthens and chains that enter into the very souls of many at first ingenious Scholars and hopeful Ministers but by making small livings somwhat competent His Majesty hath set a great example in this kind commanding augmentations to be allowed out of his own and the Churches impropriations But this bounty cometh short of at least 3000 livings which still remain in ENGLAND and WALES as Flats or shallows in the Sea upon which when the necessities of many young men and hopeful Scholars once drive them they seldom ever get off without shipwrack of Morals or Intellectualls However it is such a stop and hinderance to the proficiency of their studies also to the authority and efficacy of their Ministry that they seldom or never make a Prosperous voyage ever conflicting with difficulties and many times conquered by them not only to a meanness but an immorality of living It is a work worthy of His Majesties greatness and your goodness to apply in Gods good time some meet help to this crying Malady which first began by the Popes unhappy alienating of Tythes from the Incumbents or Rectors and annexing them
as Impropriations to Religious Houses The Remedies commended by wise men are First by uniting some small Livings that are near adjacent Secondly by abolishing some injurious Customs where wonted and overawed compositions deprive the Incumbents of the true value of what is their due Thirdly by laying some Moderate Tax on dwelling Houses in Market Towns and Cities or in populous and trading Parishes as 6 d. or 9 d. or 12 d. in the pound according to the just value of their rents so as no house should be charged which is rented under Forty shillings a year nor any that paies tithes for lands in Ferme or in the owners hand These helps may relieve some but because the Malady reacheth far beyond these proportions nothing can be so effectual as when the Nation shall have peace and plenty the raising of some publick stock of money in order to compleate this great and good work by a publick and Parliamentary bounty or a National charity by which bank or stock rightly managed and improved a good foundation may be laid for the buying in not of all Impropriations which is too great a work to be compassed but such a portion of them as may in most places make the Living or Vicaridge competent that is 60 l. or 80 l. or 100 l. per annum according as the dearness or cheapness of places doth advise Nor may it seem heavy to raise some Tax or Pay for Christs Soldiers his Ministers when so many Millions have been spent upon other Soldiers If some such easie Tax or Subsidie as shall seem most proportionable in the wisdom of His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament were given to God and the Church for this excellent end to be raised in four years and the matter publickly recommended by King Lords and Commons besides the profit of the publick Contribution or Levy in which our selves as Bishops would be exemplary according to our abilities if it were well improved and imployed no doubt many private persons living and dying would liberally give to so noble and pious a work Some Noblemen and Gentlemen would after His Majesties example for ever endow small Livings with some such portion out of their Impropriations especially if they could do it without charge by reason of the Statute of Mortmaine which might as to this intent and use be for a time repealed But your piety and wisdom will best understand what ways are most proper to attain so great and good ends as would follow this excellent designe of augmenting small Livings and small Ministers too so much tending not only to the relief of many honest and able Ministers to make and keep them such but also to Gods glory and to the good of peoples Souls to the advancement of Learning and of the dignity of the Ministry to His Majesties honor to your Lordships great renown and to the lasting peace both of this Church and Kingdom For we have found by our late experiences wherein half a dozen pragmatick and for the most part but poorer Preachers in a County became the greatest Bontefeus or Incendiaries That settled plenty at least honest competency binds Ministers most to the peace and good behaviour That the more the Clergy owe their maintenance to the Law the more observant they are to pay their obedience to the Laws less pragmatick and less popular as not so much depending on the people and so less studious in any sinister way to please them rather than their superiours That the sharp necessities and poverty of some Ministers daily provokes them if they be men of any quick parts and unmortified passions to great inquietudes hoping by publick commotions to mend their private condition Then they quarrel most sharply with the Churches evil Constitutions as they call it when their own as to their livelyhood is not very good then they inveigh bitterly against innocent Ceremonies and all setled Orders of the Church when their substance or subsistence is most unsetled or too small for their minds and necessities every thing then is a burthen to them when they feel the galling burthen of poverty and they easily run to Arms and Rebellion who already find that armed man upon them having much to get and little to lose in any Troubles The want of oyling or greasing makes their wheels drive heavily or with a very querulous and ungrateful noise and at last to take fire yea and by popular arts to diffuse their sparks with their Prayers and their discontents with their Doctrines and their abuses with their uses among the common people who like tinder or gun-powder are very prone to kindle against their Governors beleiving no men so fit to govern Church and State as themselves and their Minister though but a poor Vicar Curate or Lecturer having such narrow minds as they are not able to comprehend or extend their thoughts to the Latitudes of publique Order and Government which are as necessary as those which they so much dote upon in their persons families and Parishes nor will they learn but by their own and others woes how much peace with a little and a good conscience to boot is to be preferred before much goods ill gotten by sequestration and plunder though sanctified by preaching and praying It is certain no men are more careless of conforming to the Laws or more prodigall of the publique peace then those Ministers and people who finde themselves in short pasture and therefore venture to breake the sacred hedge and civil bounds which Gods and Mans Laws have set especially where they think the Fence is lowest and weakest as it seems to be in Ecclesiasticall Cannons and Constitutions not seconded with Executive power Against these an over scrupulous and restive spirit or a sturdie and bayardly conscience seting its brest or hinder part hopes to carry all before it that it may by popular extravagancie or partiall adherence advance either its uneasie estate or its small reputation to a faction side and party Let there be fitting provender for the oxen which tread out the Corn and then we may justly exact labour from them and exercise the goad of just discipline on their neglect If once the Livings of the Clergy were truly Livings or convenient livelyhoods we could with more prudent severity look that their labonr and lives should be exactly good not that poverty is a dispensation to impiety but good men are not easily found to accept of those small and scandalous Livings out of which those sorry or scandalous Ministers are ejected who are not so good and able as we could wish and yet better perhaps than none at all And although the small Living may be too good for them yet not good enough for a better man since the most learned piety is sensible of all humane necessities Virtue it self will be cold and Grace it self hungry and thirsty nor can any man of reason expect to have Religion live like a Camelion in this world Having thus presented with all
below the Objects of your Lordships Envy so we will study to be above that is not to deserve and so not to fear your anger Nor shall you either love virtue or your own souls or your God and Saviour if you either hate or despise us who intend by Gods help to perfect that in our selves and all others as far as our good counsel example and lawful authority will extend which some men have so long so lowdly and so in vain pretended to in point of true Reformation both private and publick Not in fine fancies superficial formalities and popular vaporings but in solidly great and really good actions in which the power of godliness doth consist being offended at no mens sinful deformities and defects either personal or political more than our own What is wanting in any of us as to high blood and extraction as to Civil Grandeur and Estate shall by Gods help be made up in that modest wisdom sober learning hearty loyalty and unfeigned Religion which may most counterpoise your other accomplishments by which we confess your Lordships much overweigh us Indeed nothing can buoy up Episcopacy or recover the true honour of the Church of ENGLAND to a fixation so much as the primitive great and good examples of Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy as the excellently Learned and Pious Doctor Hammond now dying declared his judgment when leaving the world and all his justly deserved preferments on earth he left us a most rare and imitable example of very great abilities set forth with greater industry and most set off with greatest humility If we can but live above those diminutions which set us below our selves our holy calling his Majesties favour and your honourable Society we shall be nothing concerned in those other petty and plebeian objections which the pride or envy of some mechanick spirits are prone to make against our persons or profession since our Originals blessed be God were as honest and unspotted as any mens though not so noble and illustrious Our education hath been studious and ingenious though not so ample and conspicuous Our conversation though more obscure and in the shade yet not vain not vicious nor it may be so sun-burnt and tann'd as others We have from our youth been devoted and trained up to Gods glory to His Majesties and the Churches service by such pious frugal and learned retirements as most redeemed us from those luxuries and superfluities to which others are exposed We humbly and willingly owne contrary to the vapour of that great Orator Omnia nostra incrementa non nobis sed Deo Regi Senatui debemus All our advancements not to our selves as he said but to Gods mercy the Kings bounty your Lordships and our Countries favour Indeed our single persons families relations reputations estates or merits are too small and narrow a Basis or bottom upon which to erect and settle this great Pyramide Pillar or Obelisk of publick or Parliamentary Honour which in all true proportions is to be founded upon his Majesties and your just zeal for Gods glory for the honour of our Saviour for this Churches welfare and for the ancient dignity of Episcopacy As our private comfort can only be fixed so this publick honour must chiefly be ascribed to and placed upon the latitude of his Majesties wisdom and the sanctity of your vertues upon the account of the love you have to true Religion and the esteem you bear to good Learning also upon your care of this Churches flourishing together with this Kingdoms peace To these great and good ends we are willingly made publick Servants to these some of us have sacrificed all our former happy tranquility and sweet retiredness rather than be wanting to that duty which was not calmly required but importunely exacted from us when more than once seriously deprecating the burthen of this employment we were absolutely commanded to obedience rather than seem to withdraw our shoulders from the burthen which no man will envy but he whose ignorant ambition least understands it and is least capable as of the sacred duty so of the necessary policy and reason of Episcopacy in England It is most certain that we cannot be without a King as the Cappadocians pleaded to the Romanes when they offered them their popular liberty in England and not be very miserable which we have lately felt Nor can our Kings want wise Counsellours of State any more than Pilots can their Card or Compass Nor can these well want the counsel and assistance of learned and religious Church-men grave and reverend Bishops any more than the Mariners Compass can be without the Magnetick Needle or Director and this upon a double reason First worthy Bishops are the fittest persons not only to repress the falsity scandal and immorality of Ministers evil doctrines and lives which are as stinking carrion or dead horses in the high way the poyson and abhorrence of all passengers publicae pestes Ecclesiae Reipublicae the most infecting and killing plagues to Church and Countrey But also they serve to restrain and bridle the vulgar petulancy and popular rudeness of some factions Preachers tongues which are sometimes as the hearts and censors of Korah Dathan and Abiram full of strange fire or as Sheba's trumpet founding faction and sedition then most of all when they would seem most zealous in their Sermons and Prayers infusing poyson into wine the better to diffuse the venome of I know not what novell and fanciful Inventions of their own festring those scratches which they first make and then would seem to lick them whole sometimes venoming even sound parts by their very fasting spittle So over clamouring for truth and holiness which all good Bishops and Presbyters desire more soberly than themselves that they are deaf to peace and order to obedience and subjection to law and government which none but fools or knaves will oppose Certainly no men are so sit to encounter the fraud and folly of these deceitful workers and to confute the popular Sophistry of these crafty and crazy Ministers as grave learned wise and godly Bishops who past the froth of juvenile fancies and popular flashes know what best besits solid preaching sober praying holy living and discreet governing Besides this pious and prudent Bishops are of all men living the fittest persons gently to attemper with Christian wisdome meekness and moderation those vehemencies rigors animosities and severities to which the height of mens over-boyling passions and rougher spirits are prone to raise the secular policies counsels and resolutions of those who are most exalted with worldly honours and leavened with opulent Estates Many times great Princes and Persons of Eminent Honours do not more want than welcome those calm counsels and gentle mitigations which Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons seasonably and wisely suggest to them as David did the prudent and humble intercession of Abigail when she gently disarmed him and all his angry Souldiers diverting them from that exorbitant
and cruel revenge to which a military fierceness and just disdain of Nabal's Ingratitude and Indignity had transported him and them Or as Theodosius the Emperour did kindly and thankfully entertain the religious and resolute but respective reproofs of St Ambrose Bishop of Millain whom he reverenced as a Father and highly commended for that his freedom and fidelity to him which he said best became the Bishops or Prelates of the Church of Christ who are so to fear God as not to flatter any man The great work of your Lordships Honour and Wisdom with the Honourable House of Commons properly is to see Nè Leges Angliae temerè mutentur Nè Coronae Majestas minuatur Nè virtuti desit honoris praemium That the good old Laws Customes and Constitutions of England be not lightly changed That the Majesty of the King and Kingdom be not diminished for in uno Caesare res est publica we can have no Common weal but common woe if we have not a King clothed with that sacred and inviolable Majesty which is necessary for the publick welfare and safety Lastly It is among your Lordships and the Parliaments noblest cares and designs That no deserving vertue or ingenuous faculty which serves the publick welfare should despair of publick rewards and least of all learned Piety or the most noble and sacred Study of Divinity which is as the Sun or the greater light the author of that day which shines on our Souls to shew us the way to heaven and eternity whereas all other arts and sciences are but as the Moon and Stars to guide us in the momentary affairs of this world which is but the twilight state of a Christian Lest while the judicious Lawyers honest skill and commendable practice in our Common or Civil Laws or while the discreet valour of good Souldiers or the wholesome study of Physick or meer riches by any honest trade accumulated while I say any or all these are admitted not only to knock at the door but also to enter into the porch yea and to repose themselves in the Temple of Honour only the Learning and Religion of the Clergy the desert and industry of Divines who are the great Studiers and Interpreters of Gods Law the faithful dispensers of heavenly things these I say should to the shame and reproach of this Church and Kingdom be excluded from all temporal rewards and Honorary Encouragements After the method of the Apostate Julians envy and mockery who said the rewards of the world to come might serve their turns when he took from the Christian Orthodox Bishops and Clergy those large donations immunities and dignities which Constantine the great and other godly Emperours had endowed them and the Church of Christ withal The Justice and Nobleness of this Parliament hath sufficiently shewed to all the world how far your Honours are from the Schism and Sacriledge of either depriving this Church and Kingdom of Bishops which it enjoyed in all ages since it was Christian or of denying Bishops those Honours which the piety of your Progenitors was more ambitious to confer on them than they were to receive them The modest humility of ancient Bishops when most worthy thought themselves as we have cause to do less worthy of such high honour walking as Ammianus Marcellian tells us with grave steps modest looks and mortified behaviour But the generous piety of this as other Christian Nations thought that they then honoured God and their Saviour Jesus Christ when as Cornelius to St Peter they expressed their high respect and honour to the Bishops of the Church as to spiritual Fathers whose paternal benediction and peace in Christs Name as they oft desired with great devotion and respect so they ever judged Episcopal Presidency and Authority to be most suitable to the plethorick and sturdy temper of the people of England whose high spirits abhorre all levelling and are as impatient to be governed by their equalls or inferiours as water is to be kept within its own bounds And even now the wisdom of your Lordships and the Honourable House of Commons concurrent with his Majesties goodness in the restitution of Episcopacy and Bishops to their pristine honour and Jurisdiction must not in any reason be looked upon by us or any wise men as any partiality of favour to so few and to so inconsiderable persons as we are No doubtless your great and publick designs are in order to promote Gods glory to advance his Majesties service and to secure most effectually the peace of Church and State by adorning them with such Bishops and these with such authority as is most consonant to our ancient Laws and Constitutions to Catholick and Primitive Patterns to the Apostolick that is Christs Institution and to the Word of God who is the God of Order Besides most agreeable to the true Principles and those necessary proportions which must be observed in all political order and publick government for superiority and subordination all which are only to be perfectly seen used and enjoyed in this Episcopal Eminency or Autoritative Presidency That so the Church of ENGLAND may still enjoy as it hath by Gods blessing equal with any Church in any age since the Apostles dayes Its Ignatiusses Its Polycarps Its Polycratesses Its Irenaeusses Its Cyprians Its Ambroses It s Austins Its Chrysostomes Its Epiphaniusses Its Basils It s Gregories That is an holy succession of Evangelical Bishops of the same spirits and proportions with those elder and our later ones for learning piety prudence eloquence industry courage and constancy in the true faith of Jesus Christ That neither the Romanists on one side may quarrel with nor the Schismaticks on the other side invade and prostrate the honour of the Church of ENGLAND upon the oft but in vain objected account of Schismatical interrupting or intercluding the Apostolick succession of Bishops and therein varying in point of Episcopacy from it self as much as from all ancient and Catholick Churches to the infinite scandal of all good Christians and learned men both at home and abroad Many of whom do doubt and upon greater grounds than most of those vulgar scruples with which many please themselves to sight against and scratch at least the Church of England of the real validity of all Ministerial power and Ecclesiastical Authority and so of all mysterious dispensations and sacramental Consecrations where Bishops are wanting not by unavoidable necessity which is its own Apology but by a Presbyterian petulancy Schismatical Envy and Democratical Insolency which is so ambitious to ordain and rule in common that it giddily runs upon the rocks of Anarchy and Confusion Although we and all the soberly learned world must highly commend his Majesties Piety and Wisdom together with this Parliaments for their restoring Catholick Episcopacy and in that the great support of this Churches and Kingdoms peace And although we do justly esteem the honour and favour by God and man herein conferred on us yet we so much
naturalize or enfranchise them while they were both eagerly conspiring and fiercely strugling against Legal and Catholick Episcopacy they made a shift to strangle each other both pretending to be the eldest son the very Esau the only and primitive Church-Government of Christs Institution his entire Scepter and Discipline neither of them was by wise men believed to be so since both could not be so And to be sure neither the one nor the other was ever known or used in this or any true Church of Christ for fifteen hundred years after Christ unless all the Histories and Examples of the Church have conspired to deceive us and themselves which none but Jews and Turks can imagine The first of these Presbytery had a redder face rougher hands longer nails and a fiercer voice like Esau The second of Independency that is Church-Democracy or common peoples Ecclesiastical Politie first pretending to crown Christ as a King and then really to mock and crucifie him parting his garments among them breaking his bones and nayling him to the cross of popular Dependence as the root of all Ministerial Authority and Maintenance which is indeed but a dry tree and dead trunk This I say was at first smoother skinn'd and softer voiced like Jacob but it soon supplanted by notable disguises and vulgar insinuations its elder brother and its angry rival Presbytery At last Post varios casus post tot discrimina rerum after several risques and hazards run by Church and State the Divine Justice and Mercy to this Church and Kingdom decided the controversie between these dividers and destroyers opening a door for the happy return of ancient Monarchy to its just Supremacy in Church and State also of venerable Episcopacy to its pristine Office and Ecclesiastical Authority loyally subordinate to the Crown of the King according to Law and religiously servient to the Church of Christ according to his holy Gospel In which ancient and excellent Government if any thing be found in the decurrence of time or degeneracy of men and manners inconvenient to the publick welfare either as to its constitution or execution we humbly crave of his Majesties goodness and this Parliaments wisdom that both we and it may be so reformed and regulated in all points not by Tumults and Armies but Parliamentary Counsels as may be most conforme to Scriptural rules primitive ends and uses so far as the present times and manners of men will best bear which concession is sufficient to appease the gripes and wamblings of any who either could take or would keep their Covanant with any shew of good conscience that is guided by Reason Law and Scriptures the speediest and easiest way of reforming Government lying in good Governours For we are not so straight-laced in point of Episcopacy as to think it may not admit prudent regulations and variations yet so as the main spiritual power and Ecclesiastical Order be preserved and improved according to the primitive pattern and Catholick custom of the Church which is sacred and ought to be inviolable unless insuperable impediments give a temporary dispensation rather submitting to providence than changing the principle or subverting the order so divinely constituted so universally established and so highly blessed But if a right Evangelical Episcopacy such as for the main ever hath been in the Church of Christ and now is according to Law re-established in ENGLAND such as we are most ambitious to adorn and exercise if this be found as no doubt it will most consonant to right reason to all rules and grounds of true politie to the just proportions of good Order and measures of Government yea to the ancient models and methods of Church-Government which are set forth by God himself in the Old Testament among the Jewish Priesthood and by our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament among his 12 Apostles with the 70 Disciples and these followed as divine patterns or originals by the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles dayes as all Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church do evidently assure us O let not we beseech you this ancient fruitful goodly and venerable Cedar of Episcopacy be blasted or baffled or blown down by the profane breath of some popular Preachers or by the fury of giddy heady and ignorant people Let not its ample boughs be broken its useful bark be pilled or it s far extended roots be extirpated by the petulancy and rudeness of any unruly and insolent spirits since in its leaves shadow and fruits there hath been and still is so great a blessing for this Church and Kingdom as is evident in these necessary Offices First for holy Ordination or conferring of due and undoubtedly compleat Ministerial power such as is derived from Christ sent by his Father and from the Apostles sent by Christ Secondly for Confirmation or solemn benediction of the Cathecumens who in their Infancy were baptized that when come to years of discretion and well instructed in Christian Principles they may seriously reflect upon personally owne and solemnly assume upon their consciences the keeping of their Baptismal Vow that only sacred Covenant which is sufficient for any honest Christian Thirdly for the due examination detection reprehension and suppression of Errors Hereses and Schisms in the Church of Christ Fourthly for the autoritative reproof and reformation of Immorality Idleness Faction and Disorder among the Clergy and other Christians Fifthly for the encouraging and preserving of truth peace holiness and order among all under their care and inspection All which good works are to be done by such Ecclesiastical Monitions and Censures as are by Christ by the Church and by the Kings Authority committed to them as Bishops or Church-Magistrates furnished with spiritual Ecclesiastical and Legal Power Lastly for the giving more eminent remarkable and autoritative examples in all Christian graces and vertues proportionable to their places estates and dignities for the encouragement of piety and discountenancing of profaneness The weight and emphasis of examples consisting most in the eminency of the person and dignity of his place which make them as Dominical Letters or Capital Figures of greater note name and influence These so peculiar duties proper offices and uses of Bishops as Church-men may very well seem I dare not say below your Lordships eminent dignity since Gods glory and Christs honour are stamped upon the Ministers of the Church but less suitable to your many secular Employments And I am sure they are for the most part much above most Lay-mens abilities as they were ever judged by the Church of Christ above the ordinary capacities of meer Presbyters or inferiour Ministers who have indeed the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministerial or Liturgical power and authority as to doctrine consecration devotion parochial inspection and direction derived to them by and from the respective Bishops But not the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 political ordinative and presidential power in point of the Churches National Politie or more publick
Government which St Jerome requires and ownes as exors necessaria potestas Episcoporum as a principal and eminent power necessary for the Church of Christ and specially residing in Bishops Indeed in the beginning or infancy of Churches as many learned men have observed the powers or offices of Deacon Presbyter Bishop and Apostle might possibly be resident in and exercised by one man where there was but an handful or little flock of two or three gathered together in Christs name But when Beleivers and Congregations and so their Pastors multiplied then there was a necessity of politie order and wisdom to distinguish and rank these offices and Officers into several politick distributions or helps of Government some to be the flocks others to be the Pastors some to be only as Presbyters praying preaching baptizing consecrating and blessing the people others as Presidents or Bishops ruling over the many Presbyters and people too within their inspection others as Deacons servient to Bishops Presbyters and people And all this to keep such an orderly unity as may best avoid Schismatical Confusions in the Church of Christ which ought to be as an Army with Banners where are the Ensigns of Office and Authority the directives of orderly motion the centers of union and the securers of the common safety by wise commands and ready obedience Nor may the sameness of the Names or of Naturals Morals or Religion as to faith gifts and graces nor the community of some Christian Priviledges duties or offices of charity these may not be pleaded against the primitive distinction of Eminent Honour and Authority among the Clergy any more than all priority and superiority may be denyed among men in respect of Civil Magistracy who are of the same Nature Parentage City Trade and Country or among Souldiers of the same Army or Scholars of the same Colledge and University To be sure that over-seeing presidential and gubernative power which shall authoritatively look to the Eutaxie good order and unity of the Church such as was in the prime and secondary Apostles the first as Oeconomical the second as Metropolitical or Diocesan Bishops such as was committed to Timothy and Titus and exercised by them not only as Evangelists or Preachers but as Presidents and Prelates this power cannot be either regularly or prudently or safely in England committed to any hands but to those venerable Clergy-men whom his Majesty and the Laws shall think fit to constitute as Governours over others and from whom they may have an account of all Nor can it be in better or safer hands than those of learned wise grave and godly Bishops assisted by such sober Presbyters or Ministers as his Majesty and the Laws shall either appoint or permit them to call to their counsel and assistance in their Ordinations or in their exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction Not by way of a Consistorian negative which is to alter and unhinge the whole Government turning wine into water and making way for all factions to breed even in the Nest of Church-Government but by such publick presence and venerable conspicuity of many learned and wise Counsellors as may best avoid any mistakes or errors and most contribute by their being witnesses of all transactions to that authority which is necessary to convince men of sin and to convert them from the error of their ways when they see themselves condemned by the censure not of one only but of many worthy and impartial men An Help Ornament and Honour in Church-Government which really for our own part we earnestly desire and ambitiously embrace as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Ignatius Cyprian and others so magnifie that Fraternal Consess and Ecclesiastical Council which may not only be witnesses of our publick actions but assistants in all such publick dispatches as are not safely committed to any one man nor can discreetly be managed by him without contracting too much envy anger and odium upon him which sense we believe is common with all our Worthy Brethren Indeed no wise Bishop can affect an arbitrary power or an absolute and sole Dominion Nor are we willing to be thus either exposed to others calumnies or betrayed to our selves because we know our selves to be but men and subject to the same infirmities with other sinful Mortals Nor can we be so happy as when we are both compassed encouraged and supported with our aged learned and reverend Brethren of the Clergy who may be every way as able and deserving as our selves Thus sortified and assisted we may by Gods help be capable without too great burthen to discharge the proper duties and offices of Bishops both in and out of Parliaments which is to see Nè quid detrimenti patiatur Religio Ecclesia vera Reformatio c. That our Religion as Christian as well Reformed and as by Law duly established suffer no detriment diminution or debauchery no Apostacy Schism or Division in Doctrine Discipline or Devotion in Sanctity Solemnity or Uniformity either by profaneness petulancy or faction What his Majesty your Lordships and other Gentlemen of other civil Employments cannot so well observe to be amiss in Church or Church-men we the Bishops as publick Watch-men and Over-seers may best inform you of what we cannot amâ—nd by reason of the luxuriancy or obstinacy of some refractory spirits your eminent authority may command and curb according to Law in which the publick wisdom and power safety and honour do concenter In the last place as to the great merits of the Honourable House of Commons and in them of all the ingenuous Gentry with all the Religious and Loyal People of England towards us the Bishops of this Church We shall chuse rather to dye or to be again degraded by the folly and fury of Schismatical envy and malice than not to make good by our actions their good esteem of us or to forfeit by any fault of ours their ready suffrages for us We shall never think any thing added to us by this great favour and honour shewed us if we do not find in them mighty spurs and goads to provoke us more to our duties of sound preaching sober praying discreet governing and holy living which are the solid honours of all good Bishops and true Ministers As they are the debts also which we indispensibly owe to God to this Church and to the least Member of it What may possibly be wanting in the frequency number and tale of our Sermons by reason of our age and infirmity shall be made up in their weight and when we shall not be able to preach at all we will study to live over the best of our Sermons and to preach by our examples when we cannot by our words God forbid we should suddenly forget those late horrid and long conflagrations out of which the good hand of God by the Kings favour and this Parliaments assistance hath snatched us and this whole Church yea God forbid that we the Bishops and all
and sequel of their actions or passions rather evidently declared themselves to be enemies even to all order and politie as well as to Liturgy and Episcopacy and to be friends to nothing but their own private fortunes novel fancies and partial factions guided by no known Law of God or man and offended with nothing so much as not to see themselves in that place and power which may force all men to conform to their own posts lusts and designs which themselves followed not by the true footsteps and sent of Law and Justice Reason and Religion but by the sensible view and successes of providences as they variously sprang up and appeared either for good or evil Which sort of deformed and deforming Non-conformists we leave to be punished not only by their own evil manners but also by the just abhorrencies of God and all good men to whom their folly and fury is now sufficiently manifest So we are neither ignorant nor insensible of other mens continued dis-satisfactions in these things who under the old title of Non-conformity formerly much modester indeed than of later times being not only civil to setled Episcopacy and devout in the use of the Liturgy but abhorring all Separation from the Church of England have heretofore and still do earnestly plead their own and other mens weak minds and scrupulous or tender consciences as very jealous forsooth of sinning there in the use of some Rites and Ceremonies where the publick wisdom and piety of this Church and State grounded on many learned Judgments and the majority of united suffrages according to their consciences sees no sin ownes no sin yea and openly declares against any sin both in the Churches Injunctions and Intentions Mean time while these milder Non-conformists tell us they dare not obey lawful authority in things thus dubious to their private dimness yet both they and others dare even doubtingly disobey an undoubted lawful authority meerly upon such private doubts and scruples in so small and clear matters rather suspecting a whole Reformed Church and all the spirits of the Prophets in their majority and representation of errour and mistakes even to sin and superstition than their own private and possibly prejudiced yea and sactiously interessed opinions All which specious coverings and pleadings of Conscience as weak and tender in point of conformity to things so oft and fully declared to be indifferent in their nature and only limited in their honest and decent use however they may deserve Christian charity compassion and tenderness from us as to some mens good meanings and harmless conversations yet they are now at last found too narrow to palliate or hide those dreadful disorders and cruel designs which some mens counsels and actions have of late years been guilty of if either Gods or Mans Laws may be judges which do command only passive obedience and in that such a conformity to Christs example as where they cannot actively obey there patiently and silently to suffer Indeed Non-conformity in some calmer times and in some mens softer tempers seemed to have something in it that was an object of Christian pity and discreet charity while it modestly and we hope sincerely pleaded tenderness of Conscience that is a fear of sinning because of doubting and this many times more in respect of lothness to offend others then out of any great scrupulosity in themselves as to the nature and use of those things or their own liberty or the publique authority while Non-conformity dissented without Separation Schism and Sedition yea without tumult and rebellion with some shew also of Learning and Loyalty Meekness and Moderation while it professed patience with humility to bear that cross which its own weakness or tenderness more than any unjust rigour of the law had laid upon it using no other Arms offensive or defensive than those of Primitive Christians Prayers and tears To these sober Non-conformists both our Princes since the Reformation and our best Bishops have shewed as much moderation and tenderness as was consistent with the publick peace and safety Nor have we thoughts of less candor and Christian Gentleness to them But since rude nay rebellious Non-conformity hath in this last Twenty years appeared as compleatly armed capapè as Goliah of Gath in buffe coats clad back and brest with iron and steel openly defying the whole Church of ENGLAND for its excellent Liturgy and antient Episcopacy as well as for its few innocent Rites and Ceremonies which were stated enjoyned and used by so many holy and learned men in this Church without any sin superstition or scruple since it hath now at last factiously breathed out fire and brimstone in the face of this whole Reformed Church against all Godly Bishops and gracious Princes yea against all Monarchy at last as well as Episcopacy established by Law since it hath like Jehu furiously and openly marched with an high hand into ENGLAND under the banner of a novel Exotick and Illegal Covenant yea and still menaceth the English and all the Christian world if it could get power and keep it answerable to its vast and insatiable ambition since it hath been laden with the Sacrilegious spoils and ruines of so many goodly Churches worthy Churchmen since it is besmeared with the blood and gore of its Brethren and Fathers that I say not of its Kings In earnest this pittiless and pittiful Non-conformity which pretends to be so tender conscienced as to the gnats of a few circumstances regulated only for order and decency by the publick wisdom and lawfull autority and as to one or two ancient ceremonies used in the pure primitive and persecuted times without any notion or thought of superstition meerly as apt emblems memorative figures or historical tokens of what is most true and necessary to be believed or as particularly acts and humble expressions of some general duty and devotional reverence to God which is in its nature and in the worship of God most lawfull as uncovering the head bowing the knee and body undoubtedly are and yet on the other side since this so soft-souled tender-sensed and narrow-guled Non-conformity was so wide throated as to swallow down great Camels without chewing sins of prodigious magnitudes since it hath shewed it self so heavy and harsh handed so violent and fierce spirited so severe and impatient not to be precisely obeyed by others when it had once usurped a power Truly it is justly become a very effroiable phantosme as dreadfull and dangerous a Spectre to all wise Kings to all Loyal Subjects and to all sober Christians as that which appeared to Brutus before the Pharsalian field If Non-conformity ever had heretofore any tolerably good Cause as to it s well meaning and might have gone to Heaven meekly riding on an Asse as Christ did to Jerusalem yet 't is now quite marred and deformed by the ill managing of it in those violent and intolerable methods of tumultuary and armed proceedings contrary to the Laws of God and Man
which would make even Christianity it self not only unwelcome but most unlawful namely to bring it in by fraud and force or to present it to Soveraign Kings and Kingdomes on the Swords point as the Spaniards do Baptisme to the poor West-Indians with their poyniards in one hand and water on the other For although Non-conformity which is still made the Ball of difference and badge of dissention even among those who agree in Doctrine and Morals yea in Devotionals and Politicals in Liturgy and Episcopacy for the main sometime affected the voice of a Lamb when it durst not roare as a Lyon yet we see it hath the teeth tail and sting of a Dragon it seemed indeed at first to appear in sheeps clothing but it hath too much of the ravening wolf in it So ill it becomes warlike or Martial Non-conformity which hath shewed such horns and hoofs wherewith it hath sorely pushed goared and wounded this Church and Kingdom now to boast of its dove like innocency or to pretend to great tenderness or nicity of conscience and to demand any unsafe and illegal Liberty when the English and Christian world sees that all the beasts in Daniels visions were not more fell haughty cruel insolent and outragious then that rustical Non-conformity hath been to all sorts of sober Christians dissenting from it from the King that sate on the Throne to the meanest Subject that ground at the Mill who is there that did not flatter its folly but hath felt its imperious rigor Nor did it ever excercise that tenderness to others consciences which it so clamourously importuned for it self How much better then were it for the popular patrons of and pleaders for such factious seditious and unsafe Non-conformity who still resolve to be great but weak sticklers against any sober and legal conformity in the Church of ENGLAND How much more I say becoming of them were it now at last to humble themselves before God the King and the Laws to deprecate the just jealousie and heavy displeasure of God and man which some of that Sect have deserved and suffered to expiate their former menaces and later extravagances by some publick recantation and ingenuous repentance which may undeceive the poor people who have been so long scared and deluded with I know not what bugg-bears of their own and other mens fancies How much better were it for men of Learning and Conscience to make a narrower search into their own stale scruples and vulgar misapprehensions to compare the Churches honest declarations and injunctions with their sinister suspicions and probable delusions to dread as much as they pretend to do any other mens positive their own negative superstition which tends to Disobedience and ends in Rebellion against lawfull authority making by a great fatuity or arrogancy those things sin which God hath not made so who is a God of Order a friend to decency and no enemy either to ceremony uniformity or conformity consistent with truth and holiness but hath left all free to the wisdom choice and authority of every Church agreeable to the general tenor of his word Lastly how much more becoming them were it to give God the Glory of his justice which hath thus at last discovered defeated and confuted even by their own practices their wild and wicked principles yea and punished the violent and inordinate practices of some railing and ranting Non-conformists from whose inordinate fury if God had not at last by a wonderful providence redeemed this Church and Kingdom we had been as Sodom and Gomorah a continued Akeldama or field of Blood Tyranny Anarchy and Oppression under either Presbyterian Dictators who would set up a petty Bishop in every Parish and binde them up in the bundles or fagots of their Classes that so united they might be better redeemed from their own infirmities and other mens contempt or under Independant-Tryers who set the people above the Priest or under self and all confounding Phanaticks who do all things both irrationally and ex tempore or rashly But God hath pleaded the Cause of the Church of ENGLAND as to the soundness of its Faith and Doctrine as to the Sanctity of its Morals as to the Solemnity of its Devotionals and as to the unblamable decency of its rituals and innocency of its Ceremonials so stated enjoyned and used as they were in the Church of England not according to every mans fancy and humor but according to the judgment of the Law which best sets forth the publick mind and meaning of this Reformed Church which hath ever so declared publickly against and so effectually cleared it self of and absolved all its Members from all Error Profaneness and Superstition justly challenging and modestly using the Liberty Prudence and Authority which God hath given it for order peace and edification not for oppression destruction and confusion and this only over its own polity or communion that in earnest it is now a great shame for men of Piety and Learning still to vex as Peninnah did Hannah and agitate the Church of ENGLAND with the repetition of their needless Cavils and endless Objections which have been an hundred times fully answered and wherein themselves being satisfied they might with more ease and peace satisfie those whom they keep still raw and scrupulous by their own irresolutions After all is said designed and done by us that can become good men sober Christians and worthy Bishops in point of Reason and Religion Conscience and Subjection Charity and Discretion as to things of this nature which have of themselves so little to say for or against them being but relatively good or evil as the end is to which and the authority by which they are enjoyned yet we know our selves to be still severely warned and sharply alarmed by our own and the Churches enemies on all sides to be as most sincerely pious and constantly prudent in the main matters of Religion so to do all things as with good Conscience Courage and Authority so with all Christian candor and paternal charity to all men especially toward such for Christs sake as are truly conscientious in all Moralities and in some lesser matters peaceably scrupulous and honestly unsatisfied yet are willing to be informed and for the main are conformed to the example of Christ whose Kingdom consists not in meat and drink not in petty opinions and mutable shadows but in righteousness peace and holiness Other things of Form and Ceremony we do not weigh by any private fancies for or against them but by publick authority commanding Gods Word permitting and the Churches peace requiring them As to the point of tender Consciences so much pleaded we shall esteem none truly tender conscienced who live in any open sin or immorality or who approve and defend any prosaneness or impiety in ordinary speech much more in preaching and praying or who deny the authority of the Word of God or who despise the practice and custom of the Universal Church Or who
refuse the obedience due to Civil Magistracy or who oppose the liberty and authority of this particular Church to regulate and govern its own politie agreeable to Gods Word and the practice of all other Churches Our care shall be as not to spend much precious time in things that do not edifie nor to adde the weight of substance to feathers which are but ornaments so nor to expose Religion rude and bare naked and ridiculous to the world much less to sacrifice the publick peace honour and wisdom to private petulancy and pertinacy Yet still we shall make a great difference between the weak and the willful the superstitious and supercilious the scrupulous and scornful doubters and dissenters between the humble Professors and constant Practisers of true Religion in the main of Morals and Fiducials and the turbulent Praters or pragmatick agitators who love to swim against the stream of Authority against right Reason and true Religion established Laws and good Order setled Government and due Subjection We shall first endeavour with meekness of wisdom to satisfie all sober and good men next we shall do as the Law commands against the malipert and obstinate wranglers who make no conscience to deny common Principles to swallow absurdities and reconcile contradictions between their own liberties challenged to themselves and their rigid severities imposed by them upon others There is no reason for them to complain if the same measure be measured to them which they have meted to others every way their equals and in many their betters Nor shall they ever have so much cause to cry out of what they suffer as of what they have done We are not averse from any discrect indulgence which his Majesty and the Law shall see sit to grant to some persons for some time till better instructed and brought off from their prejudices we shall not envy or grudge or deny any honest man those dispensations and forbearances so far as our Charity to private Christians may not be prejudicial to the Churches peace and publick good to which we and all men owe the greatest charity and which may not under any flourishes of zealous praying and preaching or under any pretensions of private conscience be either undermined or overthrown what ever colours of Non-conformity or thorough Reformation men carry before them We know there are many envious eyes upon us and bitter tongues sharpned against us some quarrel that we are no better though themselves be not very good others are grieved that we are not worse This impotent malice of unreasonable or uncharitable men is best silenced and confuted by our just and gentle demeanour toward all And although we are not to be encouraged or over-awed with the weak words of men yet our care shall be that nothing be spoken of us bad but it shall be false The rough tongues of our enemies shall be but as siles and whetstones to our Virtues as their rude hands have been the touchstone of our patience This is the worst and only revenge we intend to take of all our causeless Adversaries either to perswade and win them to sobriety or to overcome and disarm them by our being or doing better then they deserve or desire The injuries and indignities cast upon some of us heretofore and all of us now by the pride improbity or petulancy of any shall but give greater fervour to our industry prayers and charity The former rigors used by some Tyrants Tryers and Inquisitors against Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy shall not carry us beyond the sober bounds of Gods and mans Law nor beyond that Law of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and which commands us to let our Christian moderation be known to all men and our love even to our enemies We will not less encourage true piety sanctity and sincerity because of the scandal and cruelty of some mens hypocrisie We have not so learned Christ in whose holy footsteps we shall endeavour to tread as the surest evidence that we succeed in his Ministry and exercise his Authority Those Ministers or people whose hearts most misgive them as fearing the return of hard measure from Bishops because of the great evil they have as Pseudo-Presbyters and Apostates done or designed against all Bishops and the whole Church of England We cannot better Answer for their security than as Joseph did to his Brethren when he was now advanced and it was in the power of his hand to hurt them as their own jealous souls justly told them when he replied to their astonishment I am Joseph whom ye sold into Aegypt Be not afraid I fear God c. Thereby implying That he could not meditate or act any revenge but that of Love against his brethren who professed to own and serve the same God and whose mercy had now turned their intended mischief into good Let our greatest enemies heretofore now repent of the evil they have done and designed against this Church and Kingdom no less than against Bishops let them shew their repentance by living so as becomes good Christians and good Subjects As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of their head fall to the ground by our means We meditate the good of all men and most of those that have been our deluded yea their own enemies and who will now be our friends and their own on any reasonable terms As good Physitians we shall have special care of those who most need our help and cure As Fathers we shall readily embrace those penitent prodigal Sons which return to us We know that nothing will sooner end all unkind unjust and uncomfortable quarrels than the holy and unblamable lives of Us Bishops which as the presence of Christ and the shadows of the Apostles will either cast out the evil spirits that yet remain in some men after all the miracles of Gods providences or else more torment them Our Virtues and Graces shall be the only Revengers as they will be the sharpest Satyrs and severest reproaches yea and the most assured Victors of mens evil speeches and insolent carriages In this holy integrity while we justifie his Majesties Wisdom with Your Honors Counsels and comprobation we shall have none to fear or flatter whose evil designs under any popular and threed-bare quarrels against all Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies are to overthrow both Law and Gospel Church and State bringing all into Anarchy and confusion We shall indeed highly urge conformity especially in our selves and all true Ministers Conformity I say first to the Word of God to the Examples of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles with all true Saints Next to those Canons and Laws of the Church and State which bind Us and them most to loyalty and duty Lastly We shall so far urge an external conformity in circumstantials and Ceremonies as shall be required of them and Us by Law in order to preserve decency reverence uniformity and solemnity in holy Duties also peace and unity