Office in the Church distinct from Pastors and Teachers Eph. iv 11. and that they were Evangelists it appears by their being sent up and down by the Apostles or taken along with them in company to several Churches as the necessity and occasion of the Churches did require The one of them being expresly called an Evangelist 1 Tim. iv 5. and neither of them being any where in Scripture called Bishop Neither were they fixed to Ephesus and Crete as Bishops in the Churches committed to them but removed from thence to other places and never for ought appears in Scripture returned to them again And it seems clear to us that neither their abode at Ephesus and Crete was for any long time nor so intended by the Apostle For he imploys them there upon occasional business and expresses himself in such manner I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine 1 Tim. i. 3. For this cause left I thee in Crete Tit. i. 5. as doth not carry the fixing or constituting of a Bishop in a place as perpetual Governour And it is as manifest that they were both of them called away from these places ii Tim. iv 9. Do thy diligence to come to me shortly Tit. iii. 12. Be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis So that they may as well be called Bishops of any other Cities or Churches where they had any considerable abode as they are pretended to have been of Ephesus and Crete as they are called by the Postscripts of these Epistles the credit of which Postscripts we cannot build upon in this point Secondly to that of the Angels of the Churches The Ministers of the Churches are called Stars and Angels which denominations are metaphorical and in a mystery Rev. i. 20. the mystery of the seven Stars Angels in respect of their Mission or sending Stars in respect of their Station and shining And it seems strange to us that to so many express Testimonies of Scripture an allegorical denomination or mystery should be opposed These Angels being no where called Bishops in vulgar acceptation nor the word Bishop used in any of John's writings who calls himself Presbyter nor any mention of superiority of one Presbyter to another but in Diotrephes affecting it And as to that which may be said that the Epistles are directed to one we answer that a number of persons are in the mysterious and prophetick writings expressed in singulars and we humbly conceive that being written in an Epistolary style for they are as Letters or Epistles to the Churches these writings are directed as Letters to collective Representative Bodies use to be that is to one but intended and meant to that Body in meeting assembled which that they were so intended is clear to us both because there were in Ephesus Bishops and Presbyters one and the same to whom the Apostle at his farewel commendeth the Government of the Church and by divers expressions in these Epistles as Rev. 11. 24. To you and to the rest in Thyatira by which distinction of you and the rest we conceive the particular Governours which were more than one and the people to be signified And so cannot consent that any singular person had majority over the rest or sole power of exercising Church-Censures and Government spoken of in these Chapters Having thus as we humbly conceive proved by pregnant places of Scripture compared together that the Apostles themselves did not institute or practice Episcopal Government nor commit and derive it to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein we shall in farther discharge of our duty to and for the more clear and full satisfaction of Your Majesty in this point briefly declare into what Officers hands the ordinary and standing Offices of the Church were transmitted and derived by and from the Apostles The Apostles had no Successors in eundem gradum the Apostolical Office was not derived by Succession being instituted by Christ by extraordinary and special Commission But for the ordinary and standing use and service of the Church there were ordained only two Orders of Officers viz. Bishops and Deacons which the Apostle expresseth Phil. 1. 1. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons and onely of them doth the Apostle give the due Characters of Officers 1 Tim. iii 2 8. From both which places of Scripture we conclude with ancient Expositors both Greek and Latine that Bishops are the same with Presbyters and besides Presbyters there is no mention of any other Order but that of Deacons Of both which Orders in the Apostles times there were in one City more than one as in Philippi and Ephesus And we humbly offer to Your Majesty as observable That though one Order might be superiour to another Order yet in the same Order of Officers there was not any one superior to others of the same Order No Apostle was above an Apostle no Evangelist above an Evangelist no Presbyter above a Presbyter no Deacon above a Deacon And so we conclude this part That since Church Officers are instituted and set in the Church by God or Christ Jesus and that Ordination by or in which the Office is conveyed is of no other Officers but of Presbyters and Deacons therefore there are no other Orders of ordinary and standing Officers in the Churches of Christ As for the Ages immediately succeeding the Apostles we answer first Our Faith reaches no farther than the Holy Scriptures No human testimony can beget any more than a human faith Secondly we answer That it is agreed upon by Learned men as well such as contend for Episcopacy as others that the times immediately succeeding the Apostles are very dark in respect of the History of the Church Thirdly That the most unquestionable Record of those times gives clear testimony to our assertion viz. The Epistle of Clemens to the Corinthians who reciting the Orders of Church-Officers expresly limits them to two Bishops and Deacons and them whom in one place he calls Bishops he always afterwards nameth Presbyters The Epistles of Ignatius pretend to the next Antiquity but are by some suspected as wholly spurious and proved by Vedelius to be so mixed that it is hard if not impossible to know what part of them are genuine Besides Bishop Vsher in his late observations on them chap. 18. pag. 138. confesses that of the twelve of his Epistles six are counterfeit the other six mixt and none of them in every respect to be accounted sincere and genuine Fourthly we grant That not long after the Apostles times Bishops in some superiority to Presbyters are by the Writers of those times reported to be in the Church but they were set up not as a Divine Institution but as an Ecclesiastical as afterwards both Arch-Bishops and Patriarchs were Which is clear by Doctor Reynolds his Epistle to Sir Francis Knowles wherein he shews out of
Doctor Reynolds against Hart and by other Writers 4. You affirm but upon very weak proofs that they were from Ephesus and Crete removed to other places Some that have exactly out of Scripture compared the times and orders of the several journeys and stations of Paul and Timothy have demonstrated the contrary concerning this particular 5. Whereas you say it is manifest from the 2. Tim. iv 9. and Tit. iii. 12. that they were called away from these places it doth no more conclude that they were not Bishops there or that they might as well be called Bishops of other Churches than it may be concluded from the attendance of the Divines at Westminster that they are no longer Parsons or Vicars of their several Parishes Lastly for the Postscripts of these Epistles though His Majesty lay no great weight upon them yet He holdeth them to be of great antiquity and therefore such as in question of fact where there appears no strong evidence to weaken their belief ought not to be lightly rejected Neither doth His Majesty lay any weight at all upon the Allegory or Mystery of the denomination in the next point concerning the Angels of the Churches as you mistake in your Answer thereunto wherein His Majesty finds as little satisfaction as in the last point before The strength of His Majesties instance lay in this That in the Judgement of all the Ancient and the best Modern Modern Writers and by many probabilities in the Text it self the Angels of the Seven Churches were personoe Singulares and such as had a Prelacy as well over Pastors as People within their Churches and that is in a word Bishops And you bring nothing of moment in your Answer to infirm this You say truly indeed That those Epistles were written in Epistolary style and so as Letters to collective or representative Bodies use to be directed to one but intended to the Body Which when you have proved you are so far from weakning that you rather strengthen the Argument to prove those Angels to have been single persons as when His Majesty sendeth a Message to His two Houses and directs it to the Speaker of the House of Peers His intending it to the whole House doth not hinder but that the Speaker to whom it is directed is one single person still Yet His Majesty cannot but observe in this as in some parts of your Answer how willing you are versari in generalibus and how unwillingly to speak out and to declare plainly and directly what your opinion is concerning those Angels who they were whether they were as the great Antagonist of Episcopacy Salmasius very peremptorily sit ergo hoc fixum c. affirmeth the whole Churches or so many individual Pastors of the gathered Churches in those Cities or the whole College of Presbyters in the respective Churches or the singular and individual Presidents of these Colleges for into so many several Opinions are those few divided among themselves who have divided themselves from the common and received judgement of the Christian Church In the following discourse you deny that the Apostles were to have any Successors in their Office and affirm that there were to be onely two Orders of ordinary and standing Officers in the Church wiz Presbyters and Deacons What His Majesty conceiveth concerning the Successors of the Apostles is in part already declared viz. That they have no Successors in eundem gradum in respect of those things that were extraordinary in them as namely the measure of their Gifts the extent of their Charge the infallibility of their Doctrine and which is sundry times mentioned as a special Character of an Apostle properly so called the having seen Christ in the flesh But in those things that were not extraordinary and such those things are to be judged which are necessary for the service of the Church in all times as the Office of Teaching and the power of Governing are they were to have and had Successors and therefore the Learned and Godly Fathers and Councils of old times did usually style Bishops the Successors of the Apostles without ever scrupling thereat And as to the standing Offices of the Church although in the places by you cited Phil. i. 1. i Tim. iii. 8. there be no mention of Bishops as distinct from Presbyters but of the two Orders only of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons yet it is not thereby proved that there is no other standing Office in the Church besides For there appear two other manifest reasons why that of Bishops might not be so proper to be mentioned in those places the one because in the Churches which the Apostles themselves planted they placed Presbyters under them for the Office of Teaching but took upon themselves the care and reserved in their own hands the power of Governing in those Churches for a longer or shorter time as they saw it expedient for the propagating of the Gospel before they set Bishops over them and so it may be probable that there was as yet no Bishop set over the Church of Philippi when Saint Paul writ his Epistle to them The other because in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus the persons to whom he wrote being themselves Bishops there was no need to write any thing concerning the choice or qualification of any other sort of Officers than such as belonged to their ordination or inspection which were Presbyters and Deacons only and not Bishops Concerning the Ages succeeding the Apostles 1. His Majesty believeth that altho Faith as it is an assent unto Truth supernatural or of Divine revelation reacheth no further than the Scriptures yet in matters of fact humane Testimonies may beget a Faith though humane yet certain and infallible as by the credit of Histories we have an infallible Faith that Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher and Cicero a Roman Orator 2. The darkness of those times in respect of the History of the Church is a very strong Argument for Episcopacy which notwithstanding the darkness of the times hath found so full and clear a proof by the unquestioned Catalogues extant in ancient Writers of the Bishops of sundry famous Cities as Jerusalem Antioch Alexandria Rome Ephesus c. in a continued succession from the Apostles as scarce any other matter of fact hath found the like 3. In Clement's Testimony cited by you His Majesty conceiveth you make use of your old fallacy from the promiscuous use of the words to infer the indistinction of the things for who can doubt of Clement's Opinion concerning the distinct Offices of Bishops and Presbyters who either readeth his whole Epistle or considereth that he himself was a Bishop in that sense even by the confession of Videlius himself a man never yet suspected to favour Bishops who saith that after the death of Linus and Cletus Clemens solus Episcopi nomen retinuit quia jam invaluerat distinctio Episcopi Presbyteri And for Ignatius Epistles though some of late out of their partial
call upon us to be particular though we cannot name the Angels nor are satisfied in our judgment that those whom some do undertake to name were intended by the name of Angels in those Epistles yet we say First that these Epistles were sent unto the Churches and that under the expression of this thou dost or this thou hast and the like the Churches are respectively intended for the Sins reproved the Repentance commanded the Punishments threatned ate to be referred to the Churches and not to the singular Angels only and yet we do not think that Salmasius did intend nor do we that in formal denomination the Angels and Candlesticks were the same Secondly The Angels of these Churches or Rulers were a Collective body which we endeavoured to prove by such probabilities as Your Majesty takes no notice of namely the instance of the Church of Ephesus where there were many Bishops to whom the charge of that Church was by St. Paul at his final departure from them committed as also by that expression Rev. xi 24. To you and to the rest in Thyatira Which distinction makes it very probable that the Angel is explained under that plurality to you The like to which many expressions may be found in these Epistles which to interpret according to the consentient Evidence of other Scriptures of the New Testament is not Safe only but Solid and Evidential Thirdly These Writings are directed as Epistolary Letters to Collective Bodies usually are that is to One but intended to the Body which Your Majesty illustrateth by Your sending a Message to Your Two Houses and directing it to the Speaker of the House of Peers which as it doth not hinder we confess but that the Speaker is one single Person so it doth not prove at all that the Speaker is always the same person or if he were that therefore because Your Message is directed to him he is the Governour or Ruler of the two Houses in the least And so Your Majesty hath given clear instance that tho these Letters be directed to the Angels yet that notwithstanding they might neither be Bishops nor yet perpetual Moderators For the several opinions specified in Your Majesties Paper three of them by easy and fair accommodation as we declared before are soon reduced and united amongst themselves and may be holden without recess from the received Judgment of the Christian Church by such as are far from meriting that Aspersion which is cast upon the Reformed Divines by Popish Writers that they have divided themselves from the Common and received Judgment of the Christian Church which Imputation we hope was not in Your Majesties intention to lay upon us until it be made clear that it is the common and received Judgment of the Christian Church that now is or of that in former Ages that the Angels of the Churches were Bishops having Prelacy as well over Pastors as People within their Churches In the following Discourse we did deny that the Apostles were to have any Successors in their Office and affirmed only Two Orders of ordinary and standing Officers in the Church viz. Presbyters and Deacons Concerning the former of which Your Majesty refers to what you had in part already declared That in those things which were extraordinary in the Apostles as namely the Measure of their Gifts c. They had no Successors in eundem gradum but in those things which were not extraordinary as the Office of Teaching and Power of Governing which are necessary for the Service of the Church in all times they were to have and had Successors Where Your Majesty delivers a Doctrine new to us namely that the Apostles had Successors into their Offices not into their Abilities For besides that Succession is not properly into Abilities but into Office we cannot say that one succeeds another in his Learning or Wit or Parts but into his Room and Function we conceive that the Office Apostolical was extraordinary in whole because their Mission and Commission was so and the service or work of Teaching and Governing being to continue in all times doth not render their Office Ordinary as the Office of Moses was not rendered Ordinary because many works of Government exercised by him were re-committed to the standing Elders of Israel And if they have Successors it must be either into their whole Office or into some parts Their Successors into the whole however differing from them in measure of Gifts and peculiar Qualifications must be called Apostles the same Office gives the same Denomination and then we shall confess that Bishops if they be their Successors in Office are of Divine Institution because the Apostolical Office was so If their Successors come into part of their Office only the Presbyters may as well be called their Successors as the Bishops and so indeed they are called by some of the ancient Fathers Irenoeus Origen Hierome and others Whereas in truth the Apostles have not properly Successors into Office but the ordinary Power of Teaching and Governing which is setled in the Church for continuance is instituted and settled in the hands of ordinary Officers by a New Warrant and Commission according to the rules of Ordination and Calling in the Word which the Bishop hath not yet produced for himself and without which he cannot challenge it upon the general allusive Speeches used by the Fathers without scruple And whereas Your Majesty numbers the extent of their work amongst those things which were extraordinary in the Apostles we could wish that You had declared whether it belong to their Mission or Vnction for we humbly conceive that their Authoritative Power to do their Work in all places of the World did properly belong to their Mission and consequently that their Office as well as their Abilities was extraordinary and so by Your Majesties own Concession not to be succeeded into by the Bishops As to the Orders of standing Officers of the Church Your Majesty doth reply That although in the places cited Phil. i. 1. i Tim. iii. 8. there be no mention but of the two Orders only of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons yet it is not thereby proved that there is no other standing Office in the Church besides Which we humbly conceive is justly proved not only because there are no other named but because there is no rule of Ordaining any third no Warrant or way of Mission and so Argument is as good as can be made a non causa ad non effectum for we do not yet apprehend that the Bishops pretending to the Apostolick Office do also pretend to the same manner of Mission nor do we know that those very many Divines that have asserted two Orders only have concluded it from any other grounds than the Scriptures cited There appear as your Majesty saith two other manifest Reasons why the Office of Bishops might not be so proper to be mentioned in those places And we humbly conceive there is a third more manifest than those two
and that these places of Scripture 1 Tim. v. 22. Tit. i. 5. 1 Tim. v. 19. Titus 3. 10. do prove that Timothy and Titus had power to ordain Presbyters and Deacons and to exercise censures over Presbyters and others and that the second and third Chapters of the Revelation do prove That the Angels of the Churches had power of governing of the Churches and exercising Censures But that either the Apostles or Timothy and Titus or the Angels of the Churches were Bishops as Bishops are distinct from Presbyters exercising Episcopal Government in that sense or that the Apostles did commit and derive to any particular persons as their Substitutes and Successors any such Episcopal Government or that this is proved in the least measure by the Scriptures alledged we do as fully deny And therefore do humbly deny also That Episcopal Government is therefore most consonant to the Word of God and of Apostolical institution or proved so to be by these Scriptures None of these were Bishops or practised Episcopal Government as Bishops are distinct from Presbyters Neither is such an Officer of the Church as a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter to be found in the New Testament by which we humbly conceive that our Faith and Conscience touching this point ought to be concluded The Name Office and Work of Bishop and Presbyter being one and the same in all things and never in the least distinguisht as is clearly evident Tit. i. 5 7. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Presbyters in every City as I had appointed thee For a Bishop must be blameless In which place the Apostle his reasoning were altogether invalid and inconsequent if Presbyter and Bishop were not the same Office as well as they have the same Name The same is manifest Acts xx 17 28. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Presbyters of the Church to whom he gave this charge verse 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed and govern the Church of God Where we observe That the Apostle being to leave these Presbyters and never to see their faces more verse 28. doth charge them with the feeding and governing of the Church as being Bishops of the Holy Ghost's making But that the Holy Ghost did make any superior or higher kind of Bishops than these common Presbyters is not to be found in that or any other Text. And that under the mouth of two or three witnesses this assertion of ours may stand we add to what we have already said that in 1 Pet. v. 1 2. The Presbyters which are among you I exhort who am also a Presbyter Feed the flock of God which is among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 performing the office of Bishops Where it appears plain to us that under the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place is expressed whatsoever work the Presbyters are to do Neither can Bishops so called as above Presbyters do more for the government and good of the Church otherwise than is there expresly enjoyned unto Presbyters By all which that hath been said the point is rendred to be most clear to the judgement of most men both ancient and of later times That there is no such Officer to be found in the Scriptures of the New Testament as a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter neither doth the Scripture afford us the least notice of any qualification required in a Bishop that is not required in a Presbyter nor any Ordination to the Office of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter nor any work or duty charged upon a Bishop which Presbyters are not enjoyned to do nor any greater honour or dignity put upon them For that double honour which the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. v. 17. as due to Presbyters that rule well is with a note of especially affixed to that Act or work of labouring in the word and Doctrine which is not that Act wherein Bishops have challenged a singularity or peculiar eminency above the Presbyters To that which Your Majesty doth conceive That Episcopal government was practised by the Apostles themselves we humbly answer That the Apostles as they were the highest Officers of the Church of Christ so they were extraordinary in respect of their commission gifts and Office and distinguisht from all other Officers 1 Cor. xii 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Ephes iv 11. Christ gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers Where the Apostles are distinguished from Pastors and Teachers who are the ordinary Officers of the Church for Preaching the Word and Government That they had power and authority to ordain Church-Officers and to exercise Censures in all Churches we affirm and withal that no other Persons or Officers of the Church may challenge or assume to themselves such power in that respect alone because the Apostles practised it except such power belong unto them in common as well as to the Apostles by warrant of the Scripture For that Government which they practised was Apostolical according to the peculiar commission and authority which they had and no otherwise to be called Episcopal than as their Office was so comprehensive as they had power to do the work of any or all other Church-Officers in which respect they call themselves Presbyteri Diaconi but never Episcopi in distinct sense and therefore we humbly crave leave to say that to argue the Apostles to have practised Episcopal Goverment because they ordained other Officers and exercised Censures is as if we should argue a Justice of Peace to be a Constable because he doth that which a Constable doth in some particulars It 's manifest that the Office of Bishops and Presbyters was not distinct in the Apostles They did not act as Bishops in some Acts and as Presbyters in other Acts the distinction of Presbyters and Bishops being made by men in after-times And whereas Your Majesty doth conceive that the Episcopal Government was by the Apostles committed and derived to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordaining Presbyters and Deacons giving rules concerning Christian discipline and exercising censures over Presbyters and others seeming by the alledged places of Scripture to instance in Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches we humbly answer and first to that of Timothy and Titus We grant that Timothy and Titus had Authority and Power of ordaining Presbyters and Deacons and of exercising Censures over Presbyters and others though we cannot say they had this power as the Apostles Substitutes or Successors in Episcopal Government nor that they exercised the power they had as being Bishops in the sense of Your Majesty but as extraordinary Officers or Evangelists which Evangelists were an
viz. because it was not The one Reason given by Your Majesty is because in the Churches which the Apostles themselves planted they placed Presbyters under them for the Office of Teaching but reserved in their own hands the Power of Governing those Churches for a longer or shorter time before they set Bishops over them Which under Your Majesties favour is not so much a reason why Bishops are not mentioned to be in those places as that they indeed were not The variety of Reasons may we say or Conjectures rendred why Bishops were not set up at first as namely because fit men could not be so soon found out which is Epiphanius his reason or for remedy of Schism which is Jerome's reason or because the Apostles saw it not expedient which is Your Majesties reason doth shew that this Cause labours under a manifest weakness For the Apostles reserving in their own hands the power of Governing we grant it they could no more devest themselves of power of Governing than as Dr. Bilson saith they could lose their Apostleship had they set no Bishops in all Churches they had no more parted with their power of Governing than they did in setting up the Presbyters for we have proved that Presbyters being called Rulers Governors Bishops had the power of Governing in Ordinary committed to them as well as the Office of Teaching and that both the Keys as they are called being by our Saviour committed into one hand were not by the Apostle divided into two Nor do we see how the Apostle could reasonably commit the Government of the Church to the Presbyters of Ephesus Acts 20. and yet reserve the power of Governing viz. in Ordinary in his own hands who took his solemn leave of them as never to see their faces more As concerning that part of the power of Government which for distinction sake may be called Legislative and which is one of the three fore-mentioned things challenged by the Bishops viz. giving Rules the reserving of it in the Apostles hands hindred not but that in Your Majesties Judgment Timothy and Titus were Bishops of Ephesus and Crete to whom the Apostle gives Rules for Ordering and Governing of the Church Nor is there any more reason that the Apostles reserving that part of the Power of Governing which is called Executive in such cases and upon such occasions as they thought meet should hinder the setting up of Bishops if they had intended it and therefore the reserving of Power in their hands can be no greater reason why they did not set us Bishops at the first than that they never did And since by Your Majesties Concession the Presbyters were plac'd by the Apostles first in the Churches by them planted and that with Power of Governing as we prove by Scripture You must prove the super-institution of a Bishop over the Presbyters by the Apostles in some after-times or else we must conclude that the Bishop got both his Name and Power of Government out of the Presbyters hand as the Tree in the wall roots out the stones by little and little as it self grows As touching Philippi where Your Majesty saith it may be probable there was yet no Bishop it is certain there were many like them who were also at Ephesus to whom if only the Office of Teaching did belong they had the most laborious and honourable part that which was less honourable being reserved in the Apostles hands and the Churches left in the mean time without ordinary Government The other Reason given why only two Orders are mentioned in those places is because he wrote in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus to them that were Bishops so there was no need to write any thing concerning the Choice or Qualification of any other sort of Officers than such as belonged to their Ordination or Inspection which were Presbyters and Deacons only and no Bishops The former Reason why only two Orders are mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians was because there was yet no Bishop this latter Reason why the same two only are mentioned in these Epistles is because there was no Bishop to be Ordained We might own the reason for good if there may be found any rule for the Ordination of the other Order of Bishops in some other place of Scripture but if the Ordination cannot be found how should we find the Order And it is reasonable to think that the Apostle in the Chapter formerly alledged i Tim. iii. where he passes immediately from the Bishop to the Deacon would have distinctly exprest or at least hinted what sort of Bishops he meant whether the Bishop over Presbyters or the Presbyter-Bishop to have avoided the confusion of the Name and to have set as it were some matk of difference in the Escocheon of the Presbyter-Bishop if there had been some other Bishop of a higher house And whereas Your Majesty saith there was no need to write to them about a Bishop in a distinct sense who belonged not to their Ordination and Inspection we conceive that in Your Majesties judgment Bishops might then have Ordained Bishops like themselves for there was then no Canon forbidding one single Bishop to ordain another of his own rank and there being many Cities in Crete Titus might have found it expedient as those ancient Fathers that call him Arch-bishop think he did to have set up Bishops in some of those Cities So that this Reason fights against the Principles of those that hold Timothy and Titus to have been Bishops For our part we believe that these Rules belonged not to Timothy and Titus with strict limitation to Ephesus and Crete but respectively to all the places or Churches where they might come and to all that shall at any time have the Office of Ordaining and Governing as it is written in the same Chapter i Tim. iii. 14 15. These things I have written unto thee c. that thou mayest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church And therefore if there had been any proper Character or Qualification of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter if any Ordination or Office we think the Apostle would have signified it but because he did not we conclude and the more strongly from the insufficiency of Your Majesties two Reasons that there are only two Orders of Officers and consequently that a Bishop is not superior to a Presbyter for we find not as we said in our Answer that one Officer is superior to another who is of the same Order Concerning the Ages succeeding the Apostles Your Majesty having in Your first Paper said that You could not in Conscience consent to Abolish Episcopal Government because You did conceive it to be of Apostolical Institution practised by the Apostles themselves and by them committed and derived to particular persons as their Successors and hath ever since till these last times been exercised by Bishops in all the Churches of Christ we thought it necessary in our Answer to
that Ignatius cannot be distinctly known in Ignatius And if we take him in gross we make him the Patron as Baronius and the rest of the Popish Writers do of such rites and observations as the Church in his time cannot be thought to have owned He doth indeed give testimony to the Prelacy of a Bishop above a Presbyter that which may justly render him suspected is that he gives too much Honour saith he the Bishop as God's high Priest and after him you must honour the King He was indeed a holy Martyr and his writings have suffered Martyrdom as well as he Corruptions could not go current but under the credit of worthy Names That which Your Majesty saith in Your fourth Paragraph that we might have added if we had pleased That James Timothy Titus c. were constituted and ordained Bishops of the forementioned places respectively and that all the Bishops of those times were reputed Successors to the Apostles in their Episcopal Office we could not have added it without prejudice as we humbly conceive to the truth for the Apostles did not ordain any of themselves Bishops nor could they do it for even by Your Majesties Concession they were Bishops before viz. as they were Apostles nor could any Apostle his choice of a certain Region or place to exercise his function in whilst he pleased render him a Bishop any more than Paul was Bishop of the Gentiles Peter of the Circumcision Neither did the Apostles ordain the Evangelists Bishops of those places unto which they sent them nor were the Bishops of those times any more than as Your Majesty saith reputed Successors to the Apostles in their Episcopal Office they came after the Apostles in the Churches by them planted so might Presbyters do But that 's not properly succession at least not succession into Office and this we say with a Salvo to our Assertion That in those times there were no such Bishops distinct from Presbyters Neither do we understand whether the words Episcopal Office in this Section refer to the Bishops or Apostles for in reference to Apostles it insinuates a distinction of the Apostles Office into Apostolical and Episcopal or that the Office Apostolical was wholly Episcopal unto neither of which we can give our consent for reasons forementioned To the testimonies by us recited in proof of two only Orders Your Majesty answers first That the promiscuous use of the names of Bishops and Presbyters is imported That which Your Majesty not long ago called our old fallacy is now Your Answer only with this difference we under promiscuous names hold the same Office Your Majesty under promiscuous names supposes two which if as it is often asserted was but once proved we should take it for a determination of this Controversie Secondly that they relate to a School-point or a nicety utrum Episcopatus fit or do vel gradus both sides of the questionists or disputants in the mean time acknowledging the right of Church-government in the Bishops alone It is confest by us that that question as it is stated by Popish Authors is a curious nicety to which we have no eye or reference for though the same Officers may differ from and excel others of the same order in Gifts or Qualifications yet the Office it self is one and the same without difference or degrees as one Apostle or Presbyter is not superior to another in the degree of Office they that are of the same Order are of the same degree in respect of Office as having Power and Authority to the same Acts. Nor doth the Scripture warrant or allow any Superiority of one over another of the same Order and therefore the proving of two Orders only in the Church is a demonstration that Presbyters and Bishops are the same In which point the Scripture will counter-balance the testimonies of those that assert three degrees or orders though ten for one But for easing of Your Majesty of the trouble of producing testimonies against those cited by us we make this humble motion that the Regiments on both sides may be discharged out of the field and the Point disputed by Dint of holy Scripture Id verum quod primum Having passed through the Argumentative parts of Your Majesties Reply wherein we should account it a great happiness to have given Your Majesty any satisfaction in order whereunto You pleased to honour us with this employment we shall contract our selves in the remainder craving Your Majesties pardon if You shall conceive us to have been too much in the former and too little in that which follows We honour the pious intentions and munificence of Your Royal Progenitors and do acknowledge that Ornamental Accessions granted to the Person do not make any substantial change in the Office the real difference betwixt that Episcopal Government which first obtained in the Church and the present Hierarchy consists in ipso regimine modo regiminis which cannot be clearly demonstrated in particulars until it be agreed on both sides what that Episcopacy was then and what the Hierarchy is now and then it would appear whether these three forementioned Essentials of Episcopal Government were the same in both For the Power under Christian Princes and under Pagan is one and the same though the Exercise be not And we humbly receive Your Majesties pious Advertisement not unlike that of Constantine's stirring us up as men unbiassed with private interests to study the nearest Accommodation and best resemblance to the Apostolical and Primitive times But for Your Majesties Salvo to the Bishops sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction and that distinction of Ordination Authoritative in the Bishop and Concomitant in the Presbytery which You seem to found upon these two Texts 11 Tim. i. 6. 1 Tim. IV. 14. and which is used by Dr. Bilson and other Defenders of Episcopacy in explication of that Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage which enjoyns the joynt imposition of the Bishops and Presbyters hands we shall give Your Majesty an accompt when we shall be called to the inquisition thereof Albeit that we do not for the present see but that this Proviso of Your Majesty renders our accommodation to the Apostolical and Primitive times whereunto You did exhort us unfeisible We notwithstanding do fully profess our acknowledgement of subordination of the outward exercise of Jurisdiction to the Sovereign power and our accomptableness to the Laws of the Land As for Your Majesties three Questions of great importance Whether there be a certain form of Government left by Christ and his Apostles to be observed by all Christian Churches Whether it bind perpetually or be upon occasion alterable in whole or in part Whether that certain form of Government be the Episcopal Presbyterian or some other differing from them hoth The whole Volume of Ecclesiastical Policy is contained in them and we hope that neither Your Majesty expected of us a particular Answer to them at this time nor will take offence at us if
Church-Government could have pretended to such institution it had been the most impossible thing in the world when there neither was any outward coercive power to inforce it nor could be any General Council to establish it to have introduced such a Form of Government so suddenly and quietly into all Christian Churches and not the Spirit of any one Presbyter for ought that appeareth for above Three Hundred years to have been provoked either through Zeal Ambition or other motive to stand up in the just defence of their own and the Churches liberty against such an Usurpation His Majesty believeth that whosoever shall consider the premisses together with the Scripture-evidences that are brought for that Government will see reason enough to conclude the same to have something of Divine Institution in it notwithstanding all the evasions aad objections that the subtil wit of man can devise to perswade the contrary And therefore His Majesty thinketh it fit plainly to tell you that such Conjectural Interpretations of Scripture as He hath yet met with in this Argument how handsomly soever set off are not Engines of strength enough to remove Him from that Judgment wherein He hath been setled from His Childhood and findeth so consonant to the Judgment of Antiquity and to the constant Practice of the Christian Church for so many hundred years which in a matter of this nature ought to weigh more than mere Conjectural Inferences from Scripture-Texts that are not so attested Which having now once told you His Majesty thinketh Himself discharged from the necessity of making so large and particular an Answer to every Allegation in the sequel of your Reply as hitherto He hath done As to the Apostles Mission and Succession To make His Answer the shorter to so long a discourse His Majesty declareth that His meaning was not by distinguishing the Mission and Vnction of the Apostles so to confine them as if they should relate precisely and exclusively the one to the Office the other to the Abilities but that they did more especially and eminently so relate For the Apostles after their last Mission Matth. xxviii 19 20. whereby they were further warranted to their Office and Work were yet to wait for that promised anointing Luke xxiv 49. Acts i. 4. the special effect whereof was the enduing them with Gifts of the Holy Ghost for the better and more effectual performing of that their Work and Office Nor was it His Majesties meaning to restrain the Extraordinaries in the Apostolical Office to those Gifts only for His Majesty afterwards in the same Paper mentioneth other Extraordinaries also as before is said but only to instance in those Gifts as one sort of Extraordinaries wherein the Apostles were to have no Successors But His Majesties full meaning was that the whole Apostolical Office setting aside all and only what was personal and extraordinary in them consisted in the work of Teaching and Governing which being both of necessary and perpetual use in the Church to the worlds end the Office therefore was also to continue and consequently the persons of the Apostles being mortal to be transmitted and derived to others in succession And that the Ordinary Successors of the Apostles immediately and into the whole Office both of Teaching and Governing are properly the Bishops the Presbyters succeeding them also but in part and into the Office of Teaching only and that mediately and subordinately to the Bishops by whom they are to be ordained and authorized thereunto which His Majesty taketh not to be as you call it a dissolving of the Apostolical Office Now the ground of what His Majesty hath said concerning the manner of Succession to the Apostles that it may appear not to have been said gratis is this The things which the Scriptures record to have been done by Christ or his Apostles or by others at their appointment are of three sorts some acts of Power merely extraordinary others acts of an ordinary power but of necessary and perpetual use othersome lastly and those not a few Occasional and Prudential fitted to the present condition of the Church in several times To the Apostles in matters of the first sort none pretend succession nor are either the Examples of what the Apostles themselves did or the directions that they gave to others what they should do in matters of the third sort to be drawn into consequence so far as to be made necessary Rules binding all succeeding Church-officers in all Times to perpetual observation So that there remain the things of the middle sort only which we may call Substantials into which the Apostles are to have ordinary and standing Successors But then the difficulty will be by what certain marks Extraordinaries Substantials and Prudentials may be known and distinguished each from other Evident it is the Scriptures do not afford any particular discriminating Characters whereby to discern them the Acts of all the three sorts being related in the like narrative forms and the directions of all the three sorts expressed in the like preceptive forms Recourse therefore must of necessity be had to those two more general Criterions the Laws of all human actions Reason and Common Usage Our own Reason will tell us that instructing the People of God in the Christian Faith exhorting them to Piety and good Works administring the Sacraments c. which belong to the Office of Teaching that Ordaining of Ministers Inspection over their Lives and Doctrines and other Administrations of Ecclesiastical Affairs belonging to the Office of Governing are matters of great importance and necessary concernment to the Church in all ages and times and therefore were to be concredited to standing Officers in a Line of succession and accordingly were judged and the continuance of them preserved in the constant usage of the Churches of Christ But that on the other side the decrees concerning Abstinence from Blood and Strangled Acts xv the Directions given for the ordering some things in the Church-Assemblies i Cor. xiv for making Provisions for the Poor i Cor. xvi 1. for the choice and maintenance of Widows i Tim. v. for the enoiling of the sick James v. 14. and other like were but Occasional Prudential and Temporary and were so esteemed by the Churches and the practice of them accordingly laid aside So for the Succession into the Apostolical Office we find in the Scriptures Evidence clear enough that the Apostles committed to others as namely to Timothy and Titus the Power both of Teaching and Governing the Churches And common Reason and Prudence dictating to us that it is good for the edifying of the Church that there should be many Teachers within a competent precinct but not so that there should be many Governours and the difference of Bishops and Presbyters to the purposes aforesaid having been by continual usage received and preserved in the Christian Church down from the Apostles to the present times His Majesty conceiveth the succession of Bishops to the Apostles into so
for the latter viz. That they were superiour to Presbyters also had been confessed by your selves in your first Grant before but was not produced to prove the Conclusion it self immediately viz. That they were Bishops in distinct sense altho sundry of their Testimonies come up even to that also But to the first point That they were Single persons the concurrence is so general that His Majesty remembreth not to have heard of any one single Interpreter before Brightman that ever expounded them otherwise And yet the same man as His Majesty is informed in his whole Commentary upon the Revelation doth scarce if at all any where else save in these Seven Epistles expound the word Angel collectively but still of one single person or other insomuch as he maketh one Angel to be Gregory the Great another Queen Elizabeth another Cranmer another Chemnitius and the like But generally both the Fathers and Protestant Divines agree in this That the Angel was a Single person some affirming plainly and that in terminis he was the Bishop some naming the very persons of some of them as of Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna and others some calling him the chief Pastor or Superintendent of that Church and those that speak least and were more or less disaffected to Bishops as Beza Doctor Reynolds the Geneva Notes and even Cartwright himself the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 President or chief among the Presbyters And this they do sundry of them not crudely delivering their Opinions only and then no more but they give Reasons for it and after examination of the several Opinions prefer this before the rest affirming That Doctissimi quique interpretes all the best learned Interpreters so understand it and that they cannot understand it otherwise vim nisi facere Textui velint unless they will offer violence to the Text. That which His Majesty said concerning the Subdivision of those that had divided themselves from the common received judgment of the Church was meant by His Majesty as to the Subdivision in respect of this particular of the Angels wherein they differ one from another as to the Division in respect of their dislike of Bishops wherein they all agree And truly His Majesty doth not yet see how either their Differences can be possibly reconciled in the former no accommodation in the world being able to make all the people of the whole Church nor yet a Colledg consisting of many Presbyters to be one Single person or their recess wholly excused in the latter their dissenting from the common and received Judgment and Practice of the Christian Church in the matter of Episcopacy and the evil consequents thereof having in His Majesties Opinion brought a greater reproach upon the Protestant Religion and given more advantage or colour at least to the Romish party to asperse the Reformed Churches in such sort as we see they do than their disagreement from the Church of Rome in any one controverted Point whatsoever besides hath done As to the Apostles Successors Here little is said the substance whereof hath not been Answered before His Majesty therefore briefly declares His meaning herein That the Apostles were to have no necessary Successors in any thing that was extraordinary either in their Mission or Unction That His Majesty spake not of Succession into Abilities otherwise than by instance mentioning other particulars withal which thing He thinketh needeth not to have been now the third time by you mentioned That in the Apostles Mission or Commission for His Majesty under the name of Mission comprehended both and consequently in the Apostolical Office as there was something extraordinary so there was something ordinary wherein they were to have Successors That Bishops are properly their Successors in the whole Apostolical Office so far as it was ordinary and to have Successors That therefore the Bishops Office may in regard of that Succession be said to be Apostolical That yet it doth not follow that they must needs be called Apostles taking the Denomination from the Office inasmuch as the Denomination of the Apostles peculiarly so called was not given them from the Office whereunto they were sent but as the word it self rather importeth from the immediateness of their Mission being sent immediately by Christ himself in respect whereof for distinction sake and in Honour to their Persons it was thought fitter by those that succeeded in common usage to abstain from that Denomination and to be styled rather by the Name of Bishops That if the Apostles had no Successors the Presbyters who are their Successors in part mediately and subordinately to the Bishops will be very hard set to prove the Warrant of their own Office and Mission which if not derived from the Apostles who only received power of Mission from Christ by a continued line of Succession His Majesty seeth not upon what other bottom it can stand As to the standing Officers of the Church You insisted upon Two Places of Scripture Phil. i. 1. and 1 Tim. iii. to prove that there were to be no more standing Officers in the Church than the two in those places mentioned viz. Presbyters who are there called Bishops and Deacons whereunto His Majesties Answer was That there might be other tho not mentioned in those places which Answer tho it were alone sufficient yet ex abundanti His Majesty shewed withall that supposing your interpretation of the word Bishop in both the places viz. to denote the Office of Presbyter only there might yet be given some probable conjectures which likewise supposed true might satisfie us why that of Bishop in the distinct sense should not be needful or proper to be named in those places His Majesties former Reason tho in Hypothesi and as applied to the Church of Philippi it be but conjectural yet upon the credit of all Ecclesiastical Histories and consideration of the Condition of those times as it is set forth in the Scriptures also it will appear in Thesi to be undoubtedly true viz. That the Apostles themselves first planted Churches That they were perpetual Governours and in chief of all the Churches whilst they lived That as the burthen grew greater by the propagation of the Gospel they assumed others in partem curae committing to their charge the peculiar oversight of the Churches in some principal Cities and the Towns and Villages adjacent as James at Jerusalem and others in other places sooner or later as they saw it expedient for the service of the Church That the persons so by them appointed to such peculiar charges did exercise the powers of Ordination and other Government under the Apostles and are therefore in the Church Stories called Bishops of those places in a distinct sense That in some places where the Apostles were themselves more frequently conversant they did for some while govern the Churches immediately by themselves before they set Bishops there and that after the Apostles times Bishops only were the ordinary Governours of the Churches of Christ And His
Majesty believeth it cannot be proved either from clear evidence of Scripture or credible testimonies of Antiquity that ever any Presbyter or Presbytery exercised the power either of Ordination at all without a Bishop or of that which they call Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in ordinary and by their own sole Authority or otherwise than as it was delegated unto them upon occasion and for the time by Apostles or Bishops For that place of Phil. 1. 1. in particular His Majesties purpose being not to interpret the place a work fitter for Divines but to manifest the inconsequence of the Argument whereby you would conclude but two standing Officers only because but two there named He gave this as one probable conjecture why there might be no Bishop in distinct sense there mentioned because possibly the Apostles had not as yet set any Bishop over that Church which His Majesty did not propose as the only no nor yet as the most probable conjecture for which cause He delivered it so cautiously saying only It might be probable but as that which for the present came first into His thoughts and was sufficient for His purpose without the least meaning thereby to prejudice other interpretations as namely of those Expositors who take the words with the Bishops and Deacons as belonging to the persons saluting and not to the persons saluted to this sense Paul and Timotheus the servants of Jesus Christ with the Bishops and Deacons to the Saints at Philippi c. or of those who affirm and that with great probability too that Epaphroditus was then actually Bishop of Philippi but not to be mentioned in the Inscription of the Epistle because he was not then at Philippi but with Saint Paul at Rome when that Epistle was written Any of which conjectures if they be true as there is none of them utterly improbable that place of Phil. 1. 1. will not do you much service in this Question In the Epistles to Timothy and Titus the Apostle directeth and admonisheth them as Bishops particularly concerning Ordination of Ministers that they do it advisedly and ordain none but such as are meetly qualified for the Service of the Church which Directions and Admonitions His Majesty believeth for the substance to belong to all Bishops of after-times as well as unto them But His Majesty seeth no necessity why in those Epistles there should be any particular directions given concerning the Ordination of Bishops at least unless it could be made appear that they were to ordain some such in those places nor perhaps if that could be made to appear inasmuch as in those Epistles there is not the least signification of any difference at all between Presbyters and Deacons in the manner of their Ordination both being to be performed by the Bishop and by Imposition of Hands and so both comprehended under that general Rule Lay hands suddenly on no man but only and that very little and scarce considerable as to the making of distinct Offices in the qualification of their persons The Ordination therefore of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons being to be performed in the same manner and the same Qualifications after a sort saving such differences as the importance of their several Offices make which is more in the degree than in the things being required in both it had been sufficient if in those Epistles there had been direction given concerning the Ordination and Qualification of but one sort of Church-Officers only as in the Epistle to Titus we see there are of Presbyters only and no mention made of Deacons in the whole Epistle whence it may be as well concluded That there was to be no other standing Officer in the Church of Crete but Presbyters only because Saint Paul giveth no directions to Titus concerning any other as it can be concluded That there were to be no other Officers in the Church of Ephesus but Presbyters and Deacons only because Saint Paul giveth no direction to Timothy concerning any other As to the Ages succeeding the Apostles Concerning the Judgment of Ecclesiastical Writers about the Divine Right of Episcopacy His Majesty conceiveth the difference to be more in their Expressions than in their Meaning some calling it Divine others Apostolical and some but not many Ecclesiastical But that the Superiority of Bishops above Presbyters began in the Apostles times and had its foundation in the Institution either of Christ himself or of his Apostles His Majesty hath not heard Aerius exceped that any till these latter Ages have denied For that which you touch upon concerning the word Infallible His Majesty supposeth you knew His meaning and He delighteth not to contend about words As for the Catalogues some uncertainties in a few a frailty which all human Histories are subject to His Majesty taketh to be insufficient to discredit all Differences there are in Historiographers in reciting the Succession of the Babylonian Persian and Macedonian Kings and of the Saxon Kings in England And we find far more inextricable intricacies in the Fasti Consulares the Catalogues of the Roman Consuls notwithstanding their great care in keeping of the publick Records and the exactness of the Roman Histories than are to be found in Epistcopal Catalogues those especially of the chiefest Cities as Jerusalem Rome Antioch Alexandria Ephesus c. Yet as all men believe there were Kings in those Countries and Consuls in Rome in those times so as you might well foresee would be answered the discrediting of the Catalogues of Bishops in respect of some uncertainties although His Majesty doubteth not but many of the differences you instance in may be fairly reconciled tendeth rather to the confirming of the thing it self That which you say in Answer hereunto that the Ecclesiastical Writers called them Bishops in compliance to the Language of their own Times after the names of Presbyters and Bishops were distinguished but that they were not indeed Bishops in the proper sense now in Question His Majesty who believeth the distinction of those names to have begun presently after the Apostles times if not rather whilst some of them were living doth consequently believe that as they were called so they were indeed Bishops in that proper sense It appeareth by Ignatius his Epistles every where how wide the difference was in his time between a Bishop and a mere Presbyter If Hierom only and some a little ancienter than he had applied the name Bishop to persons that lived some Ages before them there might have been the more colour to have attributed it to such a compliance as you speak of but that they received both the Name and the truth of their relations from unquestionable Testimonies and Records His Majesty thinketh it may be made good by many instances For example to instance in one only Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna who is thought to be the Angel of that Church in the Revelations Ignatius who was contemporary with him wrote one Epistle to him and sends salutation to him in another as
continue the Wounds of the Nation open and bleeding since there were many Forts yet held out for the King by Gallant Persons besides the Lord Hopton had an Army yet unbroken and Ormond and Montross had considerable Interests in Ireland and Scotland all which might be perswaded in a Treaty to part with those Arms which could not be taken from them without much blood and it was the common belief that these Men sought for Victory not Peace and Liberty which was now tendred therefore to raise suspicions in the Vulgar it is suggested that the Cavaliers who came to Compound would take the advantage of the King's Presence if he were permitted to be there and kindle a new Flame and War in the City And that it might be thought they had real grounds for these fears the disarmed Compounders were commanded to depart above twenty Miles from London and to injealous the People more all the transactions of the King in the Irish Pacification were published and amplified with the malicious Slanders and Comments of the implacable and conscious Demagogues that so the terrours of the Vulgar being augmented they might be frighted into a longer patience The King finding these men irreconcileable to Peace and that they had declared against His Coming though without a Caution tries the Leaders of the English Army but they proved no less pertinacious and were now approaching to besiege Oxford Providence not leaving any more Choice but only shewing Him a way for a present Escape He goes in a Disguise which when Necessity cloaths Royal Persons with seems like an Ominous Cloud before the Setting of the Sun to the Scottish Camp that was now before Newark where the Ambassadour of the King of France who was then in the Leaguer had before covenanted for His Majestie 's Safety and Protection and the Scottish Officers had engaged to secure both Him and as many of His Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to Him with their Lives and Fortunes The King being come thither May 4. made a great alteration in Affairs An. 1646 Newark was surrendred by the King's Command and St Thomas Glemham having gallantly defended Oxford till the Besiegers offered Honourable Conditions delivered up that also But the greatest Change of Counsels were at London where when it was related among whom the King had sought a Sanctuary various and different Discourses were raised Some wondred that His Majesty had sought a refuge there where the Storm began and how He could apprehend to find Relief from those that were not only the Authors of His Troubles but now the great Advancers of His Overthrow And they conceived no Promises or Oaths can be a sufficient Caution from those People that have been often Persidious Others judged that in those Necessities wherein the King was concluded it was as dangerous not to trust as to be deceived no Counsel could be better than to try whether a Confidence in them would make them faithful and whether they would then be honest when they had the Critical Opportunity to testifie to the World that they intended not what they did but what they said That they fought not against Him but for Him But a last sort bewailed both the greatness of the King's Dangers that should make Him seek for Safety in a tempestuous Sea and false bottom as also the debaucheries of the English Genius which was now so corrupted that their Prince was driven to seek an Asylum from their injuries among a People that were infamous and polluted with the Blood of many Kings While others discoursed thus of the King's journey the Parliament heated by the Independents fiercely declared against the Scots who were removing the King to Newcastle and used several methods to make them odious and drive them home For they kept back their Pay that they might exact free-Quarter from the Countrey then they did extenuate their Services derogate from their famed Valour upbraid them as Mercenaries threaten to force them out by the Sword All which while the English Presbyterians though they wish'd well to their Brethren yet lest they should seem to indulge the Insolencies of a strange Nation did not dare to plead in their defence But the Scots themselves for a time did justifie their Reception and Preservation of His Majesty by the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality which forbid the delivery and betraying of those that have fled to any for Succour The Democratick Faction urged that it was not lawful for the Scots their Hirelings and in their Dominion to receive the King into their Camp without the leave of their Masters and keep Him without their Consent These Debates were used to raise the King's price Which when the Scots were almost assured of to make their ware more valuable they sollicit the King in hopes of their Defence to command Montross to depart-from his noble Undertakings in Scotland where he had almost recovered the Overthrow Roxbrough and Traquaire had betrayed him unto and was become formidable again as also the Loyal Marquess of Ormond to desist from his gallant Oppositions both of the Irish Rebels and English Forces Which when the King had done being not willing those Gallant Persons should longer hazard their brave Lives and after both these Excellent Leaders had more in anger than fear parted with their unhappy Arms that they might have a colour of betraying Him whom the General Assembly of Scotland which useth to hatch all the Seditions to the heat and strength of a seeming Authority had forbid to be brought into His Native and Ancient Kingdom as He affectionately call'd it they tender Him the Covenant pretending without that Chain upon Him they did not dare to lead Him into Scotland This His Majesty refused not if they would first loose those Scruples of Church-Government which lay upon His Conscience Therefore to untie those Knots Mr. Henderson that was then the Oracle of the Kirk and the great Apostle of the Solemn Covenant was employed to converse with Him But the Greatness of the King's Parts and the Goodness of His Cause made all his attempts void for the Papers being published every one yielded the Victory to His Majesty and unfortunate for he returned home and not long after died as some reported of a Grief contracted from the sense of his Injuries to a Prince whom he had found so Excellent While these things were acting at Newcastle the bargain was stroke at London and for 200000 l. His Majesty stripp'd of those Arms He had when He came among them was deliver'd up as it were to be scourged and crucified to some Commissioners from the Parliament But to honest their Perfidiousness they add this Caution That there should be no attempt made upon the King ' s Person but being entertained at one of His own Palaces He should there be treated with upon Propositions from both Nations which should speedily be sent to Him But the Parliament never though of sending any Propositions till He
in their time but that such Reformation hath been perfect I cannot admit Asa took away Idolatry but his Reformation was not perfect for Jehosaphat removed the High places yet was not his Reformation perfect for it was Hezekiah that brake the Brasen Serpent and Josiah destroyed the Idol-Temples who therefore beareth this Elogie That like unto him there was no King before him It is too well known that the Reformation of K. Henry the VIII was most imperfect in the Essentials of Doctrine Worship and Government And although it proceeded by some degrees afterward yet the Government was never reformed the Head was changed Dominus non Dominium and the whole lims of the Antichristian Hierarchy retained upon what Snares and Temptations of Avarice and Ambition the great Enchanters of the Clergy I need not express It was a hard saying of Romanorum Malleus Grosthed of Lincoln That Reformation was not to be expected nisi in ore gladii cruentandi Yet this I may say that the Laodicean lukewarmness of Reformation here hath been matter of continued complaints to many of the Godly in this Kingdom occasion of more Schism and Separation than ever was heard of in any other Church and of unspeakable grief and sorrow to other Churches which God did bless with greater purity of Reformation The glory of this great work we hope is reserved for Your Majesty that to Your comfort and everlasting Fame the praise of godly Josiah may be made Yours which yet will be no dispraise to Your Royal Father or Edward the VI. or any other Religious Princes before You none of them having so fair an opportunity as is now by the supreme Providence put into Your Royal hands My soul trembleth to think and to foresee what may be the event if this opportunity be neglected I will neither use the words of Mordecai Esth 4. 14. nor what Savonarola told another Charles because I hope better things from Your Majesty 4. To the Argument brought by your Majesty which I believe none of your Doctors had they been all about You could more briefly and yet so fully and strongly have expressed That nothing was retained in this Church but according as it was deduced from the Apostles to the constant universal practice of the Primitive Church and that it was of such consequence as by the alteration of it we should deprive our selves of the lawfulness of Priesthood I think Your Majesty means a lawful Ministry and then how the Sacraments can be administred is easy to judge I humbly offer these considerations First What was not in the times of the Apostles cannot be deduced from them We say in Scotland It cannot be brought But that is not the Ben But not to insist now on a Liturgy and things of that kind there was no such Hierarchy no such difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter in the times of the Apostles and therefore it cannot thence be deduced for I conceive it to be as clear as if it were written with a Sun-beam that Presbyter and Bishop are to the Apostles one and the same thing no majority no inequality or difference of office power or degree betwixt the one and the other but a mere Identity in all 2. That the Apostles intending to set down the Offices and Officers of the Church and speaking so often of them and of their gifts and duties and that not upon occasion but of set purpose do neither express nor imply any such Pastor or Bishop as hath power over other Pastors although it be true that they have distinctly and particularly exprest the Office Gifts and Duties of the meanest Officers such as Deacons 3. That in the Ministery of the New Testament there is a comely beautiful and Divine Order and subordination one kind of Ministers both ordinary and extraordinary being placed in degree and dignity before another as the Apostles first the Evangelists Pastors Doctors c. in their own ranks but we cannot find in Offices of the same kind that one hath majority of power or priority of degree before another no Apostle above other Apostles unless in moral respects no Evangelist above other Evangelists or Deacon above other Deacons why then a Pastor above other Pastors In all other sorts of Ministers ordinary and extraordinary a Parity in their own kind only in the office of Pastor an Inequality 4. That the whole power and all the parts of the Ministry which are commonly called The power of Order and Jurisdiction are by the Apostles declared to be common to the Presbyter and Bishop and that Matt. 15. 16 17. the gradation in matter of Discipline or Church censures is from one to two or more and if he shall neglect them tell it to the Church he saith not tell it to the Bishop there is no place left to a retrogradation from more to one were he never so eminent If these considerations do not satisfie Your Majesty may have more or the same further cleared 5. Secondly I do humbly desire Your Majesty to take notice of the fallacy of that Argument from the Practice of the Primitive Church and the universal Consent of the Fathers It is the Argument of the Papists for such Traditions as no Orthodox Divine will admit The Law and Testimony must be the Rule We can have no certain knowledge of the Practice universal of the Church for many years Eusebius the prime Historian confesseth so much the learned Josephus Scaliger testifieth that from the end of the Acts of the Apostles until a good time after no certainty can be had from Ecclesiastical Authors about Church matters It is true Diotrephes sought the preeminence in the Apostles times and the Mystery of iniquity did then begin to work and no doubt in after times some puffed up with Ambition and others overtaken with Weakness endeavoured alteration of Church-Government but that all the Learned and Godly of those times consented to such a Change as is talked of afterwards will never be proved 6. Thirdly I will never think that Your Majesty will deny the lawfulness of a Ministery and the due administration of the Sacraments in the Reformed Churches which have no Diocesan Bishops sith it is not only manifest by Scripture but a great many of the strongest Champions for Episcopacy do confess that Presbyters may ordain other Presbyters and that Baptism administred by a private Person wanting a publick Calling or by a Midwife and by a Presbyter although not ordained by a Bishop are not one and the same thing 7. Concerning the other Argument taken from Your Majesty's Coronation Oath I confess that both in the taking and keeping of an Oath so sacred a thing is it and so high a point of Religion much tenderness is required and far be it from us who deresi to observe our own Solemn Oath to press Your Majesty with the violation of Yours Yet Sir I will crave Your leave in all humbleness and sincerity to lay before Your Majesty's eyes this
my humble Opinion would be that they should draw the Minds Tongues and Pens of the Learned to dispute about other matter than the Power or Prerogative of Kings and Princes and in this kind Your Majesty hath suffered and lost more than will easily be restored to Your self or Your Posterity for a long time It is not denied but the prime Reforming power is in Kings and Princes quibus deficientibus it comes to the inferior Magistrate quibus deficientibus it descendeth to the Body of the People supposing that there is a necessity of Reformation and that by no means it can be obtained of their Superiors It is true that such a Reformation is more imperfect in respect of the Instruments and manner of Procedure yet for the most part more pure and perfect in relation to the effect and product And for this end did I cite the Examples of old of Reformation by Regal Authority of which none was perfect in the second way of perfection except that of Josiah Concerning the saying of Grosthed whom the Cardinals at Rome confest to be a more Godly man than any of themselves it was his Complaint and Prediction of what was likely to ensue not his desire or election if Reformation could have been obtained in the ordinary way I might bring two unpartial Witnesses Juel and Bilson both famous English Bishops to prove that the Tumults and Troubles raised in Scotland at the time of Reformation were to be imputed to the Papists opposing of the Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline as an Heretical Innovation and not to be ascribed to the Nobility or People who under God were the Instruments of it intending and seeking nothing but the purging out of Errour and setling of the Truth 2. Concerning the Reformation of the Church of England I conceive whether it was begun or not in K. Henry the Eighth's time it was not finished by Q. Elizabeth the Father stirred the Humors of the diseased Church but neither the Son nor the Daughter although we have great reason to bless God for both did purge them out perfectly This Perfection is yet reserved for Your Majesty Where it is said that all this time I bring no Reasons for a further Change the fourth Section of my last Paper hath many hints of Reasons against Episcopal Government with an offer of more or clearing of those which Your Majesty hath not thought fit to take notice of And Learned men have observed many Defects in that Reformation As That the Government of the Church of England for about this is the Question now is not builded upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles which they at least cannot deny who profess Church-Government to be mutable and ambulatory and such were the greater part of Archbishops and Bishops in England contenting themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and the authority and munificence of Princes till of late that some few have pleaded it to be Jure Divino That the English Reformation hath not perfectly purged out the Roman Leaven which is one of the reasons that have given ground to the comparing of this Church to the Church of Laodicea as being neither hot nor cold neither Popish nor Reformed but of a lukewarm temper betwixt the two That it hath depraved the Discipline of the Church by conforming of it to the Civil Policy That it hath added many Church-Offices higher and lower unto those instituted by the Son of God which is as unlawful as to take away Offices warranted by the Divine Institution and other the like which have moved some to apply this saying to the Church of England Multi ad perfectionem pervenirent nisi jam se pervenisse crederent 4. In my Answer to the first of Your Majesty 's many Arguments I brought a Breviate of some Reasons to prove that a Bishop and Presbyter are one and the same in Scripture from which by necessary Consequence I did infer the negative Therefore no difference in Scripture between a Bishop and a Presbyter the one name signifying Industriam Curiae Pastoralis the other Sapientiae Maturitatem saith Beda And whereas Your Majesty averrs the Presbyterian Government was never practised before Calvin's time Your Majesty knows the common Objection of the Papists against the Reformed Churches Where was your Church your Reformation your Doctrine before Luther's time One part of the common Answer is that it was from the beginning and is to be found in Scripture The same I affirm of Presbyterian Government And for the proving of this the Assembly of Divines at Westminster have made manifest that the Primitive Christian Church at Jerusalem was governed by a Presbytery while they shew 1. That the Church of Jerusalem consisted of more Congregations than one from the multitude of Believers from the many Apostles and other Preachers in that Church and from the diversity of Languages among the Believers 2. That all these Congregations were under one Presbyterial Government because they were for Government one Church Acts 11. 22 26. and because that Church was governed by Elders Acts 11. 30. which were Elders of that Church and did meet together for acts of Government And the Apostles themselves in that meeting Acts 15. acted not as Apostles but as Elders stating the Question debating it in the ordinary way of disputation and having by search of Scripture found the will of God they conclude It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us which in the judgment of the learned may be spoken by any Assembly upon like evidence of Scripture The like Presbyterian Government had place in the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Thessalonica c. in the times of the Apostles and after them for many years when one of the Presbytery was made Episcopus Praeses even then Communi Presbyterorum Consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur saith Jerome and Episcopos magis consuetudine quam Dispositionis Divinae veritate Presbyteris esse majores in commune debere Ecclesiam regere 5. Far be it from me to think such a thought as that Your Majesty did intend any Fallacy in Your other main Argument from Antiquity As we are to distinguish between Intentio operantis and Conditio operis so may we in this case consider the difference between Intentio Argumentantis and Conditio Argumenti And where Your Majesty argues That if Your opinion be not admitted we will be forced to give place to the Interpretation of private spirits which is contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostle Peter and will prove to be of dangerous consequence I humbly offer to be considered by Your Majesty what some of chief note among the Papists themselves have taught us That the Interpretation of Scriptures and the Spirits whence they proceed may be called private in a threefold sense 1. Ratione Personae if the Interpreter be of a private condition 2. Ratione Modi Medii when Persons although not private use not the publick means which are necessary for finding out the
Truth but follow their own Fancies 3. Ratione Finis when the Interpretation is not proposed as Authentical to bind others but is intended only for our own private satisfaction The first is not to be despised the second is to be exploded and is condemned by the Apostle Peter the third ought not to be censured But that Interpretation which is Authentical and of supreme Authority which every mans conscience is bound to yield unto is of an higher nature And although the General Council should resolve it and the Consent of the Fathers should be had unto it yet there must always be place left to the judgment of Discretion as Davenant late Bishop of Salisbury beside divers others hath learnedly made appear in his Book De Judice Controversiarum where also the Power of Kings in matter of Religion is solidly and unpartially determined Two words only I add One is that notwithstanding all that is pretended from Antiquity a Bishop having sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction will never be found in Prime Antiquity The other is that many of the Fathers did unwittingly bring forth that Antichrist which was conceived in the times of the Apostles and therefore are incompetent Judges in the Question of Hierarchy And upon the other part the Lights of the Christian Church at and since the beginning of the Reformation have discovered many secrets concerning the Antichrist and his Hierarchy which were not known to former Ages And divers of the Learned in the Roman Church have not feared to pronounce That whosoever denies the true and literal sense of many Texts of Scripture to have been found out in this last Age is unthankful to God who hath so plentifully poured forth his Spirit upon the Children of this Generation and ungrateful towards those men who with so great pains so happy success and so much benefit to God's Church have travailed therein This might be instanced in many places of Scripture I wind together Diotrephes and the Mystery of iniquity the one as an old example of Church-ambition which was also too palpable in the Apostles themselves and the other as a cover of Ambition afterwards discovered which two brought forth the great Mystery of the Papacy at last 6. Although Your Majesty be not made a Judge of the Reformed Churches yet You so far censure them and their actions as without Bishops in Your Judgment they cannot have a lawful Ministery nor a due Administration of the Sacraments Against which dangerous and destructive Opinion I did alledge what I supposed Your Majesty would not have denied 1. That Presbyters without a Bishop may ordain other Presbyters 2. That Baptism administred by such a Presbyter is another thing than Baptism administred by a private person or by a Midwife Of the first Your Majesty calls for proof I told before that in Scripture it is manifest 1 Tim. 4. 14. Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by the Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery so it is in the English Translation And the word Presbytery To often as it is used in the New Testament always signifies the Persons and not the Office And although the Offices of Bishop and Presbyter were distinct yet doth not the Presbyter derive his power of Order from the Bishop The Evangelists were inferiour to the Apostles yet had they their power not from the Apostles but from Christ The same I affirm of the Seventy Disciples who had their power immediately from Christ no less than the Apostles had theirs It may upon better reason be averred that the Bishops have their power from the Pope than that Presbyters have their power from the Prelats It is true Jerome saith Quid facit exceptâ ordinatione Episcopus quod non facit Presbyter But in the same place he proves from Sccipture that Episcopus and Presbyter are one and the same and therefore when he appropriates Ordination to the Bishop he speaketh of the degenerated custom of his time Secondly Concerning Baptism a private person may perform the external Action and Rites both of it and of the Eucharist yet is neither of the two a Sacrament or hath any efficacy unless it be done by him that is lawfully called thereunto or by a person made publick and cloathed with Authority by Ordination This Errour in the matter of Baptism is begot by another Errour of the Absolute Necessity of Baptism 7. To that which hath been said concerning Your Majesties Oath I shall add nothing not being willing to enter upon the Question of the subordination of the Church to the Civil Power whether the King or Parliament or both and to either of them in their own place Such an Headship as the Kings of England have claimed and such a Supremacy as the Two Houses of Parliament crave with the Appeals from the supreme Ecclesiastical Judicature to them as set over the Church in the same line of Subordination I do utterly disclaim upon such Reasons as give my self satisfaction although no man shall be more willing to submit to Civil powers each one in their own place and more unwilling to make any trouble than my self Only concerning the application of the Generals of an Oath to the particular case now in hand under favour I conceive not how the Clergy of the Church of England is or ought to be principally intended in Your Oath For although they were esteemed to be the Representative Church yet even that is for the benefit of the Church Collective Salus Populi being Suprema lex and to be principally intended Your Majesty knows it was so in the Church of Scotland where the like alteration was made And if nothing of this kind can be done without the consent of the Clergy what Reformation can be expected in France or Spain or Rome it self It is not to be expected that the Pope or Prelates will consent to their own ruine 8. I will not presume upon any secret knowledge of the Opinions held by the King Your Majesty's Father of famous Memory they being much better known to Your Majesty I did only produce what was profest by Him before the world And although Prayers and Tears be the Arms of the Church yet it is neither acceptable to God nor conducible for Kings and Princes to force the Church to put on these Arms. Nor could I ever hear a reason why a necessary Defensive War against unjust Violence is unlawful although it be joyned with Offence and Invasion which is intended for Defence but so that Arms are laid down when the Offensive War ceaseth by which it doth appear that the War on the other side was in the nature thereof Defensive 9. Concerning the forcing of Conscience which I pretermitted in my other Paper I am forced now but without forcing of my conscience to speak of it Our Conscience may be said to be forced either by our selves or by others By our selves 1. When we stop the ear of our Conscience
the eleventh of this month by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise His constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever He should be And being now in a place where He conceives Himself to be at much more Freedom and Security than formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good of His Own professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Archbishops Bishops c. His Majesty clearly professeth that He cannot give His Consent thereunto both in relation as He is a Christian and a King For the first He avows that He is satisfied in His Judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the world until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdom of His Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the service of God As a King at His Coronation He hath not only taken a solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessours in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects And yet He is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preachings in their Dioceses as also that they exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why He alone and those of His Judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty consent to the alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacrilege as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such profane violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergo And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the publick good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier Rates than if those possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest persons Yet His Majesty considering the great present distempers concerning Church-discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew Confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyterian Government but have free practice of their own profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free Consultation and Debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full liberty to all those who shall differ upon Conscientious grounds from that settlement Always provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Romish profession nor exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publick profession of Atheism or Blasphemy contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that Right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this have acknowledged so to be His Majesty cannot so much wrong that trust which the Laws of God and this Land have annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of His People as to devest Himself and Successors of the power of the Sword Yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during His whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by His two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publick Peace and against foreign invasions and that they shall have power during His said Reign to raise Monies for the purposes aforesaid and that neither His Majesty that now is or any other by any Authority derived only from Him shall execute any of the said powers during His Majesties said Reign but such as shall act by the consent and Approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Nevertheless His Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after His Majesties Reign all the power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James of blessed memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of His People His Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of His Conscience and Honour Wherefore if His two Houses shall consent to remit unto Him such benefit out of Sequestrations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the Peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of His own Revenue as His two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace His Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army and if those means shall not be sufficient His Majesty intends to
give way to the sale of Forest-Lands for that purpose this being the publick Debt which in His Majesties Judgment is first to be satisfied And for other publick Debts already contracted upon Church-Lands or any other Ingagements His Majesty will give His Consent to such Act or Acts for raising of monies for payment thereof as both Houses shall hereafter agree upon so as they be equally laid whereby His People already too heavily burthened by these late Distempers may have no more pressures upon them than this absolute necessity requires And for the further securing of all fears His Majesty will consent that an Act of Parliament be passed for the disposing of the great Offices of State and naming of Privy Councellors for the whole term of His Reign by the two Houses of Parliament their Patents and Commissions being taken from His Majesty and after to return to the Crown as is expressed in the Article of the Militia For the Court of Wards and Liveries His Majesty very well knows the consequence of taking that away by turning of all Tenures into common Soccage as well in point of Revenue to the Crown as in the protection of many of His Subjects being Infants Nevertheless if the continuance thereof seem grievous to His Subjects rather than He will fail on His part in giving satisfaction He will consent to an Act for taking of it away so as a full recompence be setled upon His Majesty and His Successors in perpetuity and that the Arrears now due be reserved unto Him towards the payment of the Arrears of the Army And that the memory of these late Distractions may be wholly wiped away His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament for the suppressing and making null of all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament and of all Indictments and other proceedings against any persons for adhering to them And His Majesty proposeth as the best expedient to take away all seeds of future Differences that there be an Act of Oblivion to extend to all His Subjects As for Ireland the Cessation there is long since determined but for the future all other things being fully agreed His Majesty will give full satisfaction to His two Houses concerning that Kingdom And although His Majesty cannot consent in Honour and Justice to avoid all His own Grants and Acts past under His great Seal since the two and twentieth of May 1642 or to the confirming of all the Acts and Grants passed under that made by the two Houses yet His Majesty is confident that upon perusal of particulars He shall give full satisfaction to His two Houses as to what may reasonably be desired in that particular And now His Majesty conceives that by these His offers which He is ready to make good upon the settlement of a Peace He hath clearly manifested His intentions to give full security and satisfaction to all Interests for what can justly be desired in order to the future Happiness of His People and for the perfecting of these Concessions as also for such other things as may be proposed by the two Houses and for such just and reasonable demands as His Majesty shall find necessary to propose on His part He earnestly desires a Personal Treaty at London with His two Houses in Honour Freedom and Safety it being in His Judgement the most proper and indeed only means to a firm and settled Peace and impossible without it to reconcile former or avoid future Misunderstandings All these things being by Treaty perfected His Majesty believes His Houses will think it reasonable that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due elections should be taken into consideration As for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty will very readily apply Himself to give all reasonable satisfaction when the desires of the two Houses of Parliament on their behalf or of the Commissioners of that Kingdom or of both joyned together shall be made known unto Him CHARLES R. From the Isle of Wight November 17. 1647. XXXIII From CARISBROOK Dec. 6. MDCXLVII For an Answer to His last To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HAD His Majesty thought it possible that His two Houses could be imployed in things of greater concernment than the Peace of this miserable distracted Kingdom He would have expected with more patience their leisure in acknowledging the receipt of His Message of the 17. of November last But since there is not in nature any consideration preceding to that of Peace His Majesty's constant tenderness of the welfare of His Subjects hath such a prevalence with Him that He cannot forbear the vehement prosecution of a Personal Treaty which is only so much the more desired by His Majesty as it is superior to all other means of Peace And truly when His Majesty considers the several complaints He daily hears from all parts of this Kingdom That Trade is so decayed all commodites so dear and Taxes so insupportable that even natural subsistence will suddenly fail His Majesty to perform the Trust reposed in Him must use His uttermost endeavours for Peace though He were to have no share in the benefit of it And hath not His Majesty done His part for it by devesting Himself of so much Power and Authority as by His last Message He hath promised to do upon the concluding of the whole Peace And hath He met with that acknowledgement from His two Houses which this great Grace and Favour justly deserves Surely the blame of this great retarding of Peace must fall somewhere else than on His Majesty To conclude if ye will but consider in how little time this necessary good work will be done if you the two Houses will wait on His Majesty with the same resolutions for Peace as He will meet you He no way doubts but that ye will willingly agree to this His Majesty's earnest desire of a Personal Treaty and speedily desire His presence amongst you where all things agreed on being digested into Acts till when it is most unreasonable for His Majesty or His two Houses to desire each of other the least concession this Kingdom may at last enjoy the blessing of a long-wisht-for Peace Carisbrook-Castle Decemb. 6. 1647. XXXIV From CARISBROOK Dec. 28. MDCXLVII In Answer to the Four Bills and Propositions before the Votes of No address For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. THE necessity of complying with all engaged Interests in these great Distempers for a perfect settlement of Peace His Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties He hath met with since the time of His Afflictions Which is too visible when
at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to His Majesty several Bills and Propositions for His Consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them So that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference His Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise Himself His great end A perfect Peace And when His Majesty further considers how impossible it is in the condition He now stands to fulfil the desires of the two Houses since the only ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by His Majesty's personal assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under His great Seal of England He cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of address which is now made unto Him unless His two Houses intend that His Majesty shall allow of a great Seal made without His Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to His Majesty And though His Majesty is willing to believe that the intentions of very many in both Houses in sending these Bills before a Treaty was only to obtain a Trust from Him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from Him which are either against His Conscience or Honour yet His Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the devesting Himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Him or His Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making His Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please and likewise for the payment of them to levy what Moneys in such sort and by such ways and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever persons as they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and His Majesty's Trust in protecting them So that if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills His Majesty leaves all the World to judge how unsafe it would be for Him to consent thereunto and if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bills His Majesty and all His Subjects would be cast into And here His Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish His two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding that when His Majesty desires a personal Treaty with them for the settling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essential part thereof to be first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore His Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksom condition of life His Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befal Him in case His two Houses shall not afford Him a Personal Treaty shall make Him change His Resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then He intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to Him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in His Message of the 16. of November last which He thought would have produced better effects than what He finds in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto Him And yet His Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is He affected with the advantages which Peace will bring to His Majesty and all his Subjects of which He will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a well-grounded Peace However His Majesty is very much at ease within Himself for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of His two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow-Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight December 28. 1647. XXXV From CARISBROOK August 10. MDCXLVIII In Answer to the Votes for a Treaty For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster C. R. IF the Peace of My Dominions were not much dearer to Me than any particular Interest whatsoever I had too much reason to take notice of the several Votes which passed against Me and the sad condition I have been in now above these seven months But since you My two Houses of Parliament have opened as it seems to He a fair beginning to a happy Peace I shall heartily apply My self thereunto and to that end I will as clearly and shortly as I may set you down those things which I conceive necessary to this blessed work so that We together may remove all impediments that may hinder a happy conclusion of this Treaty which with all chearfulness I do embrace And to this wished end your selves have laid most excellent grounds For what can I reasonably expect more than to Treat with Honour Freedom and Safety upon such Propositions as you have or shall present unto He and such as I shall make to you But withal remember that it is the definition not names of things which makes them rightly known and that without means to perform no Proposition can take effect Aud truly My present condition is such that I can no more treat than a blind man judge of colours or one run a race who hath both his feet fast tied together wherefore My first necessary demand is That you will recall all such Votes and Orders by which people are frighted from coming writing or speaking freely to Me. Next That such men of all professions whom I shall send for as of necessary use to Me in this Treaty may be admitted to wait upon Me. In a word that I may be in the same state of freedom I was in when I was last at Hampton-Court And indeed less cannot in any reasonable measure make good those offers which you have made Me by your Votes For how can I treat with Honour so long as people are terrified with Votes and Orders against coming to speak or write to Me And am I honourably treated so long as there is none about Me except a Barber who came now with the Commissioners that ever I named to wait upon Me Or with Freedom until I may call such unto Me of whose services I shall have use in so great and difficult a work And for Safety I
upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land service and shall from time to time during the space of ten years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said spaceof ten years think fit to appoint and that neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any other but such as shall Act by the Authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of ten years exercise any of the powers aforesaid That Monies be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of ten years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of ten years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons or such as they shall appoint during the said space of ten years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or indeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them And after the expiration of the said ten years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission power deputation or authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall without the consent of the said Lords and Commons raise arm train discipline imploy order manage disband or dispose any the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said powers or authorities herein before-mentioned and expressed to be during the space of ten years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any act or any thing concerning the execution of the said powers or authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained And with the same Provisoes for saving the ordinary legal power of Officers of Justice not being Military Officers as is set down in your Propositions and with a Declaration That if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in a warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of high Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall so offend herein to be uncapable of any pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors And likewise that it be provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties c. in raising and imploying the Forces of that City in such sort as is mentioned in the said Proposition With these Provisoes following to be inserted in the said Act. First That none be compelled to serve in the War against their Wills but in case of coming in of strange Enemies into this Kingdom And that the powers above-mentioned as concerning the Land-Forces other than for keeping up and maintenance of Forts and Garrisons and the keeping up maintaining and pay of this present Army so long as it shall be thought fit by both Houses of Parliament be exercised to no other purposes than for the suppressing of Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid or for suppressing of any Foreign Forces which shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms Dominions or places aforesaid And that the Monies be raised by general and equal Taxations saving that Tunnage and Poundage and such Imposts as have been applyed to the Navy be raised as hath been usual And that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the premisses be made and acted in His Majesties name by Warrant signified by the Lords and Commons or such others as they shall authorize for that purpose If it shall be more satisfactory to His two Houses to have the Militia and powers thereupon depending during the whole time of His Majesty's Reign rather than for the space of ten years His Majesty gives them the election Touching Ireland His Majesty having in the two preceding Propositions given His consent concerning the Church and the Militia there in all things as in England as to all other matters relating to that Kingdom after advice with His two Houses He will leave it to their determination and give His consent accordingly as is herein hereafter expressed Touching publick Debts His Majesty will give His consent to such an Act for raising of Monies by general and equal Taxations for the payment and satisfying the Arrears of the Army publick Debts and engagements of the Kingdom as shall be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and shall be audited and ascertained by them or such persons as they shall appoint within the space of twelve Months after the passing of an Act for the same His Majesty will consent to an Act that during the said space of ten years the Lord Chancellour or Lord Keeper Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Chancellour of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of England be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue quam diu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by such others as they shall authorize for that purpose His Majesty will consent that the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof during the space of ten years may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to
Coronation that all Our Ecclesiasticks in their several degrees and incumbences shall preach and practise the same Wherefore We enjoyn and command all Our Ministers of State beyond the Seas as well Ambassadors as Residents Agents and Messengers and We desire all the rest of Our loving Subjects that sojourn either for curiosity or commerce in any Foreign parts to communicate uphold and assert this Our solemn and sincere Protestation when opportunity of time and place shall be offered Given in Our Vniversity and City of Oxford the 14th day of May 1644. The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick EPISCOPACY compâ—â—â—d with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives PAPERS AND PASSAGES CONCERNING THE TREATY OF PEACE AT UXBRIDGE MDCXLIV XLV By the King A Proclamation declaring His Majesty's Resolution for settling a speedy Peace by a good Accommodation and an Invitation to all His Loyal Subjects to joyn together for His Assistance therein AMongst the many Troubles wherewith for more than two years last past We have been involved nothing hath more afflicted Us than the real sense of Our Subjects Sufferings occasioned by this most unnatural War and the chief of Our Care hath been and by God's assistance shall still be to settle them in a happy Peace with that freedom of enjoyning the exercise of their Religion Rights and Liberties according to the Laws of this Kingdom as they or any of their Ancestors enjoyed the same in the best times of the late Queen Elizabeth or Our Royal Father And as we have always profest in the sincerity of Our Heart That no Success should ever make Us averse unto Peace so have We always when God hath blessed Us with any eminent Victory sollicited the Members of both Houses of Parliament remaining at Westminster by frequent Messages for a Treaty conducing thereunto and in particular upon Our late Victory over the Earl of Essex his Army in Cornwal which We wholly attribute to the immediate hand of God We presently dispatch'd a Message to them to desire a Treaty for Peace and Accommodation of which as likewise of that former Message for Peace which We sent them from Evesholm the fourth of July last We have yet received no Answer and therefore have resolved with Our Army to draw presently towards London and Our Southern and Eastern Counties not looking upon those parts as Enemies to Us and so to suffer by the approach of Our Army or the disorders thereof which We will use all possible means to prevent but as Our poor Subjects oppressed by Power of which We rest assured the greater part remain Loyal to Us and so deserving Our Protection And We hope that at a nearer distance of place there may be begot so right an understanding between Us and Our People that at length We may obtain a Treaty for Peace and a full free and peaceable Convention in Parliament and therein make an end of these unhappy Differences by a good Accommodation In which We hereby assure all Our People upon Our Royal Word and the Faith of a Christian which is the greatest Security We can give them that We will insist only upon the setling and continuance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion Our own undoubted known Rights the Privileges of Parliament and Our Subjects Liberty and Property according to the Laws of the Land and to have all these settled in a full and free Parliament whereby the Armies on both sides may be presently disbanded this Kingdom may be secured from the danger of a Conquest by Foreign Forces all Strangers now in Arms may return to their own Countries and Our poor Subjects be freed of those grievous burthens which by reason of the late Distractions have much against Our Will too much pressed them And to the end Our Subjects may no longer be misled be false pretences We do desire all of them as well in Our own Quarters as where the Rebels have usurped a Power to take into serious consideration the Duty and Loyalty which by the Law of God and their Oath of Allegiance they owe unto Us and more particularly that part thereof which concerns the Defence of Our Person and Assistance of Us against Rebels and such as rise in Arms against Us which they may find plainly set down in the Statute of the II. year of King Henry the Seventh Cap. 1. And We do hereby require Our Subjects within Our own Quarters through or near which We shall pass by that Duty they owe to Us and their Country that they forthwith prepare themselves with the best Arms they can get to be ready and joyn and go along with Us in this present Expedition We resolving to take special care to place them under the Command of Gentlemen of Quality of their own Countries to their good content and satisfaction And we likewise require and authorize all Our good Subjects as well the Trained Bands as others of Our City of London and Our Southern and Eastern Counties to chuse their own Commanders and Leaders amongst those Gentlemen and Citizens that are of approved Loyalty to Us and Lovers of the Peace of their Country and upon Our approach towards those parts to put themselves into Arms and march in warlike manner to assist Us in this good Work and free themselves from the Tyranny of their fellow-Subjects under which they groan commanding and authorizing them to seize such places of Strength in those Southern and Eastern Counties as the Rebels have possessed themselves of to oppose with force of Arms such Persons as shall resist them in obeying these Our Commands and to apprehend and secure the Persons of all such as shall endeavour to continue this Rebellion and to hinder the settling of the Peace of this Kingdom in a full and free Convention of Parliament the only visible means lest by blessing of God to redeem this Nation from utter Ruine wherein We will afford Our utmost Protection and Safety unto all Our Subjects that shall give Obedience to these Our Commands And as We doubt not but that all Our good Subjects will come chearfully to Our assistance for so good an end beyond which We do not require it so We trust that God who hath hitherto wonderfully preserved Us will crown this Action with happy Success for his Glory and the welfare of this poor Nation Given at Our Court at Chard the thirtieth day of September 1644. God Save the KING By the King A Proclamation for a Solemn Fast on Wednesday the Fifth of February next upon occasion of the present Treaty for Peace VVHereas Almighty God in his Justice to punish the Common and Crying Sins of the Land hath sent a Civil Sword throughout all Our Dominions which hath miserably wasted and threatens a speedy and utter Desolation to the same and now in the height of these Calamities a Treaty is assented to to begin at Vxbridge on Thursday the Thirtieth day of this instant January touching
Estates of the Parliament in Scotland or the said Commissioners of that Kingdom whereof they are Subjects and that in those cases of joynt concernment to both Kingdoms the Commissioners to be directed to be there all or such part as aforesaid to act and direct as joynt Commissioners of both Kingdoms 4. To order the War of Ireland according to the Ordinance of the 11 th of April and to order the Militia and conserve the peace of the Kingdom of Ireland XVIII That His Majesty give His assent to what the two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished XIX That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the 21. day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or Vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament and that all Honour and Title conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the 20. day of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Counsel intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared null and void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Patents were passed the great Seal before the 4. of June 1644. XX. That by Act of Parliament the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Commissioners to continue during the pleasure of the said Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament during the pleasure of the said Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament during the pleasure of the aforementioned Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellors of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Judges of both Benches and of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament to continue quamdiu se bene gesserint and in the Intervals of Parliament by the aforementioned Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting The like for the Kingdom of Scotland adding the Justice General and in such manner as the Estates in Parliament there shall think fit XXI That by Act of Parliament the Education of Your Majesty's Children and the Children of Your Heirs and Successors be in the true Protestant Religion and that their Tutors and Governours be of known Integrity and be chosen by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms or in the Intervals of Parliaments by the aforenamed Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Parliaments at their next sitting and that if they be Male they be married to such only as are of the true Protestant Religion if they be Female they may not be marryed but with the advice and consent of both Parliaments or in the Intervals of Parliament by their Commissioners XXII That Your Majesty will give Your Royal Assent to such ways and means as the Parliaments of both Kingdoms shall think fitting for the uniting of the Protestant Princes and for the entire Restitution and Re-establishment of Charles Lodwick Prince Elector Palatine His Heirs and Successors to His Electoral Dignity Rights and Dominions Provided that this extend not to Prince Rupert or Prince Maurice or the Children of either of them who have been the Instruments of so much blood-shed and mischief against both Kingdoms XXIII That by Act of Parliament the concluding of Peace or War with Foreign Princes and States be with advice and consent of both Parliaments or in the Intervals of Parliaments by their Commissioners XXIV That an Act of Oblivion be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively relative to the Qualifications in the Propositions aforesaid concerning the joint Declaration of both Kingdoms with the exception of all Murderers Thieves and other Offenders not having relation to the War XXV That the Members of both Houses of Parliaments or others who have during this Parliament been put out of any Place or Office Pension or Benefit for adhering to the Parliament may either be restored thereunto or otherwise have Recompence for the same upon the humble desire of both Houses of Parliament The like for the Kingdom of Scotland XXVI That the Armies may be Disbanded at such time and in such manner as shall be agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms or such as shall be Authorized by them to that effect XXVII That an Act be passed for the granting and confirming of the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Non-user Mis-user or Abuser That the Militia of the City of London may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Major and Sheriffs for the time being to be three And that the Militia of the Parishes without London and the Liberties within the weekly Bills of Mortality may be under Command of the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council of the said City to be ordered in such manner as shall be agreed on and appointed by both Houses of Parliament That the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City of London and the chief Officer and Governour thereof from time to time be nominated and removable by the Common-Council That the Citizens or Forces of London shall not be drawn out of the City into any other parts of the Kingdom without their own consent and that the drawing of their Forces into other parts of the Kingdom in these distracted times may not be drawn into example for the future And for prevention of Inconveniences which may happen by the long intermission of Common-Councils it is desired that there be an Act that all By-Laws and Ordinances already made or hereafter to be made by the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council assembled touching the calling continuing directing and regulating of the same shall be as effectual in Law to all intents and purposes as if the same were particularly enacted by the Authority of Parliament and that the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council may add to or repeal the said Ordinances from time to time as they shall see cause That such other Propositions as shall be made for the City for their farther Safety Welfare and Government and shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament may be granted and confirmed by Act of Parliament Upon consideration of which Propositions His Majesty sent the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton with this Message of the 13. of December HIS Majesty hath seriously
we have offered so weighty Doubts and Considerations to your Lordships in this days Debate concerning several parts in the Bill for abolishing of Episcopacy your Lordships having confined and limited our Debate to that individual Bill as it is now penn'd not the consideration of abolishing Episcopacy in general that your Lordships cannot expect a positive Answer from us now being after eleven a clock at night touching that Bill But we shall be ready by the next day assigned for the Treaty upon this Argument to deliver our Opinions to your Lordships the which we shall be then the better able to do when we have found by the progress in our other Debates how far a blessed and a happy Peace is like to be advanced by our endeavouring to give your Lordships satisfaction in this particular This being the last of the three first days assigned for the Treaty upon Religion that Subject was again taken up the 11 th of February being the first of the second three days appointed for Religion And their Commissioners delivered this Paper 11. Feb. HAving received no satisfaction in the first three days appointed to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion we do now desire your Lordships clear and full Answer to our former Demand on this Subject that no farther time may be lost in a matter which doth so much concern the Glory of God the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms The King's Commissioners Answer 11. Feb. VVE gave your Lordships as much satisfaction in the first three days appointed to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion as in so short a time and upon so little information from your Lordships could reasonably be expected in a matter of so great and high importance And as we have given your Lordships already many Reasons concerning the Injustice and Inconveniency which would follow upon passing the Bill for abolishing Episcopacy according to your first Proposition so we are now ready by Conference to satisfie your Lordships why we conceive that the said Bill is not for the Glory of God or the Honour of the King and consequently cannot be for the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms And if your Lordships Reasons shall convince us in those particulars we shall willingly consent to what you desire if otherwise we shall offer to your Lordships our Consent to such other Alterations as we conceive may better contribute to the Reformation intended and such as may stand with the Glory of God and in truth be for the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms Their Reply 11. Feb. VVE have received no satisfaction from your Lordships concerning the Propositions delivered in by us for Religion in the name of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms not have you made appear unto us any Injustice or Inconveniency in the passing of the Bill for abolishing of Episcopacy And as it cannot be denied but the settling of Religion is a matter which doth highly concern the Glory of God the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of his Kingdoms so do we desire your Lordships will grant those Demands which have been made unto you by us to that end and we are ready by present Conference to receive what your Lordships will offer upon any of those Propositions and to return that which may give your Lordships just satisfaction The King's Commissioners Answer 11. Feb. YOUR Lordships having expressed in your Paper of the first of February that there are other things touching Religion to be propounded by your Lordships to us we presume that by this time you may be enabled by your Instructions to propose the same and therefore we desire to receive them from your Lordships Which we hope your Lordships will think very reasonable when you consider how incongruous a thing it will appear to most Men to consent to real and substantial Alterations in the matter of Religion without having a view of the whole Alterations intended when at the same time there is mention of other Alterations Their Answer thereunto 11. Feb. WE shall deliver in very speedily that which remains with us touching Religion to be propounded unto your Lordships But we do desire as before your Lordships Answers unto our Demands in the same order that we have proposed them not conceiving it reasonable there should be any time spent in Debates or Answers upon what we shall hereafter offer till we have received satisfaction in our former Propositions which we desire may be speedily done lest otherwise the Treaty be retarded and the Expectation of both Kingdoms altogether frustrated Notwithstanding this they delivered in this further Answer 11. Feb. IN Answer to your Lordships Paper this day delivered to us we desire that His Majesty do give His Royal Assent to an Act of Parliament for the due Observation of the Lords Day and to the Bill for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels in and about the Worship of God c. and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom and to the Bill against enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual persons and non-Residency And we shall in due time give in to your Lordships our Demands concerning Papists contained in the sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Propositions and for His Majesty's Assenting to an Act to be framed and agreed upon in both Houses of Parliament for the regulating and reforming of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton and for the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and the Children of His Heirs and Successors in the true Protestant Religion as in the 21 Proposition Some part of the 11th and most part of the 12th of February was spent in Argument by Divines touching Episcopacy and the Presbyterial Government Afterwards their Commissioners gave in this Paper 12. Feb. THere having now been several days spent in debate upon the Propositions for Religion and all Objections alledged to the contrary either from Conscience Law or Reason being fully answered and the time allotted for that so important a part of the Treaty almost elapsed we should be wanting to the Trust reposed in us if we should not press and Expect as we now do a clear and positive Answer to those Demands concerning Religion which we have offered unto your Lordships from the Parliaments of both Kingdoms as most necessary for the settling of a safe and well-grounded Peace in all His Majesty's Dominions The King's Commissioners Answer 12. Feb. WE deny that the Objections alledged by us against the passing the for abolishing Episcopacy from Conscience Law or Reason have been fully answered by your Lordships or that indeed we have received any satisfaction from your Lordships in these particulars We have received no Information from your Lordships to satisfie us that Episcopacy is or hath been an impediment to a perfect Reformation to the growth of Religion or that it
approbation and consent of the Presbyters or the major part of them That competent maintenance and provision be established by Act of Parliament to such Vicarages as belong to Bishops Deans and Chapters out of the Impropriations and according to the value of those Impropriations of the several Parishes That for the time to come no Man shall be capable of two Parsonages or Vicarages with Cure of Souls That towards the settling of the publick Peace one hundred thousand pounds shall be raised by Act of Parliament out of the Estates of Bishops Deans and Chapters in such manner as shall be thought fit by the King and two Houses of Parliament without the Alienation of any of the said Lands That the Jurisdiction in Causes Testamentary Decimal Matrimonial be settled in such manner as shall seem most convenient by the King and two Houses of Parliament And likewise that one or more Acts of Parliament be passed for regulating of Visitations and against immoderate Fees in Ecclesiastical Courts and the abuses by frivolous Excommunications and all other abuses in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in such manner as shall be agreed upon by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament And if your Lordships shall insist upon any other thing which your Lordships shall think necessary for Reformation we shall very willingly apply our selves to the consideration thereof 13. February FOR the confirmation of the Ordinances concerning the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines and the taking the Covenant we conceive neither of them need be insisted on if the alterations of Church-Government be agreed upon between us and if they be not it will not be reasonable that we consent to those Ordinances And for the Covenant we cannot advise His Majesty to swear and sign the same nor consent that an Act of Parliament should pass for enjoyning the taking thereof by His Majesty's Subjects 13. February VVE do not yet conceive that the Directory for publick Worship delivered to us by your Lordships ought to be enacted or that it is so likely to procure and preserve the Peace of this Kingdom as the Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book already established by Law against which we have not yet received from your Lordships any Objections which Liturgy as the same was compiled by many Learned and Reverend Divines of whom some dyed Martyrs for the Protestant Religion we conceive to be an Excellent Form for the Worship of God and hath been generally so held throughout this Kingdom till within these two or three years at the most And therefore since there are no Inconveniences pretended to arise from the Book of Common-Prayer to which we conceive the Directory is not more liable and since there is nothing commendable in the Directory which is not already in the Book of Common-Prayer we conceive it much better and more conducing to the Peace of this Kingdom still to observe the said Form with such Dispensations as we have expressed in our first Paper now presented to your Lordships and if there shall be any Alterations proposed by your Lordships of such particulars in the Book of Common-Prayer as good men are scrupled at we shall willingly endeavour to give your Lordships satisfaction in those particulars but as yet can make no further or other Answer than we have already done but shall be ready to receive such Objections as your Lordships shall think fit to make against the Book of Common-Prayer and your Reasons for introducing the Directory And for the Proposition concerning Church-Government annexed to your first Paper we have no Information how that Government shall be constituted in particular or what Jurisdiction shall be established or by whom it shall be granted or upon whom it shall depend And therein also we desire further Information from your Lordships 13. February VVE desire to see the Bills for the Observation of the Lord's day for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word which are mentioned in your Lordships Paper of the 11. of Febr. we being very ready to consent to the subject Matter of those Bills We have expressed in our Paper delivered to your Lordships what we conceive fit to be done in the business of Pluralities which will prevent any inconveniences that way And when your Lordships shall give us your Demands concerning Papists and when we shall see the Acts for the regulating and reforming of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton and for the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and the Children of His Heirs and Successors in the true Protestant Religion we shall give your Lordships such Answers as shall be fit being very willing to concur with your Lordships in any good means for the suppressing of Popery and advancement of the Protestant Religion And we are well assured that His Majesty hath taken a pious care for the Education of all His Children in the true Protestant Religion and having already married one of His Children to the satisfaction we conceive of all His good Subjects we are confident in due time His Majesty will so dispose of the rest in Marriage as shall be most for the advancement of Religion and the good and welfare of all His Dominions Their Answer to the First 13. February VVHereas we expected your Lordships resolution for His Majesty's assent unto the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. we find by your Paper given in this Evening that your Lordships are not yet satisfied that the Bill should pass and you are pleased to express several Reasons and Objections against it which were at large answered and cleared at the publick Debate But what was then said by us is now by your Lordships wholly omitted nor may we in writing represent it again unto your Lordships it not being agreeable to the usage of Parliament to deliver Reasons for or against a Bill though we were willing by Conference in the Treaty to satisfy all doubts and remove all scruples which remained with you And so far were we from consenting that Episcopacy hath continued from the Apostles times by continual Succession that the contrary was made evident unto your Lordships and the Unlawfulness of it fully proved And as for that which your Lordships have propounded for uniting and reconciling all differences in the matter of Religion it is a new Proposition which wholly differs from ours is no way satisfactory to our desires nor consisting with that Reformation to which both Kingdoms are obliged by their solemn Covenant therefore we can give no other Answer to it but must insist to desire your Lordships that the Bill may be past and our other Demands concerning Religion granted The King's Commissioners Reply thereunto 13. February VVE conceive that our Answer to your Lordships concerning the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-bishops Bishops c. was so reasonable that it clearly appears thereby that the passing that
at Our Court at Tavestock the 8 th of September 1644. The Bill for Abolishing Episcopacy VVHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy hath by long experience been found to be a great impediment to the perfect Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the Civil State and Government of the Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from and after the fifth day of November in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Forty and Three there shall be no Arch-bishop Bishop Chancellor or Commissary of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop nor any Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter or Arch deacon nor any Chancellor Chaunter Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor or Sacrist of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church nor any Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Choristers old Vicars or new Vicars of or within any Cathedral or Collegiate Church or any other their Officers within this Church of England or Dominion of Wales and that from and afrer the said fifth day of November the Name Title Dignity Jurisdiction Office and Function of Arch bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars-Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars and every of them and likewise the having using or exercising of any Power Jurisdiction Office or Authority by reason or colour of any such Name Title Dignity Office or Function within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales shall thenceforth cease determine and become absolutely void and shall be abolished out of this Realm and the Dominion of Wales any Usage Law or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that from and after the said fifth day of November no Person or Persons whatsoever by Virtue of any Letters-Patents Commission or other Authority derived from the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors shall use or exercise any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical within this Realm or Dominion of Wales but such and in such manner as shall be appointed and established by Act of Parliament And that all Counties Palatine Mannors Lordships Castles Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be other than Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were of or belonging unto any Arch-bishop Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick or any of them or which they or any of them held or injoyed in right of their said Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick respectively shall by the Authority of Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors and He shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to Him His Heirs and Successors without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors His and their Lessees Farmers and Tenants shall hold and enjoy the same discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial means to all intents and purposes as any Arch-bishop or Bishop at any time or times within the space of two years last past held or enjoyed or of right ought to have held or enjoyed the same Provided nevertheless and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Leases Grants Gifts Letters-Patents Conveyances Assurances or Estates whatsoever hereafter to be made by the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors of any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments which in or by this Act shall come or be limited or disposed of unto His Majesty His Heirs or Successors other than for the Term of One and Twenty years or Three Lives or some other Term of years determinable upon One Two or Three Lives and not above from the time as any such Lease or Grant shall be made or granted whereupon the accustomed yearly Rent or more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said Term and whereof any former Lease is in being not to be expired surrendred or ended within three years after the making of any such new Lease shall be utterly void and of none effect to all intents constructions and purposes any clause or words of non obstante to be put in any such Patent Grant Conveyance or Assurance and any Law Usage Custom or any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And be it further Enacted and Ordained That all Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were belonging unto any Arch-bishop or Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick and all Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Rights of Patronage and Presentation Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be which now are or lately were of or belonging to any Sub-dean Dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicars Choral Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars or any of them or any of the Officers of them or any of them which they held or enjoyed in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively shall by Authority of this present Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire and they shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to them their Heirs and Assigns without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that for themselves their Lessees Farmers and Tenants discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial manner to all intents and purposes as any of the Persons or Corporations whose Offices or Places are taken away by this Act at
Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled shall be nominated assigned and appointed thereby authorizing and requiring them or any five or more of them and giving them full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good and lawful ways and means to enquire and find out what Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Presentations Rights of Patronage Parks Annuities and other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be lying and being within every such County or City not hereby limited or disposed of unto His Majesty do belong or appertain unto all every or any such Arch-bishop Bishop Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-Treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Chorister old Vicar or new Vicar in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively and what and how much of the same is in possession and the true yearly Value thereof and what and how much thereof is out in Lease and for what Estate and when and how determinable and what Rents Services and other Duties are reserved and payable during such Estate and also the true yearly Value of the same as they are now worth in possession as also what Rents Pensions or other Charges or other Sums of Money are issuing due or payable out of any the Mannors Lands or Premisses and to make an exact and particular Survey thereof and to take and direct and settle such course for the safe custody and keeping of all Charters Evidences Court-Rolls and Writings whatsoever belonging unto all or any the Persons Dignities Churches Corporations Offices and Places or concerning any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments or other Premisses before mentioned as in their discretion shall be thought meet and convenient and of all and singular their doings and proceedings herein fairly written and ingross'd in Parchment to make Return and Certificate into the Court of Chancery And to this further intent and purpose that speedy care and course may be taken for providing of a competent maintenance for supply and encouragement of Preaching Ministers in the several Parishes within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of VVales Be it likewise Ordained and Enacted That the same Commissioners and Persons authorized as above-said shall have full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good ways and lawful means to enquire and find out the true yearly Value of all Parsonages and Vicarages presentative and all other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Benefices and Livings unto which any Cure of Souls is annexed lying and being within such Counties and Cities and of all such particularly to enquire and certifie into the Court of Chancery what each of them are truly and really worth by the year and who are the present Incumbents or Possessors of them and what and how many Chappels belonging unto Parish-Churches are within the limits of such Counties and Cities within which they are directed and authorized to enquire and how the several Churches and Chappels are supplied by Preaching Ministers that so course may be taken for providing both for Preaching and of maintenance where the same shall be found to be needful and necessary Provided always that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to any Colledge Church Corporation Foundation or House of Learning in either of the Vniversities within this Kingdom And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires and the Survivors and Survivor of them or the greater part of them his and their Heirs and Assigns are hereby directed and authorized to give and allow unto such Officers as by them shall be thought fitting and necessary for keeping of Courts collecting of Rents Surveying of Lands and all other necessary imployments in and about the Premisses and unto the Commissioners authorized by this Act and such others as shall be necessarily imployed by them all such reasonable Fees Stipends Salaries and Sums of Money as in their discretion shall be thought just and convenient And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires the Survivors and Survivor of them his and their Heirs and Assigns of their several Receipts Imployments Actions and Proceedings shall give an accompt and be accomptable unto the Lords and Commons in Parliament or such Person or Persons as from time to time by both Houses of Parliament shall be nominated and appointed in such manner and with such Power Priviledge and Jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters concerning such Accompts as by both Houses of Parliament shall from time to time be thought necessary to be given them and not elsewhere nor otherwise Saving to all and every Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate their Heirs and Successors and the Heirs and Successors of them and every of them other than such Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate whose Offices Functions and Authorities are taken away and abolished by this Act as to any Estate Right Title or Interest which they or any of them claim to have or hold in right of their said Churches Dignities Functions Offices or Places and other then the Kings Majesty His Heirs and Successors as Patrons Founders or Donors and all and every other Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate as may claim any thing as Patrons Founders or Donors all such Right Title Interest Possession Rents Charge-Rent Service Annuities Offices Pensions Portions Commons Fees Profits Claims and Demands either in Law or Equity whatsoever and all and singular such Leases for Years Life or Lives as were before the twentieth day of January in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty two made unto them or any of them by any the Persons or Corporations above named acccording to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and warranted by the same and all such Leases and Estates as having been heretofore made have been established or settled by any Judgement or Decree in any of the Courts at Westminster and have been accordingly enjoyed and all Duties and Profits whatsoever which they or any of them have or may claim or of right ought to have of in to or out of any the said Mannors Lands or Premisses whatsoever or any part or parcel thereof in such sort manner form and condition to all intents constructions and purposes as if this Act had never been made MDCXLIII IV. The Articles of the late Treaty of the Date Edenburgh the 29. of November 1643. Die Mercurii 3. Januarii 1643-44 Articles of the Treaty agreed upon betwixt the Commissioners of
Parliament of Scotland to an Act acknowledging and ratifying the Acts of the Convention of Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservers of the Peace and the Commissioners of the Common Burthens and assembled the Two and Twentieth day of June 1643. and several times continued since and of the Parliament of the Kingdom since convened XIII That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of July 1646. Arm Train and Discipline or cause to be Armed Trained and Disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and Places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and that neither the King His Heirs or Successors nor any other but such as shall Act by the Authority or Approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of twenty years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the said Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without Authority and Consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any Foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 3. To conjoyn such Forces of the Kingdom of England with the Forces of the Kingdom of Scotland as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of Twenty years judge fit and necessary to resist all Forreign Invasions and to suppress any Forces raised or to be raised against or within either of the said Kingdoms to the disturbance of the Publick Peace of the said Kingdoms or any of them by any Authority under the Great Seal or other Warrant whatsoever without Consent of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively and that no Forces of either Kingdom shall go into or continue in the other Kingdom without the Advice and Desire of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland or such as shall be by them appointed for that purpose And that after the expiration of the said Twenty years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise arm train discipline imploy order manage disband or dispose any of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of VVales Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities in the precedent Articles mentioned and expressed to be during the said space of Twenty years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any Act or thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained That after the expiration of the said Twenty years in all Cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the Safety of the Kingdom to be concerned and shall thereupon pass any Bill or Bills for the raising arming training disciplining imploying managing ordering or disposing of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any part of the said Forces or concerning the Admiralty and Navy or concerning the levying of Moneys for the raising maintenance or use of the said Forces for Land-service or of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service or of any part of them and if that the Royal Assent to such Bill or Bills shall not be given in the House of Peers within such time after the passing thereof by both Houses of Parliament as the said Houses shall judge fit and convenient that then such Bill or Bills so passed by the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid and to which the Royal Assent shall not be given as is herein before expressed shall nevertheless after declaration of the said Lords and Commons made in that behalf have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto Provided that nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary Legal power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailifs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being military Officers concerning the Administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers nor any of them do levy conduct imploy or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons And if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in warlike manner or otherwise to the Number of Thirty persons and shall not forthwith disband themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person and persons not so disbanding themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High
Treason being first declared guilty of such Offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding And he or they that shall offend herein to be incapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and imploying the Forces of that City for the defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the making of the said Act or Proposition to the end that City may be fully assured it is not the intention of the Parliament to take from them any Priviledges or Immunities in raising or disposing of their Forces which they have or might have used or injoyed heretofore The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XIV That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the One and Twentieth day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or Vote in the Parliament of England without Consent of both Houses of Parliament and that all Honour and Title conferred on any without Consent of both Houses of Parliament since the Twentieth of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Counsel intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared null and void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Patents were passed the Great Seal before the fourth of June 1644. XV. That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for Confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the Two Kingdoms viz. the large Treaty the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the settling of the Garrison of Barwick of the 29 th of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6. of August 1642. for the bringing of Ten Thousand Scots into the Province of Vlster in Ireland with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the Two Kingdoms and whereunto they are obliged by the aforesaid Treaties And that Algernon Earl of Northumberland John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Robert Earl of Essex Theophilus Earl of Lincoln James Earl of Suffolk Robert Earl of Warwick Edward Earl of Manchester Henry Earl of Stamford Francis Lord Dacres Philip Lord Wharton Francis Lord Willoughby Dudly Lord North John Lord Hunsdon William Lord Gray Edward Lord Howard of Escrich Thomas Lord Bruce Ferdinando Lord Fairfax Master Nathaniel Fiennes Sir William Armyne Sir Philip Stapleton Sir Henry Vane senior Master William Pierrepont Sir Edward Aiscough Sir VVilliam Strickland Sir Arthur Hesilrig Sir John Fenwick Sir VVilliam Brereton Sir Thomas VViddrington Master John Toll Master Gilbert Millington Sir VVilliam Constable Sir John VVray Sir Henry Vane junior Master Henry Darley Oliver Saint-John Esquire His Majesties Solicitor General Master Denzill Hollis Master Alexander Rigby Master Cornelius Holland Master Samuel Vassal Master Peregrine Pelham John Glyn Esquire Recorder of London Master Henry Marten Master Alderman Hoyle Master John Blakeston Master Serjeant VVilde Master Richard Barwis Sir Anthony Irby Master Ashurst Master Bellingham and Master Tolson Members of both Houses of the Parliament of England shall be the Commissioners for the Kingdom of England for Conservation of the Peace between the Two Kingdoms to act according to the Powers in that behalf exprest in the Articles of the large Treaty and not otherwise That His Majesty give His Assent to what the Two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished XVI That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30 th day of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1. Qualification That the persons who shall expect no pardon be only these following Rupert and Maurice Count Palatines of the Rhene James Earl of Derby John Earl of Bristol VVilliam Earl of Newcastle Francis Lord Cottington George Lord Digby Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Knight Doctor Bramhall Bishop of Derry Sir William Widdrington Colonel George Goring Henry Jermin Esquire Sir Ralph Hopton Sir John Biron Sir Francis Doddington Sir John Strangwayes Master Endymion Porter Sir George Radcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Henry Vaughan Esquire now called Sir Henry Vaughan Sir Francis Windebanke Sir Richard Greenvile Master Edward Hyde now called Sir Edward Hyde Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddell junior Sir John Culpepper Master Richard Lloyd now called Sir Richard Lloyd Master David Jenkins Sir George Strode George Carteret Esquire now called Sir George Carteret Sir Charles Dallison Knight Richard Lane Esquire now called Sir Richard Lane Sir Edward Nicholas John Ashburnham Esquire Sir Edward Herbert Knight His Majesties Attorney General Earl of Traquaire Lord Harris Lord Rae George Gourdon sometime Marquess of Huntley James Graham sometime Earl of Montross Robert Maxwell late Earl of Nithisdale Robert Dalyell sometime Earl of Carnwarth James Gordon sometime Viscount of Aboyne Lodowick Linsey sometime Earl of Crawford James Ogleby sometime Earl of Airley James Ogleby sometime Lord Ogleby Patrick Ruthen sometime Earl of Forth James King sometime Lord Itham Alester Macdonald Irwing younger of Drunim Gordon younger of Gight Lesley of Auchentoule Colonel John Cockram Graham of Gorthie Master John Maxwell sometime pretended Bishop of Rosse and all such others as being Processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed 2. Qualification All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or voluntarily assisting against the Parliaments or Estates of either Kingdom and by name The Marquess of VVinton Earl of VVorcester Edward Lord Herbert of Ragland Son to the Earl of VVorcester Lord Brudenell Carel Molineaux Esquire Lord Arundel of VVardour Sir Francis Howard Sir John VVinter Sir Charles Smith Sir John Preston Sir Bazill Brook Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven in the Kingdom of Ireland VVilliam Sheldon of Beely Esquire Sir Henry Beddingfield 3. Qualification All persons who have had any hand in the plotting designing or assisting the Rebellion of Ireland except such persons who having only assisted the said Rebellion have rendred themselves or come in to the Parliament of England 4. Qualification That Humfrey Bennet Esquire Sir Edward Ford Sir John Penruddock Sir George Vaughan Sir John Weld Sir Robert Leè Sir John Pate John Ackland Edmund Windham Esquire Sir John Fitz-herbert
Distempers concerning Church-Discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice his Majesty to eschew Confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of his two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years provided that his Majesty and those of his Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with Presbyterial Government but have free practice of their own Profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free Consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of his Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by his Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-Government after the said time shall be settled or sooner if Differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full Liberty to all those who shall differ upon conscientious grounds from that settlement always provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Popish Profession nor the exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publick profession of Atheism or Blasphemy contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that Right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this hath acknowledged so to be his Majesty cannot so much wrong that Trust which the Laws of God and this Land hath annexed to the Crown for the Protection and Security of his People as to devest himself and Successors of the power of the Sword yet to give an infallible evidence of his desire to secure the performance of such Agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace his Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole Power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during his whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by his two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with Powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publick Peace and against foreign Invasion and that they shall have Power during his said Reign to raise moneys for the purposes aforesaid and that neither his Majesty that now is or any other by any Authority derived only from him shall execute any of the said Powers during his Majesties said Reign but such as shall act by the consent and approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Nevertheless his Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after his Majesties Reign all the Power of the Militia shall return intirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James of blessed memory After this Head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of his People his Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the Violation of his Conscience and Honour Wherefore if his two Houses shall consent to remit unto him such benefit out of Sequestrations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the Peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of his own Revenues as his two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace his Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen Months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army and if those means shall not be sufficient his Majesty intends to give way to the sale of Forest Lands for that purpose this being the Publick Debt which in his Majesties Judgment is first to be satisfied and for other publick Debts already contracted upon Church-Lands or any other Ingagements his Majesty will give his consent to such Act or Acts for raising of moneys for payment thereof as both Houses shall hereafter agree upon so as they be equally laid whereby his People already too heavily burthened by these late Distempers may have no more Pressures upon them than this absolute necessity requires And for the further securing of all Fears his Majesty will consent that an Act of Parliament be passed for the disposing of the great Offices of State and naming of Privy Councellors for the whole term of his Reign by the two Houses of Parliament their Patents and Commissions being taken from his Majesty and after to return to the Crown as is exprest in the Article of the Militia For the Court of Wards and Liveries his Majesty very well knows the consequence of taking that way by turning of all Tenures into common Soccage as well in point of Revenue to the Crown as in the Protection of many of his Subjects being Infants nevertheless if the continuance thereof seem grievous to his Subjects rather then he will fail on his part in giving satisfaction he will consent to an Act for taking of it away so as a full recompence be settled upon his Majesty and his Successors in perpetuity and that the Arrears now due be reserved unto him towards the payment of the Arrears of the Army And that the memory of these late Distractions may be wholly wiped away his Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament for the suppressing and making null of all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament and of all Indictments and other proceedings against any persons for adhering unto them and his Majesty proposeth as the best Expediment to take away all seeds of future Differences that there be an Act of Oblivion to extend to all his Subjects As for Ireland the Cessation there is long since determined but for the future all other things being fully agreed his Majesty will give full satisfaction to his Houses concerning that Kingdom And although his Majesty cannot consent in Honour and Justice to avoid all his own Grants and Acts past under his Great Seal since the two and twentieth of May 1642. or to the confirming of all the Acts and Grants passed under that made by the two Houses yet his Majesty is confident that upon perusal of particulars he shall give full satisfaction to his two Houses to what may be reasonably desired in that particular And now his Majesty conceives that by these his Offers which he is ready to make good upon the settlement of a Peace he hath clearly manifested his intentions to give full security and satisfaction to all Interests for what can justly be desired in order to the future Happiness of his People And for the
thereunto Provided always and be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary Legal Power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being Military Officers concerning the Administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers or any of them do levy conduct imploy or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary Command from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons and that if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in Warlike manner or otherwise to the number of Thirty persons and shall not forthwith separate and disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or Command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person and persons not so separating and dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason being first Declared guilty of such Offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall offend herein shall be incapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided also further That the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and imploying the Forces of that City for the Defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the sitting of this present Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act for justifying the Proceedings of Parliament in the late War and for Declaring all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other Proceedings against it to be void WHereas the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament have been necessitated to make and prosecute a War in their just and lawful Defence and thereupon Oaths Declarations and Proclamations have been made against them and their Ordinances and Proceedings and against others for adhering unto them and for executing Offices Places and Charges by Authority derived from them and Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions for the causes aforesaid have been had and made against some of the Members of the Houses of Parliament and other his Majesties good Subjects and Grants have been made of their Lands and Goods Be it therefore Declared and hereby Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same That all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or made against both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any the Members of either of them for the causes aforesaid or against their Ordinances or Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from the said Houses or either of them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions and Grants thereupon made and all other Proceedings for any the causes aforesaid had made done or executed or to be had made done or executed whether the same be done by the King or any Judges Justices Sheriffs Ministers or any others are void and of no effect and are contrary to and against the Laws of the Realm And be it further Enacted and hereby Declared by the Authority aforesaid That all Judges Justices of the Peace Maior Sheriffs Constables and other Officers and Ministers shall take notice hereof and are hereby prohibited and discharged in all time to come from awarding any Writ Process or Summons and from pronouncing or executing any Judgment Sentence or Decree or any way proceeding against or molesting any of the said Members of the two Houses of Parliament or against any of the Subjects of this Kingdom for any the causes aforesaid Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning Peers lately made and hereafter to be made BE it Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That all Honour and Title of Peerage conferred on any since the twentieth day of May 1642. being the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament be and is hereby made and declared Null and Void Be it further Enacted and it is hereby Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Person that shall hereafter be made a Peer or His Heirs shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning the Adjournments of both Houses of Parliament BE it Declared and Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same That when and as often as the Lords and Commons assembled in this present Parliament shall judge it necessary to adjourn both Houses of this present Parliament to any other place of the Kingdom of England than where they now sit or from any place adjourn the same again to the place where they now sit or to any other place within the Kingdom of England that then such their Adjournment and Adjournments to such places and for such time as they shall appoint shall at all times and from time to time be valid and good any Act Statute or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Adjournment or Adjournments to be had or made by reason or colour of this Act shall be deemed adjudged or taken to make end or determine any Session of this present Parliament And they also commanded us to present to Your Majesty these ensuing Propositions Heads of the Propositions 1. That the new Seal be confirmed and the old Great Seal and all things passed under it since May 1642. be made void 2. That Acts be passed for raising Moneys to satisfie Publick Debts 3. That Members of both Houses put from their places by the King be restored 4. That the Cessation in Ireland be made void and the War left to both Houses 5. That an Act of Indemnity be passed 6. That the Court of Wards be taken away and such Tenures turned into common Soccage 7. That the Treaties between the English and Scots be confirmed and Commissioners appointed for Conservation of the Peace between the Kingdoms 8. That the Arrears of the Army be paid out of the Bishops Lands forfeited Estates and Forests 9. That an Act be
passed for abolishing Bishops and all Appendants to them 10. That the Ordinances for disposing of Bishops Lands be confirmed by Act. 11. That an Act be passed for the sale of Church-Lands 12. That Delinquents be proceeded against and their Estates disposed of according to the several Qualifications 13. Than an Act be passed for discharge of Publick Debts 14. That Acts be passed for settling the Presbyterian Government and Directory Fourteen of the Thirty nine Articles revised by the Assembly of Divines Rules and Directions concerning Suspension from the Lords Supper 15. That the chief Governour and Officers in Ireland and the great Officers in England be nominated by both Houses 16. That an Act be passed for conviction of Popish Recusants 17. That an Act be passed for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants 18. That an Act be passed for levying the Penalties against Popish Recusants 19. That an Act be passed for preventing the Practices of Papists against the State and hearing Mass 20. That an Act be passed for Observation of the Lords day 21. And a Bill for suppressing Innovations 22. And for advancement of Preaching 23. And against Pluralities and Non-residency They have also commanded us to desire That Your Majesty give Your Royal Assent to these Bills by Your Letters-Patents under the Great Seal of England and signed by Your Hand and Declared and Notified to the Lords and Commons assembled together in the House of Peers according to the Law declared in that behalf it appearing unto them upon mature deliberation that it stands not with the Safety and Security of the Kingdom and Parliament to have Your Majesties Assent at this time given otherwise They desire therefore that Your Majesty be pleased to grant Your Warrant for the draught of a Bill for such Your Letters Patents to be presented to Your Majesty and then a Warrant to Edward Earl of Manchester and William Lenthal Esquire Speaker of the House of Commons who have now the Custody of the Great Seal of England to put the same of Your Majesties Letters-Patents signed as aforesaid thereby authorizing Algernon Earl of Northumberland Henry Earl of Kent John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembroke William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick and Edmond Earl of Moulgrave or any three of them to give Your Majesties Royal Assent unto the said Bills according to the Law in that behalf declared And for the other particulars contained in the aforementioned Propositions the two Houses of Parliament will after such Your Majesties Assent given to the said Bills send a Committee of both Houses to Treat with Your Majesty in the Isle of Wight thereupon The Paper of the Scots Commissioners delivered to His MAJESTY when the Four Bills and Propositions were presented THere is nothing which we have more constantly endeavoured and do more earnestly desire than a good Agreement and happy Peace between Your Majesty and Your Parliaments of both Kingdoms neither have we left any means unassayed that by united Counsels with the Houses of the Parliament of England and by making joynt Applications to Your Majesty there might be a composure of all Differences But the new Propositions communicated to us by the Houses and the Bills therewith presented to Your Majesty are so prejudicial to Religion the Crown and the Union and Interest of the Kingdoms and so far different from the former proceedings and engagements betwixt the Kingdoms as we cannot concur therein Therefore we do in the Name of the Kingdom of Scotland dissent from these Propositions and Bills now tendred to Your Majesty London Lauderdale Char. Erskin Hu. Kennedy Ro. Berclay His MAJESTIES Answer to the Four Bills and Propositions Dec. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. THE necessity of complying with all engaged Interests in these great Distempers for a perfect settlement of Peace His Majesty finds to be none of the least Difficulties He hath met with since the time of His Afflictions Which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his Consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them So that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference his Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great End A Perfect Peace And when his Majesty farther considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of his two Houses since the only ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by his Majesties Personal Assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his Great Seal of England he cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of Address which is now made unto him unless his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty which as it may hereafter hazard the Security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bills before a Treaty was only to obtain a Trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his Conscience or Honour yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the devesting himself of all Sovereignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and unlimited Power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy Forces for Land or Sea-service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please and likewise for the payment of them to levy what moneys in such sort and by such ways and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever persons as they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and his Majesties Trust in protecting them So that if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills his Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto and if not what a strange condition after the passing of these Four Bills his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding
reforming both Universities and the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton His Majesty will consent to an Act for the better discovery and speedy conviction of Popish Recusants as is desired in your Propositions and also to an Act for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion As also to an Act for the rrue levying of the Penalties against Papists to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on and as is proposed on His Majesties behalf And also to an Act to prevent the practises of Papists against the State and for putting the Laws in execution and for a stricter course to prevent hearing and saying of Mass But as to the Covenant His Majesty is not yet therein satisfied that He can either sign or swear it or consent to impose it on the Consciences of others nor doth conceive it proper or useful at this time to be insisted on Touching the Militia His Majesty conceives that your Proposition demands a far larger power over the Persons and Estates of His Subjects than hath ever hitherto been warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm yet considering the present Distractions require more and trusting in His two Houses of Parliament that they will make no further use of the Power therein mentioned after the present Distempers setled than shall be agreeable to the Legal exercise thereof in times past or just necessity shall require His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England now assembled or hereafter to be assembled or such as they shall appoint during the space of ten years shall Arm Train and Discipline or cause to be Armed Trained or Disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersy and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the space of ten years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to de raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of ten years think fit to appoint And that neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any other but such as shall act by the Authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of ten years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of ten years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of ten years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons or such as they shall appoint during the said space of ten years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without Authority and Consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the Publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any Foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed or any of them And after the expiration of the said ten years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons raise arm train discipline employ order manage disband or dispose any the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities herein before mentioned and expressed to be during the space of ten years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any act or any thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained And with the same Provisoes for saving the ordinary Legal Power of Officers of Justice not being Military Officers as is set down in your Propositions And with a Declaration That if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in a Warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disperse themselves being require thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or any other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding And he or they that shall so offend herein to be uncapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors And likewise that it be provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties c. in raising and imyloying the Forces of that City in such sort as is mentioned in the said Proposition With these Provisoes following to be inserted in the said Act. First That none be compelled to serve in the Wars against their wills but in case of coming in of strange Enemies into this Kingdom And that the Powers above mentioned as concerning the Land-Forces other than for keeping up and maintenance of Forts and Garisons and the keeping up mantaining and pay of this present Army so long as it shall be thought fit by both Houses of Parliament be exercised to no other purposes than for the suppressing of Forces raised or to be raised without Authority and Consent of the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid or for suppressing of any Foreign Forces which shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms Dominions or places aforesaid And that the Monies be raised by general and equal Taxations saving that Tonnage and Poundage and such Imposts as have been applyed to the Navy be raised as hath been usual And that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Premisses be made and acted in His Majesties Name by Warrant signified by the Lords and Commons or
Bishop Jewel that Ambrose Chrysostome Jerome Augustine and many more holy Fathers together with the Apostle Paul agree that by the Word of God there is no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter and that Medina in the Council of Trent affirms not only the same Fathers but also another Jerome Theodoret Primasius Sedulius and Theophylact to be of the same judgment and that with them agree Oecumenius Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and another Anselme Gregory and Gratian and after them many others that it was inrolled in the Canon Law for sound and Catholick Doctrine and publickly taught by Learned men And adds That all who have laboured in the Reformation of the Church for these 500 years have taught that all Pastors be they intituled Bishops or Priests have equal authority and power by God's word The same way goes Lombard Master of the Sentences and Father of the School-men who speaking of Presbyters and Deacons saith The Primitive Church had those Orders only and that we have the Apostles precept for them alone With him agree many of the most eminent in that kind and generally all the Canonists To these we may add Sixtus Senensis who testifies for himself and many others and Cassander who was called by one of the German Emperors as one of singular ability and integrity to inform him and resolve his Conscience in questions of that nature who said It is agreed among all that in the Apostles times there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter For a conclusion we add that the Doctrine we have herein propounded to Your Majesty concerning the Identity of the Order of Bishops and Presbyters is no other than the Doctrine published by King Henry the 8. 1543. for all his Subjects to receive seen and allowed by the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal with the neather House of Parliament Of these two Orders only so saith the Book that is to say Priests and Deacons Scripture maketh express mention and how they were conferred of the Apostles by Prayer and Imposition of hands By all which it seems evident that the Order of Episcopacy as distinct from Presbytery is but an Ecclesiastical Institution and therefore not unalterable Lastly we answer That Episcopal Government which at first obtained in the Church did really and substantially differ from the Episcopal Goverment which the Honourable Houses of Parliament desire the abolition of The Bishop of those times was one presiding and joining with the Presbytery of his Church ruling with them and not without them either created and made by the Presbyters chusing out one among themselves as in Rome and Alexandria or chosen by the Church and confirmed by three or more of his Neighbours of like dignity within the same precinct lesser Towns and Villages had and might have have Bishops in them as well as populous and eminent Cities until the Council of Sardis decreed That Villages and small Cities should have no Bishops lest the name and authority of a Bishop might thereby come into contempt But of one claiming as his due and right to himself alone as a superior order or degree all power about Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons and all jurisdiction either to exercise himself or delegate to whom he will of the Laity or Clergy as they distinguish according to the Judgment and Practice of those in our times we read not till in the latter and corrupter Ages of the Church By all which it appears that the present Hierarchy the abolition whereof is desired by the Honourable Houses may accordingly be abolished and yet possibly the Bishops of those Primitive times be They are so far differing one from another In answer to that part of Your Majesties Paper wherein You require whether our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter or change the Church-Government at their pleasure we humbly conceive that there are Substantials belonging to Church-Government such as are appointed by Christ and his Apostles which are not in the Churches liberty to alter at pleasure But as for Arch-Bishops c. we hope it will appear unto Your Majesties Conscience that they are none of the Church-Governors appointed by our Saviour and his Apostles And we beseech Your Majesty to look rather to the Original of them than Succession Octob. 3. 1648. III. His MAJESTIES Answer to the Paper delivered to Him by the Divines attending the Parliament's Commissioners concerning Church-Government C. R. HIS Majesty upon perusal of your Answer to His Paper of the second of October 1648. findeth that you acknowledg the several Scriptures cited in the Margin to prove the things for which they are cited viz. That the Apostles in their own persons that Timothy and Titus by Authority derived from them and the Angels of the Churches had power of Church-Government and did or might actually exercise the same in all the three several branches in His Paper specified And so in effect you grant all that is desired For the Bishops challenge no more or other power to belong unto them in respect of their Episcopal Office as it is distinct from that of Presbyters than what properly falleth under one of these three Ordination giving Rules and Censures But when you presently after deny the persons that exercised the power aforesaid to have been Bishops or to have exercised Episcopal Government in that sense as Bishops are distinct from Presbyters you do in effect deny the very same thing you had before granted For Episcopal Government in that sense being nothing else but the Government of the Churches within a certain Precinct commonly called a Diocese committed to one single person with sufficient authority over the Presbyters and people of those Churches for that end since the substance of the thing it self in all the three forementioned particulars is found in the Scriptures unless you will strive about names and words which tendeth to no profit but to the puzling and subverting those which seek after truth you must also acknowledg that Episcopal Government in the sense aforesaid may be sufficiently proved from the Scriptures In that which you say next and for proof thereof insist upon three several Texts His Majesty conceiveth as to the present business that the most that can be proved from all or any of those places is this That the word Bishop is there used to signifie Presbyter and that consequently the Office and Work mentioned in those places as the Office and Work of a Bishop are the Office and Work of a Presbyter which is confest on all sides although His Majesty is not sure that the proof will reach so far in each of those places But from thence to infer an absolute Identity of the Functions of a Bishop and a Presbyter is a fallacy which his Majesty observeth to run in a manner quite along your whole Answer but it appears from the Scriptures by what you have granted that single persons as Timothy and Titus
disaffection to Bishops have endeavoured to descredit the whole Volume of them by all possible means without any regard either of ingenuity or truth yet sundry of them are such as being attested by the Suffrages of Antiquity cannot with any forehead be denied to be his and there is scarce any of them which doth not give testimony to the Prelacy of a Bishop above a Presbyter Ignatius himself also was a Bishop of Antioch and a holy Martyr for the Faith of Christ 4. You grant that not long after the Apostles times Bishops are found in the Writers of those times as in some superiority to Presbyters but you might have added farther out of these Writers if you had pleased that there were some of them as James at Jerusalem Timothy at Ephesus Titus in Crete Mark at Alexandria Linus and Clement at Rome Polycarpus at Smyrna constituted and ordained Bishops of these places by the Apostles themselves and all of them reputed Successors to the Apostles in their Episcopal Office And His Majesty presumeth you could not be ignorant that all or most of the testimonies you recite of the ancient Fathers Writers of the middle ages Schoolmen and Canonists and the Book published under King Hen. the 8. do but either import the promiscuous and indifferent use of the names of Bishops and Presbyters whereof advantage ought not to be made to take away the difference of the things or else they relate to a School-point which in respect of the thing it self is but a very nicety disputed pro and con by curious questionists Vtrum Episcopatus sit or do vel gradus both sides in the mean time acknowledging the right of Church-government to be in the Bishops alone and not in the Presbyters as also that there may be produced either from the very same Writers or from others of as good authority or credit testimonies both for number and clearness far beyond those by you mentioned to assert the three different Degrees or Orders call them whether you will of Ecclesiastical Functions viz. the Bishop the Presbyter and the Deacon As to that which you add lastly concerning the difference between Primitive Episcopacy and the present Hierarchy albeit His Majesty doth not conceive that the accessions or additions granted by the favour of His Royal Progenitors for the enlarging of the Power or Privileges of Bishops have made or indeed can make the Government really and substantially to differ from what formerly it was no more than the addition of Arms or Ornaments can make a body really and substantially to differ from it self naked or devested of the same nor can think it either necessary or yet expedient that the elections of the Bishops or some other Circumstantials touching their Persons or Office should be in all respects the same under Christian Princes as it was when Christians lived among Pagans and under Persecution yet His Majesty so far approveth of your Answer in that behalf that he thinketh it well worthy the studies and endeavours of the Divines of both Opinions laying aside Emulation and private Interests to reduce Episcopacy and Presbytery into such a well-proportioned Form of Superiority and Subordination as may best resemble the Apostolical and Primitive times so far forth as the different condition of times and the exigences of all considerable circumstances will admit so as the power of Church-Government in the particular of Ordination which is meerly spiritual may remain Authoritative in the Bishop but that Power not to be exercised without the concurrence or assistance of his Presbytery as Timothy was ordained by the authority of St Paul ii Tim. i. 6. but with the concurrence or assistance of the Presbytery i Tim. iv 14. Other powers of Government which belong to Jurisdiction though they are in the Bishops as before is exprest yet the outward exercise of them may be ordered and disposed or limited by the Sovereign power to which by the Laws of the Land and the acknowledgement of the Clergy they are subodinate but His Majesty doubteth whether it be in your power to give Him any present assurance that in the desired Abolition of the present Hierarchy the utter abolishing of Episcopacy and consequently of the Primitive Episcopacy is neither included nor intended As to the last part of His Majesties Paper His Majesty would have been satisfied if you had been more particular in your Answer thereunto You tell Him in general that there are Substantials in Church-Government appointed by Christ c. but you neither say what those Substantials are nor in whose hands they are left whereas His Majesty expected that you should have declared your opinions clearly whether Christ or his Apostles left any certain Form of Government to be observed in all Christian Churches then whether the same binds all Churches to the perpetual observation thereof or whether they may upon occasion alter the same either in whole or in part likewise whether that certain Form of Government which Christ and his Apostles have appointed as perpetual and unalterable if they have appointed any such at all be the Episcopal or the Presbyterian or some other differing from them both And whereas in the conclusion you beseech His Majesty to look rather to the Original of Bishops than to their Succession His Majesty thinks it needful to look at both especially since their Succession is the best clue the most certain and ready way to find out their Original His Majesty having returned you this Answer doth profess that as whatsoever was of weight in yours shall have influence on Him so He doubts not but somewhat may appear to you in His which was not so clear to you before and if this Debate may have this end that it dispose others to the temper of accepting Reason as it shall Him of endeavouring to give satisfaction in all He can to His two Houses His Majesty believes though it hath taken up it hath not mis-spent His time Newport Octob. 6. IV. The Humble Answer of the Divines attending the Honourable Commissioners of Parliament at the Treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight to the Second Paper delivered to them by His Majesty Octob. 6. 1648. Delivered to His Majesty Octob. 17. May it please Your Majesty AS in our Paper of October the third in Answer to Your Majesties of October the second we did so now again we do acknowledg that the Scriptures cited in the Margin of Your Majesties Paper do prove that the Apostles in their own persons that Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches had power respectively to do those things which are in those places of Scripture specified But as then so now also we humbly do deny that any of the persons or Officers fore-mentioned were Bishops as distinct from Presbyters or did exercise Episcopal Government in that sense or that this was in the least measure proved by the alledged Scriptures And therefore our Negative not being to the same point or state of the Question which
Offices they are distinguisht by their Callings and Commissions though not by the work as all those that are named Eph. iv ii Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers are designed to one and the same general and common work the work of the Ministry ver 12. and yet they are not therefore all one for it 's said some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers A Dictator in Rome and an ordinary Tribune Moses and the subordinate Governors of Israel the Court of Parliament and of the Kings-Bench an Apostle and a Presbyter or Deacon may agree in some common work and yet no confusion of Offices follows thereupon To that which Your Majesty conceives that the most that can be proved from all or any of those places by us alledged to prove that the Name Office and Work of Bishops and Presbyters is one and the same in all things and not in the least distinguisht is That the word Bishop is used in them to signifie a Presbyter and the consequently the Office and Work mentioned in those places as the Office and Work of a Bishop are the Office of a Presbyter which is confessed on all sides we make this humble return That though there be no supposition so much as implied that the Office of a Bishop and a Presbyter are distinct in any thing for the names are mutually reciprocal yet we take Your Majesties Concession that in these times of the Church and places of Scripture there was no distinct Office of Bishops and Presbyters and consequently that the identity of the Office must stand until there can be found a clear distinction of division in the Scriptures And if we had argued the identity of Functions from the Community of names and some part of the work the Argument might have been justly termed a fallacy but we proved them the same Office from the same work per omnia being allowed so to do by the fulness of those two words used in the Acts and S. Peter his Epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the force of which words the Bishops claim their whole power of Government and Jurisdiction and we found no little weight added to our Argument from that in the Acts where the Apostle departing from the Ephesian Presbyters or Bishops as never to see their faces more commits as by a final charge the Government of that Church both over parricular Presbyters and people not to Timothy who then stood at his elbow but to the Presbyters under the name of Bishops made by the Holy Ghost whom we read to have set many Bishops over one Church not one over either one or many And the Apostles arguing from the same Qualification of a Presbyter and of a Bishop in order to Ordination or putting him into Office fully proves them to be two names of the same Order or Function the divers orders of Presbyter and Deacon being diversly characterised Upon these grounds we hope without fallacy we conceive it justly proved that a Bishop and a Presbyter are wholly the same That Timothy and Titus were single persons having authority of Government we acknowledge but deny that from thence any argument can be made unto either single Bishop or Presbyter for though a singie Presbyter by the power of his Order as they call it may preach the Word and dispense the Sacraments yet by that example of the Presbytery their Laying on of hands and that Rule of Telling the Church in matter of scandal it seems manifest that Ordination and Censures are not to be exercised by a single Presbyter neither hath Your Majesty hitherto proved either the names of Bishops and Presbyters or the Function to be in other places of Scripture at all distinguished You having wholly waved the notice or answer of that we did assert and do yet desire some demonstration of the contrary viz. That the Scripture doth not afford us the least notice of any Qualification any Ordination any work or duty any honour peculiary belonging to a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter the assignment of which or any of them unto a Bishop by the Scripture would put this Question near to an issue That God should intend a distinct and highest kind of Officer for Government in the Church and yet not express any qualification work or way of constituting and ordaining of him seems unto us improbable Concerning the signification of the word Episcopus importing an Overseer or one that hath a charge committed to him for instance of watching a Beacon or keeping sheep and the application of the name to such persons as have inspection of the Churches of Christ committed to them in spiritualibus we also give our suffrage but not to that distinction of Episcopus gregis and Episcopus pastorum gregis both because it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or point in question and also because Your Majesty having signified that Episcopus imports a keeper of sheep yet You have not said that it signifies also a keeper of shepherds As to that which is affirmed by Your Majesty that the peculiar of the Function of Bishops is Church-Government and that the reason why the word Episcopus is usually applied to Presbytery was because Church-Governors had then another title of greater eminency to wit that of Apostles until the Government of the Church came into the hands of their Successors and then the names were by common usage very soon appropriated that of Episcopus to Ecclesiastical Governors that of Presbyter to the ordinary Ministrrs This assertion Your Majesty is pleased to make without any demonstration for whom the Scripture calls Presbyters Rulers and Pastors and Teachers it calls Governors and commits to them the charge of feeding and inspection as we have proved and that without any mention of Church-Government peculiar to a Bishop We deny not but some of the Fathers have conceived the notion that Bishops were called Apostles till the names of Presbyter and Episcopus became appropriate which is either an allusion or conceit without Evidence of Scripture for while the Function was one the names were not divided when the Function was divided the name was divided also and indeed impropriate but we that look for the same warrant for the division of an Office as for the Constitution cannot find that this appropriation of names was made till afterwards or in process of time as Theodore one of the Fathers of this conceit affirms whose saying when it is run out of the pale of Scripture time we can no further follow From which premisses laid all together we did conclude the clearness of our assertion that in the Scriptures of the New Testament a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter in Qualification Ordination Office or Dignity is not found the contrary whereof though Your Majesty saith that You have seen confirmed by great variety of credible Testimony yet we believe those Testimonies are rather strong in asserting than in demonstrating the
Scripture-Original of a Bishop which is declared against by a cloud of Witnesses named in the latter end of our former Answer unto which we should refer if matter of right were not properly triable by Scripture as matter of Fact is by Testimony We said that the Apostles were the highest Order of Officers of the Church that they were extraordinary that they were distinguisht from all other Officers and that their Government was not Episcopal but Apostolical To which Answer Your Majesty being not satisfied doth oppose certain Assertions That Christ himself and the Apostles received their Authority by Mission their Ability by Vnction That the Mission of the Apostles was ordinary and to continue to the end of the World but the Vnction whereby they were enabled to both Offices and Functions Teaching and Governing was indeed extraordinary That in their Vnction they were not necessarily to have Successors but necessarily in their Mission or Office of Teaching and Governing That in these two ordinary Offices their ordinary Successors are Presbyters and Bishops That Presbyters qua Presbyters do immediately succeed them in the Office of Teaching and Bishops qua Bishops immediately in the Office of Governing the demonstration of which last alone would have carried in it more conviction than all these Assertions put together Officers are distinguished by that whereby they are constituted their Commission which being produced signed by one place of Scripture gives surer evidence than a Pedigree drawn forth by such a series of distinctions as do not distinguish him into another Officer from a Presbyter Whether this chain of distinction be strong and the links of it sufficiently tackt together we crave leave to examine Christ saith Your Majesty was the Apostle and Bishop of our Souls and he made the Apostles both Apostles and Bishops We do not conceive that Your Majesty means that the Apostles succeeded Christ as the chief Apostle and that as Bishops they succeed Christ as a Bishop lest thereby Christ his Mission as an Apostle and Bishop might be conceived as ordinary as their Mission is said to be but we apprehend Your Majesty to mean that the Office of Apostle and Bishop was eminently contained in Christs Office as the Office of a Bishop was eminently contained in that of Apostleship but thence it will not follow that inferior Offices being contained in the superior eminently are therefore existent in it formally For because all Honours and Dignities are eminently contained in Your Majesty would it therefore follow that Your Majesty is formally and distinctly a Baron of the Realm as it is asserted the Apostles to have been Bishops in distinct sense That Mission refers to Office and Authority and Vnction only to Ability we cannot consent for besides that the breathing of Christ upon his Disciples saying Receive ye the Holy Ghost doth refer to mission as well as unction we conceive that in the proper anointing of Kings or other Officers the natural use and effect of the oil upon the body was not so much intended as the solemn and ceremonious use of it in the Inauguration of them So there is relation to Office in unction as well as to conferring of abilities else how are Kings or Priests or Prophets said to be anointed And what good sense could be made of that expression in Scripture of anointing one in anothers room To omit that Christ by this construction should be called the Messias in respect of Abilities only And although we should grant Your Majesties explication of Mission and Vnction yet it will not follow that the mission of the Apostles was ordinary and their unction only extraordinary That into which there is succession was ordinary that into which there is no succession for succession is not unto abilities or gifts extraordinary and so the Apostles were ordinary Officers in all whereunto there is properly any succession and that is Office They differed from Bishops in that wherein one Apostle or Officer of the same order might differ from another to wit in abilities and measure of Spirit but not in that wherein one order of Officers is above another by their Office To which we cannot give consent For since no man is denominated an Officer from his meer abilities or gifts so neither can the Apostles be called extraordinary Officers because of extraordinary gifts but that the Apostles Mission and Office as their abilities was extraordinary and temporary doth appear in that it was by immediate Commission from Christ without any intervention of men either in Election or Ordination for planting an authoritative governing of all Churches through the World comprehending in it all other Officers of the Church whatsoever and therefore it seems to us very unreasonable that the Office and Authority of the Apostles should be drawn down to an ordinary thereby to make it as it were a fit stock into which the ordinary Office of a Bishop may be ingrafted nor doth the continuance of Teaching and Governing in the Church more render the Office of teaching and governing in the Apostles an ordinary Office than the Office of teaching and governing in Christ himself renders his Office therefore ordinary The reason given That the Office of Teaching and Governing was ordinary in the Apostles because of the continuance of them in the Church we crave leave to say is that great mistake which runs through the whole file of Your Majesties Discourse for tho there be a Succession in the Work of Teaching and Governing yet there is no Succession in the Commission or Office by which the Apostles performed them for the Office of Christ of Apostles of Evangelists or Prophets is thence also concluded ordinary as to Teaching and Governing and the distinction of Offices Extraordinary and Ordinary eatenus destroyed The Succession may be into the same Work not into the same Commission and Office The ordinary Officers which are to manage the work of Teaching and Government are constituted settled and limited by warrant of Scripture as by another Commission than that which the Apostles had And if Your Majesty had shewn us some Record out of Scripture warranting the division of the Office of Teaching and Governing into two hands and the appropriation of Teaching to Presbyters of Governing to Bishops the question had been determined otherwise we must look upon the dissolving of the Apostolical Office and distribution of it into these two hands as the dictate of men who have a mind by such a precarious Argument to challenge to themselves the Keys of Authority and leave the Word to the Presbyters In our answer to the instances of Timothy and Titus which Doctor Bilson acknowledgeth to be the main erection of Episcopal power if the proof of their being Bishops do stand or subversion if the answer that they were Evangelists be good Your Majesty finds very little satisfaction though all that is said therein could be proved First because the Scriptures no where imply any such thing at all that Titus was an Evangelist
neither doth the text clearly prove that Timothy was so 1. The name of Bishop the Scripture neither expressly nor by implication gives to either the work which they are injoyned to do is common to Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers and cannot of it self make a character of one distinct and proper Office But that there was such an Order of Officers in the Church as Evangelists reckoned amongst the extraordinary and temporary Offices and that Timothy was one of that Order and that both Timothy and Titus were not ordained to one particular Church but were companions and fellow-Labourers with the Apostles sent abroad to several Churches as occasion did require it is as we humbly conceive clear enough in Scripture and not denied by the learned defenders of Episcopal Government nor as we remember by Scultetus himself during the time of their travels 2. To that which Your Majesty secondly saith That we cannot make it appear by any Text of Scripture that the Office of Evangelist is such as we have described his work seeming 11 Tim. VIII 4 5. to be nothing else but diligence in preaching the word notwithstanding all impediments and oppositions we humbly answer that exact definitions of these or other Church-Officers are hard to be found in any Text of Scripture but by comparing one place of Scripture with another it may be proved as well what they were as what the Apostles and Presbyters were the description by us given being a Character made up by collation of Scriptures from which Mr. Hooker doth not much vary saying that Evangelists were Presbyters of principal sufficiency whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical Affairs wheresoever they saw need And that Pastors and Teachers were settled in some certain charge and thereby differed from Evangelists whose work that it should be nothing but diligence in preaching c. which is common to Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers and so not distinctive of this particular Office argueth to us that as the Apostles Office was divided into Episcopal and Apostolical so this also is to be divided into Episcopal and Evangelistical Ordination and Censures belonging to Timothy as to a Bishop and diligence in Preaching only being left to the Evangelist which division as we humbly conceive is not warranted by the Scripture Thirdly Your Majesty faith that that which we so confidently affirm of Timothy and Titus their acting as Evangelists is by some denied and refuted yea even with scorn rejected by some rigid Presbyterians and that which we so confidently deny that they were Bishops is confirmed by the consentient testimony of all antiquity recorded by Jerome himself that they were Bishops of Paul's ordination acknowledged by very many late Divines and that a Catalogue of 27 Bishops of Ephesus lineally succeeding from Timothy out of good Record is vouched by Dr. Reynolds and other Writers Our confidence as Your Majesty is pleased to call it was in our Answer exprest in these words We cannot say that Timothy and Titus were Bishops in the sense of Your Majesty but extraordinary Officers or Evangelists in which opinion we were then clear not out of a total ignorance of those Testimonies which might be alleged against it but from intrinsick arguments out of Scripture from which Your Majesty hath not produced any one to the contrary Nor is our confidence weakned by such replies as these The Scripture never calls them Bishops but the Fathers do The Scripture calls Timothy an Evangelist some of late have refuted it and rejected it with scorn The Scripture relates their motions from Church to Church but some affirm them to be fixed at Ephesus and in Crete The Scripture makes distinction of Evangelists and Pastors but some say that Timothy and Titus were both We cannot give Your Majesty a present account of Scultetus and Gerard's Arguments but do believe that Mr. Gillespy and Rutherford are able with greater strength to refute that opinion of Timothy and Titus their being Bishops than they do if they do with scorn reject this of their being Evangelists As for Testimonies and Catalogues tho we undervalue them not yet Your Majesty will be pleased to allow us the use of our Reason so far as not to erect an Office in the Church which is not found in Scripture upon general appellations or titles and allusions frequently found in the Fathers especially when they speak vulgarly and not as to a point in debate for even Jerome who as Your Majesty saith doth record that Timothy and Titus were made Bishops and that of St. Paul's Ordination doth when he speaks to the point between Your Majesty and us give the Bishops to understand that they are superior to Presbyters consuetudine magis quam Dominicoe veritatis dispositione For Catalogues their credit rests upon the first witnesses from whom they are reported by tradition from hand to hand whose writings are many times supposititious dubious or not extant besides that these Catalogues do resolve themselves into some Apostle or Evangelist as the first Bishop as the catalogue of Jerusalem into the Apostle James that of Antioch into Peter that of Rome into Peter and Paul that of Alexandria into Mark that of Ephesus into Timothy which Apostles and Evangelists can neither themselves be degraded by being made Bishops nor be succeeded in their proper Calling or Office and it is easie for us to proceed the same way and to find many ancient rites and customs generally received in the Church counted by the ancients Apostolical traditions as near the Apostles times as Bishops which yet are confessedly not of Divine Institution And further if Timothy and the rest that are first in the catalogue were Bishops with such sole Power of Ordination and Censures as is asserted how came their pretended Successors who were but primi Presbyterorum as the Fathers themselves call them to lose so much Episcopal power as was in their Predecessors and as was not recovered in 300 years And therefore we cannot upon any thing yet said recede from that of our Saviour Ab initio non fuit sic from the beginning it was not so 4. Your Majesty saith that we affirm but upon very weak proofs that they were from Ephesus and Crete removed to other places the contrary whereunto hath been demonstrated by some who have exactly out of Scripture compared the times and order of the several Journeys and Stations of Paul and Timothy It is confessed that our assertion that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists lies with some stress upon this that they removed from place to place as they were sent by or accompanied the Apostles the proof whereof appears to us to be of greater strength than can be taken off by the comparison which Your Majesty makes of the Divines of the Assembly at Westminster We begin with the travels of Timothy as we find them in order recorded in the Scripture-places cited in the Margin and we set forth from Beraea where we find
Timothy then next at Athens from whence Paul sends him to Thessalonica afterwards having been in Macedonia he came to Paul at Corinth and after that he is with Paul at Ephesus and thence sent by him into Macedonia whiter Paul went after him and was by Timothy accompanied into Asia who was with him at Troas and Miletus to which place S. Paul sent for the Presbyters of the Church in Ephesus and gave them that solemn charge to take heed unto themselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops not speaking a word of recommendation of that Church to Timothy or of him to the Elders And if Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus he must needs be so when the first Epistle was sent to him in which he is pretended to receive the charge of exercising his Episcopal power in Ordination and Government but it is manifest that after this Epistle sent to him he was in continual Journeys or absent from Ephesus For Paul left him at Ephesus when he went into Macedonia and he left him there to exercise his Office in regulating and ordering that Church and in ordaining but it was after this time that Timothy is found with Paul at Miletus for after Paul had been at Miletus he went to Jerusalem whence he was sent prisoner to Rome and never came more into Macedonia and at Rome we find Timothy a prisoner with him and those Epistles which Paul wrote while he was prisoner at Rome namely the Epistle to the Philippians to Philemon to the Colossians to the Hebrews do make mention of Timothy as his companion at these times nor do we ever find him again at Ephesus for we find that after all this towards the end of St. Paul's life after his first answering before Nero and when he said his departure was at hand he sent for Timothy to Rome not from Ephesus for it seems that Timothy was not there because Paul giving Timothy an account of the absence of most of his companions sent into divers parts he saith Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus Now if Your Majesty shall be pleased to cast up into one total that which is said the several journeys and stations of Timothy the order of them the time spent in them the nature of his employment to negotiate the affairs of Christ in several Churches and places the silence of the Scriptures as touching his being Bishop of any one Church you will acknowledg that such a man was not a Bishop fixed to one Church or Precinct and then by assuming that Timothy was such a man you will conclude that he was not Bishop of Ephesus The like conclusion may be inferred from the like premisses from the instance of Titus whom we find at Jerusalem before he came to Crete from whence he is sent for to Nicopolis and after that he is sent to Corinth from whence he is expected at Troas and met with Paul in Macedonia whence he is sent again to Corinth and after all this is near the time of Paul's death at Rome from whence he went not into Crete but into Dalmatia and after this is not heard of in the Scripture And so we hope Your Majesty doth conceive that we affirm not upon very weak proofs that Timothy and Titus were from Ephesus and Crete removed to other places In the fifth exception Your Majesty takes notice of two places of Scripture cited by us to prove that they were called away from those places of Ephesus and Crete which they do not conclude much of themselves yet being accompanied by two other places which Your Majesty takes no notice of may seem to conclude more and these i Tim. i. 3. Titus i. 5. as I be sought thee to abide still at Ephesus for this cause left I thee in Crete in both which is specified the occasional employment for which they made stay in those places and the expressions used I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus I left thee in Crete do not sound like words of instalment of a man into a Bishoprick but of an intendment to call them away again and if the first and last be put together his actual revocation of them both the intimation of his intention that they should not stay there for continuance and the reason of his beseeching the one to stay and of his leaving the other behind him which was some present defects and distempers in those Churches they will put fair to prove that the Apostle intended not to establish them Bishops of those places and therefore did not For the Postscripts because your Majesty lays no great weight upon them we shall not be solicitous in producing evidence against them though they do bear witness in a matter of fact which in our opinion never was and in Your Majesties Judgment was long before they were born And so we conclude this discourse about Timothy and Titus with this observation that in the same very Epistle of Paul to Timothy out of which Your Majesty hath endeavoured to prove that he was a Bishop and did exercise Episcopal Government there is clear evidence both for Presbyters imposing hands in Ordination and for their Ruling In the next point concerning the Angels of the Churches tho Your Majesty faith that you lay no weight upon the Allegory or Mystery of the denomination yet you assert that the persons bearing that name were personae singulares and in a word Bishops who yet are never so called in Scripture and the allegorical denomination of Angels or Stars which in the Judgment of ancient and modern Writers doth belong to the faithful Ministers and Preachers of the Word in general is appropriate as we may so say to the Mitre and Crosier-staff and so opposed to many express testimonies of Scripture And if Your Majesty had been particular in that wherein You say the strength of Your instance lies viz. the Judgment of all ancient and of the best modern Writers and many probabilities in the Text it self we hope to have made it apparent that many ancient and eminent modern Writers many probabilitirs out of the Text it self do give evidence to the contrary To that which is asserted That these singular persons were Bishops in distinct sense whether we brought any thing of moment to infirm this we humbly submit to Your Majesties Judgment and shall only present to You that in Your Reply You have not taken notice of that which in our Answer seems to us of moment which is this That in Mysterious and prophetick writings or visional representation such as this of the Stars and golden Candlesticks is a number of things and persons is usually exprest in singulars and this in Visions is the usual way of Representation of things a thousand persons making up one Church is represented by one Candlestick many Ministers making up one Presbytery by one Angel And because Your Majesty seems to
subjoyn to that we had said out of the Scriptures the Judgment of divers ancient Writers and Fathers by whom Bishops were not acknowledged as a Divine but as an Ecclesiastical Institution as that which might very much conduce both to the easing of Your Majesties Scruple to consider that howsoever Episcopal Government was generally current yet the superscription was not judged Divine by some of those that either were themselves Bishops or lived under that Government and to the vindication of the opinion which we hold from the prejudice of Novellisme or of Recess from the Judgment of all Antiquity We do as firmly believe as to matter of fact that Chrysostome and Austin were Bishops as that Aristotle was a Philosopher Cicero an Orator though we should rather call our Faith and belief thereof certain in matter of fact upon humane Testimonies uncontroll'd than infallible in respect of the Testimonies themselves But whereas Your Majesty saith That the darkness of the History of the Church in the times succeeding the Apostles is a strong Argument for Episcopacy which notwithstanding that darkness hath found so full proof by unquestioned Catalogues as scarce any other matter of fact hath found the like we humbly conceive that those fore-mentioned times were dark to the Catalogue-makers who must derive the series of Succession from and through those Historical darknesses and so make up their of Catalogues very much from Traditions and Reports which can give no great Evidence because they agree not amongst themselves and that which is the great blemish of their Evidence is that the nearer they come to the Apostles times wherein they should be most of all clear to establish the Succession firm and clear at first the more doubtful uncertain and indeed contradictory to one another are the Testimonies Some say that Clemens was first Bishop of Rome after Peter some say the third and intricacies about the Order of Succession in Linus Anacletus Clemens and another called Cletus as some affirm are inextricable Some say that Titus was Bishop of Crete some say Arch-Bishop and some Bishop of Dalmatia Some say that Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus and some say that John was Bishop of Ephesus at the sametime Some say that Polycarpus was the first Bishop of Smyrna another saith that he succeeded one Bucolus and another that Aristo was first Some say that Alexandria had but one Bishop and other Cites two and others that there was but one Bishop of one City at the same time And how should those Catalogues be unquestionable which must be made up out of Testimonies that fight one with another We confess that the Ancient Fathers Tertullian Irenoeus c. made use of Succession as an Argument against Hereticks or Innovators to prove that they had the traduces Apostolici seminis and that the Godly and Orthodox Fathers were on their side But that which we now have in hand is Succession in Office which according to the Catalogues resolves it self into some Apostle or Evangelist as the first Bishop of such a City or Place who as we conceive could not be Bishops of those places being of higher Office though according to the language of after-times they might by them that drew up the Catalogues be so called because they planted and founded or watered those Churches to which they are Entitled and had their greatest residence in them Or else the Catalogues are drawn from some eminent men that were of great veneration and reverence in the times and places where they lived and Presidents or Moderators of the Presbyteries whereof themselves were Members from whom to pretend the Succession of after Bishops is as if it should be said that Caesar was Successor to the Roman Consuls And we humbly conceive that there are some Rites and Ceremonies used continually in the Church of old which are asserted to be found in the Apostolical and Primitive times and yet have no colour of Divine Institution and which is Argument above all other the Fathers whose Names we exhibited to your Majesty in our Answer were doubtless acquainted with the Catalogues of Bishops who had been before them and yet did hold them to be of Ecclesiastical Institution And lest Your Majesty might reply That however the Testimonies and Catalogues may vary or be mistaken in the order or times or names of those persons that succeeded the Apostles yet all agree that there was a Succession of some persons and so though the credit of the Catalogues be infirmed yet the thing intended is confirmed thereby We grant that a Succession of men to feed and govern those Churches while they continued Churches cannot be denied and that the Apostles and Evangelists that planted and watered those Churches though extraordinary and temporary Officers were by Ecclesiastical Writers in compliance with the Language and usage of their own times called Bishops and so were other eminent men of chief note presiding in the Presbyteries of the Cities or Churches called by such Writers as wrote after the division or distinction of the names of Presbyters and Bishops But that those first and ancientest Presbyters were Bishops in proper sense according to Your Majesties description invested with power over Presbyters and people to whom as distinct from Presbyters did belong the power of Ordaining giving Rules ahd Censures we humbly conceive can never be proved by authentick or competent Testimonies And granting that Your Majesty should prove the Succession of Bishops from the Primitive times seriatim yet if these from whom You draw and through whom You derive it be found either more than Bishops as Apostles and extraordinary persons or less than Bishops as merely first Presbyters having not one of the three Essentials to Episcopal Government mentioned by Your Majesty in their own hand it will follow that all that Your Majesty hath proved by this Succession is the Homonymy and equivocal acceptation of the word Episcopus For Clemens his Testimony which Your Majesty conceiveth to be made use of as our old fallacy from the promiscuous use of the words to infer the indistinction of the things we refer our selves to himself in his Epistle now in all mens hands whose Testimony we think cannot be eluded but by the old Artifice of hiding the Bishop under the Presbyters name for they that have read his whole Epistle and have considered that himself is called a Bishop Clement's opinion concerning the distinct Offices of Bishops and Presbyters or rather not doubt of it if only his own Epistle may be impanel'd upon the Inquest Concerning Ignatius his Epistles Your Majesty is pleased to use some earnestness of expression charging some of late without any regard of ingenuity or truth out of their partial disaffection to Bishops to have endeavoured to discredit his Writings One of those cited by us cannot as we conceive be suspected of disaffection to Bishops and there are great Arguments drawn out of those Epistles themselves betraying their insincerity adulterate mixtures and interpolations so
we hold only to that which is the question in order to the Bill of Abolition For we humbly profess our readiness to serve Your Majesty in Answering these or any other questions within our proper cognisance according to the proportion of our mean abilities For Your Majesties Condescension in vouchsafing us the liberty and honour of examining Your learned Reply cloathed in such Excellency of Style and for Your exceeding Candour shewed to such men as we are and for the acceptation of our humble duty we render to Your Majesty most humble Thanks and shall pray That such a Pen in the hand of such Abilities may ever be employed in a Subject worthy of it That your Majesty would please to consider that in this point under debate Succession is not the best Clue and most certain and ready way to find out the Original for to go that way is to go the furthest way about yea to go backward and when You are at the Spring viz. the Scripture it self You go to the Rivers end that You may seek the Spring And that the Lord would guide Your Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament by the right hand of his Counsel and shew You a happy way of healing our unhappy Differences and of settling the Commonwealth of Jesus Christ which is the Church so as all the members thereof may live under You in all Godliness Peace and Honesty V. His MAJESTIES Final Answer concerning Episcopacy Nov. 1. MDCXLVIII WHat you have offered by way of Reply to His Majesties Second Paper of October 6. in yours of October 17. in order to the further satisfaction of His Conscience in the point of Episcopacy His Majesty heard when it was publickly read by you with diligent attention and hath since so far as His leisure would permit taken the same into his private and serious Consideration Wherein His Majesty not only acknowledgeth your great Pains and Endeavours to inform His Judgment acording to such perswasions as your selves have in the matter in debate but also taketh special notice of the Civility of your applications to Him both in the Body and Conclusion of your Reply yet He cannot but observe withall that in very many things you either mistake His meaning and purpose in that Paper or at least come not up fully enough thereunto in this Reply Which to have shown will sufficiently remonstrate your present Reply to be unsatisfactory in that behalf without making a particular Answer to every passage in it which to a Paper of that length would require more time than His Majesty can think fit amidst the present weighty affairs to allow unto a debate of this nature Especially since His Majesty hath often found mutual returns of long Answers and Replies to have rather multiplied disputes by starting new Questions than informed the Conscience by removing former Scruples As to the Scriptures cited in the Margin of His Majesties first Paper It being granted by you that those Scriptures did prove the Apostles and others being single Persons to have exercised respectively the several powers in the Paper specified which powers by your own confession in this Reply Sect. 7. a single Person who is but a mere Presbyter hath no right to exercise and it being withall evident that a Bishop in the Ecclesiastical sense and as distinct from a Presbyter layeth claim to no more than to a peculiar right in the exercise of some or all of the said Powers which a mere Presbyter hath not the Conclusion seemeth natural and evident that such a Power of Church-Government as we usually call Episcopal is sufficiently proved by those Scriptures As to the Bishops Challenge First when you speak of a Writ of partition you seem to take His Majesties words as if He had shared and cantoned out the Episcopal Office one part to the Bishops alone another to the Presbyters alone and you fall upon the same again afterwards Sect. 6. Whereas His Majesties meaning was and by His words appeareth so to have been that one part of the Office that of Teaching c. was to be common to both alike but the other part that of Governing Churches peculiar to the Bishop alone Secondly you infer from His Majesties words That the Bishops Challenge appeareth to be grown to more than was formerly pretended to Which inference His Majesties words by you truly cited if rightly understood will not bear For having proved from Scripture the power of Church-Government in all the three mentioned Particulars to have been exercised by the Apostles and others His Majesty said but this only That the Bishops challenge no more or other power to belong unto them in respect of their Episcopal Office than what properly falleth under one of these three The Words are true for he that believeth they challenge not so much might safely say they challenge no more But the Inference is not good For he that saith they challenge no more doth not necessarily imply they challenge all that In the power of Ordination which is purely spiritual His Majesty conceiveth the Bishops challenge to have been much-what the same in all times of the Church and therefore it is that the matter of Ordination is most insisted on as the most constant and most evident difference between Bishops and Presbyters especially after the times of Constantine which His Majesty by your relating to Chrysostom and Hierom taketh to be the same you call the times of Grown Episcopacy But His Majesty seeth no necessity that the Bishops challenge to the power of Jurisdiction should be at all times as large as the exercise thereof appeareth at some times to have been the exercise thereof being variable according to the various conditions of the Church in different times And therefore His Majesty doth not believe that the Bishops under Christian Princes do challenge such an amplitude of Jurisdiction to belong unto them in respect of their Episcopal Office precisely as was exercised in the Primitive times by Bishops before the days of Constantine The reason of the difference being evident That in those former times under Pagan Princes the Church was a distinct Body of it self divided from the Commonwealth and so was to be governed by its own Rules and Rulers the Bishops therefore of those times tho they had no outward coercive power over mens Persons or Estates yet inasmuch as every Christian man when he became a Member of the Church did ipso facto and by that his own voluntary act put himself under their Government they exercised a very large power of Jurisdiction in Spiritualibus in making Ecclesiastical Canons receiving Accusations conventing the Accused examining Witnesses judging of Crimes excluding such as they found guilty of scandalous offences from the Lord's Supper enjoyning Penances upon them casting them out of the Church receiving them again upon their Repentance c. And all this they exercised as well over Presbyters as others But after that the Church under Christian Princes began to be
incorporated into the Commonwealth whereupon there must of necessity follow a complication of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers the Jurisdiction of Bishops in the outward exercise of it was subordinate unto and limitable by the supreme Civil power and hath been and is at this day so acknowledged by the Bishops of this Realm Thirdly you seem to affirm in a Parenthesis as if nothing were confessed to have been extraordinary in the Apostles but their Gifts and Enablements only whereas His Majesty in that Paper hath in express words named as Extraordinaries also the Extent of their Charge and the Infallibility of their Doctrine without any meaning to exclude those not named as their immediate Calling and if there be any other of like reason Fourthly for the Claim to a jus Divinum His Majesty was willing to decline both the Term as being by reason of the different acception of it subject to misconstruction and the dispute whether by Christ or his Apostles Nevertheless altho His Majesty sees no cause to dislike their opinion who derive the Episcopal power originally from Christ himself without whose warrant the Apostles would not either have exercised it themselves or derived it to others Yet for that the practice in them is so clear and evident and the warrant from him exprest but in general Terms As my Father sent me so send I you and the like He chose rather as others have done to fix the claim of the power upon the practice as the more evidential way than upon the warrant which by reason of the generality of expression would bear more dispute As to the Definition of Episcopacy First whereas you except against it for that it is competent to Archiepiscopal and Patriarchal Government as well as Episcopal His Majesty thinketh you might have excepted more justly against it if it had been otherwise Secondly His Majesty believeth that even in the persons by you named Timothy Titus and the Angels the definition in all the parts of it is to be found viz. that they were all single persons that they had their several peculiar Charges and that within their several precincts they had authority over Presbyters as well as others Neither thirdly doth His Majesty think it needful that any word be added to the Genus in the definition or that the Scripture should any where put all the parts of the definition together It would be a hard matter to give such a definition of an Apostle or a Prophet or an Evangelist or a Presbyter or a Deacon or indeed almost of any thing as that the parts thereof should be found in any place of Scripture put altogether Fourthly His Majesty consenteth with you that the point in issue is not the Name or Work meerly but the Office and that it were a Fallacy to argue a particular Office from a General or Common work But judgeth withal that it can be no Fallacy to argue a Particular Office from such a work as is peculiar to that Office and is as it were the formalis ratio thereof and therefore no Fallacy from a work done by a single person which a single Presbyter hath no right to do to infer an Office in that person distinct from the Office of a Presbyter As to the Scriptures cited by you viz. Titus 1. Acts xx 11 Peter v. First when you say you take His Majesties Concession That in those times of the Church and places of Scripture there was no distinct Office of Bishops and Presbyters if you take it so truly you take it gratis His Majesty never gave it you and you mistake it too more ways than one for to speak properly His Majesty made no Concession at all It was rather a Preterition in order to the present business and to avoid unnecessary disputes which ought not to be interepreted as an acknowledgement of the Truth of your Expositions of those places For his own express words are Although His Majesty be not sure that the Proof will reach so far in each of those Places Which words plainly evidence that which you call His Majesties Concession to be indeed no Concession but to have been meant according to that form of Speech very usual in disputations Dato non Concesso But in that Concession such as it is His Majesty is not yet able to imagine what you could find whereon to ground those words That in those times of the Church there was no distinct c. there being not any thing in the whole passage that carrieth the least sound that way or that hath relation to any particular times of the Church Neither is the Concession such as you take it as it relateth to those places of Scripture What His Majesty said was confessed on all sides which are the words you take for a Concession was but this That supposing but not granting the word Bishop to be used in all those places to signifie a Presbyter the Office and Work in those places mentioned as the Office and Work of a Bishop are upon that supposal the Office and Work of a Presbyter which is so manifest a Truth that no man without admitting Contradictions can say the contrary But how wide or short that is from what you make to be His Majesties Concession your selves by comparing His words with yours may easily judge But your selves a little after make a Concession which His Majesty warned by your example how soon anothers meaning may be mistaken when his words are altered is willing to take in the same words you give it viz. When you say and you bring reasons also to prove it That it seemeth manifest that Ordination and Censures are not to be exercised by a single Presbyter Secondly you repeat your Arguments formerly drawn from those places and press the same from the force of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from the Circumstances of the Text and otherwise adding withal that His Majesty hath waved the notice or answer of something by you alledged therein Hereunto His Majesty saith that He waved not any thing in your former Paper for any great difficulty He conceived of answering it but being desirous to contract His Answer and knowing to what frailties Arguments drawn from Names and Words and Conjectural Expositions of Scripture are subject He passed by such things as He deemed to be of least Consideration in order to the end of the whole Debate to wit the satisfaction of His Judgement and Conscience in the main business Otherwise His Majesty could have then told you That there are who by the like Conjectures grounded as seemeth to them upon some Probabilities in the Text interpret those places in the Acts and in St Peter of Bishops properly so called and in the restrained Ecclesiastical sense rather than of ordinary Presbyters That supposing them both meant of Ordinary Presbyters the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to feed and oversee might not unfitly
be applied to them as inferior Pastors in relation to their Flocks under their charge and oversight the Flock being in both the places expresly mentioned which hindreth not but that the same words may in a more particular manner be appropriated to Bishops in respect of that Authority and oversight they have even over Presbyters themselves also That still granting your own interpretation of the word Bishop in that place to Titus it can prove no more than that the two names in that place are given to the same Function That from all the Premisses in your Paper there laid together and supposed true His Majesty doth not conceive it justly proved That the Office of a Bishop and Presbyter is wholly the same but at the most That the Offices were not in those places distinguished by those Names Thirdly if the Assignment of any particular Qualification work or duty unto a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter by the Scripture would as you say put this question near to an issue His Majesty should well have hoped that it might soon be brought to a near point and that from the evidence of the Epistles onely of St. Paul to Timothy wherein as he particulary expresseth the qualification work and duty of Presbyters and Deacons that Timothy might know what persons were fit to be ordained unto those Offices so in the directions given to Timothy throughout those Epistles he sufficiently describeth the qualification work and duty of a Bishop that Timothy might know how to behave himself in the exercise of his Episcopal Office as well in Ordaining as in Governing the Church As to the signification of the word Episcopus the primary signification thereof and the application of it to Church-Officers you acknowledge and that the same was after by Ecclesiastical usage appropriated to Bishops you deny not But the distinction of Episcopus Gregis and Episcopus Pastorum you do not allow If you disallow it for the unfitness of the word as may seem by that passage where you say that His Majesty hath said that Episcopus signifieth a Keeper of Shepherds His Majesty thinketh you might very well have spared that exception For if there be a person that hath the oversight of many Shepherds under him there is no more impropriety in giving such a person the style of Episcopus Pastorum than there is in using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in calling Doeg the Master of Saul's Herdsmen And for the thing it self it cannot be denied but that the Apostles and Timothy and Titus by what claim ordinary or extraordinary as to the present business it matters not had the oversight and authority over many Pastors and were therefore truly and really Episcopi Pastorum The appropriation of the names of Episcopus and Presbyter to these distinct Offices considering that it was done so early and received so universally in the Church as by the writings of Clemens Ignatius the Canons commonly called of the Apostles and other ancient evidences doth appear His Majesty hath great reason to believe that it was done by consent of the Primitive Bishops merely in honour of the Apostles out of their respect and reverence to whose persons and personal Prerogatives they chose to call themselves Bishops rather than Apostles in common usage although they made no scruple to maintain their succession from the Apostles when they spake of things proper to their Episcopal Function nor to use upon occasion the terms of Apostle and Apostolical in that sense The truth of all which is to be seen frequently in the writings of the Ancients The Testimonies of so many Writers ancient and modern as have been produced for the Scripture-original of Bishops His Majesty conceiveth to be of so great importance in a question of this nature that He thinks himself bound both in Charity and Reason to believe that so many men of such quality would not have asserted the same with so much confidence but upon very good ground The Men respectively of high estimation and reverend authority in the Church worthily renowned for their Learning and Piety of moderate and even Passions of Orthodox belief sundry of them uninteressed in the Quarrel and some of them of later times by interest and education byassed the other way Their assertions positive peremptory and full of assurances Constat nemo ignorat it is clear none can be ignorant and other such like expressions namely That Christ constituted Bishops in the Apostles That it was founded upon a divine Law That Episcopacy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ordinance of God That it seemed good to the Holy Ghost so to order it c. Insomuch as they accounted Aerius an Heretick for holding the contrary And this their Judgment they delivered as led thereunto by evidence of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Word teacheth it apertis Scripturae testimoniis it appeareth by plain testimonies of Scripture discimus ex hoc loco from this place we learn and the like Which testimonies should they be encountred as His Majesty doth not yet believe they can be with a cloud of Witnesses to the contrary for number and in every other respect equal thereunto yet should not the Authority of their evidence in reason be much lessened thereby inasmuch as one Witness for the Affirmative ought to be of more value than ten for the Negative and the testimony of one person that is not interessed than of an hundred that are And whereas you seem in this Question to decline this kind of trial because matter of Right is properly triable by Scripture His Majesty conceiveth this present Question in what terms soever proposed to be yet in the true stating of it and in the last Resolution clearly a Question of Fact and not of Right For what Right soever the Bishops have or pretend to have must be derived from the Fact of Christ or his Apostles Which matter of Fact if it be not in the most plain Historical manner that may be related in the Scriptures but is to be deduced thence by topical remote inferences and probability of Conjectures the most rational and proper expedient for the finding out of the Right is to have recourse to the Judgment but especially to the Practice of the nearest and subsequent times according to the received Maxims Lex currit cum Praxi Consuetudo optimus interpres Legum Now he that shall find by all the best Records extant that the distinction of Bishops from and the Superiority over Presbyters was so universally and speedily spread over the face of the whole World and their Government submitted unto so unanimously by the Presbyters that there never was any considerable opposition made there-against before Aerius and that cryed down as an Heresie nor since till this last Age and shall duly consider withal that if Episcopal Government had not then been conceived to have had its institution from the Authority of Christ or his Apostles or if any other form of
much of their Office as was ordinary and perpetual and such a distinction of Bishops and Presbyters as His Majesty hath formerly expressed needeth no further Confirmation from Scripture to such as are willing to make use of their Reason also which in interpreting Scripture upon all other occasions they are inforced to do nor any thing by you produced in this Paragraph any further Answer only that distinction of Eminently and Formally because you illustrate it by instancing in Himself His Majesty could not but take notice of which He either understandeth not or thinketh your Illustration thereof not to be very apposite for Actions and Operations flow from the Forms of things and demonstrate the same as Effects do their Causes The Apostles therefore acting in the ordinary exercise of Church-Government did act not Eminently only but Formally also as Bishops rather than Apostles As Concerning Timothy and Titus First Whether they were Evangelists or no His Majesty never meant to dispute Only because you often call for Scripture-proof His Majesty thought fit to admonish you that in your Answer you take two things for granted viz. that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and that Evangelists were such Officers as you described neither of which if it should be denied you could clearly prove from Scripture alone without calling in the help of other Writers to attest it as in your Reply you have now done Master Hooker's neither have you indeed brought any thing in this Reply out of Scripture to prove either of both sufficient to convince him that were of a contrary mind Secondly you seem Sect. 12. to mistake that which was the Third Point in that part of His Majesties Paper which was not Whether Timothy and Titus were Evangelists or no concerning which His Majesty neither did nor doth contend but Whether in the Church-Government they exercised they acted as Evangelists as you affirm and so only as extraordinary Officers or not Zuinglius having said that the Name of a Bishop and Evangelist is the same thing proveth it from ii Tim. iv and concludeth Constat idem fuisse officium utriusque Bishop and Evangelist the same Office both Gerard saith the word Evangelist in that place is taken generally and not in the special sense that is to say for a Minister of the Gospel at large and the Context there indeed seemeth to import no more and not for an Evangelist by peculiar Office And Scultetus not only affirmeth that Saint Paul appointed Timothy and Titus to Ephesus and Crete not as Evangelists but as Church-Governours but saith further that the Epistles written to them both do evince it and also bringeth Reasons to prove it Upon what particular Reasons Gillespy c. reject the conceit of their acting as Evangelists His Majesty certainly knows not But if this be one of their Arguments as to their best remembrance from whom His Majesty had the Information it is That if whatsoever is alleged from the Scripture to have been done by the Apostles and by Timothy and Titus in point of Ordination Discipline and Government may be eluded by this that they acted therein as extraordinary Officers there will be no proof at all from Scripture of any power left in any ordinary Church-Officer to the purposes aforesaid His Majesty then recommendeth to your most sober thoughts to consider First how this Conceit of their acting as extraordinary Ministers only tends to the subversion of all Ministers as well as of the Bishops since upon this very ground especially the Socinians deny all Mission and Ordination of Ministers in the Church and Secondly if the contrary be proved by Gillespy c. by good Arguments that they acted as ordinary Officers in the Church then whether they have not thereby laid a better foundation for the claim of the Bishops viz. of Governing the Churches as single persons in Ordinary Office than either they or you are willing to acknowledg Thirdly His Majesty thinketh it a great liberty which you take in rendring the sense of His Reply as you have done viz. The Scriptures never call them Bishops but the Fathers do c. Whereas if you had followed His sense in that Paper you might rather have delivered thus The Scripture describeth them as Bishops and the Fathers call them so For that of yours The Scripture calls Timothy an Evangelist some of late have refuted it and rejected it with scorn you should have said rather The Scripture doth not any where affirm of Titus nor clearly prove of Timothy that they were by peculiar Office Evangelists but that in governing the Churches they acted as Evangelists or extraordinary Officers is by sundry late Writers the Evasion it self having been but of late time minted refuted and rejected For that of yours The Scripture relates their motion from Church to Church but some affirm them to be fixed at Ephesus and in Crete It should have been Neither doth their motion from Church to Church hinder but that they might afterward be fixed at Ephesus and in Crete neither doth their being Bishops of Ephesus and Crete hinder but that they might afterwards for propagation of the Gospel be by the Apostles appointment often imployed other-where For that of yours The Scripture makes distinction of Evangelists and Pastors but some say that Timothy and Titus were both It should have been The Scripture maketh no such distinction of Evangelists and Pastors but that the same persons might not only successively be both but even at the same time also be called by both Names Fourthly Tho you say You do not undervalue the Testimonies and Catalogues mentioned yet you endeavour which cometh not far short of undervaluing to lessen the reputation of both but too much Of those Testimonies by putting them off as if when they report Timothy and Titus and others to have been Bishops they speak but vulgarly or by way of allusion and not exactly as to the point in Debate But of Hierom upon whom you chiefly rely in this cause the contrary is evident who in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers wherein he was to deliver things Fide Historica and to describe the persons of such as are Registred in that Catalogue by their proper and known distinctive Titles and Styles expresly styleth Timothy Titus Mark Polycarp and others Bishops of such and such places and such on the other side as were but mere Presbyters Ecclesioe Antiochenoe or Alexandrinoe Presbyteri c. observing the difference so constantly and exactly throughout the whole Book that nothing can be more clear than that he understood the word Episcopus no otherwise than in the ordinary Ecclesiastical sense and as a Bishop is distinct from a Presbyter As for that passage you allege out of him by custome in the judgment of Learned men he must mean the practice of the Apostolick times and by Dominica dispositio the express Precept of Christ unless you will have himself contradict what himself hath written in sundry other places whose Testimonies
Bishop of Smyrna Many years after Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France whose Writings were never yet called in question by any not only affirms him to have been constituted Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles but saith That he himself when he was a Boy had seen him a very old man Tertullian next a very ancient Writer affirmeth That he was Bishop of Smyrna there placed by Saint John After cometh Eusebius who in his Ecclesiastical History not only Historically reporteth of his being Bishop there as he doth of other Bishops but citeth also for it the Testimonies both of Ignatius and Irenaeus which by the way giveth good credit to Ignatius his Epistles too Then Hierom also and others lastly attest the same And it cannot be doubted but Eusebius and Hierom had in their times the like certain Testimonies and Grounds for sundry others whom they report to have been Bishops which Testimonies and Records are not all come to our hands For the Testimonies of Clemens and Ignatius His Majesty saith First That tho it be not reasonable that the Testimony of one single Epistle should be so made the adequate measure of Clemens his Opinion as to exclude all other proof from his Example or otherwise yet His Majesty since Clemens was first named by you and the weight of the main cause lieth not much upon it is content also for that matter to refer Himself to that Epistle Secondly That His Majesty could not but use some earnestness of expression in the cause of Ignatius against some who have rejected the whole Volume of his Epistles but upon such Arguments as have more lessened the Reputation of their own Learning than the Authority of those Epistles in the opinion of moderate and judicious men And yet Blondellus a very Learned man tho he reject those Epistles confesseth notwithstanding the Ancient Fathers gave full Credence thereunto The Apostles you say did not ordain themselves Bishops of any particular places and yet the Bishops of some particular places are reported in the Catalogues to have been Sucoessors to such or such of the Apostles and even the Names of such Apostles are entred into the Catalogues To this His Majesty saith That the Apostles were formerly Bishops by virtue of their Mission from Christ as hath been already declared but did neither ordain themselves nor could be ordained of others Bishops of such or such particular Cities Although His Majesty knoweth not but that they might without prejudice to their Apostleship and by mutual consent make choice of their several quarters wherein to exercise that Function as well as Saint Peter and Saint Paul by consent went the one to the Circumcision the other to the Gentiles But such apportionments did not intitle them to be properly called Bishops of those places unless any of them by such agreement did fixedly reside in some City of which there is not in the History of the Church any clear unquestionable Example If James the Lord's Brother who was certainly Bishop of Jerusalem were not one of the twelve Apostles as the more general opinion is that he was not yet did the Churches of succeeding times for the greater honour of their Sees and the memory of so great Benefactors enter in the Head of the Lists or Catalogues of their Bishops the Names of such of the Apostles as had either first planted the Faith or placed Bishops or made any long abode and continuance or ended their days among them yet doth not the true Title of being Successors to the Apostles thereby accrue to the Bishops of those places more than to other Bishops but all Bishops are equally Successors to the Apostles in two other respects the one for that they derive their Ordination by a continued Line of Succession from the Apostles the other for that they succeed into the same Apostolical Power and Function which the Apostles as ordinary Pastors had Your motion to reduce this whole Dispute to Scripture alone were the more reasonable if the matter in question were properly a Point of Faith And yet even in points of Faith as the Doctrine of the Trinity the Canon of Scripture and sundry other the uniform judgment of the Church hath been ever held of very considerable regard But being a matter of Fact as before was said which the Scriptures do not deliver entirely and perspicuously in any one place together but obscurely and by parts so that the understanding thereof dependeth merely upon conjectural Interpretations and uncertain probabilities nor assure any certain distinguishing Characters whereby to discern what therein is extraordinary what prudential and what of necessary and perpetual Obligation there seemeth to His Majesty to be a necessity of admitting the subsequent Judgment and Practice of the Christian Churches into the Trial. As to the Three Questions proposed by His Majesty His Majesty resteth very much unsatisfied that you have now again wholly declined the answering of those three Questions so clearly proposed by Him which your selves also consess to be of great importance upon this only pretence That the whole Volume of Ecclesiastical Policy is contained in them Whereas His Majesty did neither expect nor require from you any large or Polemical Discourse concerning those Questions but yet did conceive you were in order to His Satisfaction in your own Undertaking in some sort obliged to have declared in few words what your Judgment was therein with the grounds thereof that so His Majesty might have taken the same into His further Consideration than which nothing could have more conduced to the informing of His Judgment and the satisfaction of His Conscience which His Majesty also further conceives you might have done with the tenth part of that pains you have hitherto bestowed to other purposes and therein have given full as much satisfaction to His desires as he expected and in all likelihood better satisfaction to His Judgment than He yet findeth or can hope to find from you so long as you hold off from declaring your Opinions concerning those Questions For certainly until one of these three things can be clearly evidenced unto His Majesty viz. Either that there is no certain Form of Church-Government at all prescribed in the Word or if there be that the Civil Power may change the same as they see cause or if it be unchangeable that it was not Episcopal but some other His Majesty thinks himself excuseable in the judgment of all reasonable men if He cannot as yet be induced to give his Assent to the utter Abolition of that Government in the Church which He found here setled to His hands which hath continued all over the Christian World from the times of the Apostles until this last Age and in this Realm ever since the first plantation of Christianity as well since the Reformation as before which hath been confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament approved as consonant to the holy Word of God in the Articles of our Religion and by all the Ministers of