mischiefs as small parties cannot avoid or remedy In like manner Christians have in all ages grown up from the first Apostolical Plantations of Christianity which were in particular persons and private families to such holy Associations Charitable Combinations and regular Subordinations as reached not onely to the first Families or lesse Congregations and Neighbourhoods which as I said may be called Churches in their Infancy Youth and Minority but they grew up spread and increased by the spirit of Prudence Peace Order Love and Unity even to great Cities large Provinces and whole Nations To all which more publick and extensive relations Christians finding themselves obliged by the ties not onely of their common faith and love but of their own wants and mutuall necessities for Order Safety and Peace they ever esteemed themselves so far bound in duty to every relation both greater and lesser as the generall good and more publick concernments of those Churches of Christ did require of them which were ever esteemed as Ecclesiae adultae Churches in their full growth beauty harmony procerity vigour and completenesse both as to the good to be enjoyed and the evils to be avoided by all Christians not onely in their private but publick and politick capacity 'T is happy indeed when one Sinner or one Family one Village or Congregation give their names to Christ at which the Angels in Heaven rejoyce But how much more august must their joy be how much more magnificent must the glory of Christ and the renown of his blessed name be when whole Cities Countreys and Nations willingly give themselves and be joyned to the Lord and to his Ministers or Ambassadours This carries more proportion as to the merit of Christs Sufferings price of his Blood and power of his Spirit so to the accomplishment of those many cleare and munificent promises foretold with so great pomp and majesty by the Prophets of Gods giving in the Nations with the glory and fulnesse of their multitudes to Christ for his Inheritance so far that many and mighty Kings and Queens should be nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Churches of Christ which should be not onely diffused and scattered according to the latitude and extent of their civil Dominions but piously owned prudently governed and orderly preserved by their princely and paternall care in their severall distributions and orderly jurisdictions according as all true prudence and polity Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil doth require of wise and good men Namely to such a grandeur beauty comelinesse and safety as was and is infinitely beyond any of those modern Models and petty Inventions which seek to slip goodly Boughs into small Twigs or Branches to reduce ancient Churches of long growth of tall and manly stature to their pueriles their long coats and cradles Such famous and flourishing Churches for instance were those in the Apostles times and long after which received their denomination or distinction from those great â—â—ties of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica Corinth Rome and the like Mother-Cities According to whose latitude and extensions in point of civil distinction and proconsulary jurisdiction the union and communion of Christians there first converted and formed into severall Churches did extend by the holy and happy Association of their respective Bishops Presbyters Deacons and people into one Ecclesiasticall polity whose orderly and united influence contained in it not onely some one particular Congregation whose number might fitly meet in one place to worship God but it comprised all Christians and Congregations in that city how numerous soever yea and extended not onely to the walls of that city but to the suburbican distributions yea to their several Territories and Provinces appertaining to them in which although there were no doubt many thousands of Christians who were divided into severall Congregations according to the nearnesse of their dwellings and conveniencies of their meetings in one place to serve the Lord yet were they still but one Church as to that Polity Order Authority Government Inspection and Subordination which was among them which cast and comprehended them by a native kind of right and spirituall descent as children to fathers under the care rule and guidance of that Apostle or Apostolick Teacher who first taught and converted them which Apostle afterward committed them together with his own ordinary Authority over them to his Vicegerents Suffragans or Successors in that chief city who residing there was called the Angel Apostle Bishop President or Father of that Church even by the Apostles themselves and by the Spirit of Christ writing to the seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Sardis Pergamus Thyatira Smyrna Philadelphia and Laodicea All which were ever reckoned by Pliny Strabo Stephanus and others as chief Cities or Proconsulary Residencies to which many other Villages and Towns yea some lesser Cities and Countreys were subordinate and united as first in civil dependence and jurisdiction so afterward in Ecclesiasticall Communion and Subjection So that it is most evident by Scripture-dialect by the wisdome of Christs Spirit by the Apostolick prudence and the subsequent practices of all famous Churches as at Alexandria Constantinople Carthage and many other instances that the compleatnesse and perfection of Church-polity order union power and authority was never thought to be seated or circumscribed in every particular congregation of Christians as they were locally divided in their lesser conventions which would make all Churches as small twigs both feeble in themselves and despicable to others but it was placed in those great branches those strong and extensive boughs which had in them the united power or authority not onely of many Christians but of many congregations in which were many godly people many grave Deacons many venerable Presbyters and one eminent Bishop or Father who continued in that Presidentiall authority to water propagate increase preserve and â—overn in order peace and unity those Churches which the Apostles had so planted fixed and established in their severall polities and limits as to Ecclesiasticall union order and jurisdiction In which the chief Pastor President or Bishop so presided in the place power and spirit of the Apostle yea and of Jesus Christ that no private Christian no Deacon no Presbyter yea no particular congregation might as Ignatius and other Ancients tell us regularly doe any thing in publique doctrine discipline worship or ministration without his respective authority consent and allowance Yea all good Christians did ever make great conscience of dividing from the principall succession seat and Pastor who was the centre and conservator of that Church-union and government which was first setled by the Apostles in Primitive Churches and imitated by all others which grew up after them Primitive Christians ever esteeming it as the sin of schisme the work of the flesh a fruit of pride and factious arrogancy for any Christian or any company of Christians to dissolve to divide from and so to destroy that
enemies rivals and extirpaters of the ancient Clergie and Ecclesiastick order in England can pretend the true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters of this Christian and Reformed Church doe challenge use and maintaine no other power priviledge or authority Ecclesiasticall than what they have duly and constantly received in the way of holy orders from their predecessors hands who have descended from the very Apostles dayes Nor are they such Monopolizers or appropriators of this power and office ministeriall to their own persons or to such onely as are formall Academicks professed Scholars and University Graduates as not willingly to admit into that holy Order and Fraternity by the right and Catholick way of due ordination not onely any worthy Gentlemen of competent parts pious affections and orderly lives whose hearts God shall move to so holy an ambition to desire so good a work but even those that are of plebeian proportions of meaner parts and less improved erudition provided they be found upon due trial to have acquired such competent abilities by Gods blessing upon their private industry and studious piety as may render them meet for any place or work in Christs husbandry where one may sow another may water a third may weed a fourth may fense the Church and Vineyard according to the severall gifts and dispensations ministred by the same Spirit and power of Christ which ought to be dispensed and carried on not in an arbitrary rude and precarious usurpation and intrusion but in an authoritative orderly and decent derivation succession for the honor profit peace of the Church of Christ Certainly no worthy Minister or sober Christian can so undervalue and debase those Evangelicall offices of Christ which are exercised by his ordained Ministers as to think that every self-flatterer and obtruder is presently to officiate without any due examination approbation and ordination from those with whom that commission and power hath been ever deposited in a regular and visible succession from Christ the great exemplar or Original which visible order mission and delegation is as necessary for the outward unity authority solemnity and majesty of Christs militant Church and Ministry upon earth as the workings of his blessed Spirit are for the inward operation and efficacie of true grace in mens hearts So that as no private and good Christian hath any cause to complain in this part of the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England who in dispensing of holy orders or ministeriall power acted after the Catholick pattern of Primitive Churches no less than the particular constitutions of this Church allowed by all estates and degrees of men no more have any secular Powers or civil Magisrates who are or shall be professors of true Christian Religion any cause to be jealous of the ancient Bishops and Ministers of the Church nor shall they need either out of conscience or reasons of state to pervert and innovate that pristine course and regular succession of ministeriall authority yea as worthy Christians and wise Governours they ought both in piety and policy in honour and conscience to be no less exact in preserving this sacred order and divine authority from alteration invasion and usurpation than they are for their own civil power and secular jurisdiction which the renowned patterns of Christian Potentates Constantine Theodosius and other great and godly Princes were so far from arrogating to their imperiall power that they humbly submitted themselves to the order and power Ecclesiasticall in the things of Christ highly esteeming and venerating that Apostolick race of Bishops and Presbyters in the Church as the great Luminaries of the world the constant witnesses of Christs life and death the celebraters of his mysterious sufferings grace and glory the ministerial Fathers and confirmers of Christians faith as terrestiall Angels as Gods gracious Ambassadors for pardon and peace as Christs speciall commissioners appointed for to carry on the great work of saving mens souls Just and generous Princes if they be truly Christian cannot be so partial as to forbid any man under the highâ—st pain and penalty of high treason and death it self to challenge to himself any part of their civil or military power without a due commission derived either from themselves immediately or from those to whom they have deputed power for such ends and purposes which order they permit no man to violate or usurp however conceitedly or really able he may seem to be to himself or others for the managing of such power and yet permit such persons as are for the most part heady and high-minded insolent and disorderly to intrude themselves by a meer usurpation upon that sacred office authority and Ministry which is Christs without any due and solemn derivation of this power in such a way as hath ever been Apostolick Primitive Catholick and onely authentick in the Churches of Christ Certainly the rude innovation and usurpation upon this office and honour merits above any boldness as Nilus in Balsamon expresseth it that black brand of the last and perillous times when men shall be emphatically Traytors not onely to men but to Christ not onely to Common-weals but to Churches disobedient to parents not onely naturall and politick but also spirituall and ecclesiastick violating and betraying not onely the visible peace order uniformity and successive authority of the Church but the invisible comforts quiet and grace of poor peoples souls who must needs be at a great loss in a very sad and shamefull case as to their Religion where their spirituall leaders and shepherds are usurpers intruders clamberers not coming into the sheep-fold by the door of right ordination but climbing some other way as thieves and robbers when their titular and intruding Pastors prove either grievous wolves or miserable asses as they commonly are found to be who are not admitted by due ordination but crowd into the Ministry by rude and novell obtrusions so domineering over the flock of Christ over whom not the holy Ghost by an ordinary derived power and authority but their own unruly spirits have made them not so much over-seers of others as either stark blind or grosly over-seen in themselves CHAP. X. THe sense of this High Treason against Christ and of those sinfull disorders which men bring on themselves the Church of Christ by their intrusion usurpation upon this ministeriall power and office makes me here seriously suggest to You my honoured and beloved Country-men this religious caution That it very much concerns you for your own and your posterities souls good to be very wary not to be imposed upon and abused by vulgar pretensions of zeal and Christian liberty in this point of the Ministry but to be vigilant with whom you intrust as Ministers your own your childrens or any other peoples souls where you are Patrons of Livings And since your own prudent abilities for learning piety and experience are so modest as not rashly to adventure upon this
well as in a triumphant Chariot Ambitious vanities are never seasonable or comely for any humble Christians and least for the Ministers of Christ who ought to be crucified to the world and the world to them Gal. 6.14 especially at my years and in my condition 'T is honour and grandeur enough for Me if I may next the advance of Gods glory promote Your and my Countries common good which I must tell you doth not a little depend upon the good order unity and government the honour peace and safety of the Reformed Religion duly established in this Church and Nation of England Of whose festred scratches and deep wounds since I cannot but have a great sense both of Grief and Shame and toward whose healing since I am indeed very ambitious to drop one drop of soveraigne balsome before I die I have here endeavoured to seek Your face and to recommend Her distress to Your compassions It is for Her sake and for Yours in Her that I again adventure for truly it is an adventure and no small one in this age thus to appeare in publique possibly with more forwardnesse and zeale than prudence and discretion in some mens censure Who it may be have not so much charity or courage in them as to own an afflicted friend an impoverished father or a distressed mother Yet to justifie my discretion this may be said That nothing seems to me in Policy as well as Piety more rationally and religiously necessary than a publique tender regard to the state of the Reformed Religion in this Church and Nation To me Noblemen and Gentlemen Citizens and Yeomen all sorts in their private and publique capacity seem if not to want yet to expect something in this kind from some of us Ministers of the Church of England which might handsomely excite to honest industry those sparks of piety and generosity which heretofore flamed in their Fore-fathers liberall breasts toward this Church of England as Christian and as Reformed Nor are they I presume quite extinct in yours who now succeed them whom I doe not arrogantly instruct as if I thought you ignorant but humbly provoke to doe what you know when opportunity shall answer your abilities and good will Not but that I have also pleasing speculations many times of that silent safetie and secure latencie in which I see others my betters or equals hug themselves I know there are men otherwayes of good worth and parts who dare not speak one good word either of or for the best Bishops the best Presbyters or the best Nationall Church in the world as this of England was These over-bred and too much Gentlemen may consider That a good man may be more wary than wise more fearfull than faithfull more cautious than consciencious The Prophet Jeremie resolved by reason of the danger and ingratitude of the Jewes to speak no more to them in the name of the Lord but the word of God was as fire in his breast he could not hold his peace and keep peace in his soule I could as easily wrap my self up in silence and privacie as some others doe if I did not feare sins of omission as well as commission which was the jealousie a most learned and godly person had of himself lately dying who yet had been an earnest intercessor for the relief of many distressed Ministers in England I would also covet the reputation of a wise man by keeping silence in an evill time if I had not many and great stimulations while my life is declining and my death approching to give what further constant and comely proofs I may to this and after-ages of my zeal for God of my love to my Saviour of my communion with his Catholick Church of my particular respect to this noble part of it The Church of England and in this of my due observance to my Reverend Fathers and beloved brethren the godly Bishops and orderly Presbyters of this Church yea and lastly of my charitable ambition to heap coals of fire not scorching and consuming but melting and refining even upon the heads of those who still professe to be remorslesse enemies to my calling and to the whole Church of England who seem to me as if they sought totally to debase the Clergie of England yea utterly to destroy the ancient Catholique order and government succession and authority of the Evangelicall Ministery in this Reformed Church while they endeavour to remove able ordained and autoritative Teachers into corners and to obtrude I know not what volâ—ntiers new and exotick intruders into that holy function These will certainly in a few years make the Sun goe down upon England at noon-day bringing upon this Nation the shadows of the night Superstition ignorance profanenesse irreligion and confusion leading Posterity to Popery by the way of popularity poverty parity despiciency and Anarchy falling upon the Ministery and the Reformed Religion of this Church In which blacknesse of darknesse debasings and disorders the Seers of this people will in time grow blind the guides unguided the teachers will be untaught the Pastors unbred the flock unfed by a mushrome and novell Ministery multiforme miserable mechanick Grows-up neither duly ordained nor decently maintained nor much deserving either of them being crest-faln in themselves and contemptible to others I cannot be satisfied in Reason or Religion in honour or conscience in policy or piety how it can be happy for You your Posterity and this whole Nation to live after a vagrant loose and indifferent way of Christian administrations and profession according to every mans private fancy choice and humour without any such Nationall setling and combination such publique Ecclesiasticall union as hath in all Ages and Nations best edified and fortified counselled and corrected excited and increased both gifts and graces in a most comely and most Christian order with such harmony unity majesty and authority as best becomes the Disciples and Churches of Christ I confesse I am ashamed to see and heare any Gentlemen of honour or other persons of commendable qualities of good estates of ingenuous parts and breeding poorly and meanly to forsake the waters of Siloah and to follow the brooks of Teman to discountenance at least if not quite discard their learned grave godly and experienced Ministers who are of the true metall and stamp too which a Minister of the Gospel ought to be that is really enabled and duly ordained or authorized to that great work And this most what not out of any serious advice and consciencious choise becoming Christians in so great a concernment but rather out of easinesse levity curiosity popularity or some pittifull complyances with novell upstarts and rude intruders into that Sacred office Among whom if they doe save their purses which is by some deserters of their lawfull Ministers much looked after yet I am afraid they too much venture their souls I am sure they lose much of their credit both in present and after-ages
which seemed to bow Church-government to the ground and make it like a Bramble take root at the neather end Mr. Calvin lived and died at Geneva never either rigid for a parity of Presbytery as of any Divine Institution nor against a comely eminency of Episcopacy which he owned as a very commendable useful venerable ancient and universal Order of Church polity and Government where it was paternal not imperious as an elder Brother among brethren not as a Master among servants Such Bishops presiding as Fathers among Presbyters yet gravely and kindly advising with them and assisted by them in all the grand and joynt concernments of the Churches wellfare these he never wrote nor said nor thought nor dreamed to have any thing in them Papal Antichristian Intolerable or Abominable to God or good men as some hotter and weaker spirits afterward declaimed Episcopacy and so Presbytery had indeed as other holy Mysteries Orders and Customes of the Church suffered very much smut soyle darkness and dishonour by the Tyrannies Fedities Luxuries Sotteries and Insolencies of some Bishops and other Church-men under the Papal prevalency but Reformed Episcopacy which in many Churches continued with reformed Doctrine never received the least blame or blemish from Mr. Calvins Tongue Pen or Judgement no nor from any of his collegues and successors in Geneva who were learned men and of sober minds But from the reputation of Mr. Calvins name this new and rather necessitated than elected project of Church-government and Discipline under the name of a Presbyterian parity or Consistorian conclave grew to be looked upon with very favourable eyes by other free Cities petty States and Princes as their Interest lead them each crying it up together with the reformed Doctrine to such an height as if the new paper and packthred in which Mr. Calv. had wrapped those old yet good spices were of equal value with them Several Interests advanced the businesse shews of Liberty with the people parity of Empire and power with the ordinary Preachers and hope of gain by confiscation of Church-lands and Bishops Revenues with some States and Princes as in the Palatinate Hassia and other parts of Germany so in Scotland with some Suitzer Cantons and Hans-towns the zeal for Reformation which was very plausible the zeal for Imitation after the copie of so renowned a person which was very popular and the zeal of Confiscation where so opulent and profitable a booty would fall into some mens purses and Coffers all these together carried many men with ful sails to Presbytery and with a strong tyde against Episcopacy by whose spoiles many hoping to be enriched they rather chose to ruine than reform it that extirpating might justifie their stripping of it which had more Revenues but not more deformities than Presbytery had under Episcopacy To make this Transport of some men good which not onely deserted but defamed despised and in some places destroyed the Ancient Catholick and Apostolick state of the Churches polity of old by Episcopacy hereby varying even from the Lutheran Moderators and Superintendents which were reformed and qualified Bishops as well as from all the present Roman Greek Armenian Abyssine and all other ancient Churches in the world to their great and insuperable scandal yea and from some eminently reformed Churches as England and Ireland were in which Episcopacy was still continued as the Honour Centre and Fixation of all Ecclesiastical Order Unity and Authority to avoid the odium and envy of this scandal all plausible wayes were taken by the great Admirers and Adorers of the new Geneva-platform to set further glosses and titles upon this new Presbyterian-government and discipline finding that the water-colours of Prudence Necessity Policy and Conveniency which Mr. Calvin had used would not hold long especially where Episcopacy now kept its pristine power and possession in so many famous reformed Churches and States as Denmark Sweden Saxony Brandenburg and others besides England which outshined them all All these so asserted the honour of true and reformed Episcopacy that all sober men saw Prelacy was no more of kin to Popery than Regality is to Tyranny or Magistracy to Oppression or Presbytery to Popularity or natural Heat to a Fever or Wine to Drunkenness or Good cheer to Gluttony or Good order to Insolency or due Subordination to Slavery 'T is true great Indulgencies and soft Censures were carried by those Churches which were Episcopal toward such of their reformed Brethren who were not opinionatively but practically Presbyterial pleading for themselves not choice so much as force and urgency of their present Affairs and Condition considering either the pressures even to Persecution which some were under or peoples impatiencies or Princes sacrilegious aimes all which made their deviation from the confessed Catholick and primitive pattern of Episcopacy so long venial as their Judgements were right and their Charity candid toward Episcopacy either approving of it or deploring their want of it or wishing for it as the best Government where it might be enjoyed with the Reformed Religion While Presbytery continued thus humble and poor in spirit it was esteemed honest and excusable upon Christian charity pleading not pervicacy but necessity not a schismatick Faction or Usurpation against Episcopacy but an humble submission to a condition which as Peter Moulin owns was far short of the happinesse they desired under good Bishops But this equable and charitable temper was too lukewarm and cold for some hotter Zelots for the Presbyterian way they did not like that their new platform which they called the pattern in the Mount should thus take any quarter from Bishops any where but rather be in a capacity to give no quarter to any Bishops or any presidential Episcopacy From private and amicable contests which began at Franckfort and so by degrees were fomented in other Cities between some reformed Divines it grew to higher flames of contention than those between Paul and Silas at length it rose to a Rivalry to Reproches Menacings Fewds Despites and bitter Animosities between such as adhered to ancient Episcopacy and those that admired the new-sprung plant of Presbytery To dig about to muck and mend this last the Learning Wit and Credit of Mr. Beza contributed not a little who first of any man openly inscribed Presbytery with a Title looking very like to Divine as Christs true and onely Discipline in which yet he was not so punctual and peremptory as many that followed him in his supposed Opinion but came far short of his real Learning which still forbad him to deny primitive paternal and reformed Episcopacy its due Honour Use and Place in the Church of Christ or to demand the extirpation of it where it was setled and reformed which he deprecates as an intolerable arrogancy in him or any man To which moderation if his Judgement and Conscience had not led him yet he was shrewdly driven by the notable charges of learned Saravia a man of veterane courage of
popular Conventicles where either Piety or Prudence or Learning or Gravity besides authentick and due authority yea Civility and all good manners many times are prone to be very much wanting or if they be there in some few yet a thousand to one but they are quite over-born routed silenced over-voted and cryed down by the plebeian confidences of those many whose ignorance and rudenesse delights in nothing more than either to smother and crowd to death by numbers or to assassinate by downright clamours and brutish violence any thing that looks like sober Reason holy Order just Restraint and due Authority all which the vulgar esteem as their implacable enemies and intolerable burdens So little do those men seem masters of true Reason pious Policy Christian Prudence or sociable Charity who advise endeavour or encourage to divide and consequently to destroy Episcopall Metropoliticall and Nationall Churches by dissolving the noble frames the ancient and harmonious junctures of them onely to make up small Independent bodies or Presbyterian Classes Parochiall Consistories as the sole and supreme Tribunals or ultimate Judicatories beyond any remedy or appeal in Church-affairs which is much like the digging down of Mount Lebanon with a design to make it into many fine mole-hills In which a few poor yet pragmatick Christians like so many ants may busie themselves solely and absolutely about themselves as arrogating to themselves though but two or three or seven at most the perfect name complete nature entire power and highest emphasis of a Church of Christ to all uses ends and purposes without any regard to any other higher authority or to any greater and completer Society further than they list to advise or associate with them for a time as occasion serves and till some new invention offers it self Mean time they are not ashamed or concerned as to that rude and ingratefull violation of those duties which they owe and those relations which they ought to beare as Christians by the right of an holy propagation spirituall descent and ecclesiasticall derivation of their baptisme faith and religion to that Church which was their Mother and to those chief Pastors or Shepherds which were their spirituall Fathers by an Apostolick title designation and succession both in place order and power Which spirituall relation certainly imports no lesse duty love thanks reverence and submission than those of naturall and civill relations doe since the blessing is at least equall if not far beyond to those that value their souls or their Saviour who will not easily abdicate their ghostly parents or renounce their spirituall Fathers though they should see many infirmities and some frowardnesse in them I shall not need to instance in the many defects inconveniences disorders and mischiefs incident to these Ecclesiolae and Congregatiunculae little Churchlets and scattered Conventicles which cannot but be as S. Jerome observes the Seminaries of Schisme Nurseries of Faction strife and emulation since the Sire of them seems to be Ignorance and Weaknesse or pride and arrogancy as the Dam of them usually is faction private ends and popularity Nor will their Issue faile to multiply and swarm in a few years with grosse ignorance and rudenesse with all manner of errors and heresies accompanied with vulgar petulancie atheisme irreligion anarchy confusion and barbarity which like vermine will devoure both themselves and those completer Churches from whose communion order light strength discipline integrity and safety they have withdrawn themselves by needlesse divisions to the weakning shaking subverting and endangering of the faith charity and salvation of many thousands of poore soules the strength beauty honour safety and comfort of particular congregations as of private Christians and families consisting in that orderly conjuncture as parts with the whole body politick which may best preserve both It and themselves there being not onely more virtue in the whole than in any part but more vigour in each part while it is continuous to the whole than when it is divided Which as all Reason and Religion so most sad experience in the Church of England sufficiently assures us For however private Christians have indeed some power as to counsell admonish reprove comfort pray for and by charitable offices to help and edifie one another also private congregations have yet more advantages being many in their number to joyn in publique duties to comprobate and execute Ecclesiasticall censures further each single Minister or lawfull Presbyter hath yet greater authority in his place and office to administer holy things by preaching baptizing consecrating binding loosing exhorting rebuking likewise every Bishop hath still an higher order and authority regularly to ordaine to confirme to examine to censure to rebuke to suspend to absolve to excommunicate any private Presbyter or other Christians under his inspection Yet where the Bishop is assisted with the desires consent and approbation of many Christian congregations also with the joynt assistance of many learned and godly Presbyters yea and with the united suffrages and authority of many Bishops as in cases of great and generall concernment in matters of doctrine censure and discipline is requisite O how ponderous how solemn how celebrious how powerfull how Apostolick how divine must the majesty and authority of such transactions be in any Church thus combined established and fortified against both secret contagions and violent incursions of any mischiefs which easily grow too hard for private Christians and petty Congregations yea many times for particular Presbyters and single Bishops Nor can the remedy expectable from these in their solitary capacities and small proportions either cure or encounter the pregnancy and potency of those maladies which many times infest the flock of Christ as was evident in those Epidemick pests of Arianisme Nestorianisme Donatisme Pelagianisme and others which malignities required not onely the influence and authority of a few private Presbyters with their Congregations or of particular Bishops and their Churches but of Provinciall Synods and Nationall Churches yea of the Catholick Church as much as could be united in those General Councils which were as grand Ecclesiasticall Parlaments by their majority deputation inspection and authority representing all Churches in all the World that so the salve might still be wisely commensurate to the sore The danger of a divided Church being no lesse than that of of a divided State or Kingdome which our Saviour tells us cannot stand it must not be imagined that Christ hath left his Church destitute of defence and help in such cases of distraction These grand combinations of Christian people Presbyters and Bishops convening as occasion required not onely to serve God in the piety of his daily worship but for the right ordering and guiding of themselves and others in such publick concernments as Christian polity and gubernative prudence required these made Christian primitive Churches appear in their Synodicall Provinciall Nationall and Oecumenicall Assemblies as the fairest sides and goodliest prospects
Idolatry Heresie Schism and Apostasie in all the world if God had not in the place of primitive miracles supplied the Church with such Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters whose admirable learning undaunted courage indisputable authority uniform order and constant succession was beyond any miracle which did at once both wonderfully attest and mightily preserve the sanctity mystery and majesty of Christian Religion from the subtilty of persecutors the sophistry of Philosophers the contumacy of Schismaticks and contumelies of Hereticks being too hard by Gods assistance for the malice of men and the wiles of Satan All which are then under severall new notions and disguises probable to prevaile over this or any Christian Church when such liberty shall be used by vulgar spirits and inordinate minds as shall not onely diminish and abate but quite in time destroy and vacate the divine reverence and inviolable sanctity of religious mysteries and holy ministrations which will inevitably follow where the Catholick order and divine authority of Ministers derived through all ages is not onely questioned and disputed but denied despised variated prostituted usurped by whosoever list to make himself a Minister in any new way which cannot be true if new nor authentick if it be exotick unwonted in the Church of Christ either broken off or different from that primitive commission and constant exemplification or Catholick succession which was owned and observed in Bishops and Presbyters throughout all the Christian world For my part I abhor all intrusion and obtrusion of dangerous Novelties both from Papists and Separatists either in Doctrine Discipline or Government of the Church and those I account dangerous yea detestable Novelties which not upon any plea of ignorance or necessity but meerly out of wantonness and wilfulness seek to alter the sacred streams and currents of Ecclesiasticall power authority and order from those fountains where Christ first broached it and those conduits by which the Apostles derived it which unquestionably was by Bishops and Presbyters I know that the sacred office and Angelick function of the Evangelicall Ministry as it is from my Lord Jesus Christ and is in his name and stead so it ought to be managed reverenced esteemed transmitted and undertaken among all true Christians as a visible supply of Christs absence in body as an authoritative embassie or delegation from Him as a sacred dispensation of that Ministry to his Church by chosen and duly ordained men setting forth his History his Precepts Promises Sacraments and other holy Institutions together with the Ministrations and Gifts of his holy Spirit by which he promised to his Apostles to be with them to the end of the world in that holy work wherein he employed them and their lawfull successors to be his witnesses among all nations whither he should send them So that every true Minister as with the ancients Mr. Calvin observes in his proper place and order as Bishop or Presbyter is first a Prophet to teach and instruct in the truths of God that part of Christs Church over which he is constituted next he is as a Ruler Shepherd and Governour over them in the Lord to feed and guide them in that holy order and discipline which becomes the lesser and the greater the single and sociall parts of Christs flock according as they are under their several care and inspection lastly every true Minister is in his proper station to perform in Christs stead those offices of his Evangelicall Priesthood which he hath assigned to be dispensed for his Churches good as the solemn consecration and celebration of that Eucharisticall memoriall of the great oblation of Christ to his Father upon the Cross for the redemption of the world by which all mankind is put into a conditionall capacity of salvation and upon their true faith and repentance Christs body and blood with all his meritorious benefits are evidently set forth signally confirmed and personally exhibited in that great Sacrament and most venerable mystery to every worthy Receiver He is further to offer up upon the altar of Christs merits the spiritual sacrifices of the Church in prayers praises thanksgivings alms and charities Besides this there is in the true Pastor or Minister of the Church of Christ according to their proportion and degree their line and measure as Bishops and Presbyters a power of mission and propagation in order to maintain that holy succession of an Evangelicall Priesthood which Christ Jesus hath appointed and which the Apostles with their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in all the world have to this day continued without any interruption or any variation as to the maine of the power and practise of Ordination So then as these three offices are eminently in Christ as the great Prophet Prince and Priest of his Church to all which he was consecrated by the mission of his Father by his own Blood-shed and Passion also by the anointing of his eternall Spirit which filled him with all divine Graces ministeriall Gifts and miraculous Power necessary for so great a work so the Lord Christ being absent in body but present in his power and Spirit had derived and committed the outward ministeriall execution of these his offices to chosen and ordained men as over-seers and workers together with Christ of themselves but earthen vessels yet the fittest instruments for the present dispensations of his Gospel and grace which yet are to be carried on according to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh in such darkness weaknesse and meannesse as may most set forth the present excellency of Gods gracious power and set off the future manifestations of his glory to his Church which even in this inferiority and obscurity of the Gospel hath yet as three that bear witnesse to its truth in heaven the wisdome of the Father contriving the love of the Son effecting and the power of the holy Ghost applying Evangelical mercies to poor sinners so it hath three that bear witnesse on earth to that glorious truth and mystery of the Gospel the water of Baptism which sprinkles to Regeneration the blood of the Lords Supper which feeds and refreshes believers also the Spirit of ministeriall Power and Authority which hath been and still is from Christ continued in all true Christian Churches As the first three are one in an essentiall unity of divine nature so these later three as S. John tells us agree in one that is in one Soveraign author Jesus Christ and in one sacred order and office of Church-Ministry or Evangelical dispensations successively derived from the Apostles Elders and Deacons by a power and commission peculiar to those who are duly ordained to be Christs Deputies Lieutenants and Vicegerents in his Church for those holy offices and divine ministrations whereto they are severally appointed in an higher or lower degree as Apostles or Elders as Bishops or Presbyters as Pastors or Teachers either over-seeing as
which I am sure give all the seeing world in this point so clear so perfect so full a light and so uniform a testimony that no learned impartiall and conscientious Christian can desire more nor can they but acquiesce in these unless they dare to doubt and deny the veracity and fidelity of all authors that have given us account of any Ecclesiasticall Catholick affairs and customes since the Apostles times in all which no one point or practise hath less doubt or dispute less variation or diversity than this of Ecclesiasticall order both as to the Ministry and government of the Church What the ignorant vulgar who are the bran and courser sort of people may endlesly fancy and affect or what others of better parts but as base passions may cunningly pretend I know not the better to bring in their new modelings of Ministers and Churches but I am sure it will very ill become you O noble Gentlemen who are the best and finest flower the beauty and honour the strength and stability of this English Nation who are the choice and chiefest sons of the Church of England it ill becomes you to suspect all those burning and shining lights both Bishops and Presbyters Fathers and Historians single and sociall in their Closets and in their Councils even in the first innocent ages when the Church was most pure and persecuted as if they had all been either grosly ignorant of or supinely negligent in following the mind of Christ and methods of the blessed Apostles as to these great affairs of the Church which were openly uniformly universally both preached and practised by the Apostles also delivered to and received by their successors as in other things so most indisputably in this which so much concerned not onely the right ordering and well-being and polity of the estate of the Church militant but it s very being and Essence in Doctrine Ministry Duties Discipline and Government Can it I beseech you without great uncharitableness and pervicacy unworthy of any ingenuous soul be imagined that from the beginning during the life of some Apostles and their scholars the whole Church and the most eminent persons in it Ministers Martyrs and Confessors did all conspire to delude themselves and to deceive all posterity in so clear great and sacred concernments as those of the Churches Ministry and Polity were ever esteemed The incomparable and unanswerable Mr. Rich Hooker who is not to be read without admiration nor named without veneration long ago urged this Absurdity against the then more modest Sticklers for their Disciplinarian Innovations in the Ministry and Polity of the Church of England Sure saith he it were a very strange thing that such a Discipline meaning the Presbyterian as ye speak of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God and no Church hath ever found it out nor received it till this present time or contrariwise that the Government of the Church against which you bend your selves should be observed every where through all generations and ages of the Christian world and no Church ever perceive it to be against the word of God We require you to find out but one Church upon the face of the earth that hath been ordered by your Discipline or that hath not been ordered by ours that is Episcopall government for ordination and jurisdiction since the times that the blessed Apostles were conversant upon earth This unanswered challenge did that excellent person heretofore make in order to prevent if possible these innovations and mischiefs which are now grassant in England to the hazard of quite overthrowing all that ancient Order Ministry succession and Government which had been conserved in this Church conform to all parts of the Catholick Church If your other employments and studies have hindred you from being so well acquainted with the authentick works and authoritative testimonies of the ancientest writers of Church-affairs as those grand Authors deserve and your ingenuity cannot but desire yet far be it from your prudence piety and charity to derogate from the honour and credit of your own Countrey-men who have in the Histories of England both Civil and Ecclesiasticall to which you cannot well be strangers sufficiently shewed from the originall of these British Churches what Ministry and Orders they had If you are yet strangers to those eldest ages times and authors of your own and so cannot maturely ground your judgements upon their testimony yet what think you of the learning piety honesty and courage of those later and reall and renowned Reformers of this Church whether Clergie or Lay-men who lived in your fathers memories whose blood and ashes as Martyrs and Confessors against Papall innovations and corruptions is still warm and precious These did not lay new foundations of a Christian Church a true Religion or an authentick Ministry here in England but they onely repaired the decayes of the old and lightned them of those either erroneous or dangerous superstructures with which long ignorance and superstition had over-laded them and not so much built upon them as almost quite buried them These Heroes these worthy men I say who were worthy of the name of Christians English-men and Reformers did not ever design or go about to broach new fountains nor to cut new channels nor to lay new pipes by which to convey the Ecclesiasticall order and Ministeriall authority here in England but they cleansed the foulness they removed the obstructions they sodered the ruptures of the former Catholick way which was very good as well as very old yet not the antiquity but the veracity and divinity of it attested both by Scriptures and by the Catholick usage of all Churches made those blessed Reformers now an hundred years ago cheerfully subscribe to that polity Ministry and authority Ecclesiasticall which they mended but changed not these they recommended to all estates in this nation by whose Parlamentary votes and sanction they were established as the best means to preserve this Church both Christian and Reformed After these famous Fathers of England's happy Reformation whose judgement is manifest in the point of ministeriall power and holy order to be carried on by Bishops and Presbyters can you suspect that their later successors in office and judgement I mean all those learned grave and godly Ministers of England whom your eyes have seen and your ears have heard heretofore with great respect love and admiration dispensing the word of God and holy mysteries to you who till the divisions and deformities of these last and worst dayes have baptized instructed and guided both you and your hopefull posterity in the way to heaven and happiness in truth and peace in faith and repentance in humility and holiness in all graces vertues and good works powerfully set forth to you by their excellent Sermons and fervent Prayers by the blessed Sacraments and worthy Examples they have communicated to you can you I say suspect that all these together with the
rejoyce in that vengeance which they conclude God hath made upon our Schismes Errours Obstinacies and Persecutions against them by our mutuall confusions Hence must daily and necessarily follow secret inclinations and accessions to the Roman party by all those who are not well grounded in the Reformed Religion or not much prejudiced against the Popish Errours or are indifferent for any Religion which is most easie or pleasing These at length will warp to the Roman party as the most specious of any so that unlesse there be a speedy restauration of the honour of the Church of England I see not how it is possible to prevent that fatall relapse either to Romish superstition and slavery or else to a dreadfull persecution which will in time necessarily follow those dissipations and destructions of this Reformed Church its Ministry Government and Religion which some men have already too much still do beyond measure so industriously promote to the excessive joy and gratifying of the Popish party and designes which are not onely invasive upon the honour and freedome of this Nation but highly scandalous to our Reformed Profession and dangerous to our consciences especially as we yet stand convinced of the Errours Superstitions and Sacriledges of the Romish Religion since it lapsed from the Primitive Institutions of Christ the patterns of the Apostles the ancient Communion of Christian Churches and the fraternall Coordination of Bishops who were alwayes united in orderly happy and harmonious Aristocracies rather than subordinate to any one Monarchicall Supremacy as to Ecclesiasticall Power and Jurisdiction however they had such regulation and primacy of order by Patriarchs and Metropolitans among Bishops and the representers of severall Churches as became wise men that were numerous when they met in great Councils or Church-Assemblies CHAP. XV. I Cannot but here recommend it to the most serious consideration of all wise and worthy Christians who make conscience and not policy of Religion as Christian and Reformed That however the soberest sort of Christians in Engl. do in many and possibly in most things necessary to salvation which are not very numerous agree both charitably and cheerfully with those of the Roman Church as to our common Faith in Jesus Christ and hope of Salvation by his merits in the way of an holy life and good works yet as it will never be hoped that the Papists shall return to a communion with us while we are so divided among our selves and daily excommunicating each other from Church and Christ and Heaven so it will be very difficult and dangerous both in point of conscience and prudence of sin and safety for you or your posterity to return to a plenary and visible Communion with the Papal profession or Roman Conventions considering how we now stand convinced in our judgements and so will many of your posterity ever be untill all Books of controversie which no purgatory Index can correct are burnt or buried by which you and they must needs be so well informed as to be justly opposite and uncompliant to those Errours Superstitions and Sacriledges which the Roman party seeks to impose upon all those that will have visible communion with them which no consciencious Christian can swallow down when they appear to him not onely different from but contradictive in plain termes to that Word of God which themselves with us do own to be the rule of faith and manners the measure of all true Religion contrary to which some of their Tenets Injunctions and Practises seem to us either to rob God of his peculiar honour and omniscience which is to search hearts to heare and answer the prayers of our souls as well as our lips or to rob Christ of the glory of his onely Merit Mediation Satisfaction and Intercession for us or lastly to rob the Church of Christ of that pure and plenary perception of Christs holy Institutions and blessed Sacraments to which they adde and detract as they please performing religious offices most-what in such a language as most people cannot understand and so not be edified either in their judgements or affections which ought in all reason by holy duties to be either more enlightened or judiciously warmed and devoutly excited to the knowledge of God to the love of Christ to an holy Life and mutuall Charity To remove all which Deformities Disorders and Indignities put upon religious Mysteries by the Church of Rome the Church of England with great Prudence Piety and Charity did assert and restore to a Scripturall rectitude primitive simplicity and sober decency the state of this Church and Nation by a just necessary and prudent Reformation of those Romish Errours Superfluities and Corruptions which had with great fraud and fallacy prevailed upon this as other parts of Christendome here in the Western world Which great and happy work of due Reformation was begun carried on and compleated not by any forraign or intestine Swords not by popular and tumultuary rudenesse as in many places which are the odious methods of the Devil to blast over-drive and pervert due and true Reformation in Churches or States but in Gods peaceable just and holy way by such publick lawful and complete Authority both Ecclesiasticall and Civil as this Church and Nation had originally in it self without any authoritative or subordinate dependance upon any forraign State or Church Prince or Prelate however it did in Charity so comply for many years and correspond with the pristine renown and eminency of the Roman Church as might most preserve Order and unity in the Christian world till it felt as well as saw the Roman Yoke to be intolerable in honour and conscience Which Independent and absolute state of this Church and Monarchy as to the originall right and power of it in it self hath been unanswerably asserted as by others so of late by those very reverend learned and judicious persons who have made it their businesse in particular Tracts to defend this Church and Christian State from the just charge of any unjust Schisme in respect of the Roman Communion and Jurisdiction or usurpation rather resuming upon good grounds both as to Divine and Humane Lawes that supreme power which is inherent and unalienable in this Nation both in Prince Nobility Prelates and People for the preserving of true Religion and reforming it as need shall require in order to the Honour Peace and Happinesse both of Prince and People Church and State who never did nor indeed ever could alienate or give away from themselves and their posterity those primitive ancient Rights or Immunities of the Nation which if any had in the darkness drowziness of times by great artifices and pretensions encroached upon all Reason and Justice required that when Prince and People awaked out of their dreams and superstitious slumbers they should reassume those honorary powers and hereditary priviledges of Church and State which were cunningly lurched or filched from them while they were dozed or asleep
Ministers who yet survive being civilly dead and buried in obscurity O how infinite jealous are all Novellers lest the English world should at last see the dangerous mistake of exchanging gold for copper Learned Grave Orderly duly-ordained and authoritative Bishops and Presbyters of a primitive stamp and Catholick Edition for a scattered and tattered company of new-coyned Pastors and Teachers who have either not the metal or to be sure not the mint and Character of such a Ministry as was ever current in England and in all the Christian world whose care was not to broach every day new fountaines as Sampson did with his Asses jaw-bone of Ministeriall office and authority when ever factious Presbyters or fanatick people thirsted after the novelties of parity or popularity but they ever kept to that cisterne those conduits or pipes which were first laid by the Apostles and derived from Christs grand Commission as the source and fountain of holy orders which was deduced by orderly Bishops and Presbyters to all parts and places where any Christians owned themselves to live in any church-Church-order fellowship and communion which was never known in the Christian world for 1500. yeares to be any where separated from the Episcopall over-sight regulation presidency and jurisdiction if all Scripturall and Ecclesiasticall records do not deceive us which never shew us any Church of greater or lesser dimensions without some greater or lesser Apostles as Bishops presiding and ruling over Presbyters Deacons and people which neither Aerius nor St. Jerome himself of old nor the disguised Wallo Messalinus or Blondel of later dayes did ever so much as endeavour to disprove by any one credible instance of any Church in any age Upon so deep and large a foundation did the Clergy Ministry and Church of England formerly stand till the Scotch Pioneers and other Engineers undertook with their pickaxes to undermine and overthrow the Catholick antiquity of Episcopall authority which work some novelizing Presbyters beginning to transgresse gave occasion to puny Independents to go beyond them Neither of which parties have yet nor are ever like for ought I see so to mend the State of Christian or Reformed Religion in England beyond what it enjoyed in former dayes as to make any learned or wise man so much in love with their various novelties that they should abhorre that uniforme antiquity to which the Episcopall Clergy of England did conforme The enjoyment of whose renowned worth learned labours and everlasting Monuments of true piety this nation hath so little cause to be ashamed of or repent that there is no Jewell in the Diademe of English glory which it ever had or will in any age have so much cause to boast of and glory in as the excellency of its Clergy or Ministry both Bishops and Presbyters for the last Century whose private failings and personall infirmities the crambe oft alledged to an impudent hoarsenesse by some detractors whose uncharitable Synecdoches impute the faults of every part to the whole will never be sufficient to justifie this nations generall unthankfullnesse to the memory and merit of its former Ministry and Ministers taken in the completion of their harmony and orders as made up of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons that threefold cord of Ecclesiasticall polity and unity which is not easily and ought not rashly much lesse rudely ingratefully be broken by any Nation proâ—essing Christian and reformed Religion but rather it should be carefully twisted and wisely recomposed where either prelatick extravagancie or Presbyterian arrogancy or popular petulancy have ravelled unloosned or dissolved the intirenesse of its meet subordination and its ancient constitution CHAP. V. TO which temper and method of Ecclesiasticall Unity Order and Authority as piety policy honour and gratitude do invite the wisdome of this Nation which I have hitherto in many instances demonstrated so my next endeavour is to encourage all sober and good Christians to desire and advance in all worthy waies that happy Restitution and Primitive settlement in our Religion by setting before you and them the possibility of effecting so great so good so necessary a work while many difficulties do not yet run us upon that rock of utter despaire which shipwrecks all industry but they are easily counterpoised by that not onely possibility but hopefull probability which seems to appeare in the inclinations of the wisest and best men of all Religious interests and parties in this Nation who have learned wisdome either by their own or other mens follies For this Good the wise God hath brought out of the evill of our follies and miseries that the sad consequences possibly not intended by many but pursuing our late deviations and transports on all sides in this Church where the projects and practises of particular men rather served their private passions and presumptions than the Divine Institutions Christs glory or the Churches generall good these have already so fully confuted their Authors and abettors confidences by the sin shame weaknesse and fatuity of them that they need no blacker marks or deeper brands of dislike than those which they have with their own hand set upon their fore-heads having brought the things of Religion to so great a deformity as it is this day by their praeter subter or super-conformities either beyond the use intent or indulgence of the lawes or beyond the constitutions and customes and interests of this Church Thus while either restive and sullen or busie and pragmatick Spirits will needs be breaking that hedge which their wise fore-fathers made serpents have bitten them while they would take burning coales from the Altar without tongs which the Seraphin used as the ordinary meanes they have shrewdly burned their own fingers in so much that many if not most of them I believe would be glad they were every way fairly healed to as great a soundnesse of Order Honour and Unity as they formerly enjoyed of which they were as weary as unworthy whose indiscreet forsaking that medium and measure of their happinesse which was wisely established by publick counsell and authority hath been of late so many waies unblest and unsuccesseful that their very going out of the right way which was the way of Peace Truth and Order hath somewhat prepared their feet for an happy returne Every one that is so blest as to see their unlucky extravagancies hath learned to esteem the good old way better than heretofore they did when private presumption tempted them to preferre their own novell fancies before the publick establishments of such a famous Church and renowned Nation as England was I make no question but many men are grown wise by their own woes others at a cheaper rate have bought wisdome by observing the fruits of their neighbours folly rashnesse and weaknes Some have deeply suffered for their former Hydropick fullnesse restivenesse and lazinesse in Religion contracted by long peace great plenty and high preferments which it is farre more honour to use piously and profitably moderately and
Church in all Ages and places of which we have two expresse witnesses and great exemplifications in the commissions given by Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus both as to ordination and jurisdiction Such as hath been preserved in the Church through all times and places as a sacred depositum of Spirituall power enabling Bishops and Presbyters to act as Ministers of Christ in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit in those holy Offices and Mysteries which are instituted by them for the calling collecting constituting and governing of the Church in a regular society and visible polity which least of all affects or admits any novelty or variety in its holy orders or authority Which great Trust Power and Commission for duly ordaining and sending forth Ministers into the Church of Christ no man not wilfully blind but must confesse that it hath been in all times parts and states of the Church of Christ executed if not onely yet chiefly by the Ecclesiasticall presidents or Bishops in every grand distribution of the Churches polity So as it was never regularly warrantably or completely done by any Christian people or by any Presbyters or Preachers without the presence consent or permission of their respective Bishops in the severall limits or partitions Nor was this great sacred and solemn work of Ordination ever either usurped by Bishops as arrogant and imperious or executed by them as a thing arbitrary and precarious but it was alwaies owned esteemed and used by all true Christians both Ministers and People as an Authority Sacred and Divine fixed and exercised by way of spirituall Jurisdiction and power Ecclesiasticall specially inherent and eminently resident in Bishops as such that is so invested with the peculiar power of conferring holy orders to others even from the hands and times of the Blessed Apostles who had undoubtedly this power placed in them and as undoubtedly ordered such a transmission of it as to Timothy and Titus so to all those holy Bishops that were their Primitive Successors who did as they ought still continue that holy succession to all ages by laying on such Episcopall hands as were the unquestionable Conservators and chief distributers of that Ministeriall power ever esteemed Sacred Apostolick Catholick and Divine being from one fountain or source Jesus Christ and uniformly carried on by one orderly course without any perverting or interrupting from any good Christians either Presbyters or people Nor were they ever judged other than factious schismaticall irregular impudent and injurious who either usurped to themselves a power of Ordination or despised and neglected it in their lawfull and orthodox Bishops upon any pretence of parity or popularity as Learned Saravia proves unanswerably against Mr. Beza when to make good the new Presbyterian Consistory at Geneva he sought in this point to weaken the ancient Catholick and constant prerogative of Episcopall Ordination which never appeares either in Scripture to have been committed or in any Church-History to have been used by any Presbyters or People apart from much lesse in despite and affront of the respective Bishops which were over them This great power of Ordination which the Author to the Hebrewes signifies by the solemn ceremonie or laying on of hands is esteemed by that Apostolick writer as a maine principle or chief pillar of Christian Religion in respect of Ecclesiastick Order Polity Peace Authority and Comfort necessary for all Christians both as Ministers and as people in sociall and single capacities For there is ordinarily no true and orthodox believing without powerful and authoritative preaching and there can be no such preaching without a just mission or sending from those in whom that Sacred Commission hath ever been deposited exemplified and preserved which were the Bishops of the Church beyond all dispute who did not ordaine Presbyters in private and clandestine fashions but in a most publick and solemn manner after fasting preaching and praying so as might best satisfie the Presbyters assistant and the people present at that grand transaction both of them being highly concerned the first what Ministers or fellow labourers were joyned with them in the work of the Lord the other what Pastors and Teachers were set over them as from the Lord and not meerly from man in any natural morall or civill capacity whence the authority of the Christian Ministry cannot be since it is not of man or from man but from that Lord and God who is the great Teacher and Saviour of his Church who onely could give power as gifts meet for the Pastors Bishops and Teachers of it These serious weighty and undoubted perswasions touching one uniforme holy and divine ordination being fixed in the consciences of all wise and sober Christians it will follow without all peradventure that true Religion as Christian and Reformed will never be able to recover in this or any Christian Nation its pristine lustre and Primitive Majesty its ancient life and vigor its due credit and comfort much lesse its just Power and Authority over mens hearts and consciences untill this point of Ordination or solemn investiture of fit men into Ministeriall Office and Power be effectually vindicated and happily redeemed from those moderne intrusions usurpations variations and dissentions which are now so rife among Preachers themselves whence flow those licentious and insolent humors so predominant in common people who by dividing the other by usurping both by innovating in this point of Ordination have brought those infinite distractions contempts and indifferences upon Religion and its Ministry as Christian and Reformed which are at this day to be seen in England beyond any Nation that I know under Heaven It is most certain that the major part of mankind yea and of formall Christians too do not much care for the power of any Religion nor for the Authority of any Ministry no nor for any serious profession or form of Religion further than these may suite with their fancies lusts and interests If custome or education have dipped them in some tincture of Religion during their minority if the cords of counsell and example have bound them up to some form of godlinesse in their tender yeares and tamer tempers yet as they grow elder they are prone to grow bolder to sin and to affect such refractory liberties as may not onely dispute and quarrell some parts but despise and trample under feet all the frame of Religion that is not indulgent to their humors or compliant to their inordinate desires and designes Especially when once they find publick disorders distractions and disgraces cast upon that very Religion in which they were instituted when they see contumelies and affronts cast upon that whole Church in which they were baptized and all manner of contemptuous insolencies offered to those chief Church-men by whom they had received the derivations and dispensations of all Holy Orders Truths and Mysteries When men see new Religions new Churches new Ministers and new modes of Ordination set up to the reproch
faith or manners they may more testifie their distances from and animosities against each other as Ministers Men of very good parts yea and of piety many times as Saint Jerome and Ruffinus from lesser disputes and differences are transported to wide and sharp defiances not onely as to their persons but as to their perswasions Hence we see Ministers of different descents commonly affect to be known by some different points Doctrines Presbyterians and Independents are thought generally to follow Mr. Calvin in all points as sworne to his dictates or determinations who was a man though of excellent parts yet not of Divine and infallible perfections but mixed with humane infirmities passions and imperfections Episcopall Divines are suspected most-what to have at least a tang and relish of Lutheran Arminian Pelagian opinions some are said to run out to a ranknesse of Socinianisme though the most and best of them I know do confine themselves to the Doctrine of their Mother the Church of England which was neither inconstant curious nor superfluous but cleare necessary and constant owning no Dictator but Christ and no Canon of Faith but the Scriptures doing and determining all things of Religion with great gravity counsell moderation charity and circumspection besides a just soveraigne Authority which swayes much with the Episcopall Clergy As the Church of England did not despise Luthers Melanchthons or Calvins judgement so it justly preferred its own before theirs or any one mans being alwaies guided by the concurrent Wisdome and Piety of many Learned and Godly Clergy-men both Bishops and Presbyters no way inferiour to those or any forraigne Divines and in some things far their superiours not onely as to the eminent places they held in this Church but as to the great discretion and temper of their Spirits which made many of them fitter for the glorious Crown of Martyrdome which they enjoyed than either of those two hotter-spirited yet renowned men who died in their beds who had not onely to contend with the Papall errors and superstitions which then extreamely pestered them and all Christendome but with their own passions and transports yea and with those many popular extravagancies which they rather occasioned I hope than designed among the vulgar who presently fancyed that they had the precepts and patternes of those great men Luther and Calvin to animate them to popular seditious rude injurious and rebellious methods of Reformation in which the very plebs or populacy imagined themselves better able to judge of Religion than any of their Governours in Church or State and because they had more hands therefore they must needs have better hearts and heads to do that work when and how they listed Which mad methods as the Church of England never used in its practise so it perfectly abhorred in its Doctrine to which few Ministers do heartily ingenuously and fully conforme who have forsaken its Discipline and Ordination from which who so flies furthest commonly wanders and wilders most in Enthusiastick Familistick and Anabaptistick opinions In order to this designe of restoring an uniforme and Authoritative Ordination O how ingenuous how religious how prudent how just how charitable how noble a work would it be on all sides for wise and worthy men to have some regard to those few clusters of Episcopacy which are yet remaining in England as a seed in which may be a blessing if the learned and venerable Bishops yet living among us were fairely treated and invited to such a concurrence and common union in this point of Ordination as might transmit both it and their Authority without any flaw or scruple of schisme interruption or fraction as most valid complete and authentick to posterity according to the Catholick and Primitive patterne O how great a security and satisfaction would this conjuncture and derivation completion of holy orders by Bishops with Presbyters give to many learned mens scruples and to many good Christians consciences without any injury or offence that I know to such of any party as are truly pious and peaceable who no doubt would be glad to see that no disorder or discord might be in holy orders from which as from a good well-tempered spring in a Watch all the regular motions of the wheeles and the true indications of the hand are derived directed and depending There can be nothing but clashings enterferings and confusions in any Church or society of Christians where there are crosse-grained contradictive or counterfeited Ministers as to their Ordination Here must be laid the principall and corner binding-stone of our happy Constitution and Communion as a Christian Church or Ecclesiasticall polity The affecting of novelty and variety in this as to the maine of the Ministeriall Order Power and Authority had been the way to have made at first a very crasie and weak Reformation in England and is now the way to deforme yea to destroy all again giving infinite advantages to the projects and policies of Rome also to the licentious distempers of mens own hearts and manners which considerations have made me the more large and importune as in a point of no lesse consequence and importance as to the visible constitution and managery of any Church than the unity and uniformity of civill power or Magistratick Authority is necessary for any Commonwealth or Kingdom where divided magistracy doth certainly tend to distraction and so to destruction as our own late miseries do abundantly convince us as to our civill peace and secular interest And truly no lesse will a divided Ministry infallibly tend to the distraction first and then the destruction of this Church and the Reformed Religion a new Ministry portends either no Ministry or no true one And where most Reverend Episcopacy which hath so many glorious marks of Primitive Antiquity Rare Piety Signall Prosperity Undisputable Universality Apostolick Order Scripturall Authority and Divine benediction upon it where this comes after 1600. years of Christianity and one hundred yeares of an happy Reformation to be questioned baffled exautorated there is no great likelihood that the novices and punyes Presbytery or Independency or Anabaptisme or Enthusiasme should take any great root in the love and esteem of any Christians who if Learned Wise and Upright must needs have greater confidence of and reverence for an Episcopall Ministry than for any new-modes which never yet had at their best any thing either very desirable or very commendable in them as to Wise and Grave mens affections and judgements And take them in their passions pragmaticalnesse popularities partialities novelties varieties inconstancies confusions and injuriousness and insolencies by which they have either begun or increased their parties waies and designes in many places many times against the will and Authority of lawfull Magistrates and Soveraigne Princes no lesse than against the dignity authority of the Bishops and Fathers of the Church look upon the best of them I say under these marks which are almost inseparable from them
intrusted in the late Kings daies to some Feoffees for this use had so attractive a spirit and diffusive an influence in England that I believe by this time the work had been much advanced if not well-nigh finished in all probability if it had been begun carried on and nourished by as much publick favour as it deserved in the design if it was without any leven of faction sincerely to Gods glory to this Churches good and the Nations both honor and happinesse which will never so much thrive by the vast charges of any domestick or forraigne war as it would by one such noble benevolence and contribution which would very much set the Reformed Religion on floate again which every where now toucheth ground by reason of the low estate either of many Ministers who have small and killing Livings with great Charges or of the poor people who must needs have leane and starving preaching yea some people have no Ministers at all others as good or worse then none men whose sordid lives confute all that little they do or can preach which God knowes is very little and little worth full of froth and vapour if they aime to make up their abilities with popularity or very flat and dead while they are at best very small and run very low in their preaching praying and living And all this misery for want of such ingenuous meanes as should invite entertaine encourage and oblige a Minister to be able carefull and painfull among them which is now more necessary than heretofore because the fashion we see is to have all duties exposed to and performed by Ministers private abilities and personall sufficiencies which are not to be obtained nor maintained nor encreased at cheap rates But this great and good work so much to the honor stability and advantage of the Reformed Religion as it would be infinitely to the regret of the Romane party who are glad with exceeding great joy to see the Reformed Learned and Renowned Clergy of England thus foyled and cast down to the ground licking the dust of mens feet and trampled under foot so it is a mercy which Satan hath hitherto envyed and hindred to this Church and Nation by Gods permission who hath hitherto thought fit to deny such a blessing both to Ministers and people from whom he hath suffered the policies and passions of men in order to save their purses of late to take away almost all that ancient Ecclesiasticall patrimony or dowry of Estate and honor which was long agoe given to maintain the dignity and authority of this Churches Ministry and Government in the persons of its Ecclesiasticall Governours Bishops and others of the dignified Clergy who I think might very well deserve as good salaries as any Major Generalls Colonels and Captaines being no lesse both usefull and necessary for the eutaxy or good ordering of the spirituall Militia in the Church than those are for the secular Militia in the state if they were as duly impowered payed and encouraged as the others are Nor do I doubt but if ever this Nation be so happy as to know its greatest defects and miseries in this point and heartily to resolve the speedy applying of meet remedies to them it will be so wise and worthy so just and generous as to find out waies not onely to provide a setled competency for all competent Preachers but also to annex some comely and honorary reward to the eminency of those who shall be fit to be used and owned as chief Presidents Moderators and Governours that is Bishops in the Church without which all Religious polity will be as a body without sinewes For Rulers without some remarques of estate and respect upon them will be like veines without blood or spirits I have heard there are yet some such fragments remaining of the Bishops and Cathedrall Lands unsold which might serve in this case to good use Theodoret tells us that Constantine the Great gave provision of Corne out of the Imperiall Granaries to Christian Bishops the better to sustaine their dignity which allowance Julian the Apostate took away from them but following Christian Emperours restored to them That great and witty engine of Antichristian policy Julian well knew that neither the Polity Order and Government of the Church nor yet Christian Religion it self in peacefull and plentifull times can thrive increase or prevaile among the generality of mankind if it be not either loved or reverenced neither of which it can be if it be not publickly valued valued it cannot appeare to them when they see the chief dispensers of it despised despised of necessity they must be if either their spirituall and sacred Authority be doubted and denyed or their civill condition be either necessitous or no way conspicuous which posture will soon give great advantages to any contrary party and faction never so deformed with error and superstition against all pretentions that may be brought of such reformation as shall end in the beggerie and desolations in the disorders and distresses of its chief Preachers and Professors Under which burdens of poverty and disgrace Reformed Religion and its able Ministry wil soon decay and moulder away to nothing while poverty and contempt shall be on this side but plenty with honor shall attend the deformities of its enemies I know there have been of late some petty projects offered by men of wary and thrifty piety to levell greater Livings and to make such augmentations to one Minister as shall gripe and grieve another so robbing Peter to enrich Paul But alas so grand and heroick a work is not to be done any way except by publick munificence either of restitution and donation or redemption purchase which may redeem the long captive Livings from Papal Appropriations Regal Confiscations and Layâ— Impropriations which have a long time detained them from those Religious uses and ends for which they were at first by God designed and by man devoted which was the comfortable subsistence of preaching Ministers that they might help both to save the soules and to relieve the bodily necessities of poor Christians who will never learne or value true Religion very much when they see the preacher one of the poorest men in the parish jealous that when he dyeth the parish must be charged with his poor wife and children Alas Ministers are sad Pastors of soules when they want food for their own bodies they are pittifull Rulers of Christs flock who are in worse case than ordinary poor shepherds who have their scrip as well their crook and something in their bag to relieve as well as in their hand to discipline their sheep and defend themselves But I leave this to many men unwelcome consideration of Ministers maintenance either as governing or governed to the wisdome of those who have largest hearts purest consciences and liberallest hands None but such will lay to heart so great a concerne as this is for Gods glory Christs honor and the good of souls
For other wretches I know how their penurious covetous and sacrilegious pulse doth beat they are in nothing more envious and jealous t is equally harsh and odious to them to heare of any thing to be given or restored to the Church being much more sensible of any damage and injury done to their private purses and Estates than of such publick detriments and depressions as cloud the glory of their God and Saviour eclipse the honor of this Church and State vilifie and upon the point nullifie the dignity of the Ministry and prostitute the soules of poor people for which Christ hath died to ignorance and Atheisme to licenciousnesse and hypocrisie it being more with many men to save a penny than to save a soul more willing to spare a sound tooth out of their heads than one pound or shilling to advance Religion they are for a cheap heaven or none so willing they are to perish with their money rather than live by lightning the ship a little CHAP. XVIII AFter the foundations of a true Christian Ministry are thus laid both for its Being which consists in reall abilities discovered and in valid Authority conferred after the most venerable Catholick and authentick custome of the Church which being conforme to the word of God ought in such cases to be as a Law sacred and inviolable after I have further set forth the wel-being of the Clergy and in that of the whole Church by sustaining able Ministers in their severall degrees and stations with such ingenuous maintenance as may become not onely the honor of the work and workmen but the Glory of the Christians God the love and value of their Saviour and the beauty or majesty of the Church in which they are employed in so sacred solemn publick and constant services which ought in all reason and Religion to be kept up by all good Christians to some outward conspicuity and decency as far as Gods indulgence affords men peace and plenty The next thing I humbly commend to the Noblenesse Wisdome and Piety of my Country for the further strengthning and preservation of the being and wel-being of this Church and its Christian Reformed Religion both in Ministers and people able Preachers and honest Professors is so to combine cement and unite all worthy Ministers and other Christians in an uniforme and holy harmony of due subordination holy discipline and decent Government as may best keep them by Gods blessing from such fractures and factions such schismes and swellings such dashings and dividings against and from each other as have of latter years not onely battered themselves and each other to great diminutions weaknings and deformities but they have crushed this whole Church and crumbled its former intirenesse and amplenesse to so many broken bits and pieces through the impotent ambition of those Ministers or people who being least apt or able are most greedy to govern of themselves and loth to be governed by others which refractoâ—inesse hath not onely defaced the beauty and broken the unity of this Church but further threatens to shake the civill peace stability and consistence of this Nation whose honor and happinesse is not onely now at the stake but much abated and in hazard to be quite lost if that publick wisdome and courage be not applied which is necessary to recover the blessing of the Reformed Religion and the unity of this Church to such a posture of setledness order and unity as shall not need to feare either fanatick Confusion or Romish usurpations which are the great plots and designes laid against this Church and Nation of England I easily foresee that nothing will be a more hard knotty and flinty work than the recomposing of this Church to any Ecclesiasticall Uniformity Charitable Harmony and Orderly Government if either the late sharp passions private interests or mutuall prejudices of any one of the parties so divided from each other in England be made the partiall and scanty measures of church-Church-Order and Polity For the animosities and Antipathies among them are such that they will on all sides disdaine to be forcibly cast into any one of the pretended models which are on foot The onely probable and feisable way to reduce all sober Ministers and honest people to a consciencious and charitable Communion is for the wisdome and piety of this Nation to do as Constantine the Great did when he burnt all the querulous demands and uncharitable petitions of the Ecclesiasticks against one another so reconciling them all while he utterly silenced all their quarrels and buried their complaints In like manner the best and speediest method of our union will be to lay aside all the earnest pleas and violent pretentions of all sides either Episcopal Presbyterian or Independent which have occasioned or increased our late differences and onely to examine calmely seriously and impartially what was the Idea of Church-Order and Government for the first three or four hundred yeares that is twelve hundred yeares at least before these late contests and debates were raised or indeed thought on in this or any Church Certainly the Primitive Catholick and Apostolick posture of the Churches Polity Order and Government must needs be the true pattern in the Mount as Mr. Calvin confesseth in which times there was lesse leisure for ambitious or factious variations the Church being either persecuted most-what for 300. yeares or miraculously refreshed at its freedome in the fourth Century through Gods indulgence and the munificence of Constantine the Great and other Christian Emperours who as Princely nursing Fathers studied the Peace Unity and prosperity of the Church as much as that of the Empire In both which conditions both calme and storme it is most remarkable that as no one Author Father Historian Synod or Councill did any way doubt dispute or divide about Church-Government before the Great Council of Nice so when that great and Oecumenick Councill did come together to take a survey as of the Churches unity in sound Doctrine and Manners so of its Discipline and Government that it might gather together and recompose what ever the tempestuous times of persecution had shaken or shattered yet this grand most venerable and holy Assembly did neither begin any new Hierarchy or Government of the Church nor did they in the least sort tax former times of any Innovation Alteration or desertion from the Primitive Apostolick and Universall pattern which was still fresh in mens memories but they began their Session and Sanctions with that solemn approbation confirmation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 former ancient Customes or Orders of the Church-Catholick as holy and Authentick which all men knew had prevailed from the beginning Nor was there then any doubt or debate in the generall as to the point of Episcopall presidency or jurisdiction however as to their respective Dioceses and particular distributions some disputes had risen But as to the succession of chief Bishops from the very Apostles daies and
sad effects have shewed us and all the world the want of them if in any Nation sure in this where some of the very enemies of all Episcopacy heretofore and the eager extirpators of it do now expresse which they have done to me as the other Tribes did to that of Benjamin when they had almost quite destroyed it something of mercy and pitty of moderation and retractation Alas saving a few Ministers most-what Lecturers and some scrupulous people here and there which had been a little bitten by some Bishops either for their inconformity or extravagancy and saving a few other men that had a mind to Bishops Lands and Houses both which were not the hundredth part of the people of this Nation saving these I say who had and have most implacable picques and feuds and jealousies against all Episcopacy the rest which are the most and best of the Nation I perswade my self have been and are so just and ingenuous as not to take up vulgar causeless and yet eternall hatreds against such worthy men as our Bishops most-what were and so Venerable a Function as they were invested with Yea at this day as much as I perceive the Names of Episcopacy and of every worthy Bishop are like spices bruised and like sweet oyntment whose box is broken more fragrant and diffused just as an agreeable perfume would be after one hath been much afflicted with Assafetida The very stench which hath risen every where from the heaps and dunghils of factious confusions in religion both as to mens minds and manners since the routing of Episcopacy and Bishops these have rendred that primitive Order and Catholick Presidency more savoury and acceptable then heretofore it was to some men when their weaker brains were cloyed with the constancy of so great a blessing as some are brought to fainting spirits by long smelling of the sweetest smells Episcopacy like the body of holy Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna and placed there by St. John when it was burned hath filled the English and all the world with a sweet odour It is like the bodies that have been well embalmed many hundred years past never capable to putrifie but will ever remain uncorrupt as a sacred kind of Mummy for a memorial to all generations Though the Lands and Lordships the flesh and skin which adorned Episcopacy by humane bounty be either devoured by worms or so wasted and dissipated as the ashes of some Martyrs were by which their persecutors hoped to defeat them of a blessed resurrection yet still the Divine donations and endowments the Spirit and Soul of pastoral power is remaining to Episcopacy and its honor will be both Immortal and Glorious when all its enemies shall be ingloriously either forgotten or remembred The Apostolick Antiquity the Catholick Dignity of Episcopacy is not abated nor ever can be The Divine Wisdom Beauty Order Authority Usefulness and Blessing by it in it and upon it do still survive and ever will in all Histories in all Times in all Churches and in none more justly than in this of England where the experience of all sober Christians hath brought them to that sense which venerable Beda expresseth was had in his dayes that is eight hundred years agoe of Episcopacy and good Bishops That any Province or Church destitute of its Bishops was so far destitute of the Divine protection and benediction As this Age hath brought forth such as dare to despise decry and destroy what all former Ages have happily used and highly magnified so after-Ages in the revolution of not many years may admire adore and restore with great devotion the primitive honor of Episcopacy which some men have sought to lay in the dust and bury in oblivion Whose resurrection is not to be despaired of even to its ancient glory when sober Christians of all sorts shall seriously consider and compare with former times in England the present State of this Church and the Reformed Religion in it full of divisions distractions disaffections of animosities envyes and jealousies of offences murmurings and complainings running to ignorance negligence irreligion and at best to Romish Superstition where Ministers are multi-form people mutually scandalized and scattered Christians not so much united by any bond of uniform Religion or Worship as over-awed from doing those insolencies and affronts to which their parties and passions eagerly tempt them Nothing of Ecclesiastical Order Discipline and Authority further then a sword or a gun or a private fancy afford nothing of the Clergies authoritative convention correspondency or communion as brethren no joynt counsel no blessed harmony no comely subordination among them all proclaim a Chaos and confusion Compare I say all these deformed distempers into which we are fallen since we abdicated or lost venerable Episcopacy with that Piety Plenty Harmony Unity Order Decency Proficiency Respect Honour and Authority which were heretofore so eminent and illustrious in the Church and Church-men of England while it enjoyed the blessing of Episcopacy in whose preservation and honour the honour of true Religion the Majesty of any Christian Church the dignity of the ordained Ministry the validity of sacred Mysteries the completeness of Ecclesiastical power the Authority of all holy Ministrations and the measure of all just Reformations in Religion besides the civil peace were heretofore thought to be very much bound up as in all Churches and Nations that are Christian so in none more than in these of England if we consider the native greatness and generosity of some mens spirits the roughness and stubbornness of others all of them disdaining to be either abused by the simplicity or curbed by the arrogance of any men as their Church-governours of whose Religious ability and Ecclesiastick authority they are in no sort satisfied It is not good to tempt either the Sea or the Populacy by keeping too low banks which are easily over-run and occasion much ruine to all sorts I may further adde to convince my Brethren the Ministers and all my worthy Countrymen how agreeable and honourable Episcopacy in its due place posture authority was to the genius of Engl. by putting them in mind of that vast disproportion for Love Respect Countenance Maintenance Encouragement and Honor which now are paid as generally to the function of the Ministry so particularly to the person of any Minister of whatever quality or preferment title or party he be comparing things to what the deserving Clergy generally enjoyed heretofore while under God and their Kings their worthy Bishops protected them according to Law in well-doing Heretofore even in my memory a grave learned and godly Bishop was as the centre of his Diocese the tutelary Angel of his Clergy the good genius of every able and faithful Minister under him He was the grand Oracle of the honest Gentry the honoured Father and ghostly Counseller of the true-hearted Nobility he was the admiration and veneration of the most plain-hearted and peaceful Common-people Notwithstanding all the scurrilous
preferring such men to be Bishops as were worthiest of her favour fittest for Gods the Churches and her Majesties service Did this wise Princesse ever listen to the insinuations pretentions petitions and charmes of those men in her daies who so much importuned and molested the publick peace and patience by their despite against Episcopacy and their scurrility against Bishops Some of them possibly might be well-meaning men but I take the best of them to have been popular and superstitious in this point others very pragmatick and juvenile none of them were any great Polititians while they would either have no Church-Government with any Eminency or wholly reduce it to such a parity as they designed for their ambitions which would have made themselves and all the Clergy as at this day more divided and despicable than ever they could have been under Bishops though Bishops had had no more power than an High-Constable or a Country-Justice Besides this the simplicity of those zealous men in those daies who most maligned Episcopacy and disparaged the Church of England having been terribly scared by some Popish Bishops in Queen Maries daies whose sad pictures still frighted them in the Book of Martyrs did then by their needless Divisions Distractions Oppositions and Separations greatly advance the Papall interests as learned Mr. Cambden wisely observes writing of the contests between Archbishop Whitgift and Mr. Cartwright with his Associates whose unhappy Successors could we see never carry on their designes now at last but with the infinite troubles miseries of this Church and State by which they have advanced their Presbytery in England so little so not at all that never any men got so little or lost so much by so dear a bargaine which cost not onely much money but much blood many lives many soules and many sins After this renowned Queen had left Episcopacy not onely standing but fixed and flourishing in England to the content and happiness of the most and best of her Subjects in Court and Country in Parlaments and out of them King James succeeded as supreme Governour in Church and State What Christian King was ever crowned with more learning and a larger heart in all Knowledge Divine and Humane Ecclesiastical and Civil This Prince had been nursed with the milk of Presbytery he had been long dipped and dyed in Presbytery if any sure this King might have seen at least fancied the beauty that Presbytery added either to the Reformed Religion or the Imperial purple His education by Buchanan and his castigations by Mr. Knox and others might in all probability have much devoted him to Presbytery and prejudiced him against Episcopacy of which I believe he seldomer heard one good word than he did Faction Treason and Rebellion from those warmer Presbyters who as his swadling-clouts so straitly wrapped him up in his minority that he could hardly fetch his breath with freedom yea and in his majority too when they made themselves as his chains and fetters to bind Princes as all men to their good behaviour Yet notwithstanding these Presbyterian Prepossessions for so many years did not this great Monarch heartily rejoyce when he came to a Church handsomly and honourably governed by learned grave orderly and venerable Bishops the onely Catholick Government of all Churches of which he had read so much and so much good in the Ecclesiastical Histories and nothing of any other Was it not an infinite content to him to see himself freed from the vexatious Thistles and provoking Thornes of some Presbyterians in Scotland for others were grave and modest men that he might enjoy the fair and sweet Roses of Sharon such Bishops as had ever been the chiefest flowers in the Garden of Christs Church Was he ever satisfied untill he had reduced the Kirk of Scotland from some Presbyterian extravagancies to such Episcopal Order and Constancy as was indeed very excellent and neerest to the primitive pattern of paternall Presidency fraternal Assistance and filial Submission But few people are ever so happy as to know and value their own happiness When this great work was done of restoring Episcopacy to so ancient a Church as Scotland was and confirming it in England contrary to the vain hopes childish presumptions and self flatteries of some popular men who could never with reason expect that so learned and wise a Prince as K. James would exchange the Ark of God for Dagon Episcopacy for Presbytery did he not as seriously triumph in the blessed alteration of his Ecclesiastical Station as he did to remove his habitation from and extend his dominion beyond that Hyperborean horrour of Scotland to this Southern sweetnesse and amaenity of England These things thus well setled as to the Order and Honour of the Church of Christ in his Dominions although this King were a Prince of most profuse and indeed prodigious munificence thinking no Epithet became a King lesse as Tully sayes of Deiotarus than that of homo frugi thrifty or illiberall yet did he never incline to devour the Churches patrimony to keep the Episcopall Seates vacant that he might enjoy the Revenues He once refused the offer of Cathedral Lands which some had projected as very feisable because as a grave Bishop then suggested to him God was twice every day publickly and solemnly worshipped in every Cathedrall and his Majesty there publickly prayed for in his greatest necessities whatever hunger seised his royall appetite in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharpest famine of his Exchequer yet he never waking or sleeping thought of Confiscating Church-Lands or making Bishops to be superstitious or superfluous in the Church because his condition was necessitious No whatever failings as a man that Prince had yet as a King and a Christian he had this justice and generosity to preserve the honor of Bishops and the Rights of the Clergy Indeed as he was the greatest Scholar of a King in all the world so he was as great a patron of good Scholars as the world had Nor will those that have most quarrelled the Memory and Reigne of King James easily mend the condition of Church or State which he left in Peace Plenty and Safety Nor was it so much policy or reason of State as strength of true Reason and the prevalencies of true Religion which so counterbiassed that Kings judgement against Presbytery as a partial popular novelty or confirmed him in Episcopacy as an Apostolick and Catholick Antiquity between which he thought there was no more compare as to Church-Government than there is between the Majesty of goodly Lions and the subtilty of little Foxes After this great pattern of King James whose learned arguments were more prevalent than his arms in Religion followed his unfortunate Son the last King who amidst all his reproches and improsperities cannot be denyed this Honour than he seemed not inferiour to any King that ever lived in his regard to the Churches ancient Order Estate and Honour although few Princes ever sustained
be destroyed by vermine as that brave man Simon of Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury was whom the rabble at seven or eight blowes hacked in pieces A valiant man will not cry out for assistance when he is to encounter with his match but if many beasts of the people unprovoked run upon him he may without cowardise call for succour where he thinks it may be had Such was the case of those Bishops at that time when they not onely fancied but actually found promiscuous and rude heapes of people not onely threatning but offering indignities to their persons as well as to their place and function through whose sides they saw the malice and insolency of such Riotous Reformers sought to strike at the whole frame and constitution of the Church of England which they as all good men had great cause to value more than their lives if they might lay them down in an orderly deliberate way not in a tumultuary and confused fashion Whatever miscarriage those Bishops were guilty of in that particular yet I am sure it was somewhat excusable by the greater Misdemeanor of those who gave them occasion so to complaine Nor doth it any way blemish that excellency which in their more calme and composed actions they did discover worthy of themselves and their Predecessors to whom Erasmus long agoe in Archbishop Warhams daies gave this commendation that England of all Churches had learned Bishops I will not go beyond the Reformation of Religion to find worthy Bishops in England it may suffice here to register some of the well-known names of them which possibly the vulgar never heard of though men of reading and breeding cannot be ignorant of them What was more gentle ingenuous and honest-hearted than Archbishop Cranmer whose native facility made him in rough times lesse fixed till he came to be tyed to the stake of Martyrdome where he took a severe revenge on his inconstancy by burning his right hand first but his sincere though fraile heart was unburned amidst his ashes What was more down-right good than Bishop Latimer who joyed to sacrifice his now decrepit body upon so holy an account as the Truth of Christ What was more holy than Bishop Hooper or more resolute than Bishop Ridley What more severely yea morosely good than Bishop Farrar All of them Martyrs for true Religion by whose fires it was fully refined from the Romane Idolatry drosse and superstition This foundation laid by such gracious and glorious Martyr Bishops in England God was pleased to build a superstructure worthy of it in other most worthy Bishops even to our daies Time would faile me to give every one of them their just Character It may suffice to place an Asterisk of honor to some of their names What man had more Christian gravity than Archbishop Parker who had more humble piety than Archbishop Grindall who more Christian Candor Courage and Charity than Archbishop Whitgift who overcame his enemies by wel-doing and patience deservedly using that triumphant Christian Motto Vincit qui patitur Who had more of pious prudence and commendable policy than Archbishop Bancroft who did many Ministers good that never thanked him for it Who had more of an honorable gravity and all vertues than Archbishop Abbot to whom I may joyne his brother Bishop of Salisbury All these were as chief of the Fathers Metropolitanes of Canterbury Primates of all England as to Ecclesiasticall Order and Jurisdiction according to the ancient pattern of the Church of Christ in all Ages and places Nor were the Archbishops of York inferiour to them such as Sandes Hutton Matthewes and others men of great and good spirits Learned Industrious Hospitable Charitable good Preachers good Livers and good Governours After these came those other Bishops who were equal to them in Gifts Graces and Episcopal Power but so far inferior to them in Precedency and some Jurisdiction as the good Order and Polity of the Church required No Age or History of the Church can shew in any one Century a more goodly company of Bishops than here I could reckon up To omit many that were worthy of honourable remembrance who had been some of them Confessors and Sufferers others constant professors of the true reformed Religion these I may not smother in silence without sacriledge robbing God of his glory this Church of its honour and these Bishops of their deserved praises most of whose works do yet speak for them and loudly upbraid the ingratitude of those that cast dead flies of indignities upon such Bishops whose names are as a pretious Oyntment poured out What was ever more pretious more resplendent in any Church than Bishop Jewel for Learning for Judgement for Modesty for Humility for all Christian Gifts and Graces What one or many Presbyters ever deserved so well of this Church and the Reformed Religion as this one Bishop did whom God used as a chosen arrow against the face of the enemies of this Church and the Reformed Religion What man had more of the Majesty of goodnesse and Beauty of holinesse than Bishop King Who was more venerable than Bishop Cooper though much molested by factious and unquiet spirits Who had more ampleness and compleateness for a good Man a good Christian a good Scholar a good Preacher a good Bishop than Bishop Andrews a man of an astonishing excellency both at home and abroad How shall I sufficiently express the learned and holy Elegancie of Bishop Lake whose Sermons are so many rare Gems or the holy Industry and modest Piety of Bishop Babington Or the Nobleness by Grace by Gifts by Birth and by Life of Bishop Montacute How acutely profound are the Disputes and Decisions of Bishop White How full of equanimity moderation was Bishop Overall How clear compendious and exact was Bishop Davenant How fragrant and florid are the Writings as â—â—s the Life of Bishop Field whose Labours God did bless with the Dew of Heaven he long agoe asserting the honour of this Church by an unanswerable Vindication What can be more beautiful for Learning Judgement and Integrity than Bishop Bilson whose excellent works if some in England had more studied they had not so easily opposed the perpetual Government of the Church which he proves to be Episcopacy Was there any man more Saintly than Bishop Felton who had been a good Patron to some Ministers that since have helped to destroy his Order What could be more devout and thankful to God than Bishop Carleton who hath erected a fair pillar of Gratitude for the remembrance of Gods mercies to this Church and State How commendable for ever will the learned Industry of Bishop Godwin appear to impartial Posterity who hath with equal fidelity diligence and eloquence preserved the History of our English Bishops for above a thousand yeares from oblivion Nothing was beyond the couragious and consciencious freedom of Bishop Sinhouse whose eloquent tongue and honest heart were capable to over-awe a Court and to make Courtiers modest
in any posture of Stability Unity Beauty and Honor untill Episcopacy be beheld and embraced in its native lustre and Primitive posture First as designed by the Orderly Power and Wisdome of God Secondly as instituted and actuated by the Spirit of Christ and his Apostles Thirdly as received and used without any scruple in all Primitive Churches when once they were fully planted and established in Ecclesiasticall Polities or Spirituall Corporations not one Church in all Ages either denying or doubting or disputing the Catholick Authority of Bishops Fourthly which they saw every way most agreeable as to the nature of mankind so to the different stations of Christians and to that necessary order which ought to be among Ministers as well as other people Fifthly and to none more than to the English Nation where the blessings by Episcopacy are now the more remembred and remarkable by the Miseries Disorders Divisions Insolencies Horrors and Confusions which have befaln us since we took away the chief buttresses and pillars of the Church as if they were burthensome and superfluous when indeed they were not lesse ornamentall than usefull and necessary to the well-being of it at least if not to the very being of it in us integrality and completeness I am sure the ejection of Episcopacy like the banishment of St. Chrysostom out of Constantinople hath hitherto been attended and followed in England with great Earthquakes and terrible shakings of other mens Palaces and Houses as well as those of Bishops whose turning out of the House of Lords by the Vote of about twenty Lords made so wide a doore and breach to that House that none of those Peeres who were more impatient to sit with such Learned and grave men under the same roof than St. John was to be in the same bath with Cerinthus could long stay within those walls the justice of Heaven as some conjecture so far retaliating mens passions with speed upon their own heads the Divine wisdome I doubt not seeing and approving as much of Beauty Order Prudence Unity and Stability in true Episcopacy as he sees and abhors much of Novelty Weaknesse Fatuity Partiality Deformity and Confusion in any other waies of Church-Government which cannot but be as defective and dubious as they are novel and partiall no way conform to the Catholick Custome of the Churches of Christ nor any way either invented approved or authorized by the sociall wisdome and joynt consent of all those in this Church and State who were concerned as highly in all changings of Government as any of those men are who have been most forward to make strange alterations and to remove the ancient Land-marks CHAP. XXV BUt it is high time to take my last Farewel of this long and oft-debated Cause of Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which truely I think in my Conscience to be the Cause First of God as he is the God of Order and Wisdom and not of Folly or Confusion Secondly the Cause of Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour whose Spirit constituted guided the Apostles with all their holy Successors in this Method of Ecclesiastical Communion and Subordination Thirdly the Cause of Christs Catholick Church which we ought not in modesty or charity so highly to reproch as to impute ignorance or perversness to it that either it knew not the way of Christ at first or it wilfully and presently forsook it by an universal Apostasie to gratifie some few mens ambition Fourthly I esteem it the special Cause of this Church and Nation first because it was never blessed with any Church-government but that by Bishops secondly it hath been and is miserably shattered and abased by the casting off and want of Episcopacy and thirdly for the native temper of the people who are not apt to be governed by any men not duely invested with the Majesty of some eminent Worth adorned with special Power Honor and Estates which together give Authority Fifthly I think it the Cause of all good Ministers that desire to keep themselves in a true church-Church-Order and Catholick Communion who will find themselves and leave their Posterity at a great losse as to the Honor Setledness and Safety of the Christian and Reformed Religion unless they be restored to some such uniform way of publick Subordination and Unity as hath most safety consistency and authority in it self also most satisfaction to all learned wise and honest men All which things are no where that I see to be found but in a regular and primitive Episcopacy which ows its late total ruine and shipwreck in England not to its own age and leakinesse as if it sunk of it self nor to the general dislike and weariness of it as if the wisdom and power of the Nation Prince and People of all estates had upon serious free and impartial advice concluded to sink it having provided a better Vessel but its ruine is the effect of a terrible and fatal storm which came first out of the North upon us this ran Episcopacy so aground that many despairing of her ever coming off with any intireness betook themselves to the Cock-bote of Presbytery and the Skiff of Independency when yet I conceive it were no hard matter to recover Episcopacy as to the primitive structure of it although much of its Ornaments and Gallantry be lost Certainly the Restitution of primitive Episcopacy for the Unity Honor and Happiness of the Nation as well as of all the Clergy seemeth a Work as of far more prudence justice and piety so of much less charge and trouble than the Ruine of it hath cost us all nor can it be strange to see some men change their minds in religious concernments who we see have soon done it in our civil settlements This and other Blessings of church-Church-order and Unity will easily flow in upon us by a kind of Tide or Reciprocation of providence beyond expectation when once the God and Saviour the King and Bishop the great Protector and President of his Church shall please to breath a spirit truely Evangelical and Christian upon this Nation when all of us accepting of our punishment and repenting of our sinful follies and presumptions the Lord will also repent of the evil which he hath brought upon us all and think thoughts of Mercy toward this languishing afflicted divided and deformed Church whose Order Peace Honor Unity and Happiness some of us weakly others wantonly and not a few of us wickedly have sinned away to a state in point of Ecclesiastical Government deplorable enough and almost irreparable For it is not new Associations or Confessions of Faith or pretty Paraphrases on the Heads of Religion which do salve our sore blessed be God the Church of England needed not these Crambes It is onely the God of Love and Father of Mercies who can allay the spirits of Men and bring them out of those contentious and câ—uel dispositions which are divisive and so destructive to each other True we have been three dayes
dissociate sever and withdraw it self from that grand community and Nationall subordination which is justly esteemed by all wise men and therefore exacted by wise Governours as most necessary for the safety peace strength and honour of the Nation And can it I beseech YOU be thought by any wise and honest men to be lesse safe honourable and necessary for the people of England who were all heretofore professedly Christians and baptized to live in an Ecclesiasticall unity in a Catholick order in a Nationall religious polity Is there no weaknesse deformity or danger to be observed feared and avoided in all these breakings dividings shatterings schismes separatings sidings strifes envies animosities contempts cruelties factions furies whence grow confusion and every evill work as S. James tells us Jam. 3.16 with all which this Church and so the whole Nation is now much over-grown as to matters of Religion past all private help and recovery Requiring no lesse publique care united counsels and authoritative endeavours to compose and heale these Ecclesiastique or Church-distempers than those civill disjoyntings and disaffections doe under which this State hath long laboured and which are yet scarce fully healed After so many cuttings and lancings blisterings and blood-lettings which I doe not think proper remedies for such religious maladies as are not yet ulcerated to immoralities 'T is true indeed as Optatus speaks That each particular Churches welfare is much concerned in that of the Civill State or Common-wealth where it is imbarqued Yet it is as true which the Emperour Theodosius said to S. Cyril That the happinesse of these doth no lesse depend upon the purity of Religion and peace of the Church in which they are so bound up as Jacobs soule was in Benjamins that they live and die together As some of your Fore-fathers and Countrymen have in my memory found it so will YOU and your Posteritie That it is no piece of Good husbandry so to look to your own sieled houses as to neglect the Temple of God yea that part of the Bodie of Christ which is at least was in this Nation under the glorious name and title of The Church of England Sometimes famous and flourishing now grievously wounded and wasted torn and mangled dis-joynted and divided having many yeers suffered the Strapado in England as to the Christian and Reformed Religion In which behalf as the freedome of my present publique Addresse to YOU my Honoured and beloved Countrymen ariseth from the highest and best motives in the world so I hope it confines it self to that Sphere which is most proper for Me as a Minister of the Gospel Not onely a Professor with You but duly ordained to be a Preacher among You of that Christian reformed Religion which hath been wisely established and mightily prospered in the Church of England In whose honour and happinesse which chiefly depend upon the continuation and restauration of the true Christian and Reformed Religion since I know You are as good Christians and honest Englishmen most highly concerned both as to your persons and your posteritie I presume it will not be either unsuitable to Me or unacceptable to You That I here endeavour with all Christian freedome and faithfulnesse to present to your serious consideration First The present distresses of the Church of England Secondly The causes or occasions of them Thirdly The evill and dangerous consequences of them Fourthly The probable remedies and preventions of them So far as God hath enabled me to understand and expresse them Whose gracious assistance in the first place I most humbly implore Next I crave the pardon prayers and acceptance of all wise and worthy persons Their pardon for my boldnesse and defects Their prayers for Gods gracious direction Their acceptance of my honest endeavours which I chiefly devote after the Divine glory to your service under the most endearing notions of my Countrymen and Fellow-Christians Whose judicious affections tender compassions prudent counsels and consciencious endeavours attended with discreet zeal fervent prayers and unfeigned tears which are as the sweat of industrious and devout souls in their holy labours and agonies if I may be so far blest as to excite in YOU proportionable to the Majesty sanctity and concernment of this great Subject set before you under the name of The distressed Church of England I make no doubt but I shall by Gods help be an happy instrument at once to procure some peace and rest at least some ease and relief to Her while she may however see her selfe pitied by so many worthy persons which is no small comfort to any in affliction And possibly I may be some means to stave off abate or defeat the restlesse agitations and unreasonable expectations of Her most implacable enemies both at home and abroad Who as the Dragon that gaped upon the woman in the Revelation have already swallowed up whilst it is yet quick and alive this Reformed and sometime united Church of England in their malice and presumptions between Rome and Babylon Superstition and Separation Papal tyrannie and Popular Anarchy Hoping on all sides to make their advantages not onely by this Churches sufferings but by the want of sympathie in her children Whose silence and restivenesse in behalf of this Church and its Reformed Religion must needs prove their sin before God and their shame before all wise and good men in this and after-Ages when they shall see how infinitely this generation of English-men and Christians come short of that duty they owed to their God their Saviour their countrie their own souls and the good of their posteritie which are all included in the welfare of this Church to which they are neerly related in a double regard naturall and spirituall civill and religious as they were born and baptized in Her And here because I know infinite prejudices sinister suspicions and undeserved jealousies are prone like Flies in summer to light upon every thing that is publique and sold as it were in the Shambles I crave leave to present YOU and all men in this Porch or Preface with a true Prospect of my own Integrity as void of private passions and interests a qualification necessary for those that will meddle with Religious concernments This my present importunity and publique Addresse to YOU my worthie and honoured Countrymen is not to give vent to any private discontent forced by any such pressures as Solomon tells us are capable to make a wise man mad nor is it to take or seek revenge upon any that hath offered injury or insolency against me in particular As for private petulancies and indignities I thank God through his mercy and my own Integrity though I am not wholly without them yet I am as much above them as Armour of Proof is above the stings of wasps or hornets As for my publique station or fruitions I must ever with all gratefull humility to God and ingenuity to men acknowledge the great experiences
among learned godly and wise men Nor doe I beleeve that in point of conscience they have hitherto found any great improvement of piety in themselves their families children and servants Yea I cannot but think they must be very sensible of those many breaches flawes and leakings which daily grow as upon their Country so upon their Parishes and Families by the extravagancies of their children strangenesse of their acquaintance and irreligiousnesse of their servants besides the factiousnesse of their neighbours and coldnesse of their very kindred who all affect according as they are cunning proud or simple the name of LIBERTY in Religion that is in some mens sense neither much to feare God nor to reverence Man However I wonder that any persons of great worth and prudence can with indifferency see the publique Nationall interests of Religion sinking which are the greatest jewels ornaments and honour of any Nation so as themselves may but have liberty to swim or paddle in what new pond puddle or plash of Religion they list to fancie 'T is strange to me that any persons of steady and sober brains should not easily foresee that these strange vertigo's these tempests and continuall tossings of Religion will in a short time if they have not already make the whole Nation quite giddie and as it were sea-sick even to a vomiting up of its Reformation But if there be indeed a Libertie indulged to every one for the picking and choosing what way of worship Religion Church and Ministery best likes them sure it will be the greatest honour and noblest freedome of all true English Christians to own and adhere to that solidly soberly Reformed Religion which was duly setled in this Church of England by better heads and I think as honest hearts as any either brochers or abetters of novelties can justly pretend to who as I conceive come vastly short in all their variations and new inventions of that Scripturall verity Catholick antiquity yea and of that Parlamentary authority and majesty which had once happily reformed and established Religion in this Church of England by the full counsell and free consent of all Estates Princes and People Clergy and Laity What is of late by Novellers pretended of an Apostolique rudenesse plainnesse illiteratenesse and simplicity which ought to be in Ministers of the Gospel is ridiculous unlesse these new Teachers could shew us their speciall gifts and extraordinary inspirations better than yet they have done which were indeed miraculously bestowed upon the Primitive Planters and Preachers but very superfluous in a Church so full and blest with the ordinary endowments of pious literature and all good learning both Humane and Divine as England was How childish an affectation were it in the Gentrie of England to forbeare to ride on good horses because Christ once rode upon an asse shewing that the greatest triumph of all Christians is humility lowlinesse and meeknesse How silly were it in them to expect that Asses should alwayes be able to instruct them because Balaams asse did once with great justice and a prodigious gravity rebuke his masters madnesse Much lesse should Gentlemen of worth and breeding be such silly sots and children as to fancie that every jingling hobby-horse will be sufficient to carry them to heaven No the ministery of your souls is a far greater work requiring greater ability and better authority to convince men of their sins to encounter their lusts to moderate their passions to purge out their corruptions to break and soften their hearts to terrifie and appease their consciences to prepare them for God to graft them by true faith into a crucified God and Saviour to wean them from the world to win them to goodnesse to pull them out of hell and the devils snares to bring them to heaven and into the arms of Christ All which are the great works of true able and authoritative Ministers requiring other-gates workmen than are now in many places much in fashion among common people though not so in favour with the wiser and better sort of Christians in England as to prefer these mens new and various fancies before the wise constitutions the ancient customes the Catholick and Religious Orders of the Church of England established by their pious and prosperous Progenitors All the world at home and abroad sees that after all the many changes and troublesome essayes of new-modelling the civill state of this Nation yet true reason of State and publique peace doe command yea inforce us to justifie the wisdome of our Fore-fathers by bringing back matters of Soveraigntie power and government to the former plat-form and polity as to reality onely changing a few formalities Truly this makes me not despaire but when all new fangles of Religion and popular models of Churches have been tryed in vain and are found as they will be both impertinent and incompetent for the happy state of Reformed Religion in this Church and Nation we may by Gods blessing return to those pristine and primitive forms of sound doctrine uniform order and government which were never taken up by any private inventions here or elsewhere but were of Catholick observation and so no doubt of Apostolique direction and divine institution Which if all men should silently forsake and in so doing reproch not onely the Church of England but the very first Catholique and Apostolique Churches yet let me cease to live when I cease to sympathize with them in their unjust reproches and with Her in her great distresses and 't is fit my tongue should cleave to my mouth when I forbear or am afraid to pray for the peace and happy restitution of our Jerusalem I who have seen Her in such order beauty peace plenty honour prosperity and piety I who have received in her bosome and tuition so many and great mercies not onely temporall but I hope spirituall and eternall I who desire my posterity kindred friends and countrey may never have other God or Saviour than what was owned and worshipped in the Church of England no other Scriptures and Gospel than what have here been excellently preached and comfortably believed no other Sacraments than such as were here duly administred and devoutly received no other Liturgie or prayers and holy offices than such as were here both publiquely proposed and privately used no better Bishops Presbyters pastors and guides of their souls both for learned abilities exemplary life than such as I have known frequent and flourishing in the Church of England I pray God they may but have as good for better Ministers and better means of salvation as they shall not need them so they cannot have them without miracles of which God is no prodigall I should greatly sin if I should not daily sigh and weep over the Church of England if I should not poure our my soule to the God and Father of Mercies for Her since she is now counted by many as Jeremie complains an out-cast and forsaken whom no
man in comparison seeketh after her bruise is almost incurable and her wound is very grievous There are few to plead her cause she hath no healing medicines her lovers have forgotten her since God hath wounded her with the wounds of enemies and with the chastisements of cruell ones who in her dust and captivity require of her to sing the songs of Sion commanding her to call her ruines Reformations and to account their persecutions her perfections It is time then for all that have any regard to the Church of England to cry mightily both to God and man to give them no rest till they return to be gracious to this much afflicted impoverished despised divided disordered Church It is high time for all honest English Christians to pitty her ruines to favour her dust to speak comfortably to her to put an end to her warfare to bind up her wounds to make up her breaches to repaire her losses as Jobs friends did his with their kind and munificent compassions that Posterity may not read in the sad ruines divisions and desolations of this famous and reformed Church of England pristine liberality and modern sordidnesse the bounty beauty and order of former times the deformity sacriledge and confusion of these later Who can consider without shame and regret how much more generous and large-hearted even those Ages were which had some rust and dimnesse of superstition growing upon their Religion then these are in which the English world is filled and confounded with the noise and shews of brightnings and reformations in which by new most preposterous methods some of our late unlucky Architects or Antivitruvian Builders have endeavoured with their axes and hammers to break down more good Church-vvork in twice seven years than the best master-builders can hope to repair in seventy seven I doe not mean onely as to the materiall and mechanick fabricks of goodly Churches which in many places lie sordidly wasted shamefully desolated but as to that which was the rationall politicall morall the prudentiall and truly pious structure of this well-reformed Church of England of whose ruines I shall give you afterward a more particular account But it is now time for me in order to work upon your affections to give over such tedious Prefacings and to present You with as true and lively a prospect as I can of Her sad posture There being more pathetick power in your hearing or seeing one of her own sighs and tears O what is there in her wounds than in the greatest seas of any mans oratory to stir up in You those filiall compassions which most become You to so deserving and now so distressed a Mother as is this Church of England The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick Catholick EPISCOPACY coâ—â—… with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church ΔΕÎΔΡΟΛΟΓΙΑ The Embleme of the Trees explained In which is briefly set forth the History and Chronology of Episcopacy Presbytery and Independency as pretenders to Church-government their first planting growing and spreading in the Christian World THe design of this Figure or Embleme is to instruct Christians of the meanest capacities who have less abilities or leisure to read large Discourses touching the due Order Way and Method of Church-union and Communion which Subject is now multiplyed to so many parties and opinions that ordinary people as in a Wood or Maze and Labyrinth are unable to disentangle themselves of those perplexed contentions and confusions which have of late so miserably divided and almost destroyed the Harmony and Happiness of the Church of England upon the disputes not so much about saving Faith and holy Life as those of a Churches right constitution in its Divine Original Apostolick Derivation Catholick Succession Regular Subordination and Brotherly Communion First most people learned and unlearned were heretofore prepossessed with the Catholick use and approbation of Episcopacy as ubique semper ab omnibus ever and onely used in this and all other Churches from the first planting of Christianity After this many weaker Christians came to be dispossessed of their former perswasions by the violent obtrusions of such a Presbytery as challengeth Church-government not in common with Bishops but wholy without them This forreign plant not taking any deep root in this English soyle was soon starved and much supplanted by the Insinuations of a newer way called Independency At last many heretofore well-meaning Christians finding such great Authorities even from Christ pretended on all sides for these diversities of Bishops Presbyters and People each challenging the right of Church-government Rule and Jurisdiction as principally due to them and from Christ immediately committed to them have by long perplexed and sharp disputes been brought to such doubtings as have betrayed them to strange indifferencies as to all Ecclesiastical Society and Order which is the very band of Christian Religion so far that they care for no Church no Christian Communion no setled Government no sober Religion By this Figure Type or Scheme every one may easily see in one view their rise growth and proportions what in the beginning was what ever since for above 1500. years hath been and what in right reason ought to be the authoritative and constant Order Polity and Government of every particular Church as a part of the universal if we regard either Scripture-direction or Christs institution or Apostolical prescription or universal practise of all Churches in all Ages and places till of later dayes wherein the factious Ambitions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abortive and divided Novelties have either in too indulgent or in troublesome times strangely warped from or contested against uniform Antiquity either usurping upon or denying those just Interests which ought to be preserved joyntly in every well-ordered Church to Bishops to Presbyters and to faithful people who as Members of one Body and Branches of one Tree or Root ought to be but one in an Ecclesiastical harmony though they have different uses and offices for the common good The Catholick Church of Christ which all true Christians believe to be Sponsa unica dilecta the Spouse and Body of Christ one and intire as united to him the Head of all by one Faith so to one another as Members by one Spirit one Baptism one Bread and one Cup which are visible symbols or signs of that invisible Communion in Truth in Love Charity which every true Christian hath with Jesus Christ and all true Believers in all the world This Catholick one and uniform Ch. is here set forth under the similitude of one fair straight well-grown fruitful flourishing uniform Tree as the Cedar of the Lord full of sap rooted in Christ from whom it derives the spirit life and radical moisture of Grace by such outward means and Ministers as the Lord hath appointed to be workers together with him as some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for planting propagating watering
pruning fencing and preserving this goodly Tree in its several Branches which have spread forth to several parts of the world but were never quite parted or separated from either Christ or one another but grounded in Christ they have alwayes grown up in him to such an holy Harmony without any Schismatical slipping breaking off or moral dividing from one another every small twigg every bigger branch every mainer arme of it either for private Christians or publick Congregations or Episcopal Combinations still holding that mutual Communion which became them both to Christ and his Church in general also to each other in particular according to the several Places Duties Stations and Proportions wherein the God of Order and Peace had set them under the Authority Power and Episcopacy of his Son Jesus Christ as Lord of all the King Priest and Prophet the chief Bishop and great Shepherd the principal Teacher Pastor and Ruler of his Church From our Lord Jesus Christ whose love to Mankind intended to enlarge the branches of his Church beyond the Jews even to all Nations under Heaven this small and tender Plant was afterward as a fruitful Vine and flourishing Tree carefully husbanded and orderly extended by such workmen as the Lord was pleased to chuse and appoint for this holy care and culture whom he endued with the spirit of power both for Authority when he solemnly breathed on them and for Ability when he powerfully sent the Spirit upon them enabling them not onely with such ordinary gifts as were necessary for all true Ministers and such ordinary authority as was fit to governe the Churches they gathered but also with such extraordinary and miraculous endowments as were meet for the Apostles to carry on the first plantations of the Gospel to all the world without any Interpreter beyond all contradiction the doctrine they taught of Jesus Christ being confirmed to be the Will and Wisdome of God by the concurrence of his Omnipotency in infallible signes and wonders By these twelve Apostles when their number was completed and the Apostasie of Judas made up by the choise of Matthias to succeed and supply his Episcopal charge and Office for the teaching and ruling of the Church to whom as a supernumerary help and great additional St. Paul was afterward joyned by these I say as by so many chief Pastors or Oecumenical Bishops who had the general care and joynt oversight or Episcopacy of the Catholick Church both Jews and Gentiles was this Tree mightily advanced in a few years both in bigness and bredth in strength and extention so that the Gospel according to Christs command was preached more or less to every Nation under Heaven and as the beams of the Sun are seen so the Evangelical sound of the Apostles was heard in all Lands so loud and audibly that every Nation might have applied themselves to listen and seek after the Lord and have heard and found him in the voice of his glorious Gospel if they would have followed that news which they heard of according to the curiosity after novelties which is in the nature of man The news of which so good and so great was every where reported to be as foretold by so many Prophets long before so attested and confirmed by so many Eye witnesses who not onely spake to every Nation in their several tongues but also wrought great miracles in every place where they came according to those several lots or portions which they had taken by the Lords appointment or by mutual consent as their particular Bishopricks or Dioceses for the more orderly carrying on of the work some staying at Jerusalem as St. James the Elder and the other James surnamed the Just where they were slain others dispersed themselves as St. Peter who went to Antioch Alexandria and Rome there planting eminent Churches appointing Bishops over them as Euodius at Antioch Mark at Alexandria Clemens and Linus at Rome one for the Circumcision the other for the Uncircumcision which Churches ever after even before the Nicene Council had the eminence of Patriarchal seats as afterward Jerusalem and Constantinople had The Histories of the Church either Sacred or Ecclesiastical are not punctual or exact in setting forth the several Countries to which the Apostles divided themselves or where they most resided and at last ended their days nor is it material it being sufficiently clear that as they did not at first so confine themselves to one place or Country as to exclude any other Apostles from coming thither so they went some one or more of them to all chief parts to Syria Arabia Persia India Ethiopia Armenia Scythia Asia the Less and Greater all Greece Illyricum Italy Spain France Germany Cyprus Britanny Africa and all the rest of the grand parts of the then-known World Continents and Islands where at last they either fixed in their old age as St. John did at Ephesus or were martyred leaving besides the Monuments of their preaching and miracles their Apostolical Seats supplied by an orderly Subordination and authoritative Succession of such Bishops and Presbyters Pastors and Teachers able and faithful men as they had Commission to ordain and did authorize for their successors in that holy Ministry spirit and power of Christ which was to continue to the end of the World for the further planting propagating and preserving the Church of Christ by such Doctrine Government and Discipline as they for the main rules and ends clearly by word and practise delivered to them which was then as their Faith Baptism and Hope but one among all Churches in the all world single Christians private Families of them small Congregations little Villages greater Cities ample Territories large Provinces great and small Churches as to their several distributions for conveniency of actual converse and communicating in holy Mysteries had still but one and the same Polity Order Discipline Ministry Government and Communion no Variety no Difformity no Deformity in Doctrine or Discipline among any Orthodox Christians but every one observed that Place Office Duty and Proportion wherein God by the Apostles and their successors had set him or them in relation to the whole Church as well as to that particular part or Congregation of it to which he was more locally and personally joyned yet mentally spiritually charitably cordially and consentiently he still adhered to the Catholick Conformity and Unity according to that holy Polity and Oeconomy which the Spirit of Christ in the Apostles first and for ever established so far as the nature of times and Gods providence would permit that as there was but one God and one Lord Jesus Christ so there might be but one Church one chast Virgin as the Spouse of Christ in all places For these holy Husbandmen and chief Labourers in Christs Vineyard the twelve or thirteen Apostles did not think it sufficient to teach to catechize to convert to baptize to confirm to communicate to admonish
to excommunicate here and there several Christians and their families as single Slips and Off-sets of Christianity which might grow apart by themselves but their aim was with preaching Verity to plant Unity and with true Faith to graft fraternal Charity which conjoyned them to and with Christ and all Christians in the world This being a most visible mark of Christs Disciples also a special means for mutual assistance and comfort amidst the many persecutions which Christians would meet with sufficient utterly to discourage them if when they were scattered from each other they were presently without any joynt harmony greater combination and ampler communion of Saints by which means whereever Christians fled from one place to another if they met with Christians they were sure of hospitable friends bringing as they ever did letters of communication or commendation from their Bishops which presently made their way to such a kind reception and communion in all holy duties as that station permitted as Catechumens or Penitents or Eucharistical Communicants in which they stood whereever they had lived Therefore as the Apostolical wisdom so all their successors diligently gathered single believers and private families of Christians into greater Congregations these they led on to larger combinations which comprehended the Christians of many Villages Towns Cities and Territories according as the Spirit of Christ directed them for the greater conveniency and benefit of both Ministers and people who scattered in small bodies or parcels must needs be both more cold and more feeble but so united in grand Societies they would be both warmer stronger and safer and besides more eminent and conspicuous in the eyes of all the world Such beyond all doubt were those Apostolical and famous Churches distinguished by the Spirit of God according to the chief Cities which were the centre of their Religious addresses for Church-Order Authority and Communion as the Church of Jerusalem Antioch Rome Ephesus Corinth Sardis Smyrna Colosse with many more whose Cities being most-what Metropolitan or Mother-cities as to secular power and distribution of civil justice they were chosen as meetest for the principal residency of Religious Order Polity and Authority wherein as was meet the blessed Apostles did during their lives preside as Bishops either in their persons or by those faithful Apostolick men whom they as St. Paul did Timothy Titus Archippus others appointed as Rulers or Bishops under them for the carrying on of the service of Christ his Church partly by the common duty and office Ministerial which was to preach baptize celebrate other holy Mysteries in an orderly way even in lesser Congregations yea to private Families and single persons as occasion required which was the work of Bishops and Presbyters in common and partly to manage that presidential power and Episcopal Authority over both Presbyters and people united in larger combinations and Churches as might best preserve the Purity Unity and Honor of the Church and Christian Religion in doctrine and discipline also derive by way of right Ordination after the pattern given to Timothy and Titus and others a continued succession of an holy and authoritative Ministry by such an eminent power of Order as was specially delivered to the chief Apostles and by them to their principal successors as Bishops in those great Apostolical and complete Churches where as Christians increased many Presbyters were ordained by the chief Pastor or Bishop to be both Counsellers and Assistants to him in that Evangelical work of teaching and governing the Church committed to him First as appointed immediately by the chief Apostles while they lived and after as chosen by the surviving Presbyters in every precinct or Diocese to succeed so far in that Apostolical eminency and presidential authority as was necessary for the Churches constant Order and good Government according to that precedent Charter and Commission which all Churches had received from the Apostles and they from Christ not as a temporary Ordinance but such as for the main end and method the Lord would have continued till his coming again by a succession of ordinary Bishops who are a lesser or second sort of Apostles in many things short of their gifts yet having the same ordinary power to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to appoint them their offices and places in the Churches Ministry and to see they execute the same as is meet for the edifying of the Church in Truth and Love to rebuke and reject them in case of failing and obstinacy As the Church daily thus increased spreading its boughs even to the utmost seas still its Polity or Government as the bark or rinde of the Tree enlarged with the body or bulk being most necessary for the preserving both of lesser and greater branches to knit and bind all together to convey the sap and juice to every part and to the whole This once peeled or broken or cut wounds the tree weakens and oft kills that part which is so injured Trees may as well thrive without their bark and bodies live without their skins as Churches without setled and united Government Therefore that all true Christians might still keep a Catholick Correspondence Subordination and holy Communion between the whole and every branch or member they had not onely Deacons above the people but Presbyters above Deacons and Bishops above Presbyters yea and as the borders and numbers of the Church so increased that not onely Presbyters but Bishops grew many and so fit to be put into some method and order they had Archbishops or Metropolitanes above ordinary Bishops and Patriarchs above Archbishops or Metropolitanes and a generall Council above all thus still drawing nearer to a center of union and mutuall intelligence So that first three afterward five Patriarchs had the general Episcopacy Superintendency and Inspection over all the Christian world Nor were these Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs any ambitious affectations or forcible intrusions of pride or tyranny upon the Churches of Christ but by a wise and general consent on all sides Christian Bishops did so cast themselves into comely rancks of Subordination after the Apostolical pattern as might most suit to the good order correspondence and unanimity of all Christians as but one Church there being in the first 300. years of sore persecution no other motives to these eminent places and regular orders in the Church of Bishops Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs but onely those of Labours and Cares of Sufferings and Martyrdoms which still pressed most upon the Presidents and chief Governours or Bishops of the Churches as was evident in the glorious marks of the Lord Jesus to be seen on the Faces Hands and other parts of the Bodies of those venerable Bishops 318 which met at the first great gaudy-day of the Church in the Council of Nice which all made but one Episcopacy and were Representers as well as Presidents or Rulers of but one Catholick Church After which time by the favour of
bestowed on his Church in all the world who never till of later yeares knew any thing of other Church-governments besides that of Episcopacy any more than they saw new Suns or new Moons in the Heavens It may be these Parelii or Paraselenes these Meteors Comets and blazing Stars that now appear in despite of primitive Episcopacy will not be so long lasting nor so benign to this or any Church as that was though they seem to emulate yea and strive to eclipse nay quite to extinguish the shining of those ancient lights to which they owe their best light of sound Knowledge and Religion Episcopacy joyned with an orderly Presbytery Mean time what Inconveniencies yea Mischiefs and Miseries have or may attend these Fractions Diversities Divisions and Confusions upon the account of religious forms and Church-ambitions in this and other Churches between both Ministers and other sorts of Christians what spoyle and havock they may be tempted in time to make upon one another while they seek either to overdrop or to destroy each other as they have done beyond all moderation and mercy upon Episcopacy how little hopes there is that any or many or all of them can ever thrive and ascend to any height not of secular glory but of Christian proficiency in Truth and Love comparable to the pristine or modern Beauty Fruitfulnesse Usefulnesse and Goodlinesse of a right Episcopacy in England or any other Church is left to the sober judgement and prudent presages of all wise and worthy Christians that list to be spectators and Readers before whose eyes this Scheme is with Truth and Love plainly and impartially set forth as to the historick and politick Description of these several and unproportionable Figures which are lively Emblemes of the Catholick and ancient Unity and Uniformity under Episcopacy compared to moderne Diminutions Divisions and Deformities as to Ecclesiastical Polity Order and Government since Presbytery was planted in blood and Independency self-sown of late years in England whose Honor as a Church Christian and Reformed will then be most advanced together with its civil Peace when both Presbytery and Independency as to the just Interests of godly Ministers and people are re-ingrafted or re-incorporated with those of primitive Episcopacy which is beyond all dispute and ever was in the best and worst times the best Conservator as of Bishops Apostolick Authority and Succession so of Presbyters worthy priviledges and of all faithful peoples comely advantages so far as they are joyntly concerned in Ordination or Approbation of Ministers in Consecration and Communication in holy Mysteries in mutual Counsels Supports and Assistances both private and publick The just ballancing or even twisting of which three together makes Christian Churches and States at once ample honourable and happy both in Order and Unity in Strength and Beauty in Unanimity and Uniformity which are the best constitution and complexion of any Church that desires to thrive in Piety and Charity in Truth and Love which the wise and blessed God in mercy restore to us BOOK I. SETTING FORTH THE Present DISTRESSES OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND CHAP. I. LEst any one should stumble at the very threshold of my Discourse and by their too much prejudice coynesse and easiness to take offence from Names should frustrate my whole design of doing them good by forbearing to read what I write upon such a subject I am at first as briefly and plainly as I can to assert the Name of the Church of Engl. Which Title is certainly the crown of our Country the honour of our Nation the highest holiest and happiest band of our society the surest foundation of our peace with God and men which under this name and in this relation becomes sacred as well as civil religious as wel as rational It was a very sad and bad exchange if this Nation then began to be no Ch. of Christ when it began to be a Common-wealth if it ceased at once to be an earthly heavenly kingdome which last as the Emperour Theodosius said was the greater honour of the two We eate and drink and sleep we beget our like we die or kill and devour one another as beasts we build and plant we buy and sell we rule and obey as meer men But we believe and worship the true God we professe the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ we are partakers of the gifts and graces of the blessed spirit we have an holy communion with that adorable Trinity and with one another in love and charity as Christians that is visible members of Christ our Head and of his Church which is his mysticall body our noblest life sweetest society and divinest fraternity is as we are Christians that is Emulators of the holy Angels Imitators of God children and servants in the family of Christ candidates of heaven expectants of happinesse partakers of grace and daily preparing for eternall glory All which are the dispensations capacities and priviledges of that nation and people onely which are and own themselves the Church of Christ A title of so much honour and reall advantages that in earnest no Nation or people once called and converted to be Christians and by publick vote or profession owning themselves to be such should ever be patient to be robbed or under any specious pretences and novel fallacies deprived of it since the Empire of the whole world and the riches of both Indies are not equivalent to this honour for a people to be called Gods people which were not his and for a Nation which sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death to be professedly and really the houshold of faith the Church of Christ as this of Engl. was heretofore owned to be by the solemn and publick profession of its Kings and Princes its Nobles and Peers its Parlaments and Synods its Magistrates and Ministers by the consent suffrages and submissions of all estates and degrees of people ever since its first conversion who never thought it any impropriety or barbarity of speech much lesse any disgrace to call themselves according to their joynt and declared profession of the name and faith of Christ The church of England Which Title I use according to the good old style and generall phrase of all learned godly and wise men both at home and abroad Ancient and Modern With which Inscription that excellent Bishop Jewell set forth his just and accurate Apologie ful of honest learning potent reasonings and unfeigned Antiquity besides Scripture-demonstrations which got It and this Church so great an applause both at home and abroad that all Reformed Churches and Divines admired it both this Church and that Book The more learned and modest Romanists either found they had not abilities to confute it or not confidence enough to despise it nor did any Non-conformists then boggle at this Title of The Church of England when they found it convenient to enjoy the benefit of Her shadow and protection however in some things they
of Christ were ever esteemed the fruits of carnall not Christian minds of such as had more subtilty than sanctity in them As the Apostles so their Primitive successors ever looked upon the mincing and mangling of Churches as the reproch pest poyson and deformity of Religion being diametrally opposite to those holy customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian and sixty years after him the great Council of Nice so command and recommend as Ancient Primitive and Apostolick For they were not such children as to fancy those to be ancient customs and usages in the Catholick Church which were not older than their own beards or the Gibeonites bread and bottles which a late Writer of Schisme seems to suspect of those renowned Fathers who were not above three descents from some of the Apostles Some Bishops in the Council of Nice might very easily know Irenaeus as he tells us he did Papias and Polycarpus who both knew St. John so that the traditions and customs so evident by matter of fact to all the world could neither be dark nor dubious nor justly called Ancient then if not Primitive The greatest glory and most conspicuous character of the first famous Churches was as Ignatius tells us for Christians to love one another to be of one mind and one heart for their lesser Congregations to be subject to their severall Presbyters or Preachers for their People and Presbyters to be meekly subordinate to their respective Bishops for their Bishops to correspond with one another and all Christians by them in their joynt Councils and publick Conventions also by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendatory letters and testimonials which presently admitted every good Christian to communion with any part of the true Church or any congregation in all the world upon the testimony and account of their Baptismal covenant and orderly conversation or profession of the same faith once delivered to the Saints and that one hope or common salvation by which they stood related to the whole Church as one Body and to Christ Jesus as the onely Head of it without any new imposition or exaction of any other explicit covenants and formall professions or private engagements to any one Congregation or Preacher which must be renewed so oft as a Christian changeth his abode and may for ought I see as well be required by every private Family before they will pray or eat or drink with any stranger-Christian as by every particular Congregation which listeth to call it self a Church and so fancies it self to be absolute soveraign independent without any communion with or subordination to those greater Ecclesiasticall polities which in the primitive style and esteem were called and counted the onely regular politick organized and completed Churches the priviledges and benefits of whose communion every Christian was in charity presumed capable of and so allowed to enjoy who having been duly baptised instructed and confirmed in Christian mysteries did continue to professe the same by word and deed neither justly excommunicated out of that particular Church to which he was orderly joyned nor excommunicating himself by voluntary Schisme declared abscession separation or Apostasie To such Christians as thus professe the true faith and keep that comely order communion and subordination which is publickly professed and maintained in their respective nationall Churches and the several parts lesser Congregations contained in them to which private Christians are more immediately for order sake related there is no doubt but a just right and claim belongs according to their severall aptitudes and capacities as younger or elder catechised or fuller instructed novices or veterane and old Disciples to partake in due order of any ordinance and institution given by Christ to his Catholick Church as a mark and priviledge of his Disciples Nor can it seem lesse than a petulant and partiall if not a proud Schismatical and sacrilegious practise for any Minister or people to deny or rob any such approved Christian professor of the comfort of partaking such Christian rights as he duly requires meerly because he will not gratifie such a Minister or such a little Congregation in a new exotick way of bodying that is formally covenanting verbally engaging with them to them beyond the baptismall bond vow Thereby owning first a greater right and priviledge to be received by him from such covenanting with them than he had before as a Christian baptised and in Catholick communion with Christ and his Church next he must own an absolute soveraign and entire Church-power among them to the prejudice division and discarding of those higher relations by which he stands united and subordinate to the Church of Christ in order to higher ends and uses under greater notions and denominations as they are distinguished into severall bounds and orders both for Episcopal inspection and nationall correspondency or communion which are of far greater vertue and more publick concernment and benefit than that congregating or meeting together which is onely locall and onely followes the aptitude of a Christians residency or particular station in one place Undoubtedly the grand ecclesiastical relations and sacred generall bands of Christianity in one Body one Spirit one Faith one Baptism one Lord and Father of all c. are of a far higher and nobler nature than those which arise meerly from cohabitation or personall convention which are very variable humane and uncertain whereas the other are fixed divine and immutable except through mens own default by Infidelity Apostacy and Immorality Christian people owing to their Bishops or chief Governours as subjects do to their Princes a duty of love reverence and subjection also of due acknowledgement and holy obedience although they never see their faces nor meet them in any particular place as thousands of Christians never did at all or not for a long time and never any more after the Apostle S. Paul's departure from them who yet were subject to his orders and mandates instructions and traditions according to the mind and spirit of Christ declared by his own Epistles or such other Messengers and Apostles Bishops and Governours whom the Apostle sent to them and set over them as he did Timothy among the Ephesians Titus among the Cretians Epaphroditus among the Philippians Archippus among the Colossians These and such like with under and after the Apostles as eminent Pastors Bishops and Governours of such Churches and Christians as were contained in one great city and its Territory or Province which were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did take care that every Christian every Congregation every Presbyter or Preacher in those precincts should both do their duties keep their stations preserve the private and publick order and unity enjoy the priviledges of safety peace and assistance as parts or members of that Polity or Ecclesiasticall Body which still stood further related and so was subordinate
to the Counsel Communion and conjoyned Authority of those integrall and maine or nobler parts which made up the Catholick visible Church and sometimes convened in generall Councils Of all which rights blessings priviledges and advantages both for direction and protection which are best preserved in and vigorously derived from these ample combinations of Churches which are commended by the Apostolicall wisdome and spirit which was Christs for any Christian or Congregation needlesly to deprive themselves or to withdraw divide others from them must needs be First their Infelicity exposing and betraying solitary Christians and small separate parties of them to many dangerous temptations and disadvantages of weaknesse contempt subdivision animosities among themselves also injuries and indignities from others and at last dissipations and utter desolations still dividing to Atomes and mouldring themselves to nothing All which like continued ploughes and harrowes make long and fruitlesse furrowes of deformity upon the backs and faces of such Congregations and such Christians who foolishly forsake or refuse those remedies and assistances which arise from the larger combinations of Churches which are easily had when as whole Cities Provinces and Nations professe the faith of Christ and resolve to assert it Next it is their great sin called in Scripture by the odious name of Schisme Concision Sedition Separation withdrawing from forsaking and dividing of the Churches unity judged by the Apostle to be the works of the Flesh and of the Devil when they arise from and are carried on by wilfull weaknesse ignorance pride arrogancy popularity levity animosity despight study of revenge covetousnesse ambition uncharitablenesse or any other base lust unholy distemper inordinate passion sinister interest and secular designe under never so specious pretensions of Church Reformation of setting up Christ in greater power and purity which I am sure is not yet done in Old England nor like ever to be effected by such strange methods of new churching men and women which begins the first step with spurning at the mother that bred them and the fathers that begat and nourished them laying the first stone of their new building in the ruine of that Churches both Superstructures and Foundations out of which Quarry they were hewen and to whose Fabrick they were once orderly and handsomly conjoyned for many years as many thousands of good Christians still are whom they endeavour to scare and seduce with all the scandalls they can cast before them upon this Church of England Which they having once learned boldly to reproch and abase they must make good their words with deeds that their schisme may not savour of malice or ambition but conscience and Religion Hence mâ—â—y have fallen to tear themselves quite off from any communion with or relation to the Church of England and from all resemblance in the point of polity with any other ancient or modern and reformed Churches of any renown making not onely rents in them and objections against them but total ruptures and abscissions from them and the Catholick form of all Churches no less than from this of England not modestly forbearing the use of some things in which at present they are less satisfied but haughtily forsaking yea wholly disdaining communion and subordination in any things or Ecclesiasticall order and holy ministration And all this credulous Christians must needs do with the more confidence when they are furnished by potent Orators with such Apologies as may either silence their own consciences when they accuse them or plead as they think their excuse before Gods tribunall when they shall be there charged for the scandals defamations discouragements deformities divisions and vastations made or occasioned by them in such a Christian Reformed and united Church as England sometime was It is not amiss to hear the ground of their plea which is with as much reason as if the hand or foot should think themselves not to be of the body because in a fit and humour they so say and fancy I find the tenour of their Apology runs thus I am by many men of seeming gravity learning and piety accused of the sin of Schisme but very unjustly because very falsely I did not I do not make any division or rent in the Church of England which is properly and critically the sin of Schisme but I have totally chopped quite lopped my self off from it by Abscission or rupture I never troubled my self to reform or abstain from what I thought offensive and amisse in the old but I have wholly erected a new Church I was not as a wedge to cleave a little but as a saw to cut all quite in sunder past all closing with any such society as the reputed Nationall Church of England was which I do not so much as account to be any Church but rather a Chaos or colluvies of titular Christians out of whose masse I have by a new percolation of Independency extracted some such pure materials as are formable into a new and true Church-way Yet have I not made any formall Schisme for my work was not to rend the coat or scratch the skin of Christs Spouse but to break her very bones and quite dismember that so diseased and deformed body which pretended to be a nationall Church in its severall overgrown Limbs or Dioceses on each of which I saw a Bishop or Prelate sitting and presiding which I took to be a mark of the Beast and denoting a limb of Antichrist which I know should have no place or influence in any true Church or body of Christ So that to become a perfect Christian I became a perfect Separatist I hung by no string sinew ligature skin or fibre to the so-cryed-up Church of England no I aimed not to divide it but destroy it my design was not to weaken its integrity and unity but to nullifie and abolish its very name and being its polity ministry pâ—â—r and Ecclesiasticall authority if at least these amounted to any thing more than the Chimaera fancy and meer fiction of a Church However I chose rather to deprive my self of all the good in it than to bear with what seemed evil I did not carry my self to that Church in which after a superstitious fashion I was indeed Baptised and educated a Christian as became a son to his sick mother much lesse as a servant to Christs Spouse which might have her faintings But I counted her when I came to misunderstand her and my self as a deadly enemy I treated her as an Adulteresse I proclaimed her a putid Strumpet I withdrew from her as from a dead and noysome carkase which had long layen dead and buried in the old grave of Episcopacy these thirteen or fourteen hundred yeares even from her very nativity therefore I condemned and abhorred Her with all her Scriptures and Sacraments her Bishops and Preachers her Tithes and Universities her Books and Learning her Fathers and Histories her Languages and Sciences her seeming Gifts and specious Graces her Religion
and measure as I received from his Word and Spirit for I learned not those manifestations of Divine love from any other Church Pristine or Modern so much as the speciall dispensations and discoveries of Gods Graces and Gifts to me in which few equalled none seemed to exceed me in all the world From this great and pure fountain of all perfection and comfort the sweetnesse merit and fulnesse of my Saviour I recommended to my children every Grace every Vertue every holy Duty every necessary Precept every precious Promise every imitable Example and this was done with all the advantages of good Learning of sound Knowledge of most potent and pathetick eloquence which at once was able to inform the weakest capacity to satisfie any sober curiosity and to silence the subtilest adversary To this purpose that the great work of saving their souls might be effectually carried on with order power and authority I furnished them not with precarious praters bold intruders or pitifull pieces of Plebeian oratory in whom ignorance and impudence inability and inauthoritativeness contend which shall be greatest but I provided and prepared for them with much study and industry with many prayers and teares with long education and diligent care excellent Bishops orderly Presbyters able and authoritative Ministers workmen that needed not be ashamed of a lawful ordination and right descent of a mediate divine mission after the Apostolick line and Catholick succession after the form of an uninterrupted and authentick commission duly and truly exemplified in the consecration of Bishops and ordination of Presbyters and Deacons through all ages of the Church agreeable to that originall Institution which was from Christ Jesus the great High Priest the unerring Prophet the soveraign King of his Church the chief Preacher of Righteousnesse and Bishop of our souls who instituted first his twelve Apostles afterward the seventy Disciples whose commission was not so large nor their mission so solemn as that of the twelve whose Episcopacy and number was to be completed and upon whom the promised power from on high specially came in the miraculous and ministeriall gifts of the Holy Ghost After this pattern which was ever followed by all Churches in all the world I supplied those under my care with such a succession of Bishops and Ministers of holy things as for solid learning for powerfull preaching for devout and discreet praying for reverend celebrating for acute disputing for exact writing for wise governing and holy living were no where exeeded in all the Christian world and hardly equalled in any age since the Apostles times whose ministeriall sufficiencies and successes were sometime highly magnified and almost deified by many of those that now would stone them and destroy me by a late transport of malice as much unexpected as undeserved by me which looks more like a fascination and fury than any thing of true Zeal and sober Reformation For no men of any weight or worth for parts and piety for judgement and ingenuity for conscience and integrity have hitherto convinced me or those men that were my prime servants sons and supports of any Heresie or Idolatry of any Superstition or Apostasy of any just scandall or notable defect What some have urged for my not exercising a more severe and strict Discipline after the manner of some ancient Primitive Churches it is not imputable to any unwillingnesse in those worthy Bishops and Presbyters whom I employed but to the general wantonness or refractorinesse of all sorts of people in that point who were so farre from enduring a stricter discipline to be set up that many grudged at any Ecclesiastick authority exercised over them though it were established by their own publick consent and lawes If any of my Bishops Presbyters or people failed to do the duties which I required or rather Christ commanded them it was to be reckoned as the fruit of mens private temptations and personall infirmities but not of my constitutions or directions which were so pious and perspicuous that people could not justly plead invincible ignorance to excuse their immoralities and impieties which indeed they owed to their own negligences or corruptions Yea where the seeds of Religion were thinnest sown and thrived least in some parts of this nation it was not so much from the want of labourers as from the labourers wants the poverty of many places and barrennesse of the soyle was such that either impropriations or sacriledge or both had not left for any competent workman a competent maintenance both my Dower and Patrimony Glebes and Tithes being almost wholly alienated by hard lawes and evil customes from my use and enjoyment that holy Portion which is Gods being oft perverted to feed Hinds and Dogs and Horses which was originally devoted to feed such Shepherds as might feed my flock in every place Nor could in those cases either my prayers or teares the sordid necessities of many poor Ministers or the cryes of poor peoples famished souls ever yet move the civil State effectually to restore or remit or to make other necessary supplyes for Pastors and peoples good Yet even in this distresse which befell too many places much against my will my care and endeavour was so to keep up the life health and soundnesse of the true Reformed Christian Religion that people every where had what was necessary wholsome and decent for their souls good though possibly they had not nor was it needfull the same plenty variety dainties and superfluity in a constant way which some places did so long enjoy untill as with the Jews the Manna and Quailes Sunday Sermons and week-day Lectures came out of their nostrils while the heavenly food was rowling in their curious palates and wanton jawes the wrath of God brake forth upon them and upon me as upon Moses for their sakes who was indeed as jealous of their surfeitings of holy things as of the others famishings both being contrary to my care and desire which were God knows first to preserve the Foundation of necessary and saving Truth among them next to adde the beauty of holinesse to humility to joyn decency to sincerity to maintain the power of godlinesse with the wholsome formes of it that so Truth and Peace Order and Unity the leaves and the fruits of the tree of life might grow together for the nutriment muniment and ornament of piety Nor do I doubt to plead and affirm before Gods Tribunall That if those people who seemed to fare hardliest though the greatest complainers against my treatment of them were such as enjoyed most and fared deliciously every day wantonness being more querulous than want if they had made so good use as they might and ought to have done of that holy light and rule which was duly held forth to them in the plain parts of Scripture every year read to them in the Sacraments duly administred among them in the Articles Creeds Homilies Catechise and Liturgy with which they were
or might have been well acquainted they might even in these so much nauseated and despised means sufficient I fear to damn those who despised Salvation by them have found as plain and easie as sure and compendious a way to heaven through Faith Repentance Humility Charity holy Obedience to God and Man as they are likely now to do after they have stirred up so great a dust and smoke as hath put out poore peoples eyes leading them into endlesse mazes and confusions under the name and noise of a better Reformation and safer Religions In this posture of peace and plenty of piety and prosperity as to Christian and Reformed Religion had the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ the Founder of his Church once setled me out of his abundant mercy to the people of England by the patience and prayers by the preaching and writing of godly Bishops and other Ministers who were not onely Gods painfull Labourers but his faithfull Martyrs and Confessors some of them whose great worth drew the favour of pious Princes to me who were my nursing fathers and the love of peaceable Parliaments who were my faithfull friends insomuch that for one hundred years next preceding my miseries I had no cause to envy any Christian or Reformed Church that ever was or is in all the world nor had any sober Christian just cause to complain of me much lesse thus to murmur mutiny and fight against me for no other cause but this That I would not suffer them rudely to bite off those full and fair breasts which they had so long sucked ingratefully deforming those conduits of plenty order and peace which they had so long enjoyed both in Word and Sacraments in Ministrations and Ministers Yet behold how I am faln suddenly shamefully ingratefully indignly and almost desperately my doctrine not duly examined but rashly condemned my Tenets not confuted but blasphemed by my various adversaries my publick service and solemn worship of God sharply indeed corrected even to blood but no whit improved or amended yea infinitely impaired and neglected my holy Sacraments those two great Seals of a Christians Charter and Gods Covenant those fair marks and badges of Christian profession the two poles and pillars on which all mysterious and spirituall comforts temporall and eternall joyes do constantly turn these are most what rarely used in many places either totally disused or grosly abused by the execrable consecrations of unwashed unholy unordained hands Many of my Oratories Temples and Churches Houses so called because dedicated to the service of the Lord and his Church are by some men first profaned with all the sordidnesse of men and beasts next they are suffered to ruine of themselves while they are robbed of what should repaire them and at last that Sacriledge may be the better husband they are threatned to be sold and utterly demolished The Sanctity of Christian marriages which were wont to be solemnized by prayers instructions benedictions by mutuall solemn and sacred stipulations according to the Word of God and Ecclesiastick practise is sought to be reduced by some to new wayes either very brutall and meerly naturall or at best but civil and politick The infants of Christians who were ever esteemed as the lambs of Christs flock are partially carelesly disorderly many of them dubiously yea not at all baptized neither sprinkled nor washed nor marked with any note of Christs blood to distinguish them from the herd of Heathens the brats of Aliens Jews Pagans Mahometans The sacred dreadfull and venerable Symbols of the Lords Supper which I had happily purged from all rust and rubbish of Superstition in many places have been supinely neglected for many years in others strangely consecrated irreverently celebrated partially distributed denied to many worthy and desirous Christians as if those were not Catholick signes and seals of the truth of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace those common rights or priviledges which belong to every one that professeth to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and keeps communion with his Church but onely marks to discriminate sides and parties in Religion to divide Christians into uncharitable factions As for my Dead for they are still mine as they sleep in Jesus and are Gods deposita these are in many places put into their grave with no other solemnity than a silent procession and a demure perambulation as if all that attended were as dumb as the corps and the dead buried the dead without any difference expressed between those bodies that are charitably presumed to have been Temples of the holy Ghost that are candidates of Heaven and expectants of a blessed Resurrection and the bodies of meer infidells or miscreants being now treated in many places like the carkases of beasts or the burial of an Asse for whom men do usually as much as this comes to namely the covering their corps with earth to avoid the noysomness and offence of them without any further hopes of them And all this late supercilious novelty and neglect of dead Christians is grounded upon a strange scrupulosity of some either silly or superstitious men who pretend to boggle at my office which was more for the living than the dead not meerly humane and naturall but Christian and spirituall which they count as a kind of Necromancy or strange superstition to the dead while I onely made the dead an occasion of godly instruction and Christian hope of comfort warning and lawfull devotion to the living which how they should offend any sober Christian I could never yet be convinced and I am sure came farre short of those commemorations yea comprecations for the dead which were anciently used without offence in the Primitive Churches All other offices of piety and charity for the sick and well the young and old the penitent or impenitent prescribed by me are now either wholly laid aside or performed in so various and exotick forms as common people cannot easily understand them their very novelty obscurity and affected variety makes some Ministers prayers a kind of Latin Service to the simple common people Lastly my whole frame and polity Ecclesiastical all my ancient constitution order and communion as a Nationall Church of Christ in which brethren did happily dwell together in unity all is by some men not onely quite forsaken and abandoned on their parts but they seek utterly to rout and destroy me by defaming and discouraging those that most love approve and obey me as if there had nothing been setled in me with any piety or prudence reason or discretion by the wisdome of their fore-fathers who were sometimes esteemed blest Reformers by most of these modern Renegers Separates and Apostates How justly they have done me this despite I appeal to the just and impartiall Judge before whom I can thus far with truth and comfort assert my innocency that as to the foundations of Faith and rule of Holinesse I have onely adhered to his blessed Word as
of England O venerable censors O severe Aristarchusses of a more than Catonian gravity to whose ploughs and looms and distaffs and clubs and hammers 't is meet as to so many sacred scepters this later English and Christian world should no lesse submit their souls than the Jews and Gentiles Greeks and Barbarians Romans and Scythians did to the nets and fish-hooks of the Apostles who were authorized with miraculous gifts and assisted by the speciall power of the holy Spirit of Christ to plant settle and reform and purge Christian Churches To whose holy Doctrine and Divine Institutions delivered in the Old and New Testament and followed by all the Primitive Catholick Churches notwithstanding that the Church of England did in its first Reformation diligently and exactly conform it self if we may believe the integrity of those Reformers who had the courage and constancy to be Martyrs whose learning worth piety hath been confirm'd by the testimony of so many wise religious Princes by the approbation sanction of so many honourable and unanimous Houses of Parliament by the suffrages of so many learned and reverend Convocations by the applauses of so many Sister-reformed Churches if we may believe the preaching living and dying of so many hundred excellent Bishops and Presbyters or the prayers praises and proficiencies of so many thousands of other good Christians or lastly if we may believe the wonderful blessings and speciall graces of a merciful God attesting to the verity sanctity and integrity of this Church-Reformation and Christian Constitution for many happy years Yet against all these some peevish Momusses some spitefull Caco-zelots some evil-ey'd Zoilusses some insolent and causelesse Enemies of the Church of England have not so much modesty as to conceale their malice or to smother their insolent folly and intolerable arrogancy which dares to put the ignorance giddinesse emptinesse vulgarity rashnesse precipitancy and sinisternesse of their silly censures into the balance of Religion contrary to the renowned learning piety gravity grace and majesty of all those who have had so great favour love respect and honour for the Church of England Whom her spitefull and envious adversaries now presume to follow with nothing but Contumelies and Anathema's with pillagings and spoylings with railings and revilings with waste and ruine to the excessive joy of Her Papall enemies whose deeply-designed policies have a long time desired and hoped to see that wofull day befall the Church of England in which her Bishops might beg her Presbyters be starved her Ministry contemned her Liturgie ejected her Unity dissolved and broken her Ancient and Primitive Government abolished her undoubted ordination and succession of Ministers interrupted her whole Christian Frame and Nationall Constitution which was for the main truly Catholick Primitive and Apostolick destroyed dissipated desolated What invincible Armadoes could not atchieve what monstrous Powder-plots could not accomplish what wily Jesuits and other subtile Sophisters despaired to attain having been oft defeated and repelled by the learned care and vigilant puissance of wise Princes sober Parlaments reverend Bishops and other able Ministers of the Church of England that the weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse of some of our own petty Sectaries Schismatick Agitators superâ—reforming Reformers is likely to bring to passe whom the most admired and devout Lord Primate of Armagh a great Prophet of God and Pillar of the Reformed Religion sometime told me he esteemed no other than Factors for Popery and Engines for Roman designs by divisions and domestick confusions of Religion to bring in Popish Superstition and Tyranny Indeed a prudent Conjecturer may in this case easily make a true Prophet For the Roman Eagle a watchfull powerfull and voracious bird can never fail at last to seise on these parts of Christendome for her prey where she shall see Ignorance prevail against Knowledge Barbarity against Learning Division against Unity Confusion against Order People against their Priests Novelty against Antiquity Anarchy against Catholick Authority and infinite deformities ushered in under the title of speciall Reformations That cunning Conclave which overlooks the Christian world as the greatest constellation of policy in the West knows full well that such feaverish distempers in any Church or Christian State as now afflict the Church of England will not faile if they long continue to bring it to such an hectick consumption as will quite destroy its former healthfull constitution and prepare it for those Italian Empiricks who will come then to be in request with common people when they find no good to be got by the best-reputed Physicians the most specious Reformers when these are at their wits ends so differing in their judgements and practise that they know not what to do by reason of the madnesse impatiency and petulancy of people those foraign Mountebanks will alwayes promise men help and cure at an easie rate for they require no more of the most desperate patients than to credit their receipts to be confident of and reconciled to the skill and artifice of the Church of Rome their Mother and the Pope their Father CHAP. VI. I Cannot believe that any of you who are persons of Learning Honour and Integrity lovers of your Countrey and the Reformed Religion can be wholly strangers to the sad and dangerous condition of the Church of England Nor can you if rightly set forth to you be unaffected with it unlesse your designs and fortunes are to be advanced by the rents and ruines of this Church of England In which as the Lord liveth before whom we all stand distempers are risen not onely to Divisions but Distractions not onely to Injuries but Insolencies not only to Obloquies but Oppressions not onely to Schismes but Abscissions not onely to Factions but Confusions not onely to Lapses but Apostacies not onely to rude Deformities but they tend to absolute Nullities as to any Christian Harmony Fraternity Order Beauty Unity Strength Safety and publick setling of that Reformed Religion which was once professed in the Church of England And this by reason of the Envies Despites Rudenesses Animosities Seditions Strifes Separations Raylings Reproches Contumelies Blasphemies and prophane Novelties every where pregnant and predominant among vulgar spirits and odiously cast upon all things that you and your forefathers esteemed as religious and sacred in this Church of England The torrent of rebukes and troubles like Ezekiels waters is now risen not onely to the ankles and knees but to the loyns and neck growing too rapid and deep for the common people to wade over or venture into nor are they safe for any to engage upon but those who as S. Christopher is represented in the Legendary Emblem are heightned by their own integrity and supported by Gods heroick Spirit for it is a black and dangerous a red and dead Sea upon which he adventures who will now seriously assert the Church of England whose troubled state is more stormy than those waters were on which S. Peter ventured to walk or
behold without seven dayes silence and astonishment like Job's friends the rufull and dismall spectacle of the Church of England which is like Job or Lazarus living indeed but almost buried in its Sores and Sorrowes not onely lying but even dying on its dunghill like the sometime lovely and beautifull Daughter of Zion now grovelling in the dust deserving another tender-hearted Jeremy who might write the book of England's Lamentations with his Teares since the History of her Fall and Ruine is written in blood Her own brood like the young Pelicans feeding upon her without any pity or remorse growing daily fiercer after they have once tasted of her flesh and more resolute as Absalom by the rapes they have rudely made upon a Matrone lately so comely chast and honourable whom Her destroyers dare now to count and call the filth and off-scouring of all Churches crying down Her holy habitations and conventions as cages and flocks of unclean birds Her holy Ministrations as impious and odious Her holy Bishops and Ministers as Antichristian usurpers and impostors Her whole Constitution as Babylonish and abominable worthy of nothing but their curses and comminations CHAP. VII HAth any Nation changed Her Gods though they are no Gods saith the Prophet expostulating with the inconstant and Apostatizing Jews who had despised the Word forsaken the Law and broken the everlasting covenant of God made with their forefathers What people that owns a God or a Saviour or a Soul immortall or any Divine Veneration under the name of their Religion was ever patient to heare their and their fore-fathers God blasphemed or to see that Religion wherein to the best of their understanding they agreed and professed publickly to serve and worship their God vulgarly baffled and contemned Was ever any part of mankind so stupidly barbarous as to behold without just grief and resentment their Oracles and Scriptures vilified and abused their solemn Prayers and Liturgies torn and burnt their Temples profaned and ruined their holy Services scorned and abhorred their Priests and Ministers of holy Mysteries impoverished and contemned In matters of Religion the light of nature hath taught every Nation to be commendably zealous and piously pertinacious esteeming this their highest honour to be very tender of any diminution dishonour or indignity offered to their Religion which reflects upon the majesty of their God whom every Nation may in charity be presumed to serve in such a way as they think to be most acceptable to their God every man being convinced that he ought to pay the highest respects to that Deity which he adores from which to be easily moved by vulgar clamours and inconstancy without grand and weighty demonstrations convincing a man of his own errour and his Countreys mistake or contrary to the dictates of conscience for any man shamefully to flatter or silently to comply with any such designs as appear first reproching their Religion next robbing their God and at last destructive to all publick Piety is certainly a temper so base so brutish so ignoble so servile so sordid so devilish that it is worse than professed or avowed Atheisme for he sins lesse that owns no God than he that mocks him or so treats him as the world may see he neither loves nor feares Him And can it I beseech you O noble Christians and worthy Gentlemen become the piety wisdome and honour of this so ancient and renowned Nation of England to behold with coldnesse and indifferency like Gallio the scamblings and prostitutions the levellings and abasings the scorns and calumnies so petulantly and prodigally cast by mechanick and plebeian spirits for the most part or by mercenary insolency upon that Christian and Reformed Religion which hath so long flourished among you and your fore-fathers and which was first setled among you not slightly nor superficially not by the preposterous policies passions and interests of our Princes not by the pusillanimity or partiality of over-awed Parlaments nor yet by the superstitious easinesse or tumultuary headinesse of the common people but upon learned publick and serious examination of every thing that was setled and owned as any point or part of our Religion There was godly grave mature and impartial counsel of most learned Divines used there was the full and free Parlamentary consent of all estates and degrees in this nation there was a strict and due regard had to the Word of God and the mind of Christ as to doctrine and duties to the faith and fundamentals of Religion without any regard to any such antique customes or traditions as seemed contrary to that rule As for the rituals and prudentials the circumstantiating and decorating of Religion great regard was had in them to the usages of pure and Primitive Antiquity so as became modest wise and humble Christians who seeing nothing in the ancient Churches Rites and Ceremonies contrary to Gods Word or beyond the liberty allowed them and all Churches in point of order and decency did discreetly and ingenuously study such compliance with them as shewed the least desire of novellizing or needless varying from and the greatest care of conforming to sober and venerable Antiquity Against all which sacred suffrages and ecclesiasticall attestations for the true Christian and Reformed Religion once setled in the Church of England now at last to oppose either popular giddinesse and desire of novelties or any secular policies and worldly designes or any brutish power that is neither rationall nor religious but meerly arbitrary and imperious altering and abolishing as the populacy listeth matters of Religion which are the highest concernments of any nation and so require the most publick counsels impartial debates and serious consent of all estates by such pitiful principles and the like unconscientious biasses for a Nation to be swayed in or swerved from the great and weighty matters of Religion once well established is certainly a perfect indication of present basenesse also an infallible presage of future unhappinesse Which I beseech God to divert from this Nation of England by your prayers and teares by your counsel and courage by your moderation and discretion who are too knowing to be ignorant and too ingenuous to be unsensible of your duty to God and your own souls of your respect and deserved gratitude to your Countrey and to this Church of England which was heretofore loved by its children applauded by its friends reverenced by its neigbours dreaded and envied by its enemies and this not onely for that long peace and prosperity it enjoyed which alone are no signs of Gods approbation but chiefly as Irenaeus observes for those rare spirituall gifts ministeriall devotionall and practicall which were evidently to be seen in Her those pious proficiencies those spirituall influences which preachers people found in their own hearts those gracious examples and frequent good works which they set forth to others those heavenly experiences they enjoyed in themselves those charitable simplicities they
exercised to each other their numerous conventions their fervent devotions their reverent attentions their unanimous communions their cheerfull Amens those blessed hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in the obedience to and communion with the Church of England All these holy fruits and blessed effects as most certain seals and letters testimoniall were I conceive most pregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and of a true Church so happily setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of this Nation that it was not in reason or conscience in modesty or ingenuity to be suddenly changed much lesse rashly deserted and rudely abandoned chiefly upon the giddinesse of common people or by the boysterousnesse of common souldiers whose buff-coats and armour cannot be thought by any wise and worthy Souldiers to be like Aarons breast-plate the place from which Priests and people are to expect the constant oracles of Urim and Thummim Light and Reformation Such of that profession as are truly Militant Christians that is humbly wise and justly valiant as I hope many Souldiers may be will think it enough for them modestly to learn and generously to defend as Constantine the Great said to the Nicene Bishops not imperiously to dictate or boldly to innovate matters of Religion in such a Church and Nation as England which was I am sure and I think still is furnished with many able Divines many Evangelicall Priests and Ministers of the Lord whose lips preserve saving knowledge who have many a one of them more learning and well-studied Divinity in them than a whole Regiment nay than an whole Army of ordinary Souldiers whose weapons are not proper for a spirituall warfare nor apt as Davids hands either to build or repair a Church otherwaies than as Labourers who may possibly assist the true Ministers who are and ought to be the Master-builders of Gods house whose skill is not to destroy mens bodies but to save their souls not to kill but to make alive It must ever be affirmed to Gods glory because without any vanity or flattery that the Church of England for this last golden century came not behind the very best Reformed Churches nor any other that profess Christianity in any part of the world which is not my particular testimony who may seem partiall because I unfeignedly professe my self a son and servant of it but it is and hath been the joynt suffrage of all eminent Divines in all forraign Reformed Churches who have written and spoken of the Church of England ever since its setled Reformation not with commendation onely but admiration especially those who coveting to partake of the gifts and labours of English Divines have taken the pains to learn our hard and untoward language Yea I may farther with truth and modesty affirm that saving the extraordinary gifts of Tongues Miracles and Martyrdomes the Church of England since its setled Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory came not much short of the Primitive Churches in the first and second Centuries Which had at least some of them as I shall after shew rather more than fewer ceremonies partly Judaick partly Christian yea far greater errors and abuses were found among some of them than were generally among any professors in communion with the Church of England witnesse those touching the Resurrection of the body and in the celebrating of the Lords Supper among the Corinthians The first some denied the other many received covetously uncharitably drunkenly disorderly undecently in the Church of Corinth Besides the scandalous fact of the incestuous person with which they were not so offended as became Christians they were also full of factions and carnall divisions going to law one with another before Infidels undervaluing the blessed Apostle S. Paul and other faithfull labourers preferring false Apostles and deceitfull workers with no lesse folly than ingratitude challenging in many things disorderly and uncomely liberties which amounted to clokes of malice and a licentiousnesse tending to confusion These and other corruptions were among Christians of an Apostolicall Church newly planted carefully watred and excellently constituted Nor are there lesse remarkable faults found by the Spirit of God in six of the seven Asian Churches mentioned in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation while yet they were under Apostolicall inspection For the Devil who is a great rambler but no loyterer began betimes to sow his tares in Gods field by false Apostles unruly walkers deceitfull workers meer hucksters of Religion schismatick Spirits proud Impostors sensuall Separatists wanton Jezebels curious and cowardly Gnosticks with all the evil brood of Nicolaitans Simonians Cerinthians and other crafty Hypocrites brochers of lies patrons of lewdnesse extremely earthly and sensuall yet vaunters in proud swelling words of spirituall and heavenly gifts but more covetous of filthy lucre and sedulous to serve their own bellies than zealous to serve the Lord or to save souls In all which instances of diseases growing even upon any of those Primitive Churches however Christians are commanded to repent and do their first works to keep themselves pure from contagion private or epidemick yet are they no where put upon the pernicious methods of reproching rending and separating from the very frame and constitution of their respective Churches as they were holy Polities Constitutions or Communions setled by the Apostles in decent subordinations and convenient limits of Ecclesiasticall order government authority and jurisdiction without which all humane societies civil or sacred run to meer Chaosses and heaps of confusion Which as the God of order and peace perfectly abhors so he no where by any Divine precept or approved example recommends any such practises to Christians under the name notion or intention of reforming abuses crept into any Churches presently to rend revile contemn divide destroy and make desolate the whole order polity frame and constitution of them which is very Christian and very commendable If the grand example of Divine Mercy was ready to spare Sodom upon Abrahams charitable intercession in case ten righteous persons had been found in that city and Jerusalem in case one man could have been found there who executed judgement and sought the truth how little are those men imitators of Gods clemency or Abrahams pity who have studied and still endeavour by all acts of power and policy utterly to destroy such a Church as England was in which many thousands of good Christians may undoubtedly be found who are constant adherers to the Faith gratefull lovers of the Piety and most pathetick deplorers of the miseries of the Church of England Whose excellent Christian state and Reformed constitution deserved much better treatment from those at least who were her children carefully bred born and brought up by her however now they appear many of them better fed than taught more puffed up with the surfeits of undigested Knowledge than increased in humble
varying in this as in other things from the whole ancient Churches constitution no less than from this of England are likely to differ among themselves even till Doomesday unless they return under some new name and disguised notion of moderators and superintendents to what they have rashly deserted the true pattern in the Mount that paternall Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy which was the centre and crown of the Churches unity peace order and honour which imports no more after all this clamour and terrour than one grave and worthy Presbyter duly chosen in the severall Dioceses limits to be the chief Ecclesiastick Overseer and Governour succeeding in the managing of that Ecclesiasticall power and authority which without an Apostolick President or Bishop properly so called Presbyters alone in parity or equality never did enjoy and so never ought to exercise in the Churches of Christ as to ordination and jurisdiction no more than Bishops regularly may without the counsel and assistance of Presbyters Which ancient Order eminent Authority of Primitive Episcopacy if neither right Reason nor the Word of God either in the Old or New Testament did clearly set forth to us as best if neither Apostles at first nor the Primitive Fathers after them if neither Church-history nor Catholick custome nor Primitive Antiquity nor the approbation of the best Reformed Churches and Divines if all these did not commend it as they evidently do to my best understanding yet the late mad and sad extravagancies in Religion do highly recommend it yea the great want of it in England shews the great use necessity and excellency of it especially if advanced to its greatest improvement of counsel order and authority I may adde the votes of all sober and impartiall Christians even now in England who are grown so wise by their woes as generally to wish for such Episcopacy whose restitution would be more welcome to the wiser and better sort of Christians in this nation than ever the removall of it was or the medlies of Presbytery and Independency is like to be Nor do I believe that the restauration of a right Episcopacy would be unacceptable to many of the soberest men even of those two parties if any expedient could be found to salve and redeem the reputations of some lay-leaders and popular Primates of those sides whose credits lie much at pawn with the people upon this very score as having been by them rashly biassed against all Episcopacy the abusing of which Apostolick order on one side and the abolishing of it on the other side were I think two of the greatest Engines the Devil used to batter the Church of Christ withall pride and parity insolency and Anarchy being equally pernicious to Church-polity and Christian piety The overboylings of some mens passions which the Scotch Thistles being set on fire under them chiefly occasioned having now almost quenched themselves by bringing infinite fedities and deformities upon the whole face of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Church as well as otherwhere these sad events may save me the labour of further asserting in this place the use and honour of Catholick Episcopacy in the Churches of Christ which is already done as by my owne so many abler pens as it was also done by Mr. Hooker sufficiently proving that the Church of England deserved not upon the account of its retaining the Catholick and Apostolick order of Episcopacy to have suffered these many calamities which have ensued since the Schismes and Apostasy of many from this Church and from that Primitive Government other than which was not so much as known or thought of in the Catholick Church of Christ for 1500 years nor then when the Church of England began its wise and happy Reformation which did not indeed abolish but reform and continue as became its wisdom that Ancient and Apostolick government of the Church which was primitively planted in these British Churches as in all others throughout the world long before the Bishop of Rome had any influence or authority among them being highly blessed of God and honoured of all good men nor hath yet any cause appeared why it should be blasted or accursed or scared by Smectymnuan terrors CHAP. XI AS for the Doctrinals of Christian Religion this Church of England ever had so high an approbation from the best Reformed Churches and so harmonious a consent with the most Orthodox and Primitive Churches that it must be extreme ignorance or impudence on this part to esteem the present miseries of this Church as merited by Her wherein it was indeed most exact and compleat as wholly consonant to the Word of God so nothing dissonant from the sense and practise of the ancient and purest Churches Yea I find that the bitterest enemies of the Church of England do in This least shew their teeth or clawes except onely in the point of Infant-Baptism not for want of ill will for nothing more pincheth them then the Doctrine of the Church of England which was according to godliness teaching all men that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live righteously soberly and godlily in this present world but for want as of just cause so of skill and abilitie most of them being such as have no great stock of knowledge learning or judgement nor very capable on this side to assault the Church of England whose strength and shield is the invincible Word of God rightly understood Therefore the cunning Adversaries and Vastators of the Church of England drive a lesser trade of small cavellings and bitings rather as the serpent at the heel than head not much engaging themselves in any grand controversies of Divinity which are generally above the reach of their capacities whose feeble assaults the Church of England hath no cause to fear against the Doctrine set forth in Her 39. Articles Her Catechisme Her Liturgy and Her Homilies since She hath so many years mightily maintained this post of her Doctrine against the Learning Power and Policy of the Roman party who are veterane Souldiers and mighty Troopers weightily armed in comparison of whose puissance these light-armed Schismaticks and small Skirmishers are like Pot-guns to Canons or Pigmies to Giants seeking to deface the Pinnacles and Ornamentalls of Religion but not capable to shake the foundations of it as it was happily established and duly professed in the Church of England CHAP. XII NOr have they had either more cause for or better successe in their disputings against the Devotionals of the Church of England in its publick worshipping of God by Confessions Prayers Praises Psalmodies and other holy Oblations of rationall and Evangelicall Services offered up to God by the joynt devotion of this Church the subject and holy matter of which ever was is too hard for their biting therefore most of them contented themselves to bark at the manner of performing them chiefly quarrelling at that prescript form or Liturgie used in this Church under the title
extemporary prayer which to the hearers hath the same aspect of a crutch or staff no less than that set form which by many is composed and proposed to the congregation As for the humours of common people they are an ill compass to steer by in concernments of Church or State It is no wonder to see wontedness breed weariness and weariness wantonness wantonness loathing of the most holy duties and heavenly dainties as of Manna to the Jews unless the hearts of men be alwaies humbly devout and sincerely fervent and such can I am sure daily follow wonted wholsome forms with new fervours and give a fresh Amen to known oft-repeated petitions as well as a fiduciary assent to such precepts and promises as they have heard or read from Gods Word a thousand times Without which sacred flames of constant zeal and successive devotion upon mens hearts as the holy fire which was never to go out upon Gods altar not onely the extemporary varieties of mens own inventions will prove perfunctory and superficiall but even Scripture it self and the Oracles of God will grow to be meer Crambe yea the repeated Celebration of the most divine and adorable mysteries of the blessed Sacraments which Christ instituted as constant solemn Services in his Church will prove nauseous burdens and hypocriticall loades to the dull and indevout spirits of men whom if they be such in their hearts and tempers no variety or novelty will quicken ther niauseous and lazy hypocrisy if they be not such no constancy or wontedness will dull their sincere fervency and holy fragrancy of their affections The late ramblings barrenness and confusion of some mens sad and extemporary rhapsodies their rude and rusticall devotions are especially in solemn and Sacramentall Celebrations observed by many wise Christians to be such since the Cadet or younger Brother of the Directory if it deserves the honour of that name which to many seems but as a by-blow the illegitimate issue of partiall spirits Apostatizing from their former conformity to the Church of England in that point of its Liturgy since I say it crowded or as Jacob supplanted its elder brother out of the house of God though it self be now little used and less regarded even by its first patrons and sticklers that it makes them and me highly admire and more magnifie the wisdome of the Church of England in first composing after perfecting and prescribing that excellent Liturgie to common people which contained the very quintessence of all that we find used by the ancient piety and charity of Churches agreeable to Gods Word which is the onely pattern pillar and support for Christians prayers both publick and private Nor did the Church of England ever intend as I conceive by Her Liturgie so to stint and confine any discreet and able Minister or private Christian but they might further pour out their souls to God in prayers and praises publickly and privately so as occasion required and good order permitted onely it judged as I doe with pious Antiquity and all the most learned Reformers particularly Mr. Calvin that it is a great and reall concernment in every true and Orthodox Church that care be taken to settle and preserve wholsome forms and solemn Devotionalls for the publick celebrating of Prayers Praises holy Duties Christian Mysteries Sacraments and Ordinations next to the care of propounding and establishing sound Doctrine or true Confessions and Articles of Faith Which care of all Christians good in that behalf first induced the Ancient and Primitive Churches as S. Austin and others tell us next to their laying of Scripture-grounds in their Creeds and Confessions to enlarge and fix their Liturgies and Devotions finding that fanatick Errour and Levity would seem an Euchite as well as an Eristick Prâ—yant as well as Predicant a Devotionist as well as a Disputant insinuating it self with no less cunning under a Votary's Cowle than in a Doctors Chair in Prayers Sacraments and Euchologies as well as in Preachings Disputations and Writings This I am sure The Liturgie of the Church of England was so usefull so well advised so savoury so complete so suitable so solemn and so significant a form of publick Worshipping God so highly approved by wise and worthy men at home and abroad as composed by the speciall assistance of the holy Spirit of God in the judgement of the first Heroes and Martyrs of this Reformed Church so reverently used by many even lesse conformable in some things ceremoniall to the Church of England that beyond all question it deserved a longer question a more calm debate a more serene serious and impartiall triall before it should have been so utterly abdicated or expulsed out of the Church as Hagar was out of Abrahams family I humbly conceive that neither Recusants should have had so great a gratification to their refractoriness nor this so famous flourishing and wel Reformed Church should have had so great a slurr aspersion cast upon its Princes its Parlaments its Bishops its Presbyters all its faithfull people as if they had hitherto served God so far superstitiously irreligiously and unworthily that the very Book it self containing the method form matter and words of their publick service of God must be first vilified and scorned by the vulgar insolency next utterly abrogated and quite ejected out of this Church by such as passionately undertook to abett and patronize the present humours and distempered fits of popular surfeitings and inconstancy lately risen up not onely against their own former approbation and practise but against the piety wisdome and gravity of this Nation and all other setled Churches in the world Yea further the partiality and immoderation of some men seems in this most excessive that to shew their implacable despite against the Liturgie of the Church of England they cannot endure nor would if they had power permit any Christians to use it though they find it as our Marian Martyrs did very beneficiall to their souls comfort and therefore earnestly desire highly value and duly use it So imperious Dictators would some men be over other mens liberties and consciences even in Religion who are rigid asserters of their own impatient to be imposed upon by others and yet most insolently ambitious to impose upon other men how far they may or may not serve God in a religious way and manner fancying that nothing can please God which doth not please them What some men have preached and printed against the English Liturgie and all set forms of Prayers never so good and fit as if they were stintings and dampings of Gods Spirit c. I must confess I understand rather the jeer and contemptuousness of their words than the wit reason or Religion of them for certainly the same may be said against all Scriptures Psalms Sermons preached or printed against Ministers own Prayers and any other proposed helps for the advancing of knowledge or devotion in mens hearts And however some
Christian can deny his assent if he hath ever made use of their excellent lives or labours to which as I formerly touched God himself hath set to the broad seal and great witnesse of his own Spirit upon the hearts and consciences of many thousands both still living and long ago dead These at the grand Assize or day of Gods righteous judgement will I am confident highly justifie before men and Angels the Church of England and its Clergie or Ministry as blessed means of their salvation these will convince the gainsayers enemies blasphemers and destroyers of this Church and its Ministry of their envy partiality blindness unthankfulness and malice also of their unreasonable lusts and injurious passions for nothing but such black and hellish clouds could ever hinder men after an hundred years experience from seeing owning esteeming and enjoying so great and glorious a light of grace and mercy truth and peace as hath shined in the Church of England ever since the Reformation while the golden Candlesticks were unbroken the beautifull order and proportion of their branches unconfounded the burning lamps of Bishops and Presbyters in them either not wholy extinguished or not snuffed so close as might put them quite out in respect of that pristine beauty and lustre love and honour which they formerly enjoyed and deserved in this as all well-composed Christian Churches What wise and gracious Christian comparing as the builders of the later Temple former times with these doth not with sadness of soul see and confess that the generall state of this Church the visible face of the Christian Reformed Religion the tempers of mens hearts and the praâ—â—ses of their lives were heretofore both as to truth order and peace to piety morality and charity incomparably beyond what now they commonly are or are like to be while so much emulation faction and confusion prevail among us which are the dry nurses of ignorance Atheism and irreligion Blessed be God in former times while worthy Bishops presided and discreet Presbyters assisted them in the great work of teaching and governing the Church of God in Eng. O what beauty what order what harmony what unity what gravity what solidity what candor what charity what sobriety what sanctity what sincerity what improvements what perseverance what correspondency what constancy was there generally to be seen among Christian Pastors and true Professors under their potent Ministry and prudent inspection Who is able to express or conceive unless he had some experience of those blessed times and tempers what sound and judicious knowledge what fruitfull faith what hearty love what discreet zeal what severe repentings what fervent prayers what earnest sighs what godly sorrows what unfeigned tears what just terrours what unspeakable comforts what well-grounded hopes what spirituall joyes what heavenly meditations what holy conversations what humble softnesses what diligent assurances what longing desires what unwearied endeavours what patient expectations what tender compassions what meekness of obedience what conscientious submissions were observable in the general frame of good Christians carriage as to God and their Saviour so to their Superiours both Civil Ecclesiastical in order to their own souls and their neighbours good And all this blessedness was enjoyed while some mendid pitifully complain that a few Ceremonies pinched their consciences that a white garment dazeled their eyes that the ancient transient signe of the Crosse crucified both the Sacrament and their senses that kneeling at the Communion bowed down their souls even to the ground that the devout Liturgie loaded their spirits that grave godly Bishops pressed Church-order and Discipline too hard upon them Yet then even then it was that Learning flourished Knowledge multiplied Graces abounded excellent preaching thrived Sacraments were duly administred and most devoutly received the fruits of Gods Spirit were every way mightily diffused Justice and common honesty were practised hospitable kindness exercised Christian charity maintained plain-heartedness and good works abounded without any such crafts and policies such frauds and factions such jealousies and distances such malice and animosities such rudeness and disorders such insolencies and hypocrisies such indignities and diminutions as are now of later years generally cast upon the Reformed Religion and those Preachers of it that adhere to the constitution and communion of the Church of England who are implacably maligned by those men who in persecuting and oppressing them and this Church do boast as if they had done God very good service and highly advanced the interests of Jesus Christ Which Themselves will then begin to doubt and disbâ—â—ieve when the heat of their passions is allayed when their popular fallacies and froths are vanished when their secular designes are frustrated when their high metal is abated when their strength begins to fail them when their sectators flatterers feeders and abettors are scattered from them when the tide of successes is come to its ebb when the terrours of death are upon them when their consciences shall give them a true and impartiall prospect of their actions and passions when they shall see how little holy fire there was amidst so great a smoke how much dross and trash hath been their superstructures how much their pragmatick spirits have ruined how little they have edified as to any thing of true serious solid and usefull Religion beyond what was formerly enjoyed to a satiety in England while they make it their master-piece of piety and reformation utterly to debase the Clergie to divide Christian people and to demolish the whole frame of the Church of England The great day of burning and refining will best discover and determine what the hearts and works the purposes and practises of such men have been Mean time that I may not be deceived in my own perswasions or prejudices who possibly may be partiall to my mother the Church of England I crave the favour of your upright judgement as wise Gentlemen and worthy Christians who remotest from all designs and discontents have most impartially observed the rise and progress the variations and depravations the folly and fury the divisions and confusions of some mens spirits and practises in England who have earnestly sought and still do to obtrude their fancifull deformed and many-formed Reformations upon this Church as much God knows against Her will as a lothsome potion is against the stomack of an healthfull patient Do you O my noble Countrey-men bona fide apart from fears and flatteries which are below persons of true honour and piety do you in earnest find the temper and constitution of Religion as Christian or Reformed either its inward power or its outward polity any way bettered and advanced in this Nation as to the visible form of it in essentials or ornamentals in Doctrine or Discipline in faith or good works in profession or reputation in order or peace in solidity or decency in authority or charity Do you find it in your own present comforts and enjoyments or in your hopes of after-blessings
so eloquent no pen so pathetick as to be able sufficiently to express eye no so melting as to weep enough no heart so soft and diffusive of its sorrows as worthily to lament when they consider that wantonness of wickedness that petulant importunity that superfluity of malice that unsatisfied cruelty of some men who have endeavoured to cast whole cart-loads of injust reproches vulgar injuries and shameful indignities upon the whole Church of England seeking to bury with the burial of an Asse either in the dunghill of Papall pride and tyranny or popular contempt and Anarchy all its former renown and glory its very name and being together with the office order authority distinction and succession of its Ancient Apostolick and Evangelical ministery which hath been the savour of life unto life the mighty power of God to the conversion and salvation of many thousand souls in the Church of England Whose sore Calamities and just Complaints having thus far presented to Your consideration and compassion it is now time for me to enquire after the causes and occasions of its troubles miseries confusions and feared vastations in order to find out the best methods and medicines for Her timely cure and happy recovery if God and man have yet any favour or compassion for Her The end of the first Book BOOK II. SEARCHING THE CAUSES AND OCCASIONS OF THE Church of England's decayes CHAP. I. BUt it is now time most honoured and worthy Countrey-men after so large and just so sore and true a complaint in behalf of the Church of England and the Reformed Religion heretofore wisely established unanimously professed in this Nation to look after the rise and originall the Causes and Occasions of our Decayes and Distempers of our Maladies and Miseries which by way of prevention or negation I have in the former Book demonstrated to be no way imputable to the former frame state or constitution of the Church of England but they must receive their source from some other fountain The search and discovery of which is necessary in order to a serious cure for rash and conjecturall applications to sick patients are prone as learned Physitians observe to commute their maladies or to run them out of one disease into another but not to cure any turning Dropsies into Jaundise and Feavers into Consumptions The greatest commendation of Physitians next their skill to discerne is to use such freedome in their discoveries and such fidelity in their applyings as may least flatter or conceal the disease In this disquisition or inquiry after the Causes and Occasions of our Ecclesiastick distempers I will not by an unwelcome scrutiny or uncharitable curiosity search into those more secret springs and hidden impulsives which proceed as our Blessed Saviour tells us out of mens hearts into their lives and actions such as are wrathfull revenges unchristian envies sacrilegious covetings impotent ambitions hypocriticall policies censorious vanities pragmatick impatiencies an itch after novelties mens over-valuing of themselves and undervaluing of others a secret delight in mean and vulgar spirits to see their betters levelled exauctorated impoverished abased contemned a general want of wisdome meekness humility and charity a plebeian petulancy and wanton satiety even as to holy things arising from peace plenty and constancy of enjoying them These spiritual wickednesses which are usually predominant in the high places of mens souls being Arcana Diaboli the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stratagemata Satanae the secret engines depths and stratagems used by the Devil to undermine the hearts of Christians to loosen the foundations of Churches and to overthrow the best setled Religion being least visible and discoverable for they are commonly covered as mines with the smooth surfaces and turfs of zeale sanctity reformation scrupulosity conscience c. these I must leave to that great day which will try mens works and hearts too when men shall be approved and rewarded not according to their Pharisaick boastings popular complyings and specious pretensions but according to their righteous actions and honest intentions Onely this I may without presumption or uncharitableness judge as to the distempers of our times and the ruinous state of the Church of England that many men who have been very busie in new brewing and embroyling all things of Religion would never have so bestirred themselves to divide dissipate and destroy the peace and polity of this Church if they had not been formerly offended and exasperated either by want of their desired preferment which S. Austin observes of Aerius the great and onely stickler of old against Bishops or by some Animadversion which they called persecution although it were no more than an exacting of legal conformity and either sworn or promised subjection as to Canonicall obedience Many men would have been quiet if they had not hoped to gain by rifling their Mother and robbing their Fathers Some at the first motions might perhaps have good meanings and desires as Eve had to grow wiser but they were soon corrupted by eating the forbidden fruit by the unlawfulness of those means and extravagancy of those methods they used to accomplish them But God and mens own consciences will in due time judge between these men and the Church of England whether they did either intend or act wisely or worthily justly or charitably gratefully or ingenuously This I am sure if they have the comfort of sincerity as to their intent they have the horrour of unsuccessfulness to humble them as to the sad events which have followed preposterous piety CHAP. II. THe chiefest apparent cause and most pregnant outward occasion of our Ecclesiastick mischiefs and miseries as I humbly conceive ariseth from that inordinate liberty and immodest freedome which of later years all sorts of people have challenged to themselves in matters of Religion presuming on such a Toleration and Indulgence as incourageth them to chuse and adhere to what doctrine opinion party perswasion fancy or faction they list under the name of their Religion their Church fellowship and communion nor are people to be blanked or scared from any thing which they list to call their Religion unless it have upon it the mark of Popery Prelacy or Blasphemy of which terrible names I think the common people are very incompetent judges nor do they well know what is meant by them as the onely forbidden fruit every party in England being prone to charge each other with something which they call Blasphemy and to suspect mutually either the affecting of Prelacy or the inclining to Popery in wayes that seem arrogant and imperious in themselves also insolent and injurious to others each aspiring so to set up their particular way as to give law to others not onely proposing but prescribing such Doctrine Discipline Worship Government and Ministry as they list to set up according to what they gather or guess out of Scripture whereof every private man and woman too as S. Jerom tells of the
the due celebration of holy mysteries the high Doxologies or exaltations of the glorious Trinity the joynt testifications of Christians mutuall charity harmony and communion All these I say were carried on and consummated in the Churches publick worship which was excellently improved heightened and adorned by the use and recitation of those Summaries of Religion amidst the congregations of Christians to which they assented with a loud and cheerfull Amen Yet which of them is there now that is not openly not onely disused but disdained disgraced and disparaged by some men as nauseous crambe which their souls abhor so far as they from reverent attending or hearing when any Minister reciteth them that they scarce have any patience or can keep within those looks and postures of civility which become them yea they endure not to have their children taught them as the first rudiments of Religion the seminaries of faith and nurseries of devotion which being rightly planted and duly watered by catechising may in time by Gods blessing bring forth the ripe fruits of wisdome and holiness of faith and obedience both to power and order to an uniformity and constancy of Godliness The ancient Christian writers as Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Ruffinus Jerome Austin and others sufficiently tell us That these compendious forms of duty faith and devotion the Decalogue Creed Lords Prayer and Doxologies were highly valued and solemnly used in Christian Conventions as the gracious condescendings of our God and Saviour to the weakest memories and meanest capacities some of them being of their express and immediate dictating according to which pattern the blessed Apostles and the Churches of Christ after them took care that both those and other forms like to them should be used among Christians that so by frequent repeating and inculcating those excellent summaries of Faith and Catholick principles of Religion all sorts of Christian people young and old learned and ideots might be either catechised or confirmed in the very same things to be believed prayed for and practised in order to their own and others salvation Which great work can never be safely built upon Seraphick sublimities and Scholastick subtilties much less upon imaginary raptures childish novelties idle dreams and futile whimseys which of late do seek very impiously to justle out of all Churches use and out of all Christians memories those wholsome solidities and holy summaries which have in them both the warmth of Christian love and the light of Divine truth in comparison of which all novel affectations are dark and cold dull and confused silly and insipid Yet what sober Christian doth not see that of late years this popular liberty in England is risen to such a nauseating niceness and curiosity of Religion as hath not onely infected the simpler sort of common people with an abhorrence of all those usefull and venerable forms which the prudence piety of this or any Church commended to them in their publick celebrations but to the great incouragement and advance of ignorance Atheism and profaneness uncharitableness and insolence among the vulgar many persons of very considerable parts and good quality are shrewdly leavened with these Novellismes and Libertinismes Yea which is worst of all many Ministers especially of the Presbyterian and Independent parties yea and some of the ancient order and Catholick conformity of the Church of England even these as S. Peter was over-awed to a dissimulation misbecoming the freedome and dignity of so great an Apostle by too great fears and compliances with the circumcised Jews have been so carried down this stream of plebeian prejudice and popular indifferency more than liberty to say or silence to do or omit what they list that they have not onely much neglected all the devotionall set forms of this Churches prescription which in my judgement merited a far better fate and handsomer dismission than they found from many mens hands but some have wilfully disused and so discountenanced even all those sacred formes which have either Divine or Apostolick or Catholick characters of honour antiquity and Religion upon them How miserably are many publick Preachers either afraid or ashamed solemnly to recite so much as once every Lords day the ten Commandements or the Apostles Creed or any other of those ancient Symbols yea when is it that some Ministers dare use either so much courage or conscience as to use the Lords Prayer either by it self or in the conclusion of their own voluminous supplications before or after their Sermons in which neither much regard is had to the method nor the matter of the Lords Prayer which they pretend is the use of it but it is made to stand like a meer cypher silent and insignificant while men love to multiply the innumerable Logarithmes of their own crude inventions and incomposed devotions when as that Prayer which the wisdome of our Lord Jesus twice taught his Disciples upon severall occasions and in them all his Church both in a doctrinall and devotionall way as a method matter and form of Prayer is in it self and ever was so esteemed and used by all good Christians not onely as the foundation measure and proportion but also as the confirmation completion crown and consummation of all our prayers and praises to God Instead of which and wholy exclusive of it how many poor-spirited Preachers of late more to gratifie and humour some silly and self-will'd people than to satisfie their own consciences yea highly to the scandall of many worthy Christians and the dishonour of the Reformed profession are become not onely strangers but almost enemies to that and all other holy forms of Religion contenting themselves with their own private composures or their more sudden conceptions in all publick celebrations and solemn worship not having so much modesty and humility as to consider what is most evident to wise men that no private mans sufficiencies in point of publick prayer and celebrious duties can be such for method comprehensiveness clearness weight solidity sanctity and majesty as may compare much less dispense with and neglect yea utterly reject those sacred summaries and solemn formes which have been divinely instituted whose foolishnesse is wiser then the wisdome of men and whose shortness is beyond the amplest prolixity and largest spinnings of humane lungs and invention there being more spirit in one drop of Christs Prayer as in cordiall and hot waters than in whole seas of vulgar effusions which at best having much in them very flashy insipid and confused had need to have at last the sacred infusion of Christs prayer added to them to give them and us that sanctity spirit life completeness comfort and fiduciary assurance of acceptance which all good men desire in their service of God Certainly they seem much to overvalue their own prayers who wholy disuse or despise the Lords nor do I see how a Minister of Christ can comfortably discharge his duty to the flock of Christ if while he professeth to
Rulers and Guides or attending as Deacons and Servitors CHAP. IX IN reference to which sacred grand employments St. Paul's modesty and humility asked with trembling that unanswerable question Who is sufficient for these things Whereas now in Engl. there are such insolent intruders who act as asking quite contrary Who is not sufficient for these things as if forwardness boldness and confidence were all the sufficiency required in a Minister of the Gospel in which plebeian and pretended sufficiencies as these novell intruders do most abound so I am sure there were really never more blunt and leaden tooles in any age applyed to Church-work than many if not most of them are they come indeed with their beetles and wedges their swords and staves their axes and hammers to beat down all the carved work of Gods house rather than to prepare or polish the least stone or corner of that sacred building Who being not a little conscious to themselves that they are grosly defective in all those reall abilities of good learning sound knowledge sober judgement orderly method grave utterance and weighty eloquence which all wise and sober Christians expect should appear in every true Minister of the Church of Christ in such a competent measure evident manner as they may be able comfortably to discern them and usefully to enjoy them these crafty Intruders do first cry down all those reall and visible abilities as meerly naturall humane carnall as enemies to the Cross Grace and Spirit of Christ for as the apes in the fable these deceitfull workers having no tails themselves they would fain perswade all other creatures which have that ornament to cut them off as burdens and superfluous After this rude essay of craft and malice in vain attempted against the fruits of learned industry wherein the Ministers of the Church of England have and still do so vastly exceed these Mushrome Ministers of the last and worst editions they cunningly flie to the pretentions of speciall callings extraordinary inspirations illuminations and graces ministeriall which they well know are not easily to be discerned by any other but a mans self even there where they may possibly be real Who knows not that as to the point of inward Graces they are far more easily pretended and voiced than discerned and enjoyed in ones self much less can they be so proved and manifested to others as to satisfie their conscience in the points of anothers power and their own duty I am sure neither gifts nor graces ministeriall are by wise and sober Christians to be much supposed or expected there where men evidently silly and weak mean and vain ignorant and arrogant dare yet to disdain all that ancient order and uniform succession of the Evangelicall Ministry which hath been visible in all Churches as in this of England for 1500. years and to salve their credit or gain reputation as Teachers they bring for the satisfaction of their own and other mens conscience in point of that office duty and power ministeriall which they challenge and undertake no other signature and character of their commission and investiture into that office save onely what themselves pretend to be within them of secret impulses which being to mans judgement undiscernable are utterly insignificant nor ought they to bear any sway in the Church of Christ where the power ministeriall was first declared by miraculous gifts and endowments also by evident signs wonders sufficient to confirm its first commission and to authorize its after-succession from those onely with whom it was deposited to be transmitted by them and their successors to the Churches of Christ in all ages by such gifts and ordinary endowments as might be first duly tried and approved in men before they were ordained to be Ministers in the Church of Christ But these Heteroclite Teachers for the further corroboration of their dubious title and claim to the office of the Ministry are content to accept of some appointment from that power which is meerly military or civil and magistratick which powers in Primitive Churches for 300. years were so far from making any Minister either Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon in the Church of Christ that they sought by all means to persecute and destroy the whole profession of Christianity yea when the Empire became Christian as in Great 's time neither He nor any Christian Emperour Prince or Magistrate after him was ever so impertinent as to imagine that because they could derive civil and military power to others they had also power to make Christian Ministers or to invest them with the Ecclesiasticall power of holy orders nor did they think they had any thing more to do with the Clergie by way of authority save onely to take care for their due and comfortable discharge of that Ministery to which they were by another principle and power ordained according as the peace honour and order of the Church required which so conformed to the State and Common-weal that all Ministers were humbly subject to the Scepters of Princes in the severall places and stations Ecclesiasticall to which they were applied The Clergie owe to Princes the civil endowments of honour and revenue given to them as the temporall reward of their spirituall work but they are not the sources of their orders nor can their broad seal confer that power of the holy Spirit which onely makes a Minister of Jesus Christ not by way of graces or gifts so much as by way of mission and authority flowing onely from the Spirit of Christ as the chief Pastor Bishop and Minister of his Church Others of these new-modell'd Ministers in a way not more preposterous than ridiculous seek to deduce their ministerial power from meer plebeian suffrages from vulgar examinations approbations and elections which commonly are factiously begun foolishly carried on and schismatically concluded having not less weakness but less madness or possibly a little more seeming order civility or tameness than those whose who pretend no other warrant or authority for their being Ministers but what is to be had from their own blindness and boldness their proud conceit and flattering confidence of themselves which emboldens them by a self-ordination to take this holy power to themselves beyond what Aaron or the true Prophets or the Apostles or Christ himself as man did who were not self-sent or ordained but chosen and appointed solemnly consecrated and inaugurated to their office and Ministry either by clear prophecies accomplished or visible miracles wrought in the sight of the people or by some such other signall token ordinary or extraordinary by word or work as God was pleased to use for the manifestation of his will and for the satisfaction of his Church as to those persons which were to minister to the Lord and to whom his Church was conscientiously to submit as to the Lord. Agreeably to which holy pattern and as a full answer to all those clamours envies and despites which the
sacred office charge and ministration how infinitely ought you to be ashamed and regretted to see them usurped many times by the dogs of your flocks by your hinds and foot-men your grooms and serving-men by threshers weavers and coblers by taylors tinkers and tapsters any mean and mechanick people whose parts and spirits are onely fit for those trades to which their breeding and necessities have confined them Not that I despise or reproch these honest though mean employments but I highly blame their insolence and other mens patience to see these usurp upon the dignity of the Ministry Certainly such proud poor wretches may to some men possibly seem fittest Ministers in a disordered State and decaying Church as factors for Satan and Antichrist setters for Ignorance and Superstition turning Faith into Faction but they will never prove after that fashion of preparing and admitting either able or faithfull or fruitfull Ministers of Christ or his Church seeming themselves and making others despisers of Christ with the blasphemous Jews while they so look upon him and treat him as under the notion of the Carpenters son as their equall or inferiour in some handicraft forgetting his divine glory and majesty as the onely-begotten son of God to whom all power is given in heaven and earth who hath executed this power most visibly in sending forth his Ministers to teach and baptize all nations out of which to gather and govern his Church in his name They rudely slight Christs ministerial authority in such as are truly excellent and duly ordained Ministers that they may proudly challenge it to themselves without any reason or Scripture law or order command or example either from Christ or his Church These men who say they are Apostles Prophets and Preachers and are not will be in the end and already are found liars against God and their own souls deceitfull workers false Apostles Mock-ministers Pseudo-pastors disorderly walkers authors of infinite scandall and confusion of scorn and contempt to Christian and Reformed Religion both here and elsewhere many of them serving their bellies and gratifying their carnall lusts and momentary wants much more than designing to advance the glory of God the Kingdome of Christ or the eternall good of mens souls which are not to be carried on save in Gods way that is by fit abilities and with due authority both are required as necessary for a true Minister the first though reall is not sufficient without the second For as the meer outward materiall action cannot be a divine sacramentall or ministerial transaction more than every killing of an Ox was a sacrificing so nor are meer naturall or personall abilities sufficient to acquire any office or authority much less this of the Ministry which is divine or none any more than every able Butcher was presently enabled to be a Priest Any mans ability fully to understand or handsomely to relate the mind of his Prince makes him not presently an Embassador or Minister of State unless there be a commission or letters of credence to authorize the person The blessed Apostle S. Paul who was extraordinarily converted called and sent of God as a Christian a Minister or Apostle yet we see did not take upon him the exercise or office till first Ananias had by Gods speciall command laid his hands on him and he became endowed with the ministerial gift or power of the holy Ghost which were afterward in like sort solemnly confirmed and increased by the express command of God when Paul and Barnabas were separated and sent upon special service with fasting prayer and laying on of the hands of some Prophets and Teachers in Antioch where the Apostle had formerly preached in the Church a whole year among much people This same Apostle oft blames and bids Christians beware of false Apostles not onely false in their doctrine but in their ordination and mission as the Prophets of the Lord did of old the false Prophets whom God had not sent yet they ran The Spirit of Christ commends the Angel of the Church of Ephesus where as Irenaeus and others tell us S. John lived long and left the most pregnant examples of Ecclesiasticall order Episcopall power and Ministeriall succession for trying those that said they were Apostles and were not for finding esteeming and declaring them as liars no way listning and adhering to or communicating with them as being Falsaries and Impostors enemies at once to the truth order and peace of Christs Church For 't is seldome that a bastardly generation of Preachers doth not bring forth some false and base doctrines for it is observable in this as in civil Histories that Bastards in nature and so in office are commonly most daring and adventurous spirits Certainly the late illegitimate Ministers or spurious Preachers of new and strange originals in England have in less than fifteen years brought more monsters of opinions and factions in Religion than have arose in so many hundred years before in any one Church I know some Christians are prone to gratifie their curiosity as those do who sometime go to see monsters in making some triall and essay of these pretended Preachers that once knowing their ignorance and insolence they may upon juster grounds ever after abhor them If this be tolerable for some persons of able and sober judgements yet it is no better than a snare and dangerous temptation for others that are weak and unstable nor may the venture be oft made by the more steddy Christians lest they seem thereby to countenance and encourage so great a confusion innovation usurpation and scandal in the Church of Christ besides the abetting of that high profanation of holy duties and mysteries which ought not to be transacted but in the name power and authority of our God and Saviour Certainly good Christians ought not at any hand to communicate with such usurping intruders in any sacramentall action nor ought they to own any thing more of a Minister of Jesus Christ in them than they would of a King or Magistrate in a Stage-player Doubtless as no good Christian so least of all those that profess to be Ministers of Christ ought to live as sons of Belial disorderly refractory unruly after the arbitrary rude and presumptuous dictates of their own wills The spirit of true Ministers and Prophets will be subject as it ought to that rule order and custome which in all ages hath been the canon measure and commission of all Evangelical Ministers and Pastors of Christs Church As naturall and morall endowments are no plea to invest any man into any office military or civil much less into any power and authority Ecclesiastical The pretenses of new and extraordinary calls of missions immediate from God are not in any reason expectable nor in Christian Religion credible where the ordinary power and commission was continued and might duly be had as it was and yet is in the Church of England
Ravens must not be hoped for to feed us where Providence gives us opportunity to get our bread by honest industry Where then there are so many intruders and deceivers gone out as Ministers of the Gospel it is a matter of conscience as well as necessary prudence in all good Christians to be cautious and inquisitive whom they allow and follow as Ministers to be first satisfied in that question which the Jews rationally asked of Christ By what power or authority dost thou these things No discreet person in civil affairs will obey any warrant or order which hath no other authority than a private and pragmatick activity and can it be piety or prudence in Christians to be deluded by any pretenders in the great concernments of their souls to have no more of Sacraments or any other holy duties than the meer sensible shell and husk of them for the spiritual life and power of them is no where to be had but from such dispensers of them as have the authority and power the mission and commission of Christ rightly derived to them which was evident first in Christ after in his holy Apostles and their lawfull successors Certainly the cheat and falsity of such mock-Ministers and Pseudo-pastors is of far greater danger and detriment than those of spurious and supposititious children or of embased coin and counterfeit money Some people have been so wicked as to change their own children steal others from their parents but it was never heard that children of any discretion were so foolish and unnaturall as to abdicate their true Fathers and genuine mothers that they might adopt false parents and superinduce upon themselves the Empire of bastardly progenitors The mischief abuse is not less in Churches than in Common-weales in Christian Congregations than in families Due respect of paternall care and filiall love such as ought to be between Pastor and People can never be mutually expected where the relation is either supposititious or presumptuous or meerly imaginary or at best but arbitrary which is inconsistent with humane much more with divine Authority the measure of which is not the pleasure of man but the will of God whose will is asserted by his power For my part I firmly conclude that as no true Christians may admit of any Gospel or Sacraments or holy Institutions other than such as have been already once delivered to the Catholick Church and preserved by her fidelity against which the preaching of an Angel from heaven is not to be received or believed but accursed so nor may any Church or good Christians either broach invent or admit any new ministeriall power order mission or authority beside or beyond that which the Church of England and the Catholick Church of Christ hath received and transmitted in a constant succession That sacred ordination which began in Christ and flowed from him as the effect of his Melchisedechian Evangelicall and eternall Priesthood must never be interrupted innovated or essentially altered no not under any pretense or removing or reforming what corrupions may possibly be contracted by time and humane infirmities which are but accidentall as diseases to the body to Catholick prescriptions founded upon divine institutions Fields once sown with good corn must not be rooted up or fired because tares may be sown by the enemy while men slept Trees that are full of moss missletow through age yet bearing good fruit ought not to be cut down but pruned and cleared The decayes or dilapidations of the Temple before Hezekiah and Josiah repaired it were no excuse for peoples neglect to frequent it much less were they justified and to sacrifice other where than there onely as the place which the Lord had chosen to put his name there nor did those pious Princes set that house of God on fire because it was decayed but duly repaired it with great cost and care And such indeed was the excellent piety and prudence of the Church of England such wisdome and moderation it observed as in all other things so in this of the ministeriall order and office What injuries it as other holy things had suffered in the darkness of times by the dulness of Presbyters the negligence of Bishops or insolence of Popes it wisely reformed not abrogating the authority or breaking the Catholick succession of Bishops and Presbyters in this as in all Churches not broaching a new fountain not obstructing as Philistins the wells their fathers had digged not diverting the ancient course and conduits of the waters of life but cleansing the fountains and continuing the streams of primitive holy orders in the constant descents degrees and offices of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons They did not raise up new Ministers like Mushromes out of every mole-hill noâ— force them like Musk-melons out of the hot beds of popular zeal and novellizing faction without any regard to the ancient stock and root of Ecclesiasticall power and Ministeriall authority from which as Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and all the ancients clearly tell us Bishops and Presbyters were ever derived as slips and off-sets of the twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples No time ever did or ever shall render that Primitive plant and root of Evangelicall Ministry so dry dead and barren that they may or ought to be quite stubbed up or new ones set in their room No they are only to be pruned and trimmed that so they may be worthy of that honor which indeed they have to be by an uninterrupted succession derived and descended from the blessed Apostles whom Christ first planted by his own hands nor may any mans presumption undertake to pul up that holy plantation as those design to do who endeavour to destroy the derivation and succession of the power Ministeriall The truth sanctity and validity of which as to the Ministry of the Church of England by its Bishops and Presbyters hath been fully and clearly asserted by able pens against both Papists on the one side and Novellists on the other The one confining all Episcopal and Ministeriall power to one head and origin the Bishop of Rome as if there had not been twelve fountains and foundations of prime Apostles but onely one S. Peter appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ the other lewdly scattering that sacred office and divine authority even among vulgar and plebeian hands that every man may scramble for it as he list according as he fancies that his abilities and liberty in these times may extend The putid and pernicious effects of which in their present usurpations divisions confusions debasements discouragements upon the Clergie and Church of England as I shall afterward in the third Book more fully set them forth so I cannot here but justly condemn those partiall unreasonable and irreligious principles from whence so pragmatick an itch or thirst of novelty in so grand a concernment of Religion must needs arise that fond men should be so eager to stop up the ancient fountains
of living waters which they digged not that they might dig to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold little or no water And this they delight to do not onely against those daily instances which miserable and manifest experience gives them of the sad and decayed condition of the Christian and Reformed Religion in this Ch. of Engl. since these new Ministers have intruded and divided but contrary also to all those pregnant testimonies undeniable demonstrations which both our pious fore-fathers in Engl. and all other Christian Churches in all ages have afforded us in the practises and writings of the Fathers testimonies of all Church-historians who with one mouth every where unanimously tell us what was the Apostolick ancient true and onely beginning of the Ministeriall order what the holy and happy way of its descent derivation and succession by duly consecrated Bishops and ordained Presbyters Contrary to all which plain and perpetual remonstrances for nothing is in them dubious or dark I am amazed I confess to see not the giddy and heady vulgar ungratefully engaged who are alwaies like tinder ready to take fire at any sparks of innovations diminutions and extirpations especially of their laws and governours but I find some men of worth yea and Ministers of good learning and seeming ingenuity either so over-awed by the vulgar or over-biassed by their own private interests inclinations and passions that after so much light of Scripture and antiquity shining both in the divine Originals and the Ecclesiastick copies of Ministeriall order and succession after their own former solemn approbations and subscriptions after their late experience of the sad consequences already too much felt in this Church as fruits of those innovations and usurpations made upon that unity power and authority of the Evangelicall Ministry yet I grieve and am ashamed to see that such men should still pitifully comply with consent to yea and promote those dangerous alterations and desperate extirpations which are designed by the enemies of this Church whose aim is to baffle and deprive this Reformed Church in so main a point and hinge of Religion as the ancient sacred orders the constant Ecclesiasticall methods of the Evangelicall Ministry must needs be which what they ever have been in this and all Catholick Churches no man of moderate learning humble piety and honest principles can be ignorant of CHAP. XI THose new unwonted and exotick fashions which some men have studied of late to introduce or incourage in England as to this point of Ministeriall office and power besides that they are all of them new some of them monstrous to this and all ancient Churches they plainly savour more of humane faction than of Christian faith else they would not they could not in any conscience or charity be so mischievously bent and malapertly spitefull against those worthy Bishops and other excellent Ministers who still adhere to the Ancient and Catholick order of the Church of England nor yet could they be so mis-shapen multiform and many-headed in themselves changing every day almost as Proteus by an innate principle of mutability which follows the fancies and interests of new and present projectors but not the judgement and grave example of our ancient and impartial predecessors And however some of these new ways not of successive procreating but new creating Ministers may seem first brewed by domestick discontents next broached by a forreign sword at length fostered by a partiall and over-awed Assembly at last fomented for a season by scattered and divided houses Parlaments in very broken touchy and bloody times when every new thing was made triall of which might as toyes and bables best please the peevish and petulant parties of people in England however others have further challenged to themselves a particular liberty and arbitrary authority such as best likes them in this point of the Ministry which no man of any wisdome piety or gravity can allow under any pretensions of gifts or graces ministeriall in any man Yet all these novell inventions whatever title they pretend from God or man from policy or necessity may not in any reason or Religion in any honour or conscience in any piety or prudence be put into the balance with much less be thought fit to out-vie that clear primitive pattern that Catholick constant succession that Apostolick and divine prescription which do all preponderate for the Ministry of the Church of England in the true scale of regular and authentick ordination of Ministers who are never so completely and indisputably invested with that power as when by the imposition of hands solemnly done by Episcopall Presidents and Presbyterian Assistants who after due examination and serious monition and fervent supplication do in prescript words commit that ministeriall power spirit and authority of Christ which ought to be rightly imparted to those that undertake Evangelical ministrations in Christs name to any part of his Church if they desire to avoid the sin and scandall of being intruders traitours usurpers and counterfeiters of Christs ministeriall dignity and authority Secular or civil powers which are but the products of the sword and managed chiefly by the policy and arm of flesh may indeed confer what honour office and authority they please on any man in civil things yea they may and ought in conscience to take care of and regulate the exercise of Ecclesiastical power in reference to Gods glory and the publick good both of Church and State but they cannot as from themselves by any naturall morall or civil capacity confer holy orders or bestow Ministerial authority on any man much less may they or as Christian Magistrates will they make a new broad Seal of Christianity or commence any new way of ministeriall authority nor may they in conscience cancel or abrogate the good old way no nor yet alter in any materiall part the Catholick way of its right derivation and succession which was by the hands of those who had first received that holy deposition which certainly is of as much higher nature orb and sphere beyond any naturall moral or secular power as the celestial light of sun and stars is above that which is from candles or that holy fire on Gods altar was above that which is but culinary All good Christians agree that its originall is in Christ its commission from Christ its first delegation to the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples from the Apostles we read its transmission to others in the Apostolicall Acts and Epistles How it was afterward continued and by what means derived to an uninterrupted Catholick succession in all Churches for 1500 years is not indeed to be learned so not decided by Scripture whose records except the Apocalyps extend not above 28 or 30 years after Christs ascension but being a thing now of late so hotly disputed in this and some other Churches there is no rationall satisfaction to be had as to matter of fact but by the after-histories of the Church
Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church the East and West the old and new the Greeks and Latines the Roman and Reformed that all these have conspired to erre so great so universall so constant an errour themselves and to mis-guide you me and all the Christian world in such wayes of receiving and conferring Ecclesiastick order Evangelicall Ministry Church-government as were unchristian yea Antichristian diverse from Christs mind yea contrary to it offensive to the godly odious to God himself as some men have lewdly declamed whose tongues I judge to be no slander since they appear persons of so little conscience and less forehead either grosly ignorant of the practise and platform of Antiquity or most uncharitably impudent in branding so many thousands of godly Bishops and other gracious Ministers both in England and all other places who were justly famous in their generations for their learning and piety as if they were either so many blind guides or so many bold intruders meer usurpers juglers impostors hypocrites as if to gratifie their own private ambitions they had from the very beginning in the sight and in despite of S. John and other Apostolick Pastors perverted the way of Christ as to that Ministeriall power Church-order which he had appointed setting up of their own heads a paternall presidency or Episcopall eminency instead of these newly discovered wayes of either a Presbyterian parity or a popular Independency by which Presbyters and people in common challenge to themselves the sole possession dispensation and managery of all Ecclesiasticall office power and authority inventions so pragmatick so turbulent so contrariant to one another as well as to the ancient orders of the Church that we in England were happily unacquainted with them till of late years as were all other Churches in the world till this last century who cannot be thought in all former ages to have wanted such Pastors and Teachers such Rulers and Governours as were after Gods own heart to carry on his great work of saving souls in the preserving and propagating of his Church by the Ministers of it If the great cloud of ancient and Catholick witnesses who ever owned all Ecclesiastick power to be magisterially indeed and primarily in Christ but ministerially and secondarily in the Apostles and their successors as to all Church-ministration ordination and jurisdiction which power resided chiefly in Bishops and from them was regularly derived to Presbyters if these I say can fall under your hard censure as either deceived or deceivers yet truly their errour in this point may be the more veniall because the case was not so much as once doubted or disputed for three hundred years in those best and first ages of the Church It will be more charity in their censurers to suspect they wanted ability to see the light of Christs mind and the Apostles examples than honesty to follow them But for my self and other Ministers my Fathers and Brethren of the Church of England who after so high contests about the Ministry of the Church both as to ordination and jurisdiction in which we have examined all Scriptures and rifled all Antiquity if we do still bona fide humbly honestly and conscientiously chuse to follow what seems to us Christian Catholick and uniform antiquity rather than any partiall and divided wayes of novelty I hope we are excusable to you if not commendable how ignorant or obstinate soever we seem to others who think we ought to be confounded if we will not be converted or rather perverted by them But if you do indeed judge that after so clear demonstrations and potent convictions from Scripture and Antiquity which either Geneva or Edenburgh or Amsterdam or New-England have alledged we do still persist in our Primitive opinions and Catholick Errours touching the office power and derivation of the Evangelicall Ministry and Authority such as was established in this Church of England meerly out of either passion pertinacy and obstinacy or for private interests sinister ends and secular policies if you can think us so base and false such sots and beasts so unworthy of the names of Ministers Christians Englishmen or men if this be your sense of us truly you and the whole State shall do but an act of high Justice speedily to cast us all out as well Presbyters as Bishops for unsavoury salt to expose us yet more upon the dunghill of vulgar contempt and worldly poverty which some Satyrick tongues and pens have earnestly importuned and petulantly endeavoured against all the ancient Ministers and orderly Clergie of England under the name of Prelaticks and Episcopall If the bitter and bold invectives of spitefull Papists and fierce Separatists of rash Presbyterians and rude Independents of Erastians and Anabaptists if these have been or can be made good to you against the Ministry and ordination of the Church of England against all its Bishops and Presbyters both in office and exercise as if we had not either before or since the Reformation any due ministeriall office or authority no true ordination or succession little of ministeriall gifts and less of graces no sound doctrine faithfully preached no Sacraments rightly consecrated no holy mysteries lawfully celebrated no Church-discipline dispensed no right government constituted no true Ministry or authoritative Ministers any way deserving either love or honour from you and your posterity If all your and our faith repentance charity and other graces be in vain if your Christian peace and hopes be all but imaginary if neither we are made true Ministers of Christ nor you true Members or Disciples of Christ if all your and your fore-fathers piety devotion charity Christianity hath been onely a fantastick pageantry a mummery and mockery of Religion Christianity and Reformation if hitherto you have onely been deluded and abused in so high concernments of your consciences and souls to eternity truly 't is but high time for you and your new Common-weale to offer up the wretched remnant of those Bishops and Presbyters who have yet survived the calamities and contempts of these times and who yet retain their former judgement ministeriall office and holy orders conformably to the Church of England to be an acceptable Sacrifice a welcome Holocaust or much longed-for Burnt-offering to the malice of their adversaries and persecutors both Gog and Magog first to the more secret but implacable despite of Papists who have infinitely longed and no less rejoyce to see poverty obscurity silence scorn division confusion extirpation to be the portion of the English Clergie whom they heretofore either envied or dreaded beyond the Ministry of any Christian or Reformed Church in all the world next you shall in so doing highly gratifie the bitter and bolder enmity the fouler-mouth'd fury of all other sharp-tongu'd brazen-fac'd and heavy-handed Schismaticks who have a long time grudged at the Clergie of England envying both Bishops and Presbyters their honours liberties livelihoods and lives prompted hereto partly by their own
pride covetousness and other discontented lusts and partly by Jesuitick arts and Papall policies whose joynt aims are at this day to extirpate the whole race root and branch of the Reformed Catholick Christian Church and Ministry in England They conspire nothing more than that they may serve both the Bishops and Presbyters of England as Elias and Jehu did Baals Priests for this is the sense some men have of us and this is the sentence they have passed and seek to execute upon us as upon so many Cretians not Christians as if we were onely liars evil beasts and slow-bellies either imperious masters or unprofitable servants to the Church that so these new Masters may on all sides freely enjoy those superstitious and fanatick liberties which they have designed for their divided parties who despaired to prevail in England untill they had brought the English Clergie to undergo all manner of indignities and injuries CHAP. XII ALl which Tragedies that the people of England might behold and bear with the greater patience and stupidity they must by popular orators be perswaded 1. That all Bishops or presidentiall Fathers and Over-seers among the Clergie such as the Apostles and their immediate Successors first were are Antichristian truly so are Fathers in families Magistrates in cities and Chieftains in armies 2. That the ordaining of Presbyters by Bishops is meerly Popish so is the celebrating of Baptisme or the Lords Supper or the Lords day 3. That Christs Ministry appropriated to one order of men is a monopoly or a taking too much upon mens selves when others of the congregation may be as holy and able so is all order office and authority civil and military a meer monopoly when others may be as able and wise as the best Magistrates and Commanders 4. That all humane Learning is not onely superfluous but pernicious in the Ministers of the Gospel so is all skill industry and ability in all other workmen 5. That Ministers maintenance by Tithes Glebe-lands and other oblations is Jewish so is all justice and gratitude in paying labourers their wages 6. That the distinction of Clergie and Laity is arrogant and supercilious so are the titles of Master and Scholar Teacher and Disciple Priest and People Minister and ministred 7. That it was proud and insolent for any Clergie-men to be invested with honour to be stiled and respected as Lords Truly if it be no dishonour to any temporall Lord to become a Minister or Christs glorious Gospel nor doth he thereby lose his civil Lordship and dignity no more is it misbecoming learned grave and venerable Ministers of the Gospel the chief Fathers and governours of the Church to be adorned with honours and to enjoy as the favours of Christian Princes and States both the Titles and Revenues of their temporall Baronies and Lordships which they might for ought I could ever see as well deserve and use as any other Lords who had their Lordships by birth by purchase or by favour nor did Honour less become Ecclesiastick Rulers than it doth those military Commanders who I see can endure themselves to be called treated as Lords I confess under favour I do not understand how Church-government should be less capable of degrees and distinction in Governours than those which are civil or military since order and subordination must be in them all nor do I more understand how such chief Governours of the Church-militant as Bishops were and ought to be might not as well both merit and manage such honours and estates as any men who by far less abilities or pains do get to be Major-generals or Colonels and chief Commanders in an Army over poor Souldiers Sure the saving of souls is every way as hard and honourable a work as the killing of mens bodies which is the worst of a souldiers work or as the saving of mens temporall lives and estates which is the best of that employment nor is it less of true valour vigilance and resolution in learned and good Scholars to fight with and overcome the ignorance errours and barbarity of mankind than it is fortitude in good souldiers to suppress the rapines and injustice of mens extravagant actions But these and such like are the envious cobwebs the thin and ridiculous sophistries formerly used by some men of evil eyes and worse hearts out of principles full of ignorance or envy or covetousness or licentiousness or Atheism whereby to perswade silly people to follow these novell easie and more thrifty methods of saving souls which some swelling Libertines propound who have the confidence earnestly to invite this noble Nation to commit the whole managery of Christian Religion and of their souls eternall salvation to such new cheap and bold undertakers who adventure to minister in Christs name without any such character commission or conscience of divine authority which as Irenaeus and all the Ancients tell us were ever in a solemn visible and orderly manner derived by the hands of Bishops to the Presbyters or lawful Ministers of the Church as from Christ and the Apostles in an undoubted and uninterrupted succession of which Tertullian gives so excellent an account in his Book of prescription against Hereticks Their ostentations of naturall liberty of civil indulgence of rationall abilities of speciall gifts and undiscernable graces or which is most incredible of extraordinary calls from God All or any of these if they were really true yet will not be allowed as a justifiable ground for any mans usurpation or intrusion into any office military or civil without a visible commission derived from the supreme power in both much less are they sufficient pleas for any man to officiate in the Ministry Ecclesiasticall whose Supreme Authority is confessedly in Christ and the derivation or deduction of it in all ages is so visible constant and uniform that no man honestly learned can be ignorant where it resided or how it was derived Certainly it never was dispensed by the hands or power of Emperours Kings Protectors Princes or any civil Magistrates whose duty I conceive if they will act as Christians is not to alter or innovate this sacred authority and method used by Christ the Apostles and the Catholick Church but to preserve it as sacred and inviolable much less was it left to the spontaneous confidence the passionate suffrages and confused petulancies of common people who are the great and infallible prostrators of all Religion vertue honour order peace civility and humanity if left to themselves but it was divinely setled by Christ in the Apostles and by the Apostles in their successors the ordained Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholick Church in its severall branches and combinations who ever have been and ought to be under Christ the great Conservators the onely complete and regular Distributers of this holy ministeriall power as they have been to this day in this and all other orderly Churches of Christ without any controversie or contradiction without dispute or doubt
S. Paul tells Philemon as to whatever they can rightly pretend of the true honour priviledge and power of Christiany What is less Saintly than to cry up novell partiall and factious Reformations to magnifie uncouth and exotick wayes of Ministry and Christianity Church-fellowship and Communion while in the mean time they ungratefully despise and cruelly crucifie their proper Mother the Church of England together with those whom they sometime justly esteemed as their Fathers in God and brethren in Christ What is less Saintly than to endeavour to rob God in a land of peace and plenty to expose his servants and service after the order of Christs Evangelicall Priesthood to as great contempts deformities and diminutions in all points both for order and authority learning and maintenance as ever Julian the Apostate did design with great impudence crying down the rare and indeed incomparable Ministers of the Church of England who had been liberally treated and honourably maintained that they may with vulgar easiness and credulity by a penurious covetous and sacrilegious sophistry cry up some cheap new-fashioned Teachers as rare Angels that had no stomachs and would preach gratis who I believe are found in many places as greedy and voracious as Bell and the Dragon in the Apocrypha Nor can I think them other than Apocryphall Preachers so far from Angels of light sent from God to comfort the Reformed Religion in its bloody sweat and agonies that they seem rather as Messengers of Satan sent to buffet this Reformed Church and the renowned Clergie of England whose fame and flourishing whose piety and prosperity whose honour and unity whose Catholick order and authority heretofore was so conspicuous by the rare indulgence of Gods providence by the generous munificence of pious Princes and by the moderation of wise and worthy Parliaments that God it seems saw it in danger as S. Paul to be exalted above measure by reason of those excellent endowments and enjoyments both spirituall and temporall which were bestowed upon it All which are prone to threaten themselves by their excess the usuall temper of humane frailty being such that it is never so fixed sweetened and seasoned by any temporall blessings in the best of men but it is subject to warp to sowre or to putrifie if it stand too long in the warm sun of prosperity However it becomes all holy and humble Ministers to bless God with holy Job though he take what he once gave it is his mercy that he chuseth rather by impoverishing of us to correct us than to leave us wholly to that crookedness and putrefaction which we were ready of our selves in peace and plenty to contract it is better for any Church any Clergie any Christians to be healed by the sharpness of Gods corrosives and vinegar than too much softned by the suppleness of his oyles and lenitives I hope the health and soundness of the Church and Clergie of England are Gods last designs that his blessings to both shall in due time be restored and enjoyed again when being better prepared to use and value them we shall be less subject to abuse and loose them CHAP. XX. MEan time while many grave and excellent Ministers are faine patiently to hang their harps upon the willowes while they and other sober Christians daily weep over the waters of Babylon our sad confusions a generall astonishment hath seised upon all sober and serious wise and worthy men true lovers of this Church and Nation who with sad hearts and moistened eyes do hear and see the more then childish petulancies the rude insolencies the impudent familiarities the irreverent behaviours which in many places the common sort of people are grown to affect and presume to use even in our religious duties and sacred assemblies expressing less outward respect or reverence in the presence of God when his Ministers and his people assemble to worship him than they are wont to use either for fear or civility or shame before the Steward and Jury of a Court Leet or the meanest Justice of Peace and his Clark in the countrey From the rude examples and daring indulgences of some men whose years and education might have taught them better manners there daily growes up a numerous generation a rustick heady and impudent fry of younger people who carry no more regard to any duties of Religion or respect to the Ministers of them than the fourty children did to the Prophet Elisha when they mocked him and were for their ill breeding and irreligious rudeness torn in pieces by the she-Bears to teach both parents and children better manners towards Gods Prophets as was of old observed Yea there are some grown so clownish and Cyclopick Christians that their very Religion consists not a little in their morose undecent uncivil untractable spirits and demeanour if others have their heads reverently uncovered in the presence and service of God these must have their hats on not to relieve the tenderness and infirmity of their heads but to shew the liberty and surliness of their wills and spirits If others testifie their inward veneration of the divine Majesty by their outward comely gestures as either standing or kneeling according to the variety of duties these by all means affect to fit or loll after such a lazy and neglective fashion that easily discovers and openly proclaims neither much fear of God nor reverence of man yea some people are not satisfied thus to express their sullen tempers by their churlish and unconformable gestures as to our religious duties and decencies in case they vouchsafe to be present but they must be railing and reviling prating and opposing cavilling and disputing in publick What eare not wholly uncircumcised can bear the vain bablings the unprofitable unpleasing and profane janglings of such sophisters the unharmonious noise of such Low-bels whose sound is neither with verity certainty harmony nor gravity yet do they every where seek to drown or confound the sacred concent of Aarons bells and that sweet musick which was wont to be in Gods sanctuary in our Churches here in England when good Christians did orderly and reverently meet together with their lawfull Ministers in one place with one accord with one heart one mind one mouth to serve the Lord and to edifie one another in truth and love with all modesty humility decency and solemnity CHAP. XXI WHich comfort honour solemnity and blessing of Religion formerly enjoyed in most Congregations of the Church of England how many of later yeares have dared not more with rudeness than profaneness to exchange for a kind of Sibylline ravings Bacchinal raptures They obtrude upon poor people sudden correptions licentious rantings ridiculous quakings fanatick ravings senselesse vapourings and such like rallieries or gallantries in Religion which seek to turn Christianity to a kind of buffoonery If these corrept corrupt extasies or extravagancies be not permitted to such fanatick triflers troublers of travagancies be not permitted to such
it self both as to the actors and permitters If such inordinate liberty which naturally men affect and which imposeth on mankind the necessity of having publick laws and magistratick powers above all private mens fancies if it be so pestilent in civil and secular regards that the indulgence of it is no more to be permitted by wise and good men for one moneth or one day than a fire may be left to its freedome for one hour in any private cabbin or chamber to the endangering of the whole ship and house how I beseech you can it be convenient or profitable to the common interests of Religion or the honour of any Nation that desires to be called Christian to let every man pick and chuse their severall doctrines opinions forms and fashions of Religion as they best fancy or to suffer them to set up to themselves what Prophets Pastors or Preachers what Churches Congregations Conventicles they most affect one being of Paul another of Apollos a third of Cephas one Episcopall another Presbyterian a third Independent a fourth owning no Ministers no Religion at all Specious names and godly pretensions may be very pernicious to the peace of the Church the honour of Christ and the good of mens souls as the blessed Apostle there observes through the folly and factiousness of people Better the most deserving names how much more the most flattering Novellers in the world should be buried in eternal oblivion than they should be set up in the Church of Christ as so many apples of contention so many wedges of division so many rivals to the glory of Christ so many moths to religious unity and the Churches beauty so many Molechs or Idols through whose fires your posterity as Christians that are not yours onely but Gods children and as it were Christs seed and off-spring should be forced to pass with popular noyses and incondite acclamations of liberty onely to drown the sad cries of those poor souls who are to be tormented in those flames those Tophets of uncharitable novelties and factious liberties Christian liberty as vulgar spirits commonly use it is but a corroding salve spread on a silk plaister it is a confection of carnal projects wrought up with spirituall mixtures it is poyson presented in a gilt cup the Devils rats-bane mingled with sugar The sad effects already upon us in England and further threatning us do promise nothing upon this account but envies wraths strifes jealousies animosities whisperings swellings tumults seditions oppressions and mutual persecutions with every evil work among us as men and Christians CHAP. XXVI NOr are these mischiefs only rife among Lay-men or ordinary people whose ignorance meanness and discontent are prone to tempt them to any thing but even among those who desire to be called the Ministers Teachers Pastors leaders of the people for even these in many places either mis-led by the people or sadly misleading them are very much bitten and infected with this epidemicall disease of mistaken corrupted and abused liberties in matters of Religion both as to Doctrine and Worship as to Ecclesiasticall order and Ministeriall authority many of these otherwise men of worth for soundness and integrity no way unfit for the work or unworthy to have the honour of being Ministers of the Gospel yet are miserably tainted with these divisions distractions and deformities even among themselves Which contagion among the Pastors as well as the Flocks as a farther sad and evident instance of the grand causes or occasions of this Churches present miseries and of the great decayes of the Reformed Religion I crave leave without offence to any of my worthy and deserving Brethren in the Ministry of what name or title of what stamp or metall soever they are a little to insist upon that I may by further discovering the rise and progress of our mischiefs the better make way for such remedies as your wisdome O my noble Countrey-men shall see fittest for the recovery of health strength and beauty to this deformed Church and the remnants of Reformed Religion in it As all experience tells us poor mortalls that our greatest enemies are many times nearest to us and oft lie in our own bosoms so the greatest mischiefs that have or can befall the Christian Reformed Religion in England do chiefly arise from some Preachers or such as would be accounted the Ministers of Christs Church under severall notions and formations Vulgar reproches plebeian contempts the injuries of Lay-men yea the persecutions of great and mighty men the Clergie or true Ministers of Christs Church in England might possibly have born with patience constancy comfort and honour though much to their outward diminution if they had had the grace wisdome and understanding to have kept among themselves that harmony constancy and integrity in judgements practise and affections which became men that should be both wise and warm prudent as serpents and innocent as doves if they had as Christs Disciples loved one another though the world hated them if they had as one man held together like a well-turn'd Arch surely they might at once have upheld themselves and easily sustained any pressures laid upon them by the levity violence and ingratitude of other men the Clergie being as the cable and anchor of Religion which firmly twisted together and fraternally combined in truth and love will in time bring the people to quiet and calmnesse in Religion however they may have their storms and tossings sometime partly by innate fluctuancy as the rollings and tidings of the sea and partly by outward winds and tempests What Nation hath there been so barbarous what heathens so truculent what persecutors so inhumane whom godly Bishops and other Ministers have not by their exemplary faith patience unity and charity with Gods blessing in time softened and sweetened convinced and converted to be Christians while they all spake the same things carried on the same interests of Christ as it were with one shoulder These once broken in their orderly and uniform methods varied in their Catholick succession and authority divided in their fraternall concord and harmony the peoples minds soon grow distracted and are violently driven as ships from their anchors and cables upon a thousand dangers When primitive Pastors and people were most cordially united though they were most cruelly persecuted yet Christianity spread and prospered what the fury of men pull'd down that the care and charity of their Ministers built up twisting what others ravelled either as Idolaters Hereticks or Schismaticks which reparations of Religion were easily effected while the sheep knew their true shepherds following them or flying to them in case of any danger when the people knew their proper Presbyters and orderly Presbyters owned those Bishops to whom they were duly subordinate when all ranks and orders in the Church of Christ as parts in the body kept their stations and ranks their orders and correspondencies their proportions and duties either in
filiall subjection or fatherly inspection when no good Christian was to seek what Pastors what Preachers he should apply to nor any Deacon or Presbyter did doubt to what Bishop he owed a respect as to his Superiour in Ecclesiastick eminency order and authority This this blessed harmony this Catholick and in primitive times undoubted as well as uniform and constant order did then keep up or recover by Gods blessing the majesty of Christian Religion the love together with the honour and authority of the Evangelical ministry amidst the heaviest distractions and persecutions and so no doubt it would have done in England amidst all plebeian insolencies and popular prostitutions But alas though all this evil be come upon us Ministers of all sorts and sizes from without from civil warres and unhappy publick differences in secular interests which spare no men as also from the private covetousness inconstancy malice revenge impatience ambition and ingratitude of some vulgar people not onely to the great injuring of many Ministers persons credit and estates but to the menacing of an utter subversion even to the whole tribe office and function as it was founded on Divine Institution built up by Apostolicall Tradition and preserved by Catholick Succession yet in our distresses and afflictions many Ministers as Ahaz have sinned more and more and as if it were a small matter that plebeian spite and petulancy could ambitiously inflict upon Ministers themselves have added much fewel to their fires encouraging their malice by wretched complyings with them flattering of them in the very abuses of their liberties in their rude arrogatings and usurpations upon the Ministry infinitely to the disgrace of their holy calling to the disparagement of their own judgements and to the prostrating of their due authority which is as I have proved divine or none at all that I mention not Ministers betraying of their own honest interests and enjoyments as to this world in point of profit honour and reputation All which the gulf of secular avarice and the Abyss of Lay-mens sacriledge daily gapes to devour after the pattern which some Achans and Ananiasses of the Clergie have set them the poor remainders of which as they are already forfeited by the sordid and shamefull debasing of themselves to the humouring of people in their lusts and licentiousness so they will in a few years be utterly lost and confiscated by the advantages which will be given to peoples covetous cruelty through those mutuall animosities jealousies distances and varieties which are now maintained by the severall sides and sorts of Ministers in England all pretending to be Preachers of the Gospel under reformed and super-reforming names What infinite swellings disdains envies and pertinacies are open to all mens observations even among those men who would be thought grave wise learned holy and every way able to teach and rule the vulgar How have their innovations mutations levities and divisions so clearly manifested their weaknesse folly and factiousnesse that as it cannot be hid from vulgar eyes and censures so it is already many wayes confuted and sorely punished not onely by the palpable frustratings of some of their novell designs but by their being generally debased far below their former station and extremely worsted in all points as to that handsome if not honourable condition which they might in unity and order as heretofore have enjoyed in England If once the Ministers of any Church who are as the walls and sea-banks do make cracks and breaches upon themselves or suffer the moles and water-rats of the people so to do no wonder if the high tides of vulgar insolency and rapine soon break in upon them make their ruines not more deplorable than irreparable CHAP. XXV YEt after all this sharp and sad experience which hath rendred the profession of Ministers on all hands contemptible their ordination disputable their enjoyments miserable their necessities irreparable their dependences poor plebeian almost sordid by their mutuall and unhappy divisions yet still many who glory to be called Ministers of whatever odde ordination or new edition they are do fancy it a great part of their piety to be pertinacious in those new opinions wayes and factions which they have adopted yea much of their sanctity is made to consist in their scorning all antiquity and of all Reformation heretofore in the Church of England If they can find nothing else to quarrel at in the old Clergie of England whose doctrine was found whose ordination most Catholick valid and unquestionable by Bishops whose learning and lives were most commendable yet they must find fault with their very clothes and rather than not differ they must disguise themselves from the gravity of Gowns and Cassocks of black caps and black clothes to military clokes to Scotch jumps to white caps and all mechanick colours in which posture being as Preachers once got into a Pulpit then both they and the silly people fancy they see great Reformations of Religion more looking at the gay and strange colours of a foolish bird than minding how it speaks especially if these new Ministers do gratifie the plebs of the Laity and the plebs of the Clergie with any influence or stroke in their ordination and consecration to the office of the Ministry if they have highly cried up popular rights and liberties in making and marring in electing and rejecting in ordaining and deposing their Pastors if they have gently condescended to such popular transports and real novellizings in England as are contrary to all practises of ancient and best Churches O what an high mountain do these new Masters and their new Disciples fancy they are ascended to what a glorious transfiguration do they imagine themselves to be changed what a new heaven and new earth do some of them either more silly or more subtill than others glory they have created in their godly corporations their rare associations and blest ordinations how strange novell and disorderly soever they are as to all ancient customes of this and all Churches Nor do they think it worth considering how much they deviate from all Antiquity how much they desert yea reproch the wisdom of this Church and all estates in this Nation ever since it was either Christian or Reformed how much they go beyond the duty they owed to the civil peace of this Nation as also that modesty humility ingenuity reverence and subjection which by the lawes of God and man by all sanctions civil and Ecclesiasticall they owed to the Governours and guides Pastors and Preachers the peace and wellfare of this Church of England besides that prudence and policy which they ought to maintain in order to the honour and respect which is indeed due to their calling and authority when it is truly ministeriall and authentick What sober and impartial man doth not see how the despites arrogancies and insolencies first expressed in tumultuary heats and furies against all Bishops whatsoever though never so learned
grave godly and industrious men fit to govern and apt to teach the Church of Christ are still maintained and repeated daily yea raked up and increased by the popular oratory of some novel Ministers so far as to raise eternall prejudices and antipathies even against all those Presbyters which were or are of Episcopall ordination And the better to justifie these Novelties and Schisms in the Church of England which some were so eager and easie to begin so loth and unwilling to retract they still entertain their nauseous credulous and itching Disciples with all those odious stale and envious Crambes which are most welcome to vulgar ears and sacrilegious aims as how unfit it was for the Ministers of Jesus Christ who was the great pattern of piety and poverty to have great revenues stately Palaces and noble Lordships which more godly men do want for Preachers to have any titles of honour and respect as Lords to have any part of civil power or indeed of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction All which honest employments and enjoyments I conceive under favour the excellent Bishops and other deserving Clergie-men in England were as worthy to enjoy and as able to use with honour conscience and charity as any of those men either military or civil who were most zealous to deprive to debase and to destroy the Hierarchy or just honour of the Ecclesiastick state in England Nor do I think it was any way displeasing to God or in the least kind unbecoming the name of Christ for Bishops and other Ministers of his Church to have such ample estates and honourable preferments for their double honour in so plentifull a land as England was this I am sure it was far less beseeming any good Christian to repine at them and unjustly to deprive them of them If this envious vein of popular oratory grow at length fulsome vile and ridiculous as it is now to all sober and judicious auditors then the Anti-episcopall parties of Ministers devoutly rip up and sadly repeat whatever they have heard or others invented of any Bishops faults or the Episcopall Clergies past infirmities whatever they can they rake up though long ago buried as it ought to be in the charitable forgetfulness of all good men who either consider their own frailties or remember how many holy Bishops were Martyrs and Confessors in all ages of persecution how learned how diligent how commendable how admirable how useful they were to this Church for their preaching writing and living in times of persecution as well as peace even here in England All good Bishops and other Clergie as I have formerly expressed confess themselves as men to be subject to infirmities and temptations the best Bishops and Ministers least deny this truth being every day most vigilant to resist the one and amend the other These allegations then like the Devils quoting of Scripture though they may have some squint-ey'd truth in them yet they are spitefully partially and most impertinently alledged against all Bishops especially by those fierce Presbyterians or other implacable Preachers who have now liberally taught the English world that however the riches pomp and honours of Presbyterian or Independent or other Preachers are much against their wills far less than those which God and man reason and Religion order and polity devotion and gratitude Law and Gospel allowed to Bishops and Presbyters heretofore that the eminency of their office and place in the Church might have something of honourable splendour and hospitable magnificence proportionable to its venerable authority and great antiquity yet men are not so blinded by that popular dust stirred up against the faults and names of Bishops as not to see that the pride covetousness and imperiousness of the most furious and factious Anti-episcopall Ministers come not one jot behind any of those Bishops whom they look upon and represent with the most malignant aspect O how magisteriall are many new masters in their opinions how authoritative in their decisions how supercilious in their conversations how severe in their censures how inexorable in their passions how implacable in their wrath how inflexible in their factions how irrevocable in their transports though never so rash heady plebeian and unsuccessfull by which they at once forsook their duties to others and their own mercies And this many of them did to please others or themselves contrary to their former judgements their sworn and avowed subjection to Bishops for many years when they paid that respect to those Fathers and Governours of this Church which the laws of God and man required long before either Presbytery was hatched or Independency gendered in England The sharp severities and early rigours of both which parties and their Consectaries grew quickly both remarkable and intolerable to sober Christians for as they were bred and born like Pallas armed full of anger revenge and ambitious fierceness so they have acted even in their infancy and minority far beyond what regular sober and true Episcopacy ever did in its greatest age and procerity here in England yea its greatest passion and transports did not exceed the aims of these new masters both Ecclesiastical civil which was either to rule all or to ruine all Bishops commonly justified their reall or seeming severities by those lawes either civil or Ecclesiasticall which were in force against all such as did not conform to them Hence were occasioned much I am confident to the grief and against the desire of the most grave and godly Bishops sometimes those so oft declaimed against and aggravated persecutions of some unconformable yet otherwayes godly Ministers by silencings suspensions deprivations c. which sometimes were but just and necessary exercises of Discipline as I conceive if men will maintain any order and government in any Church or State sometimes it may be some Bishops pressed too much upon the strictness and rigour of law aggravated by their private passions beyond what might with charity and moderation safely have been indulged to some able and peaceable Ministers though in some things dissenters yet as to the main good and usefull to the Church Yet all these old Almanacks these stale and posthumous calculations of Episcopall severities did not upon true account no not in one hundred years equal the number and measure of those pressures and miseries which have been acted or designed in one fifteen years by such as now profess Presbyterian and Independent principles against all Bishops and all those Ministers which are of the Episcopal perswasion I think it may without any stroke of Rhetorick or Hyperbole be said with sober truth that the little finger of Presbytery and Independency with the warts and wens of other factions growing upon them hath been heavier upon the Episcopal which was the onely legal Clergie of England of late years than the loins of any sober and godly Bishops ever were for any one century yea and equal to the burdens of the most passionate and immoderate Bishops whatsoever in any age
will be the more blamable before God and man by how much nearer they profess to come to one another in the harmonies of faith and confessions of the same reformed and true doctrine which would soon unite their hearts and studies if they had on all sides less of easiness credulity popularity peevishness obstinacy small ambitions and juvenilities The removing of which distempers from all Ministers new and old and from my self as well as any other is one of my chief designs and endeavours to be carried on in the fourth and last Book of this discourse At present it sufficeth to have shewed as an evil branch of abused Liberty in Religion this to be none of the least causes or occasions of the Church of Englands distempers decayes and miseries that Ministers are after Mundane and machiavellian methods so sharply divided from and eagerly opposite against one another so hardly perswaded by any retreats and principles of piety charity prudence which honest policy publick necessity self-preservation or care of future succession invite them to which may make for an happy close and Christian accommodation Upon some Ministers pride and peevishness not any one nay not all these considerations together can so far prevail I fear as to induce them to any terms or treaty of equable accord but they still carry themselves as young men high in their own conceits coy and elate in their parties opinions presumptions prejudices animosities and disdains especially against the former Ministry of England which was not more Episcopal than Catholick Primitive Apostolicall and truly Christian Few novell Ministers ever lay their hand on their heart and ask what evil have I acted occasioned or not hindred to this Church of England CHAP. XXVI THat I may a little further open the eyes of all my Brethren such as either are or deserve or desire to be Ministers of the Gospel and of all other my Countrey-men both as to their own private interests as Ministers and as to the publick concernments of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Nation I shall yet more particularly and as pathetically as I can endeavour to shew them the true state and posture in which their persons their livelihoods their credits their worldly comforts their calling at present and their succession for the future now seem to stand in England what scratch'd faces what deformed aspects how deplorable conditions all of them either feel or may justly fear and expect by reason of that inordinate liberty which people in England have lately carried on to such intolerable petulancies insolencies and licentiousnesse against Ministers whereto they have been highly animated and encouraged not more by their own lusts and malapertnesse than by those unkind indiscreet and unchristian dissentions which have broke out among Ministers themselves against one another while forgetting that gravity constancy modesty and equanimity which they owed to themselves and to each other they either rowed down or suffered themselves to be carried down this foul stream and torrent of vulgar liberty out of principles of facility or faction popularity or pride covetousness or cowardise ignorance or sequaciousness which have so blinded some Ministers otherwise of very good abilities that like men drenched over head and ears in water they cannot suddenly or easily see what deformities are upon them what dangers threaten them both as men and as Ministers Whatever title order original badge or discriminating character of their Ministry they bear and wear in the world whatever principles they profess whatever party they patronize adhere to or adopt new or old this I am sure if they be not purely plebeian praters of the very scumme lees and dregs of people which have no sense of sin shame or honour if they are persons of any learned latitude of any ingenious capacities and abilities of any tenderness in honour or conscience if they be painful pious or prudent men in any degree they cannot but see that no mens condition in England or almost under heaven of whatever calling and quality they are is more mean and miserable more tattered and scambling less honourable or less comfortable no profession order or fraternity of men is more divided dubious distressed forlorn despicable as to all civil and secular interests for profit peace respect and reputation both for the encouragement of their present ministration and for the hopes of an able future succession none of which things wise and worthy Ministers ought supinely sordidly sluggishly or simply to neglect Their own and all mens eyes that are open and clear may easily see the sad prospects of Ministers dejections diminutions debasements distresses in all those points all of them are under the scorn of some opposite party or other most of them live in a low and mean estate many of them to my knowledge contend with extreme difficulties and all manner of necessities not a few of them which I have been oft an eye-witness of have been and are reduced to a morsel of bread and are driven even to beg alms for the support of themselves and their distressed families How many of their cryes have I heard how many of their tears have I seen with what pallor and dejection with what squallor and horrour with what astonishment and despair do many of them wander from one village city and countrey to another for relief untill being weary and wasted sunk and oppressed by their daily distresses and remedilesse tragedies they go to their graves with sorrow to the shame and sin I believe of the Age in which they have thus lived and died Ministers of the Gospel and very worthy ones too if it be any merit to have constantly deserved well of the Church of England by their godly preaching and living over whose sad ruines I know the enemies of this Church and the Reformed Religion both at home and abroad do infinitely triumph and seriously rejoyce Nor is this hard fate befaln those Ministers onely who were and are of the Episcopal persuasion and most constant to the love and duty they owe to the Church of England but even those Ministers have been shrewdly singed who most eagerly sought to heat the fiery furnace of popular wrath and revenge against all Bishops and the Episcopall Clergie the thumbs and toes of many of those great Adonibezeks have been cropt off who most joyed in the like executions done by popular revenge and vulgar fiercenesse against all of the Episcopall order and ordination even those Preachers who filled their sails most with the peoples breath are now either becalmed or come aground or very leaky or quite dashed in pieces as to their former great influence and reputation among the people nor have they made either such a fair port or such a prosperous voyage as might any way answer their former presumptions their high ostentations and their flattering expectations This I am sure that the ambitious wantonnesse of many Ministers lusting to tast of the forbidden fruit of government beyond their
use of any such plank or rafter which might serve to buoy them up from utter sinking and starving though it were but teaching school in a belfrey yet after all these personall sufferings and extremities behold they must live to hear and see their very calling and orders their whole function and fraternity disgraced and disordered yea as to some mens desires and endeavours quite routed and abolished the primitive pipes and ancient conduits of all Ecclesiastick power quite broken and new cisterns set up which hold no water comparable to that brazen sea of Apostolick Episcopacy and orderly Presbytery which ever served the Sanctuary of Christs Church in all ages places and offices It might possibly break the quiet the cheerfulness the estates of many worthy Ministers to see their persons preaching pains prayers and holy ministrations neglected by many despised by some and trampled under foot by not a few who after the rate of plebeian spirits following the revolutions of mens fortunes think there can be no worth meriting their value and respect either civil or religious but onely under the characters of riches honour and power soon ebbing in their love and esteem of the Clergie when they see the tide of honour and munificence so turned and abated even to the lowest water-mark almost as now it seems in England But it breaks the very hearts and spirits of worthy Ministers like old Elies to hear and see Philistines take by violence the Ark of God and carry it captive to their Dagons the Idols that every ones fancy lists to set up in private Conventicles under the title of Ministeriall power and holy ordination this at present infinitely dejects all sober Christians and true Ministers this for the future quite sinks them in despair CHAP. XXXII O How high and holy an ambition I beseech you my worthy Countrymen will it be in after-times and already is for any man of parts of learning of conscience guided by Scripture and by all ancient practices of the Catholick Church no lesse than that of this Reformed and famous Church of England to devote himself to be a Minister of the Gospel when he shall see no Reverend Bishops no subordinate Presbyters left to ordain him few or no people left to entertain him with due respect to his calling some doubting others denying a third sort wholly despising all his Ministeriall power and authority of which next to our salvation Ministers and other Christians should study to be assured that it is valid and divine upon good and authentick grounds which may both merit their acknowledgment and oblige them to submission If any man that is fit and willing to be a Minister in England if I say he can dispense with the Novelties irregularities and inconformities of his ordination as to all Antiquity no less than the orders of the Church of England which ever was by Bishops as the Apostolick Conduits the chief Fathers and proper Conveyors so confessed by all Reformed Churches if he can bear the tedious journeys from the remoter Counties the long delayes the unexpected scrutinies and the strange questions he shall meet with before he be allowed and admitted to officiate which are very hard trials to men that are tolerably learned and not intolerably necessitated for a small living if these difficulties can be digested which we see of late have deterred many good scholars and hopefull students from entring upon the Ministry rather diverting their thoughts to other employments which are more easie profitable and honourable now in England yet still whatever doore he comes in at he is a great and bold adventurer daring at once to undertake so tedious and dreadful an employment in which he must daily undergo many oppositions many abuses many injuries many indignities incident from one side or other to any Minister what stamp soever he bears He must be fortified with invincible patience with heroick resolutions with humble constancy with Hermeticall content with Martyrly charity while he contends with many causeless enemies with all those difficulties of poverty and contempt which are very unwelcome to flesh and blood though never so spiritualized and refined these do and ever will attend him as a Minister while common people take so great liberties and confidences to baffle to dispute to despise to disturb and to undo their Ministers besides their daring to obtrude themselves into his place and office The meanest tradesman or handy-craft mechanick bears the labour of his hands and that sore travail of his soul during his mortall pilgrimage cheerfully and comfortably while being willing and able to work for his living he gets his wages without any mans grudging and enjoyes himself without any envy or obloquy in honest wayes of industry though possibly it reach no further than making of ribbands or points or buttons or babies for the use of the Common-weal onely the poor Minister especially if he dare own the Church of England or assert his authority from an higher origine than what is novel secular and popular after twice seven years rigging and preparing himself for so rough and hazardous a voyage after he hath many nights and dayes by studying watching fasting praying weeping furnished himself as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed before men after he hath wholly and onely devoted himself to that heavy plough and employment the care and culture of mens souls which are naturally hard as fallow grounds full of weeds and thorns which work may well take up the whole time ability and industry of the best of men after he hath so followed this holy husbandry as to neglect all other means and opportunities to advance his worldly condition thinking it would be enough for him to merit well of his Countrey and the publick and as a learned grave and serious Minister to serve God and mankind by setting forth and communicating to the world the inestimable riches and excellencies of his and their Saviour which service might well deserve as good salaries and encouragements as those enjoy who have offices in the Customes Excise Exchecquers and treasuries of unrighteous mammon after he hath thus denied exhausted and macerated himself in order to promote the highest interests of God and man which is the eternall salvation of sinfull souls and this at no great charge or expence of mens estates after his modesty charity and hospitality hath convinced all men that he covets them not theirs condescending oft below himself in order to captate the love and civil favour of people that he might gain more advantages to save their souls Yet still this good Ministers condition will of all mens in Engl. be most miserable for while he is daily doing his duty and doing it well with meekness of wisdome with good conscience and discretion yet he shall be sure to contract many enemies without a cause Many that are meere strangers to him will hate him out of anti-ministeriall Antipathies and Epidemick principles which are so rife and in fashion
son Henry the eighth into Gods vineyard for the work office and honour of a Church-man Now a Gentleman of the first head disdaines it a Yeoman disputes it If the Fathers piety can digest to make the meanest of his sons a Minister the Mothers tenderness dreads it if the good Mothers zeal devotes the poor youth to that perpetuall servitude yet the Fathers prudence and policy rather chuseth for him a life of more activity ease peace pleasure and honour if it be but to make him as the last refuge a common trouper or a foot-souldier who may in time over-awe the best Bishop and Minister in a County yea a whole Diocese and association of them if Ministers shrink the next ten years as they have done of late Nor may any wise men that wish well to their Countrey and the Church of England ever flatter themselves that one man of a thousand who hath good abilities of mind or any competent estate sufficient to redeem himself from the servilities of poverty and popularity will ever condemne himself in a monastick or melancholy humour to be a Minister The old stocks already are dwarft in great part or hewn down and generally they will be but shrubs on which the Ministry hereafter will be grafted in a foile and age that growes so barren stingy ungenerous unbenigne to them Possibly there may be now and then an heroick resolution in a Gentleman of worth for family parts and estate to assert the honour of his Saviour and the declining dignity of his blessed Ministry by undertaking holy orders but these are rare birds and will be Phoenixes in after-ages not more admirable than commendable indeed when they come in at the right doore of Catholick ordination and Apostolick succession which are the visible seales of Divine Authority and Commission conferred of old even from the first age by none that ever I read without Episcopall power and precedency which immediately succeeded the Apostles in that ordinative and gubernative eminency which I believe was to be ordinary and constant in the Churches Oeconomy both to preserve an orderly polity and to confer holy orders with due that is Divine authority in an uninterrupted succession But where a childs portion must be wholly raised by a mans own industry and Gods blessing upon his employment in the Ministry O how cruell will those parents seem to their sons at years of discretion when once they come to tast and drink deep of that cup of gall and vinegar tenuity and contempt which some mens charity designes to mix for Ministers How will such poor and despised Preachers all their tedious and necessitous lives condemn and in the bitterness of their souls sometime be ready to curse as Job and Jeremiah did the dayes of their birth that preposterous zeal and pitiless piety which bred them up with no small care cost and pains onely to condemn them to the pulpits as to the gallies of plebeian slavery and necessity when they shall by wofull experience find that all their costly learning and education their ingenious parts and excellent abilities have made them like the sacrifices of old adorned with ribbands and garlands that they may with the greater pomp and solemnity be slain by popular insolency when parents devoting their hopefull sons to the service of the Church is to prefer them to labour and sorrow to pains and poverty to scorn and shame to vulgar contempt and contradiction Which very unpleasing and horrid apparitions of all manner of discouragements have of later years so evidently damped and discouraged many worthy men that not onely very hopefull scholars have diverted their studies to any other design than that of Divinity and the Ministry but few parents who can find any other way to dispose of their sons are so unnaturall as to expose them to that sad fate which they see attends every Minister that dares own the right way of acquiring and exercising the sacred authority of that function Certainly Origens juvenile impatience not to be a Martyr was not many degrees above the resolution of those young men who will now adventure to be Ministers in England upon a good and Catholick account which equally abhors plebeian petulancy popular dependency and uncatholick novelty And to hope that common people will in time grow better-natur'd toward Ministers by enjoying whatever liberties they list to arrogate or indulge to themselves in Religion is so high a presumption as is next door to despair unless it can be imagined that mankind naturally enemies to God and all grace will of themselves learn to value their souls and their eternall interests which are so remote from their senses as much as they do their bodies and estates or that they will look upon Divines and Ministers as no less necessary for their good than Lawyers and Physicians are whose fees and entertainments tell the world that men willingly or necessarily bestow many pounds in order to secure their bodily health and wealth when they miserably and basely grudge at three half-pence spent upon their Ministers and their souls on which to bring men to set a due value hath been in all ages the chief end of true Religion the great work of all the Prophets Apostles holy Bishops and godly Ministers yea the main design next the divine glory of God himself and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Men are miserably betrayed to themselves when they are suffered to live at that liberty or looseness which will certainly debase despise and damn their souls Which sad events being chiefly imputable to common peoples own folly and madness yet will those men be highly responsible for them in whose power it was either to teach them better or to restrain them from those profligate humours by which prodigal and poor wretches are prone to destroy as well as to despise both their Ministers and themselves whom to perswade to a true value and reverence of themselves is an high point of Philanthropy and Theologie of charity and piety of humanity and Divinity which foundation once well laid would soon recover the decayed and desolating condition of Ministers who will never be valued loved or rewarded proportionably to their worth labours and dignity untill men think they have infinite need of them yea more need than of the most learned and honest Lawyers or the most faithfull Physicians who have so great an influence yea empire upon mankind because men sensibly feel and find the want of them which they do not of their able Ministers every prating intruder being enough to serve their turn But I have done with the causes and occasions the instances and evidences of the decayes and deformities of Religion in the Church of England which chiefly rising from the licentiousness of people and the inordinateness of Ministers have been the main subject of this second Book BOOK III. SETTING FORTH THE EVIL CONSEQUENCES Felt or feared from the Distractions of RELIGION in ENGLAND CHAP. I. HAving in the FIRST BOOK
as to question the usual and approved practise of it from all times which S. Austin so vehemently affirmes that in his Epistle to Volusia he sayes The custom of our Mother the Church in baptizing Infants as it is not to be neglected as superfluous so nor would it have been either practised or believed unlesse it had been so delivered by the Apostles as their undoubted sense and practise which Pelagius did not yea could not with any colour deny as S. Austin observes though it had much served his design about original sin if he could in that point have baffled the credit custome and authority of the Catholick Church which S. Cyprian who lived in the second Century so beyond all cavill or scruple so industriously and fully sets down that if there were no other testimonies of the Ancients that alone would satisfie any sober man being written not upon any heat of dispute but calmly and clearly as of a matter ever done and never under dispute in the Church to his dayes But I have in this part done more than I designed in order to advance not strifes and further contention but Christian peace and charity on all sides in this Church and Nation as to those religious differences which are a great occasion of our miseries CHAP. XIV FRom the Deformities Divisions and Degeneration of Religion also the Falsifications Usurpations and Devastations which of later years have been made by the violent sort of Anabaptists and other furious Sectaries against the Unity and Authority the Sanctity and Majesty of the Church of England destroying its Primitive Order and Apostolick Government its Catholick Succession its holy Ordination its happy and most successfull Ministry to the great neglect and contempt of all holy ministrations and duties of Religion I cannot but further intimate to your piety and prudence O my honoured Countrey-men that which is most notorious and no lesse dangerous both in religious and civil respects namely the great Advantages Applauses and Increases which the Roman or Papal party daily gain against the Reformed Religion as it was once wisely honourably and happily established professed and maintained here in England which is now looked upon by the more subtill superstitious and malicious sort of Papists as deformed divided dissolved desolated so conclamate for dead that they fail not with scorn to boast that in England we have now no Church no Pastors no Bishops no Presbyters no true Ministry no holy Ministrations no Order no Unity no Authority no Reverence as to things Divine or Ecclesiastick Insomuch that we must in this sad posture not onely despair of ever getting ground against the Romanists by converting any of them from the errours of their way to the true Reformed Religion but we must daily expect to lose ground to the Popish party and their Proselytes there being no banks or piles now sufficient to keep the Sea of Rome from over-flowing or undermining us in order to advance their restlesse interests which have been and still are mightily promoted not by the reverend Bishops and the other Episcopal Clergie who are men of Learning Piety Prudence and Martyr-like constancy as some men with more Heat than Wit more Spite than Truth have in their mechanick and vulgar Oratory of late miserably and falsely declaimed but by those who have most done the Popes work while they have seemed most furiously to flie in the Popes face as popularly zealous against Popery and yet at the same time by a strange giddinesse headinesse and madnesse they have risen up against that Mother-Church which bare them and those Fathers in it who heretofore mightily defended them and theirs from the talons and gripes of that Roman Eagle and this not with childish scufflings or light skirmishings to which manner of fight the illiterate weaknesse and rudenesse of our new Masters and Champions hath reduced those Controversies but with such a Panoply or compleat Armour of proof such sharp Weapons such ponderous Engines such rare dexterity of well-managed Powers raised from all Learning both Divine and Humane that the high places and defences of Rome were not able to stand before them heretofore when they were battered by our Jewels our Lakes our Davenants our Whites our Halls our Mortons our Andrews and the late invincible Usher who deserved to be Primate not onely of Ireland but of all the Protestant Forces in the world All these were Bishops Worthies of the first three seconded in their ranks by able and orderly Presbyters as Whitakers Perkins Reynolds Whites Crakanthorps Sutliffs and innumerable others while our Regiments were orderly our Marchings comely and our Forces both united and encouraged Whereas now there is no doubt but the mercilesse mowing down and scattering of the Clergie of England like Hay with the withering and decay of Government Regularity and Order in this Church these have infinitely contributed to the Papall harvest and Romish agitations the gleanings of whose Emissaries will soon amount to more than the sheaves of any the most zealous and reformed Ministers in England By the Papall interests and advantages I doe not mean the Roman Clergies preaching or propagating those Truths of Christian Doctrine Duties which for the main they profess in common with us and all Christian Churches if any of them be thus piously industrious I neither quarrell at them nor envy their successes but rather I should rejoyce in them with S. Paul because however Christ crucified is preached by some whom common people will either more reverence or sooner believe than they generally doe the decayed despised divided Ministers of Engl. who seem to have many of them so small abilities and carrying so little shew or pretence of any good authority for their work ministeriall nor can they be potent or esteemed abroad who are so impotent and disesteemed at home But I mean that Papall Monarchy or Ecclesiasticall Tyranny by which the Church or rather the Court of Rome by such sinister Arts and unjust Policies as were shamefully used and discovered in the Tridentine conventicle seeks to usurp and continue an imperiall power over all Churches and Bishops as if there had been but one Apostle or one Apostolick Church planted in the world also to corrupt abuse that ancient Purity Simplicity and Liberty of Religion which was preserved among Primitive Churches and their coordinate Bishops Further without fear of God or reverence of man opposing some Divine Truths and undoubted institutions of Christ also imposing such erroneous Doctrines and superstitious Opinions upon all Christians to be believed and accordingly practised as become not the severity and sanctity of true Religion adding to that holy foundation which was indeed first laid by the great Apostles and continued happily for many hundred years by the successive Bishops of Rome those after superstructures not of ceremonies onely which are tolerable many of them like feathers making but little weight in Religion but of corrupt Doctrines and
superstitious Duties as seem at best impertinent to true Piety but some of them are erroneous sacrilegious pernicious In some things they are boldly adding to or detracting from the Doctrine and Institutions of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ in other things they impose for sacred and necessary such opinions and customes which are but the rust and drosse the disease and deformity of Christian Religion contracted in the long ignorance darknesse and almost barbarity of times which God winked at but now they appear highly and justly scandalous yea intolerable to more judicious and lesse credulous Christians who are very sensible not onely of that offence which many Papal Injunctions and Observations give to themselves as Christians but also to the very Heathens to Jewes and to Mahometans who cannot reconcile in any Reason or Religion the Idolatrous use of Images and Hoasts among Papists to which they must submit if they will be in communion with them or converted to be Christians nor yet those Tridentine Terrours and Anathema's of eternall damnation which are thundered by them against all those who will not against Christs expresse Word own as Truth and submit to as necessary those opinions and practises among Papists which seem either impious or impertinent as to true Faith and a good Conscience Against all which burthens too heavy for any wise and generous Christians to bear when once duly informed of the weight danger of them and duly reformed from them as the great Wisdom Piety and Order of the Ch. of Engl. in its sacred Ministry and holy Ministrations was heretofore the greatest barre and bulwark in all the Christian world so the disadvantages of the Reformed Religion are now so palpable and the danger of the people of this Nation as so obvious in their returning to that Egypt and Babylon again which is not the Church of Rome but its disease and oppression that I know not in ordinary providence any means can be used or is left to stop the daily prevalencies of Popery and the great Apostasie of England to the Romish superstition and subjection in after-times unlesse God stir up such Wisdome Zeal and Care in those that have honest hearts joyned with publick power and influence not so much to fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary exactions which is to set Religion to sale and to make merchandize of mens errours rather than fairly to perswade and win them by the proper and perswasive engines of true Religion but rather duly to restore and speedily assert the Honor Order Succession Unity Authority and Majesty of this Reformed Church and its Catholick Ministry from which when the Papists see our selves to be such profound Revolters with what face can we expect they should ever come in to our Reformation which they now behold with joyfull and disdainfull eyes so mangled so deformed so massacred by our own hands How can we with Justice Honour or Humanity inflict severe penalties upon Papists as refusing to conform to our Church and Religion when they protest with so much truth to our faces they cannot see any Church any Religion among us as uniform publick authentick constant What they say formerly had the goodliest figure and fairest presence of a Christian Church and the best Reformed of any is now deformed ruined demolished nothing but scattered rafters and pieces of that ship-wreckt vessel now appear floating up and down in a restless and foming sea of faction opposition and confusion between Bishops Ministers and People some are Episcopal others Presbyterian a third sort Independent all are disparate or opposite in Discipline some are Heterodox in Doctrine the Anabaptists rise against all and the Quakers soare above all To which of all these with many other Sects shall an honest-hearted Papist apply himself to be safe and setled in Religion If to the poor and depressed remaines of Bishops and the Episcopall Clergie who yet adhere to the Church of England alas they are weak and exhausted contemned by many pitied by some but asserted by few or none according to their true merit in former ages or their present Worth Courage Constancy and Patience in this If the Romanists go to the Presbyterian party which like small shoots sprang out so thick in England upon the cutting down of Episcopacy to which they all formerly submitted these besides their Levity Parity and Inconstancy as to their former Stations Opinions and Oaths seem so unseasonably insolent and magisterially domineering before they had got a full and just dominion that all sober men think them rather popular plebeian impertinent in their heats transports passions than so modest wise and grave as becomes those who will undertake to wrest Government out of the hands of their superiours and betters every way and to impose a novelty of untried and undesired Discipline upon such a great and stout Nation as England is which disdaining the insolency of Popes and offended at the indiscretion of some Bishops will hardly ever bear the pertnesse of petty Presbyters who cannot want Vanity Impudence and Arrogancy when they fancy themselves in a supremacy of Power above People Parlaments and Princes for they affect no lesse as Christs due and theirs too If the tossed Romanists run to the spruce and self-conceited Independents for shelter because these fine new Masters seem to have patents for Christian Liberty and urge a Magna Charta from Christ to be accountable to none in matters of Religion but their own little Congregation Church or Body in which as in an Ecclesiastick Corporation or free Burrough of Religion they may hang and draw exercise high and low Justice upon mens souls as they list in their little Conventicles yet here the poor Papist finds so much of a rude and exotick novelty such a grosse shew of Schisme such variety such an inconsistency such a plebeian petulancy such pitiful and ridiculous affectations and arrogating of Church-power in some of the plebs and such contempt of it in others that he cannot think it is other than some pieces of Josephs bloody coat or some torn limbs of his body compared to what Splendour Order Strength Beauty Unity Decency and Majesty in Doctrine and Discipline in Faith and holy Duties was formerly to be observed even to the envy admiration of sober Papists in the Church of England how much more in the Ancient and Catholick Churches grand Combinations from which these petty fractions and crumblings of Christians seem most abhorrent and dissonant This goodly Cedar then of the Church of England being thus broken and hewn down and nothing like it or comparable to it planted in its room but such Shrubs and Mushromes as grow of themselves out of the ranknesse of the earth vulgar humours and passions under whose shade any Egyptian Vermine Frogs or unclean Birds may hide themselves no wonder if the Papists triumph in their sufferings and constancies if they despise all our Presbyterian Independent Anabaptistick and fanatick Novelties if they
most industriously promote such a Christian and Catholick accord as were most for the honour of Christ and the peace of Christendome I know the youthfull fervours of some are jealous of all such motions and for fear of seeming luke-warme they resolve to boyle over all bounds till they quench both Truth and Charity among Christians and make way for Atheisme Turcisme Confusion and Barbarity These hotter heads possibly dread what I calmly desire that such a grand Catholick Convention of able Ecclesiasticks in these Western Churches might by the consent of Princes and chief Magistrates be so orderly convened with Freedome Impartiality and due Authority as might enable them to consent in one Canon or rule of Faith and good manners that the clear and concurrent sense of Scriptures might be owned by all in which all things necessary are contained either literally or by just deductions that what is dark or dubious should be left indifferently to Christians use and judgements that all would agree in the same ancient fundamentall Articles of Faith contained in primitive Creeds also in the same Sacraments or holy Mysteries to be devoutly celebrated so in the same way of good works to be practised that we might all have the same Catechise the same publick Liturgies so composed that all Christians might with Faith and Charity say Amen to them and in their severall Languages understand them that a Commentary on Scriptures and Sermons containing all Christian necessary Doctrine might be agreed upon that neither curiosities nor controversies should be couched in publick Prayers or Preachings that all might enjoy the same Catholick Source and course of Ecclesiastick Ordination Ministry and Authority so tempering Government and Discipline in the Church that none should justly think others too much exalted nor themselves too much depressed that Catholick Customes ancient Ceremonies and Traditions truly such being consonant to Gods Word and practically interpreting the meaning of it might be observed by all leaving yet such freedome in other things to particular Churches as might be most convenient yet still subordinate to and to be regulated by the judgement of such a General Council contrary to which none should affect extravagant liberty to the ruine of Christian Charity Blessed Lord What good Christian could be injured by such a Christian accord in the main concernments of Religion which cannot be impossible in the nature of the thing because it was of old enjoyed and many hundreds of years generally preserved among all Christians and Churches of any name and repute in all the world Nor did either the heat of Persecution or Prosperity as warm and soultry weather dispirit this charity of Christians who might still be as capable subjects of so great a blessing from God on earth if Passion Prejudice Partiality and private interests on all hands were laid aside without parting with any true and reall interest that concerns a wise or good man either in Conscience or Honour in civil or religious regards CHAP. XVIII WHich blessed accord so good and so pleasant to behold how much more to enjoy being not onely possible but most desirable and commendable among all good Christians two great Impediments or obstructions seem to me chiefly to hinder as to man besides our ill deservings on all sides at Gods hands which however I do not hope by my weak shoulders to remove they being like the Grave-stone on Christs Sepulchre whose sad and massy weight requires some mighty Angel from heaven to do it yet I cannot but here express my sense of them the more sensibly by how much I see the miserable distractions of the poor Church of England and the advantages given by some mens late immoderations and madnesses to alienate the very best and soberest of the Roman party from all propensity or thoughts of any happy close by reforming and so reconciling the parts of divided and distracted Christendome Which evil effect now more exasperated than ever I here instance in as one of the saddest consequences following the divided dissolved and deplored state of this Church of Engl. which was the grand mirrour or example of Christianity and Reformation from which neither Romanists nor others did so much withdraw by many degrees heretofore as now they do The first great hinderance is that exteme pertinacy and height of those of the Roman party who so much magnifie themselves their chief Bishop their Church and Communion upon the specious names of Antiquity Infallibility and Primacy as if no Church or Christians in the world were to be considered other then as novices ignorants and underlings in comparison of the Roman Name and Majesty Their Antiquity is not denied by sober men but their great Age is evidently attended with many decayes and infirmities which are novelties from which even primitive Churches were not wholly free both as to Humane frailty and Divine reproofs as we read in the Epistles of the Apostles and of Christ to the seven Churches Nor doe I know any priviledge the Roman Church hath above others unlesse they could make good their Infallibility either as to their chief Bishop or as to any Council in which he should preside That their persons have erred in Doctrine and Moralities that they have varied from and clashed against each other in their publick Decrees and Councils yea and from not onely pious Antiquity but the Scripture-verity is so evident in what my self have here lightly touched and others amply demonstrated that no ingenuous and honest Romanist at this day can deny it For the affected Supremacy or Primacy which they so glory in and challenge not onely before but above and over all Churches not as a matter of order and precedency but of power and authority as there is no Law of God which requires this or any Church so farre to own that of Rome or to be subject to it so nor did the ancient Ecclesiastical Lawes and distinctions lay more to the Roman Inspection or Jurisdiction than the Suburbicarian Regions which extended 100 miles from the City That the Roman Bishop was owned as the first or chief Patriarch in Order and Precedency in Place or Vote was not a regard to the persons of the Bishops or their authority as if it were more than other Bishops by any Divine or Humane right but a regard to the pristine Majesty of the City and the Apostolick eminency of that Church in which the two great Apostles S. Peter S. Paul had not onely placed much of their pains but ended their lives Lay aside the Roman pomp and insolency no sober man but will allow the Bishop of Rome his Civil and Ecclesiastical Primacy as King James and other Protestant Princes offered long ago nor would any of the great Reformers Luther or Calvin or Cranmer have grudged this if the Bishop of Rome would have submitted either to a General Council or to the Word of Christ If the Roman Arrogancy will needs claim and usurp more than its due which
of them a great offence for any man to write or preach against this enormous and crying sin of Sacriledge yea many Ministers in other things of hot spirits and sharp tongues yet in this are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mealy-mouth'd of soft and silken tongues and therefore doe not because they dare not in the least sort quetch against this odious sin of Sacriledge Which the very light of Nature abhorred as Parricide and Heathens condemned as the Murther of Parents which the true God implies by his earnest expostulation and sharp redargution to the Jews Will a man rob God that is any man that is not a Beast but ye have robbed me even this whole Nation by acting and assenting for the Sin is not less crying or criminous because a popular or nationall sin The Jews granted it parallel yea superiour to Idolatry as the Apostles Appeal to a mans Conscience inferres Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Idolaters own a God or Gods under the Names and Figures of Idols whom they honour and adorn with costly Temples great Gifts and large Revenues even to a prodigality but Sacrilegists either own no God or they mock their God making a spoyl and sport a play and a prey of their Numen which is the highest indignity can be offered to the Deity as rising from such vile and Atheisticall Principles which worse presume thus to defraud and abuse their God than not at all to own him or deny him Nor have theâ— been wanting such signall strokes of providence in all Ages avenging this Sin even in the eyes of the Heathens that men could not but confesse Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth And certainly as among Christians this sin of Sacriledge is at this day a great scandall to all Jews Mahometans and Heathens so among Protestants or the Reformed Christians it is no less offence to Papists and an obstruction to their Reformation for as Averroes chose rather to bequeath his soul to herd at last with Philosophers than with the Papists who profess to worship and yet to eat their breaden God so many Papists resolve rather to live and die in their liberall superstition than conform to these penurious Reformers who make no scruple to worship and yet to rob their God to steal from him with their hands like holy Cut-purses while they speak to him and look him familiarly in the face as Friends That I may speak my mind freely in this point before I die out of love to my God and Saviour to his Church to my Countrey to the honour of true Reformed Religion and the happinesse of Posterity I confesse this sin of Sacriledge seemes to me as of the greatest magnitude so of the saddest weight and most malignant presage against not onely private Persons and Families but against any Church and Nation that owns the true God and his Son Jesus Christ in their Worship Ministry Order and Service Nothing portends greater Maladies and Plagues of Religion than when this Comet blazeth in any Christian Church or State Commonly great Ebbs of Learning and Religion with great Floods of Ignorance and Atheism do follow when nothing is counted sacred and inviolable when all things are counted godly which are gainfull and reforming which are ravening when upon any civil Fewds and Breaches wherein Church-men cannot but be one way or other involved Lay-men presently think they have as the plunder of War a good title not onely to the Libraries and Lands the personal Goods and Estates of particular Ministers but even to the constant Revenues and perpetual Patrimony wherewith the Church is endowed in the name and right of God Almighty for the Order Honour and Support of his Worship and Service Nor do many covetous wretches make any scruple what they do in this kind if they have an Order under the hands of such as have power in their hands as if any Order or Act of any poor Mortals made but yesterday could either prejudice and annull or out and dispossesse God or his Church or his lawfull Ministers of those just Rights Titles Donations Possessions and Acquisitions which either a Ministers private and honest Industry hath by Gods blessing and the favour of the Laws obtained and no way forfeited or which other mens Piety and Bounty hath humbly and thankfully long ago devoted to God his Church his Service and his Ministers agreeable to the lawes of the Land and the will of God who commands us to honour him with our substance graciously accepts such gratefull oblations from us and precisely forbids us so far to mock him as not to pay our own vowes much more to rob him of the fruits of other mens devotion and vowes whose Donors sealed and confirmed those their Anathamâ—ta holy Gifts and Consecrations to God and his Church with dreadfull execrations and just imprecations of Divine Vengeance on any that shall presume to alienate the Gift from God and violate the last Will of those pious Benefactors who are dead many ages ago Truly I cannot see how either Committees or Souldiers or Parliaments or Princes all of them but momentary poore worms clothed in specious pompous Titles can pretend any good Title or Authority to Gods derogation and diminution who is the Lord Paramount the principal and proprietor in the Churches Estate and in Church-mens publick Goods which they have upon the account of his service as his salary and reward for which his Word is not onely a sufficient Justification to Givers and Enjoyers but it ought to be a sufficient Caution from ever sharking and alienating those things which are not bona caduca mobilia but successiva perpetua momentary and movable goods but ought to be as lasting as true Religion and the Service of God among mankind Nor do I think this execrable sin of Sacriledge more desperate and damnable in its chief Authors first Actors and Abettors dying impenitent that is without restitution than infectious pestilent damageable to Posterity and After-ages who after this example will like Locusts and Caterpillers in time not onely devour all things that are holy and leave nothing but Beggery Contempt Plebeian and Stipendiary Dependency for the Alimony Honor and Encouragement of Gods constant Ministers and holy Ministrations but infinitely discourage all Christian Liberality Gratitude and Munificence from dedicating any thing of setled Emolument to the Service of God and use of his Church which will be in worse condition than the ordinary Hospitals or the Halls and Companies of London who are capable of any Endowments Which I more fear because I find that the most popular panick and compliant Preachers who in all those ruffling times wherein this Sin marched most furiously and triumphantly have had many opportunities to have given some check and stop to it by their preaching or writing before both the great and the many yet not one of all those grand Masters otherwise Boanergesses Sons of
Revenues of Bishops and Cathedrals whose honour was the publick Honour of this Nation of this reformed Church and of every sober Minister grew so masterlesse that they threatned not onely the Livings of Parochiall Ministers but the very Nurseries of Learning the Schools of the Prophets the Colledges and Lands of both Universities which seemed to be spared and reprieved a while by the loud outcries of those men who had there got into the warm nests of other Birds whom they had driven from thence but the wide jawes of some sacrilegious spirits did and do still gape and grin upon these Ecclesiastick and Academick remaining Morsels grudging that they are not satisfied with them nor will they faile to be devoured in a few yeares if persons of Soveraign power and Nobler spirits doe not protect them as hitherto they have done from that ever-craving leech of Sacriledge which lives unsatiably crying Give give in some Lay-mens breasts nor may they be too confident of every Parlament to be their Friends or Defenders A notable alarm and instance of which danger the Lord Herbert gives in the reign of our Henry the 8. who as an Helduo or unsatiable gulph having swallowed up digested and egested as much Treasure and Lands as would have purchased a good Kingdome and maintained it in all equipage both Military and Civil becoming Majesty yet still indigent and necessitous he was offered by the House of Commons in a Parlament toward his later end all the Lands and Houses of the two famous Universities to be confiscated to his Exchecquer by a most mechanick prostitution of the Learning the Honour and the Piety of the Nation But that dreadfull Prince told them not without a just scorn that he had too much of a Scholar in him to destroy two such Universities as the world had not the like And he had so much of a Christian Prince too as not to destroy Bishops and Cathedrals or to take away their Houses and Estates but he rather added to them and erected four new Bishopricks out of the Lands of some Collegiate and Monastick Churches Had he with the same moderation and justice then restored Impropriations to the Church for the competent maintenance of Ministers in all places he had done a work so glorious and usefull to Religion as might have expiated all other his Royall Extravagancies For my part I am confident the just God will visit this sin of Sacriledge upon any Person Family or Nation that are guilty of it nor will the Controversie ever be taken up till either full vengeance or due restitution and redemption be made of what was Gods portion for the Order Honour and Maintenance of his Service and this Church no more than Israel could stand in battel while Achan and the accursed or devoted thing was among them The Safety Honour Peace Plenty Happinesse and chiefly the Piety and Religion of any Nation professing the Name and Worship of the true God all these will fatally decay and be upon not onely great hazards but diminutions and distresses while Professors of Religion and Reformation make God the Father and Christ the Godfather of any Sacriledge as if it were as acceptable a service to them to take away from such a Christian and Reformed Church such meanes as was fit to maintain and anciently devoted to the honour and encouragement of Christs Ministers and Governours of his Church as it was to burn the Chariots and hough the horses of the Sun in pieces 'T is true all that is dedicated to false that is no Gods is an injury and a sacrilegious robbing of the true God therefore those Donations may lawfully in some mens judgements be taken away but none ever allowed true men to be false to the true God to rob and defraud him who is the maker and giver of all Shall Christians grudge to give that to Christ yea and rapine that from him which others have given to him who is the repairer and restorer of all No good Angels can guard those men or that Nation which they see guilty of robbing that good God they professe to worship Certainly Sacriledge is the more notorious sin and of deeper die by how much it is committed among Christians and most where they professe to be most reformed who should best know how much they owe to God how they should value the gift of his Son Jesus Christ to die for them and the feet of his Messengers who preach those glad tidings to poor sinners Nor can I but observe how God hath already visited with no small or light strokes of his vengeance as the whole Nation so in particular the sinfull and shamefull silence even of those Ministers who were so cold cunning and indifferent as to the reproving of Sacriledge and Schism provided they might in other designes gain their processe They and their dictators too have for the most part both in England and Scotland reaped nothing but Shame and Infamy Reproch and Contempt which is the shadow ever following Sacriledge even among honest Heathens and true Christians while they could liberally declaim and lift up their voices like Trumpets in an Oratory not more loud and popular than flat and insipid against a few decent and innocent Ceremonies against a handsome and wholsome Liturgy against learned godly and reverend Bishops farre their betters against Ancient and Catholick Episcopacy which preserved the Order and Unity of the Church but in the great concerns of Gods Glory this Churches Honour the Clergies Maintenance the good of mens souls and the credit of the Christian and Reformed Religion which were all so invaded by a bold and resolute Sacriledge threatning all setled Livings and Maintenance of Ministers and Scholars there they peep and mutter like Obs and Pythons whispering as out of the earth and their bellies not from their hearts more dubiously than the Oracles of Apollo and more obscurely than the Sibyls leaves Thus artificiall are some men at the swallowing of Camels and sticking at Gnats I doe not forespeak or imprecate a further evil day upon any but rather I pray for Personall yea Nationall Repentance Amendment and Pardon without which I am confident God will vindicate his great Name and the name of Jesus Christ together with the Honour and Principles of both Christian and true Reformed Religion from so great a scandal as Sacriledge is against all those men whatever they are their Parties and Posterities who not onely dare to commit it but to connive at it yea commend it yea to boast of it yea impute it to the impulses of Gods spirit to their zeal for Religion and to their aimes at a perfect or through Reformation After all which noise and rattle God knowes much is more deformed than ever in Religion both as to the Polity and power of it the outward Order and inward Efficacy nothing truly reformed by robbing the Church but onely the tenuity of some mens former fortunes If the persons of
and trade in Sacriledge-alley that Church-lands afford as good Crops and Rents as any other that many prosper under this imaginary curse which is rather in Church-mens fretfull fancies than in Gods displeasure that if it be a sin in the first Alienators yet the after-Purchasers are not concerned in the guilt many of them thriving and leaving their substance to their children My answer is It is very true as King John scoffingly said That Stagg may be fat which never heard Masse Belshazzar might drink pleasant Wine out of the Vesssels of the Temple many Pirates as the ancient Moralists observed had fair winds after they had pillaged the Temples of their Gods many enjoy the warm sun who are out of Gods blessing without which not onely leanenesse enters into mens souls amidst their greatest worldly enjoyments but terrour also sooner or later seizeth on them No mans Estate can be justly esteemed prosperous which lies obnoxious to Gods curse as theirs expresly doth Mal. 3.9 even to an whole Nation who are robbers of God Without he continuall feast of a good conscience fulnesse it self becomes famine No man can with comfort build or dwell· there where the beams and stones out of the wall cry against him as a sacrilegious invader or possessor There must needs be gravell between those teeth which eat that bread which belongs to the nourishment of those who ought to feed the flock of Christ I am sure no sacriledge can at present enjoy a secure and serene title before God and for the future it is in many instances to be verified vix gaudet tertius haeres such estates seldome descend and if they do are seldome enjoyed with Blessing and Comfort by the third heirs whose teeth are set on edge by those sower grapes which their fathers have eaten A Serpent doth sometime or other bite the hand head or heart of such who break down the hedge and fence of Gods Church and Vineyard which cannot be duly dressed if Gods Husbandmen the Pastors and Ministers be weakened and impoverished with whose spoiles as I resolve by Gods grace never to be enriched either by Purchase or Gift upon any terms so I wish the like resolution to all my friends as a Father I do impose it by way of solemn charge upon my posterity lesse arbitrary than that injunction of drinking no Wine observed by the Rechabites that they never buy or accept any thing which they find is by any pretence power or presumption whatsoever alienated from Gods Right or the Churches Patrimony that is such things as have according to the Evangelical tenour of Gods will and Word been dedicated or given to Gods glory and worship either in piety or charity either for the maintenance and support of Christs Ministers in particular or for the general honor polity order and government of them and the whole Church which is in my judgement as sacred and inviolable both in Equity and Charity Honour and Humanity as what is once and so irrevocably if lawfully given by way of almes to the poor for this concerns but the momentary the other the eternall life of poor mortals In earnest no Religion can be carried on with due reputation which turns godlinesse into unjust gain or makes secular advantages by perverting of things devoted to Divine uses to spirituall and sacred ends of which sin I fear too many in England have been and still are guilty both as actors and abettors under the name and pretence of I know not what Reformation But men of Consciences rather Legall than Evangelicall will be ready to object in behalf of such Proprietors as have given valuable prices rather than good consideration for such Revenues as have been alienated in the heat and roughnesse of times from the Church as Amaziah King of Judah did to the man of God What shall I doe for the hundred talents which I have given c. What shall Purchasers do to have recompence who have adventured their Estates in such Bargains upon publick justice Protection and faith Must they be wholly losers of their bargaines yea and must their money like Magus's perish with them as will follow if they hold not what they have thus bought My Answer is First many of them had such Bargains as they can be no great losers if they should freely restore the peeled and remaining Lands to the Church as it might perhaps lessen their Profit a little so possibly it might much encrease their Peace and Comfort But to make the way of Restitution lesse clamorous and most equitably conscientious I humbly conceive that as the publick Purse to save mens secular Estates had the benefit of those Church-confiscations and sales in most expensive thrift which seemes to me lesse commendable and lesse comfortable so the Wisdome Justice Piety and Honour of the Publick shall do worthy of it self to find some such way both to buy in Impropriations and to make such restitutions as may be least oppressive to any particular man which is no very hard work much lesse impossible if mens Hearts were as large and their Purses as free for the means of saving their souls as for their civil safety which every year costs as much as in one yeare for all would in great part effect this most Honourable Just and Religious work of restoring to God his Ministers and his Church those things which fall under so dubious a title at best that few Lawyers of Learning and Conscience can find salvoes sufficient to satisfie those grand Objections which Reason Scripture Ecclesiasticall and Imperiall Laws make against the dispossessing any Church of those Donations and Enjoyments which are Gods in chief CHAP. XXIV WHat sober wise and wary Christian not wholly carried down the stream of Envy and an evil Covetousnesse can henceforth wonder to see those of the Roman party obstinate in their errours and hating to be reformed while they see Reformation thus marching like Jehu furiously looking in every quarter for the prey and spoiles of the Church as if it were carried on not by the meeknesse and bounty of primitive Christians and Pious Princes such as Constantine Theodosius Valentian and others of former times but by Achmats and Selimusses by Saracens Tartars Turks and Crabats men like evening-wolves devouring all they can rap and rend from the Church where ever they prevaile such spirits of burning which like flaming fire leave all things like a parched heath and barren wildernesse behind them which they found well planted and watered beautifull and plentifull like the Garden of God while the Church enjoyed its nursing fathers and carefull preservers of its Polity and Support its Order and Honour its Revenues and Rights both Humane and Divine The Ecclesiasticks of the Roman party are not onely very numerous but many of them persons of noble families excellent breeding great learning generous spirits and choice abilities for Affaires civil and sacred every way as well meriting
for Reformation of Religion which was in effect no more than the setting up of a sole soveraign and absolute Presbytery A novelty in any other Reformed Church whose necessity rather than choice drave them upon it but in England it seemed a meer insolency yet how was it now to be seen flourishing with the Scotch sword in one hand and the Covenant in the other How was it heightened by the name and reputation of Parlament How was it to be Christened and adopted to Christ in England by an Assembly of Divines who were indeed rather the Gossips and Witnesses than the Fathers or begetters of this alien which was rather a Scotch Runt than of true English breed For most if not all the new Patrons and God-fathers of Presbytery both Gentlemen and Clergy-men had formerly sworn to or subscribed or asserted or at least cheerfully submitted to the ancient legall and Episcopall Government of the Church of England From which they were so suddenly passionately warped and partially inclined to Presbytery that although my self were by I know not what sleight of hand shuffled out of that Assembly to which I was as fully chosen as any and never gave any refusall to sit with them further than my judgement was sufficiently declared in a Sermon preached at the first sitting of the Parlament to be for the ancient and Catholick Episcopacy yet the Zeal of some men to put Presbytery into its throne and exercise was such that I was twice sent to by some members of both Houses and summoned by the Committee of the County where I live to preach at the consecration and installing of this many headed Bishop the new Presbytery which work I twice and so ever humbly refused to do as not having so studied its Genealogy and descent as to be assured of the legitimation right and title of sole Presbytery to succeed nay to remove its ancient Father Episcopacy not as then quite dead nor I think fully deposed Yet such was the double diligence then of many English Divines men otherwise of usefull abilities that they did as officiously attend on the Scotch Commissioners to set up Presbytery and to destroy Episcopacy as the maid is wont in pictures to wait on Judith wâ—th a bag for Holofernes his head Besides this Presbytery had then fortified it self with a speciall piece of policy in order to its prevalency and perpetuity which was to engage the better sort of common people or the Masters of every Parish and so in effect the whole Populacy to that party by indulging them as Mr. Calvin did in Geneva a formall or titular share of Consistorian or Ecclesiasticall power under the glorious name of Ruling Elders on whom as on lesse comely members they were pleased to bestow more abundant honour at least in words for few of them could really be fit for or ever capable to use any actuall authority beyond that of Sides-men Constables Church-wardens or Overseers for the poor Yet must the Divine Authority even of these pillars to Presbytery be set up though it stands but on tip-toes and as it were upon one leg favoured but by one Text of Scripture and not one example either in Scripture or all Antiquity for a thousand yeares and more as learned Mr. Chibald proved in that excellent work of his which was very seasonably for the design but not very honestly embezled by some fast friends to Presbytery as I have other where complained How loth were many men as they still are to understand that the Apostle St. Paul in that single place could not according to that Spirit of wisdom which appeares in al his writings there institute two distinct sorts of Elders but he onely notes those different degrees of ability industry and merit which might be in some of the same kind and order some being as Preachers and Bishops Pastors and Rulers fixed to particular charges and congregations others with greater zeal paines and hazards following neerer the Apostles steps in watering what they had but newly planted among the first converted Nations yea and in further new planting the Gospel among the Gentiles which was the great work of the principall Pastors Elders or Bishops in those times The Apostle too well understood the proportions of justice and remuneration to give the same double honour that is equall maintenance and reverence from the Churches to those whose paines in them must be so vastly different as well as their abilities the work of their supposed ruling but not preaching Elders being no way comparable in Reason or Religion to the work and worth of those that duly preach and plant the Gospell The ruling part as it was assigned them by these new dividers of Church-Government was such as required no great time or paines nor great abilities which if required could not easily be had in most Country-congregations much lesse in primitive times among the poor and for most part Plebeian Christians besides the office doth so much gratifie most Lay-mens small ambitions to be in office and so little hinders their other trades that they cannot be thought to deserve any great reward much lesse double that is equall honour to him that expends most of his time Spirits and talents in preparing and employing himself for the Preaching Ministery which will constantly exercise the best of his power and abilities If these Ruling Elders must have equall honour as to maintenance with Preachers the Church is undone for it cannot afford it If Preachers must have no more maintenance or respect than these Lay-Elders will deserve Preaching-Elders or Ministers are undone for they must either starve or tack other callings to the Ministry to patch up a livelyhood What is further brought froÌ„ Helps and Governments to help Preaching Elders to the Government in common and Rustick or Lay-Elders to a share with them seemes to me to have as little force to convince any sober mans judgement or perswade their consciences to submit to the novelty of them as that argument used by a good old woman had to confute them who being urged by a young Presbyter for the better countenancing of his autority to submit her self to the Examination and Jurisdiction of these Elders which were news to her She replyed rather very resolutely than rationally No by no meanes she would not be subject to them because she had both heard and read that Elders were Apocryphall and would have ravished Susanna But in earnest these Ruling Elders were in prudence not in conscience in reason of State not of Religion in Policy not Piety first added to the consistory at Geneva meerly to appease and please the unsetled people who having tumultuarily driven out their Bishop and Prince now upon the Essayes or new modellings of Church and State would not be quiet till Calvin allowed them some that might seem Tribunes of the people in Courts Ecclesiastick as well as Civil T is true Lay-Elders have been continued and used there and other where after that
impart the best of my thoughts my humblest suggestions faithfullest counsels and tenderest cares in order to their happinesse no lesse then my own who am infinitely solicitous and passionately concerned what becomes of the Ark of God of the true reformed Christian Religion in England jealous lest the Philistines take it and with it the glory of our Israel I know it may be retorted upon me That nothing is easier than to complain of others nothing harder than to mend ones self That censors of Epidemick disorders make themselves publick enemies and subject to ostracisme on all sides That both Prince and people Magistrates and subjects are prone to interpret such representations for reproches of them as if they were defective in their counsels and cares of Religion also as arrogancies in any private man to seem either more sensible of or more solicitous for or more consultive in order to those great and publick concernments which no wise men can faile to discern no good man forbear to remedy as far as is in his power That it is not so much an heroick as an inordinate charity or indiscreet zeal for any man to discompose his own tranquillity by importuning others to be better than they like to be or to do better than the distemper of times will give them leave that neither Magistrates nor Ministers are to be blamed or traduced as defective in their duties because they are not presently masters of peoples petulancies nor can suddenly command that great Ship to steere about and obey the Rudder of Reason and Religion which hath lately been carryed violently away as by the sway of its own ponderous bulk so by the fiercenesse of mighty and contrary winds also by the fatality of those secret but irresistible tides of Providence when Divine Justice and vengeance hath struck in with humane passions and transgressions at once to use them and to punish them I am so far from reproching any that are in power and those least who are in greatest place that in earnest I pity them for what they cannot act as effectually as I charitably presume they soberly design and desire in respect of that Christian unity and harmony of Religion which every wise and good man must needs be unfeignedly ambitious to enjoy and promote The obstructions of which arise not from depraved and dangerous State-policies as some suspect purposely fomenting Divisions in Religion which no prudent Governour but sees cause to feare and will study to avoid but from those head-strong furies and animosities which accompany the vulgar when once like Stone-horses got loose from their stalls traice and bridles they find themselves at such a liberty as is beyond the switch or spur the curb or whip of their riders and governours whose riotous and boysterous courses are hardly to be stopped till they have either tired or intangled or hurt or confounded and overthrown themselves and others till which time it is not safe for their Keepers to come too neer their wanton heels or forcibly to reduce them like wild Asses and Unicorns to their wonted stations and cribs Nor is perhaps the dilatory cautiousnesse of wise men herein to be blamed so much as commended while they temporize for some time with the Populacy till experience of their own folly disorders dangers and miseries hath taught them how much safer they are under other mens orderly restraints and government than their own licentious choice and freedoms as in Civil so in Religious Concernments I believe the mutuall feuds jealousies and animosities in England among the divided Factions in Religion have hitherto been so eagerly bent to advance themselves and to depresse their rivalls that it hath been a work of great Prudence no lesse than Policy so far to balance them till Time had discovered to them their common deformities and dangers by their disagreements and defeats besides the generall decay and mutuall debasing of what each highly pretends to advance The Reformed Religion Nor doe I doubt but those Powers and Counsels under which Providence hath at present subjected our Civil and Ecclesiastick Interests will so far with favour interpret my endeavours and accept of them as they must needs appear to all sober men onely studious to serve the publick good and not to advance any private interest or particular party in Religion Nor shall I be taxed I hope for self-conceited and too presumptuous as if I supposed all men to be blind or dim-sighted besides my selfe while I offer them this Collyrium or Eye-salve No I know my own obscurity tenuity and infirmity Nor doe I here offer my own private sense so much as the generall votes prayers hopes and expectations of all moderate and impartial men so far as I have been able to observe the pulse of their hearts and desires of their soules yea many such as have heretofore highly engaged for or against any faction during the transports of their first fits and Paroxysmes even these being grown now much cooler and better composed in their spirits doe seem to breathe after nothing so earnestly as some such happy composure of our religious distractions as may most advance the generall interests of the Christian and Reformed Religion against the common enemies of both and therein so secure their respective and particular priviledges or innocent immunities in point of Conscience as may least tempt them to fear the being opressed by others or by way of revenge to seek the oppressing of any others that would lead a godly and peaceable life What good Christian that lists not to be Atheistically profane what honest Protestant that cannot comply with the Roman errors and insolencies doth not deplore the scratches the wounds the blood-sheds the deformities the decayes the deaths which the Reformed Religion hath lately suffered here in England Who is so brain-sick or barbarous as not to see that our common safety is in our religious unity that our civill honour and happinesse cannot be secure untill established upon the pillars of Christian purity and harmony To this mark I presse thus hard at this design I earnestly drive this is the prize I ayme at during the remaine of my short race in this world as I know I do not run alone so I hope I shall not run in vain but being assisted with Gods gracious Spirit which is full of meeknesse and wisdome I trust I shall enjoy the concurrent suffrages good wills and prayers of all those that wish the prosperity of true Religion and these British Nations To poure in the balm of Gilead with the more order into the wounds of this Church and its Reformed Religion I shall first set forth the confessed difficulty of the work I mean the closing and healing of Religious breaches in any Church or Nation where once differences are exasperated and not onely mens opinions and passions but their civill interests and secular designs seem engaged Secondly I shall shew the necessity of some happy composure 1. in respect of Religion as
are safest healed by lenitive purgations rather than cold applications outwardly Factions in Religion like Fistula's or running sores in foule bodies are in least pain and danger when they have some vent allowed them by which the venemous humours may leisurely spend themselves and those pestilent opinions which carry with them pernicious practices so drain away as most keeps them from recoyling upon the head heart or other noble parts All sudden skinning over or closing of the orifices by which those sharp humours are obstructed but not purged is very dangerous and diffusive of the mischief making the source of the malignity to flow higher if it be not drawn away by such gentle dieticks or healing applications as strengthning the sound parts assisting the weak and purging the disaffected enables them by little and little to cast out what ever was unsound in them and noxious to them Nothing makes the nestitutions of true but decayed and divided Religion more difficult in any Nation than those mutuall corruptions and passions those animosities and transports which disaffect both the People as Patients and many times the Magistrates and Ministers as Physitians And nothing renders that work more facile and feisable than that calmnesse moderation and temper which ought alwayes to be in Physitians whatever violent fits and distempers appear in the Patients Governours in Church and State must ever expect such distempers in peoples minds especially when they are touched upon the tender place of their Religion with which mens consciences seem so vehemently to sympathize that Reformers had need carefully to furnish themselves with such meeknesse of wisdome as is the best antidote for their own security and against the others malady Then there will be hopes of healing in Religion not when Toleration or indulgence is granted to all opinions and professions which list to christen themselves but when such a publick way of solid and sincere Religion both as to doctrine and practice is seriously debated duly prepared publiquely agreed upon and solemnly established as carryes with it most of cleare Scripture-precept and Saintly pattern in faith and manners in vertues and graces in duties and devotions in order and authority in honesty and charity with the greatest uprightnesse and impartiality towards God and man However Epidemick contagions may for a time be permitted something of necessary connivence that they may more freely breathe out themselves yet this great remedy and soveraign medicine in due time ought to be applyed which consists in the owning and establishing of such a Religion as hath in it whatever is holy necessary usefull comely and commendable in any of the pretending parties This once approved and fixed by grave counsell and publique advice of all Estates as the Standard of the publique profession and practice of Religion being also asserted and propagated by Preachers of most indisputable authority of pregnantest abilities and of most exemplary lives orderly and unanimously agreeing among themselves hereby meriting and enjoying the double honour of publique respect and maintenance these gentle rationall and wholsome methods of Religion will certainly in a few years by Gods blessing either drein or drive out by secret and gentle workings all those pestilent distempers in Religion which vulgar minds by a corrupted Liberty as by a licentious and foule diet have contracted to the great disorder and deformity of any Church or Nation professing Christianity For in a short time such as are truly consciencious by the fear of God and love of true Religion will cease to be either pertinacious or contentious or factious or inconstant when they are convinced of so excellent a way as they cannot but conclude to be safe since it is holy and true sober and setled comely and charitable Others that are meer Politicians in Religion either formall Pharisees or false hypocrites or fawning Parasites ready to change and comply with any party and perswasion in order to secular advantages even these will soon give over their factious agitations their pragmatick sticklings and popular sidings and shiftings in Religion when once they find which way the wind or stream of publique favour and civill interest doe drive The Mils of Factions in Religion will soon give over their motions when once they perceive no grist of Profit or stream of Preferment or breath of vulgar Applause is brought in to them There is no wonder to be made at those late sad and mad extravagancies which of later yeares have prevailed against the reformed Religion once setled in England while the Majesty and Honour of this Church and State the sanctity of our Lawes Civil and Ecclesiastick the solemnity of Gods publick worship and service the authority and maintenance of his Ministers have all been through our civil broyles and tumults unhappily exposed to infinite arrogancies spoiles contempts and insolencies even of common people while they saw so many prisons and bonds so many sequestrations and silencings so many deaths and dangers attend not onely the Bishops but the Presbyters the chief Preachers and prime Professors on all sides of that reformed Religion which was established in England No wonder if while the populacy see great Preachers and Professors cast so much dirt and spit in each others faces while they suspect that all piety honesty and Christian charity are made to truckle under State Policies and bend to worldly interests no wonder if the vulgar desperately leap into the Sea of confusion and faction out of that ship which they saw not onely so leaky and crazy that it was almost sunk but so set on fire that they despaired to quench it No wonder if they venture upon either inventing what new wayes of Religion they list to fancy or despising all wonted publick formes and professions since they think themselves not onely incouraged but in a sort exemplarily commanded and almost compelled to cast off with scorn that Reformed Profession of Christian Religion which had so great a Name of Wisdome Law Honour and Holinesse Glory and Happinesse as that had which was established in the Church of England never to be mended as to the main and substantials of Religion in Doctrine Worship Discipline Devotion and Government however in some circumstantials something might possibly be altered or added by the sober counsels of wife and peaceable men who had both ability and autority for such a work Whose great difficulty now is chiefly heightned by that popular froth and vanity those animosities and arrogancies those infinite variations and confusions with which vulgar fury and passions have deformed the face divided the body yea almost devoured every joynt and limb of Chiristan and reformed Religion in England 'T is true these will in time very much waste sink and vanish of themselves while one Faction justles crowds and confounds another the new ones as the night-mares insulting and overlaying the Elder But this is onely as the changing of a Captives Chaines this will but bring in religious rabbles or successions of confusions but no
sound recovery or just Redemption and restitution of true Religion and any due Reformation untill people see the publick marks of Divinity autoritatively set upon Religion when it is set forth setled with such Truth and Holinesse such Order and Honour such Bounty and Beauty such Unity and Tranquillity such Favour and Benignity as becomes the Majesty of that profession which imports mans highest relation and union to their God and Saviour If after such a wise restauration and publick establishment of Religion there should still appear some such licentious and disorderly Spirits who like old wild birds are impatient of any restraint and will rather pine away and dye with sullennesse than exchange their fancied freedome for the best cage and food in the world yet it is far more pious and charitable to set just bounds of restraint and check to their affected liberty than to suffer them to injure the publick welfare or hinder the happy settlement of Religion by their heady and endlesse extravagancies from whence arise the greatest difficulties and obstructions which lye in the way of wise men which yet are not so insuperable as to occasion any sober mans despaire or to damp his Prayers or to discourage his worthy endeavours in all which honest industry will whet it self to a greater edge and brightnesse upon the rocks of difficulty which are but the whet-stones of true Christian piety and charity when God shall please to give such just power and faire opportunities as may best answer the necessities and importunities of those publick cases wherein divided and decayed Religion is so highly concerned that nothing is lesse to be dallied delayed or dispensed withall CHAP. III. ANd such indeed to me seemeth the case of Religion as Christian and reformed in England whose necessary restitution and speedy reestablishment to Unity and Uniformity may be justly pressed upon all persons of worth and wisdome in this Nation not onely by softer notions and plausible insinuations but by the most cogent demonstrations and potent perswasions that can be applyed to the minds of Men and Christians as to 1. Conscience 2. Prudence 3. Honor 4. and Gratitude First as to the Conscience of our duty to God and Man in Piety and Charity what I beseech you can be more urgently incumbent upon all good mens Consciences than the publick advantages of Gods Glory and the eternall good of mens soules Both which are highly concerned in the vindication and fixation of true Religion as Christian and as Reformed For the Glory of the great God and the Honor of our blessed Redeemer which ought to be the chiefest designs of every good Christians highest Zeal and best endeavours 't is most evident that nothing tends more to their dishonour and disparagement in the eye of all the world both at home and abroad that when Aliens and Infidells Jewes Mahometans Atheists and Epicures Scepticks Polititians debauched profane and ignorant livers shall see that Religion by which this Nation professeth a singular regard to the Divine Majesty and Honor to be shamefully divided supinely neglected and sordidly despised and by vulgar insolency prostituted as to that publick Solemnity Majesty Authority Ministry Order Peace Uniformity and Stability which befit that high and holy relation wherewith true Religion invests men as obliging them to the supreme Good the blessed holy and onely Eternall God our Saviour to know own fear love reverence imitate obey and enjoy him in the greatest exactnesse of duty and sanctity of Devotion and this not onely privately and retiredly but publickly and socially where the exemplary solemnity harmony and beauty of holinesse not onely conciliate an honor to true Religion but they are the highest instances men can publickly give as of their pious regards to God so of their charitable tendernesse towards all men as their neighbours Who being naturally most averse from that Religion which is the best and holiest should have the fewest discouragements damps or scandals either wilfully cast or negligently left in their way lest they either avert to down-right irreligion and atheisme or divert to those broader and easier paths of Superstition which as among the generality of Papists so among all Sects that affect a popular and loose way of religion indulge many things to mens lusts and passions even while they most recommend and set off themselves with such ostentations of Novelty Liberty Facility and formall Sanctity as may be most taking to their vulgar followers and plausible to the humors of most people who are prone to measure religion rather by their senses and fancies their ease and appetites their worldly benefits and interests than by their understandings judgements and consciences I have formerly shewed at large in all the instances of true Religion both for the Substance and Form of it the graces and duties that the Generality of people if left to themselves are so lost that they are loth to be sought and found to any true Piety or happiness as being in love with their being wantonly wicked miserable They will ever choose disorder yea death while they forsake all orderly and holy waies as to any true serious and powerfull Religion unlesse wise Magistrates and worthy Ministers be better to them than they ever will be or designe or wish to themselves If they may eate and drink plow and sow buy and sell build and marry dispute and wrangle trifle with God and baffle with their own consciences very little or no Religion as strict and true will serve their turnes liking that best which leaves them most to themselves where they have least restraints though never so holy just and comely but may enjoy such pastimes and indulgences in their profession as most gratifie their humors and fancies their wantonnesse and petulancy their covetousnesse and barbarity their vanity or villany Certainly if the Goodnesse of God had not first by Primitive Bishops and Preachers after by wise Magistrates and valiant Princes first reduced then preserved humane societies to some setled formes of civility and order piety and polity beyond their own licencious extravagancies this as all nations had to this day continued in their native savagenesse without reverence of Man or feare of God Nor would the severall inventions and varieties of peoples Lunatick Religions which possibly they would every new Moon pick and choose of themselves these I say would have been so farre from advancing the common Peace and welfare of mankind that no fewell would make their fury burn more vehemently to mutuall destructions than what naturally riseth from the Trash and Drosse the Straw and Stubble of those opinions and perswasions which people are prone to adopt to be their Religion and Devotion with as little Verity and Charity as they have nothing but Variety and Vanity So that endlesse differences and deadly defiances in our Religion among us as men and Christians cannot but tend as to the dishonour of our God and Saviour so to the
most clearly his good pleasure and liking to this Church of England its Religion Reformation and Ministry namely by those eminent gifts and undeniable graces of his Spirit which in great and various measures he hath plentifully poured forth upon the Godly Bishops and other good Ministers of this Church who were subject to them to the edification of his faithfull people among you in all spirituall blessings even to the admiration of our neighbours the joy of our friends and regret of our enemies If the excellently Learned and Godly Bishops whose names and memories are blessed assisted by other able orderly and painefull Ministers of this Church who being duly sent and ordained by them were humbly obedient to them as to spirituall Fathers if they have carefully and happily steered for many yeares the sometimes faire and rich Ship of the Church of England in which so many thousand precious soules have been imbarked for heaven and eternity between these two dangerous gulphs the Scylla and Charybdis of Papall Superstitions and uncharitable Separations steering it by the compasse of Gods word with such Christian prudence order and decency as is therein commanded or allowed in which happy conduct they and their successors were still very able willing and worthy to have proceeded if the wrath of God highly offended for the wantonness wickednesse and unthankfulnesse of the generality of people under so great meanes and mercies had not justly suffered so rude stormes of both religious factions and civil dissensions to arise which having torne the tackling rent the sailes loosened the junctures unhinged the rudder broke the maine mast cast the chiefest Pilots and skilfullest Marriners over-board quite defaced the lesser card or compasse of Ecclesiasticall Canons and civill lawes have at last driven her within the reach and danger of both these dreadfull extremes which she most declined leaving this poor weather beaten Church after infinite tossings like a founder'd ship in a troubled Sea of confusion attending one of these two sad fates either a Schismaticall dissolution or a Papall absorption either to be utterly shattered in pieces by endlesse factions or to be swallowed up at last in the greater gulph of Romane power and Policy which cannot but have alwaies a very vigilant and intentive eye what becomes of the Church of England If the Ministry of the Church of England whilest it was yet flourishing and entire as a City united in it self as an orderly family or holy corporation consisting of Fathers and Brethren of Bishops and Presbyters might justly challenge before God and all good men this merit and acknowledgement from you and your fore-fathers that for Learning and Eloquence both in preaching and writing for acutenesse and dexterity in disputing for solidity and plainnesse in teaching for prudent and pathetick fervency in praying for just terror in moving hard hearts to softnesse and feared consciences to repentance for judicious tendernesse in comforting the afflicted and healing the wounded Spirit lastly for exemplary living in all holy and good waies in all which particulars becoming a Christian Church neither you nor they have had any cause to envy the most Christian and best Reformed Churches in the world as to that honour and happinesse which consists in the excellent abilities honest industry due authority regular order of Ministers also in the decency usefulnesse and power of holy Ministrations all which blessings experience sufficiently tells you were formerly enjoyed by many gracious and judicious Christians farre beyond what hath been or ever can be hoped under these moderne divisions deformities distractions and dissolutions which do indeed threaten in time utter desolation to this Church and the true Reformed Religion if Gods mercy and wise mens care do not prevent If nothing but ignorance or malice blindnesse or uncharitablenesse barrennesse or bitternesse of Spirit in any men can deny this great truth this honest humble just and modest boasting to which the injuries indignities and ingratitudes of these last and worst times have compelled sober Ministers as they did St. Paul who ought to have been better valued and commended by them If you O Noblemen Gentlemen and Yeomen of England are so knowing that you cannot be ignorant of this truth and so ingenuous that you cannot but acknowledge it in behalfe of the Church of England and its worthy Clergy while you and they enjoyed Piety Peace and Prosperity if beyond all cavill or contradiction this right ought to be done to Gods glory this Churches honour the ancient Clergies merit and your own with your fore-fathers renowne that after-ages may not suspect them for Hereticks or Schismaticks nor you for Separates or Apostates as forsaking that good way in which they were reformed and established in the purity power and polity of true Religion If all these suppositions be true as I know you think they are how I beseech you can it be in the sight of your most just God and mercifull Saviour who so abundantly blest this Church and his servants the Ministers of it in teaching comforting and guiding you and your pious predecessors soules to heaven to change and cast off such a Ministry and such Ministers Yea how can it be in the censure of pious and impartiall men other than a most degenerous negligence a Mechanick meannesse a most unholy unthankfulness for you or any Christians to passe by with silence and senselesnesse with carelesnesse and indifferency all those sad spectacles of Church-divisions and distractions of Church-mens diminutions debasements and discouragements lately befaln them by a divine fatality and justice partly through the imprudence of some Clergy-men severely revenged by the malice or mistake of some Lay-men whose heavy and immoderate pressures have faln chiefly upon those Ecclesiasticks who were Christs principall Vicegerents Messengers Ministers and Embassadors his faithfull Stewards his diligent Overseers his vigilant watchmen his wife dispensers of heavenly Mysteries to your Soules From whom so many Apostasies have been commenced and carried on by infinite calumnies indignities and injuries against them and their orderly authority and function as if you and your Children had lately found more grace and virtue better Ministeriall sufficiencies and proficiencies in some Tradesmen Troopers in Mechanick ignorance illiterate impudence in the glib tongues the giddy heads empty hearts of such fellowes as are scarce fit to be your servants in the meanest civill offices as if these were now fit to be your Pastors and Teachers your Spirituall inspectors and rulers of your Soules beyond any of those Reverend Bishops and Learned Doctors and other Grave Divines who heretofore through the grace of God dispensed to you by their incomparable gifts and reall abilities those inestimable treasures of all sound knowledge and saving wisdome of grace and truth which were carried on with comely order and bound up with Christian unity Doubtlesse the forgetting of those Josephs who have been so wise storerâ—s and so liberall distributers of the food of eternall life to our hungry soules
who have brought forth as good Scribes instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven out of the good treasuries of their hearts things both new old the Learning of the ancient Fathers Councills and Historians set off with later Experiments and Improvements of all spirituall operations and gracious comforts the forgetting I say of these Ministers cannot be worthy of that pious gratitude which becomes noble-minded Christian How meane uncomely and much below you must it needs appeare to all wise and sober Christians in the present age and all posterity if you suffer their holy orders to be despised their spirituall offices to be neglected their divine authority to be usurped their primitive orders and constant succession to be interrupted their persons to be abused and shamefully treated their support as to double honour to be so abuted that their maintetenance shall be very small sharking and uncertaine also their respect and esteem none at all especially among the common people whose civil and religious regards are much measured either by the bag and bushell or by the examples of their betters their Landlords and Governours The wilfull dividing debasing discrediting disordering and discarding of the ancient Clergy as to their Ordination Government Ministry Authority and succession in England which was most Christian Catholick and reformed must needs be as the sin and shame so the great injury and misery of you and your posterity being the ready way to bring in First a scrupulous unsatisfiednesse and unsetlednesse as to our former Religion as if either not true or not reformed Secondly next it raiseth a jealousie and suspicion of any Religion under the name of Reformation as if it would not long hold and had no bottom or bounds Thirdly after this followes a lukewarmenesse coldnesse and indifferency as to all Religion whatsoever as Reformed and as Christian Fourthly then will there creep in by secret steps a generall Apostasie at least from our pristine wise Reformation and happy constitution of Religion to the Roman errors superstitions and usurpations which wait for such a time and temper in England whereby to make their advance upon peoples mindes wildred and confounded when they shall see the shamefull retreates recoilings and variations made in England by the Reformed Religion upon it self whose disorders disgraces and deformities necessarily following the contempt of their Ministers or the change and rupture of their Ministeriall descent and succession will make most if not all men in time to recede from it and rather adhere to its grand Roman rival its implacable enemie Popery whose policies will bring you and your posterity by the contempt and want of true Bishops to have no Pastors or Ministers of any uniforme validity of Catholick complete and most undoubted authority If any man may be a preacher that listeth to pirk up into a Pulpit certainly in a few yeares you shall have no Preachers worth your hearing no Ministers of any reputation and authority either among the Idiots and vulgar or among the more ingenious and wiser sort of people who are not naturally either very solicitous or industrious in the concernments of Religion or the choise of their Ministers If neither God nor good men have any further pleasure in their servants the ancient Clergy of England if they really are as uselesse and worthlesse as they have been made vile and reproched by some mens tongues and pens if they have deserved to be thus tossed in an eternall tempest of factious divisions vulgar depressions and endlesse confusions beyond any other order or rank of men if this be their evill fate and merit after all their studies and paines after all their Praying Preaching Writing and Living to the honor of this Nation and the great advantages of the Reformed Religion if to have equalled at least if not exceeded the Clergy of any Church in any age since the Apostles departure be the unpardonable fault of the Reformed Bishops and their Clergy in England if their very sufferings as the vipers seizing on St. Pauls hand make them appear to barbarous and vulgar minds as sinners therefore despicable because they are so much despised and so thought fit to be destroyed if this lingring and shamefull death of being thus Crucified is that by which the Clergy of England must glorifie God if this bitter cup must not passe from them truly it will be a mercifull severity to hold them no longer in ambiguous calamities but rather wholly to expose them to the last outrages of Fanatick Popular and Schismatick fury the Lions that hunger and roare to have these Daniels wholly cast into their dens and jawes that so your eyes may no longer see your poor despised distressed and miserable Clergy many of whom both Bishops and Presbyters are forced as you know to embrace the dunghil being destitute of order honour and estate some of them having neither food convenient nor any abiding place nor any fitting employment that so that Episcopall Clergy now rendred so odious who under God formerly redeemed you and your fore-fathers out of the bondage and darknesse of Egyptian superstition may by an Egyptian Magick and fate be drowned in the Red-Sea of vulgar contempt popular confusion and inordinate oppressions that thus the new Jannes and Jambres may not onely resist but wholly prevaile by their inchantments against your Moses and Aarons But if your Consciences O worthy Gentlemen who are the Beauty Strength and Honour of this Nation do on the other side tell you not with faint and dubious whispers but by loud and manifest experiences proclaiming to all the world that the ancient Clergy of England have generally deserved better of you by their Learning Preaching Praying Writing and Living what I beseech you can be more worthy of the Wisdome Justice Piety Honour and Gratitude of this Nation than to assert with their publick love and favour the dignity of their worthy Divines the honour of their Clergy the Sanctity of their Religion and Reformation against that plebeian petulancy and insolency which hath so pressed upon them and daily depresseth all their Authority not onely by reason of some Lay-mens folly and insolency but even by their variations and inconstancy who presumed to be Preachers and challenge upon what score they please a share or lot in the Evangelicall Ministry Truly it is high time to redeeme the Sacred Orders the Divine Authority the Catholick succession the ancient and authentick dignity of the Evangelicall Ministry in the Church of England from the obloquies contempts and oppressions of ignorant and unreasonable men who are great enemies to the piety and prosperity of this Nation and but back friends to the Reformed Religion being at so deadly a fewd against the ancient Clergy and Catholick Ministry of this Church whose totall extirpation both root and branch Bishops and Presbyters they have so resolutely designed and restlessely endeavoured that they long for nothing more than the natural death of all the reverend Bishops and all Episcopall
wisely than to enjoy pompously superciliously luxuriously and idly others are brought almost to utter consumptions of Religion by their own Calentures and those Hectick fevers which have so long afflicted themselves and as contagious or spotted sicknesses infected others Some of all sides and sorts have suffered I am sure all are threatned because each party hath by their passionate transports rather studied to advance their private opinions parties and interests than the common and publick good of this Church and Nation mutuall sufferings which have taken from all sides the confidence of their innocency have so wrought upon all men of serious piety and honest purposes as by this fiery triall to purge them from their drosse of common infirmities and to refine them for some further service to this Church and State Nor do I doubt but as other wise and good men so particularly Ministers of parts and piety could they once amicably and authoritatively meet confer and correspond together would sincerely and cheerfully by Gods blessing agree upon some expedient to recover the truth order honour peace uniformity and authority of the Reformed Religion and its Ministry in this Church and Nation that neither they nor you nor your posterity may be ever thus possessed distorted torne and tormented with evill Spirits which sometimes cast us into the waters of cold and Atheisticall irreligions otherwhile into the fires of intemperate zealotry and contentions For so hath the Church of England passed through all the poetick racks and tortures which if not remedied will be the portion of your posterity one while rolling Sysiphus his restlesse stone of endlesse Reformation whose recoilings and relapsings sink the true Reformed Religion to lower deformities than ever it was in after this they must be put upon Ixions wheel tossed up and down with continuall circulations and giddinesse of Religion as every mans whimsicall braines list to turne it round whereas Religious orderly motions ought to have as their due bounds and circumference of truth so their fixed centre of Christian unity and publick communion both which would in no long time by Gods blessing be regained in England if some mens private policies and sinister projects did not as wedges still hinder the closing and agreement of honest and impartiall men in such waies as would restore Religion to its just honor Authority and consistence from the enjoying of which after all the specious pretences made on all sides we are still as far remote as Tantalus was from eating those fruits or drinking those waters which onely deluded but never satisfied his famished soul Yet many good grapes and some faire clusters are still left upon this battered vine of the Church of England in which I hope may be a blessing which neither the little foxes of peevish Schismaticks have much bitten nor the greater bores of Romish seducers have wholly subverted Many well-meaning people and not a few Preachers too who formerly had their Midsummer-fits and shorter Lunacies as to their religion are now so sober in their senses and well recovered to their right wits that having once tried that vanity and vexation that froth and futility of Spirit which attends all factious inquietudes and exotick innovations obtruded upon a well setled Church they are resolved ever hereafter to avoid and abhorre them as being no better than specious poysons delicate delusions spirituall debaucheries and religious lucuries which growing from plethorick tempers in mens soules especially where they are high fed with duties do easily tempt them that are lesse cautious and moderate both to wandrings and wantonnesse in Religion first to simple fornications and at last to grosse and foule adulteries to which men otherwise of commendable strictnesse and purposes are easily betrayed if as Dinah they give way to the temptations of novelty curiosity popularity and ambitious vanity in Religion there where it hath been well and worthily setled by publique counsell and joynt consent yea and hath been happily enjoyed for many Ages with almost miraculous I am sure very marvellous prosperities so as it was beyond all dispute here in the Church of England The inconsiderate ruflings and disorderings of whose religious constitution many men of all sorts are now ready to recant and expiate if by any honest endeavours they may recover the order unity beauty authority and stability of Religion in this Nation To whose Ecclesiastick communion I perceive many heretofore more warme than wise more credulous than considerate are now cordially returned as to their judgements and consciences to which no doubt their conversation would willingly conforme if once they could see any ensigne of religious uniformity authoritatively set up in England Many Ministers would willingly recant and return from their violent and vulgar transports if they could but have a protection for their foreheads or a skreen to hide that shame and discountenance which they feare hangs over them for their levity from the common-peoples censures and scorns Not a few Ministers sometimes orderly and regular enough would fain get free from those popular lime-twigs which have too long held them if they did not feare to lose some of their feathers either as to their reputation or maintenance who flying from that good sense which was heretofore set in the Church of England for their defence would needs light on that bare hedge for their refuge and perch which proves to most of them no better than the beggars bush fuller of gins and snares than of berries or food O how glad would hundreds of popular preachers and preaching people be to be commanded by superiours to make not verball but reall retractations of their errors seductions surprises schismes and apostasies that so their variablenesse in Religion might seem to arise not from their private innate levities but from either fatall or soveraigne necessities which are alwaies good salvo's and go for current excuses among common people either to plead for their extravagancies or to justifie their changes especially when they are reduced to the better Many Ministers of Presbyterian and Independent practises rather than perswasions or principles now together with their followers who formerly were highly a-gog even when they were yet in their downe pin-feathered and scarce fledge in those fine speculations and rare projects which they had fancied for erecting new models of Church-work after the formes of Consistories and Elderships Classes and congregations of Corporal Spiritualties Spirituall Corporations which were to be reared out of the ruinous nay out of the most intire parts of the Reformed Church of England which was by them to be wholly ruined though it were by the Lawes of God and man by constitutions Ecclesiasticall and Civill both wisely formed and happily fixed in the Primitive and Catholick form of order and dependency yet even these men and Ministers of destruction not edification with their late Chappels of Little-Ease would I am confident be now very glad to be handsomely sheltered under the protection of some such Episcopall
seat faire Cathedrall or Mother-Church with which England formerly abounded to the great honour of the Nation no lesse than of the Clergy and Ministry of all degrees the Slips and Shrubs of Churches which some have lately planted thrive so ill that they wish them fairly removed and reingrafted into that ancient stock that goodly and venerable tree of Episcopacy which was so flourishing and so fruitfull to all orders of Christians in England and in all ancient Churches ever since the first plantation of Religion in this Island or the other world O how would all sober Ministers and others rejoyce to come under that shade and superintendency which might not sadly over-drop but gently protect every Minister and member of the Church in their severall branches and boughs Who sees not by experience that verified which St. Jerom told them long agoe That a regular Episcopacy is the best if not the onely defensative both in the Catholick and particular Churches from the scorching heates of factions and schismes to keep men from those shiftings and tossings in Religion from those uncharitable rendings and separations which are so uncomely and inconvenient yea so noxious to the Churches of Christ and therefore to be conscienciously avoided by all good Christians Besides this constitution containing in its bosome the true interests of Presbyters and people as well as of Bishops redeemes the Clergy beyond any other form of Church-order and Government from that which is very intolerable to men of learned piety and ingenuous Spirits that is the sordid dependence upon yea and slavish subjection even in religious concernments unto those Lay-dictators and plebeian humors who are generally very crosse-grained and spitefully peevish to men of more learning than themselves Vulgar minds are alwaies contemptuous to their teachers and rugged to their Monitors but most unsufferably insolent when they find either Magistrates or Ministers dependants upon their benevolence never triumphing more unfeignedly than when they see those deformed spectacles which this last age hath oft shewen them namely those grave and worthy Ministers who taught them in the name of Christ on the Lords-day the very next day pale and trembling to appeare before them in some Country Committee compounded of Lay-men yea and of some Trades-men who are generally not guilty of much learning in any kind and least in Divinity yet these are the men that must catechise examine censure and condemn Ministers in the sight of their people both in points of Doctrine and in practises Ministeriall for which some one Minister is able to say more in one houre than most of those Assessors or silly Spectators can understand in ten or ever have read in all their lives What ingenuous Christian blusheth not to see Ministers of excellent learning and lives so disparaged so degraded so discouraged by the Incompetency of those who must be their Judges when many of them cannot so much as understand the state of the question or matter in dispute What Christian is there of so popular plebeian triviall and mechanick a spirit as not to desire to see proper and meet judges set to examine and determine matters of Religion for doctrines manners and discipline in all which there are many cases so obscure and intricate that they require men of very good learning of composed minds of sober judgements and unbiassed consciences to debate and determine them being very dubious and disputable in truth and holinesse in faith and morality which when some silly Saints and devout bunglers will undertake to manage and modelize beyond their line and measure after their rash rude and slovenly fashion it is not to be expressed how much detriment both Religion and its sacred Ministry suffer through the ignorance and passion the rusticity and confidence the petulancy and impertinency of such ridiculous arbitrators and incompetent judges who are so farre from being fit for any such Authority and Judicature that they are not onely not equals but in most points very much inferiours to those whose doctrine and manners whose callings and consciences they presume not so much to search as to insult over with as much unfitnesse and unreasonablenesse as if Divines should arrogate to themselves the Judicature of Common-Law or of persons and cases Martiall so that both Pleaders and Judges Souldiers and Commanders should fall under Ministers decision in all debates incident to their functions and affaires Every man not ambitiously vain and fulsomely foolish doth now wish in his soul to see that grave solemne idoneous and equable dispensation of Religion both in its Mysteries and Ministry its Doctrine and Controversies its Scandals and Indignities as may best become the Honour and Majesty of Christianity most avoiding those improprieties and absurdities which have been sufficiently manifested in our late confusions which have chiefly risen from want of that wise settlement in Religious administrations which would lay out every part and parcell of them so as is proper for them both as to persons places and proportions after the order and method anciently used both in Gods Tabernacle and his Temple Indeed nothing can be managed orderly and happily in Church or State in Civill or Ecclesiastick affaires unlesse they passe through such wise hearts and pure hands as can both well understand them and discreetly discharge them so as may conciliate in all mens mindes an inward reverence to their persons that do dispence them Which respect ariseth not from parchment Commissions or popular approbations but from personall and reall sufficiencies which appearing to all sober men both in reason and Religion give them the greatest satisfaction and thereby as it were charme the common people not more by feare than love and shame to preserve that peace and to observe those orders which they see wisely setled and authoritatively used in any Church or Christian Common-wealth CHAP. VI. THe happinesse and honour of which religious harmony and authoritative order as every Christian is ashamed not to seem at least to desire and all honest men no doubt do really intend as their chiefe end and designe so the greatest differences now perpetuating our Religious distractions in England seem to arise from the severall meanes propounded and methods prosecuted by men possibly of honest meanings but of differing minds who each presuming their own waies to be best for the Reforming reconciling and establishing of Religion grow so divided in the use of their meanes as still to hinder the attaining of the end just like Physitians who honestly and heartily aime at the cure of their patient but every one of them so urgeth the taking of his particular receipt that either they give him no physick at all or so various and contrary prescriptions as first confound and at last kill him more by the mutuall repugnancy of their Medicines than by the Malignity of the disease Such is the state and fate of the Church of England as to my observation having I hope many honest and upright hearts in it but
which is holy high and honourable in Gods esteem as his Embassage venerable before the good Angels in Heaven and terrible to the very Devils in Hell Let not the preaching of the Word be slighted mocked and laughed at by the unautoritative insolency and unsufficiency of unordained and impudent praters who will never make powerfull Preachers Let not the solemnity of publick prayers and Sacraments be made ridiculous vaine and void by the simplicity and barrennesse the non-sense and flatnesse the slovenly rudenesse and confusion of those undertakers to officiate whom no man in Christs name hath duly authorised or sent according to any Primitive pattern or Catholick custome in this and other Churches When the Authority of Ministers is doubted denyed divided despised on all sides it is impossible there should be any unity or charity among either Ministers themselves or those to whom they thus brokenly Minister holy things nor can there be any reverent and sacred esteem of those things which they so administer with so much variety dubiousness and inconformity Civill respect to Ministers of the Gospel will follow where there is a religious regard to their Ministry as sacred and Divine indeed as Christs for so it is or it is none upon any religious account Therefore I forbear to urge you with any importunities in order to restore the Pristine honors and dignities the many priviledges and great plenty which the Clergy enjoyed in England I know those are unseasonable motions in an iron age amidst so many sacrilegious Spirits as envy even those pittances that yet remaine of oyle in the cruses or meale in the barrels of poor Ministers who are generally in a low depressed squeesed and almost exhausted condition not onely publick exactions but private sharkings of people in many if not most places have reduced heretofore convenient livings to pittifull tenuities Ministers affect indeed to wear longer haire than they were wont but their condition is now so much shorne and shaved since the Scots rasor was first applyed that most of them are very bare and quite bald to the great joy of Papists the viler sort of licentious people who want but one vote more to perfect their desired Reformation That is to take away all tithes and glebes rather giving them to Moloch or Beelzebub than to Christ his Church and his Ministery to whom these are paid by many men so grudgingly sharkingly and superciliously that few Scholars of any generous minds and parts will apply themselves now to be Ministers and many grave men heretofore devoted to that calling are content to be silent rather than to preach to ungratefull and gain-saying people yea some Ministers think it better to starve with honor than to be fed with scorn preferring any calling before that which must first work then beg or contest for its wages But as the poverty and tenuity of Ministers the popular contempt of their persons and calling the neglect and irreverence of holy ministrations the intrusions and usurpations of petulant people upon their function as all these could not have grown upon them had they not been scattered and divided among themselves for by these cracks and leakes those bitter waters have prevailed thus far to sink and depresse them So the reducing of Ministers to some unity in their judgments to uniformity in their Ministrations to an identity or samenesse for their Ministeriall power and ordination also to a decent subordination and government among themselves these methods would be most effectuall beyond any thing I can think of to remedy all those great inconveniences and mischiefes under which they now labour and grone From Ministers mutuall separations affrontings reprochings oppressings and despisings of one another common people have learned the language and carriage of clownery and contempt For how can people see any thing worthy their civill much lesse consciencious respect and love toward any Ministers when they see hear and read how they depreciate and scorn envy and maligne shun and abominate one another on all sides each invalidating or disparaging the others authority to officiate and almost annulling all they do in holy duties as Ministers Be they never so able and fit as to their gifts knowledge utterance holy lives and good report in all things yet still they are thought by some side or other either to enjoy more than they merit or to arrogate more than is their due or wholly to usurp that which is no way their due Certainly it is not a more pious and Christian than heroick and prudent work to reconcile the discrepancies and feuds that are grown among Ministers of severall formes and names as to their ordination or admission to their Ministry And since there are on all sides men of very good abilities commendable lives and usefull parts in this publick service as Ministers of the Church it is infinite pitty that Christians should be by any prejudices deprived of the common benefit to be had by them or by factious and frivolous discriminations if their Ministeriall Authority be frustrated of those many blessings which all good Christians might happily enjoy both publickly and privately by a firm union and uniformity among all true Ministers both in the origination of their power also in the manner of the derivation and dispensation of it Which harmony as without doubt it would highly contribute to the honor of the reformed Religion so it would much obstruct the advantages which Popery gets by the scandall of Ministers discriminations and divisions in this point For what sober-minded man will not rather adhere to what seems uniform though an error than to what seems divided though a truth Men will rather turne Seekers Quakers and Enthusiasts than weary themselves in dancing after every Ministers pipe and the new tunes they set to both their Ministry and holy Ministration For my part I should rather choose to live in a solitude as a private Christian or retire to any corner of the land as a Minister than to correspond with such societies of Preachers as are either evidently Schismaticall in their principles or onely formally and partially Associating in their politick practises which do but declare their spirits to be at as great distance from their duties both to their betters and their equalls as ever they were I prefer a cottage in a smooth and peaceable wildernesse before such palaces as are built among briars and thornes I am sorry and ashamed to see those Ministers who are able and worthy to use the trowell for edification should be so eagerly imployed at the swords for mutuall destruction Since they generally agree to preach and live Christ Crucified since they do for the maine correspond in doctrinalls of faith and morality yea in holy Mysteries and Ministrations what a misery is it they should not all endure the same imposition of hands or the same holy and Catholick ordination yea what pitty is it they should not all dare to say publickly and Ministerially the same Creed
the Lords prayer and the ten Commandements to all which I suppose they all are ready privately to say Amen How sad a prospect is it to see those men who professe such zeal for Church Government and good Discipline to be so little governed or correspondent in any wise communion and discreet subordination among themselves And all this while every plausible preacher is ambitious rather to ordain and governe others after his own fancy than to be ordained and governed as a Minister after the Apostolicall pattern and that one ancient forme which was universally owned and uniformly used in Christs Church both for the ordination and subordination of Ministers CHAP. IX IN order therefore to invite all able Orthodox and honest Ministers to some Christian correspondency and fraternall accord it will not be amisse for me to present both to your equanimous wisdome O worthy Gentlemen and to your piety what I humbly conceive the best Medium to be used in so great and good a work which must be tenderly and impartially carried on by a serious discovery and discerning First what is really good usefull and commendable in any party that this may be allowed and preserved agreed to and embraced by all Secondly what either is or seems defective or superfluous evill or inconvenient scandalous or dangerous on any side that this may be either pared off and removed since it may be well spared or else in reason and Religion in piety and charity so qualified and moderated as may comply with what is truely good and usefull for the publick on all sides First then to begin with Episcopacy not as it enjoyes or loseth the benefits of secular favour in estate honour or jurisdiction which are not essentiall to it any more than cloths are to the man but as it appeares in its Apostolick primacy of Order in its Catholick centre of Unity in its chief power for Ordination and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction which it ever enjoyed among good Christians though it were never so poore and abased by civill powers as it was in Primitive times of persecution for 300. yeares The reall good of true Episcopacy which undoubtedly hath the clearest best and most ancient title to ordination Church-Government according to the custome and prescription of all Ages for 1500. years is Decency Order Unity Authority Stability Paternall Presidency Grave Government with subordination of younger to the elder and inferiours to superiours agreeable to the rules of right reason and the measures of the best polities military civill and religious Here are the aptest remedies and conservatives against Schismes the fittest mediums for Catholick Councils for correspondencies conventions and Communion of Churches not in popular rabbles and heady multitudes but in their chief Presidents and representatives In this is best kept up as an Uniformity of particular Churches so a Catholick Conformity to the Church universall when Primitive purest and most persecuted which without any peradventure did follow the Apostolick prescription and pattern in all things of so universall use and reception Upon the head of Episcopacy as upon the hill of Hermon hath the dew of heaven the blessings of God as in temporall enjoyments so in all spirituall gifts and graces most plentifully faln and from that to all the lower valleys and inferiour parts of the Church To this it is that all the most learned moderate and wise men in all the Christian world of what ever party or side they are in other things whether Latine or Greek Lutheran or Calvinian Protestant or Papist all agree in this that Episcopacy is the ancientest and aptest the wisest and noblest the onely Apostolick and Catholick consequently the best and compleatest of Governments in the Church containing in its right constitution and use all the pretended excellencies of all other Governments and something more than any of them as the crown and perfection of all The evills defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy and rising not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops are pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously arbitrarily and alone without any due regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was anciently given to Christian people or to that fraternall counsell and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters or such Consistoryes of choise Ministers who possibly may for wisdome piety and ability be equall to the Bishop however they are inferiour in order and authority As the complete good of presidentiall and paternall Episcopacy deserves above all other formes to be esteemed desired and used in the Church so it may easily and happily be enjoyed if the personall faults and failings of Bishops be prevented and avoided which is no hard matter where Bishops are chosen as anciently they were by the suffrages of the Presbyters or Ministers of the Diocese either personally present or to avoid noise and tumult incident to many by their proxyes and representees chosen and sent from their severall distributions The Bishop thus chosen is easily kept within bounds of moderation if he do nothing of publick concerne validly and conclusively without the presence counsell and concurrence of his appointed Presbyters being further responsible for any misgovernment to such conventions of the Clergy as are meet to be his judges and are by the Laws appointed so to be Certainly these limits supports and ornaments of Episcopacy would easily restore it to and keep it in the compasse of its Primitive beauty honor and usefulnesse to the Church The good of Presbytery especially in conjunction with Episcopacy is grave and impartiall counsell serious discussion and well-advised deliberation arising from many learned and Godly men which is as the joynt and concurrent assistance of all the Clergy whose publick suffrages may carry all things Ecclesiastick as with lesse partiality so with more authority most satisfactorily to Ministers and people too yea and with lesse odium or envy upon any one man as Bishop or President in cases that seem lesse popular or in censures that are more heavy Beyond all this some men cry up Presbytery in its Aristocratick influence as the great Choak-peare of Antichrist as the best receipt in the world to make the Pope burst in pieces like the pitch and haire which Daniel mixed to split Bel and Dagon This this they say is the strongest sense against all tyranny usurpation and ambition in Church-men the great conservative not of an absolute parity but of those ancient priviledges which are due to all Ministers also of those liberties and indulgences which are the peoples darling while they see all Church-matters managed not by private and partiall monopolies but by publick and generall complacencies of all sober and good men at least the major part of them The evils of Presbytery in a parity or
and tyrannies of some Bishops as if all were to be blamed none to be commended and highly magnifying the zeal themselves have for a through Reformation that is that they might freely and fully gratifie their own and peoples ambitions by setting Episcopacy and all Bishops quite beside the saddle on purpose to make way for themselves who are for the most part as fit to governe Churches alone as apes are to build houses I crave leave in order to promote a faire and firme accommodation with all ingenuous freedom and candor to make some more particular application of my desire and designs to those Ministers of the Presbyterian and Independent waies who have opposed their faces sharpned their tongues or pens and hardened their hearts most against all Episcopacy even in the most innocent usefull regular and moderate constitution of it I meane that Primitive order and paternall residency which was universally acknowledged to be eminently in one President as Bishop or chief Pastor over many Presbyters in his Diocese after the pattern of the 12. Apostles who were by Christs appointment above the 70. and so their declared successors as Timothy Titus Archippus those others who are called the Angels of the 7. Asian Churches with many others to whom they derived not onely their example and practical constitution but their Authority and Power Ecclesiastical as is evident by the Canons and Rules set forth not onely in ancient Councils but in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the setling and managing of church-Church-order Discipline and Government in such a way as clearly gives not to any consistory or company of Presbyters and people but to one man a Paramount Authority as Bishop or Superiour both in Ordination and Jurisdiction above others as his inferiours and so subordinate to his spirituall power so far as to reprove examine censure reject c. All which being to me immoveable and immutable foundations for the establishing of Episcopall presidency as the onely succession of that ordinary Apostolick power and authority which is necessary to be alwaies in the Church of Christ they do make me dayly by these considerations more restive and lesse compliant to any new waies or Associatings than perhaps otherwise I should be both by the sociablenesse of my temper and my earnest desire for another way of happy union among Ministers of worth and moderation This uncorrespondency to which I am upon those grounds compelled is with the greater regret to me because I know the learning the industry the zeal the piety the ingenuity the potency of some of those my dissenting brethren in their preaching writing praying and living I am charitably perswaded of many of their sincerity in aiming at Gods Glory and at the purity of holy Ministrations I do not see wherein many of them differ from the best Episcopall Divines ancient or modern as to any main matter of Religion in doctrine or duty Nor can I find any reason yet alledged by any of them sufficient to justifie that pertinacious distance and defiance which of later yeares onely they have taken up against Episcopacy meerly upon the account of jealousie and impatiency to choose and admit a learned grave and worthy Bishop as a fixed Father or constant Governour and Grave Moderator authoritatively to preside among them in their severall grand distributions or Dioceses after that order and eminency which were most comely for them and most unquestionable as to the fixing and completing of Church-order and Government to all sober Christians satisfaction I will not tax or suspect the soberest of my Presbyterian or Independent brethren of such pride and arrogancy as can endure no superiour or chief among them I rather conceive it was a Sympathethick impulse at first from those Scotish motions and pretentions which swerved them not onely from the former good constitution of the Church of England to which they heretofore very orderly and happily submitted but also from their conformity to the Catholick Church in that point to which I believe their judgement heretofore ahd inclination now may incline and lead them as apparently best for their publick and private interests Some are prone to suspect that the best of them did not heretofore submit so humbly and heartily to their Lawfull Superiours and Governours in the Church as in duty and conscience by the lawes of God and man they ought to have done others challenge them for want as of piety and honesty so of Christian charity yea and of common humanity or compasâ—ion for their forwardnesse and fiercenesse to undoe all Bishops and all dignified Clergy-men at least for their ready consent to their utter ruine holding the garments of those that stoned them to death never so much as praying heartily for them while they were in power nor yet pittying them in their miscarriages or calamities no nor so far interceding for or listning to any just moderation which was oft proposed and offered as might have been not more happy for the Bishops than for themselves as Presbyters yea for this whole Church and all Christian people in England I am willing to hope that many Ministers mutations began with good affections and were carried on at first with principles of sincerity and zeal though not with that knowledge meekness and wisdome which was requisite But to many of them that are now the most haughty stiffe and obstinaâ—e against all accommodating with Episcopacy I cannot but still appeale whether they do not in their consiences find that either at first or afterward some secular advantages and private hopes did not a little warp and sway their inclinations to novelties whether they felt not the secret but dissembled strokes of discontent anger envy revenge popularity ambition feigned jealousies inordinate affectations of liberty exciting and animating them to the utter extirpation of Episcopacy whether they did not by a self-conceit generally imagin themselves not onely jointly but severally as fit and able to govern the Church in the whole or in parcels as any yea all the Bishops in England whether any of them do believe the case of Episcopacy to have ever been fully heard freely discussed and impartially stated by the peaceable wisdom and piety of this nation whether many of these Ministers as Politicians and Statesmen did not rather comply with the streame and vogue of times running fiercely against Episcopacy than with their own clear convictions in reason law scripture antiquity conscience whether they kept that equanimity and moderation in all things of this nature which became wise and good men of an Evangelicall Spirit and temper or were not biassed yea transported by something that was popular and sinister whether they do not think that the violence and precipitancy of some of their examples was beyond all solid arguments to drive many well-meaning Ministers and People to such heady and hot petitionings against Episcopacy and to such pittilesse Antipathies against all the most excellent Bishops which were then and still are England
would be established and the tranquillity of the Nation highly setled and confirmed upon the best foundation of peace that can be among mankind In all which things we have and do on all sides so far extremely suffer as we differ by such unreasonable distances and uncharitable defiances first among Ministers which are presently followed with all disorder lukewarmenesse irreligion profaneness arrogancy Atheism Affectation and Faction among the people in England chiefly as I conceive upon this account The needlesse variating shifting and changing of that Primitive plat-forme that Apostolick and Catholick order and succession of Ecclesiasticall Authority and Ministeriall power in this Church which hath ever been owned with religious reverence and conscience in Engl. ever since it was Christian preserved as sacred by the most pious Princes honored as Divine by the most Religious and reformed Parlaments prospered by the speciall benignity and grace of God peaceably enjoyed by all devout judicious and humble Christians to the unspeakable comfort of their souls living and dying when they knew who were their Bishops Pastors and spirituall Fathers owning them with all due respect and love as in Christs stead submitting to them for conscience sake as to the Lord and receiving from them good instructions just reproofes holy comforts and heavenly Mysteries not as from man but God after the rule of the Scriptures and the example of the best Christians in all ages who looked upon Episcopacy or the Government of the Church as fixed completed and exercised chiefly by Bishops assisted with worthy Presbyters not onely as a book of a larger volume greater print and fairer binding than Presbytery or Independency that is the sole power of Presbyters or people by themselves but they looked upon the Episcopall eminency as having more in it of Apostolick power and Ecclesiasticall Authority both in point of ordination and jurisdiction than is either in Presbyters or people by themselves Bishops and Presbyters being as the eyes and hands which are not more members of the body than the leggs and feet yet they are the more noble parts and have more of publick use and virtue as to inspection direction and operation for the common good of all parts in the body No wonder then if the honor of all Religion be much abated if the renown of this Reformed Church be thus abased no wonder that Presbytery it self is so baffled and Independency despised no wonder that all the Office Power and Authority of Ministers together with their persons be reduced to such a low ebb and almost quite exhausted when Bishops the grand Cisternes and chief Conduites of all Ecclesiasticall Orders and Ministeriall Authority as derived from Christ and his Apostles are not onely bruised and crackt but utterly broken cut off and cast away whom yet no Presbyter or Independent of any learning or forehead can deny actually to have been in all ages used and esteemed as the constant successors and immediate substitutes of the Apostles first invested with that power by the Apostles themselves after their decease chosen by the Presbyters and after consecrated by other Bishops to be as the prime receptacles conservators and conveyers of all Ecclesiasticall Power and Ministeriall Authority not onely as Teachers of Divine truths preachers of the Gospell and dispensers of holy Mysteries in common with Presbyters but as chief Fathers Pastors and Rulers of those larger flocks which constituted those famous ancient Churches which were not limited to the bounds of one family or one congregation or one little parish in which one Preacher or Presbyter may in ordinary duties suffice but they extended to such ample combinations as contained large Cities and their Territories in which were many thousands of Christians many congregations and many Presbyters who all made but one Church or polity Ecclesiasticall under one chief Pastor or Bishop residing with the Presbyters at first in the chief City afterward these were fixed to particular parishes or villages by the care of the Bishops Without whose authority and consent nothing of consequence was done by any in the publick managing of Religion without the just brand and censure of Schismaticall arrogancy it being ever judged that Bishops had derived to them an higher degree of Apostolick power and Church jurisdiction than ever was or could be in any one or many Presbyters or people without them who could not regularly nor never did unblamably ordaine of themselves or by their own sole Authority any Ministers or exercise the censures of the Church in a plenary and absolute jurisdiction without deriving their power from their respective Bishops without whom and against whom few ever acted in any age of the Church and never any good Christian refused subjection to and communion with their lawfull and orthodox Bishops no nor did ever any Hereticks or Schismaticks proceed to such extravagancy as to reject and disclaime all Episcopall order till of later yeares whose example hath little in it to make it compared with much lesse preferred before Catholick customes and Primitive patternes of all ancient Churches what ever glosses the wit of men or their craft or their successes or their Godly and necessary pretences may put upon their variations and schismes CHAP. XII IT is not now my design either to spin out or to wind and summe up that long and tedious thread of dispute which hath been so much snarled and entangled of late yeares in England by popular pens or cleared and unfolded by more able learned and impartiall Writers Who is not weary now and ashamed of those thread-bare allegations drawn from the samenesse or promiscuous use of Names which we know vary with time and must yield to use and custome as if Apostle Evangelist Bishop Presbyter Pastor Preacher Teacher and Ruler they may adde Deacon and Servant and Minister were all one in the equivalency of their power order and authority in the Church For any one nay all these names are in the latitude of their sense given to some one man or officer in the Church yet in the more strict precise and Emphatick sense they denote different gifts orders authorities dispensations and functions as well as degrees in the Church of Christ which did never confound Deacons with Presbyters nor Presbyters with Bishops nor all with the Apostles because the chief Apostles who contained in their ample authority and commission all Ecclesiasticall powers eminently under Christ are sometimes called Presbyters Compresbyters and also Deacons or Ministers of Jesus Christ and servants of the Church deriving all these powers in their severall degrees and orders to Bishops Presbyters and Deacons after them To the first as to a lesser sort of Apostles but chief Rulers or Overseers in the Church they gave the eminent and peculiar power of ordaining Presbyters and exercising spirituall jurisdiction over them as is evident in the power that Timothy and Titus had given them by Commission from the great Apostle St. Paul who certainly in this was conforme to
the Church to judge of a Bishops sufficiencies for that place and charge yet it no way followes that any Bishop hath his Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power from them as the originall of it any more than of his temporall Barony and revenues to which he is admitted by the Presbyters election of him but only he is by their election and comprobation duly admitted and regularly enabled to exercise that power whose roote as that of Presbyters rise and foundation is from a far higher principle and greater authority Just as the Fellowes of a Colledge choose the Master President or Warden at least they admit and accept of him to the possession enjoyment and use of that power which is not in them joyntly or singly without their Master nor yet is it derived from them to the Master but he hath it from the first Founders Will and the Statutes or Customes of the Colledg In like manner the chief Magistrate of any City or Corporation though he be chosen by the Commons or Fraternities in it to his chief place and office yet his power and jurisdiction is not from them but from that Charter or Grant which gave the first constitution to that power and polity So in an Army Officers may choose their Generall to a power above them which he enjoyes and exerciseth beyond what any one or all of them hath right unto or any capacity to use yet doth that power accrew to him from those principles of Right Reason Order Polity and Authority which is derived and vested in him by the suffrage or consent of many who have right and reason thus to advise for their common order and safety by preferring one above themselves by whose suffrages and consents as by the Suns beames united in the centre of a burning-glasse a greater heat and luster of authority is raised than is in any one or many beames scattered and divided By vertue of which principles of reason order and polity as these other civil instances which act by their severall Charters and Statutes are neither left at liberty to choose or not choose any to be their chief Magistrate or Governour nor yet may they in right reason or law exercise that paramount power without him but they are bound in conscience and duty as well as by custome and charter to choose such a chieftane and so to invest him in that power paramount above them yet do they not give the power to that elect person but the person to that power which was setled before them So in the Church of Christ Presbyters of old did freely choose indeed their Bishops at least they consented afterward to accept of him whom the Prince or possibly the people in some cases nominated as a worthy and deserving person yet neither people nor Prince nor Presbyter did conferre upon any Bishop that power Episcopall or that eminent Ecclesiasticall Authority which he had properly in himself to use and exert it after he was thus chosen consecrated and installed No he had it from that grand Charter and Catholick Custome which was in the Church of Christ by which the first Apostolick Canons or Scripture-Statutes and Institutions not only founded but derived this Authority as received from Christ and by the Spirit of Christ conveyed it to their Successors the Bishops in the name and power of Christ for the orderly governing of his Church in all places which hath been and I think ought where God hinders not to be continued in the Churches of Christ by the like successive choise or approbation of Presbyters in the want and vacancy of their Bishops Nor do I doubt but Ministers are sinfully wanting to that duty which they ow to Christ and his Church when they cease to do as much as in them lies what they ought in this point to do might do if themselves did not hinder their choosing and having their lawful Bishops as well as people their Presbyters according to the Primitive rule and Catholick pattern which hath the force of a law it being no lesse necessary for the Church to be orderly governed and thus united than to be taught and communicated to in holy things Nay those two or three Bishops which after the great Nicene Councill were required to joyne in the more solemn consecration and investiture of every Bishop did not impart of their own power but solemnly declared and blessed as good and worthy the choise and investiture of him that was first duly elected by the Presbyters and then further confirmed by their publication and benediction which benediction was never that I read done by any Presbyters as being now inferiours to him whom their consent and suffrages had chosen to that Episcopall degree and eminency above them who as Presbyters might choose their Bishops but yet not depose him this work requiring their appeal to the higher power of a Council or Synod of many Bishops who were in that joynt capacity above any one Bishop and so onely capable to be his judges upon the complaint of Presbyters or people against him As Presbyters have their Office and Authority by Bishops ordination as conduits but not from them as fountaines of it there being but one spring of it which is Jesus Christ so Bishops have their power by Presbyters election as instruments or mediums but not from their donation as the source and originals of their power and authority which is Christs Thirdly Some Presbyters and Independents do with great brow and confidence urge that Bishops are wholly superfluous because Presbyters and any ordinary Preachers two or three or more of them are very able and willing every where to beget their like every petty Presbytery is become a seminary or spawner to ordain Ministers and conferre all degrees of holy orders for which they think themselves no lesse fitted than for preaching and administring Sacraments which they say are employments requiring greater abilities and no lesse authority yea many Country-Presbyters have made themselves and one another of late Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops ordaining Ministers when where and how they list without any Bishop among them And this they say with very good success and acceptance to Country-people who besides the pleasure they take in any daring novelty and insolency in Religion protest to find no lesse judgement discretion and gravity than was heretofore pretended to be in Bishops for that service Nor is it to be doubted say they but the ordination authority and Commission of such Presbyters is as valid as that done by Bishops since these Godly Ministers do so try and examine such as come to be ordained that they commonly pose the best Schollars and soberest men that come to them Further they pray and preach as well as most Bishops did yea they very gravely exhort and charge the ordained brother with as great weight and severity both for gifts and graces Ministeriall as ever the Bishops did though it may be not with so much pomp and formality Hence they deny
been the magnifying of the Popes of Rome beyond their line and measure of old That if Episcopacy could have held its Primitive and ancient parity according to the Apostolick seates and paternes that one Chaire of Rome had not so far exalted it self in this Western Church above all those that are therefore called Gods because the power of Christ and the word of God came to them as much as to Rome and is to be derived by them to their successions T is certain that Bishops did not at first as Nimrod set up themselves by any private ambition they were either constituted by the Apostles yet living as Irenaeus Eusebius Tertullian and others tell us or when the Apostles were dead the Presbyters of every chief city and Territory or Diocese did as S. Jerom tells us choose some Apostolick and eminent person from among themselves to be their Bishop not compelled hereto by any civill powers nor by any popular force or faction but meerly moved so to do by the precept and pattern the constant custome and imitation of the Apostles which were so full of pregnant reason necessary order and holy policy that nothing could be better If any then be to be blamed for giving occasion to the Papal ambition and what some count the great Antichrist who is as Isid Hispal defines by so much the more Antichrist by how much more he professeth Christ yet lives or teacheth contrary to the rule and example of Christ it must be either the Apostles themselves who first designed Bishops as their successors or the succeeding Presbyters of every Church who to avoid Schisme and Confusion first chose successive Bishops in every Church after the death of the Apostles not onely in obedience to their commands and conformity to their pattern but in order to preserve necessary polity Primitive unity and Apostolick authority in the Church of Christ And yet now behold by a strange vertigo or change of Counsels Presbyters must in all hast pull down all Bishops the better to avoid Antichrist who lies as much in confusion as error in schisme as in heresie none of which will ever advance Reformation or setling of true Religion So that it is an intolerable insolency and rudenesse of some men to say or suspect that every Bishop whom the Apostles themselves or the Presbyters after them first constituted were but spawnes and embryo's of Antichrist when many yea most if not all the first and best Bishops for 300. yeares were not onely excellent preachers and wise governours after the way of the Apostles but such resolute Martyrs and confessors as few of the more delicate Presbyters and softer-fingred Independents of our age would willingly carry the least stick of their fagots or touch the least coale of their fires or bear the least stroke and burden of their torments As then the Papall Tyranny so the Presbyterian Parity and Independent Anarchy may and will give I fear greater advantages to Antichrists than ever Episcopall order and eminency either did or can do while wisely setled and managed Fifthly another great bugbeare or terriculament which scares some from looking back with the least cast of favour on Episcopacy is the terror they pretend to have had of some Bishops sharpnesses and severities of which say they many godly men feel the smart to this day My answer is I do not go about to justifie or excuse any unreasonable unseasonable indiscreet or uncharitable actions of any Bishops who are justly to be blamed so far as they exceeded their Commission and power by the Lawes of man or Christ and the Church given to them not for destruction but edification Though some Bishops might shew themselves to be but men yea and some of them to be harsh and rash enough in their passions yet these failings and infirmities they neither had nor discovered as they were Bishops no more than tyrants do tyrannize as they are Magistrates or Judges are corrupt as they are Judges or Presbyters are partiall popular and imprudent as they are preachers It must still be granted that not onely some but very many yea most Bishops in England since the Reformation were as Angels of God in their light and love in their excellent learning and worthy living every way which sufficiently proves that piety and Episcopacy may as well meet in one man as piety and Presbytery or sanctity and Independency If any of these good Bishops seemed sometime too severe to some that were rudely refractory against the lawes then in force in this Church and State possibly those very persons that most complaine of them will be found not short of the sharpest of them if any of these complainers have suffered by any Bishops rigors I am sure they have had their full and excessive revenge upon them But to avoid the feared exorbitancy of Episcopacy for the future it will be sufficient effectually to restore that Commune Consilium Presbyterorum common Counsel and concernment of worthy Presbyters to their pristine use and assistance without which Bishops should do nothing publick and authoritative according to the Canon of the Councel of Cartharge and agreeable to the judgement as of St. Jerom so of St. Cyprian Ignatius and all the ancients This as I formerly touched is the best preservative of Bishops authority of Presbyters priviledges of peoples liberty and the Churches safety As I believe Episcopacy by this time sees it did it self as much wrong as any men could design in doing many things of publick concern without the presence counsel and concurrence of their gravest and most discreet Presbyters and as I think that modest and sober Presbyters shall do not onely themselves a right but the best Bishops too in their Christian advise and assistance to bear partem solicitudinis part of the care trouble odium and envy which is prone to offend all good Bishops as all good Governours in Church and State so I conclude that violent Presbyters have done themselves the Bishops the people and this whole Church as much injury and indignity as they well can by rudely rejecting and obstinately refusing as much as in them lies to readmit the Order and Honor of Episcopall Presidency which indeed was the common Honor of the whole Clergy Episcopacy we know preferred many Ministers of the Gospel to be as Lords and Peers in England whereas Presbytery Independency have purely levelled and abased all Clergy-men to a plebeian condition if not to be slaves and vassals yet to be very vile and servile even in the esteem of the vulgar Certainly it was in prudence to be desired by all wise Presbyters and other Ministers rather to bear much under the burden of the Episcopal yoak which was to them more honos than onus a dignity than any depression than thus by a precipitant impatiency to run themselvs their whole Order or function into a plebeian slavery while they affected an inordinate liberty It is better for birds to be
Roman Communion must not the fate of your either miscreant or miserable posterity necessarily be such that their teeth will be so set on edge by the sowre grapes you have eaten and left for them that they will not endure sound Doctrine much lesse wholesome Discipline Thus untaught and ungoverned unbred and unfed in Religion can you expect other from them than all debaucheries immoralities and such Atheisticall indifferences and impudencies as the heart of man easily runs into if left to it self as the Horse and Mule without bit or bridle of Religion and conscience to restraine them May they not have cause in their sad reflections upon the Beauty Order Honor and Happinesse of Religion in England which they may read of in former daies besides the many afflictions and civill dissentions which have and will inevitably follow divided Religion to an irreligion in any Nation may they not in their doubting dying and despairing retreates have cause to count you yea and to curse you as their carelesse and cruell parents who are never quiet or content till you settle your honors estates and civill affaires in some safe posture as you imagine but are wholly negligent as to any religious establishment which many men feare oppose and abhorre lest in cleare waters their faces should appeare the fouler varieties and uncertainties of Religion being most fomented by those whose piety is wholly resolved into policy who never tasted how gracious the Lord is in the waies meanes and fruites of true Religion But for you O my noble Countrimen that have seen and rejoyced in that glorious light of Reformed Religion which shined so long and illustriously in the Church of England how can you with any conscience or comfort leave the world and leave your posterity with your Country exposed to such variety uncertainties distractions deformities and confusions as to the Reformed Religion and its Ministry which makes them look like the Temple of God in Jerusalem after Nebucadnezzar and Nebuzaradan had visited it with fire and sword so defacing and deforming it that it was the pitty of all good men and the scorn of the wicked As Augustus Caesar was wont in his most impotent passion of grief and vexation to teare his haire and cry out Ridde Vare Legiones O Varus restore the Legions of brave and veterane souldiers which thou hast so unadvisedly or unworthily lost when they were slaine by the Germane surprises so may you heare the soberest Christians and truest-hearted English-men in their grief and shame cry out Reddite nobis Religionem Reformatam Uniformem Christianam primaevam Catholicam Reddite Ecclesiae Anglicana priscam pietatem pacem ordinem pulchritudinem patrimonium regimen Majestatem debitam decus antiquum Reddite nobis patres fratres filios spiritales Episcopos atate virtute authoritate venerandos Presbyteros literatura industria humilitate unitate ordine conspicuos Plebem probe instructam modestam sobriam mutua charitate amulam non effrâ—nem infrunitam laceram non erroribus lascivam non novitatibus foedam non scabie rigentem non nimia petulantia deformem non irreligiose Religiosam c. This was the voice of the Church of England while it dared to speake Latine which being now scandalous and reprochfull to many as the language of the Beast not understood by them She is forced to expresse her Prayer in English for mens better understanding Restore restore I beseech you to me to your selves to your country to your posterity the purity the peace the sanctity the solemnity the sobriety the order the honor the unity the solidity the stability the power the efficacy the fruites and works of true Christian and Reformed Religion Restore to us the happinesse of living not onely united in one civill polity as men but in one Ecclesiasticall Correspondency Combination and Communion as Christians It is more for our honor and peace to be Members of one Church than of one Commonwealth to have the same Religion and Devotion than the same Lawes and Statutes Restore to us those prime veines and Catholick conduits of Ecclesiasticall order of Church-power and spirituall authority under Christ those paternall Pastors those Primitive Bishops those successive Apostles That so we may have such Presbyters as have the Catholick Character of due Ordination and the most undoubted Derivation of Ministeriall Authority upon them being at once able and willing duly proved and empowered by Christs deputed Ministers and the whole Church to consecrate and dispense holy Mysteries to us not in the new names of Presbyters or people or Parlaments or Princes onely but in the name of Christ and his Church according to the commission he first gave to the Apostles and they transmitted to their successors in a constant undoubted and uninterrupted succession to this day Redeeme this ancient Church and renowned Nation from those lice and flies those locusts and frogs whose importune malice and wantonnesse seeks to deface and devour whatever yet remaines of the Reformed Religion in England Redeeme all sober Christians whose little life affords them no leisure to play with Religion redeeme them from the Rents and Schismes the raggs and tatters the breaks and divisions the fragments and fractions the chaines and fetters the childish and ridiculous janglings the scandalous and pernicious liberties with which pragmatick Spirits seek to poyson and to imprison their judgements and consciences Nothing is at least ought to be more pressive and urging upon your Honors and Consciences who are persons sensible of these two great regards to God and man than these concernments of true Religion whose influence reacheth to the eternall interest of your own and your posterities soules Nor is their lapsed estate to be helped by faire words and soft pretentions by demure silences and â—ary reserves by State-stratagems and politick artifices by vaporing of reformations and conniving at popular insolencies as if they were tendernesses and liberties due to conscience No the recovery of Religion is to be effected by potent convictions and impartiall suppressions of all enormous opinions and actions by serious trying of errors and establishing of sound Doctrine by just restraining all inordinate liberties by incouraging an able and uniform Ministry by discountenancing all fanatick novelties by composing al uncharitable divisions and by punishing all pragmatick arrogancies which evidently vary from or run counter against that truth order ministry authority and holy Discipline of Religion which Scripture and all Catholick conformity to it have commended to all Christians as Christs will and appointment which being accordingly setled in this Church and State ought not to be contradicted or rudely contemned by any new lights by pretended inspirations or the novel inventions of any man or men whatsoever seem they never so holy so devout so well-affected so sincere so saintly This and other true Churches of Christ did know very well what belonged to the unity sanctity charity and constancy of Religion as Christian and Reformed long before
the very beasts of the people are so far flattered as to be suffered with their foule feet daily to trouble and confound that cleare fountain and constant streame of Ministeriall Authority and Ecclesiasticall succession by way of Episcopall Ordination which was ever of so solemn and conspicuous use in all Churches of so venerable a succession of so ancient and uninterrupted a derivation from the very Apostles dayes and hands that it never failed to keep its course as some rivers do through salt waters amidst all the confusions which either heathenish hereticall or schismaticall persecutions raised in the Church Yea no Hereticks no Schismaticks except Aerius and his few complices who discontent for not obtaining a Bishoprick which â—e sought and turning Arrian was the first the onely and the fitâ—â—st engine to oppose Episcopacy as Epiphanius observes were ever so wild so fanatick so desperate as to cast off all Episcopall succession Authority over them both in Ordination and jurisdiction yea they knew no meanes to keep their confederacies and factions better together than that which they saw had alwaies been serviceable to preserve the true Churches communion Though the Manicheans Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Pelagians and others together with the Novatians Donatists withdrew from or were justly excluded by the Bishops of the sound and orthodox profession yet still these Heterodox Opiniasters had not onely Deacons and Presbyters but Bishops of their own Some of which Bishops afterward returning to the Catholick Communion were not degraded from their Episcopall power but onely suspended from the exercise of it in another Bishops jurisdiction or Diocese without his leave which being granted to some of them gave occasion to those Chorepiscopi which were Bishops without particular title and locall jurisdiction but yet enjoying and using this power of Ordination in some Country-Townes and Villages by the permission of the Bishop or Metropolitane of the Diocese or Province residing in the chief City which indulgence was after as the Church-Histories tell us taken away from the Chorepiscopi when it was found to occasion great inconveniences by admitting two Bishops in one Precinct or Diocese Certainly what is so pregnantly Catholick and usefull that not onely all good men but even such as were evill could not but approve and use it it were not onely folly but frenzy to cast quite away if it were the full vote and free act of the Nation What Apology could be sufficient to excuse this Nation either among Churches abroad or to posterity at home when they should see that by a rash partiall and popular precipitancy we have been hurried against all Reason Honor and Religion to forsake or to stop up the ancient fountaines of living waters which have alwaies flowed from Episcopall Ordination supplying this as all Churches in all places and offices with orderly Presbyters and usefull Deacons onely to try what those pits will afford which novellers have digged to themselves and which they eagerly obtrude upon this Church notwithstanding they are already found by sad experience to hold no such cleare and pure waters either for Doctrine or Discipline for Authority or Unity for Order or Peace as those were which the Apostles digged and the Catholick Church ever used and esteemed for sacred In this great point then of Right Ordination and true Ministeriall Authority of which the Learned Mr. Mason professeth next his salvation he desires to be assured it is as I humbly conceive not onely piously but prudently necessary for our Reformed Church Religion and Ministry to be effectually vindicated and by all possible meanes fairly united If there were ever any other way of Ordination used or allowed in the Church of Christ let the Authors Histories and instances be produced either as to their grounds or their practise If there were never any other either used or approved or thought of besides that which was in the Church of England managed by Bishops as necessary and chief agents in it truly it is but Justice Reason Conscience and Honor to own this Truth to follow this Catholick precedent to returne to an holy conformity with pious Antiquity which neither invented nor induced Bishops or Episcopall Ordination and jurisdiction as an affected novelty or a studied variety but they followed doubtlesse herein what was received from the very first Bishops who succeeded to the Apostles as authorized and placed by them So that as the succession of Bishops was lineally reducible to the Apostles which Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Nicephorus and others evidently prove not onely by their publick Registers but by their private memories when the names of Bishops were fresh in Christians minds and not very numerous as in the second and third Centuries No lesse may be affirmed of Ordination by Bishops it had its precept and pattern from the Apostles expresly committed and enjoyned to some persons as chief Bishops never trusted to meer Presbyters alone much less to people in common so far as any Record of the Church Sacred or Ecclesiastick doth informe us whose constant silence in this case is a better Testimony against all innovation of Ecclesiasticall Ordination than all the Sorites the Rhapsodies heapes and scamblings of I know not what broken scraps and wrested allegations out of any Scriptures or Fathers can be by which I see some men have sought with much dust sweat and blood to bring in their new uncertaine unaccustomed and unauthentick formes of Ordination exclusive of any President or Bishop who ever was as the principall Verb in a sentence which cannot be wanting without making the sense of all other words very lame defective incoherent and insignificant These grand perswasions joyned to the sad experiences made in Englands late variations do thus far command me to be more intent and earnest that in this point of valid complete undoubted and most authoritative Ordination we might be made uniform that all Ministers like currant money might have the same image and superscription upon them It is most certaine that the Christian and Reformed Religion will never be able to shine either clearly or constantly or comfortably upon the consciences of Christians either as Ministers or people while it is in this great point of Ordination so darkned clouded and eclipsed that it lookes like the Sun wrapped in sackcloth or the Moon turned into blood What Ministry what Ministers what Ordination what Ordained what Ordainers what Ordinances of Christ will in time be much esteemed in England by the Nobility Gentry or Yeomanry when they shall see various waies of Ordination daily invented and obtruded pittifull Novelties induced uniform Antiquity discarded Primitive Episcopacy exautorated a subordinate Presbytery scorned a popular parity and petulancy indulged every where to make what extemporary Priests and Preachers they list of the dregs and meanest of the people as little God knowes to their own soules benefit as to the Churches peace or to the honor of this Nation though they do it with as much
Seates they had most evidently continued in all Churches without any interruption or variation of the forme or power however the persons had been oft changed by mortality Certainly it is most easie for all learned honest and unbiassed men to see what the uniform and Catholick form then was of all Churches orderly combinations I dare appeale to Independents and Presbyterians as well as Episcopall men to declare bona fide what they find it was in the first and best times after Churches were once fully formed and setled in their severall partitions No man not more bold than bayard or more blind than a beetle but must see and confesse that according to the first platform which we read of in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles the Order Polity and Government of the Church was completed setled and continued first in Deacons who had the lowest degree of Church-office order and Ministry consisting in reading the Scriptures in making collections for the poor in distributing of charity in visiting the sick in providing things necessary safe convenient and decent for Christian Ministers and people when they met to serve the Lord in one place which place or house from hence was called Dominicum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church or House of the Lord. Next these in order degree and office were Presbyters that is ordained preachers to whom was committed by the Apostles first and after by Bishops their successors the Charge and Office of Catechizing the younger of Preaching to the elder of Baptizing believers and their children of consecrating the holy Elements of the Lords Supper and of admitting worthy Communicants to receive them besides the grave and venerable Presbyters had as brethren the priviledge of electing their Bishops also of counsell confessions and assistance with their respective Bishop's in publick concernment and grand transactions of the Church Above both these in eminency of place degree and power as to gubernative Authority were those prime Bishops or overseers of the Church first called by the name of Apostles as immediately set by Christ in that Episcopacy next were those that were personally appointed by the Apostles to supply their absence or to succeed them in that ordinary presidency and constant jurisdiction which was necessary for the Churches peace union and good Government of which we have two pregnant instances in Timothy and Titus who to be sure had Episcopall power given them not as Evangelists or Preachers but as Ordainers and Rulers of many Presbyters After these Bishops of a lesser size constantly succeeded being first chosen by the Presbyters of each grand Church or Diocese to that power and office and then consecrated to it or confirmed in it by neighbour-Bishops who solemnly imparted to them and invested them in that Eminency of Ordaining and Ruling power which is properly Episcopall not onely for the dispensing of holy mysteries for the preaching of the word and absolving penitents as Presbyters who were a minor sort of Bishops but for confirming those who had in infancy been baptized for solemn excommunication and absolution for examining and ordaining Presbyters and Deacons for transmitting that Episcopall and Ministeriall power in a constant and holy succession according as they had received it so for judging of and inflicting publick censures and reproofes likewise for all Synodal Conventions and representations of the Churches lastly for the authoritative enacting and executing of all Ecclesiasticall decrees and Church-disciplines all which things Bishops did as a Major sort of Presbyters though a Minor sort of Apostles if we may believe the judgment practise and testimony of all Antiquity in the purest times which are diligently collected evidently set down and unanswerably urged by many late writers who have brought forth such a cloud of witnesses as to this point of Ecclesiasticall Order and Government by Deacons Presbyters and Bishops a threefold cord not to be broken that men may as well deny the Evangelicall History as the Original Institution and Succession of the Evangelicall Ministry and the orderly constant Government of the Church by the service of Deacons the assistance of Presbyters and the superintendency of the Apostles whom no sober man denies to have been while they lived the eminent Rulers authoritative Overseers and chief Governours and Bishops of all the Churches where they were fixed or which they had under their particular care and charge Nor may it with any more shadow of reason or truth be denied that Bishops in a distinct place and eminent power were a successive and secondary sort of Apostles inferiour to them in their immediate call in their extraordinary gifts and the latitude of their power but equall to them in that ordinary constant and regular jurisdiction which was and is ever necessary for the Churches good Order and Government If all sorts and sides would look beyond their own later prejudices and presumptions to this holy patterne this so cleare constant and Catholick prescription they would be ashamed of such grosse ignorance or impudence such peevishnesse or partiality as should beyond all forehead or modesty affect any novelty or variety from an Ecclesiastick custome and an Apostolick precedent so undeniably Primitive so famous so glorious so prosperous so never altered or innovated as to the maine that all true believers all humble Deacons all orderly Presbyters all Confessors all Martyrs all Synods all Councils submitted and subscribed to the same form and kind of Government in its severall stations and degrees according as the wisdome of the Church saw cause to use its prudence power and liberty as Calvin Zanchy and Bucer tell us in having not onely Bishops but Metropolitanes or Arch-Bishops Primates and Patriarchs ad conservandam disciplinam as Calvin ownes for the better Order Unity and Correspondency of the Church in all its parts which were never quarrelled at till pride begat oppression and envy schisme in the Church till foolish and factious spirits chose to walk contrary to the true principles and proportions of all right Reason and Religion of all prudence and polity which are to be observed in all Societies sacred or civil which the Divine wisdome as St. Jerom observes had exemplified in the ancient Church of the Jewes and directed us to as Salmasius confesseth in all successions of Churches by the Spirit of wisdom which Christ gave to his Apostles and all their immediate successors the Bishops who were conform to them and impowered by them to be a kind of Tutelary Angels of presidentiall Intelligences in the larger circles and higher orbes of the Church where as in Ephesus and the other grand Metropolitane Churches which are denominated by the Spirit of Christ and the pen of the Apostle from the chief Cities in those Provinces there were no doubt many Christian people Presbyters and Deacons yet all these subject as Beza glossing on St. Jerom confesseth to that one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Provost or President as their
credit of the Church Catholick the comfort and authority of all true Ministers the surest test and Character of due Ordination the peace and unity of all good Christians are bound up and mainly concerned 3. What if these new masters these sharp censors and imperious dictators whom perhaps not Piety so much as Policy not Religion but Reason of State not reforming severities but needlesse jealousies and imaginary necessities have put upon such violent sticklings against Episcopacy and reprobating all worthy Bishops what if they have been deceived themselves and deceivers of others in that point which is much more veniall to think and say of the very best of them than to passe any such censure or suspicion of error or ignorance upon all Churches even in their purest and Primitive Antiquity when one spark of Martyrly zeal which was as holy fire from Gods Altar had more divine light and heat in it than all the blazes and flashes of Moderne Zelotry 4. I do in all Christian candor demand of the severest Presbyterian and sharpest Independent whether when they ask of the generations of old and enquire of all Ages from the beginning of Christian Churches whether ever they find any Christians or congregations at any time either Christening or Churching themselves either by their own vote choise and authority or by separating from their ordained Presbyters and Bishops which were sound in the faith and regular in their administrations who had duly taught baptized confirmed and ruled them in the Lord. When did any Presbyters or Ministers ever pretend to ordaine themselves or one another without some Apostle or Bishop When where and by whom was the first Schisme Rupture or Chasme of Ecclesiasticall parity as to Mission and Commission begun When and where was the first intrusion or encroachment upon the pretended authority of Presbytery made by Episcopacy Did not all Presbyters owe ever own their legitimate birth breeding to their respective Bishops whose Authority was ever as much above meer Presbyters in degree and office as it was before them in the order of nature and causality no lesse than in time and antiquity 5. If then all the novel presumptions pretentions and objections of either Presbytery or Independency against Primitive Catholick and Apostolick Episcopacy should in earnest be nothing but passionate false and frivolous mistakes arising from ignorance and error carried on by envy and arrogancy in many men O what needlesse troubles what heedlesse angers what inordinate furies what dreadfull disorders must they all this while have been guilty of what causelesse contentions innovations confusions vastations have they brought into the Churches of Christ what cruell and uncharitable contentions have they raised as elsewhere so in this famous and flourishing Church of England without any just cause God knowes and beyond the merits of Episcopacy even in its greatest defects declinations and deformities to which as all holy Institutions may in time be subject so they ought to be humbly wisely and moderately reformed by the prayers teares counsels honest and orderly endeavours of all sober Christians of all sorts and sizes in their places and stations with due regard to the first pattern and originall But certainly as the whole order and office of Presbytery which may have had its personall depravations also so the ancient and venerable Authority of Episcopacy as to its Primitive Institution and Catholick succession ought not on any hand to be utterly ruined rased and extirpated root and branch by any tumultuary rashnesse or popular precipitancy which can never become any Church of Christ or any wise and godly Christians nor can such methods of sharp and soure Reformations ever end in the peace or comfort of good men who if they find themselves guilty of excesses so dangerous and destructive to the true Church true Religion and true Reformation have nothing lesse to do than to persevere in their extravagancies or pertinaciously to assert their former transports yea they have nothing more to do speedily and conscienciously than humbly to recant seriously to repent and effectually to amend as much as lies in their power the affronts and assaults the breaches and wasts they have made of the Churches Peace and Unity Power and Authority by returning to that duty which they owe to God and that obedience they owe to their spirituall Governours and that reverence which they owe to uniform antiquity which so fully commends the presidentiall authority of Apostolicall and Primitive Episcopacy Their first errors may be weaknesse but their obstinacy must needs be wickednesse who still sin when they are convinced silenced and afflicted 6. What if after all this dust and noyse which hath so blinded and deafned the eyes and eares of many Presbyters and people that they cannot and will not see the Truth and Testimony of Antiquity which is no lesse cleare for the presidentiall authority and eminency of Episcopacy than for the subordination counsel and assistance of Presbytery what if it should be the mind of God the order and Institution of Jesus Christ the designation and direction of his blessed Spirit evidently signified and setled in and by the blessed Apostles in all Primitive Churches and so continued to this day according to the measures of Divine Wisdome and Order though not without mixtures of humane infirmities and disorders incident to all holy Institutions 7. What if after all these seditious and schismaticall distempers in Ministers and people the Lord should say to these refractory and irreconcilable spirits against Episcopacy as he did to the Jewes when they revolted from Samuels Government They have not rejected you O my faithfull servants the Bishops whom I have constituted and used in all ages as vigilant Over-seers and wise Rulers of my flock but they have rejected me who in this point of Episcopacy have so sufficiently declared my will and pleasure to all the world that no Church was ever ignorant of it or varied from it being manifested from heaven First in the evident instances of divine wisdome among the Jewish Church and Priests yea as it is an orderly and gubernative method in all societies where right reason and so true Religion necessarily command and commend superiority and subjection Secondly in the paterne and Rules of Ecclesiasticall Polity set down by my Son Jesus Christ and followed by his Apostles who setled all Churches in such an orderly subordination Thirdly in the constant custome and Catholick testimony of all succeeding Churches whose joynt suffrages and uniform practises in cases of any darkness dispute or difficulty where Scripture-precepts may seem lesse clear and explicite ought by all sober Christians to be esteemed as the safest measures of conscience and surest rule of religious observance especially as to things of outward Polity Order and Government nor may any novel inventions or pretentions never so specious be put into the balance against the Authority of the Catholick Church which is the pillar and ground of Truth the great
Directory of Ecclesiasticall prudence and practise 8. What if the Great God of order peace and truth as well as so many learned and godly men so many famous and flourishing Churches in all Ages should by beating or scaring men from their popular prejudices pitiful subterfuges and sinister designes thus mightily plead the cause of true Episcopacy against all those who have spoken and done so many perverse things against that excellent government What if he should by some powerful means rebuke their confidences as he did Job's justly demanding of these Destroyers Where is that Wisdom that Modesty that Gentleness that Charity that Moderation that Humility that Gravity and Christian Caution which became godly men to their betters to such a Church and to such worthy Bishops as were the Governours of it under God and the King Could you be ignorant of the learning graces virtues merits and worth which were in Bishops suitable to their lawful Autority Did you not know and with some repining see how justly they were preferred before Presbyters and People as every way fittest to be over and above them Are these immoderations and injuries the wayes of true Religion and Reformation Can there be true piety without charity yea without equity or pitty If evil men are not to be injured much less good men good Ministers and least of all good Bishops which were not wanting among you May not thus the lightnings of Gods rebukes be clearly seen and the terrors of his thunders be justly heard and the blastings of his displeasure be felt by all the unjust tumultuary malicious and implacable enemies of venerable Episcopacy Methinks I hear the Divine Majesty thus uttering his glorious voice against them O foolish People O unthankful Nation O degenerous Christians or deformed Church not worthy to be beloved of God or happily governed by wise men Do you thus requite the Lord and thus despise all the ancient Churches of Christ by forsaking yea rejecting your own mercies and happiness Is it a small thing that you have broken through all Laws and the arm of mans civil authority but will you also contend against the power of God and the wisdom of Christ whose out-stretched arm in the way of Episcopacy hath been in all Ages a defence and refuge to his Church Should you beyond the boldnesse of Balaam dare to curse what God hath not cursed or to defie what God hath not defied but signally owned with his blessing in all Ages and Churches In seeing do you not see and in reading do you not understand the constant methods of Gods guiding and governing both this and all other Christian Churches How hath a novel zeal but not according to knowledge blinded your minds Who called the first Apostles to be chief Bishops over all Churches Who supplied the Apostasie of Judas by the Election of Matthias to his Episcopacy Upon whom did the power of the Holy Ghost first come Who placed Bishops immediately after them in all completed Churches through the world What planted preserved united and reformed them but that Apostolical that is the Episcopal autority assisted by such Presbyters whom they ordained to part of the Office Labour Honour and Ministry Who were the chief Champions of the Gospel but the venerable Bishops in all Ages Who were the most resolute Confessors holy Bishops Who the most glorious Martyrs excellent Bishops Who were the most Learned and Valiant Asserters of the Orthodox faith Primitive purity sanctity order and harmony becoming Christian Churches but admirable Bishops Who were counted the prime Starres in the hand of Christ Who were called by way of eminency Angels by him but the chief Presidents and Bishops of the seven Churches To whom was Divine Power first given and after derived not onely to teach and feed but to ordain Presbyters and Deacons also to rebuke rule and govern both Presbyters Deacons and People as St. Paul enjoynes but to holy Bishops in the persons and patterns of Timothy and Titus Archippus and others whose Authority as such no man ought to despise Who were they that wounded and destroyed the Great Behemoth and Leviathans of prodigious errors and spreading heresies in the four first Centuries but incomparable Bishops such as were Irenaeus Athanasius Epiphanius Augustine Ambrose Hilary Prosper both the Cyrils the Basils the Gregories and others Who quenched the wild-fires of Schisme and faction among Christian people and Ministers but excellent Bishops such as Clemens Ignatius Cyprian both the Dionysiu's Austin Optatus Fulgentius and others By whose sweat and blood next after the Apostles were the plantations and necessary Reformations of Churches watered and weeded but by the vigilancy and industry of worthy Bishops both in their single capacity and in their joynt Synods or Councills wherein Bishops as the Representatives or chief Fathers of all Churches as the families of Christ might orderly meet duly deliberate and autoritatively determine what seemed good to the Spirit of God and to them for the Churches Purity and Peace according to the Scriptures precept and Catholick practise Who were those renowned Pastors and Preachers of old that mitigated the Spirits of great Princes that converted many Nations that baptized mighty Kings and Emperours that advanced the Gospel beyond their Empires and set up the Crosse of Christ above their Crownes not in soveraignty or civill power but in the Divine Empire of Verity Sanctity and Charity Who moderated the Spirits and passions of persecutors Who convinced them of their errors resolved their scruples who condemned their sins who terrified their consciences and who either raised or restored them through repentance to the peace of Christ and his Church but heroick wise and invincible Bishops Who have been the chief Luminaries in all Churches in all Ages the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel the prime Pillars of Piety and Peace of Hospitality and Honour of Order and good Government but wise and renowned Bishops Who furnished all Churches with fervent Prayers devout Liturgies convenient Catechises learned Homilies practical Sermons accurate Commentaries and excellent Epistles with sound Decisions of Controversies and Cases arising in the Church or any private Conscience Who made up with charitable Composures all uncomfortable breaches and unkind differences among Christians but pious and prudent Bishops whose autority was ever esteemed as sacred being experienced in all Ages to be sanative and soveraign to Religion and the Church where they had freedom and encouragements to act as became the chief Pastors Counsellors and Governours of the Church in all Ecclesiastick concernments Sure if God would have them utterly destroyed he would not so long have accepted such sacrifices from the hands of Bishops both ancient and modern nor thus mightily have pleaded the cause of Episcopacy in all Ages and in this both as to Gods wisdom in and his blessing upon that way of Church-government and Governours But possibly our later Bishops especially in England whose cause is here chiefly pleaded were such
next Bishops consecrating or blessing of the Elect Bishop made up that complete power and eminent Authority in which he that was formerly but a Presbyter was now invested as a Bishop or President of any Church which made Epiphanius brand Aerius for a mad man and subverted by the Devill upon his discontent for being repulsed from a Bishoprick of which he was ambitious because he made Episcopacy and Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of equall dignity efficacy and authority yet is Epiphanius often and highly commended by St. Jerom who was but a Presbyter and lived in his Diocese sometime as a person sanctae venerabilis memoriae of holy and happy memory This then appearing so pregnantly to have been the judgement and practise of all Antiquity which preferred Episcopall dignity and Authority above simple Presbytery I do not see how learned modest and ingenuous men can lightly esteem or actually oppose so Ancient and Catholick an order in the Church so usefull so necessary for any Churches well-being which is unseparable from its good Government Lay aside then passions prejudices partiality love of novelty and childish pertinacy I cannot but hope sober men will cheerfully returne in their judgements desires and endeavours to correspond with Primitive and paternall Episcopacy acknowledging the ancient Rights of it as well as the use of it to be Catholick and Apostolick so delivered to us in all Ages and successions not onely by Bishops but by Presbyters and Deacons too such as Clemens of Alexandria Tertullian Origen and others were from all which wholly to vary and recede cannot be other than shaking and in great part subverting the very foundations of Unity Charity and Stability in the Catholick Church as to its visible Order Communion and Government wherein all good Christians should not so much study the temporary satisfaction of particular parties and interests as the constant and common good of the whole Polity and Society wherein all honest mens private concernments are best preserved by such a publick Authority as is most venerable and least disputable What some have alledged to weaken and baffle the Catholick Antiquity of Episcopacy as to its Primitive and Apostolick plantation by bastardizing all the Epistles of Ignatius as wholly supposititious and so interpolated at best with the oft-repeated Crambes of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons to a kind of nauseous affectation savouring they say more of later subtilty than Primitive simplicity All this hath no weight in it considering the high esteem was had of Ignatius in the Churches of the second and third Centuries besides what the learned Usserius and Vossius do own in their late Examens not onely for his Martyrly constancy but for his so holy and generous Epistles so full of devout flames and sacred fervors of love to Christ of Charity to his Church and zeal for Martyrdome that it were a thousand pitties this lukewarm Age should want the warmth of Ignatius his spirit glowing in his Epistles such as were often owned and cited by the first Ecclesiastick Writers St. Jerom Eusebius and others as genuine Nor doth it seem so probable that any in those or after-times which had no dispute either for or against Episcopacy should studiously adde those frequent testimonies for it which are seen in the most unsuspected parts of Ignatius but rather that Holy man was directed by Gods good Spirit in his Martyrly zeal and extasies of love to Christ and the Church to reinforce and reiterate as he doth the validity of his testimony for Order and Unity in the Church as foreseeing the quarrels which might be about Episcopacy and that the Communion of the Church would be much dissolved when the reverence and submission to Episcopall order and eminency should be so remitted disputed or denied that either Presbyters or people should run to parity and popularity the certaine high-waies to Anarchy Truly Ignatius is not more frequent for the honor and eminency of Episcopacy than for a venerable Presbytery in its due place and rank which might make him seem lesse fulsome to some Presbyters if they were not their own enemies out of excessive transports against all Bishops Vedelius of Geneva who had as good a nose and quick a sent as most men would not have so studied Ignatius his Epistles and sifted them as he doth if he thought them all drosse or refuse yea he is so evicted by them that he cannot forbear to subscribe to many of them in many places yea and to such an Episcopacy as that holy Martyr joynes with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a venerable Presbytery which he hardly doubts much lesse denies to have been in that first Century after Christ when Ignatius wrote those Epistles being Bishop of Antioch after Eâ—odias constituted there by Saint Peter when he left that Church to go to others Nor is there any more force in the fancies that some men draw from St. Clemens contemporary with St. Paul who in his Epistles ownes no Bishops as distinct among or above Presbyters in the Church of Corinth to whom he wrote that divine letter upon occasion of Schisme or Sedition risen among the Presbyters of that Church Sure the enemies of Episcopacy are hardly driven to find testimonies in Antiquity against it when they are forced to wrest them out of such Writers who were undoubtedly themselves Bishops as Clemens was in the Church of Rome in whose person he writes that Epistle to the Corinthians as Eusebius St. Jerom and all Antiquity before them do witness It is true St. Clemens then wrote when the Name of Bishop and Presbyter were not so distinct as afterward Episcopal eminency being either in the Apostolicall persons and power yet surviving or conveyed under the Names of Bishops and Presbyters to lesser Apostles and Apostolick successors whom St. Clemens calls the first fruits of the Apostles placed by them as he saith to be Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in all Churches to serve and oversee or Rule the Church according to Christian order and Ecclesiasticall comelinesse as the State of the Churches required Which he represents by those three orders among the Jewes which God had appointed namely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Priests the Priests and Levites which Orders as he sayes God confirmed by the miracle of Aarons Rod against the factious and seditious spirits among the Jewes so the Apostles foreseeing the contention that would arise about the name of Episcopacy did place those worthy persons to be their successors whom others in like order might follow to execute as he expresseth the proper ministrations and offices which are to be performed in the Church not confusedly but by such persons and in such times and places as the Lord had appointed So that either the Corinthian Presbyters were then as so many particular Bishops attended onely with their Deacons in their severall Charges which might be many and large enough in that ample
Custom and Canons of this as of all Churches also by the ancient Lawes of this Nation thus splitting even their dear Presbytery in pieces which was best embarqued with Episcopacy while they ran this on ground upon the Rocks Quick-sands the oppositions of power and the despiciencies of people between which all Church-government and publick respect is now removed from both Bishops and Presbyters Alas how pitiful a part of any Government have any of these Ministers now to act and please themselves with who affected to play a new game at Chesse in this Church onely with pawns and rooks without Kings or Bishops whose unseparable fate at least as to the Genius of England King James very wisely foresaw would stand and fall together if he had as wisely prevented the danger and damage of both it being very hard for any Soveraign Prince to govern such an head-strong people unless he have power over their minds as well as their bodies This a Prince cannot have but by Preachers who as the weekly Musterers Orators and Commanders of the populacy do exercise by the Scepter of their tongues a secret and swasive yet potent Empire over most peoples soules These preachers he knew were not easily kept either in good order or in just honor being men of quick fancies of daring and active confidences great valuers of themselves and ambitious to be many Masters yea popular and petty Monarchs in the Thrones of their Pulpits and Territories of their Parishes unlesse there were some men over them who are fittest to be above them as being too hard for them in their own sphere and mystery best able to judge of Ministers Learning Opinions Preaching Praying and Living men for yeares of Gravity and Prudence rewarded with Estates and Honors And such were Bishops without whom Christian Monarchs are like those Kings who had their thumbs and great toes cut off it being not possible for a Prince immediately to correspond with every petty Presbyter nor is it comely to contest with them nor can he be quiet from their pragmatick janglings unlesse they be curbed by some such Learned Authoritative and Venerable Superiours as are properest for them who were the fittest mediums between the King and his other Clergy both to perswade Princes to favour the Church and to perswade Church-men to preach and practise loyalty toward their Princes which tends to the honor of both Magistracy and Ministry So that it was no other then an obvious conjecture to foretel No Bishop no King since the same Scriptures and Principles of both reason and religion piety and policy lead men to obey both as rulers over them in the Lord or to reject both by affecting popular parities and communities as in Church so in State Which abatement of Kingly or Soveraign power in one person as to its civil Magistratick and Monarchical eminency hath by late experience been found so inconsistent with the Genius of this English Nation that the Representatives of the People have not onely importunely petitioned the restitution of Monarchical yea Kingly government but they have actually setled the main authority in one person under an other Name and Title justly fearing lest the dividing and diminishing of Soveraignty Majesty and Authority as to the chief Governour should in time make a dissolution of the civil Government by frequent emulations and ambitions incident to any such Nation as England is which hath so many great and rival Spirits in it prone to contemn or contest with any thing that looks like their Equal Nor do I doubt but Time will further shew us if it hath not done it already sufficiently that no less inconveniences and mischiefs both as to Church and State may follow the debasing and destroying of Ecclesiastical power and authority in England dividing and mincing it so diverting the ample and fair the ancient and potent stream of Episcopacy which flowed from the Throne of Christ and of Christian Kings into the new rivulets small channels and weak currents either of Presbytery or Independency The Scepter of Government in Church or State like the staff or rod of Moses when it is cast out of his hand on the Earth or populacy turns to a serpent Democracy being a very terrible Daemogorgon untill it be resumed into Moses his hand as King in Iesurun it doth not return to its former beauty strength and use which that did after it had justly devoured the rods and serpents of the Magicians as in time Monarchical Government will do all other kinds or essayes in Engl. which are but the effects of popular passions and encroachments carried on more by some Preachers Inchantments then by Lay-mens Ambitions Strabo and others tell us that the people of Cappadocia when the Romanes had conquered their Kings and offered them their Liberty as a Province or free State under them they refused the favour affirming the temper of their Country was such that the people in it could not live if they were not governed by a King So pertinacious were they as indeed most people in the world have been and are at this day to retaine the sacred Tradition of Kingly or Monarchicall Government which being parentall and Patriarchall is most naturall and divine derived to us by nature and confirmed by good experience ever since Noah and Adam who had their just Soveraignty as Fathers and Kings over all mankind derived to them from God the Great Father and Eternall King over all from whom Monarchy and so Episcopacy derive their Majesty and Authority Primogeniture carrying with it as Princely so Priestly power which made the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 41.45 Exod. 3.1 to signifie both Prince and Priest The want of either of which and the swerving from either of them commonly occasioneth infinite distractions in any Nation and Church especially if they have been in all times wonted to be governed by them To avoid which miseries among Mankind the Wisdom of God hath guided as most Nations to Monarchy so this and all primitive Churches to the royall Priesthood of Episcopacy from the very cradle or beginning of Christianity At which time S. Jerom to Euagrius confesseth it was toto orbe decretum a Catholick Decree and Order through all the Christian world which could be no other then Apostolical at least And however other Reformed Churches may make a shift to live and some of them thrive without the formal name and title of Bishops though most of them have the efficacy of the power and the reality of the authority in their Superintendents yet I am confident till English Spirits are wholly cow'd and depressed with war and such exhaustings as utterly dis-spirit and embase the Nobility Gentry and Communalty nothing will be more inconsistent with them than what savours of parity and popularity in Church-Government They will rather affect to have every one what they list which in effect will be no Government properly Ecclesiastick further then they may be commanded
not worthy to be their Rulers in the least kind This submission cannot be expected unless Englishmen are now to be subdued by fine words and made obedient by the formal and supercilious looks of some men who affect in their Churches and Parishes to govern all and are not fit alone to govern any unless they had been more able and willing to govern themselves and to have kept within that compasse of Ecclesiastical Order and subjection to their Bishops and betters which the example of all Churches and all worthy Presbyters and true Christians in all Ages commended to them besides the particular Laws and constitutions of this Church and State These considerations of the unproportionableness of any other Church-government than a right Episcopacy to the temper of England moved the supercilious yet very learned Salmasius in his advice to the Prince Elector then in England and to some other of the long Parlament and of the Scotized Assembly who desired his judgement upon the then hot and perboyling yea passionate and over-boyling debates touching Episcopacy to tell them That as the Episcopal Government rightly constituted and executed is very agreeable to the Word of God and most conform to all Antiquity so it was of all other most suitable to the English spirit and constitution The want of which he already foresaw was and would ever be the cause of much disorder and distraction of infinite Factions Heresies Schismes and Confusions Thus the great Dictator of Learning as he esteemed himself was pleased in this passage and other-where graciously to express his judgement and pleasure according to the humour he was in or to the Interest which he was pleased to adopt Sometimes he is Walo Messalinus and ashamed to own his Name against Episcopacy he was in that disguise to gratifie the pretentions of Presbytery and the adherence or dependence which he had to the French and Dutch Churches otherwhile he puts off the vizard and with open face owns the eminency authority antiquity and universality of Episcopacy yea the incomparable utility of it when joyned with a grave and orderly Presbytery besides a particular aptitude in it to the English Genius For he well saw that all Government and Church-Government as much as any is a beame of Divine Majesty and requires not onely something of a Diviner sufficiency as to inward abilities and endowments but also of a Diviner conspicuity and lustre for Authority civil eminency and ornament We read that God besides his choice of Aaron and his Sons to be complete persons to make them chief Priests according to his Command and Commission gave also strict order for their garments to have them made with such comelinesse cost and curiosity as should be for glory and beauty even before the eyes of the people over whom they were placed And we further read that God forbad to his people the Jewes all birds that did creep and yet fly they were uncleane and abominable to be eaten An Emblem that nothing is lesse comely in Gods Church than to see those men ambitiously affect to fly high in governing others whose condition is low and creeping on the ground Indeed no Government can be carried on in Church or State especially in Engl. but either by the absolute terror of the sword and secular power commanding or by such legal injunctions and religious perswasions as bind good men in conscience to submit first to God and for his sake to those whom he as Lord of all is pleased to set over us Then is government in Church or State most complete and constant when it hath first that rational Empire and religious prevalency over mens hearts which ariseth from the perswasion that people have of the worth abilities right and authority which Governours have by their laws as from God in the State so from Christ in the Church Which perswasion as it brought all Christian people Presbyters and Bishops to be so wholy subject to their civil Magistrates and Soveraigns so it made all Christian Presbyters and Professors to be filially submiss to their Bishops as to Fathers given them by Christ even then when Bishops were rich in graces and gifts of the Spirit but low as to worldly greatness and under much persecution yet then did the Majesty of Episcopal authority prevail on which the lively Characters and pregnant Memorials of the Apostolical pattern designation and succession were still fresh and most remarkable then did it draw all true Believers and good Christians to venerate their Bishops or chief Pastors for Conscience sake by so much the more by how much Presbyters and People had more of the power of Godlinesse in them whereas now it is made a new mark of Godliness and Saintship with many to cast off to hate abhor despise and destroy all Bishops and all eminent Episcopacy Sure either primitive purity or modern dreggs must be very much out of the right way and which of them erres I leave to all sober men to judge As for other Christians of looser Consciences and Conversation which were prone in all Ages to be as weeds in the garden of the Church especially in times of Peace Plenty and Prosperity the piety and wisdom of Christian Princes and other godly people ever took care to keep them in the more awe and reverence toward their Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governours by investing these in such outward and visible enjoyments for estate and honour which might adde some outward respect and authority to them and that no small one before those that had most need to be so restrained overawed and dazled Hence the piety and policy of Constantine the Great not onely gave liberal supports to the Bishops of the Church but gave them places and honors equal to the Patricii the Senators in order and degree which were the Roman chief Nobility It is not onely an imprudent but an impious presumption and a tempting of God to needless miracles for any people to invest those men in any Government as in State so in Church who are as St. Paul saith little esteemed because deserving little who have neither personal abilities for the Office nor any clear and undoubted commission to authorize them in it from God or Man from Christ and his Church which I conceive can hardly if ever be found in any wayes of Church-government which are suspected for Novelty or tainted with Parity and Popularity contemners of Catholick Custom Primitive Antiquity and Apostolical Succession in an holy Uniformity From all which depravations as venerable Episcopacy is sufficiently known to be farthest removed of any so it cannot but seem to all impartial Christians to be as every way best in it self so fittest for the native temper of England where mens spirits are more accurate and acute more inquisitive and searching into the rights foundations and grounds of all authority over them then in other Countries where meannesse and easinesse servility and credulity of common people makes them venerate
in storms and in calms ever since they have been beaten from and denyed Anchorage in the fair Haven of Episcopacy which ever was and ever will be the safest and best harbour both for Religion this Church and its Clergy For no men will regard those Ministers who help to make themselves undervalued Who will care to provide for or protect them that cast off so fair a portion of Estate and noble a proportion of honour as the Laws of this Land had given them under the Episcopal covering Whither now shall poor Ministers fly unless they fly from their despised and distressed calling to some more easie quiet and beneficial Mechanick profession unless they renounce their former Orders and take up a new standing either upon their own tip-toes or some Mole-hill which the Ants of the people have cast up neither of which stations is either firm or comely The vulgar favour is too flat dull and shallow for any man of Learning Worth and Wisdom to lanch into he will presently be a-ground for popular respect riseth to no higher a pitch than they see men have some publick influence of favour estate or power Go to the Palaces of such as are Princes and think themselves great persons their Courts and Families are commonly full of deep and rough rapid and dangerous motions the courtesie of country-Justices and true Committee-men is very various much as the Wind and Tide are either with or against the poor Clergy Where are there then any proper Advocates and Judges or any competent Censors and Supports of the Clergy becoming men of Learning and Worth beyond the ordinary rate of most men Whom have they of their cloth and calling that is in any eminency of Place Power or Honour who might by their favour defend a poor Minister as with a shield so as worthy Bishops did without whom the Ministry in England may I think despair of ever recovering themselves to any great value or regard while they are looked upon even one and all under a meer plebeian notion and proletary proportion permitted indeed to marry and beget children but to servility poverty and beggery Few persons of any Worth or Estate will now either make their sons Ministers or match their daughters to them or contract any alliance or friendship with them since no Clergy-men can be great they will not be much valued for being good Thus hath the fall of Episcopacy like a great and goodly Oake crushed all the Under-wood of the Clergy which was safe while those defensatives stood in our Druina nor have those escaped the brush and crush who were most industrious to fell it On all hands the honour of the Clergy is never like to revive in this Nation till something like primitive and authoritative Episcopacy be either replanted or restored the spirit of the Nation being such that it cannot be governed but by those that have some publick eminency and real lustre upon them either as to military power or civil honour or religious presidency set off with the ampleness of some estate and the authority of some fitting jurisdiction As Augustus said to the Egyptians when they desired him to visit their God Apis I worship Gods not Oxen so do the most people of Engl. in their hearts reply to all Presbyterian Independent Ministers who seek to winne them to worship their ways We were wonted to venerate grave and honourable Bishops not every petty Presbyter or Preacher as our chief Church-governours according to the custom and manner of all good Christians in all ancient Churches and in this of England ever since Joseph of Arimathaea or Simon Zelotes converted us ever since K. Lucius was baptized and the British Church had the honour of Primogeniture to any National Church in the World ever since either Palladius in Scotland or Patricius in Ireland or the latter Austin in England by the mission and commission of the devout Gregory the Great either restored or planted Christian Religion and Bishops in England the shortest of which Terms or Epoches is now above a thousand years In all which time England hath been famous for nothing so much as for the great regard this Nation had til of late years both to Christian Religion and to the Clergy which never til now were made to live without the crowns and coronets of their worthy Bishops in every Diocess which were the coverings of power and honour upon the heads of all the Clergy to whom the access of a poor Minister was short and easie his hearing speedy his tryal legal and rational his dispatch without delayes his dismission fatherly and his submission filial and comely insomuch that peaceable and good Ministers were never more blest than when they had the sight of their worthy Bishop or Diocesan who did not onely as a good Shepherd oversee and rule them but tooke care to feed and defend them with Order Plenty Peace and publick Honour blessings of so great price in our mortal pilgrimage that they had need be very pretious Liberties indeed that are to be purchased by parting with them or exchanging them for the dry Martyrdoms of Poverty Contempt and daily Confusion CHAP. XXII IN the last place I do with the more courage and confidence recommend the cause of Venerable Episcopacy to my honored Countrymen because no Nation or Church under heaven ever had more ample and constant experiences of that excellent worth which hath been in their Bishops or of that excellent use which hath ever been made of a regular Episcopacy both in respect of true Piety and Orderly Policy I know it will at first dash with full mouth be here replyed how many Bishops have been superstitious sottish luxurious tyrannous persecutors and what not especially before the Reformation till their wings were so clipped that they could not be so bad as they would yet some of them were bad enough My answer is I do not undertake to justifie every thing that every Bishop hath done in any Age late or long since though I am charitably modest to palliate the shame or uncomliness of my Fathers yet I am no Mercenary Orator or veneall Advocate to plead for their enormities which are in no men lesse tolerable or expiable There were no doubt among Bishops as well as other men of all sorts some weak some wicked as Ezekiels figs some very good some very bad yet take them in the generall view and aspect even in the darkest times I am sure they were in England ever esteemed and employed both in Church and State as Primores Regni men of the greatest abilities and best repute for Learning Wisdome Counsel Piety Charity and Hospitality in all the Nation nor were many of them in those times inferiour by birth and breeding to the greatest Noblemen in the Land I do not censoriously rifle mens personall or private actions but I consider their publick influence and aspect It sufficeth to my designe if I demonstrate by induction
Ovens and to Privies no pen I say that hath any genius of Learning Life and Honor in it will blot its paper or blunt it self with the names of those that have been or are the unjust malicious and implacable enemies the insolent despisers and injurious destroyers of such Primitive Bishops and such Primitive Episcopacy as these British Churches plentifully afforded But every worthy Author will be ambitious to adorne his works and enamel his Historie with the illustrious names of such meritorious Bishops who have not onely been worthy doers but unworthily yet worthy sufferers very patiently though very undeservedly knowing with Paulinus Bishop of Nola how to lose all things but God and a good Conscience which are the true Honor and Eternal Treasures of good Christians If the most of or all our Bishops had been vile men and fit to be destroyed why was not their wickedness and unworthiness publickly and personally charged Why were they not legally Summoned Accused Tried Witnessed against Convinced Condemned Might not many yea most of our Bishops have said in their proportion as our Blessed Saviour Who is it that can accuse me of sin what evill have I done for which of my good works in Preaching Praying Writing Giving Living do you stone me or seek to destroy me and my function They were neither evil men nor evil Christians nor evil Preachers nor evil Bishops yet nothing must be left them but the grace and opportunity to suffer not as evil doers but as became Learned Grave and Good men Which Episcopall glory and Christian grace they have in an high degree attained many of them saying with more truth than the Stoicks were wont 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lost nothing that was mine yet I have all that is worth having notwithstanding that they were deprived of all their Ecclesiasticall Estates not allowed according to the mercy of Henry the eighth to Monks and Friers to Nuns and Votaries which were grown the superfluous Leeches and Wens of the Nation any pension during their lives Some Bishops could never get the Arreares due to them before the dreadfull Act of dissolution many of them were spoyled as of other goods so of their good Libraries where their best company faithfullest friends and surest comforters were to be found amidst those afflictions desertions and solitudes which they were sure to meet with both from foes and friends most men being friends to mens fortunes not to their persons or vertues With these dark foiles and deep shadowes hath the brightnesse of our best Bishops been set off to after-Ages O what admiration what astonishment what horror will there be when impartiall Posterity shall read together with their excellent writings the plentifull poverties the illustrious obscurities the honorable contempts with which the excellent Bishops of these British Churches have been at last rewarded even then when indefatigable studies incomparable endowments and holy improvements had both fitted them for and preferred them to those honorable imployments rewards and encouragements which they lawfully obtained and worthily enjoyed being persons for their Graces and Gifts for their Learning and Judgement for their Gravity and Prudence much more worthy if God had seen fit to have been continued in their Golden Candlesticks and to have shined to their last in this Church than to have been so shut up in dark lanternes or to be put under such bushels as not onely hide but quite extinguish their personall and publick lustre so burying as much as may be while they are yet alive their excellent abilities which did not consist onely in good preaching but also wise Governing their Churches in keeping both Ministers and people in good Order and Unity in being not onely Monitors and Fatherly Correctors but Refuges and Defences to their Clergy and others as Fathers to Sons in ordaining and incouraging able Ministers in continuing a Catholick succession of a complete and Apostolick Ministry to this as all other Ancient and Renowned Churches in preventing that great Scandall and Schisme to the Papists now most desired and welcome which is and will ever hereafter be imputed to us with unanswerable reproches while by Apostatizing from Primitive Episcopacy we do not so much forsake the Romane party which in this point as in many others is Orthodox and sound as the Catholick Church and that Authoritative order which began with Christianity and ought as much as may be in providence for ever to continue with it An ordained Ministry a right Government and good Order in the Church being as I have demonstrated no lesse necessary for the Churches well-being than the Word and Sacraments are for the being or beginning of it Religion and Christian Churches soon moulder to nothing where there is not an indisputable Authoritative and complete Ministry Nor is this to be ordinarily had without Episcopacy least of all with the violent and undeserved extirpation of Episcopacy if we will follow the judgement custome and practise of all Christian Churches from the beginning rather than modern novellers who will never be able to make up the breaches or to patch up the Rents which they have either rashly or unnecessarily made in this particular not from the Roman onely but indeed from the Christian and Catholick patterne to which the Reformation of the Church of England studied exactly to conforme as in other things so in the point of Episcopacy untill the fatall fury of these later times which is the more unexcusable because no Church in the world had lesse cause either to complaine of or to reject its Bishops or Episcopacy for certainly no Church since the Apostles daies was ever more flourishing under Episcopacy for other Government was not known till of late nor had any Reformed Church either more worthy Bishops for the most part of them or more able Ministers even at that time when all Bishops with their Order and Succession were devoted to utter destruction Not that I here forget how some Bishops in England were under very great Jealousies as if they were Popishly affected and inclined as if they were under-hand Factors for Rome and secret Traitors to the Reformed Religion Thus most if not all of them were censured by some men of very sharp noses and severe tongues yea and condemned before they were tryed for superstitious and Super-ceremonious Prelates Hence that popular Odium and Indignity of joyning Prelacy and Popery together which Sarcasm and reproch I confess ought by all wise Bishops and other Ministers to have been seriously avoided so as no way justly to deserve any such suspicion taunt or proverb there being nothing less advancing or more diminishing the true respect and honour of Christian Ministers and Reformed Bishops than unworthily to comply with or conform to the Bishop and Church of Rome in those things where the distance is as just and necessary as it is great and grounded on Gods Word being founded upon that eternal distance which is and ever will be between Light and
Scotland and Ireland who is so blind as not to see this one illustrious Bishop the Primate of Armagh capble as to the true cause of Episcopacy to have over-shined both as to his Learning Judgement and Life as the Sun in the firmament all those Comets and Meteors those blazing and falling Stars which either then did or since have appeared eccentrick or opposite to Primitive and Catholick Episcopacy Take them in their stragling novelties or in their associating confederacies or in their congregational conventicles however they may seem by false glasses or grosser mediums to be magnified in some mens imaginations and so set off to vulgar admiration among weak and womanly apprehensions yet neither for Scripture-proportions nor for Catholick practise nor for right reason nor for true prudence and Christian polity are they any way to be compared either to the Antiquity or Majesty of true Episcopacy For which the Judgement Humility Moderation and Integrity of this excellent Bishop is so clearly set forth both by his constant practise and all his writings wherein for peace sake he willingly joyned an orderly Presbytery with a Venerable Episcopacy that neither grave Counsell nor comely Order nor just Authority nor Christian Unity should be wanting in the Churches Government that it is an error worse than the first for men not yet to returne from their Paroxysmes and Transports against all Presidentiall Episcopacy or not to close with so great a judgement so grave an Oracle as this holy Bishop was Who however he held a Fraternall Correspondency and Actuall Communion as occasion offered with those Reformed Churches and those Ministers who approved yea desired Episcopacy though they could not enjoy any Bishops properly so called after the custome of all ancient Churches yet with St. Cyprian he flatly condemned and branded with the sin and Scandal of Schisme all those who wilfully cast off and injustly separated from their lawfull Bishops who professed the same Orthodox Faith and Reformed Religion affirming as I have been further most credibly informed that he would not because with comfort and good conscience he could not receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper from such Ministers hands whose Odination he esteemed irregular and incomplete or for their consecration inauthoritative because partiall and schismaticall against that Episcopall power which ever was and still might be had in this Church Nor was this his censure heightned or sharpned by any anger or vindicative passion though he was unhandsomely used by some men who heretofore much applauded him from such distempers his Mosaick meeknesse was most remote especially in cases of Religion and the Churches publick concernments for the advance of which he could have cheerfully sacrificed all his private interest of honor or profit and have been reduced to teach School in a belfry as his phrase was But he ever held to his pristine and constant judgement in the most prosperous times which enjoyed him the same as did his adversities no losses and distresses to which the Fatality Fury Folly or Ingratitude of this Age reduced him being able to cloud his judgement or discompose his tranquillity in any other or in this sharp controversie touching Episcopacy And indeed to adde to the further weight and crown of this excellent Bishop who deserved to be esteemed one of the Primates of all Learning Piety and Vertue in the Christian world he was by Gods wonderfull dispensations to be made a Primate in sufferings and to be more illustrious by those darknings which on all hands were cast upon his person and profession as a Preacher and as a Prelate He lived to see yea to feel his Venerable person by some men shamefully slighted who saw more brightness in a sharp sword than in all Learned vertues his function as a Bishop exautorated decryed depressed despised his Revenues first stopped then alienated and confiscated his moderate stock of moveables all except his excellent Librarie and at last a reserve of some monies about 2000. pound seized and swept away by the Irish The newes of which last as I was witnesse at the first coming of it he received with so no trouble or emotion that it made me see in this holy man that the patience of Job might well be a true history and not a Tragick parable After this the profits of the Bishoprick of Carlile then vacant being conferred upon him by the late King for the support of his age and exile even these were taken from him by those that took all Church-revenues from all Bishops yet for shame a Pension of four hundred pounds a year as his Lordship hath told me was promised him when he was forced to yield up his Interest in the Revenues of Carlile which Pension after a year or two was never paid him At last this great Personage the Primate of Armagh whom Cardinal Richelieu with many other great Princes and States had invited with very honorary propositions to make onely his residence with them as an honor to their Country was reduced to a small stipend or salary of about two hundred pounds a year which he was to earn by preaching as long as his sight and strength served him These failing him and in him all the learned and better world he lived upon Gods Providence and the Contributions for the most part of some noble Personages wherein I was happy to do him some service among whom none hath merited and erected a more lasting Monument of Honour than the Countesse of Peterborough under whose grateful and hospitable roof this Mortal Angel this incomparable Bishop left as the English so all the World which was not worthy of him having of later years treated him with so little publick value that while Merchants Military men and mean Mechanicks either get fair Estates or have good pay pensions and gainful imployments while young Presbyterian and Independent Preachers possess themselves some by dispossessing others of the best Livings they can seize this aged Bishop this inestimable Jewel of men this brightest Star of the British Churches and Christian World this Paragon of Prelates this Glory of Episcopacy was suffered to be so eclipsed that with St. Paul he knew what it was to want as well as to abound He had not with our Blessed Saviour any house to rest his head in nor a foot of land which he might call his own He seemed to live as St. Chrysostom sayes of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only with a naked soul or a sublimated Spirit as much above the glory of the world as he had been stripped of it and by it being carefull in nothing save only to discharge a good conscience to God and men as he did both living and dying esteeming this the greatest Treasure and Honour to those that are daily dying to the world even while they live in it He was equally remote from Lucifer and Mammon from Haughtinesse as from Covetousnesse as he complained not of Tenuity so he owned not that deserved Eminency
which he had by any outward token never appearing of later yeares in any other than a plain Gown and Cassock as an ordinary Presbyter A person so rich in all excellencies and yet so poor even to an annihilation in his own Spirit partakes no doubt of that first great Beatitude The Kingdom of Heaven But as if all that burthen while this blessed Bishop lived had no been sufficient to depress this Atlas this Job this Elias there wan-tted not some men who go for Ministers who to shew their despite and insolency against all Bishops and Episcopacy durst own and declare their scorn and disdain against this excellent Lord Bishop and Primate while he lived by not vouchsafing to own or call him by any of these most deserved Titles nor enduring the style of Armachanus to be added to his name O pitiful Parasites most obsequiously courting other men with the nauseous and repeated Crambes of Your Honour Your Lordship My good Lord c. whos 's neither place nor personal worth and merit in Church or State is or ever can be without a miracle comparable to this renowned Lord and Bishop if pious Impartiality and not secular Flattery might be judge Ask all the Christian and learned World what man of any Learning Honor and Ingenuity from home or abroad ever wrote to him or made mention of his name without exquisite Prefaces and studied Epithets of signal honor and respect which attributes of Lordship and Grace given to Bishops are no news nor any way offensive save onely to Mechanick Ignorance or Envy there being nothing in all Antiquity more frequent on all hands than the honourable compellations and additions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domine and Multùm venerande of Dominatio Dignitas and Paternitas of Honourable Lord and Venerable Father ascribed to worthy Bishops Among whom none was more worthy of all Attributes fit to be given to a mortal man than this Bishop whose greatest diminutions like the seeming Eclipses of the Sun did not lessen his light but onely hide him more from the World He was as truely worthy to be Honoured Emulated Admired Magnified and Imitated of all good men in all Ages as any one person that ever I knew in all my life which as Plato said of Socrates I think much the more blessed of God because I lived in those dayes which gave me the opportunity honor and happinesse both to know and be known to this great Exemplar of all learned worth this grand pattern of Bishops Preachers Scholars and Christians Nor was it the least cordial I had in the difficulties and horrors of later years to remember that I was not far from such an open Sanctuary that I might have frequent recourse to such a full and free Magazin of all Christian Graces and Gifts nor did I think we could be completely miserable and utterly desolated as to the Church while this great Genius was yet alive and in England in whom by a rare and wonderful conjunction such high abilities were mixed with unparallell'd humility such Candor and Gentleness did temper his Gravity and such Serenity did sweeten the severer Sanctity of his life that he seemed to me not so much a man as a kind of miracle or prodigy of humane perfections especially when I remember not long before his death those unfeigned tears which I saw and those humble complaints which I heard not for his losses but for his sins and omissions earnestly deprecating Gods displeasure and dreading his exact Tribunal Who will not fear and tremble who will not wax wan and discoloured when he sees a Rubie of so great price and orient lustre contract pallor and amazement As for the many sufferings or indignities he had sustained I never perceived the least regret or sigh much lesse any bitter and revengfull replies A very great sense indeed he expressed and very often with sadness and compassion for the distractions of this Church the deformities of our Religion and the feared future desolations which he oft and earnestly seemed to presage as neer at hand alwaies jealous that our Religious feuds and factions would at last end in Papall Superstition and mutuall oppressions Against both which this good Bishop and so many yea most of his Brethren were I believe as much enemies and as far removed both in their judgements and endeavours as the most Antiepiscopall Presbyter or Independent in the world being much better able to give a reason of his distance from them than they can for their defiance of him and all Bishops Against the deluge of whose partiality and passion I have thus opposed the Barricado or Peire this one great instance of a most unblameable Bishop purposely to vindicate against all mens impudence ignorance or malice the consistence of Episcopacy with Piety and the vast distance between Primitive Prelacy and after-Popery Truâ—y in my judgement this one Bishop out-weighs all that ever was or can be alledged against Episcopacy who not onely while he lived mightily justified the function but before he died his earnest desire was that such a due succession of Episcopall Authority might be regularly preserved in England as might keep up the completenesse and validity of Ecclesiasticall and Catholick Ordination first against the Calumnies of Papists who infinitely joy in the advantages they have got of such a Schismatick reproch upon us next against the rage and impertinencies of other factions who will in time bring all Reformed and Christian Religion to a consumption if they either quite obstruct or utterly destroy Primitive and Apostolick Episcopacy which that great Bishop esteemed as vena porta the great veine which hath from the Apostles conveyed in all Ages all Ecclesiasticall Order Power Authority and Jurisdiction Which undoubtedly was the judgement of all Antiquity otherwise all Churches would not have been so impatient of being without their Bishops at any time nor would Bishops have been so carefull in the times of persecution to propagate an holy succession of Bishops without any remarkable or long interruption never failing in any Church till this last Age nor in England till of late yeares Primitive Bishops not considering the pleasures or displeasures of men great or small in so grand a concern as what they believed was pleasing to God profitable for the Church and necessary for Ecclesiasticall Authority which they thought could no more stand without Episcopacy than a body can without its leggs Nor did Antiquity either use or know or want the late Crutches of Presbytery or the stilts of Independency which to make themselves seem usefull have sought to cut off the native pillars and proper supports of this Church to the very stumps not without infinite paine to some parts and those principal ones too of the Body besides constant diminution and deformity to the whole Which will in my judgement which willingly followes so great a guide as the Lord Primate never in England be well at its ease or
who are all consenting to the Law and concerned that justice be duely executed on some evil Members for the good of the whole So that the several degrees and subordinations in the ancient Church of Christ even long before the first Nicene Council as there is expressed among Churchmen and Bishops against which some have made so loud and ridiculous clamors were chiefly for this end as Mr. Calvin and others have as ingenuously as truely observed that the holy correspondency of all Christians and all Churches in one Faith and Truth in one Spirit and Power might not onely be most evident to the world but most aptly carried on and preserved against all Factions Variations and Divisions that they might by these means be known to be of one heart and mind in the Lord that they might all speak the same things and walk in the same steps that what one condemned all might in the same spirit condemn what one forgave all might forgive that none might upon any private passions either excommunicate others by injurious abscission or themselves by voluntary separation or make new confederacies and associations with those who are either deserters of the Catholick Communion or justly excommunicated from it which distempers of Ignorance and Impatience and Imprudence among Christians have brought as we see this great power of the Keyes and this exercise of Christian Discipline so far into contempt that no man almost regards it from any hand every one daring to make what retortions they please and to excommunicate any one or more yea and whole Churches that do excommunicate them for any the most notorious errors and insolencies Thus as the Popes of Rome heretofore so the people now in many places challenge to themselves this power against their Neighbours and Brethren yea against their Preachers and Bishops against the Fathers that begat them and the Mother Church which did bear them So that I confesse there is not so much cause of terror as of pitty in most Excommunications as they are now managed by private and unauthoritative spirits O what sorrow what shame is it to see so Sacred so Solemn so Divine so Dreadfull an Institution vilified and nullified which was designed for the health and welfare of the Church of Christ by just and necessary severiâ—ies when it was as it ought to be soberly applyed by wise holy and impartiall Governours of the Church in the name of Christ in the Catholick Spirit or consent of all Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and people which was able to shake Heaven and Hel to open and shut the Everlasting doores of Salvation or Damnation according as the penitency or impenitency of offenders did appeare To see this flaming sword which was put by Christ into the Cherubims hand those that were the Angels of his Church to keep the way of the tree of life to see this made the scare-crow and scorne of vile men the sport of petulant and peevish Spirits who neither fear to inflict Excommunication upon whom they list as much as lies in their impotent malice nor yet to suffer it from the most Just Impartiall and Authoritative hands in the world from whom being once proudly separated they fancy they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reach and danger of this just terror and the others true Authority as lawfull Bishops or Governours of the Church whose heavy sentence if I should incurre so far that any one true Bishop with his Clergy should passe it against me upon just grounds of my scandalous and obstinate sinning against God and his Church according to the ancient rightfull and lawfull way of such proceedings in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ to which all true Christians in this Church and in all the world do submit and assent I confess I should much more fear living and dying to lye under such a censure and sentence than to be condemned in my Estate Liberty or Life by any Court of humane Justice which reacheth not to the Souls eternal estate as Excommunication rightly managed doth it being a most undoubted Oracle of our Lord Jesus Christ that whose sins the Apostles and their lawful successors as Rulers of the Church do bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven Who their lawful and authoritative successors have been are and ought to be in all Ages and places of the Church is evident to all that have any fear of God or reverence of his Catholick Churches Testimony This is certain as Excommunication carries with it the joynt spirit and suffrage of the whole Church and every true Member of it either explicitly or implicitly so the regular and authoritative managing of it was ever from the respective Bishops Authority and Order as chief Pastors in every Church to whose fatherly care and Inspection with the counsel of their Presbyters the Flock of Christ is committed especially as to the discreet use of such Discipline as highly concerns the salvation or damnation the hopes or despair the binding or loosing the abscission or restauration of any part which ought not to be judged determined and executed by every private spirit of Minister or people but by such venerable Bishops and their Presbyters as have the authentick transmission of the Apostles ordinary governing power delivered to them as from Christ being in this like the Judges in commission for Life and Death though the Sentence be the Laws and the power the chief Magistrates and the transaction or publication in the Face of the County to which all the Bench of Justices the Jury and other honest Men do tacitly give their votes and assent yet is the Cognizance and Examination of the merits of the Cause and the judicial solemn Declaration of the Sentence committed specially to the Judge both in respect of his learned Abilities and known Integrity also for the Honor and Order which are necessary to be observed in proceedings of so great concernment to Mankind as are matters of Life and Death Such is the power such ought to be the procedure of all due Excommunication such they were in the purest and primitive times when all Christians all Congregations all Presbyters all Bishops all particular Churches were so united that as many Spokes make but one Wheel and many Stones one Building and many Members one Body so these made but one Church in the same Faith the same Baptism the same Ministry the same Spirit the same Order the same Power the same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ From which Blessed Harmony and Spirituall Communion if any Christian or any particular Congregation or any part of the Church as those of the Donatistick party and the Novatians in Africa with others either proudly passionately and peevishly did separate themselves or were deservedly separated by the just censure of any part of the true Church and thenceforth falling to mangling of all by mutuall Excommunications so as to fly in the faces of their lawfull Bishops and Pastors or else turne their backs on them
alwaies as pupills and minors in the world Gods the Kings and the States Wards as Sir Edward Cook calls them power never so prevalent ought to be either limited by present Lawes in force or by common principles of equity and righteousnesse which are set down in Gods word and written in all mens hearts which is To do as they would be done unto Not to be punished further than they have offended To be heard and fairly tried before they be condemned and executed These limits ought to be observed by all men in their greatest power and passion so far as no one man may be notably injured to gratifie many without any after-amends nor may Paul be exposed to present death or danger in order to appease the furious multitude of the Jewes Let this great pleader and plaintiffe answer Are they not poor and pittifull Gods who in their supposed supremacy of power may sin must dye and be judged by the most high God may not many men sin as well as few and wise men as well as simple and choise Lay-men as well as all the chiefest Clergy-men in England which they must all be supposed to have done in a very high nature to be justly and so grievously punished Have not all men cause to be jealous of their own hearts lest at any time and in any case they offend God or man Ought any Prince or Parlaments whatever they be forget they are but men or to flattered by themselves or others that they cannot erre or be deceived Have we not read of Parlaments though great ships yet tossed to and fro in a few yeares with severall winds of Doctrine one while to renounce and cast off the Popes yoke a little after as Camels on their knees to stoop down and receive that burthen again as in Queen Mary's daies with the lesse scruple as one notably observes because the Legal Cardinal Pool made no mention or demand of restoring the Abby-lands Though Parlaments should be as the Assemblies of the Son of God may not Satan come in among them May not Parlaments as well repent before God as oft revoke before men what they Vote and Enact Doth any thing betray wise men more than to have too great confidence of themselves If Ecclesiastick Synods and Councills except perhaps such as are truly Catholick and free may be subject to erre and have erred why not civil Senates and Parlaments Have they any porter that can keep sin out of their doores or any walls that keep out infirmities from surprizing them which they carry alwaies not so much about them as within them But what if there be such a sin as Sacriledg yea and in the case which the D. puts it which his equals and far his betters in all respects have earnestly affirmed and the more impartially because long before this particular case of the Bishops of England was put may not many men yea whole Nations be guilty of this sin and infected as with an Epidemick plague so far as they act abet approve or applaud Doth not God himself when the Priests and Levites were over-awed and durst not complaine against the generall vogue charge the whole Nation of the Jewes with robbing him and denounceth by his Prophet an heavy curse against them for robbing God Although they reply with great confidence as commonly there is least brow where most guilt wherein have we robbed thee God answers them in Tithes and offerings Was the detaining or denying of these from the Priests and Levites a robbing of God and had it been no such matter if every Tribe had taken away those Houses and Lands those Cities and Suburbs which God had appointed them by the ancient distribution not onely for a bare and necessitous subsistence like Micahs Levite but for such an honorable entertainment as became that Tribe and that service they did to the God of Israel If it be a mocking of God as well as man for any man to keep back or to resume what once he hath by a valid and declared Act given to any pious and charitable use or to any one poor man as an Almes how dangerous is it in publick cases to be done without very cleare and sure grounds No wise men are so vain as to think themselves in any capacity inerrable and infallible nor may any good man fancy that at any time or in any case he hath Gods dispensation to commit no nor to permit if he can hinder the least sin much lesse so great an one as Sacriledg is esteemed by many men who are no children in understanding Let this pleader ask Jewes and Gentiles old and new Testament Papinian and Plowden Justinians Institutes and Justice Cooks Canon and Civil Imperiall and Municipall Lawes yea he cannot be ignorant what the great Reformers Luther and Melanchthon with the Augustane Protestants say what the grand Masters for Presbytery whom I suppose he hath not of late believed in that point Calvin Zanchy Bucer Knox Cartwright and others did they not first or last suspect condemn and cry down as sin and Sacriledg the Confiscation or Alienation of such Lands as were properly Church-lands for the maintaining the Ministry Order Government and Honour of the Church to a Charitable Hospitable and Honorable amplenesse Their Testimonies are every where extant diligently collected easily perused and possibly they would have been more speedy and severe in their censure of it if they had seen it done against any Bishops and Clergy-men who sincerely professed diligently preached and mightily maintained the Reformed Religion against the Romane Superstition which they were loth to nourish with such full breasts of Plenty and Honor. But sure they would never have envyed or denyed them to so Learned and Godly Bishops with other Church-men as were here in England whom Mr. Calvin would have much honored as he professeth so earnestly that he Anathematizeth all that would not who might easilier have been Reformed and it may be at a cheaper rate to the publick than by being so terribly fleeced and flayed as they were of all their Ecclesiasticall dignities and revenues belonging to them I will put a Case or Quere to this great Vindicator what he would have thought of those men who Voted or Created themselves a Parlament that is the Supreme Power as Deputies or Representative of the English People though not chosen by the people nor any way such an one as some men had so zealously covenanted to maintaine in their Freedom and Priviledg if these Grandees had gone on for they were as neer it as two Groats are to nine pence and had peremptorily Voted this good D. with all other Beneficed Ministers in England and Wales out of their beloved Glebes Tithes and Mansion-Houses after the Precedents which they had lately seen acted against green Trees the Learned Bishops Deanes and Prebends as to all their Ecclesiastick Revenues annexed to their dignities who would have cried Sacriledg with greater contention of Voice and Lungs than
this Venerable resolver of No Sacriledg in selling Bishops Lands O! but this he tels us freely and with some earnestnesse as concerned had been horrid Sacriledg because of those he hath a good share those he hopes to enjoy together with his Bishops Lands Thus this irrefragable D. resolves that to rob the lesser Gods is Sacriledg but not to rob the greater Bishops were but Egyptians whom the Presbyterians as true Israelites might strip and spoyle So it were a sin to take any thing from an ordinary Citizen and common souldier but not from an Alderman or a Colonel It is lawfull to deprive Governours in Church or State of what they have but not the Governed Presbyters must jure divino have meat and drink and clothes to maintaine them that they may eate and preach but they need no Over-seers or Church-Governours to take care they preach no strange Doctrine nor live scandalously They must have victualls as beasts but they need no Government as Men Christians and Ministers O thrifty project O Blessed Paradox If it hold in all societies Civil and Military as well as Ecclesiastick it will spare the State many thousands of pounds upon the Civil account as it hath got it many upon the Church-account by taking away Bishops and their Revenues there being no need of such Governours and such Maintenance of Honor in the Church no more will there need any Judges in the Law nor Captaines and Colonels in the Army their places their pensions their pay may be spared if these be necessary why were not Bishops so for Order and Honor and Government and Judgement among the Clergy But he fancies that himself and other doughty Presbyters can do the work and govern without Bishops Possibly he may do it the better not onely for his grave carriage and reverend fashion of Living for his moderate meek and quiet Spirit for his great Learning and rare Endowments for the high Esteem that is had of him but especially because he is rich and hath a good part of the old Bishops Lands it may be a Spirit of government may go with them as a Spirit of prophesie did with the High-priests Office in Caiaphas but as for other poorer Presbyters and petty Rulers of his brethren the Antiepiscopal Ministers how fit they will be to govern in common how well they have managed Phoebus his Chariot since they undertook to drive it I leave to all wise and sober men to judge But it may be this purchaser is not against Bishops but against landed and Lorded Bishops he would have primitive and Apostolick Bishops which had no Revenues or Lordships or Lands or Palaces How sad is it that so good a man should have so evil an eye against the good hand of God and the bounty of good Christians onely as to their munificence to the Bishops and chief Pastors of Christs Church But why so blind and partial against Bishops when it is as primitive and Apostolical for Presbyters to have no Tithes or Glebes or Livings These were the setled blessings of the Church after the glory of Constantines time whom the Revelation seems so much to set forth to the Beauty Rest and Honor of the Church If this Pleader will be honest and impartial let him conform himself a Presbyter as well as Bishops to the primitive pattern They have not left but forcibly lost all let Presbyters leave also their Livings let this great Example begin let him turn sportulary Presbyter as well as he would have beggarly Bishops let him and others depend upon the Basket of Charity and the Bishops Distribution as was of old both for occasional contributions of Decimal Oblations and Imperial pensions of which Presbyters at first had no parochial portion or right which now this Pleader so much challengeth as if it had been his purchase or penny-worth and not the Alms of the Nation excited hereto chiefly by the piety of primitive Bishops and other Ministers in imitation of Gods ancient portion which they thought still the right of Jesus Christ Lord of all as to his merit and priestly portion to be kept in his Churches possession for his Ministers enjoyment especially since it hath by the devotion of the Nation been legally dedicated to his service and the support of his Servants which may be as well said of Bishops and other Church-lands as of Presbyters little Livings unless this Pleader think that those were too much for Christ and any of his chief Ministers to enjoy or that there was less of Law and publick consent as well as of private gift in them than other Donations or lastly unless he fancy there is not as much need of Government Order and Discipline and consequently of meet Bishops as chief Pastors or Shepherds for Christs flock as there is of pasture It seems he is more for the Bag Scrip and Wallet than for Crosier Crook or Shepherds staff O! but his blessed Tithes his rich Glebe his fat Parsonage these these he challenges as his right in Gods name as patrimonium Crucifixi Christs patrimony the Presbyterian Churches Dowry the Priests portion the Levites wages the Labourers hire the most holy things and utterly unalienable even Impropriations seem to him sacrilegious Alienations derived from no other title than the Popes Usurpation annexing them to Monasteries and by a continued succession of Sacriledge given to the Crown and so at last become Lay-fees Thus he seems to make Princes and Parlaments guilty at the second hand of this foul sin of Sacriledg which onely lies against Tithes Glebes and Parsonage-Houses the onely preferment it seemes that this plaintiffe hath been capable of or now aspires to O how far is reason from some mens Religion and justice from their Consciences And what I beseech all wise sober and upright men were Bishops Houses and Revenues but greater Glebes and Livings given to men of the same calling for the same holy and good ends for the service of God and the Church though to some higher degree of Duty and Dignity of Office and Authority not onely to preach the Gospel and administer the holy Sacraments in common with Presbyters but further to preserve a right succession of Ministers and to dispense the power of holy Orders by a Catholick Ordination which ever was Episcopall also to manage duly that Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Government which ought to be carried on as by men of greater Age Gravity Ability and Authority than ordinary Presbyters use to be so with a proportionable conspicuity for Honor and Estate for Hospitality and Charity all which are as lawfull just and becoming a Bishop or chief Governour among the Fraternities of Ministers as a greater pay or Salary is to Judges Colonels and Captaines not for their doing more drudging work and duty than common men or souldiers may do but for that eminent worth and prudence and sufficiency which they are presumed to have in order to Rule and Command others who are men equall as themselves and
Religion For I have found by experience that no men have proved move factious affected and fanatick than those men and women who have been most conscious to their youthful Enormities They presently apply to the gentlest Confessors and easiest Repentance which is rather to quarrel with and forsake the Religion they have most violated than seriously to repent and amend without which severities Papists and Separatists think their Converts sufficient if they do but turn to their side and party The second Novellers will be content with any meer fancies or factions in Religion The third the Jesuited Papists with no pure united and well-reformed Religion among us And the fourth the Devil will be content with any Religion that is called Catholick Reformed and Christian so it be not true or not pure or not well-reformed or not orderly setled and uniform or not charitably united or not authoritatively managed and governed Any of which will in time very much unchristen any Christians and unchurch any Church by deforming and dividing them from the Beauty and Communion of the Church Catholick Take heed of betraying your selves and your posterity to Atheisticall licentious immorall and irreligious courses by your Apostasies from and despiciencies of the Learning and Piety Gifts and Graces Ministry and Ministrations Order and Government which were happily setled in the Church of England Go over all the world search all successions of the Church from the Apostles to our daies you shall not find any thing more worthy your Love and Esteem your Veneration and addiction Have you found any thing comparable to it in all the new vapours and florishes of Reformations in any new Inventions Conventions Associations Separations Distractions Distortions Confusions Which may make you giddy by turning you round but they will never make you any progresse in Wisdome or Piety or Charity The Church of England was a most rare and Paragon Jewel shining with admirable lustre on all sides First in its Doctrine or Articles of Religion which were few cleare and sound Secondly in its Sermons or Homilies which were learnedly plain pious and practicall Thirdly in its Liturgy or Devotions which were easie to be understood very apt pathetick and complete Fourthly in its paucity and decency of ceremonies which adorned not incumbred Religion or over-laid the Modesty and Majesty of a comely Reformation Fifthly in the Sanctity and Solemnity of its publick duties which were neither excessive nor defective Sixthly in its Ministry which had good Abilities due Ordination and divine Authority Seventhly it its good Government and Ecclesiasticall Discipline where good Presbyters and good Bishops had leave and courage to do their duties and discharge their consciences whose Fatherly Inspection Catholick Ordination and Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction being wisely managed by worthy men in their severall stations did justly deserve the name of an Hierarchy an holy Regiment or happy Government when it was exercised with that Authority yet Charity and discretion which were ever intended by the Church for the common good of all those Christians that were within her bosome and kept her Communion If others do forget her through fatuity or faction covetousnesse or ambition pride or petulancy as undutifull and ungratefull children yet you may not you will not you cannot so far neglect your own and your posterities happinesse or forfeit your own honor or violate your consciences as to neglect the relief and recovery of your Spirituall Mother But if you of the better sort of men and Christians from whom all good men expect all good things should slight and neglect Her after the vulgar rate which God forbid yet must I never so far comply with you or all the world as to call her former light darknesse or her present darknesse light Pretious with me must the name of the Church of England ever be whose record is in Heaven and in all gracious hearts who were Born and Baptized Instructed Sanctified and Saved in her To this Church of England as I owe with many thousands so I returne with some few the Charity of a Christian as to all Christian Churches the duty of a Son as to a deserving parent the order of a part or member as united and devoted to the whole the obedience of an Inferiour as to a Superiour the gratitude of acknowledging Her Worth and Merit the love of adhering to her unity the candor of approving and conforming to her decent ceremonies the modesty of preferring her Wisdome before my own or any other mens understanding the Humility of submitting to her Spirituall Authority and Governours the Piety and Prudence of relieving and restoring as much as lies in me Her Catholick Order Polity Peace and Government all which I believe were allowed of God and I am sure have been approved by as Learned Wise and Holy men as the world affords I am deeply sensible of the many and great obligations which I have to this Nationall Church and to its Ministers and Bishops for my Baptisme Instruction Confirmation Communion and Ordination not onely as a Member but as a Minister which I account my greatest Honour notwithstanding the great depression of the times in which I have late ward lived I am ambitious to do not onely what becomes my private station but to preserve and expresse the publick respects which are due to this Church whose Despisers and Destroyers have never appeared to me with any Remarques of Beauty or Honour for Learning or Grace for Modesty or Charity for Prudence or Policy comparable to those that were the first Founders Reformers Defenders and Preservers of this Church I must ever professe that I find nothing like her Adversaries nor any thing exceeding her friends in all that was commendable in Catholick and true Antiquity In behalf of this Church having offered many things to the consideration of all good Christians which are my worthy Countrymen I hope as my infirmities may exercise their Charity so my integrity may expiate my infirmities if I have in any thing expressed my self lesse becoming the honest and holy designe which I undertook and have now by Gods help finished which was to set forth First the Teares and Sighâ— of the Church of England Secondly the originall of her Disorders and Distractions Thirdly the dangers and distresses if not remedied Fourthly the probable waies of cure and recovery by Gods blessing to such Order Honour Unity Purity and Peace as becomes so famous a Church and so renowned a Nation whose greatest Crown was Christianity I know there will be many who cannot well beare that freedom of sobernesse and Truth which either my self or others may use in speaking or writing for the Church of England and its pristine Honour Order and Government although themselves use never so great Liberties Reproches and Injuries in Speaking Writing and Acting against them For my part I appeare in this onely as wrapt my self in my Scholastick and Ecclesiastick Gown I meddle not with any civil affaires or Military transactions properly
Priviledges both of Presbyters and People I neither dispute nor deny any mens Morals Intellectuals Devotionals or Spirituals further than they seem much warped and eclipsed by their over-eager Heats and injurious Prosecutions against their Antagonists the Episcopal Clergy and Church of England but I absolutely blame those Ministers want of politicks and prudentials who by their Antiepiscopal transports have so far diminished not onely themselves and their Order as Ministers but the whole state of this Church as to its Harmony and Honour its Peace and Plenty its Unity and Authority In whose behalf since all wise and worthy men are highly concerned I cannot conclude with words of greater warmth and weight than those of the blessed Apostle St. Paul who was not more sollicitous to plant Churches in truth and purity than to settle and preserve them in Order and Unity If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of Mercy Let us all fulfill the Apostles joy this Churches joy the Angels joy yea Christs joy in being like-minded and of one accord in having the same Love in doing nothing through strife or vain-glory but in Lowliness and Meekness looking every man not onely to his own things but also to the things of others that the same mind may be in us which was also in our Lord Jesus Christ. That in the expectation and experience of holy wise and united hearts and hands on all sides the Church of England from whose head the Crown is faln from whose eyes Rivers of teares do flow while she lies weeping under the Crosse may take up the words of Zion in the Prophet Therefore will I look to the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemie when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he pleas my cause and execute judgement for me he will bring forth my light and I shall behold his righteousnesse To the King Immortal the onely wise and blessed God Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory for ever Amen In Oratione Constantini Magni ad Concilium Nicenum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mihi quidem omni bello pugnave gravior atque acerbior videtur intestina in Dei Ecclesiâ seditio quae plus doloris quà m externa omnia mala secum affert THE END The Names of Books written by Dr. Gauden and printed for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard HIERASPISTES 1. A Defence of the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England in Quarto 2. The Case of the Ministers maintenance by Tithes in Quarto 3. Three Sermons preached on publick occasions in Quarto 4. Funeralls made Cordialls in a Sermon prepared and in part Preached at the solemn interment of the Right Honorable Robert Rich heire apparent to the Earldom of Warwick in Quarto new A CATALOGUE OF THE NAMES Of all the ARCH-BISHOPS and BISHOPS of England and Wales ever since the first planting of Christian Religion in this Nation unto these later Times With the year of our Lord in which the several Bishops of each Diocese were Consecrated CANTERBURY Arch-Bishops 1 AUGUSTINE the Monk A. D. 596 2 Laurence A. D. 611 3 Melitus A. D. 619 4 Justus A. D. 624 5 Honorius A. D. 634 6 Adeodatus or Deus dedit A. D. 655 The Sea vacant 4. yeares 7 Theodor. A. D. 668 8 Brithwald A. D. 692 9 Tatwin A. D. 731 10 Nothelm A. D. 736 11 Cuthbert A. D. 742 12 Bregwin A. D. 759 13 Lambert A. D. 764 14 Athelward A. D. 793 15 Walfred A. D. 807 16 Theogild A. D. 832 17 Celnoth 18 Atheldred A. D. 871 19 Plegmund A. D. 889 20 Athelm A. D. 915 21 Wulfelm A. D. 924 22 St. Odo Severus A. D. 934 23 St. Dunstan A. D. 961 24 Ethelgar A. D. 988 25 Siricius A. D. 989 26 Alfric or Aluric A. D. 993 27 St. Elphage A. D. 1006 28 Living or Leoving A. D. 1013 29 Agelnoth alias Aethelnot A. D. 1020 30 St. Eadlin A. D. 1038 31 Robert Gemeticensis A. D. 1050 32 Stigand A. D. 1052 33 St. Lanfranck A. D. 1070 The Sea vacant 4. yeares 34 St. Anselm A. D. 1093 35 Rodolph A. D. 1114 36 William Corbell al. Corbois A. D. 1122 37 Theobald A. D. 1138 38 St. Tho. Becket A. D. 1162 39 Richard the Monke A. D. 1171 40 Baldwin A. D. 1184 41 Reginald Fitz-Jocelin A. D. 1191 42 Hubert Walter A. D. 1193 33 Steph Langton Card. A. D. 1206 44 Ri Wethershed A. D. 1229 45 St. Edmond A. D. 1234 46 Boniface of Savoy A. D. 1244 47 Robert Kilwarby Ca. A. D. 1272 48 John Peckham A. D. 1278 49 Ro Winchelsey A. D. 1294 50 Walt. Reynolds A. D. 1313 51 Simon Mepham A. D. 1327 52 John Stratford A. D. 1333 53 Th Bradwardin A. D. 1348 54 Simon Islip A. D. 1349 55 Si Langham C. A. D. 1366 56 Will Wittlesey A. D. 1367 57 Simon Sudbury A. D. 1379 58 Will Courtney A. D. 1381 59 Tho. Arundell A. D. 1396 60 Hen Chicheley Car. A. D. 1414 61 Jo Stafford Car. A. D. 1443 62 Joh Kemp Car. A. D. 1452 63 Tho Bourcheir A. D. 1454 64 John Moorton Card. A. D. 1486 65 Henry Deane A. D. 1502 66 Will Warham A. D. 1504 67 Tho Cranmer A. D. 1533 68 Reginald Poole Car. A. D. 1555 69 Matth Parker A. D. 1559 70 Edm Gryndall A. D. 1575 71 John Whitgift A. D. 1583 72 Rich Bancroft A. D. 1604 73 George Abbot A. D. 1610 74 William Laud. A. D. 1633 Beheaded on Tower-hill Jan 10. 1644. S. ASAPH 1 Kentigern A. D. 560 2 Saint Asaph and after him many hundred yeares 3 Geffrey of Monmouth A. D. 1151 4 Adam a Welshman 5 Reiner A. D. 1186 6 Abraham A. D. 1220 7 Howel ap Edneuet A. D. 1235 8 Anâ—anus I. A. D. 1248 The see vacant 2. yeares 9 Anianus II. of Schonaw A. D. 1268 10 Lewellin of Bromfeild A. D. 1293 11 David ap Blethin A. D. 1319 12 Ephraim 13 Henry 14 John Trevaur I. 15 Lewellin ap Madoc ap Elis. A. D. 1357 16 Will. of Spridlington A. D. 1373 17 Laurence Child A. D. 1382 18 Alexander Bach. A. D. 1390 19 John Trevaur II. A. D. 1395 20 Robert A. D. 1411 21 John Low A. D. 1493 22 Regin Peacock A. D. 1444 23 Thomas A. D. 1450 24 Rich Redman A. D. 1484 25 Dav ap Owen A. D. 1503 26 Edm Birkhead A. D. 1513 27 Henry Standish A. D. 1519 28 Will Barlow A. D. 1535 29 Robert Parfew alias Warton A. D. 1536 30 Tho Goldwell A. D. 1555 31 Richard Davies A. D. 1559 32 Thom Davies A. D. 1561 33 Will Hughes A. D. 1573 34 Will Morgan A. D. 1601 35 Richard Parry A. D. 1604 36 John Hanmer A. D.
dedicated to his worship and service as well publick and social as private and solitary to sleep and laze in their chimney corners on the Lords day rather than go to Church as many hundreds do It is no part of Christian liberty to come seldome or never to the Lords Supper to despise Baptisme to forsake those publick assemblies where the true God is truly and sincerely worshipped according to his Word with soundness holiness order decency and sincerity to rail at and separate from all those Bishops and Ministers of so well a reformed and wisely setled Nationall Church who are evidently furnished with good ability and invested with most undeniable due authority to dispense sacred mysteries It is no part of Christian liberty for men to speak and act and behave themselves in Religion as seems good in their own eyes which are easily blinded with passion pride prejudice covetousness ambition revenge It is no part of Christian liberty for men to have no regard to that order peace charity duty and subordination which God requires and which every Christian owes as to the civil so to that Ecclesiastick polity and Society in which God hath placed him as by his birth and habitation so by his baptisme and profession which are the holy ties of Religion by which as members of Christs body in the judgement of charity his visible Church we are bound to him as the head and to each other as members in the severall places and proportions where God hath set us either in a coordination and community as to brethren or in subordination and superiority as to Fathers guides Pastors Governours Teachers to whom as sons or scholars we owe the duties of love gratitude reverence submission and obedience for the Lords sake and for their work sake If it be a great sin and deserving the ponderous milstone of Gods heavy judgement as our Saviour tells us to offend causelesly uncharitably and maliciously one of Christs little ones how much greater and more intolerable must the condemnation of those be who wantonly and presumptuously offend yea seek to wound and destroy those that are duly and deservedly the Bishops and Presbyters the chief heads and Fathers Officers and Stewards Guides and Governours even in Christs stead and by his authority over his house and family his Temple and Body which is his Church in the several parts and proportions of it according to the Catholick order and custome used in his Church Of which riotously to make havock to rend to strip and waste all things of good order Catholick custome comely honour authority decency and solemnity to the overthrowing of Christian unity and charity to the dissolving deforming and discountenancing even of that truth those gifts and graces which were in such a Church as this of England was must without all peradventure be no less sin and crime than it is a sacriledge and scandall in S. Austins judgement agreeable to the sense of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria who in his Epistle so famed tels Novatus as much who was a primitive Schismatick or a Saintly Separatist from the Catholick custome judgement and communion of Christs Church For which practice in any case a man must have very great and pregnant grounds as S. Cyprian S. Austin oft observe either in point of gross errors or immoralities obtruded upon a believer in case he will keep communion whereby to justifie his desertion division or separation which upon small and trifling accounts or upon spiteful and malicious principles or for covetous and vain-glorious interests or upon meer jealousies and surmises to violate was ever esteemed by the soundest and soberest Christians in all ages a sin much of the nature and size of Korah's Dathan's and Abiram's transgression or rebellion as S. Cyprian observes applying that History to some such mutinous distempers and unquiet spirits as haunted the Church in his dayes and Diocese That their popular and parasitick crying up of all the Lords people to be holy their rude reproching of Moses and Aaron as taking too much upon them these specious pleas did not serve their turn when Gods searching severity and not vulgar levity credulity or ingratitude was their judge all their plausible pretensions of sanctity and liberty before the people were not able to defend them from those horrid chasms and unheard-of gapings of the earth which by a new way of death swallowed up even quick and yet alive these mutinous novellers and levelling rebels into the black and dreadfull Abyssus of eternall death and darkness whose names and memory yet the Cainites did venerate as the commendable asserters of popular liberty and the Princes or Protoplasts of Schisme as S. Austin observes Nor is the usuall fate of such like insolent and popular perturbers of Christs Church much different or disproportionate at last for either they fall when their pride and folly is manifest into the pit of vulgar hatred contempt and abhorrence or they are swallowed up with carnall lusts with earthly sensuall and devilish passions affections and actions or being at last justly abandoned and abhorred of all sober and good Christians they are by Gods utter forsaking of them plunged into the gulf of their own polluted seared and despairing consciences If those were in the primitive times esteemed as given over to the will and power of Satan who were justly excommunicated from the communion of the true Church of Christ which sentence as Tertullian tells us every good Christian did dread next to that doom of Ite maledicti Goe ye cursed as a dreadful pre-judging before the last and fatal judgement how must they needs lie down in darkness and sorrow who upon no just cause do not onely excommunicate themselves from any one Churches communion in which they were out of a fancy of I know not what liberty but out of an excessive pride arrogancy and boldness of spirit they dare excommunicate even whole National Churches yea such a famous Reformed Church as England nay they exclude the very Catholick Church of Christ in all ages and places from any communion with themselves which certainly is no small height of uncharitableness yea and from all communion with Christ himself which is a strange pitch of Luciferian pride It is no news for the patient but just and righteous God to keep those men and women at a great distance even from himself and from the sweet communion of his holy Spirit who proudly or peevishly despise the communion of any part of his Church in the holy ministrations of the Word Prayer and Sacraments They that hope to kindle to themselves strange fires and light new sparks by their violent strikings and novell agitations in any sound and well-ordered Church God commonly beats the smoky brands ends about their own heads and kindles a fire of displeasure in their own breasts because they cared not to set whole-Churches on fire in order to rost their new-laid
eggs the best of which are of no great worth and most of them are quite addle or rotten CHAP. XXIII ALthough I have thus far and thus long insisted most honoured and beloved Countrey-men upon the mischiefs of abused Liberty as the first and chief cause I conceive of the greatly lapsed and decaying estate of the Church of England and the Reformed Religion which was heretofore so setled so sound so prospered so approved by God and good men yet I cannot forbear a further search into this Ulcer or Fistula for indeed her hurt is not now a green wound lately made either by the malice of open enemies or by the wantonness of those friends who love to be alwayes pickeering and skirmishing in Religion but it is now by a long confluence of ill humours in people grown a venomous and inveterate sore contumacious to any ordinary Medicines opprobrious to the best Physitians contagious to the remaining parts of this Civil and Ecclesiastical body which have any thing in them sound and sincere many of which especially among the common people being weak are less able to resist that petulant poyson and spreading itch of liberty which is so bewitching a name to the populacy a temptation and infection which few vulgar spirits are able to resist or willing to remedy And indeed the mischief seising like Mercury or Quicksilver upon the spirits and brains of men that are rash easie heady it makes them presently suspect and shortly to hate all those as their enemies who go about to curb or cure so welcome and flattering a disease which is not less dangerous because delightfull for commonly all those things that are most agreeable to naturall men and carnall minds who love to be licentious prove grievous to Gods Spirit scandalous to the name of Christ and pernicious to his Churches purity or peace Liberty if it be in ill keeping soon putrifies to licentiousness as the manna did which turned to wormes Not that I am any way against that rationall ingenuous modest inoffensive charitable and conscientious liberty which is the onely true Christian liberty to be desired and enjoyed either in private or in publick such I mean as is neither touchy nor turbulent but carries an equall tendernesse to other mens honest and harmless freedome as to its own seeking onely by lawfull means either to remove those impediments of its well-being and doing that are really rubs or remiras in its way to heaven or else to obtain those holy allowed advantages which may most promote its communion with God with Christ and his blessed Spirit which holy freedomes and happy advantages are surest to be met withall as I conceive in those high wayes and plain paths which Christs Catholick Church in its nobler parts and ampler combinations hath constantly kept after the primitive proportions Apostolicall distributions of Churches wherein the majesty of Christ the harmony of Christians which is the honour of Christian Religion are infinitely more to be seen and safely preserved than in any of those by-wayes or diverticles which Schismatick liberty affects to chuse and follow which will at length make any Nationall Christian and Reformed Church that was heretofore grounded in truth guided with order united in love conspicuous with beauty fortified with its joynt power uniform in its solemn ministrations and orderly in all its holy motions like an army well ordered disciplin'd and bravely marshall'd to be like the routed parties and ragged regiments of a scattered and divided army It is an observation never failing That the sanctity of Christian Martyrs the honour and prevalency of that Religion which recommends the crucified Lord Jesus as a Saviour and preserver not a destroyer of mankind these are best preserved in any nation or society of men there where least liberty or license is permitted to private spirits publickly to innovate or alter dispute or deny contemn or subvert those Catholick Truths and Doctrines or those comely constitutions and customes which are once well wisely setled by publick counsel and authority which carried due regard to the glory of God to the rule of his Word to the Catholick precedents and to the common good of that particular Nation or polity All experience and our own as bad as any teacheth us that liberty in the vulgar sense and use is like a sweet and rank kind of Clover-grass with which the beast of the people will soon surfeit even till they burst themselves if they be not moderated and restrained from over-feeding by their wise Governours in Church and State The Histories of Sleidanus and others sufficiently shew you in the last Century how wild the Boores of Germany grew even to a kind of a Lycanthropy by such liberties as their teachers first indulged and themselves afterward usurped how quickly this charm like Circe's turns men and women into dogs and wolves how abused liberty having once seized upon the thatch and straw the petulancy and insolency of common people as most combustible matter like a masterless and unbridled fire it will devour more in a few dayes by the pragmatick folly of some extravagant heads and hands than the wisdome piety and gravity of your forefathers could erect or your posterity will be able to repair in many years or ages for no fires burn with more fury pertinacy than those which maintain their unquenchable flames by the oyl of Religion and Liberty with which they are least to be trusted who most love to play with it as children do with fire and gun-powder Common people like young heirs who have more wealth than wit are of so profuse an humour and so lavish of their liberty both civil and religious when once they think themselves masters of it that they will presently be undone if they have not some wiser men to be their Guardians who will be better husbands for them than they would be for themselves nor are they ever more desperately prodigall or more certainly miserable than when like mad-men they have by insolency or importunity extorted from their Governours and the Laws such a portion of liberty either civil or religious as they least know how to use and will be sure to abuse Let those men that are the greatest Tribunes of the people the seeming Patrons of their liberties but reall parasites of their licentious humours in Religion let them I say make but one years triall with how much good nature reason justice and modesty these people will use their civil and naturall liberty in which being absolved from all restraint of laws and fears of power and of punishment they shall have leave with the bridle on their necks to covet challenge contend invade usurp and take every man to himself such women such houses such goods such lands such offices such power and such honours as each of them most fancies himself capable to deserve or enjoy in a few dayes they will soon see how severe a revenge such folly will take of
being themselves once bitten with their own rage they run like mad dogs up and down the countrey seeking whom they may bite and infect with the contagion of their malice contempt revenge and abhorrence against their former Minister and all of his form raising what mutinies conspiracies and animosities they can against them among those rurall neighbours to whose conversation the most part of Ministers are condemned and by whose egregious insolence many of late years have been as with evil spirits grievously vexed and tormented being in most places little respected and less beloved generally but men of small estates helpless enough and friendless full of frequent perplexities betweene conscience and necessity between piety and policy having run through so many Ordeales or fiery trials of State first a Protestation then a Covenant after that a Vow next an Engagement and soon after a dis-engagement One while they are bound to maintain the Reformed Religion as established in the Ch. of Engl. according to their education judgement conscience and ordination if they keep to this station first Presbytery hath a fling at them next Independency pincheth them at last the licentious humour of people lets out a whole kennell of Libertines to worry them Thus have many Ministers lingred out their lives of late years laden and almost oppressed worn out and quite tired with the burden of years cares labours fears anxieties necessities rude affronts and remediless afflictions All which calamities have faln so thick upon them in their persons and reputation in their estates and quiet in their calling and employment that none but very ingenuous minds and compassionate hearts are apt or able to consider fully those sad talents of lead which lie upon many or most Ministers Their private closets are almost daily witnesses to their sighs tears prayers bitter complaints despondencies and almost despairs many of them ready with Job and Jeremiah to curse the day of their birth their education as Scholars and their ordination as Ministers many of them as Eliah say secretly in their souls Lord 't is enough take away my life since I have out-lived the glory of this Church and the honor of my calling Many are in such anguish of spirit that they long for death as for their rest and seek for the grave as for hidden treasure so sorely doth the heat and burden of the day beat upon them as upon Jonah and no gourd to refresh them All which griefs and dejections however they strive many of them by a generous magnanimity to conceal and smother as much as is possible knowing how vain a thing it is to complain where is no hope but of pity and scarce that yet many of their neighbours both friends and enemies are so much curious spectators of their distresses and discouragements that the one hath the pleasure to pity them the other to insult over them Which dismall reflections when the poor Ministers discern in mens looks words treatments and comportments toward them how do they ruminate afresh and chew over their calamities when they retire home and hide their heads in their ruinous and uncertain habitations which daily with their masters fall to dilapidations Ministers having neither money to lay out nor hearts if they had money to repaire such uncertain and it may be momentary mansions where every relation they meet renews their regrets and vexations both as to their private and publick condition when they consider how much they and their profession are faln in England as to all former civil and secular interests either honourable or honest and comely and forced to stoop to those that make them their foot-stool commanding them to bow down that they may go over their backs When they hope a little to divert their melancholy thoughts by going abroad and meeting with other men with what force and affectation do Ministers contend to put on so much brow and confidence as may keep them from appearing too sensible of their being every where discountenanced and despised as Ministers Hence they think themselves safest when they are most disguised in their clothes both for colour and fashion such as may least bewray them and their pitifull profession being Ministers now rather by force and fatall necessity than of any good will choice or self-comprobation finding the best of their condition preferment and expectation amounts not beyond a dispirited dejected despised decayed precarious proletary predicant not many degrees removed from a mendicant condition Thus while the Souldier looks big and glories to be seen in his arms as the ensigns of his well-paid profession while wary Lawyers keep as grave and wise men to their robes and gowns as badges of their calling which is their honour and gain too while other civil fraternities and companies of trades own their vests and liveries onely the poor Ministers of England study with great artifice to disguise themselves as manifestly and not a little ashamed of their order and function and this not onely in high-wayes and markets but even in their very Churches and Pulpits they had rather appear as Lawyers Physitians Troopers Grasiers yea Mechanicks Apprentices and Serving-men than in such a colour garment garb and fashion as best becomes in my judgement grave Scholars and venerable Preachers so great is the damp and discountenance they are sensible of when they come among Lay-men being alwayes loth and oft afraid to be taken for Ministers lest they be openly disgraced jeered and contemned this makes many leave off their wearing black when they have cause enough to be in mourning There is yet one relief onely left them by which a little to buoy up their sinking spirits that is when Ministers meet together they seem with some shew of wit or gravity or learning or confidence or sanctity to hold up each others chins especially if they be of a party and get into some associate convention which is the least of comforts to consorts in calamity and even this invention is carried on as yet rather furtively and precariously than with any great solemnity or authority and here in the midst of their feigned mirth and seeming serenity O what a secret guilt shame and regret do most of them find in themselves and in one another O how great a cloke of confusion covers their faces as those most who are most modest ingenuous ancient and innocent when they see in their own nakedness how God hath satisfied either the superpolitick or the simple sort of Ministers with their own delusions what a cloud they have embraced instead of Goddesses with what slighting they are treated looked upon by all sorts of men how they have helped with much zeal and little wisdome to reduce themselves and their order to this diminutive posture being so divided disordered among themselves that they are easily despised derided and destroyed by any that dare to attacque them having now no nationall circumference as Church-men no Ecclesiastical centre for union or ordination
no shadow or paternall shelter of protection among themselves to defend them from vulgar heats and plebeian storms nothing of filiall subordination or fraternal conjuntion to keep them in any comely posture and regular motion Look beyond the seas and they see all orders cast into a strength stability and honour by their subordination to their Bishops and Superiours after the ancient and venerable pattern of all Churches look homeward and they find all mysteries of civil trades and merchandise kept up by mutuall correspondencies and corporations for order counsel and government onely the Ministeriall Tribe is become a disorderly order of men like Simeon and Levi they must be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel which was the left-handed blessing of that holy Patriarch to those fierce and furious brethren c. Yea the Clergie or Ministry if you will for some like that new title best since their condition is much worsted are become in England like the Jews in all lands who are dispersed in many countries but have no where any polity community authority or government Adde to this dissipated and distracted state of Ministers their private distresses and poverties together with the publick neglect and indifferency of people toward them who can wonder if they look pitifully one on another which no jocose or juvenile drolings can relieve how forced are their mutuall salutations since they affect to call one another brethren and yet have cast off their Fathers how feigned are their smiles and embraces when they see how hard an after-game they have to play for their subsistence reputation civill respect and Ecclesiastick union For splendid estates or any beam of publick honour and reall authority further than the Territories of their desk and pulpits reach they may sadly and justly many of them despair of them though I am of opinion no men can better deserve them than some Clergy-men did heretofore and still do but not those who by a spiteful and rash prodigality have set their own as wel as other mens corn-fields on fire by helping to tie foxes tailes with fire-brands These may be glad if they can preserve the petty Provinces of their Parochial and Independent Episcopacies which they so infinitely ambitionated that they indiscreetly ventured to consume the larger harvest of this Church which was annexed to the honour of Ancient and Catholick Episcopacy by which means not onely many Ministers of the Episcopall Ordination and judgement have been shrewdly distressed but even Presbyterian and Independent Preachers who flatter themselves as if they were the speciall favorites of the people even these are fain in many places with much ado to fall to their gleanings to pick up what small compositions remnants and scatterings of support and respect they can here and there get or find as new and speciall undertakers to preach the Gospel and give some credit to the lapsed and distressed Ministry of England This this is generally the fate of Ministers deservedly indeed of some but most unworthy of many of them who not without a patient horrour behold this prospect of calamities befaln them in their decline age and all this after great pains in their studies from their youth upward after infinite prayers and tears for their own and others souls improvement after unwearied diligence in their calling after invincible patience under common peoples incapacities stupidities ingratitudes indignities after many rigours and severities of life voluntarily besides necessarily sustained after a kind of civil martyrdome endured like that of Simon Stilites who loaden with irons confined himself into a narrow pillar of stone while most Ministers are all their life-time condemned to the rusticity barbarity moroseness and brutishness of the flinty vulgar being like Orient Jewels set in sockets of copper or brass or lead or iron or clay What Minister but finds in these licentious times the deportment of many common people as in the city proud and supercilious so in the countrey harsh as hedge-hogs and hard as rocks for so their society oft seems to those men that have once tasted of ingenuous breeding of softer and civiler conversation from which to be wholly removed and all ones life confined to hob-nails and high shoes to loâ—es and lasts to tempers utterly clownish or meerly mechanick yet ponderous or petulant enough as now they dare appear is as if a man should fall from a down bed into a plot of briars and thorns Tell me I beseech you O my brethren and fellow-labourers in the Ministry who have many years contended with the clod and toiled in the brick clamp of a countrey living being as Ministers now even faln under plough-shares and sawes and harrowes as David once treated the children of Ammon tell me O you my companions in this tribulation who have any thing in your temper constitution or education that is courteous and civil polished and generous learned and ingenuous yea tell me O ye Noblemen and Gentlemen of England who are the chief pillars of cloud and fire of light and favour of capacity and affection under God to the now depressed Ministers either in their severall solitudes or amidst those rural societies which are many times more sad than utter solitudes tell me I beseech you all who are my betters or brethren are not those excellent associates rare refreshments precious rewards noble encouragements which Ministers of worth and parts in most places of England for in Wales they say few are resident or incumbent do now enjoy for which they must spend their spirits wast their lungs decay their health exhaust their lives neglect all other wayes of livelihood both for themselves and their families After all which little shall be left them if some men may have their wills but contempt cast upon their persons calling together with the legacies of extreme poverty which after a lingring death they must leave to their desolate wives and fatherlesse children Good God! what arts did Church-men in former times use when they did so much out-wit and out-wealth us when having less charge less learning and less work they had more order and unity more honour and revenues even heaped up pressed down and running over whereas now the tale of brick is much more and the supply of straw far less Livings heretofore worth an 100 l. per annum are now ebbed and hardly squeezed to 50. or 60. pounds and this with much whining and grudging with many evil eyes and evil words on all sides Nor are these yet the dregs of that bitter cup which Ministers above all men are to drink for after all their former pains faithfully bestowed after they have been miserably tossed and weather-beaten by the storms of a long and dubious civil war in the bowels of the Church as well as the State after they have made shipwreck of almost all but a good conscience few of them being ever admitted to any composition or resumption as to their livings yea many of them denied to make
is the root of all evil for it doth not onely famish the souls of such rapacious wretches of all true grace and comforts rising either from the love of God or the care of their own and their brothers spiritual and eternal good but it prompts them to all manner of injurious evils it being impossible they should be truly holy in any kind who are so unjust and unthankfull in the highest degree despising their God whose property or peculiar Church-revenues are also his chief Ministers who being by God and man appointed to feed the flock of Christ ought not themselves to be famished or debased no nor should they want much lesse be undeservedly deprived of those temporall encouragements in the work of the Lord or Gods husbandry which give both credit authority and comfort to true Religion in times of Peace and in a land of Plenty Of which Blessings when once true Religion is miserably spoyled and so exposed in its Ministry and Order to all Distresses and Scorns no man can wonder if Popish Superstition and all Factions of ungodly Appetites do mightily thrive and improve by the ruines of such Reformed Religion no wonder if Atheisme and Irreligion if barrennesse and leannesse if Egyptian darknesse and death prevail in a short time over such people and their poor plebeian Pastors too whose blood will be required of those sacrilegious Reformers who shall thus deform reformed Religion impoverish a famous Church and flourishing Clergy embase a rich a renowned and an ancient Christian Nation to the indignity and injury of the publick as well as the danger of their own private souls to whom that sin of Sacriledge is rarely forgiven because they seldome have the grace truly to repent of it for Repentance cannot be true as S. Austin saith unlesse restitution be made which few Sacrilegists ever do or dream of Hence as the learned Sir Henry Spelman observes by instances of his particular experience in many Families further growes that moth not onely of mens consciences but of their Estates which devours them unsensibly a secret pest of Families which destroyes at length all their encrease which that learned Knight had observed within sixteen miles compasse of his own dwelling in Norfolk where so many Estates first raised out of Abbey-lands were now quite extinct or almost undone but so many others in the same compasse continued in flourishing or competent conditions who were of far ancienter standing and not enriched with any Sacriledge for so he esteemed the dissolving of religious Houses destroying of Churches c. of whose Superstition and Forfeiture true Religion should have had the advantage as the censers were holy in which strange Fire was offer'd Yet might that former Confiscation which devoured so many Churches Chappels and Religious and Superstitious Houses seem modest and veniall in respect of some mens later attempts and designes against all setled maintenance of Ministers A Christian Church might well subsist as those in primitive times did without Monks and Nuns without Monasteries and Nunneries without Abbots and Abbesses without Abbies and Priories but not well if at all without Pastors and Governours Bishops and Presbyters these were Primitive Apostolick after Christs own pattern followed by all Churches in the world necessary to the well-being yea to the complete being of a Church in any Order Polity and regular Communion Nor is the honourable support of Church-Governours and Ministers more comely than necessary upon politick as well as Ecclesiastick Principles either by occasionall Donatives and spontaneous Oblations as in times of primitive Zeal and Persecution or else by setled Dedications and fixed Revenues which were afterward in times of Peace plentifully given to God and his Church for the support and honour of an Able Hospitable and Charitable Ministry As it had been high Sacriledge to have taken away by stealth or force those portions which were given to Ministers when their Presbyters were yet sportularii depending on the bag and basket of Christians oblations and the Bishops dispensations so is it no less sin to take away those setled Revenues which were invested in God for the use of his Servants the Governours Guides and Ministers of his Church both for their Maintenance and Honour Injuries are no less in taking away Lands than Goods from men that are the just owners of them nor doth the Clergy in these evil times more stand in need of convenient Sustenance than due Respect and Reverence which is hardly had where Poverty appeares Yet since the noon-day of Reformation hath gloriously shined and continued in this Western world this Meridianus Daemon sin of Sacriledge as rankest vermine breed in warmest weather and horridest Monsters are gendred in richest Soiles hath grown most bold and violent an Epidemicall unblushing sin aspiring to so full and unrestrained a Liberty as hath not onely much afflicted other Reformed Churches long ago of which great complaint was made by Luther in Germany and Knox in Scotland before they died but the venome and infection is come into the rich and generous Nation of England to so pernicious a measure and degree that it reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Heretofore indeed Sacriledge was not so much a Plebeian as Princely sin the attempt not of Pygmies but of Giants not of the Populacy but of Popes of Kings of great Noblemen and Gentlemen these onely durst adventure to put so rude affronts on God and his Church by alienating defrauding detaining impropriating confiscating what they could of holy things against which adventurous Sin many learned and worthy men in all Ages and Countreys as in Engl. as well Lay-men as Ecclesiasticks have wrote by most unrepliable demonstrations from the Law of Nature and Nations from principles of Reason and Religion from Scripture Canons and imperiall Constitutions all which nothing but a covetous violence and blind fury can gainsay or resist But now while the Prince abhorred Sacriledge no less than Idolatry every petty pragmatick yea poor pesant dares to adventure upon sacrilegious projects and practises 't is sport to common people to plunder pull down Churches to deprive Ministers of their legal Evangelical Maintenance to strip this Church of its ancient Portion and honorable Patrimony which is the fewel and oyl to keep the holy Fire of Devotion on the Altar of God and the bright-shining Flame of true Doctrine in the Lamps of the Temple 't is now the Presumption and Ambition of mechanick and vulgar Spirits to rob God of his Service People of their able and honourable Ministers the Flock of Christ of its worthy Shepherds and the Souls of people of those sacred Portions and Provisions which are in order to an Eternal Life The meanest peoples impudence dares now to dispute detract usurp profane confound and challenge as their own all things sacred both the Work and the Reward by a Spirit so licentious and insolent that it is thought by many
are higher courts and abler judges appointed to heare and determine matters according to law with more honor and lesse partiality than Ministers can expect from such men as are very sorry Magistrates and worse Ministers This is a certaine maxime the cheapnesse and despicablenesse of Ministers ariseth chiefly from their mutuall divisions and dissociations Their union and harmony will be their Honor Safety and Happinesse I pray God shew us all and guide us in the waies of his and our own peace And in earnest it is high time for us as Ministers of Christ and as sober men to give over our popular Projects and pragmatick activities our secular policies and state agitations by which we have all gained far lesse than if we had onely intended the Crosse of Christ and imitated the patience as of our great Master so of the best of our predecessors not to concerne our selves so much in Crownes and Soveraignties in Kingdomes and Commonweales in Parlaments and Armies in Killing and Slaying our brethren upon Christs score as in saving our own and others souls What was of old falsely and odiously objected hath of late been too much verified in many of us You take too much upon you O you Sons of Levi both in sacred and civill affaires Let us learne to rule our own passions to obey actively in all lawfull and honest things our superiours and passively in others Leave it to God to rule this as all States and Kingdomes by what hands heads and hearts he pleaseth Let us in all times do all things rather in a Ministeriall then military fashion Honestly Humbly Meekly Charitably Unanimously and the God of peace will be with us in this private and publick posture we shall better beare the frownes or favours either of Princes or people who will never be our friends if we be our own enemies CHAP. XIV HAving done my duty to those that are of my own profession as Ministers how ever they differ at present in the derivation of their orders and exercise of their Ministeriall Authority my next addresse must be to those persons whose influence sociall or solitary personall or Parlamentary either is or may be most effectuall by their Counsels or Commands by their proposals or power to recover the Purity Order Unity and Stability of Religion in this Nation It is not fit for me to presume to suggest to persons so much above me in prudence and experience as well as power and reputation any thing that lookes like counsel or advise I know Superiours are prone to take those suggestions for affronts from inferiours as if they thought themselves wiser than those that rule them But yet our humble petitions have acceptance with Godâ— himself not as suggestions to his wisdome but submissions to his will and supplications of his goodnesse No Christian Empire was ever so imperious as to disdaine the prayers of any that craved their favour and assistance in just and faire waies And since I find few Ministers of any party will begin or joyne with me in such a request to those that are our Superiours better I presume to supplicate alone than that no man of any calling should importune the Soveraignty Nobility and Gentry of this Nation in a businesse of so great and publick concern before the mischief spread too farre and the cure be desperate which will then be when there shall be few sound minds honest hearts and whole parts left in the Land all or most being infected with Ignorance Irreligion Atheisme Profanenesse Popery or indifferency the inevitable effects that will follow the divisions distractions and debasings of the Clergy both among themselves and the common people To you therefore that are the highest and greatest the honorablest and richest the wisest and strongest the most noble and generous the most knowing and ingenuous persons do I with all humble importunity recommend this reall Cause of God and of Christ our Saviour the cause of the Christian and Reformed Religion the cause of this Church and Nation the cause of your own and your posterities welfare Is it not high time after so many tossings and Tragedies in which this Church and its Ministers have had so great a share at last to speak comfortably to Sion to tell her that her warfare is accomplished to take off the filthy garments wherewith her Ministers of all sorts have been clothed to cover their shame to bury their mutuall reproaches to restore the honor and authority of their calling to encourage and improve in waies of publick conspicuity and harmony those excellent abilities which are in many of them which divided and at distance from each other are either quite lost or perverted to maintaine popular parties and factions against each other Many Ministers have been and are silenced being thereby driven to extreme poverty most are dispersed and despised not onely by vulgar insolencies but by mutuall animosities jealousies distances and defiances Few of us have that Christian courage and constancy by which the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters as an united Clergy were still preserved entire among themselves when most persecuted by enemies we are so divided that we are justly dejected and easily destroyed Many of us have by our follies forfeited the honor of our function some of us by our secular policies and compliances have prostituted the sanctity of it to the fedities and insolencies of Lay-men We have digged those pits into which we are faln and filled those dungeons with mire in which we now stick It is a memoriall of everlasting honor to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian that he helped with great tendernesse and humanity to draw the Prophet Jeremy out of the dungeon where he was ready to perish England hath now for many yeares had many Prophets in dungeons of disgrace and darknesse yea all are sunk into the dirt and mire of obloquy and contempt on one side or other I beseech you be not tediously or anxiously inquisitive how we came there but apply of your goodnesse and noblenesse fit meanes to draw us out Let not the Christian and Reformed Ministry of this Church which was the most renowned in all the world without any doubt offence or envy I speak it let not this be like Elisha the scorne of fooles the mocking-stock of children the May-game of Papists the laughter of Atheists the object of fanatick petulancy and vulgar insolency the wonder and gaze of all forrainers the grief and astonishment of all sober men at home and abroad who for some yeares have beheld the factious and divided the disputed and despised state of Ministers the poor and pittiful shifts they have made to keep their heads above the waters not to be quite overwhelmed with Poverty Anarchy and Contempt while alone and solitary they signifie not much and joyntly or socially they are now nothing at all having no publick harmony or fraternall correspondency no concurrent counsel no Synodicall convention or Ecclesiasticall Authority being never summoned by
Authority to meet or consult together never so farre countenanced as to have any thing of publick concernment to advise or execute in order to the generall good of Religion their names their persons their calling their ordination their preaching their praying their consecrating and dispensing of holy Mysteries their censures and reproofes or whatever discipline any of them affect or dare to exercise according to their own fancy and private Authority all they do with the greatest Gravity Solemnity and Sanctity is vilified slighted abhorred and as it were spit and spewed upon by some bold foreheads and foule mouthes on one side or other without any other remedy or redresse than what their private discretion or their patience either willingly or perforce supplies them These these O noble Gentlemen and worthy Christians are now your Divine Teachers these are your ghostly Fathers these the best and brightest of your Clergy at present generally esteemed and treated as the filth and off-scouring of all things by vulgar minds yea many of your modern intruders into the Ministry are no better than the very scum and refuse of all Trades and Occupations if necessity pincheth them or pride provoketh them or shame banisheth them from their first stations and mechanick imployments presently they dare to preach when they can do nothing well The most illiterate and plebeian spirits who are fitter to serve swine than the soules of Christians ad haras magis quà m anas apti men that want all things befitting preachers of the Gospel except onely Lungs and Tongues such as are quite broken and despairing as to any other way of living these aspire to be your preachers how enabled how examined how ordained by what authority they are sent I know not but I am sure they run amaine striving by all popular acts to out-run yea and over-run the Ancient Grave and Sober sort of Ministers in England whom they look upon as their sore enemies eagerly persecuting them till they run themselves out of breath Then being tired in one place they ramble to some other till use and confidence hath so completed them in boldnesse that they dare own themselves in all companies but such as are grave good and learned to be Ministers of the Gospel after any new mode and fashion that they list to take up Nothing can be a work of more Christian piety prudence and compassion to this Nation than to redeeme the Ministry of it from that pittifull posture and sad condition whereto it is at present condemned by that divided despised and on all sides either doubted or denyed authority which Preachers challenge to themselves All are represented by some or other to the people as Falsarii Cheates Impostors Seducers Certainly it were worthy of the Wisdome and Honor of this Nation to remove as all others so in the first place this great grievance scandall and stumbling-block out of the way of all Christians to take away this reproach of our Reformed Religion whose God and Saviour and Spirit being but one its Faith Gospel and Sacraments the same its Ministeriall power and Authority can be but one in the true Authority and Authentick Commission both as to its Originall and Derivation There is no speedier way nor easier to sow up the rents of Christs garment to clense and close the wounds of his body in this Church than to poure the Wine of healing and the Oyle of Union upon the Ministers of the Gospel by perswading yea commanding and conjuring them to be of one heart and one mind in the Lord. Nothing is more worthy that Wisdome and Power that Piety and Honor to which you as Gentlemen and Christians and Reformed do pretend than to advance by your counsel industry and authority so Christian a work as the setling of Religious Order and Unity an harmonious Government and Uniforme Authority among the Ministers of the Gospell I know all the Gates of Hell will be against the designe and oppose it with what ever power and policy can be found among the Devills But the work like that of building the second Temple is Gods Honest endeavours will be their own rewards how much more the desired effect if attained which is so good and great that no minds truly great and good but earnestly desire to see that day when they may behold the uniforme face of a Nationall Church among us such a Reformation as is without any remarkable defect or deformity specially so black and fundamentall as these are the Divisions Distractions Confusions among the Clergy the vilifying and nullifying of all Ministeriall Order and Ecclesiasticall Authority that such an Honor and Respect may be restored to your Ministers as may exempt them and all religious Ministrations from profanenesse scurrility contempt that your Ministers may be such men of Learning and Worth of Wisdome and Meeknesse of Fraternall Love and Kindnesse that they may both deserve and rightly use the just favour supports and respects given them the benefit of all which will most redound to your honor and the happinesse of your posterity when they shall behold such Religion such Reformation and such Ministers as they shall see cause to reverence love and value in conscience Religion is nothing if it be not esteemed as sacred sacred it cannot be if it be once ridiculous and ridiculous it will be if once it appeare either to have or make many strange and antick faces before the people who have all this in-bred principle in them that as true Religion can be but one so it ought to be Uniform and its Teachers Unanimous both in their Divinity and their Authority for variety in Ministers breeds incertainty inconstancy in holy duties inconstancy breeds indifferency indifferency breeds levity levity futility futility folly folly presumption presumption atheisme and licenciousness among people who from many Religions grow to any and from any Religion to none at all common people having neither capacity ability or leisure to disintangle Religion when it is offered them all snarled with the factions disputes and janglings of their Ministers They cannot wind up any great bottom of piety who all their lives are untying the knots and undoing the snarles of the scaine of Religion which ought by the wisdome of Christian Magistrates be presented to them in the most easie comely orderly authoritative and well-composed forme that can be and all little enough If the Christian and Reformed Religion which hath been so famous and flourishing in England be left to the coldnesse and indifferency of some the loosenesse and rudenesse of others also to the inordinate fervors and contentions of a third sort which are the predatorious flames and Gangrenes daily mortifying the native heate and moisture of Religion which consist in truth and love If all things of solemne Mysteries sacred order and Divine Ministry be still left to dissolve first into plebeian ignorance and insolency next into open profanenesse and atheisme and at last to shift for shame into Popish Superstition and
greater difficulties and necessities as to his Estate yet never any had greater Antipathies against what he thought Sacriledge nor a less longing to tast of the Priests portion which he esteemed sacred because it was Gods dedicated to him and so vested in him both by Law and Conscience by true Divinity and just Humanity that he judged no power on earth could without manifest sin and robbery alienate it from God and his Church This made him so zealous not onely to preserve Bishops upon his Fathers principles but their Rights and Estates also because he thought them to be Gods and his Churches to maintaine whose right he remembred himself to have sworne in the first place at his Coronation and so was no lesse bound to them than to the rest of the people as to their civil Properties Lawes and Priviledges Certainly however some have denyed this King the Title of Pater Patriae yet he seemes to have deserved that of Filius Ecclesiae both Alumnus and Patronus of which he appeared more ambitious than of any earthly glory or Kingdom or Life For whence I beseech you before God Angels and Men do you think arose that his Princely and Christian pertinacy even to the death in the point of Episcopacy and Church-Lands Henry the Fourth of France could change the whole scene of his Religion from the Reformed to the Roman meerly upon reasons of State dispensing with conscience to preserve his Kingdom and his short-liv'd greatnesse yet is he cryed up for Henry le Grand how much greater is that King to be esteemed whose consciencious constancy which some counted obstinacy lessened him to nothing when to the very last he maintained those sharp Agonies Contests and Disputes he had as to the interests of the Church and Episcopacy which he counted his greatest concerns as to Religion Justice and Honor How did he encounter Mr. Henderson Mr. Marshall and others upon this point chiefly how indeed did he confound them by Scripturall grounds by Ecclesiasticall precedents by Catholick consent by the sacred venerable and unanswerable custome of all Churches till his daies What answers what offers of moderation and conciliation did he make as to this point of Church-Government to the admiration yea astonishment of his Antagonists Although as to Military successes and Civil concessions he yeilded much to an over powering power yet as to this rock of Ecclesiasticall affaires like the Ark upon mountaines of Ararat where he rested there he fixed there he continued rooted unmoveable invincible chusing rather to be dashed in pieces than to renounce his principles or to move contrary to those conscientious perswasions for which he thought he had such cleare and valid grounds such ancient prescriptions such constant presumptions that he thought nothing in Religion could be safe or certaine if in this point of Church-Government the Catholick Church were not to be believed or imitated in Episcopacy Good God! whence should it be that a Prince so knowing so sensible of his dangers when he saw the Presbyterian proposalls power and interests so pressing upon him for Independency that little stone was not then cut out of the Mountains whence had so great a restivenesse and obstinacy seised upon so great a Prince in a posture of so great storms and danger which would in all likelihood at first have been appeased if he would have cast this Jonas Episcopacy over-board and swallowed the Church-Lands into the Sea of the Exchequer He that could as to civil and Regall concernments much deny himself why should he chuse upon the Churches account to suffer so long a war so many wounds so tedious prisons so sad Tragedies living and dying For however differences at last were inflamed upon other accounts in the procedure of the war which necessarily multiplies offences on the conquered party yet certainly the maine propose and motion first of the Scots and then of the English Presbyterians was this Destroy the Temples of Episcopacy and set up the Synagogues of Presbytery Which any politick Prince would speedily have done at least when he saw so terrible a tempest in present pressing upon him yea and prevailing against him What Prince was ever so in love with any Bishops or any Church-men as to love them better then himself which in Reason he could not and in Religion he ought not to do nor would certainly have done so far as he did if he had not had such perswasions deeply rooted in his conscience of a justice gratitude and duty he owed to God to his Saviour and to the Church more than to the persons of a few Clergy-men which he solemnly avowed as in Gods presence to Mr. Marshall of Finchfield in Essex after a long conference at Newcastle as I take it had with him touching Episcopacy as Mr. Marshall himself soon after told me assuring him and conjuring him to assure others of his Majesties uprightnesse and resolvednesse in this point of Episcopacy as to matter of Conscience and not of State or Policy else in point of secular advantages his own peace and preservation the publick tranquillity the increase of his revenue by the Confiscation of Bishops and Cathedral-Lands would have amounted to much more benefit than ever he or his could expect from a few Bishops Deans and Prebends Thus riveted was the Kings Conscience to Episcopacy unable upon any terms till convinced not by Arms but Arguments to consent to the utter extirpation of it although he offered condescended to many moderations which were from him as much in vain for nothing but root and branch would serve as all the Extirpators Allegations to his Majesty against Episcopacy to prove it not to have been the Primitive Catholick and Apostolick Government of the Church were in vain for indeed nothing was produced new all were trivial and thred-bare arguments which had been answered ten times by learned men in this Church and had for ever silenced all sober and modest men if they had had so great regard to the Churches Catholick and constant Testimony or to the Scripture-rule and Apostolick pattern as indeed they should have had Besides this insuperable difficulty fortifying Episcopacy in his Conscience his Majesty no doubt had prejudices enough against Presbytery as to its novelty its first violent intrusion his Fathers vexation it s now armed obtrusion upon himself a Soveraign Prince and chief Governour of Church as well as State to these were added all the former Troubles and Tragedies in Scotland by the scufflings of Presbytery against Episcopacy besides he saw the destroyers of Episcopacy already divided among themselves neither Presbytery nor Independency could agree whose the child should be yea he lived to see Presbytery when it had been set up in the House of God faln like Dagon with its hands and head broken off before the captive Ark of Episcopacy Mean while His Majesty and all the World at home and abroad saw the miserable Distractions Confusions Luxations and Licentiousnesse which brake in daily