men would remember that even Nature her selfe as much abhorres a forced violent Vnion as a Rent or Division BUt in the next place let us seriously consider whether the Bishops as now they be setled here be not the Cause of most Sects Schismes and Heresies now amongst us Some of them will not deny themselves to be Arminians and others cannot deny themselves Socinians If at least they think we can understand their writings printings yea and Sermons though These bee very Rate Yea some doe not deny but they may at least receive Orders they meane a Pale Mitre and Cardinalls Hat if they come All which we may yet better construe by their carriage to Priests and Jesuites both in publique and private which now we know more than by bare surmise Many of These they countenance openly and never question any though it be certainly knowne we had they had more such in London than were good Ministers in all England almost All the Livings under most of our Bishops have been committed to the Cure and Care of superstitious Formalists Arminians Socinians Papists or Atheists Yea the Universities are much corrupted by their malignant influence for Nero-like they think they have done nothing till they have murdered their owne Mother In a word through the whole Kingdome Preaching Praying Expounding and the like exercises both in publick and private are severely suppressed and in many places altogether forbidden except such and such more pernicious than profitable and all This by the Fathers of our Church the Lords our Bishops And is not This the most compendious way possible to beget and encrease Heresies They cry out of Schisme Schisme Sects and Schismes and well they may They make them and it is strange they should not know them When they laid such stumbling blocks Reall Scandals not only accepta but data in the way of good men whose Consciences they have grievously burdened and wounded with Things violently pressed on the greatest fines that are so farre from being indifferent that many of them were point blank unlawfull have they not by This even forced their brethren to separate themselves in Judgement and Practice till they could finde some remote place that might separate their bodies also Was not This in Them the readiest way to produce Divisions Separations and as they call it Schismes in the Church Rents are bad I confesse where ever they be violent but yet then worst when most out of the eye Schismes in the Conscience are of greatest danger and to prevent These if I am forct to That which they please to call a Schisme in the Church Woe to Him that so forceth me Scandals Schismes and Divisions must come but woe to him by whom they come God forgive them in This paticular I professe I take no pleasure in ripping up their foule loathsome sores I would they could bee throughly healed without launcing and opening I could give you a strange account of sad Divisions which themselves have caused both to Church and State I could tire you and my selfe in This though I should begin but little higher than mine owne Time mine owne Knowledge In Queene Elizabeths Time many good men were cut off from the Church some from the State a sad Schisme Some by violence laid asleep Many suspended silenced deprived cut off by a strange Schisme from liberty livings that I goe not higher And all This for one word of their owne compounding Non-Conformity While they themselves are indeed the greatest Non-Conformists to all the Reformed Churches in Europe Surely It would have savoured more of Humility of Christianity if they had suspected their owne Judgements and Opinions allowing something to the Judgement Learning and Piety of those holy worthy pretious Saints Calvin Beza Bucer P. Martyr Oecolampadius Zuinglius with many more great famous and eminent Lights in their times If they will stand for Conformity Let any man living judge whether it bee fitter for some few Bishops newly come out of grosse Popery and still retaining their old Popish Ceremonies to reforme and conforme themselves to the Judgement and Practice of all Reformed Churches or all Churches to subscribe to Them As they began so they continued Christ and they being like parallel lines though they should run out in infinitum they would never meet Nay rather like the Crura of a Triangle the farther they run out from the Center the more they differ and are distant each from other Under King Iames in a few years four or five hundred Reverend men were divided from their Livings and Ministery And was not this a cruell Schisme Now also by Them was first forged that sharpe Rasor or Book of Sports with which they have since made great Divisions of heart But in our Gracious Kings Reigne they have come to Cutting off Eares Cheeks and have yet struck deeper and estay'd many Soule-Schismes not only in the Hearts and Consciences of thousands of good men but whole States also and Kingdomes as much as in them lay While I heare the sad groanes and see the bleeding wounds of Three Kingdomes at once by their Schismes I have almost forgotten the parting sighs and farewell teares of ten thousand poore Christians by Their Tyranny forc'd to abandon their native Country and dearest acquaintance while others were here violently detained in Fetters some smoothered in Dungeons some Dismembred some driven out of house and Living and forced to beg All which yet would have bin born patiently had not only all Good men but Goodnes it self Learning Religion Piety All that speaks any worth been altogether not only discountenanced but suppressed smoothered and by most exquisite Tortures almost forced to breath its last Yet that these Glorious Princes under whom such Tyrannies have beene committed may not suffer in your thoughts Give me leave to speake some things on mine owne knowledge and experience others from best intelligence Queene Elizabeth when shee heard of Their miscarriages fell on Them in most sharpe language threatning Them if they should ever doe the like againe to her Subjects King Iames offered faire discourse to the Non-Conformists honoured Mr. Cartwright and others of them disclaimed the Book of Sports And being asked why hee made so many Bad Bishops answered ingenuously with a strong asseveration That hee was very sorry but could not helpe it For no good men would take the Office on them And our Gracious Soveraigne since some light hath dawned out of darknesse hath delivered our Sister Church of Scotland from that unhappy Generation For now I hope the Clouds begin to breake away Light springeth up while Dark Iniquity is forced not only to shut her mouth but hide her selfe and disappeare Now the Sun againe mounteth up in our Horizon and quickeneth the drooping spirits so that now many that were Bed-rid some moneths since now begin to take up their Beds and walke leaping up and blessing God Fire and Water may bee restrain'd but Light cannot It will in at every cranny and the
not long before he shew'd his Ends. Turne your Eye but a little about and you shall see an Emperour stand barefoote at his Gâ—ute Here One kneeles to kisse That foote that spuâ—â—â—â—th off His Crowne There one holds the stirâ—up while that Proud Bishop steps up into the saddle And have not our Bishops the same Designes with their Holy Father Even to free themselves from all Power and â—â— bring all things under their owne Power What meaneth of his Maxime of Episcopacie that a Clergie man cannot fall under the Execution of a Civill Magistrate Except they first degrade him which they may refuse to doe as long as they please Is not This to Exempt themselves from all Civill Jurisdiction What is the sense of This that for breach of Their Church Injunctions they may Excommunicate people Ministers Lords Kings themselves whom they please But shortly This to reduce all men Even Princes as well as others to plenary Obedience to themselves And when Once They have passed that sentence on their Soveraigne at their owne fancie I doubt not but some of Them would be ready to receive the Crowne from their kneeling Prince as of old If any King would againe so farre forget himselâ—e and lay his Glory in the dust to be trampled on by such proud insulting Prelates Which God forbid Their Insolent Words and Actions vented lately against the Crowne are very sutable to these Principles Some of themselves in open Court of Judicature have dirst to affirme They were beholding to none but Christ for the place they held Others of Them and Their Creatures have said They are under no Law of man Some have preached point blanck that Their standing did not at all depend on the Crowne Others have flatly denied the King to be Head and Governour in Ecclesiasticall Causes over all persons though they cannot but know that This Title was given mainly to Exclude any other Earthly Head as it is Interpreted by Order of Parliament All of them Erect Episcopall Courts send out Summons Exercise Jurisdiction Sentence Fine Imprison doe what they list in their Owne name Though All the Bishops put together Vis unita est fortior daâ—e not to do so for the High Inquisition had a Commission under the Broad Seale and yet Every particular Bishop Exerciseth Jurisdiction under their owne seale by their owne power in their owne name without any Commission directly against Statute by which they all incurre a Praemunire Indeed they have learnt to faune upon Princes and would make them beleeve all This is for their Honour and Advantage yet they are but Impostors This is but to stroake the Horse as the Proverb is till they are well up in the Saddle for at That they aime and thither would they come which God forbid I could heartily wish the Kings of the Earth would be pleased to read Master Broughtons Epistle in his Refining the Roman Fox Or Niâ—hol de Clemengiis in his Excellent peece de Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu Or that Noble Learned Lords incomparable Mysterium Iniquitatis presented to Our Late Learned Soveraigne King Iames though in some late Prints It hath beene refined by an English-Romish Index Expurgatorius yet It will still with the other represent the sleights of this kinde of Episcopacie in such lively Colours that I beleeve no Prince would trust them againe I neede not goe farre to seeke instances that may fully represent how much Our Bishops have in all ages promoted the Weale Peace and Honour of This Kingdome and Cowne For their Treasons against the State and King want not a Register I could briefely present you with a true Emblem of Episcopacie ab ovo ad malum and yet not goe higher than the Conquerour Lanfranck would have conquered the Conquerour and by gentle insinuations have perswaded him to submit his Scepter to the Triple Miter but Etiamsi suasit non persuasit Art could not prevaile and therefore Anselm went more rudely to worke Though Rufus forbad him yet with many thankes and much honour from the Pope he went to Rome for his Pall. After he had oftentimes bearded the King in many matters he succeeded so well that he attempts the same against the First Henry and left not till he had caused the Scepter to bow and the Crowne to totter In Stephens time Two Great Prelates dispute about Precedencie and at last passing by the King they call the Pope to be Moderator Bâ—ckets heights are well knowne and scarce parallel'd in amy Story Onely as Henry the second that Great Prince did suffer sore stripes here so did the Duke of Thoulouse in France for joyning with the Albigenses That was done by a Pope This by a Bishop King Iohn fell with his whole Kingdome under an Interdict for some quarrell betwixt himselfe and Two or Three Prelates nor could he buy or begge his peace but on his knees resigning his Crowne â—o proud Pandulph In Edward the seconds time Gaveston was much abetted by Coventry in this a Traitor to his Countrey What prankes Winchester plaid with Edward the First Stratford with Edward the Third and with the second Richard Norwich was touch the â—ore Henry the fourth was ill handled by Yorke that waged warre with him at the same time Arandell vow'd he would not leave a slip of that Religion which then he saw Dawning in England In Henry the sixts time Yorkeâ— Quarrell with Wâ—â—chester lost all that England had gaineâ— from France at last Yorke sides with Warwick against the King Edward the fourth had little râ—â—rse no pardon the new Arch-Bishop Ely ended better then he beganne but it was per accidens for first he perswaded Buckingham to claime the Crowne but He refusing at least not daring to stirre for himselfe sets him on Richmond the true Heire But you will say These were all Papists and lived in the dark times of Popery True and were not Their Soveraignes such also were not Kings and Bishops of one Religion then Are they more now hath a Protestant Prince now more reason to trust a Protestant Prelate than a Popish King a Popish Bishop Let all the world judge Seeing in Those times it was no difference in Religion But Malignance against Civill Government that produced Thâ—se Commotions in Those Bishops But since the Pope and Popish Religion is confessed to be the Cause of all those Treasons and Rebellions what if I prove Prelacie and Popery to be the same in re and onely to differ in name This we stall Essay anon In the meane time It is worth considering whether Our Prelates be not more like to sâ—de with the Pope against a Protestant then Popish Prince I will over-looke the darke times of Popery Let us beginne with the Reformation which yet could hardly have entrance for that strong Opposition the Prelates still made Alas what Commotions have they still raised in Scotland ever since the Reformation Wee have felt what Our Parents onely saw They Eate at least suffered a soure
for in the Art of Phisicke though our parents at a very great remotenesse were wiser it hath passed for a currant position that Phlebotomy almost in any case was more than dangerous and that men might pay deare for their learning they have beene as wise in Tenets of State-Policy Have not too many great ones closed in with Neroes conclusion mâ— oderint dum metuant Lastly Episcopacy hath beene the basis the superstructure the All the soule of Church Discipline for these many ages but dabit his meliora Deus Some of these Tenets spring from invincible Ignorance others have beene the base pullulations of spirits enslaved to false ends This No Bishop no King as I have fully proved pertakes of both and therefore hath no weight with me nor I hope shall ever hereafter be of credit with any body else for we see that old received truthes are not alwaies to be entertained and so I leave them with their maxime to the sentence of every judicious Reader SECT II. CHAP. VII THere yet remaineth an objection or two which must necessarily receive an answer before I shut up this discourse 1 Obj Allow there are some inconveniencies yea great ones in Episcopacy yet ex malis minimum it is better to beare these than groane under worse If Episcopacy be taken away Schismes and Heresies will breake in as armed men Tyranny is more eligible then Anarchy the wofull sense of Anarchy begot that sad Proverbe It is at it was with Israel when there was no King Ans. I doe agree to this that a confusion is a most lamentable condition and that those times are very perillous when every mans hand is up against his brother Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim Yea I doe professe the distraction of Heresies the most miserable of all Civill conquassations disjoynt the outward estate but Heresies distract our soules dismember our Churches stave off Iew and Gentile who know not whether part to believe shake the weaker cause heart-burning amongst the stronger doe exceedingly provoke God to wrath and displeasure But first let us consider whether it be possible to be without Heresies and Schismes Secondly whether Episcopacy be not the efficient cause of the most grievous Schismes and Heresies Thirdly whether Those which may justly be feared upon the removall of Episcopacy be of such dangerous consequence as to weigh downe the keeping up of that Government rather than to hazard what inconveniences may there-hence follow And 1 to the first of these It will bee cleere both from experience and Scripture and reason that Heresies must come Look over all Nations and all times and you shall finde them distracted with difference of opinions How many severall Sects doe you heare of amongst the Jewes and some of them extreame grosse the Sadduces the Pharisees the Esseans Herodians with many more though a great Critique reduce them to Three Christ had no sooner committed the care of his Church to the Apostles Disciples and ordinary Ministers but they were over-runne with Heresies Yea in their time some were of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas in the interim Christ quite laid aside In the Church of Pergamus were there not some that held the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans In Thyatira did not some of the Church listen to the Prophetesse Iezebel who taught them to commit fornication and to eate things offered to Idolls Barnabas and Paul were at some difference the Doctrine of workes was pressed upon the Galatians and the resurrection from the dead questioned by the Corinthians Amongst Heathens where Morality was their God had you not the Peripatelickes the Sceptiques the Platonists the Epicureant and many other Sects The Pope and Papâ—cy have beene much turmoyled with Schismes and these Schismes have produced great confusions amongst them In the yeare of the Lord 420. Boniface the eighth being chosen the Clergy chose Eulatius and there they decreed one another Heretickes Simmachus and Lawrentius caused the same distraction in the yeare 499.760 Pope Custantine being convinced of Schismes and berest of both his eyes he and Philip another Pope were deposed and Stephen elected in their places Thus it was 958.973.995.1047.1058.1062.1083.1100.1118.1124 in the yeare of the Lord 1130 the disputes betwixt Gregory and Peter Both chosen Popes were so famous that it was growne a Proverbe and recorded in this verse Petrus habet Romam totum Gregorius orbem Every twenty yeares had such changes as these even till of late that Church hath beene vehemently turmoyled with all their Learned Amongst the Schoolemen some are Scotists some Thomists among the Polemiques some Iesuites some Dominicans And all these wrangle each with other In the yeare of our Lord 1400. there was a great dispute about the Originall sinne of the Virgin Mary Betweene 1215. and 1294. was that great Faction betweene the Guelsians and Gibelines though both were Papists One desending the authority of the Pope the other of the Emperour In some points of Controversie Bellarmine one of their ablest Writers is not to be read without restriction and not without Licence of superiors If we survey all Antiquity we shall finde no one Century free from Heretickes Ebion Cerinthus Marcion Samosatenus Novatians Sabellians Nepotians Maniches Arrians Pelagians with many others have troubled the Church from time to time If you descend so low as our daies even among Protestants you shall meet with too too many Divisions Luther and Calvin and the English Church betweene both a Calvinist for Doctrine a Lutheran for Discipline The Lutherans are divided in Rigidiores Molliores and these differ toto Coelo The Calvinists have many disputes How fiercely doth learned Erastus contend with Calvin and Beza about Excommunication denying the Church any such power The Church of England hath three maine Divisions The Conformist the Non-Conformist and the Separarist The Conformist hath the Orthodox Divine contending with the Arminian Socinian Pelagian Anabaptist and divers others who yet All stile themselves Sonnes of the Church of England The Non-conformist is uncertaine what he scrupleth for some can dispence with one of the three Grand Nocent-innocent Ceremonies some with another some with neither The Separist is subdivided too as they say into Seperatist and Semi-seperatist Many other Divisions there also be will be in Churches here Yea it is cleare in Reason that Divisions Sects Schismes and Heresies must come For many are apt to advance themselves and undervalue all others and Mens Braines being fertile of errors after they have conceived they must bring forth though the Gospell suffer never so much by it And while This Temper is among men you must still expect Schismes and Heresies The Scripture hath put this out of all doubt it saith Heresies must come Christ came to set a Sword not only betweene the Good and Bad but even among Professors of the same Christian Religion that Those who hold out to the End may have their Honour and Reward It is to be marked that Christ
I aske how long shall he be a Probationer how many yeares months weekes Though he preach ten good Sermons no man tan tell but in the next he meanes to broach an Heresie But alas These poore men see not how weake all This is For Is it not easie for three or foure men or a Bishops Chaplain to commend a man be he Scholler or Groom or Butler or what he will let the Bishop without seeing or smelling This man give him his blessing blindfold and seale him a Licence What hurt is in all This For if This man preach well the Church will get good if ill cannot the Bishop as soone pull him downe as he set him up They answer Suppose he may which is hard to suppose since Orders once given leave an Indelible Character why may not ten or twenty men Good men in a Congregation as well set up a man and try how hee will prove For if Well it is Well he will do good If ill These ten or twenty men can as easily pull him downe againe as set him up Not so For the Bishop is still a very wise discreete Good Holy man and being entrusted by the Church will have a speciall care even more than an hundred others to set up a good man or else pull him quickly downe againe To This they yet answer The Bishop cannot tell how or what he preacheth when he hath set him up except hee can be present in all places at least many at Once to â—eare all young preachers that he Liceuseth and therefore though he would pull him downe yet he cannot because he cannot be still present to heare him Though he come once twice ten times yet the Preacher may hold in all his Herise till he see the Bishop absent and sometimes he must be absent But may not the Congregation then goe and complaine to the Bishop if their Preacher do amisse and upon complaint the Bishop will may and must suppresse that error If he doe not they say They are still where they were But if he do Censure This Preacher on the complaint of the Congregation Either he sees they complaine unjustly and then He doth injustice in censuring-upon an unjust complaint or else he must yeeld they complaine justly and then he also grants that This Congregation hath wisedome enough to judge whether a man preach well or ill and if so why may not the Congregation censure him for ill preaching without complaint to one Bishop Sed frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauâ—iora And so I leave This and come to another great Question that is wont still to be propounded to These poore Non Licensed Preachers It is This why if indeed they be fit or seeme fit or do but thinke themselves fit to be Ministers why then do they not enter into Orders or at least present themselves shewing their desire to be in Holy Orders if indeed they may be found fit for the Ministery as they thinke themselves Why do they halt betweene Two either let them serve the Church wholly and so be in Orders or else let them forbeare and not meddle with dispensing of Holy Ordinances This seemed to mee a very serious Question and therefore I much desired to heare their Answers Some of them say they know not yet whether they be worthy or fit to take on them Those Greater Offices which follow Orders onely they desire they may have leave as Probationers to exercise or keepe Acts before the Church 'till the Church shall approve of them and call them out judging them faithfull for higher imployment or generally to dispense all the Ordinances In the meane time They meddle onely with such Ordinances as they conceive not proper to Church Officers onely but in some sort common to all Christians yea to all men as was said before Others say they would gladly with all their Hearts be consecrated to God and wholly give themselves up to his service and worship in the Ministery but they are afraid to take Orders as Orders are now conferred in This State And yet in the meane time they dare not abstaine from Preaching where they have opportunity and a Willing Auditory lest they should detaine the Truth God hath revealed to them and should be guilty of hiding their Talent in a Napkin For they thinke they may do many Things belonging though not proper to a Minister though they be not nor can be as things now stand in holy Orders Their Instance is David who was a King and of the Tribe of Iudah and so could be neither Priest nor Levite yet they find King David often Preaching else they understand not the meaning of Those Phrases O come hither and I will shew you what God hath done for my poore soule and the like If these men in This be serious and do not pretend Conscience where it is some other Principle that acts them to some low end I cannot but much pity them that if they be fit they neither may be licensed nor yet preach without License But let us see why they dare not enter into Orders and so be Licensed Ministers They answer that they have not so much against Orders conferr'd by our Church or the manner of conferring them though under some Bishops This hath beene very strange and not warrantable either by Law of God or man they conceive as they have in their judgment and consciences against the Power conferring them For they doubt not to affirme that He who ever he be that taketh on himselfe power which the Scripture hath not given him to appoint dictate or command any one Thing either in Doctrine or Discipline though the Thing it selfe might possibly be good yet He that so dictates is Antichristian encroaching on the Regall Office of Christ and so a Traytor in Religion Now they dare not touch That which how Good soever in it selfe yet comes in Power and Vertue of an Antichristian Traytor Yea though such an one should command them a Thing very lawfull in it selfe as to weare a blacke cloath yet if Hee have not Commission to Command from Scripture they conceive He incurres a Premunire with God because he takes on him to do that as an Oâ—ficer for which he is not fore-armed with lawfull authority In this case they thinke they ought not to obey Him so commanding because though the Thing in it selfe be lawfull to be done yet they thinke him an unlawfull Commander and so dare not obey if for no other Reason yet for This that by obeying here they shall betray not onely their owne Priviledges which yet are very precious but also the Liberties and priviledge of all the Subjects of Christ even of the whole Church so that they become Traytors to their spirituall Common-wealth They give This Instance in Civill Things Suppose a Sheriffe that is a lawfull Officer come and command me to give him forty pound of his owne head without lawfull Authority to beck his command they