all I cannot imagine they can pretend an umbrage from the Holy Scriptures for such unheard of opinions The Jews indeed had a Government and Laws of Gods framing and appointment and a King of their own choosing and such a King as they desired by God's permission they had But their form of Government ought with less reason to be the Rule of all kingly Governors because it was a Government chosen by themselves then the Laws of the Jews ought to be the Laws of all Nations which they are not though made and enacted by God himself Christ would not make himself a Judge in a private Right submitted to him He determined the right of the Roman Empire by the possession of Soveraign Authority and such as the whole world had made it his Disciples were obliged to acknowledge it by their Obedience and Submissions which is the summ of the Apostles Doctrin in this matter The Christian Religion instituted no form of Governments but enjoyns us to be obedient to those we have not only by express command in the case but by its general Rules of a most refined improved and extensive morality But though I said the Scriptures have not prescribed or directed any universal Form of Government yet the Scripture hath declared the falshood of this new Hypothesis of Kingly Government to be Jure Divino or by Divine Right For St. Peter 1 Peter 2.13 and 14. stiles Kings as well as the Governors under him the ordinance of man which cannot have any other sense but that men make them and give them their powers By St. Paul the power of Government indeed is called Gods Ordnance Rom. 13.2 but that is for this reason because in general God approves of Governments as necessary to the well being of Mankind for the improvement of humane nature for the punishing of Vice Encouragement and security of virtue without them it being impossible to live honestly and in peace And he hath made them the under Ministers of his providence and care over Mankind and expects of them that they should promote his true Honor and Worship in the World which will be always accompanied with the exercise of all civil Virtues These two different places must be so understood that they may be both true and by no other interpretation can they be reconciled and made consistent It is impossible that any thing can be of mans appointment which is of Gods Ordination there can be no such thing as a Co-legislative power of Men with their Maker Government therefore is from God as he hath made Governments necessary in the general order of things but the specification thereof is from Men and the best definition that can be made of Government is in the words of both the Apostles put together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such Governments which men make God approves and requires our obedience to them upon all those reasons which make Governments necessary The natural and easie consequence and result of these Scriptures is this which I desire those Gentlemen to observe That whatsoever is not lawfully established by men no Law of God not the Christian Law doth oblige us to obey The Christian Religion doth equally condemn in the reason of its Institutions Usurpation and Contumacy Where the Apostle admonisheth us that if we be free we should not become servants he hath by virtue of that Admonition made it commendable not to suffer the Encroachments of power over us Most certainly therefore as the Christian Religion doth not prejudice the Soveraign Rights of Princes such as they are in the several forms and Modells of Monarchical Governments non eripit terrestria qui regna dat coelestia as Sedulius so doth it not enlarge them when by the Gospel God made us free from his own positive Laws to the Jews he did not intend thereby de Jure to render us slaves to the Arbitrary pleasure of Men. No Man intends by any thing in the Scripture that all mankind is obliged to any one form of Government and therefore all Men are left to their own It hath not therefore altered the terms of Government and Obedience that every Nation hath Established for themselves but hath confirmed and strictly obliged the observance of them To Obedience to Government we are obliged by as many ties as there are Christian Virtues and he must disown his Christianity that departs from his due Allegiance And since our Saviour is declared King of Kings and Lord of Lords all Kings Christian Kings especially are to govern in Imitation of his mercy and goodness and in subserviency to the Interest of his Religion and Kingdom Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Javis cuncta supercilio moventis Whence then is this absolute Authority of Kings if it come neither from God nor Man Give me leave now to inform you that these opinions render you all Traytors guilty of Treason of State perduellionis rei obnoxious to be punished as Traytors by an Authority lodged in Parliament In the Constitution of the Government You your selves must needs condemn your selves to have forfeited all your own who hold such Principles that tend to destroy every Mans Right by resolving all things into the absolute pleasure of a Monarch in which you mostly disserve the King and are contrary to His Majesties late Declaration The Men of these Principles the less of the Government they are entrusted with the better for the less they have to give up and betray I confess if I could believe that this Doctrin was become Orthodox among them and the prevailing opinion of the Clergy I should conclude us to be the most unhappy people under the Sun This is an Hypothesis indeed that will bring on new Heavens and a new Earth but such wherein no peace or Righteousness can ever dwell But I deem all such as are Defenders and Promoters of it do deserve a civil Excommunication more smarting then their Ecclesiastical and to be condemned to live upon and only feed themselves with their thin speculations and to be excluded from any share of that Government that they professedly in their Principles betray to be punished as seditious persons and most mischievous Schismaticks far more intolerable in this matter than the scrupulous brother-hood for their boglings at an indifferent and insignificant Ceremony For that to the ruin of our Religion and destruction of the publick peace they divide from that polity to which by drawing here their first breath they made Faith and to which the condition of their birth doth oblige them they falsify that which Arrian in his Epictetus calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than which nothing is more sacred and inviolable By creating themselves a new Allegiance and obtruding it upon their fellow Citizens and Members of the same Kingdom they set up a Kingdom within a Kingdom more dangerous and mischievous than the Papal Imperium in Imperio which certainly will be introduced if this Modern and
wherewith shall it be Seasoned And if our Light be darkened how great is our Darkness The Bishops know that the World will not be kept in Order by meer Designations of Trust but by Execution of their Trusts not by abstract of Characters unless they are put on and effectively worn The World will not be put off that there is no Provision made in the Government for reasonable Expectancies of all that can make a People happy if we are disappointed in our just Expectations They know for what high Ends they are advanced to their Secular Dignities what was it that hath thus advanced them Was it not the reasonable Expectation that Christian Princes and Governors conceived of their excellent Virtues that they would out-doe all mankind in firm Constancy a vast and extensive Charity unrelenting Fortitude inflexible Justice unmoveable Faith and Loyalty and unbyassed Sincerity What Temptations can their Lordships have that they should not or we Reasons to believe that they will not put forth all those Christian Vertues in Heroical Degrees which the World will not give them leave to exert only in common measures They will find it necessary sure to be now Confessors for the Support and Happiness of a poor distracted Nation a vast and great People They will no doubt subdue the Greatest Potentate to Justice if there be any such who hath unhing'd the Government and sap'd the very Foundations of our Constitution and will never consent to the Pardon of such Sins that are not to be pardoned in this World nor in the World to come Can they suffer the true Christian Religion of which they are the chief Ministers and Curators to perish by their timidity and cowardise Can they suffer a great People committed to their charge to be destroyed into an Anarchy and desert that Prince whose Beneficiaries they are and not interpose for the saving of him and his Government by faithful and wise Counsel To suppose such things as are morally impossible is unreasonable and to fear where no fear is For they if they were wholly secular and were guided by nothing but a secular Interest can consider that the world is impatient of disappointments That they hate nothing more than deceits and abuse of trusts and that he that falls short and goes less than a just expectation falls into the lowest and vilest contempt and deepest scorn But this is not a time sure to lessen the Prelates to take from the Bishops any just advantage or honour when that the contempt in this later age thrown upon them and the whole Order Ecclesiastical and the mischiefs that have naturally ensued thereupon have brought our Nation Religion and Government to a most miserable state a most desperate plunge out of which I pray God we may be able to emerge The Contempt of the Bishops and Clergy made the People despise the publick Establishment chuse Teachers not much wiser than themselves And they have thereupon multiplied vain Opinions and Divisions and true Christianity is scarce had in any Consideration Atheism and Profaneness upon this Stock is come to an enormous Growth which thrives the faster by the vain Opinions and Immoralities of the mistaken Religionists by which the Atheists take the Measures of true Christianity and in Consequence of this Popery is arrived to a vast Increase in Power and Interest and threatens us and the little Remains of true Reformed Christianity with an utter Overthrow The true Christian Religion is not generally understood and hath lost almost all Credit and Belief in a Christian Nation So that it seems to me upon the Consideration of our present State almost necessary that the Truth of the Christian Faith should be again demonstrated in Flames to this Infidel flagitious and degenerate Age that the Stains of the Christian Religion must be washed off by the Blood of the Sincere Professors That the true Faith should be better understood as it will be by dying Thoughts and vain Opinions be destroyed and burn up like Hay and Stubble in the Fire of Persecution For then we shall understand what it is that is worth dying for and that which is not worth dying for is not worth disputing and dividing for in our Christian Communions with breach of Charity Then our Guides the Holy Order of Bishops and other Faithful Pastors of the Church may shew their Sincerity and appear of what Value they are of in the Conduct of Souls by their wise Apologies and Noble Confessions and Martyrdoms for the true Christian Faith and recover a due place in the Peoples Reverence and Esteem for their Successors And if God in all his wise Providence and Care which will never be wanting to his true Religion shall think it necessary by this means to recover and restore it let this Fiery Tryal come let it come And then I doubt not but we shall have our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Scrripture for the Prelates of the Church to signifie the high Esteem they had of them and are the same with Leaders Captains and Commanders many Cranmers Ridleys and Latimers leading up their Troops of Confessors and a Noble Army of Martyrs who will again seal the Christan Religion with their Blood and a more Glorious Church shall recover out of the Ashes of this But God grant that we may dispose our selves by more easie Methods to recover out of our sickly Estate when we know our Disease and may be cured by more gentle Remedies But I am sure that nothing can save our Nation and Religion but an excellent Clergy and a high Esteem of them amongst the Laity And for this Reason I have earnestly concerned my self for the Bishops Right of judging in Capital Causes in Parliament that they may want no Capacity of making a gasping Nation live and thereby of recovering themselves and their Order into a high Veneration that they may more effectually administer to the Advancement of God's True Religion and Vertue and making this Kingdom happy for Succeeding Generations THE POSTSCIPT The POSTSCRIPT SIR I Now render you my hearty thanks for your free advise you gave me concerning the publishing of the Argument for the Bishops Right of Judging in Capital Causes in Parliament and for asserting their civil Honors and Rights in the Government Because it hath given me an occasion both of vindicating the most of the Inferiour Clergy from those Imputations which you have remembred to me and are commonly discoursed to their disadvantage whereby they have lost their Esteem with the People and also of rectifying the mistakes of some for their number is not great who have given too much cause therein of publick complaints You diswade me from giving any assistance to the Rights of the present Bishops for that the Clergy out of whom the Bishops must be made have entertained Principles that are destructive to the Government They affirm you say That it is in the power of a Prince by Divine Right to
govern as he pleaseth that the power of the Laws is solely in him that he may if he please use the consent of Parliaments to assist the reason of his Laws when he shall give any but it is great condescention in Kings to give a reason for what they do and a diminution to their most unaccountable Prerogative You say That they are for a Popish Successor and no Parliament and do as much as in them lies give up our antient Government and the Protestant Religion the true Christian Faith to the absolute will of a Popish Successor giving him a Divine Right to extirpate God's true Religion established amongst us by Law and to evacuate our Government by his absolute pleasure Our Government by a King and Estates of Parliament is as antient as any thing can be remembred of the Nation The attempt of altering it in all ages accounted treason and the punishment thereof reserved to the Parliament by 25. Ed. 3. The conservancy of the Government being not safely to be lodg'd any where but with the government it self Offences of this kind not pardonable by the King because it is not in his power to change it This is our Government and thus it is established and for ages and immemorial time hath thus continued a long Succession of Kings have recognized it to be such And just now when we are under the dread of a Popish Successor some of our Clergy are illuminated into a mystery that hath been concealed from the beginning of Governments to this day from the wisdom of all Princes and Ministers of State That any authority in the Government not derived from the King and that is not to yield to his absolute Will was rebellious and against the Divine Right and Authority of Kings in the Establishment against which no usage or prescription to the contrary or in abatement of it is to be allowed That all Rights are ambulatory and depend for their continuance upon his pleasure So that though the Reformation was made here by the Government established by Law and hath acquired civil Rights not to be altered but by the King and the three Estates These men yet speak say you as if they envied the Rights of their own Religion and had a mind to reduce the Church back again into a state and condition of being persecuted and designed she should be stript of her Legal Immunities and Defensatives and brought back to the deplorable helpless condition of Prayers and Tears do utterly abandon and neglect all the Provisions that God 's providence hath made for her protection Nay by this their new Hypothesis they put it by Divine Right into the power of a Popish Successor when he pleaseth at once by a single indisputable and irresistable Edict to destroy our Religion and Government And these opinions you say they are the more inclined to entertain For That they believe no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot for of them they believe all ill and call whom they please by that hated name and boldly avow that Popery is more eligible than Presbytery for by that they shall have greater revenues and more Authority and Rule over the Lay-men This is a heavy charge if true but it is imputable I am sure but to a few and not so generally as some malevolent men of the Popish Faction are industriously busie to have it For if it were I confess it might choque the constancy Resolution and Zeal of the most addicted to the service of the Church men and make them at least very indifferent in their concerns For these mistakes are so gross and inexcusable that they ought to be permitted to suffer the smart of their own follies and to be corrected by the evils they are drawing down upon themselves with their own hands They deserve to suffer as betrayers of their own Country and to be prosecuted with greater shame and ignominy by all of the Reformed Religion than the Traditores were by the antient Christians These their diserting of the true Christian Faith being much less excusable then that of theirs and of greater mischief as of deeper malignity How many of the Clergy-men are thus misled we know not but they seem many more than they are because they are most in view and come often under observation frequent publick houses and talk loud because they want the Complement of their preferments But certainly Sir what you say to be the declared opinions of some Clergy-men is the business now of the Papists to propagate Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercantur Atridae These are agreeable to and indeed make up the most modern Project and Schem of the Popish Plot. Since the discovery of their first design of killing the King and massacring of the Protestants They have taken such courage by observing how little power we have to prevent their design that they have us in scorn and in the vilest contempt They now think that we are not worth destroying but by our own hands that we are not worthy of their trouble or the charge of Executioners of their providing How entertaining is it to his Holiness to find the Church of England the impregnable Bulwark of the Reformed Religion easily fall into his hands by the unpresidented folly of some of her Sons without the trouble of attacking her either by force or Argument which hath hitherto wanted success and the attempts always attended with dishonor and mischief to his See How pleasant will it be to him to see us perish and our destruction to be from our selves With this he will answer all the irrefragable Apologies of the Church of England for her departure from the Communion of the Romish Church Then he will say with triumph our Church destroyed her self and perished by a Divine Fate for her unwarrantable and Sacrilegious Schism for so he will call our follies and impute them to Divine infatuations The manner of our destruction will be a better Argument and of more force against the Doctrine of the Reformation than all the Arguments of all the Doctors of that Church to this day For this purpose since the Discovery of the Popish Plot it is that Sir Robert Filmers Books were Re-printed together and recommended by the Title Page and the publick Gazet to our reading Since the Discovery of the Plot we have had variety of Books Printed to the same purpose viz. To prove that all Kings as Kings are absolute by Divine Right Since the Discovery of the Popish Plot we have had men imployed to search all our antient Records and Histories to find out something more antient than our Parliaments as now constituted that it may serve as a pretence to take them away Since the Discovery of the Popish Plot we have the memory of our late calamitous War revived to raise a Pannick fear of another and to make the King believe that the genius of the Nation is Rebellious and that the Protestant Religion it self is to be apprehended by Kings It is
to whom such Judgment doth of Right appertain did give their Judgment He concludes that the Bishops could not he said to be his Peers which shews they were not there But he must give us leave with much better Logick to conclude that they were present and We with reason presume because they are Peers of Parliament for so the Record is not his Peers for he fallaciously changeth the Terms they were there except he can prove them absent if common Right is not Reason of presumption no presumption can be reasonable But we can prove to him they were there And thereby in consequence we have another proof that they are Peers Sir Robert Cottons Abridgment tells us 5 H. 4. Fol. 426. that at the same time the Arch-Bishops and Bishops at their own request and therefore certainly then present were purged from suspicion of Treason by the said Earl And at the same time I pray observe Sir Henry Piercy his levying of War was adjudged Treason by the King and Lords in full Parliament Note that here is said to be a full Parliament and yet nothing in the Entry but the stile of Lords So various and contingent in respect of form are the Entries which ought to be observed But to review and consider again the Case of John Hall condemned in Parliament for Treason for murdering the Duke of Glocester And to this place I have reserved the Case of the two Merchants that killed John Imperial an Ambassadour of Genoua for both Cases are of the same nature and must receive the same answer and that is this The Statute of the 25 E. 3. was made to declare certain matters Treason and to be so judged in ordinary Judicatures but withall that Statute did provide that if any other Case supposed Treason do happen it shall be shewed to the King and Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason Concerning which the King and Parliament do and are to declare by their Legislative power as it is agreed by all and as they did in the Case of John Imperial as appears by that Record expresly So that though the Bishops were not present at the Judgment of John Hall they might have been it must be confessed by our Adversary if the Judgment against John Hall was by the Legislative Power as it must be By this it appears how false an Argument this of his is To conclude no Right from absence for it is plain here it proves too much it proves a thing notoriously false a thing false by the confession of our Adversary and from what any falshood may be inferred is not it self true but stands reproved by the falshood and absurdity of what follows in consequence thereof But this is too Solemn Reproof of so frivolous an Argument for it is no more in effect than this That no man can have an Authority but what he is always in the exercise of The Octavo goes on and remembers that in the 2 H. 4. the first Writ de Haeretico comburendo was framed by the Lords Temporal only and without question it was so For the order of proceedings in Case of Hereticks Convict so required it The Bishops are upon the Matter the pars laesa in Heresy The authority of the Church is therein offended and it was not therefore proper for an Ecclesiastick to be an Actor therein The Author doth improve this as he doth all things that he can with any manner of colour to render the Order of Bishops hated and disesteemed which is the publick establishment the legal provision for the Government and guidance of Religion What mischief then is he a doing How great is his fault to deprave that provision to destroy their Reputation and Esteem with the people to destroy all their authority as much as in him lyeth His utmost endeavours are not thereto wanting to make their Ministries useless and to frustrate the provisions of the Law and the care of the Government in the highest concernment of the Nation Doth this become a great man I will not say a good man God rebuke him To lessen the Authority and disrepute and dishonour any Order of men or any Constitution that can be any ways useful to the publick is a great fault but this of his is a most enormous offence But what can be inferred from hence against the Order of the Bishops may be with like unworthiness inferred against the Christian Religion it self For it may be as well concluded that the Christian Religion is a bad Religion for that men of that denomination in the general Apostasie by pretence of Warranty from that Religion though it gave none murdered innocents As that the practices of the Bishops of that Religion so depraved do reflect any dishonour against the Bishops of reformed Christianity And this Answer will suffice too for the Case of Sir John Old-Castle As for the Earls of Kent Huntingdon and Salisbury the Lord le Despencer and Sir Ralph Lumley before that executed and declared Traytors in Parliament by the Lords Temporal only in the Parliament of the 2 H. 4. and the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolph against whom it was proceeded in a Court of Chivalry after their death who were declared Traytors after they were dead in the Parliament in the 7 H. 4. I hope the Octavo Gentleman and all that are at present of his Opinion will take this for a sufficient Answer if we had no more to say that it was irregular very irregular indeed to condemn men after they were dead when he himself would set aside the Authority of the Case of William de la Poole in 28 H. 6. in Parliament where the Bishops were present which though he saith is the sole single precedent of Bishops acting in Capital Causes We shall therein convict him to be a man of Will to have lost himself in his passions and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And enter that Case with a cloud of other testimonies and reasons that affirm I will not stick to say demonstrate so as such matters can be demonstrated with a moral demonstration such as shall leave no doubt with any man of the Bishops Right of judging in Capital causes in Parliament But We shall further add for Answer that the Temporal Lords did not herein exercise the Office of a Judge For it could be no Judgment they delivered It was only an officious declaration an avowing of the justness of the slaughter of these great men and to enter themselves of the other side But is it as reasonable for this Writer to fore-judge the Bishops of their Franchise and to have it seized because they would not be guilty of a misuser thereof and would not consent to so insolent a thing as to judge men unheard nay when dead and they could not be heard And to kill over again the murdered Lords for so they are in consideration of the Law who are not by legal process condemned and executed I cannot but observe in many of
to the Encroachment of the Papal Power and in this matter to declare how far the Bishops might if they pleased observe the Canon Law or rather themselves and what was thought then decent to their Order So according to the Print in Gervasius and therein he differs from Matth. Paris it is Quousque judicio perveniatur ad mutilationem membrorum vel mortem which further clears the meaning of that Law to be that the Bishops were thereby excused not altogether from Capital Causes but onely when it was proceeded so far in such like Cause that Judgment was to be pronounced which when the Bishops had nothing to gainsay they might depart and leave Sentence to be pronounced by the House But we cannot after all this allow the Author of the Folio to have so little sense as with a good conscience to say that he who cannot perhaps by reason of his circumstance and some consideration of Indecency execute a thing in his own person therefore cannot do it by another no more than he can authorise one man to murther another Thus he saith fol. 20. when surely this Gentleman cannot think it as fit for a Judge to be a Hang-man as to sign a Kalendar for the Execution of the Condemned Prisoners But the Octavo is somewhat surprizing in this matter For he doth affirm That it is not lawful for Bishops to vote in any Question preliminary and preparatory to the Sentence of Condemnation when such Sentence follows and the matter preliminary is necessary to the Process This he proves by a Logick Rule Causa Causae est Causa Causati one of Sthalius his Axioms hath turn'd round the Head of this Gentleman I find few men can bear Axioms Maxims and Sentences There are none speak so much unnatural Non-sence as they that use them most May not several men I pray do several parts of an affair and yet he that doth the first part is no ways the Cause of what another man doth in the second and third place Is the acting the first part of the Play the cause of acting the last Or is the laying the Foundation the Cause that lays on the Roof Is the Jury the Cause of any more than their Verdict And doth not the Court give Judgment by their own Authority and Causality If men would speak by Nature and according to first Notions and were not so full of second Notions and Universals we should not have so many Errors Mistakes and Confounding Opinions in the Work But this we complain of as too severe in the Octavo that when he had confounded us with his Causa Causae Causati he would render us ridiculous with a Story of a Friar out of Chaucer That would of a Capon the Liver of a Pig the Head But would that nothing for him should be dead This indeed was a fine piece of Wit in the Poet but translated hither by our Author is an insipid piece of Malice His Design sure in this was to enter the Bishops amongst Chaucer's Friars and then the Learned Readers of Chaucer would be very conceited upon them and apply all his pleasant Satyrs against the Friars to the Bishops But for the farther Evidence of the Bishops Baronage and their Jus paritatis it would not be impertinent here to add That the Names of Barons Peers Seniors Grants have been attributed to the Lords Spiritual in all times in Authentick Histories and Records Forasmuch as a Nominal Argument is not a very inartificial Topick in such a Cause as this Besides that this will destroy the very strength of our Adversaries which lies in this that they will not allow Prelates to be comprehended in the Name of Peers Grants and Barons And that where the Records doth not expresly mention Prelates they will conclude they were not meant or intended to be present But the Collection which was made for this purpose shall not trouble the Reader because in two Books since Printed in Defence of the Bishops Right in question this is abundantly performed Besides that it is a very precarious Conclusion that our Adversaries make and without argument For they ground themselves herein upon a most unreasonable Postulatum viz. That Titles do not belong to persons for whom they were made and to whose Character they agree and that Words do not design the things which they were made and imposed to signifie CHAP. XIV NOw we shall proceed to perform a necessary piece of Justice to the Prelates as well as a Right to the Government to recover its true Constitution from the Prejudice of Modern Ignorance to declare and manifest that our Gvernment doth consist of three States the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of England These do make the Great Council of the Kingdom and minister to the King Council and Auxiliaries over which the King doth preside as the Great Superintendent and mover of this mighty Machin The consequence of which is that the Bishops cannot be detruded from that place they bear in the Constitution of the Government for that no Government can be legally or by any lawful power changed but must remain for ever once established And it cannot be no less than Treason of State to attempt a change no Authority in the world is competent to make any alteration The Princes of Christendom after they took to themselves the Election of Bishops which is a natural right of the Sovereign Power become Christian they soon observed the advantage that they might make by advancing them to the greatest Secular Dignities Governments and Trusts and did accordingly advance them to an equality if not to a superiority to the highest of the Secular Nobility gave them Dutchies Marquisates Baronies and rich Endowments and erected that Order into a successive Nobility Another sort of Nobility from that of the Lay Princes concluding that they should be better served by men of their own choice and approved worthiness who had also other advantages over the People than those that the Temporal Princes and Lords had by that Reverence they paid to their Bishops and the Authority and Power that they had over them in the virtue of Religion than by the Hereditary Princes and Nobility who did not always answer to the virtue of the original Ancestors and the first stock Besides that Religious Kings and Sovereign Princes did by advancing Bishops intend to do great advantages and honour to Religion but withall they did not divide the Bishops thus advanced from the Secular Princes and Noblemen in Councils for then they had lost their design The Bishops could not have had any direct influence upon the Councils of the Nobles and Secular Princes nor have tempered their Debates with an excellent Charity and firm Loyalty and other Vertues which belong to their Character It would have made trouble distraction and impediment in the Affairs of Princes and emulation and strife and faction between the Ecclesiastical and Secular Orders and several mischiefs and great inconveniencies would have
the Reformation to which the Bishops did not assent and would never have passed if they had had a Negative upon them But by his Favor these Instances of his are great Arguments of those Bishops their Sincerity For they must needs be under great and violent Prejudices Besides every great man as the Author of the Letter well knows is apt to value himself and cares not to be accounted a light man and the higher in place the more unwilling to be found in a Mistake and they are not content if Old Men Quae juvenes dedicere senes perdenda fateri There is good Hopes therefore that our Rightfully Reformed Bishops will be the last that will give up the Cause of Reformed Christianity and will not be out-done by the Popish Bishops in Constancy when they have a better Cause I must likewise take notice to do the Spiritual Lords Justice of the Behavior of the Gentleman in Folio towards the Bishops He takes notice and that dutifully of the Satyrical so he calls it Language of the Pamphleteers against the Court and the greatest Scurrilities with which the House of Commons are aspersed but has not heard sure of any against the Bishops and the whole Ecclesiastical Order For he makes not the least mention of any such But because they shall not escape besides that in his Book he declaims 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Order and seems so fond of this Office that he forbids all other the use of the Cart he tells the Story of Hephestion and Craterus the one of which loved Alexander and the other the King By this Apologue I doubt not but he intended a Slander and to signifie thereby supprestly a lewd Reproach viz. that the Bishops are not true Servants of the King and Government but of themselves than which a falser thing I hope cannot be said nor a more malitious thing imagined if not true For he may know that they are better men in their true Character than his Loyal Patriots that are true to the King and House of Commons For they have I doubt not I am sure they ought to have a care of the whole Government in the Integrity of its Constitution The Bishops well know how much the People are concerned in the Greatness of the House of Lords which establisheth the Throne and makes and supports the King Great and by their Power and Interest make his Government equal to which they contribute no small Share for to them is entrusted by the Authothority of our Lord Christ the Conduct of Religion and that mighty and momentous Office hath commended them and advanced them to the State of Peerage and will continue them in great Authority with the People as long as the Nation continues in any degree Religious The Temporal Baronage cannot want them in the Support of that mighty Province that belongs to that House In them the People will find their Interest as long as they can value Wisdom and Religion that is as long as they are Christian Men and by them the Kingly Office will find it self served as long as true Religion and Wisdom can minister to the Support of Government and wise and good men under the greatest Trust and in the highest Dignity in the Government can be fit Councellors and Ministers of State The Octavo hath also a hint to this purpose for pag. 30. where he brings in the Case of Thomas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury when all the Bishops made Sir Thomas Piercy their Procurator he says That uniting in one man argued a great Unanimity in the Voting of the Prelates which seems saith he hath ever been The meaning of this is a sly Disparagement of the Bishops in their Voting viz. that have one Common Tie and Dependency upon the Crown that determines them to their Interest and produces the Unanimity of Voting But are the Bishops more depending because they once for all received their Temporalities from the King than the Temporal Lords who are commoly Officers of State and otherwise depend upon their Prince's Favor Is not the Bishops Advancement rather a Reward to their Eminent Services performed in the matter of Religon of the greatest Importance certainly to the State and a Recognition of the excellent Character of those men that are preferred to that Office than a Bribe upon their Actings after they have that Favor irrevocable Do not we know that the Services of Church-men are rewardable upon the Churches Stock and that the King need not impair the Royal Treasure to pay Thanks to Episcopal Men whose Worth doth bespeak the Royal Favor to that Preferment and Advancement Are not the Temporalities of the Church the King 's only to give but not to retain What evil Prejudice or Obligation can this be to any man to serve the King unfaithfully who hath chosen him perhaps though there were others but as equally fit for that Office For we ought to suppose no other disposition of those Dignities than what is just and fit in our general Discourses however things are administred in particular Cases Is not this an Office together with its maintenance of the Provision of the Law and not of the King But to remove that Scandal of their Unanimity in voting which some have reproached with a scoffing Term of a dead Weight it may be considered that Men of the best Judgments and Honesty mostly agree That Variety of Judgments proceeds oftner from Passion and Interest than from Difficulty of the matter debated It mostly grows either from want of Integrity or want of Judgment Agreement in Votes is an Argument therefore of true Judgment and unbiassed Integrity As it is also farther of a good Correspondence amongst themselves of previous Debates and more mature Deliberation Besides that it is no unusual thing in difficult and lubricous Affairs for many to compromise the matters to a few or to the Majority of their own Numbers and abide the Result of the major part But because this matter of Exception to the Integrity of my Lords the Bishops in the great Affair now in Agitation is argumentum ad hominem and gives Prejudice to the true Right and Merits of the Cause and is the most prevalent and hopeful Argument if not the only one that our Adversaries can rely upon For whatever the Causa justifica or Pretence be for the espousing of any Opinion or part of any Controversie if the Causa suasoria the Inducement and true moving cause thereto be strong and persuasive the slightest Reasons will be a pretence for Confidence and the smallest Color of Right shall prevail finally and in the last Issue especially where the Parties concerned must judge or by their Power can make their Will and determinate Resolves to obtain to the biggest purposes I will therefore farther add that we well know what a high Esteem their true Character doth deserve That they are intended the Light of the World the Salt of the Earth If the Salt hath lost its Savor
ought not to loose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to loose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the publick national Religion And it is strange that some men of the same Religion in profession can think that notwithstanding it makes no matter what is done to a man if he be Religious but if he be not so the least publick injuries and injustice may be resisted vindicated remedyed and by right defended by old Laws or new ones to be made for that purpose The Christian Religion was publisht when the whole world was Pagan and therefore it was submitted to such usage as the Governments would give it But when the Christian Faith had by miracles of patience declared it self to be of Heaven and of a Divine Original According to the Prophecies on that behalf it took possession of the Empire and Crowns and Scepters became submitted to the Cross and the Christians acquir'd a civil right of Protection and Immunity which they ought not they cannot relinquish and abandon no more than they can destroy themselves or suffer violence and cruelty to destroy the Innocent Such as thus perish shall never wear a Martyrs Crown but perish in the next world for perishing in this This will be interpretatively Crucifying Christ afresh after he is received up into Glory i. e. After his Religion is exalted into dignity and honor and civil Authority If the senate of Rome had been Christians they would never have given up the Government to a Pagan Augustus with a power to him and his Successors to make laws for extirpating the Christian Faith what is said of the Christian Religion and Paganism holds between the Reformed Religion and Popery If any man is so vain as to say that an unalterable course of Succession is established amongst us by Divine Right I say he is a man fitted to believe transubstantiation and the infallibility of the Pope he is deeply lapsed into fanaticism he dreams when he is awake and his dreams are dreams of phrensie There are somethings so false that they cannot be disproved as somethings are so evidently true that they cannot be proved This proposition hath no color to ground it self upon no medium to prove it no argument for it which is to be answered nor nothing more absurd than it self to reduce it to But if any shall add that this Doctrin is the Doctrin of the Reformation and adventure to tell the people so they are the most impudent falsaries that ever any age produced when there is scarce a Child but hath heard what was done said and maintained by the Clergy of England in the case of Mary Queen of Scots a Popish Successor in the earliest time of our Reformation here in England Our Age is blessed with a Clergy renownedly Learned and Prudent by the Providence of God and the piety of our Ancestors they possess good though not to be envyed Revenues and Honors It is scarce possible they should have many among them that can countenance a proposition so wickedly impious and sacrilegious that we cannot have new Laws but must loose the old at the pleasure of a Popish Successor against not their own interest and the Rights of the Church but against the Rights and Liberty of Religion it self For she is capable of Franchises and Immunitys which ought above all things to be most zealously asserted and defended by her Ministers can they themselves with their own hands ever pull down her Hedg and destroy her Defensatives and expose her helpless to the rage of her implacable Enemies and suspend all the Legal security she hath for her preservation upon the Life of our present King whom God long preserve If Kings be admitted to have a power to make Laws One Proclamation may establish the Popish Religion amongst us which the Papal Bulls so long as that See continues will never be able to effect Next to Religion her self the Revenues of the Church challenge their faithful care for they are at best but Usu-fructuary Trustees of her Endowments for the Succession which they will wretchedly betray to an Arbitrary Successor if they do not repress such Opinions that pretend to change the Government into an absolute jure Divinity Monarchy which will leave nothing jure divino but it self and the Popedom Kings for their so doing have the authority of Sir Robert Filmer who affirms in his Treatise called the Power of Kings Fol. 1. That the Laws Ordinances Letters Patents Priviledges and Grants of Princes have no force but during their Life if they be not ratified by the express consent or at least by the sufferance of the Prince following who had a knowledge thereof This is but the necessary consequence and result from the Doctrine of the absolute power of a Prince for in such Government the Concessions of a Predecessor can no more oblige the Successor than he can Govern when he is dead and the Successor must be absolute in his time as the Predecessors were in theirs But in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird this deceit is of so gross a thread that it cannot pass with the common people much less upon our Clergy but I will not dissemble what may be the true reason of the seduction of some young good natured Gentlemen of the Clergy They perswade themselves that if these principles and opinions of the Unlimited Power of Kings had been received the late Wars had been prevented Not rightly considering that if such opinions had never been broached or Universally rejected that War could never have ensued and we should together with peace have enjoyed our ancient Government which our Ancestors transmitted to us without that miserable inter-regnum I would not be perversely understood by any man as if I went about to justify our late War This is all I say that every Government once established will continue for ever if all the parts of it would unalterably consent to preserve it to which their narural Allegiance doth oblige them And never any Prince endeavored to change the Government but where part of the people were first willing or content to have it so Those false flatterers that go about to remove the boundaries of power and change the Government are the greatest enemies to the quiet and happy Reigns of the Kings and the peace and prosperity of Kingdoms And if they do adventure to call the ir fellow Subjects by any opprobrious names of disloyalty because they will not joyn with them in such change they are as absurdly impious and insolent as any Prince or State would be who should challenge another as free and absolute as himself for his Tributary and Vassal and traduce him for a troubler of the World because he would not Compose the Quarrel thus injuriously sought with the surrender of his Crown and dignity I desire these Gentlemen to consider that the happiness of a Nation is best
supported with Truth and Justice This new Doctrine is not true and whosoever entertains a belief of it is not only barely mistaken but will be lead by the mistake into the most mischievous impious and sacrilegious injustice and treachery It is very agreeable to a good man to embrace a proposition with an easie belief that offers the least seeming probability of a security against the miseries of War by all means to be avoided But this Doctrine of the Divinity of Kings is most dangerous to the Peace of Kingdoms for it is pregnant with Wars Besides that it will give bad Princes which sometime hereafter may be Born into the World for such there have been now and then power to make their Reigns worse then War and Plague and Famine to boot The Panick fear of a change of the Government that this Doctrine occasioned and the Divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the late War It is not without reason that together with these new principles revived since the Discovery of the Popish Plot we have a perpetual din and noise of Forty one Then that fatal War begun which ended in the destruction of the Prince and ruine of the Church and State The remembrance of it is the principal matter that stuffs our weekly Pamphlets and it is brought into common discourse and grown so trivial that it is mentioned and heard without abhorrence and regret And what Service this can be to His Majesty I do not understand much better it were that the memory of it were utterly extinct and abolished for ever except only in the Anniversary of that great Prince that so fell Then I say and then only is it fit to be remembred when we are on our Knees to God Almighty and in his presence affecting our selves with sorrow and remorse deprecating the like Judgments and bewailing the National sins that occasioned those For notwithstanding the Glories of that Great Prince his unhappy death and the admired Devotions of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The story of the Calamities of his people all his three Kingdoms involved in War during his Reign and the remembrance of them will be with some Men not very Loyal a stein and diminution to the Glories of the Royal Family In Princes their Calamities are reckoned amongst the abatements of their Honor and meer misfortunes are disgraces and have the same influence upon the minds of the common people as real faults and male administrations How then can this tend to the peace of the Nation or the Honor of the King what satisfaction is it to have our almost healed wounds thus perpetually rub'd and kept green Quis sua vulnera victus commemorare velit Why should any of our Nation insult over the miseries of his own and neighbour Kingdoms when he must be the most barbarous villain and have devested himself of all humanity that is not deeply empassioned at the remembranee of them If a Thuanus or a Philip de Comines were to pass a Judgment of the condition of our late times upon the consideration of our late Tragedies and the Preludium's to it in the Reigns of King James and the late King it would be formed and pronounced in these words of Tully upon another occasion Mihi quidem si proprium verum nomen vestri mali quaeratur fatalis quaedam calamitas incidisse videtur improvidas hominum mentes occupavisse ut nemo mirari debeat humana consilia divina necessitate esse superata But this is not all nec adhuc finitur Orestes We are affrighted by the weekly Pamphlets with the expectation of another Parliamentary War and this is the true reason of the mention of the late War that we may forgo our Parliaments for fear of another So it is written in our publick prints which are published under permission as if Parliaments are designed to be rendered hateful and to be feared as Plagues Famines or Inundations of the Sea But who is to begin it who designs this War the Pamphlateers or those that set them on work best know We had never heard of any such thing if the Mercenary writers of the Popish Faction had not told us of it as they do weekly and hitherto we cannot find any Colour for this affrightful Lye they are impudent so to talk of it as if they believed it and have brought some as weak men as they are false Knaves to a belief of it But to do them no wrong those may best know what is to come to pass who have the power of contriving and designing Qui pavet vanos metus veros fatetur The vilest Traitors cannot contrive a greater prejudice to the King and his Family than by advancing such a dismal thing into credit and belief for fears though but upon imaginary and false grounds produce real effects as well as they are in themselves really afflictive and that almost equally if of continuance to the evils feared Do these men speak like true Loyalists that are mentioning perpetually the Calamitous War in the time of our Kings Father and fright us with another now ensuing after those Universal Solemn and hearty Joys of the whole Nation for his Restauration after so many Millions of Money most dutifully issued out of the affections of his people from time to time at His Majesties Royal pleasure and nothing complain'd of but that they have not opportunities of issuing ten times more to the service of His Majesties Glory Nay they speak of this ensuing War as if the Royal Standard was already displayed and the Rebels had made their Musters which must certainly affect the Royal Family with the greatest danger If there were twenty Trajans derived from one stock that had Reigned in an uninterrupted Succession Two immediate Successors that should have their Reigns successively attended with civil Wars were enough to efface their own and the glories and merits of such Ancestors But base Caitiffs you can no more truly believe the last Parliaments designed upon His Majesties Crown and Dignity to make War and change the Government than you can believe that every Mothers Child of them before they came up to the last Parliaments set his House on fire and burnt his Wife and Children But these impudent Forgeries against the House of Commons are contrived to make the people afraid of Parliaments that this new model of Government in process of time when we have an enterprising Successor may take place for the service of the Popish Religion For upon the strength of Dr. B s performance who hath with great labor found out which it is hard for any man acquainted with our English History to be ignorant of that our Parliaments were not always such as now constituted this blessed change of our Government will never be atchieved the Nation will never be perswaded by any thing that he hath found out in his diligent research that the House of Commons is an over-grown Wen an unnatural Accrescency to the
compensation may be given to the Crown and some way will be found out for Augmentation of Vicaridges and reindowment of Churches that lost all in that unparrallel'd Sacriledge committed by the unsatiable Avarice of that haughty and luxurious Prince These designs employ the care of a great Number of our principal gentlemen to purge the sin and dishonor brought upon the Nation by that extraordinary King But if there were reason for any fear that the Nation could again incur the guilt of sacriledge What Warranty can this give to any of her Clergy to slack or abate the Zeal that is due for the purity of her Doctrine prudence of her discipline and her commendable decent and intelligible devotion Are they worthy to be named of her that are ready to dissert her out of fear of a remote possibility that she may not always have such largesses as she now bestows upon her Sons Will they prefer the gift to the Altar and declare all their godliness to be gain To suffer Popery for such a consideration to be induc'd upon her is a far worse and more detestable sacriledge than that they pretend to fear This is to make the Anathemata of the Temple to inserve to the dishonor of the Numen To desecrate the Altar for the sake of the gift and will by the just judgment of God I fear bring the abomination of desolation again into our holy places Let none of her Sons for the obtaining a dignity or a capacity for a double benefice betray her by neglecting her interest thinking with themselves that she will otherwise be supported for this their doings is no less than the sin of Judas who took money to betray our Lord imagining that he would by a Miracle rescue himself from the hands of those to whom he sold and betray'd him The honest of our Clergy will have little satisfaction when that day comes when they shall be reduc'd to Prayers and Tears if they are failing in any thing that they may lawfully do to prevent that miserable State Their Tears will be as water spilt upon the ground and their Prayers wiil never find acceptance with God nor be returned into their own bosom Disce Miser pigris non flecti numina votis Proesentemque adhibe dum facis ipse Deum But above all those fine men are not to pass unreproved who are preparing Pretences for their Revolt to the Roman Church They tell us that the Reformation is depraved and Popery it self is much amended since the Reformation that it is not so grosly superstitious tho her superstitions are still enough to stifle Religion nor so fabulous in her Legends she need make no new ones since she gives Authority still to the old nor so imposterous in her cheats for her Priests have not been hocus pocuses of late us'd so many tricks of Legerdemain and presented their puppey plays of moving squeaking images since the Reformation as before But they may know that the reason why we have not maintained the dignity of the Reformation intire is this for that Popery hath not been utterly extirpated from amongst us tho their frequent Treasons and their notorious seductious have deserved it By its continuance amongst us and the resorts of their Priests hither it hath created and fomented divisions amongst us and corrupted her Children from their obedience to her guidance and instructions but she her self is still the same she was the Reformation of the Church is still intire She hath made good her departure from the Church of Rome her Adversaries have not been able to convict her of any fault therein and by an easie victory she hath triumphed over all their oppositions And tho Popery appear not altogether so deformed by her Priests Artificial dress and the Representations they make of her to seduce us and entice us to come again under her yoke yet we know she hath more established her Tyranny by the Council of Trent and more corrupted her Morals by her modern Casuists since the Reformation and thereby hath rendred her self more detestable and for ever to be avoided But though it may be true that the Popish world is beholden to the Reformation and Popery it self is thereby amended in some overt things and reformed in those Countries that have not reformed from her For in the Light of the Reformation they have seen Light and have been ashamed of some of their works of darkness do not bring into present use some of their gross Impostures and some worse than Pagan superstitions Yet when this Light is extinguished it will be a most dismal and eternal Night upon the Christian world If we return to her our Ears will be bor'd and we shall be irredeemably enslaved The spirit of Popery if it returns and possesseth us again that hath been walking in the reformed Countries as in dry places seeking Rest and finding none and finds us thus swept and garnished will bring with it seven Devils more wicked than it self and our last estate will be worse than the first The Pride Cruelty and Avarice Domination and Luxury of their Priest-hood will be aggravated upon us and the minds of the Laity more lowly depressed by superstition and ignorance The Gospel of Cardinal Palavicini will be the Canon of the Christian Religion or it may be something worse for who can tell what will be the Religion that that Church will offer in process of time to the World under the Christian Name When the Pope by his pretended infallibility may make the Christian Religion what he please by interpreting adding altering or detracting with an uncontroulable Authority For us therefore to become Papists to return to the Church of Rome acknowledge the Popes infallibility there is no other way to become Papists is virtually to betray the Christian Faith to renounce our Allegiance to our Lord Christ to prefer the Bulls of a Prophane Pope to the Holy Oracles of God and the Revelation of Jesus God Blessed for ever With this Religion therefore we can never make an accommodation We may as well make a Covenant with Hell This as Dr. Jackson one of the glories of the Church of England in his Book call'd the Eternal Truth of Scriptures vehemently admonisheth us admits no terms of Parly for any possible Reconcilement whose following words to this purpose I shall here transcribe The natural separation of this Island from those Countries wherein this Doctrine is professe shall serve as an Everlasting Emblem of the Inhabitants divided Hearts at least in this point of Religion And let them O Lord be cut off speedily from amongst us and their posterity transported hence never to enjoy again the least good thing this Land affords Let no print of their Memory be extant so much as in a Tree or Stone within our Coast Or let thir Names be such as remain here after them be never mentioned or always to their Endless shame Who living here amongst us will not imprint these or the like wishes in their Hearts and daily mention them in their Prayers Littora Littoribus contraria fluctibus undas Imprecor arma armis pugnent ipsique Nepotes which he thus renders Let our forain Coasts joyn Battel in the Main Ere this fowl Blasphemy Great Britain ever stain Where never let it come but floating in a Flood Of our our Nephews their Childrens Blood I shall only subjoyn my hearty Desires and Prayers that we may all fear God and be zealous for his true Religion Honor the King and firmly adhere to the Government and in our several places steadily oppose and resist those Villains that are given to change And that by our Union we may defeat the crafty Designs of our cruel and implacable Enemies who if they can continue those Divisions they have made amongst us by their wicked Arts will certainly at length destroy us Who are bent upon our Destruction though they themselves perish with us and we cease to be a Nation and our Language be forgotten in a forain Captivity Sir Now I have given you my Answer to your Reasons to disswade me from publishing the Argument for the Bishops by representing how few of the Clergy can with Reason be thought guilty of Opinions so mischievous to the Church and State which you charge to have generally corrupted them and how easily and with little consideration they will be laid aside by them I will make no other Apology for the publishing this than that I have communicated these thoughts to no Man alive either of the Church of England or any other Demomination or consulted any Mans advice about it That I can serve the design of no party of men herein nor any particular design of my own I wish they can be serviceable in the least Degree to publick Good I have had them by me a great while and have consider'd them under the several Varieties of Temper that our Bodies are disposed to which induce different thoughts and various Apprehensions in most things under the several passions that the fluctuation of publick Affairs have occasioned under the Ebs and Flows of Hopes and Fears in reference to the state of the Kingdom for some length of time And finding them to have the same appearance and to give me the same satisfaction in all the several Postures and Views that I could take of them I assure my self I was sincere when I thought and that they result meerly from my Judgment such as it is uncorrupted that I am not perverted or biased by any secret passion or desire of any sort which many times lurk and steel upon us deceive us unawar's and undiscernedly abuse us Sir the Summ of my Apology is this that I know my self sincere of honest Intentions mov'd by nothing but a hearty love and affection to our King Religion and Country and for what any man shall think of me I am not Solicitous Yours T. H. FINIS