Church to another upon emergent Occasions which I think they will not deny if so who knows that the Parliament will transfer them to Lay-Lands They profess no such thing and I hope they will not but continue them for the maintenance of the Ministry I conceive the Bishops Answer would be That it is no Sacriledge to transfer Land from one Church to another but yet there may be much Rapine and Injustice the Will of the Dead may be violated and so Sin enough in the Action Men may be injuriously put from the Estates in which they have as good Title by the Law of the Land as these same Men that put them out To say then that the Church Lands may be totally given up because the Epistler hopes the Parliament will commit no Sacriledge is a pretty way of persuasion and may equally work on him to give up his own Lands because he may as well hope to be re-estated again in that the Parliament will do no Injustice And now Sir having thus observed your Commands yet one thing more I shall adventure to crave your Patience in and 't is to let you know That if this Epistler had been right in both his Conclusions That Episcopacy is not of Divine Right and that Sacriledge is no Sin yet if you cast your Eyes upon His Majesties Coronation Oath wherein He is so strictly sworn to defend both the Episcopal Order and the Church Lands and Possessions you would easily acknowledge That the King cannot yield to what this Letter aims at And though I must needs guess and that the Epistler knew well enough his Juratory Tye yet you will the less blame him for his concealment in this kind because he was not retain'd of the Churches Councel His Majesties Oath you may find published by Himself in an Answer to the Lords and Commons in Parliament 26 May. It runs thus Episcopus Sir Will You grant and keep and by Your Oath confirm unto the People of England the Lavs and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England Your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the Glorious King Edward Your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom and agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of this Realm REX I grant and promise to keep them Episcopus Sir Will You keep Peace and godly Agreement intirely according to Your Power both to God the Holy Church the Clergy and the People REX I will keep it Episcopus Sir Will You to Your Power couse Law Iustice and Discretion in Mercy and Truth to be exeruted in all Your Iudgments REX I will Episcopus Will You grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this Your Kingdom have And will You defend and uphold them to the Honour of God as much as in You lieth REX I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops reads this Admonition to the King before the People with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech You to pardon and grant and preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice And that You would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdom ought to be Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where He makes a Solemn Oath in the sight of all His People to observe the Promises and laying His Hand upon the Book saith The Things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of the Book In the first Clause it is plain He makes a promissory Oath to the whole People of England a word that includes both Nobility Clergy and Commons That He will keep and confirm their Laws and Customs And in the second He swears a particular Promise to the Clergy That He will keep the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the Glorious King Edward And again more plain in the fifth Clause he makes the like promissory Oath to the Bishops alone in behalf of themselves and their Churches That He will preserve and maintain to them all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice And that He will be their Protector and Defender Where since He swears Protection to the Bishops by Name 't is plain He swears to maintain their Orders For he that swears he will take care that Bishops be preserved in such and such Rights must needs swear to take care that Bishops shall first be for their Rights must needs suppose their Essence And where the King swears Defence it must needs be in a Royal Kingly way Tu defende Me Gladio Ego defendam Te Calamo is the well known Speech of a worthy Churchman to his Prince For sure where Kings swear defence to Bishops I do not think they swear to write Books in their behalf or to attempt to make it clear to their People That Episcopacy is Iure Divino But a King whose Propriety it is to bear the Sword swears to bear it in defence of Bishops For though it be against the very Principles of Christian Faith that Religion should be planted and reformed by Blood yet when Christian Kings have by Law setled this Religion and sworn defence of those Persons that should preach it he ought sure to bear his Sword to defend his Laws and to keep his Soul free from Perjury as well to them as the rest of his Subjects And as by Canonical Priviledge that belong to them and their Churches there must needs be implied the Honour of their several Orders as that Bishops should be above Presbyters c. together with all the due Rights and Jurisdictions And the words Due Law and Iustice cannot but import That His Majesty binds Himself to see that Justice be done to them and their Churches according to Law then in force when He took that Oath And the King swears Protection and Defence that Clause must needs reach not only to their Persons but to their Rights and Estates for He swears not only to Men but to Men in such a condition to Bishops of their Churches And whereas He swears to be their Protector and Defender to His Power in the Assistance of God those words To His Power may seem to acquit Him of all the rest if He fall into a condition wherein all Power is taken from Him But Sir I will prove that a mistake for one of the greatest Powers of the King of England Is His Negative in Parliament so that without Him no Law can be Enacted there since 't is only the Power Royal that can make a Law to be Law So So that if the King should pass a Statute to take away the Churches Lands He protects it not
A DISCOURSE OF EPISCOPACY AND SACRILEGE By way of LETTER Written in 1646. By Richard Steward D. D. Clerk of the Closet to King Charles the First Never before Printed LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Harrow next Chancery-Lane End in Fleet-street 1683. The PREFACE HE that will Reflect upon the last four Years will scarce believe a Prefatory Apology needful for Printing this Discourse If at present the Madness of the People be in some Measure stilled I think it not ill-timed for I have taken the Advantage of a lucid Interval and have offered them Reason when they have Recovered their Senses though not their Temper It is with them as it is with the restless Ocean Posito flatu inquietum Mare So now though the Popular Breath of a pretended Patriot does not blow hard upon the Nation yet the giddy Multitude remain unsettled and are in great danger of a Relaps into the like Lunacy This Letter was writ 't is true in 46 but it is exactly Calculated for 82. For of late we have only Transcribed those Times as if we intended to Copy out the Iniquities of our Fore-Fathers We are now full of Murmurings and Repinings the Natural Product of Ease and Plenty being almost tired with too long a Happiness as if we had deflowred our Felicity For though we cry out so loud of Grievances they are most like that of the Effeminate Sybarite who Seneca says Saepius questus est quod foliis Rosae duplicatis incubuisset We do not complain because we are really hurt but because we are too delicate I may boldly Challenge the tenderest Person of the Discontented Party to shew me one Princes Reign since the Conquest in which the People of England have sat under the shadow of their own Vines with less Disturbance But they that make the greatest noise are Men that have been rejected by the Government or else Persons that would be silenced by Preferment and would willingly lose their Tongues with a silver Quinzy There is a pleasant Story in the History of Great Britain of Gondemar the Spanish Embassador and a Lady very applicable to our Times In those Days there were some Ladies who pretended to be Wits had fair Nieces or Daughters which drew great Resort to their Houses and where Company meet the Discourse is commonly of the Times These Ladies Gondemar sweetned with Presents that were too sour in their Expressions He Lived at Ely-House in Holborn his Passage to the Court was ordinarily through Drury-Lane and that Lane and the Strand were the Places where most of the Gentry Lived and the Ladies as he went knowing his Times would not be wanting to appear at their Balconies or Windows to Present him their Civilities and he would watch for it and as he was carried in his Litter or bottomless Chair the easiest Seat for his Fistula he would strain himself as much as an Old Man could do to the Humblest Posture of Respect One day passing by the Lady Jacobs House in Drury-Lane she exposing her self for a Salutaion he was not wanting to her but she moved nothing but her Mouth gaping wide open upon him He wondred at the Ladys Incivility but thought it might be happily a Yawning fit took her at that time for trial whereof the next day he finds her in the same place and his Courtesies were again accosted with no better Expressions than an extended Mouth Whereupon he sent a Gentleman to her to let her know that the Ladies of England were more Gracious to him than to Encounter his Respects with such Affronts She Answered it was true he had Purchased some of their Favours at a dear Rate And she had a Mouth to be stopped as well as others Gondemar finding the Cause of the emotion of her Mouth sent her a Present which Cured her of that Distemper We find this Gaping-Sickness is broke out afresh in our Times but it is grown much worse for we are not only troubled with a silent extension of the Jaws but it is attended with horrid Yellings against Evil Counsellors when under that Appellation we would extort from our King his dearest Friends Neither has the King only been remotely Attacqued in his Ministers of State but the Mercenary Scriblers of the Age have Blasphemed him in their Prints What swarms of written Lampoons besides have crept abroad some writ by Wretches Cursed with a Wit too good since they employ their Talents only to commit an Ingenious Iniquity Alexander thought it too great at Priviledge for every Common Hand to Pourtraict Majesty and therefore established that Liberty by a Law to none but Famed Apelles Had he Lived in our Days when Princes sit to every drunken Poet who purposely deforms his Soveraign he had been impatient of so high an Indignity But now Treason is uttered under the strong Protection of a Rhime and he passes for the greatest Wit whose Talent 't is to fling the filthiest Dirt in the Face of Gods Anointed My Blood has oft grown warm at the repetition of a Modish Libel to see how it has tickled the Conceits of empty Fops whose Parts could reach no higher than to understand the fulsome Ribaldry For if there chanced to be any quaint Conceit that was but lost to their pert dulness and pass'd by with an Ignorant silence He that will Burlesque his Prince and suits Reproaches to the Genius of the Age must please by a gross and naked Obscenity For Men are come to that Unnatural Dyscrasie as to relish or digest nothing but Poyson and Keck and Vomit when you offer to their filthy Stomacks a wholsom and a cleanly Banquet The Strumpet-Muse of these our Modish Poets was bred up in Stews and Brothels and by her Language she betrays her Education They know not how to reach the Noble heights of a Civil well writ Poem but grow weary of unaccustomed Goodness if once they dare to undertake that Task for then their Parts are overcome being not befriended with those baser Helps of speaking those things that most Men blush to hear Unhappy is that State where Princes Faults are made the Pastime of Buffoons they are the common Calamities of the Nation and every Subject should become a Penitent when the King 's a Sinner for they provoke Heavens Vengeance by their Representative and often feel the Punishments that result from his Iniquities Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi But if this Consideration cannot restrain this Incontinency of Rhiming but their Debauched Fancies will still make Majesty the Subject of their Droll Publick Authority it is to be hoped will Correct these Poetical Traytors and if they cannot be taught better Religion they will be forced to better Manners I must confess I have ventured to Censure this as an Immortality and as an innovated Crime of latter Ages but I find in a Modern Author it is a Christian Liberty of great Antiquity for he has run it up so high that I was in great dread that
Grant it were so yet of all mankind are Kings only bound that they must not change their opinions or if perhaps they have done ill must they for their Repentance be far more reproached than Subjects for their Crimes The King would not have given way to Presbyterians and Independents to exercise Religion here in their own way as by his late Engagement when such a Toleration in the face of a divine Law must needs be sinful There is a great mistake in this Argument for to Tolerate doth not at all signify either to approve or commend Factions neither of which the King could at all do to gross Schismatiques without sin But it meerly implyes not to punish which Kings may forbear upon just reason of State as David forbare the punishing of Ioabs Murther I say in Person he forbare though he bequeathed it to his Son And we our selves in our English State have no punishment for all kind of lyars and yet their sin is against a flat Law divine and we should not be still vexed with so much Poetical-News had we Sanction made that might prohibit and punish them And now Sir I conceive you think that what the Londoner hath said in this point amounts to just nothing yet since you would needs enjoyn me to acquaint you with the state and grounds of the Tenent he is pleased to deride I shall readily obey you For truly Sir I have ever held you a Gentleman of a pious Inclination and am confident you will welcome Truth for his sake who is Truth though it should cross both your gain and peace Indeed this Tenent of Divine right of Episcopacy hath been long since and of late much years opposed as on the one side by the Pope and his party in the Council of Trent and after that by some warmer Iesuites so on the other side by Schismatiques and Sectaries that call themselves of the Reformation And I remember You and I were oft wont to say that commonly the truth our English Churches Tenents lay in the midst between those and did seem the more Christian because they were Crucified oft between two such kind of Thieves We affirm then Episcopacy to be of Divine Right i. e. of Divine Institution and that must needs imply a Divine Precept too for to what end are things instituted by God but that it is presumed it is our part to use them To what end should some men be appointed to teach and to govern but that it is clearly implyed there are other men too who ought both to hear and obey them He that erects a Bridge over a broad swelling Stream needs not you will think add any express command that men should not hazzard drowning by going into the water Thus when our Blessed Saviour made his Institution of that great Sacrament the Eucharist he gave command indeed concerning the Bread Do this in remembrance c. And concerning the Cup Drink ye all of this but he gave no express command to do both these together and yet his Institution hath been ever held to have the Nature of a Command and so for One Thousand Years the whole Christian Church did ever practise it save only in some few cases in which men supposed a kind of necessity I say then Episcopacy is of Divine Right Instituted by Christ in his Apostles who since they took upon them to Ordain and Govern Churches you need not doubt they received from their Master an Authority to do both for sure men will not think they will break their own Rules No man takes this upon him but he that was called of God as was Aaron Episcopacy then was Instituted in the Apostles who were Bishops and aliquid amplius and distinguished by Christ himself from the Seventy who were the Presbyters so the most antient Fathers generally Or if you will take St. Ieroms opinion who neither was a Bishop nor in his angry mood any good friend to that order they were Instituted by the Apostles who being Episcopi Amplius did in the latter time formalize and bound out that Power which we do still call Episcopacy and so these received opinions may well stand together for Episcopatus being in Apostulatu tanquam Consulatus in Dictatura as the latter and Subordinate Power is alwayes in the greater we may truly say it was instituted by Christ in his Apostles who had Episcopal Power and more and then formalized and bounded by the Apostles themselves in the Persons of Timothy Titus and others so that call the Episcopal Order either of Divine Right or Apostolical Institution and I shall not at all quarrel with it for Apostolical I hope will seem Divine enough to Christians I am sure Claudius Salmasius thinks so a sharp Enemy to the Episcopal Order If saith he it be from the Apostles it is of Divine Right Thus we find the Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to be given to those men alone for then that Power is properly Episcopal when one man alone may execute it So St. Paul to Timothy Lay hands c. in the singular Number Against an Elder receive not an accusation under two or three witnesses 1 Tim. 5. 19. And then the Text is plain he and he alone might do it So to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou and thou alone shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and Ordain Elders in every City Where plainly these two Powers are given to one Man of Government and Ordination so St. Iohn to the Seven Churches of Asia Rev. 14. where he presumes all the Governing Power to reside in the Angels of those Churches and in them alone as all the Antients understand it And hence it is plain that though we should yield that the Apostles only did institute Bishops Yet in this Revelation Christ himself immediately in his own Person and the Holy Spirit withall did both Approve and Confirm them And the Bishops of those Sees are called Angels by St. Iohn who was born a Iew because in Palestine their Chief Priests were there called their Angels and so this Appellation was taken up by the Apostle in that place because those were the Chief of those Churches This truth appears not only from cleare Texts but from the Universal Consent and Practise of more than One thousand five hundred Years space of all the Christian Churches So that neither St. Ierom nor any other Ancient did either hold Orders lawfully given which were not given by a Bishop nor any Church-Jurisdiction to be lawfully Administred which was not either done by their hands or at least by their Deputation I know there are men lately risen up especially in the last Century who have collected and spread abroad far other Conclusions and that from the Authority of Text it self But as it is a Maxime in Humane Laws Consuetudo optima legum interpres So no rational man but will easily yield it as well holds in Lawes Divine For I would gladly