the Ark c. 1 Chron. 13. which Officers because they represented the People it is said the People came together so the People rescued Jonathan whom Saul had appointed to die 1 Sam. 14.45 by which it appears that an Appeal did lie from the King to the People So the Kingdom of Israel was rent from Rehoboam by the People by which it appears that the Synedrium of Seventy one at Jerusalem had the Authority that as Kings did judge particular Persons so these had the Power to judge Kings The Hogen-Mogen words of Sovereign and Supreme are but verba solennia words of Course and Complemental but confer no Power what Great and Sovereign Powers Kings by Right have are given and limited by Laws of common Consent and not Absolute what other Laws of Sovereignty there are of Right that belong to them is past all Understanding absolute Sovereignty in Kings hath no warrant beyond any Divine Law that belongs only to God who is Lord of all the Kingdoms of the Earth And though Appeals to all the People may be Nonsence yet it is very good Sense to Appeal to their Epitomy their Representatives their Ephori and Tribunes to the Laws and to the Legislators which are the Supreme and Sovereign Power of the Nation and have an equal share in making our Laws The Commons House 4. Car. 1628 having prepared a Petition to present to his Majesty sent it to the Lords for their concurrence who returned it adding these words viz. With due regard to leave intire the Sovereign Power wherewith your Majesty is intrusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People Which terms of Sovereign Power were so distasteful to the Commons as looking being free from any condition and that they were no part of the Law no Parliamentary words that they weakned Magna Charta and all our Statutes that by intendment and implication they might give a Sovereign Power above all those Laws c. and therefore would by no means admit thereof tho' strongly contested for by the Lords Rush 568. These and such like were the things that made the Parliament in 1641 Remonstrate to his Majesty That the most Publick and Solemn Sermons before his Majesty were either to advance Prerogative above Law or decry the Property of the Subject and thereby lay a foundation of difference between the King and his People or else Invectives to make those odious who sought to maintain the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom and to have them weeded out of all Commissions or other Imployments of Power in the Government that the Bishops and others of the Clergy did by their Suspensions Excommunications Deprivations and Degradations of divers painful learned and pious Ministers oppress his Majesty's Subjects that the High Commission Court and the Courts of the Bishops did exceed in sharpness and severity little less than the Romish Inquisition that those were fittest for Ecclesiastical Preferments and soonest obtained them who were most virulent against Godliness and Honesty and used means to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion and to increase and maintain ignorance looseness and prophaness in the People that the Archbishops and other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation by a new Commission and turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard of Presumption they made Canons that contained in them many matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Altar-worship and those other Superstitions and Innovations which they formerly introduced without warrant of Law They imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesty's Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintaining their own Tyranny and laid a great Tax upon the Clergy for supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very affectionate to the War with Scotland which was the beginning of all our future mischief and by themselves stiled Bellum Episcopale all their pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with several censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the well affected People of the Kingdom and left an easie passage to their own design of Reconciliation with Rome Remonstr Decemb. 15. 1641. This is no new way of Remonstrating against such ill Church of England Men designing to enslave a free Kingdom by their Doctrines For in the Parliament 1625 the House of Commons did Article against Mr. Ric. Montague that he might be punished and his Book burnt for his impious and profane scoffing at Preaching Meditations and Conferrences which in plain English is Conventickling Pulpits Lectures Bible and all shew of Religion and for casting the odious name of Puritans on Orthodox Men. Rushworth 215. And in the Parliament 1628 the Commons did Remonstrate against Dr. Neal Bishop of Winton and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppose both those which is the diligent Teaching and Instructing in the true Knowledge and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers how conformable soever and Peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage they be yet the preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious Courses and Punishments and hardly permitted to Lecture Rushworth 215 633 634. What were they also in their Opinion but high and mighty Church of England Men against whom the Parliament 4 Car. 1628. did Declare and Remonstrate That with a wicked and malicious intention to seduce and misguide the Conscience of the Kings most Excellent Majesty touching the observation of the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom and of the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects to incense his Royal Displeasure against his good Subjects so refusing to scandalize subvert and impeach the good Laws and Government of this Realm and the Authority of the High Court of Parliament to Alienate his Royal Heart from his People and to cause Jealousies Sedition and Division in the Kingdom who did Teach that his Majesty is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects And that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes and other Aids upon the People without common consent in Parliament doth so far bind the Consciences of Subjects that they cannot refuse the same without peril of Eternal Damnation that those who refused the Loan did therein offend against the Law of God against his Majesty's Supreme Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures that Authority of Parliament
fraudulenter occultar nihil intentatum praetermittit 442. About the Year 1558 there being a Custom among the People of Paris in the Summer Evenings to go out of the Suburbs of St. German in great Multitudes to take the Fresco and to Solace themselves with divers kinds of Sports those of the new Religion instead of doing so began to sing the Psalms of David in French Verses the Multitude first laughed at the Novelty then leaving the Sports joyned themselves unto the Singers And the number of those who came to that place began to increase more than usually whereupon the Pope's Nuntio told the King of this Novelty as of a thing pernicious and dangerous because the Ministeries of Religion usually Celebrated in the Church in the Latin Tongue by Religious Men only were put into the Mouths of the common People in the Vulgar Language which was an invention of the Lutherans telling him that if he did not resist the beginnings in a short time all Paris would be Lutherans the King gave order that the principal Authors should be proceeded against wherein they went not very far having found Anthony King of Navar and his Wife in that Number but for hereafter it was forbid upon pain of Death Trent 410. Thus you see how both the Hugonots and Papists behaved themselves beyond Sea and that the King and Queen of Navar were not ashamed to Conventicle openly nor of Christ nor of his Words lest Christ should be ashamed of them when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the Holy Angels Luke 9.26 not ashamed to search the Scriptures in their own Language because commanded and because in them is eternal life John 5.39 This Nation and Government did presume at least that such solemn Rebukes such severe Reprimands as the Preachers of such Doctrines received from the whole Kingdom represented in Parliament by King Lords and Commons Clergy and Layety should have forewarned and discouraged all the succeeding Clergy for ever Preaching such destructive Doctrines again of which we now see and feel the smart and sad effects which our prudent Predecessors did foresee and would have prevented by their timely Rebukes and Precautions but they have not prevailed In the Church of Ephesus there were those that boasted themselves to be Apostles but being tried by the Angel of that Church were found Lyars Is it not so with us Have we not many that boast themselves to be the only true Church of England Men that if tried by our Angels would be found but Mungrils nay Lyars making Kings glad with their Wickedness and Princes with their Lyes Hos 7.3 But the Works and Labour and Patience of our true Church of England Men true Nathaniels indeed cannot bear such Church of England Men as are so evil as to dare to Preach and Print such enslaving Doctrines Nay now at this very Day it s a shame to tell how such false Prophets use the Church of the Great God by making Her a very Tool and Slave to serve their own turns and to bring their own ends about not caring what havock they make of the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel Mr. Clifford on Psalm 51.4 pulpits That Kings as such are above the Law have Power to Dispense with the Law at their Pleasure and alter Religion at Pleasure pag. 7. Mr. J. T in his Sermon on Eccles 10.20 declares That Resistance in all Cases and in all its Degrees and Circumstances absolutely unlawful because it supposes an Appeal of the People from the King to themselves and makes them Judges of their own Causes for to place Sovereignty and the last Appeal in all the People together is perfect nonsense because all the People will never be of one mind while the World stands pag. 8.9 and I will add nor all the Clergy And yet he is so ingenious as to confess That the Interest of a Nation is to be preferred before the Interest or Welfare of one Man according to John 11.49 50 51. It is expedient for us that one man dye for the People and that the whole Nation perish not So that we have a sure word of Prophesie that it is the Testimony of God himself That a greater Interest of Mankind is to be preferred before a lesser pag. 20 21. As perfect nonsense as this Priest is pleased to make Appeals unto the People to be yet so wise were the Roman State above Fifty Years before Christ's time and so careful of their own Happiness Rights and Interests that they thought it even then a most prudent Law And therefore Publius Valerius caused it to be an Establish't Law That Appeals should be allowed from any Magistrate to the People Livy lib. 3. n. 8. And that no Man should offer to make any Magistrate without liberty of Appeal and if he did it should be lawful to kill him Ibid. lib. 3. n. 34. For which prudent Law they honored him by adding Publicola to his other name What the Power of the First Kings were appears for that Ephron Chief Prince of the Children of Heth would not grant Abraham the possession of a Sepulchre in the Land of the Children of Heth but in the presence and with the approbation of the Children of Heth before all that went in at the gate of his City Gen. 23. Nor would Hamor Prince of the Country make a League with Jacob but by the consent of all that went out of the gate of his City Gen. 34. because all the great Concerns of the Governed was referred unto the Common Council and consent of the People which in those Empires was easily done which commonly was circumscribed within one or few Cities But when Kings began to enlarge their Territorios so that all the People could not Assemble in one Place without danger of confusion there were ordinarily instituted Tribunes of the People or Officers of the Kingdom or of the Governed to assist and defend the Rights and Priviledges of the People granted to them by the Law of God and Nature and upon great Exigences great Assemblies of the Sages of the Governed were assembled as an Epitome of the Universal People were extraordinarily congregated to consider and consult thereof In the Israelitish Kingdom which by consent and judgment of all Politick Writers was the best constituted Government of the World was the same order observed the King had his particular Officers and the Kingdom theirs Seventy one Elders their Captains chosen out of every Tribe which both in War and Peace should take care of the whole Magistrates also in singulis Municipiis that as they were to take care of the whole so the several Officers were to take care of their particular Cities and Charges over which they were set For David called all the Congregation when he desired to Invest Solomon in his Kingdom when he had restored the Policy of that Nation to have it examined and approved 1 Chron. 19. So when David was to fetch back
excellent Spirit that ought to be in true Gospel Preachers For in the end such Pulpiteers do but foam out their own Shame daring in that Sacred Place to do more than Michael the Arch-Angel who contending with the Devil himself durst not bring a railing accusation against him But I hope their Eyes are now inlightned by seeing that destructive Doctrine bafled by a Miriad of Priests and Pulpits which the former Government would not bear and yet the true Doctrine of Passive Obedience with its just Limits and Qualifications remains as true and as firm in the Church of England as ever These Priests are not alone in vilely Characterizing our Conventicles for if you consult our Sermons of late Years especially those Preached on certain Solemn Days as those on the 30th of January on the 9th of Sept. 1683 and the like you will find them generally be-spattering our Conventicles either in broad glances or plain terms as tho' it were the business of Christianity to revile and persecute Men for their Consciences differing from them in small things and those indeterminate by plain places of Scriptures Whether the Characters that these Men and those of the same quorum or the Character that I have given of them be the truest I appeal to God and the whole Nation however I have this for my Justification or at least for Extenuation viz. the several Addresses of several Parliaments to the King on their behalf and against their Persecutors And if I am in an Error it is an Error on the Right-hand to judge them Pious that seem so tho' in truth they were not so I am no discerner of Hearts God only knows them but Charity believeth all things hopeth all things and covereth a multitude of faults This good Opinion of mine of them is not without the Testimony of many of their grave sober pious peaceable learned and understanding Auditors averring the same and that they constantly pray as fervently and heartily for the King Church and State as any Conformist Church of England Priests And which is yet more demonstrable their Sermons and Works in Print manifest the same to all the World as the Works of Dr. Bates Dr. Owen Tho. Godwin R. Baxter R. Allen and a hundred more which declare to all the World their Sentiments their Learning and their Piety wherein they are as Orthodox as other true Church of England Men are tho' neither one nor the other are Infallible And must we after such Testimonies and Demonstration of their Abilities their Soundness of Doctrine their Labours and Endeavours for Holy Living and Conversation esteem them as Monsters of Priests revile them take up evil Reports against them and load them with the guilt of all the late horrid Rebellious Plots the Assosiation Fire at New Market the Rye and that of the late Duke of Monmouth without infallible Proof and Demonstration Sure sure this ought not to be What if some few of many hundreds have been so phanatick so mad to ingage in some or all of these Rebellions must all the rest be esteemed guilty therefore Sure this can be no Righteous Judgment Were all the Eleven Apostles Traitors because Judas was Happily if a fair computation could be made there would be found guilty of some or of all these Rebellions many more Atheistical Debauchees and ill-lived Persons than Conventiclers or Non-conformists Mr. J. T. himself for all his hard Speeches against them is not so uncharitable as to believe but that most of the Dissenters knew nothing of the Duke of Monmouth 's Design yet he is certain that if it had taken effect they would all have sided with the Conspirators against the Laws the Monarchy and the Church of England pag. 29. Though the Hearts of Men are deceitful above all things yet it seems this Church of England Priest knows them all I know the Opinion that the high Church of England Men have of the Non-conformists in general is that of Villanies the well-meaning Zealots it 's well known whom they mean thereby are the most dangerous So the Ecclesiastical Politician If we reflect on the severe Reprimands and Censures laid upon Sibthorp and Manwaring for their destructive Principles and Doctrines of Government and the Remonstrances of a Kingdom reprefented in a Parliament against those that discountenanced good and Pious Ministers of the Gospel and their Assembling one would think should for ever have deterred all future Ages from entertaining any such like Principles again and from discouraging and discountenancing Assemblies meeting only to serve God and to save their own Souls But I see Hogen-Mogen Church of England Men will be so still maugre all the Judgments Censures and Punishments that a whole Kingdom can inflict upon them If our Conventicles are such as are represented Factious Rebellious Schismatical why do not our Tory Priests assemble themselves and teach and practise better things But to be like Dogs in the Manger neither eat Hay nor let the Horses eat neither assemble themselves nor suffer others that would is no Character of a good Shepherd As it cannot be denied that God requires his Worship to be Publick and Celebrated in great Congregations in the beauty of Holiness as in Temples Altars Forms of Service Set times c. so it cannot be denied that God requires the inward and private Devotions both in Heart Closet and Houses and that all Assemblings of Christians for Mutual and Reciprecal help of Piety and Devotion wheresoever and by whomsoever Celebrated ought to be permitted without exception or stint It is a shame to publish it but it is a sad truth that the Pride and Haughtiness of the Clergy in all Ages and the Villanous Doctrines they teach concerning Kingly Powers and their own have abused and seduced and misguided Kings into all Misgovernments viz. That Kings have an Arbitrary Power from above to direct what Laws and to take what Tribute they please that they have Power to bind the Consciences of their Subjects to the Religion they think best that they are unaccountable to any on Earth and that all private Consciences must be subject to the publick Conscience without which they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority These and worse if worse may be are the frequent Documents of our high Church of England Mens Pulpits and Prints which are destructive to all Governments and human Societies So that upon the whole matter it is no matter what Religion or what Government God hath established but what Kings and Princes command These Tory Church of England Men have no consideration how easily uncontrolable Authority degenerates into Tyranny till the Poor have scarse a hole to hide their Heads in or a rag to cloath their naked Backs or a morsel of Bread to fill their hungry Bowels Masterless Power on Earth is apt to make even Kings to forget their King and Judge in Heaven as if Providence slept because Judgment is not speedily executed Consider it all yet that forget
offend in Doctrine than in Discipline Sure much Learning or Haughty Pride and Ambition Self-ends and Interest hath made these Men mad And so fulfilled the Prophecy of Hosea 9.7 The Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual man mad Sure God hath turned these wise Ecclesiastical Polititians backwards and made their knowledge foollish Isai 44.25 However I will say thus much to them That Liberty of Conscience is undeniably the right of every true Believer viz. to judge of such things as belong chiefly to the knowledge and service of God whether they are above the reach and light of Nature and therefore liable to be variously understood by human Reason or enjoyned or forbidden by Divine Precept and to follow that full perswasion whereby every one is assured that his Belief and Practice as far as he is able to apprehend is according to the Will of God and his Holy Spirit within him which undoubtedly we ought to follow much rather than any publick Conscience or Law of Man Magistrate or not Magistrate as both the Word of God bids us and the very dictate of Reason tells us Acts 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye And we have no other outward Divine Rule to judge by than the Scriptures nor no other within us but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantably only unto our selves which commands us to search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so Acts 17.11 and gives us Reason also let every man prove his own not his Magistrates work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another tho' publick Conscience for every man shall bear his own burden Gal. 6.4 5. Is it not false Doctrine in the Papists to teach that Believers only as the Church believes are discharged in God's Account Is it not the general consent of sound Protestants that neither Traditions Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the final Judge or Rule in matrers of Religion and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself For if the Church be not sufficient to be implicitly and blindly believed as certain it is not what can there else be named of more Authority than the Church but the Conscience than which God only is greater 1 John 3.20 But if any shall pretend that the Scripture judges to his Conscience for other Men as this proud and saucy Politician doth he makes himself greater than the Church Scripture or Consciences of other Men a presumption too high for any mortal since every true Christian able to give a reason of his Faith hath the word of God before him the promised holy Spirit and the mind of Christ within him 1 Cor. 2.16 A much better and safer guide of Conscience than this Polititian in publick Conscience who in this is no less a Pope than the Pope at Rome The Spiritual man judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2.15 And is not the Pope deservedly esteemed Antichristian for appropriating to himself such Infallibity over both Conscience and Scripture Whether tends all this but to make themselves to have Dominion over our Faith and Lords over God's Heritage which the Aposties utterly disclaimed and accounted themselves only helpers of cur joy and to be feeders of the flock not by constraint but willingly 1 Pet. 5.2 3. 2 Cor. 1.24 If Bishop Saunderson can judge The Word of God doth expresly forbid us to subject our Consciences to the Judgment of any other or to usurp Dominion over the Consciences of any other Saunderson's 10 Lectures 1660. v. 3. Lect. 30. § p. 103. None but God alone hath Power to impose a Law upon the Conscience of any Man to which it ought to be subjected as obliging by it self For there is but one Law-giver who can both save and destroy James 4.12 not one picked out amongst many not one above many but one exclusively i. e. one and but one onely who art thou that dost judge another It doth not belong to thee to thrust thy sawcy Sickle into the Harvest of another Man much less to fling thy self into the Throne of Almighty God to him it belongeth alone to judge of the Consciences of Men to whom alone it doth belong to impose Laws on the Consciences of men which none can do but God alone Conscientiis Dominari velle est Arcem Coeli invadere said Maximilian the first To exercise a Domination over Consciences is to invade the Power of Heaven He is a plunderer of the Glory of God and an usurper of that Tower that is due unto him that claims a right to the Consciences of Men or practise an usurpation over them v. Lect. 4. § 9 10 11. He tells us moreover That if Princes will be Resolute and if they will Govern so they must be they may easily make the most stubborn Consciences to bend to their Resolutions pag. 271. Princes must be sure to bind on at first their Ecclesiastical Laws with the straitest knot and afterwards keep them in force by the severity of their execution pag. 221. So easie is it for Men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the World in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater Numbers than Villanies pag. 223. Brave Doctrines for a Tory Church of England Man to Preach impuné Sure this Anonimus Ecclesiastical Polititian would make a brave Mufty or Inquisitor General or a Compito with a Dog-whip in his Hand which would affright worse than the Inquisition and make many much honester Men than himself know sorrow in abundance These and many more Positions of the same complexion are the Farci of that Pestilent Book which well becomes a thorough-paced Church of England Priest such Positions and Doctrines brings contempt on such of the Clergy as being a reproach to any Church and which the Church of England doth not Teach and which are so vile that they much more deserve Fire and Faggot than those burnt in Oxford July 1683. but instead thereof he was made a Bishop Whether tends all this treacherous dealings with the People of God Whilst like the Ministers of Jeroboam ye lay such Snares in Mispah and spread such Nets upon Tabor teaching and perswading Kings to use Laws Menaces and Subtilties to force and confine the People to Regal and State Religion be it true or false or at least to force them to dissemble or to walk in a neutrality or indifferency between God and Baal or else to make the Souls of Men and God's Glory subordinate to the Lusts and Risings of Kings and Priests who Balaam-like for the hope of Honour or Preferments or like Micha's Levite for a little better reward crouch and cringe and
King James the Parliament sitting Dr. Harsenet Bishop of Chichester Preached a Sermon at Whitehall upon Mark 12.17 Give unto Caesar c. wherein he insisted that Goods and Money were Caesars and therefore they were not to be denied unto him at which the whole Parliament stormed and took great Offence which that wise and peaceable Prince endeavoured to calm and qualifie by moderate Exposition thereof to the Lords and Commons for that purpose Assembled in the Banquetting-House viz. That the Doctor meant it according to the Laws and Customs of the Country wherein they did live This did mollifie but not satisfie and therefore the Sermon was burnt to satisfie their Indignation against such vile and destructive Doctrines for which he was well rewarded by being translated to Norwich Rush 177. then to York a shrewd sign that such Doctrines did please the Court tho' not the Parliament Likewise Mr. Ric. Montague who 21 Jac. printed an Answer to the late Gag of Protestants and about 22 Jac. printed another Book Entituled A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints 1 Car. 1. he printed another Entituled An Appeal to Caesar which Books contained so many Erronious and false Doctrines contrary to the very Articles agreed on in the Convocation held at London 1562. that they disobliged the whole Nation so much that the Commons House exhibited Articles against him 1 Car. and prayed that he might be punished This Cause began 21 Jac. when he had published a former Book called A new Gag for an old Goose and was then questioned in Parliament and committed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and ended in an Admonition only given to Montague by the Archbishop who disliked that Book and thought to suppress it but could not It was printed and dedicated to the King and his Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Oxford Rochester and St. Davids all mighty Church of England Men not Puritans whereby they espoused it as their common Cause and Concern and Montague is made his Majesties Chaplain yet his Majesty was so just and prudent as to leave him to the Parliament which did not please the Bishops and the Commons House did exhibit Articles against him and prayed his Book might be burnt and himself punished but the Bishops prevailed so much with the King on their own behalf that he was made first Bishop of Chichester and then Bishop of Norwich and his Book only called in by Proclamation yet so as all Answers thereunto by Preaching or Writing were forbidden For the several Answers made by Dr. Featly Dr. Gâ—ad in their Parallels by Mr. Burton Ward Yates Wetton Rouse in a Book called King James's Religion were all suppressed and some of the Printers questioned in the High Commission and Montague had a Royal Pardon which was inquired into 4 Car. by the Commons House In the same Parliament a Petition was exhibited from some Booksellers and Printers in London complaining of the restraint of Books written against Popery and the contrary allowed of by the only means of Dr. Land Bishop of London and divers of the Printers and Booksellers were sent for by Pursevants for Printing Books against Popery and the Licensing is only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains Ph. de Comines complained That tho' the King of France had a wise Council yet they rid all upon one Horse And must we be Priest-ridden by a Bishop and his Chaplains Upon which Mr. Selden declared That there was no Law to prevent Printing of any Books only a Decree in Star-Chamber and he advised that a Law might be made concerning Printing else one may be Fined Imprisoned prisoned and his Goods taken from him by vertue of such Decrees which is a great invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject About the same time also came out Cosins his Book of Seven Sacraments containing strange things against whom the Commons House exhibit 21 Articles whereof one was for calling some Gentlewomen Whores and Jades and Pagans and for tearing some of their Clothes when they were in their Seats in the Church because they would not bow to the Altar nor at the Name of Jesus c. Nalson 789. About this time the Clergy had wrought themselves with great Power and Interest at Court which encouraged the Inferior Clergy to great boldness and to pulpit any thing that might please as the very Road of Preferment Teach for Hire and Divine for Money Another that did appear bare faced and without any Vizard was one Sybthorp Vicar of Brackley scarce Batchellor of Art who preached Feb. 22. 1626. at Lent Assizes at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 Which Sermon called Apostolical Obedience tho' full fraught with many Theses destructive to all human Society yet had such countenance from the Court-Clergy that they procured his Majesty to send to the Archbishop of Canterbury to License it for the Press for the better grace of the business which his Majesty did feveral times by Mr. William Murrey but the Archbishop like a true Nathaniel refused to give it an Imprimatur but not without great Reasons humbly submitted to his Majesty for his so doing It was afterwards carried to Dr. Worrall Chaplain to the then Bishop of London who having hand over head Licens'd it afterward took advice of Councel who told him That if all in that Sermon were true there was no meum tuum left to Subjects and that he might be called to an Account for it and hanged Whereupon he blotted out his Name again and the Book was afterward Licens'd by Laud then Bishop of London who gave it a great and stately Allowance and caused it to be dedicated to the King and published upon his Majesties Commission for the Raising of Money by the way of Loan which was by such Royal Authority to give greater countenance thereto It taught that the King's Duty is to direct and make Laws that nothing may excuse from Active Obedience but what is against the Law of God or Nature or Impossible That all Antiquity was absolutely for Absolute Obedience in all Civil and Temporal Things Laud also allowed the Book called The Seven Sacraments with all its Errors which were afterwards expunged Another bold faced Priest that did appear about the same time was Dr. Manwaring who promoted the same Design in two Sermons preached before the King and Court at Wintehall called Religion and Allegiance in which he declared That the King was not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberty but that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without common consent in Parliament doth oblige the Subjects Conscience upon pain of Eternal Domnation that they who refused to pay this Loan offended against the Law of God and the Kings Supreme Authority and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion and that the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for Raising the of Aids and Subsidies c. for which he was impeached
is not necessary for the Raising of Aids and Subsidies Rush 602. An. 1628. That there was a general fear of secret Working and Combination to introduce into this Kingdom Innovation and change of our pure Religion by Persons much favoured and advanced not wanting Friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Dr. Neal Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their Opinions that way It being generally held to be the High-way to Preferment and Promotion in the Church many Scholars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors that their Books and Opinions are suffered to be printed and published and others written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindered and prohibited And we find that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppress Popery which is the diligent Teaching and Instruction of the People in the true Knowledg and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage and yet their Preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits hardly permitted to Lecture 602 632 634. 1628. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Quae peperit saepè scelerata atque impia facta 195. And our high and mighty Church of England Men did in our memories so superciliously manage their own haughty Resolutions that they necessitated the Parliament to take away their High Commission and their Parliamentary Priviledge forbidding them to meddle with any Temporal Affairs And I do not find that they are grown much more prudent yet for that they manage themselves in this intricate juncture of time at such a rate that all Mens Mouths are ready and stand half cockt against them and I fear may in time provoke the Parliament to do the like or more again they monopolizing all Government over others of themselves which is far from being Apostolical for in the Apostles times and divers Ages after all the People being under the inspection of one Bishop vulgarly the the Pastor of a Parish were wont to meet together not only for Worship but other Church Administrations all publick Acts passed at the Assemblies of the whole People they were consulted with their concurrence was thought necessary and their presence required that nothing might pass without their Cognizance Satisfaction and Consent This was observed not only in Election of Bishops Priests and Officers but in Ordination and Censures in Admission of Members and Reconciling of Penitents and in Debates and Consultations about other Emergencies but not one plain word in Scripture that one Apostle was subject to another nor one gathered Church subject to another or that any Man had lawful Authority to forbid Assembling of the Brethren together whether with or without a Priest In summ when Priest-craft had enlarged their Territories beyond their ancient Bounds which was but one Parish or a select Number scarce exceeding 150 or 200 unto many whereby they became Cardinals and Diocesans c. They thereby cajoled the People of their undoubted Rights and Priviledges and necessarily introduced an essential change of the True and Primitive Government of the Church set up by Christ and set up one to fit their own turn and ends In the very next Ages succeeding the Apostles and so for 400 Years and more one Parish or single Congregation was thought sufficient for one Bishop or Pastor so that as Christians multiplied so separate Congregations Bishops or Pastors so that there were as many Pastors or Bishops as there were several Congregations or Churches in a Province and not one Church or Congregation subject to the Laws Usages or Ordinances of any other No Churches gathered by St. Paul were subject to those gathered by St. Peter nor è contra of them or of any other of the Apostles or of any Churches gathered by their Successors Hence came several and diversity of Rites and Usages in the Ancient Churches without being accounted Schismaticks Separatists Non-cons or Phanaticks and with perfect Love Unity and Uniformity because they held the same Faith and Doctrine And 150 or 200 Souls was thought as many as one Bishop or one Pastor could take charge and give a good account of So that a single Congregation or gathered Church was esteemed a competent Charge for an Episcopal Pastor for the Episcopal Churches were daily multiplied and each Church had Power to govern and order it self and so followed such orders as every Church or gathered Congregation thought fit without being obliged to conform to those of any other Church or Congregation they had no Rule or Order in things of this nature requiring observance or did they regard such Uniformity as later Ages have been fond of to the prejudice of the Unity and Peace of the Church even to the persecuting of Righteous Men in our Kingdoms none of those Churches used the same Prayers all of them had not the same Creeds they had not the same Rites in Baptism or the Lord's Supper nor the same way in Confirming Marrying or Burying they used not the same mode either in reading the Scriptures or Singing they observed not the same methods in admitting Members or preparing them for the Communion neither proceeding to Censures or reconciling Penitents they differed also in their Habits and Postures they varied in their Fasts both for time and manner and observed not the same Festivals This was the Uniformity of the more Pure and Primitive times and no Persecution ensued no Appeals allowed from one Bishop or one Congregation to another So that the Uniformity the latter Ages have been so fond of is a down-right Novelty and Innovation which hath broken the Bond of Charity and Unity and instead thereof hath brought in Animosities Divisions and Separations nay Persecutions on God's Holy People very unworthy and unbeseeming Christian Pastors to make such actings more their business than the suppressings of Sin and promoting of real and strict Holiness All this and much more is so plain in ancient Writers that none but Novices and Chits in Story can be ignorant hereof If you will believe one of the greatest Prelates of the West and at no less than 600 Years distance from Christ In una fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo saith Gregory the first where there is one Faith it s no harm to the Church if there be diversity of usages i. e. the Church hath no harm for want of Uniformity And before him Innocent the first who lived about the Second Century in his Epist ad Decen writes that diversè in diversis locis vel Ecclesiis obtineri aut celebrari videntur To the Justification whereof and to the constant Practice thereof even from the Days of the Apostles unto
God and remember that the Redeemer of the oppressed is mighty and never more ready to avenge the Cause of the innocent and oppressed than when it is most neglected by his Vice-gerents Ahab and Jezabel exercised in Israel Authority without controul Who should punish the oppression of Naboth the Lord takes the Cause into his own Hand and causeth Dogs to lick hhis Blood in the very place where they licked the innocent Blood of Naboth and the Dogs did eat the Flesh of Jezabel that cursed Woman by the wall of Jezreel so there is Blood for Blood and an utter extinction of Ahab's posterity 1 Kings 21. lege Taleonis M. B. in his Sermon before his Majesty on the 2 Pet. 3.16 lays down for a sure Rule That it is the Duty of private men to submit their Judgments in matters of Religion to the Determinations of those whom God hath constituted to be their Spiritual Guides and Governours unless it manifestly appears that such Determinations are contrary to God's Word pag. 6. And so we are if any * Apollos Minister of Caesarea and of Iconia was an Eloquent Man mighty in the Scripture instructed in the way of the Lord servent in the Spirit why spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord and spake boldly in the Synagogue and yet Aquila and Priscilla his Wife Tent-makers when they heard him took him home and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly Acts 18.24 25 26. private Man teach another any Truths and to believe the private Man before any Spiritual Guides or Governours that preach and teach Untruths and every Man for himself is the proper Judge of what is taught The Apostles themselves tho' infallible submitted their Doctrines to the Judgment of their Disciples Judge ye Acts 4.19 1 Cor. 10.15 and so must our Guides and Governors which he would insinuate here to be the Clergy i. e. Bishops and Priests if so he will be mistaken they are only Officers in the Church to Teach Baptize c. but the Church in the truest sense i. e. the whole Congregation of the Faithful is to govern its own Body and the Officers thereof not the Officers the Church which will not please The Ecclesiastical Politician declares That it is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a Power to Govern and Conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion pag. 10. How is it possible that the Supreme Magistrate and our Spiritual Guides and Governors should both have the guide of our Consciences And that Peace and Tranquillity of Commonwealth being the prime and most important end of Government can never be sufficiently secured unless Religion be subject to the Authority of the Supreme Power pag. 11. And unless Princes have Power to bind their Subjects to that Religion that they apprehend most advantageous to publick Peace and Tranquillity and restrain those Religious mistakes that tend to its subversion they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority pag. 12. For it is clear if this Ecclesiastical Polititian may be believed that a Prince is endued with a Power to conduct Religion and that must be subject to his Dominion as well as other Affairs of State pag. 13. The consequence of which Doctrines are That if Nebuchadnezzar erect his prodigious Idol and upon pain of a fiery Furnace require all to Worship it all People Nations and Languages must presently be upon their Faces and for their warrant for so doing he assures them That in Cases and Disputes of publick concernment private Men are not properly sui Juris they have no Power over their own Actions they are not to be directed by their own Judgments or determined by their own Wills but by the Commands and Determinations of the publick Conscience And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose Duty is to obey the commands of Authority will warrant my Obedience my Obedience will hallow or at least excuse my Action and so secure me from Sin if not from Error because I follow the best Guide and most probable Direction I am capable of and tho' I may mistake my Integrity shall perserve my Innocence In all doubtful and disputable Cases it is better to err with Authority than to be in the right against it and therefore in all such matters their Commands are the Supreme Rule of Conscience not only because the danger of a little Error and so it is if it be disputable is over-weighed by the importance of the great Duty of Obedience but because they are the fittest Judges pag. 308 309. What is this but down-right asserting the abominable Papal Doctrines of Probability and of blind Obedience brave Doctrines for a Tory Church of England Man to Preach and Print impuné Good God! whether are we posting I thank God I have been taught better things viz. Every one of us shall give account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 28.20 The soul of the publick conscience shall not be put to death for the sins of the private nor the souls of private consciences be put to death for the sins of the publick but every man shall be put to death for his own sin Deut. 24.16 Daw-Divines to Print that the publick Conscience shall stand between the private Conscience sinning by his Command and the Judgment of the great Day and excuse from Sin I thank God that I have been taught by true Church of England Men indeed that God never created Men nor ever endued them with Conscisciences or gave them Talents of Reason or Judgment subject and enslaved to the Judgment Conscience or Reason of others but hath endued and trusted every Man with his own proper Talent of Conscience Reason and Judgment to chuse for himself according to which only he shall be judged and stand or fall at the Day of Judgment and not according to any publick Conscience There would be very little need of Priests if blind Obedience ought to prevail and not our own free choice He proceeds and tells us That God hath appointed the Magistrates to be his Trustees and Officials here upon Earth to act and determine in moral Virtues and pious Devotions according to all accidents and emergencies of Affairs to assign new particulars of the Divine Law to declare new bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither doth nor can limit pag. 18. That it s absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over Mens Consciences and Religions and Perswasions than over their Vices and Immoralities Preface to his Eccl. Pol. p. 53. And that Princes may with less bazard give liberty to Mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences pag. 55. I have heard it also preached before the King That it is better to
become more sensless of God's Glory Wrath and Indignation and the eternal Welfare of the pretious Souls of God's own People than was Balaam's dumb Ass The fatal mischief of such base Flattery and of such Pulpit Laws and Doctrines as it was foreseen punished and declared to tend to the ruine of this or any other Nation by the Wisdom of our Sage Predecessors so we did see it was fairly fulfilling in our late Days and times Such was the Imprudence nay Impudence of the then Court Clergy favourites and sycophants in those Days that tho' Sibthorp and Mainwaring were by King and Parliament so severely doomed to be punished yet no sooner was the Parliament up but by the Interest of those fawning time-servers the said Mainwaring and Sibthorp were preferred and Archbishop Abbot frowned upon because he would not License such pulpit destructive Doctrines And it is such only of the Clergy and other lewd Priests that are in contempt and vile esteem with the Nation whilst others true Church of England Men indeed are as highly in their Esteem and Veneration Thus to discover Crimes of some Priests is not to Calumniate the Church of England but that she may be purged of such Vermin The Reverend Dean of Rippon in his Sermon on 1 Kings 8.66 is of like Mind and Principles who therein declares That be the Kings Heart inclinable to any Religion or none yet it leaves him no Rival none to contradict him for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only declarative Kings must not be upbraided with their Promises which Promises are Donatives and it is reason the Donor should have the explaining of his own Mind that the King is major universis as well as singulis that the sole Legislative Power is lodged in the King and to him belongs the Interpretation of all Laws and Dispensing with them and that he may make a grant with a non obstante to them c. Pure Doctrine for a Reverend Dean to Preach and yet this pure Mungril Church of England Man preferred to be Bishop of Chester for these abominable Doctrines Whoever will seriously consider and compare those dismal Preachments and Prints destructive to all human Societies which our high Church of England Men pulpitted and printed heretofore and how highly they were disgusted by several Parliaments the greatest Wisdom of our Nation and dissatisfied therewith and how they stigmatized those very Doctrines and condemning the Authors of them to mulcts and punishments and yet when those Parliaments were up those very false Teachers were carressed with Pardons and Preferments whoever I say will compare those Doctrines with those Mr. Samuel Johnson printed and maintained even to the undergoing of Inquisition Torments and which the present Parliament and generality of the Nation now own justifie and practise with their Lives and Fortunes must confess that both the Reward and Punishment of the one and the other were mightily misplaced It is yet fresh in our own Memories when our Clergy were much more modest when but one Temporizing Sibthorp and another Court-Parasite Mainwaring durst Pulpit or Print such Doctrines under the Sacred Title of Apostolick Obedience Licens'd by the then Bishop of London and for which they received the just Censures of the King and the whole Kingdom in Parliament which in the truest sense is the Church or rather the Representative Governing part both of Church and State the Bishops and Priests being but Officers thereof which they do not love to hear of but now Confidence nay the Brow of Brass is the Temper and Complexion of very many Pulpits which Thunder every where with such Documents and Outcries as the High-ways to Preferments always having their Mouths half-cockt to let fly at all their gain-sayers not only in the Pulpits and Prints but also in all publick places and Meetings as Coffee-Houses Westminster-Hall Court of Request Lobbies in Parliament-time can witness whereby they have obtained a new name of Tory Church of England Men. They scorn to consider the black Characters they were then stigmatized and branded with by former Parliaments as serpens qui devorat serpentem fit Draco that they tended to the alteration and subversion of the whole Frame and Fabrick of the State and Common-wealth That they tended to the seducing of the Conscience of the King to increase his Royal displeasure against his Subjects to scandalize impeach and subvert the good Laws and Government of the Kingdom and Authority of Parliaments to avert his Majesty's Mind from calling of Parliaments to alienate his Royal Heart from his People to cause Jealousies Sedition and Divisions in the Kingdom c. Besides these Characters they held it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such a nature as to be handled onely in Parliament and that with moderation and therefore the said two Sermons called Religion and Allegiance were adjudged to be called in and burnt by the King's Proclamation the Author to make his submission and acknowledgment of his Crime to the imprisoned during the pleasure of the House to be fined 1000 l. suspended for three Years from the Exercise of the Ministery disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office and for ever disabled to Preach at Court A better Example to imitate and follow than either Fire and Faggot or the Address of the Universities or the Pulpit Doctrines of the 9th of September 1683 wherein both King Nobles Prelates and People were interessed in that Judgment Were such Tenets of such ill consequence by the Judgment of the whole Nation in those Days and are they not the same now where 's the difference The violation offered to plain Texts of Scripture by perverting the true and natural sense and meaning of them by such of the Clergy a Generation of Men that under the umbrage of that Sacred Canopy of Religion as being appointed Teachers and Ministers of the Gospel indued with the Power of Ordination set up for themselves in an opposite and distinct Interest separated from the rest or Body of the Church whereby they erect regnum in regno against the Purity and Sincerity of Religion and Interest of Mankind and this they have been upon the catch to compass by little and little almost ever since the Apostles Days and that by sinister means hath been the occasion of all Misgovernments by ascribing Divine Power to Kings and that they are accountable to none but God for any male-regiment False Prophets not considering if Rulers hearken to Lyes and such are all false glossers on Texts of Scripture all his servants will be wicked Prov. 9.12 such-like of the Clergy are the Time-servers and Court-Parasites that draw odium and contempt upon that Sacred Profession that ought to be had in Reverence by all the Sons and Daughters of Men. I could wish that they would first pull out the Beams that are in their own
cease and a World of such-like Fopperies A special Gospel Government that Ecclesiasticks need be so fond of Can this be a Gospel-Government that conduces to no good end but to bring Grists to their Mills and an odium upon themselves and render them in some sense worse than the Furies of Hell who only torment the guilty but these vex the very Souls of Men as Righteous as themselves Which Government was partly obtained by Antichristian Popish Priest-craft partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of former Ages of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the Crast and Subtilty of proud covetous and ambitious Popish Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the Care of Religion devolved it upon the Bishops and Priests by whom they were easily out-witted and seduced and so set up for themselves I wonder what plain Text of Scripture ever gave the Priesthood Authority to make Canons curse and suspend to impose and regulate to bind and punish the Body of the Church which in plain English is putting the Cart before the Horses the Church being to Regulate its own Concerns and Body and the Officers thereof and not the Officers the Body for by the Judgment of St. Cyprian The Praclice of the purest Times which were freest from corruption even when Holy Martyrs were Bishops was that Pastors were subject to the Censure of the Church If this business were seriously inquired into it would appear that there would be no need at all of this Ecclesiastical Government by Priests as distinct from the Civil Christian Government and if there be yet the Body is to govern and regulate it self and not the Clergy and Officers thereof the Body Either this their Government is to be found in the New Testament or it is not if it had been there it would have appeared long ago in the Contests between the Bishops and the Presbyterians But by both their Writings it manifestly appears That neither the one Government nor the other as it is now practised is to be found therein nor any other Government than what I have succinctly deseribed What strange Priests are these thus to usurp wrong Powers and make so very ill use of them and yet expect to be had in Reverence of them over whom they so Tyrannize by continuing the Usurpation of such wrong Powers got by Priest-craft in Evil and Popish times How can they expect that we should hearken to and believe them Preaching Self denial and Reformation to us when they hateo to be reformed themselves They are called to be Priests and Bishops and make their boasts of God that they know his Will and approve the things that are more excellent and considently brag that they are Guides to the Blind Lights to them that are in Darkness Instructers of the Foolish and therefore you who teach others why teach you not your selves You that make your boasts of the Law through breaking of the Law dishonorest thou God Rom. 2.17 32. is not this with â—emas to love the present World and with Diotrephes to love Preheminence and Domination All Histories both Sacred and Prophane swell with Out-cries and Exclamations against them as the Disturbers of the common Peace of all Europe as the Authors and Instruments of all Uproars Seditions Confusions and Wars Our own Church of England Men and Bishops boasted and signalized our first War 1639 which was the Spawn of all that hath followed by the name of Bellum Episcopale and not undeservedly Which Royal Army tho' in its march they injured no Body but rather inriched all places yet so averse was that War to the Genius of both Nations that none of them could bid us God speed as if God had stirred up the Spirit of these Nations as he did the Spirits of Pul and Tilgah Pilnesar Kings of Assyria whereby vex Popult became vox Dei and it thrived accordingly If this their Government now in use be not to be sound in Scripture as for certain it is not what is it else than for the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy to make the Souls of Men subordinate to their Pride and Impery and to intitle God himself to be the Author of all their Usurpations and to cast upon him the Shame and Dishonour of all their Oppressions and Violencies by gilding over all their Impieties with the Varnish of Religion and by assuming the Coverture and Canepy of Prety for a Cloak for their Impieties The Pagans were more modest towards their Gods accounting Dissimulation meer Imposture Have they made it their Business or improved their Interest since his Majesty's Restauration to restore that Tuesdays Sermon at Court which the Holy Martyr most Religiously observed Have they countenanced Lectures on the Week-days and Sermons in the Afternoon on the Sabbath-days Run through all the Counties of the Nation and matter of fact will clear the point I appeal to God and their own Consciences and to vox Populi for the truth hereof What violent suppression hath there been of Conventicles and Persecution of the Conventiclers happily as great if not greater than the Inquisition abroad tho' used in purest times by Christ and his Apostles and recommended by them to all the faithful in general by as true Jure Divino Precepts as Priests and Bishops have for their teaching all Nations by Matth. 28.19 and other plain Scriptures To this Divine Prerogative and liberty of assembling of the faithful in general for mutual and reciprocal Prophecying Edification Consolation Conferring and Communicating their several and diversities of Gists and Graces their own mutual progres growth and failings of their designs for Heaven and to participate of each others Advisoes and Prayers and how to behave themselves therein As this is a Divine Prerogative given to all the Faithful by the Gospel so they may make use thereof in any Nation without asking leave of any body and no Power ought to hinder them nor can they hinder it without Sin to this signal Priviledge St. Paul gives abundant testimony 1 Cor. 14. This Epistle was written not to Priests in particular but to the Church of God in general to them that are sanctified in life called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Cor. 1.1 wherein all the faithful whether Prtests or not Priests are commanded to follow after Charity and desire spiritual Gifts but rather that they may Prophesie By Prophets in this place are meant all Believers in general those within the Pale of the Church excluding those only without as unfit to judge such matters and by Propherying here is not meant the Gifts of Prediction or fore-telling events or things to come but speaking unto Edification Exhortation and Comfort If therefore the whole Church not Priests only come together in one place and all speak c. ver 23. and all prophesie ver 24. and every one of you hath a