Lucifer among the Angels or if they think it necessary to correct qualify explain or alter some expressions or ceremonies in our Liturgy and Book of Common-Prayer we are so far from giving the least offence to weak Consciences that we heartily wish a lawful Synod which may have a full legal power as well to remove the offences as to punish the offenders and to establish such Laws and Canons as well against Separatists and Schismaticks Anabaptists and Brownists as against Recusants and Papists and such as may be for the Glory of God and the peace of our Church which was our sole intention in the last Synod But seeing their Plot was rather to establish a new Church than to redress the defects of the old and to countenance and advance those boute-fues that schismatically rent our Church in pieces and most wickedly defile the pure Doctrine of the same by degrading and displacing the grave Governours thereof I will to give you a taste of what fruit you are like to reap from them very briefly set down the sum of these two points Two points handled 1. What they have already done in the Affairs of our Church 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 1. Opened a gap ta all licenciousness 1. What they have already done 2. What Discipline and Doctrine are like to ensue if they should be enabled or permitted to erect their new Church for as you may find it in the Remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons 1. Under colour of Regulating the Ecclesiastical Courts Courts that have been founded by the Apostles and had alwaies their Authority and Reverence among Christians even before the Secular power when the Emperours became Christians had confirmed them they have taken away in respect of the coercive part thereof which is the life of the Law and without which the other part is fruitless all the Spiritual jurisdiction of Gods Church they have taken away Aarons rod and would have only Manna left in Gods Ark so that now the crimes inquirable and censurable by those Courts though never so heinous as Adultery Incest and the like cannot be punished Heresies and Schisms which now of late have abounded in all places can no waies be Reformed and the neglect of Gods service can as hardly be repaired when as the Ministers cannot be enforced to attend their Cures the Church-officers cannot be compelled to perform their duty and the Parishioners cannot be brought by our Law to pay their Tythes and other necessary Duties which things are all so considerable that all Christians ought to fear how lamentable will be the end of these sad beginnings for my self have seen the House of God most unchristianly prophaned the Church-yard and the dead bodies of the Saints so rooted and miserably abused by Hogs and Swine that it would grieve meer men that scarce ever heard of God to see such a barbarous usage of any holy place and when the Ministers have given a seven-nights warning to prepare for the blessed Eucharist and the Communicants came to partake of those holy mysteries they were fain to return home without it for want of Bread and Wine to administer it and yet now the Church Governours have not any power to redress any of these abominable abuses 2. Under shew of Reforming the Church Discipline 2. Voted down all the Governours of Gods Church and bettering the Government thereof they have voted down those very Governours the Bishops and their Assistants the Deans and Chapters whose function was constituted by the Apostles and hath from that time continued to this very day As the most Learned Arch-Bishop of Armagh Bishop Hall Master Mason Master Tayler and that worthy Gentleman Master Theyer and others have sufficiently shewed to all the World 3. Under the pretence of expunging Popery which Bishop Jewel 3. Vilified our Service-book Bishop Parry Bishop Babington Bishop Bilson Bishop Morton Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall and abundance more of the Reverend Bishops have confuted expelled and kept out of our Church more than any yea than all their schismatical Disciples whose Learning was no waies able to answer the weakest Arguments of our Adversaries the Service Book that is established by Act of Parliament and was by those holy Martyrs that lost their lives and spilt their blood in defence of the Protestant Religion and defiance of Erroneous Popery so Divinely and devoutly composed as all the Reformation can bear witness and I am well assured the whole flock of these Convocants shall never be able without this to make any neer so pious must be totally cried down and hath been in many places burned used to the uncleanest use and teared all to pieces And to let you see their abomination herein I must crave patience to transcribe that it may the more generally pass the Speech of Alderman Garraway Alderman Garraway p. 7. where he saith pag. 7. Did not my Lord Maior that is Pennington first enter upon his Office with a Speech against the Book of Common Prayer Hath the Common Prayer ever been read before him Hath not Captain Ven said that his Wife could make prayers worth three of any in that Book O Masters There have been times that he which should speak against the Book of Common-Prayer in this City should not have been put to the patience of a Legal-Trial we were wont to look upon it as the greatest treasure and the Jewel of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would have taken away the Book of Common-Prayer would never have gotten credit I have been in all the parts of Christendome and have conversed with Christians in Turkey why in all the Reformed Churches there is not any thing of more Reverence than the English Liturgy not our Royal Exchange nor the Navy of Queen Elizabeth is so famous as this in Geneva it self I have heard it extolled to the skies I have been three months together by Sea and not a day without hearing it read twice How the Mariners esteem the Liturgy the honest Mariners then despised all the World but the King and the Common-Prayer Book he that should be suspected to wish ill to either of them should have made but an ill voyage and let me tell you they are shrewd Youths those Sea-men if they once discern that the person of the King is in danger or the Protestant professed Religion they will shew themselves mad bodies before you are aware of it I would not be a Brownist or an Anabaptist in their way for And yet these men have so basely abused and are so violent to abolish this excellent Book and Divine Liturgy that Many will not believe it though it should be told unto them I would they did but read that Act of Parliament which is prefixed unto the same to see if they regarded either the Law of God or Man the Religion of the Clergy that composed it or the
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery and as the intention of Treason against the King is Treason So he that hath a will and a sacrilegious intent or but an itching desire to defraud the Church is a sacrilegious person and shall no wayes escape unpunished And here I will briefly examine Doctor Burges his Description of Sacriledge whereby he would fain prove That the taking away Doctor Burges his Description of Sacriledge and his inference thereupon discussed and the iniquity thereof plainly shewed or selling of the Donations of holy men unto Christ and his Church is neither Sacriledge nor Sin especially the Lands of the Cathedral Churches because saith he Sacriledge is the robbing of God either by alienating detaining purloyning diverting or perverting that which is Gods own by Divine râ—ght and therefore due to Christ and thereby to his Ministers whether the things be set apart by express Command or voluntarily given according to Gods special Warrant and Direction But saith he The Lands given to the Bishop and Cathedrals are not Commanded by God to be given Page 8. neither had the Givers any special Warrant or Direction from God to bestow them therefore no Sacriledge nor sin to take them away Where I beseech you to observe 1. The errour and mistake of the man 1. The ignorance of Doctor Burges for I need not have any special Warrant to do that which God gives a Generall allowance for any man to do 2. Mark the malice and the madnesse of the man against the Bishops 2. The malice of the Doctor agâ—inst the Bishops and the Cathedral Lands for he would perswade you to believe that these were not given according to Gods will but without his Warrant and Direction But I have and shall shew unto you That those holy men which vowed and dedicated them to God The speciall ends for which the lands were given to the Bishops and Cathedrals which being taken away alienated and sold these services of God cannot be performed Wherby you may perceive the great dishonor that is done to God by this Sacriledge gave them not only for the proper use of the Bishops to make themselves like Dives to be cloathed in Scarlet and to fare deliciously every day and to make their wives like Ladies and their children great in this world but they bestowed them for these four special ends 1. To maintain the Bishops and their families in a fair and competent manner and to furnish themselves with those necessaries whereby they might be inabled to preach and publish the Gospel of Christ every way by words writing and printing it unto his people 2. To edifie repair and beautifie Synagogues Temples and Churches for the people of God to meet in to serve God and to be instructed in the Faith and Doctrine of Christ 3. To relieve the poor clothe the naked feed the hungry help the fatherlesse and widows and the like 4. To keep hospitality to relieve Strangers to redeem Captives and to do other works of piety and charity which the Bishops in their wisdoms shall think fit and requisite to be done according to the will and good pleasure of God And the Bishops are but intrusted as Gods Stewards to see these things faithfully discharged And I would gladly understand Was it ignorance or malice in this fellow to amuse and stagger the simple Readers of his Pamphlet and to make them doubt whether Lands given to Cathedrals to these ends and for these purposes have any allowance from God and Warrant to be agreeable to his will when as all men know how often and how earnestly God commandeth all and every one of these things to be done especially considering that his Grand Master Cartwright confesseth That now in the time of the Gospel whatsoever is either established by Law or conferred by man's liberality for the uses of Gods service is all to be accounted sacred or holy and for this cause both the taking away of the whole or the diminishing of any part of such holy things is sacriledge condemned in Deut. 23.21 22 23. and never any honest man said otherwise And this sin of Sacriledge being so abominable and so hateful in the sight of God Distinct. 19. Q. Curtius l. 7. it must needs be plagued with intolerable punishments and no marvel for as Q. Curtius saith Cum diis pugnant sacrilegi The sacrilegious persons do fight and wage war with God himself and by all means seek to deprive him of his honour and service Lucan Phars l. 3. And as Lucan saith Quis enim laesos impunè putaret Esse deos Who can imagine that sacrilegious persons shall escape unpunished For if the gods should not revenge their own wrongs Who should do it saith the Heathen Poet but they that were the Idols of the Heathens have done it among the Gentiles and the true God will do it among the Christians For as Juvenal saith Juvenal â—atyra 4. Nemo malus foelix minime corruptor idem Incestus cum quo nuper vittata jacebat Sanguine adhuc vivo terram subitura sacerdos The sacrilegious Nuns were to be interr'd and thrown alive into the pit Gods usuall dealing with men And this is the usual course and practice of God to cause those that by the sweet promises of his mercies cannot be allured to pay their duties unto his Church and to use a good conscience to be frighted from robbing and abusing his Church by the terrour of his most fearful vengeance executed upon the like offenders that such as will not be led by his mercies might be drawn by his judgements Because that as Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore Good men will not wrong the Church for the love of God So many times Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae Many evil men at least not very good will forbear to rob and destroy the Church for fear of the punishment of Church-robbers And therefore as Absolom 2 Sam. 10. when he could not by promises and perswasions win Joah to be of his side by firing his barly-fields he forced him to do what he pleased So when the still and sweet voice of God can do no good to make Jonah to obey the Lord's command a tempestuous whirl-wind tumbling him to the bottom of the Sea will bring him back to his obedience So it may be when the promising of Gods blessings can work no Reformation nor get any satisfaction for wrongs done unto the Church Gods coming to visit them with the Rod and to whip their sacriledge with scourges to fill their faces with shaeme and confusion and to give them fine and brimstone stormes and tempest to be their portion to drink may a little frighten the sacrilegious Souldiers from laying an insupportable weight of miseries or committing a most intolerable Sacriledge against the Church of Christ Therefore I thought good to shew unto all sacrilegious persons That as the Lords mouth
to purge himself before Valentinian 2. q. 7. Nos si and Pope Leo the third before Charles the Great And it is registred that Pope Leo the 4th wrote unto the Emperour Lodouick saying Epist Eleuth inter leges Edovard Si incompetenter aliquid egimus justae legis tramitem non conservavimus admissorum nostrorum cuncta vestro judicio volumus emendare If we have done any thing unseemly and amiss and have not observed and walked in the right path of the just law we are most ready and willing to amend all our admissions or whatsoever we have done amiss according to your judgment Theodoretus l. 2. c. 1. and Pope Eleutherius saith to Edward the I. of England V s est is Vicarius Dei in Regno vestro that he and so every other King is Gods Vicar in his Kingdom This was the mind and sense of these Popes and many other Popes in former ages were of the same mind until pride avarice and ambition corrupted them to be as now they are How the Emperour and Kâ—nâ—â— executed the power that God had given thâ—m And as God hath given this power and required this duty of Kings and Princes to have a care of his Church and to reform Religion and the Fathers and Councels have confirmed this truth and divers of the very Popes themselves and Pâ—pists have yielded and submitted themselves unto their spiritual jurisdiction even in the Ecclesiastical causes so the Emperours and Kings omitted not to execute the same from time to time especially those that had the master power and ability to discharge their duties Idâ—m l. 1. c 7. for Theodoret writes that Constantine was wont to say Si episcopus tâ—rbas det mea manu coercebitur If any Bishop shall be turbulent and troublesome he shall be refrained and censured by my hands and both Theodoret and Eusebius tels us how he came in his own person unto the Councell of Nice Sozâ—m l. 4. c. 16. Et omnibus exsurgentibus ipse ingressus est medius tanquam aliquis Dei coelestis Angelus the whole company of the Bishops and all the rest arising he came into the midst amongst them as it were an Heavenly Angel of God And Sozomen writeth how that ten Bishops of the East and ten others of the West Conciliorum Tom 2. In vita Sylvani vigila were required by Constantine to be chosen out by the Convocation and to be sent to his Court to declare unto him the decrees and canons of the Councell that he might examine them and consider whether they were consonant to the Holy Scriptures And the Emperour Constantius deposed Pope Liberius of his Bishoprick and then again he deprived Pope Foelix and restored Liberius unto the Popedom and in the third Councell at Costantinople he did not only sit among the Bishops but also subscribed Concil Boni 3. c. 2. with the Bishops to such bills as passed in that Councell saying Vidimus Subscripsimus we have seen these canons and have subscribed our approbation of them And King Odoacer touching the Affairs of the Church saith Miramur quicquam tentatum fuisse sine nobis We do admire that you should attempt to do any thing without us for while our Bishop lived that is the Pope sine Nobis nihil tentari oportuit Nothing ought to be done without us much less ought it to be done now when he is dead And the Emperour Justinian doth very often in Ecclesiastical causes Authent Coliat 1 tit 6. use to say Definimus jubemus We determine and command and we will and require that none of the Bishops be absent from his Church Quomodo oportet Episcop above the space of a year and he saith further Nullum genus rerum est quod non sit penitus quaerendum Authoritate Imperatoris there is no kind of matter that may not or is not to be inquired into by the Authority of the Emperour Authent Collat. Tit. 133. because he hath received from the hands of God the common government and principality over all men And the same Emperour as Balsamon saith Balsamon de Peccat Tit. 9. Idem in Calced Concil c. 12. Idem de fide Tit. 1. gave power to the Bishop to absolve a Priest from pennance and to restore him to his Church And the same Author saith that the Emperours disposed of Patriarchal seats and that this power was given them from above and he saith further that the Emperour Michael that ruled in the East made a law against the order of the Church that no Monk should serve in the Ministry in any Church whatsoever And we read further how that divers of the Emperours have put down and deposed divers Popes as Otho deposed John 13. Evodius inter decreta Bonifacâ—â— Vâ—sâ—ergen anno 1045. Honorius deposed Boniface Theodoricus deposed Symmaâ—hus and Henry removed three Popes that had been all unlawfully chosen and in the Councel of Chalcedon the Supreme Civil Magistrate adjudged Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassus three Bishops of Heresie and therefore to be degraded and to be thrust out of the Church And so you see how the Emperours â—ings and Civil Magistrates behaved themselves in the Church of God and used their power and the Authority that God had given them as well in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Church and points of Faith as in the Civil Government of the Common-wealth CHAP. VIII That it is the Office and Duty of Kings and Princes though not to execute the function and to do the Offices of the Bishops and Priests yet to have a speciall care of Religion and the true Worship of God and to cause both the Priests and Bishops and all others to discharge their duties of Gods service And how the good and godly Emperours and Kings have formerly done the same from time to time BUt as God hath given unto the Kings and Princes of this world a Power and Authority as well over his Church and Church-men be they Prophets Apostles Bishops Priests or what you will as over the Common wealth and all the lay persons of their Dominions So they ought and are bound to have a special care of Religion and to discharge their duties for the glory of God the good of his Church the promoting of the Christian Faith and the rooting up of all Sects and Heresies that defile and corrupt the same for as Saint Augustine saith and I shewed you before In hoc Reges Deo serviunt herein Kings and Princes do serve God if Aug. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 51. as they are Kings they injoyn the things that are good and inhibit those things that are evil and that Non solum in iis quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem sed etiam ad divinam Religionem and again he saith Idem Epist 48. that Kings do serve Christ here on earth when they do make good laws for Christ and
judgements of God and Israel his Laws to put Vertue 2 incense before the Lord and whole burnt-Sacrifices upon his Altar which is the second duty of every Bishop and every faithful Minister of Christ Verse 10. to teach the people of God and to administer his holy Sacraments For his first care and chiefest duty should be to look to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be blameless 1 Tim. 3.2 And his second care is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be apt and able to teach the people And so S. Paul tells and adviseth all the Clergy of Ephesus that they should first look and take heed unto themselves and then to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 which he hath purchased with his own blood And therefore 1. How blameless Bishops and Ministers should be Luke 1.6 1. A Bishop and a Minister of Christ must have a special care to carry and behave himself so as that his life and conversation may seem blameless in the World like unto Zacharias the father of John Baptist that walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof And S. Hierom saith That talis tanta debet esse conversatio eruditio Pontificis ut omnes motus egressus universa ejus opera notabilia sint veritatem mente concipiat eam toto habitu resonet ornatu Hierom. in Epist 43. ut quicquid agit quicquid loquitur doctrina sit populorum The life and conversation of a Bishop and so likewise of every Minister of the Gospel should be such so grave and so holy that all his motions and progressions and all other his works should be notable and worthy to be observed he should conceive the truth in his mind and sound out the same by his habit and ornament that whatsoever he doth The mischief that the evil examples of Bishops and Ministers do produce and whatsoever he saith may be a lesson of instruction unto the people who do look more unto the examples that we give them and the actions that we do than to the Precepts that we preach or the Doctrine that we declare unto them And another Father saith that Nemo plus in Ecclesia nocet quà m qui perversè agens nomen vel ordinem sanctitatis habet delinquentem namque hunc redarguere nullus praesumit in exemplum vehementer culpa extenditur cum pro reverentia ordinis peccator honoratur No man doth or indeed can do more hurt in the Church of God than he that doth wickedly and lives dissolutely and hath the name or order of holiness that is holy Orders because no man presumeth or dares to reprove such an one when he offendeth and his fault exceedingly reacheth to the example of others to do the like when for the reverence of his Order they see such a wicked man so honoured And therefore I may say to such a one as Claudian saith to Honorius changing only but one word Hoc te praeterea crebro sermone monebo Claâ—dian de 4. Câ—nsolat Honorii Vt te totius medio telluris in orbe Vivere cognoscas cunctis tua gentibus esse Facta palam nec posse dari praesulibus unquam Secretum vitiis nam lux altissama fati Occultum nil esse sinit latebrasque per omnes Intrat abstrusos implorat fama recessus For such men are like a City that is set upon a Hill and all mens eyes are upon them and therefore their lives and their actions cannot be concealed but their doings are more conspicuous and their danger far greater than any other men And that as Aquinas saith in a threefold respect First because the Dispensers of the holy Sacraments and the holy Word of God which ought not to be handled but by holy men in which respect a holy Father saith Mallem sustinere poenam Caiphae Pilati Herodis quà m Sacerdotis indignè celebrantis That he would rather chuse to suffer the punishment of Caiphas and of Pilate and of Herod than of a wicked Bishop or Priest that doth unworthily administer the Blessed Sacrament Secondly because these men are to render their account more strictly being looked into more narrowly than other men because as S. Bernard saith Those faults and transgressions quae in aliis nugae sunt Cujâ—s vita despicâ—tu restaâ— ut ejus praedicatio contemnatur Gregor super Evangel l. 1. Hom. 6. in Sacerdotibus sunt blasphemiae And those â—iâ—s that in others seem to be but steps and triffles veniâ—â— digna and may easily be pardoned yet in Bishops and the Ministers of God's word they are heynous offences and worthy to be punished heavily with many stripes seeing they knew their Masters will and did it not And thirdly because that by their Places and Offiâ—es they are to teach other men not to offend and to answer for then sins if through their neglect they do offend and yet by their ill lives and examples they teach them to offend 2. As they are in these respects 2. How careful the Bishops Priests ought to be to teach the people Ezech. 3.17 c. 3.7 to have a special care of their own lives and conversations to live justly and holily as the servants of Christ ought to do so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the instruction and tuition of the people committed under their charge for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people to teach them and instruct them what they should do and what they should believe even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son Matth. ult 19.20 and of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commâ—nded you And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God and before Jesus Christ that he preach the word and be instant in season 2 Tim. 4 1 2. 1 Cor. 9.16 and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long sâ—ffering and doctrine and he saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel And S. Gregory saith Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis compatientes infirmis Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. terribiles in minis in exhortationibus blandi in ostendâ—ndo magisterio bumiles in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes in tolerandis adversitatibus rigidi It behoves that Preachers should be strong and strict in their precepts compassionate and pitiful to the weak terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent smooth and gentle in their exhortations in shewing their power and authority humble in despising the world and all worldly things stout and domineering and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant And the same S. Gregory saith also Idem Moral l. 17. that Non debet praedicator infirmis insinnare cuncta
most generally found that the Children of the precedent Bishops that have most wronged the Church and their Successors Why the sons of Bishops are most spitefull unto the Succeeding Bishops are in all things most contrariant and opposites I will not say spiteful or envious to the succeeding Bishops because as I conceive their hearts tell them what injuries their Fathers did them for their sakes and themselves continue therein and therefore do conceive that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them that have so much wronged both them and the Church of God and to requite them according to their own thoughts with hate for hate they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them or else because they do imagine that the present and succeeding Bishops will be as wicked and as unjust as their Fathers and their predecessors were and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them As Alexander the Copper-smith withstood S. Paul So the last Bishops son withstandeth me to recover the rights of the Church And I heard many Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament none were more violent against the Bishops then the sons and posterity of Precedent Bishops I found it so And I have espied another fault in some of our former Bishops not a little prejudiciall to the Honor of God and the good of the Church of Christ and that is not only to give Orders to unworthy men but also to bestow livings upon unworthy Priests for as the old saying was Rector eris praesto de sanguine praesulis esto Or as another saith Quatuor ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Sed paucis solet quarta patere Dei So it was their practice to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other Preferments not on them that best deserved them but either upon their Children friends or servants or on them that could as the story goeth tell them And so to the lessor and to the lessee of the Church-Lands to the prejudice of the Church the like curse and Anathema is due who was Melchisedecks Father that is to say St. Peters lesson Aurum argentum non est mihi in the affirmative way which is a fault worthy to be punished by the Judges For as it is most truely said Qâ—icunque sacra vel sacros ordines vendunt aut emunt sacerdotes esse non possunt whosoever do buy or sell holy orders or any holy things cannot be Priests Vnde scriptum est Anathema danti Anathema accipienti whence it is written Let Gods curse be to the buyer and the curse of God to the receiver because this buying and selling of Holy things and things dedicated for the service of God is the Simoniacal Heresie or Heresie of Simon Mâ—gus Qâ—omodo ergo si Anathematizati sunt sancti non sunt sanctificare alios possunt Habetur 1. q. 1. Can. Quicunque How then if they be accursed and no Saints can they make others Saints or sanctify them Et cum in corpore Christi non sint quomodo Christi corpus tradere vel accipere possunt Et qui maledictus est benedicere quomodo potest And seeing such men are not in the body of Christ how can they deliver or receive the body of Christ and how can he that is accursed himself bless any other And therefore seeing the Word of God requireth the Bishops and Ministers of Christ should be so Holy in their lives and so qualified with knowledge and learning for the instruction of the people as I shewed to you before and is typified by those Golden Bels and the Pomegranats that were to be set in the skirts of Aarons robes round about the Bels signifying the teaching of the people and the Pomegranats the sweet smelling fruits of a good and godly life It behoves the Kings and Princes to whom God hath given the prime Soveraignty and commandeth them to have a care of his Honor and the service of his Church to see so far as they can that the Bishops and Prelates which they place over Gods people be so qualified as God requireth and to injoyn these their prime Substitutes to look that those Priests and Deacons which they make and place in the Church be likewise such as I have fore-shewed for this God requireth at their hands and this David Jehosaphat Ezechias Josias and all the good and godly Kings of Israel and Juda and all the pious Christian Kings and Emperors did and I do know how zealously and carefully our late most gracious King Charles the I. was to place Able Religious and Godly Bishops over Gods Church which is a special duty of every King And because also the Prelates and Bishops are not all or may not all be no more then the Apostles were all such as they should be but some of them may be such as I have shewed to you before either like Simon Magus selling what they should freely give or like Demas imbracing this present World or like Baalam loving the wages of unrighteousness or perhaps doing worse then those Apostatizing like Julian and starting aside like Ecebolius or devising wicked Heresies like Arius or renting the unity of the Church like Donatus then as Solomon deposed Abiathar and divers of the good Emperours deposed wicked Popes and the godly Kings have pull'd down ungodly Bishops as our late Queen Elizabeth did degrade Bishop Bonner and divers other Popish Prelates so should all good and godly Kings reprove and correct and if they amend not expel and remove all scandalous and ungodly Bishops and the Bishops do the like to all deboyst and dissolute Ministers that so the old and sowre leaven may be purged out of Gods Church and the builders of Gods Tabernacle be like Bezaliel and Aholiab such as can and will do the work of the Lord carefully and Religiously CHAP. XIV Of the maintenance due to the Bishops and Ministers of Gods Church how large and liberal it ought to be THirdly When the Kings and Princes 3. To provide sufficient means for the Church-men which are the Supreme Magistrates and as Tertullian saith Homines à Deo secundi solo Deo minores are the men that are next to God in power and Authority and therefore ought to have the prime and chiefest care of Gods Honour and his worship in the Church of Christ have as I have formerly shewed with King David and Solomon Colimus imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum so lo Deâ— minorem Tertul. ad Scapulam provided that Temples and Churches be erected and beautified as fit houses of God for his people and servants to convene and meet in them to Worship God and have likewise taken care in the next place to see that good men and godly Bishops be appointed over those Churches as their substitutes to Rule Govern and Teach the people of God how to live and
to believe as they ought to do and to require the Bishops and Prelates also to see that all the inferiour Clergy do the like then that they may be inabled with joy and comfort to discharge their duties and to perform Gods service aright they should do their best indevour to see that there should be large and liberal maintenance provided and set out sufficiently for them to sustain and keep themselves and their families to keep Hospitality to relieve the poor and to do all the other works of piety and charity which they are injoyned to do and which without such means and maintenance they are no waies able possibly to discharge For if such liberal maintenance be not provided for them the want thereof will make the whole company of the Clergy men to be contemptible their names in obloquy and their unworthy and poor condition will fright away the better sort of men from imbracing this calling that in it self is so Honorable a function as to be the Embassadours of Jesus Christ for though the name of a Bishop and the Priest or Minister of Jesus Christ be great And Jâ—venal saith Quis enim virtuâ—em amplectitur ipsam Pramia si tâ—llas Juvenal l. 4. Satyr 10. and of great account in Gods book and with the Saints of God yet men are but flesh and blood whose nature is to be inticed and toled on with rewards as the best Sollicitors and mediators to spur them forward to undertake any profession and they are most apt and ready to undertake that which they see most profitable and makes them best able to live in the world And therefore Cicero the best of the Orators said Honos alit artes That Reward and Honor is the nourisher of Arts and Sciences and makes the Schollars to fall to their Study and Aristotle the chiefest of all the Philosophers confirmeth what the Orator said and addeth that Honos est praemium Virtutis Virtue and learning ought to be honored and rewarded and when it is rewarded it will flourish and be increased and Martial the best Epigrammatist justifieth what the others affirmed saying Sint Mecoenates non deerunt Flacce Marones Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt Which I may with leave thus Translate Where Patrons well present their Clerks there Preachers will abound In every Town and Village then good Prophets shall be found And therefore the wisest men have alwayes promised great Rewards to all that would attempt any great Service as Caleb said He that smiteth Kiriath sepher Josh 15.16 1 Sam. 17.25 1 Sam. 5.8 and taketh it to him will I give my daughter Achsa to wife And Saul promised to do the like to him that vanquished Gelias And so King David promised no small Reward to him that got up to the gutter and smote the Jebuzites in the siege of Hierusalem because the wages and reward that men expect for their labour are as the spurs that drive and prick them forward to every profession and to every work and great Exploit And on the other side when the World seeth the Ministers of the Gospel rewarded none otherwise now when we have a gracious King than the Levite in the old Testament was when there was no King in Israel with bare meat and drink Judg. 17.10 and a single simple suite of apparel and ten Shekels of Silver which was his yearly pension for all his pains then as Juvenal saith Quis quis virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas Who will be willing to enter into the Ministery and to imbrace this high Calling especially when they do throughly perceive how this inexcusable covetousness the unresistable power of the men of War doth still increase more and more to eat up and like a canker to waste and consume the possessions of the Church and the maintenance of God's Ministers whereby the Honour of God is blemished his Worship obstructed the people deprived of the spiritual food of their souls and the poor of their relief and food of their bodies which the Bishops and Ministers of Christ if they were made able are bound to bestow upon them as the men that best know the duty of charity how acceptable it is in the sight of God Why there were no Physitians in Athens For as when it was demanded Why there were no Professors of Physick in the City of Athens whereby the whole Art and Profession was decayed the answer was made It was because there was no Reward or Stipend set out and allotted for the Teachers of that Science So when the reward and maintenance of the Bishops and Ministers is purloyned and taken away by Souldiers * For they are the men that hold our lands and seek to take our houses from us or any others then certainly the Ministery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will insensibly decay And how the Church-robbers will answer this to God or defend themselves with their swords before him let them look unto it I would not be in their case for all the lands and houses that they have For as when Antigonus asked the Philosopher Cleanthes that was Zeno's Scholler and had learnedly written of the Sun and Moon and Stars and other points of Astronomy Why he carried water in the night and did grinde at the Quern or Mill Cleanthes answered He was inforced to be thus occupied to get his living when he had no other means to maintain himself So when God shall demand of the Bishops and Ministers Why they do not study to teach his people and bestow alms on his poor creatures but look after their husbandry and follow after the affairs of the world and to do as many times my self have been inforced to do many base and servile works for want of means to hire other labourers and we shall answer as Cleanthes did This strange indignity is done unto us that we have no money to buy Books to study and to relieve the poor and to repair thy ruinous House nor scarce meanes to maintain our selves but by these unworthy wayes to get some small means of subsistance lest otherwise we should be forced with the Levite and his wife to lodge in the streets And when God shall reply again and demand How cometh this to passe when as the Kings Princes and other Noble men of the World the more excellent powerful and illustrious they are the more excellent and beneficial are the Places and Offices of their servants from whence it became a Proverb That no fishing to the Sea and no service to the Court. And I that am the Great and Almighty God of Heaven and the King of all Kings that do take pleasure in the prosperity of my servants Psal 35.27 Prov 3.16 c. 22.4 and have promised riches and honour to them that serve me and accordingly have allowed and commanded my Tythes and Oblations and the free gifts and will-offerings of my people to be inviolably set our and preserved
deny what Reason a voucheth But the law of Nature and Reason teacheth that no pension which is indifferent and tolerable ought to be denied and detained from the Common use and the good of publick weale for so Plato and Cicero and many more that knew no more but what the light of nature shewed them do say We are born on that condition not only to provide for our selves and our off-spring but also for our private friends That every man is to do his best for the publick good and especially for the publick good of our Countrey which is the common parent of us all and the examples of Theseus the Athenian Demaratus the Lacedemonian Epaminondas the Theban Curtius Decius and Coriolanus the Romans and among the Jews Moses Aaron Gideon Sampson David Zorobabel and abundance more in all Nations that underwent all charge and exposed themselves to endure all adventures for the furtherance of the common good do sufficiently confirm this truth unto us But the tenth part or portion The tenth the most indifferent part that we have from the Fruits and commodities that we receive from the earth is of the most indifferent condition competent for the receiver and tolerable for the giver as being of a middle size neither too little for the one to take nor too much for the other to pay for the publick service of God And this will easily be confirmed if we compare this tenth part with the taxes and impositions that are of other nature and are required and payable in very many Nations for the men of Cholchi beside their subsidy of money were forced to deliver a hundred male Children and as many maidens by way of task or tribute unto their Princes And Heredotus writeth of very strange distributions that do arise from the waters of Nilus to the proper use of the Inhabitants about that River and of the mighty subsidies that do grow from thence unto the Kings And the Egyptians have been forced to pay the fift part of their estate unto their Kings The tenth compared with the taxes imposed upon the people in divers Nations and Diodorus Siculus saith that a certain King of Egypt gave the yearly custome of the fishes which were taken out of the pooles of his subjects to find rayment and other Ornaments for his Queen and that the same amounted to a Talent of silver for every day in the year And Dion in the life of Augustus relateth how he levied the twentieth part of every mans estate and of such Donations Legacies and Gifts as were bequeathed at the time of their death and said that he found some Records of that custome formerly used in the Registers of Caesar and it is written that the Thuringi exceeded this payment in the taxes that were imposed upon them For they were forced to pay yearly to the Kings of Hungary not only the tenth part of their goods but also the tenth number of their children and yet they that are under the Tyranny of the Turks must indâ—re a Heavier yoke and a far greater slavery for they pay the fourth part of all their fruits and increase of the earth and of their labours in their several trades and they pay tole-money for every servant that they keep the which if their estates be not able to do yet must they make it good or sell themselves for slaves to do it And now judge you what rational man comparing the tythes with these tributes and the taxes of other Nations will not conclude that the tenth part is the most equal just and indifferent portion that can be allotted and adjudged fit to be given and paid for such a publick good as is the service of God and the Ministry of the Gospel without pressing too heavy upon the giver or paying too slight a portion to the receiver 2. Whatsoever things have their foundation and introduction What natural Reason sheweth 1. That publick Ministers should be by the publick State mainâ—ained in the Reason 2 Law of Nature the same things ought still to be observed and continued but natural Reason suggesteth and telleth every man that is not voyd of Reason 1. That as they which serve the Common-wealth Kings Magistrates and Governours should live upon the taxes and Contributions of the Common-wealth so they that serve the Church of God as Bishops and Priests should be maintained by the Church and the Histories of the Gentiles do bear witness that all the Nations of the World have alwayes fully and sufficiently provided maintenance for their Priests Judg. 17.5 For so Mâ—â—ha having set up his Temple and made an Ephod and his Teraphim consecravit ministerium unius è filtis suis he made one of his sons to be his Priest and implevit manum ejus which consecravit ministerium signifieth saith Tremellius in his notes upon that place that is to give him an estate and the maintenance of a Priest and so he did to the Levite that succeeded him consecravit ministerium ejus id est implevit manum ejus He filled his hand and satisfied him with a certainty of maintenance And Pharaoh and the rest of the Egyptians allowed lands and possessions and other sufficient maintenance unto their Priests and Magicians And the Babylonians were very bountiful to their Wise-men and the Professors of the Mysteries of their religion And so was Jezabel also to the Priests of Baal making them to sit at her own Table 2. That the Tythes are the fittest part to maintain these publick Ministers and were so given by Jews and Gentiles before Moses time 2. That the Tythes or tenth part of our goods and fruits of the earth is the fittest part and the most ind fferent proportion that we can assign and lay out for the maintenanâ—e and allowance of the Priests and Ministers of Religion for not only Moses by the instinct and inspiration of God's Spirit appointed and commanded the tenth part to be paid unto the Priests but also many good and godly men before Moses time were by the secret instigaâ—ion of the same Spirit and the innate light of their natural reason directed before God commanded the same to give the Tythes of their whole Estate unto God and to deliver it into the hands of his Receivers the Priests Veteres ex unaquaque re deci mam â—fferâ—e diis solebant Fran. Sylvius Insul And Plautus saith Uâ— decimam solveret Herculi As among the people of God Abraham and Jacob paid Tythes of all and that long before Moses time And among the Gentiles Plutarch recordeth that when Hercules had vanquished Geryâ—n King of Spain and by a strong hand had taken away his Oxen from him he made an oblation of every tenth Bullock unto God And it is said that Cartalus was sent by the Carthaginians unto Tyrus to offer unto Hercules the tenth part of the spoils that he had gotten in the Isle of Sicâ—ly And the Histories do relate further That the Tythes of
the exaction of our goods or the vexation of our bodies and in these kinds of injuries Brentius in respon ad artic rusticorum the subject ought rather then in the former to be obedient to his Magistrate for if he steps forth to arms God hath pronounced of such men He that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword Cranmer Arch Bishop of Canterbury together with the rest of the Bishops and most famous Divines of this Kingdom saith If Princes shall do any thing contrary to their duties God hath not appointed any superiour Judge over them in this world but they are to render their account to God which hath reserved their judgement to himself alone and therefore it is not lawful for any subjects Cranmer in lib. de Châ—istiani hominis institutis how wicked soever their Princes shall be to take arms or raise sedition against them but they are to powre forth their prayers to God in whose hand Kings hearts are that he would inlighten them with his spirit whereby they might rightly to the glory of God use that sword which he hath delivered unto them Gulielmus Tindal a godly Martyr of Christ when Cardinal Lanio's sonne did lead the Lambs of Christ by troops unto the slaughter doth then describe the duty of subjects according to the strait rule of the Gospel saying David spared Saul and if he had killed him he had sinned against God for in every Kingdom the King which hath no superiour judgeth of all things and therefore he that indeavoureth or intendeth any mischief or calamity against the Prince that is a Tyrant or a Persecutor or whosoever with a froward hand doth but touch the Lords annointed he is a rebel against God and resisteth the ordinance of God as often as a private man sinneth he is held obnoxious to his King that can punish him for his offence but when the King offendeth he ought to be reserved to the divine examination and vengeance of God Tindal l. de Christiani hominis obedient and as it is not lawful upon any pretence to resist the King so it is not lawful to rise up against the Kings Officer or Magistrate that is sent by the King for the execution of those things which are commanded by the King for as our Saviour saith He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And as he saith unto Saul when he persecuted the servants of Christ Saul Acts 9.4 Saul why persecutest thou me when as he was then in Heaven farre above the reach of Saul yet because there is such a mystical union betwixt Christ and his Church the head and members as is betwixt man and wife no man can be said to injure the one but he must wrong the other so whosoever resisteth the Kings Lievtenant Deputy or any other Magistrate or Officer that he sendeth with Commission to execute his commands resisteth the King himself and all the indignities that are offered to the Kings Embassadour or servant that he thus sendeth are deemed as indignities offered to the King himself as we see the base usage of David's servants by King Hanun 2 Sam 10. David revenged as an abuse offered unto himself because the Kings person cannot be in all places where justice and judgement and many other offices and actions are necessarily to be done throughout the latitude of his Dominions but his power and his authority Whatsoever is done to any Messenger is deemed as done to him that sent him deputed to those his servants and officers that he sendeth are as the lively representatives of the King in every part of his Kingdome and whatsoever favour payment neglect or abuse is shewed unto any of them the same in all Nations is accounted and therefore punished or rewarded as a service done unto the King himself as our Saviour when but the Tole gatherer came for the Tribute-mony saith Give unto Caesar what belongeth unto Caesar And therefore it is but an idle simple most foolish and frivolous distinction of men to deceive children and fools to say They love and honour their King and they fight not against their King but against such and such whom notwithstanding they know to be the Kings chiefest officers and to be sent with the Kings Power Commission and Authority to do those things that they do This is such a foppery that I know not what to say to undeceive those that are so desirous to be deceived when the Devill * Saint Paul saith God sâ—ndeth them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 But what God sendeth justly as the punisher of their sin the Devil sendeth maliciously as the guider of them to Hell Ba nesius in Tract de humanis Constitut which knoweth how near their destruction hangeth over their heads sends them strong delusions that they should so easily and so sillily believe su h palpable lyes as to make them think they love him dearly whom they murder most barbarously Barnesius a very godly and learned man treating of the same Argument saith in a manner the same thing That the servants of Christ rather then either commit any evil or resist any Magistrate ought patiently to suffer the losse of their goods and the tearing of their members nay the Christian after the example of his Master Christ ought to suffer the bitterest death for truth and righteousnesse sake and therefore saith he whosoever shall rebell under pretence of Religion aeternae damnationis reus erit he shall be found guilty of eternall damnation Master Dod upon the Commandements Master Dod saith that where the Prince commandeth a lawful act the subjects must obey and if he injoynes unlawful commands we must not rebell but we must be content to bear any punishment that shall be laid upon us even unto death it self and we should suffer our punishment without grudging even in heart and this he presseth by the example of the Three Children and of Daniel that was a mighty man and of very great power in Babylon yet never went about to gather any power against his King though it were in his own defence Master Byfield upon 1 Pet. 2.13 Master Byfield expounding the words of Saint Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Supreme saith This should confirm every good subject to acknowledge and maintain the Kings Supremacy and willingly to bind himself thereto by oath for the Oath of Supremacy is the bond of this subjection and this oath men must take without equivocation mentall evasion or secret reservation yea it should bind in them the same resolution that was in Saint Bernard who saith If all the world should conspire against me to make me complot any thing against the Kings Majesty yet I would fear God and not dare to offend the King ordained of God Serenissimus Rex Jacobus de vera lege liberae Monarchiae I might fill a Volume if I
Rites which were such a burthen that neither we nor our fathers could undergo and also from the curse and malediction of the moral law would under this pretence of Christian liberty be freed from the obligation of all lawes and give themselves the freedom to do what they pleased for this would prove to be not the liberty but the bondage and the base slavery of a people that are not governed by lawes but suffered to do what they please because that neither God nor good lawes confine us but for our own good and he that forbids us to obey impious commands bids us to obey all righteous lawes and rather to suffer then to resist the most unrighteous Governours But I fear that under the name of the liberty of the subjects What is often aimed at under the name of theâ— liberty of the â—ubjects the licentiousnesse of the flesh is aymed at because you may see by what is already come to passe our civil dissention hath procured to many men such a liberty that few men are sure either of their life or estate and God blesse me from such a liberty and send me rather to be the slave of Christ then such a libertine of the world Whether for the preservation of our Religion we can be warranted to rebell And if religion be the cause that moveth you here hereunto I confesse this should be dearer to us then our lives but this title is like a velvet mask that is often used to cover a deformed face decipimur specie recti for as that worthy and learned Knight Sir John Cheek that was Tutor to King Edward the sixth saith If you were offered Persecution for Religion you ought to flye and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth ye ought to suffer like Martyrs and you would slay like Tyrants Thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Counsel of Christ nor the constancie of Martyrs And a little after he demands why the people should not like that Religion which Gods Word established the Primitive Church hath authorized the greatest learned men of this Realm and the whole consent of the Parliament have confirmed and the Kings Majesty hath set forth is it not truly set out Sir John Cheek in The true subject to the rebell p. 4 6. Dare you Commons take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realm have This was the judgement of that judicious man And I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that Faith should be compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with blood Micah 3.18 and Hierusalem with iniquitie and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reform the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels and idolatrous True religion never rebelleth with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation And this truth is so solid that it hath the clear testimony of holy Writ the perpetual practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the orthodox Bishops and Catholick Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the world That Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with arms to withstand the authority of our lawful Kings If you say The Laws of our Land Whether the Laws of our Land do warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdom give us leave to stand upon our libertie and to withstand all tyrannie that shall be offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to be destroyed To this I say with Laelius that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinum Laelâ—â—s de privileg Eccles 112. Mans lawes can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore we must not so preferre them or relye upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our fear of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the world may believe that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were afraid where no fear was And Job tells you whom terrours shall make afraid on every side Job 18.11 12. and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels do from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of fear for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without fear they know that the heart of the King is not in his own hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov 21.1 Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. qu. 1. as the rivers of waters and he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God He ordereth the King how to rule the people And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Jesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causelesse fears and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it self become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that Rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuel's judgement as the sinne of witchcraft whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devil and above all The remembrance of his Oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every Rebel remember the oath that many of you have taken to be true and faithful unto your King and to reveal whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or hear to be contrived against his Person Crown or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So help you God Which Oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore return O Shulamite 〈◊〉 lay down thine arms submit thy self unto thy Soveraign and know that as the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings 1 Kings 20.31 so is the King of England thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty â—est as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of
to passe them and though not for any offence that we saw in them yet for the scandall that might be taken at them we heartily wished they had never been so zealously propounded at that time But the Sectaries of London and the prevalent Faction in Parliament did with open mouth spend much time to the no small prejudice of the whole Kingdom and made many long Speeches to exclaim against them as against a Bundle of superstitions that obscured the purity of our Religion an introduction unto Popery and an intolerable unheard of the like invasion upon the liberty of the Subjects that revived again the Papal Tyranny which contrary to our Fundamental Laws have incroached to make Canons and Constitutions to bind our Consciences whereupon they canvas them and condemn them out of their house and the House of God out of the Church and Common-wealth and not only so but also the Contrivers of them and Consenters to them they terrifie and threaten to adjudge them sometimes with a praemunire to have forfeited all their goods and possessions and sometimes to be fin'd as we were at last with such a heavy Mulct as in all other mens judgement did far exceed the pretended offence especially of us that never consented to them And yet we find not only in Lindwood and others of our Canonists but also in the book of Martyrs and the rest of our English Histories that the Arch-Bishops within their Provinces have at several times made Canons and Constitutions for the Regulating of all the people committed to their charge without any suspicion of the least violation of our laws but the Faction say Sic volumus and the Houses of Parliament understand what is Law better then I do and therefore accordingly before the makers of them were called to make their answers by what Authority they made them or by what Law they could justify them they reject the Canons and censure their makers Yet notwithstanding their distast of them it is conceived by some that the Clergy having His Majesties writ to be convocated and leave to compose such Canons as they thought fit to be observed for the Honor of God the discharge of their duty and the good of the Church and having the Royal assent and approbation to all that they concluded which is all that I find the Statute provided in this case requireth though they should be defective or perhaps offensive in some circumstances yet if they be not legally abrogated after a full hearing of all parties and the Kings consent to reject them as it was to approve them they are still as binding and in as full force as ever they were though for mine own part I will not undertake the task to make that good when as both the Houses have condemned them but I say 4. This Scandal taken against these Canons 4. The appointing of a new framed Synod made way for the faction to call for a new Synod or Assembly of Divines for the rectifying of things amiss as well in Discipline as in Doctrine And in this new intended Synod the Divines are nominated not according to the rules and Canons of the Church and the Customs of all Nations Lay-men choosers of the Clergy as if a shepheard did choose pretious stones since the first Synod or Council of the Apostles by Divines that can best judg of their own abilities as when the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but fearing the Clergy would have sent men that were too Orthodoxal for their faith they deprived them of their rights and forgetting their Protestation to defend the right of the Subject the choice is made by themselves that are Lay men and Young men and many of them perhaps Prophane men or at least not so religious nor so judicious as they ought to be for a business of this nature of so great concernment as the direction of our souls to their eternal bliss And now they being nominated we know most of them what they are men not only justly suspected to be ill disposed to the peace of our Church and too much addicted to innovation to alter the Government What manner of men they have chosen to reject and cast away the Book of Common-Prayer to oppose Episcopacy and to displcae the grave and godly Governours of Gods Church but also apparently fashioned to the humours of these their own Disciples who are to be the only judges of their determinations that although some few Canonical men and most Reverend Learned and Religious Bishops and others for fashion sake to blind the World are named amongst them yet when as in a Parliament so in a Synod the most desperate faction if they prove prevalent to be the major part will carry any thing in despite of the better part they shall stand but as Cyphers able to do nothing they might abolish our old established Government erect their own new invented Discipline and propagate their well affected Doctrine in all Churches for you may judge of them by their compeers Goodwin Burrows Arrow-Smith and the rest of their ignorant factious and schismatical Ministers that together with those intruding Mechanicks who without any calling either from God or man do step from the Botchers boord or their Horses stable into the Preachers Pulpit are the bellows which blow up this fire that threateneth the destruction of our Land like Shebah's trumpet to summon the people unto Rebellion and like the red Dragon in the Revelation which gave them all his poyson and made them eloquent to disgorge their malice and to cast forth floods of slanders after those that keep Loyalty to their Soveraign and to belch forth their unsavory reproaches against those that discover their affected ignorance and Seditious wickedness in defence of truth and are the Instruments of this faction to seduce the poor people to the desolation of the whole Kingdom if not timely prevented by their repentance and assistance to enable him whom God hath made our Protector to defend us against all such transcendent wickedness And these are the main ends for which they summoned such a new Synod of their furious and Fanatick teachers upon whose temper and fidelity I believe no wise man that knows them would lay the least weight of his souls felicity Whar Synod they should have chosen Whereas if they desired a Reformation of things amiss and not rather an alteration of our Religion and the abolition of our now setled Government they would have called for such a Synod as was in Queen Elizabeths time when the 39 Articles of our Religion were composed and such as they needed not to be ashamed to own in future times nor the best refuse to associate the rest for the illegality of their election for if there be any scandalous Governours as we deny not but there may be a Cham in the Ark a Judas amongst the Apostles and perhaps an unjustifiable Prelate among the Bishops as there was a proud
God of their bellies to cause all the other guests to leath their meat that they alone might devour all the dainties did use Narium mucum in catinis emungere so do these men spit all their poyson against the Revenues of the Bishops and that little maintenance that is left unto the Ministers and are as greedy to devour the same themselves as the dogs that gape after every bit they see us put into our mouths for so I heard a whelp of that litter making a bitter invective in the House of Commons against Bishops Deans and Chapters and the greatness of their Revenue Doctor Burges and concluding that all they should be degraded their means should be sequestred and distributed all without any diminution of what they now possessed but with the restitution of all Impropriations unto himselfe and the rest of his factious fellow Preachers which speech as it pleased but few in the latter clause so no doubt it had fauters enough in the former part when we see this little remnant of our fore-fathers bounty this testimony of our Princes piety is the onely mote that sticks in their eye the undigested morsell in their stomacks and the onely bait that they gape after for did our King yeild this garment of Christ to be parted among their Souldiers and this revenue of the Church to be disposed of by the Parliament I doubt not but all quarrels about the Church would soon end and all oâ—her strife about Religion would be soon composed What many men would willingly undergo to procure peace But would this end all our civil Wars would the unbishoping of our Prelates bring rest unto our Prince and the taking away of their estates settle the State of the Common-wealth and bring peace and tranquillity unto this Kingdom If so we could be well contented for our own parts to be sacrificed for the safety of the people for though we dare not say with Saint Paul that we could wish our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separated from Christ for our Country-men yet I can say with a syncere heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.6 that I believe many of us could be well contented our fortunes should be confiscated and our lives ended so that could procure the peace of the Church which is infinitely troubled redeeme His Majesties honour which is so deeply wounded and preserve this our native Country from that destruction The abolishing of Episcopacy would not satisfie the Factious which this unparallel'd Rebellion doth so infallibly threaten but the truth is that the abolishing of Episcopacy root and branch the reducing of the best to the lowest rank and the bringing of the Clergy to the basest condition of servility to be such as should not be worthy to eate with the dogs of their flock as Job speaketh will not do the deed because as the Satyrist saith nemo repentè fit turpissimus but as virtues so vices have their encrease by use and progression Juven Sat. 2. primum quodque flagitium gradus est ad proximum and every heynous offence is as iron chain to draw on another For as Seneca saith nunquam usque adeò temperatae cupiditates sunt Seneca de Clem lib. 1. ut in eo quod contigit desinant sed gradus à magnis ad majora fit spes improbissimas complectuntur insperata assecuti our desires are never so far temperated that they end in that which is obtained but the gaining of one thing is a step to seek another And therefore cùm publicum jus omne positum sit in sacris as Plato saith how can it be that they which have prophaned all sacred things Plato de legibus lib. 12. and have degraded their Ministers should not also proceed to depose their Magistrates if you be diffident to believe the same let the Annals of France Germany England and Scotland be revised and you shall find that Charles the fifth was then troubled with War when the Bishops were turmoyled and tumbled out of their Seas Scoti uno eodémque momento numinis principis jugum excusserunt nec justum magistratum agnoverunt ullum ex quo primùm tempore sacris sacerdotibus bellum indixerunt and the Scots at one and the self-same moment did shake off the yoke of their obedience both unto their God and to their King neither did they acknowledg any for their just Magistrate after they had once warred against Religion and religious men Blacvod Apolog pro regibus pag. â—3 which were their Priests and Bishops saith Blacvodaeus and in Fran e saith he the same men were enemies unto the King that were adversaries unto the Priests quia politicam dominationem nunquam ferent qui principatum Ecclesiae sustulerunt nec mirum si Regibus obloquantur qui sacerdotes flammâ ferro persequuntur because as I have shewed at large in my Grand Rebellion they will never endure the Political Magistrate to have any rule The haters of the Bishops ever enemies unto kings when they have shaken off the Ecclesiastical government neither is it any wonder that they should slander rage against and reject their King when they persecute their Bishops with fire and sword And I think the sad aspect of this distracted Kingdom at this time makes this point so clear that I need not add any more proof to beget faith in any sober man for doth not all the World see that as soon as the seditious and trayterous faction in this unhappy Parliament had cast most of the Bishops How soon the Faction fell upon the King after they had cast off their Bishops the gravest and the greatest of all with Joseph into the dungeon a thing that no story can shew the like president in any age and had voted them all contrary to all right out of their indubitable right to sit in the House of Peers an act indeed so full of incivility as hath no small affinity with that of the Gergesites who for love of their swine drave not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 8.34 but desired Christ to depart out of their coasts they presently began to pluck the sword out of the Kings hand and endeâ—voured to make their Soveraign in many things more servile then any of his own Subjects so that he should be gloriosissimè servilis as Saint Augustine saith that Homer was suavissimè vanus and to effect this you see how they have torn in peices all his Rights they have trampled his Prerogatives under foot they have as much as they could laid his honour in the dust and they have with violent warr and virulent malice sought to vanquish and subdue their own most gracious Soveraign which cannot chuse but make any Christian heart to bleed to see such unchristian and such horrid unheard of things attempted to be done by any that would take upon him the name of a Christian Therefore to manifest my duty to
then any one man can rule and would quickly despise Heaven and destroy the earth if their consciences were not awed with Religion or would you damme up the channels of those benefits that should flow from them to the Common-wealth for it is not the addition of any honour to the calling of a Bishop but the King's interest and the peoples good that is aimed at when we assert the capacity of the Clergy to discharge the offices of the most publique affaires Petrus Blesensis ep 84. because as Petrus Blesensis saith it is the office of the Bishops to instruct the King to righteousness to be a rule of Sanctity and sobriety unto the Court to mix the influencies of Religion with the designes of State and to restrain the malignity of the ill-disposed people and all histories do relate unto us that when pious Bishops were imployed in the King's Counsels the rigour of the Lawes was abated equity introduced the cry of the poor respected their necessities relieved the liberties of the Church preserved pride depressed religion increased the devotion of the Laity multiplied the peace of the Kingdom flourished and the tribunals were made more just and merciful then now they be And therefore the sacred histories do record of purpose how the people of God never adventured upon any action of weight and moment before they had well consulted with the Priests and Prophets as you see in the example of Ahab No Nation attempted any great matter without the advice of their Priests that was none of the best Kings yet would not omit this good duty and such was the custom of all other Countries wheresoever there was any religion or reverence of God Quae enim est respub ubi ecclesiastici primum non habeant locum in comitiis publicis de salute reipub deliberationibus for which is that Common-wealth where the Ecclesiastical persons had not the first place in all meetings and publique consultations about the welfare of the Common-wealth as in Germany the three spiritual Electours are the first in France the three Ecclesiastical persons were the first of all the Peers in England till this unhappy time the two Archbishops and in Poland as many were wont to have the chiefest place and not unworthily quia aequum est Apud Euseb Pamphilam l. 11. Strabo l. 4. Caesar de bello Gallico lib. 6. antestent in concilio qui antestant prudentiâ nec videtur novisse res humanas nisi qui divinas cognitas habet as the Indian said unto Socrates and therefore the Chaldaans the Aegyptians the Graecians the Romanes the French and the Britons thought it alwayes ominous to attempt any notable thing in the Common-wealth without the sad and sage advice of their Priests and Prophets for they knew the neglect of God was never left without due revenge and though their false gods were no gods yet the true God was found to have been a sharp revenger of the contempt of the false gods because that to them they were proposed for the true gods and they believed them so to be as Lactantius sheweth and therefore all antiquity that bare any reverence to any Deity shewed all reverence and respect unto the teachers of his religion but now men desire to throw learning over the Bar because it should not discover the ignorance of the Bench or rather piety is excluded because it should not reprove their iniquity And the Clergy must not sit on the seat of judgement that the Laity may do injustice without controul or perhaps revenge themselves upon their Ministers on the Bench for reproving their vices in the Church so the Devil gaineth whatsoever piety loseth by their depression 2. As the Clergy-men are as able 2. The desire of the Clergy to do good to the State so they are as willing and as careful to provide for the good of the State as any other for themselves are members of the Common-wealth and they are appointed by God to be watchmen and overseers to foretel what mischiefes or felicities are like to ensue and to admonish as well the Prince as the people of such things as are to be avoided and to be performed which they cannot do if they be strangers from the conscience and excluded from the conference of such things that are to be done in the Common wealth Therefore seeing the good of the Common-wealth is their own good The Church of Christ and a Christian common-wealth sail together and the good of the Church is the good of the Common-wealth when a Christian Common-wealth and the Church of Christ are imbarked in the same Vessel and do sayle together with the same successe aiming both at the same Port and God hath commanded his Ministers to be no lesse solicitous for the one then the other it is incredible to think that a godly Minister should have lesse care of the Common-wealth then the best of our common Burgo-Masters and it is impossible to conceive any true reason why the Bishops and Pastours above all others should be excommunicated out of their assemblies and excluded from their Parliaments and other civil Courts when it doth most chiefly concern them to see unto the wellfare of their flock not onely in such things as concern the safety of their souls A miserable thing that the Ministers of the Gospel should be made more slaves then the basest calling in the World but also in all other things that may pertain either to the security of their bodies or the quietness of their estates because this is a thing utterly against the equal right of all Subjects that the Ministers of the Gospel being Subjects unto the king and Citizens of the Commonwealth should have nothing to do in the Government thereof but must be governed not as strangers that may have admission but as slaves with an impossibility to be received into the civil administration af any matter and their exclusion is as prejudicial to the king and kingdome as it is injurious unto the Clergy when they must be deprived of the grave advice and faithful service of so learned and religious assistants for the government of the people as the reverend Bishops and devout Doctors have ever been Ob. 3. Act. 15. S. Cyprian punished Geminius Faustinus for undertaking the Executor ship of Geminius Victor ep 66. Sol. 3. If you say the sixth Canon of the Apostles the seventh Canon of the Council of Calcedon and Saint Cyprian in his Epistle to the Priests of Furnam do forbid these things in Ecclesiastical persons and so many Fathers have accordingly refused these civil imployments and jurisdictions I answer briefly that while the Emperours were Heathens and neither the Kings nor their Kingdoms Christian but their counsels were often held for wicked ends private gain or privy deceit for bloudy murthers or horrid treason◠the Clergy were inhibited and the godly Bishops were ashamed to sit in such ungodly assemblies that would neither be converted to
be heartily sorry that these unjust Acts and Ordinances were ever done and more sorry that they were not sooner undone and then God will turne his face towards us he will heale the bleeding wounds of our Land and he will powre down his benefits upon us but till we do these things I do assure my selfe and I beleive you shall finde it that his wrath shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still and still untill we either do these things or be destroyed for not doing them King James his speech made true by the Rebells Thus it is manifest to all the World that as it was often spoken by our sharpe and eagle-sighted Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory no Bishop no King so now I hope the dull-ey'd owle that lodgeth in the desart seeth it verifyed by this Parliament for they had no sooner got out the Bishops but presently they laid violent hands upon the Crowne seized upon the Kings Castles How the Rebells have unking'd our King shut him out of all his Townes dispossest him of his owne houses took away all his sâ—ips detained all his revenues vilified all his Declarations nullified his Proclamations hindered his Commissions imprisoned his faithfull Subjects killed his servants and at Edge-hill and Newbury did all that ever they could to take away his life and now by their last great ordinance for their counterfeit Seale they pronounce all honours pardons grants commissions and whatsoever else His Majesty passeth under his Seale to be invalid void and of none effect and if this be not to make King Charles no King I know not what it is to be a King Hos 8.4 so they have unking'd him sine strepitu and as the Prophet saith they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not What kings they would have to rule us but whom have they made Kings even themselves who in one word do and have now exercised all or most of the regall power and their Ordinances shall be as firm as any Statutes and what are they that have thus dis-robed King Charles and exalted themselves like the Pope as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist above all that are called Gods truly none other then king Pym king Say king Faction or to say the truth most truly and to call a spade a spade king perjurers king murderers king traytors * Whâ—ch S. Peter never bade us honour The Rebells brave exchange Psal 146.20 and I am sorry that I should joyne so high an office so sacred a thing as King to such wicked persons as I have shewed them to be And what a royal exchange would the Rebels of this Kingdome make just such as the Israelites made when they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that cateth hay and said these be thy Gods Psal 146.20 O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt for now after they have changed their lawful King for unlawful Tyrants and taken Jothams bramble for the cedar of Lebanon the Devils instruments for Gods Anointed Judg. 9.15 they may justly say these be thy Kings O Londoners O Rebels that brought thee out of a Land that flowed with milke and hony out of those houses that were filled with all manner of store into a land of misery into houses of sorrow that are filled with wailings lamentations and woes when we see the faithful City is become an harlot our gold drosse and our happinesse turned to continual heavinesse But as the Rutilians considering what fruit they should reape by that miserable war wherein they were so far ingaged cried out at last Virgil Aeneid l. 12. Scilicet ut Turno contingat regiae conjux Nos animae viles inhumata infletáque turba Sternamur campis We undo our selves our wives and our children to gain a wife for Turnus so our seduced men may say we ingage our selves to dye like doggs that these rebels may live like Kings who themselves sit at ease while others endure all woes and do grow rich by making all the Kingdome poore and therefore O England quae tanta est licentia ferri lugebit patria multos when as the Apostle saith evill men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived for God is not mocked but whatsoever a man soweth 2 Tim. 3.13 Gal. 6.7 that shall he also reape for though we for our sins may justly suffer these and many other more miseries we do confesse it yet the whole world may be assured that these Rebels the generation of vipers being but the Rod of Gods fury The Rebels sure to be destroyed Contemptrix superûm sevaeque avidissima caedis violenta fuit scires è sanguine natam 2 Sam. 7.1 to correct the offences of his children such seeds of wickedness as they sow can produce none other harvest then ruine and destruction to all these usurping Kings and Traytors who thinke to please God by doing good service unto the Devil and to go to Heaven for their good intention after they are carried into Hell for their horrid Rebellion God Almighty grant them more grace and our King more care to beware of them and when God doth grant him rest with David on every side round about him to restore his Bishops and Clergy to their pristine station that when these bramble rods are burnt and these rebels fallen the King and the Bishops may still stand like Moses and Aaron to guide and gouerne Gods people committed to their charge And thus I have shewed thee O man some of the sacred rights of royal Majesty granted by God in his holy Scriptures practised by Kings from the beginning of the world yeilded by all nations that had none other guide but the light of nature to direct them I have also shewed thee how the people greedy of liberty and licentiousnesse have like the true children of old Adam that could not long endure the sweet yoke of his Creator strived and strugled to withdraw their necks from that subjection which their condition required and their frowardnesse necessitated to be imposed upon them and thereby have either graciously gained such love and fauour from many pious and most clement Princes as for the sweetning of their well merited subjection to grant them many immunities and priviledges or have most rebelliously incroached upon these rights of Kings wresting many liberties out of the hands of Government and forcibly retaining them to their own advantage sometimes to the overthrow of the royal government as Junius Brutus and his associates did the Kings of Rome sometimes to the diminution of the dimidium if not more then halfe his right as the Ephori did to the kings of Lacedemon but alwayes to the great prejudice of the king and the greater mischief to the Common-wealth because both reason and experience hath found it alwayes true that the regal
undutiful Subjects but also his ungracious and unnatural Son Absalon must drive him once again to flee not to preserve his Kingdom but to save his Life and because the Wheel turns round this Cloud suddenly vanisheth Absalon is hanged and the King is joyfully received and honourably restored to his Royal Throne and after all this he had many the like changes of sundry kinds of Accidents somtimes gladsom and somtimes doleful while he lived So the Son of David and the Son of God Jesus Christ in the second of Math. And of the condition of Jesus Christ is presented with Gifts and worshipped as a God by the Kings and wise men of the East and in the same Chapter he is persecuted by King Herod that he was fain to flee into Egypt to save his life yet afterwards he was so magnified by the people that he was fain to hide himself to prevent his being crowned King and upon Mount Tabor he was to transfigured in Glory that his Face did shine as the Sun and not long after upon Mount Calvary he was so disfigured with sorrow that confusion went over his face so far that as the Prophet saith in him there was neither form nor beauty so upon Mount Olivet even now there was an Angel comforting him and by and by an Agony affrighting him and so upon the Cross even now he crieth as one destitute of all help My God My God why hast thou forsaken me and by and by after as a man full of comfort and confidence in Gods favour he saith Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And if the time and your patience would give me leave I could amplifie to you this Point in the like revolution of this wheel I dare not call it of Fortune as the Heathens did but of Gods Providence as the Scripture sheweth it is in Abraham in Joseph in Moses in C. Marius in Alcibiades and in abundance more of those Worthies whose lives you may read in the holy Scripture in Plutarch and in many other Authors and which were variarum for tunarum viri men that had tasted of all conditions and had experience of all kind of Life being tossed up and down and up again and so still turn and turn again and again from a good condition to a bad and from a bad to a good again But I had rather perswade you all to make that use of this variable vanity which Sesostris King of Egypt did of the sad condition of those Kings that horses-like he compelled to draw about his Caroach for he having four captive Kings set them like horses to draw his Caroach even as King Edgar is reported to have Kennady King of Scots Malcolme King of Cumberland Duffnal and Gruffith Kings of Wales Maxentius the Arch-Pyrat and Huval a great Prince to row his Barge upon the River Dee and Sesostris marking how one of his caroached Kings Speed Chron in the life of Edgar p. 349. still as he drew looked back upon the Wheels of his Chariot demanded of him what he meant so often to look behind him the poor King unaccustomed to such a trade submissively answered it was to see how that part of the Wheel which is now highest becomes presently the lowest and then again immediatly the lowest becometh highest and so still wheeles his round and never continueth in one stay Whereupon the wise Sesostris rightly apprehending that serious Embleme presently commanded the Kings to be set at liberty as well weighing with himself how suddenly God can change the course and turn the Wheel of all mortal things and as he can loose the bonds of Kings and cast them down with Nebuchadnezzar from their stately Palaces to dwell among the Beasts of the field as he did great Bajazet from his Royal Empire Turkish Hist in the life of Bajazet p. 220. to be carried about with Tamerlane in an iron cage so he can bring them again out of prison as he did Joseph Manasses and Henry the Third of this Kingdom he can raise them again out of the dust as he did Job to his former dignity and Nebuchadnezzar from the fields to be re-established in his Royal Throne As now blessed be God he hath most graciously done to out most Gracious King and he can if he please add more Glory unto them than ever they had before This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and this he can easily do and he can suddenly do and we are not worthy to know how soon he will turn our wheel and make the poor men rich and the mean men Lords as he hath lately made the rich men poor and the great Lords to be without their Lordships for there is nothing biding but as my Text saith omnis homo vanitas as well tne commanding Lords that do now reign as Kings in the great Babylon of this world as the poor ejected Bishops and other Servants of Christ that are wandring and perhaps wanting bread in the wilderness of this world What the former Doctrine should teach us 1 Lesson And this Revolution of all men and of all earthly things should teach us all these two special Lessons 1. Never to be exalted or puffed up with pride when we are lifted up to honour and greatness nor to be troubled and discontented when we see them that were Servants Eccl. 10.7 ride upon horses as the wise man speaketh that is when we see such as were Vassals made Lords and many wicked mean men magnified as Princes which now you may behold in many Kingdoms of the world These Sermons were firs preached in the time of the usurping Rebels For though as the Poet saith Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum None is more insolent than the Beggar when he is on horseback none more tyrannical than Servants or women that were made to obey and not to rule when they become to be the Masters of their Masters of which thing the Prophet complaineth that Children and such as should be ruled are the Oppressors of the people Es 3.12 and women do rule over them Yet they may remember that the wheel of such prosperity hath often turned and the Horse hath many times cast his Rider and you know what the Prophet David saith I my self have seen them in great power ruling and domineering over their brethren and flourishing like a green Bay-tree and I went by and perhaps durst say nothing to them but Io within a little while they were gone and I sought after them Psal 36.37 but they could no where be found and we may chance live to see the like Changes and tumbling down of many of such wicked men as the Prophet David hath seen 2. The former Point should teach us never to be dejected or cast down with grief and despair 2 Lesson when we see our selves or our friends that were Lords and Companions of Princes walking alone as servants