Answer to a Book, Part 17
XVII. Of the differences in point of Church-Goverment.
THE Goverment of Church by Bishops hath bin so fully prov'd from the Scriptures to be vitious and usurp'd, that whether out of Piety or Policy maintain'd, it is not much material. For Pietie grounded upon error can no more justifie King Charles, then it did Queen Mary, in the sight of God or Man. This however must not be let pass without a serious observation; God having so dispos'd the Author in this Chapter as to confess and discover more of Mysterie and combination between Tyranny and fals Religion, then from any other hand would have bin credible. Heer we may see the very dark roots of them both turn'd up, and how they twine and interweave one another in the Earth, though above ground shooting up in two sever'd Branches. We may have learnt both from sacred History, and times of Reformation, that the Kings of this World have both ever hated, and instinctively fear'd the Church of God. Whether it be for that thir Doctrin seems much to favour two things to them so dreadful, Liberty and Equality, or because they are the Children of that Kingdom, which, as ancient Prophesies have foretold, shall in the end break to peeces and dissolve all thir great power and Dominion, And those Kings and Potentates who have strove most to ridd themselves of this feare, by cutting off or suppressing the true Church, have drawn upon themselves the occasion of thir own ruin, while they thought with most policy to prevent it. Thus Pharaoh, when once he began to feare and wax jealous of the Israelites, least they should multiply and fight against him, and that his feare stirr'd him up to afflict and keep them under, as the onelyonly remedy of what he feard, soon found that the evil which before slept, came suddenly upon him, by the preposterous way he took to shun it. Passing by examples between, & not shutting wilfully our eyes, we may see the like story brought to pass in our own Land. This King more then any before him, except perhapps his Father, from his first entrance to the Crown, harbouring in his mind a strange feare and suspicion of men most religious, and thir Doctrin, which in his own language he heer acknowledges, terming it the seditious exorbitancie of Ministers tongues, and doubting least they, as he not Christianly expresses it, should with the Keys of Heav'n let out Peace and Loyaltie from the peoples hearts, though they never preacht or attempted aught that might justly raise in him such apprehensions, he could not rest, or think himself secure, so long as they remain'd in any of his three Kingdoms unrooted out. But outwardly professing the same Religion with them, he could not presently use violence as Pharaoh did, and that course had with others before but ill succeeded. He chooses therfore a more mystical way, a newer method of Antichristian fraud, to the Church more dangerous: and like to Balac the Son of Zippor, against a Nation of Prophets thinks it best to hire other esteemed Prophets, and to undermine and weare out the true Church by a fals Ecclesiastical policy. To this drift he found the Goverment of Bishops most serviceable; an order in the Church, as by men first corrupted, so mutually corrupting them who receave it, both in judgement and manners. He, by conferring Bishoprics and great Livings on whom he thought most pliant to his will, against the known Canons and universal practice of the ancient Church, wherby those elections were the peoples right, sought, as he confesses, to have greatest influence upon Church-men. They on the other side finding themselves in a high Dignity, neither founded by Scripture, nor allow'd by Reformation, nor supported by any spiritual gift or grace of thir own, knew it thir best cours to have dependence onelyonly upon him: and wrought his fansie by degrees to that degenerat, and unkingly perswasion of No Bishop, no King. When as on the contrary all Prelats in thir own suttle sense are of another mind; according to that of Pius the fourth, rememberd in the Trentine storie, that Bishops then grow to be most vigorous and potent, when Princes happ'n to be most weak, and impotent. Thus when both Interests of Tyrannie and Episcopacie were incorporat into each other, the King whose principal safety and establishment consisted in the righteous execution of his civil power, and not in Bishops and thir wicked counsels, fatally driv'n on, set himself to the extirpating of those men whose Doctrin, and desire of Church Discipline he so fear'd would bee the undoing of his Monarchie. And because no temporal Law could touch the innocence of thir lives, he begins with the persecution of thir consciences, laying scandals before them: and makes that the argument to inflict his unjust penalties both on thir bodies and Estates. In this Warr against the Church if he hath sped so, as other haughty Monarchs whom God heertofore hath hard'nd to the like enterprize, we ought to look up with praises and thanksgiving to the Author of our deliverance, to whom victorie and power, Majestie, Honour, and Dominion belongs for ever.
In the mean while from his own words we may perceave easily, that the special motives which he had to endeere and deprave his judgement to the favouring and utmost defending of Episcopacie, are such as heer wee represent them: and how unwillingly and with what mental reservation he condescended against his interest to remove it out of the Peers house, hath bin shown alreadie. The reasons, which he affirmes wrought so much upon his judgement, shall be so farr answerd as they be urg'd.
Scripture, he reports, but distinctly produces none; and next the constant practice of all Christian Churches, till of late yeares tumult, faction, pride, and covetousness, invented new models under the Title of Christs Goverment. Could any Papist have spoke more scandalously against all Reformation? Well may the Parlament and best-affected People not now be troubl'd at his calumnies and reproaches, since he binds them in the same bundle with all other the reformed Churches; who also may now furder see, besides thir own bitter experience, what a Cordial and well meaning helper they had of him abroad, and how true to the Protestant cause.
As for Histories to prove Bishops, the Bible, if we mean not to run into errors, vanities, and uncertainties, must be our onelyonly Historie. Which informs us that the Apostles were not properly Bishops; next, that Bishops were not successors of Apostles, in the function of Apostleship: And that if they were Apostles, they could not be preciselie Bishops; if Bishops, they could not be Apostles; this being Universal, extraordinarie, and immediat from God; that being an ordinarie, fixt, & particular charge, the continual inspection over a certain Flock. And although an ignorance and deviation of the ancient Churches afterward, may with as much reason and charity be suppos'd as sudden in point of Prelatie, as in other manifest corruptions, yet that no example since the first age for 1500 yeares can be produc'd of any setled Church, wherin were many Ministers and Congregations, which had not some Bishops above them, the Ecclesiastical storie, to which he appeals for want of Scripture, proves cleerly to be a fals and over-confident assertion. Sczomenus who wrote above Twelve hundred years agoe, in his seventh Book relates from his own knowledge, that in the Churches of Cyprus and Arabia, (places neer to Jerusalem, and with the first frequented by Apostles) they had Bishops in every Village; and what could those be more then Presbyters? The like he tells of other Nations; and that Episcopal Churches in those daies did not condemn them. I add that many Western Churches eminent for thir Faith and good Works, and settl'd above four hundred years agoe in France, in Piemont and Bohemia, have both taught and practis'd the same Doctrin, and not admitted of Episcopacie among them. And if we may beleeve what the Papists themselves have writt'n of these Churches, which they call Waldenses, I find it in a Book writt'n almost four hundred years since, and set forth in the Bohemian Historie, that those Churches in Piemont have held the same Doctrin and Goverment, since the time that Constantine with his mischeivous donations poyson'd Silvester and the whole Church. Others affirme they have so continu'd there since the Apostles: and Theodorus Belvederensis in his relation of them, confesseth that those Heresies, as he names them, were, from the first times of Christianity, in that place. For the rest I referr me to that famous testimonie of Jerom, who upon this very place which he onelyonly roaves at heer, the Epistle to Titus, declares op'nly that Bishop and Presbyter were one and the same thing, till by the instigation of Satan, partialities grew up in the Church; and that Bishops rather by custom, then any ordainment of Christ, were exalted above Presbyters: whose interpretation we trust shall be receav'd before this intricate stuffe tattl'd heer of Timothy and Titus, and I know not whom thir Successors, farr beyond Court Element, and as farr beneath true edification. These are his fair grounds both from Scripture-Canons and Ecclesiastical examples; how undivinelike writt'n, and how like a worldly Gospeller that understands nothing of these matters, posteritie no doubt will be able to judge: and will but little regard what he calls Apostolical, who in his Letter to the Pope calls Apostolical the Roman Religion.
Nor let him think to plead, that therfore it was not policy of State, or obstinacie in him which upheld Episcopacie, because the injuries and losses which he sustain'd by so doing, were to him more considerable then Episcopacie it self; for all this might Pharaoh have had to say in his excuse of detaining the Israelites; that his own and his Kingdoms safety so much endanger'd by his denial, was to him more deer, then all thir building labours could be worth to Aegypt. But whom God hard'ns, them also he blinds.
He endeavours to make good Episcopacie not only in Religion, but from the nature of all civil Government, where parity breeds confusion and faction. But of faction and confusion, to take no other then his own testimony, where hath more bin ever bred then under the imparitie of his own Monarchical Goverment? Of which to make at this time longer dispute, and from civil constitutions, and human conceits to debate and question the convenience of Divine Ordinations, is neither wisdom nor sobrietie: and to confound Mosaic Preisthood with Evangelic Presbyterie against express institution, is as far from warrantable. As little to purpose is it, that we should stand powling the Reformed Churches, whether they equalize in number those of his three Kingdoms; of whom so lately the far greater part, what they have long desir'd to doe, have now quite thrown off Episcopacie.
Neither may we count it the language or Religion of a Protestant, so to vilifie the best Reformed Churches (for none of them but Lutherans retain Bishops) as to feare more the scandalizing of Papists, because more numerous, then of our Protestant Brethren because a handful. It will not be worth the while to say what Scismatics or Heretics have had no Bishops; yet least he should be tak'n for a great Reader, he who prompted him, if he were a Doctor, might have rememberd the foremention'd place in Sozomenus; which affirmes that besides the Cyprians and Arabians who were counted Orthodoxal, the Novatians also, and Montanists in Phrygia had no other Bishops then such as were in every Village: and what Presbyter hath a narrower Diocess? As for the Aërians we know of no Heretical opinion justly father'd upon them, but that they held Bishops & Presbyters to be the same. Which he in this place not obscurely seems to hold a Heresie in all the Reformed Churches: with whom why the Church of England desir'd conformitie, he can find no reason with all his charity, but the comming in of the Scots Army; Such a high esteem he had of the English.
He tempts the Clergie to return back again to Bishops, from the feare of tenuity and contempt, and the assurance of better thriving under the favour of Princes; against which temptations if the Clergie cannot arm themselves with thir own spiritual armour, they are indeed as poor a Carkass as he terms them.
Of Secular honours and great Revenues added to the dignitie of Prelats, since the subject of that question is now remov'd, we need not spend time: But this perhaps will never bee unseasonable to beare in minde out of Chrysostome, that when Ministers came to have Lands, Houses, Farmes, Coaches, Horses, and the like Lumber, then Religion brought forth riches in the Church, and the Daughter devour'd the Mother.
But if his judgement in Episcopacie may be judg'd by the goodly chois he made of Bishops, we need not much amuse our selves with the consideration of those evils which, by his foretelling, will necessarily follow thir pulling down, untill he prove that the Apostles having no certain Diocess or appointed place of residence, were properly Bishops over those Presbyters whom they ordain'd, or Churches they planted; wherein ofttimes thir labours were both joint and promiscuous: Or that the Apostolic power must necessarily descend to Bishops, the use and end of either function being so different. And how the Church hath flourisht under Episcopacie, let the multitude of thir ancient and gross errors testifie; and the words of some learnedest and most zealous Bishops among them; Nazianzen in a devout passion wishing Prelaty had never bin; Basil terming them the Slaves of Slaves; Saint Martin, the enemies of Saints, and confessing that after he was made a Bishop, he found much of that grace decay in him which he had before.
Concerning his Coronation Oath what it was, and how farr it bound him, already hath bin spok'n. This we may take for certain, that he was never sworn to his own particular conscience and reason, but to our conditions as a free people; which requir'd him to give us such Laws as our selves shall choose. This the Scots could bring him to, and would not be baffl'd with the pretence of a Coronation Oath, after that Episcopacy had for many years bin settl'd there. Which concession of his to them, and not to us, he seeks heer to put off with evasions that are ridiculous. And to omit no shifts, he alleges that the Presbyterian manners gave him no encouragement to like thir modes of Government. If that were so, yet certainly those men are in most likelihood neerer to amendment, who seek a stricter Church Discipline then that of Episcopacy; under which the most of them learnt thir manners. If estimation were to be made of Gods Law by their manners, who leaving Aegypt, receav'd it in the Wilderness, it could reap from such an inference as this, nothing but rejection and disesteem.
For the Prayer wherwith he closes, it had bin good som safe Liturgie, which he so commends, had rather bin in his way; it would perhaps in som measure have perform'd the end for which they say Liturgie was first invented; and have hinder'd him, both heer and at other times, from turning his notorious errors into his Praiers.