The Diocesans Trial, Title page – Preface
THE Diocesans Tryall. WHEREIN ALL THE SINNEWES OF DOCTOR Dovvnhams Defence Are brought into three heads, and orderly dissolved. BY M. PAVL BAYNES. Published by Dr. WILLIAM AMIS.
The questions discussed in this Diocesans tryall are these:
1. Whether Christ … …nstitute, or the Apostles frame any Diocesan forme of Churches, or parishionall onelyonly, pag. 1.
2. Whether Christ ordained by himselfe, or by his Apostles, any ordinary Pastours, as our Bishops, having both precedency of order, and majority of power over others, pag 24.
3. Whether Christ did immediately commit ordinary power Ecclesiasticall, and the exercise of it, to any one singular person, or to an united multitude of Presbyters, pag. 78.
Imprinted 1621.
THE PREFACE.
MAny writings, and sermons also have cause to wish that the men from whom they come were lesse knowen then they are. For then should they be free from much prejudice, and find better acceptance with those that they come to. But I wish nothing more unto this Treatise, which is now cōming into the world, then that the Author of it were throughly known un…o all those that shall encet with it; for then his work would need no borrowed commendation, the title it self carrying authority with it, even to force respect from every h…nest Reader, if either the sharpnes of wit, variety of reading, depth of judgment, aptnes to teach, holy and pleasant language, heavenly conversation, wise cariage, or any fulnes of grace wil so far prevail with him. I doe not abuse good words, or load one with thhem whom they do not belong to, as many p…inters of Sepulchrs in their funerall Orations use to do: but speak that in short, which M. Baines his person did largly preach unto all such as came neer unto him: & that which his incomparable writings wil sufficiently witnes to sutur generations.
Neither is this all that the Authours quality may suggest unto the considerate Reader: but he may arise from this to more important thoughts; especially if the remembrance of M. Baines his worth do occasion him to think of many others like unto him: …uch as M. Dee…ing▪ M. More …. Greenham, M. Perkins, M. Rogers, M. Cartwright, M. Fenner, M. Brightman, M. Parker, M. Philips, M. Hie…on, and M. Bradshaw &c. to speak nothing of those which yet live, nor of D. R…inolds, D. Fulk, and D. Whitakers with many others. For all these being apprehēded as mē agreeing in one spirit, & having had indeed the spirit of glory resting on them, as their works do shew, together with those letters testimonial which they left written in the hearts of many thousand Christians, it must needs cause at the least an inquiry, what the reason should be what such famous men of God, could never like wel of our Bishoply courses in England, nor ever be favoured of them. The case is plaine to all: and the cause is as evident to those that have eyes to see: but no where more apparant then in the person of M. Baines, and the place where he, and other… like him were made signes of this antipathie. Cambridge is or should be, as an eye to all our land: so that the alterations that fall out there cannot but be felt of all parts. It is th… place of light; the spirituall oppressions whi…h in other corners are covered with darknesse (as all the works of darknesse would be) when past all shame they come to confront the Sunne it selfe, how can they then be hidden?
When M. Perkins had there for many yeares held forth a burning and shining light, the sparks wherof did flie abroad into all corners of the land, and after he had served his time was taken up into heaven, there was none found so meet for to receive, as it were, the torch out of his hand, and succeed him in that great office of bearing it before such a people, as this M. Bains, upon whom also the spirit of that Elias, was by experience found to be doubled. In this station he so demeaned himself for some years, that impietie only had cause to complaine: for all that favoured the waies of God, rejoyced and gloried in him and his Minist…ry, asa spirituall treasure. But at length the hower of darknes came from Lambeth, when Arch. Bancroft sent M. Harsenet to Visite as they call it, that is (if termes may be interpreted by common practise) to pick the purses of poore men, and to suppr…sse those that are not f…iends to the B…shops Kingdome. For though in that circuit there were a multitude of unable and notoriously scandalous Ministers, yet none were foūd worthy of censure, but only M. B…in…s, of whom the world was not worthy, and one other Preacher like unto him. Now it is hard to say, whether the silencing of him was more odious, or the manner of it shameles. There must be a Sermon (ye know) at such Visitations, for fashion sake, though the Visiter himself can seldom find leasure to make it. This part was therfore appointed to M. Bains by the Visiters▪ that he might either be insnared in his words, if he did not apply himself to their humours, or else grace their ungratious courses, if he did. But it did not succeed handsomly either way: For he delivered wholesome docttrine appertaining to the present audience, in such warie manner, that no specious occasion could be taken therby of questioning his liberty. Yet fairely or fouly the mischievous intention must not faile. M. Baines having heat his weak body by straining to speak unto a great audience, retired himselfe presently upon his comming down from the Pulpit to provide for his health, which otherwise would have bin indangered. They in the meā time going on with their businesse, as they are wont in the masterly forme of a master, called for M. Baines amongst the rest, and upon his not answering, though he was not cited thither as to a Court, but only intreated to preach, as he did, yet for not appearing, he was immediately silenced. Afterward in deed, the Chancellor being informed of that grosse nullity, which was in the sentence, urged him about subscription and conformity; and so to make sure work, silenced him over again. In which businesse he was so conscious unto himself of unreasonable and ridiculous dealing, that when M. B…in…s standing to receive the sentence of a corrupt man, did lift up his heart and eies unto God with a heavenly smiling countenance, as he used, he interpreted that gesture to be a skorne of his authority. This being don, M. Baines was perswaded by his friends to try the Archbishops courtesie, unto whom, when he presented himself, at the very first salutation; the gravity and severity of B. Bancroft led him sharply to rebuke the good man for a little black-worke, which was upon the edges of his cuffes, asking him how he durst come before him with such cuffs, telling him very bishoplike, that it were a good turn to lay him by the heels for so doing. After this he would have no more to do with such absurd unreasonable men: but preached somtime wher he might have liberty, as his weakenesse of body would suffer; and spent the rest of his time in reading, meditating, praying and writing, saving that upon occasion hee did instruct or comfort those which came to him in private, wherin he had a heavenly gift. He was indeed all his life after, beside the weakenes of his body pressed with want, no having (as he often complained to his friends) a place to rest his head in: which me thought was an upbraid…ng of the age and place where he lived with base regardlesnes of piety & learning: yet he never so much as consulted with himselfe of denying his sinceritie by pleasing the Bishops, of whom and their courses he was wont to say, They are a generation of the earth, earthly and savour not the waies of God. Which saying of his, they, and some Doctors of Cambridge have since made good, in that they could not indure, that the place from whence they thrust him, should be supplied by oth…r honest men, though they were cōformable, but with absolute authority at length forbad it, alledging that Puritanes were made by that lecture: wheras the truth is, that one lecture hath done more good to the Church of God in England, then all the doctors of Cambridge: though I doe not deny, but some of them have wrought a good work.
By this one instance (of which kind I would there were not a 100 in our land) it may easily appeare to the understanding Reader, that here is as much agreement betwixt our Bish…ps in their managing of Religion (except some 2 or 3, which went out of their elements, when they ventered on those places) & those powerful Preachers who have bin the chief means of revealing Gods arme unto salvation, as there is betwixt the light which commeth down from h…aven, & that thick mist which ariseth from the lowest pit.
But wee need not seeke for demonstrations of the spirit which worketh in our Hierarchie from this opposition, look but at the fruits of it, wher it hath al… fulnes of consent, as Cathedrall Pallaces, or Parishes of Bishops and Archbishops residence, suc… as Lambeth is, where all their canons are in force, a…d have their full sway without contradiction: nay come neerer unto them, and take a view of their families, even to them that wait in their chambers, and see what godlinesse there is to be found Have there not more of God and his Kingdome appeared in some one Congregation of those Ministers which they have silenced for unconformity then in all the Bishops families that are now in England? Was there ever any of them that could endure such a Parish as Lambeth is, if they had such power of reforming it as the Archbishops hauehave?
To returne therfore unto our Authour: whilst he lived a private life, being thus strucken with the Bishops Planet, he had time to apply his able wit and judgement unto the discussing of many questions, which if the Prelates had not forced such leasure upon him, it may be he would have passed by with others. And among the rest, by Gods providence he was directed to these Ecclesiastical Controversies which concerne our Diocesan state in England: wherin, as in all other questions which he dealt in, he hath shewed such distinct and piercing understanding together with evidence of truth, as cannot but give good satisfaction to him that in these things seeketh light.
He might indeed have chosen other particular corruptions to have written on, if it had bene his purpose either to have taught men, what they daily see and feel, or to have laboured about the branches, and leave the root untouched: But it was no delight unto him, for to prove that which no man doubted of, as that the common course and practise of our Prelates, their courts, their urging of s…bscriptions, with human superstitious ceremonies, are presumptuous insolencies against God and his Church: or preposterously to beginne at the end of the streame for to cleanse the water. He chose rather to search the fountain of all that foulnes wherwith our Chur…he are soiled: which he judged to be found in the constitu…ions here in this Treatise examined. And if these few questions be wel considered, it will appear that a multitude of pernitious abuses doe depend on those positions which in them are confuted. One fundamentall abuse in our Ecclesiasticall oppression in the disposing of charges, our placing of Ministers over Congregations: it is called usually bestowing of Bēefices or Livings, in an earthy phrase which …avoureth of the base corruption commonly practised. For Congregations ought not to be bestowed on Ministers, but Ministers on Congregations: the benefit or benefice of the Minister, is not so much to be regarded, as of the Congregation: It is the calling and charge which every Minister should looke at, not his living and benefice. Now these Benefi…es are bestowed ordinarily by the Patrō (whether Popish, prophane, or religious, all is one) & the Bishop, without any regard of the peoples call or consent: so as no lawful mariage is made; no servant placed: against all Scripture, Councels and antient examples. Wherby it commeth ordinarily to passe, that Lawyers must determine of Ministers callings, after long sutes and great charges; as if Congregations and Farms were held by one title and right. And sometime it is found that the Minister is a continuall plague unto his people, living in contention, spi…e & hatred with them, as many law-suits do too too plainly witnes. What is the reason? Because Parishes are esteemed as no Churches that ever were ordained by Christ, or received any power and priviledges from him, but as mans creatures, and by man to be ordered as it pleaseth him. Another practice of like nature with the former, is that the minister being called to one Congregation, becommeth a Pluralist by taking another, or more livings, in spite of that Congregation, to which he was first and is still personally tied. And after this he may be a nonresident, abiding or Preaching at none of his many livings. Nay he may chop and change, sell and buy like a marchant, so he do it closely; which is such an abomination, as Rome and Trent condemneth, and hell it selfe will scarse defend. What is the ground? Because (forsooth) Christ hath not appointed Parishes, their office…s & offices, and therfore no man is bound further in this kinde, then mens Laws, canons, customes, and injunctions do prescribe unto them. For a grave Doctor of Cambridge answered one that questioned him for his grosse non-residencie, viz. that Parishes were divided by a Pope: insinuating as it seemeth, that he accounted it a point of Poperie, for to tie Ministers unto their particular charges.
A third grosse corruption is, that the officers in Congregations, Ministers, Church-wardens, &c. are made servants to the Bishops, Chancellours, Archdeacons, &c. being, as it were, their promotors, informers, and executioners, in all matters of jurisdiction and government, for to bring in mony into their purses: for performance also of which service to them, the Church-wardens upon every occasion are enforced to take such corporall oathes as not one of them doth ever keep. What other ground of this, beside the fore-mentioned, that particular Congregations are no spirituall incorporations, and therefore must have no officers for government within themselves?
Now all these confusions with many others of the same kind, how they are condemned in the very foundation of them, M. Bains here sheweth in the first question, by maintaining the divine constitution of a particular Church, in one Congregation. In which question he maintaineth against his adversaries a course not unlike to that which Armachanus, in the daies of King Edward the third, contended for against the begging F…iers in his booke called The defence of Curates: For when those Friers incroach…d upon the priviledges of Parochiall Ministers, he withstood them upon these grounds: Ecclesia Parochialis juxta verba Mosis Deut. 12. est locus electus a Deo, in quo debemus accipere cuncta quae praecipit Dominus ex Sacramentis. Parochus est ordinaritu Parochiani: est persona a Deo praecepta, vel mandato Dei ad illud ministerium explendum electa: which if they be granted, our adversaries cause may goe a begging with the foresaid Friers.
Another sort of corruptions there are, which though they depend upon the same ground with the former, yet immediately flow out of the Hierarchie. What is more dissonant from the revealed will of Christ in the Gospell, even also from the state of the Primitive Church, t…en that the Church and Kingdome of Christ should be managed as the Kingdomes of the world, by a Lordly authority, with externall pompe, commanding power, contentious courts of judg…ment, furnished with chancellors, officials, commissaries, advocates, proctors, paritors, and such like humane devices? Yet all this doth necessarily follow upon the admitting of such Bishops as ours are in England: who not onelyonly are Lords over the flock, but doe professe so much in the highest degree, when they tell us plainly, that their Lawes or Canons doe binde mens consciences. For herein we are like the people of Israel, who would not have God for their immediate King, but would have such Kings as other Nations: Even so the Papists, and we after them, refuse to have Christ…an immediate King in the immediate government of the Church; but must have Lordly Rulers with state in Ecclesiasticall affaires, such as the world hath in civill.
What a miserable pickle are the most of our Ministers in, when they are urged to give an account of their calling? To a Papist indeed they can give a shifting answer, that they have ordination from Bishops, which Bishops were ordained by other Bishops, and they, or their ordainers by Popish Bishops: this in part may stop the mouth of a Papish: but let a Protestant which doubteth of these matters move the question, and what then will they say? If they flie to popish Bishops, as they are popish, then let them goe no longer masked under the name of Protestants. If they alledge succession by them from the Apostles, then (to say nothing of the appropriating of this succession unto the Popes chaire, in whose name, and by whose authority o…r English Bishops did all things in times past) then I say they must take a great time for the satisfying of a poore man concerning this question, and for the justifying of their station. For untill that out of good records they can shew a perpetuall succession from the Apostles unto their Diocesan which ordained them, and untill they can make the poore man which doubteth, perceive the truth and certainty of those records, (which I wiss… they will doe at leasure) they can never make that succession appeare. If they flye to the Kings authority, the King himse…fe will forsake them, and deny that he taketh upon him to make or call Ministers. If to the present Bishops and Archbishops, alas they are as farre to seeke as themselves, and much further. The proper cause of all this misery is the lifting up of a lordly Prelacy, upon the ruines of the Churches liberties.
How intollerable a bondage is it, that a Minister being called to a charge▪ may not preach to his people except he hath a licence from the Bishop or Archbishop: Cannot receive the best of his Congregation to communion if he be censured in the spirituall Courts, though it be but for not paying of six pence which they required of him in any name, be the man otherwise never so innocent: nor keep one from the communion, that is not presented in those Courts, or being presented is for money absolved▪ though he be never so scandalous: and must often times (if hee will hold his place) against his conscience put backe those from communion with Christ, whom Christ doth call unto it (as good Christians if they will not kneele) and receive those that Christ putteth backe, at the command of a mortall man.
What a burthen are poore Ministers pressed with, in that many hundreds of them depend upon one Bishop and his Officers: they must hurry up to the spirituall Court upon every occasion, there to stand with cap in h…nd, not onelyonly before a Bishop, but before his Chancellour, to bee railed on many times at his pleasure: to be censured, suspended, deprived, for not observing some of those canons which were of purpose framed for snares, when far more ancient and honest canons are every day broken by these Iudges themselves for lucre sake, as in the making of Vtopian Ministers, who have no people to minister unto; in their holding of commendams, in their taking of money, even to extortion, for orders and institutions: in their symony, as well by giving as by taking: and in all their idle, covetous, and ambitious pompe? For all these and such like abuses, we are beholding to the Lordlinesse of our Hierarchy: which in the root of it, is here overthrown by M. Bayne, in the conclusions of the second and …hird Question. About which he hath the very same controversie, that Marsilius Patavinus in part undertooke long since, about the time of Edward the second, against the Pope. For he in his booke called Defensor pacis, layeth the same grounds that here are maintained. Some of his words, though they be large, I will here set downe for the Readers information. Potestas clavium sive solvendi & ligandi, est essentialis & inseparabilis Presbyterio in quantum Presbyter est. In hac authoritate, Episcopus à Sacerdote non differt, teste Hieronymo, imo verius Apostolo, cujus etiam est aperta sententia. Inquit enim Hieronymus super Mat. 16. Habent quidem eandem judiciariam potestatem alsi Apostoli, habet omnes Ecclesia in Presbyteris & Episcopis: praeponens in hoc Presbyteros, quoniam authoritas haec debetur Presbytero, in quantum Presbyter, primo, & secundum quod ipsum &c. Many things are there discoursed to the same purpose, dict. 2. c. 15. It were too long to re…ite all. Yet one thing is worthy to be observed how he interpreteth a phrase of Ierome so much alledged, and built upon by the Patrons of our Hierarchy. Ierome saith ad Evagr. that a Bishop doth nothing, excepting ordinati…n, which a Presbyter may not doe. Of this testimony D. Downan avoucheth, that nothing can be more pregnant then it, to prove that Bishops were superiour to Presbyters in power of ordination. But heare what this ancient Writer saith Ordinatio non significat ibi potestatem conferendi, ceu collationem sacrorum ordinum: sed oeconomicam potestatem regulandi vel dirigendi Ecclesiae ritus, atque personas, quantum ad exercitium divini cultus in templo; unde ab antiquis legumlatoribus vocantur Oeconomi reverendi.
It would be over long to declare all the use which may be made of this Treatise. which being it selfe so short, forbiddeth pr…lixity in the Preface. If the Author had lived to have accomplished his purpose in perfecting of this worke, he would (it may be) have added such considerations as these: or at least he would have left all so clear, that any attentive Reader might easily have concluded them from his premisses. For supply of that defect, these practicall observation… are noted: which with the dispute it selfe, I leave to be pondered by the conscionable Reader. W. Ames.