The Reason of Church-governement Urg'd against Prelaty/Book 1 Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
YEt because it hath the outside of a specious reason, & specious things we know are aptest to worke with humane lightnesse and frailty, even against the solidest truth, that sounds not plausibly, let us think it worth the examining for the love of infirmer Christians, of what importance this their second reason may be. Tradition they say hath taught them that for the prevention of growing schisme the Bishop was heav'd above the Presbyter. And must tradition then ever thus to the worlds end be the perpetuall canker-worme to eat out Gods Commandements? are his decrees so inconsiderate and so fickle, that when the statutes of Solon, or Lycurgus shall prove durably good to many ages, his in 40 yeares shall be found defective, ill contriv'd, and for needfull causes to be alter'd? Our Saviour and his Apostles did not only foresee, but foretell and forewarne us to looke for schisme. Is it a thing to be imagin'd of Gods wisdome, or at least of Apostolick prudence to set up such a government in the tendernesse of the Church, as should incline, or not be more able then any other to oppose it selfe to schisme? it was well knowne what a bold lurker schisme was even in the houshold of Christ betweene his owne Disciples and those of Iohn the Baptist about fasting: and early in the Acts of the Apostles the noise of schisme had almost drown'd the proclaiming of the Gospell; yet we reade not in Scripture that any thought was had of making Prelates, no not in those places where dissention was most rife. If Prelaty had beene then esteeem'd a remedy against schisme, where was it more needfull then in that great variance among the Corinthians which S. Paul so labour'd to reconcile? and whose eye could have found the fittest remedy sooner then his? and what could have made the remedy more available, then to have us'd it speedily? and lastly what could have beene more necessary then to have written it for our instruction? yet we see he neither commended it to us, nor us'd it himselfe. For the same division remaining there, or else bursting forth againe more then 20 yeares after S. Pauls death, wee finde in Clements Epistle of venerable autority written to the yet factious Corinthians, that they were still govern'd by Presbyters. And the same of other Churches out of Hermas, and divers other the scholers of the Apostles by the late industry of the learned Salmatius appeares. Neither yet did this worthy Clement S. Pauls disciple, though writing to them to lay aside schisme, in the least word advise them to change the Presbyteriall government into Prelaty. And therefore if God afterward gave, or permitted this insurrection of Episcopacy, it is to be fear'd he did it in his wrath, as he gave the Israelites a King. With so good a will doth he use to alter his own chosen government once establish'd. For marke whether this rare device of mans braine thus preferr'd before the ordinance of God, had better successe then fleshly wisdome not counseling with God is wont to have. So farre was it from removing schisme, that if schisme parted the congregations before, now it rent and mangl'd, now it rag'd. Heresie begat heresie with a certaine monstrous haste of pregnancy in her birth, at once borne and bringing forth. Contentions before brotherly were now hostile. Men went to choose their Bishop as they went to a pitcht field, and the day of his election was like the sacking of a City, sometimes ended with the blood of thousands. Nor this among hereticks only, but men of the same beliefe, yea confessors, and that with such odious ambition, that Eusebius in his eighth book testifies he abhorr'd to write. And the reason is not obscure, for the poore dignity or rather burden of a Parochial Presbyter could not ingage any great party, nor that to any deadly feud: but Prelaty was a power of that extent, and sway, that if her election were popular, it was seldome not the cause of some faction or broil in the Church. But if her dignity came by favour of some Prince, she was from that time his creature, and obnoxious to comply with his ends in state were they right or wrong. So that in stead of finding Prelaty an impeacher of Schisme or faction, the more I search, the more I grow into all perswasion to think rather that faction and she as with a spousall ring are wedded together, never to be divorc't. But here let every one behold the just, and dreadfull judgement of God meeting with the audacious pride of man that durst offer to mend the ordinances of heaven. God out of the strife of men brought forth by his Apostles to the Church that beneficent and ever distributing office of Deacons, the stewards and Ministers of holy almes, man out of the pretended care of peace & unity being caught in the snare of his impious boldnesse to correct the will of Christ, brought forth to himselfe upon the Church that irreconcileable schisme of perdition and Apostasy, the Roman Antichrist: for that the exaltation of the Pope arose out of the reason of Prelaty it cannot be deny'd. And as I noted before that the patterne of the High Priest pleaded for in the Gospel (for take away the head Priest the rest are but a carcasse) sets up with better reason a Pope, then an Archbishop, for if Prelaty must still rise and rise till it come to a Primat, why should it stay there? when as the catholick government is not to follow the division of kingdomes, the temple best representing the universall Church, and the High Priest the universall head; so I observe here, that if to quiet schisme there must be one head of Prelaty in a land or Monarchy rising from a Provinciall to a nationall Primacy, there may upon better grounds of repressing schisme be set up one catholick head over the catholick Church. For the peace and good of the Church is not terminated in the schismelesse estate of one or two kingdomes, but should be provided for by the joynt consultation of all reformed Christendome: that all controversie may end in the finall pronounce or canon of one Arch-primat, or Protestant Pope. Although by this meanes for ought I see, all the diameters of schisme may as well meet and be knit up in the center of one grand falshood. Now let all impartiall men arbitrate what goodly inference these two maine reasons of the Prelats have, that by a naturall league of consequence make more for the Pope then for themselves. Yea to say more home are the very wombe for a new subantichrist to breed in; if it be not rather the old force and power of the same man of sin counterfeiting protestant. It was not the prevention of schisme, but it was schisme it selfe, and the hatefull thirst of Lording in the Church that first bestow'd a being upon Prelaty; this was the true cause, but the pretence is stil the same. The Prelates, as they would have it thought, are the only mawls of schisme. Forsooth if they be put downe, a deluge of innumerable sects will follow; we shall be all Brownists, Familists, Anabaptists. For the word Puritan seemes to be quasht, and all that heretofore were counted such, are now Brownists. And thus doe they raise an evill report upon the expected reforming grace that God hath bid us hope for, like those faithlesse spies, whose carcasses shall perish in the wildernesse of their owne confused ignorance, and never taste the good of reformation. Doe they keep away schisme? if to bring a num and chil stupidity of soul, an unactive blindnesse of minde upon the people by their leaden doctrine, or no doctrine at all, if to persecute all knowing and zealous Christians by the violence of their courts, be to keep away schisme, they keep away schisme indeed; and by this kind of discipline all Italy and Spaine is as purely and politickly kept from schisme as England hath beene by them. With as good a plea might the dead palsie boast to a man, tis I that free you from stitches and paines, and the troublesome feeling of cold & heat, of wounds and stroke; if I were gone, all these would molest you. The Winter might as well vaunt it selfe against the Spring, I destroy all noysome and rank weeds, I keepe downe all pestilent vapours. Yes and all wholesome herbs, and all fresh dews, by your violent & hidebound frost; but when the gentle west winds shall open the fruitfull bosome of the earth thus over-girded by your imprisonment, then the flowers put forth and spring, and then the Sunne shall scatter the mists, and the manuring hand of the Tiller shall root up all that burdens the soile without thank to your bondage. But farre worse then any frozen captivity is the bondage of Prelates, for that other, if it keep down any thing which is good, within the earth, so doth it likewise that which is ill, but these let out freely the ill, and keep down the good, or else keepe downe the lesser ill, and let out the greatest. Be asham'd at last to tell the Parlament ye curbe Schismaticks, when as they know ye cherish and side with Papists, and are now as it were one party with them, and tis said they helpe to petition for ye. Can we believe that your government strains in good earnest at the petty gnats of schisme, when as we see it makes nothing to swallow the Camel heresie of Rome; but that indeed your throats are of the right Pharisaical straine. Where are those schismaticks with whom the Prelats hold such hot skirmish? shew us your acts, those glorious annals which your Courts of loathed memory lately deceas'd have left us? those schismaticks I doubt me wil be found the most of them such as whose only schisme was to have spoke the truth against your high abominations and cruelties in the Church; this is the schisme ye hate most, the removall of your criminous Hierarchy. A politick government of yours, and of a pleasant conceit, set up to remove those as a pretended schisme, that would remove you as a palpable heresie in government. If the schisme would pardon ye that, she might go jagg'd in as many cuts and slashes as she pleas'd for you. As for the rending of the Church, we have many reasons to thinke it is not that which ye labour to prevent so much as the rending of your pontificall sleeves: that schisme would be the sorest schisme to you, that would be Brownisme and Anabaptisme indeed. If we go downe, say you, as if Adrians wall were broke, a flood of sects will rush in. What sects? What are their opinions? give us the Inventory; it will appeare both by your former prosecutions and your present instances, that they are only such to speake of as are offended with your lawlesse government, your ceremonies, your Liturgy, an extract of the Masse book translated. But that they should be contemners of publick prayer, and Churches us'd without superstition, I trust God will manifest it ere long to be as false a slander, as your former slanders against the Scots. Noise it till ye be hoarse; that a rabble of Sects will come in, it will be answer'd ye, no rabble sir Priest, but a unanimous multitude of good Protestants will then joyne to the Church, which now because of you stand separated. This will be the dreadfull consequence of your removall. As for those terrible names of Sectaries and Schismaticks which ye have got together, we know your manner of fight, when the quiver of your arguments which is ever thin, and weakly stor'd, after the first brunt is quite empty, your course is to betake ye to your other quiver of slander, wherein lyes your best archery. And whom ye could not move by sophisticall arguing, them you thinke to confute by scandalous misnaming. Thereby inciting the blinder sort of people to mislike and deride sound doctrine and good christianity under two or three vile and hatefull terms. But if we could easily indure and dissolve your doubtiest reasons in argument, we shall more easily beare the worst of your unreasonablenesse in calumny and false report. Especially being fortold by Christ, that if he our Master were by your predecessors call'd Samaritan and Belzebub, we must not think it strange if his best Disciples in the reformation, as at first by those of your tribe they were call'd Lollards and Hussites, so now by you be term'd Puritans, and Brownists. But my hope is that the people of England will not suffer themselves to be juggl'd thus out of their faith and religion by a mist of names cast before their eyes, but will search wisely by the Scriptures, and look quite through this fraudulent aspersion of a disgracefull name into the things themselves: knowing that the Primitive Christians in their times were accounted such as are now call'd Familists and Adamites, or worse. And many on the Prelatickside like the Church of Sardis have a name to live, and yet are dead; to be Protestants, and are indeed Papists in most of their principles. Thus perswaded, this your old fallacy wee shall soone unmask, and quickly apprehend how you prevent schisme, and who are your schismaticks. But what if ye prevent, and hinder all good means of preventing schisme? that way which the Apostles us'd, was to call a councell; from which by any thing that can be learnt from the fifteenth of the Acts, no faithfull Christian was debarr'd, to whom knowledge and piety might give entrance. Of such a councell as this every parochiall Consistory is a right homogeneous and constituting part being in it selfe as it were a little Synod, and towards a generall assembly moving upon her own basis in an even and firme progression, as those smaller squares in battell unite in one great cube, the main phalanx, an embleme of truth and stedfastnesse. Whereas on the other side Prelaty ascending by a graduall monarchy from Bishop to Arch-bishop, from thence to Primat, and from thence, for there can be no reason yeilded neither in nature, nor in religion, wherefore, if it have lawfully mounted thus high, it should not be a Lordly ascendent in the horoscope of the Church, from Primate to Patriarch, and so to Pope. I say Prelaty thus ascending in a continuall pyramid upon pretence to perfect the Churches unity, if notwithstanding it be found most needfull, yea the utmost helpe to dearn up the rents of schisme by calling a councell, what does it but teach us that Prelaty is of no force to effect this work which she boasts to be her maister-peice; and that her pyramid aspires and sharpens to ambition, not to perfection, or unity. This we know, that as often as any great schisme disparts the Church, and Synonds be proclam'd, the Presbyters have as great right there, and as free vote of old, as the Bishops, which the Canon law conceals not. So that Prelaty if she will seek to close up divisions in the Church, must be forc't to dissolve, and unmake her own pyramidal figure, which she affirmes to be of such uniting power, when as indeed it is the most dividing and schismaticall forme that Geometricians know of, and must be faine to inglobe, or incube her selfe among the Presbyters; which she hating to do, sends her haughty Prelates from all parts with their forked Miters, the badge of schisme or the stampe of his cloven foot whom they serve I think, who according to their hierarchies acuminating still higher and higher in a cone of Prelaty, in stead of healing up the gashes of the Church, as it happens in such pointed bodies meeting, fall to gore one another with their sharpe spires for upper place, and precedence, till the councell it selfe prove the greatest schisme of all. And thus they are so farre from hindring dissension, that they have made unprofitable, and even noysome the chiefest remedy we have to keep Christendom at one, which is by councels: and these if wee rightly consider Apostolick example, are nothing else but generall Presbyteries. This seem'd so farre from the Apostles to think much of, as if hereby their dignity were impair'd, that, as we may gather by those Epistles of Peter and Iohn, which are likely to be latest written when the Church grew to a setling, like those heroick patricians of Rome (if we may use such comparison) hasting to lay downe their dictatorship, they rejoys't to call themselves and to be as fellow Elders among their brethren. Knowing that their high office was but as the scaffolding of the Church yet unbuilt, and would be but a troublesome disfigurement, so soone as the building was finisht. But the lofty minds of an age or two after, such was their small discerning, thought it a poore indignity, that the high rear'd government of the Church should so on a sudden, as it seem'd to them, squat into a Presbytery. Next or rather before councels the timeliest prevention of schisme is to preach the Gospell abundantly and powerfully throughout all the land, to instruct the youth religiously, to endeavour how the Scriptures may be easiest understood by all men; to all which the proceedings of these men have been on set purpose contrary. But how O Prelats should you remove schisme, and how should you not remove and oppose all the meanes of removing schism? when Prelaty is a schisme it selfe from the most reformed and most flourishing of our neighbour Churches abroad, and a sad subject of discord and offence to the whole nation at home. The remedy which you alledge is the very disease we groan under; and never can be to us a remedy but by removing it selfe. Your predecessors were believ'd to assume this preeminence above their brethren only that they might appease dissention. Now God and the Church cals upon you, for the same reason to lay it down, as being to thousands of good men offensive, burdensome, intolerable. Surrender that pledge which unlesse you fowlely usurpt it, the Church gave you, and now claimes it againe, for the reason she first lent it. Discharge the trust committed to you, prevent schisme, and that ye can never do, but by discharging your selves. That government which ye hold, we confesse prevents much, hinders much, removes much; but what? the schisms and grievances of the Church? no, but all the peace and unity, all the welfare not of the Church alone, but of the whole kingdome. And if it be still permitted ye to hold, will cause the most sad I know not whether separation be enough to say, but such a wide gulph of distraction in this land as will never close her dismall gap, untill ye be forc't (for of your selvs ye wil never do as that Roman Curtius nobly did) for the Churches peace & your countries, to leap into the midst, and be no more seen. By this we shal know whether yours be that ancient Prelaty which you say was first constituted for the reducement of quiet & unanimity into the Church, for then you wil not delay to prefer that above your own preferment. If otherwise, we must be confident that your Prelaty is nothing else but your ambition, an insolent preferring of your selves above your brethren, and all your learned scraping in antiquity even to disturbe the bones of old Aaron and his sonnes in their graves, is but to maintain and set upon our necks a stately and severe dignity, which you call sacred, and is nothing in very deed but a grave and reverent gluttony, a sanctimonious avarice, in comparison of which, all the duties and dearnesses which ye owe to God or to his Church, to law, custome, or nature, ye have resolv'd to set at nought. I could put you in mind what counsell Clement a fellow labourer with the Apostles gave to the Presbyters of Corinth, whom the people though unjustly sought to remove. Who among you saith he, is noble minded, who is pittifull, who is charitable, let him say thus, if for me this sedition, this enmity, these differences be, I willingly depart, I go my wayes, only let the flock of Christ be at peace with the Presbyters that are set over it. He that shall do this, saith he, shall get him great honour in the Lord, and all places will receave him. This was Clements counsell to good and holy men that they should depart rather from their just office, then by their stay, to ravle out the seamlesse garment of concord in the Church. But I have better counsell to give the Prelats, and farre more acceptable to their eares, this advice in my opinion is fitter for them. Cling fast to your Pontificall Sees, bate not, quit your selves like Barons, stand to the utmost for your haughty Courts and votes in Parliament. Still tell us that you prevent schisme, though schisme and combustion be the very issue of your bodies, your first born; and set your country a bleeding in a Prelaticall mutiny, to fight for your pompe, and that ill favour'd weed of temporall honour that sits dishonourably upon your laick shoulders, that ye may be fat and fleshy, swoln with high thoughts and big with mischievous designes, when God comes to visit upon you all this forescore yeares vexation of his Church under your Egyptian tyranny. For certainly of all those blessed soules which you have persecuted, and those miserable ones which you have lost, the just vengeance does not sleepe.