new Superintendent, thas: "God, that hath called thee to the of fice of a watchman over his people, multiply the gifts of his grace in thee, &c." Now, I beseech you, how is this Superintendency lost? That, which was then both lawful and useful, and confessed for no other than a calling from God, is it now become sinful and odious? Are we become so much wiser, and more zealous than our first Reformers, as there is distance betwixt a Superintendent and no Bishop? But what! is it the stroke, the Bishops have in government, and their seat in Parliament, which is so great an eye-sore? Let me put you in mind, that your greatest patrons of your desired Discipline have strongly motioned an Ecclesiastical Commission, for the overlooking and over-ruling your Consistories: and, even when they would have Bishops excluded both out of those Comitial Sessions and out of the Church; yet have moved (soch was Beza's device long since for Scotland *) that, in the place of Bishops, there might be present in the Parliament-House some wise and grave Ministers of special gifts and learning, sorted out of all the land, to vield their counsel according to God's heavenly law, even as the Civil Judges are ready to give their advice according to the temporal law; and for matters of greater difficulty. What a world is this! Grave and wise Ministers, and yet no Bishops! Doth our Episcopacy either abolish our Ministry, or detract ought from wisdom and gravity? Away with this absurd partiality. But these must be to advise; not to vote: in any case, beware of that:-Where then is the third estate? Beza's counsel, we see, is yet alive; but it comes not home to the purpose. Well fare that bold supplicator to Queen Eliza beth, which moved, that four and twenty Doctors of Divinity, to be called by such names as it should please her Highness, might be admitted into the Parliament-House, and have their voices there, instead of the Bishops! O impotent envy of poor humorists! Doctors, but no Bishops: any men, any names; but theirs. The old word is, "Love creeps, where it cannot go." How much are we beholden to these kind friends, who are so desirous to ease us of these unproper secularities! Even ours at home can nibble at these, as they think, ill-placed honours and services: yours go, alas! too roundly to work: striking at the root of their Episcopacy; not pruning off some superfluous twigs of privilege: and, rather than not strike home, not caring whom they hit in the way: would God I might not say, even the Lord's Anointed, whom they verbally profess to honour; at whose sacred crown and sceptre, if any of the sons of Belial amongst you do secretly aim, while they stalk under the pretence of opposition to Episcopacy, the God of Heaven find them out, and pour upon them deserved confusion! But, for you, alas! Brethren, what hopes can I conceive, that these prejudged papers can have any access to your eyes, much less to your hearts? My very title is bar, too much. But, if any of you * Moved also to the Lords of the Council in Q. Eliz. time by the Humble Mot. will have so much patience, as to admit these lines to your perusal, I shall beseech him, for God's sake and for his own, to be so far indifferent also, as not, upon groundless suggestion, to abandon God's truth and ordinance; and, out of mere opinion of the worth of some late author, to adore an idol made of the ear-rings of the people, and fashioned out with the graving tool of a supposed skilful Aaron. Shortly, after these poor, well-meant (howsoever, I doubt, ineffectual) endeavours, my prayers shall not be wanting for your comfortable peace, loyal obedience, perfect happiness. Oh, that the God of Heaven would open your eyes, that you may see the truth; and compare what you have done, with what you should do! How soon would you find cause to retract your own decrees; and to re establish that true ordinance of the living God, which you have been mis-induced to abandon ! SECT. 2. An Exhortatory Conclusion to our Brethren at Home. AND, for you, my dearly beloved Brethren, at home; for Christ's sake, for the Church's sake, for your souls' sake, be exhorted to hold fast to this Holy Institution of your Blessed Saviour and his unerring Apostles; and bless God for Episcopacy. Do but cast your eyes a little back, and see what noble instruments of God's glory he hath been pleased to raise up in this very Church of ours, out of this sacred vocation: what famous servants of God; what strong champions of truth, and renowned antagonists of Rome and her superstitions; what admirable preachers; what incomparable writers; yea, what constant and undaunted Martyrs and Confessors: men, that gave their blood for the Gospel; and embraced their faggots, flaming, which many gregary professors held enough to carry cold and painless: to the wonder and gratulation of all foreign Churches, and to the unparallelable glory of this Church and Nation. I could fill this page with such a catalogue of them, who are now in their heaven, that come for the present to my thoughts, (besides those worthies yet living, both here and in Ireland, who would be unwilling from my pen to blush at their own just praises) as might justly shame and silence any gainsayer. After that a malicious libeller hath spit out all his poison against Episcopacy; and raked together, out of all histories, all the insolencies and ill offices, which have, in former ages, been done by professedly Popish Prelates (which do almost as much concern us, as all the treasons and murders of formerly mal-contented persons can concern him), fain would I have him shew me, what Christian Church under heaven hath, in so short a time, yielded so many glorious lights of the Gospel, so many able and prevalent adversaries of schism and antichristianism, so many eminent authors of learned works which shall out-bid time itself. Let envy grind her teeth, and eat her heart the memory of these worthy Prelates shall be ever sweet and blessed. Neither doubt I, but that it will please God, out of the same rod of Aaron still to raise such blossoms and fruit, as shall win him glory to all eternity. Go you on, to honour these your reverend Pastors; to hate all factious withdrawings from that government, which comes the nearest of any Church upon earth, to the Apostolical. And, that I may draw to conclusion, for the farther confirmation of your good opinion of the Bishops of your Great Britain, hear what Jacobus Lectius, the learned. Civilian of Geneva, in his "Theological Prescriptions," dedicated to the Consuls and Senate of Geneva, saith of them: De Episcoporum autem vestrorum vocatione, &c: "As for the calling of your Bishops," saith he *, speaking to his Popish adversaries, "others have accurately written thereof; and we shortly say, that they have a shew of an Ordinary Ministry, but not the thing itself; and that those only are to be held for true and legitimate, which Paul describes to us in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus: Cujusmodi olim in magno illo Britanniarum regno exti tisse, atque etiamnum superesse, subindéque eligi Episcopos non diffi temur; Such kind of Bishops as we do not deny, but yield, to have been of old, and to be still at this day, successively elected in the great kingdom of Britain." Thus he. When Geneva itself pleads for us, why should we be our own adversaries? Let me, therefore, confidently shut up all, with that resolute word of that blessed Martyr and Saint, Ignatius : Πάντα εἰς τιμὴν Θεο γινέσθω. Τῷ Ἐπισκόπῳ προσέχετε, ἵνα καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῖν. Αντίψυχον ἐγὼ τῶν ὑποτασσομένων Επισκόπῳ, Πρεσβυτερίῳ, Διακόνοις. μετ ̓ αὐτῶν μοι τὸ μέρος γένοιτο ἔχειν παρὰ Θεῷ: “Let all things be done to the honour of God. Give respect to your Bishop, as you would God should respect you. My soul for theirs, which obey their Bishop, Presbyters, Deacons. God grant that my portion may be the same with theirs." And let my soul have the same share with that blessed Martyr, that said so! AMEN. *Jacob. Lectius. Præscriptionum Theologicarum 1. ii, Nota 2. Adversus co dicem Fabrianum. See p. 576, note ‡, of this volume. EDITOR. |