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two burdens,' because ease is good. For the law indeed makes any thing seem glorious;' but for any brunt' that you have borne in these last times, I think it hath not overloaded you, for I have not heard that you have been at two-pence cost to maintain the Lord's people in prison; and therefore you are very unlike to Obadiah, for instead of hiding of the Lord's people, you cry out upon the Parliament to have them hunted. And this is a great 'brunt' indeed, if it be well considered, and it is no doubt it will cost you dear by that time you have paid the reckoning, except God give you repentance." c

"But now, methinks, I hear you boast very much of yourself and others of your Church... You cannot choose but out-preach them,' if you preach them out of the kingdom! And it is very like you may 'out-live them' also, if you can but banish them into some hard country, or else get them into some stinking prison, as you, and the rest of your father's house, have done very lately." e

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"You say, whilst they were in the Church of England, they preached often, and now seldomer.' I answer, It is very like they dare not tell such as you when they preach, that cry out to the Parliainent to disturb their meetings. Further, you say, they go looser in their apparel and hair.' I answer, I know some, indeed, that have been constrained to change their apparel' for fear of persecution; and, it may be, the hair' you were offended at might be some periwig, which some of them have been constrained through fear to put on, to blind the eyes of the Bishops' blood-hounds when they have come to take them... It is no marvel though their 'spirits' grow narrow' towards such an adversary as yourself; and great cause they have to be strange' towards you, and reserved,' and 'subtile' also. But whereas you say, 'their churches be narrow:' I say, they are even like the way to heaven, or the gate that leadeth unto life, which is so narrow' that such as you can hardly enter in thereat!.. And because Christ's flock is a 'little' flock, therefore you imagine they are not honoured of God; which is very carnal reasoning."

"I pray you, how can you count the parish of St. Helen's your 'spiritual children?' seeing you are there but a hireling;'.. and you will only preach to them so long as any will pay your wages, but no longer!.. How have you begotten them to God? You found them under a false power; submitting to a false worship; and you justify them as men begotten to God; and you justify their standing there. Thus do you sew pillows' of flatteries under their elbows!" i

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"You hope the Brethren will withdraw their Petitions, that they may not be read in the House of Commons.'.. That they should withdraw their Petitions is but one of your vain hopes; for they had more need now to petition than ever they had, both to God and men, seeing such a Goliath as you musters up so many forces against them!"*

"And now, Mr. Edwards, for conclusion of the whole, I do here affirm that if, upon the sight of this Book, you shall conceive that I have either misconstrued your words, or accused you without

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ground,.. then choose you six men, or more if you please, and I will choose as many; and if you will, we will agree upon a moderator, and try it out in a fair discourse; and, peradventure, save you a labour of publishing your large Tractates which you say you intend to put out in print against the whole way of Separation; and if it can be made appear, that in any of these particulars, I have missed it, I will willingly submit. But if you overcome me, your conquest will not be great, for I am a poor woman, and unmeet to deal with you! But if you do give another onset, before you accept of a parley, seeing I have offered you conditions of peace, the world will judge you an unreasonable man, and you shall never have the day."a

CHAP. XLI.

THE LORDS BROOKE AND SAY.

HAVING given some insight into the kind of spirits which set themselves in polemical array against whomsoever sought to worship their Maker as truly as possible, without the defilement of secular encunbrances, and the alloy of human ingredients; at this place will be introduced a voluntary advocate of the insulted and the oppressed; one whose talents, rank, and courageous regard for the cause of truth and justice, in which he fell, procured his distinguished virtues to be embalmed in imperishable praise. Our medium of revealing his name, compared with whose, the tribes of "Heylyns" and "Edwardses" are nearly smothered in their own meanness, shall be by a no less humble pen than Milton's. Mark what he has written; to whom, and of whom !

“What would be best advised then, if it be found so hurtful and so unequal to suppress opinions for the newness or the unsuitableness to a customary acceptance, will not be my task to say; I shall only repeat what I have learned from one of your own honourable number, a right noble and pious Lord, who, had he not sacrificed his life and fortunes to the Church and Commonwealth, we had not now missed and bewailed a worthy and undoubted patron of this argument. Ye know him, I am sure; yet I for honour's sake, and may it be eternal to him, shall name him, the Lord BROOKE! He, writing of Episcopacy,' and, by the way, treating of sects and schisins, left ye his vote, or rather now the last words of his dying charge, which I know will ever be of dear and honoured regard with ye; so full of meekness and breathing charity, that next to His last Testament, who bequeathed love and peace to his disciples, I cannot call to mind where I have read or heard words more mild and peaceful. He there exhorts us to hear with patience and humility those, however they be miscalled, that desire to live purely, in such a use of God's ordinances, as the best guidance of their conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, though in some dis

a Isai. xli. 21. viii. 10. P. 80, 81.

conformity to ourselves. The book itself will tell us more at large, being published to the world, and dedicated to the Parliament by him, who, both for his life and for his death, deserves that what advice he left be not laid by without perusal.""

"A Discourse opening the Nature of that Episcopacy which is Exercised in England. Wherein, with all Humility, are represented some Considerations tending to the nuch desired Peace, and long expected Reformation, of This our Mother Church. By the Right Honourable Robert, Lord Brooke. 1641." 4to. pp. 124. Edit. 2. 1642. pp. 118.

This work, his Lordship tells the Parliament, to whom he dedicated it, was the produce of his "retirements in the last Recess." It is divided into one section of ten, and another of seven chapters. The first chapter of all opens ominously for the ruling ecclesiastics. "I aim not at words, but things; not loving to fight with shadows. It is not the look, much less the name of a Bishop, that I fear or quarrel with ; it is his nature, his office that displeaseth me. Nor yet his nature, or office in general; but such, and so clothed, or rather veiled, with such and such adjuncts. For, to me, the word 'Bishops' signifies either (1) one that is to preach, administer the sacraments, exhort, reprove, convince, excommunicate, etc.; not only in some one distinct congregation—his own Parish-but in many several congregations crowded up together in one strange-and, for long, unknown word, a Diocese !' Or (2) one who hath to all this, added not only the name of a Civil Lord,-with which bare name or shadow, I fight not,—but also a vast, unwieldy I had almost said, unlimited-Power in Civil Government; which must needs draw on a mighty train, and clothe itself with glorious robes of long extended and magnific styles, scarce to be marshalled by a better herald than Elihu, who could give no Titles.' Or (3) in the last place, which should be first,—a true faithful Overseer,' that over one single Congregation hath a joint care with the Elders, Deacons, and rest of the Assembly, who are all fellow-helpers, yea servants, each to other's faith.

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This last, is a 'Bishop' of the first Institution; of Christ's allowance settled in divers churches, even in the Apostles' times. The first, is of the Second Century, when doctrine, discipline, all religion, began to wane: for even then, Mysterious Antichrist was not only conceived, but began to quicken. The second, rose last,-though first intended by the Church's Enemy: rising up while the World was busy looking all one way, as amazed at the new Beast, successor to the Dragon. This is now our Adversary! One, monstrously compounded of different, yea opposite offices; and those the greatest, both ecclesiastical and civil: for which he seems no way able, no way fit; and that for many reasons which may be brought from Scripture, Churchantiquity, State-policy. I shall begin with the last,-as that I aim at most.

a "Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing." 1644. Works. 1833. imp. 8vo. p. 117. Leighton had said, p. 72, in his Epitome, see back, Vol. I. p. 502, "That thrice honourable patron of Christ's Cause, the Lord Brooke, hath published a master-piece which hath muzzled all their mouths."

b Job xxxii. 21, 22.

"Here let us view our Bishop awhile as a Private man,-before his Office. Next, as a Lord over Church and State,-in his Office. Then, with some necessary Consequents--to his Office, as now it is exercised in this kingdom. Thus shall we quickly judge how suitable to true Policy of State are either the Antecedents, Concomitants, or Consequents, of this too officious, two-headed Bishop!"..

"Let us begin," says his Lordship, in his second chapter, "with Antecedents: in them the first; which we shall find very unsuitable to his after-acquired Office. For the most part, he is ex fæce plebis; humi-serpens; of the lowest of the people; an old complaint! Now for such a low born man to be exalted high, so high! and that, not gradatim, but per saltum too, as oft it is--in one of few or no School Degrees; which yet indeed, at best are scarce Degrees to the Civil honour of a Peer;-must needs make as great a chasm in Politics, as such leaps use to do in Naturals... But," says his Lordship, in the third chapter," this defect in 'birth' may be repaired in breeding; else we shut the doors of hope... It is true, Art ofttimes helpeth Nature. Some men of small beginnings, by their virtues have deserved for a motto and impress, the poet's words,

Et quæ non fecimus ipsi,

Vix ea nostra voco

But when was this seen in a Bishop?.. When these gentlemen, I mean the most refined wits amongst them,-for others come not within our question,-design the Ministerial function, they either lay aside Divinity, and so God is displeased; or else they labour seriously in the more Spiritual paths, and then the Commonweal is, by them, deserted: for these two so different studies cannot go forward pari passu: a Minister cannot serve God and Maminon! I know other men think otherwise of these studies; but I conceive the case is clear: for, sure, the complaints of good men, canons and acts of councils forbidding Ministers to meddle in State-affairs, and the answers of our own breasts, prove this truth more than sufficiently... I confess, of later times Ministers, like watermen, have looked one way and rowed another; so that, perhaps, now you may find canons of another strain... To those who maintain such Prelatical Bishops, this absurdity will follow, That to one man the whole Power may be given, both in Civilibus et Ecclesiasticis: a thing which God thought Christ only fit for; and soon His shoulder' only, did he place the World's 'government.' Here his Lordship meets objections from the Jewish Polity, and descends from it to the Spirituality of the work under the Gospel: "A painful Preacher still crieth out, Who is sufficient,' who is fit for these

"b

* Neal, in Hist. Purit. vol. ii. ch. vii., writes, "He reflects in an ungenerous manner upon the low pedigree of the present bench; as if nothing except a noble descent could qualify men to sit among the Peers. Several of the Bishops vindicated their pedigree and families; as Bishop Williams, Moreton, Curle, Cooke, Owen, &c." Which "&c." amounts to one more, as named in Fuller's Church History, inf. ann. 1641. No doubt but his Lordship intended to strike at Laud, and one or two others, through the sides of some of the rest. Heylyn, indeed, applies the ill-savoured "speech" to Laud, whom he represents to admit that "he had not the good fortune to be born a gentleman." Life of Laud, p. 46, 47.

b Isai. ix. 6.

things? They will get but little," he shows, "from God's Injunctions among the Jews."

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"His Election and Ordination," writes his Lordship, in the fourth chapter, "I shall pass here." The examination of this point, he refers to Scripture and antiquity; where it may be better examined than under "State-Policy," of which he was treating. "Yet, by the way," he says, "I cannot but propose it as worthy of State consideration, how likely the inferior Clergy is to yield true canonical obedience' to one— that, nescio quo jure, requires it by oath,-though he," the Bishop, "be oft forced on them against, and never with, their express will... except, perchance, the whole Clergy of a Diocese or Province may be fully represented by a Cloistered Chapter; among which, are usually the very dregs of lowest men: who yet indeed, have no elective votes; but after the solemn dirge of Veni Sancte Spiritus, are as sure to find the Spirit in a Conge d'elire' as others, not long since, in the Tridentine Post-mantile [Portmanteau]. Certainly it is to be desired," adds his Lordship, "that Christians would show as much care and conscience in setting Heads over whole churches, as some heathen Emperors did in setting Governors over private towns: which yet they would not do till at least free liberty was given to the Citizens complaint and rejection, if not election, of the party propounded. And this, Antoninus learned from the Jews and Christians' choice of their church-governors in those times though now, latter ages are grown wiser!

"We are now come to view our Bishop in his Office; .. made up of two most inconsistent offices, the one of Church, the other of State. His deportment in both, we may guess by his maxims or rules by which he goes; which once seen, we shall quickly perceive how well he squares his Practice by his Principles; and, how consonant both be to true Church or State Policy. I shall instance but in one or two; for we may know ex ungue Leonem. The climax runs up thus: first, The Church hath Power in all Indifferents: secondly, The Church is Judge what is Indifferent: thirdly, The Bishops, and their Creatures, are this Church! If a Prince hath power to command the persons and estates of his subjects, in case of necessity, and the same prince be sole judge of necessity, it will be no wonder to me, if that people be ever necessitous. If the Church have power in adiaphoris, and the same church be judge quid sit adiaphoron; and, this church be the Bishops, I shall not wonder to see those things that are purely Indifferent, made absolutely Necessary; to the insupportable burden of all men's consciences... They do really set laws, in state matters, under the notion of 'indifferent;' so that all the subjects' liberty, or property in goods, they compass with their net of Indifferency; which they make heavy with the plummets of greatest penalties. Yea, though they meddled not at all with such things as these, without their horizon; yet if they make those things to be indifferent' which are sinful,-as they do, I fear, and to these, enforce obedience with pretence of Church Policy, they overthrow all Civil government... In finding out what is indifferent,' recta ratio must be judge. But who shall tell us what is recta ratio? I answer, recta ratio! ..

a 2 Cor. ii. 16.

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