a Parlia it. If a Papist, they do in your Church; if an Bishops English Protestant, they do among you; if in the Presbyterian, where you have no Bishops, you ment mean your Presbyterian Lay-Elders should meddle with Temporal Affairs as well as Spiritual. Besides, all Jurisdiction is Temporal; and in no Church but they have some Jurisdiction or other. The Question then will be reduced to Magis and Minus; they meddle_more in one Church than in another. 6. Objection. Bishops give not their Votes by Blood in Parliament, but by an Office annexed to them, which being taken away they cease to vote; therefore there is not the same reason for them as for Temporal Lords. Answ. We do not pretend they have that Power the same way, but they have a Right: he that has an Office in Westminster-Hall for his Life, the Office is as much his as his Land is his that hath Land by Inheritance. 7. Whether had the inferior Clergy ever any thing to do in the Parliament ? Answ. No; no otherwise than thus: There were certain of the Clergy that used to assemble near the Parliament, with whom the Bishops, upon occasion might consult; (but there were none of the Convocation, as 'twas afterwards settled, viz. the Dean, the Arch-Deacon, one for the Chapter, and two for the Diocese,) but it happened by continuance of time (to save Charges and Trouble) their Voices, and the Consent of the whole Clergy, were involved in the Bishops; and at this Day, the Bishops' Parlia Bishops Writs run, to bring all these to the Parliament; in the but the Bishops themselves stand for all. ment 8. Bishops were formerly one of these two Conditions; either Men bred Canonists and Civilians, sent up and down Ambassadors to Rome and other Parts, and so by their Merit came to that Greatness; or else great Noblemen's Sons, Brothers, and Nephews, and so born to govern the State: Now they are of a low Condition, their Education nothing of that way he gets a Living, and then a greater Living, and then a greater than that, and so comes to govern. 9. Bishops are now unfit to Govern, because of their Learning: they are bred up in another Law; they run to the Text for something done amongst the Jews, that nothing concerns England; 'tis just as if a Man would have a Kettle, and he would not go to our Braziers to have it made, as they make Kettles, but he would have it made as Hiram made his Brass-work, who wrought in Solomon's Temple. 'Tis 10. To take away Bishops' Votes, is but the beginning to take them away; for then they can be no longer useful to the King or State. but like the little Wimble, to let in the greater Auger. Objection. But they are but for their Life, and that makes them always go for the King as he will have them. Answer. This is against a double Charity; for you must always suppose a bad King and bad Bishops. Then again, whether will a Man be sooner content, himself should be made a Slave, or his Son after him? [When we talk of our Children Bishops we mean ourselves]. Besides, they that have in the ParliaPosterity are more obliged to the King than ment they that are only for themselves, in all the reason in the World. 11. How shall the Clergy be in the Parliament, if the Bishops are taken away? Answer. By the Laity; because the Bishops, in whom the rest of the Clergy are included, assent to the taking away their own Votes, by being involv'd in the major Part of the House. This follows naturally. 12. The Bishops being put out of the House, whom will they lay the fault upon now? When the Dog is beat out of the Room, where will they lay the stink? IN VIII Bishops out of the Parliament N the beginning Bishops and Presbyters were alike; like your Gentlemen in the Country, whereof one is made Deputy-Lieutenant, and another Justice of Peace; so one is made a Bishop, another a Dean; and that kind of Government by Archbishops and Bishops no doubt came in, in imitation of the Temporal Government, no Jure Divino. In time of the Roman Empire, where they had a Legatus, there they placed an Archbishop; where they had a Rector, there a Bishop, that every one might be instructed in Christianity, which now they had received into the Empire. ment Bishops 2. They that speak ingenuously of Bishops out of the and Presbyters, say, that a Bishop is a greater Parlia- Presbyter, and, during the time of his being Bishop, above a Presbyter; as your President of the College of Physicians, is above the rest, yet he himself is no more than a Doctor of Physic. 3. The Words Bishop and Presbyter are promiscuously used; that is confessed by all; and though the Word Bishop be in Timothy and Titus, yet that will not prove the Bishops ought to have a Jurisdiction over the Presbyters, though Timothy or Titus had by the Order that was given them. Somebody must take care of the rest; and that Jurisdiction was but to Excommunicate; and that was but to tell them they should come no more into their Company. Or grant they did make Canons one for another, before they came to be in the State, does it follow they must do so when the State has receiv'd them into it? What if Timothy had power in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, over the Presbyters? Does it follow therefore the Bishops must have the same in England? Must we be govern'd like Ephesus and Crete? 4. However some of the Bishops pretend to be Jure Divino, yet the Practice of the Kingdom had ever been otherwise; for whatever Bishops do otherwise than the Law permits, Westminster Hall can control, or send them to absolve, &c. 5. He that goes about to prove Bishops Jure Divino; does as a Man that having a Sword, shall strike it against an Anvil: if he strike it awhile there, he may peradventure loosen it, tho' Bishops it be never so well riveted; 'twill serve to strike out of the another Sword, or cut Flesh, but not against an ment Anvil. 6. If you should say you hold your Land by Moses' or God's Law, and would try it by that, you may perhaps lose, but by the Law of the Kingdom you are sure of it. So may the Bishops by this Plea of Jure Divino lose all. The Pope had as good a Title by the Law of England as could be had, had he not left that, and claimed by Power from God. 7. There is no Government enjoin'd by Example, but by Precept; it does not follow we must have Bishops still, because we have had them so long. They are equally mad who say Bishops are so Jure Divino that they must be continued, and they who say they are so Antichristian that they must be put away. All is as the State pleases. 8. To have no Ministers, but Presbyters, 'tis as if in the Temporal State they should have no Officers but Constables. Bishops do best stand with Monarchy; that as amongst the Laity, you have Dukes, Lord-lieutenants, Judges, &c., to send down the King's Pleasure to his Subjects, so you have Bishops to govern the inferior Clergy. These upon occasion may address themselves to the King, otherwise every Parson of the Parish must come, and run up to the Court. 9. The Protestants have no Bishops in France, because they live in a Catholic Country, Parlia |