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iii. 16.

Christ; let us be your example, even as the Lord Jesus Phil. Christ is ours, that we may all proceed by one and the same rule."

worthiness

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XXIV. But beware we of following Christ as thieves fol- That for low true men, to take their goods by violence from them. Be their unit that bishops were all unworthy, not only of livings, but to deprive even of life, yet what hath our Lord Jesus Christ deserved, both them for which men should judge him worthy to have the things successors that are his given away from him unto others that have no right unto them? For at this mark it is that the head lay-re- to convey formers do all aim. Must these unworthy prelates give place? What then? Shall better succeed in their rooms? Is this de- of secular sired, to the end that others may enjoy their honours which calling, shall do Christ more faithful service than they have done? treme saBishops are the worst men living upon earth; therefore let crilegious their sanctified possessions be divided: amongst whom? O blessed reformation! O happy men, that put to their helping hands for the furtherance of so good and glorious a work! Wherefore, albeit the whole world at this day do already perceive, and posterity be like hereafter a great deal more plainly to discern, not that the clergy of God is thus heaved at because they are wicked, but that means are used to put it into the heads of the simple multitude that they are such indeed, to the end that those who thirst for the spoil of spiritual possessions may, till such time as they have their purpose, be thought to covet nothing but only the just extinguishment of unreformable persons; so that in regard of such men's intentions, practices, and machinations, against them, the part that suffereth these things may most fitly pray with David, "Judge thou me, O Lord, according to my Psal. righteousness, and according unto mine innocency: O let vii. 8. the malice of the wicked come to an end, and be thou the guide of the just:" notwithstanding, forasmuch as it doth not stand with Christian humility otherwise to think, than that this violent outrage of men is a rod in the ireful hands of the Lord our God, the smart whereof we deserve to feel: let it not seem grievous in the eyes of my reverend lords the bishops, if to their good consideration I offer a view of those sores which are in the kind of their heavenly function most apt to breed, and which, being not in time cured, may procure at the length that which God of his infinite mercy avert. Of bishops in his time St. Jerome complaineth, that they

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took it in great disdain to have any fault, great or small, Epiph. found with them. Epiphanius likewise, before Jerome, noteth their impatiency this way to have been the very cause of a lib.iii. schism in the church of Christ; at what time one Audius, a bær. 70. man of great integrity of life, full of faith and zeal towards God, beholding those things which were corruptly done in the church, and told the bishops and presbyters their faults, in such sort as those men are wont, who love the truth from their hearts, and walk in the paths of a most exact life. Whether it were covetousness or sensuality in their lives; absurdity or error in their teaching; any breach of the laws and canons of the church wherein he espied them faulty, certain and sure they were to be thereof most plainly told. Which thing they, whose dealings were justly culpable, could not bear; but, instead of amending their faults, bent their hatred against him who sought their amendment, till at length they drove him, by extremity of infestation, through weariness of striving against their injuries, to leave both them, and with them the church. Amongst the manifold accusations, either generally intended against the bishops of this our church, or laid particularly to the charge of any of them, I cannot find that hitherto their spitefullest adversaries have been able to say justly, that any man for telling them their personal faults in good and Christian sort, hath sustained in that respect much persecution. Wherefore, notwithstanding mine own inferior state and calling in God's church, the consideration whereof assureth me, that in this kind the sweetest sacrifice which I can offer unto Christ is meek obedience, reverence, and awe, unto the prelates which he hath placed in seats of higher authority over me, emboldened I am, so far as may conveniently stand with that duty of humble subjection, meekly to crave my good lords your favourable pardon, if it shall seem a fault thus far to presume; or, if otherwise, your wonted courteous acceptation.

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In government, be it of what kind soever, but especially if it be of such kind of government as prelates have over the church, there is not one thing publicly more hurtful, than that a hard opinion should be conceived of governors at the first and a good opinion how should the world ever

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conceive of them for their after-proceeding in regiment, whose first access and entrance, thereunto giveth just occasion to think them corrupt men, which fear not that God in whose name they are to rule? Wherefore a scandalous thing it is to the church of God, and to the actors themselves dangerous, to have aspired unto rooms of prelacy by wicked means. We are not at this day troubled much with that tumultuous kind of ambition, wherewith the elections of Damasus in St. Je- Ammian. rome's age, and of Maximus in Gregory's time, and of others, lib. xxvii. were long sithence stained. Our greatest fear is rather the Vide in Vita evil which Leo & and Anthemius did by imperial constitution Greg. Naz. endeavour as much as in them lay to prevent. He which granteth, or he which receiveth the office and dignity of a bishop, otherwise than beseemeth a thing Divine, and most holy; he which bestoweth, and he which obtaineth it, after any other sort than were honest and lawful to use, if our Lord Jesus Christ were present himself on earth to bestow it even with his own hands, sinneth a sin by so much more grievous than the sin of Belshazzar, by how much offices and functions heavenly are more precious that the meanest ornaments or implements which thereunto appertain. If it be, as the apostle saith, that the Holy Ghost doth make bishops, and that the whole action of making them is God's own deed, men being therein but his agents, what spark of the fear of God can there possibly remain in their hearts, who representing the person of God, in naming worthy men to ecclesiastical charge, do sell that which in his name they are to bestow; or who, standing as it were at the throne of the living God, do bargain for that which at his hands they are to receive? Woe worth such impious and irreligious profanations. The church of Christ hath been hereby made, not "a den of thieves," but in a manner the very dwelling-place of foul spirits; for undoubtedly such a number of them have been in all ages who thus have climbed into the seat of episcopal regiment.

2. Men may by orderly means be invested with spiritual

a Nemo gradum sacerdotii pretii venalitate mercetur; quantum quisque mereatur, non quantum dare sufficiat, æstimetur. Profecto enim, quis locus tutus et quæ causa esse poterit excusata, si veneranda Dei templa pecuniis expugnentur? Quem murum integritatis aut vallum providebimus, si auri sacra fames in penetralia veneranda proserpat? quid denique cautum esse poterit aut securum, si sanctitas incorrupta corrumpatur? Cesset altaribus imminere profanus ardor avaritiæ, et à sacris adytis repellatur piaculare flagitium. Itaque castus et humilis nostris temporibus eligatur episcopus, ut quocunque locorum pervenerit, omnia vitæ propriæ integritate purificet. Nec pretio sed precibus ordinetur antistes. Lib. xxxi. C. de episc. et cler.

authority and yet do harm, by reason of ignorance how to use it to the good of the church. "It is (saith Chrysostom) πολλοῦ μὲν ἀξιώματος, δύσκολον δὲ ἐπισκοπεῖν; a thing highly to be accounted of, but a hard thing to be that which a bishop should be." Yea, a hard and a toilsome thing it is for a bishop to know the things that belong unto a bishop. A right good man may be a very unfit magistrate. And for discharge of a bishop's office, to be well minded is not enough, no, not to be well learned also. Skill to instruct is a thing necessary, skill to govern much more necessary in a bishop. It is not safe for the church of Christ, when bishops learn what belongeth unto government, as empirics learn physic by killing of the sick. Bishops were wont to be men of great learning in the laws, both civil, and of the church; and while they were so, the wisest men in the land for counsel and government were bishops.

3. Know we never so well what belongeth unto a charge of so great moment, yet can we not therein proceed but with hazard of public detriment, if we rely on ourselves alone, and use not the benefit of conference with others. A singular mean to unity and concord amongst themselves, a marvellous help unto uniformity in their dealings, no small addition of weight and credit unto that which they do, a strong bridle unto such as watch for occasions to stir against them; finally, a very great stay unto all that are under their government, it could not choose but be soon found, if bishops did often and seriously use the help of mutual consultation. These three rehearsed are things only preparatory unto the course of episcopal proceedings. But the hurt is more manifestly seen which doth grow to the church of God by faults inherent in their several actions; as when they carelessly ordain; when they institute negligently; when corruptly they bestow church livings, benefices, prebends, and rooms especially of jurisdictions; when they visit for gain's sake, rather than with serious intent to do good; when their courts erected for the maintenance of good order are disordered; when they regard not the clergy under them; when neither clergy nor laity are kept in that awe for which this authority should serve; when any thing appeareth in them rather than a fatherly affection towards the flock of Christ; when they have no respect to posterity; and finally, when they neglect the true and requisite means whereby their authority should

be upheld. Surely the hurt which groweth out of these defects must needs be exceeding great. In a minister ignorance and disability to teach is a maim; nor is it held a thing allowable to ordain such, were it not for the avoiding of a greater evil which the church must needs sustain; if in so great scarcity of able men, and insufficiency of most parishes throughout the land to maintain them, both public prayer and the administration of sacraments should rather want, than any man thereunto be admitted lacking dexterity and skill to perform that which otherwise was most requisite. Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such, is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf. By reason whereof the church groweth burdened with silly creatures more than need, whose noted baseness and insufficiency bring their very order itself into contempt.

It may be that the fear of a quare impedit doth cause institutions to pass more easily than otherwise they would. And to speak plainly the very truth, it may be that writs of quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the other's place yet where law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment, to shew their judgment they are not hindered. And I doubt not but that even conscienceless and wicked patrons, of which sort the swarms are too great in the church of England, are the more emboldened to present unto bishops any refuse, by finding so easy acceptation thereof. Somewhat they might redress this sore, notwithstanding so strong impediments, if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart, and were not in a manner contented with it.

Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present, if that which some of yourselves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed? A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath, if a man do but think what it is for a bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower, and that in trust, without any other obligation than his sacred order only, and that religious integrity which hath been presumed on in him. Simoniacal corruption I may not for honour's sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place. So often they do not, I trust, offend by sale, as by unadvised gift of such preferments, wherein that ancient ca- Can. non should specially be remembered, which forbiddeth a bi- Apost. 6.

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