THE same men which in heat of contention do hardly either speak or give ear to reason, being after sharp and bitter conflict1 retired to a calm remembrance of all their former proceedings; the causes that brought them into quarrel, the course which their stirring2 affections have followed, and the issue whereunto they are come; may per-adventure, as troubled waters, in small time, of their own accord, by certain easy degrees settle themselves again, and so recover that clearness of well-advised judgment, whereby they shall stand at the length indifferent, both to yield and admit any reasonable satisfaction, where before they could not endure with patience to be gainsayed. Neither will I despair of the like success in these unpleasant controversies touching ecclesiastical policy; the time of silence which both parts have willingly taken to breathe3, seeming now as it were a pledge of all men’s quiet contentment to hear with more indifferency the weightiest4 and last remains of that cause, Jurisdiction5, Dignity6, Dominion Ecclesiastical7. For, let not8 any man imagine, that the bare and naked difference of a few ceremonies could either have kindled so much fire, or have caused it to flame so long; but that the parties which herein laboured mightily for change, and (as they say) for Reformation, had somewhat more than this mark only9 whereat to aim10.
Having therefore drawn out a complete form, as they supposed11, of public service to be done to God, and set down their plot for the office of the ministry in that behalf; they very well knew how little their labours so far forth bestowed would avail them in the end, without a claim of jurisdiction to uphold the fabric which they had erected; and this neither likely to be obtained but by the strong hand of the people, nor the people unlikely to favour it; the more12, if overture were made of their own interest, right, and title thereunto. Whereupon there are many which have conjectured this to be the cause, why in all the projects of their discipline (it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the key of spiritual authority out of the hands of former governors, and equally to possess therewith the pastors of all several congregations) the people, first for surer accomplishment, and then for better defence thereof, are pretended13 necessary actors in those things, whereunto their ability for the most part is as slender, as their title and challenge unjust.
Notwithstanding whether they saw it necessary for them so14 to persuade the people, without whose help they could do nothing; or else, (which I rather think,) the affection which they bare15 towards this new form of government made them to imagine it God’s own ordinance, their doctrine is, “that by the law of God, there must be for ever in all congregations certain lay-elders, ministers of ecclesiastical jurisdiction16,” inasmuch as our Lord and Saviour by testament (for so they presume) hath left all ministers or pastors in the Church executors equally to the whole power of spiritual jurisdiction, and with them hath joined the people as colleagues. By maintenance of which assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage; both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it, as a matter of their own interest; and for that, if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them, the colour of divine authority, assumed for the grace and countenance of that power in the vulgar sort, furnisheth their leaders with great abundance of matter, behoveful for their encouragement to proceed always with hope of fortunate success in the end, considering their cause to be as David’s was, a just defence of power given them from above, and consequently, their adversaries’ quarrel the same with Saul’s by whom the ordinance of God was withstood.
Now on the contrary side, if this their surmise prove false; if such, as in justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alleged (as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial), let them then consider whether those words of Corah, Dathan and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron17, “It is too much that ye take upon you, seeing all the congregation is holy,” be not the very true abstract and abridgment of all their published Admonitions, Demonstrations, Supplications, and Treatises whatsoever, whereby they have laboured to void the rooms of their spiritual superiors before authorized, and to advance the new fancied sceptre by lay presbyterial power.
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Footnotes
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b conflicts Ed. 1651. ↩
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c striving E. ↩
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[After 1593, in which year were published the first portion of Hooker’s work, and the two treatises of Bancroft, there was a pause for a while in the Puritan controversy.] ↩
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[See Pref. iv. 5: and note 17 (?87, which is note 1, p. 160, in vol. i. of this Ed.).] ↩
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Lib. vi. ↩
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Lib. vii. ↩
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Lib. viii. ↩
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d not om. E. ↩
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e only om. E. ↩
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[It may seem that there is some omission here: for the following sentence implies that a summary had been given of the Puritan “plot set down for the office of the ministry,” as being the end, for which the objections about ceremonies were a pretence, and the agitation for lay elders a mean.] ↩
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f suppose E. ↩
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g favour it the more. Fulman in the margin of a copy of the first edition in C. C. C. library. ↩
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[See Bancroft’s Dang. Pos. b. iv. c. 12.] ↩
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h so om. E. ↩
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i bear E. ↩
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[Eccl. Disc. fol. 120-125.] ↩
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Numb. xvi. 3. ↩