THE CENSORS CENSURED, IN A Brief Discourse: To which is adjoined the AUTHOR'S LETTER TO AN Anti-Episcopal Minister Concerning The Government of the CHURCH.  
Written in the year 1651. but not printed till now.  
LONDON: Printed for Phil. Stephensat the King's Arms over against Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet, 1661.   

To the READER,  
Courteous Reader,  
ALthough the many Books which have been already printed in defence of Episcopacy, may seem not only to forestall the credit, but to evacuate the use of future Impressions, about the same subject; yet considering the mess of Confederate Brethren, who are sworn to oppose it, which (being an Oglio of all Sects) is of far greater dimension than the defendant party. I presumed it would not amount to the reckoning of a vanity to enter with my unkeen weapon into the same field: which (though unworthy to be mustered with those forces of wit, that fight for victory) may serve (like the attendants of an Army) to face the enemy. It is the fate of truth for its naked simplicity to be as little known, as trusted, with earthly inhabitants: whereas error, clothed with glozing variety, finds not only acceptation, but maintenance in the hearts of most. What Gangrenes of Heresies, and fretting sores of schismatical opinions have infested the body of our National Church? since Bishops (the ministerial preservers thereof in soundness of Doctrine) were first divorced from their office, as the History of former ages can yield no examples to parallel, so (being by Satan's subtlety heightened to an exquisite degree of wickedness) the possible corruption of succeeding times, will want invention to excel. Such was the sudden growth of greedy innovations in the black art of enmity, against their ancient guides, that experience hath proved them to be a true exception to the Philosophers saying, Nemo repent fit turpissimus. And if their master, who raised them to the pinnacle of preferment, had not thrown them down headlong by a timely temptation, they would have all turned conceited Monarches, and not looked over, but for the Kingdoms of the earth. It will be as much shame hereafter to report, as it is now grief to remember the fiery generation of those meteors o● men, which (rising by the fall of our great stars) have vapoured from the Regions both of pulpit and press, into the houses of the honourable, and musty Cottages of the basest people, deluding them into such a lamentable deviation from their right principles, that the greatest part of them (like benighted Drunkards) are not yet able to find the way home. The consideration whereof doth offer us so much occasion, to pity the dangerous estate of their diseased souls, that I could wish no better success to attend this work, then that, by detecting the malignant distemper of their faults, it may become a direction for their recovery. But knowing that habituated Crimes will not readily yield to a separation from the subjects that possess them, and that custom in sin, (holding reason in bondage to the dominion of sense) doth seldom nauseate the sinner to a detestation thereof. I am disposed to doubt, that the event will be unanswerable to the scope of my desire. However the chiefest Part of this Book being written in time of persecution, when Tyranny had stated the Tribes of all honest men in a fitter capacity of receiving wrongs then giving reasons, I shall not now disown the exposing thereof to public view, though it happen to make a fermentation of humours in the choleric stomaches of our English Pharisees. For being set forth with the same intention wherewith it was first penned, more to declare my willingness to approve, than ability of mind to defend the right of Episcopal Government. It may not be coujectured to be composed with confidence to confute those that deny, but out of love to confirm them who believe the same.  
To thee therefore, Gentle Reader, whosoever thou art of this number, do I principally dedicate this my labour, wherein if thou apprehend nothing deserving thy condemnation, but the truth of my affection to the welfare of the Church, it will be applause enough to satisfy the expectation of  
Thy well-wishing friend, HUGH edmond's.   

THE CENSORS CENSURED.  
AS in natural, so in bodies Politic, there are no distempers more smartly afflicting, than those which invade the most noble parts, and amongst the many causes, which work a solution of unity, in a civil constitution of government, the corrupt humours of a brainsick clergy are the most intrinsical. The Truth whereof, though we have by the sad experiences of our own past miseries been better taught to bewail, than dispute; yet being farther instructed by the present discovery of their propagated mischiefs (notwithstanding the bountiful rays of mercy diffused amongst them from our England's Sun) we cannot but account it a pitiful folly to commiserate them, who think it a virtue to be cruel to themselves; for they, whom neither the sense of their own sin, nor apprehension of the King's pardon can reform, must needs be not only the charity, which submitteth to the worst of Governors, and it may be justly feared, that no true concordance will inhabit the centre, whilst such Heteroclites are left to lurk in the circumference of the Church, who will rather profess themselves St. Peter's animals by standing out in their own conceit, than St. Paul's souls in stooping to the authority of their lawful superiors, neither can they be well thought fit trusties for the security of the Gospel's treasure, who having once shipwrackt their Allegiance to the King, are still bankrupt of faith and honesty. Those are the old stocks, whereupon Satan hath graffed the variety of Sects, which hath been the shame, and is yet the grief of England's Church, whose first none conformity to Canonical orders, hath been the very originals, whereunto the many copies of obstinate fanatics, that are now extant, have their true reference, who following the tracts of St. Judes' murmurers, in admiration of some men's persons for advantage sake, do dissociate themselves from the community of Saints, not only in opinion, but practise, than which nothing can be more destructive to the concord and peaceable unanimity of spiritual Congregations; for as in physical Compositu●s, a violent disunion of Integrable parts breeds a more dangerous shisme in the body, than a humorous distemper; so in Ecclesiastical corporations, an actual separation from the Catholic fellowship of believers in God's service is a greater pander to confusion, than the scandal of a speculative distraction. It is time therefore for our Seminary Presbyters, who have been the Protoplastiques of a Rebellious generation, both in Church and State, to make a confession of their past faults, as well as their present faith to the King. They are now sufficiently read in the book of their own consciences to know, nemo periculosius peccat, quam qui peccata defendit, to Apologise for sin is more damnable, than to act it, and not to retract inexcusable errors, doth as much unqualify a delinquent for mercy, as the perpetration thereof can adapt him to justice. Repentance, though it may be too soon ended, can never be too late begun; he, that lives like St. Luke's judge on the bench, neither fearing God, nor regarding man, may have the grace to die like the Jews thief on the Cross, with profession of both; for that power which expressly denyeth forgiveness to one sin only, doth implicitly conceede a possibility of pardon to all others. On this consideration it would be worth their pains to translate their Petition for Presbytery into a Suit for Indemnity, and publicly to acknowledge his Majesty's Declaration which is the proof of his grace, to be an argument of their guilt, who (like cunning fencers, that aim at the legs, when they intent to veny the pate) under a reformative pretence of destroying those revenous beasts, which worry the people, begged leave of their master to hunt the kingdom, which being granted, they took liberty of themselves to make him their chief game: for it is well known from Dan to Beersheba, that the credit of their false doctrine was the very leaven wherewith the people were first moulded into a sour lump of armed malice against their Sovereign.  
And I may truly say, it was the unlucky Boutefen, which not only yielded smoke to smother all Treaties into a nullity of success, but that gave light also to clear the way for more active instruments than themselves to take off the Head of our eternally renowned Saint Charles, together with the Government from his soldiers; for although they entered not the Stage with those miscreants that personated Pilate in the fifth Act; yet because they appeared with others who played the parts of Annas and Caiphas, in the first Scene of the Tragedy, we may justly christian them the Grandfathers in law of that bloody fact, which being unmatchable in humane stories, may be in some sort compared to the crafty compliment of the cruel wolf in the fable, who told the sheep, Da mihi potum, & ego mihi dabo cibum, meaning to eat him up for his courtesy. A fact, which as former ages have not been so learnedly wicked to invent, so I hope the future will be more honestly wise than to imitate; A fact, which may school our Kings of England into a use of the Italians prayer, to be delivered from their friends whom they trust, as well as from their enemies whom they fear, and inform the people with the Spaniards soul, rather to sheathe their swords in one another's bowels upon private quarrels, than to draw them against their Sovereign in open war.  
But, if the Recognition of such an execrable murder be not caution enough for subjects to restrain them from Rebellion, let the memorable example of the Amalekites punishment be their exhortation to obedience, 2 Sam. 1. 13, 14. who (though a stranger to Saul's kingdom, and by them requested to conclude his pain with the inference of death) was by David's command for touching the Lords anointed, instantly condemned to lose his life.  
If King's lives than are so precious in God's account, that they may not be touched in the heat of proclaimed hostility, what a cursed sin must that be, which justifieth those who take them away in cold blood?  
By these animadversions I hope the whole host of spiritual officers, who have fought against the Regiment of the Church, will be victoriously fenced into a unanimous judgement, that it is far better for them to have the Apostles doctrine in their hearts, than the Scots discipline in their hands, to be content with that estate wherein they have been, then to covet that wherein they ought not to be, to submit to the King in causes Ecclesiastical, rather than by calling his power in question, to abuse their own authority in the Gospel, to give Caesar his, will be no substraction from their due, had not our Saviour paid for himself and Peter, it might be doubted, whether the Clerks of this age (like the old Egyptian Priests) would not plead their estates untributary, as well as their offices unsubject to the King.  
With what tenure of spiritual power they are invested Jure divino, none but those Laics whom the Pope's Mandate hath screened from the Sunshine of God's word, can be ignorant.  
The officious Acts of Jehoiada to Jehoash, and Nathan to David, are not only precedents to warrant the right, but boundaries to limit the extent of their claim; they must instruct Kings as the one, and may reprove them as the other did, which was not executed by an excommunicative scourge to make David do penance for his offence, but with the monition of a meek spirit, to give him a penitent sense thereof; for as the act of reproof argued the King to be God's subject: so the mode of reproving maintained him to be the Prophet's Sovereign.  
And thus I believe Azariah withstood Vzziah by no other force, save that of the tongue, whose aim was to strike at the fact, not the person of the King, to induce him into a consciousness of his fault, not to require his submission to punishment, which, because immediately inflicted of God▪ supposeth him privileged not to receive it from man: so that rebus sic stantibus, our ministerial Guides have little reason, and less grace to pride themselves in their Ghostly authority of reb●●ing Kings, such verbal Reprehensions being no more then religious servants (not adventuring beyond the sphere of their calling) may lawfully practise towards their ungodly masters; for as it is the Resolve of Divines, that in case of neccessity Quil●bet Christianus est sacerdos, so it is not only the liberty, but the duty of every one in God's case boldly to reprove an offending brother, as I think myself bound to tell the associated brethren, that they have highly wronged the Majesty of God & the King, both by their oral and manual prolusions to introduce a new fangled government in the Church, & that it will be more safe for them to observe the duty of looking into their own, than the false commission of overseeing their superiors actions, the performance whereof might happily make that saying ex culpa sacerdotum ruina populi, to be as well known to themselves, as felt by others, and convert the hypocrisy, which some do, into the sincerity of obedience, which all should profess; for though none of them be puritanized into Donatism, but can protest it their necessary obligation to reverence the King's person, yet most are so far sublimated from the dross of superstition, that they cannot without defiling their consciences veil to the train of his ceremonious Titles, they can easily concoct supreme Governors, dryly swallowed, but with the sauce of Ecclesiastical causes it quite nauseates their stomaches, and the name of head is more offensive to their palates, than perfumes are to the nostrils of those that are grieved with an Histerical passion; a monstrous straw for such mighty men to stumble at, which may be put in the same balance with that of their schismatical Predecessors in the conference at Hampton Court, who were scandalised with the word absolution in the Liturgy, but well content with the Term Remission of sins.  
What difference there is betwixt supreme Governor and Head in a notional acception, is more fit for Grammatical Critics, then politic Christians to inquire, as they are complicated in one subject, and determined to a constant oneness both of action and end, they must by the rules of honesty as well as Art, be construed Synonymous, and in a promiscuous manner adjudged to contract their literal variety into an identity of sense.  
Indeed we cannot deny but the Title of supreme Head was first given to King Henry the Eight by the Pope, who being by his own institution in the world (as the soul is in the body by God's Creation) Totus in toto, and not only singulis, but universis major, cannot be supposed to part with a piece of himself but for his own ends; yet we conceive it no trespass against any Canon, either of Scripture or reason, to convert that to a good use, which was first bestowed to an ill purpose, but for Presbyters to take that away for the better esteem of their own authority, which was given by the Pope, to disgrace the King's jurisdiction in the Church, is no less unreasonable to devise, then irreligious to practise.  
That great Bulwark of objection, (Christ is the sole Head of the Church, ergo no other can have the Title) which hath been presumed too strong for an army of Schoolmen to beat down, must necessarily yield upon terms to our side. For although as the Church is internally considered in respect of the kingdom of Grace, and our Saviour Christ as Lord thereof, by right of Redemption, ruling the hearts of the faithful by his spirit, there is no subjection allowable, nor headship to be attributed but to him only; yet as he is King by right of Creation, loving an Imperial Sovereignty over all his creatures, and the Church in a militant condition, which (by reason of an inseparable commixture of good and bad, and common relation of the inward and outward man) doth necessarily require an external policy to maintain a uniformity and order in the worship of God, so he hath ordained his Vicegerent on earth to whom both Clergy and Laity must be subject.  
And in this qualification of sense Kings may be truly styled supreme Heads in causes Ecclesiastical, within their Dominions; Thus Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes of Israel, 1 Sam. 15. 17. which in eodem signo rationis doth imply all persons, as well Ecclesiastical as civil in that Commonwealth, to be his subordinate members. And that the Priests were subject in their very Offices to the supreme power of their magistrates, 2 Chron. 8. Solomon's Acts in ordering their courses, and appointing the Levites to their charges, (who in manifestation of their duty are said not to depart from the commandment of the King) do sufficiently evidence, whose authority likewise to punish sins of the first table, that refer to Religion as well as those of the second, which belong to humane society.  
God's own prescript Laws to Moses, Deut. 13. Deut. 17. Levit. 17. are the authentic seals to confirm, whereunto we may annex that fact of our Saviour Christ himself, chastising the Jewish Pedlars, by virtue of his divine Royalty, for profanation of the Temple, as an exemplary proof beyond all exception.  
Having picked out the pith of their Divinity in the former objection, there resteth one hard Argument more a break, wherein lies the marrow of their Logic, if the power, say they, in Ecclesiastical matters be proper to the supreme magistrate as a Magistrate, than it should belong to all magistrates, and consequently to the heathen: the definition of a magistrate being one in Christian and Heathen Princes; but this would be both sinful and ridiculous to assert, ergo that cannot lawfully be maintained.  
Truly this is a witty sophism, which deserves the Reply of an ingenious Respondent in the Philosopher's School, false profecto, sed falso quidem. I presume the same learning which qualified them to oppose others, may enable them to answer themselves in this point; for if their consequence be good, Baal's Priests had as much right to the service of the Temple, as the Levitical Clergymen, neither can our Protestant ministers have a better Title to the dispensation of Christ's ordinances, than the officers of the Romish Church do now claim.  
Therefore if they will honestly defend their own as we do the King's authority in the Church, they must acknowledge their argument to be contrary to the principles of art, as their opinion is to the precepts of Religion; for when a Restrictive Term is adjoined to an equivocal subject (as magistrate is) To argue from an indefinite to a universal, is an illegal consequence, the reason is, because what is attributed by such a note of limitation, is not an absolute but a comparate propriety, which doth convenire subjecto mediante alio, as the power of the King in cause's Ecclesiastical is not proper to him, simply secundum naturam, but Relatively as he is a true Christian Magistrate; according to which univocation, if their Argument had been form, the consequence would be logically true.  
But as we do appropriate this power only to Kings truly Christian, So I must acquaint them that the Heathen subjects had such a Reverend respect to the authority of the supreme magistrate in matters of their idolatrous Religion, that Aristotle, Polit. l. 3. could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The King is Lord and Ruler of things that pertain to the Gods.  
To conclude, I wish those men, who (like the first matter have an indifferency to all forms, and are so unfixedly disposed ●n Religion, ●hat they can be content with the Sichemites, to ●e circumcised for their advantage, would (not for wrath but for conscience sake) give a seasonable Testimony of their obedience by a willing conformity to the King's power in Ecclesiastical causes, that the Church may be no longer grieved with the rapine of foreign wolves, or 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉, but that sound doctrine may flourish within her gates, and true discipline be established in her borders, to which end the Lord send us a speedy Restauration of our ancient Government by the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua, the King and the Bishop, that as we are baptised in one faith, so we may be subject to one Rule, & as we are of one body, we may be all of one mind, to worship God both in the purity and beauty of holiness, and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Amen.  
FINIS.