the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction at last the Statute concludes with this proviso Provided also that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodalls provinciall Stat. 25. Hen. 8. 19. being already made which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes Statutes and Customes of this Realme nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royall shall now still be used and executed as they were afore the making of this Act till such time as they be viewed searched or otherwise ordered and determined by the said two and thirty persons or the more part of them according to the tenour forme and effect of this present Act. It followes then that till those thirty two persons determine otherwise old Canons may bee still executed and retaine their ancient vigor and authority and when that will be I know not but as yet I am sure it hath not been done As for that which he saith he heard a Popish Canon alledged in the High Commission in opposition to a Parliament Statute unlesse he had brought us the Particular I will crave leave to put that among the rest of his incredible fictions which hee hath foisted upon that Honorable Court and those that sit Iudges in it And whereas heads that the Act of Parliament prefixed to the Communion-booke restraines Rites and Ceremonies to bee used in our Church to those only which are expressed in the same booke under the penalty of imprisonment c. I grant that the Statute doth forbid the use of any other rite ceremonie order forme or manner of celebrating of the Lords Supper Mattens or Evensong c. than is set forth in the said booke But this doth not hinder the retaining of any laudable and pious customes then and of a long time before in use in the Church which are no way contrary to the forme or rites prescribed in the booke of Common prayer For where is it said in that booke that men during the time of Divine Service or of prayer and the Letany shal sit with their hats off and uncovered and yet that ceremony is piously observed by all that have any religion in them * Sine scripto jus venit quod usus approbavit nam diuturni mores consensu utentium comprobaâ—i legem imitantur Iustin Instit l. 1. Tit. 2. Consuetudo est jus quoddam moribus institutum quod pro lege suscipitur cum deficit lex Gratian. Distinct 1. c. 5. In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit diving scriptura mospopuâ—i Dei vel instituta maâ—orum pro lege tenenda sâ—nt Aug. Ep. 86. Custome not contrary to Law or good reason hath ever obteined the force of a law and in things of this nature the pious customes of Gods people as Saint Aug speakes are to be held for lawes And being so must or at least may lawfully be observed till some law expressely cry them downe which I am sure the Common-prayer-book nor any Statute yet hath done And if Master B. shall not allow this for good reason he will doe himselfe more prejudice by it than those whom hee opposeth for besides that he will bee at a stand what gesture to use in many things which are yet left there undetermined His present practice in many things must needs be condemned as having no warrant or prescription in that booke For I would for instance faine know where in that booke his rite of carrying the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ up and downe the Church to the receivers pewes is to be found Where hee hath any allowance of singing a Psalme while hee is administring where or by what Statute those meetred Psalmes were ever allowed to be sung at all in the Church And if he can plead custome or however practice these and many others like them which might bee reckoned up without the warrant of the Common Prayer-book Why may not the same plea hold as strongly for those which he oppugnes which saving that hee hath called them all to nought are neither against the Word of God nor booke of Common-prayer but most decent and religious and venerable for their antiquity in the Church of God Nay if the not being in the booke of Common-prayer shall bee enough to exclude all rites and ceremonies from being used in the Church and that upon so great a danger as imprisonment c. Therâ— surely such as are contrary to the expresse orders there prescribed must much more be excluded their practice expose men more deservedly to the same danger And certainely Master B. by this meanes would be but in an ill case many others especially of his faction For how could they justifie their not reading of Gloria Patri at the end of every Psalme their addition of those words to the Lords Prayer for thine is the Kingdome the power c. when they finde it not there printed Their Christening of children after divine Service and the Sermon is ended their consummation of the whole forme of Marriage in the body of the Church without going to the Communion-Table and their churching of women other where than by that table and many other things which are contrary to the expresse words of the * If any person c. shall c. speake any thing in derogation depraving of the same book or of any thing therein contained c. every such person beeing thereof lawfully convicted shall forfeit for the first offence 100. markes for the second 400. for the 3. all his goods and chattels and suffer imprisonment during his life Stat. 1. Eliz 2. Rubrick yea which is more than all this how can Master B. bee excused from the penalty imposed by that Statute for depraving speaking against the reading of the second or Communion service at the Communion Table beeing so appointed in that booke These things considered it may justly be wondred at why the Statute should bee so strait-laced to some as not to admit any ceremony to be used but those that are prescribed and mentioned in the Common-prayer booke though commended by antiquity and the practice of the most judicious and of greatest authority in the Church and yet so indulgent to others as to suffer them freely to use what they thinke good and to wave the orders there prescribed and to deprave and speake against them at their pleasure But let us heare what more he hath to say Besides all this saith he these men have one speciall Sanctuary to fly unto and that is their Cathedrall Churches Well what then nay stay and give him leave first to empty his stomack for we may well thinke he cannot name Cathedrall Churches without moving his vomit which hee utters plentifully both against those places and those that belong to them with all their furniture vestments yea and the divine Service that is used in pag. 160. them And having thus cleared himselfe of that cholericke and bitter stuffe which I loath to pudle in he propounds
Neuters g N. Ips causers of the plagues continuance and other judgements which as it is in his Epitome we must never looke to have removed till some of them be hanged and indeed what not that may either vent his owne or move others splene against them Neither hath he beene contented to keepe himselfe in generalls but hath shot out the poysoned shafts of his serpentine tongue against particular persons a thing hatefull and intolerable in a publicke sermon as not to speake of those of lower ranke of whom the meanest is farre above him in every kind of worth The L. Bishop of Norwich a man eminent for his learning and approved to his Sacred Majesty by his long and faithfull service upon whom hee bestowes these titles An h pag 71. usurper a bringer in of forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome The L. Bishop of Chichester that mirrour of learning hee calls a i pag. 126. Tried Champion for Rome and joyning him with that thrice Venerable the L. Bishop of Ely whom in contempt hee calls Dr. White saith k pag. 121. They are men well affected to Rome when it is well knowne they have done more reall not railing service to this Church against Rome then ever Mr. Burton or any or all his faction ever did or could but I am beneath their worth thus to compare them But if ever hee shewed himselfe his crafts-master in the art of reviling lying and slandering it is against the most reverend Father in God the Lord Archbishop of Cant. his Grace Against whom he hath with an impudent forehead framed such odious lyes endeavouring to load him with so many false and foule aspersions and using so insolently base and reproachfull termes against his person his chaire and dignity that he may seeme to use a phrase of his owne to have strained the veines of his conscience no less than of his braines in the venting and inventing p. 126. of them and perhaps hee thought he could not sufficiently raile upon an Archbishop unless hee proved himselfe an arch-railor and peereless in his faculty The particulars at least the chiefe of them I shall hereafter meete and answer and therefore I forbeare here to relate them Yet further It was wisely and truly observed by that worthy Prelate and late glory of our Church Bishop Andrewes upon this same Bishop Andrewes serm p. 95. text That they that in the end prove to be seditious marke them well they be first detractors Ever as at first it did so doth it still begin in the gain-saying in the contradiction of Corah So began he This Moses and this Aaron they take too much upon them doe more than they may by Law they would have somewhat taken from them So Absolon Here is no body to doe any justice in the land So Ieroboam Lord what a heavy yoake is this on the peoples neck Meddle not with these detractors So he And indeed what more powerfull detractive of obedience from the Soveraigne power can there bee invented than to fill the peoples heads with conceits of the Kings neglect of religion his p. 56. c. oathes and protestations to perswade them that as if unable to rule hee suffers his royall throne Appeale p. 29. to bee overtopped by others his Lawes trampled on and himselfe swayed to acts against justice p. 54. p. â—6 and religion what greater incentive what readier way to kindle the fire of sedition than to cast contempt and scorne upon those in authority under him to make them hated as contemners of law oppressors persecutors enemies of God and all goodness What lowder alarme to rebellion than the noyse of the losse of the setled religion and the imputation of the present calamities to those who under his Majesty have the government of the Church Lastly whereas the text advises men not to joyne side or meddle with those that are given to change and that under a great penalty Mr. Burton though himselfe expound it of changes in Church or State that hee might in all points run counter to his text under the colour of crying out against changes becomes a projector himselfe and a ring-leader to others and that with so great confidence and zeale that he would adventure with an haltar about his neck to the great Senate p. 110. of this land with this proposition That the Lordly Prelacy might bee changed into such a government as might better suit with Gods word and Christs sweet yoake Thus from a detractor he is become not a medler with changers that were little for so great a Captaine as hee would seeme to be but a p. 31. leader and fore-man of their company which is just as that reverend Prelate said When men by their detraction have made the present State naught no remedy but we must have a better for it and so a change needs What change A good one you may be sure from a Lordly Prelacy to Christs sweet yoke So Mr. B. But I 'le tell you his meaning in his words that understood the text better than Mr. Burton and was well acquainted with such mens intentions You shall change for a fine new Church-government A presbytery would doe much better for you than an Hierarchy And perhaps not long after a government of States than a Monarchy And then adds Whom you find thus magnifying of changes and projecting new plots for the people be sure they are in the way to sedition and if that bee not lookt to in time the next newes is the blowing of a trumpet and Shebaes proclamation Wee have no part in David It begins in Shimei and ends in Sheba And what ever faire colours he puts upon it the change he aymes at is neither so agreeable to the word of God nor Christs sweet yoake as is the present Church-government nor the Presbytery save intitle less Lordly than the Prelacy Nay there is no Prelate nor all of them together that doth or will challenge that power and dominion which is exercised in that discipline to which not the people onely but the King himselfe must be subject yea and deposed too if hee will not submit As by their practice at Geneva where it had its first beginning is most apparent Mr. Calvin himselfe relating both of his urging Epist 71. the oath which Mr. Burton and others so much startle at and cry out against and his putting one of their foure Syndicks which is the chiefe Magistracy among them out of his place till by his publick repentance he had given satisfaction to the Presbyterian Consistory But this onely by the way To our purpose By this the Reader may judge how well Mr. Burton hath suited his text with a discourse which is fraught with matter of so farre different nature as I know not how better to resemble it than to that deformed monster I mentioned out of the Poet where the body
to spirituall and heavenly meditations which must needs bee a thing very commendable and acceptable to God and farre from his Majesties intention to disallow or to prohibit any from incouraging men in such courses onely hee would not have this imposed as necessary for all which no Divine or Evangelicall precept hath done nor is possible by all to be observed all men not being morally able to apply themselves for the space of the whole day to spirituall and religious exercises and to divine Meditations onely If then by the Declaration the publike service of God be duely provided for no recreations permitted to the hinderance thereof no nor the pious affections of well disposed Christians for the applying of themselves on that day to private duties of devotion and piety any way prohibited Then it cannot justly be accounted any in-let to profanenesse or irreligion or hinderance of the due sanctification of the Lords day which was my first Proposition For the second Proposition Things may bee said to bee unlawfull either in themselves or in regard of some circumstance of time place or manner in which they may be used The great exception which is by most men taken against the sports and recreations allowed in the Declaration is not so much in regard of the things themselves as in regard of the day on which they are permitted when though in themselves lawfull as honest labours are they judge them unseasonable and sinfull But this hath beene already sufficiently cleared by the learned Bishop of See B. of Ely p. 237 238. c. Ely and others who have proved that neither the Jewes under the Law were prohibited all recreations on their Sabbath nor if that were not granted could such prohibition of them conclude against Christians using of them upon the Lords day Provided that the proper worke of the day the publick service of God be first ended and not thereby any way letted or impeached But secondly there are some that will have the Recreations by the Declaration permitted to be in themselves unlawfull and if so then must they be against the law of God or the law of the land M. Burton will have them against both pag. 57. 1. Against the law of the land for which he cites the Act of Parliament in the 1. of King Charles But in that Act none of the exercises or pastimes allowed by the Declaration are mentioned but onely in generall termes it prohibits all such as are unlawfull which the Declaration also doth and that not onely such as are simply unlawfull but all others forbidden by the law of the Land as Decla p. 12. unlawfull either on Sundayes as Interludes and Beare and Bull-baitings or for some persons as bowling an exercise by law prohibited the meaner sort And it were very hard to imagine that his Majesty should confirm any Act of Parliament which should crosse the Declaration set forth by his Royall Father not seven years before at least without expresse mentioning of it and rendring some reason moving him so to doe But secondly they are neverthelesse unlawfull and as supposed to be such Mr Burton will have them comprised in that Act under those generall words All other unlawfull pastimes which saith he are those By name all dancing leaping revelling and such like in termes condemned by Imperiall edicts Decrees of Councells writings of ancient Fathers of all learned Divines both Protestants and Papists in all ages And King James of famous memory in his Basilicon Doron whose words he there cites He that should reade this passage in M. Burton alone and not know the man would thinke him a man that did much esteeme the writings of the Ancient Fathers the Decrees of Councels and consentient testimony of Divines But the truth is it hath beene an usuall custome with men of his straine and humour if they can but light upon any thing in the Fathers or ancient Councels that sounds to their liking they catch hold of it presently and make a great shew and flourish with it and both sayings and Authors shal have their due commendations See Survay of the pretended holy Disc c. 26. 27. But if any or all of them be brought to impugne their crotchets they set light by their authority and care not a rush for them Bring them then the Scriptures or nothing I will not serve him in the same kinde but giving Antiquity its due honour for answer to that which he alledgeth I say first That sure the man is much mistaken and in his heat forgat himselfe in putting leaping into the number of those pastimes which he saith are so condemned For I beleeve he is the first man that ever so accounted it and I am verily perswaded that in his sad and sober thoughts if ever he come to himselfe so farre as to have any he will exclude from so hard a censure both it and archery and vaulting and such like though mentioned in the Declaration 2 For Revelling taking it in the usuall sense for drunken and disorderly meetings c. wee must subscribe to the Fathers and Councels and not to them onely but to the sacred Scripture where they are plainly condemned as workes of Gal. 5. 21. the flesh And say withall that it was one end that his Majesty aimed at in this Declaration to hinder such Revellings which he condemnes under the name of filthy tiplings and drunkennesse Decl. p. 6. But if Mr. Burton intend by it all those other sports mentioned in the Declaration as Wakes and Whitson-ales c. I say then that hee is much wide in his conceit of them they are no such things especially in his Majesties intention who hath therefore given expresse charge for Decl. p. 16. the preventing and punishing of all disorders in them Thirdly That then which remaines under the sentence of condemnation is onely Dancing and as I suppose mixed dancing as they use to call it of men and women together for single dancing is not by the strictest disallowed As for mixed dancings I know they may be abused and become unlawfull by the immoderate and unseasonable use of them and may otherwise yea and they do many times become incentives unto lust and that two wayes especially First when there are used in them such immodest motions and gestures as have in them manifest tokens of a lascivious mind Secondly when they are done animo libidinoso with an intention to stir up the fire of lust where either of these are they must needs become unlawfull Now these as they may be as well in single dancing so they are not in all mixed dancings so as to make them all to be condemned For what hinders but that men and women may together expresse their joy in such modest motions and with as chast intentions as they may otherwise walke talke salute and converse together If any shall say there is danger because of our frailty which is prone to abuse these to wantonnes I
Turpiter atrū Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne and lower parts of an ugly fish was joyned to a faire and beautifull womans face Or like some Apothecaries boxes which bearing the inscription of a Cordiall or pretious antidote containes nothing in it but some banefull drugge or deadly poyson I confess I have knowne men of his straine to start strange doctrines from texts where a man would never have dreamed of any such matter as if their texts were but a colour serving onely to bring in their owne fancies As one that preaching upon the parable of the Prodigall Luk. 15. 15. from that where it is said Hee joyned himselfe to a Citizen of that country which hee did constrained by necessity and to avoid starving observed this doctrine That it is the duty of Christians in choosing their calling to make choyse of men eminent for religion and piety Another that in that of S. Iohn Hee is the propitiation for our Iohn 15. 15. sins and not for our sins onely but for the sins of the whole world found this That Christ did not dye for all men but onely for the elect But yet Mr. Burton passes them all in that having such a Text could in all the parts of it so directly contradict it as if he had learned of the Canonist to expound constituimus by abrogamus But I go on The pretended ground of all these clamours calumniations and contumelies against the Bishops and Hierarchy we find by him set downe p. 111. in these words According to our text we are professedly against all those usurpations and innovations which the Prelates of latter dayes have haled in by the head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the Land and much more against the Law of God And indeed the summe of all these declamatory sermons and of his libels and Epistles c. is briefly this There are divers Innovations lately brought into the Church and State and that with a strong hand and strange persecution of those that yeeld not to them by the Archbishop of Cant. and some other Bishops of dangerous consequence as tending to the subversion of the religion and government established and the bringing of us back againe to idolatry and union with the Church of Rome and therefore that the Bishops ought to bee severely punished and their orders abolished So that if it appeare that this is false in every part of it As namely that the innovations which he raves upon are injuriously so termed That they are not popish or tending to the overthrow of the religion established and reconciling us to Rome That the Bishops urging these supposed innovations have kept within the bounds of their lawfull power and not exercised any tyrannie nor persecuted Gods people or the Kings good subjects If I say these severals shall be made to appeare and this by Gods assistance I doubt not but I shall be able to do to the conviction of such as are not wilfully blinded then the iniquity of his clamors the falsehood odiousness and impudency of his calumniations will without more adoe be discovered and it will be easie to judge who they are that have troubled Israel And therefore that I may not leade my readers through the maze of his manifold tautologies nor tyre my selfe and them in the wilde and pathless thicket of his impertinencies nor take the paynes to wipe off every spot of dirt which he hath cast upon his opposites My purpose is to examine this Grand crimination and to speake of the severall supposed innovations and that according to that division and in that order that wee finde them ranked by him in that forenamed place Where he thus writes And these Innovations or changes wee may reduce to eight generall heads 1. Innovation in Doctrine 2. Innovation in Discipline 3. Innovation in the worship of God 4. Innovation in the civill government 5. Innovation in the Altering of bookes 6. Innovation in the meanes of knowledge 7. Innovation in the rule of faith 8. Innovation in the rule of Maners CHAP. V. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of King James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James's other Order for preaching of Election c. justified FIrst saith he they the Prelats have laboured to bring in a change of Doctrine as appeareth by these instances 1. By procuring an Order from King James of famous memory to the Vniversities that young students should not read our Moderne learned Writers as Calvin Beza and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and Schoolemen This first crimination is farre fetcht being if I mistake not a thing acted above twenty yeeres agoe so that it seemes hee meanes to take him compasse enough the times present not affording him sufficient store and if hee had gone backe but twice as many more hee might have found the reading of Calvin and Beza accounted as great an Innovation as now he holds the debarring of men from reading of them and that by those that were as good Protestants as Mr. Burton and as farre from Popery But secondly being so long agoe done I cannot see how hee can lay it upon the present Prelates especially upon those whom hee most strives to make odious none of them being Bishops at that time But if they must inherit the guilt and punishment of their Predecessors faults In the third place how doth it appeare that it was the Bishops doing Marry because King Iames approved and magnified those Orthodox Authors and gave the right hand of fellowship to those reformed Churches which those Authors had planted or watered calling that the Orthodox faith which those Churches did professe and in particular did commend Calvin as the most judicious and sound expositor of Scripture And therefore it were impious to imagine that King James should doe any act in prejudice of Calvin c. Well But might not that judicious King or any man else approve the Authors in the general and yet dislike some things in them for which hee might thinke them not so fit for young students in Divinity to lay them for the foundation of their studies It is no prejudice to the best of them nor indeed to any man as being a common infirmity of humane nature to say that in some things they erred Much lesse can it wrong them to have the ancient Fathers from whose torches they lighted their candles preferred as the more worthy And it is one thing to give the right hand of fellowship to a particular Church which we willingly doe to all the reformed Churches beyond the Seas and another to like and approve every Tenet that any man in that Church shall hold or deliver I suppose Mr. Burton is not so uncharitable as to deny the Lutherane Churches the right hand of fellowship and to exclude them from being
a true Church and yet I beleeve hee would bee loath to agree with them in all opinions which they maintaine especially if hee knew for I have heard that in place where not many yeeres agoe he bewrayed his ignorance and was faine to be informed by a brother Minister then in presence that they held all those Tenets about Predestination Freewill and falling from grace which hee so much condemnes in those whom hee termes Arminians Neither can it be imagined that King Iames when hee acknowledged Calvin and therein did him but right to bee a most judicious expositour of Scripture ever intended to exempt him from errour when it is most manifest that hee did utterly condemne many opinions of his and that though he had been bred and brought up among those who received their doctrine and discipline from Calvin yet as himselfe professed in the Conference at Hampton-Court from the time that he was tenne yeeres old hee ever disliked their Confer p. 20. opinions and that though he lived among them he was not of them And therefore might without crossing his owne judgement enjoyne young students rather to looke into the Fathers and acquaint themselves with the judgement of the Ancient Church than to take up opinions upon trust of those moderne Authors who though as he after addes they were not without their Naevi or spots yet no man without betraying insufferable pride and ignorance will account their workes a dunghill or heape of mud where haply with much raking and prying a man may chance to light upon a Pearle so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere gather pearles out of the mud as Mr. Burton is pleased to speake I am sure other men as sound and judicious as himselfe every whit have held it a point of wisedome to draw water as neere as they can from the well-head rather than from lakes and cisternes And the truth is that King Iames of famous memory whether by the procurement of the Bishops or not it matters not for neither the Author nor the procurers need blush for it having taken some just distaste at some novell points delivered by some young Divines which trenched upon his Regall power and dignity and knowing from what pits that water was drawne and that those moderne Authors mentioned were ill affected to Monarchicall Government and injurious to the just right of Kings going hand in hand with the Iesuites in the principles of popularity Did in his Princely wisedome for the preventing of so great a danger as might ensue if such principles were drunk in at the first by young and injudicious Novices give charge to the Heads of the University of Cambridge I am sure and whether of Oxford too I know not that they should take order that young students should bee well seasoned at the beginning and well grounded in the principles of Our owne Catechisme and the Articles and Doctrine of our Church and that they should not ground their studies upon those men where they might with their first milke in Divinity sucke in such unsound opinions and dangerous to the State But rather that they would search into Antiquity and study the writings of the Fathers whose consentient Doctrine is without doubt the best and soundest Divinity And if Mr. Burton had taken this course in his studies hee had learned better obedience to his Superiours and beene lesse troublesome to himselfe and others This then is but a fetch and brought in onely to increase the heape of odium upon the Bishops with those Pag. 114. who judge of things not by weight or worth but by noise and number For there is no colour for that which he suggests that it should be done the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their the Prelats plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery seeing neither that which was done nor the end for which it was done have the least affinity with Popery but was intended for the opposing and preventing of that point of Popery or Jesuitisme which animates and armes the people against their Princes But further To this purpose saith he they procure Pag. 114. another order in King James his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops and Deanes shall handle those points And is it not great reason that those high points should bee handled with great wisedome and sobriety And who are then fitter so to handle them than the Bishops and Deanes who how contemptible soever Mr. Burton esteemes of them are presumed in reason and in the judgement of the King from whom they receive their dignities to bee the most discreet and judicious Divines Hitherto wee have no Innovation in Doctrine and much lesse any Popery For the Doctrine may bee and is still the same that it ever was from what Authors soever it is fetched and by what persons soever it be delivered So that Mr. Burton is beside the matter and hath not yet come home to the point by him proposed which was Innovations in Doctrine CHAP. VI. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion Mr. Burtons cunning trick to colour his rayling against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in Mr. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine BUt leaving King Iames hee comes to our gracious Soveraigne that now is and saith After that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name And why in King Charles his name and not by him The title calls it His Majesties Declaration and the whole tenor of it runs in His Majesties style How then shall we know it was not his This is but a cunning quirk to teach the people to decline obedience to His Majesties commands If they can be perswaded that His Majesties Declarations and Proclamations which are sent out if they concerne things that crosse their fancies be none of his acts Then to what passe things in short time will grow it is easie for any man that is but halfe witted to conjecture If men may at their liberty Father the Kings acts upon the Prelates or any other whom they favour not and then rayle at them at their pleasure and reject them as none of his His Majesty will ere long be faine to stand to his subjects courtesie for obedience to his royall commands Or if men may say of such things as come out in the Kings name that they tend to the publick dishonour of God and his word to the violation and annihilation of his commandements the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England the destruction of the peoples soules and that they are contrary to his solemne royall protestations as Mr. B. speakes about the declaration
p. 56. for sports and often elsewhere and therefore that they are not the Kings acts What doth he else but perswade the people who for all his glosse beleeve them as indeed who can beleeve otherwise to be his That His Majesty is I tremble to speak it out such as he makes them whom he intitles to those acts And then what may we Calv. Inst l. 4. c 20. et 31. Bucan loc 40 77. See Goodman p. 190. expect to follow but the practise of that doctrine which is taught in many of his Orthodoxe Authors The withstanding and opposing of their commands and deposing of their persons But this passage is better answered by the justice of authority than a Scholers pen. Let us see then what it is he findes fault with in this Declaration First he intimates that Gods truth that is the saving doctrines of Election Predestination effectuall vocation Assurance and perseverance are thereby silenced and suppressed Be it so Is it not better that some truth for a while be suppressed than the peace of the Church disturbed St. Augustine saith It is prositable to keepe in some truth for their Facile est imo utile ut â—aceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Aug. de persev SanctoruÌ„ c. 15. sakes that are uncapable and surely we might truly say of the time when this Declaration was published by His Majesty that men were uncapable of these doctrines When men begin once to strive about names to quarrell about abstruse mysteries to side one against the other and to count each other Anathema as it was with our neighbours and began to be with us was it not time to enjoyne silence to both parties All truths wee know are not of the same rank or of equall necessity some things there are which must be preached in season and out of season but those points he mentions come not within that number And though the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is ful of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons as our Church Article speakes that is if wise men in this argument Artic. 17. can be content to be wise unto sobriety and thus farre truth even in these points is not by the Declaration suppressed nor our Articles of Religion to which we all subscribe hung up upon the wall and cashier'd And though this may in some sense be called a saving doctrine yet not so as the ignorance of it should exclude from salvation However taking it in the sense he intends for those absolute and peremptory decisions desperate positions and high speculations and such as are opposite to the receiving of Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in the holy Scripture and harping upon that will of God which is secret and not declared unto us in the word of God which is the doctrine Multa etenim benè tecta latem neâ—câ—taâ— prosunt c. vid. Carm de Ingrat which he aymes at we may count this doctrine among those things of which Prosper saith that they profit being unknowne And Mr. Burton is much deceived and deceives the people when hee saith Thus the Ministery of the Gospell is at once overthrowne and nothing but orations of morality must be taught the people Indeed Mr. Burtons Gospell is thus overthrowne which consists in such daring speculations But blessed be God the Gospell of Christ by this meanes hath had a freer passage than it was like to have had if things might have beene suffered to have gone on as they begun And then is the Gospel in most vigor when the people by it are instructed what it is that God hath commanded and what they ought to doe which in contempt he calls orations of morality God doth not bring men to heaven by difficult questions the way to eternity is plaine and easie to be knowne To beleeve that Iesus Christ was raised from the dead to acknowledge him to be Lord and Christ and to live soberly righteously and religiously in this present world is the summe of saving doctrine and Christian religion and this is left written for our learning in so plaine characters that he that runs may read it And therefore it is good counsell which the son of Syrach gives Seeke not out the things that are above thy strength But what is commanded Ecclus. 3. 21. thee thinke thereupon with reverence And what the Iesuit thinks of this way of silencing Contzen polit controversies it is not much to be regarded yet it seemes Mr. B. and he jumpe in opinion here as well as in other things But how this should be a meanes to restore the Roman-Catholick religion for men to be enjoyned to hold themselves to the Articles of the Church of England and as it is in the Declaration that no man shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plaine and full meaning thereof c. This I confess is beyond my capacity But by this meanes there is not one Minister almost among a thousand that dare clearely preach of these most comfortable doctrines Of Absolute Election and Reprobation and so soundly and roundly confute So I finde it printed diverse times in the place the Arminian heresie And blessed be God that there are so few that dare and I wish that Mr. B. and those others that have dared would have shewed more obedience to his Majesty As for the comfortableness of that doctrine as they teach it let the poore tormented consciences speake which have by it beene affrighted and driven to desperation I heard one once an acquaintance of Mr. Burtons making this objection against his preaching about reprobation that said It was very fit that therefore it should bee taught that men that found in themselves the marks of reprobation should be driven to horror and despaire and have hell fire kindled in them here in this life A most comfortable doctrine no question CHAP. VII Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentals What are fundamentals in Mr. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants FOr the bookes that he saith of late times have come abroad maintaining Popery and Arminianisme My answer is that Mr. Burton knowes well enough how to get bookes printed in spight of authority and therefore he cannot lay the blame there if any such have past out without license And for those that have Bishop Mount Appeale Dr.
make the Commandement to speake riddles and arrant non-sense They deny that there is any Commandement given in the New Testament for the observation of the Lords day Though they acknowledge sufficient ground there to warrant the Churches institution and observation of that day And this they suppose they may justly maintaine till Mr. B. or some other of his mind in this point produce the place where it is written which if they would once do they would easily bring off the Bishops and others who agree with them to make a recantation and to subscribe to their better information That which they ascribe unto the Church in this argument is 1. The institution of the Lords day and other holy dayes that is the determination of the time of Gods publick worship to those dayes 2 The prescription of the manner of the observation of these dayes both for the duties to be performed and the time manner and other circumstances of their performance Concerning which they affirme 2. things Bishop of Ely p. 149. First That the Church hath liberty power and authority thus to do Secondly that Christians are in conscience bound to observe these precepts of the Church and that they that transgress Bern. de praec et dispens c. 12. Obedientia quae majoribus praebetur Deo exhibetur quamobrē quicquid vice Dei praecipit homo c. them sin against God whose law requires that we must obey every lawfull ordinance of the Church And as S. Bernard speakes The obedience that is given to Superiours he speakes of the Prelates and governors in the Church is exhibited to God wherefore whatsoever man in Gods stead commands if it be not for certaine such as displease God is no otherwise at all to be received than if God had commanded it For what matters it whether God by Himselfe or by his Ministers men or Angels make known his pleasure to us So hee and much more to that purpose in that place So that they which maintaine the institution of the Lords day to be from the Church doe not thereby as they are wrongly charged discharge men from all tye of obedience and give them liberty to observe it or not at their owne pleasure which no man will affirme but those onely who have learned to under-value and despise the Church of God and her rightfull Authority Now these things have beene so fully proved so plainly demonstrated already that it is needless yea impossible for me to adde any thing and as impossile for Mr. B. or any other to gain-say with any reason or evidence of truth Which because he cannot do hee betakes him to the forlorne hope of contentious spirits railing against his opposers and traducing the doctrine which he knowes not how to confute For his opposers he saith that in this point they have strained all the veines of their conscience and braines and that they are so mad upon it that no shame will stay them pag. 126. till confusion stop their mouthes But God bee praised they have not neither need they much to straine either Their conscience need not be strained at all in delivering that doctrine and acknowledging that truth which is after godliness And for their braines it is not Mr. Burtons Tit. 1. 1. Pamphlets or lawless Dialogues that can straine them No nor his larger answer which he threatens in answer to my L. of Elyes Treatise which were it not that simple and well meaning people might haply be seduced and made to thinke them unanswerable were quickly answered with that which best befits them silence and scorne As for that grave and learned Prelate whom he useth with such contempt and base language The world hath seene his humility joyned with that masse of learning which is lodged in that venerable brest that he hath not disdained to stoope to answer this railers railing dialogue of A. and B. which hee hath done like himselfe with great strength and evidence of reason and solidity of judgement and yet blessed be God hath not sacrificed the least dramme of reason which yet remaines in so great yeares to admiration quick and pregnant and will be able if need be to discover Mr. Burtons arrogancy and bold-fac't ignorance So that he must be faine to sacrifice the remainder of his modesty and honesty if any be yet left him to finde any thing to reply CHAP. X. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. Mr. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument THis is all he saith of his supposed innovations in doctrine But before I part with this last point I must annexe somewhat of his Majesties Declaration concerning lawfull sports to be used upon Sundayes as depending hereupon and being the great pretended grievance in this argument This Declaration and the publishing of it according to his Majesties Royall intent and command hath afforded Mr. Burton plentifull occasion of calumniation and caused him to utter many shamefull and slanderous invectives not onely against the Declaration it selfe but against the Royall authority commanding and those whom hee conceives procurers of it or that in obedience to his Majesty have urged the publishing of it and punished any that have obstinately refused For first hee hath endeavoured to blase the Honour of that great Patron of the Church K. Iames of Blessed memory by an odious and base insinuation of I know not what extraordinary temper wherein the King should be when this Declaration was first published a passage so unworthy and execrably scandalous that I will not so much as mention it Nor hath he dealt better but farre worse 2 with his sacred Majesty that now is in making his reviving and republishing of his Fathers Act to tend to the publick dishonour of God the annihilation of the holy Commandement touching the Sabbath p. 56. the alteration of the doctrine of the Church of England the violation of his solemne Royall protestations all which and more supposing the republishing of this Declaration to be his Majesties Act and by his Authority hee layes to his Majesties charge Indeed hee seemes not willing that the world should take notice of these blasphemies as directly sent out against his Majesty and therefore would make men beleeve that this Act was none of his Majesties But then I would Declaration concerning the dissol of the last Parliament demand of him how he knowes any Declaration or Proclamation to be set forth by his Majesty and in particular how he knows that Declaration to be his which he puts His Majesty so often in minde of Sure I am he can have no greater evidence for any than hee hath for this His Majesties name prefixed his Royall Test subscribed And who is there without danger of being found guilty of high treason can
Thus I have smelt this which hee calles the sweet flower of candid sinceritie and find it to be no other than the unsavory and bitter weed of detraction As for that for which hee brings this and the other instances viz. To prove that the Bishops whom hee calles the Popes Factors doe by these practises labour to divide the King from his good Subjects and bring Him to have a hard opinion of the good Ministers of the Land and the Kings most loyall loving dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable Subjects I say first that if hee meane himselfe and his party as it is out of all question hee doth for wee shall never finde him to grace any others with those titles His Majestie hath such experience of their love and loyalty such as it is that hee needs no informers nor need Mr. B. feare till they alter their courses that ever His Majestie will or any of those hee aymes at goe about to alter his deserved opinion of them Secondly if the words bee taken in their latitude and as they sound I say onely two things First That it is a meere slander and groundlesse calumnie Secondly That if they should act their parts in that way with His Majestie as devoutly and with as great zeale as Mr. B. and others of his faction have done theirs with the people or to speake more plainly if they should as earnestly endeavour to bring His Majestie to have as hard an opinion of His Subjects as Mr. Burt. hath done to bring the Subjects to have of His Majestie all things had long before this beene in a combustion if not arrived at a totall ruine and desolation But enough of this Passe wee now to the fift kinde of Innovations CHAP. XVI Of the altering of the Prayer-bookes The putting In for At. The leaving out of Father of thine elect c. no treason Master B. rather guilty His pretty shift about it and how hee and some of his use the Prayers of the Church Of the Prayers for the fift of November altered Those Prayers not confirmed by act of Parliament The Religion of the Church of Rome not Rebellion Of the alterations in the last Fast-booke The restraint of preaching Fasting dayes no Sabbaths THe fift Innovation hee tels of is in altering of Prayer-bookes set forth by publick Authority And this out of the zeale hee beareth to Authority much troubles him so that he makes a great adoo about both in his sermons and so doth the Author of the Ipswich libell Let us briefly inquire what the matter may bee that thus moves his patience First he tells us of alterations made in the Communion-booke set forth by In the editions since 1619. Parliament within this seventeene or eighteene yeares as in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter That In the name of Iesus is turned into At the name of Iesus Surely a mighty alteration and which toucheth the substance of Religion and worship of God To read it in the Epistle as it is used to be read in the Lesson when that chapter is appointed for so it is there turned both by his friends the Genevians and our last Translators But hee hath a matter of other-like moment than this In the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progenie they have put out Father of thine Elect and of their Seed This he keeps a foule pudder about and in the Epitome they cry out O intolerable Newes Ips p. 3. impiety affront and horrid treason and puts it in the title-page to startle and amaze the readers at first dash and make them cry shame upon the Bishops But if I could take the man in coole bloud I would demand of him who made that prayer If hee say as hee must it was made at the beginning of King Iames his raigne I would aske by whom If he say by the Bishops I shall then become his petitioner to bee informed why they may not as well alter it when the occasion ceased as well as make it to serve the present occasion of those times If he say as hee here intimates that it was set forth by the Parliament let him produce the Act that was made for that prayer then I shall say more to him But for all that it is not to bee so slighted for it sounds little better than high treason to dash the Queene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect. Wee may very well let Master B. boast of his loyalty when hee gives such experiment of it by his zeale in detecting traitors treasonous practises But in good earnest doth he think it treason truly I can hardly beleeve he doth but if he or any other seduced by his sermons and libels should I will by asking a question or two get them assoyled from so heavie a charge For how if this Alteration were as indeed it was and for that cause alter'd before the Kings Majesty had any Royall Progeny Sure then it could bee no treason hee may perhaps if there be any such call it treason in the roote which in time may grow up to bee treason though at first it was no such thing but an act done upon good ground and reason But he is not very confident that they doe exclude them out of the number of Gods Elect it is but as it were or as if nor can hee doe otherwise in reason because it is no necessary consequence to say they doe not when they pray for them addresse their prayers to God by the name of Father of his elect and of their seed therfore they doe not think them they pray for to bee of Gods Elect. But what if Master B. himselfe doe indeed exclude them and doe not thinke them to be of the number of Gods Elect Will it be intolerable impiety and horrid treason still No question it must bee the same crime in him and them persons doe not so difference acts whose objects are the same And that this uncharitable and most unchristian-like Christian man is of this opinion were easie to demonstrate out of his senselesse bookes against my Lord of Exon and Master Cholmeley were it fit for me to prosecute this argument But he hath a pretty shift for that and by the helpe of a mentall reservation can use that clause well enough For though he doe not beleeve them to be Elect to an Eternall Crowne such is the wisedome and charity of this black Saint hee beleeves that they are to a Temporall And this is intimated in his Epitome where the leaving out of this clause is made to imply that they which did it made them all reprobates and none of the number of Gods Elect either to a Temporall or an Eternall Crowne By which men may judge with what faith such as Master B. use to say the prayers of the Church and what strange senses they are faine to put upon them to fit them to their fancies And this is no new thing with them but practised a long
68 69. royall prerogative and much more to the same purpose Here not to meddle with Doctor Bastwicks case against whom there are other crimes objected than that which hee here mentions I will onely lay downe some briefe conclusions and their consectaries declaring the truth in these points and referre those that desire further satisfaction to such as have purposely treated of this subject And my first conclusion shal be That the Kings Conclu 1 and Queens of this Realme neither have nor doe See the Queens Injunctions challenge in right of their Crownes any authority or power of the ministration of Divine Offices in the Church Wee give not to our Princes saith the thirtie seventh Article the ministring of Gods Word or of the Sacraments neither doe they claime the power of the Keyes for remitting or retaining of sins either privately or publickly From this I inferre these consectaries First Consect 1 That it is no derogation or intrenchment upon the Prerogative Royall to deny the Kings Majesty the power of administration of the Word and Sacraments of ordination excommunication or any other act belonging to the personal execution of the Episcopall or Priestly function And this is so evidently deduced froÌ„ the former that it being granted as it must be by those that will not deny the Articles of our Church this cannot be denied That no man can reasonably imagine that the Consect 2 Statutes which annexed Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crowne intended to give the King any power of this nature which Queene Elizabeth in her injunctions and all other godly Kings and Princes ever disclaimed That it can bee no deniall of his Majesties just right nor violation of Statute nor danger of Consect 3 Praemunire for Bishops to exercise their jurisdictions thus farre in their owne names or to say they have them not from the King My second conclusion is This Ecclesiasticall Conclu 2 power was given by Christ to his Apostles both for preaching and administring the Sacraments Matth. 28. 29 30. and for the power and use of the Keyes Iohn 20. 21. Matth. 18. 18. Thirdly Our Saviour giving this power intended Conclu 3 that it should continue in the Church to the end of the world as it is most evident First in regard of the equall necessity and use of it in the Church aswell afterwards as in their times Secondly in regard of his promise of his assisting presence or being with them alwayes even to the Mat. 28. ult end of the world From which will follow First the necessity of the power of ordination for the transmitting this power by the Apostles to some others in whom the same power though not in the Apostolicall latitude should remaine when they who were not alway to continue should bee translated out of this world Secondly the necessity of an un-interrupted succession in the Church of those who shall bee lawfully invested with this power which can at no time bee wanting in the Church without the ruine of that building for the edification of which Ephes 4. 12. it was first given Our Saviour together with this power given Conclu 4 to his Apostles did give the grace to enable them to exercise that power and discharge that function which hee had imposed upon them This is manifest First because God never useth to call Vactio antiquitus olâ—o ficbat quod quia secundum naturalem efficientiam tum fragrantia reddebat corpora tum agilia accummodum erat duabas rebus supernaturalibus significandis quarum una est personae ad munus aliquod divinum obeundum sanctificatio consecratio altera adoptatio seu donorum ad illud necessariorum collatio Armin. Disp pub any to a charge without furnishing them with grace to discharge it and therefore in the Old Testament annointing with Oyle was used which because naturally it made mens bodies both fragrant and active was to signifie both the consecration and designation Gods worke and the fitting of those upon whom it was imposed with gifts necessary thereto required Secondly it is manifest from the plaine words of our Saviour in that giving them their Commission hee breathed on them and saith unto them Receive the Holy Ghost And from hence we may inferre That in the transmission of this power and function there is necessarily required a continuall supply of grace though not in the same measure as in the Apostles nor for all those operations which were usefull in the first foundation of the Christian Church yet in the same kinde and for the discharge of the function so farre as it should be necessary ever to continue in the Church and that therefore in the consecration and ordination of those who are called to this function and to whom this power is committed God doth ordinarily confer this grace as appeares by that of S. Paul putting Timothy whom he had consecrated Bishop at Ephesus in mind to stir up the grace that was given him by the laying on of his hands and that God doth in the same way still give the like grace is out of all question unlesse men shall thinke either that the grace is not now necessary or that God is wanting to his Church or that the Apostles did faile in prescribing the right way for the conferring of it So that of this Saint Ambrose truly said Man Homo imponit manus Deus largitur gratiam Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benedicit potenti dextra Episcopus mitiat ordinem Deus tribuit dignitatem Ambros de dign Sacerd c. 5. layes on his hands God gives the grace the Priest layes on his right hand in supplication and God blesseth it by his powerfull right hand The Bishops mitiates into the Order and God bestowes the dignity Lastly the Apostles who from Christ received both the Priestly and Episcopall power in one did divide the same and made distinct orders and degrees of them in the Church in which they appointed Bishops Priests and Deacons all which wee finde mentioned by Saint Paul in his Epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles and in the most ancient Writers and records that are extant in the Church And these orders thus by them distinguished were subordinate in such sort as the whole remainder of the Apostolicall Office that is so much as the perpetuall necessity of the Church required was in the Bishops who besides that which they had in common with Priests as power to preach administer the Sacraments and of absolution had also power of jurisdiction and ordination and both Priests and Deacons were by them ordayned and subjected to their authority All which may be proved out of Saint Paul prescribing to Timothy Titus whom he had ordayned See Mason de Minesterio Eccles l. 1. c. 2. l. 4. c. 1. c. D. Field of the Church l. 5. c. 25. Bishops how to exercise their jurisdiction and to use the power of ordination or laying on of hands which he