the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as
their Persons H. B. displeased that the Bishops doe challenge their Episcopall authoritie from our Saviour The challenge of Episcopall power from Christ and his Apostles neither new nor strange as H. B. pretednds Of the Episcopall succession in the Church of England Episcopall succession how esteemed and valued amongst the Antients The derivation of Episcopall discent from the Church of Rome no prejudice vnto the Hierarchy or Church as H. B. makes it The Bishops antiently called Reverend Fathers The scandalous and scornfull attributes given by H. B. to the Bishops in the generall and to some of the chiefe of them in particular A briefe replie to all his cavills against the chiefe of those particulars H. B. makes his addresse to all sorts of people to joyne together with the King to destroy the Bishops and is content to run an hazard of his own life so it may be done The ruine of the Bishops made by H. B. the only present meanes to remove the Plague A generall answere to these slanderous and Seditious passages LEt us now looke upon your dealing with my LL. the Bishops how you handle them their place their persons their proceedings who being the principall object of your malice must not expect more civill usage then the King their Master especially considering in cold blood how they have provoked you by calling you forth upon the stage However use them as you please you have one good shelter For if your stile seeme sharper then usuall wee are to blame if wee impute it not to your zeal and fidelity for God and the King being you are to encounter those who be adversaries to both Begin then zealous sir wee stand ready for you First then you quarrell with the calling and stomack it exceedingly that some of them should say in the High Commission being put unto it by your Brother Bastwick that they had their Episcopal authority from Christ and if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets And so say you they might their Capps too for any such proofe they can bring for it p. 68. What more It 's plaine that they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ Ibid. Well then what hurt of this Thus you see our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierarchy then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines since the Reformation till yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselves they very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome And this you say because it is affirmed by Dr. Pocklington that we are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from Saint Peter to Saint Gregory and from to our first Archbishop Saint Austin our English Apostle downwards to his Grace that now sits in the chaire c. p. 69. Thus also in the Newes from â—pswich you are much offended with the Prelates that they will needs be Lord Bishops jure divino by the holy Ghosts own institution and shame not to stile themselves the Godly Holy Fathers of our Church and Pillars of our faith when as their fruites and actions manifest them to be nought else but Step-fathers and Catter-pillers the very pests and plagues of both And not long after you bestow a gentle touch on Dr. Pocklington calling the Prelates as your use is the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist from whom D. Pocklington boasts they are lineally descended But whatsoever be the claime from Christ or his Apostles or the Church of Rome you have found out a fitter Author of the holy Hierarchie even the spirit that beares rule in the aire the devill Who doth not only haunt the Pallaces of Prelates perhaps he went sometimes upon your occasions but hath infused such a poison into the chaire of this Hierarchie as that man who sits in it had need to be strongly fortified with Preservatives and Antidotes of true Reall Grace not nominall and titular that is able to overcom the infection of it p. 106. This is the summe of what you say or repeat rather with a nil dictum quod and this is hardly worth the saying by so great a Rabbin the answere being made before the objection yet since you say it something must bee sayd about it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your first exception is that the Episcopall authoritie is claimed from Christ and that some of the Bishops said in the High Commission that if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets This is no more then what had formerly beene said in the conference at Hampton Court when on occasion of Saint Hieromes saying that a Bishop was not divinae ordinationis the Bishop of London Dr. Bancroft interposed that unlesse hee could prove his ordination lawfull out of the Scriptures he would not be a Bishop foure houres You see then this is no new saying devised but yesterday and contrary to what hath beene the judgement of all our Divines since the reformation as you please to tell us The learned workes of Bishop Bilson entituled The Perpetuall government of Christs Church and those of Dr. Adrian Saravia against your Patriarke Theodore Beza de diversis ministerii gradibus with many others of those times shew manifestly that you are an impudent Impostor and care not what you say so you make a noise And yet I cry you mercy I may mistake you not knowing exactly what you meane by your Our Divines For if by your Divines you meane the Genevian Doctors Calvin and Beza Viret and Farellus Bucan Vrsinus and those others of forreine Churches whom you esteeme the onely Orthodox professours you may affirme it very safely that the derivation of Episcopall authority from our Saviour Christ is utterly disclaimed by your Divines Calvin had never else invented the Presbytery nor with such violence obtruded it on all the reformed Churches neither had Beza divided Episcopatum into Divinum humanum and Satanicum as you know he doth But if by our Divines you meane those worthies of the Church who have stood up in maintenance of the holy Hierarchie against the clamours and contentions of the Puritan faction or such as are conformable unto the Articles and orders of the Church of England you do most shamelessely traduce them as your custome is and make them Patrons of that Tenet which they most opposed For tell me of a truth who is it which of our Divines that holds Episcopall authority to be derived from any other fountaine then that of Christ and his Apostles and that conceive their ordination is not de jure divino grounded and founded on the Scriptures and thence deduced by necessary evident and undeniable illation if any such there be hee is one of yours Travers and Cartwright and the rest of your Predecessours men never
you where it is said what Law what Statute so resolves it that no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters patents under the great Seale of England None of the Acts of Parliament made by King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt or Queene Elizabeth speake one word that way The act of the Submission of the Clergie 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19. on which your fond conceipt is grounded if it hath any ground at all saith not as you would have it say the Clergie shall not put in ure c. any constitutions of what sort soever without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe but that without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe first had they should not enact or put in ure any new Canons by them made in their Convocations as they had done formerly This law observed still by the Clergy to this very day not meeting in their Convocation untill they are assembled by his Majesties writ directed to the Archbishop of either Province nor when assembled treating of or making any Canons without the Kings leave first obteined nor putting any of them in execution before they are confirmed by his sacred Majestie under the broad Seale of England Is there no difference gentle brother betweene enacting new Canons at their owne discretion and executing those which custome and long continuance of time have confirmed and ratified If you should bee so simple as so to thinke as I have no great confidence either in your law or wisedome you may be pleased to understand that by the very selfe same statute All Canons which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes statutes and customes of the Realme nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings prerogative Royall shall be now still executed and used as they were before the making of that act till the said Canons should be viewed by the 32. Commissioners in the same appointed which not being done as yet although the said Commission was revived by Parliament 3 4. to Edw. 6. c. 11. all the old Canons quallified as before is said are still in force So that for exercise of any Episcopall jurisdiction founded upon the said old Canons or any of the new which have beene since confirmed by the King or his predecessours there 's no necessity of speciall Letters Patents under the broad Seale of England as you faine would have it There was another Statute of King Henry the eight concerning the Kings highnesse to bee the supreame head of the Church of England and to have authority to reforme all errors heresies and abuses in the same But whatsoever power was therein declared as due and proper to the King is not now materiall the whole act being repealed A. 1. 2. Ph. and M. c. 8. and not restored in the reviver of Qu. Eliz. 1. Eliz. c. 1. in which you instance in your Margin Nor can you finde much comfort by that Statute 1. Eliz c. 1. wherein you instance if you consider it and the intention of the same as you ought to doe You may conjecture by the title of it what the meaning is For it 's intituled An act restoring to the Crowne the antient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and spirituall and abolishing all forreine power repugnant to the same The preamble unto the act makes it yet more plaine Where it is sayd that in the time of King Henry the eight divers good Lawes and Statutes were made and established aswell for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forreine powers and authorities out of this Realme c. as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperiall Crowne thereof the antient jurisdictions authorities superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging and apperteining by meanes whereof the subjects were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forreine power and authority as before that was usurped Which makes it manifest that there was no intent in the Queene or Parliament to alter any thing in the ordinary power Episcopall which was then and had long before beene here established but to extinguish that usurped and forreine power which had before beene chalenged by the See of Rome and was so burdensome unto the subject The body of the Act is most plaine of all For presently on the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction spirituall and Ecclesiasticall heretofore used within this Realme there followeth a declaration of all such jurisdictions c. as by any spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power and authority hath heretofore or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner errours heresies schismes c. to bee for ever united and annexed to the imperiall crowne of this Realme Then in the next words followeth the establishment of the High Commission it being then and there enacted that the Queenes highnesse her heires and successours shall have full power and authority by vertue of the said act by letters Patents under the great Seale of England to assigne name and authorise c. such person or persons being naturall borne subjects to her highnesse her heires and successours as her Majestie shall thinke meete to exercise use occupie and execute under her highnesse her heires and successours all manner of Iurisdictions priviledges and preheminences within these her Realmes of England c. and to visit reforme order redresse correct and amend all such errours heresies schismes abuses offences contempts enormities whatsoever which by any manner Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power authority or jurisdiction can or may be lawfully reformed c. Plainely in all this act there is nothing contrary to that ordinary jurisdiction which is and hath beene claimed and exercised by Episcopall authority in the Church of England nothing at all which doth concerne the purchasing or procuring of Letters Patents for their keeping Courts and Visitations as you seduced by your learned Counsaile beare the world in hand My reason is because whatever jurisdiction was here declared to be annexed unto the crowne is called a restoring of the antient jurisdiction unto the same and certainely the ordinary Episcopall power of ordination excommunication and such like Ecclesiasticall censures were never in the crowne in fact nor of right could be and therefore could not be restored And secondly because whatever power is here declared to be in the Queene her heires and uccessours shee is inabled to transferre upon such Commissioners as shee or they shall authorise under the great Seale of England for execution of the same Now we know well that there is no authority in the high Commission which is established on this clause derogating from the ordinary Episcopall power and therefore there was none supposed in
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
Title Sir I hope you know your owne words in your doughtie dialogue betweene A. and B. you know the proverbe Fronti rara fides the fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences For whereas you entitle it for God and the King you doe therein as Rebells doe most commonly in their insurrections pretend the safety of the King and preservation of Religion when as they doe intend to destroy them both The civill warre in France raised by the Duke of Burgundy and Berry against Lewis the eleventh was christned by the specious name of Le bien Public for the Common-wealth but there was nothing lesse intended then the common good And when the Iewes cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini they did but as you doe abuse the people and colour their ambition or their malice choose you which you will with a shew of zeale So that your Title may be likened very fitly to those Apothecaries boxes which Lactantius speakes of quorum tituli remedium habent pixides venenum poysons within and medecines writ upon the Paper So for your Text we will repeat that too that men may see the better how you doe abuse it My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Prov. 24.21 22. A Text indeed well chosen but not well applyed For had you looked upon your selfe and the Text together and followed the direction which is therein given you you had not so long hunted after Innovations as for these many yeares it is knowne you have and so might possibly have escaped that calamitie which is now like to fall upon you But it 's the nature of your humour as of some diseases to turne all things unto the nourishment of the part that is ill affected Meane while you make the Scriptures but a nose of wax as Pighius once prophanly called it by wresting it maliciously to serve your turnes and so confirme the vulgar Papists in contempt of that which were it not for you and such as you they might more easily bee induced both to heare and reverence Now for the method of your Sermon I meane to call it so no more though you observe no method in it but wander up and downe in repetitions and tautologies as your custome is I must thus dispose it The passages therein either of scandall or sedition I shall reduce especially unto these two heads those which reflect upon the Kings most excellent Majestie and those which strike directly against the Bishops That which reflects upon the King either relates to his authoritie or his actions That which doth strike against the Bishops is to be considered as it is referred either unto their place or to their persons or finally to their proceedings and these proceedings are againe to bee considered eyther in reference to their Courts and behaviour there or to their government of and in the Church and carriage in that weighty office wherein you charge them with eight kinds of Innovations most of the generall kinds being sub-divided into several branches For a conclusion of the whole I shall present unto your selfe by way of Corollarie or resultancie out of all the premisses how farre you are or may prove guilty of sedition for that Pulpit pasquill of yours and so commend you to repentance and the grace of God In ripping up whereof as I shall keepe my selfe especially to your Pulpit-Pasquill so if I meete with any variae lectiones in your Apologie or Epistles or the Newes from Ipswich or your addresses to the Lords of the Privie Councell and my Lords the Iudges I shall use them also either for explication or for application Such your extravagancies as cannot easily be reduced to the former heads I either shall passe over or but touch in transitu This is the order I shall use First for the King you may remember what I told you was the Puritan tenet that Kings are but the Ministers of the Common-wealth and that they have no more authority then what is given them by the people This though you doe not say expresly and in terminis yet you come very neare it to a tantamont finding great fault with that unlimited power which some give to Kings and as also with that absolute obedience which is exacted of the subject One of your doctrines is that all our obedience to Kings and princes and other superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Your reason is because the King is Gods Minister and Vice-gerent and commands as from God so for God and in God Your doctrine and your reason might become a right honest man But what 's your use Your first use is for reprehension or refutation of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then rebells and to deserve to be hanged drawne and quartered that refuse to obey them pag. 77. So pag. 88. a second sort come here to be reproved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almightie himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his holinesse So pag. 89. Thus these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe to the ground Finally you reckon it amongst the Innovations wherewith you charge the Prelats in point of doctrine that they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to superiours setting man so in Gods Throne that all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience whose onely rule is the word of God pag. 126. In all which passages however you pretend the word of God the fundamentall Lawes of state and conscience yet clearely you expresse your disaffection unto the soveraignty of Princes and in effect leave them no greater power then every private man shall thinke fit to give them Besides there is a tacite implication also that the King exercises an unlimited power which cannot possibly consist with the subjects conscience the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome or the word of God It had beene very well done of you to have told the people what were the fundamentall lawes of State which were so carefully to be preserved within what bounds and limits the authority of Kings is to be confined and to have given them a more speciall knowledge of the rule of conscience For dealing thus in generalls onely Dolosus versatur in generalibus you know who sayd it you have presented to the people a most excellent ground not onely
reach you may see in the first of Sam. and 8 chap. though in concreto a just Prince will not breake those lawes which he hath promised to observe Princes are debtors to their subjects as God to man non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendo as S. Austine hath it And we may say of them in S. Bernards words Promissum quidem ex misericordia sed ex justitia persolvendum that they have promised to observe the lawes was of speciall grace and its agreeable to their justice to observe their promise Otherwise we may say of kings as the Apostle of the just Iusto lex non est posita saith the Apostle and Principi lexnon est posita saith the law of nature Doe you expect more proofe than you use to give Plutarch affirmes it of some kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not governe onely by the law but were above it The like saith Dion of Augustus Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was sure and had an absolute authoritie aswell upon his lawes as upon himselfe Besides in case the power of kings were restrained by law after the manner that you would have it yet should the king neglect those lawes whereby you apprehend that his power is limited how would you helpe your selfe by this limited power I hope you would not call a Consistorie and convent him there or arme the people to assert their pretended liberties though as before I said the Puritan tenet is that you may doe both Your learned Councell might have told you out of Bracton an ancient Lawyer of this kingdome omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And Horace could have told you that kings are under none but God Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis as he there hath it You may moreover please to know what Gregorie of Tours said once to a king of France Si quis e nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si vero tu excesseris quis te corripiet c. If any of us O king offend against the rules of justice thou hast power to punish him but if thou breake those rules who hath power to doe it We tell you of it and when you list you please to heare us but when you will not who shall judge you but he that tels us of himselfe that he is justice This was you see the ancient doctrine touching the power and right of kings not onely amongst Iewes and Christians but in heathen states what ever new opinion of a limited power you have pleased to raise But you goe further yet and tell us of some things the king cannot do and that there is a power which the king hath not what is it say you that the king cannot doe Marry you say he cannot institute new rites and ceremonies with the advise of his Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or the Metropolitan according as some pleade from the Act of Parliament before the Communion booke pag. 65. Why so Because according to your law this clause of the Act is limited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her successours of the Crowne This you affirme indeede but you bring no proofe onely it seemes you heard so from your learned councell You are I see of Calvins minde who tels us in his Commentarie on the 7 of Amos what had beene sayd by Doctor Gardiner after Bishop of Winchester and then Ambassadour in Germany touching the headship or Supremacie of the king his master and closeth up the storie with this short note inconsiderati homines sunt qui faciunt eos nimis spirituales that it was unadvisedly done to give kings such authority in spirituall matters But sir I hope you may afford the king that power which you take your selves or which your brethren at the least have tooke before you who in Queene Elizabeths time had their Classicall meetings without leave or licence and therein did ordeine new rites new Canons and new formes of service This you may doe it seemes though the kings hands are bound that he may not doe it And there 's a power too as you tell us that the king neither hath nor may give to others Not give to others certainely if he have it not for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is But what is this you first suppose and take for granted that the Bishops make foule havocke in the Church of God and persecute his faithfull servants and then suppose which yet you say is not to be supposed that they have procured a grant from the king to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of religion by law established And on these suppositions you doe thus proceede Yet whatsoever colour pretext or shew they make for this the king to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the power that is in the king is given him by God and confirmed by the lawes of the kingdome Now neither God in his law nor the lawes of the land doe allow the king a power to alter the state of religion or to oppresse and suppresse the faithfull ministers of the Gospell against both law and conscience For kings are the ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before p. 72.73 So you and it was bravely said like a valiant man The Brethren now may follow after their owne inventions with a full securitie for since you have proclaimed them to be faithfull ministers no king nor Keisar dares suppresse them or if he should the lawes of God and the law of the land to boote would rise in judgement to condemne him for usurpation of a power which they have not given him But take me with you brother Bâ—â— and I perhaps may tell you somewhat that is worth your knowledge And I will tell you sir if you please to hearken that whatsoever power is in the king is from God alone and founded on the law of nature The positive lawes of the land as they conferre none on him so they confirme none to him Rather the kings of England have parted with their native royalties for the peoples good which being by their owne consent established for a positive law are now become the greatest part of the subjects liberties So that the liberties possessions and estates of the kings leige people are if you will confirmed by the lawes of the land not the kings authoritie As for the power of kings which is given by God and founded on the law of nature how farre it may extend in the true latitude thereof we have said already Whether to alter the state of religion none but a most seditious spirit such as yours would put unto the question his majesties pietie and zeale being too well knowne to give occasion to such quaeres Onely I needes must
neither For at the beginning of November when you Preached that Pasquil of the Fifteene hundred there were not twice fifteen that 's not halfe your number involved in any Ecclesiasticall censure of what sort soever and not above sixteene suspended Sixtie and sixteene are alike in sound but very different in the number and of those sixteene eight were then absolved for a time of further triall to be taken of them and two did voluntarily resigne their places so that you have but six suspended absolutely and persisting so Now of the residue there was one deprived after notorious inconformitie for 12. yeeres together and finall obstinacie after sundry severall monitions eight excommunicated for not appearing at the Court and foure inhibited from preaching of the which foure one by his education was a Draper another was a Weaver and the third was a Taylor Where are the 60. now that you so cry out of I have the rather given you this in the particulars which were collected faithfully unto my hands out of the Registerie of that Diocesse that you and other men may see your false and unjust clamours the rather because it was related to me by a friend of mine in Glocestershire that it went current there amongst your Brethren that your said 60. were suspended for no other cause then for repeating the doxologie at the end of the Lords Prayer So for your other number betweene 60. and 80. suspended upon day till Christmasse or Christide as you please to phrase it upon examination of the Registers there appeare but eight and those not all suspended neither two being Excommunicated for not appearing Eighty and Eight doe come as neere in sound as Sixtie and Sixteene before but differ more a great deale in the Calculation And so much for the grand persecution in the Diocesse of Norwich How doe you find it pray you in other places Why more or lesse say you over al the Kingdom For you complaine as truly but more generally p. 27. that many Godly Ministers in these dayes are most unjustly illegally yea and incanonically also in a most barbarous and furious manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and deprived of all livelihood and means to maintaine themselves How just soever the cause be on the Prelates part and that there be no other means to bring things to right there where the Orders of the Church are so out of order then by the exemplary punishment of the most pervers to settle and reduce the rest yet persecution it must be if you please to call it so Such Innocent people as your selfe that runne point-blanck against the Orders of the Church cannot be censured and proceeded with in a legall way but instantly you cry out a Persecution But thus did your Fore-fathers in Queene Elizabeths time et nil mirum est si patrizent filij CHAP. VI. The foure first Innovations charged by H. B. upon the Bishops most clearely proved to be no Innovations Eight Innovations charged upon the Bishops by H. B. King James his order to young Students in Divinity made an Innovation in point of doctrine the reason of the said order and that it was agreeable to the old Canons of this Church Another Order of King James seconded by his Majesty now being with severall Bookes of private men made an Innovation of the Bishops No difference betweene the Church of Rome and England in Fundamentalls Private opinions of some men made Innovations in point of doctrine The Pope not Antichrist for any thing resolved by the Church of England The doctrine of Obedience and of the Sabbath not altered but revived explained and reduced to what it was of old No Innovation made in point of discipline A generall view of Innovations charged upon the Bishops in point of worship Bowing at the Name of Jesus praying towards the East and adoration towards the Altar no new Inventions not standing up at the holy Gospel Crosse-worship falsely charged upon the Bishops No Innovation made by the Bishops in the civill government The dignity and authority of the High-Commission AS is the persecution such are the Innovations also which you have charged upon the Bishops both yours and so both false alike Yet such a neat contriver are you that you have made those Innovations which you dreame of the cause of all that persecution which you so cry out of For in your Pasquil it is told us that we may see or heare at the least of oâ—d heaving and shoving to erect Altar-worship and Jesu-worship and other inventions of men and all as is too plaine to set up Popery againe and for not yeelding to these things ministers are suspended excommunicated c. pag. 25 And pag. 64. you ground the persecution as you call it in the Diocesse of Norwich upon the violent and impetuous obtruding of new Rites and Ceremonies monies You call upon the Bishops by the name of Iesuiticall novell Doctors to blush and be ashamed and tell them that they doe suspend excommunicate and persecute with all fury Gods faithfull ministers and all because they will not they may not they dare not obey their wicked commands which are repugnant to the lawes both of God and man p. 81. If this be true if those that bee thus dealt with bee Gods faithfull ministers and the commands imposed upon them so wicked as you say they are contrary to the lawes both of God and man and tending so notoriously to set up Popery againe you have the better end of the staffe and will prevaile at last no question Meane while you have good cause as you please to tell us to comfort your selfe and blesse the name of God in that he hath not left himselfe without witnesse but hath raised up many zealous and couragious champions of his truth I meane faithfull ministers of his word who chuse rather to lose all they have then to submit and prostitute themselves to the wicked unjust and base commands of usurping Antichristian mushromes their very not yeilding in this battel being a present victory p. 83 But on the other side if the commands of the Superior be just and pious agreeable to the orders of the Church and all pure antiquity then are your godly faithfull ministers no better then factious and schismaticall persons and you your own deare self a seditious Boutefeiu so to incourage and applaud them for standing out against authority This we shall see the better by looking on those Innovations which as you say The Prelates of later dayes have haled in by head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the land and much more the law of God p. 111. These you reduce to these eight heads viz. 1. Innovation in doctrine 2. in discipline 3. in the worship of God 4. in the Civill government 5. in the altering of bookes 6. in the meanes of knowledge 7. in the rule of faith and 8. in the Rule of manners It is a merry world mean-while when you
conclude from hence that by the Doctrin of the Church the Pope is Antichrist the Devill assone For they are put there as distinct things the Pope the Devill and the kingdome of Antichrist and being put downe as distinct you have no reason to conclude that it is resolved by that Homilie that the Pope is Antichrist Nor doth the 6 Homilie of Rebellion say the Pope is Antichrist Though it saith somewhat of the Babylonicall beast of Rome The whole clause is this In King Johns time the Bishop of Rome understanding the bruite blindnesse ignorance of Gods word and superstition of Englishmen and how much they were inclined to worship the Babylonicall beast of Rome and to feare all his threatnings and causelesse curses hee abused them thus c. Where certainely the Babylonicall beast of Rome is not the same with the Bishop or Pope of Rome but rather the abused power of that then prevalent and predominant See Or were it that the Pope is meant yet not being spoken positively and dogmatically that the Pope is and is to be beleeved to be the Babylonicall beast of Rome it is no more to bee accounted for a doctrine of the Church of England then that it was plaine Simony in the Prelates then to pay unto the Bishop of Rome great summes of mony for their Bulls and conformations as is there affirmed I have yet one thing more to say unto you in this point Saint John hath given it for a rule that every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard c. So that unlesse you can make good as I thinke you cannot that the Pope of Rome confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh you have no reason to conclude that hee is that Antichrist Hitherto we have followed you to finde an innovation in point of doctrine and are yet to seeke and if wee finde it not in the next two instances both wee and you have lost our labour There you say somewhat doubtlesse and charge the Bishop with two dangerous innovations one in the doctrine of obedience to superiors the other in the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords-day These wee have met withall alreadie and therefore shall say little here Onely I would faine learne for I know not yet where that conditionall obedience which you onely like of is delivered to us by the Church where there is any thing layed downe for a publick doctrine against that absolute obedience which you so dislike and reckon the inforcing of it amongst the Innovations made in point of doctrine your brethren in the Conference at Hampton Court put in a scruple how farre an ordinance of the Church was to binde them without impeaching of their Christian libertie where at the King being much moved answered that it smelled very ranckely of Anabaptisme adding I charge you never to speak more to that point how farre you are bound to obey when the Church hath ordained it What think you Sir Heere is an absolute obedience preached to the Churches Ordinances I hope you cannot tender lesse unto the Orders of the King As for that other Innovation which you tell us of about the doctrine of the Sabbath there is indeed a mighty alteration in it I could wish there were not but it was made by you and yours who litle more then 40. yeeres agone first broached these Sabbath-speculations in the Church of England which now you presse uppon her for her antient doctrine This hath beene shewne at large elsewhere and therefore I will say nothing now But where you say that for the maintenance of that change which you lay upon them their novell Doctors have strained the veines of their conscience no lesse then of their braines p. 126. I am bold to tell you that at the best you are a most uncharitable man to judge the hearts of those whose face you know not For my part I can speake for one and take almighty God to witnesse that in the part committed to mee I have dealt with all ingenuitie and sinceritie and make this protestation before God and man that if in all the scriptures Fathers Councells moderne writers or whatsoever monument of the Church I met within so long a search I had found any thing in favour of that doctrine which you so approve I would not have concealed it to the suppression of a truth for all the world How ever you accuse me yet my conscience doth not Delectat tamen conscientia quod estanimae pabulum incredibili jucunditate perfusum in Lactantius language Your Innovations in the points of Doctrin being blowne to nothing let us see next what is it that you have to say for the change of discipline the second Innovation which you charge upon my Lords the Bishops And here you say that where of old the censures of the Church were to be inflicted upon disordered and vicious persons as drunkards adulterers heretickes Apostata's false-teachers and the like now the sharpe edge thereof is turned mainely against Gods people and Ministers even for their vertue and pietie and because they will not conforme to their impious orders p. 127. That Bishops sometimes turne the edge of their authoritie on those who you entitle Gods ministers and people is as true as necessarie but that they turne it on them even for their pietie and vertue is both false and scandalous Iust so a Brother of yours whom I spare to name preached once at Oxford that good and honest men were purposely excluded from preferments there ob hoc ipsum quod pij quod boni onely because they were inclined to pietie and vertue But Sir those godly folke you speake of are Godly onely in your eye and in such as yours and if the edge of authoritie be turned upon them it is because they have too much of your spirit in them The censures of the Church proceed no otherwise now then of old they did Looke in the antient Canons and you shall see with what severitie the Church of old did punish Schismaticks and Separatists and tell mee if the Church now doth not deale more mercifully with you then of old it did And where you seeme to intimate that now the censures of the Church are not inflicted as of old upon disordered and vicious persons that 's but your wonted art to traduce the Bishops and make them odious to your followers For looke unto the Articles for the Metropolitan visitation of my Lord of Canterbury Anno 1635. and for the visitation of my Lord of Norwich Anno 1636. both which I am sure you have perused or any of the rest which you meete next with Looke on them well and tell mee truely if you can whether there bee not speciall order for the presenting of all those vicious and disordered persons of the kindes you mention you could not choose but knowe this having seene the Articles and therefore
it then by a difficulty of obtaining Prohibitions from the Common Law And it is never more likely to be effected then when your selfe sit chiefe in your longed for Consistory with your Lay-elders round about you Then Kings and Queenes and whatsoever is called God must cast themselves before your foote-stoole as you your selves have told us in your publicke writings And as for businesse the Lawyers howsoever you count them now will have too little to maintaine them For this is reckoned by your Brethren amongst the excellencies of your discipline both for the wealth of the Realme and quiet of the subjects that thy Church is to censure those who are apparentle troublesome and contentious and without reasonable cause which you meane to judge of upon a meere will and stomacke doe vex and molest their brother and trouble the Country Where will your Civill government be then and who shall send out Prohibitions when that comes to passe CHAP. VII The foure last Innovations charged upon the Bishops examined severally and confuted The Alterations said to be in the Common Prayer-book Father of thine Elect and of their seede left out and why Of bowing in the name of Iesus The alterations said to be in the booke of Prayer for the fifth of November Prayers intended first against Recusants aswell appliable to the Puritans as some Lawes and Statutes The religion of and in the Church of Rome whether it may be said to be Rebellion and how the Prelates are chalenged in that respect The Arguments produced by H. B. to prove that the Religion of the Ch. of Rome is rebellion are either false or may be turned upon himselfe Of alterations in the Fast-booke The Letany of K. Edward altered because it gave offense and scandall to those which were affected to the Ch. of Rome Some prayers omitted in the Fast-booke and the reason why The Lady Eliz and her Children why left out in the present Collect. IN nova fert animus Your minde is still upon your Metamorphosis more changes yet and the next head of changes is altering the formēs of prayer particularly the booke of Common prayer that for the fifth of November and lastly that for the fast set forth by his Majesties appointment An. 1636. And first you say in the Communion booke set forth by Parliament and commanded to be read without any alteration and none other they have altered sundrie things p. 130. Ho there Who told you that the Common-prayer-booke was set forth by Parliament Thinke you the Knights and Burgesses of the house of Commons were busied in those times in making or in mending Prayer-bookes The Statute 2. 3. Edw. 6. c. 1. will tell you that the Common prayer booke was set forth in that very word by the Archbp. of Cant. and certaine of the most learned and discreete Bishops and other learned men of this Realme and being so set forth was by authority of Parliament confirmed and ratified as it related to the Subject Which course was after taken in the review of the said booke both in the fift and sixt of King Edward the sixt and in the first of Queene Elizabeth Being set forth then by the Clergie it was as you informe us commanded to be read without any alteration that was indeed done by authority of Parliament Doe you observe that ordinance do not you alter it and chop and change it every day at lest if you vouchsafe to reade it as perhaps you doe not And if it must be read without any alteration and none other why doe you quarrell at the reading of the second Service at the Communion Table before and after Sermon being there so ordered or use another forme of prayer then is there appointed Remember what you tell us here for you and I must talke about it in the next generall change Meane time what are the sundry things which you say are altered in the booke set forth by Parliament You tell us but of two and you talke of sundry How shall I credit you hereafter if you palter thus in the beginning But for those two what are they I beseech you Marry you say that in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progenie they have put out Father of thine elect and of their seede as it were excluding the King Queene and Seede Royall out of the number of Gods elect p. 130. This you have told us of in your Epistle to the King and in your Apologie and the Newes from Ipswich The Queene is more beholding to you then I thought shee had beene you take such speciall care for her Election But Sir a word before we part Who told you that this Collect was set forth with the booke allowed by Parliament I trow King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeth had no royall progenie so that this Collect could not bee then in Esse when the booke was made The first time it was made and used was at the happie entrance of King Iames on this Realme of England neither set forth nor ratified by any Parliament that hath beene since Now King Iames had at his first comming hither a royall seede but when his Majestie the King came unto the crowne he was then unmarried and after he was married had not children presently you know well enough Would you have had the collect passe as it did before Father of thine elect and of their seed when as the king whom you must needs meane by Elect in that place and prayer had no seede at all I hope you see your folly now your most zealous folly which made you in the Newes from Ipswich on the recitall of this supposed alteration to crye out O intollerable impietie affront and horred treason Most bravely clamoured The other alteration which you charge them with is that in all the common prayer bookes printed since the yeare 1619. in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter they have turned in the Name of Iesus to at the name of Iesus to countenance as you say their forced bowing to the name of Iesus you are still for to it Such change there is indeede but yet no alteration from the booke or text The Bishops Bible as they call it out of the which the Epistles and Gospells were first taken readeth at the name and so doth Bishop Iewell too citing this very text in the place and passage noted to you in the last Chapter And if you looke into the Bible of the last translation you finde that it is therein also at the name of Iesus so that you have no reason to repine at this which is a restitution onely of the proper reading and no change at all The second booke which they have altered as you say is that appointed to bee read on the fifth day of November published by authority of Parliament p. 131. set forth by act of Parliament p. 41. in the Margent ordered by Parliament in the second p. of your apologie ordered set forth and published
roborat was the Fathers Maxime I never read of Fast and preach till you made the Canon at least till you first brought it hither if you made it not And yet because of this and such like terrible Innovations as this you flie out extremely First unto Gods most secret Counsailes affirming most unchristianly and withall most shamelesly that this restraint of preaching in infected places was the occasion that the plague increased double to any weeke since the Sicknesse beganne p. 144. that it brought with it a double increase of the plague p. 50. an extraordinary increase the very first week of the fast together with most hideous stormes c. p. 148. Sir you forget that which was taught you by the Prophet Abscondita Domino Deo nostro that secret things belong to God and wee may aske this question of you out of holy Scripture What man hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Surely untill you usurped that honor by reason of that extraordinary calling which you so much brag of no man ever did Yet since you are so curious in the search of causes wil needs tell us what occasioned so great a sicknes look in the last words of the second homily of Obedience and you will find that nothing drawes down greater plagues from almighty God then murmuring rebellion against Gods Annointed Next you fall foule upon his Majesty and tell him plainly in effect but cunningly as you imagine that if he look not better to his Protestations the beauty of his royall name will bee blasted in the Annals delivered to posterity and that in them it will be said This King had no regard to sacred vowes and solemne protestations I see what Chronicles we shall have when you come to write them Caesarum contumeliis referta there 's no question of it From pulling downe of Preaching proceed wee next to setting up Idolatry which how you charge the King withall must next be shewed You tell us that the Prelates to justifie themselves in those Innovations which you unjustly lay upon them do plead the whole equipage furniture and fashion of the Kings Chappell as a pattern for all Churches in which there is an Altar and bowing towards it Crucifixes Jmages and other guises And why should Subjects be wiser then their King p. 165. To this you answer that the worship and service of God and of Christ you wil needs separate Christ from God do I what I can is not bee regulated by humane examples but by the divine rule of the Scriptures In vaine do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men p. 165. Well said the service in the Kings Chappell and that which is conforme unto it is a â—aine worship in the first place And what follows next The three Children would not bow to the Kings goodly golden Image The old Christians would not so much as offer incense in the presence of Julian the Emperour at his Altar nor at his command though he propounded golden rewards to the doers and fiery punishment to the denyers p. 166. This is plaine enough Here 's the Kings Chappell and the furniture thereof compared to Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julians Altar by consequence the King resembled â—o those wicked tyrants I now perceive what 't was you meant when you extoll'd so highly that Parrhesia which you conceive so necessary in a child of God p. 26.27 instancing there as here in the three Children Who feared neither the Kings big looks nor furious threats and Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who comming before Julian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith As in Elias when he retorted King Ahabs words upon him and the stout answer which Elisha made to the King of Israel adding for close of all that it were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardice of these times You would have every man it seemes as bold a Bravo as your selfe to bid defiance to the King at least to stand it out against all authority For for the proof of that brave Parrhesia which you so extoll you instance chiefly in such opposition as was made to Kings and therefore all your uses must be construed to reflect that way now your fourth use is this This makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacie in these dayes of lukewarmnesse and Apostacie in the proposall of your uses p. 128. and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and idolatry and superstition obtruded in stead thereof when notwithstanding we see many Ministers of Iesus Christ to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and a good conscience they will part with their ministerie liberty lively-hood and life too if need were This is that which keeps Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captains to keep their ground and not to flie the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemie c. p. 31. They are your own words one of the pious uses which you make of your so celebrated Parrhesia that freedome and liberty of speech against Kings and Princes or whatsoever is called God which you so specially commend unto your disciples Well then here 's superstition and idolatry but is there not a feare of the Masse also Sure it seemes there is For thus you close your answer touching the equipage as you call it of the Kings chappell the fashion and furniture thereof Lastly suppose which we trust never to see and which our hearts abhorre once to imagine Masse were set up in the Kings Chappell is this a good argument why it should be admitted in all the Churches throughout the Realm of England p. 166 Why how now zealous sir what Suppositions Ifs And 's in such an odious intimation as setting up of Masse in the Kings Chappell I will not tell you any thing of my opinion in this place but keepe it till I meet you at the halfe turne in the close of all Onely I needs must tell you here you might have dealt more curteously with your Soveraigne and Patron as you stile him had you the least part of that piety which you pretend to seeing so manifestly that in Seneca's words Jllius vigilia omnium domos illius labor omnium otia illius industria omnium delicias illius occupatio omnium vacationem tueatur The Kings great care to keepe his people in wealth peace and godlinesse if considered rightly might make the vilest of us all to serve honour and humbly obey him according to Gods holy word and Ordinance But you and such as you have a speciall priviledge which I much muse you did not plead when you were questioned publickely for your misdemeanours CHAP. IV. A plaine discoverie of H. B. quarrells against the Bishops in reference to their calling and