advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
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
commanded fire from heaven to have burnt them all or sent them further off with a noli me tangere But caught or not caught all was one For though it was no time to move the Court for a Prohibition being out of Terme yet he bethought himselfe of another way to elude his Judges and that was by a strange Appeale being neither a gravamine nor a sententia to decline that Court and put the cause immediately into his Majesties hands where he might be he thought both a defendant and complainant as he saith himselfe p. 1. of the Apologie A fine invention doubtlesse but more sine then fortunate For on a new Contempt as himselfe informes us he was suspended by the high-Commissioners both from his Benefice and Office and the suspension published as he now complaines in his own Parish Church to his intolerable disgrace and scandall Indignum facinus Therfore that all the World might knowted and on what suspended Lo a necessitie so he saith is laid upon him as formerly to Preach now to Print his Sermon for Sermon he will have it called whosoever saith nay And printed at the last it was as before was said and therewithall was printed also an Apologie for the said Appeale with severall addresses to the Kings most Excellent Majestie to all the true-hearted Nobilitie of His Majesties most honorable Privie Counsell and to the Reverend and Learned Judges the Copies of them both being spread abroad for the greater consolation of the Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and there dispersed like Simeon and Levi brethren in evill in the tribes of Israel This is the substance of the storie which I have here laid downe together by way of preface that with lesse interruption I might ply the Argument presented to us both in the Sermon and Apologie For howsoever neither of them be considerable in regard of the Author who since his being thrust out of the Court hath beene an open and professed enemie of the Publicke Government yet in relation to the Church and Rulers of it whom he endeavoureth to expose to the common hatred and next in reference to the people whom he hath laboured to possesse with false and sinister conceits of the present state it hath beene thought convenient by authority that an Answer should be made unto them The preservation of Religion is a thing so Sacred that we cannot prize it to the height and therefore they that labour to preserve it are of all men the most to be esteemed and honoured Proximus diis habetur per quem deorum majestas vindicatur as the Historian rightly noted So that wee cannot blame poore men if they are startled and affrighted at those scandalous rumors which are diffused and spread amongst them to make them think that Religion is in no small danger or if they hold a Reverend esteeme of those who seeme to them to have a principall care thereof and the safety of it Onely they are to be admonished not to be too credulous in matters of so high a nature till they are throughly certified of the trueth thereof that they conceive not ill of the Church their mother upon the light and false reports of every male contented spirit or thinke them Champions of Religion who are indeed the bane and disturbers of it That Faction in the Church which Mast Burton and his Copesmates have so much laboured to promote hath since the first beginning of it accused the Church of England of the selfe same crimes whereof they now pronounce her guilty nor haue they found any new matter wherewithall to charge her than that which their fore-fathers had beene hammering on in the times before them yet they cry out with no lesse violence but farre more malice than their fathers did and fill the minds of iealous and distrustfull people with doubts and feares of innovations of and in the worship of God the whole doctrine of Religion as if the bankes were broken downe and Popery were breaking in a maine upon us onely because they can no longer be permitted to violate all the orders of Gods Church here by Law established The Papists and these men how different soever they may seeme to bee in other matters have as it were by joynt consent agreed in this to charge this Church with novelties and innovations the one especially in the poynts of Doctrine the other principally in matters of exteriour order the service of God But as we say unto the one that in the reformation of this Church we introduced no novelties into the same but onely laboured to reduce her to that estate and quality wherin she was in her originall beauty and the Primitive times so may we say unto the other that all those Innovations which they have charged upon the Church in their scandalous Pamphlets are but a restitution of those ancient orders which were established heere at that Reformation This that the world might see and see how scandalously and seditiously they traduce the Church I was commanded by authority to returne an Answer to all the challenges and charges in the said two Sermons and Apology of Master Burton For being it was the leading Libell in respect of time the principall matters in the Newes from Ipswich being borrowed from Master Burtons Sermon and that those many which have followed are but a repetition of and a dilating on those poynts which are there conteined it was conceived that bee being answered the rest would perish of themselves On this command I set my selfe unto the Work and though I knew no credit could bee gotten from such an Adversary Vbi vincere inglorium est atteri sordidum and that there are a sort of men who hate to be reformed in the Psalmists Language yet being so commanded I obeyed accordingly cannot but account it an especiall honour to mee to bee commanded any thing in the Churches service Besides J could not but be grieved to see my dearest Mother traduced so fowly in things whereof I knew her guiltlesse and it had argued in mee a great want of Piety not to have undertaken her defence herein being called unto it From which two great and grievous crimes defect of piety and true affection to the Church our mother and disobedience to the commands and orders of the higher powers no lesse than from the Plague and Pestilence good Lord deliver us Having thus rendred an account both of the reasons why the Sermon and Apology of Master Burton have been thought worthy of an Answer and why for my part J have undertaken a Reply unto him I must now settle close unto the businesse beginning first with the Apology so farre forth as it justifieth his said Appeale and leaving those particulars which he doth charge upon the Prelates to be considered of more fully in due place and time CHAP. I. Containing a particular answere to the severall Cavills of H. B. in defence of his Appeale Appeales unto His Majestie in what case
to dispute but to disobey the Kings commands Now Sir I pray you what are you or by what spirit are you guided that you should finde your selfe agreeved at unlimited power which some of better understanding then your selfe have given to Kings or thinke it any Innovation in point of doctrine in case the doctrine of obedience to our superiours bee pressed more home of late then it hath beene formerly Surely you have lately studied Buchannan dejure regni or the vindiciae writ by Beza under the name of Iunius Brutus or else perhaps you went no further then Paraeus where the inferiour Magistrates or Calvin where the three estates have an authority to controule and correct the King And should the King be limited within those narrow bounds which you would prescribe him had you power he would in little time be like the antient Kings of Sparta in which the Ephori or the now Duke of Venice in which the Senate beare the greatest stroke himselfe meane time being a bare sound and an emptie name Stet magni nominis umbra in the Poets language Already you have layd such grounds by which each private man may not alone dispute but disobey the Kings commandements For if the Subject shall conceive that the Kings command is contrary to Gods word though indeede it be not or to the fundamentall lawes of state although hee cannot tell which be fundamentall or if he finde no precedent of the like commands in holy Scripture which you have made to be the onely rule of conscience in all these cases it is lawfull not to yeeld obedience Your selfe have given us one case in your Margin pag. 77. we will put the other Your reprehension is of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of state yet presse men to obedience to them your instance is of one which was shrewdly threatned how true that is we meane to tell the world hereafter for refusing to doe that which was not agreeable to the word of God viz. for refusing to read the booke of sports as you declare it in the Margin pag. 26. whether you referre us So then the case is this The King permits his people honest recreations on the Lords day according as had beene accustomed till you and your accomplices had cryed it downe with order to the Bishops to see his declaration published in the Churches of their severall diocesses respectively This publication you conceive to bee repugnant to Gods word though none but a few factious spirits ever so conceived it and that your doctrine of the Sabbath be contrary to all antiquity and moderne Churches and therefore by your rule they doe very well that refuse to publish it It 's true indeed in things that are directly contrary to the law of God such as carry in them a plaine and manifest impietie there is no question to be made but it is better to obey God then man But when the matter chiefly resteth either in misapplying or misunderstanding the word of God a fault too incideÌ„t to ignorant unstable men to none more then to your disciples their teachers too or that the word of God be made a property like the Pharisees Corban to justifie your disobedience unto Kings and Princes your rule is then as false as your action faulty So for your second limitation that 's but little better and leaves a starting hole to malicious persons from whence to worke on the affections of the common people For put the case the King in necessary and emergent causes touching the safety of his empire demand the present ayde of all his subjects and any Tribunitian spirit should informe them that this demand is contrary unto the fundamentall lawes of state according to your rule the subject is not bound to obey the king nay he might refuse it although the busines doth concerne especially his owne preservation But your third limitation that of conscience is the worst of all For where you make the word of God to be the onely rule of conscience you doe thereby conclude expressely that neither Ecclesiasticall or Civill ordinances doe binde the conscience and therein overthrow the Apostles doctrine who would have Every soule be subject to the higher powers not for wrath onely but for conscience sake So that in case the king command us any thing for which we finde not some plaine precept or particular warrant in the word of God as if the King command all Lecturers to read the service of the Church in their â—oodes and surplices before their Lectures such his command is plainely against conscience at least the Lecturers are not bound in conscience to submit unto it because there is no speciall precept for it in holy Scripture And certainely this plea of conscience is the most dangerous buckler against authoritie which in these latter ages hath beene taken up So dangerous that were the plea allowed and all the judgements of the king in banco permitted to bee scanned and traversed in this Court of Conscience there were a present end of all obedience Si ubi jubeantur quaerere singulis liceat peunte obsequio imperium etiam intercidit as he in Tacitus If every man had leave to cast in his scruple the balance of authority would be soone weighed downe Yet since you are so much agreived at the unlimited power which some gives to Kings will you be pleased to know that Kings doe hold their crownes by no other Tenure than Dei gratia and that what ever power they have they have from God by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice So say the Constitutions ascribed to Clements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Irenaeus also an antient father Cujus jussu homines nascuntur ejus jussu reges constituuntur And Porphyrie remembreth it amongst the Tenets of the Essees a Iewish Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man ever did beare rule but by Gods appointment Holding then what they have from God whose deputies they are and of whose power they are partakers how and by whom doe you conceive they should be limited doubtlesse you meane to say by the lawes of the Land But then if question be demanded who first made those lawes you must needes answere also the kings themselves So that in case the kings in some particulars had not prescribed limits unto themselves and bound their owne hands as it were to enlarge the peoples neither the people nor any lawes by them enacted could have done it Besides the law of Monarchie is founded on the Law of nature not on positive lawes and positive lawes I trow are of no such efficacie as to annihilate any thing which hath its being and originall in the law of nature Hence is it that all soveraigne Princes in themselves are above the lawes as Princes are considered in abstracto and extent of power and how farre that extent will
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
expect a particular answer And lest your expectation should be frustrate I will see you satisfied First for your language such it is as one may thence conjecture easily what foule heart it comes from They that have pure hearts cannot possibly have so impure a mouth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the abundance of the heart it is that the mouth speaketh And though your rayling accusation doth deserve no other answere than the Lord rebuke thee yet I must tell you now being thus put to it that you are much mistaken in the man you drive at And you had come more neere unto him and the trueth it selfe had you bestowed that character on him which Possidonius gives you of S. Austin viz. Profactibus studiis favens erat exultans bononum omnium indisciplinationem pie sancte tolenans fratrum ingemiscens que de iniquitatibus malorum sive eorum qui intra ecclesiā sive eorum qui extra ecclesiam constituti sunt dominicis lucris semper gaudens damnis moerens which may thus be Englished He was a favorer of learning a friend of goodnesse and good men and suffered with great both patience and pietie the inconformable aversenesse of his brethren from the publicke discipline and grieved at the iniquitie of ill men whether they were within the pale of the Church or without the same as one that alwayes was affected with the successes of Gods Church according as it gained or lost as it thrived or faded This character if your malice will not suffer you to apply unto him give me leave to doe it and disproove any of it if you can And I will adde withall though you grieve to heare it that both for the sinceritie of his conversation as a private man and for the pietie of his endeavours as a publicke person you would be shrewdly troubled to finde his equall in this Church since the first reformation of religion in K. Edwards time And for a witnesse hereunto I dare call your selfe who making all the search you could into him and that with a malicious eye which commonly is wont to spie the smallest errour you have not yet detected him of any personall default as a private man And as for those particular charges which you lay unto him as a publicke person they are so poore more than the clamour that they make that they are hardly worth the answering Next for your charges which that you may the better see I meane to take them all as they lye in order and speake as briefely to them as you would desire First for the enterteinment of his Majestie at the universitie tell me I pray you of all loves how would you have contrived it better had you beene master of the Ceremonies for that place and time Would you have had a sermon Why the king had one Would you have fitted him with Academicall exercises there was as little want of that Orations in the fields the Church the Colledges the Convocation and the Library Would you have left out playes When did you ever know an Academicall enterteinment of the king without them Would you have had the playes in Latine Consider that the Queene was a principall guest and they were commanded to be in English But sir conceale your griefe no longer I know what t is that troubles you and makes you call it scurrillous enterlude and say that it was made in disgrace of pietie All that offends you is that Melancholico a Puritan passion in one of the commedies was in conclusion marryed to Concupiscentia In case you doe not like the wedding why did you not come thither to forbid the banes The Spartans used to shew their drunken slaves unto their children the better to deterre them from so base a vice And how know you but that the representing of that humour on the open stage may let men see the follies of it and so weane them from it But however the person you so grossely abuse could not possibly have leisure farther than in the generall to command all things should be without offence which he most carefully did That which you next except against is the audatious presumptuous speech that you so much talke of And what was that Assuredly no more than that his Grace then Bishop of London threatned your learned Counsell Mr. Prinne to lay him by the heeles for his too much sawcinesse Not as you say and would have simple folke beleeve you for bringing a Prohibition from the Courts of law but for his insolent and irreverent behaviour intendring it unto the Court of the high Commission Your selfe Mass Burton are not called in question for your preaching but for your factious and seditious preaching nor was hee threatned because he tendred to the Court a Prohibition but because he tendred it in such a malapert and ungracious manner This makes a difference in the case Had he behaved himselfe contra bonos more 's before an Ordinary Iustice he must have either found out suerties for his good behaviour or beene committed for his fault no remedy And will you not allow the Court of high-Commission or any Prelate in the same as much if not a little more authority then a common Iustice Perhaps you thinke because Mass Prinne is of a factious Tribunitian spirit he must be Sancrosanct and uncontrolable as the Tribunes were When you can proove his calling to so high a place you may doe well to chalenge the prerogatives belonging to it In the meane time suffer him to be taken up and censured as hee hath deserved Next for his Majesties declaration about lawfull sports you have no reason to charge that on my Lord Archbishop as if it were a matter of his procuring or if it were to reckon it amongst his faults His sacred Majesty treading in the steps of his royall Father thought fit to suffer his good Subjects to enjoy that innocent freedome which before they did in using moderate and lawfull recreations on the Sunday after the divine and publicke Offices of the Church were ended both for morning and evening and of the which they had been more deprived in these latter dayes then before they were And it was more then time perhaps that somewhat should be done to represse your follies who under a pretence of hindering recreations upon that day had in some parts put downe all feasts of dedications of the Churches commonly called Wakes which they which did it did without all authority A pious and a Princely Act however you and such as you traduce it every day in your scandalous pamphlets Nor doth it more belong to a Christian King to keepe the holy dayes by the Church established whereof that is one from being prophaned by labour and unlawfull pleasures then to preserve them quantum in ipsis est at lest from being overcome with Iudaisme or superstition And you might see how some out of your principles came to have as much if not more of
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
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
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
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
alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it
Latimers Sermons Bishop Iewels Bishop Andrewes and diverse others Your afternoone Sermons on the Sondaies if performed by Lecturers are but a part of that new fashion which before wee spake off and having no foundation in the Church at all it cannot be an Innovation to lay them by And if the Curate of the place or whosoever hath the Cure of Soules bestow his time in Catechizing as he is appointed that in effect is but to change one kinde of Preaching for another So that if he that hath the Cure doth carefully discharge his office and performe his duty you have no reason to complaine for want of having Sermons in the after noone I know it is the custome of you and yours to take up Sermons more by tale then weight and so you have your number you thinke all is right But as in feeding of the body one temperate meale digested presently and concocted throughly adde's more unto the strength of nature then all that plentifull variety of delicates which gluttony hath yet invented So doe they profit best in all heavenly wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who heare many Sermons but which heare good ones For limiting the Catechizing unto halfe an houre that 's ordered by the Canon also and it is ordered by the Canon that Children shall bee taught no other Catechisme then that set forth in the booke of Common prayer Not that the Curate is to examine them by question and answere onely without expounding any of the principles of religion which is that you quarrell but to examine and instruct them as the Canon hath it Yet so that under the pretence hereof nor you nor any such as you may assume that libertie as to turne simple Catechizing for the instruction of the youth and ignorant persons of the Parish into a Catechisme Lecture of some two houres long not differing from your mornings sermons but in name alone If in great Cities and the Viniversities Sermons are limited to the same time of the day or as your owne phrase is to one houre onely assuredly it is neither new nor strange The Sermon appointed for the morning being a part of the second service is to be read or spoken in all Churches at the time appointed by the Church Nothing in this de novo that I can heare of In Oxford it was alwayes so since I first knew it the Sermon for the Vniversity and Towne being expressely at the same time Nor neede you bee offended at it if by that meanes the people in those places cannot heare above one sermon in a day it being not many but good sermons not much but profitable hearing which you should labour to commend unto them but that you would bee some body for your often preaching Our Saviour tels us of some men that thought they should bee heard by much speaking and you are one of them that teach the people that they shall be saved by much hearing Your two last innovations I shall joyne together the one being in the rule of Faith which is now made you say to be the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelates p. 151. the other in the rule of manners which must not bee any more the word of Christ but the example of the Prelates lives and dictates of their writings onely p. 156. In this you have most shamefully abused your selfe and all them that heard you The rule of faith is still the same even the holy Scriptures nor can you name a man who hath changed this rule or made the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelats the rule of faith The application of this rule that is the exposition of the Script you must acknowledge to be in the Churches power or els you are no son to the Church of Eng. For in the Articles of the Church to which you have subscribed more thē once or twice it is said expresly that the Church hath authority in cōtroversies of faith that it is vwitnes a keeper of holy writ As also that it hath authority to expound the scriptur cōditioned that it so expound one place that it be not repugnant to another And for the judgmēt of prelats I know not how you can excuse your selfe before God almighty for not submitting therunto having called God to witnes that you would so do For when you took the order of holy Priesthood it was demanded of you in the Congregation whether you would reverently obey your Ordinary and other chiefe Ministers unto whom the government and charge is committed over you following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your self to their godly judgements and you made answer that you would the Lord being your helper Either then you must first cōvince their judgements of some plaine ungodlines or else your not submitting to them must be a plaine colluding both with God and man Reeve whom you jeere at so both in your Pasquil p. 152. and in your dialogue between A. B. saith no more then this and if you say not this you have not lied unto men only but unto God Nor is this any other doctrine then what was held for currant in Ignatius his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the Priests saith he submit themselves unto the Bishop Deacons unto the Priests the people to the Priests and Deacons And then hee addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule for theirs that faithfully observe this order So he And had you kept this order you had not so engaged your self in these factious brabbles wherewith you have disturbed both your selfe and others Touching the rule of manners that any hath affirmed or written that it must bee according to the Prelates lives and dictates you produce no proofe Onely you say and say it onely that they doe countenance allow and by Episcopall authority dispense with an heathenish kinde of life especially in most sacred times as the Lords day This is no proofe I hope but an ipse dixit or a petitio Principii take it at the best although it bee an argument you are used most to And I must answer you to this in the words of Tullie Quid minus est non dico Oratoris sed hominis quam id objicere Adversario quod si ille verbo negarit ulterius progredi non passis Till you bring better proofes for your innovations your selfe must be reputed for the Innovator and all the mischiefe which you have imagined against other men will fall upon your owne pate and deservedly too Hitherto you have acted the false Accuser and have done it excellently well none better In the next place you come to play the Disputant and that you do us wretchedly none worse For first you say that it is pleaded by our changers as you please to call them that they bring in no changes but revive those things which antient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at the Gloria Patri and at the reading of
the Gospell bowing at the name of Jesus and to the high Altar removing the communion table to stand Altarwise placing of Images in Churches erecting Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Mattins instead of preaching and the like This said you answere hereunto that wee in this land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the law of God and the King And that there are no other rites and ceremonies to be used in our Church then those that are allowed by the Act of Parliament prefixed to the communion booke and are expressed in the same booke But Sir you may bee pleased to knowe that the commanding of long prayers is warranted by that Act of Parliament which you so insist on the prayers being made no longer then that Act commandeth and that our bowing at the name of Jesus is enjoyned by the 18. Canon which being authorized by his Majestie is the law of the King and being grounded on the second of the Philipians is the law of God Our standing at the Gospell and praying with our faces towards the East have beene still retained by our Church not out of any speciall Canon but ex vi Catholice consuetudinis by vertue of the constant and continuall custome of the church of God The placing of the holy Table Altar-wise and standing at the Gloria Patri have generally beene observed in Cathedrall Churches since the Reformation it being granted by a good friend of yours the Author of the holy Table that in some Cathedrall Churches where the steps were not transposed in tertio of the Queene and the wall on the backeside of the Altar untaken downe the table might stand as it did before along the wall For bowing to the high Altar I know no such matter either in practice or in precept for bowing towards it wee have the practice of antiquitie but no present precept Your friend and fidus Achates the good minister of Lincolnshire could have told you this that although the Canon doth not enjoyne it yet reason pietie and the constant practice of antiquitie doth that Church-men doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Liturgie and the Lay-men are commanded to doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Homilie and finally if there bee any proud Dames quae deferre nesciant mentium religioni quod deferunt voluptati as Saint Ambrose speakes that practice all manner of curtesies for maskes and dances but none by any meanes for Christ at their approach to the holy Table hee declares them Schismatickes bequeathing them unto Donatus with a protest that hee will never write them in his Calendar for the Children of this Church For Images in Churches and Crucifixes over the Altars finde you of all loves that the Church hath any where commanded them or any of the Prelates in their visitatioÌ„s given order for their setting up if not why do you charge it on her and bring not any proof at all that shee hath imposed it So that your answer being thus come to nothing the objection by you brought on the Churches part remaines unanswearable Viz. that the Prelates of the Church have brought in no changes but onely have revived those things which the antient Canons have allowed and prescribed the Law of God the King and the Act of Parliament either inabling them to doe so or not gainsaying it Secondly you object on the Prelates part that they bring in no Innovations no new rites but what hath been in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent places even the Mother Churches of the land so as all that they goe about is to reduce inferiour Churches to an unitie and conformitie to their Mother-Churches that bringing all to unitie they may take of that reproach which the Adversaries cast upon us in this kinde This is their Plea indeed you say wondrous honestly Would you could hold long in so good a veine and not flie out unto your wonted arts of Scandall and false clamours upon noe occasion For having pleaded thus you make an answere presently that the Cathedrals are the old high places not yet removed the antient dennes of those old foxes the nests and Nurceries of superstition and Idolatrie wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her VSVM SARVM to this very day p. 159. and finally that the Prelates make these mother Cathedralls being Romes adopted daughters their Concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing Idolatrous Masse-priests throughout the land p. 163. But Sir consider in cold blood that this is not to answere but to rayle downe Arguments His sacred Majestie in his resolution of the case about Saint Gregories Church neere the Cathedrall of Saint Paul did determine positively that all Parochiall Churches ought to be guided by the Pattern of the mother Church upon the which they doe depend and yet hee did declare his dislike of all Innovations and receding fromantient constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons Which makes it manifest that he conceived not this conformitie with the mother Churches to com within the compas of an Innovation But wherefore tell wee you of his Majesties pleasure which are not pleased with any thing that his Majestie doth except it may bee wrested to advance your purposes The Minister of Lincolnshire and any thing from him will be far more welcome and something you shall have from him to confute your follies who can doe more with you I am sure then the world besides Now he good man the better to pull downe the authoritie of his Majesties chappell hath told you somewhat of the authoritie of the Mother Churches What 's that Marry saith he In the name of God let the same offices be said in all the Provinces as are said in the Metropoliticall Church aswell forthe ordâ—r of the service the Psalmody the Canon as the use and custome of the ministration this he tels us was the old rule of the antient Fathers For this he cites good store of Evidence in his margin as his custome is and then concludes that it is a current direction in all Authors where you may see that by the rule of the old Fathers and your friends to boote whatever is the use and custome of the Ministration in the Metropoliticall Church the same is universally to bee received throughout the provinces And therupon we may conclude that by the old rule of the Antient Fathers by the direction of all authors and the authoritie of your good frend the minister of Lincolnshire in case the things that you complain of have bin and are retained in the ministration by the Mother Churches they ought to be retained also in Parochiall Churches especially if it be so ordered by the higher powers the Bshops and Pastours of the same Your scandalous and opprobrious speeches wee regard not heere in attributing to the Mother Churches those most odious names of high places dennes of foxes nurseries of