hath been judged already by the unappealable judgement of God to be an evidence of want of faith in him who commits it and doth take pleasure and delight into it which is made manifest and apparent to men by a perseverance in it onely and therefore it is the sentence of God and not of the Minister the Minister being onely Gods Herauld or messenger to declare to others the revealed will of God and for doing thereof he hath an expresse warrant from God recorded in Scripture nor must it be any part of the Ministers purpose to send any man to hell but purpose and intention of doing execution upon the offender is essentiall to authority and inseparable from it but onely to prevent what in him lieth his going thither for albeit that the Ministers sentence being rightly pronounced be ratified in heaven which is undenyable yet may it be recalled again but never at the Ministers will and pleasure which at sometimes is incident to authority but by the contrition and repentance of the obstinate party publikely promising and vowing his amendment upon which evidence the Minister may pronounce his absolution receiving him again into the bosome of the Church and admitt him againe into the Communion of Saints and this sentance is likewise ratifyed in Heaven If the parties repentance be unfained and sincere which notwithstanding may be hypocriticall and dissembled in him albeit he doth refraine and forbeare from the performance of that wherein he gave the offence and scandall and doth moreover proceede to amendment of his life not onely in that particular but doth walke unblameably and without any deserved reproofe from the judgment of men in all other howsoever upon a visible purpose of amendment the Minister not onely may but must receive him againe into the bosome of the Church and admit him againe into the holy Communion with others so that nothing is left to the will of the Minister nor to the finall judgement of the Minister but all is referred to the will and knowledge of God and where will and knowledge are excluded their Authority is wanting and though much may be effected and brought to passe by them yet whatsoever is effected deserves not the name as differing from the nature of Authority and the Ministers of Christ having no Authority in those things wherein they cannot ere so long as they follow the cleare light revealed in Scripture they can much lesse have any Authority for such things which flow from their owne Invention nor can they inforce obedience by any spirituall meanes or censures of the Church unto any thing whereof they themselves are Authors when no spirituall meanes are compulsive in regard of the Instrument that must apply them and whatsoever efficacy or vertue they have yet may they never be applyed for the inforcing of any thing whereof man is Author for then it would follow that the will of man or something proceeding from the will of man would be a rule to the Justice of God when one man must be as a Publican or Heathen and consequently uncapable of the fruits of Christs death for disobeying onely the will or something depending upon the will of another which no man dares to affirme and having no compulsive meanes to inforce obedience they can have no legislative power of making of cannons and constitutions binding to the conscience for a law without a penalty or power sufficient to inforce it is no law nor neede they have any such power for such a power is not conducible at all to that end of Religion which is committed to them to their care and paines but is destructive to the end of government for Religion hath a two fold end the one respecteth God the other man the end of religion in respect of God is to glorify God that man who was therefore created to glorify his Maker should by a true knowledge of the true God glorify him aright and the end of religion in respect of man is to bring a man from all confidence in himselfe or the creature to rely upon the Providence and goodnesse of God who is the Creator to the end he may renounce his own righteousnesse to be made partaker of the merits and Righteousnesse of the Sonne of God the Redeemer of Mankinde that by faith in him he may obtaine grace and some measure of sanctification in this life for the remission of sinnes and fruition of Glory hereafter and for this end of religion no humane lawes do contribute any thing at all for unto this the Scriptures are sufficient being compleate in themselves and the chiefe duty of the Ministers of the Gospell is to explaine and expound the true meaning of scripture to others for doing whereof they should be learned in all necessary learning and skilfull as also have a lawfull Calling by a lawfull Ordination and for which it is very fit that they be set apart from all other imployment and have a sufficient maintenance that they may the better attend that to which they are called but for the other end to glorify God humane lawes doe contribute much but they are required of Christian Kings and Magistrates and not of Christian Ministers for God did from the begining put Authority into the hands of the Magistrate and endowed them with effectuall meanes for inforcing of obedience to what should be commanded by them so did he never in the hands of the Priests and Levites under the Law nor of the Apostles under the Gospell and by consequence into the hands of no Ministers whatsoever succeeding them and God doth require of the Magistrate to improve his Authority which is the talent that God hath given him for the gaining of others by force and compulsion when no other meanes will prevaile to the performance of those dutyes that are required of them as he requires of all who are called to labour in the Ministeriall function and office to imploy their gifts and graces which are the talents bestowed upon them painfully and dilligently for the enlightning of the understanding of others whereby every exalted thought and imagination may be brought downe which the Magistrates Power and Authority can never reach for the Power of the Magistrate reacheth no further then to the outward life conversation when the operation of the Ministry subdueth the will and therefore the principall care of the Magistrate is and ought to be to enforce men to live uprightly and justly as they ought to doe for by so doing men glorify God but this is not all the glory that is to be performed by man to God for besides there must be a ready submission to the Will of God springing from a perfect love to God and grounded upon an assured confidence of Gods love to us which may be begotten and kindled in a man but can never be inforced and to this duty tendeth the Ministers paines and labour but it is and ought to be the Christian Magistrates care to provide
abused by the Popes and Bishops of Rome as Vsurpers onely over the rest of the Clergy or too great a power and consequently dangerous in the hands of any one man is not onely lawfull but necessary as being Inherent in the function and essentiall for the preservation of union and unity to be preserved in some other forme which they agree upon and like better then the incontrollable Supremacie of one man then this doth necessarily follow that albeit they free themselves from all the errours and abuses which were introduced by the Supreamicie of one man yet so long as they acknowledge that the same power and Authority is resident in others they can never free themselves of all errours and abuses which are introducible by Authority but that the property and condition of things in themselves indifferent will be changed from being indifferent and converted into the nature and necessity of absolute duties which ever begets bondage and subjection and sense of bondage doth ever beget desire of liberty which can never be obtained so long as the opinion of a necessity of Authority in some forme or other is retained and experience hath now taught us what could not be foreseene by reason alone without some additionall helpe from divine illumination that in the Church of England which did not onely shake off the Supreamicie of the Pope but had purged her selfe of all those errours which had either crept in or were introduced by the power of that Supreamicie by retaining of Bishops and giving them a part onely of that spirituall Authority which formerly was acknowledged to Popes and though quallifying that part by restraining it from all legislative power or a power to inact any thing but allowing it a Power of Iudicature the effectuall operation and proper working of that part of spirituall Authority hath now fully manifested it selfe to tend to propogate superstition and errour rather then the sincerity and truth of Religion and as the naturall motions of different bodies differing in quality and substance tend to different centers the naturall motion of Episcopacy hath now discovered it selfe to indeavour continually to unite it selfe to such a head to which it is capable to aspire rather then to be in subjection under such a head to which it hath no capacity to aspyre and that received principle of State that Episcopacy is a support to Monarchy is now likewise discovered to be fraudulent and deceitefull for it is true that it is a support to a spirituall Monarchy or Monarchy in the Church as being the basis and foundation thereof but doth undermine and destroy Monarchy in the State especially in that State which doth trust unto it as to a supporter and the reason is cleere for all supporters which have no solid foundation doe ruinate those buildings which are erected upon them being of greater weight and substance then the foundation can beare and the foundation of Episcopacy being layed in the engrossing of spirituall Authority or Ecclesiasticall censures Spirituall Authority it selfe hath no other existence nor being but what it hath in the Imagination and beleefe which is too slippery a ground to support a solid substance such as temporall Monarchy is but may be sufficient to support an aery and imaginary bulk such as spirituall Monarchy is which Episcopacy not only supports but continually tends towards as to its proper center and my Lord of Cant. when he obtained the Kings good will to confirme by his Letters Patents the late Canons did put a direct cheate upon his Majesty for thereby the Kings Supreamicy in causes Ecclesiasticall was cut off and from thence forth his Supreamicy over Ecclesiasticall persons should have been rather titular then reall If the consent of Parliament could as easily have been obtained as his Majesties own But to conclud this part of my Lord of Cant. Speech he might safely protest upon his conscience that his Majesty was a sound Protestant according to the Religion by law established yet did it not thereupon follow that he himself was guiltles from the sentence of the law because his actions being all warranted by his Majesties consent they could not be divided from the Kings which is the cheife thing implied by this particular His second particular is concerning thâ—… great and populous City to which he is very kind and prayeth God to blesse it but all his prayers for those who he conceiveth had done him injury have a sting in them and this prayer ends reproaching those he prayes for as if some had subordned witnesses against his life by gathering of hands which he affirmeth to be a way that might endanger many an innocent man and may plucks innocent blood upon their own heads and perhaps upon this City also which before he prayed God to blesse and now again to forbid this Judgement but his prayers are mixed with threates and all tending to justify himself to his Auditours whereof he is never unmindefull upon all occasions and having here occasion to mention the Parliament he bestowes glorious and honourable Titles and epithrates upon it as if that were sufficient to testify his respects thereof but he doth contradict his owne testimony by his Inferences and Applications for by Inference he applyeth the gathering of hands which he affirmeth to have been practised against himself to the stirring up of the people against Saint Stephen and to Herods lying in waite for Saint Peters death by observing how the people tooke the death of Saint James By which Instance he must meane that great honourable and wise Court of the Kingdome the Parliament those be the titles he bestowes upon them for it was they that gave sentence against him as Herod did against Saint James and would have done agaynst Saint Peter which no Christian thinkes was either honourably or wisely done of him and therefore what opininion he had of that great honourable and wise Court for sentencing of him may be collected and that his esteeme of them was not so honourable as his expressions but whatsoever his esteeme of them was they were his Judges so will he never be theirs which he here apprehended when he did put the City in mind of the Justice of God and how fearfull a thing it was to fall into the Hands of the living God because God remembers and forgets not the complaynts of the poore a lesson which he never remembred when he himselfe did sit upon the Tribunall but is of speciall comfort unto him upon the Scaffold for his blood was innocent blood and not onely innocent blood in his owne esteeme but he had a speciall Commission from God to tell them so as Jeremiah had in the 26. Chap. of Jeremiah ver. 15. the words were not expressed by him but directions given to the place the words be these But know ye for certaine that if ye put me to death you shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof for of a
but have no commission from the Word of God to injoyn or command any externall duties but to exhort onely to the performance of those which were commanded and ordained by God himself neither had they ever any spirituall authority committed unto them for the inforcing of obedience unto any thing that should be ordained by themselves For the Apostles never had nor never exercised any such authority In brief the summe of all is briefly thus that as under the Law all bowing down to any graven Image and the worshipping of God in the likenesse of any thing in heaven or in earth was Idolatry So under the Gospel which was the end and consummation of the Law all externall worship of God that doth not spring from faith as from the root is to be accounted Idolatry as being a counterfeit worship set up by the imagination of men not according to the will of God And my Lord of Cant. doth here in some sort acknowledge this for a truth but removes the guilt from himself to lay it upon the people for here he doth account the worshipping of God according to the imaginations of the people to be Idolatry but doth not consider that what he esteemed Idolatry in them might be in himself If he could produce no better warrant then his own imaginations for with God there is no respect of persons but then the question will be whether he was brought to that place to suffer for refusing to submit to that idolatry which here he affirmeth was setting up by the people or for imposing upon them a will worship according to his own imaginations onely And if he himself had given the answer he could not say that the people did impose any thing upon him in the worship of God but it was apparent and undeniable that he did upon the people for doing whereof he neglected his Ministeriall Office consisting chiefly in Information Instruction and Exhortation thereby to convince the conscience which is uncapable of constraint from the authority of man and usurped an authority which is onely peculiar to God and cannot be communicated to man for which the people notwithstanding were not his Judges but the Law of the Land against which he did no lesse transgresse for imposing upon the people any thing by a lawlesse authority not warranted by the Laws then he did offend against the Word of God by usurping a spirituall authority not warranted in the Word For the Law of the Land restraineth the making of all Laws and constitutions and the imposing of any new thing upon the Subjects of this Kingdome to the Authority of Parliaments And albeit the Clergy might assemble in Convocation yet were all their Acts and Constitutions of no force nor validity untill confirmed and ratified by Parliament whereas my Lord of Canterbury did not onely innovate many things in the worship of God but did introduce and impose many new things in the Church by his own authority and in the State by his credit with the King by the Regall Power directly against the Laws of the Kingdom for which he was at that time brought upon the Scaffold to suffer not because he did preferre a passive sufferance before an actuall obedience to unlawfull and prohibited Idolatry as did the 3. Children but because he did exact obedience from others to his lawlesse commands without any warrant from the Word of God nor from the Laws of the Land but by an usurped authority over both wherefore his case can no wayes be compared to the 3. Childrens but without any injury done to him he may justly be taxed with presumption for his paralels or comparisons And as his presumptions are notorious so is his want of charitie manifest notwithstanding his seeming professions to the contrary as appeareth in his next Section which he beginneth with a charitable prayer That God would blesse all this people and open their eyes that they may see the right way The which his charity doth terminate and end in himself which is not charity for charity extendeth chiefly to others and the inference which he maketh doth discover the summe of his desires for a blessing upon this people for the opening of their eyes to be chiefly meant that they might see and acknowledge his Innocencie which he doth here present to their consideration not obscurely implyed but positively affirmed against all accusation whatsoever by the attestation of his own conscience Having upon this occasion ransacked every corner of his heart where he hath not found any of his sins that are there deserving death by the known Laws of the Land Certainly he was not nor could he be so ignorant as here he pretends to be innocent for he could not choose but know that it was death by the known Laws of this Kingdom for any Subject to innovate against the established Government But supposing there had been no positive Law against it yet was it to have been esteemed an unpardonable crime deserving the most rigorous of deaths for any Subject to attempt it no lesse then it had been in an Athenian to murther his own father when the Laws were silent for the punishment as presupposing no such crime would be committed nor could his conscience be so seared as not to dictate unto him that he was the adviser to the King needlesly to assume an arbitrary power for the introducing of many things whereof he himself was the chief Author against the known Laws of the Land And if nothing else had been proved yet one thing was so manifest that it needed no proof at all the assuming of a Legislative power by making of Laws and Constitutions in a Provinciall Assembly binding to the whole Subjects and Clergy in generall to be inforced by Spirituall Authority or Ecclesiasticall censures and imposing a generall tax upon the Clergy without any confirmation but of the Kings Letters Patents which was a manifest usurpation over the consciences of men and a breach against the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome the King himself having no such power nor prerogative and former Kings having never assumed it besides the cheat which he did put upon the King in perswading his Majestie to establish that by his Prerogative which was not onely derogatory but destructive to his Prerogative as shall be opened more pertinently hereafter and yet he would here perswade the people he dieth innocently not deserving death For which his undeserved sentence notwithstanding he is so charitable as to charge nothing not in the least degree upon his Judges for they are to proceed by proof by valuable witnesses and in that way he or any Innocent in the world may justly be condemned If he had ended here it had been against charity not to beleeve him but as fire cannot long be concealed after it hath taken hold any combustible matter but will break forth and appear So the fire of his indignation against his Judges being kindled in his breast must needs break forth in despite of dissimulation
the Kings actions and his owne that they could not easily be distinguished that by so doing he might never be reached but by wounding the King first building thereby great hopes if not assured confidence to escape himselfe and here labouring to justifie himselfe to the People from having ever had any intention to introduce Popery he purposly makes mention of the King for whose purposes intentions he might safely take any deep Protestation as if that conduced much to clear himself in the opinion of his Auditors which was the chiefe thing he now aimed at of all practices tending to that end as a thing impossible for him to bring about without the concurrent consent of the King which was but a fancy but no solid argument necessarily concluding what he would have beleeved for the worke might be advancing without any discovery in the King that it was necessarily tending to such an end untill such time that it should be too late if not impossible to retire as a Deere may be driving into a toyle not suspecting any danger but having leisure at some times to feed by the way untill such time as seeing and apprehending his owne danger by being unawares reduced to such a straight as doth leave him no variety of choice but to place his onely safety and meanes of escape in leapping into that snare which had been prepared for him and to which much paines had been taken to drive him for it is not to be imagined that either his Majestie or any other Christian King should submit themselves to the bondage of Popery if they rightly understood what they did for to passe by the danger which it bringeth to their soules by leading them into by-pathes of errour which can never bring them to heaven it subjects all temporall authority into a vassalage and subordination to its spirituall and that not so much by any accident or contingency arising from the different dispositions of the severall persons who sit upon the severall thrones spirituall and temporall which may be turbulency and ambition in the one and infirmity and weaknes in the other as by the very principles and Fundamentall constitution of Popery by reason of the acknowledgement of and submission into a spirituall authority being once rooted and firmely fixed in the beliefe or imagination by all who embrace it and the naturall effects which doe necessarily spring from thence For when the world was blinded by ignorance as by darknesse at what time the Popes did sit as God in the Temple of God and by their spirituall authority in excommunicating and absolving whom they pleased and for what they pleased did uncontrollably oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God that is above all Magistracy and power in earth What lamentable and sad effects did Christendome groane under and feel from such transcendent and omnipotent a Power so long as from a generall beliefe it was universally submitted unto But when mens eyes began once to be opened and by the cleer light of the truth revealed in Scripture some men did cleerly see and perceive that no such power was ever nor could be given into any one man upon earth yet the apprehension of such a power and authority that it was given unto some being sunke deeply into all mens understandings great difference did arise where the same should reside and all men acknowledging it to appertain to the Clergy onely did place it amongst them as it were by a generall consent in some one of those formes which are knowen to be best capable to preserve authority all or the most part of all concluding that it must be preserved in one of them each imbracing and submiting into that forme which was preferred and made choice of by those who bare the greatest sway or had the greatest esteem and reputation with them but none of them foreseeing into all effects and events which might follow hath bin the chief cause why so much discord contention hath risen and continued which will never be wanting so long as the cause remains that is until it be clearly understood what the pow-of the Church and of Churchmen is whether any such thing as spirituall authority doth appertain to them by what right and to what end whether or no it be conducing to Religion or be compatible with the end of government for albeit there be no such thing as spirituall authority acknowledged yet all power is not thereby taken away from the Church but the consequence will only be that the power of the Church of Church-men is no more then opperative and declarative not at all authoritative and having no authority they can have no legislative power of making Lawes and constitutions call them by what name soever they will binding to the conscience having no penalties to inforce obedience and why should any such thing as spirituall authority be admitted to be when it cannot be evidenced what execution doth follow for authority without execution ceaseth to be authority by losing its vertue for if authority say to one go he must go or to another come he must come and likewise to a third doe this he must do it but no Clergy man nor Minister of the Gospel can say enter thou into heaven and goe thou into hell all hee can say is thus beleeve and do and thou shall be saved but if otherwise you will be damned but both the doing and beleeving dependeth upon the hearers owne choice nothing is determined by the appointment of the Minister all that rests in the power of the Minister is to declare to others the effectuall meanes of their salvation from the revealed will of God to which whosoever submits by a voluntary profession testifying his beliefe and receiving of baptisme which is the seale of his beliefe but brings not forth fruit according to his Profession and walkes not according to the rules set down in Scripture and will not be convinced nor reclaimed by no admonition nor reproofe then may the Minister safely and boldly pronounce that he is still in the state and condition of an Infidell and unbeleever no more capable of any thing that may accrue unto him by the death and mediation of Christ then a heathen or pagane and therefore may debar him from admission into the holy Communion which is or ought to be the Communion of Saints or true beleevers and is Gods Sacrament to us that is to say his Covenant and seal unto us of the fruits and benefits that we hope for hereafter by vertue of Christs death and resurrection but the party offending is not presently cast into hell by that sentence and though hell fire may follow upon it hereafter yet is it not the Ministers sentence nor the debarring him from the Sacrament that doth send him thither but his want of faith which is made evident and nortorious by no single act of any declared sinne but by an obstinate perserverance in any one sin or more that
for all that can onely be introduced by force and compulsion in the Service of God wherefore the severall ends of Magistracy and of the Ministry are different but not contrary but the severall meanes by which they attaine their ends are not onely different but contrary and those meanes which are effectuall to the one are not only ineffectuall but uselesse to the other for the Magistrate can never attaine that end to which his Authority conduceth by no perswation nor information onely nor can the Minister subdue the will nor informe the understanding by any Authority from or in himselfe and both of them have their Commission immediately from God and each of them are subject to the other without any subordination of offices from the one to the other for the Magistrate is no lesse subject to the operation of the word from the mouth of the Minister then any other man whatsoever and the Minister againe is as much subject to the Authority of the Magistrate as any other Subject whatsoever and therefore though there be no subordination of offices yet is there of Persons the Person of the Minister remaining a Subject but not the function of the Ministry but there needes not two Tribunalls nor Independent Courts be erected to provide for their severall ends and dutyes required of them for the Minister can never attaine the end of his labours by no Judiciall processe nor legall proceedings whatsoever and therefore all Judiciall courts are needelesse and uselesse to his ends yet are they not so to himselfe having other ends then what are required of him for the discharge of his duty and function but it is essentiall to the Magistrate to have a tribunall and judiciall Courts for the attaining of his ends and duties required of him without which he can never discharge his dutie as he ought but whensoever the like Tribunall is erected in the Church as is necessary in the State they must be Independent one of another in regard the severall offices governing Church and State are so but all that is to be got by Independant Tribunalls is either dissention and discord which is the usuall fruite that devision of Authority beareth or by compliance to provide for one anothers Interests or particular ends differing from their publick dutyes with the manifest losse of true religion on both sides which many times drawes downe the Judgment of God upon one or both as being a third person no lesse interressed in Justice and Honour then either and many times the Justice of God is most greeveous when least apprehended as suffering men to wallow in their sins to dye in security nor is it a small Judgment to leave men to the necessary effects which division of Authority produceth for the end of all government is the preservation of humane society the meanes of doing whereof is by union and unity and Authority is the effectuall meanes of producing and propagating unity and therefore whensoever Authority is divided Vnitie may alwaies and sometimes must admit of division which destroyes it for unity and division are destructive one of another and when two Tribunalls are erected for the determining of severall and different causes and crimes both armed with a forcible Authority weilding swords of a different nature agreable to their different constitutions and without any dependency and subordination the one to the other what lasting concord and agreement can there be beweene these two they that mannage them must be juster then men are knowne to be or advantages will be taken when given by the one as no sublunary substances which are subject to change can remaine long in an equall ballance for subjecting the other and therefore it was when the Christian world did by a generall consent beleeve that the Church having a sword though invisible for the cutting off of all schismaticall and refractory Members no lesse really and truly then the State hath a visible materiall sword which for the preservation of union and unity was esteemed necessary to be put into the hands of one and therefore willingly submitted their necks under the Imaginary stroake thereof from the sentence of Popes or Bishops of Rome How easie was it for them by reason therof to subject all Christian Princes and Magistrates unto a dependency and subordination unto them and their Authority and how did they trouble the Christian world by transferring of rights and stirring up of rebellion whensoever any of those Princes did oppose them or contradict their wills by a supposed Intrenching upon their pretended Prerogatives though usurped but when the Popes right began to be questioned by some whereby his reputation did decline even amongst those who adhearing still to the doctrine of the Church of Rome as to that in which they had beene educated and bred yet did not beleeve his censures to be so dreadfull as before they apprehended them to be but the edge of his sword being thereby blunted and the edge of the temporall sword being not onely visible but sharpe the advantage returned to Princes whereby those Princes who continued in union with the Church of Rome professing subjection and obedience to the spirituall Authority thereof doe notwithstanding now reduce that power and Authority to which they professe subjection unto a subordination of them and their Authority to be directed by them which will be of no longer permanency then that Church can insnare the world againe to an apprehension and beleife of the reality of their power to beget which they continually indeavour and aspire and have no small hopes from the differences and divisions amongst Protestants for the increasing and fomenting whereof it is not to be imagined that they are idle but whatsoever their hopes and practises are their greatest strength remaineth in this that it is generally beleeved that the Church hath a spirituall Authority for the cutting off of all schismaticall Members and that this Authority is to be preserved in some one forme or other without any derivation thereof from any humane power for then it cleerely and undoubtedly followeth that whosoever by such principles of reason taken from the end of government doth incline to Monarchy and that this spirituall Authority can best be preserved by the Supremacy of one man then the Bishops of Rome having had for a long time and for a long succession and still having the possession besides other advantages of greatnesse and power which begetteth strength and reputation must and will be acknowledged by all those to be the onely spirituall Monarch in the Church armed with spirituall Authority and whosoever out of prejudice against the Church of Rome taken against her by reason of either her errours or abuses or both doth seperate themselves from the Communion of that Church and by consequence onely free themselves from her subjection but doe notwithstand adheare to and retaine the grounds of those errours and abuses by acknowledging and beleeving that the same spirituall Authority which was presupposed to have beene
of calling of all Parliaments is either a purpose and desire of releiving the Kings wants and to supply his necessities or to redresse the grievances of the subjects or both for such hath been the prudence of our ancestors in setling the frame of this government not only to deny to their Kings all power of imposing any taxes upon the Subjects with out their own free consents by their representative body assembled in Parliament but did as it were binde the hands of their Kings by their own consents signified by divers Acts of Parliament from so doing for ever For which their Kings were recompensed with a speciall and absolute Prerogative of calling and dissolving of Parliaments at their will and pleasure onely The people being thereby assured that if a desire to right the peoples grievances and for providing of beneficiall Laws were not sufficient motives and inducements to the King for calling of Parliaments yet the confideration of and respect to his own necessities and wants would move him and divers Parliaments having been called during the prosecution of this designe which have been dissolved again by the same Prerogative that called them without any application of redresse either to the grievances of the Subjects or to the Kings wanâ—s doth manifest that whatsoever the pretence was the chief end and purpose of calling those Parliaments was never neither for redresse of the Subjects grievauces nor for relief of the Kings wants but chiefly to make triall what strength they could make in the Parliament to finish their designe by Authority of Parliament For having advanced their designe so farre at Court by their prevalencie with His Majestie that they had obtained the possession of the greatest places and places of greatest trust both about His Majestie and in the Kingdom they were thereby of that credit and reputation that none were preferred to places of trust nor to dignities nor honors without their approbation if not recommendation Which did so secure them that they needed not fear the disappointment of their designe by any opposition at Court and so farre as the Kings power and Prerogative could further it But the Kings Prerogative being not absolute the Laws of this Kingdom and the Constitution of this Government having neither conferred an absolute power nor Prerogative upon the Kings thereof they could never finish their designe whatsoever it was by the Kings Prerogative alone without an additionall confirmation by the Subjects consents assembled in Parliament whereof they were likewise assured if by the reputation and strength of their Faction they could procure such a certain number to be returned Members of the lower House as they might be confident of would suffer their Votes to be directed by them by which means they might hope to carry any thing in that House which should be proposed by His Majestie or in His Majesties name of whose deliberations and determinations they were the chief disposers As for the House of Peers there was no doubt at that time of a prevalent party to concurre with them by reason of the Bishops Votes and Court Lords and others who were obliged to them by many favours they being the chief disposers of all favours which did either depend upon or proceed from His Majesties gift For all which causes and considerations there was no danger to call a Parliament whensoever they pleased For if the Parliament did not answer their expectation it was in the same mens power to perswade the King to dissolve it who had the credit to perswade His Ma. to call it His Majesty suspecting no ends in them but what was pretended for His Majesties service But the succes of those Parliaments declared that the credit of the Faction was not so great in the countrey as at Court for which my L. of Cant. doth here tax them with misgovernment professing his dislike against them onely which must be conceived was because they were not yet moulded nor brought to that frame to condescend to every thing that he and others should project as was the late Synod And the great number of Patentees and Monopolists chosen this Parliament and others who have deserted the Parliament and have sitten since in an Anti-parliament at Oxford doth sufficiently demonstrate upon whom they depended and for whose Interests their Votes have been devoted from the beginning whether for the generall benefit of King and Kingdom or onely to serve the particular ends of such who either in all probability did recommend them or otherwayes from whom they did expect preferment or some other reward But from hence may be collected that the designe for altering Religion and the frame of the Government being two different things that they were not alike intended by the Designers but that the designe for altering of Religion was principally intended by them and that the other designe of introducing an Arbitrary government to the King was but the bait to deceive the King thereby to insinuate the better with him and to ingage His Majestie to them and was chiefly made use of as subservient and conducing to the other designe of Religion that was the onely designe with them which is made manifest by the progresse of both designes For as all motions which by their slownesse or distance seem insensible to the beholder so as at first view it cannot be discerned whither they tend yet are easily perceived by their progresse so the dark and disguised ends of this designe which could not endure the light of open profession is clearly discernable by the progresse which it hath made For albeit that an Arbitrary power in the King hath been made use of in many things to the great prejudice of the Subject tending to the manifest destruction of the Subjects Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament yet when a true account shall be taken what great benefit hath returned to the Regall Authority by all that hath been done the totall sum will be found at the end of the Church-mens bill but none at all at the Kings where on the contrary manifest detriment and losse will appear and that the Kings Prerogative hath been stretched upon the tenters beyond its true by as to set up and settle an absolute or Independent Prerogative in the Church to Church-men which is inconsistent with the Prerogative of the Crown for whensoever the Prerogative of Church-men is advanced to such a height as that it groweth either absolute or Independent the Prerogative of the Crown is either subjected or undermined and the King parts with a reall Authority depending upon his own reason and judgement chiefly to be directed by the will and judgement of another unlesse the smart of his Sword doth terrifie more nor the apprehension of theirs which is all the remedie that will be left him whensoever the chief Governor or Governors of the Church and he do differ And the remedy which the late Cannons applyed for the securing of all men against any suspicion of revolt to Popery hath manifested
to all men how far the progresse to Popery was advanced when it durst appear nothing at all disguised but under a thin vail of some few deceitfull words in a Pontificall robe of absolute Authority constituting and ordaining and to shew how absolute and Independent the Protestant Church of England was grown the words We straitly command all Parsons Vicars and Curates and we injoyn all Archbishops and Bishops and We decree and ordain are used all along in the severall Articles published which are all words of absolute Authority and command and the penalties inforcing obedience to all those absolute commands are either suspension and deprivation to the Clergy or the dreadfull censures of Excommunication and casting into hell to all others For no lesse punishment doth the sentence of Excommunication imply because the party excommunicate being cast out of all communion with the Church is thereby presupposed to be deprived of all the benefits that he may hope for by vertue of Christs death and mediation so long as he remains in the state of excommunication which is a great terror to all them that do not rightly understand the nature of Excommunication and what the authority of Church-men is which is ever the much greater part of those who are members of any Church besides the great number of others which be in all Churches that sleight the censure of Excommunication as being a censure from which they feel no present smart without which it hath no operation with them for the inforcing of whom especially it was by these Cannons injoyned that every Bishop shall once every yeer send into His Majesties high Court of Chancery a Significavit of all such who have stood excommunicated beyond the time limited by the Law and shall desire that the Writ De Excommunicato capiendo might be at once sent out against them all Ex Officio And for the better execution of their Decrees They did most humbly beseech his most sacred Majestie that the Officers of the high Court of Chancery whom it shall concern may be commanded to send out the aforesaid Writ from time to time as is desired and that the like command also may be laid upon the Sheriffes and their Deputies for the due and faithfull execution of the said Writs as often as they shall be brought unto them Which whensoever they should obtain would put the Supremacy of all Authority into the hands of some of the Clergy by necessitating the smarting stroke of the Magistrates Sword to follow of course upon notification of theirs whereby all Magistracie and Law should be but executioners of their sentence from which there was no appeal but by submission deserving absolution which was ordained by the authority of the foresaid Synod not to be given untill the party to be absolved should come as a penitent humbling himself upon his knees and first take an Oath De parendo Juri stando mandatis Ecclesiae And for a perpetuall subjecting of all men into a vassalage and subjection to the Authority of Bishops and others of the Clergy it was there decreed That all Clergy men and all others who should take any degree of learning in any of the Vniversities and all that should be licensed to practise Physick all Registers Actuaryes and Proctors all Schoolmasters and all others that should come to be incorporated in any of the Vniversities here having taken a degree in any forraigne Vniversitie should take an Oath in a prescribed and set form of words before they should be admitted to take their degrees Never to give their consent to alter the government of this Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans and Archdeacons By which means an equall allegiance should have been payed to them as to the King and his Successors for ever And all this was presented to the blinded world and abused King as a remedy to secure men against any suspicion of revolt to Popery which was nothing else but a publick setting up of Popery though not yet of the Popes supremacy which was to follow and imploying the help and assistance of the Magistrates Sword and the force and power of the Laws of the Land to that very use and end For Popery consisteth neither in this or that superstition nor Idolatry nor in this or that erroneous Doctrine nor in all-together principally and chiefly but in the absolutenesse of spirituall authority commanding Implicite obedience to whatsoever Doctrine or Superstition shall be invented by man as necessary and essentiall to the true worship of God under the threatned pain and penalty of Excommunication and Interdiction and promising the kingdome of heaven to whomsoever it pleaseth as a gift or reward within the power of man and the assumption of which so divine and incompetent a power to any man or mankind united together and the deriving thereof from one solely to others as inherent in the person or function of one onely doth necessarily inferre and presuppose the gift of Infallibility in him who doth so assume it that he may become an unappealable Judge which doth exalt him in the sight and esteeme of those men who do beleeve in him and willingly submit unto him to the nature and dignity of the incommunicable prerogative of God and makes him undeniably the revealed Antichrist to others by usurping and possessing the throne of Christ upon earth for whom onely such dominion and authority is reserved in heaven And the root of Popery or Antichristianity for so it may be termed as tending continually thither by the Doctrine which it teacheth and the Authority which it usurpeth lieth in this very principle that a power of excommunicating and absolving or sending into heaven or hell is assumed by some as depending upon the purpose and will of man according to the nature of Authority and consented to and beleeved by others and the danger to temporall Authority lieth in the universality and generality of the beleef and assent and the difference between the incontrolable supremacy of the Pope and the exalted Prelacy of Bishops pretending to the same Authority is but a difference of degrees but not of kinds For for the setling of this Authority into the supremacy of any one there is a necessity of ingrossing it into the hands of some few first and Popes had never mounted to their omnipotent throne of Supremacy if a superiority of some of the Clergy invested with spirituall authority over others had not been first assented unto For the same rule necessity and end requireth the supremacy of one Bishop over all other Bishops that requireth the superiority of any Clergy man into the dignity of a Bishop over many others of the Clergy and the same danger of spirituall error indangering the soul lyeth upon all that are subject to this spirituall authority whether it be derived from the supremacy of one or a superiority onely of others or from the Democracy of all the Clergy assembled together or from the Independencie of everyone within their severall
foundation and assent to the Popes Supremacy shall be consented to in England upon a bare presupposall that it is a necessarie support to Monarchy when it hath never been yet examined what Monarchy it supports whether spirituall or temporall and whether that which is a necessary supporter to the one is compatible with the other having shaken off the yoke of spirituall Monarchy and renounced not onely all subjection to it but all communion with it and trusting of Papists upon their bare words and deceitfull professions against their known unsound tenets and doctrines rather then the Parliament and Protestant Subjects shall be beleeved upon their solemne Vow and Covenant for the preservation and defence of His Majesties person and Authority And lastly imploying of known and profest Reeusants trusting them with Arms and Authority without any caution or consideration how they may be disarmed again rather then that the Parliament shall be suffered to dispose of the Militia of the Kingdom for the safety and security thereof for some limited time are all clear and manifest proofs what their power and prevalence with the King is And do all conclude that an Arbitrary power and unlimited Prerogative pretending for the King having been made use of and exercised by them yet was never intended for the King nor for the improving nor advancing of the Kings Prerogative but onely to make use of it for erecting and setting up of an Independent Authority in the Church to Ecclesiasticall persons and by means thereof to introduce the Popes Supremacy as the chief and ultimate end of their designe And that His Majestie hath been grosly abused and craftily over-reached by disguised Impostors and deceitfull parasites pretending one thing when intending the contrary Whereof amongst other things my Lord of Canterbury his equivocall expressions at the houre of his death giveth some light at what time being desirous to justifie himself publickly to the world of his endeavours for changing the Religion he expresseth himself of endeavouring onely to change the Protestant Religion to Popish superstition as if there had been no other danger from Popery but of introducing of grosse and absurd Superstition to many of which imbraced by them and set up by Papall Authority it may be granted him and beleeved that he was no reall friend but might condemne them in his own opinion and judgement when notwithstanding it was certain and clear that he not onely befriended but courted and ambitiously coveted that honour and authority which did establish that superstition and which must of necessitie still produce some superstition or other in the worship of God and hath now sufficiently discovered it self to endeavour continually to introduce Superstition and Ignorance as the principall means to induce men by a blind devotion to submit to an implicit obedience of what shall be required of them and imposed upon them But that was passed over by him as a thing wherein he was not concerned yet his practises tending thither was the chief thing concerning Religion whereof he was accused and for which he was condemned and possibly he might be deceived himself by the fallacy of deceitfull grounds and false principles the consequences whereof might not appear so clearly to himself as to others which might be the cause why he did endeavour to justifie himself of his intentions onely when the charge against him was for his practises and actions chiefly which he acknowledged to have been proved against him by acquitting his Judges as having proceeded secundum allegata probata For he might flatter himself with an opinion of good intentions thinking all was necessarie and good which he went about but thinking so he did but deceive himself as well as others which is the best charity that can be allowed him by the most charitable Christians that are not misled by the same principles and grounds that did deceive him and the most favourable construction that can be made of him is that albeit he was a great Doctor and Statesman also yet was he to learn the true principles of the Christian Religion when he went out of the world and that his principles of government were no better then his principles of Religion By the result of all which two things are demonstrated and declared The first is that they who do beleeve and are of opinion that they are the onely assertors and defenders of the Kings Prerogative and of the Regall power by fighting against the Parliament for the maintaining and defending of all that is established and approved by the King in this difference between King and Parliament do but contribute their help and assistance for the undermining and destroying of the Regall power and of the Kings just Prerogative The second is that the King is not resisted because his will is opposed by his Parliament which is the Kings great Councell and the representative body of his Kingdom and the reason of both is because by the constitution and frame of this Government Kings of this Kingdom may never give away their rights and that power and authority which they themselves have over the Subjects nor transferre the same upon any other without the generall consent of the Subjects which can never be obtained but by their representative Body assembled in Parliament And the obtaining of His Majesties will in this would be of more dangerous consequence to himself and to the Regall Authority then ever yet appeared to himself or can ever appear so long as he is separated and divided from his great Councell where by a free debate of all consequences and by a clear discovery of all sinister ends and fraudulent practises the truth of all can onely appear and without whom His Majestie can determine nothing by himself nor by his own judgement therein The question being of exposing himself his Successors all his Subjects and their posterity to a bondage and subjection under a heavie yoke and forraigne Head usurping a spirituall Authority and claiming homage and universall obedience thereunto by Divine right as being Christs Vicar generall and the supreme Head of the Church upon earth And the consequences of which being that the acknowledgement of this claime and a generall beleef thereof onely doth necessarily subject all other power and Authority unto it by reason that the faculties of the soul upon which this spirituall authority hath the chiefest influence and operation do easily subject and subdue all the powers of the body And it is now experimentally known that men being once subdued to the apprehension and beleef of this spirituall Authority by their intellectuals and rationall parts chiefly they are kept in obedience as to their duty by their sensitive parts and by all manner of forcible means which makes it a reall power and authority that before was onely imaginary and by means thereof becomes a power superior to all humane power and cannot be contradicted nor controlled by no power nor authority that is in man and can neither be limited