generall national provinciall were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments Emperours and Princes by whose authority those Synods were called have still given their power to the ratification and execution of them and none others and if you please to look into the times within the ken of memory or somewhat beyond it Linwoods Constitutions what Parliaments confirmed The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth the Canons of King James were never tendred to the Parliament for confirmation and yet have so far obtained hitherto that the government of the Church was by them still regulated compare I beseech you those of K. James with the present your Lordships shall find them many peremptory resolute standing upon their own grounds in points much harder of digestion then these which are but few and only seconds to former constitutions if therefore in this we have erred surely the whole Christian Church of all places and times hath erred with us either therefore we shall have too good company in the censure or else we shall be excused Fourthly give me leave to urge the authority of these Canons in which regard if I might without offence speak it I might say that the complainants have not under correction laid a right ground of their accusation They say we have made Canons and Constitutions alas my Lords we have made none We neither did nor could make Canons more then they can make laws The Canons are so to the Church as laws are for the Common-wealth now they do but rogare legem they do not ferre or sancire legem that is only for the King to do it is le Roy le Veult that of bills makes laws so was it for us to do in matter of Canons we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might be usefull but when we have done we send them to his Majesty who perusing them cum avisamento Consilii sui and approving them puts life into them and of dead propositions makes them Canons as therefore the laws are the Kings laws and not ours so are the Canons the Kings Canons and not the Clergies Think thus of them and then draw what conclusions you please As for that pecuniary business of our contribution wherein we are said to have trenched upon the liberty of subjects and propriety of goods I beseech your Lordships do but see the difference of times we had a precedent for it The same thing was done in Qu. Elizabeths time in a mulct of 3 s. the pound and that after the end of the Parliament with the same clauses of Suspension Sequestration Deprivation without noise of any exception which now is cryed down for an unheard of incroachment how legall it may be I dispute not and did then make bold to move but let the guide of that example and the zeal that we had to the supply of his Majesties necessities excuse us a tanto at least if having given these as subsidies sitting the Parliament and the bill being drawn up for the confirmation of the Parliament we now upon the unhappy dissolution of it as loath to retract so necessary a graunt we were willing to have it continued to his Majesties use But my Lords if I may have leave to speak my own thoughts I shall freely say that whereas there are three general concernments both of persons and causes merely Ecclesiastical merely Temporal or mixt of both Ecclesiastical and temporall as it is fit the Church by her Synode should take cognizance of and order for the first whcih is merely Ecclesiastical so next under his Majesty the Parliament should have the power of ordering the other but in the mean time my Lords where are we The Canons of the Church both late and former are pronounced to be void and forceless the Church is a garden or vineyard inclosed the laws and constitutions of it are as the wall or hedg if these be cast open in what State are we shall the enemies of this Church have such an advantage of us as to say we are a lawless Church or shall all Men be left loose to their licentious freedom God in Heaven forbid Hitherto we have been quietly and happily governed by those former Canons the extent whereof we have not I hope and for some of us I am confident we have not exceeded why should we not be so still Let these late Canons sleep since you will have it so till we awake them which shall not be till Dooms-day and let us be where we were and regulate our selves by those constitutions which were quietly submitted to on all hands and for this which is past since that which we did was out of our true obedience and with honest and godly intentions and according to the Universal practise of all Christian Churches and with the full power of his Majesties authority let it not be imputed to us as any way worthy of your Lordships censure A SPEECH in PARLIAMENT Concerning the power of BISHOPS IN SECULAR THINGS MY Lords this is the strangest bill that ever I heard since I was admitted to sit under this roof for it strikes at the very fabrick and composition of this house at the style of all lawes and therefore were it not that it comes from such a recommendation it would not I suppose undergo any long consideration but coming to us from such hands It cannot but be worthy of your best thoughts and truly for the main scope of the bill I shall yield it most willingly that Ecclesiastical and sacred persons should not ordinarily be taken up with secular affairs The Minister is called Vir Dei a Man of God he may not be Vir Seculi he may lend himself to them upon occasion he may not give himself over purposely to them Shortly he may not so attend worldly things as that he do neglect divine things This we gladly yield matters of justice therefore are not proper as in an ordinary trade for our function and by my consent shall be as in generally waved and deserted which for my part I never have medled with but in a charitable way with no profit but some charge to my self whereof I shall be glad to be eased Tractent fabrilia fabri as the old word is But if any man shall hence think to infer that some spiritual person may not occasionally be in a special service of his King or Countrey when he is so required by his Prince give his advice in the urgent affairs of the Kingdome which I suppose is the main point driven at is such an inconsequence as I dare boldly say cannot be made good either by divinity or reason by the lawes either of God or man whereas the contrary may be proved and inforced by both As for the grounds of this bill that the Ministers duty is so great that it is able to take up the whole man and the Apostle saith 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things and that he who
but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on the one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguisht the enemies of it into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of the Burroughs The one whereof goes about to root up the very foundation of Religion the other to crop the branches and blossomes and clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and blesse God for it and beseech him to prosper it in those hands that shall undertake and prosecute it but for the other give me leave to say I do not finde many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer then fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been too credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Feltmakers and such like trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and to defye and revile her government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours From hence that inundation of base and scurrilous libels and pamphlets wherewith we have been of late overborne in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you that you will be sensible of this great indignity Do but look upon these reverend persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting upon these benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down in writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offred to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that truth of God which they have taught and written and shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose but alas this is but one of those many scandalous aspersions and intolerable affronts that are daily cast upon us Now whither should we in this case have recourse for a needful and seasonable redresse The arme of the Church is alas now short and sinewless it is the interposing of your authority that must rescue us You are the Eldest sons of your dear Mother the Church and therefore most fit most able to vindicate her wrongs you are amici Sponsae give me leave therefore in the bowels of Christ humbly to beseech your Lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woful and dangerous conditions of the times And if the government of the Church of England be unlawful and unfit abandon and disclaim it but if otherwise uphold and maintain it Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffred to gather head who knowes where they will end My Lords if these men may with impunity and freedom thus bear down Ecclesiastical authority it is to be feared they will not rest there but will be ready to affront civil power too Your Lordships know that the Jack Straws and Cades and Watt Tylers of former times did not more cry down Learning then Nobility and those of your Lordships that have read the history of the Anabaptistical tumults at Munster will need no other Item let it be enough to say that many of these Sectaries are of the same profession Shortly therefore let me humbly move your Lordships to take these dangers and miseries of this poor Church deeply to heart and upon this occasion to give order for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolencies and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives wherewith we are thus impetuously overflown Which in all due submission I humbly present to your Lordships wise and religious consideration A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT In Defence of the CANONS MADE IN CONVOCATION My Lords I cannot choose but know that whosoever rises up in this cause must speak with the disadvantage of much prejudice and therefore I do humbly crave your Lordships best construction were it my Lords that some few doubting persons were to be satisfied in some scruples about matter of the Canons there might have been some life in the hope of prevailing but now that we are borne down with such a torrent of generall and resolute contradiction we yield but yet give us leave I beseech you so to yield that posterity may not say we have willingly betraid our own innocence First therefore let us plead to your Lordships and the World that to abate the edge of that illegality which is objected to us it was our obedience that both assembled and kept us together for the making of Synodicall acts We had the great Seal of England for it seconded by the judgments of the oracles of law and justice and upon these the command of our superiour to whom we have sworn and owe canonical obedience Now in this case what should we do Was it for us to judg of the great seal of England or to judg of our Judges alas we are not for the law but for the Gospell or to disobey that authority which was to be ever sacred to us I beseech your Lordships put your selves a while in to our condition had the case been yours what would you have done If we obey not we are rebels to authority if we obey we are censured for illegall procedures Where are we now my Lords It is an old rule of Casuists nemo tenetur esse perplexus Free us one way or other and shew us whether we must rather hazard censure or incurr disobedience In the next place give us leave to plead our good intentions since we must make new Canons I perswade my self we all came I am sure I can speak for one with honest and zealous desires to do God and his Church good service and expected to have received great thanks both of Church and Common-wealth for your Lordships see that the main drift of those Canons was to repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless discourses of some either ignorant or parasiticall I am sure offensive Preachers to suppress the growth of Socinianism Popery Separatism to redress some abuses of Ecclesiastical courts and officers In all which I dare say your Lordships do heartily concurr with them And if in the manner of expression there have been any failings I shall humbly beseech your Lordships that those may not be too much stood upon where the main substance is well meant and in it self profitable In the third place give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of the continuall practise of the Christian Church since the first Synod of the Apostles Act. 15. to this present day wherein I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiasticall Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods
were by them called for and taken from me neither was there any course at all taken for my maintenance I therefore addressed my self to the Committee sitting here at Norwich and desired them to give order for some means out of that large Patrimony of the Church to be allowed me They all thought it very just and there being present Sr. Tho. VVoodhouse and Sr. John Potts Parliament men it was moved and held fit by them and the rest that the Proportion which the Votes of the Paliament had pitcht upon viz. 400 l. per annum should be allowed to me My Lord of Manchester who was then conceived to have great power in matter of these Sequestrations was moved herewith He apprehended it very just and reasonable and wrote to the Committee here to set out so many of the Mannors belonging to this Bishoprick as should amount to the said summe of 400 l. annually which was answerably done under the hands of the whole Table And now I well hoped I should yet have a good Competency of maintenance out of that plentifull Estate which I might have had But those hopes were no sooner conceived then dasht for before I could gather up one Quarters Rent there comes down an Order from the Committee for Sequestrations above under the hand of Sergeant Wild the Chair-man procured by Mr. Miles Corbet to inhibit any such allowance and telling our Committee here that neither They nor any other had Power to allow me any thing at all But if my Wife found her self to need a Maintenance upon her Sute to the Committee of Lords and Commons it might be granted that She should have a fifth part according to the Ordinance allowed for the sustentation of her self and her Family Hereupon she sends a Petition up to that Committee which after a long delay was admitted to be read and an Order granted for the fifth part But still the Rents and Revinues both of my Spirituall and Temporall Lands were taken up by the Sequestrators both in Norfolke and Suffolke and Essex and we kept off from either allowance or accompt At last upon much pressing Beadle the Solicitor and Rust the Collector brought in an Account to the Committee such as it was but so Confused and Perplexed and so utterly unperfect that we could never come to know what a fifth part meant But they were content that I should eat my books by setting off the Sum engaged for them out of the fifth part Mean time the Synodalls both in Norfolke and Suffolke and all the Spirituall profits of the Diocess were also kept back only Ordinations and Institutions continued a while But after the Covenant was appointed to be taken and was generally swallowed of both Clergy and Layety my power of ordination was with some strange violence restrained For when I was going on in my wonted course which no Law or Ordinance had inhibited certain forward Voluntiers in the Citty banding together stir up the Mayor and Aldermen and Sheriffs to call me to an account for an open violation of their Covenant To this purpose divers of them came to my Gates at a very unseasonable time and knocking very vehemently required to speak with the Bishop Messages were sent to them to know their business nothing would satisfie them but the Bishops presence at last I came down to them and demanded what the matter was they would have the gate opened then they would tell me I answered that I would know them better first If they had any thing to say to me I was ready to hear them they told me they had a writing to me from Mr. Mayor some other of their Magistrates the paper contained both a challenge of me for breaking the Covenant in ordaining Ministers and withal required me to give in the Names of those which were ordained by me both then and formerly since the Covenant My answer was that Mr. Mayor was much abused by those who had misinform'd him drawn that paper from him that I would the next day give a ful answer to the writing they moved that my answer might be by my personal appearance at the Guild-hall I askt them when they ever heard of a Bishop of Norwich appearing before a Mayor I knew mine own place would take that way of answer which I thought sit and so dismissed them who had given out that day that had they known before of mine ordaining they would have pull'd me those whom I ordained out of the Chappell by the Ears VVhiles I received nothing yet something was required of me they were not ashamed after they had taken away and sold all my Goods and personall estate to come to me for assesments and monethly payments for that estate which they had taken and took Distresses from me upon my most just denyall and vehemently required me to finde the wonted Armes of my Predecessors when they had left me nothing Many insolencies and affronts were in all this time put upon us One while a whole rabble of Voluntiers come to my Gates late when they were locked up and called for the porter to give them entrance which being not yielded they threatned to make by force and had not the said gates been very strong they had done it Others of them clambred over the walls and would come into mine house their errand they said was to search for Delinquents what they would have done I know not had not we by a secret way sent to raise the Officers for our Rescue Another while the Sheriff Toftes and Alderman Linsey attended with many Zealous followers came into my Chappell to look for Superstitious Pictures and Reliques of Idolatry and send for me to let me know they found those VVindowes full of Images which were very offensive and must be demolished I told them they were the Pictures of some antient and worthy Bishops as St. Ambrose Austin c. It was answered me that they were so many Popes and one younger man amongst the rest Townsend as I perceived afterwards would take upon him to defend that every Diocesan Bishop was Pope I answered him with some scorn and obtained leave that I might with the least loss and defacing of the windows give order for taking off that offence which I did by causing the heads of those Pictures to be taken off since I knew the Bodies could not offend There was not that care and moderation used in reforming the Cathedrall Church bordering upon my Palace It is no other then Tragical to relate the carriage of that furious Sacrilidge whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses under the Authority and presence of Linsey Tofts the Sheriffe and Greenwood Lord what work was here what clattering of Glasses what beating down of VValls what tearing up of Monuments what pulling down of Seates what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windowes and Graves what defacing of Armes what demolishing of curious Stone-work that had not any representation in the VVorld
only hold it fit out of our obedience to the lawes both of our church and kingdome to continue a joyful celebration of a memorial day to the honour of our blessed Saviour But that other authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose I confesse doth not a little amaze me it was you say of King James our learned Soveraigne of late and blessed Memory whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people not without the just applause of a Solomon-like wisdome as crying down these festivals and in a certain speech of his applauding the purity of the church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection c. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wise and good King in such a cause whom all the world knowes to have been as zealous a patron of those festivals as any lived upon earth and if he did let fall any such speech before he had any Downe upon his chin whilst he was under the serule what candor is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience and ripest judgment Nay is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journy into his native Kingdome of Scotland to reduce that church unto a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these solemn dayes One of the five Articles of Perth and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth and wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain Doctor Young Dean of Winchester to recall and re-establish these festivalls And accordingly in pursuance of his Majesties earnest desire this way was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said feasts should be duely kept Doubtlesse it was and that not without much wise care and holy caution which act because it cannot be had every where and is well worthy of your notice and that which clears the point in hand I have thought good here to insert the tenor of it therefore is this As we abhorr the superstitious observation of Festival dayes by the Papists and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular dayes and times by the whole church of the World and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordaines that every Minister shall upon these dayes have the commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent texts of Scripture and frame their doctrine and exhortation there to and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious profanation thereof I could if it were needful give you other proofes of King James his zeal for these dayes but what should I spend time in proving there is a sun in the Heaven and sight in that Sun The name of that great King suffereth for his excesse this way Shortly then the Church of God his anointed law antiquity reason are for us in this point and I doubt not but you will gladly be on their side away with all innovations and frivolous quarrels we were divided enough before and little needed any new rents The God of peace quiet all these distempers and unite our hearts one to another and all to himself Farwell in the Lord. TO My Reverend and worthily Dear Friend M r. WILLIAM STRUTHERS One of the Preachers of EDINBOURGH THe hast of your Letters my reverend and worthy Mr. Struthers was not so great as their welcome which they might well challenge for your name but more for that love and confidence which they imported thus must our Friendship be fed that it may neither feel death nor age The substance of your Letter was partly Relation and partly Request For the first Rumour had in part prevented you and brought to my ears those Stirs which happened after my departure and namely together with that impetuous Protestation some rude deportment of ill-governed Spirits towards his Majesty Alas my dear Brother this is not an usage for Kings they are the nurses of the Church if the child shall fall to scratching and biting the brest what can it expect but stripes and hunger your Letter professes that his Majesty sent you away in peace and joy and why would any of those rough-hewn Zelots send him away in discontentment But this was I know much against your heart whose often protestations assured me of your wise moderation in these things How earnestly have you professed to me that if you were in the Church of England such was your indifferency in these indifferent matters you would make no scruple of your ceremonies yea how sharp hath your censure been of those refractaries amongst us that would forgo their stations rather then yield to these harmeless impositions So much the more therefore do I marvell how any delator could get any ground from you whereon to place an accusation in this kind But this and the rest of those historicall passages being only concerning things past have their end in my notice Let me rather turn my pen to that part which calleth for my advise which for your sake I could well wish were worthy to be held such as that your self and your collegues might find cause to rest in it howsoever it shall be honest and hearty and no other then I would in the presence of God give to my own soul Matters you think will not stand long at this point but will come on further and press you to a resolution What is to be done will you hear me counselling as a friend as a Brother Since you foresee this meet them in the way with a resolution to intertain them and perswade others There are five points in question The solemn festivities The private use of either Sacrament Geniculation at the Eucharist Confirmation by Bishops For these there may be a double Plea insinuated by way of comparison in your Letters Expedience in the things themselves Authority in the commander some things are therefore to be done because they are commanded some others are therefore commanded because they are to be done obedience pleads for the one justice for the other If I shall leave these in the first rank I shall satisfie but if in the second I shall supererogate which if I do not I shall fail of my hopes Let me profess to you seriously I did never so busily and intentively study these rituall matters as I have done since your Letters called me unto this task Since which time I speak boldly I made no spare either of hours or papers Neque enim magna exiliter nec seria perfunctorie as I have learned of our Nazianzen and besides this under one name seemed a common cause and
therefore too worthy of my care These are not you know matters of a day old neither is it his Majesties desire to trouble you with new coynes but to rub up the rusty and obliterate face of the ancient And surely the more my thoughts were bent upon them the more it appeared to me that his Majesties intention is to deal with your Church as he hath lately done with your Universities From which I know not what indiscreet and idle zeal had banished all higher degrees the name of a School-Doctor was grown out of date only one Graduate that I heard of at St. Andrews out-lived that injury of times Now comes his Majesty as one born to the honor of learning and restores the Schooles to their former glories This is no innovation you will grant but a renovation No other is that which his Majesty wisheth to your Church For tell me I beseech you my dear Mr. Struther do not you think that those which took upon them the reformation of your Church went somewhat too far And as it is in the fable inwrapped the Stork together with the Cranes I know your ingenuity such as you cannot deny it This you will grant apparently in the Church-patrimony witness your own learned and zealous invective how miserably spoyled in the exauthoration of Episcopal office and dignity in the demolition of Churches and too many other of this stamp so violent was that holy furor of piety that hence it might well appear what difference there is betwixt the orderly proceedings of princely authority and popular tumult And why should you not yield me this in the business questioned Do but consider how farr it is safe for a particular Church to depart from the antient and universal and you cannot be less liberal Surely no Christian can think it a sleight matter what the church diffused through all times and places hath either done or taught For doctrine or manners there is no question and why should it be more safe to leave it in the holy institutions that concerne the outward formes of Gods service Novelty is a thing full of envy and suspicion and why less in matters of rite then doctrine The Church is the mother of us all the less important those things are which in the power of a parent she injoynes the more hateful is the detrectation of our observance you remember the question of the Syrians wise Servant Father if he had commanded thee some great matter wouldst thou not have done it True it is that every Nation hath her own rites gestures customes wherein it was ever as free for it to differ from the rest of the World as the world from it yet in the mean time the sacred affaires of God have been ever acknowledged to have one common fashion of performance in those points especially wherein hath been an universal agreement every face hath his own favour his own lines distinct from all others yet is there a certain common habitude of countenance and disposition of the forhead eyes cheeks lips common unto all so as who under this pretense of difference shall go about to raise an immunity from such ceremonies do no other then argue That because there is a diversity of proportions of faces we may well want a brow or a chin There is nothing that the pontificians do so commonly and with so much noise upbraid us with as our discession from the mother church that is as they interpret the Roman neither is there any one amongst all the loads of their reproaches that hath wrought us more envy then this And how do we free our selves from the danger of this odious crimination but thus not to stand upon the imperious title of motherhood That since for order sake we acknowledged this primacy of the Western Church we never departed one inch from the Roman save where she is perfidiously gone from God and her self Now the cases questioned are for the most part only such as you will confess before the suspicion of Antichristian Apostasy to have obtained each where in the church Begin if you please with the solemn festivities turne over I beseech you the histories of times and places you shall never finde where these were either newly appointed or not constantly and continuedly observed in the church of God I confess with Socrates that neither Christ nor any Apostle enacted a law for these but withall I must put you in mind that what he denies to constitution he grants to custome and observatio inveterata that I may speak with Tertullian praeveniendo statum facit As for the solemn feast of Easter which the Ancyran counsel called Diem magnum how hotly the Church even then in her swathing bands contended about it all the World knowes I speak nothing of the friendly differences of Policarpus and Anacletus nor of the Angel of Hermes The East and West were in this point fearfully divided one part pleads a tradition from John and Philip the other from Peter and Paul both sides fought long and sore at last the Roman Victor won the day postquam Asiae Episcopos fulmine sacro perculisset Let Irenaeus deeply censure him as a furious disturber of the publick peace I meddle with neither part This strife at last well laid is after revived by the Syrian Divines How strongly doth the famous Nicene Council oppose it self to these now Tesseradecatites as those times called them yea what other cause was there except the madnesses of Arrius and his followers the Meletians and Colluthians of calling that venerable assembly together after all this what discourses passed betwixt Leo the first Archbishop of Reme and Paschasinus Lylibetanus were needless to rehearse and how hot Chrysostome was in this cause need no other proof then that as Socrates witnesses he took away the Churches from them which tyed Easter to the fourteenth Moon Now then wherefore I beseech you was all this Asian conflict wherefore this triumph of Victor wherefore this infamous brand of the Quartadecimani Wherefore were those paschal Letters of the antient or golden number or the calculations of the Bishops of Alexandria or the curious determinations of the Nicene fathers or the nice reckonings of Leo and Paschasinus if this might have passed for lawfull with one breath to deny the day and with one dash to blot it out of the holy Calender certainly the antients knew not how to be thus witty neither durst they thus boldly cut that knot in the untying whereof perhaps they overspent their care and diligence O ridiculous head of antiquity if this short course might have been safely held in those former ages Yea tell me I pray you in all your readings where ever you met with any man besides those whom the Church hath held worthy the black marke of heresy who either denied all observations of this solemnity or approved the refusal of it by others I can name you Aerius a man blemished with more then the scars of one heresy And
uncertainty still by the tradition of the Jewes either the Synagogue or the chamber is indifferently allowed to this act And why should the Sacrament of the new law be so affixed to our Churches that not necessity it self should be able to fetch these wholsom remedies home to our houses sure I am the fathers of the ancient Church were of another mind who before the fancy of opus operatum was hatched conceived such necessity of the Sacraments that Cyprian can tell you of Clinici as well as Peripateitci that others in case of extremity would have no difference made of land or water house or way bed or pavement And how is it that our liberty hath made us more strict or our straightness hath made us more free more strict for the place more free for the conceit of necessity But if privacy be so opposite to the nature of a Sacrament why may it not be avoided even in a parlour for in such a case the Church removes thither the walls you think conferr nothing the people are by the order of the Church commanded to assemble in a due frequence to the honor of either sacrament so as now I see not other difference but this Those which in the case of some private fast can be content for their preaching to change the Church into a chamber in the case of baptisme make dainty to change a chamber into a Church For geniculation in the Eucharist I am deceived if ever ceremony could complain of a more unjust displeasure or plead better desert For the Antiquity of it those that fetch it from Honorius are ill heralds They might know that Averroes an age before him could say in a misprision of the gesture Christiani adorant quod edunt and the best of the Fathers many ages before him Nemo manducat nisi prius adoraverit For the expedience what business can pass betwixt Heaven and Earth God and Man so worthy of reverence as that wherein Man receives God even the smallest gifts we receive from Princes upon our knees and now when the Prince of our peace gives himself to us shall we grudg to bow I know the old challenge Artolatry But shall others superstition make us unreverent Shall not God have our knees because Idols have had the knees of others But what do I press this to you who professed to me if I remember well your approbation hereof in our English Congregations The Sacrament is every where the same Nothing but want of use hath bred a conceit of uncouthness in that which custom would approve and commend As for confirmation by Bishops I need to say little because it little concerns you as an action appropriate to superiors neither I think do you envy it to them That the ceremony it selt is both of ancient and excellent use I know you will not deny for the one Melancton gives it the praise of Utilis ad erudiendos homines retinendos in vera agnitione Dei For the other Zuinglius can assure you Confirmationem tum fumpsisse exordium eum vulgo caeptum est infantes tingi In regard of both reverend Calvin wisheth it again restored to the Church with no small fervency all the doubt is in the restriction to Bishops wherein I will only send you to learned Bucer signum impositionis manuum etiam soli episcopi praebebant non absque ratione sive enim sit foedus Domini baptizatis confirmandum sive reconciliandi qui gravius peccaverunt sive ecclesiis ministri ordinandi haec omnia ministeria maxime decent eos quibus ecclesiarum cura demandata est This as it was done only at first by the Apostles in the case of the Samaritans so from them was by the Church derived to the Bishops as Chrysostom directs praepositis suis as Cyprian and Austin speak But what need I cite Fathers or counsels for that which worthy Calvin himself both confesses and teaches Certainly nothing but continuance and abuse hath distasted these things which if time had been their friend never wanted that which might procure them grace and respect from the World For their own sakes therefore I need not doubt to say that all these are worthy of your good intertainment much more then when they come to you with the billets of authority in their hands were they but things in the lowest ranke of indifferency the power that commands them might challenge their welcom how much more then when they have an intrinsecall worthiness to speak for them Your Letter hath well insinuated what the power of Princes is in things of middle natures whereof your Apostles rule will eternally hold not for fear but for conscience Indeed wherein is the power of royall authority if not in these things Good and evill have their set limits determined by God himself only indifferent things have a latitude allowed for the exercise of humane commands which if it might be resisted at pleasure what could follow but an utter confusion of all things This ground as it hath found just place in your own brest so were very fit to be laid by all your publick discourses in the minds of the people as that which would not a little rectifie them both in judgment and practise There is no good heart whom it would not deeply wound to hear of the least danger of the dissipation of your Church God in Heaven forbid any such mischief our prayers shall be ever for your safety but if any inconvenience should on your parts follow upon the lawfull act of authority see ye how ye can wash your hands from the guiltinesse of this evill This is I hope but your fear Love is in this sence full of suspicions and commnoly projects the worst It is Nazianzens advise Dum secundo vento navigas naufragium time tutior eris a naufragio adjutorem tibi ac sociâ—m adjungens timorem Farr farr is it from the heart of our Gratious Soveraign who holds it his chief glory to be amicus sponsae to intend ought that might be prejudiciall to your Church If his late journey his laboursome conferences his toylsome indeavours his beneficiall designes have not evinced his love to you what can do it And can any of yours think that this affection can stand with a will to hurt you I know nothing if I may except his own soul that he loves better then your Church and State and if he did not think this a fruit of his love he would be silent what shall he gain by this but that advantage which he promiseth to himself of your good in your assimilation to other churches a matter wherein I need not tell you there is both honour and strength The mention whereof drawes me towards the closure of my long letter whether to an Apology or interpretation of my self belike some captious hearers took hold of words spoken in some Sermon of mine that sounded of too much indifferency in these businesses ubi bos herbam vipera venenum
as he said as if I had opened a gap to a lawless freedom in teaching that no church should prescribe to other that each should sit peaceably down with her own fashions but did I say you that heard can clear me that one Church should not be moved with the good example of other that there are not certain sacred observations which should be common to all churches that though one Church might not prescribe to other because they are sisters one King may not prescribe to two Churches whereof he is head None of these which I hate as monstrous examples may move authority may presse the use of things indifferent expedient and it is odious to seem more holy then all others or to seem more wise then our heads You have my opinon at large my loving and beloved Mr. Struther how pleasing it may be I know not how well meant I know if your letter were an history my answer is proved a volume My love and desire of your satisfaction hath made me against my use tedious How well were every word bestowed if it might settle you where I would howsoever my true indeavour looks for your acceptation and my affections and prayers shall ever answer yours who am Your unfeignedly loving friend and Fellow-Labourer Jos Hall Waltham Abby Octob. 3. Returne my thanks and kinde remembrance to those worthy Gentlemen from whom you sent me commendations and to your Wife and all our Friends Clarissimo viro D. Baltasari Willio S. Theol. D. ET In Bremensi Ecclesia Professori Celeberrimo Gratiam ac Pacem SI quam mihi misisti schedulam censores tui perlegissent frater admodum reverende non opus fuisset ut ego judicium hoc meum qualecunque interponerem facile profecto illi siquis pudor quam tibi temere objectarunt calumniam ultro revocassent Tanto enim cum candore animi tamque irrefragrabilibus indiciis te ab illis sive criminationibus seu vero impaectae haereseos suspicionibus quibuscunque in hisce chartis Liberasti ut post hujusmodi Apologiam ipsa non habeat invidia quod tibi deinceps objicere possit ede literas tuas responso meo parces quandoquidem tamen meam de quibusdam commentariorum tuorum locis sententiam ita ardenter desideras non possum non tibi in re tantilla satisfacere Hoc vero inprimis ora obturet cavillantium quod ejusmodi elegeris operis tui patronos alios profecto quaesivisses si in Arminii nedum Socini castra transfugere voluisses Non D. Poliandrum Walaeum Thysium Triglandum sidera pridem in Dordraceno caelo conspicua quorum insuper censuris ista tua tam modeste subjeceris aut probanda aut si foret opus corrigenda Loca quae offendiculo fuisse ais examinavi sedulo nihil prorsus est in prima praefatione tua quod vel obtorto collo trahi possit ad heterodoxam aliquam gratiae divinae universalitatem stabiliendam sed illa in Zachar. 4. ejusdem omnino census nihil habent errori alicui affine Ostendunt tantum manifestum gratiae divinae succedentibus seculis erga Ecclesiam suam in Lunimis salvifici expansione one ampliore clarioreque specimen incrementum quo quid verâ—us cogitari potest Conquirunt profecto fingunt istic errores malevoâ—â— non inveniunt Absolutam praedestinationem negat praefatio posterior sed eo lensu quo clarissimus collega tuus D. Lud. Crotius Syntagmatis pag. 978. non sine respectu ad ipsam decreti executionem decreti inquis electionis sundamentum Christus est conditio salvandis implenda fides salvandis dixisti implenda non in eligendis praevisa praerâ—quisita quis sanus aliter dixerit Quae de reprobatione definiisti non alia sunt quam quae a Theologis Dordracenis ex professo tradita sunt Nec enim aliud est Deum ex absoluta voluntate neminem excludere a gratia aeterno exitio destinare quam Deum neminem absque intuitu peccati damnare voluisse culpam ergo reprobationis in mortalium pertinacia incredulitate haerere tutissime verissimeque determinasti Analysin quod spectat loci illius celeberrimi ad Rom. 9. norunt Dordraceni omnes me non monuisse modo sed pro concione publica obnixe etiam efflagitasse ut ad hoc ipsum examen tota de praedestinatione controversia revocaretur ab utraque authorum Litigantium parte tentatum est hoc palam subque praelo non uno quo autem successu silere mavelim Certe dum alii rigidiorem sectantur viam in absolutam Dei potestatem voluntatemque absque ulla ratione peccati rejicientes plurimorum perditionem alii libertatis humanae Parasiti ita sui juris faciunt homines ac si nulli omnino decreto subjicerentur utrinque satis periculose peccatur deseritur medium tenens veritas quae tamena moderatis quibusque ingeniis officiose colitur Quod tu dum facis tuto profitere te Synodi Orthodoxae Dordracenae Theologis nullatenus adversari quoties enim quamque rotunde celeberrimi illi doctores professi sunt Deum neminem damnare aut damnationi destinare nisi ex consideratione peccati ut Britanni nostri Artic. 1. Thes 5. Sed fratres Hassiercos multis hoc argumentis comprobasse palam est Nec qui Theologorum omnium accuratius expressiusve istud docuerunt quam Bremenses vestri nec abludit ipsa Synodi vox quae reprobationem ipsam definiens praeteritos eos esse ait quos ex liberrimo justissimo irreprehensibili immutabili beneplacito in communi miseria in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt praeteritionem de relectionemque Synodi verba agnoscimus ac deinde aeternae propter suam infidelitatem alia peccata punitionis decretum quis sanus inficietur Distinctionem illam inter negativam reprobationem sive non electionem positivam sive praeparationem poenae eorum qui in statu corruptionis relicti judicium sibi meritissimum accersunt quis non libenter agnoscat Resistere nos nimis saepe Gratiae divinae ad conversionem nostram nos importune satis invitanti urgentique quis negit Modo concedatur illud esse quandam peculiarem gratiam sive per Dei sapientiam sive per ejus potentiam administratam cui homo qui per eam vocatur non resistit quae a nullo duro corde respuitur quod tu cum Theologis Leydensibus ut illi cum S. Augustino rectissime asseruisti Sed quid ego telam tuam retexo Oculatus oportet adversarius sit qui in hisce novem de Reprobratione sectionibus quicquam invenerit quod veritati divinae sanctaeque charitati non sit omni modo consentaneum Mitior Paulo fortasse videri potest illa quae de sacrae caenae privata administratione moveri Lis solet quae tamen etiam Ecclesiis nostris nescio quas turbas fecerit Hic scilicet unus est ex
taxation of observing dayes and times any one that hath but halfe an eye may see that it hath respect to those Judaicall holy-dayes which were part of the ceremonial law now long since out of date as being of typical signification and shadowes of things to come Should we therefore go about to revive those Jewish feasts or did we erect any new day to an essentiall part of the worship of God or place holiness in it as such we should justly incurr that blame which the Apostle casts upon the Galatian and Colossian false-teachers But to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemnity which is merely commemorative of a blessing received without any prefiguration of things to come without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day is no other then an injurious violence Upon all this which hath been said and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alledged to the contrary I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not with all godly cherefulness observe this which that holy father styled the metropolis of all feasts To which I add that those which by their example and doctrine sleight this day causing their people to dishonour it with their worst cloathes with shops open with servile works stand guilty before God of an high and sinful contempt of that lawâ—ul authority under which they live for as much as by the statutes of our land made by the full concurrence of King and state this day is commanded to be kept holy by all English subjects and this power is backed by the charge of God submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake If now after all this I should let my pen loose to the suffragant testimonies whether of antiquity or of modern divines and reformed churches I should trye your patience and instead of a letter send you a volume Let it suffice that ever since the second hundred year after Christ this feast hath without contradiction obtained in the church of God and hath received many noble Elogies and passionate inforcements from the learned and holy Fathers of the church amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen is so remarkable that I may not omit it as that which sets forth the excesse of joyful respect wherewith the antient Christians were wont to keep this day In his oration upon the day of the Nativity of Christ Let us saith he celebrate this feast not in a panegyrical but divine not in a worldly but supersecular manner not regarding so much our selves or ours as the worship of Christ c. And how shall we effect this Not by crowning our doors with garlands nor by leading of dances nor adorning our streets not by feeding our eyes not by delighting our ears with songs not by effeminating our smel with perfumes not with humouring our tast with dainties not with pleasing our touch not with silken and costly clothes c. not with the sparkling of jewels not with the lustre of Gold not with the artifice of counterfeit colours c. let us leave these things to Pagans for their pomps c. But we who adore the word of the father if we think fit to affect delicacies let us feed our selves with the dainties of the law of God and with those discourses especially which are fitting for this present festival So that learned eloquent father to his auditors of Constantinople Whereto let me if you please have leave to add one or two practical instances One shall be of the good Emperour Theodosius lying now for eight moneths under the severe censure of Bishop Ambrose when the feast of the Nativity drew near what moan did that religious Prince make to his courtiers that he was by that reresolute Bishop shut out for his blood-guiltiness from partaking with the assembly in that holy service Histor Trâ—par 〈◊〉 â— c 3â— and what importunate means did he make for his admission had that gracious Emperour been of the diet of these new divines he would have sleighted that repulse and gladly taken this occasion of absence from that superstitious solemnity or had one of these grave monitors been at his elbow he might have saved that pious Prince the expense of many sighes and teares which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected devotion The other shall be an history of as much note as horrour Nicephor l. 7. c. 6. too clear a proof of the ancient celebration of this festivall It was under the Tyranny of Dioclesian his co-partner Maximinus that twenty thousand Christans which were met to celebrate the feast of this blessed Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia were made an Holocaust and burnt together with that goodly Fabrick to ashes on that day Lo so great a multitude as twenty thousand christians of all ages of both sexes had not thus met together in a time of so mortal a danger to celebrate this feast if the holy zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day which these novellers teach us to contemn Now let these bold men see of how contrary a disposition they are to these blessed Martyrs which as this day sent up their souls like to Manoahs Angel to heaven in those flames After thus much said I should be glad to know since reason there can be none what authority induces these gainsayers to oppose so antient and received a custome in the Church of God you tell me of a double testimony cited to this purpose the one of Socrates the Historian which I suppose is fetcht out of his 5th book of Ecclesiastical story chap. 21. where upon occasion of the feast of Easter he passeth his judgment upon the indifferent nature of all those ancient feasts which were of use in the primitive times shewing that the Apostles never meant to make any law for the keeping of festival dayes nor imposed any mulct upon the not keeping them but left men to the free observation thereof For answer whereunto I do not tell you that this author is wont to be impeached of Novatianisme and therefore may seem fit to yield patronage to such a client I rather say that take him at the worst he is no enemy to our opinion or practise we agree with him that the Apostles would have men free from the servitude of the Jewish observation of dayes that they enacted no law for set festivalls but left persons and places so to their liberty in these cases that none should impose a necessity upon other this were to be pressed upon a Victor Bishop of Rome who violently obtruded a day for the celebration of Easter upon all Churches supposing in the mean while an Easter universally kept of all christians though not on the same day this makes nothing against us who place no holiness in the very hours nor plead any Apostolical injunction for dayes nor tye any person or Church to our strict calender but