they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and
all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent
had ever been the fiction and excogitations of mens braines as some prophane and Atheisticall men thinke who suppose and say that Religion was by Policie invented to keepe men in awe then the Defendant saith that all men would willingly and without reluctation have embraced and received them given ever them admittance and free entertainment for the world ever loveth his owne Now it is notoriously knowne that no carnall men either love the Scriptures or regard them nay it hath beene alwayes the endeavour and the greatest plot and conspiracy of wicked and ungodly men and the adversaries of the truth either totally to extinguish them or to vilifie their authority as King James of renowned memory in his Apologie to all Christian Princes sufficiently declareth discovering therein the Popes double diligence in that businesse So that were there no other reason but this alone it were of conviction enough to prove the holy Scripture to be the Word of God because it so much opposeth impiety wickednesse cruelty unrighteous dealing errours and darknesse which carnall and sensuall men love more then light And whereas the Prelates with the Papists produce the authority of the Fathers for the maintaining of what they speake and in Court alledged that of Augustine Where he saith that he would not have beleeved the Scripture if the Church had not told him it was the Scripture The Defendant for his part is sorry to see such a profane Sympathie between the Prelates and Papists in these things who deale with true Christians as the Gibeonites dealt with the Israelites in the 9. of Iudges who pretended they were Ambassadours and tooke old sackes upon their asses and old tattered bottles and clouted shoes and ragged clothes and pretended they came from a far Countrey and so the Israelites not taking counsell of the Lord were cousened and deluded by them Even so the Papists and Prelates under pretence of the ancient Writers and with their old shoes mouldy bread of uncouth antiquity rob us of the truth and take away from us the bread and staffe of life by which we should safely and comfortably walk to heaven and happinesse and under the pretence of the Fathers and their authority they abuse and deceive the simple But in this cause Augustine is not very usefull unto them for his authority in this so weighty a matter is to rationall men of no great validity for the Defendant demands of any that hath but the grace of understanding that if Augustine would never have beleeved that there had beene a God without the Church had told him so must his infidelity make others Atheists also This will not be thought good reason amongst the learned for then one mans imperfections should be a rule for multitudes to go to hell and unbeliefe should be a vertue And yet it is not altogether denyed but that the perswasion and report of men may be a motive to stirre up men many times to the hearing and perusall of a thing which of it selfe doth not alwayes beget saith or but very little as dayly experience teacheth us but the thing it selfe seene or heard is that that worketh effecteth it and makes their faith so firme and stedfast that although the same parties should a thousand times after deny that to be so yet they to the death would persevere in that true beliefe As for example we see in the people of Samaria that were by the womans perswasion brought out to see Christ and in some small measure beleeved in him from her relation that he was the Messiah yet when then they had talked with him themselves they openly affirmed that then they beleeved not because the woman had told them but from more excellent reasons and grounds that they themselves had heard him And should the Samaritan woman a thousand times after that have denyed that he had beene the Messiah they would never have beene removed from their faith in Christ for all that The same may be said of Nathaniel in the first of John to whom Philip said That he had found him of whom Moses spake in the Law and the Prophets Jesus of Nazareth and Nathaniel said unto him Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip said Come and see Jesus saw Nathaniel comming unto him and saith to him Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile Nathaniel said unto him Whence knowest thou me Jesus answered and said unto him Before that Philip called thee when thou wert under the Fig-tree I saw thee Nathaniel answereth and saith unto him Rabbi Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And howsoever Philip here was an occasion of bringing Nathaniel to Christ yet the sight of Christ and his Miracles were the things onely that begat true faith in him and such a faith as all the Philips in the world could never after have removed him from it againe And so it was with Augustine perhaps that being a learned Infidell or little better a Manâ—â—nee through the perswasions of learned Christians he came to looke in the Word of God as all faith commeth by hearing but doth it therefore follow that that was onely the cause of his faith and perseverance in it or if the Church had not told him so these had beene no other meanes for him to come to the knowledge of the Scripture this doth not necessarily follow But were it granted that had not the Church told Augustine which was the Scripture and the Word of God that he had then never beleeved it to be the Word must this conclusion of necessity be gathered from thence That all men must be like Augustine in this or that the authoritie of men is greater and above the Scripture All these are poore and lame consequences and not beseeming the worthy Fathers of the Church in open Court to publish to the infinite dishonour of holy Scripture and advancing humane authoritie above it which indeed is meete blasphemy against the holy Word of God For would not every man accuse one of folly if another being a stranger and never seeing the King and meeting him in a journey with all his Nobles richly clad as it beseemeth noble Peeres so to be for the honour of their Master and the Majestie of his Court and in this company where there are so many brave personages and all so excellently apparelled and he not knowing which was the King should aske some of his retinue or some Courtier which of those were the King Now doth follow because at that time the man should not have known the King without this information from some of the attendants that the King could no other way have been known unto him or that Kings could be knowne no other wayes but by such informations No rationall creatures wil so conclude at that time he in part beleeved from the Courtiers relation that it was the King but after that he seeth the King in his Court or upon his throne with his Crowne
upon his head and with all his State and Magnificence and his Nobles in their service with the reverence that is yeelded unto him then he beleeveth no longer because the Servant told him that it was the King but because by his own reason he is evinced of it knowing that such attendance and such a guard and so great pompe dignity and State belongeth to none but Kings And it would be thought not madnesse onely but treason to say if one had not told him that it was the King otherwise the King could not be known or that he that told him was greater then the King or his Authority greater The same may be said of the Holy and ever blessed Word of God that it is a great madnesse and impiety to conclude That the Holy Scripture cannot be known to be the Word of God without the Authority of the Fathers or Church or that the Authority of either is greater then the Scriptures which to affirme is without doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almighty God and his blessed revealed will and able to provoke his indignation upon us because it is an error against the very light of nature art and reason and the apparent Words of the Scripture where the Word of God is called the immortall seed 1. Peter chap. 1. verse 23. which liveth and abideth for ever Now all seed by its inward vertue sprouteth into a blade and is by it self and his owne fruits knowne to be what it is So is the Scripture of it selfe knowne to be the Word of God and as Paul saith in the 1. of the Corinthians chapter 2. verse 4. the Word of God is in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power and maketh the hearts of the beleevers burne within them as it did to those that went with Christ to Emmaus Luke the 24. verse 32. and as the Apostle saith in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chapter verse 3. that they received the Word of God not as the word of man but as it is in the truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in those that beleeve and in the 4. of the Hebrews the 12. Paul saith that the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and Spirit and of the reines and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory and by their own native and inbred splendor doe conciliate Authority and credit to themselves neither have they any need of help from man or the Fathers Authority to prove them the word of God For before there were any Fathers the Scriptures had their Authority and were knowne to be Divine Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God no more then a Pillar maketh a Proclamation to be the Kings will and pleasure because it stands upon it but the Church or Fathers declared them so to be neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this How impious then and blasphemous are the Prelates that they dare thus vilifie the holy Scriptures and make their authority nothing And can any man of judgement see any reason why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures Or why one should beleeve that these are the workes of Augustine or Ambrose and should doubt that this is the Gospel of Luke John or that these are the Epistles of Paul Of these things the Defendant for his part can see no reason Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures themselves when the Fathers are not to be credited but as they accord with Scripture as the very Popish Canons and Papists themselves acknowledge for in the Canon Law thus speakes the Pope Patrum quantalibet doctrina sanctitate pollentium Scripta ex Canonivis sacris consideranda nec cum credâ—ndi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt Neither is Baronius his opinion other concerning the authority of the Fathers as at large may be seene in his Annales ann 34. Sect. 213. and ann 44 Sect. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same minde in his 2. Booke concerning Councels in the 12. chapter in these words Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regulae nec habent autoritate obligandi And when the very adversaries do thus fully expresse themselves that whatsoever authority is in the Fathers Books and writings it is only as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture shal any man then think or suppose that there should yet be more authority in the writings of the Fathers or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures from whence as the fountaine those streams do issue very reason will confound the fatuity of this devilish doctrine for the streames and brooks are never so pure nor good as the fountain for it is ever the fountaine that gives authority of goodnesse and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as men know and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come so that the Spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest Authority and without all controversie as it overthroweth all reason so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountaine of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift and they that shall speak so contumeliously as the Bishops doe of these Fountaines of living waters the holy Scriptures is they did the Defendant will ever maintaine they are contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures and in this opinion he will live and die Neither did they lesse offend in saying that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocrypha without the help and authority of the Fathers which point also the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to hear a little discussed it being a thing of so high nature concerning not onely the glory of God but the good of every mans soul the peace of the Church and the tranquility of the whole Kingdom And therefore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little for the further Demonstration of the justnesse of his accusation he chargeth the Prelates with viz that they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures cannot be distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers which assertion is against sense and reason it self and too impious for Prelates to speak Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament that they were written in the Hebrew tongue and that they did give witnesse of Christ and received Authority from him and that they were put into the hands and keeping of the elect and chosen people of God as a Treasury Now the Apocrypha had none of all this
honour Neither did ever the Jews account of them as Scripture yea to this day they reject them Neither for these reasons onely are they distinguished from the Apocrypha but for many others the divinity purity sublimity appears in the Canonicall Scriptures the futility folly and falsity in the Apocrypha are too too manifest and is there any man so stupid and blockish to think that this age wherein we live cannot distinguish or discerne gold from lead without the Authority of the Fathers There is a vaster difference between the Apocrypha and the Canonicall Scriptures then is between gold and lead Every mans reason will tell him an apparant difference between brasse and beanes But if any be desirous of Authority to distinguish them will not Christs and the Apostles suffice The very Papists that have not abjured all honesty and goodnesse do freely acknowledge and confesse that those onely are Canonicall Scriptures which the Apostles did either write or approve of But they did never approve of the Apocrypha The Canonicall Scriptures of the old Testament did in shadows and figures set forth that which the new Testament clearly speaks They did adumbrate the new Testament expresseth in lively colours one and the same thing They consent one with another and yeeld each other mutuall aid and help Now the Apocrypha do neither foretell the new nor are by their authority and approbation illustrated and declared Christ commends Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes as books without all exception Luke 24. and grounds his doctrine upon them but never honours nor graceth the Apocrypha with his commendations or witnesse How then can the Prelates without great contumely unto the sacred Scriptures say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers especially after the judgement of Christ himself is given and hath passed upon the Scriptures for the authorizing of them to be the word and will of God The Fathers as the learned acknowledge were for their times many of them worthy of honour but yet they were subject not to a few errors and often agreed not with themselves and are ever at variance with others and have been indeed the originall and cause of almost all the controversies with which the Churches are now tormented And therefore to conclude this point the Defendant saith that the Prelates are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture when against so much light of reason and Divine authority they say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers Neither is the third Thesis and Position freer from impudency and outrage against the Scriptures then the two former In that they say the meaning of the Scripture could not be knowne but by the Fathers For in this they doe as much as plainly affirme there is an other way to heaven then by the Scriptures which if it be not a contemning and disgracing of holy Scripture then there never was any Nay if it be not blasphemy the Defendant knoweth not what blasphemy is â—and therefore all those that desire salvation and to go to heaven must come to the Schoole of the Fathers and not to the Doctrine of the Scriptures And how then will the poor people doe to be saved that never knew what a Father was Nay how did all those goe to heaven that dyed before the Fathers For the Prelates say that the meaning of the Scripture cannot be knowen without the Fathers and without the knowledge of the Scripture there is no salvation It is most manifest by these expressions of the Prelates that they with their untempered morter would put out the light of the Scriptures and make them not onely inferiour to all mens writings but a very pack of Non-sense for wheresoever there is any sense there can something be gathered out of it especially if it be so large a Booke And howsoever there be many depths in Scripture there is also great perspicuity so that according to the ancient saying as an Elephant may swim a lamb may wade there also But if it should be so as the Prelates say that without the authority and interpretation of the Fathers the meaning of them could not be known and found out then the Defendant affirmeth they should be inferiour to all other writings yea to every Letter and Epistle that men pen with understanding for they ever carry their own sense end meaning along with them or to what end are they otherwise writ If the letter that discoverd the gunpowder Treason had not had a match and light of understanding in it that Popish plot had never been discovered till by its cruell flames it had declared it self and by the funerall of the whole Kingdome had been made known and left those that survived and lived in perpetuall mourning If every Letter writing and book then that is penned with judgement carry its own sense and meaning in it and the books for which the Defendant is now questioned and if all Proclamations Letters and Edicts of Princes are easily to be understood and carry their own interpretation with them so that none after their publication may pretend ignorance dare any man be so bold and adaciou as to say that the Letters and Proclamations of the King of heaven an God of the whole world cannot be understood when notwithstanding David saith they give light and understanding to the simple and that by reading and meditating in the Law and Testimonies of the Lord he grew wiser then his Teachers and Paul that Timothie knew the Scriptures from his youth 2. Tim. chap. 3 verse 13. and notwithstanding all this dare the Prelates affirme that the meaning of this Scripture cannot be knowne without the interpretation of the Fathers We have great cause to praise and blesse God that hath so graciously afforded us better Masters to be taught by It is good ever therefore to listen unto them Let us hear now then what the Prophets Christ and his Apostles have taught us concerning this weighty matter and of so great consequence and let us follow their example and instruction which lead us into all truth and not to listen to the contemners of holy Scripture They send those that are studious of the wayes to heaven to the Law and to the Testimonies Esai 8. to Moses the Prophets and the Scriptures not to the Traditions of the Elders and custome of Antiquity And they that bring any other doctrine are not to be listened unto neither may we bid them God speed The Word of the Lord is the way light and lanthorne to our Feet which send forth sufficiently the beames of truth and shines so clearly of it self as it may be both knowne proved expounded and unfolden by its own brightnesse They do as it were lend lustre unto the Sun from a smoaking snuffe that from the mist of the Fathers would bring light unto the Scriptures God is the Authour of the Scriptures who is the originall and fountaine of all light and
fellow in his Kingdoms that will suffer his Imperiall Majestie to be trampled upon the suffer it in silence For his own part this Defendant confesseth that he is but poor and the Prelates have made him so but as rich in Loyalty as any Subject in his Highnesses three Dominions and as Iob said concerning God though the Lord should kill him yet he would trust in him so this Defendant saith Though the King should leave him to the mercylesse fury of the Prelats yet he will ever honour him with his ife and all that ever he hath and as he was borne under obedience under obedience he will die and will ever say vivat Rex let the King live for ever and our gracious God put it into his Royall breast to look into the devilish plots of the Prelates that doe not onely equalize the painted Tombes in Christs time but far exceed them in cruelty and wickednesse This he is resolved living and dying to doe invito Diabolo to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods for he is bound to this duty by Christ himselfe neither will he ever rebell against his blessed will Now the things that belong unto God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and by whom alone kings raigne is an absolute command and Soveraignty over his Church and who requires of all his Subjects that they should love him with all their hearts with all their Soules and with all their mights and that they should not serve him by any of their own inventions And for the manner of his worship he hath abundantly declared it in Sacred Writ And Saint Paul writing unto Titus warnes him sharply to rebuke his auditors that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed unto the commandments of men that turne from the truth and chargeth the Corinthians that they should not be servants of men nor wise above that which is written and sayes unto the Colossians wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Why as though living in the world are ye subject unto ordinances and Christ himself saith In vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men By all which it is manifest if Christians will give unto God that which is his and will not worship Him in vaine as they must love him with all their hearts so he onely must rule in them and they must give him his own worship and such service onely both for matter and manner as he requires at their hands and commands from them and not serve him according to mens precepts and devices for in his worship they must not be the servants of men for he is the onely King and Lawgiver in his Church and this is his prerogative Royall which no man may meddle with and this is to give unto God that which is Gods and this duty he the Defendant saith all Christians are bound unto Againe for all Subjects duties toward the King the Defendant saith that must also freely and willingly be yeelded and that by speciall precepts for they are commanded to fear God and honour the King and to be subject unto his Authority in all things in the Lord and to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars Now in regard of his duty both to God and the King and also of his speciall Oath of allegiance the Defendant saith he could do no lesse then that which he did in writing his book being provoked thereunto by an enemy of both And so much the rather because himself and all Christians are commanded to give a reason of their hope to whomsoever shal demand it of them earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints he saith in all these respects he could do no lesse in answering that Popeling then that he did by giving unto God the right of his government in the hearts and consciences of men and taking it from the Pope that Vicar rather of hell then of Christ and by giving the King that jurisdiction and authority of regiment in his Dominions and over his Subjects which God hath conferred upon him Both which Authorities Spirituall and Temporall the Pope and Popish Bishops most blasphemously arrogate unto themselves trampling all Divine Lawes and Kinglie regality under their polluted feet making Kings and Emperours their Vassals which is a most horrible arrogancy and usurpation and not to be suffered by either Kings or their Subjects And therefore when this Defendant did nothing but that which by his speciall duty he was bound unto If this by the Informers be thought either Schisme Faction or Sedition he this Defendant is resolved to live and die in it and never to think any a good Subject that is not of his minde He doth withall freely confesse unto this honourable Court that he looked for no ill usage of the Prelates for this his indeavour which when he found at their hands it was the occasion of the writing of many other books since that time amongst the which there is one called Apologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos c. Dedicated unto the privie Counsell but whether the book that is annexed unto the Bill be the same that the Defendant knoweth not but a book with that Title he confesseth he writ wherein he set downe the proceedings of the Prelates against himself and their dealings towards other of their brethren the theame of which book he the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take a briefe relation of at this time that they may the better be informed of the falsity of the Information And first for the principall theame and matter of the booke it is the State of the questions in his Flagello Pontificis for which he suffered with the summe of the Arguments he produced for the confirmation of the truth The questions arising between the Babylonian and the Defendant concerning the authority of the Pope were these The first whether Christ did constitute Peter sole Monarch of the Catholick Church The second whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop hath Authority and jurisdiction over Kings and Emperors Thirdly whether Popish Bishops be true Bishops or no and of the discussing of these questions the Defendant saith his adversary was the sole cause In the handling of the which the Defendant further affirmeth that he used all the caution that was possible as he supposed for man to use prefacing in his book that being to dispute about the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he desired candidly to be understood of all men for while he disputed of Episcopall Authority he medled nor contended not against such Bishops as acknowledge their Authority and jurisdiction from Kings and Emperours into whose hands the government of States Kingdomes and Common-wealths is by God committed For if the Popes themselves would acknowledge their immense and unlimited authority from Kings and Emperors he the
Bishops and with their owne Arguments wounded them And therefore he could not but take it unkindly that when in this combat they should have helped him against the common enemy they defending him fell upon the poore Defendant to his perdition saying that he meant them that he was erronious and factious in his opinions Now if the Defendant hath erred in the discussing of these truths the Scripture that word of life hath brought him to it which were blasphemy to thinke and therefore when they adjudged this booke to be burnt they might as well have burnt the Scripture also yea all antiquity and the gravest and learnedst of ancient Fathers whose testimonies also he hath made publicke for the greater vindication of the truth against errour and cruelty But that the integrity of the Defendant may yet more clearly appeare he most humbly entreateth this Illustrious Tribunall to heare how the businesse was carried against him at his Arraignment before the Prelates Barre at Lambeth and how submissively he demeaned himself these and how superciliously they carried themselves towards the Defendant on the contrary side When it came to his part to speake for himselfe the Advocate having formerly denied to plead his case any farther then about the witnesses testimonie which he also did very jejunely being an Advocate of such excellent parts of learning and eloquence as he was and also at the Bar renouncing it saying That the Defendant should plead himselfe which when it was put upon him he then first related unto the Assembly the Theame of the booke which was the maintenance of the Kings Prerogative royall Then he told them the occasion of his writing of it that he was provoked thereunto by a Pontifician who often had dared him into the list of dispute which at last he could not deny as he was a Christian and as he was a Subject for by the Word of God he told them and by the Law of the land and his speciall oath he was bound unto it which oath he also read at large in open Court the which also all the Bishops of England and all the Judges of the kingdome had taken and were equally bound with him to observe Then before he entered into the combat with the adversary he showed what caution he used that being to write against the Bishop of Rome and Italian Bishops it was onely as they arrogate their authority over their brethren and the Church of God yea over Kings and Emperours jure divino against such Bishops onely he affirmed he did dispute and read the words of exception formerly cited at the Barre as for such Bishops as acknowledge their jurisdiction power and authority from Kings and Emperours he said he had no controversie against them as he there againe and againe declared himself in the number of which he the Defendant said ours were for all the Bishops of England and in his Majesties Dominions had and received or at least wise ought so to do their authority and jurisdiction over their brethren from him For proofe of which he cited and read publickly the Statutes and Acts of Parliament as follow First that of the first of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein the Oath of Allegiance was ratifyed in the which Statute there are these words That all jurisdiction all Superiorities and all Priviledges and preeminencies spiritual and temporall are annexed to the imperiall Crown which by Oath he being bound to maintaine could do no lesse being provoked by an adversary of regall dignity He read also the Statute which was inacted in the 37. of Henry the eight which is That Archbishops and Bishops and all other Ecclesiasticall persons have no other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which they received and had by the King from the King and under his Royall Majestie He read also the Statute made in the first of King Edward the sixt in these words That all jurisdiction and Authority spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth come from the Kings Majestie as supreme head in the churches and Kingdoms of England and Ireland and that by the Clergie of both the Kingdomes it ought no otherwise to be held or esteemed of and that all Ecclesiasticall Courts within the said Kingdomes ought to be held and kept by no other power and Authority either domesticall or forrain then that which comes from his most excellent Majestie And that whosoever did not acknowledge and venerate this authority that the same men are ipso facto in a praemunire and under the Kings high displeasure and indignation as the words of the Statute run and the mouth of the law speaks and then with some reason also which the Defendant produced besides the Word of God he shewed That no Romish Bishops had authority over their fellow brethren nor could jure divino challenge it much lesse over Kings and Emperors and therefore so long as the Defendant had the word of God the Laws of the Kingdom and reason it self on his side he told them he thought himself reasonably secure from all danger in that place And then applying his speech unto the right Honourable and noble Lord the Earle of Dorset then present the Defendant told his honour that he could not but wonder that he should stand there at the Bar as a Delinquent for maintaining the Religion established by publick Authority the honour of the King and the glory of his Majesty and that one Chouny a Sussex man a laick as well as himself should write a book and set it forth by publick authority maintaining the Church of Rome to be a true Church and never to have had so much in her as the suspition of error in fundamentall points and that this book should be dedicated to the Prelate of Canterbury and patronized by him which book the Defendant both read and exhibited in Court by which notwithstanding the King himself and all his Subjects were made Shismaticks and hereticks to the infinite dishonour of God our Gracious King and King Iames of blessed memory and our most holy profession and Religion This as the Defendant told the Lord of Dorset struck an amazement in him and especially when the authour of it must be favoured and countenanced by Canterburie and for the defending of the honour and dignity of our church and the honour of the King the Defendant should stand as an evil doer Now when the Defendant was come thus far was then approaching more closely unto them all intending more fully in the pleading of his cause to have set forth their unjust dealing they told him that he railed and Imperiously commanded him to hold his peace which was the reason of his Apologericus ad Praesules Anglicanos where he took liberty to write that and publish it to the view of all the world which he would have then spoke But after they had silenced him they then fell a thundering against him every one as he pleased all of them joyning in this one onely excepted that
self authority can have no credit amongst Christians without adventiciall assistance of vaine man Is not the witnesse and testimony of God greater then the testimony of man If we receive the witnesse of men the witnesse of God is greater saith Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 5. vers 9. But the Prelates affirme the testimony of man is to be preferred before the witnesse of God so that we ought not beleeve the Spirit witnessing but the testimony of the Fathers for they say the Scriptures cannot be known without the Fathers Christ who was truth it selfe saith in the 5. of John vers 36. I have a greater witnesse then that of Iohn and what was that witnesse His works the witnesse and approbation of his Father and the Scriptures Christ here preferres the testimony of the Scriptures before the testimony of Iohn which was the greatest of all the Prophets and the Prelates preferre the testimony of the Fathers before the Scriptures and is not this to contemne the holy Scriptures Saint Peter in that glorious transfiguration of Christ upon the mount heard the voice of God the Father and notwithstanding he saith in his 2. Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. we have also a more sound word of prophesie And Christ himselfe to reverenced the holy Scriptures that he seemeth to preferre Moses his words before his owne saying if ye beleeve not his writings how shall ye beleeve my words And in the person of Abraham when Dives desired one might be sent to his Fathers house to warne his brethren of the danger of torment that he was in Christ saith they have Moses and the Prophets let them heare them and he said nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent and he said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rise from the dead By all which testimonies of sacred Writ it is evident that if the Scripture of it selfe cannot prevaile with men that then there is little hope that very miracles will do them any good for the begetting of faith in them or bringing of them to the truth much lesse the Fathers and this by Christs owne words is confirmed unto us yet the Prelates neverthelesse esteeme of the Fathers authority more then of the sacred Scriptures But can any man that hath but the name of a Christian thinke that those that will not be moved by the Majestie and authority of the Scriptures speaking in the Name of the Lord of hostes that the authority of the Fathers will prevaile with them who are not to be beleeved but as they speake out of the holy Scriptures and by their divine authority Christ denies it and therefore we are rather to beleeve that then the phantasies and impious grolleries of a few ungodly men Is not the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of his owne and selfe sufficiencie so able to declare its owne minde and meaning that it hath no need of the Fathers helpe Without doubt unlesse profane mouthes will make it a packe of nonsense Truly one would think that very reason might be able to convince these wretched wranglers if they had not hardened themselves to fight against the truth yea and set themselves to resist the holy Spirit of God for if we looke upon very nature art and reason they would convince us for there is no naturall thing but will prove and shew it selfe what it is and declare its owne nature as the Sun Moone and Starres declare their owne nature and tell what they are to every beholder of them fire by it selfe and of its owne nature and essence is knowne what it is earth and water do the same and the same may be said of gold silver and all other metals they are able to witnesse for themselves what they are and to distinguish their owne natures from each others to any rationall man Againe All Artificiall things are knowne what they are by their proper formes and so are discriminated the one from the other every one of them carrying a sufficient indication of it selfe yea all humane writings shew from whence they come by the spirit they writ with and do shew whether the Authours and Writers of them be learned or unlearned or be men in authority and place or not and there needs no Commentaries upon them to tell whose they are The Proclamations and Edicts of Kings and Princes do sufficiently without either marginall Notes or Annotations declare of themselves that they come from Imperiall authority and the Majestie and the Dignity of their phrase and expression do proclaime to all men that the Authours of them are sacred persons and he that should call them in question without a Councell or Parliament or the Fathers and Judges of the Laws authority would be thought no loyall Subject and not worthy to live and that deservedly for the very manner of their penning and writing do ever convince the readers both of the Dignity of their matter and of the excellencie of the personages that set them forth And shall any in this age of light be found so darkened in his judgement as to thinke the Word of God inferiour to all naturall artificiall and humane things Yet so it is to the infinite dishonour of our great God blessed for ever Truely besides the sparkles of Divinity and the Spirit of God illuminating in the Scriptures which writ them the excellencie and goodnesse of their object and matter the purity the perfection the antiquity the universall consent and agreement of them the Majestie and simplicity of the languages and speech they are writ in the conviction that is in them of wicked and rebellious consciences beating downe and humbling the strongest spirits the certaine event of things foretold in them the integrity of the Writers being farre from all fraud and guile setting downe their own infirmities and the weaknesses of their families which humane reason would never have done the preservation of these holy Scriptures in all ages from the fury of the persecuters and out of the hands of those that studied to destroy them the constancie of the Martyrs alwayes that beleeved and kept them and the fearfull and tragicall ends of such as were enemies of them These the Defendant saith and many more reasons there are to prove the Scriptures to be the word of the everliving God by themselves without any authority of Fathers But yet one reason more the Defendant thought fit to adde before he returneth againe to the holy Scriptures owne authoritie which is sufficiently able to declare it to be the Word of God And that is this All things that are mens owne whether Counsells Laws Ordinances Inventions Polities or Projects Orders of Government c. they are agreeable ever to the corrupt nature of man or else to carnall reason and men commonly hug their owne devices Now if the Religion that is set downe in holy Scriptures or the Scriptures themselves
the Hierarchy be sacred and the Prelates be the chief members of it then they are a generation of sacred frogs the holinesse notwithstanding of the which is such as few mens impiety is greater or more dangerous to Church and State and their usurpation upon both authorities deserving severely to be punished especially for that they so abuse his sacred Majesties authority in oppressing his poore subjects and trampling upon his Prerogative so that to any eye of understanding it may sufficiently appear by that the Defendant hath said that the Prelates are not only contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture but also invaders of the Kings Prerogative Royall and enemies of his Imperiall Dignity It yet remaines to prove also that they have farther dishonoured the King their Master and King James of famous memory yea our most holy Religion and Profession and all this in the Defendants Censure For what any one of the Prelates did all the other assented to they being one Body and it was the action of them all though acted in the person of the Prelate of Canterbury which was this to magnifie the Church of Rome and defend the purity of her Doctrine affirming openly that she never erred in fundamentall points and was a true Church as much as to proclaime the King and all his Subj cts Schismatickes and Heretickes and that by the mouth of the Prelate of Canterbury which the Defendant saith is not onely injurious to the King their Master but to King Iames of famous memory his renowned Father with whom for piety and learning all the Prelates together are not to be named the same yeare his Royall excrements are mentioned King Iames that glorious and learned Prince in his Apologie to all Christian Princes and States proves the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist and the man of Sin by many unanswerable Arguments He proves likewise the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon for her abominations Spirituall Sodom for her filthinesse and uncleannesse Spirituall Egypt for her inslaving the Saints and Servants of God and all this he evinceth by irrefragable authority and thus taught he the whole world his Royall Son and all his subjects and perswaded all Christian Princes to come out of Babylon and to shake off the yoke of the Pope And in this faith he lived and died And this faith is King Charles his Son and our gracious Soveraigne now Defender of and all this is Orthodox Doctrine which our King did preach unto us and our Royall King now professeth and which all his Loyall Subjects to God and his Majestie will seale with their blouds This heroicall King notwithstanding and his divine Doctrine is stamped under foot by the Prelates to the infinite dishonour of our most pious and element Prince the eternall disgrace of his most incomparable Father and the discredit indeed of the whole Church and Kingdome if not indangering the same to the great hardening of the Papists in their Hereticall wayes and the perverting of the Kings most loyall Subjects and teaching the Papists to rebell And to all this the dignity and glory of the Scripture is offuscated by their sable mouthes So that what can any man either say or thinke of this progenie of Prelates whose contumacie and rebellion reacheth to the very clouds and what can men thinke of this degenerating off-spring of this age The one that they dare against God and the King openly breathe out their blasphemies and call evill good and good evil The other that they should out of cowardise suffer their Royall King and his most excellent Father to be abused But this Defendant hopeth that this honourable Court like that noble Nehemiah with other true-hearted loyall Subjects remaining about the King will now at last informe his Majestie of the intolerable insolence of the Prelates of which he beleeveth they were formerly ignorant or not so well acquainted and seeke by his authority for redresse against their impudencie As for this Defendant for his part he is resolved though left alone ever to say LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And although he should suffer a thousand torments from the Prelates living and dying he will ever cry LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And let the name of his learned and transcendent Father live to perpetuity And let the enemies of the King and the Gospel perish Neither will he ever suffer to the uttermost of his power That either the Kings honour or the dignity of his most illustrious Father or the glory of our most holy Profession or the honour of the holy Scriptures shall be contaminated or Babylon or superstition advanced in his Dominions and cruelty and injustice exercised by the Prelates over his poor Subjects and hold his peace All which evidently appeare in the daily proceedings of the Prelates in their High Commission and from their speech hourely there and their practises through the whole Kingdome Some of which he desireth in order to prove that the honourable Court may be the fuller informed that he hath not causlesly in his Apologie laid any crime unto their charge which they are not guilty of And now to proceed to the other things the Defendant is charged with viz. that he taxeth the High Commission Court of cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majestie to bloud-shed and are the upholders of idolatry superstition and profanenesse that he scandalously defameth the witnesses produced against him and that he hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the Oath ex officio and other the ancient formes of proceedings of the High Commission Court To all these the Defendant answereth as they lie And first whereas the Defendant chargeth them with cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance he conceiveth he hath very good reason for that his charge both in respect of himselfe and others and in regard both of the soules and bodies and estates of men all which they captive enslave or dissipate and scatter at pleasure and in as much as in them lies seeke the ruine of To say nothing of their dayly practices who condemne men without either exhibiting Articles producing of witnesses or any legall proceedings against them as if a man should be hanged without evidence given or indictment framed which is the height of injustice the Defendant saith that their very proceedings against himselfe sufficiently shew their cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and their very speeches apparantly prove all these things Neither is there such a president of wrong and cruelty in the whole world that any man of what ranke order or degree soever he be that shall write a Booke in defence of that Religion that is established by publicke authority for the honour of the King and in defence of his Prerogative against a common enemy that for this indeavour of his should be ruined he his wife and children cast into prison deprived first of all possibility of livelihood railed upon and reviled publickly