you where it is said what Law what Statute so resolves it that no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters patents under the great Seale of England None of the Acts of Parliament made by King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt or Queene Elizabeth speake one word that way The act of the Submission of the Clergie 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19. on which your fond conceipt is grounded if it hath any ground at all saith not as you would have it say the Clergie shall not put in ure c. any constitutions of what sort soever without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe but that without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe first had they should not enact or put in ure any new Canons by them made in their Convocations as they had done formerly This law observed still by the Clergy to this very day not meeting in their Convocation untill they are assembled by his Majesties writ directed to the Archbishop of either Province nor when assembled treating of or making any Canons without the Kings leave first obteined nor putting any of them in execution before they are confirmed by his sacred Majestie under the broad Seale of England Is there no difference gentle brother betweene enacting new Canons at their owne discretion and executing those which custome and long continuance of time have confirmed and ratified If you should bee so simple as so to thinke as I have no great confidence either in your law or wisedome you may be pleased to understand that by the very selfe same statute All Canons which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes statutes and customes of the Realme nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings prerogative Royall shall be now still executed and used as they were before the making of that act till the said Canons should be viewed by the 32. Commissioners in the same appointed which not being done as yet although the said Commission was revived by Parliament 3 4. to Edw. 6. c. 11. all the old Canons quallified as before is said are still in force So that for exercise of any Episcopall jurisdiction founded upon the said old Canons or any of the new which have beene since confirmed by the King or his predecessours there 's no necessity of speciall Letters Patents under the broad Seale of England as you faine would have it There was another Statute of King Henry the eight concerning the Kings highnesse to bee the supreame head of the Church of England and to have authority to reforme all errors heresies and abuses in the same But whatsoever power was therein declared as due and proper to the King is not now materiall the whole act being repealed A. 1. 2. Ph. and M. c. 8. and not restored in the reviver of Qu. Eliz. 1. Eliz. c. 1. in which you instance in your Margin Nor can you finde much comfort by that Statute 1. Eliz c. 1. wherein you instance if you consider it and the intention of the same as you ought to doe You may conjecture by the title of it what the meaning is For it 's intituled An act restoring to the Crowne the antient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and spirituall and abolishing all forreine power repugnant to the same The preamble unto the act makes it yet more plaine Where it is sayd that in the time of King Henry the eight divers good Lawes and Statutes were made and established aswell for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forreine powers and authorities out of this Realme c. as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperiall Crowne thereof the antient jurisdictions authorities superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging and apperteining by meanes whereof the subjects were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forreine power and authority as before that was usurped Which makes it manifest that there was no intent in the Queene or Parliament to alter any thing in the ordinary power Episcopall which was then and had long before beene here established but to extinguish that usurped and forreine power which had before beene chalenged by the See of Rome and was so burdensome unto the subject The body of the Act is most plaine of all For presently on the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction spirituall and Ecclesiasticall heretofore used within this Realme there followeth a declaration of all such jurisdictions c. as by any spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power and authority hath heretofore or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner errours heresies schismes c. to bee for ever united and annexed to the imperiall crowne of this Realme Then in the next words followeth the establishment of the High Commission it being then and there enacted that the Queenes highnesse her heires and successours shall have full power and authority by vertue of the said act by letters Patents under the great Seale of England to assigne name and authorise c. such person or persons being naturall borne subjects to her highnesse her heires and successours as her Majestie shall thinke meete to exercise use occupie and execute under her highnesse her heires and successours all manner of Iurisdictions priviledges and preheminences within these her Realmes of England c. and to visit reforme order redresse correct and amend all such errours heresies schismes abuses offences contempts enormities whatsoever which by any manner Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power authority or jurisdiction can or may be lawfully reformed c. Plainely in all this act there is nothing contrary to that ordinary jurisdiction which is and hath beene claimed and exercised by Episcopall authority in the Church of England nothing at all which doth concerne the purchasing or procuring of Letters Patents for their keeping Courts and Visitations as you seduced by your learned Counsaile beare the world in hand My reason is because whatever jurisdiction was here declared to be annexed unto the crowne is called a restoring of the antient jurisdiction unto the same and certainely the ordinary Episcopall power of ordination excommunication and such like Ecclesiasticall censures were never in the crowne in fact nor of right could be and therefore could not be restored And secondly because whatever power is here declared to be in the Queene her heires and uccessours shee is inabled to transferre upon such Commissioners as shee or they shall authorise under the great Seale of England for execution of the same Now we know well that there is no authority in the high Commission which is established on this clause derogating from the ordinary Episcopall power and therefore there was none supposed in
owned for hers by the Church of England Of whom wee may affirme what the historian saith of the Athenians when besieged by Sylla animos extra moenia corpora necessitati servientes intra muros habuerunt Geneva had their hearts we their bodies onely I hope you doe not here expect that I should show you what precedencie or superioritie our Saviour gave the twelve Apostles before and over all the Seaventie or how the Apostles in their owne persons exercised authority over other Pastors or how they setled severall Bishops in convenient places as Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete with power of ordination Tit. 1.5 and power of Ecclesiasticall censure 1 Tim. 5.19 or finally what successours they left behind them in those particular Sees where they most resided This were but actum agere to sing our old songs over as you use to doe and therefore I referre you to the writings of those worthies before remembred our Divines indeed Nor had I said thus much but to let you see that neither the claime is new devised but yesterday nor by all our Divines disclaimed since the reformation both which with shame enough you are bold to say The next thing that offends you and you clamour of is that they claime a visible and perpetuall succession downe from S. Peter to Pope Gregory from him by Austin the Monke first Arch Bishop of Canterbury unto his Grace now being and Sic de coeteris For by this meanes you say they make themselves the very limbes of the Pope the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and consequently our Church a member of that Romish Synagogue Who would have thought but this had pleased you For if the Bishops bee the sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and the Church a member of the Romish Synagogue then are you acquitted and all your clamours raylings and opposition aswell against the one as the other may be fairely justified But let your inference alone till another time what is it that you quarrell in the ground thereof Is it that Saint Peter was at Rome or was Bishop there whether for 25. yeares as Eusebius tell 's us we will not dispute you may remember it is granted or rather not denyed by Calvin HOwever his minde served him to have made a question of it yet propter Scriptorum consensum non pugno the evidence was so strong hee could not deny it Is it that Gregory Pope of Rome sirnamed Magnus after a long descent succeeded him The Tables of succession in the Church of Rome make that cleare enough and Irenaeus brings downe the succession till his owne time during which time the lineall succession in that Church by reason of the many persecutions under which it suffered might be made most questionable That Gregory sent this Austin into England to convert the Saxons and made him having before beene consecrated by the Archbishop of Arles the first Archbishop of the English is generally delivered by all our writers from Venerable Bede to these present times as by those also which have writ the life of the sayd Pope Gregory Finally that my Lord the Archbishop that now is is lineally descended in a most faire and constant tenour of succession you shall easily finde if you consult the learned labours of Mr. Francis Mason de ministerio Angâ—icano The Papists would extremely thanke you and thinke you borne into the world for their speciall comfort could you but tell them how to disprove that lineall succession of our Prelates which is there laid downe A thing by them much studied but conatu irrito and never cast upon our Prelates as a staine or scandall that they could prove their Pedegree from the holy Apostles till you found it out Whatever you conceive hereof you cannot choose but know that the succession of the Prelates in the purest times was used as an especiall argument against those Sects and heresies which were then on foote And since you challenge Dr. Pocklington for the succession of the Bishops in the Church of England I will send you to him for three instances which might have satisfied you in that point if you will be satisfied the first from Irenaeus l. 3. cap. 3 4 5. the second from Tertullian de praescript cap. 11. and the last from S. Austin contra Petil. l. 2. c. 51. In all of which it is apparant and see them you must needs being the occasion of his instance in the Church of England that the succession of the Bishops in their severall Churches ita ut primus sit aliquis ex Apostolis beginning their discent from some one or other of the holy Apostles hath beene a speciall meanes to confound those hereticks which tooke up armes against the Church as some men doe now Now for your instance you pleade that if this rule of succession hold our Bishops are the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and tell me then I pray you Sir whose sonne are you that had your ordination and received your Ministrie from those Bishops which were so discended you must needes be a limb of the Pope also like it as you list But never feare it Sir there is no such danger as you dreame of either that any Priest or Prelate in the Church of England should therefore bee a sonne of the Roman Antichrist or that the Church should be a member of that Romish Synagogue because wee claime by and from them a visible succession of and in the sacred Hierarchie Wee may receive our orders from them and chalenge a succession by them from the blessed Apostles and yet not bee partakers with them in their corruptions When Hezekiah purged the temple and set all things right which had beene formerly amisse in the Iewish Church thinke you that the High-Priests which followed after thought it a shame to fetch their Pedegree from Aaron Or doe you finde it was objected against them that did that because some of those from and by whom they claimed it had misbehaved themselves in so great an office and possibly advanced Idolatry in that tottering state therefore all those that followed them and descended from them were also guilty of the same crimes Or to come nearer to your selfe thinke you your ministery the worse because you did receive it from the hands of them whom you accuse for true borne sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and that your brethren in New England will not thinke themselves the purest and most perfect Church in the Christian world although they once were members of that here established which they have forsaken T' was not the purpose of those holy men in King Edwards time to make a new Church but reforme the old and onely to pare off those superfluities which had in tract of time beene added to Gods publicke service In which regard they kept on foote the Priesthood and Episcopate which they had received with many of those rites and ceremonies to which they were before accustomed not taking either
the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
Acts of Court I see no cause at all why you should demand them For having at the first declined the judgement of that Court by the refusall of the oath and your said Appeale and afterwards contemptuously neglected your appearance on the second summons what cause had you to expect any favour from them or to consult those Acts which you cared not for Especially considering you continued still in your disobedience and desired the Articles not to answer to them but thereby as you say your selfe to perfect your Appeale or rather as it may be thought to scatter them abroad in imperfect copies with such false answers to them as you pleased to make Your selfe and such as you have long used the art of getting the first start upon mens affections non ignari instandum famae prout prima successerint fore vniversa But come we now unto the maine of your Appeale in reference to the illegality of proceedings in your owne particular for all that hath beene answered hitherto was but the vantage as it were which you cast in out of your abundance to make up the reckoning It is pretended that being charged with sedition you were not bound to answer to it And why Because sedition is no ecclesiasticall offence against the Church but a civill against the King and State and therefore to be tried onely in his Majesties Courts of Civill Iustice and not before the High Commissioners who have no cognizance thereof Your Enthimeme doth halt extreamely For there are many matters punishable in either jurisdiction which since you are ignorant I will name you some Vsury contrary to the statute 21. Iac. c. 17. is punishable at the Common-law and it is also punishable in the Court Christian as in the 109. Canon The selfe same Canon reckoneth drunkennesse and swearing as punishable by the Ordinary upon presentment and yet are punishable by the Civill Magistrate by vertue of two severall statutes viz. 4. Iac. 5.21 Iac. and 21. Iac. 20. So for prohibited either workes or recreations on the Lords day the parties so offending are by the Statute 1 Car. c. 1. 3. Car. c. 1. to be convented and corrected by the Iustices of the Peace and yet there is a salvo there for the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to proceed as formerly All persons that offend against the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. either in depraving the Booke of Common prayer or else not using it as they ought to doe or using any other forme of prayer N. B. then is there prescribed c. are punishable either by enditement at the Common-law or by the censures of the Church According as complaint is first made unto either Court I could informe you of many such particulars were it convenient So that you see your proposition is not true in that full latitude wherein you propound iâ— viz. because sedition is to be tryed in the Courts of civill Iustice therefore in you and as it was an offence by you committed it was not to be censured in the High Commission For Sir I hope you can distinguish betweene sedition in the field or in the Market-place and a seditious Sermon for Sermon I must call it for feare of angring you in the Church or Pulpit Had you behaved your selfe seditiously in any other place no better dealing with you then by the Constable first and so on But if you preach seditiously and make the House and Ordinance of God onely a Pandar to your discontent or your ambition I hope my Lords the Iudges will not be offended if your Superiours in the Lord doe chastise you for it yet this at last you make a just gravamen upon the which you might appeale But had you thought indeed as you say you doe that the Ecclesiasticall Commssioners could take no cognizance of the crime objected to you you might with better hopes have labored for a prohibition as formerly you did upon weaker grounds then runne your selfe so hastily on a new experiment of making an Appeale when you were not grieved Lastly you pleade that being the matter charged upon you was Sedition and so if true your life might have beene called in question you were not bound to take the oath propounded to you and this you ground upon a Passage of Arch-Bishop Whitgift in the conference at Hampton Court saying as you report his words that in matter of life liberty and scandall it is not the course of that Court to require any such oath wherein you doe most shamelessely misreport the words of the said Arch-Bishop All that he said is this which will helpe you little viz. If any Article did touch the party any way either for life liberty or scandall he might refuse to answer neither was he urged thereunto He doth not say as you make him say that in those cases there recited it was not the course of that Court to require any such oath but that the party might refuse to answer to those Articles which did so concerne him It is the custome of the Court to give an oath unto the party to answer truely to such Articles as shall be propounded and the indulgence of the Court at the examination that if the party will he may chalenge any of them as not being bound by law to answer to them and his refusall if the law binde him not to answer is to be allowed You might then subtile Sir have tooke the oath and yet demurred on any such Article when you came unto it And so farre we have traced you in your Apologie wherein is nothing to be found but poore surmises which being proved onely by an Aio might have beene answered with a Nego but that I am resolved to dissect you throughly and lay you open to the world which hath so long beene seduced by you CHAP. II. The Kings authority restrained and the obedience of the subject limited within narrow bounds by H. B. with the removall of those bounds The title of the Sermon scanned and the whole divided H. B. offended with the unlimited power of Kings the bounds by him prescribed to the power of Kings both dangerous and doubtfull The power of Kings how amplified by Iewes Christians Heathens What the King cannot doe and what power is not in him by Mass Burtons doctrine The Positive Lawes of the Realme conferre no power upon the King nor confirme none to him The whole obedience of the subject restrained by H. B. to the Lawes of the Realme and grounded on the mutuall stipulation betweene King and people The dangerous sequells of that doctrine A Pravis ad praecipitia Wee are on the declining hand out of the Hall into the Kitchin from an Apologie that was full of weakenesse unto a Sermon or rather a Pasquill farre more full of wickednesse yet were we guided either by the Text or Title we might perswade our selves there were no such matter nothing but piety and zeale and whatsoever a faire shew can promise But for the
Title Sir I hope you know your owne words in your doughtie dialogue betweene A. and B. you know the proverbe Fronti rara fides the fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences For whereas you entitle it for God and the King you doe therein as Rebells doe most commonly in their insurrections pretend the safety of the King and preservation of Religion when as they doe intend to destroy them both The civill warre in France raised by the Duke of Burgundy and Berry against Lewis the eleventh was christned by the specious name of Le bien Public for the Common-wealth but there was nothing lesse intended then the common good And when the Iewes cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini they did but as you doe abuse the people and colour their ambition or their malice choose you which you will with a shew of zeale So that your Title may be likened very fitly to those Apothecaries boxes which Lactantius speakes of quorum tituli remedium habent pixides venenum poysons within and medecines writ upon the Paper So for your Text we will repeat that too that men may see the better how you doe abuse it My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Prov. 24.21 22. A Text indeed well chosen but not well applyed For had you looked upon your selfe and the Text together and followed the direction which is therein given you you had not so long hunted after Innovations as for these many yeares it is knowne you have and so might possibly have escaped that calamitie which is now like to fall upon you But it 's the nature of your humour as of some diseases to turne all things unto the nourishment of the part that is ill affected Meane while you make the Scriptures but a nose of wax as Pighius once prophanly called it by wresting it maliciously to serve your turnes and so confirme the vulgar Papists in contempt of that which were it not for you and such as you they might more easily bee induced both to heare and reverence Now for the method of your Sermon I meane to call it so no more though you observe no method in it but wander up and downe in repetitions and tautologies as your custome is I must thus dispose it The passages therein either of scandall or sedition I shall reduce especially unto these two heads those which reflect upon the Kings most excellent Majestie and those which strike directly against the Bishops That which reflects upon the King either relates to his authoritie or his actions That which doth strike against the Bishops is to be considered as it is referred either unto their place or to their persons or finally to their proceedings and these proceedings are againe to bee considered eyther in reference to their Courts and behaviour there or to their government of and in the Church and carriage in that weighty office wherein you charge them with eight kinds of Innovations most of the generall kinds being sub-divided into several branches For a conclusion of the whole I shall present unto your selfe by way of Corollarie or resultancie out of all the premisses how farre you are or may prove guilty of sedition for that Pulpit pasquill of yours and so commend you to repentance and the grace of God In ripping up whereof as I shall keepe my selfe especially to your Pulpit-Pasquill so if I meete with any variae lectiones in your Apologie or Epistles or the Newes from Ipswich or your addresses to the Lords of the Privie Councell and my Lords the Iudges I shall use them also either for explication or for application Such your extravagancies as cannot easily be reduced to the former heads I either shall passe over or but touch in transitu This is the order I shall use First for the King you may remember what I told you was the Puritan tenet that Kings are but the Ministers of the Common-wealth and that they have no more authority then what is given them by the people This though you doe not say expresly and in terminis yet you come very neare it to a tantamont finding great fault with that unlimited power which some give to Kings and as also with that absolute obedience which is exacted of the subject One of your doctrines is that all our obedience to Kings and princes and other superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Your reason is because the King is Gods Minister and Vice-gerent and commands as from God so for God and in God Your doctrine and your reason might become a right honest man But what 's your use Your first use is for reprehension or refutation of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then rebells and to deserve to be hanged drawne and quartered that refuse to obey them pag. 77. So pag. 88. a second sort come here to be reproved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almightie himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his holinesse So pag. 89. Thus these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe to the ground Finally you reckon it amongst the Innovations wherewith you charge the Prelats in point of doctrine that they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to superiours setting man so in Gods Throne that all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience whose onely rule is the word of God pag. 126. In all which passages however you pretend the word of God the fundamentall Lawes of state and conscience yet clearely you expresse your disaffection unto the soveraignty of Princes and in effect leave them no greater power then every private man shall thinke fit to give them Besides there is a tacite implication also that the King exercises an unlimited power which cannot possibly consist with the subjects conscience the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome or the word of God It had beene very well done of you to have told the people what were the fundamentall lawes of State which were so carefully to be preserved within what bounds and limits the authority of Kings is to be confined and to have given them a more speciall knowledge of the rule of conscience For dealing thus in generalls onely Dolosus versatur in generalibus you know who sayd it you have presented to the people a most excellent ground not onely
reach you may see in the first of Sam. and 8 chap. though in concreto a just Prince will not breake those lawes which he hath promised to observe Princes are debtors to their subjects as God to man non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendo as S. Austine hath it And we may say of them in S. Bernards words Promissum quidem ex misericordia sed ex justitia persolvendum that they have promised to observe the lawes was of speciall grace and its agreeable to their justice to observe their promise Otherwise we may say of kings as the Apostle of the just Iusto lex non est posita saith the Apostle and Principi lexnon est posita saith the law of nature Doe you expect more proofe than you use to give Plutarch affirmes it of some kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not governe onely by the law but were above it The like saith Dion of Augustus Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was sure and had an absolute authoritie aswell upon his lawes as upon himselfe Besides in case the power of kings were restrained by law after the manner that you would have it yet should the king neglect those lawes whereby you apprehend that his power is limited how would you helpe your selfe by this limited power I hope you would not call a Consistorie and convent him there or arme the people to assert their pretended liberties though as before I said the Puritan tenet is that you may doe both Your learned Councell might have told you out of Bracton an ancient Lawyer of this kingdome omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And Horace could have told you that kings are under none but God Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis as he there hath it You may moreover please to know what Gregorie of Tours said once to a king of France Si quis e nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si vero tu excesseris quis te corripiet c. If any of us O king offend against the rules of justice thou hast power to punish him but if thou breake those rules who hath power to doe it We tell you of it and when you list you please to heare us but when you will not who shall judge you but he that tels us of himselfe that he is justice This was you see the ancient doctrine touching the power and right of kings not onely amongst Iewes and Christians but in heathen states what ever new opinion of a limited power you have pleased to raise But you goe further yet and tell us of some things the king cannot do and that there is a power which the king hath not what is it say you that the king cannot doe Marry you say he cannot institute new rites and ceremonies with the advise of his Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or the Metropolitan according as some pleade from the Act of Parliament before the Communion booke pag. 65. Why so Because according to your law this clause of the Act is limited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her successours of the Crowne This you affirme indeede but you bring no proofe onely it seemes you heard so from your learned councell You are I see of Calvins minde who tels us in his Commentarie on the 7 of Amos what had beene sayd by Doctor Gardiner after Bishop of Winchester and then Ambassadour in Germany touching the headship or Supremacie of the king his master and closeth up the storie with this short note inconsiderati homines sunt qui faciunt eos nimis spirituales that it was unadvisedly done to give kings such authority in spirituall matters But sir I hope you may afford the king that power which you take your selves or which your brethren at the least have tooke before you who in Queene Elizabeths time had their Classicall meetings without leave or licence and therein did ordeine new rites new Canons and new formes of service This you may doe it seemes though the kings hands are bound that he may not doe it And there 's a power too as you tell us that the king neither hath nor may give to others Not give to others certainely if he have it not for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is But what is this you first suppose and take for granted that the Bishops make foule havocke in the Church of God and persecute his faithfull servants and then suppose which yet you say is not to be supposed that they have procured a grant from the king to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of religion by law established And on these suppositions you doe thus proceede Yet whatsoever colour pretext or shew they make for this the king to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the power that is in the king is given him by God and confirmed by the lawes of the kingdome Now neither God in his law nor the lawes of the land doe allow the king a power to alter the state of religion or to oppresse and suppresse the faithfull ministers of the Gospell against both law and conscience For kings are the ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before p. 72.73 So you and it was bravely said like a valiant man The Brethren now may follow after their owne inventions with a full securitie for since you have proclaimed them to be faithfull ministers no king nor Keisar dares suppresse them or if he should the lawes of God and the law of the land to boote would rise in judgement to condemne him for usurpation of a power which they have not given him But take me with you brother Bâ—â— and I perhaps may tell you somewhat that is worth your knowledge And I will tell you sir if you please to hearken that whatsoever power is in the king is from God alone and founded on the law of nature The positive lawes of the land as they conferre none on him so they confirme none to him Rather the kings of England have parted with their native royalties for the peoples good which being by their owne consent established for a positive law are now become the greatest part of the subjects liberties So that the liberties possessions and estates of the kings leige people are if you will confirmed by the lawes of the land not the kings authoritie As for the power of kings which is given by God and founded on the law of nature how farre it may extend in the true latitude thereof we have said already Whether to alter the state of religion none but a most seditious spirit such as yours would put unto the question his majesties pietie and zeale being too well knowne to give occasion to such quaeres Onely I needes must
tell you that you tye up the kings hands too much in case he may not meddle with a company of Schismatickes and refractarie persons to all power and order onely because you have pronounced them to be faithfull ministers of the Gospell Such faithfull ministers of the Gospell as you and yours must bee suppressed or else there never will be peace and unitie in the Citie of God And yet I see you have some scripture for it more than I supposed kings being as you tell us from S. Paul the ministers of God for the good of their people and no more then so I thought S. Paul had also told us that the King is a minister of God an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill yea more than so too brother B. and it may concerne you viz. if thou doe that which is evill be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vaine Aut undequaque pietatem tolle aut undequaque conserva Take the whole text along good sir or take none at all and if you take all be afraid as you are advised verbum sapienti I must goe forwards with you yet from the authoritie of the king to the obedience of the subject which you doe presse indeede but on such false grounds as in conclusion overthrow the whole frame of government The absolute obedience of the subject you have dashed alreadie and reckon it amongst those Innovations in point of doctrine which you have charged upon the Prelates and in the place thereof bring in a limited or conditionall obedience of your owne devising Your first condition or limitation rather is viz. that our subjection unto the king is to be regulated as by Gods law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good laws of the king p. 38. the king as you informe us p. 42. having entred into solemne and sacred covenant with all his people to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the kingdome prescribe require as on the other side the people swearing no other obedience to the king than according to his just lawes pag. 39. and 40. In which restraint there are two things to be observed first that wee are to obey the king no farther than there is law for it and secondly no farther than that law seemes good So that in case the king commands his people any thing for which he hath no positive law to warrant his command and of this sort are many Proclamations orders decrees injunctions set out from time to time by the kings authoritie and Prerogative royall by brother Burtons rule the people are at liberty to obey or not And on the other side in case the said command bee grounded on some positive law which they like not of whether it be a Penall statute or some old Act of Parliament almost out of use by the reviving of the which they may be prejudiced in purse or otherwise this is no good law in their judgement and so no more to be obeyed than if the kings command were founded on no law at all But your next limitation is farre worse than this though this bad enough For in the next place you have grounded all obedience on the peoples part upon that mutuall stipulation which the king and his subjects make at his Coronation Where the king takes an explicite solemne oath to mainteine the antient lawes and liberties of the kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those lawes established consequently and implicitely all the people of the land doe sweare fealtie allegiance subjection and obedience to their king and that according to his just lawes pag. 39. your inference from hence is this that if the king so solemnely by sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under his royall hand doe bind himselfe to maintaine the lawes of his kingdome and therein the rights and liberties of his subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the king according to his just lawes p. 40. So that according to your doctrine the people is no longer to obey the king than the king keepes promise with the people Nay of the two the people have the better bargaine the king being sworne explicitely and solemnely to maintaine their liberties the people onely consequently and implicitely to yeeld him subjection Is not this excellent doctrine think you or could the most seditious person in a state have thought upon a shorter cut to bring all to Anarchie for if the subject please to misinterpret the kings proceedings and thinke though falsely that he hath not kept his promise with them they are released ipso facto from all obedience and subjection and that by a more easie way then suing out a dispensation in the Court of Rome You tell us p. 129. of the kings free subjects and here you have found out a way to make them so a way to make the subject free and the king a subject and hard it is to say whether of the two be the greater Contradiction in adjecto I have before heard of a free people and of free states but never till of late of a free subject nor know I anyway to create free subjects but by releasing them of all obedience to their Princes And I have read too of Eleuthero Cilices which were those people of Cilicia that were not under the command of any king but never reade of an Eleuthero Britannus nor I hope never shall I will but aske you one question and so end this point You presse the kings oath very much about maintaining of the lawes of the Kingdom as pag. 39.40 and 42. before recited as also pag. 72. againe and againe and finally in your addresse to my LL. the Judges is it by way of Commemoration or of Exprobration if of Commemoration you forget the Rule memorem immemorem facit qui monet quae memor meminit But if of Exprobration what meant you when you needed not to tell us that in a point of Civill Government it is a dangerous thing to change a Kingdom setled on good lawes into a tyranny and presently thereon to adde a certaine speech of Heraclitus Viz. That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls I only aske the question take you time to answere it CHAP. III. An Answere to the Challenge of H. B. against His Majesties Actions and Declarations The King accused for breach of promise touching the Petition of Right but falsly His Majesties Declaration before the Articles censured by H.B. as tending to suppresse the Trueth and advance the contrary errours Of the law of Amnestie His Majesties Declaration about Sports condemned and censured H. B. fall's scandalously fowle upon King James by reason of the like Declaration by him set forth H. B. makes the people jealous of the Kings intentions His Majestie accused for the restraint of Preaching in infected places contrary to his
Declarations and the former practise and thereunto the increase of the Plague imputed His Majesties Chappell paralleld with Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julian the Apostates Altar H. B. incourageth disobedient persons and makes an odious supposition about setting up Masse in the Kings Chappell FRom your restraint and curtailling of the Kings authoritie proceed wee to your censure of His Actions and Declarations which wee have separated from the other because in this wee have some intermixture of your invectives against the Bishops your scandalous clamours against whom in reference to their place and persons are to follow next And first wee will begin with the Petition of Right as having some resemblance to the former point on which you please to play the Commentator and spoile a good text with a factious glosse It pleased His Majestie being Petitioned amongst other things in Parliament 1628 that no Free-man and not a Free Subject as you phrase it should be imprisoned or detained without cause shewed and being brought to answere by due course of Law to passe His Royall assent to the said Petition What Comment do you make thereon That no man is to be imprisoned if hee offer bayle p. 52. You do indeed resolve it so in your own case too and fall exceeding fowle on His Sacred Majestie because your Comment or Interpretation could not be allowed of Now your case was thus During that Session you had printed a seditious Pamphlet as all yours are entituled Babell no Bethel tending to incense the Commons against the King for which being called before the High Commission order was made for your commitment And when you offered bayle it was refused you say by my Lord of London that then was affirming that the King had given expresse charge that no bayle should be taken for you That thereupon you claimed the right and Privilege of a Subject according to the Petition of Right but notwithstanding your said claime were sent to Prison and there kept Twelve dayes and after brought into the High Commission This is the case as you relate it p. 52. and 53. And hereupon you do referre it unto the consideration of the sagest whether that which he fathered on the King were not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse the by-standers and consequently all the people of the land with a sinister opinion of the Kings Justice and Constancy in keeping His solemne Covenant made with His people as in that Petition of Right And you have noted it in the margin p. 53. for a most impious and disgracefull speech to bring the people into an hard conceit of His Majestie who but a little before had signed the Petition of Right This is yet pressed againe both in the same and the next page as also in your addresse unto the Judges as if the King had violated His solemne promise made unto the people and beare down all the rights and liberties of the Subject mentioned in the said Petition by suffering or appointing a Seditious Phamphletter to be sent to prison without bayle But tell me Sir I pray you for I know not yet how you could plead the benefit of that Petition or how it could advantage you in the smallest measure It was petitioned that no Subject being a Free-man should be committed to the prison without cause shewed and being brought to answere in due course of Law Tell me of all loves how doth this concerne you or how can you complaine of being imprisoned contrary to His Majesties answere unto that Petition the cause of your commitment being shewne unto you which was that Booke of yours formerly mentioned and you being brought to answere in the High Commission according to due forme of Law as your selfe informe us Here was no matter of complaint but that you have a mind to traduce His Majestie as if he had no care of His Oathes and promises more of which treacherous Art to amate the people wee shall see hereafter Besides Sir you may please to know that your case was not altogether such as those which were complained of in the said Petition there being alwayes a great difference made between a man committed on an Ecclesiasticall and a Civill crime And I will tell you somewhat which reflects this way It appeares in the Diarie of the Parliament 4. H. 4. what time the Statute 28. Edw. 3. mentioned in the Petition which you call of right was in force and practise how that the Commons exhibited a Petion that Lollards arrested by the Statute 2· H. 4. should be bayled and that none should arrest but the Sheriffe and other lawfull Officers and that the King did answer to it Le Roys ' advisera This I am bold to let you know take it as you please Next for His Majesties Declarations you deale with Him in them as in the Petition if not somwhat worse His Majestie finding by good tokens that some such wretched instrument as your selfe had spread a jealousie amongst the Commons in that Parliament that there was no small feare of an Innovation in Religion as also that by the intemperate handling of some unnecessary questions a faction might arise both in the Church Commonwealth thought fit to manifest himself in two Declarations Of these the first related unto the Articles of Religion in this Church established wherein His Majestie hath commanded that in those curious and unhappy differences which were then on foote no man should put his owne sense or Comment to be the meaning of the Article but take it in the literall and Grammaticall sense shutting up those disputes in Gods promises as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and the generall meaning of the Articles according to them The second did containe the causes which moved His Majestie to dissolve the Parliament Anno 1628. wherin his Majestie protesteth that he will never give way to the authorising of any thing wherby any Innnovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unitie of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth So farre his Majestie And those his Majesties Declarations are by you either peevishly perverted in defence of your disobedience or factiously retorted on his Majestie as if not observed or scandalously interpreted as if intended principally to the suppression of Gods trueth I will begin first with that particular mentioned last of which you tel us plainly that Contzen the Jesuite in his Politicks prescribes this rule of silencing Controversies as an excellent way for the restoring of their Roman Catholik Religion in the Reformed Churches p. 114. As also from the Centuries that the Authors of corruptions and errours do labour to compose all differences with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or silencing of all Disputes that by such counsells the Emperor Anastasius being a favourer of the Arian heresy was moved to burie the principall heads of Controversie in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finally that the Arian Bishops
roborat was the Fathers Maxime I never read of Fast and preach till you made the Canon at least till you first brought it hither if you made it not And yet because of this and such like terrible Innovations as this you flie out extremely First unto Gods most secret Counsailes affirming most unchristianly and withall most shamelesly that this restraint of preaching in infected places was the occasion that the plague increased double to any weeke since the Sicknesse beganne p. 144. that it brought with it a double increase of the plague p. 50. an extraordinary increase the very first week of the fast together with most hideous stormes c. p. 148. Sir you forget that which was taught you by the Prophet Abscondita Domino Deo nostro that secret things belong to God and wee may aske this question of you out of holy Scripture What man hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Surely untill you usurped that honor by reason of that extraordinary calling which you so much brag of no man ever did Yet since you are so curious in the search of causes wil needs tell us what occasioned so great a sicknes look in the last words of the second homily of Obedience and you will find that nothing drawes down greater plagues from almighty God then murmuring rebellion against Gods Annointed Next you fall foule upon his Majesty and tell him plainly in effect but cunningly as you imagine that if he look not better to his Protestations the beauty of his royall name will bee blasted in the Annals delivered to posterity and that in them it will be said This King had no regard to sacred vowes and solemne protestations I see what Chronicles we shall have when you come to write them Caesarum contumeliis referta there 's no question of it From pulling downe of Preaching proceed wee next to setting up Idolatry which how you charge the King withall must next be shewed You tell us that the Prelates to justifie themselves in those Innovations which you unjustly lay upon them do plead the whole equipage furniture and fashion of the Kings Chappell as a pattern for all Churches in which there is an Altar and bowing towards it Crucifixes Jmages and other guises And why should Subjects be wiser then their King p. 165. To this you answer that the worship and service of God and of Christ you wil needs separate Christ from God do I what I can is not bee regulated by humane examples but by the divine rule of the Scriptures In vaine do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men p. 165. Well said the service in the Kings Chappell and that which is conforme unto it is a â—aine worship in the first place And what follows next The three Children would not bow to the Kings goodly golden Image The old Christians would not so much as offer incense in the presence of Julian the Emperour at his Altar nor at his command though he propounded golden rewards to the doers and fiery punishment to the denyers p. 166. This is plaine enough Here 's the Kings Chappell and the furniture thereof compared to Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julians Altar by consequence the King resembled â—o those wicked tyrants I now perceive what 't was you meant when you extoll'd so highly that Parrhesia which you conceive so necessary in a child of God p. 26.27 instancing there as here in the three Children Who feared neither the Kings big looks nor furious threats and Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who comming before Julian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith As in Elias when he retorted King Ahabs words upon him and the stout answer which Elisha made to the King of Israel adding for close of all that it were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardice of these times You would have every man it seemes as bold a Bravo as your selfe to bid defiance to the King at least to stand it out against all authority For for the proof of that brave Parrhesia which you so extoll you instance chiefly in such opposition as was made to Kings and therefore all your uses must be construed to reflect that way now your fourth use is this This makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacie in these dayes of lukewarmnesse and Apostacie in the proposall of your uses p. 128. and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and idolatry and superstition obtruded in stead thereof when notwithstanding we see many Ministers of Iesus Christ to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and a good conscience they will part with their ministerie liberty lively-hood and life too if need were This is that which keeps Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captains to keep their ground and not to flie the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemie c. p. 31. They are your own words one of the pious uses which you make of your so celebrated Parrhesia that freedome and liberty of speech against Kings and Princes or whatsoever is called God which you so specially commend unto your disciples Well then here 's superstition and idolatry but is there not a feare of the Masse also Sure it seemes there is For thus you close your answer touching the equipage as you call it of the Kings chappell the fashion and furniture thereof Lastly suppose which we trust never to see and which our hearts abhorre once to imagine Masse were set up in the Kings Chappell is this a good argument why it should be admitted in all the Churches throughout the Realm of England p. 166 Why how now zealous sir what Suppositions Ifs And 's in such an odious intimation as setting up of Masse in the Kings Chappell I will not tell you any thing of my opinion in this place but keepe it till I meet you at the halfe turne in the close of all Onely I needs must tell you here you might have dealt more curteously with your Soveraigne and Patron as you stile him had you the least part of that piety which you pretend to seeing so manifestly that in Seneca's words Jllius vigilia omnium domos illius labor omnium otia illius industria omnium delicias illius occupatio omnium vacationem tueatur The Kings great care to keepe his people in wealth peace and godlinesse if considered rightly might make the vilest of us all to serve honour and humbly obey him according to Gods holy word and Ordinance But you and such as you have a speciall priviledge which I much muse you did not plead when you were questioned publickely for your misdemeanours CHAP. IV. A plaine discoverie of H. B. quarrells against the Bishops in reference to their calling and
it then by a difficulty of obtaining Prohibitions from the Common Law And it is never more likely to be effected then when your selfe sit chiefe in your longed for Consistory with your Lay-elders round about you Then Kings and Queenes and whatsoever is called God must cast themselves before your foote-stoole as you your selves have told us in your publicke writings And as for businesse the Lawyers howsoever you count them now will have too little to maintaine them For this is reckoned by your Brethren amongst the excellencies of your discipline both for the wealth of the Realme and quiet of the subjects that thy Church is to censure those who are apparentle troublesome and contentious and without reasonable cause which you meane to judge of upon a meere will and stomacke doe vex and molest their brother and trouble the Country Where will your Civill government be then and who shall send out Prohibitions when that comes to passe CHAP. VII The foure last Innovations charged upon the Bishops examined severally and confuted The Alterations said to be in the Common Prayer-book Father of thine Elect and of their seede left out and why Of bowing in the name of Iesus The alterations said to be in the booke of Prayer for the fifth of November Prayers intended first against Recusants aswell appliable to the Puritans as some Lawes and Statutes The religion of and in the Church of Rome whether it may be said to be Rebellion and how the Prelates are chalenged in that respect The Arguments produced by H. B. to prove that the Religion of the Ch. of Rome is rebellion are either false or may be turned upon himselfe Of alterations in the Fast-booke The Letany of K. Edward altered because it gave offense and scandall to those which were affected to the Ch. of Rome Some prayers omitted in the Fast-booke and the reason why The Lady Eliz and her Children why left out in the present Collect. IN nova fert animus Your minde is still upon your Metamorphosis more changes yet and the next head of changes is altering the formēs of prayer particularly the booke of Common prayer that for the fifth of November and lastly that for the fast set forth by his Majesties appointment An. 1636. And first you say in the Communion booke set forth by Parliament and commanded to be read without any alteration and none other they have altered sundrie things p. 130. Ho there Who told you that the Common-prayer-booke was set forth by Parliament Thinke you the Knights and Burgesses of the house of Commons were busied in those times in making or in mending Prayer-bookes The Statute 2. 3. Edw. 6. c. 1. will tell you that the Common prayer booke was set forth in that very word by the Archbp. of Cant. and certaine of the most learned and discreete Bishops and other learned men of this Realme and being so set forth was by authority of Parliament confirmed and ratified as it related to the Subject Which course was after taken in the review of the said booke both in the fift and sixt of King Edward the sixt and in the first of Queene Elizabeth Being set forth then by the Clergie it was as you informe us commanded to be read without any alteration that was indeed done by authority of Parliament Doe you observe that ordinance do not you alter it and chop and change it every day at lest if you vouchsafe to reade it as perhaps you doe not And if it must be read without any alteration and none other why doe you quarrell at the reading of the second Service at the Communion Table before and after Sermon being there so ordered or use another forme of prayer then is there appointed Remember what you tell us here for you and I must talke about it in the next generall change Meane time what are the sundry things which you say are altered in the booke set forth by Parliament You tell us but of two and you talke of sundry How shall I credit you hereafter if you palter thus in the beginning But for those two what are they I beseech you Marry you say that in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progenie they have put out Father of thine elect and of their seede as it were excluding the King Queene and Seede Royall out of the number of Gods elect p. 130. This you have told us of in your Epistle to the King and in your Apologie and the Newes from Ipswich The Queene is more beholding to you then I thought shee had beene you take such speciall care for her Election But Sir a word before we part Who told you that this Collect was set forth with the booke allowed by Parliament I trow King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeth had no royall progenie so that this Collect could not bee then in Esse when the booke was made The first time it was made and used was at the happie entrance of King Iames on this Realme of England neither set forth nor ratified by any Parliament that hath beene since Now King Iames had at his first comming hither a royall seede but when his Majestie the King came unto the crowne he was then unmarried and after he was married had not children presently you know well enough Would you have had the collect passe as it did before Father of thine elect and of their seed when as the king whom you must needs meane by Elect in that place and prayer had no seede at all I hope you see your folly now your most zealous folly which made you in the Newes from Ipswich on the recitall of this supposed alteration to crye out O intollerable impietie affront and horred treason Most bravely clamoured The other alteration which you charge them with is that in all the common prayer bookes printed since the yeare 1619. in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter they have turned in the Name of Iesus to at the name of Iesus to countenance as you say their forced bowing to the name of Iesus you are still for to it Such change there is indeede but yet no alteration from the booke or text The Bishops Bible as they call it out of the which the Epistles and Gospells were first taken readeth at the name and so doth Bishop Iewell too citing this very text in the place and passage noted to you in the last Chapter And if you looke into the Bible of the last translation you finde that it is therein also at the name of Iesus so that you have no reason to repine at this which is a restitution onely of the proper reading and no change at all The second booke which they have altered as you say is that appointed to bee read on the fifth day of November published by authority of Parliament p. 131. set forth by act of Parliament p. 41. in the Margent ordered by Parliament in the second p. of your apologie ordered set forth and published
all by Parliament and yet the Parliament did nothing in it All that was done by Parliament was that the day of that deliverance was appointed for a kinde of holy day wherein the pâ—ople were to meete together to set forth Gods glory and it was there enacted also that upon every such day that very statute of the institution should be read publickly to the Congregation Of any forme of prayer set forth or afterwards to be set forth ne gry I am sure in all that statute The booke was after made and published by the Kings authority without the trouble of a Parliament However being set out and published though not by Parlament you cannot but be grieved at the alterations Well what are they First you complaine that whereas in the former booke there was this passage Roote out that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. in the Edition A. 1635. it is set downe thus Roote out that Babilonish and antichristian Sect of them which say of Hierusalem c. Here 's of them added more then was And this you thinke doth make a great and fearefull difference For whereas in the Originall it was plainely meant that all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. this latter booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it on those Puritans that cry downe with Babilon that is Poperie which these men call Hierusalem and the true Catholick Religion p. 130 131. It seemes you have a guilty conscience you would not start so much at this else Quid prodest non habere conscium habenti conscientiam sayd the Father rightly That Babylonish Sect which say and that Babylonish Sect of them which say make 's so little difference that were you not guilty to your selfe of many ill wishes against Hierusalem you would not have so stomacked at the alteration And being that it is confessed by you their Oracle that the Puritans doe cry downe with our Hierusalem by them called Poperie they come within the compasse of the prayer take which forme you list either that Babilonish Sect or that Babilonish Sect of them Nor is it strange that so it should bee For howsoever the Iesuites Priests and their confederates were at first intended yet if the Puritans follow them in their designes of blowing up the Church and State and bringing all into a lawlesse and licentious Anarchie the prayer will reach them too there 's no question of it The Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. Confirmatorie of the Common prayer booke hath ordained severall penalties for such as shall deprave the said booke of Common prayer or obstinately refuse to use it or use any other forme of prayer then that there appointed as also a particular mulct of 12d toties quoties upon every man that doth absent himselfe from Church on Sundaies and holy dayes This was intended at the first against Recusants there being then no Puritans in rerum natura And may not therefore all the penalties therein contained be justly laid upon the Puritans if they offend in any of the kinds before remembred The like may also be affirmed of the High Commission established hereby at the first for the correction and reduction of the Papists being then the onely opposite partie to the Church and yet you know the High Commissioners may take a Puritan to taske if they finde him faulty That which you next complaine of is that whereas in the old booke the prayer went thus Cut off these workers of iniquity whose Religion is rebellion whose faith is faction it is now altered into this who turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction Hereupon you inferre that these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to bee termed rebellion and their Faith faction as the antient Copie plainely shewes it to be but turne it off from the Religion to some persons which turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction so as by this turning they plainely imply that the Religion of Papists is the true Religion and no rebellion their Faith the true faith no faction p. 131. You make another use of it in your Apologie and tell us that it tendeth to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons traytors and to usher in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry p. 3. Here is a change indeede you say right in that but that which you inferre thereon is both false and scâ—ndalous For taking it for granted that they by whose authority the said clause was altered thought it not fit to call the Religion of the Church of Rome rebellion or the Faith therein professed faction must it needs follow thereupon that by so doing they imply that that religion is the true religion and that faith the true faith There 's a non sequitur with a witnesse There is a kinde of religion amongst the Turkes Because I cannot say that their religion is rebellion doe I imply so plainely as you say they doe that therefore their religion is the true religion And there 's a faith too questionlesse among the severall Sects of Christians in the Easterne Muscovite and African Churches Because I thinke not fit to say of any of them that their faith is faction must I conclude astringently therefore the faith profest by each particular Sect is the true faith You might well tax me should I say the one and I may laugh at you for concluding the other Adeo argumenta ex falso petita inepto habent exitus as Lactantius hath it Your use is yet more scandalous then your inference false For how doth this tend to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons and Traytors The treasons and the traytors stand as before they did unlesse the staine be laid more deepe upon them then before it was Before the imputation seemed to rest on the faith it selfe which being a generall accusation concerned no more the guilty then it did the innocent But here it resteth where it ought upon the persons of the Traytors who are not hereby justified or their crime extenuated but they themselves condemned and the treason aggravated in an higher manner That which comes after of ushering in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry is but your ordinary flourish one of your generall calumnies and needes not a particular answer O but say you and undertake to make it good the very religion is rebellion and the faith is faction and therefore there was somewhat in the chang which deserved that censure That their religion is rebellion you prove two wayes First because the Iesuites and Seminary priests refuse to take the oath of Supremacie which is injoyned to all Papists 3. Iac. c. 4. You must needes shew your law you have such store of it For speake man was the oath of Supreamacie enacted 3. Iacobi Then am I out againe for my bookes tell me it was 1 Elizabethae In your Apologie you place the oath of
instruction of others those most especially whom you have seduced My use shall be that they continue stedfast in their full obedience to God the King Gods deputie the Prelates of the Church being Gods Ministers and the Kings and that they doe not suffer themselves to bee carryed up and downe with every blast of doctrine by the subtletie of those who onely labour to deceive them I know it is a fine perswasion to make the common people think that they have more then private interest in the things of God and in the government of States nothing more plausible nor welcome to some sort of men such whom you either make or call free Subjects This Buchanans device to put the sword into the hands and managing of the people in that his most seditious maxime Populo jus est imperium eui velit deferat And such the doctrine of Cleselius one of your brethren in the cause a furious Contra-Remonstrant of Roterdam who laid it for a doctrine before his audience that if the Magistrates and Ministers did not do their parts to preserve Religion then the people must licet ad sanguinem usque pro ea pugnarent what blood soever should bee spent in pursuite thereof Such grounds were also laid in Queene Elizabeths time by those who then were held as you thinke your selfe the Grand supporters of the cause men like to Theudas in the Acts who thought themselves as you doe now to be some great Prophets and drew much people after them so many that they threatned to petition to the Queenes highnesse with no fewer then 100000. hands But what became of these jolly fellowes They perished as many as followed after them redacti sunt ad nihilum and are brought to nothing nothing remaining of them now but the name and infamy Nor can I promis better to those who pursue their courses and either furiously runne or else permit themselves to bee drawne along into those rash counsailes which as they are begunne in disobedience and prosecuted equally with pride and malice so can we not expect that they should have a better end then calamitous ruine And therefore I shall earnestly beseech and exhort all those who have beene practised with by this kind of spirits if such at least may cast their eyes on any thing which is not made to feede their humour that they would seriously endeavour the Churches peace and conscionably submit themselves to their superiours in the Lord not following with too hastie feete those Ignes fatui who onely leade them on to dangerous precipices and dreadfull down-falls The greatest vertue of a Subject is his free obedience not grudgingly or of necessity or for feare of punishment whether it be unto the King as unto the chiefe or unto Governours as unto them which are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well Suspition as it is in Kings the sicknesse of a tyrant and so his Majestie King Iames conceived it so is it in a Subject the disease and sicknesse of a mischievous braine apt upon every light surmise to entertaine undutifull and pernitious counsailes The safest man is he that thinkes no evill and entertaines not rashly those unjust reports which are devised and spread abroad by malicious wits of purpose to defame their betters that they themselves might gaine applause and be cryed up and honoured yea tantum non adored by poore ignorant men who doe not understand aright what their Projects ayme at Lastly I must informe both you and them that howsoever it was thought not to bee unfit that at this present time an Answer should be made unto all your quarrells that so the people whom you have seduced might see the errour of their courses yet neither you nor they must expect the like on all or any of those factious provocations which every day are offered to the publicke governement Things that are once established by a constant law are not at all to be disputed but much lesse declamed against or if they bee will finde more shelter from the lawes then from their Advocates These scandalous and seditious pamphlets are now growne so rife that every day as if wee lived in the wild of Africke doth produce new Monsters there being more of them divulged at this present time then any former age can speake of more of these factious spirits quam muscarum olim cum caletur maxime then there are Scarabees and Gad-flies in the heat of Summer And should the State thinke fit that every libell of yours and such men as you should have a solemne Answer to it you would advance your heads too high and thinke you had done somthing more then ordinary which should necessitate the state to set out Apologies That as it would encourage you to pursue your courses so would it suddenly dissolve the whole frame of government which is as much endangered by such disputations as by disobedience And yet I would not have you thinke that you are like to find those daies whereof Tacitus speaks ubi sentire quae velis quae sentias loqui liceat in which you may be bold to opine what you list and speake what ever you conceive much lesse to scatter and disperse in publick what ever you dare speake in private Princes have other waies to right themselves and those which are in authority under them then by the pen and such as will fall heavier if you pull them on you Kings the governors of states as they participate of Gods power and patience so doe they imitate him in their justice also and in their manner of proceeding against obstinate persons God is provoked every day so Kings God did sometimes expostulate with his faulty people and so doe Kings God sometimes did imploy his Prophets to satisfie the clamours and distrusts of unquiet men and thus Kings doe also But when the people grew rebellious and stif-necked and would not heare the Charmers voice charme hee never so wisely God would no longer trouble himselfe in seeking to reclaime them from their peevish folly but let them feele the rod and the smart thereof till the meere sense of punishment had weaned them from it So howsoever it bee true convitia spreta exolescunt that scandalous pamphlets such as yours and those which if not yours are now spread abroad have many times with much both moderation wisdome been slighted and neglected by the greatest persons yet if the humor be predominant and the vein malignant it hath beene found at other times as necessary that the tongue which speaketh proud words be cut off for ever Nor would I have you so farre abuse your selfe as to conceit that none of these seditious Pasquils which are now cast into the world doe concerne the King For as Saint Paul hath told us that whosoever doth resist the power resists the ordinance of God because there is no power but it is from
God So whosoever doth traduce and defame those men which are in chiefe authority under the King doe defame the King because they have their dignities and authorities from and under him And thus it was affirmed in Vdals case one of your Fathers in the faction being arraigned upon the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. For when it was pretended for him that he defamed not the Queen which the law provided for but the Bishops onely it was resolved that they who spake against her Majesties supreme government in cases Ecclesiastical her lawes proceedings and all those Ecclesiasticall officers which rule under her did defame the Queeene Your case being just the same with Vdalls nor you nor any such as you have reason to perswade your selves but that your scandalous Pasquills doe as neerely concerne the King as those did the Queen or that you shall be answered alwayes edictis melioribus with pen and paper If Authority hath stooped so low this once to give way that your seditious pamphlets should come under an examination and that an Answer should be made to all the scandalous matters in the same contained I would not have you thinke it was for any other cause but that your Proselytes may perceive what false guides they follow and all the world may see how much you have abused the King and his Ministers with your scandalous clamours Which done and all those cavills answered which you have beene so long providing it is expected at their hands that they rest satisfied in and of the Churches purposes in every of the things objected and looke not after fresh Replies upon the like occasions And so I leave both you and them with those words of Solomon which you have so perverted to your wretched ends My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall arise suddainely and who knoweth the ruine of them both FINIS ERRATA For Saltem p. 3. l. 9. r. Saltum p. 17. l. 2. for of r. that of il l. 12. dele And. p. 28. l. 25. for ab r. at that p. 33. l. 24. for sure r. free p. 37. l. 27. for and r. what p. 52. l. 10. for I. audr i. e. p. 53. l. 23. for by r. and by p. 70. l. 26. for Instance r. inference p. 78. l. 16. d. next for your charges p. 86. l. 1. del in p. 90. l. 20. for a. r. on a. p. 96. l. 25. for to r. of p. 104. l. 3. for will r. good will ib. l. 31. dele But. p. 105. l. 9. dele But. p. 107. l. 3. for cautio r. cautum p. 115. l. 22. dele momes p. 119. l. 12. for Ithicly r. Iphycly p. 122. l. 29. for a discourse r. their discourses p. 123 l. 23. for meete r. meate p. 127. l. 1. r. the Thesis p. 142. l. 5. for coequall r. coâ—evall p. 144. l. 20. for For as the r. And as for the. p. 146. l. 1. for Count r. court l. 11. for your r. the. p. 149. l. 2. for change r. charge p. 153. l. 4. for hereby r. verely p. 157. l. 6. for a r. as 1 Cor. 13.23 2. Pet. 2.10 Jude 16. 2. Pet. 2.12 Jude 17.18 Jude 15. De haeres c. 23. Cann 83. Orat. pro M. Marcell Ep. to the King Apolog. p. 6 Philip. 2. Pag 111. Diog. Laert. part 3. c. 15. part 3. c. 9. Tacit. in vica Agricolae Paterculus Phil. de Comiues lib. 3. cap. 15. In Rom. cap. 13. Institut lib. 4. c. ult Lucan Acts 4. Rom. 13.5 hist l. â— Lib. 7. c. 17. In Psal 10â— Hist l. 53. Rom. 13.4 Cicero Philip 2. Rom. 14. Confess â— 8 Tacit. Annal. Epistle Deâ—â—â—â—t to the king Paterculus Institut l. 4. Sect. 15. Lib. 3. cap. 3. In vit Augustini c. 8 Bishop of Elys Epistle Ded. before his treatise of the Sabbath Lucan lib. 1 Tullie Phil. 2. Lib. 4.14 Tacit. in viâ—a Agricol Epist Dedicat Can. 18. Art 3. â— 26 Lib. 5.29 Lib. 131. Statute 1. Eliz. cap. 2. Art 3. s 26 Apologie part 3 cap. 15. p. 226. v. Hooker in the Preface to his Eccl Politie The Prelats falsly charged with attributing Popish merit unto Fasting of putting downe Lectures cutting short of Sermons the prayer before the Sermon Catechizing No innovations either in the role of faith or manners (a) Instit l. 4. c. ult (b) In Rom. 13. (c) De Iure regui Holy Table p 183 speech in Starre Chamber 3 Edw. l. 33 Necessaria Responâ—io p. 83. Cont. Bellar. de Peccat origi Hist of K. H. 7. by the Vis S. Alb. Glanvilâ— l 14 Bracton l. 2. Stewes Aâ—n Holling h. p. p. 778. Deiure Reg. Marca Resp pars 2. p. 50. 1. Pet. 2.13.14 Hist l. â— Rom. 13 Sutelâ—sses Answ p. 3.