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
readeth them must margaritas e coeno legere as you told us lately Well Sir upon this generall custome of praying towards the East came in that adoratio versus Altare you complaine of though not Altaris as you charge it When men first entred into the house of God they used some lowly reverence to expresse or intimate that the place they stoode upon was holy ground and because meÌ„ diduse to pray with their faces towards the East where the Altar stoode they made their reverence that way also Why should that offend you Old people use it still both men and women though now it be interpreted as a curtesie made unto the Minister If bowing towards the Communion table or before it be offensive to you at the administration of the Sacrament I would faine know upoÌ„ what reasons or why you stomack it that men should use their greatest reverence in so great an action Thinke it you fit the Priest should take into his hands the holy mysteries without lowly reverence or that it is an Innovation so to doe Then go to schoole to B. Iewell and let him teach you Harding makes mention of some gestures which at that time the people used as viz. standing up at the Gospell and at the preface of the Masse bowing themselves downe adoring at the Sacrament kneeling at other times as when mercy pâ—rdon is humbly asked What saith the Bishop unto this he alloweth them all kneeling saith he bowing i. e. that kinde of bowing which Harding speakes of and standing up and other like are commendable gestures and tokens of devotion so long as the people understandeth what they meane and applieth them unto God If you looke higher into the use and practise of the primitive times you cannot misse a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honour to the Altar in Ignaltus a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a respect showne unto the holy table in Dionysius de Heir cap. 2. as also an adgeniculationem aris Dei a kneeling downe before Altars in Tertullians time besides what you may finde in St. Chrysostomes Liturgie to the selfe same purpose No Innovation therefore as you would have it to bow before or towards the Communion table or to pray with our faces towards the East whatsoever you tell us On then good Sir to the rest that follow and first of standing up at the Gospell and reading the second service at the Altar what are they Innovations also For standing up at the Gospell it was enjoyned expressely in the first Liturgy of K. Edward 6. and practised also though not prescribed under that now in use amongst us Bp. Iewell as you see allowes it with whom you are not worthy to be named in the same day And for the practise of it take this of Hooker Because the Gospells which are weekely reade doe all historically declare something which our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe either spake did or suffered in his owne person it hath beene the custome of Christian men then especially in token of the greater reverence to stand to utter certaine words of acclamation and at the name of Iesus to bow Which harme'esse ceremonies as he tells us there was not any man constrained to use nor was it necessary all sorts of people using them without constraint till you and your forefather Cartwright made a scruple of it The first originall hereof is by antiquity referred to Pope Anastasius who lived in the 5. Centurie therefore no Innovation surely As little Innovation is there in reading the second service at the Altar or Communion table The Rubricke of the Church appointeth that it shall be so Compare the last Rubricke before the Comunion with the first after it and you will sooner finde your selfe an Innovator in so saying then any of the Bishops in so doing Nor was it onely so appointed and not done accordingly For learned Hooker tells us in the place last cited that some parts of the divine service of the Church are such that being they serve to singular good purpose even when there is no communion administred neverthelesse being devised at the first for that purpose are at the table of the Lord for that cause also commonly reade No Innovation hitherto Mas Burton but what comes after You make a noise of Image-worship and Crosse-worship I know no such matter no such enjoyned that I am sure of nor no such practised that I can heareof If any such thing be tell me who and when or I shall take you alwayes for a very false brother that make no conscience what you say or whom you slander I hope you doe not meane by Crosse-worship the signing young children when they are baptized with the signe of the Crosse or if you doe I trow you cannot take it for an Innovation Nor neede you feare Idolatry in that Christian usage as some clamoured once The 30. Canon hath so fully removed that feare that they that feare it now must be more then mad-men Thuanus one more wise then you is of another minde by much conceiving that the cautious and restrictions in that Canon used have in a manner more abolished then confirmed the true and proper use of that antient ceremony For speaking of the Synode in London An. 1603. and of the Canons then agreed on he saith as followeth Crucis ceremonia in Baptismate retinetur et explicatur sed ita et tot adhibitis cautionibus ut sacrosancti signi reverentia omnis aboleri potius quaem confirmari videatur No Innovations all this while but such as you have falsly charged upon the Bishops of Image-worship and Crosse-worship and therefore all your feares of setting up the Masse-God as you call it are all come to nought Hitherto we have found no novelty nothing that tends to Innovation in the worship of God but a reviver and continuance onely of the antient usages which have beene practised in this Church since the reformation and were commended to it from the purest ages And here we would have left this charge but that you tell us p. 158. that all those rites and ceremonies which are to be used in our Church are by an Act of Parliament prefixed to the Communion booke restrained to those only which are expressed in the same booke Either you are a very unlucky Lawyer or a very bad Church-man For tell me I beseech you where doe you finde in all that statute that there shall be no other rites and ceremonies used in the Church then are expressed in the booke of Common prayer That all those ceremonies which are expressed in the said booke shall be observed the statute doth indeede informe you but that none other shall be added that you finde not there The contrary you may finde there if you please to looke For it is said expressely that the Queenes Majesty may by the advise of her Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or Metropolitane ordaine and publish such further ceremonies or rites as may be most for the
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-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
are still the same Primus ad extremum similis sibi You and the Black Moores skinne will wash white together This is I hope enough to satisfie you touching the crying up of fasting and for the crying downe of preaching on the dayes of fast that hath beene spoken of already How far it is suppressed at all other times you meane to tell us in the next of your generall heades and we expect to heare what you have to say On then Your sixt generall innovation is in the meanes of salvation in which there are particulars very many which you charge them with As viz. in suppressing lectures cutting short preaching forbidding any prayer before the Sermon but that barren forme of words in the Canon using no prayer at all after the Sermon but reading a second or third service at the Altar Having no sermon in the afternoone catechizing onely for halfe an houre and that by question and answer onely and finally limiting all Sermons in great Cities and the universities to one houre so as the people cannot enjoy the benefit of more then one Sermon a day p. 150. These are the severalties contained in that generall head and they relate either to preaching or to praying or indeed altogether unto preaching and unto praying no further then as subservient thereunto First for suppressing Lectures why doe you reckon that for an innovation when as the very name of Lecturers and Lectures are in themselves a new and late invention borrowed by Travers and the rest towards the latter end of Queene Elizabeths time from the new fashions of Geneva We in the Church of England know no other names but Bishops and Curats and Curats are againe divided into Parsons Vicars and those which doe officiate for and under them now in the use of speech called Curats as by a proper and distinct name Your Lecturer hath no place in the prayers of the Church of England nor none amongst the termes of Law But being Geneva had it so a Doctor superadded to the ordinary Pastor whose office onely was to teach not to administer the sacraments or execute any other ministry to the Priest belonging it must needes bee disposed so here that by degrees insensibly wee might be brought more neere that Church There is a story of the Bats or Reremice that when the birds came to demand tribute of them shewing them their brests they said they were beasts and when the beasts came to them and craved the like shewing them their wings they said they were birds Your Lecturers in the same occasion are like these Reremice When subsidies were granted for his Majesties use if any thing was demanded of them by the Clergie they had no benefice no title and so passed for Lay and on the like demand made by the Laity they onely shewed their gownes and that made them Clergie Being then in themselves but a new invention and such as tended to bring in the greatest innovation in this Church that possibly could be projected how could you reckon the suppressing of them an innovation Now for these Lecturers we may distinguish them into Weekes-day Lecturers and Lords-day Lecturers As Weeke-day Lecturers you complaine how they are suppressed by that restriction in his Majesties Proclamation about the fast and tell us that the Prelates doe extend the letter of the Proclamation that if but one house in a Parish be infected the pestilence thus continuing and the fast not ceasing all wednesday sermons in the whole City must be suppressed p. 147 If so as so it is not you know well enough what reason had you of complaint Are there not holidayes so many that you and yours doe reckon them as a burthen both to Church and State Observe the holy dayes as you ought with prayers and Preaching and see what losse the Church would have or any of the people finde for want of Wednesday or any other weeke-day Lectures As Lords-day Lecturers we shall meete them in the afternoone wherein all sermons are put downe if you tell us true Next followes cutting short of Preaching How comes that to passe For that we must needes seeke elsewhere for here you tell us not Looke therefore in your 17. p. and there wee have it There you find fault with them that are all for outward formalities you being for none at all your selfe in that they place all the service of God in reading long-prayers and thereby excluding preaching as unnecessary and p. 158. commanding of long Matins instead of Preaching which as they are performed in Cathedrall Churches you call prophanely Long Babylonish service p. 160. This is the blocke you stumble at that whereas formerly you used to mangle and cut short the service that you might bring all piety and the whole worship of God to your extemporary prayers and sermons now you are brought againe to the antient usage of reading the whole prayers as you ought to do And call you this an innovation Are not you he that told us that the Communion-booke set forth by Parliament is commanded to be reade without any alteration and none others p. 130. And if you reade it not as it is commanded make you alteration thinke you Doe you not finde it also in the 14. Canon that All Ministers shall observe the Orders rites and ceremonies prescribed in the Booke of common-Common-prayer as well in reading the holy Scriptures and saying of Prayers as in administration of the Sacraments without diminishing in regard of preaching or any other respect how like you that Sir or adding any thing to the matter or forme thereof The very selfe same answer we must also make to another of your cavils about the using of no prayer at all after the Sermon but reading a second or third service at the Altar For being it is so appointed in the booke of Common Prayer that on the holidaies if there be no Communion shall be said all that is appointed at the Communion untill the end of the Homilie concluding with the Praier for the whole state of Christs Church c. The innovation is on your part who have offended all this while not onely against the Canon but the Act of Parliament by bringing in new formes of your owne devising As for forbidding any prayer before the Sermon but that barren forme of words in the Canon for being in the Canon you can give it no better Epithite if any such forbidding be it s but agreeable unto the Canon which hath determined of it long agoe and so no innovation of these present times Nor was that Canon any new invention neither when it first was made but onely a repetition and confirmation of what had formerly beene ordered both in King Edward the sixt the Queenes injunctions according to the rule and practise of the former times the Preachers then using no forme of prayers before their Sermons but that of bidding moving or exhorting which is now required in the Canon as may be plainely seene in Bishop
Latimers Sermons Bishop Iewels Bishop Andrewes and diverse others Your afternoone Sermons on the Sondaies if performed by Lecturers are but a part of that new fashion which before wee spake off and having no foundation in the Church at all it cannot be an Innovation to lay them by And if the Curate of the place or whosoever hath the Cure of Soules bestow his time in Catechizing as he is appointed that in effect is but to change one kinde of Preaching for another So that if he that hath the Cure doth carefully discharge his office and performe his duty you have no reason to complaine for want of having Sermons in the after noone I know it is the custome of you and yours to take up Sermons more by tale then weight and so you have your number you thinke all is right But as in feeding of the body one temperate meale digested presently and concocted throughly adde's more unto the strength of nature then all that plentifull variety of delicates which gluttony hath yet invented So doe they profit best in all heavenly wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who heare many Sermons but which heare good ones For limiting the Catechizing unto halfe an houre that 's ordered by the Canon also and it is ordered by the Canon that Children shall bee taught no other Catechisme then that set forth in the booke of Common prayer Not that the Curate is to examine them by question and answere onely without expounding any of the principles of religion which is that you quarrell but to examine and instruct them as the Canon hath it Yet so that under the pretence hereof nor you nor any such as you may assume that libertie as to turne simple Catechizing for the instruction of the youth and ignorant persons of the Parish into a Catechisme Lecture of some two houres long not differing from your mornings sermons but in name alone If in great Cities and the Viniversities Sermons are limited to the same time of the day or as your owne phrase is to one houre onely assuredly it is neither new nor strange The Sermon appointed for the morning being a part of the second service is to be read or spoken in all Churches at the time appointed by the Church Nothing in this de novo that I can heare of In Oxford it was alwayes so since I first knew it the Sermon for the Vniversity and Towne being expressely at the same time Nor neede you bee offended at it if by that meanes the people in those places cannot heare above one sermon in a day it being not many but good sermons not much but profitable hearing which you should labour to commend unto them but that you would bee some body for your often preaching Our Saviour tels us of some men that thought they should bee heard by much speaking and you are one of them that teach the people that they shall be saved by much hearing Your two last innovations I shall joyne together the one being in the rule of Faith which is now made you say to be the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelates p. 151. the other in the rule of manners which must not bee any more the word of Christ but the example of the Prelates lives and dictates of their writings onely p. 156. In this you have most shamefully abused your selfe and all them that heard you The rule of faith is still the same even the holy Scriptures nor can you name a man who hath changed this rule or made the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelats the rule of faith The application of this rule that is the exposition of the Script you must acknowledge to be in the Churches power or els you are no son to the Church of Eng. For in the Articles of the Church to which you have subscribed more thē once or twice it is said expresly that the Church hath authority in cōtroversies of faith that it is vwitnes a keeper of holy writ As also that it hath authority to expound the scriptur cōditioned that it so expound one place that it be not repugnant to another And for the judgmēt of prelats I know not how you can excuse your selfe before God almighty for not submitting therunto having called God to witnes that you would so do For when you took the order of holy Priesthood it was demanded of you in the Congregation whether you would reverently obey your Ordinary and other chiefe Ministers unto whom the government and charge is committed over you following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your self to their godly judgements and you made answer that you would the Lord being your helper Either then you must first cōvince their judgements of some plaine ungodlines or else your not submitting to them must be a plaine colluding both with God and man Reeve whom you jeere at so both in your Pasquil p. 152. and in your dialogue between A. B. saith no more then this and if you say not this you have not lied unto men only but unto God Nor is this any other doctrine then what was held for currant in Ignatius his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the Priests saith he submit themselves unto the Bishop Deacons unto the Priests the people to the Priests and Deacons And then hee addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule for theirs that faithfully observe this order So he And had you kept this order you had not so engaged your self in these factious brabbles wherewith you have disturbed both your selfe and others Touching the rule of manners that any hath affirmed or written that it must bee according to the Prelates lives and dictates you produce no proofe Onely you say and say it onely that they doe countenance allow and by Episcopall authority dispense with an heathenish kinde of life especially in most sacred times as the Lords day This is no proofe I hope but an ipse dixit or a petitio Principii take it at the best although it bee an argument you are used most to And I must answer you to this in the words of Tullie Quid minus est non dico Oratoris sed hominis quam id objicere Adversario quod si ille verbo negarit ulterius progredi non passis Till you bring better proofes for your innovations your selfe must be reputed for the Innovator and all the mischiefe which you have imagined against other men will fall upon your owne pate and deservedly too Hitherto you have acted the false Accuser and have done it excellently well none better In the next place you come to play the Disputant and that you do us wretchedly none worse For first you say that it is pleaded by our changers as you please to call them that they bring in no changes but revive those things which antient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at the Gloria Patri and at the reading of
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
draw it forth to defend the lawes against such innovators who as much as in them lieth divide betweene the King and the people p. 31. In that from Ipswich you and your brethren in that made it call out upon the nation generally saying O England England if ever thou wilt bee free from Pests and Iudgements take notice of these thy Antichristian prelates desperate practises innovations and Popish designes to bewaile oppose redresse them with all thy force and power Then those of the better sort O all you English Courtiers Nobles and others who have any love or sparke of religion piety zeale any tendernesse of his Majesties honour or care for the Churches Peoples or the Kingdomes safety yet remaining within your generous brests put to your helping hands and prayers to rescue our religion faithfull Ministers now suspended from the jawes of these devouring wolves and tyrannizing Lordly Prelates c. All sorts of people thus implored to promote the cause you labour to perswade the King in your Epistle Dedicatory before the Pasquill how deepely he is ingaged to close with God and his good subjects against all these innovators and disturbers of the peace and distracters of the vnity of his kingdome especially considering whose Vice-gerent he is and before whose woefull Tribunall hee must give a strict accompt how hee hath mannaged so weighty a charge in the Epistle to your Apologie Finally in your Pasquill p. 141. You tell us how it doth concerne our gracious Soveraigne our Nobles and Magistrates of the land to strengthen their hands with judgement and justice to cut of these workers of iniquity and to roote them out of the confines and limits of the Kingdome c. applying so to them a passage in the booke of prayers for the Gunpowder day intended by the Church against all such as are so treacherously affected as those traytors were Here is enough a man would thinke to effect the businesse yet this is not all For should there come a Parliament you would adventure your owne life to make sure worke on 't Assuring us that if it were a law in England as once amongst the Locrians that whosoever would propound a new law should come with an halter about his necke that if it pleased not the Senate the hangman was ready to doe his office and that if opportunity served you would come with an halter about your necke with this proposition that it would please the great Senate of this land to take into their sad consideration whether upon such woefull experience it were not both more honorable to the King and more safe for his kingdome c. That the Lordly prelacy were turned into such a godly government as might suite better with Gods word and Christs sweet yoke p. 109.110 Nay so transcendent is your malice that you propose a speedy execution of them as the only remedy to divert Gods judgements for thus you state the question in the newes from Ipswich Is it not then high time for his Majesty to hang up such Arch traytors to our faith Church Religion and such true-bred sonnes of the Romane Antichrist And anon after more expressely Certainely till his Majesty shall see these purgations rectified superstition and idolatry removed c. and hang up some of these Romish Prelates and inquisitors before the Lord as the Gibeonites once did the seaven sonnes of Saul wee can never hope to abate any of Gods Plagues c. And to the same effect in your addresse to the nobility All the world feele in what a distracted state things do stand what a cloud of divine displeasure hangs over us how ill wee thrive in our affaires c. Certainely if such be suffred to goe on thus as they doe God must needes destroy us p. 24. Finally that you may seeme to shew some compassion on them before the executioner doe his office you thus invite them to repentance Certainely hell enlargeth her selfe for you and your damnation sleepeth not if you speedily repent not p. 81. Of your Pulpit-libell Hanging and hell and all too little to appease your malice which is advanced so high that no chastizement of their persons but an utter abolition of the calling will in fine content you You may remember what you preached once at a fast in London Where pleading for reformation under Ioshua's removall of the accursed thing you told the people that the maine thing to be removed was that damnable Hierarchy of Bishops who made no matter of sincking Church and State so they might swimme in honours and worldly wealth This is the thing you aime at and so greatly long for which to effect you care not what strange course you run so you may effect it Scelus omne nefasque hac mercede placent Thus have I briefely summed together those most uncharitable and unchristian passages which every where occurre dispersed and scattered in your Pamphlets And having summed them up dare make a chalenge unto all the world to shew me if they can such a rayling Rabsakeh so sanguinarian a spirit so pestilentiall a disease in a Christian Church All the marre-Prelates and make-bates of the former times with those which have succeeded since though Masters in this art of mischiefe come so short of this that I perswade my selfe you doe condemne them in you heart as poore spirited fellowes in whom there is too much of that Christian prudence which you so deride p. 28. But I forget my first intent which was to muster up your raylings and produce them onely but not to quit you with the like though should I use you in your kinde and lay the whip on the fooles back it were a very easie errour and such as possibly might receive a faire construction Nam cujus temperantiae fuerit de Antonio querentem abstinere maledictis To speake of such a thing as you and not flie out a little were a kind of dulnesse Yet I shall hold my hand a while until we meete againe at the halfe turne where possibly I may be bold to tell you more of my opinion Meane time I hope you doe not thinke that all this barking at the Moone will make her either hide her head or chang her course or that by all this noise and clamor you can attract the Nobles Iudges Courtiers or any other to take part with you and follow those most desperate counsels which you lay before them The world is growne too well acquainted with these dotages to be moved much at them Nor could my Lords the Bishops but expect before hand what censures would be passed upon them by such tongues as yours if once they went about to suppresse your follies and to reduce the Church to that decent order from which your selfe and your accomplices have so strangely wandered Howsoever their great care deserve better recompense yet was it very proper you should doe your kinde and they may count it for an honour that such a one as your selfe
the Primitive Church As for Franciscus a S. clara being the book is writ in latine and printed in the parts beyond sea how can you charge the Bishops with it for that it hath beene printed in London and presented to the King by a Prelate you dare not certainely affirme but speake it onely upon heere-say p. 117. Or were it so yet being written in the latine it is meete for Schollers and such as understand that language not as your pamphlets are proposed unto the common people either to misinforme them or to inflame them As for the booke intituled the Female glorie you finde not in it that I see by your collections any thing positively or dogmatically delivered contrarie unto any point of doctrine established and received in the Church of England Some swelling language there is in it and some Apostrophes I perceive by you to the virgin Marie which if you take for Invocations you mistake his meaning who tells us plainly as you cite him p. 125. that the more wee ascribe unto her setting Invocation apart the more gracious wee appeare in our Saviours sight No Innovation hitherto in point of Doctrine From bookes set out by private men proceed we to the opinions of some certaine Quidams which you are displeased with and were it so as you report it yet the opinions of some private men prove not in my poore Logick an Innovation in the Doctrine by the Church delivered though contrary unto the Doctrine so delivered To make an Innovation in point of Doctrine there must be an unanimous and general concurrence of minds and men to set on foote the new and desert the old not the particular fancie of one private man And yet I think you will not find me out that particular man that hath defended any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and passed uncensured Yes that you can you say for certaine For a great Prelate in the High Commission Court said openly at the censure of Dr. Bastwick that wee and the Church of Rome differ not in fundamentalibus but circa fundamentalia as also that the same had beene affirmed by one Choune p. 122. Suppose this true and how comes this to be an Innovation in the Doctrine of the Church of England Hath the Church any where determined that wee and those of Rome doe differ in the Fundamentalls if not why doe you make this saying an Innovation in the Churches Doctrine The Church indeed hath told us in the Nineteenth Article that the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith it hath not told us that that Church hath erred in Fundamentalls The learned Junius could have told you that the Church of Rome is a true Church quoad essentiam according to the essence of a Church lib. de Eccl. cap. 7. and Dr. Whitakers that there were many things in the Church of Rome Baptisme the Ministery and the Scriptures quae ad veram ecclesiam pertinent which properly appertaine to a true Church An argument that neither of them thought that Church had erred in Fundamentalls And certainly if that confession of Saint Peter Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God Matth. 16. be that Rocke on which the Church of Christ is founded as all our Protestant Divines affirme it is the Church of Rome doth hold as fast on that foundation as you or any Zealot of your acquaintance and hath done more against the Hereticks of this Age in maintenance of the Divinitie of our Lord and Saviour then you or any one of your Divines be hee who he will But for the Church of Rome that it is a true Church and that wee doe not differ from them in fundamentalls you may see further in a little booke called the Reconciler doe not you remember it and the occasion of it too writ by the Bishop of Exeter now being and therein the opinion of some Bishops to the selfe same purpose and of some others also learned men whose judgement you preferre in other things more then any Bishops Had you but throughly studied the Reconciler as you should have done you had not made this quarrell perhaps none at all As for the other opinions of more private men that have offended you you goe on and say that Justifiâ—ation by works was maintained in Cambridge at the Commencement not long agoe and that Shelfords booke will prove Justification by Charitie as also that the said Shelford in that book maintaineth that the Pope is not Antichrist contrary as you say to the resolved Doctrines of our Church in our Homilies and else-where p. 122. and 123. In answere to the first of which I hope you doe not think in earnest that whatsoever point is ventilated and discussed in the Publike Schooles is presently conceived to be a Doctrine of the Church or that there hath beene nothing handled in those disputations but what is agreeable thereto Many things there both are and may be handled and propounded problematically and argued Pro and Con as the custom is as well for the discovery of the trueth as the true issue of the question betweene the parties And if you please to cast your eye upon those questions which have beene heretofore disputed at those solemne times how many will you find amongst them and those of your owne speciall friends in which the Church hath not determined or not determined so as they have then and there been stated and yet no clamour raised about it Nor doe you truely relate the businesse neither Thesis not being so proposed as you informe us Viz. That wee are Justified by Workes but onely that good Workes are effectually necessary to Salvation so that the principall part of our justification was by the Doctor then and there ascribed to faith workes only comming in as effectuall meanes to our salvation For Shelfords Booke what ever is in that maintained should as little trouble you if he ascribe a speciall eminencie unto Charitie in some certaine things it is no more then what was taught him by Saint Paul who doth preferre it as you cannot chuse but know before Faith and Hope Nor doth hee attribute our justification thereunto in any other sense then what was taught him by Saint James And here I purposed to have left you with these opinions of particular and private men but that you tell us by the way that by the Doctrine of our Church in the Homilies and elsewhere it is resolved that the Pope is Antichrist Your else-where I am sure is no where and that which you alledge from the booke of Homilies is as good as nothing The Second Homilie for Whitsunday concludeth with a Prayer that by the mighty power of the holy Ghost the comfortable Doctrine of Christ may be truely preached truely received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of sinne death the Pope the Devill and all the Kingdom of Antichrist Can you
advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
the Gospell bowing at the name of Jesus and to the high Altar removing the communion table to stand Altarwise placing of Images in Churches erecting Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Mattins instead of preaching and the like This said you answere hereunto that wee in this land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the law of God and the King And that there are no other rites and ceremonies to be used in our Church then those that are allowed by the Act of Parliament prefixed to the communion booke and are expressed in the same booke But Sir you may bee pleased to knowe that the commanding of long prayers is warranted by that Act of Parliament which you so insist on the prayers being made no longer then that Act commandeth and that our bowing at the name of Jesus is enjoyned by the 18. Canon which being authorized by his Majestie is the law of the King and being grounded on the second of the Philipians is the law of God Our standing at the Gospell and praying with our faces towards the East have beene still retained by our Church not out of any speciall Canon but ex vi Catholice consuetudinis by vertue of the constant and continuall custome of the church of God The placing of the holy Table Altar-wise and standing at the Gloria Patri have generally beene observed in Cathedrall Churches since the Reformation it being granted by a good friend of yours the Author of the holy Table that in some Cathedrall Churches where the steps were not transposed in tertio of the Queene and the wall on the backeside of the Altar untaken downe the table might stand as it did before along the wall For bowing to the high Altar I know no such matter either in practice or in precept for bowing towards it wee have the practice of antiquitie but no present precept Your friend and fidus Achates the good minister of Lincolnshire could have told you this that although the Canon doth not enjoyne it yet reason pietie and the constant practice of antiquitie doth that Church-men doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Liturgie and the Lay-men are commanded to doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Homilie and finally if there bee any proud Dames quae deferre nesciant mentium religioni quod deferunt voluptati as Saint Ambrose speakes that practice all manner of curtesies for maskes and dances but none by any meanes for Christ at their approach to the holy Table hee declares them Schismatickes bequeathing them unto Donatus with a protest that hee will never write them in his Calendar for the Children of this Church For Images in Churches and Crucifixes over the Altars finde you of all loves that the Church hath any where commanded them or any of the Prelates in their visitatioÌ„s given order for their setting up if not why do you charge it on her and bring not any proof at all that shee hath imposed it So that your answer being thus come to nothing the objection by you brought on the Churches part remaines unanswearable Viz. that the Prelates of the Church have brought in no changes but onely have revived those things which the antient Canons have allowed and prescribed the Law of God the King and the Act of Parliament either inabling them to doe so or not gainsaying it Secondly you object on the Prelates part that they bring in no Innovations no new rites but what hath been in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent places even the Mother Churches of the land so as all that they goe about is to reduce inferiour Churches to an unitie and conformitie to their Mother-Churches that bringing all to unitie they may take of that reproach which the Adversaries cast upon us in this kinde This is their Plea indeed you say wondrous honestly Would you could hold long in so good a veine and not flie out unto your wonted arts of Scandall and false clamours upon noe occasion For having pleaded thus you make an answere presently that the Cathedrals are the old high places not yet removed the antient dennes of those old foxes the nests and Nurceries of superstition and Idolatrie wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her VSVM SARVM to this very day p. 159. and finally that the Prelates make these mother Cathedralls being Romes adopted daughters their Concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing Idolatrous Masse-priests throughout the land p. 163. But Sir consider in cold blood that this is not to answere but to rayle downe Arguments His sacred Majestie in his resolution of the case about Saint Gregories Church neere the Cathedrall of Saint Paul did determine positively that all Parochiall Churches ought to be guided by the Pattern of the mother Church upon the which they doe depend and yet hee did declare his dislike of all Innovations and receding fromantient constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons Which makes it manifest that he conceived not this conformitie with the mother Churches to com within the compas of an Innovation But wherefore tell wee you of his Majesties pleasure which are not pleased with any thing that his Majestie doth except it may bee wrested to advance your purposes The Minister of Lincolnshire and any thing from him will be far more welcome and something you shall have from him to confute your follies who can doe more with you I am sure then the world besides Now he good man the better to pull downe the authoritie of his Majesties chappell hath told you somewhat of the authoritie of the Mother Churches What 's that Marry saith he In the name of God let the same offices be said in all the Provinces as are said in the Metropoliticall Church aswell forthe ordâ—r of the service the Psalmody the Canon as the use and custome of the ministration this he tels us was the old rule of the antient Fathers For this he cites good store of Evidence in his margin as his custome is and then concludes that it is a current direction in all Authors where you may see that by the rule of the old Fathers and your friends to boote whatever is the use and custome of the Ministration in the Metropoliticall Church the same is universally to bee received throughout the provinces And therupon we may conclude that by the old rule of the Antient Fathers by the direction of all authors and the authoritie of your good frend the minister of Lincolnshire in case the things that you complain of have bin and are retained in the ministration by the Mother Churches they ought to be retained also in Parochiall Churches especially if it be so ordered by the higher powers the Bshops and Pastours of the same Your scandalous and opprobrious speeches wee regard not heere in attributing to the Mother Churches those most odious names of high places dennes of foxes nurseries of