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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48308	Defensive doubts, hopes, and reasons, for refusall of the oath, imposed by the sixth canon of the late synod with important considerations, both for the penning and publishing of them at this time / by John Ley ... ; hereunto is added by the same author, a letter against the erection of an altar, written above five yeares agoe, and a case of conscience, touching the receiving of the sacrament, resolved.	Ley, John, 1583-1662.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1874; ESTC R21343	93,675	154

i The Councell of Challons Can. 18. p. 560. Symps of the Church It is reported of some that they compell the persons who are admitted in time of their Ordination to sweare that they are worthy and that they shall do nothing repugnant to the Canons and that they shall be obedient to the Bishops who ordained them and to the Church into which they are ordained which Oath in regard it is perillous we all inhibit and discharge And the Triburiensian Councell having a respect both to their credits and consciences made a cautelous Constitution k Presbyter in judicio ad jurandum cogi non debet sed vice Sacramenti per sanctam consecrationem interrogetur Concil Triburiens Can. 21. an 895. p. 782. Caranz edit 1633. That a Presbyter should not bee compelled to sweare but in stead of an Oath he should be questioned upon his holy consecration i. as it is probable in verbo Sacerdotis because as the Reason is there rendred our Lord forbade his Disciples to sweare Object But say some Did not all both minister and people in the City of Geneva which many magnifie as the Metropolis of Piety take an Oath for shutting out of Popery and setting up of the Presbytery without all this adoe Answ They did indeed sweare to banish the one and to establish the other as l Mr. Hooker in the Preface of his Eccles Polit. Master Hooker observeth but First Is it any good Argument that because they have sworne against the Prelacy that we must sweare for it men by law are not allowed to take contradictory Oaths and if there bee any Authority in their example it may serve rather to make us doubtfull then resolute to sweare though wee thinke it might bee more reasonable to require Geneva to receive some Doctrines from us then wee Discipline from them As concerning the Sabbath they of Geneva might have learned founder Instruction from our Homilies then wee from m Calv. Instit lib. 2. ch 8. Calvins Institutions though otherwise an excellent book or from the common practice of that City Secondly their Oath was not in ambiguity like ours nor is ours as theirs was regulated by Scripture For First they n Mr. Hookers Prefat before his Eccles Pol. fol. 5. p. 1. sware in plaine termes never to admit of the Papacy among them againe and among them it was not so ambiguous what points should be reputed Popish as with us it is Secondly to live in obedience to such orders concerning the exercise of their Religion and the forme of Ecclesiasticall Government as the true and faithfull Ministers of Gods Word had agreeably to Scripture set downe for that end and purpose Thirdly for the abandoning of Popery they might safely and heartily sweare and so could wee if an Oath were tendred against it which were not otherwise lyable to exception and for the Discipline or Government the Clergy made no scruple of it for they propounded it as a certaine preservative to the purity of Religion and the people were induced to receive it because it made them partakers of a new priviledge and that a great one for to one Pastour were joyned two Lay-elders in the Government of the Church and so their swearing was as the taking of this Oath by Archbishops Bishops c. a confirmation of their owne Interests Fourthly as they made no doubt of the lawfulnesse of the Oath so were they not urged unto it by any commination of danger and so their swearing might be with a free will not mixed either with reluctancie of conscience or with feare of penalty Fifthly the Discipline of Geneva is said to bee a o The Lord Archb. of Canterbury in his Speech in the Starre-chamb new-fangled Discipline of Calvins devising and it is further delivered as an undoubted truth p Bish Hall in his second undoubted proposit added to his Irrefrag pag. 6. That no man living no record of History can shew any Lay-presbyter that ever was in the whole Christian Church untill this present age But the Government by Bishops is held by those who propound this Oath to bee q The Archb. Speech forecited pag. 6. of divine right and to have continued in the Church r Bish Halls book his first undoubted proposit ever since the time of Christ and his Apostles untill this present age If so they of Geneva had need of an Oath to give strength to their new invented Government and we without an Oath might be confident of the continuance of ours according to the sound resolution of the renowned Doctor of the Law Gamaliel in the fifth of the Acts of the Apostles If this counsell or this worke said hee be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it lest haply yee be found even to fight against God Act. 5. v. 38 39. Pope Clement the seventh upon this ground though mistaken as in application to the Papacy grew very confident against the feare of a future Councell as the Authour of the History of the Councell of Trent reporteth in these words ſ Pope Clem. Hist Trent l. 1. p. 51. There was a fame spread the Pope would have no Councell for feare his Authority should be restrained areason which maketh no impression at all in him having his Authority immediatly from Christ with promise that the gates of Hell should not prevaile against it and the experience of former times hath shewed that the Papall Authority hath never been diminished by any Councell but according to the words of our Lord the Fathers have ever confessed it to be absolute and unlimited as it is indeed In word rather or in conceipt at the best and it was conceipt and no more that upheld his heart against all oppositions of his power And our reverend Prelates have so much lesse cause to feare their state though it be not supported by swearing as they have more warrant to build their hopes upon the oraculous sentence of that famous Doctor The other particular more especially respecteth the piety of the people whose consciences are like to be carefully guided by such Divines as are chary of their owne Of whose Ministry if they should be deprived it is not like that generally there would bee found a supply to countervaile the losse of their religious labours and exemplary practice the two chiefe helps to holinesse of life and we conceive it a point of Piety and a case of conscience worthy of the grave and godly consideration of the reverend Prelates to resolve whether because in this case wee dare not sweare God will reject our service in his Sanctuary if not why should they The saying of Wickliffe though condemned as hereticall in the Popish Councell of Constance may as we conceive with a little correction bee made a very Orthodox position and pertinent to this purpose Thus t Nullus Praelatus debet aliquem excommunicare nisi priùs sciat excommunicatum

conversation and practice then of preaching and therefore a preaching Ministry is comprehended rather under the head of Doctrine then of Discipline Secondly the necessity of Discipline here meant is not in respect of a preaching Ministry but of a ruling Episcopacy as is evident by that we now observed of the Speech of the now Archbishop of Canterbury the most authenticke Interpreter because the most Architechtonicall if not the onely composer of the late Canons But for the Adjuncts and Appendences to the calling of Bishops which Bishop Hall calleth b Distinguish betwixt the substance of their callings and the not necessary appendences Bishop Hall in the Corollary of his seven Irrefragable propos pag. 7. not necessary for many particular Canons and Ceremonies in constitution or practice which yet come under the name of Discipline or Government as hath been shewed they stand at a farre greater distance from necessity to salvation and therefore they are denied by the c Artic. 34. Doctrine and d In the Preface of the Communion book concerning Cerem why some are retained and some abolished printed 1625. Liturgie of our Church to be necessary to bee in all places and at all times one and utterly alike and if Generall Councells shall decree things to be necessary to salvation which cannot be so declared by Scriptures the e Artic. 21. same Doctrine teacheth that they are not to bee received for that would conclude damnation on such Churches as are without them There be degrees of necessity we grant as where it is said in the Catechisme of the Communion booke That there bee two Sacraments as generally necessary to salvation Baptisme and the Lords Supper onely two Sacraments in a proper sense though in a large acception there may bee as the Papists say five more as one saith f Dr. Meyer his explanat of the Catechism q. 181. p. 494. seventeen as another g Dr. Reynold in his confer with Hart. pag. 523. twenty seven generally necessary that is necessary for the state of the Church in generall without which it cannot be a true saving Church not necessary for every member of it in particular or necessary for particular persons if God give convenient opportunity for them not that God cannot or will not save without them where his ordinance is by himselfe denied not by men despised or slighted Thus we avoid the h In Catechismo duo Sacramenta necessaria ad salutem Quid suntne alia Sacramenta quae non sunt generalia omnibus communia ut Ordinatio alia generalia sed non necessaria ut Confirmatio Didoclau Altare Damascen p. 357. The other five though commonly called Sacraments are not to be accounted Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have growne partly of the corrupt imitation of the Apost Confer at Hampt Court p. 31. acception against our Catechisme made by some mistaken though well-minded brethren and so also shunne the Popish necessity of that Sacrament which is injurious to the salvation of little children departing this life before they have received the Sacrament of Baptisme But thus wee cannot salve the necessity of Discipline for though Discipline bee necessary for the Church yet the particular Discipline of our Church is not necessarie to salvation so that they cannot be true Churches and salvation in them which have it not i Adversarii nullam per Presbyteros ordinationem esse validam nisi in casu necessitatis i quando desunt omnino Episcopi aut deficiunt à fide Ibid. p. 220. For where there is a defect of Bishops or Bishops make a defection from the faith there an ordination by Presbyters is confessed to bee valid by those who are no friends unto the Presbytery an Ordination not onely of Presbyters but of Bishops as k Dr. Field of the Church lib. 5. c. 56. pag. 704. Doctor Field hath determined For saith he in cases of necessity as in revolt from the faith or where Bishops will not ordaine but such as consent to their Heresies when there is no hope of better Presbyters may choose out one among themselves to be chiefe and so adde others to their numbers by the imposition of his and their hands which giveth us occasion rather to admire then to beleeve That Priests made at Rome or Rhemes revolting from their Popish Religion should bee admitted to Benefices in our Church without a new ordination and that they who were made Ministers in Transmarine Churches should not be admitted unlesse first they were by Bishops ordained Deacons and Presbyters as l Sacerdotibus Pontificiis ordinatis regnāte Mariâ sive Romae sive Rhemis non opus erat novâ ordinatione sed Mariani Sacerdotes retenti in hunc usque diem Terellus Tytherus c. Contra qui erant legitimi in Ecclesiis Transmarinis Ministri non sunt capaces Beneficiorum donec priùs creati fuerint Diaconi Presbyteri per Praelatos ut oftendit exemplis Whitingami Traversi c. Didoclau Altare Damascen pag. 220. Didoclavius reporteth out of Johnson the Brownist And some of us remember that some of those who preferred Episcopacy above the Presbytery as gold above silver did yet allow it to be maintained in the Divinity Schoole m Ordinatio Ministrorum in Ecclesiis Reformatis est legitima This was publickly held in Doctor Hollands time who in the Act July 9. an 1608. concluded Quod Episcopatus non est ordo distinctus à Presbyteratu coque superior jure divino That the ordination of Ministers in Outlandish Churches is lawfull though without Bishops There was then no necessity that they should be ordained againe to make them capable of Benefices unlesse some positive Constitution of our Church required it much lesse was it necessary to salvation either their owne or others that Bishops should conferre any new orders upon them Doctor n Doct. Willet Synop. Papism 5. Gen. controv append ad 3. quaest p. 274. Willet mentioneth another necessity of the distinction of Bishops and Priests and so of Episcopall Government or Ecclesiasticall Discipline and that is for the avoiding of Schismes for else as o Tot essent Schismatà quot Sacerdotes Hieron advers Luciserian Hierome saith there would bee as many Schismes as Priests but this necessity will not serve to make the Crosier-staffe of Discipline equall to the Marble Pillar of Doctrine for support of salvation There is yet another necessity conceived of a contrary Discipline p The Kings large Declarat pag. 351. For in Scotland a parity of Ministers is preferred as Gods ordinance to Episcopacy an humane consuetude and this ordinance of Discipline without Bishops was conceived by the Divines of q Mr. Hookers prefat pag. 4. Geneva as everlastingly required by the Law of the Lord of lords against whose Statutes there is no exception to be taken and of this wee may suppose Master Cartwright spoke when hee said r Mr. Cartwrig see Archbish Whitgif Reply pag.

honoured throughout the Christian world and yet not by death translated to another life but alive and lively in very good health nor for the present at a remote distance in Ireland but in England in London where hee might be sure to be soone informed of the wrong and find a ready way to right himselfe Which may be a considerable occasion and motive to all men of eminent Abilities of whose worth the world hath taken notice by their workes to leave a perfect Register of the legitimate issue of their ingenious and studious conceptions intended and prepared for publicke use that when they are dead no suppositious brats may bee thrust in among them to claime a childes part of their fathers reputation To conclude for this short digression ended I have done with this Introductory Discourse If while I endeavour to avoid the inconveniences fore-mentioned I expose my selfe by a more generall view of this discussion of the Oath to more variety of censures which from some are like to bee severe enough for such as have thought us worthy to be undone if wee dare not sweare no doubt will entertaine these Doubts and Reasons with distaste I shall not need any other cordiall against their mis-conceits then to reflect first upon the integrity of mine intentions and the fidelity of my performance of this service and then upon the considerate subscriptions of such unto it as for their quicknesse of conceit and soundnesse of judgement so farre as I can judge are as well qualified for the g Vocabantur Critici quidam docti qui de scriptis aliorum judicabant reponendáne effent in Templo Apollinis an rejicienda Er●sio in Epist Hieron ad Rustic tom 1. pag. 52. Criticall Chaire as I can conceive them to be who with a dash of their pen would cancell what you and many others have confirmed with your hands To whom with the rest of my reverend Brethren I most willingly remaine A most entire and affectionate Brother to love and serve you JOHN LEY From my Lodging at the Fountaine in Pauls Church-yard Febr. 23. 1640. Die Martis 9. Febr. 1640. WHereas complaint hath been made unto us by James Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland that a certaine Pamphlet hath been lately most injuriously fathered upon him and spread abroad under the false title of The Bishop of Armagh's direction to the house of Parliament concerning the Liturgie and Episcopall Government It is this day ordered in the Commons House of Parliament that the Master and Company of Stationers and all others whom it may concerne shall take such course for suppressing of the said Book that they shal not suffer it to be put in print or if it be already printed not permit the same to be divulged And if any shall presume to print or publish the Booke above-mentioned That he or they shall be then liable to the censure of the said House H. Elsynge Cler. Domus Comm. A Preface to the READER written by N. E. Shewing that the Book concerning the Oath decreed in the sixth Canon of the late Synod as it was penned in good season so it is now published not out of season since it is yet of good use to divers purposes of great and permanent importance when both the Oath and Penalty be wholly suppressed WHen the Authour of this ensuing Treatise composed it there was by reason of the new enjoyned Oath much doubt and distraction among many godly and learned Ministers and for their sakes among the people also whereto these Doubts and Hopes and Reasons ministred a seasonable remedy for the Doubts put many out of doubt that the Oath as it was framed was to be refused the Hopes for all that upheld the heart against despaire of safety from the commination of the Canon and the Reasons gave support unto them both and all together with the learned ingenuity and pious modesty diffused through the whole frame and stile of the worke have so taken the hearts of divers Divines of eminent note for their good parts and great paines in their holy callings among whom were some whose dignity in the Church was by the Canon to be secured from alteration as to obtaine their hands for subscription unto it and to cause both them and many more to importune the publication of the Book though the Oath it selfe and Penalty annexed to it were disanulled since the matter and manner of it are both of that kind which may at any time entertaine a discreet and religious Reader with profit and delight For first albeit the Oath gave the motive to it yet it is not the Oath that makes the measure of it for besides that it compriseth many very observable matters concerning the purity of Religion without mixture of Idolatry the duties of Christianity the predominance of Prelates and priviledges of Presbyters with many other particulars of moment worthy of the publicke view if that so offensive and in respect of some I may say formidable Canon had never beene made And for the Oath it selfe this Booke will present unto the Reader very many considerable advertisements which no distance of time will put out of date Concerning First the Synod of Divines by whom the Canon was decreed Secondly those by whom it was disliked when it was knowne Thirdly their freedome from it who were in danger by it First for the Synod of Divines the many weighty exceptions against the Oath give just reason to suspect that it was not framed by common consultation among them but devised by some one or some few at the most who over-awed the rest and so obtruded it upon them without their good liking though great feare of opposing and little hope of prevailing which held them from making any open resistance against it To this purpose hath something been said on both sides for on the one it was told by a Favourite of a man of great power in the Synod as in praise of his prudence that hee composed the Canons before the Clergy assembled and on the other side which belongs to the second particular and leads us to it some of the Synod have professed so much dislike of that Canon of the Oath that had it been in their power to suppresse it it should never have proceeded beyond the breath that first put it forth And for the learned and pious Composer of these animadversions upon it though hee were a Clerke of the Convocation at Yorke he never heard of it untill it had obtained its finall approbation both in that and the other Province wherein yet hee was not wanting for the use of fit meanes for his due information for knowing that the Assembly at London was the Diall that at Yorke but the Clocke which was usually set and regulated by it presently after his returne from the first Session at Yorke hee addressed himselfe towards London for intelligence at the first hand that when the Canons were transmitted thither hee might be

the title page of his booke doth testifie setteth this Note upon that Article Touching this Article the greatest matter saith l Mast Rogers on the 35. Article of Relig. pag. 193. he is not Whether these Homilies meant and mentioned doe containe Doctrine both godly wholsome and necessary but whether Homilies or any Apocrypha writings at all may bee read in the open Church and before the Congregation Whereof in reason there needs no more refutation then the reading of the Article and the severall Titles and Contents of the Homilies annexed to it And though we like it well enough that his Testimony is sometimes excepted against as m By the Archbishop of Cant. in his answer to A. C. p. 47 48. proceeding from a private man yet since his glosse upon that authenticke Text hath commonly passed in the name and without the note of dislike of Authority it induceth us to doubt what Doctrine in those Bookes may be said to bee established in our Church and wee are the more unsettled in our conceipt thereof because wee see the Homily of the perill of Idolatry so little heeded and so much liberty of late taken to controll it with new Pictures in Churches that if the Homily were read in some of them it might be doubted by such as consider no more then what is presented to their senses whether there were not one Religion for the eares another for the eyes or whether the Lay-mens bookes or the Clergy mens were published with greater priviledge which hath been an occasion of Papists bragging n Charity maintained see Master Chil. Preface in answer to it p. 12. That our Churches begin to looke with a new face and their walls to speak a new language the face out-facing and the language contradicting the Doctrine of the Homilies We doe not meane hereby to charge those with Idolatry who have made it their care and have been at great cost to adde the beauty of henour in the walls and windowes of Gods house to the beauty of holinesse in the Communion of Saints who resort unto it and performe their solemn devotions in it wee doubt not but they are too wise to worship the worke of the pensill or any worke of mans hand yet wee beseech their wisedome to consider that the world groweth old and with age according to the Proverb becomes childish and children delight more to looke upon Babies then on the letters of their bookes or to learne their lessons and so that which by them was meant but for adorning the illiterate with the mutilation of a letter may turne to adoring and what was intended but to be a memorandum of History may be turned by some and taken by others as a memoriall of the mystery of Iniquity whereby the subtle may draw the simple from spirituall piety to sensuall superstition which was the evill effect feared by those grave and godly Divines who composed the Homily and for which cause they so zealously contested against all Images in Churches They had read no doubt with due regard the saying of St. o Malè vos parietum amor cepit malè Ecclesiam Dei in tectis aedificiisque veneramini Anne ambiguum est in his Antichristum esse sessurum Hilarius contra Auxent pag. 216. 217. Hilary against Auxentius Your love is fondly set upon faire walls you doe ill to make your respect of the Church by the outward splendour or statelinesse of structure know you not that Antichrist will set his Throne in such as these But this is his Quaere none of ours we goe on We had thought it had been the established Doctrine of the Church of England in the Homily of the time and place of prayer that it is a necessary and perpetuall duty by the fourth Commandement to celebrate one day in seven with religious observances but wee find that Doctrine publickly gain-said by divers and the Doctrine of the Popish Schoolemen as publickly maintained against it in divers Treatises in print And for the Articles of Religion themselves wherein chiefly wee conceive the Doctrine of our Church to be contained and by Authority both Civill and Ecclesiasticall to be established they are much impeached in the power and vigour of their stability by leaving such liberty for the points of free will predestination and possibility of keeping Gods Commandements as before hath been noted which by the 10.15 and 17. Articles are resolved against the opinions of the Papists and much more are they wronged by him who hath written a p Fran. à San. Clara his book called Deus natura gratia printed Lugdun 1634. Booke and therein hath laboured with much subtlety and diligence so to mince them by manifold distinctions and to wrench them from their proper to a Popish construction as if the Convocation that concluded them had had no mind or meaning to contradict the Councell of Trent and that now our 39. Articles were patient yea ambitious of some sense wherein they may seeme Catholick i. in their sense Popish as a late q See Master Chil. his Preface in answer to the Author of Charity maintained pag. 12. Papist with great boasting hath upbraided unto us So in the book called Charity maintained By expounding and applying of these Articles in a new way hath Franc. à Sanct. Clara troden out a new tracke though with many intricate turnings and windings in which men of equivocall consciences may send their faith to Rome while their affections keep close to their Interests in England and hath taught them to play fast and loose as to their Orthodox and Protestant sense so that as r Plutarch in the life of Alexander p. 110 Aristotle said to Alexander concerning his Physicks they were published and not published their words being read and their meanings not rought the Articles might be said to be established and not established established as a sacred Text but not established by meanes of an ambiguous Comment turning the Interpretation like a nose of waxe as easily to the left hand as to the right And how farre this cunning stratagem hath prevailed with some we cannot tell but as in charity we hope well of those of whom wee know no ill so in godly discretion wee dare not bee so confident in our good opinion as to sweare what we but thinke and wish to be true But though we cannot make faith upon Oath how farre our Doctrine is established as in opposition to Popery wee doe not deny but that our reverend Fathers and Brethren of the Synod might intend hereby more firmly to establish that Doctrine which is most repugnant to such opinions as they beleeved to bee properly Popish and the rather because wee have been credibly informed that the Oath was first proposed and so passed in the house of Convocation as an abjuration of Popery onely But a second time tendred as in a second edition it was augmented but as we conceive not amended when the Discipline or Government