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
neither For at the beginning of November when you Preached that Pasquil of the Fifteene hundred there were not twice fifteen that 's not halfe your number involved in any Ecclesiasticall censure of what sort soever and not above sixteene suspended Sixtie and sixteene are alike in sound but very different in the number and of those sixteene eight were then absolved for a time of further triall to be taken of them and two did voluntarily resigne their places so that you have but six suspended absolutely and persisting so Now of the residue there was one deprived after notorious inconformitie for 12. yeeres together and finall obstinacie after sundry severall monitions eight excommunicated for not appearing at the Court and foure inhibited from preaching of the which foure one by his education was a Draper another was a Weaver and the third was a Taylor Where are the 60. now that you so cry out of I have the rather given you this in the particulars which were collected faithfully unto my hands out of the Registerie of that Diocesse that you and other men may see your false and unjust clamours the rather because it was related to me by a friend of mine in Glocestershire that it went current there amongst your Brethren that your said 60. were suspended for no other cause then for repeating the doxologie at the end of the Lords Prayer So for your other number betweene 60. and 80. suspended upon day till Christmasse or Christide as you please to phrase it upon examination of the Registers there appeare but eight and those not all suspended neither two being Excommunicated for not appearing Eighty and Eight doe come as neere in sound as Sixtie and Sixteene before but differ more a great deale in the Calculation And so much for the grand persecution in the Diocesse of Norwich How doe you find it pray you in other places Why more or lesse say you over al the Kingdom For you complaine as truly but more generally p. 27. that many Godly Ministers in these dayes are most unjustly illegally yea and incanonically also in a most barbarous and furious manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and deprived of all livelihood and means to maintaine themselves How just soever the cause be on the Prelates part and that there be no other means to bring things to right there where the Orders of the Church are so out of order then by the exemplary punishment of the most pervers to settle and reduce the rest yet persecution it must be if you please to call it so Such Innocent people as your selfe that runne point-blanck against the Orders of the Church cannot be censured and proceeded with in a legall way but instantly you cry out a Persecution But thus did your Fore-fathers in Queene Elizabeths time et nil mirum est si patrizent filij CHAP. VI. The foure first Innovations charged by H. B. upon the Bishops most clearely proved to be no Innovations Eight Innovations charged upon the Bishops by H. B. King James his order to young Students in Divinity made an Innovation in point of doctrine the reason of the said order and that it was agreeable to the old Canons of this Church Another Order of King James seconded by his Majesty now being with severall Bookes of private men made an Innovation of the Bishops No difference betweene the Church of Rome and England in Fundamentalls Private opinions of some men made Innovations in point of doctrine The Pope not Antichrist for any thing resolved by the Church of England The doctrine of Obedience and of the Sabbath not altered but revived explained and reduced to what it was of old No Innovation made in point of discipline A generall view of Innovations charged upon the Bishops in point of worship Bowing at the Name of Jesus praying towards the East and adoration towards the Altar no new Inventions not standing up at the holy Gospel Crosse-worship falsely charged upon the Bishops No Innovation made by the Bishops in the civill government The dignity and authority of the High-Commission AS is the persecution such are the Innovations also which you have charged upon the Bishops both yours and so both false alike Yet such a neat contriver are you that you have made those Innovations which you dreame of the cause of all that persecution which you so cry out of For in your Pasquil it is told us that we may see or heare at the least of oâ—d heaving and shoving to erect Altar-worship and Jesu-worship and other inventions of men and all as is too plaine to set up Popery againe and for not yeelding to these things ministers are suspended excommunicated c. pag. 25 And pag. 64. you ground the persecution as you call it in the Diocesse of Norwich upon the violent and impetuous obtruding of new Rites and Ceremonies monies You call upon the Bishops by the name of Iesuiticall novell Doctors to blush and be ashamed and tell them that they doe suspend excommunicate and persecute with all fury Gods faithfull ministers and all because they will not they may not they dare not obey their wicked commands which are repugnant to the lawes both of God and man p. 81. If this be true if those that bee thus dealt with bee Gods faithfull ministers and the commands imposed upon them so wicked as you say they are contrary to the lawes both of God and man and tending so notoriously to set up Popery againe you have the better end of the staffe and will prevaile at last no question Meane while you have good cause as you please to tell us to comfort your selfe and blesse the name of God in that he hath not left himselfe without witnesse but hath raised up many zealous and couragious champions of his truth I meane faithfull ministers of his word who chuse rather to lose all they have then to submit and prostitute themselves to the wicked unjust and base commands of usurping Antichristian mushromes their very not yeilding in this battel being a present victory p. 83 But on the other side if the commands of the Superior be just and pious agreeable to the orders of the Church and all pure antiquity then are your godly faithfull ministers no better then factious and schismaticall persons and you your own deare self a seditious Boutefeiu so to incourage and applaud them for standing out against authority This we shall see the better by looking on those Innovations which as you say The Prelates of later dayes have haled in by head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the land and much more the law of God p. 111. These you reduce to these eight heads viz. 1. Innovation in doctrine 2. in discipline 3. in the worship of God 4. in the Civill government 5. in the altering of bookes 6. in the meanes of knowledge 7. in the rule of faith and 8. in the Rule of manners It is a merry world mean-while when you
them Iew then the Christian in them about the time when the declaration came forth All that my Lord the Archbishop had to doe therein was to commit the publication of it to his suffragan Bishops according to his Maties just will and pleasure and if that be the thing you except against your quarrell is not at his Act but his obedience Last of all where you say that with his right hand he is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven and that hee hath a Papall infallibility of spirit by which as by a Divine Oracle all questions in religion are finally determined that onely is put in because you have a minde to charge on him those innovations as you call them that you complaine of in the Church What innovations you have noted wee shall see hereafter when they will prove to be no other then a sicke mans dreame I onely tell you now that in all the Hierarchy you could not possibly have pitched on one lesse liable and obnoxious to the accusation For being vir antiquae fidei and antiquissimi moris take them both together you may be sure he neither will nor can doe any thing that tends to innovation either in faith or discipline In case your selfe and such as you would suffer him in quiet to restore this Church to its antient lustre and bring it unto that estate in which it was in Queene Elizabeths first time before your predecessours in the faction had turned all decency and order out of the publicke service of Almighty God I dare presume he would not trouble you nor them by bringing in new ordinances of his owne devising But this if he endeavour as hee ought to doe you charge him presently for an innovator not that he innovates any thing in the antient formes of worship in this Church established but that he labours to suppresse those innovations which you and those of your discent have introduced into the same But one may see by that which followes that it is malice to his person and no regard unto the Church that makes you picke out him to beare so great a share in these impudent clamours For where his grace had tooke great care for inhibiting the sale of bookes tending to Socinianisme and had therefore received thankes from the penne of a Iesuite as your selfe informes us that his most pious care is by you calumniated for prohibiting of such bookes as exalt the sole authority of Scripture for the onely rule of faith p. 153. I see Socinus and his followers are beholding to you for your good opinion and so you may cry downe the Prelates you care not how you doe advance the reputation of such desperate heretickes But it is now with him and the other Prelates as heretofore it was with the Primitive Christians Tanti non est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum as Tertullian hath it Nor stay you here Other particulars there are which you have a fling at You tell us of my Lord of Ely whose bookes you are not fit to carry that if he undertake an answer unto your doughty dialogue betweene A. and B. Surely he will sacrifice all the remainder of his reason if any be left in him upon it Why so For you are sure he can neuer answer it except with rayling and perverting wherein lyeth his principall faculty your owne you meane in fighting against the truth c. p. 127. Of my Lord Bishop of Chichester you give this Item that it were strange if such a mystery of iniquity as you there complaine of should be found in any but a Prelate and in this one by name for a tryed champion of Rome and so devout a votary to his Queene of Heaven p. 126. My Lord of Norwich is entituled in the Newes from Ipswich by the name of little Pope Regulus most exceeding prettily And finally you tell us of those Bishops that attend the Court whom you include unâ—er the name of Amasiahs as did your learned Counsell in his Histrio-Mastix that there 's not any thing more common in their mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the land the Kings most loyall dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects whom they accuse you say as factious seditious and turbulent persons dissaffected to present government enemies of the Kings prerogative and what not p. 48.49 So you but were it any thing materiall I could tell you otherwise and make it manifest both to you and all the world that those whom you traduce most fouly and against whom your stomacke riseth in so vile a manner are such who both for their endeavours for this Churches honour fidelity unto the service of the King and full abilities in learning have had no equals in this Church since the Reformation This could I doe if I conceived it proper to this place and time and that I did not call to minde what Velleius taught me viz. Vivorum ut magna admiratio ita censura est difficilis Nor doe you onely breath out malice but you threaten ruine you conjure all the kingdome to rise up against them and magnifie those disobedient spirits which hitherto have stood it out in defiance of them and seeme content in case their lives might runne an hazard to foregoe your owne For likening them unto the builders of the Tower of Babel p. 32. you doe thus proceede But as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so O Lord. p. 33. And more then so you tell us also by what meanes it shall come to passe viz. that it shall rise as it were from beneath them whereas their height seemes to secure them from all danger as trampling all things under feete c. yet by that which seemeth to them most contemptible shall they fall from that which is below them shall their calamity arise p. 97. However to make all things sure you stirre both heaven and earth against them You let the nobility to understand that if we sit downe thus and hide us under the hatches whilest the Romish Pirats doe surprize us and cut our throates c. What Volumes will be sufficient to chronicle to posterity the basenesse of degenerous English spirits become so unchristianized as to set up antichrist above Christ and his annointed and to suffer our selves to be cheated and nose-wiped of our religion lawes liberties and all our glories and that by a sort of bold Romish mountebankes and juglers p. 20. What then advise you to be done that in the name of Christ they rouze up their noble and christian zeale and magnanimous courage for the truth and now sticke close to God and the King in helping the Lord and his annointed against the mighty p. 23. In your addresse unto the Iudges you conjure them thus For Gods sake therefore sith his Majesty hath committed unto you the sword of Iustice
or if he had a sentence to reverse that also Or if you will not trouble your selfe in thinking of it will you be pleased to heare what our late Soveraigne King James hath observed therein If saith he Prohibitions should rashly and headily be granted then no man is the more secure of his owne though he hath gotten a sentence with him for as good have no law or sentence as to have no execution thereof A poore Minister with much labor and expence having exhausted his poore meanes and being forced to forbeare his studie and to become non-resident from his flocke obtaines a sentence and then when he lookes to enjoy the fruites thereof he is defrauded of all by a Prohibition And so he is tortured like Tantalus who when he hath his Apple at his mouth that he is gaping to receive it then must it be pulled from him by a Prohibition and hee not suffered to taste thereof So farre the Royall Advocate hath pleaded the poore Clergies cause And did he nothing as a Judge Yes he declared it to be his Office to make every Court containe himselfe within his own limits and thereupon admonished all other Courts that they should be carefull every of them to containe themselves within the bounds of their owne jurisdictions the Courts of Common law that they should not be so forward and prodigall in multiplying their Prohibitions But you will say perhaps that your exception lieth against the stopping of the course of Prohibitions not so much if at all in reall as in personall actions and that you are offended only because by this meanes the Kings Innocent Subjects are not relieved as you and Mr. Prynne once were from the unjust oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiasticall and High Commission Why what 's the matter There is you tell us a great persecution in the Church and many a faithfull godly Minister hath beene of late suspended from his ministery and outed of his benefice by the Prelates in the Courts aforesaid no remedy being to be had as in former times from the Common Law For as the common rumor goeth at least you make a rumour of it the course of Justice is stopped in these cases there being none dares open his mouth to pleade a cause against the Prelates So you in your addresse to my Lords the Judges p. 29. For an example of the which as well the persecution as the want of Remedie you instance in the Ministers of Surrey who are suspended of their ministerie and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all law and conscience yet are so disheartned and over-awed that they dare not contend in law against their Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winton for feare of further vexations and are out of hope of any faire hearing in an ordinary legall way p. 70. of your Pasquill What want of remedie can you or they complaine of if they have not sought it or rather if their conscience tell them and those with whom they have advised advertise them that in such cases as this is the Judges cannot by the law award a Prohibition if they should desire it Doe you conceive the case aright If not I will take leave to tell you His Maiestie having published his Declaration about lawfull pastimes on the Sunday gives order to his Bishops that publication thereof be made in all their severall diocesses respectively The Bishops hereupon appoint the Incumbent of every Church to read the booke unto the people that so the people might the better take notice of it and finding opposition to the said appointment made by some refractory persons of your owne condition presse them to the performance of it by vertue of that Canonicall obedience which by their severall oathes they were bound to yeeld unto their Ordinaries But seeing nothing but contempt and contempt upon contempt after much patience and long-suffering and expectation of conformitie to their said appointment some of the most pervers amongst them have in some places beene suspended aswell a benificio as officio for an example to the rest No man deprived or outed as you say of his meanes and livelihood that I heare of yet This is the Case Which being meerly Ecclesiasticall as unto the ground being a contempt of and against their Ordinarie and meerely Ecclesiasticall as unto the Censure which was suspension I cannot see what remedie you can find for them amongst the Lawyers but that which every man might give them good and wholsome Counsaile And call you this a persecution when a few refractarie persons are justly punished in a legall way for their disobedience For howsoever they and you pretend that the Command was contrary to the Law of God and could not be performed with a safe conscience yet this was onely a pretence their reading of the booke had the Contents thereof displeased them being no more an Argument of their approbation of any thing therein contained then when a Common Crier reades a Proclamation which perhaps he likes not It must be therefore some Association had and made amongst them to stand it out unto the last and put some baffle or affront on that authoritie which had imposed it Such also is the persecution doubtlesse which you so complaine of in the two whole Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space as you say there hath beene the foulest havock of Ministers and their flocks c. as ever our eyes have seene there being already as you tell us 60 Ministers suspended and betweene 60. and 80. more having had time given them till Christ-tide take head of Christmasse by all meanes by which time as you say they must either bid their good conscience fare-well or else their pretious Ministery and necessary meanes In all Queene Maries time no such havock made in so short a time oâ— the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole land p. 65. The same is also told us in the Newes from Ipswich Nay more then so you tell us how one or two godly Ministers some of your Associates were threatned by Docter Corbet Chancellor of that diocesse with Pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read His Majesties Declaration about lawfull sports In this you doe as shamefully belie the Chancellor as you have done the Bishop in all the rest of whose proceedings in that diocesse I will present you with a short account that you may see how grosly you abuse the world And first you may be pleased to know that the Clergie of that Diocesse comprehending all that are in spirituall dignitie or office and all Parsons Vicars Curates and Schoole-masters taking in the Lecturers with all amount unto the number of 1500. or thereabouts So that in case there had beene 60. of that Fifteene hundred suspended by the Bishop as you say there were had this beene such a terrible persecution as you give it out for But yet it is not so as you tell us
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
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
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-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
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