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
might not be there being prayers enough without it because in the whole Tenor of it it soundeth rather like a complaint or a narration then a prayer Two other prayers you finde omitted the one for the Navie and the other for seasonable weather as if a forme of prayer fitted for a particular time and purpose must be still observed when there is no such cause to use it as at first to make it The Navie then went out against a great and puissant Monarch to set upon him on his owne coasts many leagues from home the honour and the fortune of the kingdome being layed at stake Now it keepes onely on our owne coasts without an enemie to bid battaile or to cope withall and rather is set forth to prevent a danger then to remove it being come The cases being different must we needes use the Prayers which were then set forth What thinke you of this clause Lord turne our enemies sword into their owne bosome Would that be proper at this time when as his Majestie is at peace with all his neighbours Had you not longed to picke a quarrell I finde not any thing in this that might provoke you nor could you possibly have pitched on any thing that had lesse become you For are not you the man that spake so much against long prayers as wee shall see anon in your next generall head of Innovations because thereby the preacher is inforced to cut short his sermon and doe you here complaine that the Prayers are shortned that so you may have libertie to preach the longer I see it were a very difficult thing to please you should a man endeavour it That which comes next is that the Prayer for the Lady Elizabeth and her Children is left out in the present fast-booke which were expressed in the former p. 143 and that as the Newes-booke saith while they are now royally entertained at Court My Lord the Prince Elector cannot but take this very ill that you should make his royall entertainement here a maske to cover your seditious and malevolent projects For you know well enough that not alone in this new fast-booke set forth since his arrivall here but long before his comming hither that excellent Lady and her children had not by name beene specified in the Common prayer booke Why did you not dislike that omission there as well as leaving out the Father of thine Elect Or will you have a reason for it why it was layed aside in both if you will promise to be satisfied by reason I will give you one and such a one as may suffice any one but you In the first fast-booke his Majesty our Soveraigne Lord had not any children to be remembred in our prayers and the remainder of the royall seede was in that most illustrious Lady and her Princely issue That case now is altered His Majesty Gods name be praised hath many children as well male as female none of the which are specified by name particularly but the Prince alone the rest together with the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely issue being all comprehended in the name of the Royall Progene The Lady Elizabeth and her children finding no more neglect in this then the Kings owne most Royall issue will give you little thankes for so vaine a cavill More anger yet You charge the Bishops next that they cry up with fasting and downe with preaching For crying up fasting you produce this instance that in the order for the East these words are left out of the new booke viz. To avoide the inconvenience that may grow by fasting some esteeming it a meritorious worke others a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of 〈…〉 c. p. 142. Hereupon you conclude tha◠〈…〉 esteeme fasting a meritorious worke and acceptable unto God without due regard of the end Ibid. I have had patience all this while But patientia â—â—sa I must now tell you in plaine termes in all my life and I have seene the world a little I never met with such an impostor For good Sir take the passage as it lyeth together and how can you have conscience so to delude your audience whose soules you say you tender as you doe your owne The Order then is this Num. 6. Admonition is here lastly to be given that on the fasting day there be but one Sermon at morning Prayer and the same not above an houre long and but one at evening Prayer of the same length to avoid the inconvenience that may grow by the abuse of Fasting some esteeming it a meritorious worke others a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end others presuming factiously to enter into publicke fasts without the consent of authority and others keeping the people together with over much wearinesse and tediousnesse a whole day together which in this time of contagion is very dangerous in so thicke and close assemblies of the multitudes This is the place at large so pricked and commade as I finde it in the said old booke Deale honestly if you can in any thing in this These words To avoide the inconvenience which may grow by the abuse of fasting Are they the beginning of a new period as you lay them downe or what doe they relate unto unto the merit of a fast No Sir but to the former words touching the number and the length of Sermons wherin some men your selfe for one had placed so much sanctity that publicke fasts so solemnized were by some thought no doubt meritorious workes by others many times kept without due authority by others so spunne out with Sermons of foure houres a peece that with much wearinesse and tediousnesse it tooke up the day no care at all being taken to avoid contagion which in such close and thicke assemblies is exceeding dangerous This is the plaine Analysis of that passage in the said first booke Assuredly what ever other cause there was there is no reason to suspect that it related anything to the point of merit These times are so fallen out with fasting Vnlesse it be a Fast of their owne appointment that you have little cause to feare lest any man should place a part of merit in it Non celebranda esse jejunia Statuta To cry downe all set times of fasting which was the heresie of Aerius in the former times is reckoned a chief point of orthodox doctrin in the present times No merit placed in fasts ordinary or extraordinary that I can heare of unlesse perhaps you place some merit in your long Sermons on those fasts as before is saide And dare you then affirme as in the newes-booke that this place and passage was purposely left out to gratifie the Papists or to place any popish merit in the present fast if any body may be said to be gratified in it it is you and yours whose absurd course and carriage had in the former book been described so lively But you
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
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
Pastimes are prohibited upon that day and therefore dauncing leaping and the rest which the Book alowes of p. 57. For this you are beholding to your learned Counsell the first that ever so interpreted that Statute and thereby set the Statute and the Declaration at an endlesse odds But herein you goe farre beyond him for he only quarrelled with the living who had power to right themselves You lay a scandal on the dead who are now laid to sleepe in the bed of peace and tell us of that Prince of blessed memory King James that the said Booke for Sports was procured compiled and published in the time of his progresse into Scotland when he was more then ordinarily merrily disposed p. 58. When he was more then ordinarily merrily disposed Good Sir your meaning Dare you conceive a base and disloyall thought and not speake it out for all that Parrhesia which you so commend against Kings and Princes p. 26. Leave you so faire a face with so foule a scarre and make that peereles Prince whom you and yours did blast with daily Libells when he was alive the object of your Puritanicall I and uncharitable scoffes now he is deceased Unworthy wretch whose greatest and most pure devotions had never so much heaven in it as his greatest mirth I could pursue you further were you worth my labor or rather if to Apologize for so great a Prince non esset injuria virtutum as he in Tacitus were not too great an injurie to his eminent virtues and therfore I shall leave your disloyal speeches of the King deceased to take a further view of those disloyall passages which doe so neerely concerne the King our now Royall Soveraigne For lest the people should continue in their duty to him being the thing you feare above all things else you labour what you can to take them off at lest to terrify his Majesty with a feare to lose them For you assure us on your word because you would have it so p. 64. that pressing of that Declaration with such cursed rigour as you call it both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes as not being well acquainted with His Majesties either dispositions or protestations still you bring in that I know not what strange scruples or feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of his Majestie And in the Apologie giving distast to cal your Majesties loyall subject who hereupon grow jealous of some dangerous plot p. 6. You would faine have it so else you would not say it Quod minus miseri volunt hoc facile credunt But hereof and how you encourage men to stand it out wee have more to come A man would think that you had said enough against your Soveraigne charging him with so frequent violating of his protestations and taxing in such impudent manner his Declaration about sports as tending mainly to the dishonour of God the prophanation of the Sabbath the annihilation of the fourth Commandement and the alteration of the doctrine of the Church of England Yet that which followes next is of farre worse nature no lesse a crime then pulling down of preaching and setting up Idolatry pretty Peccadillo's For Preaching first it pleased his sacred Majestie out of a tender care of his peoples safety to ordaine a fast by his Royall Proclamation to provide that in infected parishes there should be no Sermon the better to avoid the further spreading of the Sicknesse which in a generall confluxe of people as in some Churches to some Preachers might bee soone occasioned This his most royall care you except against as an Innovation contrary to his Majesties publick Declarations p. 146. and in the Newes from Ipswich you tell us also that it is a meanes to inhibit preaching and consequently to bring Gods wrath upon us to the uttermost p. 147. You call it scornfully a mock-fast p. 148. a mock-fast and a dumb-fast distastfull to all sorts of people in the Ipswich newes and in plaine language tell the King that this restraint with other innovations which you have charged upon the Prelates do fill the peoples minds with jealousies and fears of an universal alteration of religion p. 147. What peoples minds are filled so I beseech you sir but those whom you and such as you have so possessed I trow you have not had the people to confession lately that you should know their minds and feares so well as you seeme to do But know or not know that 's no matter the King is bound to take it upon your word especially considering that the restraint of preaching in dangerous and infected places and on the day of fast when men come empty to the Church and so are farre more apt to take infection then at other times is such an Innovation as certainly the like was never heard of in the holy Scripture or any of the former ages and withall so directly contrary unto his Majesties solemne Protestations made unto his people Here 's a great cry indeed but a little wooll For how may wee be sure that the holy Scripture and all former ages have prescribed preaching as a necessary part of a publike fast yea as the very life and soule of a fast as you please to phrase it both in your Pulpit Pasquill p. 144. and the newes from Ipswich That so it was in holy Scripture you cite good store as viz. 2 Chron. 6.28.29.30 Chap. 7.17.14 Numb 25.6 to 10. Ioel. 1. 2. Zeph. 2.1.2.3 all in the margin of the Newes book Of all which texts if there be one that speakes of preaching let the indifferent Reader judge The Scripture being silent in it how shall we know it was the custome in all former ages For that you tell us in the same margine of the Newes book that so it was 1. Iacobi Caroli Most fairly proved I never knew till now but that the world was older then I see it is Men talk of certain thousands that the world hath lasted but we must come to you for a new Chronologie The world my masters and all former ages which comes both to one contain but 34 yeares full not a minute more An excellent Antiquarie No marvell if his Majesty be taxed with innovations changing as he hath done the doctrine of the Sabbath first set on foor Anno 1596 and the right way of celebrating a publike fast for which you have no precedent before the yeare 1603. Nor can I blame the people if they feare an alteration of religion when once they see such dreadfull Innovations break in upon them and all his Majesties solemne protestations so soon forgotten neglected Yet let me tell you sir that fast and pray was the old rule which both Scriptures and the Church have commended to us as in the texts by you remembred and that delivered by Saint Paul 1. Cor. 7.5 Oratio jejunium sanctificat jejunium orationem
alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it