in whom there is no darknesse For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2. Peter chapter 1. verse 21. We have also a more sure word of Prophesie saith the same Apostle whereunto you doe well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place verse 19. So that the Scriptures were of purpose penned by holy men inspired by God himselfe for a direction and light to the Saints to be guided by and so they are termed by the holy Ghost So that as Peter said unto Christ in the sixth of Iohn when he asked his twelve Disciples if they also would goe away To whom shall we go saith he Thou hast the Words of eternall life Even so we may truly say whither shall we goe for light and direction to get to heaven but to the Holy Scriptures for they have the Words of eternall life in them and this saith Christ and his Apostles and yet notwithstanding all this excellent light that shineth in the Scripture the Prelates everre they are but blinde guides and preferre humane darknesse before the splendour of these sacred Oracles the Scriptures and say without the interpretation of the Fathers they cannot be knowne which is unsupportable blasphemy and as much as to tell the everliving God and truth it selfe he lies It is most veritable that they see not the light of the Scripture the eyes of whose mindes are blinded neither do they see the light of the Sun whose eyes are plucked out If our Gospel be hid saith Saint Paul it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded their mindes that is in Infidels lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the image of God should shine upon them 2 Corinth chap. 4. verse 3 4. every one knoweth the voice of that man with whom he is acquainted as soone as the sound of it commeth to his eares and shall we not know the voice of God so clearly and perspicuously speaking unto us in the Scriptures Those that are taught of God know it the true worshippers of him know and understand it those that have any familiar commerce with heaven and in heavenly things But worldly men and those that are given to the love of the same and are carelesse of heaven and happinesse they understand not the divine language nor heavenly voice Can any heare the voice of God and not assent unto it without the aid and authority of the Fathers What a contumely is this to holy Scripture Shall God have lesse authority and credit among men then the Fathers Shall we not beleeve God speaking unto us and shall we beleeve the Fathers Shall we not give credit to Gods Word and shall we beleeve men Let the dishonour of so great a contumacie against God be farre from Christian obedience Truly the Fathers being conscious of their owne imbecility and weaknesse never thought themselves worthy of so great dignity as to suppose that any honour came unto the Scriptures from their Interpretations and Expositions who in their Writings frequently exhort their Readers not to listen what they say but what the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles speake in them and no farther to receive their authority and doctrine then it is grounded upon the holy Scriptures and expressions to this purpose the Defendant saith he could accumulate infinite out of the Fathers which for brevity he omitteth fearing to be over tedious though it be a matter of greatest importance Such was the modestie of the Fathers fearing to be wise above that which was written ever-making the holy Scripture the rule and measure to be guided by And in this moderation the Fathers imitated Christ the Prophets and Apostles who ever fetch the proofe and testimony of their Doctrine from the Scriptures and not as now the Prelates do preposterously bringing authority to the Scriptures from the interpretation of the Fathers according to their owne sense To the Law and to the Prophets saith Esay chapter 8. verse 20. whosoever speaketh not according to that hath no light in him And Iosua that great Commander is injoyned by God to order and governe himselfe and the people and the whole Common-wealth according to the rule of the Scripture Iosua chapter 1. verse 7 8. Onely be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee turne not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest This Booke of the Law shall not go out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good successe And in the 23. chapter verse 6. he saith Be ye therefore very couragious to keepe and to do all that is written in the Booke of the Law of Moses that you turne not aside therefrom to the right hand nor to the left And Christ himselfe our great Master saith Iohn 5. verse 38. Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they testifie of me And in the third of the Acts verse 22 23. Saint Peter brings all men unto Christ to be taught by him not in somethings onely but that Prophet must be heard in all things and no other in Gods matters must be listened unto the words are these For Moses truly said unto the Fathers a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you heare in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And it shall come to passe that every soule which will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people And in the 12. of Iohn verse 48. our Saviour saith He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my Words hath one that judgeth him the Word that I have spake the same shall judge him in the last day And therefore doth it not stand with all good reason that we should guide and square our lives and actions by that word and rule onely by which we shall at the last day be judged Paul in the 2. of the Rom. verse 16. saith That the secrets of mens hearts shall at that day be judged according to his Gospel and shall not all our doctrines yea and our whole Religion be squared and regulated by the same all good reason would dictate so They have Moses and the Prophets saith Abraham let them hear him saith he Luke 16. verse 29. We have Christ and his Apostles we are onely to heare them in all things not the Fathers not the traditions of the Elders not the use and customes of former ages if they dissent from the holy Scriptures and written word of God For the great doctor of his Church telleth
they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and
fellow in his Kingdoms that will suffer his Imperiall Majestie to be trampled upon the suffer it in silence For his own part this Defendant confesseth that he is but poor and the Prelates have made him so but as rich in Loyalty as any Subject in his Highnesses three Dominions and as Iob said concerning God though the Lord should kill him yet he would trust in him so this Defendant saith Though the King should leave him to the mercylesse fury of the Prelats yet he will ever honour him with his ife and all that ever he hath and as he was borne under obedience under obedience he will die and will ever say vivat Rex let the King live for ever and our gracious God put it into his Royall breast to look into the devilish plots of the Prelates that doe not onely equalize the painted Tombes in Christs time but far exceed them in cruelty and wickednesse This he is resolved living and dying to doe invito Diabolo to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods for he is bound to this duty by Christ himselfe neither will he ever rebell against his blessed will Now the things that belong unto God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and by whom alone kings raigne is an absolute command and Soveraignty over his Church and who requires of all his Subjects that they should love him with all their hearts with all their Soules and with all their mights and that they should not serve him by any of their own inventions And for the manner of his worship he hath abundantly declared it in Sacred Writ And Saint Paul writing unto Titus warnes him sharply to rebuke his auditors that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed unto the commandments of men that turne from the truth and chargeth the Corinthians that they should not be servants of men nor wise above that which is written and sayes unto the Colossians wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Why as though living in the world are ye subject unto ordinances and Christ himself saith In vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men By all which it is manifest if Christians will give unto God that which is his and will not worship Him in vaine as they must love him with all their hearts so he onely must rule in them and they must give him his own worship and such service onely both for matter and manner as he requires at their hands and commands from them and not serve him according to mens precepts and devices for in his worship they must not be the servants of men for he is the onely King and Lawgiver in his Church and this is his prerogative Royall which no man may meddle with and this is to give unto God that which is Gods and this duty he the Defendant saith all Christians are bound unto Againe for all Subjects duties toward the King the Defendant saith that must also freely and willingly be yeelded and that by speciall precepts for they are commanded to fear God and honour the King and to be subject unto his Authority in all things in the Lord and to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars Now in regard of his duty both to God and the King and also of his speciall Oath of allegiance the Defendant saith he could do no lesse then that which he did in writing his book being provoked thereunto by an enemy of both And so much the rather because himself and all Christians are commanded to give a reason of their hope to whomsoever shal demand it of them earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints he saith in all these respects he could do no lesse in answering that Popeling then that he did by giving unto God the right of his government in the hearts and consciences of men and taking it from the Pope that Vicar rather of hell then of Christ and by giving the King that jurisdiction and authority of regiment in his Dominions and over his Subjects which God hath conferred upon him Both which Authorities Spirituall and Temporall the Pope and Popish Bishops most blasphemously arrogate unto themselves trampling all Divine Lawes and Kinglie regality under their polluted feet making Kings and Emperours their Vassals which is a most horrible arrogancy and usurpation and not to be suffered by either Kings or their Subjects And therefore when this Defendant did nothing but that which by his speciall duty he was bound unto If this by the Informers be thought either Schisme Faction or Sedition he this Defendant is resolved to live and die in it and never to think any a good Subject that is not of his minde He doth withall freely confesse unto this honourable Court that he looked for no ill usage of the Prelates for this his indeavour which when he found at their hands it was the occasion of the writing of many other books since that time amongst the which there is one called Apologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos c. Dedicated unto the privie Counsell but whether the book that is annexed unto the Bill be the same that the Defendant knoweth not but a book with that Title he confesseth he writ wherein he set downe the proceedings of the Prelates against himself and their dealings towards other of their brethren the theame of which book he the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take a briefe relation of at this time that they may the better be informed of the falsity of the Information And first for the principall theame and matter of the booke it is the State of the questions in his Flagello Pontificis for which he suffered with the summe of the Arguments he produced for the confirmation of the truth The questions arising between the Babylonian and the Defendant concerning the authority of the Pope were these The first whether Christ did constitute Peter sole Monarch of the Catholick Church The second whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop hath Authority and jurisdiction over Kings and Emperors Thirdly whether Popish Bishops be true Bishops or no and of the discussing of these questions the Defendant saith his adversary was the sole cause In the handling of the which the Defendant further affirmeth that he used all the caution that was possible as he supposed for man to use prefacing in his book that being to dispute about the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he desired candidly to be understood of all men for while he disputed of Episcopall Authority he medled nor contended not against such Bishops as acknowledge their Authority and jurisdiction from Kings and Emperours into whose hands the government of States Kingdomes and Common-wealths is by God committed For if the Popes themselves would acknowledge their immense and unlimited authority from Kings and Emperors he the
all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent
the Saduces saying Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 12. verse 24. and indeed from the ignorance of the Scriptures commeth all error they that follow the Scripture for their guide can never stray or straggle from the right way neither have they need to borrow the candle of the Fathers to be directed by so long as the glorious Sun of the word shineth so clearly and it was the eternall praise and commendations of the more Noble Bereans that they did dayly search the Scriptures whether the things the Apostles taught were so or no. Acts 17. verse 11. and Paul is greatly honoured with this applause in the 26. of the Acts verse 22. that he taught no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come to passe And so Christ taught his Apostles Luke 24. that all things ought to be fulfilled concerning him which were writ in Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes So that the Scriptures alone are the Foundation of all our religion and to say that the meaning of the Scriptures cannot be known without the Fathers is an unsufferable wickednesse done unto that holy booke and an infinite contempt and disgrace of it to say it hath need of the aid of man to support it Christ vanquished the Devill by the Scriptures Matth. 4. drove away the Saduces Matth. 22. and Saint Iames by the Scriptures put an end unto the great controversie of the Churches at Jerusalem and set the Churches of the Gentiles free for ever from all Ceremonies whatsoever but those God himselfe had appointed Acts 15. and onely by the Scriptures did Paul resolve all questions So that according to Gods owne instruction and direction which must ever be obeyed and listened unto the Scriptures onely and solely must be the Judge Law Square and Rule of all our Religion Words and actions Not the authority of the Fathers not the traditions of men not the practice and custome of the ancient and the name of Antiquity For they that shall preferre those things before the Word of God or at least affirme that these holy Oracles divine Records cannot be understood without the Fathers do not onely blasphemously disgrace and contemne the holy Scriptures but neglect the great Prophet whom we ought to heare in all things so that listening unto the voice of men before the words of this great Prophet and accusing the Scriptures of obscurity and saying they are the refuge of all Schismatickes and Heretickes is great impiety against God and most injurious to the holy Scriptures All which the Prelates being so highly guilty of the Defendant will never be afraid to charge them with it that they are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture withall that they are very ungratefull to the King their Master and invaders of his Prerogative Royall all which he shall make also evidently appeare to this honourable Court and how unworthily yea prophanely they have abused not onely the King their now Soveraign but his Most excellent Father of pious memory And that they are invaders of his Prerogative it is most certaine not onely by the Statutes and Lawes of the Kingdome but by this very information For by the Lawes and Statutes specified before with many others it in solemnly inacted That whatsoever Authority is here exercised under the King in his Dominions whether it be Spirituall or Temporall whether by Archbishops Bishops or any other Ecclesiasticall men it is meerly in by and from the King and so ought to be acknowledged and that all jurisdictions superiorities all priviledges and preeminencies spirituall and Ecclesicall are annexed unto the Imperiall Crowne and so to be acknowledged And whosoever doth not acknowledge that all jurisdicton and Authority both Spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth flow immediately from the Kings Majestie as Supreme head under Christ in these Churches and in his Kingdomes as the Statutes declare at large is ipso facto in a praemunire and under his Majesties high displeasure For it is the Prerogative of Princes and the priviledge that onely agrees to Kings and Potentates to be absolute in their Dominions and that all other jurisdictions and superiorityes exercised by any other in their Kingdoms are derived from them and that of themselves they have none but as from the Kings So that it is arbitrary and in the Princes power to have or not to have such jurisdictions and preeminencies under them And that they may abdicate or annihilate them when they please And whosoever shall deny this or claime any right of Government to themselves in Princes Dominions jure Divino are Delinquents against their Kings and Masters and by our Lawes and Statutes they are proclaimed enemies of the King and his Prerogative Royall and that is true the mouth of the Law hath spake it And therefore the Defendants book cannot be called a Libell without the Lawes first be proclaimed such for the Lawes say That all such persons as shall challenge any Authority to themselves in his Majesties Dominions but from the King are Delinquents against his Majestie and invaders of his prerogative Royall and his Highnesses enemies and so they are Now that the Prelates are such they sufficiently declared it in the censure of the Defendant For he reading the Statutes at the Bar they notwithstanding affirmed that they had not their Authority and jurisdiction from the King but that Jesus Christ made them Bishops and bestowed their Authority upon them and that they were jure Divino and that they were before Christian Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads for no Bishop no King and all this in a publick Court of Judicature and in a most crouded assembly So that it seemeth the King is beholding to them and not they to his Majestie And if this be not to invade the Prerogative and to be enemies of it and to be ungratefull unto his Highnesse the Defendant knoweth not what it is to be enemies of the prerogative The Lawes say it and therefore if the Defendant hath erred the Lawes have brought him into this error Neither did the Prelates own words at the Bar onely declare their disloyalty to the King and their independency on him but this very information which comes from the Prelates in the name of the Attorney Generall sufficiently demonstrates it For in it the Defendant is accused as guilty of a great crime for writing against the Hierarchy and preferring a Presbyterian parity before the Sacred Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons What the Defendant hath writ and the occasion of it concerning the Presbytery the honourable Court hath been informed in part and withall if so writing be libellous and the Defendant have erred in it the Holy Scripture is also libellous which were impiety to thinke and hath been the cause of it from which he varied nothing at all in that discourse and further the Defendant resolveth to live and die in that error concerning the parity of Ministers and Presbyters which
of Baptisme children promise there by their God-Fathers and God-mothers or they doe it for the children to be Baptized that they will forsake the Devill and all his workes the pompes and vanities of this wicked world and are there signed with the signe of the Crosse that innocent Ceremonie as they call it that he shall continue Christs faithfull Souldier and fight under his Banner all the dayes of his life against the World the Flesh and the Devill by the which promise he is bound to the utmost of his power alwayes to oppose all errours wickednesse and prophanenesse Now if any in conscience of his promise either speake or write in defence of the truth as it ought to be defended or if he doe but put in practice that which he hath promised in opposing of Errour Superstition Prophanenesse Idolatrie or the iniquities of the times the Prelates severely punish them for it as their dayly proceedings witnesse and if this be not a daring cruelty also and great injustice there is none exercised upon the earth for what is injustice and cruelty if punishing of men for doing their duty and keeping their promise and performing that which the Prelates themselves have tied them to by speciall promise be not They teach all Christians in another Ceremonie of standing up at the Gospel and at Gloria Patri and at the Creed to shew their readinesse and promptitude in fighting for the faith of Jesus and their holy Religion against Heresie Poperie and all Innovations all which our Gracious King declares himselfe that hee will never allow of or suffer and the neglect of this Ceremonie will cost a man an undoing Now if any being taught by this Ceremonie come forth to the combat and but oppose themselves against Popery Errours or Innovations in defence of the Faith and the honour of their King they are punished most severely for it by the Prelates both in the high Commission and other Courts and Bils and Informations and Articles are exhibited and made against them as evill doers and troublers of the State and all for doing that they teach them by their Ceremonies and binde them by promises and oath to do which is Hyperbolicall tyrannie injustice and cruelty in those reverend Fathers It seemes they would have Christians like Saint George a horsebacke ever mounted but never moving and if they doe chance to stirre or dare be so bold as to move they immediately are cast downe and breake either their eares or their noses or their foreheads and it may be they are also whipped to the bargaine for being so bold some mischiefe for the most part followes their endeavours and that for doing their duty and that which they were taught by Ceremonies and is not this arrogant tyrannie cruelty and injustice in the Prelates to punish and that severely both the neglect and the doing also of their duty and that they are injoyned to doe Without all doubt there is no such cruelty in the world as is dayly practised by the Prelates and in their Courts of the which there might mightie Volumes be made but the Defendant hath instanced in these few things onely because they are knowne to most men and obvious every day and the Defendants condition and his cause can sufficiently witnesse their unrighteous dealings and that in divers respects for they dealt with him against the very light and law of nature and as they would not be done by to make him accuse himselfe to admit his sworne and capitall enemies and which first informed them against him out of meere malice as was proved by many to be prosecutors and witnesses against him yea to speake as it is that the Prelates themselves should be Accusers Parties Witnesses Jury and Judge in their owne Cause as they were this the Defendant saith is unrighteous dealing to which may be added the defending of the Popes quarrell to condemne him for one thing and putting those things likewise in the Records of the Court for which by the whole Court he was freed from As for example the Defendant was condemned onely for his book now in the order of the Court or Sentence it is put in that he was condemned for the other things also which howsoever they were in themselves very ridiculous yet it is great injustice to superadde them and so to deal with him Neither is that a small part of injustice to punish and condemne the innocent and justifie the wicked both which are an abomination to the Lord. Now they condemned the Defendant for writing against the Pope and adjudged his Booke to be burnt and justified his adversaries and Choâ—ny who writ in defence of the Church of Rome and it is their dayly practice to condemne bookes that are writ for the Honour of Religion accusing them to be factious pamphlets but Bookes that are writ for the advancement of Popery and Superstition and in defence of the Pontificalitie of Prelates and the magnification of the Church of Rome to the trampling downe of Regall Au hority and for the murdering and killing of Kings for the bringing in of Innovations into a Kingdome and for suppressing of true Religion many of which are not to be named of these Bookes a man may buy shipfulls of them in Pauls Church yard all which tend to the ruine of the Kingdome and perverting of Religion and the seducing of the Kings good Subjects And all other Bookes of Arminians Sosinians and a thousand such blasphemous treatises are bought and sold publikely in every Stationers shop with the Prelates very good liking And the greatest enemies of the truth such as Bellarmine Baronius Tyrrian Cajetan are not onely publickly vented but are before the King and in the Universities and indeed in every Pulpit magnified with glorious titles as the learned Cardinal incomparable Bellarmine those grand impostors and perverters of the wayes of God and such as have abused King JAMES of Famous memory and blasphemously defamed our most Holy Religion All these Authours and many more with their Bookes the Defendant saith are daily approved of and commended by the Prelates and such as extoll the Church of Rome patronized by them and maintained And what is it then to advance Popery if all these doings of the Prelates be not and what is it to favour prophanesse and irreligion if the punishing and silencing of those that write and speake against the iniquity of the times be not let all men judge of this with serious reason and they will soon perceive that in this accusation of the Prelates the Defendant hath no way wronged them And for their intemperance and want of wit it is notoriously also known who raile most shamefully and unhumanely upon all honest men that come before them as their very speeches in their censure may witnesse Judges of old were wont to give Sentence in lesse matters being full of compassion with teares in their eyes neither do we read of any Judges since Christs time but of Ananias the High