Bishops and with their owne Arguments wounded them And therefore he could not but take it unkindly that when in this combat they should have helped him against the common enemy they defending him fell upon the poore Defendant to his perdition saying that he meant them that he was erronious and factious in his opinions Now if the Defendant hath erred in the discussing of these truths the Scripture that word of life hath brought him to it which were blasphemy to thinke and therefore when they adjudged this booke to be burnt they might as well have burnt the Scripture also yea all antiquity and the gravest and learnedst of ancient Fathers whose testimonies also he hath made publicke for the greater vindication of the truth against errour and cruelty But that the integrity of the Defendant may yet more clearly appeare he most humbly entreateth this Illustrious Tribunall to heare how the businesse was carried against him at his Arraignment before the Prelates Barre at Lambeth and how submissively he demeaned himself these and how superciliously they carried themselves towards the Defendant on the contrary side When it came to his part to speake for himselfe the Advocate having formerly denied to plead his case any farther then about the witnesses testimonie which he also did very jejunely being an Advocate of such excellent parts of learning and eloquence as he was and also at the Bar renouncing it saying That the Defendant should plead himselfe which when it was put upon him he then first related unto the Assembly the Theame of the booke which was the maintenance of the Kings Prerogative royall Then he told them the occasion of his writing of it that he was provoked thereunto by a Pontifician who often had dared him into the list of dispute which at last he could not deny as he was a Christian and as he was a Subject for by the Word of God he told them and by the Law of the land and his speciall oath he was bound unto it which oath he also read at large in open Court the which also all the Bishops of England and all the Judges of the kingdome had taken and were equally bound with him to observe Then before he entered into the combat with the adversary he showed what caution he used that being to write against the Bishop of Rome and Italian Bishops it was onely as they arrogate their authority over their brethren and the Church of God yea over Kings and Emperours jure divino against such Bishops onely he affirmed he did dispute and read the words of exception formerly cited at the Barre as for such Bishops as acknowledge their jurisdiction power and authority from Kings and Emperours he said he had no controversie against them as he there againe and againe declared himself in the number of which he the Defendant said ours were for all the Bishops of England and in his Majesties Dominions had and received or at least wise ought so to do their authority and jurisdiction over their brethren from him For proofe of which he cited and read publickly the Statutes and Acts of Parliament as follow First that of the first of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein the Oath of Allegiance was ratifyed in the which Statute there are these words That all jurisdiction all Superiorities and all Priviledges and preeminencies spiritual and temporall are annexed to the imperiall Crown which by Oath he being bound to maintaine could do no lesse being provoked by an adversary of regall dignity He read also the Statute which was inacted in the 37. of Henry the eight which is That Archbishops and Bishops and all other Ecclesiasticall persons have no other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which they received and had by the King from the King and under his Royall Majestie He read also the Statute made in the first of King Edward the sixt in these words That all jurisdiction and Authority spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth come from the Kings Majestie as supreme head in the churches and Kingdoms of England and Ireland and that by the Clergie of both the Kingdomes it ought no otherwise to be held or esteemed of and that all Ecclesiasticall Courts within the said Kingdomes ought to be held and kept by no other power and Authority either domesticall or forrain then that which comes from his most excellent Majestie And that whosoever did not acknowledge and venerate this authority that the same men are ipso facto in a praemunire and under the Kings high displeasure and indignation as the words of the Statute run and the mouth of the law speaks and then with some reason also which the Defendant produced besides the Word of God he shewed That no Romish Bishops had authority over their fellow brethren nor could jure divino challenge it much lesse over Kings and Emperors and therefore so long as the Defendant had the word of God the Laws of the Kingdom and reason it self on his side he told them he thought himself reasonably secure from all danger in that place And then applying his speech unto the right Honourable and noble Lord the Earle of Dorset then present the Defendant told his honour that he could not but wonder that he should stand there at the Bar as a Delinquent for maintaining the Religion established by publick Authority the honour of the King and the glory of his Majesty and that one Chouny a Sussex man a laick as well as himself should write a book and set it forth by publick authority maintaining the Church of Rome to be a true Church and never to have had so much in her as the suspition of error in fundamentall points and that this book should be dedicated to the Prelate of Canterbury and patronized by him which book the Defendant both read and exhibited in Court by which notwithstanding the King himself and all his Subjects were made Shismaticks and hereticks to the infinite dishonour of God our Gracious King and King Iames of blessed memory and our most holy profession and Religion This as the Defendant told the Lord of Dorset struck an amazement in him and especially when the authour of it must be favoured and countenanced by Canterburie and for the defending of the honour and dignity of our church and the honour of the King the Defendant should stand as an evil doer Now when the Defendant was come thus far was then approaching more closely unto them all intending more fully in the pleading of his cause to have set forth their unjust dealing they told him that he railed and Imperiously commanded him to hold his peace which was the reason of his Apologericus ad Praesules Anglicanos where he took liberty to write that and publish it to the view of all the world which he would have then spoke But after they had silenced him they then fell a thundering against him every one as he pleased all of them joyning in this one onely excepted that
the Hierarchy be sacred and the Prelates be the chief members of it then they are a generation of sacred frogs the holinesse notwithstanding of the which is such as few mens impiety is greater or more dangerous to Church and State and their usurpation upon both authorities deserving severely to be punished especially for that they so abuse his sacred Majesties authority in oppressing his poore subjects and trampling upon his Prerogative so that to any eye of understanding it may sufficiently appear by that the Defendant hath said that the Prelates are not only contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture but also invaders of the Kings Prerogative Royall and enemies of his Imperiall Dignity It yet remaines to prove also that they have farther dishonoured the King their Master and King James of famous memory yea our most holy Religion and Profession and all this in the Defendants Censure For what any one of the Prelates did all the other assented to they being one Body and it was the action of them all though acted in the person of the Prelate of Canterbury which was this to magnifie the Church of Rome and defend the purity of her Doctrine affirming openly that she never erred in fundamentall points and was a true Church as much as to proclaime the King and all his Subj cts Schismatickes and Heretickes and that by the mouth of the Prelate of Canterbury which the Defendant saith is not onely injurious to the King their Master but to King Iames of famous memory his renowned Father with whom for piety and learning all the Prelates together are not to be named the same yeare his Royall excrements are mentioned King Iames that glorious and learned Prince in his Apologie to all Christian Princes and States proves the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist and the man of Sin by many unanswerable Arguments He proves likewise the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon for her abominations Spirituall Sodom for her filthinesse and uncleannesse Spirituall Egypt for her inslaving the Saints and Servants of God and all this he evinceth by irrefragable authority and thus taught he the whole world his Royall Son and all his subjects and perswaded all Christian Princes to come out of Babylon and to shake off the yoke of the Pope And in this faith he lived and died And this faith is King Charles his Son and our gracious Soveraigne now Defender of and all this is Orthodox Doctrine which our King did preach unto us and our Royall King now professeth and which all his Loyall Subjects to God and his Majestie will seale with their blouds This heroicall King notwithstanding and his divine Doctrine is stamped under foot by the Prelates to the infinite dishonour of our most pious and element Prince the eternall disgrace of his most incomparable Father and the discredit indeed of the whole Church and Kingdome if not indangering the same to the great hardening of the Papists in their Hereticall wayes and the perverting of the Kings most loyall Subjects and teaching the Papists to rebell And to all this the dignity and glory of the Scripture is offuscated by their sable mouthes So that what can any man either say or thinke of this progenie of Prelates whose contumacie and rebellion reacheth to the very clouds and what can men thinke of this degenerating off-spring of this age The one that they dare against God and the King openly breathe out their blasphemies and call evill good and good evil The other that they should out of cowardise suffer their Royall King and his most excellent Father to be abused But this Defendant hopeth that this honourable Court like that noble Nehemiah with other true-hearted loyall Subjects remaining about the King will now at last informe his Majestie of the intolerable insolence of the Prelates of which he beleeveth they were formerly ignorant or not so well acquainted and seeke by his authority for redresse against their impudencie As for this Defendant for his part he is resolved though left alone ever to say LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And although he should suffer a thousand torments from the Prelates living and dying he will ever cry LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And let the name of his learned and transcendent Father live to perpetuity And let the enemies of the King and the Gospel perish Neither will he ever suffer to the uttermost of his power That either the Kings honour or the dignity of his most illustrious Father or the glory of our most holy Profession or the honour of the holy Scriptures shall be contaminated or Babylon or superstition advanced in his Dominions and cruelty and injustice exercised by the Prelates over his poor Subjects and hold his peace All which evidently appeare in the daily proceedings of the Prelates in their High Commission and from their speech hourely there and their practises through the whole Kingdome Some of which he desireth in order to prove that the honourable Court may be the fuller informed that he hath not causlesly in his Apologie laid any crime unto their charge which they are not guilty of And now to proceed to the other things the Defendant is charged with viz. that he taxeth the High Commission Court of cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majestie to bloud-shed and are the upholders of idolatry superstition and profanenesse that he scandalously defameth the witnesses produced against him and that he hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the Oath ex officio and other the ancient formes of proceedings of the High Commission Court To all these the Defendant answereth as they lie And first whereas the Defendant chargeth them with cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance he conceiveth he hath very good reason for that his charge both in respect of himselfe and others and in regard both of the soules and bodies and estates of men all which they captive enslave or dissipate and scatter at pleasure and in as much as in them lies seeke the ruine of To say nothing of their dayly practices who condemne men without either exhibiting Articles producing of witnesses or any legall proceedings against them as if a man should be hanged without evidence given or indictment framed which is the height of injustice the Defendant saith that their very proceedings against himselfe sufficiently shew their cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and their very speeches apparantly prove all these things Neither is there such a president of wrong and cruelty in the whole world that any man of what ranke order or degree soever he be that shall write a Booke in defence of that Religion that is established by publicke authority for the honour of the King and in defence of his Prerogative against a common enemy that for this indeavour of his should be ruined he his wife and children cast into prison deprived first of all possibility of livelihood railed upon and reviled publickly
send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church and that he would preserve those fountaines pure and incorrupt Now all men know how Paul planted and Apollos watered the garden of the Church and that was by preaching as is manifest in the 1. of the Cor. Notwithstanding all this viz. the charge that is laid upon them by God himselfe that they should preach the word diligently and as they love him notwithstanding also the promise that the Bishops and their Priests have made of their particular care in preaching which is onely able to save our soules and notwithstanding the curse that is laid upon them if they do not preach and notwithstanding they pray that the two fountaines may send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church Notwithstanding all the premisses the Defendant saith That the Prelates neither preach themselves nor will let others preach but silence almost whole Diocesses together and have extinguished very many of the chief burning lights amongst us and do daily suspend the remnant of the most laborious and painfull Ministers through England and Wales and have deprived the people of all soules-comfort spirituall solace without which a mans life is miserable to the infinite dishonour of God and hinderance of the Christian faith and the good institution of the people yea and to the trouble of the whole Church and State and therefore the Prelates are the onely hinderers of the instruction of the people in their Christian faith and the saving of their soules and by consequence the enemies of the Church and Kingdome for from these Priests is iniquity gone out thorow the whole kingdome and of the truth of that the Defendant now saith all the Realm can witnesse and the Prelates practices prove who make void the commandments of God by their vaine traditions and trample his holy and divine precepts under their sect and stop the course of the everlasting Gospel and therefore the enemies of Christs Kingdom and the salvation of their brethren But now more especially whereas he the Defendant is accused of long continuance to have envyed and maligned his Majesties happy government and the good discipline of the Church He the defendant protesteth in the presence of God and before the world that it is a most false accusation and that there is never a Subject in his Majesties Dominions a more honourer of the government of his imperiall Majestie and one that desireth more the good discipline of the Church and is able to produce the testimonies of all the places he hath lived in in this Kingdome both from Magistrates and Ministers for the honesty and integrity of his life and conversation and that in all respects he hath so demeaned himself as that he hath not onely been free from vice faction and schisme but from the suspition of all which testimonies he hath ready to shew to this honourable Court and the which he exhibited to the High Commission Court at that time they studied most to defame him and all this both Town and Countrey can testify as also of the indefatigable diligence in his particular calling How that he neglected no opportunity to doe the indigentest men good and how that being unwearied in his imployments he went through the heat of Summer the cold of Winter rose early and went to bed late exposing himself at all times to any danger whatsoever of plague and pestilence and all to do the meanest of the Kings Subjects good never taking penny of poor nor never of servant never suffering the most neglected creature of nature to perish for want of care or looking to but made them all an object of his pitty and of his Art giving them out of his poor competency both for their food and Physick neither can any man say that ever he asked the richest a farthing for any paines he took day or night for their preservation or that he ever murmured at the smallest content they gave him and if the Prelates had let him follow his calling this Defendant had continued in this diligent course of life till the day of his death But they picking a quarrell with him for writing in defence of the Kings Prerogative Royall against the Pope saying that while he writ against the Pope he meant them put him upon such imployments as he indeed thinks will be very little pleasing to the Prelates although he is most confident that in them he hath and shall do the King and Church good service and so he knoweth it will appear when he is dead and gone But because this book is now laid unto the Defendants charge as tending to the maintenance and upholding of Schisme and division in His Majesties Church of England and opposition against the laudable Orders and Ceremonies of the said Church howsoever there be no such thing in the said Flagello yet this Defendant desireth to give a reason unto this Honourable Court for the writing and publishing not onely of that booke but of all other his writings since And first concerning the book for which he was censured He saith that he was provoked thereunto by a Popish Jesuiticall Doctor of Physick who continually dared him into the field of Dispute and set down his own theames about which he would contend which were concerning the Popes Supremacy and the sacrifice of the Masse And it is well known to the Towns and Country where they both dwelt that the said Defendant could never be quiet for his brags and scriblings to himself and others till he had answered which was the sole cause of his ruine and the which answer of his though he had long time for peace sake neglected yea at last he was through his adversaries importunity put upon it Neither could he for the honour of the truth and the honour of his Prince both which he loves more then his life delay it any longer and therefore out of his duty to God and the King he entred the combat with the enemy To which duty he the Defendant saith he was bound by Christ himself who hath commanded to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods which commandment of Christ ties all Christians under obedience to a double duty which by them may not be neglected viz to give unto God his due and unto the King his Yet for obeying of this commandment this poor Defendant must be defamed ruined undone and left friendlesse moneylesse and in captivity and given to the Devil and yet say nothing But the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to give him leave to say as Queen Hester spake to Ahashuerosh if that he and his wife had been sold for bond-men and bond-women he had held his peace but for them to be ruined and undone because he could not see God and the King dishonoured he the Defendant cannot but speak Let the King live for ever and never let it be said that he hath such a base cowardly
upon his head and with all his State and Magnificence and his Nobles in their service with the reverence that is yeelded unto him then he beleeveth no longer because the Servant told him that it was the King but because by his own reason he is evinced of it knowing that such attendance and such a guard and so great pompe dignity and State belongeth to none but Kings And it would be thought not madnesse onely but treason to say if one had not told him that it was the King otherwise the King could not be known or that he that told him was greater then the King or his Authority greater The same may be said of the Holy and ever blessed Word of God that it is a great madnesse and impiety to conclude That the Holy Scripture cannot be known to be the Word of God without the Authority of the Fathers or Church or that the Authority of either is greater then the Scriptures which to affirme is without doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almighty God and his blessed revealed will and able to provoke his indignation upon us because it is an error against the very light of nature art and reason and the apparent Words of the Scripture where the Word of God is called the immortall seed 1. Peter chap. 1. verse 23. which liveth and abideth for ever Now all seed by its inward vertue sprouteth into a blade and is by it self and his owne fruits knowne to be what it is So is the Scripture of it selfe knowne to be the Word of God and as Paul saith in the 1. of the Corinthians chapter 2. verse 4. the Word of God is in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power and maketh the hearts of the beleevers burne within them as it did to those that went with Christ to Emmaus Luke the 24. verse 32. and as the Apostle saith in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chapter verse 3. that they received the Word of God not as the word of man but as it is in the truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in those that beleeve and in the 4. of the Hebrews the 12. Paul saith that the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and Spirit and of the reines and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory and by their own native and inbred splendor doe conciliate Authority and credit to themselves neither have they any need of help from man or the Fathers Authority to prove them the word of God For before there were any Fathers the Scriptures had their Authority and were knowne to be Divine Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God no more then a Pillar maketh a Proclamation to be the Kings will and pleasure because it stands upon it but the Church or Fathers declared them so to be neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this How impious then and blasphemous are the Prelates that they dare thus vilifie the holy Scriptures and make their authority nothing And can any man of judgement see any reason why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures Or why one should beleeve that these are the workes of Augustine or Ambrose and should doubt that this is the Gospel of Luke John or that these are the Epistles of Paul Of these things the Defendant for his part can see no reason Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures themselves when the Fathers are not to be credited but as they accord with Scripture as the very Popish Canons and Papists themselves acknowledge for in the Canon Law thus speakes the Pope Patrum quantalibet doctrina sanctitate pollentium Scripta ex Canonivis sacris consideranda nec cum credâ—ndi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt Neither is Baronius his opinion other concerning the authority of the Fathers as at large may be seene in his Annales ann 34. Sect. 213. and ann 44 Sect. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same minde in his 2. Booke concerning Councels in the 12. chapter in these words Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regulae nec habent autoritate obligandi And when the very adversaries do thus fully expresse themselves that whatsoever authority is in the Fathers Books and writings it is only as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture shal any man then think or suppose that there should yet be more authority in the writings of the Fathers or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures from whence as the fountaine those streams do issue very reason will confound the fatuity of this devilish doctrine for the streames and brooks are never so pure nor good as the fountain for it is ever the fountaine that gives authority of goodnesse and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as men know and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come so that the Spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest Authority and without all controversie as it overthroweth all reason so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountaine of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift and they that shall speak so contumeliously as the Bishops doe of these Fountaines of living waters the holy Scriptures is they did the Defendant will ever maintaine they are contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures and in this opinion he will live and die Neither did they lesse offend in saying that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocrypha without the help and authority of the Fathers which point also the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to hear a little discussed it being a thing of so high nature concerning not onely the glory of God but the good of every mans soul the peace of the Church and the tranquility of the whole Kingdom And therefore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little for the further Demonstration of the justnesse of his accusation he chargeth the Prelates with viz that they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures cannot be distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers which assertion is against sense and reason it self and too impious for Prelates to speak Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament that they were written in the Hebrew tongue and that they did give witnesse of Christ and received Authority from him and that they were put into the hands and keeping of the elect and chosen people of God as a Treasury Now the Apocrypha had none of all this
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-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
and after all this given to the devill and that onely for writing a booke which had nothing in it but Scripture and in the which the Defendant thought they meant him and that they should still prosecute him and seeke his eares and the defacing of him which they threaten Such a President of wrong and cruelty the Defendant saith cannot be produced in toto Macrocosmo and therefore the Defendant in respect of his own particular justly chargeth them with cruelty injustice and intemperance And in respect of all other honest men that come under their jurisdiction the same may be said and proved by thousands whether one respect their souls bodies or goods for they use cruelty in regard of all sparing neither age nor sex poor or rich young or old bond or free but upon every triviall occasion or for the meane t neglect of any of their idlest and impious Ceremonies or for any misprision it is enough to have him hoisted into the High Commission Court and brought from the remotest parts of the kingdom to the utter undoing of them and their families when as the greatest breach of any of the Commandments of the first table is not once thought of And in the bringing of them into troubles they deal with those poor men as they do with bears and buls at Paris Garden they first by violence and their officers to their mighty expences hale them into their Courts and then with bands of two or three hundred pounds they tie them to their stakes and bait them three or four years together with all maner of contumelies and reproaches vexations expences calamities and torments till they have wearied them to death and made their lives tedious unto them and after all this they fling them into one jaile or other destitute of friends and moneys And as if this were not enough even as the persecuters of the Martyrs in the Primitive times as Histories relate dealt with the Saints when they brought them to the slaughter they were wont to clothe them with the skins and hides of wilde beasts that so they might make them the more formidable and the better animate their dogs and curs against them to teare them in pieces In like manner do the Prelates and their complices in these our times deale with poore honest Christians and the true and faithfull servants of the Lord and the Kings most loyall Subjects they make them monstrous ugly and deformed unto all men King and Nobles by their Relations and Informations they clothe them with saying of them That they are maligners and enemies of Governement troublers of Church and State Seducers of the Kings Subjects making them disloyall unto their Prince stirrers up of sedition and faction and a thousand such crimes setting all the people against them in their open Courts have their Orators to blanch over their defamatory false accusations charging them with foule crimes the thought of which never came into their heads as this present information may witnesse Yea in the very Court Sermons they incense the King and Nobles daily against those they brand with the name of Puritans and Sectaries which all this honourable Assembly can witnes and the Defendant hath heard many Court Sermons with his own ears in the time of his liberty but never heard one where the Puritans as they terme them were not brought up in the pulpit and most shamefully and unchristianly traduced as those that opposed the Kings proceedings and such as maligne his government and trouble the peace of Church and State and humbly besought his Majestie that some severe course might be sought and taken against them These and such like sprincklings of their brotherly Rhetorick the Defendant himself hath often heard neither can this honourable Court be ignorant of the truth of this And what is all this but great cruelty and injustice to abuse thus their brethren by malicious and false accusations to the incensing of their Gracious King and Soveraign against them when they are most innocent and harmlesse desiring nothing more then the life safety prosperity and happinesse of his Majestie and of his Royall Progeny and his flourishing raigne and would lose ten thousand lives if they had them for the honour of his Crowne and dignity for they desire nothing more then to be found loyall neither do they seek any thing more then the peace and welfare of the Church and the good of this Common-wealth And therefore if there be any this is cruelty and injustice in a high degree to deale thus mercilesly with their too too much already afflicted brethren of whom they are ever making sinister relations to King Councell and State to the depriving of them many times of their liberty livelyhoods and states to the making of them and theirs ever miserable and all this also they do in their Courts every day defaming them as enemies of government and enemies of the Church and casting them into prison with great Fines on their backs And this is the cruelty they daily use in respect of their bodies lives and estates But yet their cruelty is greater in respect of their soules for they have through the Kingdome of England and Wales taken away almost all their glorious painfull Ministers and those that with most diligence taught the people and sent droanes and loyterers amongst them dumbe dogs that cannot barke and is not this great cruelty to the poor Souls of men to deprive them of the food of life and to starve them See what Paul saith to Bariesus the Sorcerer in the 13. of the Acts when Sergius Paulus the Deputy of the Country a Prudent man called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to heare the word of God it is said that Elemas the Sorcerer withstood them seeking to turne away the Deputy from the faith to whom Saul filled with the holy Ghost fetting his eyes on him said O full of all subtilty and all mischiefe thou childe of the devill thou enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervent the right wayes of the Lord Those then that take away the meanes of Salvation and hinder others from the hearing of the word they are most cruell unto them hindering of them of salvation it selfe and such are the children of the devil the enemies of all righteousnesse and perverters of the wayes of the Lord the holy Ghost hath spake it and Christ himselfe saith Matth. 23. and the 13. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in your selves neither suffer you them that are entring to go in And in Luke the 11. and verse the 52. he saith Wo unto you Lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge ye enter not in your selves and them that were entring you hindred Christ himselfe pronounces woe here to all such Soule murtherers as take away the key of knowledge from the people and shut up the Kingdome of heaven against them which