it was not easie to Transcribe them insomuch that few of the Presbyters themselves could tell which of them were authentical which not So unsafely and uncertainly kept that they knew not where to address themselves for consulting with them That by reducing those numerous Act and those not known unto themselves to such a paucity of Canons published and exposed to the publick view no man should be insnared by ignorance or have just reason to complain of their multiplicity And finally That not one in all that Kingdom did either live under the Obedience of the Acts of those General Assemblies or did know what they were or where to find them Upon which grounds the Book of Canons being drawn up and presented to him he gave a Warrant under his Hand to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him together with the Bishop of London to peruse the same to see that they were well fitted to the Church-Government and as near as conveniently might be to the Canons of the Church oâ— England giving them and either of them full power to alter any thing in the said Canons as they found most fitting Which being done as he commanded and the Book made ready for the Press he pass'd his Royal Confirmation of it under the Great Seal oâ— the Kingdom in this manner following CHARLES REX WE 〈◊〉 of Our Royal Care for the Maintenance of the present Estate and Government of the Church of Scotland have diligently and with great content considered all the Canons and Constitutions after following and finding the same such as We are perswaded will be profitable not only to our whole Clergy but to the whole Church of that our Kingdom if so they be well observed Have for Vs Our Heirs and Lawful Successors of Our especial Grace certain Knowledâ—â— â—nd meer â—otion given and by these presents do give Our 〈◊〉 Assâ—â—t â—nto all the said Canons Orders and Constitutions 〈◊〉 all and every thing in them contained as they are afterwards set 〈◊〉 And further We do not only by Our Prerogative Royal and Supreme 〈◊〉 in Causes Ecclesiastical Ratifie and Confirm by these Our Letters Patâ—nts the said Canons Orders and Constitutions â—nd all â—nd every thing in them contained But likewise We command by 〈◊〉 â—uthority Royal and by these Letters Patents the same to be diligently observed and executed by all Our Loving Subjects of that Our Kingdom both within the Province of St. Andrews and â—lascow in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them according to this Our Will and Pleasure hereby expressed and declared And for the better observation of them We straightly Charge and Command all Our Archbishops Bishops and all others thaâ— exercise any Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction within that Our Realm to see the same Canons Orders and Constitutions to be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall willingly break or neglect to observe the same as they tender the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Service and Duty to Vs their King and Sovereign Given at Our Mannor of Greenwich 23 May 1635. These Canons when they came abroad were presently quarrelled and disclaimed by the Scottish Presbyters Quarrelled in reference to the subject matter comprehended in them Disclaimed because imposed upon them without their own approbation and consent The points most quarrelled at were these 1. That whosoever should affirm That the Kings Majesty had not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical that the Godly Kings had among the Jews or the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church or impugn in any part his Royal Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical was to incur the Censure of Excommunication 2. The like Censure to be inflicted on those who should affirm That the Worship contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments though at the making of these Canons there was no such Book of Common Prayer recommended to them or That the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops or the form of Making and Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops c. did contain any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or was corrupt superstitious or unlawful in the Service and Worship of God 3. That the Ordinations were restrained to four times in the year that is the first Weeks of March June September and December 4. That every Ecclesiastical Person at his Admission should take the Oath of Supremacy according to the form required by Parliament and the like Oath for avoiding Symonie required in the Book of Consecration 5. That every Presbyter shall either by himself or by another Person lawfully called read or cause Divine Service to be done according to the form of the Book of that Common Prayer before all Sermons and that he should Officiate by the said Book of Common Prayer in all the Offices Parts and Rubricks of it when as yet none of them had seen the said Book or Liturgie 6. That no Preacher should impugn the Doctrine delivered by another in the same Church or any neer adjoining to it without leave from the Bishop which they conceived to be the way to pin their whole Religion on the Bishops Sleeves 7. That no Presbyter should hereafter become Surety or Cautioner for any Person whosoever in Civil Bonds and Contracts under pain of Suspension 8. That whatsoever remained of the Bread and Wine prepared for the Communion should be distributed to the poorer sort which receive that day to be eaten and drunken of them before they go out of the Church 9. That Presbyters are enjoined to Minister the Sacrament of Baptism in private Houses and upon every day alike in case of infirmity and that the People were required not to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but upon their knees 10. That in all Sentences of Separation a Thoro Mensa there shall be a Caution inserted and given accordingly That the Persons so separated should live continently and chastly and not contract Marriage with any Person during each others life which seemed to put the innocent Party into as bad a condition as the guilty contrary to the Judgment of the Reformed Churches 11. That no private Meeting be kept by Presbyters or any other Persons whatsoever for expounding Scripture or for consulting upon matters Ecclesiastical Such matters to be handled only in the Lawful Synods held by Bishops 12. That under pain of Excommunication no Presbyter or Layman jointly or severally make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical or to add or detract from any Rubricks or Articles or other things now established without the Authority of the King or his Successors 13. That National or General Assemblies were to be called only by the Kings Authority That the Decrees thereof should bind as well the Absent as the Present in Matters Ecclesiastical and That it should not be lawful for the Bishops themselves in such Assemblies or otherwise to
he was chosen to be one of the four Dr. Andrews Bishop of Chichester Dr. Barlow Bishop of Rochester and Dr. King then Dean of Christchurch and not long after Bishop of London were the other three who were appointed to Preach before his Majesty at Hampton-court in the Month of September 1606. for the Reductions of the two Melvins and other Presbyterian Scots to a right understanding of the Church of England In the performance oâ— which Service he took for his Text those words of the Apostle Let every soul c. Rom. 13.1 In canvasing whereof he fell upon the Point of the Kings Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical which he handled as the most Reverend Archbishop Spotwood who was present at the Sermon hath informed us of him both learnedly and soundly to the satisfaction of all the hearers but that the Scottish Ministers seemed very much grieved to hear the Pope and the Presbytery so often equalled in their opposition to Sovereign Princes Hist. of the Church of Scotland Lib. VII pag. 497. And though the other three with the like abilities and elocution had discharged their parts yet gained they nothing on the Scots who were resolved like the deaf Adder in the Psalmist not to give ear unto the Charmers charmed they never so wisely But whatsoever they lost in the opinion of that proud and refractory Generation they gained exceedingly on the King and great Preferments for themselves Bishop Andrews being not long after removed to the See of Ely Bishop Barlow unto that of Lincoln Dr. King preferred to the See of London and Dr. Buckridge to that of Rochester where he continued till the year 1627. when by the power and favour of this his present Pupill then Bishop of Bath and Wells he was translated to the rich Bishoprick of Ely in which See he died Of this man I have spoken the more at large that finding the temper of the Tutor we may the better judge of those ingredients which went to the making up of the Scholar Having spent about a year in his Colledge there was raised such a good report of him in the Town of Reading that partly by his own proficiencies and partly by the good esteem which was had of his Father he was nominated by the Mayor and others of that Corporation unto a Scholars place in that House according to the Constitutions of Sir Tho. White the Honourable and sole Founder of it who though he had designed the Merchant-Taylors School in London for the Chief Seminary of his Colledge yet being a man of a more publick Spirit than to confine himself to any one place he allowed two Fellowships to the City of Coventry and as many to Bristol two also to the Town of Reading and one to Tunbridg Admitted a Scholar of the House on this nomination at the end of three years according to the Custom of that Colledge he was made one of the Fellows taking his Academical Degrees according to that custom also by which custom those of that Society are kept longer from taking their degrees in the Arts but are permitted to take their Degrees in Divinity much sooner than in other Houses so that although he proceeded not Master of Arts till the Month of Iuly 1599. yet at the end of five years only he took the Degree of Batchelour in Divinity without longer stay during which interval he was first made Deacon and afterwards was put into the Order of Priesthood by Dr. Young then Bishop of Rochester the See of Oxon. being vacant in which vacancy it had continued for the space of 11. years that is to say from the death of Bishop Vnderhill An. 1592. till the Consecration of Dr. Bridges on the twelfth of February An. 1603. The Patrimony of that Church being in the mean time much dilapidated and made a prey for the most part to the Earl of Essex to whom it proved as miserably fatal as the Gold of Tholouse did of old to the Soldiers of Caepio And now being fallen upon his Studies in Divinity in the exercise whereof he met with some affronts and oppositions it will be necessary to take a short view of the then present Estate of that University that so we may the better discern the Reasons of those affronts and oppositions under which he suffered Know then that Mr. Lawrence Humphrey one of the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge being deprived of his Fellowship there in Queen Maries time betook himself to the City of Zurich a City of chiefest note amongst the Switzers remarkable for the Preachings and Death of Zuinglius from whence and from the Correspondence which he had at Geneva he brought back with him at his returning into England on Queen Maries death so much of the Calvinian both in Doctrine and in Discipline that the best that could be said of him by one who commonly speaks favourably of all that Party is that he was a moderate and conscientious Non-conformist Immediately on his return he was by Queen Elizabeth made President of Magdalen Colledge and found to be the fittest man as certainly he was a man of very good parts and the Master of a pure Latin Style for governing the Divinity Chair as her Majesties Professor in that Faculty in which he continued till the year 1596. and for a great part of that time was Vice-chancellor also By which advantages he did not only stock his Colledge with such a generation of Non-conformists as could not be wormed out in many years after his decease but sowed in the Divinity Schools such seeds of Calvinism and laboured to create in the younger Students such a strong hate against the Papists as if nothing but Divine Truths were to be found in the one and nothing but Abominations to be seen in the other And though Doctor Iohn Holland Rector of Exceter Colledge who succeeded Humphries in the Chair came to it better principled than his Predecessor yet did he suffer himself to be borne away by the violent current of the times contrary in some cases to his own opinion And yet as zealous as Doctor Humphries shewed himself against the Papists insomuch as he got the title of a Papisto Mastyx he was not thought though seconded by the Lady Margarets Professor for that University to make the distance wide enough betwixt the Churches A new Lecture therefore must be founded by Sir Francis Walsingham Principal Secretary of Estate a man of Great Abilities in the Schools of Policy an extreme hater of the Popes and Church of Rome and no less favourable unto those of the Puritan Faction The designe was to make the Religion of the Church of Rome more odious and the differences betwixt them and the Protestants to appear more irreconcileable than before they did And that he might not fail of his purpose in it the Reading of this Lecture was committed to Doctor Iohn Reynolds President of Corpus Christi Colledge a man of infinite Reading and as vast a Memory who
towards which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little in which Letters he stands commended for a man of unblamable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. of October Anno 1609. During his sitting in that Chair he drew unto him a great part of that University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extreme diligence in the place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could divorce them For Arminius dying in the year 1609. as before was said the heats betwixt his Scholars and those of the contrary perswasion were rather increased than abated the more increased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before saved and preserved these Churches from a publick Rupture The Breach between them growing wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly For in the year 1610. the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra-Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvins Party From hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings till the Remonstrants were condemned in the Synod of Dort and either forced to yield the cause or quit their Country each Party in the mean time had the opportunity to disperse their Doctrines in which the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points viz. the Method of Predestination the Efficacie of Christs Death the operations of Grace both before and after mans Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day But these Tongue-Combates did produce a further mischief than was suspected at the first For the Calvinians hoping to regain by Power what they lost by Argument put themselves under the Protection of Maurice van Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of the Forces of the United Provinces both by Sea and Land The Remonstrants on the other side applied themselves unto Iohn Olden Barnevelt a principal Counsellor of State and of great Authority in his Country Who fearing the Greatness of the Prince and having or thinking that he had some cause to doubt that he aimed at an absolute Soverainty over those Estates did chearfully entertain the offer in hope to form such a Party by them as with the help of some other good Patriots might make a sufficient Counter-ballance against that design But Barnevelts projects being discovered he was first seized on by the Prince together with Grotius Liedenburgius and others of his chief Adherents and that being done he shewed himself with his Forces before such Towns and Cities as had declared in favour of them Reducing them under his Command changing their Magistrates and putting new Garrisons into them Next followed the Arraignment and death of Barnevelt contrary to the Fundamentall Laws both of his native Country and the common Union whose death occasioned a general dejection as well it might amongst those of the Remonstrant Party and their dejection animated the Calvinians to refer their differences to a National Council which thereupon was intimated to be held at Dort one of the principle Towns of Holland This Council being thus resolved on their next care was to invite to their assistance some Divines out of all the Churches of Calvins Platform and none else which did sufficiently declare that they intended to be both Parties and Judges as in fine it proved For unto this Convention assembled the most Rigid Calvinists not only of the United Provinces but also of all the Churches of High Germany and amongst the Switz and from the City of Geneva whom it most concerned From France came none because the King upon good Reason of State had commanded the contrary and the Scots much complained that they were not suffered by King Iames to send their Commissioners thither with the rest of the Churches For though King Iames had nominated Balcanquel to that imployment in the name of the Kirk yet that could give them no contentment From England the King sent Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Landaff Dr. Ios. Hall Dean of Worcester Dr. Iohn Davenant Master of Queens Colledge and Lady Margarets Professor in Cambridge and Dr. Sam. Ward Master of Sydney Colledge in the same University And this he did that by the Countenance of his power and by the Presence of his Divines he might support the Party of the Prince of Orange and suppress his Adversaries On the third of November they began the Synod But things were carried there with such inequality that such of the Remonstrants as were like to be elected by their several Classes were cited and commanded to appear as Criminals only and being come could not be suffered to proceed to a Disputation unless they would subscribe to such conditions as they conceived to be destructive to their Cause and their Conscience too Which being refused they were expelled the House by Bogerman who sate President there in a most fierce and bitter Oration condemned without answering for themselves and finally for not subscribing to their own condemnation compelled to forsake their native Country with their Wives and Children and to beg their bread even in desolate places What influence those quarrells had amongst our selves and what effects that Synod did produce in the Church of England we shall see hereafter when the same Points come to be agitated and debated on this side of the Seas His Majesty having thus made himself the Master of his Designs both at home and abroad and being recovered from a dangerous sickness which had fallen upon him at New-Market in the year 1619. resolved on such a work of Magnificent Piety as might preserve his name and memory of succeeding Ages To which end upon Midlent Sunday Anno 1620. accompanied by the Prince attended by the Marquiss of Buckingham the Bishops Lords and most of the principal Gentlemen about the Court he intended to visit St. Pauls From Temple-bar he was conducted in most solomn manner by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and at his entrance into the Church received under a Canopy by the Dean and Canons attired in rich Copes and other Ecclesiastical Habits Being by them brought into the Quire he heard with very great Reverence and Devotion the Divine Service of the day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbuts accompanied and intermingled with such excellent voices that seemed rather to enchant than chant The Divine Service being done he went unto a place prepared where he heard the Sermon
towards it Him therefore he sequestreth from his Metropolitical Jurisdiction confines him to his house at Ford in Kent and by his Commission bearing date the ninth day of October 1627. transfers the exercise of that Jurisdiction to Mountaine Bishop of London Neile Bishop of Durham Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester Houson Bishop of Oxon and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells To whom or any two or more of them he gives authority to execute and perform all and every those Acts matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Jurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in causes or matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And this his Majesty did to this end and purpose that the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction being committed to such hands as were no favourers of that Faction there might some stop be given to that violent current which then began to bear all before it Nor did his Majesty fail of the end desired For though Abbot on good reasons of State was restored unto his Jurisdiction toward the latter end of the year next following Yet by this breathing time as short as it was the Church recovered strength again And the disgrace put upon the man did so disanimate and deject the opposite Party that the Ballance began visibly to turn on the Churches side During the time that this Commission was in force some Beneficed persons in the Country who in themselves were well affected to ancient orders and now in more assurance of Protections than before they were adventured on removing the Communion Table from the middle of the Church or Chancel and setting it according to the pattern of the Mother Churches where the Altar formerly had stood Amongst the rest one Titly Vicar of Grantham a â—oted Town upon the Road in the County of Lincoln having observed the situation of the holy Table as well in his Diocesans Chappel as in the Cathedral mother Church transposed the Table from the middest of the Chancel in his Parish Church and placed it Altar-wise at the East end of it Complaint hereof being made by some of that Town to the Bishop of Lincoln he presently takes hold of the opportunity to discourage the work not because he disliked it in point of judgment for then his judgment and his practice must have crost each other but because Titly had Relation to the Bishop of Durham And for the Bishop of Durham he had no good thoughts partly because he kept his stand in the Court out of which himself had been ejected and partly by reason of the intimacy betwixt him and Laud whom he looked on as his open and professed enemy And then how was it possible that he should approve of Titly or his action either conceiving that it might be done by their or one of their appointments or at the least in hope of better preferment from them Hereupon he betakes himself unto his Books and frames a Popular Discourse against placing the Communion Table Altar-wise digests it in the Form of a Letter to the Vicar of Grantham but sends it unto some Divines of the Lecture there by them to be dispersed and scattered over all the Country But of this Letter more hereafter when we shall find it taken up for a Buckler against Authority and laid in Bar against the proceedings of the Church and the Rules of it when such transposing of the Table became more general not alone practised but prescribed But the noise of this Letter not flying very far at the first hindred not the removing of the Table in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas in the Burrough of Abingdon the occasion this One Blucknall dwelling in that Parish bestowed upon it amongst other Legacies an annual Pension to be paid unto the Curate thereof for reading duly prayer in the said Church according to the Form prescribed in the English Liturgie For the establishing of which Gifts and Legacies to the proper use and uses intended by him a Commission was issued out of the High Court of Chancery according to the Statute 43 Eliz. Directed amongst others to Sir Ed. Clark Knight Sam. Fell Doctor in Divinity George Purefez and Richard Organ Esquires who by their joynt consent made this Order following viz. And that the Table given by Mr. Blucknall should not by the multitude of People coming to Service or otherwise by sitting or writing upon it or by any other unreverent usage be prophaned spoyled or hurt We do order and decree that the said Table shall continually stand at the upper end of the Chancell upon which a Carpet by him given should be laid where it shall continually stand close to the upper Skreen there being of old within that Skreen a kind of Vestry for keeping the Plate Books and Vestments which belong to the Church and there to be covered with the Carpet aforesaid and in no place else Which Order together with many others for settling and disposing the said Gifts and Legacies were made at Abingdon on the twenty fifth of April 1628. and afterwards confirmed under the Great Seal of England This being the only Table as I conceive whose posture in that place is ratified by Decree in Chancery Now as some private Beneficed persons during the Suspension of the said Archbishop did thus adventure on the one side so divers Commissaries Officials Surrogates and other Ecclesiastical Officers began to carry a more hard hand on the Puritan Party their great Friend and Patron being thus discountenanced than they had done formerly Amongst these none more active than Lamb Sibthorp Allen and Burden according to their Power and Places the three last having some relation to Lamb as Lamb had to the Episcopal Court at Peterborough and thereby a neer neighbourhood to the Bishop of Lincoln then keeping in his House at Buckden in the County of Huntingdon at whose Table being entertained as they had been many times before they found there Morison Chancellor to that Bishop and Prigeion one of the Officers of the Court at Lincoln Their Discourse growing hot against the Puritans the Bishop advised them to take off their heavy hand from them informing them That his Majesty hereafter intended to use them with more mildness as a considerable Party having great influence on the Parliament without whose concurrence the King could not comfortably supply his Necessities To which he added That his Majesty had communicated this unto him by his own mouth with his Resolutions hereafter of more gentleness to men of that Opinion Which words though unadvisedly spoken yet were not thought when first spoken by him to be of such a dangerous and malignant nature as to create to him all that charge and trouble which afterwards beâ—el him upon that occasion For some years after a breach being made betwixt him and Lamb about the Officials place of Leicester which the Bishop had designed to another person Lamb complains of him to some
Right of that Dukedom to the Crown of England Iersey the bigger of the two more populous and of richer soil but of no great Trading Guernsey the lesser the more barren but nourishing a wealthier People Masters of many stout Barques and managing a rich Trade with the neighbouring Nations Attempted often by the French since they seised on Normandy but always with repulse and loss the People being very affectionate to the English Government under which they enjoy very ample Priviledges which from the French they could not hope for As parts of Normandy they were subject in Ecclesiastical Matters to the Bishops of Constance in that Dukedom and so continued till the Reformation of Religion here in England and were then added to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester But the Genevian Discipline being more agreeable to such Preachers as came to them from France they obtained the Exercise thereof in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1565. The whole Government distinguished into two Classes or Colonies that of Iersey of it self being one and that of Guernsey with the Islands of Sark and Alderney making up the other both Classes meeting in a Synod every second or third year according to the Order of their Book of Discipline digested by Snape and Cartwright the two great Ring-leaders of that Faction here in England in a Synod held at Guernsey Iune 28. 1576. And this manner they continued till the time of King Iames when the Churches in the Isle of Iersey falling into some disorder and being under an immediate Governour who was no great Friend to Calvin's Plat-form they were necessitated for avoiding of a greater mischief to cast themselves into the Arms of the Church of England The principal Ecclesiastical Officer whilst they were under the Bishops of Constance had the Title of Dean for each Island one the several Powers both of the Chancellor and Archdeacon being united in his Person This Office is restored again his Jurisdiction marked out his Fees appointed his Revenue settled but made accountable for his Administration to the Bishops of Winchester The English Liturgie is Translated also into French to be read in their Churches Instructions first and afterwards a Body of Canons framed for Regulating both the Ministers and People in their several Duties those Canons bearing date the last of Iune in the one and twentieth year of that King For the confirming of this Island in their Conformity to the Government and Forms of Worship there established and the reducing of the others to the like condition it was resolved That the Metropolitical Visitation should be held in each of them at the next opening of the Spring And that it might be carried on with the greater assurance the Archbishop had designed a Person for his Principal Visitor who had spent some time in either Island and was well acquainted with the Bayliffs Ministers and men of special note amongst them But the Affairs of Scotland growing from bad to worse this Counsel was discontinued for the present and at last laid by for all together But these Islands were not out of his mind though they were out of sight his care extending further than his Visitation The Islanders did use to breed such of their Sons as they designed for the Ministry either at Saumur or Geneva from whence they returned well seasoned with the Leaven of Calvinism No better way to purge that old Leaven out of the Islands than to allure the people to send their Children to Oxon or Cambridge nor any better expedient to effect the same than to provide some preferments for them in our Universities It hapned that while he was intent on these Considerations that one Hubbard the Heir of Sir Miles Hubbard Citizen and Alderman of London departed this Life to whom upon an inquisition taken after his death in due form of Law no Heir was found which could lay claim to his Estate Which falling to the Crown in such an unexpected manner and being a fair Estate withal it was no hard matter for the Archbishop to perswade his Majesty to bestow some small part thereof upon pious uses To which his Majesty consenting there was so much allotted out of it as for the present served sufficiently to endow three Fellowships for the perpetual Education of so many of the Natives of Guernsey and Iersey not without some probable â—ope of doubling the number as the old Leases of it â—â—ould expire These Fellowships to be founded in Exeter Iesus and Pembroke Colledges that being disperst in several Houses there might be an increase both of Fellows and Revenues of the said foundations By means whereof he did both piously and prudently provide for those Islands and the advancement of Conformity amongst them in the times to come For what could else ensue upon it but that the breeding of some Scholars out of those Islands in that University where they might throughly acquaint themselves with the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship establisht in the Church of England they might afterwards at their return to their native Countries reduce the Natives by degrees to conform unto it which doubtless in a short time would have done the work with as much honour to the King and content to himself as satisfaction to those People It is not to be thought that the Papists were all this while asleep and that neither the disquiets in England nor the tumults in Scotland were husbanded to the best advantage of the Catholick Cause Panzani as before is said had laid the foundation of an Agency or constant correspondence between the Queens Court and the Popes and having so done left the pursuit of the design to Con a Scot by birth but of a very busie and pragmatical head Arriving in England about the middle of Summer Anno 1636. he brought with him many pretended reliques of Saints Medals and Pieces of Gold with the Popes Picture stamped on them to be distributed amongst those of that Party but principally amongst the Ladies of the Court and Country to whom he made the greatest part of his applications He found the King and Queen at Holdenby House and by the Queen was very graciously entertained and took up his chief Lodgings in a house near the new Exchange As soon as the Court was returned to Whitehall he applied himself diligently to his work practising upon some of the principal Lords and making himself very plausible with the King himself who hoped he might make some use of him in the Court of Rome for facilitating the restitution of the Prince Elector And finding that the Kings Councils were much directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury he used his best endeavours to be brought into his acquaintance But Canterbury neither liked the man nor the Message which he came about and therefore kept himself at a distance neither admitting him to Complement nor Communication Howsoever by the Kings Connivence and the Queens Indulgence the Popish Faction gathered not only strength
answered by my own hand and so you have it And since you are pleased so worthily and brother-like to acquaint me with the whole plot of your intended work and to yield it up to my censure and better advice so you are pleased to write I do not only thank you heartily for it but shall in the same brotherly way and with equal freedom put some few Animadversions such as occur on the sudden to your further consideration aiming at nothing but what you do the perfection of the work in which so much is concerned And first for Mr. George Graham whom Hall had signified to have renounced his Episcopal Function I leave you free to work upon his business and his ignorance as you please assuring my self that you will not depart from the gravity of your self or the cause therein Next you say in the first head That Episcopacy is an ancient holy and divine Institution It must needs be ancient and holy if divine Would it not be mâ—re full went it thus So ancient as that it is of Divine Institution Next you define Episcopacy by being joyned with imparity and superiority of Iurisdiction but this seems short for every Archpâ—esbyters or Archdeacons place is so yea and so was Mr. Henderson in his Chair at Glasco unless you will define it by a distinction of Order I draw the superiority not from the Iurisdiction which is attributed to Bishops jure positivo in their Audience of Ecclesiastical matters but from that which is intrinsical and original in the power of Excommunication Again you say in the first point That where Episcopacy hath obtained it cannot be abdicated without violation of Gods Ordinance This Proposition I conceive is inter minus habentes for never was there any Church yet where it hath not obtained The Christian Faith was neâ—er yet planted any where but the very first feature of a Church was by or with Episcopacy and wheresoever now Episcopacy is not suffered to be it is by such an Abdication for certainly there it was à Principio In your second head you grant that the Presbyterian government may be of use where Episcopacy may not be had First I pray you consider whither this conversion be not needless here and in it self of a dangerous consequence Next I conceive there is no place where Episcopacy may not be had if there be a Church more then in Title only Thirdly since they challenge their Presbyterian Fiction to be Christs Kingdom and Ordinance as your self expresseth and cast out Episcopacy as opposite to it we must not use any mincing terms but unmask them plainly nor shall I ever give way to hamper our selves for fear of speaking plain truth though it be against Amsterdam or Geneva and this must be sadly thought on Concerning your Postulata I shall pray you to allow me the like freedom amongst which the two first are true but as exprest two restrictive For Episcopacy is not so to be asserted unto Apostolical Institution as to bar it from looking higher and from fetching it materially and originally in the ground and Intention of it from Christ himself though perhaps the Apostles formalized it And here give me leave a little to enlarge The adversaries of Episcopacy are not only the furious Arian Hereticks out of which are now raised Prynne Bastwick and our Scottish Masters but some also of a milder and subtler allâ—y both in the Genevian and Roman Faction And it will become the Church of England so to vindicate it against the furious Puritans as that we may not lay it open to be wounded by either of the other two more cunning and more learned adversaries Not to the Roman faction for that will be content it shall be Juris Divini mediati by far from and under the Pope that so the Government of the Church may be Monarchical in him but not Immediati which makes the Church Aristocratical in the Bishops This is the Italian Rock not the Genevan for that will not deny Episcopacy to be Juris Divini so you will take it ut suadentis vel approbantis but not imperantis for then they may take and leave as they will which is that they would be at Nay if I much forget not Beza himself is said to have acknowledged Episcopacy to be Juris Divini Imperantis so you will not take it as universaliter imperantis For then Geneva might escape citra considerationem durantis for then though they had it before yet now upon wiser thoughts they may be without it which Scotland says now and who will may say it after if this be good Divinity and then all in that time shall be Democratical I am bold to add because in your second Postulatum I find that Episcopacy is directly commanded but you go not so far as to meet with this subtilty of Beza which is the great Rock in the Lake of Geneva In your nine Postulatum that the Accession of Honourable Titles or Priviledges makes no difference in the substance of the calling You mean the titles of Archbishops Primates Metropolitans Patriarcks c. 'T is well And I presume you do so But then in any case take heed you assert it so as that the Faction lay not hold of it as if the Bishops were but the Title of Honour and the same calling with a Priest For that they all aim at c. The eleventh Postulatum is larger and I shall not Repeat it because I am sure you retein a Copy of what you write to me being the Ribbs of the work nor shall I say more to it then that it must be warily handled for fear of a saucy Answer which is more ready with them a great deal then a Learned one I presume I am pardoned already for this freedom by your submission of all to me And now I heartily pray you to send me up keeping a Copy to your self against the accidents of Carriage not the whole work together but each particular head or Postulatum as you finish it that so we here may be the better able to consider of it and the work come on faster So to Gods blessed Protection c. Such was the freedom which he used in declaring his judgement in the case and such the Authority which his reasons carried along wâ—th them that the Bishop of Exon found good cause to correct the oblâ—quity of his opinion according to the Rules of these Animadversions agreeably unto which the book was writ and published not long after under the name of Episcopacy by Divine Right c. Such care being taken to prevent all inconveniencies which might come from Scotland he casts his eye toward the Execution of his former Orders for Regulating the French and Dutch Churches here in England It had been to no purpose in him to endeavour a Conformity amongst the Scots as long as such examples of separation did continue amongst the English If the post-nati in those Churches born and bred in England
Acknowledgment to the Town of Reading in which he was born and in the Grammar-School whâ—reof he had received the first part of his Education he bestowed upon it about this time also a Revenue of no less than 200 l. per Annum to be thus disposed of that is to say 120 l. thereof to be parcelled out every two years for the pla 〈…〉 Apprentices and setting up of young Beginners who had honestly served out their Times and every third year for the Marriage of five young Maidens which had lived with one Master or Mistress for seven years together 50 l. of it to be yearly added for an Augmentation to the Minister of the Parish-Church of St. Laurence in which he was born whose means before was miserably short of that which some call a Competency and having purchased the perpetual Parsonage of it he conferred it on St. Iohn's Colledge in Oxon to be a fit Preferment for any one of the Fellows of that House for the time to come 20 l. of it he alotted yearly to encrease the Stipend of the Schoolmaster there 8 l. for the yearly Entertainment of the President and Fellows of St. Iohn's Colledge whom he made his Visitors to see that all things should be carried as fairly on as by him piously intended the remaining 40 s. being added as a yearly Fee to the Town-Clerk for Registring the Names of those who should from time to time enjoy the benefit of so great a Charity Some other great Designs he had but of a far more Publick and Heroick Nature as the encreasing of the Maintenance of all the poor Vicars in England To see the Tythes of London settled between the Clergy and the City For setting up a Greek Press at Oxon. and procuring Letters and Mattrices for the same wherewith to Print and Publish all such Greek Manuscripts as were to be found in that Library For obtaining the like Grant from his Majesty for buying in all Impropriations as had been made for the Repairing of St. Pauls but not to take beginning till that Work was finished For procuring an Extract of all the Records of the Tower relating to the Church and Clergy to be written in a fair Vellom Book which had been drawn down from the 20th of Edward 1. to the 14th of Edward iv with an intent to carry on the Work till the last year of King Henry viii that so the Church might understand her own Power and Priviledges But the prosecution of this Work from the said 14th of King Edward iv and of all the rest before-mentioned which he had hammered in design were most unfortunately intermitted by the great alteration of Affairs which soon after followed I cannot tell whether Posterity will believe or not That so many great and notable Projectments could be comprehended in one Soul most of them Ripened in a manner the residue in the Bud or Blossom and some of them bringing forth the Fruits expected from them But the best is that none of his Designs were carried in so close a manner or left in so imperfect a condition as not to give some visible Remembrances as well of his Universal Comprehensions as his Zeal and Piety For notwithstanding the present Distractions which the Faction and Tumultuousness of the Scots had drawn upon him enough to have deterred a right Constantine let us look on him in the pursuit of his former purposes and we shall find him still the same The Bishop of Exeter's Book being finished and recommended by the Author to his last perusal before it went unto the Press he took the pains to read it over with care and diligence in the perusal whereof he took notice amongst other things that the strict Superstition of the Sabbatarians was but lightly touch'd at whereas he thought that some smarter Plaister to that Sore might have done no harm He observed also that he had passed by this Point viz. Whether Episcopacy be an Order or Degree as not much material whereas in the Judgment of such Learned Men as he had consulted it was the main ground of the whole Cause And therefore he desired him to weigh it well and to alter it with his own Pen as soon as might be â—ut that which gave him most offence was That the Title of Antichrist was positively and determinately bestowed upon the Pope Which being so contrary to the Judgment of many Learned â—â—â—testants as well as his own he allowed not of but howsoever thought it fit to acquaint his Majesty with the Business and having so done to submit it to his Will and Preasure Concerning which he writes thus to the Bishop in his Letter of Ianuary 14. this present year viz. The last with which I durst not but acquaint his Majesty is about Antichrist which Title in three or four places you bestow up is the Pope positively and determinately whereas King James of â—lessed Memory having brought strong proof in a Work of his as you well know to prove the Pope to be Antichrist yet being afterwards challenged about it he made this Answer when the King that now is went into Spain and acquainted him with it That he writ that not concludingly but by way of Argument only that the Pope and his Adherents might see there was as good and better Arguments to prove him Antichrist than for the Pope to challenge Temporal Iurisdiction over Kings The whole Passage being known to me I could not but speak with the King about it who commanded me to write unto you that you might qualifie your Expression in these Particulars and so not differ from the known Iudgment of his Pious and Learned Father This is easily done with your own Pen and the rather because all Protestants joyn not in this Opinion of Antichrist According to which good advice the Bishop of Exon. qualified some of his Expressions and deleted other to the Contentment of his Sovereign the Satisfaction of his Metropolitan and his own great Honour But whilest the Archbishop laboured to support Episcopacy on the one side some of the Puritan Party did as much endeavour to suppress it by lopping off the Branches first and afterwards by laying the Ax to the root of the Tree Bagshaw a Lawyer of some standing of the Middle Temple did first prepare the way to the ruine of it by questioning the Bishops Place and Vote in Parliament their Temporal Power and the Authority of the High-Commission For being chosen Reader by that House for the Lent Vacation he first began his Readings on February 24. selecting for the Argument of his Discoursings the Statute 25 Edw. 3. cap. 7. In prosecuting whereof he had distributed his Conceptions into ten Parts and each Part into â—â—â—â—â—â—cial Cases by which account he must have had one hundred blows at the Church in his ten days Reading His main Design was in the first place intended chiefly for the defence of such Prohibitions as formerly had been granted by the Courts in Westminster-Hall to stop the
and unprinted Scribbles and glad they were to find such an excellent Advantage as the discovering of an c. in the Body of it did unhappily give them This voiced abroad to be the greatest Mystery of Iniquity which these last Ages had produced containing in it so much of the Depths of Satan that as no man could see the bottom of the Iniquity so neither they that made the Oath nor they that were to take it undeâ—stood the Mystery But unto this it hath been answered as 〈◊〉 the fact That in all the Canons which were made before this bâ—ing five in number there was a particular enumeration of all the persons vested with any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that is to say Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons Deans and Chapters and other persons having peculiar or exempt Jurisdiction which having been repeated distinctly or particularly in such of the Canons as were first made was in the first drawing of their Oath for avoiding of a Tautologie so often iterated cut off with this c. with an intention nevertheless to make the Enumeration perfect and consequently to expunge this unlucky c. before it came to be Engrossed But the King being weary of the Charge and Clamour which the keeping of a Guard on the Convocation did expose him to did hasten them to a Conclusion by so many Messages brought by Vane and others that in the haste this unlucky c. was forgotten and so committed to the Press accordingly It hath been secondly answered as in point of Reason That the c. as it stands in that part of the Oath is so restrained and limited by the following words viz. as it stands now established that there can be no danger of any Mystery of Iniquity in it So that in the Construction of this Text the c. as it now remains is a meer impertinency For being left in it signifieth nothing in regard of the Restriction following and being left out the sense is currant and compleat without it Which all those witty Gentlemen who so often spoke and others of less wit and quality which so frequently writ against this Oath could not chuse but see but that they were not willing to see any thing which might make against them The Paramount Objection being thus refell'd the rest which have been made against it will be easily satisfied It hath been charged by some That the exacting of an Oath not to consent to the Alteration of the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. is an affront to the fundamental Rules of Civil Politie To which it hath been answered That it is indeed an affront to Government not to submit or yield Obedience unto Civil Sanctions when made and legally established But it is no affront not to give consent to any such Establishments while they are in Treaty for then the liberty of assenting or dissenting of Yea or Nay would be taken away from every Member in the Houses of Parliament and every Man must give consent to every Bill which is offered to him But besides this there were but few of the Convocation whose consent was likely to be asked when any change of Church-Government should be set on foot so that their dissenting or assenting was not much material but only so far as by their readiness of consenting to such Innovations in the Publick Government they might encourage others to proceed against it Here then is no affront to Government much less to the Fundamentals of it the Oath not binding any man not to yield Obedience but not to give consent to such Alteration As for the last Objection That he who takes the Oath declares therein That he takes it willingly being constrained so to do under grievous Penalties This as it comes last is the least considerable for if this were a Crime in the Convocation it was such a Crime as the High Court of Parliament hath been guilty of in drawing up the Oath of Allegiance in the third year of King Iames in which the Party is to swear That he makes that Recognition not only heartily and truly but also willingly and yet the taking of that Oath is imposed on all the Subjects under several Penalties if any of them shall refuse it And yet these Quarrels at the Oath the Unparliamentary Levying of the said Benevolence and the pretended Illegality of their very Sitting after the Parliament expired were but the out-sides of the business but only colours and disguises to conceal the chief cause of their displeasure from the publick view Somewhat there was which galled them more than all these together that is to say the Propositions for asserting the Regal Power making it absolute and independent with reference both to Pope and People to the great discontent and trouble of the Popular Party since better known by the name of Commonwealths-men Which since the English were not confident enough to speak out at first we must take their meaning from the Scots who in the Articles exhibited against our Archbishop by their Commissioners have expresly charged him with this Crime viz. That he made Canons and Constitutions against them their just and necessary defence Ordaining under all highest Pain That hereafter the Clergy should Preach four times in the year such Doctrine as was contrary not only to their Proceedings but to the Doctrine and Proceedings of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks as tending to the utter slavery and ruining of all Estates and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This the true cause of those high Displeasures conceived by some prevailing Members of the House of Commons and openly declared by their Words and Actions branding those innocent Canons for a tendency to Faction and Sedition which they most laboured to suppress condemning all that Voted to them in great sums of Money and afterwards destroying them one by one as they came in their way Compared with this neither the Benevolence nor the Oath nor any thing else before objected was esteemed considerable though all were joyned together to amuze the People and make them fearful of some Plot not only to subvert Religion but their Civil Rights But the best is that howsoever some few men for their private ends reproached these Canons as before his Sacred Majesty the Lords of his most Honourable Privy-Council the Reverend Judges and the Great Lawyers of the Council-Learned conceived otherwise of them in the hearing of all which they were publickly read by the Archbishops procurement before they were tendred to the Clergy to be subscribed and by all which they were approved not without thanks to the Archbishop from the King himself for his pains therein And certainly it had been strange that they should pass the Approbation of the Judges and Learned Lawyers had they contained any thing against the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Property of the Subject and the Rights of Parliaments or been approved by the Lords
these St. John Baptist had his head danced off by a lewd woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and 〈◊〉 and they teach me patience for I hope my cause in heaven will 〈◊〉 of another dye than the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my charge as foul as it is made 〈◊〉 like that of the Jews against St. Paul Acts 25.3 for he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion and like that of St. Steven Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple v. 13. But you will then say Do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Steven No far be that from me I only raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at 〈◊〉 their time as I am now And it is memorable that St. Paul who helped on this accusation against St. Steven did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you knâ—w what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him ET VENIENT ROMANI and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation Here was a causeless cry against Christ that the Romans would come and see how just the Iudgment was they Crucified Christ for fear least the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared And I pray God this clamour of Venient Romani of which 〈…〉 no cause help not to bring them in For the Pope never had such an harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a Deceiver and yet true am I passing through this world 2 Cor. 6.8 Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first This I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law Established as any man in this Kingdom And that he will venture his life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a Fashion taken up to gather Hands and then go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Iustice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to many could not or would not do Iustice but at their Appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also and this hath been lately practiced against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without any check God forgive the Setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well-meaning People are caught by it In St. Stevens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had killed St James yet he would not venture on St. Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of bloud for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for bloud and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers that 's not all He remembers and forgets not the complaint of the poor that is whose bloud is shed by oppression ver 9. Take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for bloud And with my prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.15 The third Particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse thâ—â— the storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft Prophaneness and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his second book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce profaneness are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the substance and dwell too much in opinion and that Church which all the Iesuites Machinations could not ruine is fallen into danger by her own The last Particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the Bosome of the Church of England establâ—â—hed by Law in that Profession I have ever since lived and In that I come nâ—w to die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in 〈◊〉 of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I â—ave alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and â— that I come now to dye What clamours and slanders I have endured 〈…〉 to keep an Vniformity in the external Service of God accordinâ— tâ— the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all men know and I 〈◊〉 abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a Crime which my soul ever abhorred This Treason was charged to consist of two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like endeaâ—our to overthrow the true Protestant Religion established by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my innocency in â—oth Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must 〈…〉 taken I can bring no witness of my heart and the inten 〈◊〉 thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar â—ut my Protestation of this hour and instant of my death in which I 〈◊〉 all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would 〈◊〉 and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of 〈…〉 therefore here in the presence of God and