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
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
it were an error Thus soundly ratled he departs and acquaints the Duke with the success for fear some ill offices might be otherwise done him to the King and Prince So miserable was the case of the poorer Clergy in living under such an High Priest who though he was subject to the same infirmity was altogether insensible of those heavy pressures which were laid upon them It being his Felicity but their unhappiness that he was never Parson Vicar nor Curate and therefore the less careful or compassionate of their hard condition Before the rising of this Parliament which was on the twenty ninth of May came out a book of Dr. Whites entituled A Reply to Iesuite Fishers Answer to certain Questions propounded by his most Gracious Majesty King IAMES The occasion this His Majesty being present at the second Conference betwixt White and Fisher beforementioned observed in his deep Judgment how cunning and subtle the Jesuite was in eluding such Arguments as were brought against him and of how little strength in particular questions he was when he came to the confirmation of his own Tenets And thereupon it pleased him to have nine Questions of Controversie propounded to the Jesuite that he might in writing manifest the Grounds and Arguments whereupon the Popish Faith in those Points were builded Now the nine Points were these that follow 1. Praying to Images 2. Prayings and Oblations to the blessed Virgin Mary 3. Worshipping and Invocation of Saints and Angels 4. The Lyturgie and private Prayers for the Ignorant in an unknown tongue 5. Repetition of Pater-nosters Aves and Creeds especially affixing a kind of merit to the number of them 6. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation 7. Communion under one kind and the abetting of it by Concomitancy 8. Works of Supererogation especially with reference to the treasure of the Church 9. The opinion of Deposing Kings and giving away their Kingdoms by Papal power whether directly or indirectly To these nine Questions the Jesuite returned a close and well-wrought Answer the unraveling whereof was by the King committed to this Dr. White for his encouragement and reward made one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary and Dean of Carlile This book being finished at the Press about the beginning of April and forthwith published to others was very welcom to most moderate and learned men the rather in regard that the third of those Conferences which was that between Laud and Fisher was subjoyned to it Concerning which the Reader may please to call to mind that this Conference had been digested and read over to the King in the Christmas Holidaies as before is said But why it staid so long before it was published why published in the name of R. B. Mr. Richard Bayly afterwards President of St. Iohn Colledgs and Dean of Sarisbury being at that time one of his Chaplains and not in his own and finally why it came not out not as a distinct book of it self but as an Appendix unto Whites himself is better able to tell us than any other and he tells it thus The cause saith he why the discourse upon this Conference staid so long before it could endure to be pressed It was neither my Idleness nor my unwillingness to right both my self and the cause against the Iesuite which occasioned this delay For I had then most Honourable Witnesses and have some yet living that this discourse was finished long before I could perswade my self to let it come into publick view And this was caused partly by reason there was about the same time three Conferences held with Fisher of which this was the third and could not therefore conveniently come abroad into the world till the two former were ready to lead the way which till now they were not And this is in part the reason also why this Tract crept into the end of a larger work For since that work contained in a manner the substance of all that passed in the two former Conferences and that this third in divers points concurred with them and depended on them I could not think it Substantive enough to stand alone But besides this affinity between the Conferences I was willing to have it pass as silently as it might at the end of another work and so perhaps little to be looked after because I could not hold it worthy nor can I yet of that great duty and service which I owe to my dear mother tâ—â— Church of England As for the Reasons why it was published iâ— the name of R. B. Chaplain to the Bishop rather than his own it neither was his own desire though the Breviate telleth us that it was nor for fear of being ingaged thereby against his friends the Papists as is there affirmed His Reasons whatever they were were proposed by others and approved by Authority by which it was thought fit that it should be set out in his Chaplains name and not his own To which he readily submitted But of this Conference we shall speak further when we come to the defence and engagements of it Anno 1637. The seasonable publishing of these two Books did much conduce to the advancement of his Majesties Service The Commons at that time had been hammering a sharp Remonstrance against the Papists as if there were no enemies of the Religion here established to be feared but they In the Preface to which Petition they took notice of so many dangers threatned both to the Church and State by the power and practises of the Papist as if the King had took no care to preserve the one or suppress the other Which Petition being brought to the House of Lords was there so abbreviated that the Preamble was quite left out and the many branches of it reduced to two particulars First That all Laws and Statutes formerly made against Jesuites Seminary Priests and other Popish Recusants might from thenceforth be put into execution Secondly That he would engage himself by his Royal Word that upon no occasion of Marriage or Treaty or other request in that behalf c. he would slaken the execution of the Laws against them Which Petition being presented to his Majesty by a Committee of both Houses on the tenth of April after some deliberation he returned this Answer to it viz. That the Laws against Iesuites and Popish Recusants should be put into due execution from thenceforth c. And it appeared by the coming out of these said two Books within few daies after that as his Majesty had granted them their desires in causing the said Laws against Priests and Jesuites to be duly executed so he had taken special care not only to preserve Religion in her Purity by confuting the most material Doctrines of the Church of Rome but to preserve his people also from being seduced by the practises of the Priests and Jesuites Which notwithstanding the Commons remaining still unsatisfied betook themselves to the framing of another Petition in which it was desired that all such
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
be his Parishioners or of his peculiar But Abbot being at that time infirm or otherwise of no desirable Company this Office was devolved on Laud as Dean of the Chappel and he accordingly performed it The Birth of this young Prince as it gave cause of great Rejoycings to all good Subjects so it gave no small matter of discouragement to the Puritan Faction who had laid their Line another way and desired not that this King should have had any Children Insomuch that at a Feast in Fryday-street when some of the Company shewed great joy at the news of the Queens first being with Child a leading man of that Faction whom I could name were it worth the while did not stick to say That he could see no such cause of joy as the others did Which said he gave this Reason for it That God had already better provided for us than we had deserved in giving such a hopeful Progeny by the Queen of Bohemia brought up in the Reformed Religion whereas it was uncertain what Religion the Kings Children would follow being to be brought up under a Mother so devoted to the Church of Rome And I remember that being at a Town in Glocestershire when the news came of the Princes Birth there was great Joy shewed by all the rest of the Parish in causing Bonfires to be made and the Bells to be rung and sending Victuals unto those of the younger sort who were most busily imployed in the publick Joy But so that from the rest of the Houses being of the Presbyterian or Puritan Party there came neither Man nor Child nor Wood nor Victuals their doors being shut close all the evening as in a time of general mourning and disconsolation It was not long after the Birth of this new Prince that the Feoffees for buying in Impropriations were called in question The Project took beginning about four years since when Preston Governed the Affairs of the Puritan Faction at what time it was resolved amongst them to set up stipendary Lectures in all or most Market-Towns where the People had commonly less to do and consequently were more apt to Faction and Innovation than in other places and of all Market-Towns to chuse such as were Priviledged for sending Burgesses to the High Court of Parliament Which that it might be done with the less charge to the People who commonly love that Religion best which comes cheapest to them it was agreed to raise a common Stock amongst them for buying in such Impropriations as were remaining in the hands of the Laity To this end they erected a kind of Corporation amongst themselves consisting of twelve Persons Clergymen Citizens and Lawyers enabling them to receive and expend such Monies as their Emissaries should bring in from their several Circuits Their names Gouge Offspring Sibbs and Davenport Ministers Eyre Brown White and Sherland Lawyers Geering Davis Harwood and Bridges Citizens to whom was afterwards added Rowland Heylyn Aldernian of the City of London by the name of Treasurer to the Company that there might be a casting Voice amongst them as occasion served Great were the Sums of Money which the Piety of the Design and the Diligence of their Limitaries brought in from their several Walks most men admiring all applauding the nobleness of such a Popular and Religious Act. But so it hapned that one of the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge resorting frequently to a Town in Glocestershire where one of these new Lectures had been founded by them observed these two things First That the Impropriation of that place remained in the same Lay-hands as before it did and therefore that the Lecturer must receive his Stipend from the Profits of some other Parish And secondly he observed That the man there planted in that Lecture was one of a notorious Inconformity found upon further search to have been hunted from one Diocess to another till at last he was Silenced upon that account by the High-Commission This gave him the first hint of making a more diligent Inquiry into that Design and the more he looked into it the worse he liked it He knew so much of some and heard so much of all the rest which were trusted in the Conduct of it that he could hope for no good to the Church of England from any thing of their projectment For if such publick mischiefs be presaged by Astrologers from the Conjunctions of Iupiter and Saturn though the first of them be a Planet of a most sweet and gentle Influence what Dangers what Calamities might not be feared from the Conjunction of twelve such Persons of which there was not one that wished well to the present Government Having gone thus far in the Discovery it pleased the President of his Colledge being then Vice-Chancellor to appoint him to Preach the Act Sermon at St. Maries on Sunday in the afternoon Iuly 11. 1630. To which appointment he submitted resolving to deliver something in that great concourse of People from all parts of the Kingdom which might serve to undeceive them in that Particular He had chosen for his Text those words in the thirteenth of St. Matthew viz. But while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat and went his way Beginning to draw toward the end of his Sermon he thus began to unfold the Arras and shew the Portraicture thereof in as lively Colours as he could Planting saith he also many Pensionary Lecturers in so many places where it need not and upon days of common labour will at the best bringing forth of fruit appear to be a tare indeed though now no wheat be counted tares c. We will proceed a little on further in the proposal of some things to be considered The Corporation of Feoffees for buying in Impropriations to the Church Doth it not seem in the appearance to be an excellent piece of Wheat A noble and gracious point of piety Is not this Templum Domini Templum Domini But blessed God that men should thus draw near unto thee with their mouths and yet be far from thee in their hearts For what are those intrusted in the managing of this great business Are they not the most of them the most active and the best affected men in the whole cause and Magna Partium momenta Chief Patrons of the Faction And what are those whom they prefer Are they not most of them such as must be serviceable to their dangerous innovations And will they not in time have more preferments to bestow and therefore more dependencies than all the Prelates in the Kingdom c. Yet all this while we sleep and slumber and fold our hands in sloth and see perhaps but dare not note it No sooner were these words delivered but a general consternation shewed it self in the looks of his Auditors Some honest and well meaning men seemed much to pitty his misfortune in being put as it was then generally but falsly thought on that odious task by some higher power of
their fears in that were groundless so their conjectures were no better grounded than their fears there never being a greater Patron of the Episcopal order than he lived and died but whether there might not be some presage in it in reference to the Archbishops person the diminution of his Dignity and fall of his Power may be best judged by this suspension and the consequents which followed on it And though he lived not long under the disgrace yet in the interval of time he saw so much of his Authority devolved on Laud that he grew more and more discontented and was ready in a manner to have made himself the head of the Puritan Faction It is related by a late Writer That towards his death he was not only discontented himself but that his house was the Rendezvouz of all the Malecontents in Church and State that he turned Midnight to Noonday-by constant keeping of Candles lighted in his Chamber and Study as also that such Visitants as repaired unto him called themselves Nicodemites because of their secret coming to him by night I know how much that Author hath been mistaken in other things but I see nothing in this which may not be consistent with the truth of History Certain I am his Chaplains were successively declared Calvinians his Secretary a professed Patron of the Puritan Faction his doors continually open to the Chiefs of that party and such as stickled in that cause and amongst others to him by whose Suggestion if we may take his own report the Historical Narration was called in for the great danger which it threatned to the grounds of Calvinism For his compliance with the Gentry against the Clergie this reason is alledged from his own mouth That he was so severe to the Clergy on purpose to rescue them from the severity of others and to prevent the punishment of them by lay Iudges to their greater shames which leaves the poor Clergy under a greater obloquy than any which their enemies had laid upon them But the truer reason of it was that having never been Parson Vicar nor Curate he was altogether ignorant of those afflictions which the Clergy do too often suffer by the pride of some and the Avarice of others of their Country Neighbours and consequently shewed the least compassion towards them when any of them had the hard fortune to be brought before him And for his compliance with the Puritans against the Church this reason is alledged by others viz. That he shewed the greater favour to them to keep the ballance even betwixt them and the Papists as Laud was thought to be indulgent to the Papists the better to keep down the pride and prevalency of the Puritan Faction But the truer reason of it was That he had been alwaies inclinable to them from his first beginnings insomuch that when he went Chaplain into Scotland with the Earl of Dunbar imployed by King Iames in some negotiation about that Church he was upon the point of betraying the cause if Hodgskins afterwards one of the Residentiaries of York who went Chaplain with him had not preacquainted the Earl with his tergiversation And as he laboured to be Popular upon both accounts so he endeavoured a more particular correspondence with the Gentry of Kent but most especially of his own Diocess It had been formerly the custom of his Predecessors to spend the greaâ—est part of the long vacations in the Palace of Canterbury met at the first entrance into the Diocess with a body of five hundred horse conducting them to Canterbury with great love and duty feasting the Gentry relieving the poor City entertaining their Tenants and by them liberally furnished on the other side with all sorts of provisions Abbot affected not this way and therefore never bestowed any such visit upon his Diocess but when he was confined to his house at Ford by the Kings appointment and yet resolved upon a course which carried some equivalence with it towards his design For once or twice in every year and sometimes oftner at the end of the term he would cause enquiry to be made in Westminster Hall the common Rendezvouz in St. Pauls Church and the Royal Exchange for all such Gentlemen of his Diocess as lodged in and about the City of London dispersing several Tickets from one to another by which they were invited to a general entertainment at his house in Lambeth the next day after the end of the present term where he feasted them with great bounty and familiarity A course as acceptable to the Kentish Gentry as if he had kept open Hospitality in his Palace at Canterbury because it saved them both the trouble of attending on him and the charge of sending Presents to him both which had been expected if he had spent any part of the year amongst them But this he discontinued also for three or four years or more before his death fearing as his affairs then stood that it might render him obnoxious to some misconstructions which he was willing to avoid To bring his Story to an end I shall say no more but that he had his Birth at Guilford the chief Town of Surrey and the best part of his breeding in Baliol Colledge in Oxon. whereof he was Fellow and from thence preferred to be Master of Vniversity Colledge and Dean of Winton Other preferments he had none till he came to Lichfield of which he was consecrated Bishop on the third of December Anno 1609. from thence translated unto London within few Months after and within twelve Months after that to the See of Canterbury Marks of his Benefaction we find none in places of his Breeding and Preferments but a fair Hospital well built and liberally endowed in the place of his Birth To which the woful man retired in the first extremity of those afflictions which his misfortune at Bramzill had drawn upon him and to this place he designed his body whensoever it should please God to translate him out of the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant which hapned on the fourth of August as before was said The End of the First Part. CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES Second MONARCH of Great-Brittain PART II. Carrying on the History from his Nomination to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury August 6. 1633. to the day of his Death and Burial Jan. 10. 1644. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for A. Seile 1668. THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB IV. Extending from his being made Archbishop of Canterbury to the end of the Parliament and Convocation Anno 1640. CANTERBVRY was anciently the principal City of the Kingdom and afterwards of the
without Mayors Bayliffs Constables and other Officers to take notice and to see observed as they tender Our displeasure And We further Will That Publication of this Our Commmand be made by Order from the Bishops thorow all the Parish Churches of their several Diocesses respectively Given at our Palace at Westminster Oct. 18. in the ninth year of Our Reign 1633. His Majesty had scarce dried his Pen when he dipt it in the Ink again upon this occasion The Parishioners of St. Gregories in St. Pauls Church-yard had bestowed much cost in beautifying and adorning their Parish Church and having prepared a decent and convenient Table for the holy Sacrament were ordered by the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls as being Ordinaries of the place to dispose of it in such a Posture in the East end of the Chancel as anciently it had stood and did then stand in the Mother Cathedral Against this some of the Parishioners not above five in number appeal unto the Dean of the Arches and the Dean and Chapter to the King The third day of November is appointed for debating the Point in controversie before the Lords of the Council his Majesty sitting as chief Judge accompanied with Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Keeper Lord Archbishop of Yorke Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Duke of Lenox Lord High Chamberlaine Earle Marshal Lord Chamberlaine Earle of Bridgewater Earle of Carlisle Lord Cottington Mr. Treasurer Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Cooke Mr. Secretary Windebanke The cause being heard and all the Allegations on both sides exactly pondered his Majesty first declared his dislike of all Innovations and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons c. And afterwards gave Sentence in behalf of the Dean and Chapter But because this Order of his Majesty in the case of St. Gregories was made the Rule by which all other Ordinaries did proceed in causing the Communion Table to be placed Altarwise in the Churches of their several and respective Diocesses I will subjoyn it here verbatim as it lies before me At Whitehall Novem. 3. 1633. This day was debated before his Majesty sitting in Council the question and difference which grew about the removing of the Communion Table in St. Gregories Church near the Cathedral Church of St. Paul from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there placed Altarwise in such manner as it standeth in the said Cathedral and Mother-Church as also in other Cathedrals and in his Majesties own Chappel and as is consonant to the practice of approved Antiquity which removing and placing of it in that sort was done by order of the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls who are Ordinaries thereof as was avowed before his Majesty by Doctor King and Doctor Montfort two of the Prebends there Yet some few of the Parishioners being but five in number did complain of this act by appeal to the Court of Arches pretending that the Book of Common Prayer and the 82 Canon do give permission to place the Communion Table where it may stand with most fitness and convenience Now his Majesty having heard a particular relation made by the Counsell of both parties of all the carriage and proceedings in this cause was pleased to declare his dislike of all innovation and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons especially in matters concerning Ecclesiastical Orders and Government knowing how easily men are drawn to affect Novelties and how soon weak Iudgments in such cases may be overtaken and abused And he was also pleased to observe that if those few Parishioners might have their wills the difference thereby from the foresaid Cathedral Mother-Church by which all other Churches depending thereon ought to be guided would be the more notorious and give more subject of discours and disputes that might be spared by reason of the nearness of St. Gregories standing close to the Wall thereof And likewise for so much as concerns the Liberty by the said Common Book or Canon for placing the Communion Table in any Church or Chappel with most conveniency that liberty is not so to be understood as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and Function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self and for the time when and how long as he may find cause Vpon which consideration his Majesty declared himself that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandment that if those few Parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the cause should confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter Of this last Declaration there was no great notice took at first the danger being remote the case particular and no necessity imposed of conforming to it But the other was no sooner published then it was followed and pursued with such loud outcries as either the Tongues or Pens of the Sabbatarians could raise against it Some fell directly on the King and could find out no better names for this Declaration than a Profane Edict a maintaining of his own honour and a Sacrilegious robbing of God A Toleration for prophaning the Lords day Affirming That it was impossible that a spot of so deep a dye should be emblanched though somewhat might be urged to qualifie and alleviate the blame thereof Others and those the greatest part impute the Republishing of this Declaration to the new Archbishop and make it the first remarkable thing which was done presently after he took possession of his Graceship as Burton doth pretend to wit it in his Pulpit Libell And though these Books came not out in Print till some years after yet was the clamour raised on both at the very first encreasing every day more and more as the reading of it in their Churches had been pressed upon them To stop the current of these clamours till some better course might be devised one who wisht well both to the Parties and the Cause fell on a fancy of Translating into the English Tongue a Lecture or Oration made by Dr. Prideaux at the Act in Oxon. Anno 1622. In which he solidly discoursed both of the Sabbath and Sunday according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers and the most approved Writers of the Protestant and Reformed Churches This Lecture thus translated was ushered also with a Preface In which there was proof offered in these three Propositions First That the keeping holy of one day of seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Secondly That the alteration of the day is only an humane and Ecclesiastical Constitution Thirdly That still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Which as they are the general Tendries of the
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