vp the ghost of beleefe You would not giue leaue to pare away from the seruice of God that Hymne of glory then which nothing doth sound more heauenly in the eares of mortall men nor more witnesse our honour to the holy Trinitie You would not suffer your Ministers at their owne pleasures to alter and change to vse or not to vse that order of Common prayer to God which diuine wisdome hath agreed on and a Permittere noÌ„ debes aliquid fieri contra nostras praeceptiones occasione religionis Iust rectori prouinciaruÌ„ Nouell 17. soueraigne authoritie commanded to be vsed but as farre forth as you may prouide that his Princely commaund bee not frustrated by the vndutifull disposition of any If any shall offend against the Lawe whether he be Lear. disc pa. 141. Preacher or hearer beside the Ecclesiasticall Censure which he should not escape he is also to be punished in body by the Ciuill Magistrate This is their owne rule whose vntulinesse your hand doth so much spare and in fauour of whom you keepe your vnder-sworde of Iustice so stiflye sheathed that neither the zeale which you owe to the Church nor regarde of Soueraignes iust commaund can vnscaberd it Faction and priuate respects doe not become Magistrates but if you will make a partie the PartialitateÌ„ in ciuitate Lawe doth shew you what side to followe And although esse tanquaÌ„ veâ—men in Caseo dixit Baldus ad l. vinc de cadu tolleÌ„d you be Magistrates hath appointed you a maister whom you are to obay Dutie both in you and your Ministers ought to be relatiue vnto that which Kingly authoritie doth by lawe prescribe especially when reason doth not enforce that the lawe of reason or of God doth enioyne the contrarie The more vnreasonable are those your Parish Rom 13. omnis anima c. hoc quoad spiritualia habet vim praecepti FerdmaÌ„dus Vasquius contr vers ill l. 1. presat numer 125. Bishops which doe so vndutifully reiect what is commanded and contentiouslie seeke the innouation of order established without warrant of that ground wherevpon the change must growe such inconsideration cannot bee well borne within them whom learning hath enabled much more soundly to discerne of these differences if parcialitie did not transport their resolutions beyond the rule of iudgment You neuer sawe a good Scholler arrogant for Vbi est in columitas obedientiaâ— ibi est forma sanae doctrinae Leo mag epis 87. the more he knowes the more of his weaknesse he vnderstands Youth and Ignorance are the Fountes of Shisme The least knowledge is euer most proud This in some of your conceipts deiects reuerend fathers And to your better liking blowes vpp waitlesse youthes to preach insolently to your abused ignorance who flatter your preposterous zeale sinke your treasure vndoe your corporations decaye your trades impouerish your cittizens seduce your children missead your seruants and make religion their stalking horse vnder whose bellie they shoote at what their appettites doe most affect \ Many of you do set a higher price on your knowledge in Diuinitie then any reasonable creature will giue you for it Will it please you to looke to the times of olde before Newfanglisme began to purchase resiance within your walles you shall finde that vnnecessary swaruing from the Practise of the Church did neuer yeeld experience of good vnto your citties Consider the tyme present wherein your Neuelists doe weigh the rules of religion in a popular ballance which the world knowes will be carried awaye with very slender circumstances And saye I praye you what other maye be the drift of these diuisions and subdiuisions wherewith they of the faction doe teare and turmoile the State and gouerment but to fashion your mindes with discontentment towards the State and why towards the State forsooth that when the cloude of preiudice and miste of passionate affections hath darkened the light of your iudgement they may bring in another kinde of regiment and laye a Yoake vpon your shoulders which your Fathers did neuer beare Misfashioned preconceipts are easilie ledde with any sleight declaration of specialties which may giue enducements to the conceipt For this cause they would perswade you to leaue this disordered state of ours so their charitie doth Lear. disc pa. 8. terme it and with vndeniable earnestnesse doe importune Omnia noua pulchritudine sunt decorata you to giue intertainment to that most beautifull as their fancie doth conceiue order of ecclesiasticall regiment which God so manifestly doth blesse and prosper in our neighbours hands This is that which induceth both some of you and many the common deceiued multitude to looke a squinte at the state of the Church wherein they liue and in erecting the fabricke of their reformation to cast their eyes vpon the patterne at Geneua Is out-landish fashion so fashionable to your desires that for concurrencie with them you will be disalegianced vnto his Maiestie it shall not be in my thought that any true harted Brittaine can so farre bastardize his naturall affection that forraine councell should be of more moment to worke and frame in him the stampe and character of a strange pollicie then the commaund of a most iust King to keepe him in an order of vniformitie so well beseeming the Church and conformable to the gouerment of our countrie I could in due moderation pleade in barre against you the practise of such reformalists in some other place where experience hath found and Authoritie proclaimed the method of Church regiment which they so earnestly quest for to be vnsound in diuinitie Proclam Scot. 1582. derogatorie to Princely rule and onely maintainable by complots of seditious execution so vnblessed hath it beene in our neighbours hands but I loue not to blaunch those actions If the graces wherewith the God of all grace hath enriched this State were so gracefull with vs as nature willeth because we are Brittaines and grace requireth because we are Christians they would not suffer the glory of their owne Church which by an incomparable distance doth out-shine the others in excellencie to be so disparaged but as children which complie with ther mother in all Gods blessings exhibite themselues instruments to imbrace that forme of Religion which God as a strong euidence to be most pleasing vnto him and profitable for vs hath sealed with so great blessings of peace and prosperitie The effects men say doe beare resemblances of their causes and if the richest effects doe inferre the noblest faculties you may bouldly giue this pollicie your letters testimoniall vnder the seales of your Citties and Incorporations to be the best pollicie for this gouerment to obserue because vnder this it doth best maintaine it selfe Therefore as you tender the peace of the Church the quiet of the Countrie and seruice both of God and the King If there be in you that fatherly care of the common good which hath euer beene the
sociable life where is the bonde of your submission to morrall dutie where is the power of the Church to admitte or reiect what shall be necessarie or inconuenient for the safetie and securitie of her societie If it be lawfull for euery passionate spirit carried with an affectation of Noueltie to repeale Lawes which Authoritie hath enacted to breake customes which Antiquitie hath commended to change Ordinances which Experience hath approued to peruert order which Iudgement hath established and by suiting all occurrents to their priuate humors to innouate that forme of gouerment which this kingdome hath happily followed and heauen richly blessed where is that so much valued wisdome of the Auncient where is the allowance which time giueth to things profitablie honest where is that supremicie which God hath impropriate to the Scepter of Princes as their peculiar right \ I heare you confesse it take heede you be not found secretly to vndermine it but if you be reall as you are verball in the recognition of his supreame Authoritie forgoe the thoughts of your Consistoriall gouerment which affecteth the vsurpation of his Princely rule and giue his religious Offices in the gouerment of the Church their honourable issues in your obedience to that forme of Church gouerment which he hath allowed and especially declared in that booke of Vniformitie wherein if there had beene that apparant cause of reformation as you pretended we haue iust cause to say it was more in his heart to haue done it then in yours to desire it §. 13. You implead the formes and Ceremonies as superstitious Proclam 5. Marti 1603 Proclā 16. Iulii 1604. Epist ad Lodouicū Borbonium principem and not Apostolicke yet you heard them to bee iustified out of the practise of the primitiue Church And Beza warranteth you are not absolutely bound to imitate the times which haue beene in euery particuler or without exception to receaue the Ceremonies which the Church Apostolicke esteemed as most profitable for their times And seeing that those graue learned men vpon whose iudgment you laide the Burthen of vpholding your cause by argument did in that committall conference giue their consent to the obseruation of the rites in vse you should haue presently imbraced them as free from all supposall of superstition \ If we did so iustly deserue to be touched with the note of superstition as in this case you haue imagined we doe I would rather humblie seeke and suppliantly begge pardon of my soules Sauiour then meditate wordes of perswasion for your submission vnto this order Wherein those vnsownder times whereof you speake haue done amisse that comes not within the Circuite of my thoughts but seeing this Church whereof you are members vnlesse by pertinacie in Schisme you disioynt your selues hath required you to reuerence this order as holy to obserue it as behoouefull for the excercise of Christian dutie I do greatly wish that your mindes now possessed with dislike would not set them vp as your markes to shoote at nor by way of Scorne to contradict what Authoritie hath seriouslie commaunded but with ready destination to receaue whatsoeuer is in the exercise of Religion according to the Lawes for that purpose now established §. 14. Some of them I thinke you could be contented with but the Crosse stands in your way and I maruaile not your selues delight so much to stand in Discourse of the troubles at Frāckford pa. 54. the Crosse-way yet did the Church by your owne confession for one thousand and three hundred yeares obserue the Ceremonie of Crossing as an outward testimony of their inward faith insomuch Basil de spu sancto cap. 27. that all which trusted in the name of the Lord Iesu were marked with the signe of the Crosse faith Saint Basill and whosoeuer of you shall vse the signe of Counterplea to an Apological epist Sect. 2. pa. 141. the Crosse in this manner I can assure you is farre from Popish superstition if you will not beleeue me aske Maister Willet I haue heard of a man whose mouth like a Mill that cannot grinde but with foule water doth commonly ouer-runne with termes of obscenitie against the approued cerimonies of holy Church and contumelie against men of honourable seruice onelie therefore because they runne not with him in the same excesse of vnaduised zeale * Ipse Dominus crucē suā vbi eum demētia superbae impietatis irrisit in illorū qui in eū crederēt frontibus infixit vbi est quodāmodo sedes verecundiae vt de nomine eius fides nō erubescat magis dei gloriā quā hominem diligat August in Euangel tracta 53. in fine Baptiz 16. Ianu. Anno Dō 1601. Tacitus l. 14 annal Sepult 20. Ia. 1601. This fellow hearing a childe of his at the time of Baptisme to be signed with the Crosse in the forehead the seate of honesty did so frettingly disdaine thereat that in the heate of his newfangled spirit he said it would haue done as much good if it had beene done in the seate of natures impuritie But what followed this prophane contempt of that significatiue Ceremonie and Character of Christianitie I know you desire to heare and but to satisfie your desire as also to giue witnesse to the cause in hand I could contentiuely silence it least vnhappily any of you should thinke me as Caius Cassius spake of himselfe in the Romaine Senate carryed with too much loue of Auncient holy customes His next borne Childe being a goodly boye wanted that place of Natures vent Whether Nature were hindred in producing of her intended effect by some Grosse defection in the naturall causes or else that the Author of Nature who according to the rules of true Philosophie immediatly concurreth with all singular secundarie causes euen to their perticular effects for ends best knowne to his all-seeing prouidence doth at any time with-draw his co-operatiue power I recommend it to your consultation yet I doubt the tempest of your affections will beat against what the hand of iudgment doth build Many did admire it as a blowe giuen by his diuine hand whose power ruleth all from the highest Seraphyn to the lowest Syncphee and in the duty of a Christian I wish the remembrance of it might not onely water the Father with the liquor of Obedience vnto order that he may prosper as a well rooted Plant in the garden of Humilitie but also induce his brother who in the worke of his Ministery impugneth this vse of the crosse vnto a more dutifull conformity §. 15. Two things haue giuen great swaye vnto your Quāto sāctiores apparent tanto magis sub praetextu sanctitatis nocent Ambr. de Noc Archa ca. 14. sect the one is apparancie of zeale the other subtletie of discourse the glareing baites of masked follie vailed with the shew of deuotion ambitiously desiring to be esteemed what you are not you haue mislead poore beguiled Soules to that they should not and with facillitie
of speach endeauoured to entangle the choisest wittes in the toile of your misconceipted opinions For this cause You Gentlemen at the Lawe commonly haue your eyes dazeled with the first view of Fancies proiects your affections sounded with the first touch of zeales passion your eares tickled with the first note of errors tune and your Chambers stored with the first fruites of their wittes follie to the end forsooth that by your hands they might more easilie spread abroad and be dispersed among the Brethren of the cause whose foster friends Noueltie might make you Notwithstanding the quickest wittes in pliancie of disposition to Noueltie doe easily giue fauour to Nouell opinions not as reason doth warrant but as Fancie doth conceaue them yet I make no question that you my maisters the Gentlemen Apprentises at the Lawe will so goe with the current and streame of the lawe that the King who is the life of the Law the liuing Lawe the Patron of your studie and founder Philo. l. 2. de vita mosis of your honour shall not haue cause so much as to heare Complaint of your any further conniuence to enormities or indulgence to factions or supportance of discentious partialities As Charles the fift of Fraunce sayd of his Colledge Chopinus de do Frā pa. 594. of Lawyers in Angew your Houses of Innes of Court are to his Maiestie a fluent Spring to furnish him with men of high Councell both for the good gouerment of themselues and procurement of others good Two things much commended in you and much commended to you that as you studie the benefit of your Countrie by your study at the Lawe your conformitie with the Lawe may crowne your study with wisdome your dayes with peace your knowledge with obedience your zeale with iudgment and your loue to religion with your louing acceptation of religious vniformitie Your Fathers at the Lawe measuring the Lawes equitie by publicke vtilitie doe condemne them for guiltie which attempt to doe any thing contrary to Smith de repub Anglorū l. 1. cap. 2. the Lawe yea though it were to doe good And with graue resolution assure that the King cannot alter and change the lawes of this Realme at his Fortesc in cōmend of the lawes of Engl. pa. 25. pleasure because the rule of his gouerment is not onlie royall but pollitick If you cannot finde any preuiledge for the subiect at his pleasure to disobay let your examplarie approbation of rites publickly established lead them in the performance of holye duties You are reall speakers and the chiefest graduates Bartolus of your facultie haue the Prerogatiue of plea in reall Actions and therefore must more entend to the Scire leges non est eorum verba tenere sed vim potestatē Regula iuris things for which the Lawes are decreed then to the words by which the Lawes are deliuered yet whether you consider the letter of the Lawe or the reason which is the life of the Lawe saith Baldus the spirit of the lawe saith Panormitan and the bond that bindeth He that wresteth the Lawe in one doth offer wrong to the Lawe in the other and by both hath often times hindred the Church of her learned Ministrie when the cause hath come to a Quare impedit How much the Church hath heeretofore reioyced in her honourable helpe of profitable and religious lawes enacted by his Maiesties most noble Progenitors the Kings of these famous Ilands to protect her peace and priuiledge her safetie against Nouelists the vntimely enimies of most auncient times truth her blessed mother on earth and best beloued to her Father in heauen the histories of our venerable predecessors doe reporte with memorable testimonies of their blessed names Let me onely tell you the Church now comforted with the pleasefull aspect and strengthened with the powerfull hand of his Maiestie hopefully expecteth that as in pleading our causes your legall Philosophie is free from Didimus ad Alexan. those rules which the Philosophy schooles doe allowe their disputants with falsated speeches to couer vntruthes so you vouchsafe her the true Testimonie of your generous freedome most demonstratiue in your Obedience to her holy prescriptions and Christian lawes of out most Christian King if she may obtaine this but reasonable and honest boone at your hands who are professors of the Lawe by obseruation of her rites and Ceremonies in your Churches Chappels and Oratories your such practise will be her preseruatiue and her prayers a blessing to your such practise §. 16. Your Actions of singularitie are in such speciall veneration with your vnlearned retinue that you cannot now leaue them without remorce hauing vsed them with so great applause nor well reclaime your followers from those giddie follyes which with such force you haue laboured to indeede vnto their conceipts There is no opinion so fantasticall nor fancie A nullis consuetudinibus homo difficilius auellitur quā ab his quae ad opinionem pertinent Origē l. 1. cōtra celsū so extrauagant but if custome set the foote of her Authoritie in vs reason cannot remoue the imposture the deepe and sensible impression of Libertie will not admit reasonable perswasions and so long as your affections lye couered vnder that stone they cannot plye to the rule which truth affordes and vnderstanding would administer Howbeit where the feare of the Lawe is there Chrisost ho. 14. ad pop Antiochenum custome is easilie broken and for that this rust hath eaten into you through their sufferance who by demandation from Soueraigntie haue receaued in charge the execution of the Lawes ordained for the strengthfull maintenance of this both Ecclesiasticall and Ciuill pollicie I trust you my Lordes the Iudges of the land which haue the iudgements of our causes the censure of our behauiour and sentence of our Actions will so take to hart the defence of these dutyes in performance whereof resteth the very Soule of our Church and life of Churches flourishing that neyther greatnesse of Authoritie nor power of person nor eminencie of place nor loue of fauourites nor fancie to faction shall cause you to winke at or dispence with any eyther Anabaptisticallie spirited or seditiouslie opposite to this pure and vnstained religion by Lawe established The vnpartiall defence of this claimeth the first place aboue all whatsoeuer Soueraigntie hath comissionated vnto your Authoritie as well in regard of the care which earth iudging vpon earth ought Aust ser 94. to haue of his iudgement which iudgeth in the heauens as also for the happy aduauncement of publick good which ebbeth or floweth as God the Author of all good is respectiuely serued For proofe of this If you looke vpon the blessings wherewith the giuer of all Prerogatiues hath prosperouslie enriched this Nation eyther in warlike action or peaceable deliberation you shall see them flowe from the spring of humble obedience towards true religion or if you please to beholde them darkned in