no where doth to the Priests or Deacons but more clearely by the ancient Canons and writings of the Fathers in the primitive B. Andrewes Resp ad Epist Moâ—inaei 1. 3. Tortur Terti p. 151. Church That which results from all this is That to affirme the Episcopall order or authority as it is meerely spirituall to bee received not from the King but from God and Christ and derived by continuall succession from the Apostles is no false or arrogant assertion nor prejudicall to the Kings prerogative royall and so not dangerous to those that shall so affirme or that challenge and exercise their jurisdiction in that name For the further demonstration hereof I will also briefly set downe what power in causes Ecclesiasticall is due and challenged by the King and other Soveraigne Civill Magistrates what Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is annexed to the Crowne of this Realme which the Bishops must acknowledg thence to be received and exercised in that right My first conclusion shall be in the words of Conclu 1 our thirty seventh Article where the power of Artic. 37. Kings in causes Ecclesiasticall is described to bee only That they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the Civill Sword the stubborne and evill doers other authority than this as Queene Elizabeth in her Injunctions His Majesty neither doth ne ever will Qu. Eliz. Injunct challenge nor indeed is due to the Imperiall Crowne either of this or any other Realme Where I observe two things wherein the Soveraigne authority of Princes in causes Ecclesiasticall doth consist First in ruling Ecclesiasticall persons under which are comprised 1 their power to command and provide that spirituall persons do rightly and duly execute the spirituall duties belonging to their functions 2 to make and ordaine Lawes to that end and for the advancement and establishing of piety and true Religion and the due and decent performance of Divine worship and for the hinderance and extirpation of all things contrary thereunto Secondly in punishing them as well as others when they offend with the Civill Sword Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall persons being offenders are not exempt from the coercive power of the King but that he may punish them as well as others but it is with the Gladium spiritualem stringere est Episcoporum non Regum quan quam hic licet Episcoporum manu piorum tamen Regum sancto monitu et evaginari in vaginam recondi solet Mason de Minist Ang. l. 4. c. 1. Civill Sword as that only which he beareth not with the Ecclesiasticall or by the sentence of Excommunication It belongs to Bishops and not to Kings to draw the Spirituall Sword yet that is also wont to be unsheathed and sheathed at the godly command and motion of religious Kings And they may as pious Princes use second yea and prevent the spirituall Sword and with the Civill as namely with bodily and pecuniary punishment compell his subjects as well Ecclesiasticall as Temporall to the performance of the duties of both Tables My second conclusion or as I may rather Conclu 2 terme it my inference upon the former is That the Bishops having any civill power annexed to their places and exercising the same either in judging any civill causes or inflicting temporall punishments whether bodily or pecuniary have and use that power wholly from the King and by his grace and favour in his right That the Episcopall jurisdiction even as it is Conclu 3 truly Episcopall and meerely spirituall though in it selfe it be received only from God yet in asmuch it is exercised in his Majesties Dominions and upon his subjects by his Majesties consent command and royall Protection according to the Canons and Statutes confirmed by his Authority nothing hinders but that thus-farre all Ecclesiasticall Authority and jurisdiction may bee truly said to be annexed to the Crowne and derived from thence And this onely is the intent of those Statutes which annex the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crowne Which notwithstanding it may truly bee affirmed that the Bishops have their function and jurisdiction for the substance of it as it is meerely spirituall and so properly Ecclesiasticall by Divine right and only from Christ and that it is derived by a continuall and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles But if Master Burton conceive that the Bishops affirme that they have power to exercise this their spirituall jurisdiction within His Majesties Dominions and over His Subjects of themselves and without licence and authoritie from His Majestie Or that their temporalities their revenewes their Dignities to bee Barons of the Parliament c. or the authority that they have and use either to judge in Causes temporall or to inflict temporall punishments belong to them by Divine right or otherwise than by the favour of his Majesty and his predecessors hee makes them as absurdly ignorant and presumptuous as himselfe The other thing which I cannot let passe is that which he here cites out of the Iesuites pamphlet intituled A direction to be observed by N. N. c. wherein the Iesuit it seemes applauds the present state of our Church as comming on towards Vnion with Rome The temper and moderation of the Arch Bishop and some other learned prelates and the allowance of some things in these dayes which in former times were counted superstitious as the names of Priests and altars and the acknowledging the visible beeing of the Protestant Church for many ages to have beene in the Church of Rome c. My purpose is not here to enter the lists with the Iesuite who I doubt not ere long will bee more sufficiently answered than I have either leisure or ability to doe All that I shall say for the present is First that Master B. is willing it seemes to take dirt from any Dunghill to cast in the face of his Mother the Church of England and that though hee professe such mortall hate to Rome that the last affinity with her though many times but imaginary makes him breake forth into strange expressions of his abomination Yet hee can bee content to joyne hands with the worst of the Romanists the Iesuites and use their aide to slander and make odious the Church in which hee was bred But it is no Innovation this it hath beene a long practise of the Faction whereof he is now ambitious to become a captaine both to joyne with them in their principles and to make use of their weapons to fight against the Church wherein they live Secondly It is manifest from hence that the Iesuite and he are confederates in detraction and ignorance of the Doctrine of our Church which both of them judge of not by the authorised Doctrine publikely subscribed or the regular steps of those that have continued in the use of her ancient and laudable customes rites and ceremonies but by their owne humours and uncertaine reports of some
Burtons endeavour to excuse Ap-Evans Mr. Burtons opposites not censorious What they thinke of those whom he calls Professors and the profession it selfe True Piety approved and honoured in all professions The answere to this crimination summed up The censured partiall Iudges of their own censures How offences are to be rated in their censures THe next is Innovation in Discipline which saith he in a word is this That whereas of old the censures of the Church were to be inflicted upon disordered and vitious persons notorious livers as drunkards adulterers c. Now the sharpe edge thereof is mainly turned against Gods people and Ministers even for their vertue pag. 127. and piety c. A man that reads this charge and were ignorant of the language that is spoken among those of M. Burtons tribe would verily beleeve if it were but halfe true that the State of our Church were metamorphosed into a very Babel of disorder and confusion and sinck of profanenesse and iniquity But the comfort still is we may fitly answere him as Nehemiah did Sanballat There are Nehem. 6. 8. no such things done as thou sayest but thou fainest them out of thine owne heart For first let the records of Ecclesiasticall Courts and as that hee most aimes at of the High Commission bee searched and compared with the now highlymagnified times of the raigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory and it will appeare that there is not now the least Innovation either in the manner of their proceedings or in the crimes and persons censured but that it continues in the old and troden steps of religious justice and useth the same severity against vitious persons and inordinate livers in all kindes as ever it was wont to doe And that if there bee any change at all it is that the edge of their censures is not now so sharp or so mainly turned against Gods people and Ministers for their vertue and piety as it was in those happy times For had it beene now as it was then perhaps Mr. Burton had beene prevented for ever comming to this height and his vertue and Piety had beene nipt in the bud which now hath enlarged her branches loaden with goodly fruits suitable to the stocke on which they grow And many of his vertuous friends and Candidates of Martyrdom in the Sabbatarian cause would not have thus long have waited for their sentence of condemnation for their godly and right Christian resistance of his Majesties unquoth commands But I must not goe farther with this vizor and therefore before I proceed I le pull it off and expound the termes and then reade this part of his charge in plaine English Here then by Gods people and Ministers understand People and Ministers of Mr. Burtons party Their vertue and piety their disobedience to their Soveraigne their repining and murmuring at his government their inconformity to the Orders of the Church their contempt of Ecclesiasticall power and authority and other strange insolencies whereof M. Burton hath given us a full patterne in this booke and his long practices The summe and plaine truth is That some people and Ministers that have a better conceit of themselves than they have cause for have beene lately censured for their not conforming to his Majesties commands and the Churches orders This is all and when was it otherwise in this Church nay in any Church since the beginning of Christianity was it ever knowne that any Church or any civill government did or could subsist without inflicting censures upon the wilfull violators of their orders and constitutions Hath not ever the edge of discipline been justly sharpned against those that shall to their disobedience adde contempt of the authority and that with contumelious reproaches and slanders against the persons invested with it If men for the maintenance of their selfe will'd humours and for exalting of their private fancies against the publick Orders of the Church and the authority Ecclesiasticall shall presume so farre Sipro errore homines tanta prasumunt quanto magis aequ◠est et oportet eos qui pacis et unitatis Christianae asserunt veritatem omnibus etiā dissimulantibus et cobibentibus manifestam satagere instanter atque impigrè non solùm pro eorum munimine qui jam Catholici sunt verū etiam pro corum correctione qui nondū sunt Nam si pertina cia insuperabilis vires habere conatur quantas debet habere constātia quae in eo bono quod perseveranter atque infatigabiliter agit et Deo placere se novit et proculdubio non potest hominibus prudentibus displicere Aug. Ep. 167. How much more is it fit and behoves those who stand for the truth of peace and Christian unity which is manifest even to those that dissemble and oppose it to endevour with all earnestnesse and diligence not onely for the securing of those which are Catholicks but also for the correction of those that are not For if stubbornnesse seeke to get such strength what ought constancy to have which in that good which uncessantly and unweariedly it doth both knowes that it pleaseth God and without doubt cannot displease wise men So Saint Augustine once Apologized for the Church in his dayes proceeding against the Donatists and a fitter I cannot use for our Church at this day nor need I adde more in this case But this will not haply be contradicted by any that thus viewes things in their true notions and if any should be so void of reason and grace as to declaime against it every man would cry shame of him But the cunning maske that is put upon it makes it passe current and to be entertained as a just and a great grievance when it shal be presented under the names of persecution and unjust censures inflicted upon Gods people and Ministers and that for their vertue and piety who then can but pitty and commiserate the sufferers and condemne their persecutors of notorious injustice and horrible impiety It is an old and a cunning stratagem used by some expert Captaines to march disguised and to beare the Colours of those against whom they fight that they may finde the more easie passage And this practice hath beene long in use with the disturbers of the Churches peace to usurp the name and priviledges of the true Church and to appropriate that to themselves which of right belongs to those whom they oppugne But never any Vos enim dicitis remansisse Ecclesiam Christi in sola Africa partis Donati Aug. Ep. 166. were better Artists in this kinde than the Donatists in S. Augustines time who were wont to circumscribe the Church within the bounds of their party and to account all other Christians as Pagan and to call the repression of their turbulencies persecution and boast of Martyrdome as appeares out of S. Augustine and Optatus Milevitanus Optat. Milevit l. 3. prope finem And these Donatists were never better parallel'd than in these
is too heavy 2. Without warrant For 1 will no less censure serve the turne then suspension excommunication deprivation and the like I answer No especially for those that after admonition instruction and long forbearance remaine not onely refractary but adde thereto many intollerable affronts to Authority by publick invectives private whisperings and false suggestions buzzing into the people I know not what dangerous issues meere fictions of a pettish fancy to follow for these men these censures are milde enough And I dare appeale to that conscience which Mr. B. hath yet left him whether if hee did erect his new discipline and godly government pag. 110. hee would not exercise as harsh censures upon them that not onely wilfully but thus turbulently oppose the commands of those in authority and wee may easily guesse what hee would doe if hee had once the upper ground when being on the lower hee can so severely censure those that are above him with deprivation not of living but of life and turne suspension Ips News p. 6. into plaine English hanging And that the Churches where that purer discipline is in place for matters of lesse moment hath inflicted as heavy censures is better knowne than to need rehearsing But not the example of others like dealings but the proceedings themselves are the best justification For with how slow a pace did justice march to these punishments that have beene three yeeres space in the execution and yet of delinquents in that kinde how few are they that have suffered And what admonitions were spent upon them what paines in information what patience in expectation of their conformity is sufficiently knowne and remaines upon record and will justifie themselves before any indifferent Judges So that I may truely say of these proceedings as S. Austine of the Churches in his time against the Donatists that it was a most mercifull discipline that was used upon Misericordissima disciplina them And what other censures hath the Church to inflict but these except it be an admonition and if they would onely have that used and rather to bee misused upon them to no purpose they might then have just ground for their usuall practise in contemning the whole power of the Church 2 But what warrant have they There is no Canon Statute Law or precept extant that requires Div. Trag. p. ult it I grant it if he meane particularly requiring it for since at least the last setting forth of the booke there have beene no Canons or Statutes made But it were very hard if the Kings Majesty should not have power to command men to declare his pleasure in any thing and to punish such as refuse without the assistance of new Canons and Statutes for every new occasion God be thanked his owne Royall right and the Lawes and Canons already made do abundantly enable him to doe farre more than this Well perhaps hee doth not deny the Kings right or power but what power have the Bishops for their proceedings If saith he they alledge the Kings p. 57. authority as they do where shew they this authority Where do they shew it Marry where they are by duty bound to doe it to those that have authority to demand it to whom they are ready to give a just account of their proceedings but not to Mr. Burton For what authority hath hee to demand a sight of their Authority Or who made him Inquisitor generall over the Bishops to examine their actions and so imperiously to require their warrant as here he doth and in like maner in another place hath dealt with my Lord Bishop of Norwich for his proceeding in his owne Diocesse And all this hee presumes to doe meerely of himselfe without and against all Law and Canon yea and reason too hee not having the least occasion offered him as not having been so much as questioned for the things nor touched by the authority whereof hee complaines If hee had beene suspended excommunicated and deprived for not reading the Booke or for not conforming to the new Ceremonies as he calls them he could have done no more nor indeed could hee justly have done so much It belongs not to any man that is questioned for any crime or cause before any subordinate Magistrate Civill or Ecclesiastick in such manner to question their Authority if haply they think them to have no warrant for what they doe they who are questioned have the benefit of Appeale Ad praesidium innocentiae est Apellationis remedium institutum Lancellot Perusin instit jur Can. l 3. tit 17. which was instituted for the reliefe of innocency as the Canonists speake and by this meanes the Iudge à Quo shall bee compelled to transmit both his proceedings in the cause and his authority by which he so proceeded to bee scanned by the Iudge ad Quem But for the parties questioned to doe it is an unsufferable insolency and affront to Iustice And if Mr. Burton 1 Pet. 4. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alienas Curas agens S. Cypr. ad Quirin Curiosus nemo est qui non sit malevolus Plau◠now suffer for this hee cannot bee said to suffer as a Christian but as a busie body or Bishop in anothers Diocesse And certainly every man that is such is an evill member in the Common-wealth and ill-affected to the Government under which he lives for as the Comick once said well No man is a busie-body which is not malevolent But beside this the Book expresly commanding the Bishops to take order for the publication of the Book doth whatsoever Mr. Burton saith to the The book orders no such severe and wicked censures to be inflicted upon any in that behalfe No nor yet gives the Bishops any expresse order or power at all to punish any Ministers in this case p. 56. contrary sufficiently warrant them to punish such as refuse otherwise they doe but poorely discharge the trust committed to them To send it to the severall Churches and there to leave it to be read or not at the pleasure of the Minister is not to take order for the publication of it but to permit the publication of it to the discretion of every Minister which if his Majesty had onely intended hee would have imployed some inferiour persons but intending to have it done to purpose His Majesty committed it to the Bishops whose power he knew to bee sufficient to take order in that case without any new warrant or express order in the booke for the punishment of offenders against his Royall pleasure And thus much of that Book and of the first kind of supposed Innovations viz. in Doctrine CHAP. XIII Of the Innovation pretended to bee in Discipline The Courts Ecclesiasticall have continued their wanted course of Iustice St. Austines Apology for the Church against the Donatists fitly serves ours The cunning used by delinquents to make themselves pitied and justice taxed Their practises to palliate and cover their faults Mr.
Ministers are and have beene censured by the Churches discipline so long as it is for offences by them committed from which they cannot exempt themselves unlesse they can be exempted from the common condition of all mankinde their punishment can neither be rightly termed an innovation nor a persecution but an act of justice and of that impartiall discipline which hath ever beene exercised in this Church and in every well ordered Church and State Politick Iustice lookes not at the person of any man but at the cause She waighs the offences of delinquents in her impartiall ballance while her eyes are blinded from all respect of persons Good men falling may deserve more pity from others but must receive the same doome at the barre of Iustice which others guilty in the like kind and measure But haply the edge of censure is more sharpe Obj. against them then other men or then their crime deserves which if it be they have good cause to cry out of an over-severity and injustice To this I answer 1. That the censured are but ill and very partiall Judges of their owne Censures there are but few that though convict of a crime would passe sentence upon themselves by the rule of justice without some favour though they and their favourers who for the most part are partakers of the same guilt and in feare of the same punishment cry out of cruelty and persecution it is not much to bee valued in this case 2. In the censure of sinnes and offences they are not altogether to be rated by the atrocity of the fact or by the law that is violated but by other circumstances whereby it comes to passe that a slight offence in it selfe considered and against a positive and humane law or constitution may sometimes without violation of justice be as deepely censured as sins of an higher nature and against the morall and eternall law of God and this is approved for good justice by all common-wealths in cases of treason and the like where sometimes a little aberration or word mis-placed is sentenced with death Yea God himselfe who is the Judge of all the world and must needs do right did set this pattern of judicature in the first sentence that was pronounced in the world sentencing Adam and all his posterity with death not for the violation of any law of nature but of the positive precept of eating the forbidden fruit which being a thing not for it selfe acceptable to God may seeme but a small sin in comparison of those that are against the law of nature yet in as much as by that sin man did as it were renounce his subjection and disclayme his obedience to his Maker whereof that precept was given for a symbole or testification God in this as in all other his actions must needs be justified In like manner if the violation of the orders of the Church being in themselves matters of ceremony rather than of the substance of Religion receive as heavy censures or perhaps more grievous then the breach of the morall Lawes of God himself Yet is not authority presently unjust besides that they are of more dangerous consequence than others or cruell considering that these offences when they come to be so censured are heightened by wilfulness and seconded by self-justification and contempt and condemnation of authority which if it should not with all severity be repressed would induce in short time a meere anarchie and confusion in the Church Then which there can be no greater evill under the Sun CHAP. XIIII Of the supposed Innovations in the worship of God Ceremonies no substantiall parts of Gods worship The crimination and a generall answer Of standing at Gloria Patri What will-worship is Standing at the Gospell Bowing at the name of Jesus Of the name of Altar and what sacrifice is admitted Of the standing of the Altar Of Communicants going up to the Altar to receive Of the railes Of bowing toward the Altar and to the East and turning that way when we pray Of reading the second Service at the Altar I Come now to the third kind of innovations pretended to be made in the worship of God which Mr. Burton saith they the Bishops goe about to turn inside outward placing the true worship which is in spirit and truth in a will-worship of mans devising c. This is the crimination which is set forth in most odious maner but proved as weakely as the former for whereas he pretendeth an Innovation in the worship he produceth nothing but certaine ceremonies or usages which cannot be accounted parts or any thing of the substance of Gods worship such as are bowing at the name of Iesus bowing toward the Altar turning toward the East standing at the Gospell and which he produces for another example in this kind a pa. 98. elsewhere at Gloria Patri reading the second Service at the Altar These and some other like mentioned by him in other places are by him charged as 1. Innovations lately brought in 2. That they are made part of Gods worship 3. That they are will-worship and as often elsewhere he calls them superstitious and idolatrous Lastly he taxeth the rigour which is used in urging of these things and punishing the refusers of them in the High-Commission c. my answer shall be briefe yet such as may give some satisfaction to the ingenuous in all these First I cannot but wonder with what face he can accuse any of these things of novelty when there is not one of the things he names which hath not been used in the primitive and purest ages of the Church and though by the disaffection of some and the carelesness and negligence of others they have beene in many places for some while too much neglected were never wholly out of use in this Church of ours but observed as religious customes derived from the ancient Church of Christ and that not onely in Cathedrals and the Royall Chappell though that might sufficiently cleare them from these foule imputations but in many Parochiall Churches in this Kingdome and generally by all that to their knowledge have added zeale and conscience by their practise to maintaine the honour and reputation of the pious and laudable rites and customes of the ancient Church And how these things can be more popish superstitious and idolatrous now then heretofore I cannot see View them every one single and let any man say which of them can justly thus be taxed For the standing at Gloria Patri which Cassianus who lived 1200. yeares agoe saith was used in all Cassian l. 2. de instit Caemb Of standing at Gloria Patri the Churches of France why any man that is not resolved to cavill and snarle at every thing that is good and commendable should judge it either superstitious or unfit is beyond my capacity Surely no man can deny but that to rise up and stand is a more reverent gesture than to sit or leane and if that bee
those men in whose steps Master B. hath gone to the intent that it may appeare that they of his faction may more truly be termed Innovators in this Church as being both in their doctrine and discipline new and contrary to the formes in both kindes which the first authors of those by them admired principles found here established CHAP. XXI A briefe discourse of the beginning and progresse of the Disciplinarian faction their sundry attempts for their Genevian Dearling Their Doctrines new and different from the true and ancient Tenets of the Church of England and they truely and rightly termed Innovators IT was one of the greatest evils that ever happened to this Church that in the infancy of the reformation which was happily begun in the reigne of King Edward of happy memory many for conscience sake and to avoyd the storm of persecution which fell in the dayes of Queen Mary betaking themselves to the reformed Churches abroad and especially to Geneva were drawn into such a liking of the forme of discipline then newly erected by Master Calvin there that returning home they became quite out of love with that which they found here established by Authority insomuch that set on by the perswasions and examples of Iohn Knox and other fiery spirited Zealots in Scotland they attempted and by all meanes endeavoured to advance their strongly-fancied platforme of Genevian discipline For the bringing about whereof the course they then tooke for the drawing of the people to a liking of their intentions was to pick quarels against the names and titles given to the Fathers and Governours of our Church apparrell of Ministers and some ceremonies in the booke of Common prayer retained and prescribed which they taxed of superstition and remnants of Popery And afterwards when T. C. and others who had also beene at Geneva had drunke in the opinion of Master Beza who by that time had promoted the discipline there invented by his Master and made it one of the especiall notes of the true Church as if it had till then beene maymed and imperfect what bookes were then written what seeming humble motions made what pamphlets pasquils libels flew abroad yea what violent attempts plots conspiracies and traiterous practices were then set on foot by the men of that faction are at large set forth in divers books of that argument and are yet fresh in the memories of many alive at this day What the care and couragious zeale of the Govenors of this Church and State then was for the preventing and overthrowing of these mens desperate disignes the flourishing and peacefull estate which this Church hath since by their meanes enjoyed doth abundantly speake For the authors of these innovations troubles and disorders receiving just and publick censure according to their severall demerits they which remained well-willers and abettors of that cause were glad to lie close and carry themselves more warily than before and to waite some better opportunitie for the effecting of their purpose Which they apprehending to bee offered at the comming of King Iames to this crowne began againe to move but so as beginning as it were at their old A. B. C. their complaint was principally against the use of ceremonies subscription and sundry things formerly questioned by their predecessors in the booke of Common Prayer And when that learned and judicious King had out of his wise and gratious disposition vouchsafed to take their complaint into his serious consideration and to grant them a solemne and deliberate hearing in the conference held at Hampton Court The successe of that conference to use the words of his Royall Proclamation was such as Proclamation before the Booke of common prayer happeneth to many other things which moving great expectation before they be entred into in their issue produce finall effects For to give the sum of that which there followes mighty and vehement informations were found to be supported with so weak and slender proofes that that wise King and his Councell seeing no cause to change any thing either in the booke of Common Prayer Doctrine or rites established Having caused some few things to be explained He by his Royall Proclamation commanded a generall conformity of all sorts requiring the Archbishops and Bishops to see that conformity put in practise Being thus frustrate of their hopes of bringing in their darling plat-forme some of the principall among them remaining stiffe in their opinion and opposition to Authority received a just censure and suffered deprivation others grown wiser by the example of their fellowes suffering that they might save their reputation and yet continue in their places invented a new course and yeelded a kinde of conformity not that they thought any whit better of the things but for that they held them though in themselves unlawfull not to be such as for which a man ought to hazzard not his living that might savour of covetousnesse but his ministery and the good which Gods People might by that meanes receive This project prevailed with many to make them come off to a subscription and yet gave them liberty in private and where they might freely and with safety to expresse themselves to shew their dis-affection to the things to which they had subscribed resolving not to practise what they had professed nor to use the ceremonies enjoyned further than they should be compelled And for this cause they did wisely avoid all occasions that might draw them to the publick profession of conformity by using the ceremonies and betooke themselves to the worke of preaching placing themselves as much as might be in Lectures and where any of them were beneficed getting conformable Curates under them to beare the burden of the ceremonies Thus saving themselves and maintaining their reputation with the people they gained the opportunity to instill into them their principles not only of dislike of the Church-government and rites but also of the doctrine established and though through the vigilancie and care of those that have sate at the sterne in this Church they have beene hitherto hindred from erecting their altars of Damascus publickly in our Temples yet have they using this art now a long time in an underhand way brought up the use of their owne crotchets and erected a new Church both for doctrine and discipline far differing from the true and ancient English Church and made though not a locall as some more zealous among them have by removing to Amsterdam and New-England yet a reall separation accounting themselves the wheat among the tares and monopolizing the names of Christians Gods children Professors and the like stiling their doctrine The Gospell The Word and their Preachers The Ministers The good Ministers Powerfull preachers and by such other distinctive names As for all other men they account them no better than * Resembling herein the Donatists of old with whom Optatus expostulates in this manner Eum qui in nomine Christi tinctus est Paganum vocas And againe Paganum vocas
approbation of many more than of their owne straine till at length their purposes were unvailed and their aime discovered which was the erecting of a seminary at Saint Antholins subordinated to a Classis or Clerolaicall Consistory who had power at least in their intentions to plant there such hopefull imps as should bee fit upon the falling of any of their purchased Impropriations to be removed transplanted into great populous places in this Kingdom in which they endeavoured so to fasten and fence these transplanted choice ones that no Ecclesiasticall censure should touch or deprive them of their maintenance by that meanes hoping in such places to use the words of a prime agent in that cause to establish the Gospel by a perpetuall decree to this end also they had sundry attempts of which these two were famous First the striving by money to purchase the place of an Head of an house in Oxford for one of their owne party for the first trayning up of their novices in their misteries And the other was in the like way their attempt for the getting of a Commissaries place there where they intended to make a speciall plantation who being after their own hearts might winke at their irregularities and secure them from the danger of that Court The scanning of which and other their attempts I leave to the indifferent and intelligent In the meane time I shall ever blesse God that put it into the heart of His sacred Majesty and the State timely to discover and prevent this their purpose before it had undermined the present government of the Church as no question it would have given a good say to it if it had without controule proceeded as it began And for this that learned and famous man in his profession Master William Noy at that time His Majesties Attorney generall deserves an honorable memory among those that are true well-willers to the Church and State whose industrie and zealous paines in this cause was a chiefe meanes of it's discovery and overthrow And that the rather because for that one peece of service sake he fell totally and finally from the grace and favour of that faction and Master B. or the Author who ever he was of that libell annexed to his Divine Tragedy as if he were some fury whose hate death could not pacifie for that and his service against Prynne tramples upon his memory and pisses as it were upon the ashes of him and his unfortunate eldest sonne whom he reserves for the last scene of that his late audaciously vented fable as if hee had beene the most remarkable prodigie of impiety by him brought upon the State But I leave him his presumptuous censurers to the judgement of God which whatsoever theirs be I am sure is according unto truth Neither will it boote Rom. 2. 2. them that which they now so much boast of their persons are accepted for there is no respect of persons with God in the day wherein hee shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ But I finde my selfe digressed to returne therfore and to conclude that which I intended by this briefe relation of the Doctrine and practices of these men it may manifestly appeare who they are that may rightly bee termed Innovators and broachers of novell opinions and practises in this Church and how easie it were by way of recrimination to cry quittance with Master B. and for his eight to charge him and his party with five times that number not such as his fond surmises ignorantly and falsely accused of novelty and superstition but really and truly such having neither Canon nor Article of the Church for them nor any solid foundation in the Word of God and which are some of them at least as dangerous to the soules of men and as great enemies to the power of godlinesse as any of those which hee taketh for such as are by him pretended to be If any man complaine of brevity or of confusion and want of order in the relation let him know I intended it rather for a taste and to shew what might be done in that way than for any full discourse which would have required more than my present leisure and have swoln my booke too much beyond its intended proportion If they judge it defective as wanting proofe and because I have not produced the Authors of those opinions which I mention I answer to the same purpose that it did not stand with my present intentions which was only to point out the things in a cursory way in which I conceive the producing of proofes and Authors might well be spared But for further answer I say that I did it for two other reasons First because the things are so well knowne yea and acknowledged by those from whom if from any contradiction was to bee expected that I could not thinke it necessary Secondly because I could not doe it without bringing some mens names and writings upon the Stage which if I had done Master B. in his next treatise would have stiled me as bad as hee hath done my betters but that did not so much diswade me as the respect I beare to many of their persons from whom though for the truths sake I must testifie my dissent yet I shall never by Gods grace expresse any disaffection to their persons or procure them any blame or blemish so long as they as I verily beleeve many of them heartily doe remain studious of true piety and of the Churches peace What I have written in this kinde God himselfe knowes whom I have served in it I have written out of love to truth and peace and of them who are mis led by these errors and therefore I say to them as Saint Augustine concluding an Epistle of his to some of Donatus partly * Erit autem vobis bic sermo quem de munere Dei novit ipse quanta pacis vestra dilectione de prompsimus correctio si velitis testis verò et si nolitis August Epist 162. in fine That this that I have done shall bee if they please a correction of their errors but if not a witnesse against them FINIS Errata PAge 40. line 18. dele wise p. 53. l. 3. dele to p. 58. l. 16. for callenge r. challenge p. 61. l 13 for thoses r. those p. 71. l. 15. for displease r. displeaseth p. 86. l. 25. for doth best r. doth least p. 149. l. 4. for fire r. five p. 153. l. 3. for that they r. they that p. 159. l. 8. for Majesties r. Majesty item l. 14.