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
hatred of the people who are easily wrought upon by the noyse of judgements and more taken with a bold assertion of what neither they nor he that speakes it are able to discerne the truth of than by the power of solid reason or the plaine evidence of naked truth At last he preached these sermons which wee have before us in which hee shewed that extremity of virulency as the like I thinke hath not beene heard to be delivered out of the Pulpit against the persons of some Prelates and their actions against the High Commission Court the most reverend Father in God the L. Arch-bishop of Canterbury yea he hath not spared the Royall Person of his Sacred Majesty whose piety and religious government he hath most unchristianly and undutifully to say no worse endeavoured to blast by most odious insinuations and calumnies And having thus vented these things in the Pulpit they were sent abroad by way of an abstract or Epitome in a libell intituled Newes from Ipswich for any man that compares that libell with his Sermons shall finde that in both the materials are the same and if both in their formes were not his it must needs bee that hee and the author of that libell had consulted together and conferred notes or perhaps they were set out by some zelote which gathered notes from his Sermons And being questioned in the High Commission for the things by him delivered in these Sermons he Appealed from them to His Sacred Majesty and printed his Appeale and an Apology for it and two Epistles inscribed one to the true-hearted Nobility and another to the reverend Iudges together with the Sermons and dedicated both by two severall Epistles to His Majesty For the man Charity commands me to pity him but I can see no foundation for charity to excuse him for when I doe but read him in this and see to what an height of desperate boldness discontent fomented by popularity hath brought him I can devise no better Apology nor other way to free him from the just imputation of imbittered malice and trayterous intention than to say that discontent at once hath crackt his braine and his conscience Nor can I give a better character of him than that which S. Hierom long Homo turbulentus qui Loquacitatem facundiam existimat et maledicere omnibus bonae conscientiae signū arbitratur Hieron advers Helvid since did of Helvidius that he is a turbulent man and one that esteemes loquacity eloquence and to speake evill of others the signe of a good conscience How truely I have censured the man there is nothing able so fully to demonstrate as his book which being true-bred resembles him to the life and gives the world a more perfect picture of him than that which is sold by the Stationers without more adoe then to begin our view of that CHAP. III. Of this booke of his The parts of it Of the title of his Sermons The dedication of it to his Majesty and some passages in it THe booke divides it selfe into two maine parts the first containes his Appeale and its Apology the other he entitles For God and the King or The summe of two sermons c. I shall crave leave to passe by the first part and using a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to looke upon the last first To begin with the Sermons and then come to the Appeale and its Apology and indeed that in reason ought to have this priviledge in as much as it was the elder birth the other being yonger and made to serve it had these Sermons not beene there had beene no cause of Appeale or of Apology Now this part carrieth with it an awefull title which may usher it into the world with authority and command respect from every loyall and religious subject It is for God and the King who dares oppose himselfe Who saith holy Iob hath resisted God and prospered Iob 9. 4. and they that resist the King resist the ordinance Rom. 13. 2. of God and receive to themselves damnation If it be so it behooves us to consider well before wee adventure to gaine-say ought in it lest we bee justly as Naboth was once unjustly 1 Kings 21. judged to blaspheme God and the King But I remember I have read of Iulian the Apostate who writing a booke against the Christians to allure them to read it and that so it might prevaile the better for their seduction inscribed it Ad Christianos To Christians And surely Mr. Burton had learned some such policy of somebody which makes him prefixe so glorious a title which may at once like the Sunne dazle and allure the beholders when indeed there is nothing in it that answers the title But however they are two Sermons or as he termes them the summe of two Sermons If this be true surely the Sermons were of a large size and transgrest the bounds of an houre glasse But he after expounds Epist to the King himselfe what hee meanes and with him the summe of two sermons is two sermons and more he might have termed them two Sermons with additionals but that word did not please because so much used in the High Commission But Apol. p. 13. let that pass and take his good meaning They are two Sermons more or less such as they are had he termed them prophesies I should have taken them in that sense when Saul is said to prophesie which the Chaldee termes Insaniebat 1 Sam. 18. 10. Saul Saul was mad but that they should be sermons its more strange Yet not very strange neither among those of his straine of whom there was Peters one who being in London preacht as if he were not very well in his wits and remooving into the Low-Countries hee became stark mad and after some while being somewhat amended enquirie being made of one that knew him how he did answer was made that God be praised he now began to preach againe but he was mad still So then they may be sermons and preached too on the fifth of November last in Saint Matthewes Friday-Street and they were preached as the title tels us by H. B. Minister of Gods word there and then Sure that is not so he was no Minister of Gods Word there and then further than to make Gods word usher to his fancies frenzies he might better have said Out of Gods word Minister to Hen. B. there and then The text indeed is the word of God but thè scrmons not so they were Mr. Burtons owne neither framed according to the rule of Gods word nor founded upon that part of it which he singled out for his text Well but hee would have you beleeve it to bee Gods word and that you may guesse of what subject he treated he hath inscribed a place parallel to his text upon his title page 1 Pet. 2. 17. Feare God Honour the King which if it bee not misplaced wee must looke for nothing but religion and loyalty
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
would have nothing omitted whereof men ought not to be ignorant nothing handled of those things which we may not or cannot know spoken All therefore that I will here adde is that by questioning and suspending Master B. for this cause nothing was done contrary to either of His Majesties Declarations nor was it any pernitious practise nor laying of any burden upon the King which is injurious or dishonorable to His Majesty as I doubt not but Master B. will be told by those to whom hee referres it who are best able to judge of matters of such moment To this he addes another instance in the same place but it concerned not His Grace but Bishop Mountague and besides it is notable for nothing but his impudent bragging of his silencing the High Commission Court by his brave retort and recharge of sedition upon them which if true were enough if there had beene nothing else to justifie that which followes of his committing to prison without Bayle or maineprise And it is so ridiculous for any to thinke the Petition of Right which he and his brethren use so much to talke of is by this or the like act infringed that I should justly incurre the imputation of folly to answer it For who ever dreamt that His Majestie by signing that Petition intended to barre himself from giving power to his Commissioners to commit an offender to prison without bayle And therefore it could be no impious or disgracefull speech nor such as could bring any people which were not willing to catch at any thing for that purpose into a hard conceit of his Majestie which he saith was uttered by my Lord of London that then was That the King had given expresse charge for him which hee might very well doe being informed of his offence and throughly acquainted with the temper of the man But this only by the way The other accusation intended against His Grace is for his Entertainment of our Royall Soveraign at Oxford which both for the magnificence and for the orderlinesse so every way commendable so acceptable to his Royall and Most Gracious Master and so full an expression of a gratefull affection toward so Munificent a Patron so lively a demonstration of his Graces admirable dexterous wisdome and ability to manage great affaires that I had thought Envy her selfe would have been strucken speechlesse with admiration or if she could have spoken would have lost her wont and have come in with her panegyrick But Master B. can see nothing in it to please him the persons entertayned the Entertayner the place the time all serve him only for furniture of a satyricall declamation and make the Entertaynment an iniquitie not to be purged till he dye But stay was this the first time that ever His Majestie or His Royall Predecessours being entertained in the Vniversities have beene presented with a Comedy And why then should it bee a crime for His Grace to entertaine His Majestie in the same manner Why may not a Comedy made and acted by young Students passe for a Scholasticall exercise now as well as heretofore Nay why should not a Comedy bee thought more requisite at that time than at others in regard the entertainment was intended also for His Majesties Royall Consort and others not so capable of other Academicall exercises and yet there wanted not that which Master B. esteemes the only piece of Piety a godly and learned Sermon neither was there any Comedy which was halfe so scurrillous as these Sermons or the Ipswich libell nor so much in disgrace of true piety and vertue unlesse we doe as he doth mistake and call the turbulent and seditious humors the uncharitable and supercilious censurings or the vaine senselesse crotchets traditions maintained used by those of his faction by the names of vertue and piety These perhaps might there receive what they deserve disgrace and laughter But that true vertue and piety were disgraced no man can say either truly or without laying that aspersion upon the religious Majesty of our Dread Soveraigne as the hearts of loyall Subjects abhorre once to conceive That Hee who if ever any made good his Title of Defender of Faith should with patience nay with contentation and delight behold true vertue and pietio disgraced in a scurrilous enterlude Shall wee dare once to imagine that His Majestie was either of so weake a judgement as not to discerne or so weake in power as not to punish such presumptuous boldnes as should offer so great an indignitie to Religion in his sacred presence O Blush at this Mr. B. and though not in your Shrift which is too Popish for you confesse how unseemly this is for you that pretend you are for God and the King either for shame mend your manners or never more professe to His Majestie that you are his most loyall Subject and faithfull Servant which you so belie with your disloyall practises Surely for my O Blush at this yee Prelates c. Mr. B. part I am ashamed that ever it should be said you have lived a Minister under such a Prince and such a Prelacie and so farre forgot your duety to both But perhaps it was the time which caused his dislike this happening when the Plague was at London otherwise hee had past a milder censure upon it but it troubled his zeale to see or heare of any rejoycing when the City wherein he was had cause of mourning And truly it cannot bee denyed but that Gods Judgements sent abroad and among others this of the Plague doe call for weeping and mourning and amendment of life not for feasting and much lesse for wicked mirth But blessed be God the plague that then was and yet remaines was not at that time in such heat and height to cause a generall mourning all the Kingdome over No nor to cause such a mourning in that Citie where it was as that all sober mirth and feasting all marriages should be there prohibited in that time which though in some great calamities it be very necessary in so moderate and fatherly a chastisement as this would have argued impatience and have beene injurious to that mercie which in the midst and height of this judgement our Gratious God was pleased to remember Yea I appeale to Mr. B. owne conscience whether both at that time and after when the plague was hotter than at that time it was he himselfe was not present at some feasts or good cheare whether hee did not at a full table cry out upon the times and upon the Government and Governours of the Church and State and heare them traduced and that with as much content and delectation as His Majestie and his traine could take at a Comedie And why then must it bee imputed as an inexpiable crime in a place so remote from danger for any to entertaine His Majestie with a feast and Comedie Let no man sucke poyson out of the sweet flower of candid sinceritie Mr. B.
Thus I have smelt this which hee calles the sweet flower of candid sinceritie and find it to be no other than the unsavory and bitter weed of detraction As for that for which hee brings this and the other instances viz. To prove that the Bishops whom hee calles the Popes Factors doe by these practises labour to divide the King from his good Subjects and bring Him to have a hard opinion of the good Ministers of the Land and the Kings most loyall loving dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable Subjects I say first that if hee meane himselfe and his party as it is out of all question hee doth for wee shall never finde him to grace any others with those titles His Majestie hath such experience of their love and loyalty such as it is that hee needs no informers nor need Mr. B. feare till they alter their courses that ever His Majestie will or any of those hee aymes at goe about to alter his deserved opinion of them Secondly if the words bee taken in their latitude and as they sound I say onely two things First That it is a meere slander and groundlesse calumnie Secondly That if they should act their parts in that way with His Majestie as devoutly and with as great zeale as Mr. B. and others of his faction have done theirs with the people or to speake more plainly if they should as earnestly endeavour to bring His Majestie to have as hard an opinion of His Subjects as Mr. Burt. hath done to bring the Subjects to have of His Majestie all things had long before this beene in a combustion if not arrived at a totall ruine and desolation But enough of this Passe wee now to the fift kinde of Innovations CHAP. XVI Of the altering of the Prayer-bookes The putting In for At. The leaving out of Father of thine elect c. no treason Master B. rather guilty His pretty shift about it and how hee and some of his use the Prayers of the Church Of the Prayers for the fift of November altered Those Prayers not confirmed by act of Parliament The Religion of the Church of Rome not Rebellion Of the alterations in the last Fast-booke The restraint of preaching Fasting dayes no Sabbaths THe fift Innovation hee tels of is in altering of Prayer-bookes set forth by publick Authority And this out of the zeale hee beareth to Authority much troubles him so that he makes a great adoo about both in his sermons and so doth the Author of the Ipswich libell Let us briefly inquire what the matter may bee that thus moves his patience First he tells us of alterations made in the Communion-booke set forth by In the editions since 1619. Parliament within this seventeene or eighteene yeares as in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter That In the name of Iesus is turned into At the name of Iesus Surely a mighty alteration and which toucheth the substance of Religion and worship of God To read it in the Epistle as it is used to be read in the Lesson when that chapter is appointed for so it is there turned both by his friends the Genevians and our last Translators But hee hath a matter of other-like moment than this In the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progenie they have put out Father of thine Elect and of their Seed This he keeps a foule pudder about and in the Epitome they cry out O intolerable Newes Ips p. 3. impiety affront and horrid treason and puts it in the title-page to startle and amaze the readers at first dash and make them cry shame upon the Bishops But if I could take the man in coole bloud I would demand of him who made that prayer If hee say as hee must it was made at the beginning of King Iames his raigne I would aske by whom If he say by the Bishops I shall then become his petitioner to bee informed why they may not as well alter it when the occasion ceased as well as make it to serve the present occasion of those times If he say as hee here intimates that it was set forth by the Parliament let him produce the Act that was made for that prayer then I shall say more to him But for all that it is not to bee so slighted for it sounds little better than high treason to dash the Queene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect. Wee may very well let Master B. boast of his loyalty when hee gives such experiment of it by his zeale in detecting traitors treasonous practises But in good earnest doth he think it treason truly I can hardly beleeve he doth but if he or any other seduced by his sermons and libels should I will by asking a question or two get them assoyled from so heavie a charge For how if this Alteration were as indeed it was and for that cause alter'd before the Kings Majesty had any Royall Progeny Sure then it could bee no treason hee may perhaps if there be any such call it treason in the roote which in time may grow up to bee treason though at first it was no such thing but an act done upon good ground and reason But he is not very confident that they doe exclude them out of the number of Gods Elect it is but as it were or as if nor can hee doe otherwise in reason because it is no necessary consequence to say they doe not when they pray for them addresse their prayers to God by the name of Father of his elect and of their seed therfore they doe not think them they pray for to bee of Gods Elect. But what if Master B. himselfe doe indeed exclude them and doe not thinke them to be of the number of Gods Elect Will it be intolerable impiety and horrid treason still No question it must bee the same crime in him and them persons doe not so difference acts whose objects are the same And that this uncharitable and most unchristian-like Christian man is of this opinion were easie to demonstrate out of his senselesse bookes against my Lord of Exon and Master Cholmeley were it fit for me to prosecute this argument But he hath a pretty shift for that and by the helpe of a mentall reservation can use that clause well enough For though he doe not beleeve them to be Elect to an Eternall Crowne such is the wisedome and charity of this black Saint hee beleeves that they are to a Temporall And this is intimated in his Epitome where the leaving out of this clause is made to imply that they which did it made them all reprobates and none of the number of Gods Elect either to a Temporall or an Eternall Crowne By which men may judge with what faith such as Master B. use to say the prayers of the Church and what strange senses they are faine to put upon them to fit them to their fancies And this is no new thing with them but practised a long
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.