goods of the People and for abolishing the whole discipline and government of our Kirke by generall and provinciall Assemblies Presbyteries and Kirke Sessions which was setled by Law and in continuall practise since the time of Reformation that Canterburie was Master of this Worke is manifest By a Book of Canons sent to him written upon the one side only with the other side blank for corrections additions and putting all in better Order at his pleasure which accordingly was done as may appeare by interlinings marginalls and filling up of the blanke page with directions sent to our Prelates and that it was don by no other than Canterbury is evident by his Magisteriall way of prescribing and by a new copy of these Canons all written with Saint Androis owne hand precisely to a Letter according to the former castigations sent backe for procuring the Kings warrant unto it which accordingly was obtained but with an addition of some other Canons and a Paper of some other corrections According to which the Booke of Canons thus composed was published in Print the inspection of the Bookes Instructions and his Letters of joy for the successe of the worke and of others Letters of the Prelate of London and the Lord Sterling to the same purpose all which we are ready to exhibite will put the mater out of all debate Besides this generall there be some things more speciall worthy to be adverted unto for discovering his Spirit 1. The fourth Canon of Cap. 8. Forasmuch as no Reformation in Doctrine or Discipline can be made perfect at once in any Church therefore it shall and may be lawfull for the Church of Scotland at any time to make remonstrance to his Majesty or his successours c. Because this Canon holdeth the doore open to more Innovations he writeth to the Prelate of Rosse his privy Agent in all this Worke of his great gladnesse that this Canon did stand behinde the Curtaine and his great desire that this Canon may be Printed fully as one that was to be most usefull Secondly The title prefixed to these Canons by our Prelates Canons agreed upon to be proponed to the severall Synods of the Kirke of Scotland is thus changed by Canterbury Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall c. ordained to be observed by the Clergy He will not have Canons come from the Authority of Synods but from the power of Prelates or from the Kings Prerogative Thirdly the formidable Canon Cap. 1. 3. threatning no lesse than Excommunication against all such persons whosoever shall open their mouthes against any of these Bookes proceeded not from our Prelates nor is to be found in the Copy sent from them but is a thunder-bolt forged in Canterburies owne fire Our Prelates in divers places witnesse their dislike of Papists A Minister shall be deposed if he be found negligent to convert Papists Chap. 18. 15. The adoration of the Bread is a superstition to be condemned Cap. 6. 6. They call the absolute necessity of Baptisme an errour of Popery Cap. 6. 2. But in Canterburies Edition the name of Papists and Popery is not so much as mentioned 5. Our Prelates have not the boldnesse to trouble us in their Canons with Altars Fonts Chancels reading of a long Liturgy before Sermon c. But Canterbury is punctuall and peremptory in all these Although the words of the tenth Canon Chap. 3. be faire yet the wicked intentions of Canterbury and Rosse may be seene in the poynt of justification of a sinner before God by comparing the Canon as it came from the Prelates and as it was returned from Canterbury and Printed our Prelates say thus Jt is manifest that the superstition of former ages hath turned into a great prophanenesse and that people are growne cold for the most part in doing any good thinking there is no place to good workes because they are excluded from justification Therefore shall all Ministere as their Text giveth occasion urge the necessity of good workes as they would be saved and remember that they are Via Regni the way to the Kingdome of Heaven though not causa regnandi how be it they be not the cause of Salvation Here Rosse giveth his judgment that he would have this Canon simply commanding good workes to be Preached and no mention made what place they have or have not in justification Vpon this motion so agreeable to Canterburies mind the Canon is set downe as it standeth without the distinction of Via Regni or causa Regnandi or any word sounding that way urging only the necessity of good workes 7. By comparing Canterburie 9. Cap. 18. As it was sent in writing from our Prelates and as it is Printed at Canterburies command may be also manifest that he went about to establish Auricular confession and Popish Absolution 8. Our Prelates were not acquainted with Canons for afflicting of Arbritrary penalties But in Canterburies Booke wheresoever there is no penalty expresly set downe it is provided that it shall be arbitrary as the ordinary shall thinke fittest By these and many other the like it is apparent that tyranicall power he went about to establish in the hands of our Prelates over the worship and the soules and goods of men overturning from the foundation the whole order of our Kirke what seeds of Popery he did sow in our Kirke and how large an entry hee did make for the grossest novations afterward which hath beene a maine cause of all their combustion The third and great novation was the Booke of Common Prayer Administration of the Sacraments and other parts of Divine service brought in without warrant from our Kirke to be universally received as the onely forme of divine Service under all highest paines both civill and Ecclesiasticall which is found by our nationall assembly besides the Popish freme and formes in divine worship to containe many Popish errors and ceremonies and the seeds of manifold and grosse superstitions and Idolatries and to be repugnant to the Doctrine Discipline and order of our reformation to the confession of Faith constitutions of generall Assemblies and Acts of Parliament establishing the true Religion that this also was Canterburies worke we make manifest By the memories and instruction sent unto him from our Prelates wherein they gave a speciall account of the diligence they had used to doe all which herein they were enjoyned by the approbation of the Service Booke sent to them and of all the marginall correction wherein it varieth from the English Booke shewing their desire to have some few things changed in it which notwithstanding was not granted This we finde written by Saint Androis owne hand and subscribed by him and nine other of our Prelates By Canterburies owne Letters witnesses of his joy when the Booke was ready for the Presse of his prayers that God would speed the worke of the hope to see that service set up in Scotland of his diligence to send for the Printer and directing him to
him but he could not be found The transgressors shall be destroyed together the end of the wicked shall be cut off And though for a time they are not in trouble neither are they plagued like other men Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chaine violence covereth them as a garment c. Yet if thou observe their endes thou must needes conclude with the same Psalmist Ps 73. 18. 19 20 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with Terrors As a dreame when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image That of Zophar being really verified in this Arch Prelate Job 20. 5. to 10. The triumphing of the Wicked is short and the joy of an hypocrite but for a moment Though his excellency mount unto the Heavens and his head reach unto the clouds Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say Where is he He shall fly away as a dreame and shall not be found The eye which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place any more behold him Secondly hence thou maiest learne the truth of Solomons Observation Prov. 21. 30. There is no wisdome nor understanding nor counsell against the Lord. Certainly all such wisdome counsell as this imployed against God his Ordinances Gospell people though never so accurately managed so politickly contrived so powerfully backed so successefully advanced for a time will in conclusion be brought to nought and made of none effect Ps 33. 10. Acts 5. 38. Isay 19. 11 12 13. c. 8 9. 10. Job 9. 4. Whereas the counsell cause and Church of God maugre all opposition shall stand for ever and cannot be overthrown Ps 33. 11. Acts 5. 39. Isay 46. 10. Thirdly Let all Gods people learne from hence never to fear the force threats or power of the greatest Persecutors breathing since they are but mortall men who shall themselves be troden down and brought to Judgement in Gods due time During my many yeares heavy pressures under this Arch-Prelates Tyranny my spirit was exceedingly elevated even to a magnanimous contempt and holy slighting of all his overswaying power menaces proceedings as most despicable with the consideration of these two Scriptures which were ever fresh in my thoughts Isay 51. 12. 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye or of the sonne of man that shall be made as grasse And forgettest the Lord thy maker who stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour And Ps 92. 7 8 9. When the wicked spring as the grasse and all the Workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever But thou O Lord art most high for evermore For loe thine enemies O Lord loe thine enemies shall perish and all the Workers of iniquity shall be scattered Certainly he who beleeves these sacred Texts and meditates seriously on them will never dread the potency tâ—raâ—ny or menaces of any mortall in a good cause or quarrell Fourthly Meditate from hence the vanity instability and danger of greatness without goodnesse the impotency of the greatest humane power honour favour to exempt or secure evil Counsellors or publike Malefactors from the sword of Justice The unhappy fatall ends of Wicked Royall Favourites who by humouring their Princes in unjust oppressive courses usually in the conclusion do but destroy themselves and prejudice their Princes most of any as this Arch-Prelate hath done The certain ruine of all bloody Persecutors of Gods people together with the infinite wisdome and power of Almighty God who can wisely order over-rule the mischievous Plots malicious contrivances of his most desperate Enemies to advance his own Honour Cause Gospell People to effect the quite contrary to what they intended and to bring about his own ends and their downfalls Many such cordiall meditations and sweet contemplations will this History afford thee for thy comfort thy incouragement in thy constant Christian profession in times of greatest danger and hottest persecution The good Lord so sanctifie it and them to thy Soul that this Archbishop who by his Life and Doctrine wrought so much mischiefe and sorrow to our Church for a season but no present good at all may bring much consolation Edification to it and thee by this his Triall and Death Farewell A COMPLEAT HISTORY OF The Commitment Charge Tryall Condemnation and Execution of WJLLJAM LAVD late Arch-Bishop of CANTERBVRT VVIlliam Laud borne in Reading of obscure Parents having through flattery and other sinister meanes by severall gradations insinuated himselfe into high favour at Court and climbed up to divers Ecclesiasticall promotions in our Church till at last he mounted to the very Pinacle of his ambition the Archbishoprick of Canterbury whereby he became Primate and Metropolitan of all England and to a Patriarch-ship or kinde of universal Papacy over all his Majesties Realmes who steerd their Ecclesiasticall affaires by his Compasse adoring him as their only Oraele and having likewise out of his insatiable ambition pragmatically intruded himselfe into all kind of secular Negociations inconsistent with his spirituall function so farre as to sway all State as well as Church-affaires according to the pleasure of his owne exorbitant will hereupon unable to mannage so great an Authority with that moderation as beseemed a Person of his profession he became so intollerably insolent violent extravagant in all his proceedings in Church and Republicke that no Pope nor Prelate whatsoever advanced from the lowest fortune to the hight of honour more really verified that Adagie of Claudian the Poet no not William Longchampe Bishop of Ely to whom Roger Houeden our Historian particularly applyed these lines of his long since Asperius 〈…〉 Câ—â—cta ferit 〈…〉 Vt se pâ—sse 〈…〉 Quam sâ—r vi nobiis in 〈…〉 Agnoscit geâ—itus et 〈…〉 nescit In so much as that Caracter which Gulielmus Nubrigensis gives us of our proud Prelate Longchamp and his tyrannicall oppressive deportment in Church in State by reason of his Ecclesiasticall and temporall united jurisdictions in the Raign of King Richard the first seemes purposely recorded to paint out the Cariage of this Arch-Prelate during all the yeares of his domineering Authority in the Raigne of Charles the first Ille sublato omniâ— obstaculo quo minus ambularet in magnis mirabilibus supra se fratus DVPLCIS id est APOSTOLIC A SIMVL ET 〈◊〉 A POTEST ATE CLERO â— ARâ—TER Eâ— POPVLOâ— ARROGANT◠〈…〉 Et â—â—cut â—â— quodam â—criptune est 〈…〉 pro dextera sic et ille ad faciliorum molicionum suarum efficatiam utraque potestate utebatur
and the Silver extrasted put into the Treasurie of the Church 14. The Kings Schollers being 40. usually coming tumultuously into the Chore ordered to come in bimatim and to doe reverence towards the Altar Moreover the Archbishop in his Injunctions to the Dean Chapter of the Cathedrall Church of Chicester made in his Metropoliticall Visitation there An. 1635. orders thus in his 6. Injunction Item That you provide Copes fitting for the service of your Cathedrall by one a year untill you be sufficiently furnished with them as was proved by the Injunctions found in his own Study attested by Mr. Prynne an Altar with all its furniture and adorations towards it being there likewise provided and used The like Innovations were introduced and prescribed by his Injunctions and new statutes in all or most Cathedralls in England and Wales to the great rejoycing of the Popish Party and scandall of all true zealous Protestants and any default in them was reputed a crime presentable as appeared by this Passage of an Abstract of the Abuses in the Diocesse of Lincolne 1634. in my Metropoliticall visitation endorsed with the Archbishops hand and found in his study Lincolne August 9. 1634. The Communion Table is not very decent and the Raile before it is worse the Organs old and naught The Copes and Vestments are embeselled and none remaine c. And in another Abstract concerning his Metropoliticall Visitation in other Diocesses particulars concerning the same indorsed likewise with his own hand there are these passages Norwich the hangings of the Quire are naught the Copes are fair but want mending In the Cathedrall as Worcester they have no Copes but are ordered to buy some before the feast of the Annuntiation In the Cathedrall at Gloucester many things amisse No Copes c. in Winchester Cathedrall they have no Copes some do not bow when they come into the Quire nor at the blessed name of Iesus Litchfield the furniture of the Altar c. very meane Therefore care must be taken for more costly furniture Whence this Archbishop took his Commission and president for adorning our Cathedrall and Collegeat Churches thus above others with these Romish Ornaments superstitious Innovations which in truth defiled them is worthy our speciall observation it being in taken from the very Roman Ceremoniall set forth reformed by the Command of Pope Clement the 8. lib. 1. cap. 12. De ornatu Ecclesiae p. 64. which prescribes thus Sic MAJOR ETIAM â—VRA adhibenda erit IN ORNATV ECCLESIAE CATHEDRALJS AVT COLLEGJATAE quae numerosum clerum habeat supellectilem amplam que congrué situata suis partibus apté distincta COMMODJOREM ORNANDI PRAEâ—EAT FACVLTATEM after which it prescribes Altars Altar-clothes Candlestickes Tapers Crucifixes Jmages Copes Rich hangings for the Altar and Quire with Jmages of Christ our Lady and Saints bowing to the Altar and Crucifix and that all Altars should have at least two Candlestickes with Tapers and a Crosse of Silver or of some other mettall placed on the midst of the Altar with the Image of Christ crucified on it as you may there read at large This Arch Prelate not content to propagate these Innovations in England like an Vniversall Patriarch over all his Majesties Realms endeavoured the introducing of them with an high hand into all the Cathedralls Churches and Chappell 's in Ireland by the then Lord Deputy Wentworthes power his great Creature of which we shall give you this briefe accompt Dr. Bramhall Chaplaine to this Lord Deputy by his Command August 10. 1633. sent over an Account of the state of the Church of Jreland to this Prelate as he found it and what Alterations hee had already made in it seized in the Archbishops study by Mr. Prynne wherein are these observable clauses RIght Reverend Father My most honoured Lord presuming partly upon your licence but especially directed by my Lord Deputies commandes I am to give your Father-hood a briefe account of the present state of the poore Church of Ireland such as our short Intelligence here and your Lordship weightier imployments there will permit c. In Christ Church the principall Church in Ireland withor the Lord Deputy and Councell repaire every Sunday the Table used for administration of the blessed Sacrament in the MIDST OF THE QVIRE is made an ordinary seat for Maidons and Apprentices J cannot omitte the glorious Tombe in the other Cathedrall Church of saint Patrike in the proper place of the Altar just opposite to his Majesties seat having his Fathers name subscribed upon it as if it were contrived on purpose to gaine that worship and reverence which the Chapter and whole Church are bound by speciall statute to give towards the East and either the soyle it selfe or a Licence to build and bury and make a Vault in the place of the Altar under Sealetant which is tantamount is passed to the Earle and his heires Credimus esse Deos. This being the case in Dublin your Lordship will Judge what we may expect in the Country The Earle of Corke holdes the whole Bishopricke of Lismore at the Rate of fortie shillings or five markes by the yeare For the remedying of these evills next to God and his sacred Majesty I know my Lord depends upon your Fatherhoods wisedom and zeale for the Church my duty binds me to pray for a blessing upon both your good endeavours for the present my Lord hath pulled down the Deputies seat in his owne Chapell and restored the Altar 〈◊〉 ancient place which was thrust out of dores the like is done in Christs Church This testimony I must give of his care that it is not possible for the intentions of a mortall man to be more serious and sincere then his in those things that concerne the good of this poore Church Your Lordships daily â—â—â—dsman and devoted servant Iohn Bramhall Dublin Castle Aug. 10. 1643. Vpon this Information the Archbishop signifyed his dislike of erecting this Monument by the Earle of Corke in the place where the High Altar as was misinformed anciently stood and gave some directions for removing it Whereupon the Earle of Corks and Archbishop of Dublin writ these ensuing Letters to satisfie his Grace in this particular which were seconded with other Letters from Archbishop Vsher and the Deane and Prebends of Saint Patrickes Church to like effect over-tedious to recite My Gracious Lord. I Vnderstand that upon suggestions made unto your Grace you conceive that a Tombe which I have lately caused to be erected in Saint Patrickes Church neere Dublin is prejuditiall to the lights of the Chancell and seated in the place where the High Altar stood And as I have alwayes by my best desires and actions endeavored to invest my selfe in your Graces good opinion and have not willingly done any act that might prejudice me therein So in this particular I make humbly bold to deliver my justification to your Grace as followeth which I
Altar of stone rayled in at the East end of the Quire Altarwise adorned after the popish manner with all kind of Romish furniture was by this Archbishops means as appears by divers letters between D. Cosens and him found in his Study at Lambeth first questioned in the High-commission Court at Durham then brought into the High-commission Court at Lambeth after that transmitted thence to the High-commission at York and there for this Sermon of his alone against these illegall Innovations though a reverend grave Divine every way conformable to the established doctrine and ceremonies of the Church deprived of his Prebendary Benefice in Durham and all his Ecclesiasticall preferments degraded from his Ministery fined 500 li. and imprisoned divers years till this present Parliament to his utter ruine and above ten thousand pound dammage the Archbishop disposing of his Livings to his own Creatures This sentence of his in the High-commission at York was seconded with another though not of so high a nature in the High-commission at Lambeth Mr. Charles Chaucy Minister of Ware in Hertfordshire within the Diocesse of London was articled against in the High-commission by the Archbishops procurement when Bishop of London together w th one Humphrey Parker only for opposing the rayling in of the Communion Table at Ware and speaking against it as an innovation Mr. Gellibrand testified upon his oath that at the hearing of this cause Doctor Merick of councell with Mr. Chaucy endeavoured to excuse and justifie this his opposition dislike of the new Rayle because it was first set up by some few of the parishioners without any warrant from the Bishop of the Dioces or his Chancellour as was proved whereupon the Archbishop grew exceeding angry and threatned to suspend the Doctor from his practise for pleading thus in his Cliants behalfe whereupon the Doctor not daring to make any further defence Mr. Chaucey was suspended from his Ministery both he and Parker sentenced to make a publick submission and recantation in open Court condemned in costs of suit taxed at 40 li. which they were enforced to pay imprisoned till they had performed the order of the Court or put in bond to do it This was further manifested by the sentence and recantation it selfe 4 Ian. 1635. recorded in the High Commission Register Lib. A. f. 264. 266. 331. lib. C. which sentence was read at the Lords Barre in forme ensuing Officium DominoruÌ„ cont Carolum Chauncy Clericum nuper Vicarium de Ware in Com. Hertford Humphridum Parker Yâ—oman Do. Ryves Die Iovis viz. 26 Novemb. 1635 aoram Commis Regis apud Lambeth At which day and place the said Chauncy and Parker being publickly called for appeared personally in whose presence the proofs taken and made in this cause against them were there publickly read which done Dr. Ryves his Majesties Advocate and Dr. Parry of councell for the Office enforced the proofes made against them and after that Dr. Zouch Dr. Merrick and D. Lewyu being of Counsell for the defendants enforced the proofs made for their defence upon consideration whereof it evidently appeared to the Court out of the proofs had and made in this cause that for three or two years next before the year of our Lord 1633. the said Charles Chauncy was Vicar of Ware articulate within which time the Church wardens of the Parish of Ware for the avoiding of confusion and disorder at the time of administration of the holy Communion because some were conceived to receive it sitting or leaning in their seats at a generall meeting of the parishioners and with the consent of the greater part of them agreed that the Communion Table should be placed in the Chancell of the parish-Church of Ware and a Rayle set round about it with a bench thereunto affixed whereon the communicants might kneele that accordingly a Rayle with such a bench was set afterwards about the Communion Table in the middle of the Chancell of the said Church of Ware and the same was approved of and confirmed by the Lord Bishop of London Ordinary of the place and M. Doct. Duck his Chancelour but the foresaid rayle and bench was not set up untill an Order came from the Ordinary for the erecting thereof That M. Chauncey strongly opposed the setting up of the rayle and bench about the Communion Table and professed thereupon that he would leave the place or to that effect and further gave out in speeches that the parishioners had set up that rayle and bench of purpose to drive him away with many other indiscreet speeches expressing his great dislike thereof That the said M. Chauncey and Humphry Parker laboured to divert the parishioners of Ware from making and setting up of a rayle and bench about the Communion Table And that the said H. Parker for his part when the rayle and bench were set up about the Communion Table and the Communion there celebrated by M. Craven the now Minister and when as M. Craven had perswaded the communicants there to come up to the Chancell to receive the holy Communion refused so to do that the said Humphry Parker made a journy the time articulate from Ware to Marsten Lawrence in Northamptonshire to the dwellinghouse of M. Chauncey being near fifty miles distant from Ware to speak with M. Chauncey at which time M. Chauncey upon conference had with Humphry Parker promised to come to Ware and accordingly did so lodged at the house of the said Humphry Parker That the said M. Chauncey as well at his return to Ware in the said Parkers house as at other times in other places in presence of divers of the parishioners of Ware used many reproachfull speeches against the setting up of the said rayle and bench in contempt of the just proceedings of his Ordinary and the lawfulnesse thereof as the Court conceived and pronounced viz. the said M. Parker then and there speaking of the setting up of the said rayle and bench affirmed that it was an Innovation a snare to mens consciences superstitious a breach of the second Commandement an addition to Gods worship and a block in M. Cravens way meaning and speaking of M. Craven now Vicar of Ware who is a learned and conformable Minister and that the said M. Chauncey after the setting up of the said rayle and bench took it in such ill part that he never ministred the holy Communion more there That M. Parker derided the same rayle and kneeling bench thereunto affixed and scoffed at the setting up thereof saying it would serve far better purpose in his Garden or to be set up in his Garden or to such like effect All which the premises being well weighed and considered of and after mature the liberation had of all that was there said and enforced by the counsell of either side the said M. Chauncey and Humphry Parker were both of them pronounced guilty of a contempt against their Ordinary and jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall and of raising a Schisme and
said Miles Burkitt in contempt of his said Ordinary doth come forth out of the said rayles and doth administer the Sacrament to many that will not come up to the said rayles Hocque fuit est verum c. Item we Article and object that you the said Miles Burkite did consent procure and abet Paul Gardner one of the Churchwardens of Pateshall in the County of Northampton aforesaid to remove and carry down forth of the rayles the Communion Table into the body of the Chancell and there did minister the holy Sacrament on Easterday last past and other times notwithstanding the Articles of your Diocesan to the contrary Hocque fuit est verum c. Upon which Articles this good Minister was for a long time vexed in the High-commission and almost ruined From Ministers thus persecuted for opposing these Innovations of rayling in Communion Tables Altarwise and administring the Sacrament at the Rayles we shall proceed to Church-wardens severally prosecuted excommunicated and undone for not rayling in Communion Tables only or removing them out of the rayles We shall begin with the Churchwardens of Beckington in the County of Somerset whose case by the testimonies of Mr. John Ash a Member of the House of Commons and Lord of that Parish of M. William Long and M. George Long who solicited the cause in the Churchwardens behalfe was manifested to be thus The Communion Table in the Parish-church of Beckington had for 70 years and more stood in the midst of the Chancell enclosed with a very decent Wainscot-border and a dore with seats for the Communicants to receive in round about it In the year 1633. D. Pierce Bishop of Bath and Wels a great creature of Canterburies appointed certaine Commissioners to view the Churches within his Diocesse certifie to him the defects thereof who viewing the Church of Beckington certified among other things that there was not a decent Communion Table in it neither was it placed under the East window nor railed in otherwise then with a Border about it where the communicants kneel at the holy Communion and that there were seats above the Communion Table To which Certificate the Churchwardens and Sidemen of Beckington were ordered by the Bishop to return an answer under their hands before Ascension-day 1634. which they did accordingly After which the Churchwardens were enjoyned by the Bishop by word of mouth to remove and rayle in their Communion Table Altarwise against the East end of the Chancel which they refusing to doe conceiving it to be against the Rubrick Q. Elizabeths Injunctions and the 82 Canon thereupon Iames Wheeler Iohn Fry Churchwardens were on the 9 of June 1635. cited into the Bishops Court at Wels before William Hunt the Bishops Surrogate and D. Duck his Chancelour for that the Communion Table in the Chancell of Beckington was not placed under the East window of the Chancel nor rayled in otherwise then with a Border about it and that there were seats above the said Table who admonished them to repaire the said defects and to place the Lords Table against the East wall of the Chancell with the ends of it North and South as it stood in the Cathedrall Church at Wels with a rayle about it and to certifie that they had done all this by the 6 of October following At which day they were excommunicated in open Court by the Bishop himself for refusing to remove and rayle in the Table and pull down the said seats Whereupon the Churchwardens appealed to the Arches for relief where after much waiting and solicitation they procured from Sir Iohn Lambe Dean of the Arches a Letter to the Bishop to absolve them for a time which he did only for 27 dayes admonishing them to submit to what he had formerly enjoyned them for not doing whereof he excommunicated them againe in open Court on the 12 of January following Hereupon the Churchwardens appealed to the Arches the second time and petitioned the Archbishop for reliefe to which Petition this Certificat under the hands of about one hundred of the Parishioners was annexed To the most Reverend Father in God and Right Honourable William by Gods providence Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan ever all England We the Inhabitants and parishioners of Beckington in the County of Somerset do humbly certifie that the Communion Table of our Church of Beckington hath and doth stand in the midst of the Chancel being the most convenientest place time out of minde and beyond the remembrance of any of our parishioners now living And that near threescore years since the pavement of the said Chancel upon which the Communion Table standeth was new made and in the new making thereof raised about a foot above the rest of the ground of the said Chancell and then also compassed about with a fair Wainscot border in which there is only one Wainscot door to come into the said Table which door is kept fast and none doth enter in thereat but the Minister and such as he doth require which said Communion Table doth at the day of the date hereof stand so conveniently and decently as aforesaid And we the said parishioners with an unanimous consent do humbly pray That it may so continue freed from all Innovation And so do humbly take our leaves dated this 19 day of December Anno Dom 1635. But notwithstanding this Petition and Certificate the Archbishop refused to admit of their Appeal threatned them with the High-commission and to lay their Solicitour by the heels commanding them to submit to and obey their Diocaesan who sent up all the proceedings in this cause to the Archbishop with severall reasons why this Table should be removed found in the Archbishops study by Mr. Prynne endorsed with his own hand Whereupon they were enforced to petition the King himself for reliefe informing his Majesty That the Communion Table had continued as then it stood by the approbation of all the Archbishops Bishops of that Diocesse during the reignes of Queen Elizabeth King James and even eleven years in his Majesties reigne as appeared by a Certificate under the hands of almost an hundred of the parishioners hands annexed to the Petition desiring the Table might not be removed but the Archbishop by his power hindred them from receiving any relief from his Majesty upon what grounds and reasons this Letter of the Bishop of Bath and Wels to Sir Iohn Lambe will best discover Good Master Deane According to my promise in my Letter to you the last week I have now sent unto you a copy of all my proceedings in the cause concerning the Chancel of the Parish-church of Beckington and the placing of the Communion Table therein together with my reasons for the same which I hope will give you full satisfaction in this businesse I have sent likewise a copy to my Lords Grace of Canterbury not that I think it worthy of his reading or that he hath leisure to peruse it
Justice of peace within that City and an inhabitant of S. Edmonds Parish there took just offence at some pictures in one of the glasse-windows in that Church near unto his seat and ever in his eye in which window was contained in old rude rusty painted glasse the History of the Creation not as it is related by Moses in the first Chapter of Genesis but after the Painters fancy who in this window consisting only of four panes had made no lesse then seven picturs of God the Father in form of a little old man clad in a blew and red coat with a pouch by his side about the bignesse of a Puppet and preposterously placed the fourth daies work of creation before the third and made that to be done on the fifth day which was created on the sixth and in one place he had represented God the Father creating the Sunne and Moon and squaring them out with a pair of compasses in his hand as if he had formed them by some Geometricall rules and the help of a Compasse To these pictures M. Sherfield and others had seen Ema Browne and other old women make low curtesies who being demanded why they made such curtesies answered that they made them to their Lord God and to God the Father in the Glasse-window which was proved by divers witnesses upon oath Wherupon M. Sherfield being perswaded in point of conscience that these Idolatrous Pictures were directly forbidden by the second Commandement and many expresse Texts of Scripture prohibiting any representations of God the Father condemned thus by the Homilies of our Church against the Perill of idolatry Part. 3. â— 40. which determine that The Image of God the Father the Sonne and Holy Ghost either severally or the images of the Trinity be by the Scriptures expresly forbidden and condemned as appears by these places Deut. 4. Isay 40. Acts 17. Rom. 1. there cited at large By these and many other places of Scripture it is evident that no Image either ought or can be made to God For how can God a most pure spirit whom man never saw he expressed by a grosse body or visible similitude or how can the infinite Majesty and greatnesse of God incomprehensible to mans minde much more not able to be compassed with the sense be expressed in a SMAL and LITTLE IMAGE as this of God the Father was How can a dead and dumbe Image expresse the living God c. Wherefore an Image of God is not only a lye but a double lye also But the Devill is a lyar and the Father of lyes Wherefore the lying Images which he made of God to his great dishonour and horrible danger of his people came from the Devill Wherefore they be convict of foolishnesse and wickednesse in making of Images of God or the Trinity for no Image of God ought or can be made yea and once to desire an Image of God commeth of infidelity thinking not God here present except they see some signe or Image of him And to be abolished out of Churches by the resolution of Queen Elizabethe Injunctions the Canons and Oxthodox Writers of our Church the Statutes of our Realme and King James his own resolution in sundry of his Works moved the Parish at a Vestry where were six Justices of Peace present that he might have liberty to take down this offensive scandalous Window being a burthen to his conscience an occasion of much superstition and idolatry to ignorant people and the Church it self a Donative as they conceived belonging to the parishioners and to set up a new window of white glasse in its place whereupon it was unanimously ordered by the Vestry about January 1629. and the Order entred that if M. Sherfield thought fit he might take downe the painted old glasse of this Window and set up new Whereupon not long after he did with his staffe breake or picke out some of those peeces of glasse representing God the Father which amounted not to above the value of six pence the whole glasse window not being worth forty shillings when it was new intending to new glaze the same Whereupon by the Archbishops means and instigation an Information was exhibited against him in the Star-chamber by the Kings Attorney Generall for breaking these idolatrous pictures and that in opposition of the Church-government established by law among us This cause was prosecuted with all rigour and at last brought to a hearing on the 8 of February 1632. where this Archbishop then Bishop of London as was proved by the Oathes of Master Tomlins a Barrister of the Temple M. Joseph Caryll Lecturer at Lincolnes Inne and the testimony of M. Robert Nicholas a Member of the Commons House a Commissioner in that cause shewed himselfe very violent against M. Sherfield made a long speech in defence of Images in Churches contrary to our Homilies justified the picturing of God the Father in forme of an old man out of that place of Daniel where God is called The ancient of dayes which the Earl of Dorset refuted being an expression only of Gods eternity declaring him to be before all times and notwitstanding it was proved by four witnesses that those pictures were adored by divers persons yet the Archbishop was so violent against Mr. Sherfield that for breaking of these idolatrous pictures according to the doctrine of our Church in the Homilies against the perill of Idolatry Queen Elizabeth Injunctions and the statute of 3 4 E. 6. ca. 10. which were pleaded for his justification he agravated his offence to the utmost from his Office his Age his profession and divers other circumstances instead of mittigating it fined him a thousand pound to the King sentenced him to be removed from his Recordership in that City to make a publick acknowledgement of his great fault in the Parish-church where this was done and in the Cathedrall at Salisbury and to be bound to his good behaviour some of the Temporall Lords excused his fact spake much against Images and thought it fit to impose no fine upon him This Archbishop then concluded his speech against M. Sherfield in justification of Images with these words I have been the willinger to render this ancount at this time because some are ready to slander Vs as maintainers of POPISH SVPERSTITION and I know not what This sentence gave great incouragement to the setting up of superstitious idolatrous Pictures Images and Crucifixes in our Churches and discouraged most men from opposing the intended introducing of them which followed thereupon in sundry places To this we shall adde the Archbishops tyrannicall sentence and proceedings against M. John Workeman a godly painfull Minister Lecturer in the City of Glocester for preaching against Images in Churches This pious Minister being Lecturer in S. Stephens Church in that City was prosecuted for preaching publickly in a Sermon there That Pictures or Images were no more ornaments to a Church then Stewes to a Common wealth That for a man to
John Finch who gave it such a purgation without calling M. Burton to it or suffering his Counsell to defend it whom Sir John Finch threatned with pulling his Gowne over his head and putting him from the Barre as was never heard of in any Age expunging no lesse then 64 whole sheets containing his justification and defence out of it as scandalous leaving only some three lines in the beginning of it and two in the end amounting to a generall not guilty when as he confessed and justified all he was charged with And because Mr. Burton would not acknowledge this purged answer directly contrary to that he put in upon oath and answer to Interrogatories grounded on it quite contrary to his answer as they had altered it whereby he must of necessity have been perjured therefore he was likewise taken pro confesso and censured for a contempt in not answering though he had an answer in Court What the scandalous matter contained in and expunged out of his answer by the Judges was is very observable truly it was no other then the very Oathes of Supremacy Allegiance prescribed by severall Acts of Parliament engaging the Defendants and others who had taken them against popery and popish Innovations his Majesties Declarations before the 39 Articles and to all his loving Subjects printed Anno 1628. prohibiting all back-sliding to Popery or any Innovations or alterations in the Religion by law established among us The Petition of Right and his Majesties Answer thereunto for preservation of the Subjects rights and liberties extending as wel to secure them against these illegal popish Innovations which the Bishops by an Arbitrary power would obtrude upon them and their consciences by Suspensions Excommunications Fines Imprisonments and other vexatious courses as to the liberty of their persons and estates of which they were deprived for opposing their Innovations the statute of 3 Iac. c. 1. intituled An Act for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God every year on the 5 of November for the great deliverance of the King Kingdome State and Parliament from the horrid Gunpowder Treason on which day Mr. Burton preached these two Sermons against the severall Popish Innovations and Doctrines mentioned in it lately brought into the Church by the Archbishop and his confederates for which he was questioned in the Star-chamber The statute of 3 Jac. cap. 4. intituled An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants The statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 2. intituled An Act for the uniformity of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments which excludes all new Ceremonies and Innovations in Gods service introduced by the Bishops not comprized in the Book of Common prayer with an enumeration of those severall Innovations in point of doctrine and ceremonies as setting up Altars instead of Communion Tables removing Lords Tables from their ancient stations and rayling them in Altarwise against the wall bowing downe to them reading second Service at them licensing printing Popish and Arminian Books altering and purging the Books for the Gunpowder Treason for the publick Fast Coronation and Book of Common prayer c. with other particulars specified at large in his printed Sermons All this was totally expunged as scandalous out of Mr. Burtons Answer for feare the proof thereof should have made the Bishops scandalous Eighthly these Defendants when they perceived they should not have liberty to defend themselves nor to prove or justifie the Archbishops and his Confederates popish Innovations by their Answers exhibited a crosse Bill against them under their hands which they offered to make good at their uttermost perils Mr. Prynne tendring the same both to the Lord Keeper and in open Court defiring it might be admitted being both for their own just defence the honour of his Majesty and preservation of our Religion and that a Court of publick justice which ought to be as open for as against them yet this their Bill was twice refused without cause and delivered over to Mr. Attourney Generall to draw up a Charge against the defendants out of it if possible and to question them for their lives for exhibiting it Ninthly at the hearing the Archbishop and Bishop of London though chiefe prosecutions of this cause in which they were specially concerned professed enemies to the Defendants and challenged in open Court by Mr. Prynne as unfit to sit Judges there in their own cause contrary to all law and presidents were yet admitted to sit in Court as Judges where the Archbishop himself in a tedious Oration of two houres long larger then ever any Sermon he preached in the Pulpit professedly justified all the forementioned Innovations wherewith he was charged as Setting up Altars rayling in Communion Tables Altar-wise reading second-Service at them bowing downe towards them as the Monks and Popish Fryers did of old because there 't is Hoc est corpus meum c. standing up at Glory be to the Father bowing at the Name of Iesus altering and purging the Books for the Gunpowder Treason and the publick Fast in favour of Papists the licensing of Popish and Arminian Books charged against him c. And yet reviled condemned these Defendants as Libellers and thanked the Lords for their justice against them for falsely objecting these very Innovations to him which himself in his Speech confessed himself guilty of justified in open Court and after that in print to all the World dedicating this his Speech to his Majesty and making him the Patron of all these Innovations contrary to his own royall Protestations Tenthly these Defendants for opposing those very popish Innovations which himself thus publickly confessed defended being deprived of their proofe and just defence by taking them all pro confesso for a pretended contempt in not answering the Information which they would not permit them to put in their Answers to as you heard before were without any proof or testimony at all produced to prove them guilty of ought objected against them fined 5000 li. a peece unto his Majesty adjudged to stand in the Pillory at Westminster and there to lose their Eares which was accordingly executed Mr. Burton was after deprived of his Living degraded from his Ministery Mr. Prynne stigmatized on both cheeks though nothing at all was charged against him and all of them deprived the liberty of pen inke and paper and before their wounds were healed they were sent away close prisoners to the 3 remote Castles of Lanceston Lancaster and Carnarvan and there shut up close prisoners neither Wife nor Childe nor Brother nor any other but their Keepers having any accesse unto them and soone after by extraordinary Letters from the Councell Table to which the Archbishops hand was first sent close prisoners by Sea in the Winter-season to the hazzard of their lives into the Islands of Sylly Garnesey and Iarsey and there mued up close prisoners without pen inke paper or allowance of necessaries their friends being prohibited al accesse unto them D. Bastwicks M.
hallowed as they say with their conjured water Crossings Censings Processions c. But blessed be that God our Lord which by the light of his Word doth confound all such wicked and fond fantasies which they devise to fill their bellies and maintaine their Authority by Although these Ceremonies in the old Law were given by Moses for the hardnesse of the peoples hearts to keep thē exercised that they fall not to the Idolatry of the Gentiles yet is there no mention of them in the New Testament nor yet commanded now either to us or them but forbidden to be used of all both of us and them We be no longer under shaddowes but under the truth Christ hath fulfilled all and taken away all such darke kind of Ceremonies and hath placed the cleare light of his Gospell in the Church to continue to the end The Popes Church hath all things pleasant in it to delight the people but where the Gospell is preached they knowing that God is not pleased but onely with a pure heart they are content with an honest place appointed to resort together in though it were never hallowed by Bishops at all It is written that God dwels not in Temples made with hands nor is worshipped with any worke of mens hands but he is a spirit an invisible substance and will be worshipped in spirit and truth not in outward words onely of the lippes but with the deepe sighes and groanes of the heart and the whole power of the mind and earnest hearty calling on him in praier by faith And therefore he doth not so much require of us to build him an house of stone and timber but hath willed us to pray in all places and hath taken away the Iewish and Popish holynesse which is thought to be more in one place then another All the earth is the Lords and he is present in all places hearing the Petitions of them that call upon him in faith Therefore those Bishops which thinke with their conjured water to make one place more holy then the rest are no better then the Jewes deceiving the people and teaching that onely to be holy which they have censed crossed oyled and breathed upon for as Christ said to the woman thinking one place to be more holy to pray in then another Woman beleeve me the time is come when yee shall worship neither at Jerusalem nor in this Hill but the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and truth So it is now said the place makes not the man holy but the man makes the place holy and ye shall not worship your Idols Stocks and Stones neither at Wilsingham Ipswich Canterbury nor Sheen for God chuses not the people for the places sake but the place for the people sake But if yee be in the midst of the field God is as ready to heare your faithfull praiers as in any Abbey or Priory yea a thousand times more for the one place he hates as defiled with Idolatry and the other he loves as undefiled and cleane If the good man lie in prison tyed in Chaines or at the stake burned for Gods cause That place is holy for the holynesse of the man and the presence of the holy Ghost in him as Tertullian saith yet there should be common places appointed for the people to Assemble and come together therein to praise our God c. Those who in the Apostles times were buried in no Church or Church-yard nor Christen-moldes as they be called when it is not better then other earth but rather worse for the conjuring that Bishops use about it It appeares in the Gospell by the Legion living in graves the Widdowes sonne going to buriall Christ buried without the Citty c. That they buried not in hallowed Churches by Bishops but in a severall place appointed for the same purpose without the Citty which custome remaineth to this day in many godly places c. A most expresse Authority against Bishops Popish consecrations of Churches and Church-yards to make them holyer then other places The second Authority they produced was Mathew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths reigne who was of a quite contrary judgment to this his Popish Successor condemning this manner of consecrating Churches Altars c. as Superstitious Paganish childish ridiculous in his Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brittannicae p. 85. 86. 87. in these termes Legat enim qui volet recentiores et nostro praesertim avo editos Pontificales ac Missales libros reperiet eos et Caeremoniarū multitudine peragendi difficultate atque taedio et exorcisationis amentia priores illos longè superare Quibus enim non dicam verbis sed portentis has et ejus modi a Pontisiciis adhuc adjurantur c. Dedicatio recentis Ecclesiae Altaria vasa indumenta Linteamina et ornamenta Ecclesiastica Hac omnia quam solemni ritu sanctarum scripturarum sententiis ad suas decantationes perperā adhibitis Potificij peragunt paucis videamus c. In dedicatione Ecclesiae jam exstructae Episcopus ter ' circumiens ostium bacculo pastorali ferit hoc Psalmi carmine Attollite Portas c. Cui Diaconus intus existens respondet fere exanimatus Quis est iste Rex gloriae c. Deinde ingredicus Episcopus in fundamento Ecclesiae Cineribus sparso Alphabetum Gracum et Latinum bacculo describit tum variis multisque Episcopi Clerique incessibus rectis obliquis retrogradis transuersis parietes ac pavimenta aqua sparguntur cruces in parietibus chrismate cum dextro Episcopi pollice depinguntur infinitis penè completis caeremoniis ad extremum precatur ut populus in ea conveniens per sacerdotum libamina caelesti sanctificatione salvatus animae salutem perpetuam consequatur discedens portam his verbis Episcopus ungit chrismate porta sis benedicta sanctificata consecrata consignata Deo commendata c. Altaria autem innumeris hujus generis precibus consecrantur c. Et sane valde deflenda est hujus temporis conditio quod Ecclesiae Patres eadem mentis acie ab ecclesia resecare has hujusmodi caeremonias seu potius nugas aut nolunt aut non possunt qua priora illa Ordalii vitia cernebant atque corrigebant sed illis ut superstitiosis damnatis deletis hac quae mordicus retinent quamvis puerilia deliria sint ex illis tamen fabricantur atque struunt Quanto modernis Pontificibus aequior fuit Gregorius qui scribit Quomodo regulae sanctorum Patrum pro tempore loco persona negotio instante necessitate traditae sunt Hi autem nulla neque temporis neque loci neque negotii neque personae neque cujusquà m rei quà m suae voluntatis atque gloriolae rationem habentes ne pusillis in rebus veritate cedere volunt A very good character of the Prisoner at the bar and his proceedings in this kinde
but so understood the argument concludes nothing viz. against us this onely thence following therefore as he hath decreed from all eternity to save for faith and to damne for unbeliefe so shall the execution of the decree be which is true but concernes not the Question in controversie Thirdly is followes not Christ will say come ye faithfull c. come for faiths sake as for the meritorious or impulsive cause for faith is the onely instrumentall cause and he intimates the impulsive cause when he saith Benedictos patris ye blessed of my Father where is shewne that their salvation did proceed from the free savour of God because God the Father of his free grace hath loved them in Christ Fourthly if the Kingdome of God be an inheritance then it comes or fals unto us because we are the sonnes of God by a free adoption But it is called an inheritance for he saith here Hereditatis jure possidete possesse this Kingdome by right of inheritence Therefore it fals not unto us for our works sake but because we are the adopted children of God in Christ Ibid page 358. on Matth. 25. 39. this sentence is purged out It is questioned between us and the Papists whether election or predestination on to life eternall be from Gods free grace or a foresight of mans good works and faith First it is agreed upon betwixt us and them that there are some elected and predestinated and this is cleere from Mat. 20. 16. 22. 14. 24. 31. Rom. 8. 30. Ephes 1. 4. And Secondly it is agreed betwixt us also that those who are elected and predestinated are elected to an eternall Kingdome as is plaine from Luke 12. 32. And Thirdly it is agreed upon betwixt us that those who are elected unto life eternall shall infallibly and certainly be saved and this is proved from Mat. 24. 22. 24. John 6. 29. 10. 21. Rom. 8. 24. 11. 29. This was assented unto by the best esteemed Divines in the Councell of Trent and thought to be catholike because it was consonant to the opinion both of Thomas Scotus and the most School-writers and also to the doctrine of Saint Paul and Catharinus himselfe could not deny it reade the History of the Councell of Trent lib. 2. page 211. 212. Yea Bellarmine himselfe doth affirme as much plainly De grat lib. arbit lib. 2. cap. 10. which is worth observing because elsewhere he contradicts himselfe teaching that the elect may fall from faith and salvation and utterly and eternally lose both Fourthly the Papists affirme that faith and works foreseen were the impulsive and moving cause of the decree of election unto life everlasting Fifthly we say that the impulsive and moving cause of the decree of election is only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and good will and free grace of God and this we confirme from these places Luke 12. 32. Iohn 15. 16. Rom. 11. 5. Ephes 1. 6 c. Ibid. page 305. on Matth. 20. 8. Every man received a penny c. The Rhemists upon Rom. 9. 2. alleage these words to prove That Predestination and Election is from a foresight of works they argue thus the Master saith call the labourers and give them their reward therefore God from all eternity hath ordained to give the kingdome of Heaven to those whom he foresaw should bring forth good fruits and works First our Rhemists doe not prove the position controverted between us and them for the Question is not Whether God have ordained to give Heaven to those whom he foresaw should bring forth good works for this we doubt not of because the Scripture plainly declareth it Rom. 2. 6. 10. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. but the Question is this Whether this foresight of good workes were the cause of predestination and election for this we deny and this if they would doe any thing they should prove Secondly this place speaks not of predestination but of the execution of predestination Now it followes not works goe before the execution of predestination therefore before predestination it selfe Now that our Saviour speaks here of the execution of predestination is plaine from the very words for first it is said that some of the Labourers were hired in the morning and some at other houres and then afterwards when it was night the Lord of the Vineyard said to his Steward Call the Workmen Now this can no way be understood of predestination which was long before the first houre of the day Thirdly this place sheweth that good workes are the way to Heaven wherein we must walk but not that the decree of life hath respect to good works for good works goe before the possession of Heaven but not before the decree and ordination Fourthly Saint Ambrose out of this place frameth a strong contrary argument proving thereby that election is altogether of grace without any respect to works see before 2 Answ to Obj. 1. fol. 258. a. the last line c. Ibidem page 302. this is deleted Fourthly the Papists are faulty here who affirme that the decree of salvation came from the foresight of works and so they make them primus Motor Ibidem in the written copy fol. 245. Although we know not the reason why the Lord doth it but more particularly first we must acknowledge the Lord to be just in the election of the godly now the order of election is laid downe Rom. 8. 29 30. Ephes 1. 11. from whence and some other places the order may be expressed thus to wit First God decreed to make Christ the head of his Church Ephes 1. 22. then secondly he ordained and decreed that there should be a Church and here first he decreed to create man secondly to permit him to fall and thirdly to repaire and recover some from their fall and fourthly to endow them with grace and saving faith Secondly we must acknowledge the Lord to be just in the reprobation of the wicked Because the dissention of Divines is great in this point I will speak sparingly thereof and only lay downe the order of it as I conceive it to be and so leave it First God decreed to create man and secondly God foresaw that although man were created pure and immaculate yet if he were left unto himselfe he would fall and thirdly God leaves man unto himselfe and permits him to fall and fourthly determines to offer the meanes of rising againe namely Christ and mercy in him which he foresaw would be flighted and by many not received then fifthly for this contempt he justly reprobates them Ibidem fol. 319. 320. on Matth. 22. 14. It is affirmed by some that there is a universall election against which we urge this plaine place Many are called but few chosen which place sheweth that although the externall meanes of salvation be offered to many yet not all of them but some onely are elected and chosen unto life Huberus hereunto answers that there is first a general
reward the reward of our faith is the salvation of our soules not that faith merits reward for faith too is a work and works merit not Christ sayes the Kingdome of Heaven is a gift Luke 12. 31. and we have it not ex facto but ex pacto not of doing ought but of the Covenant God hath promised it on his gracious promise faith only is enabled to lay hold and because it is the nature of faith to be operative to bring forth fruits which are good works it pleased the holy Ghost in his place and many other to use the phrase here It is c. In Doctor Featlies Clavis Mystica these clauses and distinctions were deleted page 444. In this argument this grave and learned Divine expatiated through his whole discourse of which I may say as Saint Peter doth of Saint Paule's Epistles our beloved brother according to the wisdome given unto him thus spake of these things in divers passages of his Sermon in which some things are heard to be understood which that the unlearned and unstable might not wrest as they doe the sayings of the most orthodox Divines I hold it requisite partly out of the writings of this most learned speaker partly out of his owne words in his private conference with me thus to illustrate his meaning and to cleer the truth good works may be considered First in regard of the person who is either first in state of grace secondly or out of it Secondly in regard of the cause First principall the Spirit of God Secondly instrumentall the faculties of the soule and organt of the body Thirdly in regard of their adjunct First either as they are considered alone by themselves Secondly or together with the merits and intercession of Christ Secondly when we speak of the appeasing of Gods wrath God may be considered either first as a Judge secondly as a Father Thirdly wrath may be appeased two manner of wayes First negatively by subtracting the fuell thereof Secondly positively by extinguishing as it were the flame thereof with something else cast upon it According to these distinctions the truth in this point may be delivered in these succeeding insertions First no work done by any person out of the state of grace produceth any of the effects above mentioned Secondly works done by men in state of grace as they proceed from themselves are not without some flaine nor are they simply approved of God but in some respect onely Thirdly the good works wrought through the help of grace if they be considered by themselves without relation to Christs merits and intercession which covereth their imperfection and giveth them efficacy and a prevailing power with God produce none of the above named effects Fourthly works done by men in grace as they proceed from Gods Spirit and are improved by the merits and intercession of Christ are the meanes and secondary causes of procuring unto us temporall and spirituall blessings Fifthly God's wrath as he is an angry Judge can be appeased by nothing but by the blood of Christ and his infinite sacrifice which alone satisfieth his justice Sixthly the anger of God as he is a Father and sometimes severely chasteneth his children for their unthankfulnesse and other sianes may be so farre appeased by them that he will take his scourage from them and bestow new favours upon them this anger may be appeased both privately by breaking off their sinnes and thereby taking away the cause of his displeasure and also positively by fasting prayer and Almes-deeds to conclude as the flye in Martial upon which there fell a drop of Amber and inclosed it grew to be precious and was sold at a high rate not for the flyes sake but for the Ambers so the good works of Gods children which of themselves especially so farre as they proceed from them are of little worth yet confidered quatincta sanguine Christi as Beza speaketh as dyed with Christs blood and covered all over and melosed in the Amber of his merits become precious in the eyes of God and are in a faire sense and construction both placatoria and improtatoria In Master Wards Comentary upon Matthew written copy page 259. this passage is expunged Matth. 13. 20. 21. The stony ground c. Obj. Bellarmine de justif lib. 3. cap. 14. produceth these two verses to prove that faith and the grace of justification may be lost arguing thus these receive the word with joy but they have no root yea for a while beleeve but in the time of temptation fall away and therefore faith may be lost for they had faith because they beleeved they beleeved the Word of God and yet fell away Answ The Text expounds it selfe they had no root and they beleeved but for a while therefore they had no true faith for true faith is not without root as appeares by Saint Paul's prayer for the Ephesians 3. 17. I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that being rooted and grounded in faith c. and therefore true faith hath a root Ibidem on Matth 5. 7. written copy page 60. 69. this sentence is dashed out Qu. Why may not we ascribe some merit unto our works Answ Because that were to derogate from God and his good will who so graciously invites us to come and buy grace of him without mony or mony worth Isa 55. 1. and therefore we must not expect nor exact the reward of glory as a due debt unto â—s from God for our works as Saint Elzearâ—us did Staplet aestist fol. 141. initio who upon a certaine day refusing to accept of a Scarlet robe and an 〈◊〉 of gold which were offered unto him when he entred into his chamber powred forth this pharisaicall prayer unto God Ta mihi Domine Deus in paradiso debes contum auriuncias duos pannos coxincos O Lord remember how thou art indebted unto me when I come into Heaven two Scarlet robes and one hundred ounces of gold Thus Papists proudly arrogate much unto themselves and derogate greatly from God both in their prayers and opinions but let the opinion of the Protestants be that blessednesse is derived unto them from the meere mâ—rcy and free favour of God and let their prayers be that the Lord would be graciously pleased to count them worthy of this blessednesse 2 Thes 1. 11. and that they may find mercy of the Lord at the last day 2 Tim. 1. 18. Obj. Will not this hinder and discourage men from working to remember that all their works merit nothing at Gods hands at all Answ It is so farre from hindring that it furthers so farre from discouraging that it encourages so farre from lestening that it encreases and so farre from extinguishing that it enflames our desires and endeavours to be rich in good works c. Ibidem on Matth. 5. 18. page 96. this is castrated Your good works The Papists produce this place to prove the works of the righteous to be perfect and
Bellarmine lib. 4. de justif cap. 5. argues thus The Scripture calleth the works of the righteous absolutely good works as in this verse that they seeing your good works But if all the good works of the righteous be mixed with mortall sâ—nne then they are rather to be called evill then good works This he proves from another viz. ex Areopagâ—a quarto de divinis nominibus Quia maluâ— dicatur opus absolte nisi integre fic bonum because except a work be perfectly good it is absolutely called evill First this phrase works are absolutely called good is Amphibola and doubtfull sometimes signifying the works which are good simple and sometimes those which are good in part Secondly works are called good either first indefinitely as they are commanded in and by the law or secondly peculiarly as they are performed by some singular persons as it is one thing to desire vertue in generall and another the vertue of Alcihiades or Socrates as it is one thing to commend learning in generall another the learning of Plato or Cicero so it is one thing to speak of good works in generall another of the good works of Peter John or Paul Thirdly these things premised we grant that works are absolutely called good taken indefinitely and as they are commanded yea this verse proves it which speaks not of works done by any particular person but of those which men ought to doe there is none of sound judgement can deny or doubt but that we are so debters unto the Law that we ought not onely to begin but also to perfect that which the Law prescribes as perfectly good and in all the parts thereof absolute but he were of unsound judgement that hence would conclude because it is our duty to doe it therefore we doe it for Saint Paul confesseth that he doth not onely the good which he ought but which he would doe Thus I say if we consider the works as they are enjoyned it is true that they may be called absolutely good but if we understand particularly the works of this or that man then we deny that ever the Scripture cals them absolutely good neither doth the Cardinall prove this because as was said before this place speaks not of what is done but of what ought to be done Chamier Tâ—n 3. fol. 360. 1. 2. 3. de Imperfect Op. lib. 11. cap. 23. Fourthly our work which we doe are called good in Scripture Non secundum perfectam justitiam sed hanc quae bumanae fragilitati competit Hier. Dialog 1. Contr. Pelag. not according to perfect righteousnesse but as it is agreeable to our humane frailty or they are good in part though not perfectly Becanus yet urgeth this place for the proofe of this opinion of perfection of works disputing thus The Apostles are commanded so to shine before men that they may see their good works and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven But how shall men see their good works if they all be damnable or how shall their heavenly Father be glorified if all they doe be contaminated and defiled with sinne Answ We must distinguish between humane and divine judgement men see mens works as they are outwardly and can goe no further they onely perceive what is obvious to their senses and can neither see the heart nor know whether that which is done be done according to all the circumstances that are required thereunto Now true righteousnesse is proper unto the heart and it is the circumstances that make the work more or lesser good or bad and therefore although men see the good works of the righteous which outwardly they shew forth and glorifie God for them yet it followes not hence therefore those works are in Gods sight perfectly good c. Ibidem fol. 185. this is crossed out The morall law was a bond of salvation unto Adam Rom. 2. 13. and of death Gal. 3. 10. but is now abrogated by Christ in regard of the conditions we being now justified onely by faith Ibidem on Matth. 12. ver 27. written copy page 251. this discourse is obliterated By thy words thou shalt bo justified Quest What is the matter or materiall cause of our justification Answ First some say that the onely act of mans heart in beleeving is the matter of it Secondly some say that partly faith and partly Christs obedience is the matter of our righteousnesse Thirdly some say that the works of the law done by man are the matter of our righteousnesse Now all these three opinions are sufficiently refuted by Master Forb's of Justification cap. 22. page 77. to whom I referre the Reader Fourthly we say that onely Christ in his obedience is the whole matter of our righteousnesse and that nothing in Heaven or in earth in man or without man is the matter of mans righteousnesse before God except onely Christ this being amply handled and proved by Forbes cap. 23. 24. and his book being in English and easie to be had I referre the Reader thereunto c. Ibidem written copy page 68. this is crossed out by the Licenser Thirdly the Lord having converted and regenerated us we are onely able to bring forth good works for non precedunt justificandum sed sequentur justificatum Aug. good works march not before as causes of our justification but follow as fruits or signs of our sanctification c. And page 336. Answ 1. They good works are the way and meanes unto this Kingdome but I doe not give or grant this and that First because that which is but onely a meanes is not at all a sufficient cause and Secondly because if we should grant this then the Papists would have what they desired for they say that good works are necessary to salvation Non modo necessitate presentiae sed necessitate efficienciae Bellarm. de Justific lib. 4. cap. 1. The way which leads to London is indeed a meanes of comming to London but not the efficient cause Neque enim facit sed patitur ut quis veniat Londinum for when a man comes thereunto the way doth nothing but onely suffers and therefore â—he way thereunto is more rightly called causa sine qua non Parens s fol. 848. b. c. In Doctor Jones his Comentary on the Hebrewes page 58. these clauses are purged out By grace you are saved not by works any kind of way let us not part stakes with the Lord and give halfe to our selves and halfe to the Lord as the Papists doe Page 208. Our best works are defiled with sinne saith the copy too often defiled saith the Licenser c. Page 247. Our praying preaching hearing of Sermons and best works are unprofitable to bring us to the Kingdome of Heaven they may be seales of our election but no causes of our salvation Page 253. The old Covenant depended on working doe this and live the new requireth nothing but faith c. Page 339. Here we may behold what reckoning is to be made of the works of the
in that I shall ever acknowledge with a sincere heart But now Sir I must intreat leave of you that I may joyn an earnest suite to my thankes My Lord Bishop I hear is to be translated to Hereford and I am not thought on to succeed him I dare not write to my Lords Grace of Canterbury But I dare hope of his goodnes to me and that he will commiserate my case when he shall be truly informed of my need and what an utter discredit it will be to me in my Country when I shall be intercepted by whomsoever now the third time after that his Grace did encourage me to pitch upon this Bishoprick in his house at Westminster In truth Sir if I misse of it this third time I shall have no Joy to shew my face in the Diocesse Therfore I beseech you that you will speedily be my earnest Solicitor to his Grace that if for no other reason yet out of meer compassion I may not be so utterly disheartened I could be as glad to see Doctor Sibthorp in the Deanry almost as my selfe in the Pallace Your interest in his Graces Love may be a powerfull Mediator for us both Good Sir delay not the time to commend my cause to his Grace in whose goodnesse I cannot but have great confidence I heartily commend you to Gods grace and will ever be Your very thankefull friend Jo. Towers Peterborough Sept. 30. 1638. What effect this Letter produced appeares by the Docquet Book Octob. 29. 1638. Where we find both a Conge De'slire and Letter to the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough to Elect this aspiring Dr. for their Bishop both drawn up by Warrant from this Archbishop of Canterbury Belike Sir Iohn Lambe found this Doctor very thankfull for his promotion according to his promise the rather because we find in the Docquet Book Novemb. 5. 1638. A presentation of this Dr Towers to the Rectory of Caster in the diocesse of Peterborough by order from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Who as he disposed of all Bishopricks in England so likewise in Ireland even whiles he was Bishop of London and since as appeares not onely by sundry Letters from Doctor Vsher Primate of Ireland and other Irish Prelates found in his Study but by severall Writings and Warrants under his hand for disposing Bishopricks there we shall instance onely in three The first of them seised in his Study by Mr. Prynne is thus indorsed with the Archbishops own hand Mr. Lancasters Reasons why he should be Archbishop of Cassils though he be thought too young Maii 21. 1629. WHereas the Lord Bishop of London objected against my age as being under 50. Your honâ—our may be pleased if it shall be insisted upon to make known to his Majestie that the lamentable estate of that Church is such that it is requisite hee should be active able and wealthy rather then old and decrepid that should have that Bishopricke to prosecute the recovery of the revenues thereof where the last Archbishop left who spent and spoyled himselfe in the prosecution thereof and so shall any other that shall undertake that unlesse he shall be of competent age and shall have his Majesties gracious favour and furtherance therein Again gravity sobriety sincerity integrity courage counsell goodnesse godlinesse hospitallity and charity are more to be regarded in that Country where they pry with Eagles eyes into our lives and conversations but will not heare our doctrine then old age where he shall not long want grey haires if suites troubles molestations vexations persecutions and afflictions can procure them Againe it is held by most that neither Saint John the Evangelist nor Timothy the first Bishop of the Ephesians were above 30. yeares old and yet our Saviour made choyce of the former and Saint Paul of the latter saith in the first of Tim. 4. and 12. Let no man despise thy youth By this its apparant that the power of disposing the Archbishopricks and Bishopricks in Ireland were in this Prelates hands and that he rejected or advanced whom he pleased there and therefore must be satisfied The second is this Note writ with this Archbishops own hand found among Secretary Windebanks Papers who thus endorsed it Jan. 1634. My Lord of Canterburies Note for George Andrews Dean of Limbrick to be Bishop of Fernes and Laughlin George Andrewes Dean of Limbricke to be Bishop of Fernes and Laughlin To hold in Commendam any thing he hath saving the Deanery The Bishopricke is voyd by the death of the late Bishop thereof You must draw up a Letter accordingly out of hand W. Cant. Thirdly A Warrant thus endorsed with the Archbishops own hand A Warrant for the Bishop of Limericke writ by his Secretary Dell and signed by himself in this forme which will demonstrate the forme of all his other Orders and Warrants to the Signet for the forementioned English Bishops SIR YOu are to prepare a Bill for his Majesties Signature after the usuall manner conteining a grant of the Bishoprick of Limericke in Ireland now voyde by the death of the late Bishop there to George Webbe Doctor in Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplaines in ordinary And for so doing these shal be your Warrant Septemb. 22. 1634. W. Cant. To the Clerke of his Majesties Signet attending His Authority in disposing the Bishopricks in Ireland was so absolute that William Bishop of Corke and Rosse in his Letter to this Archbishop Aug. 7. 1640. after he had passed through one or two Bishopricks there writes thus by way of acknowledgement to him for his preferments there What I had or have is of your Graces goodnesse under him who gives life and breath and all things and under our gratious Soveraigne who is the breath of our nostrels The like we could prove for Scotland and what kinde of Popish and Arminian Bishops he there preferred themselves have sufficiently declared in their Charge against him and other Writings Not to insist upon his earnest endeavour and contest to promote Dr. Theodor Price Vice-Deane of Westminster to a Welch Bishopricke as the fittest man in his conscience of all others who lived a professed Unpreaching Epicure Arminian and dyed a reconciled Papist to the Church of Rome soon after receiving extream unction from a Popish Priest who missed the Bishoprick onely by the Noble Earle of Pembrooks opposition to which Dr. Owen was preferred in his stead We shall passe from Bishopricks to Deaneries To pretermit his advancement of Dr Manwaring Dr Wren Dr Duppa and others to Deaneries ere they were made Bishops Decemb. 1635. the Deanery of Worcester was granted to Dr Christopher Potter a professed Arminian which Dr. Featly attested by signification and order of this Archbishop of Canterbury as the Docquet Book records to whom he submitted the correction of his Book entituled Want of Charity and imputed his preferments witnesse this Doctors own Letter to the Archbishop the originall whereof attested by M. Prynne was produced and read
the Church of England was ready to ring the Changes and insinuating unto his Auditory that there was cause to fear an Alteration of Religion saying that Religion and the Gospel stood on tiptoes ready to be gone that divers good Ministers were silenced and that they should beware of a relapse unto Popery In this censure the Archbishop had the chiefest hand as was proved by the High Commission Bookes and Mr Wardes Submission which was drawn up by Sir Iohn Lambe and sent to this Archbishop who endorsed it with his owne hand This severe sentence utterly ruined this famous painfull preacher who lay long in prison and soone after ended his dayes in great grief and sorrow In April 1630. Articles were exhibited against Mr Charles Chancy a Reverend learned painfull Minister living at Ware for preaching against the Bacchanales and disorders used by many in the Christmas holy-dayes the increase of Popery Arminianisme and using these expressions in a Sermon of his charged against him in his Articles in Ianuary before That Idolatry was admitted into the Church and that not only the prophets of Baal but Baal himselfe is received and houses multiplyed for the entertainment of them and with all saying that the preaching of the Gospel would be suppressed That there wanted men of courage to tell the Superiours in the Church of their neglect for that there was increase of much Atheisme Popery Arminianisme and Heresie in our Church since the reformation of it as at this time wherein Heresies were not onely broached but maintained whereby he raised a fear among the people and insinuated to them that some alteration of Religion would ensue and be brought in and scandalized the whole Church of England and Government thereof To these Articles Mr Chancy gave in his answer upon Oath in the High Commission the 21 of the same April and the very next day by Order of that Court the whole cause was referred to this Bishop then of London being his ordinary provided that if Mr Chancy did not submit himselfe to performe his Lordships order therein that then his Lordship if it seemed good unto him might transferre the cause backe again to be censured in this Court Whereupon Mr Chancy made a Submission to his Lordship in Latin and soon after was enforced to desert the Kingdome and set sayle for New England to avoyd further persecution All which is manifest by the Originall Articles and Mr Chancyes answer to them found among Sir John Lambes sequestred Writings by Mr Prynne and by the Order of Reference and M. Chancyes Submission endorsed with the Bishops own hand the chiefe Prosecutor of this cause To these we could add M. Cotton M. Hooker M. Davenport M. Wells M. Peters M. Glover and sundry other Ministers driven into New England and other Plantations those that fled over into Holland to avoyd his prosecution with some hundreds of Ministers questioned in the High Commission and else-where by his meanes and there suspended silenced for not publishing the Booke of Sports or not submitting to his Popish Innovations M. Salisbury was questioned and troubled by this Prelate for these passages in his Sermon on Math. 24. 6. How many thousands have made shipwrack of faith a good conscience renounced our true Church stepp'd aside to Arminianisme and from thence as it is the widest gate that opens towards Rome relapsed to Popery Thus are wee scattered in our Jacob and divided in our Israel The Low Countryes not long since if not still sighed as deeply and mourned as strongly to finde herselfe as imperceivably to be overgrowne with Arminianisme And what a faction is like to be in our deplorable England between Popery and Arminianisme together except God be more mercifull and our State the more vigilant and mindfull We shall see sooner then tell and feel sooner then see Doctor Staughton D. Sibbes D. Taylor D. Gouge M. White of Dorchester M. Rogers of Dodham with sundry more of our most eminent preaching orthodox Divines were brought into the High Commission and troubled or silenced for a time by his procurement upon frivilous pretences But in truth because they were principle Props of our Protestant Religion against his Popish and Arminian Innovations But omitting these we shall conclude this head with one memorable instance more which comes very home Mr Nathaniel Bernard Lecturer at Sepulchers in London preaching at Antholins Church in May 3. 1629. used this expression in his prayer before his Sermon Oh Lord open the eyes of the Queenes Majestie that shee may see Iesus Christ whom shee hath peirced with her Infidelity Superstition and Idolatry This Archbishop then of London was presently informed of this passage attested by Walter Kirby an Atturney of Bernards Inne Iohn Browne of Durham Minister and some others Whereupon the Bishop brought him into the High Commission where after long attendance upon his Submission this ensuing Order was framed Die Jovis viz. xxviii die mensis Januarii Anno Domini juxta c 1629. Coram Commissionariis Regiis apud Lambeth Judicialiter sedentibus presente Thoma Mottershed Registrarij Regij Deputat Officum Dominorum contra Nathanielem Bernard Clericum Prima Sessio Termini Hillarij HIS appearance by bond was respited untill this day at which day and place the said Nathaniel Bernard appeared personally and then it being objected unto him by the Court that he had in a Sermon lately by him preached or otherwise delivered some Scandalous and undutiful speeches derogatory to some particular person of most eminent place which the Court desired not to have there repeated and for that the said Mr Bernard had acknowledged his error in that kinde as some of the Commissioners there unto whom he had submitted himself reported and himselfe confessed the Court was inclined upon his submission being a young scholler and a student in Divinity to accept his submission and enclined to deal mercifully and favourably with him yet considering that his scandalous and undutifull speeches were of such high nature as could not be well remitted or pardoned by this Court without the approbation and the good liking of his most Excellent Majestie the Court desired the Lord Bishop of London to acquaint his Majestie therewith and if his Majestie upon understanding of the Cause would be graciously pleased to pardon him and leave it to the Court that then this Court would take such further order for his dismission as they should think meet Mottershed The Copy of this Order with another Paper conteining the words were both endorsed with the Bishops own hand and found among his Papers by Mr Prynne who produced them Mr Bernard not long after upon his submission was dismissed the Court After which repairing to the University of Cambridge to visit his friends he fortuned to preach at Saint Maries Church there on the 6. of May 1632. in the afternoon wherein he let fall divers Passages concerning preaching the purity of Gods Ordinances worship and against the Introducers of
in mother part of my Diocesse farther off every Parish hath his Priest and some two or three apiece and so their Masse-houses also in some places Masse is said in the Churches Fryars there are in divers places who goe about though not in their habit and by their imporâ—â—â—ate begging empoverish the people Who indeed are generally very poore as from that cause so from their paying double Tithes to their owne Clergy and ours from the dâ—â—th of Corne and the death of their Cattle these late yeers which the 〈◊〉 to their souldiers and their agents and which they forget not to reckon among other causes the appression of the Court Ecclesiastiasticall which in very truth any Lord I cannot excuse and doe seek to reforme For our owne there are some seven or eight Ministers in each Diocesse of good sufficiency and which is no small cause of the continuance of the people in popery still English which have not the tongue of the people nor can performe any divine offices or converse with them and which hold many of them two three foure or more Vicarages apiece even the Clerkships themselves are in like manner conferred upon the English and sometimes two or three or more upon one man and ordinarily bought and sold or let to farme c. His Majesty is now with the greatest part of this Country as to their hearts consciences King but at the Popes discretion c. Your Lordships most obliged servant in Christ Jesu WILL. KILMORE and ARDREN Kilmore the 1. of April 1630. His second Letter to the Lord Deputy of Ireland about the maintainance of the Army and the Cavan Petition which he sent inclosed in an other Letter to the Archbishop is somewhat more full and observable wherein there is this memorable passage concerning the encrease and insolencies of the Papists in Ireland which Letter he received thence Decemb. 4. 1633. Right Honourable my good Lord c. IN the midst of these thoughts I have been advertised from an honourable friend in England that I am accused to his Majesty to have opposed his service and that my hand with two other Bishops onely was to a writing touching the monies to be levyed on the Papists here for maintainance of the men of warre c. Indeed if I should have had such ad intention this had been not only to oppose the service of his Majesty but to expose with the publike peace mine own neck to the sâ—eans of the Romish Cut-throats I that know that in this Kingdome of his Majesty the Pope hath another Kingdome farre greater in number and as I have heretofore signified to the Lords Justices and Counsell which is also since justified by themselves in print constantly guided and directed by the Order of the new Congregation de propaganda side lately erected at Rome transmitted by the meanes of the Popes Nuncioes residing at Bruxels or Paris that the Pope hath here a Clergie if I may guesse by my owne Diocesse double in number to us the heads whereof are by corporall Oath bound to him to maintaine him and his Regalities contra omnem hominem and to execute his Mandates to the utmost of their forces which accordingly they doe stiling themselves in print Ego N. Dei c. Apostolicae Sedis gratia Episcopus Fermien Ossorien c. I that know there is in this Kingdome for the moulding of the people to the Popes obedience a rabble of irregular Regulars commonly younger Brothers of good houses who are growne to that insolency aâ— to advance themselves to be Members of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy in better ranke then Priests in so much as the censure of the Sorbon is faine to be implored to curbe them which yet is called in againe so tender is the Pope of his owne Creatures I that know that his Holinesse hath erected a new Vniversity at Dublin to confrant his Majesties Colledge there and to brâ—ed up the youth of this Kingdome to his devotion of which Vniversity one Paul Harris the Author of that infamous Libell which was put forth in print against the Lord Armaths Wansted Sermon stileth himselfe in print to be Deane I that know and have given advertisement to the State that these Regulars dare erect new Fryeries in the Country since the dissolving of those in the Citys that they have brought the people to such a sottish senselesnesse as they care not to learne the Commandements as God himselfe spake and writ them but they flock in great members to the preaching of new superstitious and detestable doctrines such as their owne Priests are ashamed of and at these they levy collections three four five six pound at a Sermon Shortly I that know that these Regulars and this Clergie have at a generall meeting like to a Synod as themselves stile it holden at Drogheda decreed that it is not lawfull to take the Oath of Alleagiance and if they be constant to their own doctrine doe account his Majesty in their hearts to be King but at the Popes discretion In this estate of this Kingdome to think the bridle of the Army may be taken away it should be the thought not of a brain-sick but brainlesse man c. The day of our deliverance from the popish Powder-plot Your Lordships in all duty WILLIAM KILMORE By these two Letters it is most apparent that this Arch-Prelat was from time to time acquainted with the extraordinary encrease and insufferable insolencies of the Papists in Ireland as likewise of their popish Arch-bishops and Bishops audacious proceedings in that Kingdome which he was more fully informed of by two printed papers sent to him by Archbishop Vsher the one in Latin the other in English found in his Study endorsed thus with his Secretary Dels hand May 3. 1632. Protestations of the Secular Priests in Ireland against Thomas Flemming Arch-bishop of Dublin one whereof was read at the Lords Barre To all the most Illustrious Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland but more particularly to those of the Province of Dublin their honourable Lords David Bishop of Ossory John of Fernes Rosse of Kildare and Matthew Vicar Apostolicall of Lagblem MOST Illustrious Lords and Reverend Bishops the Priests of Dublin make their complaint before you that the most Illustrious Arch-bishop of Dublin Thomas Flemming of the Order of Saint Francis without alleaging my cause against them onely for his will and at his pleasure useth to exile and banish Priests out of his Diocesse and they protest that in so doing he exerciseth a tyranny over the Clergie contrary to the Canons of holy Church and the Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdome Most Illustrious Lords and Reverend Fathers in Christ the aforesaid Priests doe make their complaints that the same most Illustrious Arch-bishop of Dublin Thomas Flemming of the Order of Saint Francis though humbly sought unto and desired doth refuse to doe them justice in their causes neither yet will be permit the Clergie to follow their
love among Neighbours and friends as the Bishop of Bath and Wells with divers of the gravest Clergy in the county of Somerset certified his Majesty who desired their continuance If some abuses crept into them as they did in some places and it seemes in Somersetshire yet this was no good reason to take away the feasts and meetings themselves as Iudge Richardson did by his order for which there were great complaints made by men of quality but only to regulate them and take away their abuses which this Declaration doth without countenancing any disorders To this was replyed 1. That it is cleare by the evidence given and his Letter written to the Bishop of Bath and Wells that this Declaration was enlarged by himselfe and republished by his instigation and procurement That himselfe put his Majesty upon the reprinting of it the warrant being written with his owne hand and being without any date at all makes it probable it was procured since the Declaration printed The later end of the Declaration it selfe concerning Wakes and Revells compared with the juncture of time when it was published manifests that it was thrust out to crosse Iudge Richardsons order and forestall the Petition of the Somersetshire Iustices for its continuance immediatly after its reversall it having no relation at all to Brabournes Booke Besides the publishing of it just when Mr. Prynne was questioned for his Histriomastix wherein he censures mixt dancing Sports Pastimes on the Lords day and reciting it in the very information against him manifests that it was likewise reprinted to make way for his first censure in Starchamber Moreover some of the recreations mentioned in it are not very lawfull upon any day though the Archbishop affirmes the contrary but certainly unlawfull on any part of the Lords day even after evening Prayer as Pathers Councells Imperiall Lawes and both Protestant and Popish writers have resolved The pretended Practise of Geneva which he alleageth is but a Hearesay without proofe borrowed from Peter Heylins prophane History of the he should have said NO Sabbath part 2. c. 6. sect 6. 8. 9. who yet informes us sect 9. that Daâ—noing hath bin condemned by French Synods and writers as well Protestantas Popish which yet the Declaration for sports in terminis allowes of on the Lords day contrary to the practise and judgement of Geneva As for Mr. Calvin himselfe though he differs in some particulars touching the Morality of the 4th Commandement from other of our Divines yet he in expresse words condemnes Dancing and Pastimes on the Lords day not deemingita Iewish Superstition or rigidity to prohibit such sports thereon especially Dancing as his 71. Sermon upon Iob proclaimes to all the world and other Geneva Ministers since him have done the like That this Declaration did de Pacto put downe afternoone Sermons on the Lords day in most and forenoone too in many places by suspending sundry preaching Ministers who durst not publish it out of conscience is apparent to al. Wherefore to affirme this one part of the Archbishops design in reprinting thereof is a certaine and more then probable truth and the words of it that they should use those Pastimes after Evening Prayer not evening Sermon import as much some Bishops grounding their suppressing of Afternoone Sermons on this expression which Sermons Peter Heylin in his History of the Sabbath part 2. c. 6. sect 9. and c. 7. and 8. makes to be meere innovations as doth Doctor Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath both published by this Archbishops command and approbation For his owne strict observation of the Lords day it is an averment without truth Certainly he that made conscience of its strict observation himselfe would never give way to such a Declaration encouraging others to prophane it who were apt to do it without such an incitement nor suspend such Godly Ministers who durst not publish it out of conscience for feare of encouraging others to prophane it Yea his pretended strictnesse of late times was such that himselfe and his servants made it an ordinary practise in the Somer to go to Bowles and use other pastimes on it and he sate constantly thereon at the Councell Table about worldly businesse 2ly That there was no warrant at all in the Declaration that Ministers should publish it or to punish any who refused it hath bin formerly proved at large and where there is no penalty prescribed in a Law much more in a Declaration no punishment can be inflicted That he gave expresse order for silensing Mr. Wilson Mr. Culmer and Mr. Player is proved by severall Oathes and that they were suspended divers yeares not only ab officio but beneficio having nothing left to support their Wives and Families That they were obstinate or sactious is a groundlesse scandall not proved they were only conscientious and would not disobey God to humour men That he silenced only these three in his Diocesse was but casuall because others submitted to read the Booke but his command was generall to suspend all who refused to read it and those three in speciall That he put not any Article of Inquiry touching the reading of this Declaration into the Articles for his Metropoliticall Visitation was his Jesuitical Art and cunning to conceale his wickednesse and prophanenesse from publique view but that he gave private Instructions to his Vicar Generall in this his Visitation to convent and question such who had not read it who thereupon did accordingly question divers good Ministers for this very cause you have heard it proved at large by the very Abstracts of his Metropoliticall Visitations under his owne and his Visitors hands That other Bishops inserted such an Article into their printed Visitation Inquisitions we have fully proved as also that they gave an Accompt to him of the Ministers they had suspended for not Reading the Declaration according to his Injunctions Therefore their Articles of this nature proceeded meerely from him and must be charged on him as well as on themselves That it was the Act of the Court not his to bring any into the High Commission for not reading this Book is a most false averment for Mr. VVilson now a Reverend Divine of the Assembly was brought into the High Commission by his owne expresse command and no others as himselfe deposeth who personally suspended him before at Lambheth for that cause both from his Office and Benefice and Mr. Page was by his speciall order brought into the High Commission as appeares by his owne Subscription to Francis Thompsons Petition That Mr. Snelling was there questioned and severely censured by the Archbishops meanes who gave Order not to accept either his Answer or defence and threatned to burne it is cleare by the proofes forementioned That his censure was only for not publishing the Declaration is evident by the sentence it selfe if well observed his not bowing at the name of Jesus being put in only for a Cipher but not insisted on at
Arminianisme who in King James his Reigne before his preferment to Winchester and York had been preferred to sundry Dignities Bishopricks and was in office and good esteem at Court both with King James and King Charles Fourthly For Bishop Wren when I first preferred him he was a worthy man who waited upon his Majesty when he was in Spaine and did good service there if he hath misdemeaned himselfe since it is his owne fault not mine he is still alive and must answer for himselfe to the charge and impeachment exhibited against him Fiftly Doctor Lindsey was a very great Scholler who deserved well neither did I know him to be an Arminian 't is true he was preferred to two Bishopricks successively but it was by Bishop Neale whose Chaplaine he was not by me there is no Oath nor cleaâ—â— evidence it was by my meanes the Docquet book being no sufficient 〈…〉 for it mentioned onely the Kings pleasure and order for it signified by 〈…〉 Signet to me as a servant but not that I was the author of his preferments the King may signifie his pleasure to the Signet Office by whom he pleaseth as for Master Smarts testimony of him there were some quarrels and differences at Durham between Master Smart and him which may cause him to speak the worse of him Master Walker saith onely he was reputed a great Arminian which is no Heresie Sixtly however these were affected yet none can charge me with any Popery or Arminianisme To this was replied First that we have as cleerly proved as the Sunne at noon day that Mountague was protected advanced by him and that in contempt of the Parliament by his owne Diary the Docquet Book Bishop Mountagues owne Letter of thanks to him for his favour and preferments which he hath no way answered as for his preferment that it was by Sir Dudly Carltons meanes it is but a bare surmise of his owne without proofe or colour and for his presence at his consecration it was meerly voluntary to countenance him not by command for ought appeares Secondly it appeares most cleerly by the Evidence given that Doctor Manwaring was advanced both to his Deanary and Bishoprick by his means recommendations alone for the disservice he had done the Kingdome by those Sermons for which he was justly sentenced in Parliament and the ill offices he had since done our Church by introducing Stone-Altars Copes with other Popish Reliques Ceremonies thereinto that he was thus advanced and consecrated a Bishop by him in direct affront of the Parliaments censure disabling him from all future preferments we have fully proved And whereas he layes the Odium of his preferments onely upon the King to excuse himselfe it is but his owne bare allegation without any shadow of proofe and that in his owne case for his owne defence therefore not to be credited But admit it true yet since himselfe was present at his censure in the Lords House upon the Commons impeachment of him recorded it in his Diary and was accused for having a finger in his Sermons and licensing them for the Presse it was his duty to have acquainted his Majesty with and minded him of this his censure disabling him for ever from all such preferments in our Church to have opposed his preferment and withstood his consecration and Mountagues too the rather because every man before any Bishops consecration hath free liberty to put in any just exceptions against him there being a publike Instrument solemnly posted up in the Arches at Bow before every Bishops consecration as a necessary formality giving publike notice That such a one is to be consecrated the Bishop of such a Diocesse such a day and signifying that if any person can take any just exceptions against him and shew good cause why he should not be consecrated he shall be heard In regard whereof this Archbishop ex Officio might yea ought to have shewed the Lords publike censure of Manwaring as a just legall Plea why he should not be consecrated a Bishop as Master Jones the Printer did in a legall way object Bishop Mountagues Popish and Arminian Books with the proceedings pending against him in Parliament for the same is a just cause why he should not be made a Bishop yet he could not be heard nor prevaile therein therefore the neglect of this his trust duty contrary to Law and his recommending consecrating him to be a Bishop in affront of the Parliaments Judgement which disabled him must needs be a transcendent crime no wayes mittigated but aggravated by his false disloyall excuses Thirdly for Bishop Neale he was ever reputed a Popish and Arminian Prelate a persecutor of all orthodox godly Ministers a preferrer of popish Arminian Clergy-men making choyce of such for his Chaplaines for such a one was he accused to his Majesty by the House of Commons in their Remonstrance Anno 1628. and complained of in sundry Parliaments before his advancement to Winchester or Yorke For his pretended worth all the Court knew very well he had little worth or learning in him being unable to preach write dispute not preaching once in a dozen yeers or more For his preferments and Court-offices they were gained maintained by flattery symony and his base temporizing servility he serving as a ready Instrument upon all occasions to introduce anypopish Innovasions in the Church and set on foot any oppressing projects in the State Therfore his preferment of such an ill Instrument who first advanced and brought this Arch-Prelat into favour at Court is no wayes excusable Fourthly Doctor Wren was before his advancement to a Bishoprick a professed Arminian a superstitious popish dissolute impious corrupt Clergy-man and so reputed by all therefore a fit Chaplaine to promote the Spanish Match and Designe to seduce his Majesty when in Spaine from our Religion and his tyrannicall superstitious popish proceedings since he was made Bishop have more fully discovered what he was before All or most of which being in pursuance of the Archbishops Instructions Injunctions to him as his Annuall Account of his proceedings to him evidence himselfe who promoted him and them must be more guilty of and responsible for them then Wren himselfe who yet may suffer for them in due time Fiftly Doctor Linseys schollership is not in question but his Arminian popish inclination and opinions which were so much the more dangerous by reason of his great reputed learning and schollership the greatest Schollers if unsound being the most pernicious seducers and unfittest to be preferred of all others That he was promoted by Bishop Neales meanes is a bare allegation of his owne without proofe that himselfe preferred him is cleere by the Docquet Booke how much he was tainted with Popery and Arminianisme Master Smart and Master Walker have deposed upon Oath and his presumption in bringing Sancta Clara to him even when he was about to publish his Book to acquaint him with his person and designe of reconciling us thereby to the Church
of their complaint That it would introduce a Ministery independent on the Bishops is a false surmise since none were recommended to officiate or preach at any of the purchased Impropriations but by speciall license of the Bishops in whose they were and none were presented to them but conformable men free from all just exceptions if he could justly except against ought in their proceedings Master White deposeth he offered that he himselfe should rectifie it so as the work might proceed but this would not content him but they must be suppressed and criminally proceeded against That he did it in a legall way is no justification nor excuse since those who work and accomplish mischiefe by colour of Law are worse then open Tyrants For the sentence no doubt it was most unjust and so the Earle of Dorset who was present at it told the King himself affirming the buying in of Impropriations to be the best work that ever was set on foot for the Churches good his owne beging the Impropriations in Ireland from the Crowne for the pretended good of the Church proves it infallibly against himselfe But that the Judges onely must answer for this unjust sentence not he is a meer Nonsequitur because the Law resolves that Plus peccat Author quà m Actor and the Judges had never given such an unjust sentence in this cause had not he by his violence power fraud interressing the King himselfe against the Feoffees over-awed swayed the Judges to swarve from the rules of Piety and Justice That some of the revenues of purchased Impropriations were contributed towards the maintainance of Saint Antholins Lecturers is true but that it was a mis-imploying by them contrary to trust or that any unworthy or unconformable Ministers were put into them is a grosse falshood disproved by Master White upon Oath However had it been true he should then have reformed the abuse not utterly destroyed the good work so much conducing to Gods glory and the peoples edification For Heylins Sermon it was presented to retained approved yea himselfe advanced by him and no doubt he preached it by his direction As for Master Foxly he did not onely check but persecute imprison and most barbarously handle him to his undoing onely for his promoting this pious project even after he had quite overthrowne it and openly vaunted of this his wickednesse All which considered each branch of this charge sticks most immovably upon him notwithstanding all his evasions to shake it off The sixteenth charge urged against me is That I have endeavoured to cause division and discord between the Church of England and other reformed Churches and endeavoured to suppresse the Priviledges Immunities of the reformed Dutch and French Churches in this Kingdome wherein it was objected First that I esteemed them no Churches of God or Christ at all because they â—â—nted Bishope which they endeavoured to prove by mine owne Conference with Fisher Bishop Hals Propositions approved by me and Bishop Mountagues Book authorized by my Chaplaine Secondly that I deemed their Religion and ours not to be one but different and their Religion not to be the true Religion Upon which ground I grew angry with Master Ruly and caused the Letters-Patents granted by the King for a Collection for the Palatinate Ministers to be revoked after they had passed the great Seale and a clause in them to be expunged to their great injury and scandall as Master Wakerly and Master Hartlib attested Thirdly that I caused the Declaration of the Faith and Ceremonies of the Pals 〈◊〉 Church to be called in and suppressed Fourthly That I molested the DUTCH FRENCH and WALLOONE reformed Churches in England sundry yeers and infringed their ancient Priviledges by my Injunctions in divers particulars To this I answer in generall that I deny both the Charge and Article and that I have endeavoured to promote and preserve peace between the Protestant Churches abroad and encouraged Master Dury who was imployed to make a reconciliation between the Calvinists and Lutherans beyond the Seas as I could evidence by sundry of his Letters therefore I had a good affection to these Churches and no intent to make any discord between them To the objected particulars I answer First that in my Conference with Fisher I cite only St Jeroms words to prove a difference in order and degree between a Bishop and ordinary Presbyter and inferre from his words as his opinion not mine so even with him no Bishop no Church But it hath been objected that Bish Mountagues Book determines expresly that there can be no Church without Bishops nor Ministers but such who are ordained by Diocesian Bish distinct from an ordinary Minister and that no Minister no not in case of necessity can be ordained by any other therefore the forraign Protestant Churches which have no such Bishops and their Ministers being not ordained by Bishops but other Presbyters can be no Churches nor Ministers I answer that this Book and opinion of his concernes not me being none of mine but the Authors Yea but I maintained and approved the same opinion in effect in Bishop Hals Propositions touching Episcopacy to which I endeavoured to procure a generall subscription pressing it upon others and therein I determine That there was no Church of Christ upon earth ever since the Apostles times governed otherwise then by Bishops and that this government is unalterable and ought to be perpetuated in the Church to the end of the world Which doth wholly unchurch all the reformed Churches and resolve them to be no Churches of Christ I answer that these Propositions were sent me by Bishop Hall of his owne accord that what I did in them was by his consent neither were any pressed to subscribe them nor they propounded concludingly And though Episcopacy be not alterable yet it may be regulated That it is unalterable Bishop Bilson hath proved it long since it continuing so in all Churches at least fifteen hundred yeers after Christ and is allowed approved by the Book of Ordination yea Master Calvin himselfe on that of John As my Father sent me so send I you acknowledgeth the perpetuity of Bishops in the Church Secondly I deny that I esteem the Reformed Churches Religion ours not to be the same true it is we they differ in some particular points of Doctrin as wel as in Disciplin but this makes us not wholly to differ in Religion nor did I deny their Religion to be true As for Master Ruly I used him very civilly with all respect and promoted the Collection for the Palatinate all I could having received a Letter from the Queen of Bohemia for that purpose True it is I caused the objected clause in the first Patent of the Collection to be altered but it was by the Kings direction who gave order for it upon my acquainting him therwith and I conceive there was ground enough to doe it First because some of the Palatinate Divines as Paraus upon the
to and hardened in it by his meanes Their Objection being He was a meanes of seducing many to and obdurating thousands in popery by his introducing popish Doctrines Innovations Ceremonies c. Ergo he went about to bring in popery and reduce us back to Rome That he reduced any from popery is but his owne bare allegation in his first Speech and generall Defence without any proofe at all but his owne bare word which the Commons denied himselfe confessing that some of the eminentest of them presently relapsed after their conversion and lived and dyed Papists See then the falshood and fallacy of this mis-repeating Sophister in the very first entrance and principall argument of his generall Defence Secondly to his second and third arguments we retort That the Commons never gave in evidence against his making or imposing the c. Oath or third new Canon to prove him guilty of introducing popery or endeavoring to reconcile us to Rome but to two other different purposes which he wholly pretermits therefore his two arguments from them as the Commons own are meer forgeries impostures of his owne As for the c. Oath it hath no such clause in it as is pretended indeed it hath this clause That I will not endeavour by my selfe or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is established which is but a meere pretence and policy all or most popish Doctrins and Ceremonies being introduced licensed established among us when this Oath was made as the premises evidence and no Doctrine being then esteemed Popish but what the Archbishop pleased though truly such As for the third Canon it enjoynes onely private conference with popish Recusants and presentments excommunications of such of them who are obstinate and if they conforme not then that their names shall be presented to the Judges of the Assiâ—e which is no more then other Canons formerly enjoyned to no purpose or 〈◊〉 at all and was but a meer State-policy to stay the present elamours of the people and Scots against the Prelats for their connivance at popery and confederacy with Papists against those they stiled Puritans and a thing not really intended but pretended onely Thirdly his fourth fift and fixt arguments are of the same nature meer Chimeraes of his owne forging which he would father on the Commons who pressed these particulars against him in a far other manner to which he gives no answer His refusing of a Cardinals Cap was onely because he desired to be an absolute independent Patriarch and Pope within the Kings Dominions His Book against Fisher was published in his owne name upon entreaty of others onely to blind the world and stop the clamours against him in making them beleeve thereby he was no friend to Papists or popery when as we have proved the contrary out of that and other of his books To that of Habernfield we shall answer in due season some deeming it onely a forgery or plot of his owne devising to justifie himselfe others a reall truth Fourthly his seventh argument is a most wilfull perversion of the Commons charge who expresly impeach him for endeavouring to cause division and discord between our owne and other reformed Churches that so Papists might have the more advantage which we have abundantly proved And he makes the charge to be that he endeavoured a reconciliatiou between the Lutherans and Calvinists of which good act he was never guilty in the least degree for ought he makes appeare but of the quite contrary Ergo to reconcile the Church of ENGLAND to the Church of ROME By which strange prevarication and Jesuiticall sophistry the world may cleerly discerne the sophistry fallacy and apparent Legerdemaine of this his generall Defence and impertinency of his Answers encountring onely his owne ridiculous fictions not the Commons reall Objections Having recited these his generall Answers we shall pursue him to his particular evasions to the evidence and proofes produced to make good the second Branch of his first generall Charge wherein he thus proceeded The first thing objected against me is That I have ever been generally reputed a Papist or person popishly affected both in the University of Oxford whiles resident there and ever since as likewise in Rome and in other forraigne parts for proofe whereof the testimonies of Doctor Featly Sir Nathaniel Brent Doctor Abbots Sermon Doctor Hals Letter Francis Harris his Deposition with the testimonies of Sir Henry Mildmay Master Anthony Mildmay and Master Thomas Challoner have been produced To this I answer First that all these are but hear-sayes or reports and no convincing Evidence that I was really a Papist or inclined unto popery Doctor Featlies testimony is but a report from one who said he was my Pupill and that at Paris many yeers since in forraigne parts Sir Nathaniel Brents testimony is but a report from Master Dale of a thing long since that my supposition was taken out of Bellarmine which I deny His further testimony is onely this That Browne with whom I kept company was but a reputed not an actuall Papist during his life and what he subjoynes that he was found to be such a one after his death is very consecturall for it appeares not that the Book objected was of his owne penning though it were his hand-writing for it might be a transcript That I petitioned to King James that I was traduced to be a Papist is true and I had good reason so to doe when I was thus traduced and upon my Petition the businesse was referred to the examination of divers worthy persons and I cleered upon full hearing by the King For Doctor Abbots Sermon I complained of it as I had cause as being traduced by it he was knowne to be my enemy and to doe me wrong herein therefore his words are not to be valued in this case nor Doctor Hals Letter to W. L. which might be to some other as well as to me who am not nominated therein For Francis Harris his testimony I never knew nor saw the man to my knowledge and it is but a hearsay from one Ireland many yeers since and that beyondthe Sea for Ireland himselfe I onely knew but had nofamiliar acquaintance with him Secondly for Sir Henry Mildmayes testimony it is onely a bare rumour and report from some persons at Rome unknowne both to me and him purposely raised by the Papists to blast or wound my reputation and what he now attested is quite contrary to that himselfe informed me at my Table at Lambeth immediatly after his returne from Rome as I am ready to depose upon my corporall Oath if I may be permitted His Brother Master Anthony Mildmay his testimony is but an incertaine report from I know not whom at Rome that I was somewhat more favourable to their Religion then my Predecessors and what he heard from Father Fitton is but his report and a false one too of purpose to slander
now adayes THAT WE ARE COMMING ON AND EVERY DAY DRAWING NIGHER UNTO THEM THEN OTHER for the stopping of whose slanderous mouths let this suffice That whatsoever others imagine of the matter I stand fully convinced in my conscience THAT THE POPE IS ANTICHRIST and therefore if I should be so mad as to worship the Beast or receive the marke of his name I must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and justly expect the revenge that is threatned against such Apoc. 14. 10 11. Wherefore for this Arch-Prelat to question it to purge out all passages stiling him Antichrist after such a Letter to suffer such Books to be printed and retaine them in his Study which deny him to be Antichrist without any censure of them or their Authors is a grand offence savourng of his good affection to the Pope Sixtly though himself gives not this title of Supream head to the Pope in direct terms yet he doth it in effect in his owne Book and his Chaplaine licensed it in Sales for which himself must answer As for the papall titles given him by Master Croxton the whole University of Oxford in severall Letters it was certainly with his approbation else he would have reprehended them for it which he never did These titles are such as of later times have been appropriated only to the Pope and were never given to any of his Predecessors in any Age much lesse to any Protestant Bishop And though one of them as Sanctissime Pater may perchance be found in Cyprians and Augustines genuine Epistles yet Sanctitas in the abstract can hardly be shewed in any of their true Epistles nor was ever appropriated to any for many hundred of Ages but to the Pope As for the other exorbitant and blasphemous titles no Father nor ancient Author was ever guilty of giving or affirming them Seventhly for Pocklingtons and Mountagues deriving his pedegree and succession from Rome it is in such phrase and language as was never used by Mason or any else in former times with a meere intention to reconconcile reduce our Church and Prelats to Rome from whence they derive their pedegree the end of all these new positions and objected particulars against the Archbishop the guilt whereof still rest upon him notwithstanding all his Evasions to shake it off The fourth thing charged against me to make good this Branch is my holding intelligence correspondence with the Popes Nuncioes Agents Priests Jesuits by my Favourites and Instruments as by Bishop Mountague and Secretary Windebanke advanced by my meanes the later of them as appeares by many produced Letters and Testimonies holding intelligence with Cardinall Barbarino who entertained his Sonnes at Rome the Popes Nuncioes and with divers dangerous Priests Jesuits whom he protected released out of prison and imprisoned the Messengers who usually apprehended them till they gave bond never to apprehend nor prosecute Priests any more To this I answer First that there is no cleer proofe of Bishop Mountagues advancement by me or intelligence or compliance with the Popes Nuncio Priests or Jesuits but if there were it is nothing to me being without my privity knowledge or approbation Secondly for Secretary Windebanke it is very true I was the meanes of advancing him to the Secretaries place being my ancient friend and acquaintance but not with any intent to advance Popery protect or release Priests Jesuits or hold any correspondency with the Pope or his instruments if he proved so ill an instrument after his advancement it was beyond my expectation himselfe must answer and hath been impeached for it not I For the Letters he received from the Popes Nuncio Panzani the Queens Priests or his Sonnes with their going to and entertainment at Rome they concerne not me who was not privy to them nor their entertainment But it is objected that we continued our friendship still notwithstanding I knew his correspondency with releasing and protecting Priests Jesuits and joyned with him in some Warrants I answer that it is well knowne that he and I were at variance and distance of later times he deserting me in the businesse of the late Lord Treasurer Weston and for my hand to one Warrant jointly with his and others for a Priests release it was but casuall we being then both together at the Counsell Table where his Release was condescended to upon sufficient baile and caution at the Queens request To this was replyed First that Mountagues correspondency with the Popes Nuncio Priests Jesuits his popish inclination and endeavours to reconcile and reduce us back to Rome are abundantly proved in the premises with his good affection to and compliance with him in this designe the end and cause of his advancing him to two severall Bishopricks the last wherof was Norwich In his account from whence to the Archbish himself for the yeer 1638. written with his owne hand endorsed with the Archbishops and found in his Study there is this notable clause concerning King Henry the eighth the first suppressor of the Popes power among us The Bishoprick of Norwich since the totall desolation and dissolution of the former Bishoprick by King Henry the eighth WHO STOLE THE SHEEP AND GAVE NOT SO MUCH AS THE TROTTERS FOR GODS SAKE is a meane thing though worth above one thousand pounds per annum A most ingrate and scandalous expression of an avaritious popish Prelat unworthy of so fat a Bishoprick who instead of being Shepheard became a Wolfe devouring not onely the Sheep but Shepheards of his Diocesse and vexing them more with his popish Visitation Articles then ever KING HENRY the 8. did the Prelates by diminishing their over-large Possessions Secondly for Secretary Windebank it is undeniable First that the Archbishop was the onely meanes of his advancement to that place of trust Secondly that he was his meer creature instrument bosome-friend and privy to all his actions Thirdly this intimacy and friendship of theirs continued till Windebanks flight hence in to France upon the Parliaments impeachment against him for harbouring and releasing Priests and Jesuits and that the transitory short differerence between them about the Lord Treasurer Weston had no relation at all to any thing concerning Priests or Religion wherein they both accorded Fourthly that the same Priests and Jesuits as Sir Toby Mattehw Smith Leander Sancta Clara and Price were intimate and familiar with them both Fiftly that they both concurred in checking discouraging imprisoning Gray Thatcher Waddesworth and others for apprehending Priests Jesuits and in calling Gray a Priest-catching knave Sixtly that they both joyned together in some Warrants for the release of Priests and his excuse that it was by casualty when they were both at the Counsell Table where others joyned with them is no extenuation of his offence where he being the over-potent member should have engaged all the rest to oppose such an illegall scandalous action and not have drawne them on thereto by setting his hand first to the Warrant But it was to
beseech you take into your Religious consideration and vouchsafe me such a favourable resolution as the meritts of the cause requireth It is so that Doctor Robert Weston sometimes one of the Lords Justices for the Government of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of the same Realme Grandfather to my deceased Wife and great Vncle to the now Lord Treasurer of England whose memory yet lives by being stiled the good Lord Chancellor of Ireland was buried in the upper end of the Chancell in Saint Patrickes Church whose Daughter Sir Iefferey Fenton maried he having beene principall Secretary of State to Queene Elizabeth and King Iames for many yeares and lived and died in great honour whose onely Daughter I tooke to Wife and hee was buryed in the same grave My Wife drawing towards her end made her last request unto me that her Grandfather her Father and her selfe might be buried together and that I would be at the charge to erect some Monument in memoriall of them all Whereupon in accomplishment of her dying desire who was the Mother of my fifteene Children I propounded unto the Lord Archbishop of Dublin and to the Deane and Chapter of Saint Patricks to purchase a place where I might erect a Tombe over them And they assigned me the ground under an Arch to make a Seller or Vault in to receive dead bodies and three foote of the Chancell adjoyning to the Grave where the Lord Chancellor and Sir Iefferey Fenton had beene buried for which I payd them a Fyne with Rent and other reservations towards the reparation of the Church and by their unanimous consent have a Deed in due forme of Law perfected under their Chapter Seale and so being by generall consent legally interested therein I made a Vault of hewed stone under ground with conveighances therein to free the Church from the waters with which floods and great raynes it was before often anoyed withall and where there was then but an earthen flower at the upper end of the Chancell which was often overflowne I raysed the same three steps higher making the Staires of hewen stone and paving the same through out of the same whereon the Communion Table now stands very dry and gracefully In that Seller I have placed the Corps of my Wives Grandfather her Father and her selfe with a Daughter of mine since deceased that was married to the Lord Digbie and over the Vault I have caused a Tombe of foure storyes to be erected which reacheth two and thirtie foot from the ground which hath cost me a thousand pounds at the least and is the greatest ornament and beautie to that Church that ever was placed therein that being seated under an Arch that in former time was only a passage into the Saint Mary Chappell at the East end of which Chappell the high Altar stood and when that Chappell which hath two other wayes into it the one on the right hand the other on the left fell into ruine that Arch wherein the Tombe is placed to keepe the winde and weather out of the Chancell was made up with slight timber and lathes and plaistred with Clay white lymed over whereon the Commandements were lately written It is three yeares since this my worke was finished and neither during the time of the worke nor since till now of late did I ever heare of any mouth opened against it but many in commendations of it as a great beautie and ornament to that Chancell neither doth it take away or hide any of the lights of the Chancell for they are all above this Fabricke Neither is there any remembrance nor can the oldest man living say that there ever was any Altar placed neere this passage Yet of late it hath pleased my honourable Lord the Lord Deputy to command me to give Your Grace satisfaction herein or else to declare that the Tombe must be defaced which to have done would bee the greatest dishonour and affliction that could bee layed upon me And the more for that before I heard any thing of Your Graces distant thereof I had in the presence of the Lord Prymate given order to the Deane at my ovvne charges for a stately Skrene to be erected within the Quire and upon the pavement raised by my selfe upon which the tenne Commandements are to bee engraven to the great beautifying of Gods House Vpon that notice from the Lord Deputy I made suite to the Lord Prymate and the Lord Archbishop of Dublin to view the place which they vouchsafed together with the Deane and Chapter to doe And doe humbly offer to your Grace their opinions herein which I beseech Your pious consideration of and that you will be pleased to returne me such an answer as may encourage me to proceed herein and in other like building and charitable workes wherein I spend a great part of my estate and time as all that know me and my actions â—an testifie The great God of Heaven blesse Your Grace with a long and happie life in this world and everlasting glory in the world to come vvhich is and ever shall be the prayer of Your Graces most humble and faithfull Servant R. Caâ—he Dublin 20. Febr. 1633. May is please Your Grace VNderstanding from the Earle of Corke that Your Grace hath intimated unto the Right Honourable the Lord Deputie your offence taken against a Tombe lately built by his Lordship in the quire of Saint Patrikes Church neere this Citie of Dublin being informed that it should be situate in the place where the High-Altar anciently stood and that it should darken the East Window of the Quire upon his Lordships earnest request unto mee I have made bold to declare unto your Grace my knowledge thereabouts which is that the place where the Tombe is erected is a spatious Arch which in former times as I conceive served for a passage into the Marie Chappell adjoyning at the East end vvhereof the High Altar stood This Arch was closed up and plastered to keepe the winde as I imagine out of the Quire Saint Marie Chapell being somevvhat decaied upon the plaistering the Declalogue was fairely painted these vvere done before my promotion to this See or comming into this Kingdome The windovves which were of old somevvhat high over the Arch are no way darkened by his Lordships monument but remaine as they were formerly and the monument is so wrought and contrived what in the Arch and the Wall that vvith the grate before it it doth not much diminish the length of the Quire The Earle hath raised that end of the Quire three-steppes higher then it vvas and hath paved it with faire hevven stones being formerly a floore of earth many times upon a fresh drovvned vvith water where novv the Communion Table iâ— placed vvith more decency then in former times And his Lordship is in hand to set up a faire skrine of timber somewhat distant from the monument so that it may take in some other monuments heretofore erected on either side in the which
in the Afternoone though he hath beene admonished of it and inhibited by Mr Chancellor of London to which the Archbishop underwrites this direction to Sir Nathaniel Brent his Visitor Sir I require you that besides your other Instructions you give me an Account of all particulars within named W. Cant. Of which particular concerning Mr Randall Sir Nathaniel after his Visitation gave this account to the Archbishop MAster Randall Curate of Tuddington noted in the paper confesseth that since he was inhibited by Mr Chancellor of London to preach in the Afternoones on Sundayes he hath once offended and no more It was to make a farewell Sermon to that exercise as he saith wherein he rather aggravateth his fault then otherwise Hee saith that this Sermon was much beyond the compasse of an hour and I beleeve it continued more then two houres He now seeth and acknowledgeth his fault protesteth he will be most conformable for the future and humbly desireth to be dismissed with a Canonicall Admonition But I keep him in fear still To this we might add his procurement of Dr Ienningson Lecturer at Newcastle to be questioned in the High Commission at York in the year 1639. whose Articles and Answers were both sent up to Lambeth to his Grace-ship and enforcing to quit that place with the Kingdome too to avoyd his fury His prosecution of Mr Iohn Iemmet Lecturer at Barwicke in causing the Bishop of Durham in December 1639. to send for him by a Pursevant silence him from preaching in Barwick and banish him the Town without any Articles or Witnesses examined against him with other instances of this nature but for brevity sake we shall omit these and proceed to his next stratagem to suppresse preaching which was His publishing of a Declaration for Sports in his Majesties name and silencing suspending excommunicating questioning censuring in the High Commission and elsewhere many hundreds of godly conscientious Preaching Ministers whom the Instructions for Lecturers could not reach so farr as to silence being Incumbents and not meer Lecturers for refusing personally to publish it in their Churches to animate their people to profane the Lords day with unhallowed Pastimes which because we have formerly insisted on and proved to be his designe we shall here but mention and passe by only with this one Addition that Mr Thomas Valentine Minister of Chalford Saint Giles in the County of Buckingham being suspended by Sir Iohn Lambe Deane of the Arches for not reading the Book of Sports from which suspention he appealed and procured time to consider whether he would read it or not Mr Valentine not long after to obtain further time and favour writ a Letter to Sir Iohn Lambe dated April 28. 1636. with 5 l. inclosed and a Petition to the Archbishop on which Letter Sir Iohn makes this endorsment with his own hand Master Valentine 28. April 1636. with 5 l. PEECES inclosed which Petition Sir Iohn recommending to Mr Dell procured him a gratious answer and some longer respite for the present but in December and Ianuary following he was again molested and suspended for not publishing this Declaration in proper person though his Curate had formerly read it in the Church as appears by two Petitions to the Archbishop for his absolution His third design to suppresse preaching was by discouraging conscientious young Schollers and Divines from entering into the Ministry by putting divers clogs difficulties upon them under a most specious pretext which was thus effected No sooner was this Prelate setled in his Archbishoprick but he contrived a Letter drawn by Mr Dell his Secretary but interlined corrected with his own hand as appears by the Originall draught found in his study directed as from his Majestie to himself which he afterwards presented to the King who directed and sent it to him under his Privy Signet to be put in Execution in manner following as the very Letter it selfe under the Kings Signet declares thus endorsed with the Archbishops own hand Rec. Sept. 19. 1633. From his Majesty that no Ministers be made sine Titulo To the most Reverend Father in God our Right trusty and Right entirely beloved Councellor William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitane of all England CHARLES R. MOst Reverend Father in God Right trusty and right entirely beloved Councellour we greet you well There is nothing more deer to US then the preservation of true Religion as it is now settled and established in this our Kingdome to the honour of God and the great comfort of our selfe and our Loyall people and there can nothing more conduce to the advancement thereof then the strict observation of such Canons of the Church as concern those that are to take orders in their severall times More especially of keeping that particular Canon which injoyns That no man be made a Priest or a Minister without a Title For we finde that many not so qualified do by favour or other means procure themselves to be ordeined and afterwards for want of means wander up and downe to the scandall of their calling or to get maintenance fall upon such courses as are most unfit for them both by humouring their Auditours and other wayes altogether unsufferable Wee have therefore thought fit and Wee doe hereby streightly require and charge you to call such Bishops to you as are now present in or neer our City of London and to acqulint them with this our resolution And further that you faile not in the beginning of the next Terme to give notice of this our will and pleasure openly in our High Commission Court and that you call into our said Court every Bishop respectively that shall presume to give Orders to any man that hath not a Title and there to censure him as the Canon aforesaid doth injoyn which is to maintain the party so ordered till he give him a Title and with what other censure you in Justice shall think sit And our further will is That nothing shall be reputed a Title to enable a man for orders but that which is so by the ancient course of the Church and the Canon Law so far forth as that Law is received in this our Church of England And as you must not fail in these our directions nor in any part of them so we expect that you gives us from time to time a strict accompt of your proceedings in the same Given under our Signet at our Pallace of Westminster the nineteenth day of September in the ninth year of our Raigne Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Upon receit hereof this Archbishop whose project it was directs this Letter following to the Bishops of his Province as is evident by the originall draught thereof corrected with his own hand and thus endorsed by him Octob. 18. 1633. The Copy of my Letters upon this of his Majesties to the severall Bishops of this Province S. in Christo My very good Lord HIS Majestie hath been often and much troubled upon
complaints which have been made unto him by the Lords and other men of quality concerning the multitude or both unlearned and unworthy Ministers which pester the Church and are alwayes the Causes of great scandall and too often of Schism and Divisions therein And some of them are forced to the shame of themselves and their Calling for want of means to begg for their Living and yet are daily made in great numbers and that directly against the Canon of the Church which require's That no man should be made a Minister sine Titulo For remedy of this great abuse and wrong to the Church his Majestie hath directed his Letters to me and by them required me to call all such Bishops to me as were then in or about the City and after consultation with them to send my Letters to every severall Bishop within the Province to require obedience to the Canon of the Church and his Majesties directions according to it The Tenor of his Majesties Letter followeth as before ACcording to these Letters I am to pray and require you that at all times of Ordination you be very carefull to admit none into Holy Orders but such men as for life and learning are fit and which have a Title for their Maintenance according to the Lawes and ancient practise of the Church And his Majesty hath farther commanded me to advertise your Lordship that He will not faile to call for an Accompt of these his Letters both of me and you Thus not doubting but you will have a speciall care both of the good of the Church and his Majesties contentment herein I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend and Brother W. Cant. In this Letter we find this Paper inclosed writ with Mr Dells but endorsed with the Archbishops hand declaring what shall be a Title So upon the matter these Titles are named in the Canon He that is ordained must have 1. A Presentation to some Ecclesiasticall Preferment 2. Or A Certificate undoubted that he is provided of some Church voyde there 3. Or A Grant of some Petty Canons place or the like in a Cathedrall or Collegiate Church 4. Or A Fellow or in the right of a Fellow in some Colledge in Oxford or Cambridge 5. Or A Conduct or Chaplain in some Colledge in Oxford or Cambridge 6. Or A Master of Artes of 5. years standing living at his own charge in either of the Universities 7. Or The intention of the Bishop that ordaines shortly to admit him to some Benefice or Curates place then voyde And I think the Canon intends that after a Man is once admitted a Curate the Parson or Vicar of the place should not have power to put them off at pleasure but only for such criminall unworthinesse as might deprive him of his Benefice if hee had one So I conceive under favour the Order may go briefly thus And farther his Majesties expresse Command is that this Canon be strictly observed by all Bishops in their severall Diocesses respectively and that none presume to ordeine any man to be a Deacon Priest or Minister under the penalty injoyned in the Canon or any other which his Majesties just displeasure may inflict upon him These Letters primâ facié seem very faire necessary but latet Anguis in herba there was a dangerous designe couched under them For first no Lecture whatsoever was admitted to be a Canonicall Title and so all ordination of Ministers to supply Lectures was totally secluded which was one chiefe end of this designe Secondly no Chaplainship to any Noblemans or Gentlemans family was allowed to be a sufficient Title and this gave a fatall blow to all such young Chaplains ordinations unlesse they had some better Title and Livelihood for the future which was likewise formerly aimed at in the precedent Considerations and Instructions And by this device many yong Divines were in a manner quite excluded out of such Religious Gentlemens Families which might season them with the practicall power of godlinesse or any principles which the Prelates held to be Puritanisme or Precisenesse Thirdly by this device all young Students in Divinity were made more dependent on more obsequious to the Bishops less dependent on the Nobility Gentry people as the Letters insinuate Fourthly under pretent of these Letters a kinde of new subscription was imposed on all such who were to be ordained especially if suspected to be orthodox or precise to sundry Arminian Popish Errours and Superstitions upon which they were interrogated to sound their inclinations and denyed Orders in case of disaâ—â—ent As namely Whether Bowing at the name of Jesus and to or towards the Altar at their approaches to it or ingresse to or egresse out of the Church were lawfull commendable Whether all baptized Infants were not truly regenerated Whether Episcopacy and the Hierarchy of Bishops were not of divine Right Whether the Church of Rome were not a true Church Whether Altars Copes Organs Tapers Crucifixes and Images were not lawfull Whether truly regenerate men might not totally and finally fall from Grace and the like By which Interrogations and many new Ceremonies introduced at ordinations sundry godly Schollers and Students of Divinity were deterred from taking Orders and a Superstitious Popish prophane Episcopall generation of New ordained Priests zealous to promote embrace the very groslest Doctrines and Superstitions of Rome engeadred and scattered among us in most places all powerfull soul-saving preaching banished or quite layd aside and the people every where poysoned with Popish and Arminian drugs By these and such like practises as likewise by preaching and printing against frequent Preaching formerly touched there ensued a great famine of the pure powerfull preaching of Gods Word of godly Preachers in our Kingdome and a monstrous increase of Popish Priests Jesuites Fryars Papists Popery Superstition Prophanesse Ignorance Impiety which have involved us in those miseries and distractions under which we now languish and are almost ruined His Fourth Device to suppresse preaching was the subversion of the Feoffees for buying in Impropriations particularly charged against him in the 6. Additionall Article in these words That whereas divers gifts and dispositions of divers summes of mony were heretofore made by divers charitable and well-disposed persons for the buying in of divers Impropriations for the maintenance of preaching the word of God in severall Churches the said Archbishop about eight years last past wilfully and maliciously caused the said gifts feofments and contrivances made to the uses aforesaid to be overthrown in his Majesties Court of Exchequer contrary to law as things dangerous to the Church and State under the specious pretence of buying in Impropriations whereby that pious worke was suppressed and trodden down to the great dishonour of God and scandall of Religion This Article informes us briefly what these Feoffees were we shall only add who they were what they did and how they were proceeded against by this Archbishop About