of my body which is every day threatned by Pursuivants to bee haled to Prison if Your Majesties Iustice and good Lawes doe not all the better safeguard mee But prison or not prison I heartily thanke my Lord Iesus Christ who hath accounted mee faithfull and called me forth to stand for his cause and to witnesse it before all the World by publishing my said Sermons in Print that thereby also I might cleere both the cause and my credit which they haue publikely before hearing branded with sedition All which I humbly commit to Your Majesties Royall Patronage as Who next under God are most interessed in the Cause Now the Lord Iesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords so unite and combine your heart unto Himselfe that You being guided by His Spirit of Wisedome and Vnderstanding of Councell and strength and of the feare of the Lord You may doe Valiantly and prosper in stopping the course of all Innovators and Backe-sliders into Popery that so with and under Christs Kingdome Yours may be established in Righteousnesse to You and your Royall Posteritie untill time shall be no more Which is the daily Prayer of Your Majesties dutifull Servant and Subject HENRY BVRTON FOR GOD AND THE KING PROVERBES 24. 21. 22. My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both THis time is a time of sorrow and humiliation but this day a day of joy and festivity to bee celebrated in this our anniversary thankfull remembrance of a great and memorable deliverance as on this day 31. yeeres agoe So as this day falling in so sad a season is like a starie peeping and shining forth through the cloudes of a dolesome duskie night and by and by ready to be overclouded againe Such is our joy such is our sorrow this long that short this a summer and a winter plague that a widowes joy a blaze and away Yet sith God is pleased in the midst of judgement to remember Mercy there is no reason that this calamitous time should so farre dampe us as to deprive both us of our comfort and God of his glory this day Therefore wee may say with David Why art thou cast downe o my soule I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Or as Psal. 101. I will sing of Mercy and Iudgement And surely that joy is soundest which is seasoned with some sorrow As saith the Psalmist Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling It 's good to be merry and wise as saith the Proverbe Sadnesse is as salt that seasoneth our mirth and preserues it from corruption Well blessed be God who in the midst of many sad dayes hath sent us this joyfull day to sing praise unto him for that mercy which hath made it a day of joy unto all good Christians and all good Subjects in this land Sutable therefore to the occasion of this day and season I have made choice of this Text It comprehends one of those wise Sentences Counsells or Proverbs which King Solomon a Preacher also inspired with the spirit of Wisedome from God hath left recorded for instruction of the Church of God in all ages If wee seeke to find the coherence or dependance of these words wee may quickly loose our selues and our labour For this Booke of the Proverbs is fitly compared to a bagg full of sweete and fragrant spices which shuff led and shaken together or taken single doe yeeld forth a most pleasant and comfortable odour Or to the Starres in the firmament each in itselfe glorious and independent of another yet all receive their light from the Sunne Like as Eccles. 12. 11. The words of the wise are as goads and as nayles fastened by the Masters of assemblies which are given from one Shepheard This one Shepheard is Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse who inlightens all the Prophets Or heere are studds of silver in borders of gold Cant. 1. 11. Or apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25. 11. And these things belong to the wise v. 23. The words recited containe three things in generall 1. an Exhortation 2. an Admonition 3. a reason of the admonition The Exhortation in these words My son feare thou the Lord and the King The admonition in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change the reason of the admonition in these words For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both In the Exhortation these particulars are considerable 1. The Person Exhorting and that is King Solomon instructing the people as from Gods owne mouth 2. The persons exhorted to wit all Gods people represented heere in the singular number under the name of one sonne and this by a neere bond of relation by a strong cord of affection distinguishing him from others and appropriating him as Gods owne peculiar My Sonne The duty exhorted unto is feare the object of this feare is twofold 1. The Lord. 2. The King In all which we are to observe three things 1. The order of this feare first the Lord and secondly the King 2. the connexion of these two as things inseparable in this duty of Feare Feare the LORD and the KING 3. The speciall property of this duty as peculiar to the child of God above all other Mysonne feare THOV the Lord and the King as if Solomon should have said My sonne how ever the sons of Belial the men of the world cast off all feare both of God and man yet feare THOV the Lord and the King This is the resolution of the Exhortation 2. In the Admonition wee are to note three things 1. The admonition it selfe meddle not 2. Who they be of whom Gods children are admonished namely such as are said here to be giuen to change 3. The antithesis or opposition betweene these changlings and them that truely feare God and the King 3. In the reason of the admonition annexed which is taken from the dangerous condition that these who are given to change are obnoxious unto wee observe 1. The matter of their danger in these words Calamity and ruine then the manner of their calamity and ruine set downe 1. In it's suddennesse and 2. in its certainty It shall rise suddenly and lastly the unexpected meanes of their ruine contrary to all outward appearance And who knoweth the ruine of them both That is though there be no outward appearance of ruine to these men but that all things prosper with them and seeme to be on their side yet their ruine shall be from both these as wee shall further open by and by Now having distributed the words into their severall parts and that without curiosity taking them as they lie naturally in the text come wee briefely to give you the sence of the words First My sonne a compellation frequent and familiar
may not they dare not obey your wicked Commaunds which are repugnant to the Lawes both of God and man Certainly hell inlargeth herselfe for you and your damnation sleepeth not if you speedily repent not Shall honest Christians and good Subjects be as rebells factious and I wott not what because they will not obey your factious rebellion against God I say will not This seemes a sore word and you lye at catch If a Minister say he will not Why I pray you Is this so hainous a word What say you then to the 3. Children when the King himselfe in person threatened them with his fiery fornace O Nebuchadnezzar we are not carefull to answere thee in this matter If it be so Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fornace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King But if not be it knowne unto thee O King that WEE WILL NOT serve thy Gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up See WEE WILL NOT. The Scripture sets this downe thus in Commendation for them and for imitation to us in like cases Well the second use is for instruction concerning the duty of a Christian in this point and the rather in regard of the snares which Satan layeth to intrap soules this way in these dayes by the new Iesuiticall doctrine of blind obedience As therefore the Apostle Iohn saith Beloved believe not every spirit but try the Spirits Whither they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world So I may say here Many false Prophets are now abroad being possessed with the spirit of the Beast which so magnifie the power of man and his authority in commaunding that ipso facto all must yeeld obedience thereunto without further adoe Now this spirit is knowne by opposition to God and his word It setteth man above God above his word and therefore we must beware of it We must therefore So obey God in the first place by guiding our selves in all things according to his word as no commaund of man prevaile with us to crosse that It is for beasts without reason to yeeld a blind obedience to their Masters but men are of another stampe who have not only reason but religion to be the rule of their actions The last use is for Consolation to all those that follow this rule For howsoever obedience to God and the not obeying of mans unjust commaunds fares ill in the world oftentimes and never more then in these dayes of ours wherein though wicked Imposers are not able to give any other reason of their impious commaunds but Volumus and Iubemus Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas so as if present obedience be not yeelded they cry out Rebells they suspend excommunicate sequester undoe threatening moreover halter and hatchet as was noted before yet a faithfull honest godly Minister or Christian being constant to his God and to his Word as Daniel and the three Children were shall find it more happy and comfortable to keep his Christ and a good conscience though with the losse of all these outward things then to hold them with the losse of his conscience and confidence in his Lord and Master Christ. Yea and herein have wee cause to comfort our selues and to blesse the name of our God who hath not left himselfe without witnesse but hath raysed up many zealous and couragious Champions of his truth I meane faithfull Ministers of his word who choose rather to loose all they have than to submit and prostitute themselves to the wicked unjust and base commands of usurping Antichristian Mushromes Surely this is an infallible signe to perswade me that God will not desert his cause seeing hee thus stands by his Servants making them more then Conquerers through him that loveth them Yea their very not yeelding in this battell is a present victory For as the Holy Ghost saith They overcame by the blood of the Lambe and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their liues unto the death Therefore rejoyce yee heavens and yee that dwell in them Woe to the inhabitants of the earth And surely this shall be the certaine issue of that maine battell that is now a fighting betweene the Beast and Christ betweene the Dragon the Lambe For though the Kings of the earth have one minde and give their power and strength unto the Beast So as all these make warre with the Lambe yet the Lambe shall overcome them for hee is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are Called and Chosen and faithfull Yea even those ten hornes euen all those Kings that take part with the Beast these shall hate the whoore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burne her with fire So as Antichrist with all his traine and confederates for all their malice power pollicies and machinations that Babilonian Tower with all their strong walls mounting up to heaven must all downe to the ground and then it shall not repent those that have been faithfull unto death who shall receive a Crowne of life Come wee now to the last point in the exhortation which is the connexion of these two the feare of the Lord and of the King Whence we learne That the feare of the Lord and of the King their order duely observed ought not to bee separated No more then the two Tables of the Decalogue For God must so be honoured as we doe also in the second place honour our Superiours And our Superiours must so be honoured as in the first place wee honour God as was said before Separated they must not bee For they are like the two pillars in the Porch of Salomons Temple the one Strength the other Stability which beare up the most beautifull Fabricke of the Church and State well compacted together and established in the true feare of God and of the King Here then are condemned sundry dividers in this kind As first the Anabaptist who deny lawfull Magistracy They pretend to feare God but they refuse to honour the King with their obedience And therefore they doe not truly feare God Secondly heere are condemned the Papists who divide and separate the feare of the Lord from the feare of the King And that two wayes 1. In that they allow by their good will no honour feare or obedience to Kings from their Subjects unlesse they will kisse the Popes toe that is acknowledge the Popes Supremacy as well in Temporalties as in Spiritualties For the Pope challengeth a power over all Kings and Princes comparing himselfe to the Sunne and the Imperor and so Kings Princes to the Moone which is 47 times lesse then the Sunne and must borrow their light and lustre from the Pope as from the Sunne As Cupers one of their Canonists saith The Pope conferring the Empire upon Caesar doth
property peculiar to him So Psal. 25. 12. What man is HEE that feareth the Lord Find me such a man give wee such a man Why what of him Hee is in speciall favour with God Him shall he teach in the way which hee shall choose Yea God will acquaint him with his Secrets as accounting him his most intimate friend For v. 14. The Secret of the Lord is with them that feare him And these are so rare like to rich and rare jewells that Solomon himselfe could find but one man of a thousand But especially doth the eminency of that man that truely feares God appeare when other feares stand in opposition against it as feare of cruell men losse of liberty livelyhood and the like As Moses his rod was not so famous for being though miraculously turned into a Serpent for even the Magitians of Egypt by their inchantments could in show turne their rods also into Serpents but herein it was admirable in the eyes of all the Beholders that thus being a Serpent it devoured all the Magitians Serpents And such is true feare in Gods Child when it stands in emulation or opposition with other feares though they seeme never so terrible as the Magitians Serpents yet it overcomes and devoures them all Such was Daniels feare devouring the terror of the hungry Lyons which could not devoure him such the feare of those 3. Children who feared neither the Kings bigge and furious threats nor his seven fold heated fiery fornace Such was Nehemiahs who being threatened mooved to fly answered should such a man as I fly So as indeed the true feare of God is true fortitude and magnanimity For this who will not admire Elias when hee retorted K. Ahabs words upon him I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house c And Elisha who being brought before the King of Israell said to him Were it not that I regard the presence of Iehoshaphat the King of Iuda I would not looke toward thee nor see thee Such a spirit of holy feare was in the Martyrs and Confessors Maris Bishop of Chalcedon being blind and cōming before the Emperour Iulian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith And when Iulian objected to him his blindnesse and asked him upbraidingly If his God the Galilean meaning Christ could not cure his blindnesse he replied But I thanke my God that I am blind that I may not behold such a wretched and Impious Apostata as thou art It were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardise of our times But yet this Parrhesia this liberty and freedome of speech in such cases is not without the feare of God but is a branch and fruit that springeth of it And this feare showeth it selfe in sundry manners according either to the present occasion or the naturall disposition of a child of God being seasoned and sanctified and guided by Gods Spirit Sometimes it showes it selfe in meeknesse and mildnesse sometimes in a greater measure of zeale and roughnesse and yet all from the selfesame spirit of godly feare Of this latter kind are those former examples Of the former that of a poore English Bishop whom when Theodor the Grecian Archbishop of Canterbury without any just cause deprived of his Bishopricke saying Although wee can charge you with nothing yet that wee will we will Sic volo sic jubeo the poore Bishop humbly replyed Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and I from you to Christ. And how many godly Ministers in these our dayes being most unjustly and illegally yea and in canonically also and that in a most barbarous and furious insolent manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and so deprived of all livelyhood and meanes to maintaine themselves their wives and children and withall rayled upon and reviled and most outragiously used as if they were dogs and not men have cause and occasion so to answer those that thus use them Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and we from you to Christ. But what care these miscreants for Christ who thus persecute him in his members and Ministers Yet this is a comfort to all such Ministers as stand for Christ that as they appeale and commit their cause to him whose cause it is so hee will certainly vindicate both his righteous cause his faithfull servants in due time When Stephen was stoned he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God as ready to revenge his cause which not long after he did upon all the obstinate and rebellious Iewes in Ierusalem Vse 1. Now for use of this point it first gives occasion to Christians in these dayes of lukewarmenesse and apostacy to make proofe of their graces and especially of the feare of the Lord in them whither it be such as devoures and swalloweth downe all worldly feares Secondly sith this feare is so excellent and rare wee should be the more earnest in getting it as he in the Gospell was to buy the goodly pearle He gave all he had for it And surely it was richly worth it For as Christ saith What shall it profit a man if he shall win the whole world and loose his owne soule Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule A man may by his discretion or Christian Prudence as they call it so carry the matter as to secure himselfe from feare of the world for he can give way and conforme himselfe quietly to all humaine impositions and can commaund his conscience to beare with them notwithstanding it doe secretly whisper in his eare that this ought not to be done as being an intollerable dishonor to Christ a disgrace to his Ministry a forfeiture of his Christian liberty a Scandall to Religion and a base betraying of the cause of Christ and of the salvation of his owne soule But yet he wants not reasons for it Thereby he shall preserve his Ministry and his credit too in not being accounted refractory hee shall thus purchase his peace and retaine his meanes for him and his without which he and they must begge and the like Alas poore soule what 's thy Ministry worth when thou hast abased it and inthralled it to be impious inventions and impositions of men or when thou injoyest it with the losse of its vigor power dignity authority or when thou retainest it together with thy outward liberty livelyhood peace credit with the misjudging world and loosest thy Christ thy peace of conscience thy credit with all good and wise men yea heaven and all what will all thy discretion and Christian prudence advantage thee O let us rather learne to bee fooles for Christs cause let us feare the Lord and not men not the world It 's Christs counsell to all his that are his friends saying I say unto you my friends Bee not affraid of them that kill the body and after that can doe no more but I will forewarne
you whom yee shall feare feare him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you him feare Where Christ exhorts us to this feare of God by a threefold motive 1. that hee calls us friends And surely such as truely feare God are the friends of Christ from whom no feare of men can divide them as we sayd before 2. hee forewarnes us that we may not bee unarmed with this feare of God least otherwise wee bee on a suddaine surprised and overthrown before wee be aware when the great red Dragon with all his terror presents himselfe before the woman ready to bring forth a masculine birth which with the mother he threatens to devoure And so much the more when the Dragon is 〈◊〉 powerfull as with his tayle to draw the third part of the Starres of heaven and to cast them to the earth that is when the greatest part of those who in their heavenly Orbes and Motions are as Starry lights shining in their doctrine and life are either by the Dragons threats or the traines and wiles of his dog-like flattering tayle cast from their heavenly station to the earth when the love or feare of earthly things swayes more with them to draw them downewards then of heavenly to fixe them on Christ. Thirdly Christ in the forenamed place redoubles his premonition Yea I say unto you feare HIM by which hee would intimate unto us of what force the feare of man is to draw us away from our station with God if wee bee not well rooted in the feare of God Thirdly here is an use of caution to those that are apt to be censorious of those to whom God hath given a greater and more extraordinary measure of Christian zeale and courage for Christ. For such a vertue as it is more eminent so it drawes upon it a great deale of envy especially from those which as they idolize their counterfeit discretion and Christian prudence as they tearme it and all because they love to sleep in a whole skin and are loth to hazard a haire of their head for Christ so on the other side they clevate and slight the noble zeale and courage of those whom they see so farre to out strip them in this heroick grace and invincible love to Christ yea they are ready to tearme it rashnesse and indiscretion especially if the successe proove an imprisonment or other vexation from those who with their might bearedowne the right and then they applawde and hugge their owne prudence and discretion when in the meane time they injoy their peace and cease at home For as an evill attempt if it hit well is called a vertue so the best actions being attended with an issue not answerable are deemed by unjust judges vicious and erronious Fourthly and lastly is the true feare of God such a rare and excellent vertue and so invincible overcōming all other feares Then this makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacy and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and Idolatry and Superstition obtruded insteed thereof when notwithstanding wee see many Ministers of Iesus Christ though but few comparatively in respect of the whole multitude to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and of a good conscience they will part with their Ministry liberty livelyhood and life too if need were This is that which keepes Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captaines to keepe their ground and not to fly the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemy Here is hope that the cause will prevaile at length But if all should yeeld or fly then the field were lost without recovery Yet how many doe like Demosthenes who seeing his party beginne to bee put to the worst takes his heeles and being asked why hee fled so fast Oh saith he that I may preserve my selfe to fight another time Then sure hee would doe great feats But in the meane time the enemy is master of the field and now there is no more place of fighting So prudent Souldiers and captaines among us seeing Christs side in mans judgement to be distressed by the enemies prevailing power thinke it good discretion rather to yeeld to the present extremity and so to reserve themselves for better times when in the meane time the cause is by them betrayed and themselves soled captive that their captaine Christ will never trust to such captaines againe as to commit the leading of his people under the false colours of their empty pretences Yea and the people too are willing and perswade their Ministers to yeeld in those smaller matters as they conceive rather then to forgoe their Ministry not waighing either the dangerous consequēces of such beginnings or the worthlessenesse of such Ministers as shall doe such certaine evill that a supposed and but supposed onely good may come thereof Whose damnation is just as the Apostle speaketh For Rome was not build in one day And Rome being about to bee rebuilt in this land cannot bee done all at once but it must bee by degrees although the builders doe every day get ground and their building goes on a maine with an incredible celerity But I trust they make more hast then good speed And me thinkes I see the issue of their building in that of the Tower of Babell of which the Lord said Behold the people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to doe and now nothing will bee restrained from them which they have imagined to doe Even so our new Babel-builders upon a strong combination and faction against Christ and his Kingdome have begun to build a Tower reaching to heaven in their high imagination as if they would as the Giants of old pull Christ out of his Throne and all outward likelyhoods conspire unto their more than hoped for successe which no externall meanes can prevent but as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so ò Lord. Yet as wee said before Gods children must take heed for their parts that they bring not so much as a sticke or a stone to this building but that they hinder and stop the beginning and creeping in of Idolatry and Superstition which else is as a breaking in of the Sea that so overflowes the land and so gaines more ground every tide till it grow incurable This we have seene in these Innovations First Pewes at Chancel-ends must be remooved that so none may sit above God Almighty Though this at first dash brings the Reall Presence Well what 's next It 's fit to remoove the Table Altarwise This was with much hard tugge effected in Saint Gregories by Pauls at least for the neere neighbourhood it
my course preaching upon the whole Chapter It was objected to me that therein I did contrary to the Kings Declaration To which I answered that I never take the Kings Declaration to be intended by him for the suppressing of any part of Gods truth neither durst I ever conceive a thought so dishonourable to the King at to thinke him to be an instrument of suppressing Gods truth And have I not good ground for it For in his Majesties Declaration to All his loving Subjects of the cause which mooved him to dissolue the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall Command his Majesty mentioning Richard Mountagues Appeale which did open the way to those Schismes and divisions which have since insued in the Church expresseth himselfe in these words we did for remedy and redresse thereof and for satisfaction of the consciences of our good people not only by our publick Proclamation call in that Book which ministred matter of offence but to prevent the like danger for hereafter reprinted the Articles of Religion established in the time of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory and by a Declaration before those Articles we did tye restraine all opinions to the sense of those Articles that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovation For we call God to record before whom we stand that it is and alwayes hath been our hearts desire to be found worthy of that title which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne Defender of the faith neither shal we ever give way to the authorising of any thing where by any innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserve that vnity of Doctrine Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood florished ever since These be his Majesties expresse words Well for all this I was suspended from my Mistery Thus when they would insnare or oppresse us they lay all the burden upon the King which how injurious and dishonorable it is to his Majesty I referre to them that are best able to judge of matters of such moment Take another instance Another time namely then when I was brought to the High Commission board at London-house about that Booke of mine formerly mentioned though they had nothing at all against mee but rayling and reviling and charging me with sedition which I retorted upon themselves whereby I put them to silence for the time yet they recovering breath one of them sayd I must to prison If I must sayd I I desire to put in baile in regard of my Ministeriall charge being within three dayes of Easter No quoth my Lord of London that then was the King hath given expresse charge for YOV that no â—ale shall bee taken for YOV No my Lord Then I desire to know by what Law or Statute of the Land you doe imprison 〈◊〉 if it bee according to Law I humbly submit my selfe Otherwise I doe here claime the right and priviledge of a Subject according to the Petition of Right Well for all this to prison I must and if I found my selfe agrieved I might bring a writ of false imprisonment To the Fleet I went where I was a prisonner twelve dayes And when they sent for me forth to make me amends they put me into the High Commission out of the frying pan into the fire But blessed be God and my King by the benefit of whose good Lawes I obtayned a Prohibition against their illegall proceedings which fetcht mee off those shelves where else with the threatned storme of their Censure I must have suffered shipwracke But now I referre it to the sad consideration of the sagest whither that which hee fathered upon the King was not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse both me and the many by-standers and consequently all the people in the Land with a sinister opinion of the Kings justice constancy in keeping his solemne Covenant with his people as in that Petition of Right Though I blesse God I could never intertaine such a thought of my King that he should utter such a word as to deny his old Servant the hanfell-benefit of his gratious hand wherewith but a little before he had signed the Petition of Right for the maintenance not onely of myne but of every good Subjects just and honest cause Take yet another instance and that also at the high Commission Court where I was attending as a poore Client or rather an Innocent at the barre waiting for my Censure There a Rule for a Prohibition for Master Prinne being cendered in Court according to the course of the Kings Lawes in that behalfe presently my Lord of London then President of the Court stands vp and flyes in the face of Master Prinne and his Prohibition with great heat of passion even almost unto fury and after many threatnings to him hee uttered these words that whosoever should dare to bring the next Prohibition hee would set him fast by the heeles This was spoken alowd in open Court Now as I conceive this did not a little reflect and trench upon the Kings honor the Lawes of the Land and the Liberty of the subject What for any man to dare with open mouth and that in open Court to out-dare the Kings just goverment of his Subjects according to his good Lawes Or upon what ground did hee thus boldly beare himselfe Vpon the King His Majesty had not long before signed â—he Petition of Right Also his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the causes which mooved him to dissolve the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall commaund 1628. Speaking in his name that for the Parliaments full satisfaction and security Hee did by an answer framed in the forme by themselves desired to their Parliamentary Petition confirme their ancient and just Liberties and Rights which saith his Majesty Wee resolve with all constancy and justice to maintaine Whereupon then did this man dare to utter such an insolent speech Not from the King I am sure Wee have his Royall Word and Hand to the contrary And yet some perhaps might surmise that hee durst not speake thus in open Court had hee not some better ground for it than his owne desperate boldnesse Or the best Apology hee can make is that his tongue did runne before his wit and that in the flames of his passion he sacrificed his best reason and loyalty To these Instances wee will adde two or three more very remarkable and whereof wee all at this very time are eye-witnesses for they are still in acting The first is That most outragious practise of the Prelates in making havocke of the Church and of Religion by suspending excommunicating outing of Ministers from their freehold and the like because they cannot dare not read the booke for sports on the Lords day Now the Prelates and their officers herein most insolently and with a high hand proceeding neither according to Law nor
neere affinity or rather consanguinity they being sensible of the smart of his whip tooke it all upon themselves and so as Iudges in their owne cause passed their Episcopall censure upon him yea although he not only in his booke but openly before the whole Court professed and protested that hee medled not with those Prelates who received and acknowledged their Episcopall Iurisdiction from Kings and Princes and withall he alleadged and read in the audience of the Courts sundry Statutes as in King Henry the eight Edward thâ— sixt and Queene Elizabeth which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction unto the Crowne of England So as no Prelate or other Person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. But he must have it immediately from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England This Iurisdiction annexed to the Crowne of England Doctor Bastwicke alledged in Court against that usurped Iurisdiction of the Hierarchy of Rome which they challenge from Christ. Notwithstanding they alledged for themselves that they had their Episcopall authority from Christ and if they could not proove it they would cast away their Rochets So they may cast their caps too for any such proofe they can bring for it But stopping the Doctors mouth that he might not plead his cause they proceeded to a most grievous censure of him in 1000. pound fine to the King for maintaining the Royalty of His Crowne against the Prelates usurpation who would plucke away that gemme from it Imprisonment Excommunication suspension from his practise in Prison and the many miseries depending thereupon and devolving upon his Wife and children So as it is plaine they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but which with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ. And this is cleere by a threefold practise of theirs 1. Their censuring of Doctor Bastwick for this very cause that hee impugned all Episcopall Iurisdiction over Gods Ministers claimed from Christ or the Scripture So as they make it their owne cause with the Pope and his Prelates as all holding by that title and not from the authority of Kings and Princes And this is according to that in Dr. Pockâ—â—ngtons Sunday no Sabbath where hee saith pag. 48. Hereby wee may by Gods mercy make good the trueth of our Church For wee are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to St. Gregory and from him to our first Archbishops St. Austin our English Apostle downward to his Grace that now fits in his Chaire Primate of all England and Metropolitane So hee Thus wee see how our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierchie then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines fince the Reformation till but yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselues the very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome Secondly the constant practise of our Prelates proveth this for they neither have at any time nor have sought to have any the Kings Letters Parents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe Thirdly in that they labour by all meanes possible to maintaine this their absolute and independed Iurisdiction as no way depending on the King and namely by stopping the ordinary course of Law that the Kings people may bee cut off from all benefit of the Kings good Lawes and of their native ancient Liberties so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obtaine a Prohibition against their illegall practises invexing oppressing the Kings good Subjects nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their Proceedings in the High Commission makes the Courts of Instice startle So as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed For example the Ministers of Surry who are suspended from their Ministery and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all Law or Conscience yet are so disheartned and overawed that they dare not contend in Law against the Prelate for feare of further vexations and they are out of hope of any fayre hearing in an ordinary Legall way Nay when Doctor Bastwicke had procured a Habâ—as corpus to remove him out of the Bishope stincking prison in the Gate-house unto the Kings Bench. and thereupon was removed thither-yet notwithstanding they procured the reversing of this Legall Order and brought the Prisonner backe againe with avengeance and triumph to his old lodging Thus wee see they have gotten such a power into their hands as doth overtop and countermaund the Kings Lawes and the peoples Liberties Now this power they have not from the Imperiall Crowne according to the Lawes of the Land but it is a meere usurpation So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forraigne power altogether excluded in the Statute of 1. Elis. cap. 1. And it is flatly against the Oath of Supremacy in the same Statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires and lawfull Successors and to their power to defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges c. granted or belonging to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires c. Now all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which the Prelates have authority to exercise being annexed to the Crowne as is cleere by the foresayd statute either they must not claime it by another title or if they doe they are all in a Tramunire and under the guilt of perjury And whither they bee not also in a Praemunire for practising their Iurisdiction as keeping of Courts visitations c. in their owne names not having the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England I leave to the learned in the Law to judge But some will say that they defend and maintaine all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to bee from the King For in the visitation Articles for Norwich by Mathew their Lord Bishop this is one Be there any in your Parish that have denyed or perswaded any other to deny withstand or impugne the Kings Majesties Authority and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall within this Realme First I answer this is a faire colour and pretence as if it were against Papists Secondly it is against their ordinary practise as in the former examples And thirdly admit they doe sincerely professe that they have or hold no Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction but from the King yet the question is whither they will say that all those outrageous courses they how hold and
the pranks that they play in many places of the Kingdome are by speciall warrant from the King or whither the King by some generall warrant dormant hath given them this unlimited power which they at their pleasure doe exercise For instance Will Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich say that hee hath any warrant from the King speciall or generall for making such havocks and hurliburlies in those two great Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke to the intollerable dishonour of God injury to his Ministers and people and tending to most dangerous consequences If hee have not any warrant but doth it of his owne head or by the instigation of any other Arch-Prelate then let him looke to it least he come to suffer as an usurper a bringer in of a forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome If he say he hath warrant for 〈◊〉 let him 〈◊〉 it But I hope hee will not father his desperate courses upon the King What will hee say that the King gives him a power to exercise such unheard of tyranny and injustice upon the Kings peaceable Subjects and Christs faithfull Ministers and that against the Kings Lawes and peoples Rights all which the King hath sworne againe and againe and solemnly protested to maintaine inviolable as his owne Crowne Never therefore let any man dare to pretend any such thing so dishonourable to his Majesty Againe suppose which yet is not to bee supposed that the Prelates should so farre prevaile as to procure a grant from the King to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of the Religion by Law established Yet whatsoever colour pretext or â—ow could they make for this the King to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the Power that is in the King is given unto him by God and confirmed by the Lawes of the Kingdome Now neither God in his Law nor the Lawes of the Land doe allow the King a power to alter the State of Religion or to oppresse and Suppresse the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell against both Law and Conscience For Kings are the Ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before But what doe I speake of this If all the Prelates in England did never so boldly affirme that what they doe in these extravagant courses of theirs it is by warrant from the King I would be so fat from giving any credit unto them herein that I should be the first that should addresse my humble complaint to his Majesty of such dishonour done unto him and humbly petition his Majesty to vindicate his honour from the least suspition of his giving way to or countenancing the Prelates in such their practises as cry up to heaven for vengeance upon their heads This I have urged the more both in reverence to his Sacred Majesty whose honour I cannot indure should receive the least blemish and also in reference to the point in hand because such usurpation of the Prelates cendeth directly to make a division betweene the King and his subjects cantrary to that which we teach here that good Subjects must cleave to their God and King without separation and defection which is by the ligaments of good Lawes which being broken they are as the resolution of the nerves in the naturall body or the cutting in sunder of the sinewes whereby the head and members are united and compacted in one intire body And therefore this claime which the Prelates make of their Prelation and Iurisdiction over Christs Ministers jure divino being repugnant not only to the cleare Scripture forbidding all such domination as they practise as Math. 20. 25. c. Marke 10. 42. c. 1. Pet. 5. i. c. for which they have neither the example of Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any ancient Bishops but principally of Diotrephes 3 Iohn 10. whom they imitate in affecting of preeminence in opposing Iohn the Apostle in exommunicating the Preachers in prating against them with malicious words and the like but also to the Kings Crowne to the Lawes of the Land and consequently to the Liberties of the Subjects I know not with what warrant or Conscience any Minister of Christ can submit to the Practises of these men tending to the ruine of the Kingdome of Christ in this Land and consequently of the whole Kingdome and State Now all these instances alledged are so notorious some of them fresh in memory and many witnesses of them yet living being done but the other day and others yet present before our eyes that they cannot bee denyed and their notoriousnesse makes them the more pernicious as teÌ„ding to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies with sinister affections towards their King as if hee were the prime cause of all those grievances which the Prelates in his name doe oppresse the Kings good Subjects withall But Trust in the Lord as it is my dayly prayer that hee will preserve the hearts and affections of his people closse and intire to their King and that he will discover both to the King and his people these treacherous practises of the usurping Prelates that so neither the King may thinke evill of his good people nor they have the least jealousy that his Maiesty approveth and countenanceth much lesse willeth and commaundeth his Prelates to coÌ„mit these their intollerable outrages Well come weenow to a second use which is of Exhortation and admonition to all good Subjects above all things to beware of those that cunningly insinuate themselves betweene the barke and the tree that labour to divide the head from the body and the body from the head by casting bones betweene the King and his good Subjects And here Beloued let me in the name of the Lord admonish you that whatsoever passages or outrages you see to bee done by the Prelates although they doe never so boldly pretend the Kings name for it yee believe them not Let never any Sinister opinion concerning his Sacred Majesty creepe into the closset of your brests and as a Snake either sting or poyson your true loyal hearts towards him And therfore beware of all those Factors for Antichrist whose practise is to divide Kings froÌ„ their Subjects subjects from their King that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe where it had beene in a good measure throwne downe and cast out yea by this time utterly rooted out of this Land if he had not had such strong Sticklers as his Iesuites and Priests yea the Prelates themselves as their practises plainly show to keep him in life and to set him upon his feet againe But yee Beloved abhorre these Factors And if ever they should so farre prevaile as to open a wide breach to let in a forraigne enemy which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto then
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
ready way that would not faile to bring a curse upon Israel by inticing them to Idolatry with Moabs wiles And this is the course that the Balaamites of Rome and their confederates have holden lesse or more ever since the Gunpowder Treason untill this very day And in tracing their foot-steps and graduall proceedings weshall obserue how they have kept the same order for the reerecting of the throne of the Beast in this Land which hath beene observed by the founders and builders of the Spirituall Babilon in former ages And that wee may not expatiate beyond those narrow bounds within which wee have proposed to our selues to limit this our short discourse wee will instance in the Antichristian Hierarchy to the top whereof by what degrees it hath ascended I referre the Reader as to the Centuries and other Histories of the Church so in speciall to the Lord of Plessie his Mistery of iniquitie Also of the Masse the whole body whereof was imped with the feathers and patched with the pieces of sundry Popes inventions in their severall ages for which also See the same Author his learned discourse of the Masse Polidor Virgil de inventoribus rerum with others Also in the Sacrament Transsubstantiation was not knowne among the ancient Fathers for above 600. yeeres afterwards it crept in by degrees and was indifferent to be holden or not at last Pope Innocent 3. decreed it in the Councel of Lateran as a matter of faith necessary for all to beleeve So for the Sacrament in one kind anciently it was in both kindes untill the Councell of Constance but by degrees the people came to be nose-wiped of the Cup by a custome of omitting it in some places before it came to bee made a Law Besides both these authors and instances the like is observed by Dr. Whitakers of the graduall growth of Antichrist as also of the abuse of Images in Churches how they crept in first to be mute teachers of the blind and then to be dumbe gods to be worshipped Thus I say as of old the Mistery of iniquity could not be produced in one day but as the Elephants broode was many yeeres a hatching before it came to any perfection So our new refounders of Popery could not accomplish their worke in one day but it requireth some longer time although a man would wonder to see in so short a space such a monstrous and suddaine alteration notwithstanding the long establishment and cleare light of the Gospell and the strong sence of good Lawes whereby it is hedged about So if ours would set up the Masse-God in our Churches they cannot effect it all at once They must first downe with Tables and up with Altars For that cause all Seats must downe at the end of the Chancell that the Altar may stand closse to the wall because as their Oracle saith none must sit above God-Almighty And if Ministers bee so stiffe as not to yeeld to this innovation at least the Table must be rayled about that none touch it as being more Sacred then Pulpit Pew or Font. Then some adoration as lowly bowing must bee given to it Then the second Service as dainties must bee said there as being more holy than the Readers Pew And what then Surely a Priest is not farre off But where is the Sacrifice Stay a while that service comes last and all these are preparations unto it as the trimming of a Rome and spreading of the table bodes the banquet to come anone So as all these preambles doe at length usher in the great God of the Host so soone as it is well baked and the peoples stomacks sitted to digest so hard a bit But what bee those Changes and how came they What they be wee shall shew by and by but how they come it cannot be imputed to any other cause than to that Spirit which rules in the ayre and which doth usually haunt the Pallaces of Prelates And such a poyson hath this spirit infused into the Chaire of the Hierarchy as that man who fits in it had need to bee strongly fortified with preservatives and antidotes of true Reall Grace not nominall and titular that is able to overcome the infection of it For demonstration hereof wee begin with those Reformers of Religion in King Edward 6. his Raigne who yet prooved Martyrs in Queene Maries Is it not to bee admired that Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley of London should bee so stiffe against holy and learned Hooper who being by the King chosen Bishop of Glocester and having obtained the Kings favour not to weare the Rochet square Cap as being offensive to his Conscience yet they would not yeeld unto it although both the King himselfe and a great Harle in the Kings name did earnestly write unto them for the same Mr Foxes words are But I can not tell what Sinister and vnlacky contention concerning the ordering and Consecration of Bishops and of their apparrell with such otherlike trisles began to disturbe the good and lucky beginning of this goldly bishop For notwithstanding that godly Reformation of Religion that began in the Church of England besides other Ceremonies more ambitious then profitable or tending to edification they used to weare such garments and opparell as the Popish Bishops were wont to doe First a Chymere and under that a white Rochet then a Mathematicall Cap with Foure angles dividing the whole World into Foure parts These trifles tending more to Superstition then otherwise as hee could 〈◊〉 abide so in no wise could hee bee perswaded to weare them For this cause hee made Supplication to the Kings Majestie most hâ—â—bly desiring His Highnesse either to discharge him of his Bishopricke or else to dispence with him for such Ceremoniall orders Whose Petition the King granted immediately c. But I say the Bishops would not Yet at the length the fire reconciled them all when they laid aside their Pontificall robes and offered up their lives in sacrifice for the Truth Now if such a spirit did cleave to the very Chaire then when those pious men sate in it who were Reformers of Religion for the Substance of it and who afterward were persecuted and suffered Martyrdome for the faith of Christ What may wee expect in those Prelates that shew themselves such enemies of that Religion for which those suffered and persecute the faithfull Ministers thereof and are not content with those ceremonies limmited by the Lawes of the Land but bring in a number of other Superstitious and Idolatrous Ceremonies of Rome to the intollerable burthening of mens consciences and insnaring of their Soules Bodies and estates both against the Law of God and the Liberty which Christ hath purchased for us and also the Lawes of the Land Nor let our present Prelates glory that they can shew us such Predecessors Prelates who were Martyrs unlesse they themselues will therein be their Successors Bellarmine makes it one note of their holy Mother Church
precedent and proofe And for this very cause were there no more Preaching was never more necessary in this City than at this time which doth so swarme with multitudes of poore who without some present competent reliefe must needs perish so would heape upon this City yet greater Sins which is ready to sinck under the heavie burthens both of Sins and Plagues I might note againe as an 8. reason that great extraordinary increase the very first weeke of the Fast together with most hideous stormes fearfull and foule weather immoderate raine ever since it began God testifying by his reviving and renewing of the Plague by the sad and black countenance of the skies and those many great losses both by Sea Land that he abhorres such a Fast as of which his very judgemēts Speak Call you this a Fast Yea also a 9. reason because according to the Prelates practise this Fast is made a meere mock Fast wherein God is mocked to the face For doe the Prelates propose this as the principall end of their Fast to breake off their violent and tyrannicall proceedings against Gods Ministers and so against the State of Religion I feare it And so long let us never look for any good issue of this Fast but rather further judgements to be powred upon the Land For these reasons I say I could wish with all my heart to be an humble Petitioner to the King who I am perswaded would speedily hearken to such a request and would certainly answere that it was never his mynd that Preaching should be in this Fast prohibited The king prohibit Preaching Noe noe we all see who they be that prohibit Preaching even those that labour tooth and nayle to Suppresse Preaching and lay snares to intrap all painfull Preachers as the pressing of the booke for Sports for instance they being not content that the booke be read by the Curate but the Incumbent himselfe must read it or els abide extremity as Suspension from his Ministry Excommunicatiō out of the Church Sequestration from his living and Ecclesiasticall meanes the great crying Sinne of this Land at this day But I will add no more So as the Ninivites shall rise in judgement against this generation for they upon occasion of Ionas preaching proclaimed a Fast and reformed their lives and their violent dealing but these men under pretence of a Fast as Iezebel did to devoure Naboths vinyard would devoure Christs Vinyard while they Suppresse the Preaching of the Word whereby men should be convinced of their Sinnes and converted from them and bring forth good fruits of the Vine and thereby harden their necks against the Lord and strengthen their hands in violence to fill up their sinnes allway The sixt Innovation is about the meanes of the knowledge of God and of the Mistery of our Salvation That may be verified of many Prelates in these dayes which Christ charged the Pharisees with all Woe be unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for yee shut vp the Kingdome of heaven against men for yee neither goe in your selues neither suffer yee them that were entring to goe in Matth. 23. 13. Which in Luke 11. 52. is expressed thus Ye take away the Key of Knowledge And doe not our Prelates thus when they hush and silence all Lectures in whole Diocesse When they suppresse and cut short Preaching all they can When they lay snares to muzzle Gods Ministers that they may not Preach When they disgrace and traduce Preaching calling it in scorne Sermonizing When they forbid Ministers to use any prayer before their Sermons but that bare and barren forme of words in the Canon wrapping all up in the Lords Prayer When they must use no Prayer at all after the Sermon but come downe and read a second or third Service at the Altar where in great Churches halfe the people cannot heare a word When they must not preach at all in the Afternoone upon the Lords dayes When they must onely Catechise for halfe an hower and that not by expounding the Principles of Religion which may well be called the Key of Knowledge which they take away but onely by the bare questions answeres in the booke teach the children like Parats so as they can never come to give a reason of their fayth with understanding When in a great City or in the Vniversities they limit all Sermons to one hower so as the heares cannot injoy the benefit of more then one Sermon a day Yea what devises have they not put in practise to put the light of Gods word vnder a bushell if not rather altogether to quench it if it were in their power What invectives are in Shelfords ad Treatise against Preaching and the peoples knowledge How doth he find fault with the Peoples desire of Sermons And pag. 47. he Sayth Our Soli Sermonists and Solifidians so they may have a Sermon or two on the Lords dayes c. And pag. 91. he allowes of Preaching with a restriction and limitation as being not fit for every Minister but for extraordinary excellent men called by God and the Church to reforme Errours abuses or to promulge to the world new Lawes Canons And againe least this should be too great a burthen to these his extraordinary men he qualifies the matter by restraining their preaching to certaine extraordinary times in the yeare pag. 94. as Easter Whit-Suntide Christmas day and to extraordinary places too as Cathedralls and for this cause pag. 93. he would have many Ministers vnfurnished of their licences especially those that preach twice every Lords day and those that are permitted to preach to be restrained to certaine times and seasons as once a Moneth at most And he gives the reason of all because the Church is now settled and therefore doth not need preaching as once it did in its infancy So he Thus they labour tooth and nayle to cry downe Preaching For saith he p. 94. Reading is the ordinary preaching ordained by God himselfe And this is that maine marke which they al shoot at to mould up all in the Lumpe of the Communion Booke and make that the Summe and Scope the very Circle of al Religion Knowledge The Seventh innovation is in the rule of faith for whereas the sole and complete rule of faith is the Holy Scripture as 2. Tim. 3. Our new Doctors cry up the dictates of the Church to wit of the Prelates to be our only guides in Divinity as in Reeves Cōmunion booke Catechisme expounded pag. 20. and 206. where all Ministers must submit to the judgement of the Prelates in all matters pertaining to religion and all Prelates must submit to the Arch-Prelate as having a Papal infalibility of spirit whereby as by a Divine Oracle all questions in Religion are finally determined And here I cannot forget a speech of the chiefest Prelate of England in the High Commission who at the censure of Doctor Bastwicke for oppugning the