raile against the times to cry downe all the orders of holy Church and to distract the people with needlesse controversies in despight of his Maiesties Declaration which he cared not for or would interprete for his purpose And had this happinesse withall that whatsoever he said there did instantly become Gods truth and therefore not to be suppressed by Prince or Prelate The Presse which was devised at first for the advancement and increase of learning was by him made a meanes to disperse his pasquills that they might flye abroad with the swifter wing and poyson mens affections whom he never saw And howsoever some of his unlicenced Babels were guilty of sedition and tended to incense the Commons against the King yet being dedicated to the Parliament As himselfe relates it P. 45. he came off bravely and brought his adversaries to a non-plus Fortunate man one of the sonnes no question of the young white henne to whom both Presse Pulpit prostitute themselves and yet account it as an honour that hee hath abused them Too fortunate indeed had it so beene carried But not long after this brave man of Armes that dares encounter with Goliah as hee boasts himselfe received the foile being first suspended for his preaching and afterward imprisoned and brought into the High Commission for his printing as hee relates the story p. 52. Oh but by Gods great blessing and the Kings good Lawes he was fetch 't off those shelves where else as he complaineth he had suffered shipwracke by a Prohibition P. 53. for that hee was beholding to his friend Mast Prynne who both aduised him to it had led the way and having Layton's valour in admiration thought it a farre more Noble suffering to lose one eare or two by sentence in the Starre-Chamber then lend an eare to the censure of the High Commission so fared it with his learned Counsaile whose punishment might have perswaded him to more moderate courses but that he had a strong desire to fill up the measure of his iniquities and having beene a stickler in the same cause with him conceived it most agreeable to the rule of fellowship that he must suffer with him also Tully indeed did so resolve it Ut qui in eadem causa fuerunt in eadem item essent fortuna and certainly it was very fit that it should be so nor was it possible to stay him being once resolved only he wanted opportunity for the accomplishment of his designes which the last Gun-powder day did present unto him that day being by him thought most proper for their execution whom he had long before condemn'd and meant to blow up now without helpe of Powder In that more mercifull indeed than Faux or Catisby they purposing to blow up the three estates together he but at once The place designed for this dispatch that which he had so long abused the Pulpit the way of bringing it about that which hath alwaies served his turne on the like occasions a seditious Sermon wherein he had drawn up together what ever spirit of malice he had found disâ—â—rsed in al or any of those scurrilous and pestilent Pamphlets which had bin published to the world since Martins time of purpose to defame the Clergy and inflame the people his own store being added to it Nor did he thinke it was enough thus to disgorge his stomacke of purpose to excite his audience against their superiors and startle them with dreadfull feares as if hoth tyranny and Popery were likely in short time to be thrust upon them that was an undertaking fit for private persons whose gifts might be confined to one place or Parish For his part he was now the generall Superintendent of all the Churches the forlorne hope the Centinell perdue of the whole brother-hood and therefore the most choyce and materiall poynts of the Declamation like the Enclyclicall Epistles of the elder times must briefely be summed up and scattered all abroad the Kingdome as Newes from Ipswich Nay lest one title of his word should fall to ground the Declamation presently must become a Libell and was by him thought fit to have been printed as soone as spoken for the generall god as he assures us of all his Majesties loving Subjects throughout the Kingdome and printed at the last it was and with a monstrous impudence dedicated to his Maiesty and Copies of the same given forth as he saith himselfe in hope that it might come at last to his Maiesties hands Two things there were especially which did embolden him thus to preach and publish his owne personall quarrells as the truth of God First an opinion of some extraordinary calling from above the same perhaps that Hacket was possessed with in Queene Elizabeths reigne This he avoweth in his Epistle to the King I heartily thanke my Lord Jesus Christ who hath accounted mee faithful called me forth to stand in his case and to witnesse it before the World by publishing my said Sermons in Print c. And in that directed to the true-hearted Nobility where he speaks more plainly Certainly I am one of the watch-men of Israel though the meanest yet one that hath obtained mercy to bee faithful Nor have I inconsiderately or rashly rushed upon this businesse but have been by a strong hand drawn into it Yea my Lords know assuredly that Christ himselfe my great Lord Master hath called me forth to be a publike witnesse of this great cause who will certainly maintaine both it and me against all the Adversaries of God and the King The second was a confidence that no man durst to question so great a prophet greater then which was never raised up from the dead to preach to Dives and his brethren And this he lets us know in his Apologie p. 7. I never so much as once dreamed saith he that impiety and impudencie it selfe in such a Christian state as this is and under such a gratious Prince durst ever thus publikely have called me in question and that upon the open stage c. No marvell if so strange a calling seconded by so strong a confidence spurred him bravely on and made him lift up both his voice and hand against what ever is called God and how know wee but that in some of his spirituall raptures he might faine an hope that his dread name should be as famous in the stories of succeeding times as Muntzers or King John of Leidens But these imaginations failed him too as his Court-hopes did For contrary to what he dreamt such filthy dreamers S. Jude speakes of Vpon the Third of December next ensuing a Pursuivant as he tells the storie served him with letters missive from the high Commission to appeare before Doctor Duck at Cheswick then and there to take his oath to answere to such Articles as were laid against him Bold men that durst lay hands upon a Prophet of such an extraordinary calling who if his power had been according to his spirit would have
THE PREFACE SHEWING THE OCCASION OF This following Answere with somewhat of the Storie of H. B. the principall Argument thereof AMONGST the severall commendations given unto Charitie by Saint Paul we find these particulars Charitie vaunteth not it selfe is not puffed up doth not behave it selfe unseemely seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evill Which if they be the certaine marks of Charitie as no doubt they are we may affirm it of too many in these later daies that whatsoever Faith they pretend unto they have little Charitie Such boasters are they of themselves so arrogant so unadvised in all their doings so greedie either after lucre or vaine applause so peevish and intemperate in their speech and writings and finally so jealous and distrustfull of all those who concurre not with them in opinion That though they had all Faith so that they could remove mountains which I thinke they have not or should they give their bodies to be burned as I thinke they will not it would profit nothing Of such as these it was that S. Peter tell 's us that they are Presumptuous selfe-willed and are not afraid to speake evill of dignities of whom S. Jude relates that they were murmurers complainers walkers after their owne lusts and that their mouth speaketh great swelling words Would you a further censure of them As naturall bruit beasts saith the Apostle made to be taken and destroyed they speake evill of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption These are the mockers of whom the Apostles have foretold us that they should come in the last times and being come we must accordingly expect they should play their parts and doe the will of him that sent them And so they doe The Church continually traducea as if she were unsound in her intentions towards Christ as if there were a day at hand in which the Saints i. e. themselves must be tryed and sifted The Prelates generally condemned their cause un-heard as factors for the Mysticall strumpet in S. John's Apocalypse to make men drunken with the Cup of her abhominations And as for the inferiour Clergie which know no better sacrifice then obedience and willingly submitte themselves unto the just commands of their Superiors what are they but the common markes whereat each furious Malecontent doth shoot out his Arrowes even bitter words Nor hath the supreame Majesty the Lords annointed escaped so cleere but that they also have had part of those hard speeches which these ungodly sinners have spoken against them in Saint Judes language Antonij epistolae Brutique conciones falsa quidem in Augustum probra sed multa cum acerbitate habent as he in Tacitus No times more full of odious Pamphlets no Pamphlets more applauded nor more deerely bought then such as doe most deeply wound those powers and dignities to which the Lord hath made us subject Egregiam vero laudem et spolia ampla Not to goe higher then the Reigne of our now dread Soveraigne how have both Church and State beene exercised by those factious Spirits Layton and Prynne and Bastwick the Triumviri with H. Burton the Dictator what noise and clamours have they raised what odious scandalls have they fastned on their Reverend Mother what jealousies feares that I say no worse have they seditiously infused into peoples mindes And thereby turned those weapons on their Mothers Children which might have beene employed more fitly on the common Enemie But when those of the Triumvirate had received their judgement Layton and Prynne in the Starre-chamber Bastwick in the high Commission the greatest comfort of the cause did seeme to be intrusted to Dictator Burton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man in whom the Element of fire had the most predominancie which made that which is zeale in others to be in him a zealous furie The rather since he had deceived himselfe in his expectations and swallowed down those hopes he could not digest That which hath heretofore made so many Hereticks occasioned his first dislike of the holy Hierarchy When once Aerius lost his hopes of being made a Bishop as Saint Austin tells us he set on foot this peevish doctrine Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla ratione debere discerni that by no meanes there was a difference to be made betweene Priests and Bishops And that once broached there followed next non celebranda esse jejunia statuta sed cum quisque voluerit jejunandum that no set fasts were to be kept but every man might fast when he would himselfe This was the very Case of our Grand Dictator He had beene a servant in the Closet to His Sacred Majestie then Prince of Wales and questionlesse being in the Ascendent he thought to Culminate But when he saw those hopes had failed him and that by reason of his violent and factious carriage he was commanded to depart the Court he thought it then high time to Court the people that he might get in the hundreds what he lost in the Countie This pincheth him it seemes to this very day and he is so ingenious which I wonder at as to let us know it For in the Epistle to His Majestie before his Sermon if at the least a rayling and seditious declamation may be called a Sermon he stiles himselfe His Majesties old and faithfull servant and in the other to His Majestie before the Apologie he bemoanes himselfe as an old out-cast Courtier worne out of all favour and friends there Hinc illae lachrymae Hence the opinion of these quarrells Here he declares most plainly where his griefe doth lye what made him first flie out and bend his thoughts to foster and foment a faction Such is the humour of most men whom the Court casts out that they doe labour what they can to out-cast the Court. Being thus entred and ingaged hee found it necessary to acquaint himselfe with such as were affected like himselfe and in their severall professions might best aide and helpe him this made him picke out Master Prynne an utter Barrister of Lincolns Inne for his learned Counsaile Layton and Bastwicke two that had the name of Doctors to be Physitians to his person His Doctors finding by some Symptomes which they had observed that he was very fretfull and full of Choller perswaded with him either by preaching or by writing to vent that humour which otherwise for want of vent would soone burne him up his learned Counsaile standing by and promising that whatsoever he should write or say hee would finde Law for it On this encouragement he beganne to cast abroad his wilde-fire endeavouring nothing more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to raise combustions in the state and like Erostratus of old seeing hee could grow famous by no other meanes to burn downe the Temple The Pulpit first erected onely for preaching of the word of God was by him made a Sanctuary or privileged place from whence to
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and 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 Iustice 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 p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
or if he had a sentence to reverse that also Or if you will not trouble your selfe in thinking of it will you be pleased to heare what our late Soveraigne King James hath observed therein If saith he Prohibitions should rashly and headily be granted then no man is the more secure of his owne though he hath gotten a sentence with him for as good have no law or sentence as to have no execution thereof A poore Minister with much labor and expence having exhausted his poore meanes and being forced to forbeare his studie and to become non-resident from his flocke obtaines a sentence and then when he lookes to enjoy the fruites thereof he is defrauded of all by a Prohibition And so he is tortured like Tantalus who when he hath his Apple at his mouth that he is gaping to receive it then must it be pulled from him by a Prohibition and hee not suffered to taste thereof So farre the Royall Advocate hath pleaded the poore Clergies cause And did he nothing as a Judge Yes he declared it to be his Office to make every Court containe himselfe within his own limits and thereupon admonished all other Courts that they should be carefull every of them to containe themselves within the bounds of their owne jurisdictions the Courts of Common law that they should not be so forward and prodigall in multiplying their Prohibitions But you will say perhaps that your exception lieth against the stopping of the course of Prohibitions not so much if at all in reall as in personall actions and that you are offended only because by this meanes the Kings Innocent Subjects are not relieved as you and Mr. Prynne once were from the unjust oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiasticall and High Commission Why what 's the matter There is you tell us a great persecution in the Church and many a faithfull godly Minister hath beene of late suspended from his ministery and outed of his benefice by the Prelates in the Courts aforesaid no remedy being to be had as in former times from the Common Law For as the common rumor goeth at least you make a rumour of it the course of Justice is stopped in these cases there being none dares open his mouth to pleade a cause against the Prelates So you in your addresse to my Lords the Judges p. 29. For an example of the which as well the persecution as the want of Remedie you instance in the Ministers of Surrey who are suspended of their ministerie and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all law and conscience yet are so disheartned and over-awed that they dare not contend in law against their Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winton for feare of further vexations and are out of hope of any faire hearing in an ordinary legall way p. 70. of your Pasquill What want of remedie can you or they complaine of if they have not sought it or rather if their conscience tell them and those with whom they have advised advertise them that in such cases as this is the Judges cannot by the law award a Prohibition if they should desire it Doe you conceive the case aright If not I will take leave to tell you His Maiestie having published his Declaration about lawfull pastimes on the Sunday gives order to his Bishops that publication thereof be made in all their severall diocesses respectively The Bishops hereupon appoint the Incumbent of every Church to read the booke unto the people that so the people might the better take notice of it and finding opposition to the said appointment made by some refractory persons of your owne condition presse them to the performance of it by vertue of that Canonicall obedience which by their severall oathes they were bound to yeeld unto their Ordinaries But seeing nothing but contempt and contempt upon contempt after much patience and long-suffering and expectation of conformitie to their said appointment some of the most pervers amongst them have in some places beene suspended aswell a benificio as officio for an example to the rest No man deprived or outed as you say of his meanes and livelihood that I heare of yet This is the Case Which being meerly Ecclesiasticall as unto the ground being a contempt of and against their Ordinarie and meerely Ecclesiasticall as unto the Censure which was suspension I cannot see what remedie you can find for them amongst the Lawyers but that which every man might give them good and wholsome Counsaile And call you this a persecution when a few refractarie persons are justly punished in a legall way for their disobedience For howsoever they and you pretend that the Command was contrary to the Law of God and could not be performed with a safe conscience yet this was onely a pretence their reading of the booke had the Contents thereof displeased them being no more an Argument of their approbation of any thing therein contained then when a Common Crier reades a Proclamation which perhaps he likes not It must be therefore some Association had and made amongst them to stand it out unto the last and put some baffle or affront on that authoritie which had imposed it Such also is the persecution doubtlesse which you so complaine of in the two whole Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space as you say there hath beene the foulest havock of Ministers and their flocks c. as ever our eyes have seene there being already as you tell us 60 Ministers suspended and betweene 60. and 80. more having had time given them till Christ-tide take head of Christmasse by all meanes by which time as you say they must either bid their good conscience fare-well or else their pretious Ministery and necessary meanes In all Queene Maries time no such havock made in so short a time oâ— the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole land p. 65. The same is also told us in the Newes from Ipswich Nay more then so you tell us how one or two godly Ministers some of your Associates were threatned by Docter Corbet Chancellor of that diocesse with Pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read His Majesties Declaration about lawfull sports In this you doe as shamefully belie the Chancellor as you have done the Bishop in all the rest of whose proceedings in that diocesse I will present you with a short account that you may see how grosly you abuse the world And first you may be pleased to know that the Clergie of that Diocesse comprehending all that are in spirituall dignitie or office and all Parsons Vicars Curates and Schoole-masters taking in the Lecturers with all amount unto the number of 1500. or thereabouts So that in case there had beene 60. of that Fifteene hundred suspended by the Bishop as you say there were had this beene such a terrible persecution as you give it out for But yet it is not so as you tell us
neither For at the beginning of November when you Preached that Pasquil of the Fifteene hundred there were not twice fifteen that 's not halfe your number involved in any Ecclesiasticall censure of what sort soever and not above sixteene suspended Sixtie and sixteene are alike in sound but very different in the number and of those sixteene eight were then absolved for a time of further triall to be taken of them and two did voluntarily resigne their places so that you have but six suspended absolutely and persisting so Now of the residue there was one deprived after notorious inconformitie for 12. yeeres together and finall obstinacie after sundry severall monitions eight excommunicated for not appearing at the Court and foure inhibited from preaching of the which foure one by his education was a Draper another was a Weaver and the third was a Taylor Where are the 60. now that you so cry out of I have the rather given you this in the particulars which were collected faithfully unto my hands out of the Registerie of that Diocesse that you and other men may see your false and unjust clamours the rather because it was related to me by a friend of mine in Glocestershire that it went current there amongst your Brethren that your said 60. were suspended for no other cause then for repeating the doxologie at the end of the Lords Prayer So for your other number betweene 60. and 80. suspended upon day till Christmasse or Christide as you please to phrase it upon examination of the Registers there appeare but eight and those not all suspended neither two being Excommunicated for not appearing Eighty and Eight doe come as neere in sound as Sixtie and Sixteene before but differ more a great deale in the Calculation And so much for the grand persecution in the Diocesse of Norwich How doe you find it pray you in other places Why more or lesse say you over al the Kingdom For you complaine as truly but more generally p. 27. that many Godly Ministers in these dayes are most unjustly illegally yea and incanonically also in a most barbarous and furious manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and deprived of all livelihood and means to maintaine themselves How just soever the cause be on the Prelates part and that there be no other means to bring things to right there where the Orders of the Church are so out of order then by the exemplary punishment of the most pervers to settle and reduce the rest yet persecution it must be if you please to call it so Such Innocent people as your selfe that runne point-blanck against the Orders of the Church cannot be censured and proceeded with in a legall way but instantly you cry out a Persecution But thus did your Fore-fathers in Queene Elizabeths time et nil mirum est si patrizent filij CHAP. VI. The foure first Innovations charged by H. B. upon the Bishops most clearely proved to be no Innovations Eight Innovations charged upon the Bishops by H. B. King James his order to young Students in Divinity made an Innovation in point of doctrine the reason of the said order and that it was agreeable to the old Canons of this Church Another Order of King James seconded by his Majesty now being with severall Bookes of private men made an Innovation of the Bishops No difference betweene the Church of Rome and England in Fundamentalls Private opinions of some men made Innovations in point of doctrine The Pope not Antichrist for any thing resolved by the Church of England The doctrine of Obedience and of the Sabbath not altered but revived explained and reduced to what it was of old No Innovation made in point of discipline A generall view of Innovations charged upon the Bishops in point of worship Bowing at the Name of Jesus praying towards the East and adoration towards the Altar no new Inventions not standing up at the holy Gospel Crosse-worship falsely charged upon the Bishops No Innovation made by the Bishops in the civill government The dignity and authority of the High-Commission AS is the persecution such are the Innovations also which you have charged upon the Bishops both yours and so both false alike Yet such a neat contriver are you that you have made those Innovations which you dreame of the cause of all that persecution which you so cry out of For in your Pasquil it is told us that we may see or heare at the least of oâ—d heaving and shoving to erect Altar-worship and Jesu-worship and other inventions of men and all as is too plaine to set up Popery againe and for not yeelding to these things ministers are suspended excommunicated c. pag. 25 And pag. 64. you ground the persecution as you call it in the Diocesse of Norwich upon the violent and impetuous obtruding of new Rites and Ceremonies monies You call upon the Bishops by the name of Iesuiticall novell Doctors to blush and be ashamed and tell them that they doe suspend excommunicate and persecute with all fury Gods faithfull ministers and all because they will not they may not they dare not obey their wicked commands which are repugnant to the lawes both of God and man p. 81. If this be true if those that bee thus dealt with bee Gods faithfull ministers and the commands imposed upon them so wicked as you say they are contrary to the lawes both of God and man and tending so notoriously to set up Popery againe you have the better end of the staffe and will prevaile at last no question Meane while you have good cause as you please to tell us to comfort your selfe and blesse the name of God in that he hath not left himselfe without witnesse but hath raised up many zealous and couragious champions of his truth I meane faithfull ministers of his word who chuse rather to lose all they have then to submit and prostitute themselves to the wicked unjust and base commands of usurping Antichristian mushromes their very not yeilding in this battel being a present victory p. 83 But on the other side if the commands of the Superior be just and pious agreeable to the orders of the Church and all pure antiquity then are your godly faithfull ministers no better then factious and schismaticall persons and you your own deare self a seditious Boutefeiu so to incourage and applaud them for standing out against authority This we shall see the better by looking on those Innovations which as you say The Prelates of later dayes have haled in by head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the land and much more the law of God p. 111. These you reduce to these eight heads viz. 1. Innovation in doctrine 2. in discipline 3. in the worship of God 4. in the Civill government 5. in the altering of bookes 6. in the meanes of knowledge 7. in the rule of faith and 8. in the Rule of manners It is a merry world mean-while when you