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
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
admitted The high Commissioners neither parties in the cause nor Adversaries to the Person of the Appellant The Bishops no usurpers of the Jurisdiction belonging to the King The Oath of Supremacie not derogatorie to Episcopall power Objections against the Oath Ex Officio with an answere to them Other objections against the Proceedings in the high-Commission answered Of giving forth a Copie of ones Sermon upon Oath Sedition how it may be punishable in the High Commission Archbishop Whitgifts name abused and his words mis-reported by H. B. HItherto Mass Burton wee have laid you open by the way of an Historicall narration though all Historicall narrations be offensive to you for the sake of one and consequently spake only of you in the third Person as hic et ille But being now employed in the Examiners Office I must deale with you as if Coram in the second Person which I perswade my self will better sort with your ambition the second Person if you remember so much of your Accidens being more worthy then the third And first I would faine know what mooved you to appeale unto His Majestie at your first conventing before you had just grievance or an unjust sentence Your conscience sure accused you and pronounced you guiltie and told you what you should expect in a legall triall and on the other side your presumption flattered you that being an Old Courtier though worn out of favour you might have some friend there to promote your suite Sir you forget it seemes what is related in the conference at Hampion Court in the self same case My L. of London moved his M tie that then was K. James of B. memory that Pulpits might not be made Pasquils Pray sir mark this well wherin every humorous or discontented fellow might traduce his Superiors This the King very gratiously accepted exceedingly reproving that as a lewd custom threatning that if he should but heare of such a one in a Pulpit He would make him an example this is just your case And that if any thing were amisse in the Church Officers not to make the Pulpit a place of personall reproofe but to let His Majestie heare of it yet by degrees First let complaint be made unto the Ordinarie of the place from him to goe to the Archbishop from him to the Lords of the Counsell and from them if in all these places no remedie is found to his own self which Caveat His Majestie put in for that the Bp. of London had told him that if he left himself open to admit of all complaints neither His Majestie should ever be quiet nor his under Officers regarded seeing that now already no fault can be censured but presently the delinquent threatneth a complaint to the King Here is a long gradation and that after censure but you will venter on the King per saltem not by faire degrees and that not only before censure but before any grievance to be complained of The King would quickly have his hands full were that course allowed of and wee must needs conceive him God as well by nature as resemblance it being impossible he should have any spare time left either to eare sleepe or refresh his Spirits or whatsoever other businesse doth concern this life or shew him mortall But wee must needs conceive there was some speciall reason in it which might induce you to cry out before you were hurt more then the matter of the Articles which were read vnto you or your own guiltie conscience which had precondemned you Yes sure for you except against as well the incompetencie of the Judges as the illegall manner of proceedings in the high Commission The Judges you except against excepting those honorable Nobles Judges Counsellers of state which are seldome there as parties in the cause and adversaries to your person for the causes sake p. 6. parties because you have traduced them for Innovators and Adversaries for the reasons which hereafter follow Suppose them parties and what then Then by the Lawes of God and nature as also by the Common Canon and Civill Lawes they are prohibited from being Judges This is the first Crutch your Appeale halts with and this will faile you For howsoever it be true in ordinary course that no man can be Judge in his own cause there where the cause concernes himself in his own particular yet it is otherwise in a body aggregate or a publick person Suppose in time of Parliament a man should taxe that great assembly with some grievous crime should the whole body be disabled from proceeding with him Or that a man should raise some odious scandall on my Lords the Judges should he escape unpunished because there is none else to judge him Or that some sawcie fellow behaves himself audaciously and Contra bonos more 's before the Justices on the bench at their Quarter Sessions should not the Bench have power to bind him to his good behaviour Or that a man within the Liberties of London should say a fig for my Lord Major might not my Lord Major clap him in the Counter And yet the Parliament and the Judges and the Justices and the Lord Major of London are asmuch parties in these cases as the Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors and the rest of the High Commission are by you said and only said to be in the other For that they are not parties wee shall see anon when wee shall come to cleere them of those imputations which in a furious zeal you have laid upon them That which you next attempt is to prove them Adversaries and Adversaries to your person for the causes sake Good Sir what see you in your self that you should think such great and eminent men should beare malice to you Tullie a wiser man then you and a better Orator as I take it and in more credit with the common people though you grieve to heare it might have taught you better Non video nec in vita nec in gratia nec in hac mea mediocritate quid despicere possit Antonius Was it not you sweet Sir that did Protest thus roundly of my LL. the Bishops I speake not this God is my witnesse out of any base envy to their Lordly honor and pompe which is so far beneath my envy Poore soul are those great persons and their honors beneath your envie and is your person a fit marke for theirs Diogenes and your self two magnanimious Cynicks You know the story wel enough and can best applie it Calco Platonis fastum sed mafore fastu Yea but they are the Adversaries of your person for the causes sake Say then the Adversaries of the cause let your person goe as a contemptible thing that provokes no Adversary Yet wee will take you with us to avoid exceptions and see what proofe you have to make them Adversaries to your person for the causes sake And first they are your Adversaries because the Adversaries of those trueths by you delivered in
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
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
advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe