crowne and glorie of a Christian Maiorate reforme your owne former missead opinions You are the second lights of the Common-wealth and when the eye is dimme the body is darke Conforme your religious exercises to that forme Consulte agit qui praecepto legis obteÌ„perat ca. de furtis l. in ciuilem which the Lawe alloweth it is an inseperable incident vnto gouerment that the Magistrates to whom the charge of the Lawe is committed be principall Obseruators of the Lawe themselues their example must be a Lanterne of direction vnto the rest for they shall finde it most certaine When the Rulers doe runne at randome the people will beare no byas \ Abandon from you the maisters of noueltie and workers of innouation what apparance soeuer there be in the noueltie you are sure to loose by the bargaine the vtilitie cannot be so helpfull but the noueltie would bee more hurtfull For if it should be lawfull for euery man to cast the frame of religion in the mould of their owne fancies The scruples and inconueniences would be no lesse in the Church then the suites at the common-lawe in number infinite if euery man had power to create a newfound estate intaile And that they may bee the better acquainted with your constant resolution tell your Ministers it is not lawfull for them to varye in their habites manners and orders who should bee Presidents vnto other men of the beautye of order Tell your deceaued Cittizens there is not a Qui sub nemine se dicit esse non Iuuetur eorum priuilegijs beneficijs qui subijciuÌ„tur Paschalis Secundus more apparant marke of loyaltie then Obedience or necessary for the manutention of Pollicie And he that hath no conscience to obey his Soueraigne cannot with conscience chalenge the benefit of a Subiect Tell the factious their humour is good for nothing but to breed muddy Ecles which must be ratled out with a thunder And though their contentions be pleasing to the common aduersarie of our soules who delighteth with discord amongst familiars yet it is most vnpleasfull to God whose seruants are best knowne by the Character of loue I know their disordered humors will much stomacke at contradiction and storme against you when you would reforme them but when you shall reproue their such humours by the Oracles of Wisdome which haue no side respect vnto persons they will with more reason brooke the reproofe and readily yeeld their obedience For this cause it behooueth you to haue a true eye vnto the lawes of this gouerment and giue no passage vnto fancie which shall presume to appose against them To calumniate and impunge the lawes of the Church was alwayes deemed an exorbitant offence and he that can but will not set a pegge in their wheele to stay it is by his sufferance Actor with them in the the euill that ariseth from it §. 11. Your such offences you excuse with the plea of conscience There is nothing more common then to heare and meete with passages of disloialtie vnder pretext of conscience vpon supposed offence whereof there is such straying of Gnats such swallowing of Cammels such stumbling at Strawes such leaping ouer Blockes such acquiting for the Horse such hanging for the Saddle such excusing for the Sword and accusing for the Scabberd as in conscience was neuer seene I will not presume to censure your consciences in this refusall of orders prescribed which you suppose warranted with the pretence of conscience yet this I must tell you if that you were men of such exact and precise conscience as you pretend and beare the world in hand your conscience should not peruert and falsifie the least circumstance which doth become Diuines or other men of exquisite conscience you would not so contenciouslie hunt after the receipt of your owne conceipts without eyther caâ—e or conscience of the publicke good You could not without conscience or charitie so rashly condemne whom you list for whatsoeuer your fancie doth disalowe or so bouldly impute all corruption to the obiect of your dislike but with full consent and conscience would condescend vnto that which the light of Nature the Lawe of Scripture and sentence of Antiquitie hath offered warranted and receaued A good Conscience is grounded vpon sure knowledge but they which write in defence of your discipline The author of the petition directed to her maiestie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 18. are enforced to acknowledge that with whom the truth is they knowe not Therefore by the iust searment of the highest wisdome your such conscience is eyther an ignorant fantasie or an arrogant vanity The holy Scripture is the assured ground whereon to build conscience the infallible rule to direct conscience whereas it hath most inuincible authoritie which ought by singuler praerogatiue to decide all doubts any either Papist Anabaptist or Nouellist can moue in these controuersed causes what argument M Hooker l. 1. pref pa. 11. haue your Leaders shewed you whereby it was euer prooued that any one sentence of scripture doth necessarily enforce those things wherein you concurre with them against the orders of your owne Church \ It is to be feared that you laye the safetie of your conscience vpon the credit of your owne conceipts or other mens humours and that you square your Conscience by the rule of your custome which hath seized vpon and so farre entangled you in this contradiction that you know not how to leaue the opinions you haue so much approued and with conscience that is your credit to receaue the ordinances whereby your opinions are checked this distraction of thoughts in you is that alarnm which conscience giues you If you bee vnwilling to enter the doing of that which you haue formerly condemned I maruaile not The nature of man is not willing to condemne it selfe but to deuise so many shifts of wittes inuention to auoide that which all iudicious learning doth approue I greatly maruaile at in you who desire to be esteemed the holy Apostles and learned Sages of this age and therefore doe intreate you to looke into the Inuentarie of your conscience whether the painfull imaginations wherewith you are perplexed to forgoe that in which you so much delighted be not that griefe of Conscience so much pretended As for the euill whereof the Church doth blame you if you would conscienciouslie displaye it before your conscience I thinke in conscience you would not so earnestlie repugne at that Booke of Vniformitie for which they whose spirits indeauored the labours of best excellencie did expone themselues to the triall of hardest difficulties §. 12. It is disordered you say and must it be altered by your owne priuate warrant will nothing gaine 2. Admo pa. 24. esteeme with you sauing what proceedeth from your owne deuise The publicke iudgement of the Church doth approoue it if the Lawes of publicke determination may not ouer-rule your priuate though probable resolutions where is the possibilitie of
Sabinus with Photius and Origen with Berillus or to determine things doubtfull as the religious and graue reuerend Fathers did in their councels and Synods or to settle the Peace of the Church as in the colloqui at Ratisbonn An. 1541. An. 1603. Ia. 14. appointed by Charles the fift and it pleased his Maiestie in the late interlocutorie conserence with the Lords Bishops others of the clergie at Hampton Aust lib. 2. cap. 13. 14. contr Crescon Court hath alwaies had speciall approbation But yet if I may in the libertie of a humble spirit freely speake what some of you the Bretheren of the newfangled faction in the merite of your contentious disposition should patiently heare to liue in obedience to orders orderly by iudgment of decision established is more answerable to faith profitable for the Church and honourable for our calling By the first we bring light to the truth and confirme knowledge by the second we giue life to the truth and after our example direct others in the religious seruice of God a dutie amongst all Offices appertaining to man most excellent and most deserued whether we consider the bottomlesse graces wherwith Heauens hand hath embrodered our state in general or vnfould before our selues the vnspeakable blessings he hath enfolded vpon vs in particuler My priuate life hath giuen me the right hand of Opportunitie to read what hath been disputed and finding the christian cause become more contemptible for that the rules of Gouerment haue beene so disputable doe without all partiall construction of what I haue read in singlenesse of heart wish that the spirit of singularity in some particulars of you giuing place vnto publicke Iudgement had rather by dutious actions conformed it selfe vnto Authoritie then by vniust opposition endeauoured for licentious libertie Action is the best blazoner of vertues vertue The truest approuer of Learnings value The soundest witnesse of hearts desire and then worthy principall acceptation When it worketh by the Line not of opinion but of Iudgement not of priuate fancie but of publicke rule patternd vnto vs in the lawes both of God and men §. 2. The iust constitutions of lawfull Princes are the setled boundaries of duty vnto their Subiects and doe confine euery man within the lists of his particular obedience as the land-markes in the fields doe limmit out their inheritance He which * Deutr. 27. remoued these was held accursed Consider I pray you whether he who vncharitably offendeth against those can in his offence be reputed blessed The determinations of God are the vncontroulable warrants of power vnto Princes The infallable rules both of their duty vnto the highest ruler and authoritie ouer the greatest that are ruled Rules made knowne vnto them not so much by the dim light of nature as by the euerlasting director of holy actions in the euidence of Scripture wherein are the trulie honourable instructions for higher powers to commaund their subiects and most honest directions for Subiects to obey higher powers Vnto the King it is a patterne and carde to guide Austin lib. de vera relig cap. 31. vida lib. 2. de Reip. dignit by vnto the Subiects it is a light wherewith to iudge aright of the lawes vnder which they liue So that whatsoeuer is good in the lawes of Princes or commendable in the dutie of subiects That same is as it were coppied out of and iustified by the eternall lawe of God by whose powerfull grace Kings doe raigne and by whose gratious influence Princes doe Sap. 7. decree righteousnesse If you had made this lawe the chiefe head and principall ruler of your actions and held it so ordinary in your thoughts as it was common in your talke it would haue bred in your religious mindes a dutifull estimation of Princely offices and made you respectiue of publicke obseruances if your mindes be religious this being an Axiom inuincible that nothing is more auncient in the lawes of God nothing more pregnant to aduance common good then obedience First to God the supreame guide of this worldes masse to whose soueraigne power all flesh must stoope and to whose will all kingdomes doe owe conformitie in that he requireth Secondly to the King sent of God to be the * Rex dei figuram inter homines representat Diotogines lib. de reg representer of his Maiestie and the †Plutar. li de doctr principis Leutenant of his regencie The memorie of which subordination as it serueth to drownd all selfe conceipt that may hold the King with admiration of his sublimitie and strengthen him against all aduersary meanes which interrupt him in the exercise of that high dutie the deuine goodnesse requireth of him So it doth obedience to God preserued binde vs generallie without exception and particularlie without respect of person to obay him cheerefully without cunctation and readily without inquisition what he ought or may commaund vs to doe whether it be in causes Ecclesiasticall or Ciuill §. 3. That Princes may commaund the obseruation and practise of religion in their Realmes dominions and kingdomes according as God informeth their consciences by the direction of his alteaching spirit and rules of his sacred worde in the hands of those Priests whose lippes he hath sanctified to be the treasuries of his wisdome is by the vnited practise of all common-weales manifestly conuinced and hath euidence in the testimonies of the best common-wealths-men Amongst all things incident into the actions of men there is none more excellent then Religion saith a In Epinenide Plato In it our cheefest good consisteth saith b Lib. 3. cap. 10. Lactantius It is the vnmoueable foundation of Princely honour saith c Lib. de recta side ad Theodosium Cyrill The safest defence of publicke state saith d De conceptione digestorū Iustinian The richest store-house of mans felicitie saith e Neceph lib. 7. ca. 46 Constantine And therefore ought to be the f Inter caeteras solicitudines quas amor publi us preuigili nobis cura indixit precipuam imperatoriae maiestatis curam esse perspicimus verae religionis indagiman lib. legum Nouell tit 2. cheefest care of Maiesties Empire saith Valentinian In deed most worthy to be the highest care of all cares appertaining to Pincely rule both in respect of the Prince and of the People In respect of the Prince for by religion and * Rex orat habita in Senat. workes according therevnto God is moued to giue life vnto their councels perfection to their indeauours and settlement to their throanes for which cause the more eminent they are in regall Authoritie the more vigilant they ought to be in religious pietie In respect of the People for that the happinesse of our liues doth primarily and principally consist in the well ordering of our liues according to the rule of his will who did at the first imbreath life And when our wills doe yeeld to the regiment of his will
not exemption when the Apostle placeth euery soule vnder subiection Yee are questionlesse yee are marshalled within the listes of this order and whatsoeuer Priuiledge you assume vnto your selues you haue in this no pre-eminencie aboue others but are with like bands subiected vnto Soueraigntie Pleaseth it you to withdrawe your thoughts from the opinion which possesseth you and entertaine your studies with those fore-gone Examples of religious Church-men before time You may in their liues and Basil epist prima the histories of Gods Saints are the liuely examples of Gods common-wealths as in a Gallarie of pleasant Pictures see the viue Images of loyall spirites conforming them-selues with all submission Aaron to Moses Zadocke to Salomon Gregory to Maurilius c. Reuerend Priests to their lawfull Princes as they haue proceeded in Church businesse You may see the holy consort of Gods deuotiues with all humilitie defraying the tribute of their most due seruice to heauens Maiestie not as fancie conceiued but as the authoritie of their Superiours strengthened with his power who hath soueraigne superioritie in all causes prescribed You may see the Christian armies and Souldiers sacred vnto the seruice of our blessed Sauiour in the dissemination of his euerlasting truth though equalled in vnitie of Ordination and vnited in ministeriall equallitie yet performing their humble and vertuous obedience to them of their owne societie whom only Order the preseruer of all things had differenced in dignitie You may see our fatherly guides-men of honourable place auncient yeares reuerend behauiour gathered together in Counsells and Synods the assemblies of diuine Ordination to strengthen our spirituall commerce with the free vse of sacred consultations aduising vpon and prescribing orders for the Propagation of religious doctrine and establishment of holy discipline All which their sacred resolutions and holy sanctions were no sooner intimated vnto the Christian world but you may see them with vnquestionable obedience receiued by Princes as rules of their deuotion regarded by Priests as the Canons of their practique religion and followed by the People as the lights of their Christian conuersation What the reuerend Fathers of the Church decreed then was as much reuerenced by the best Princes as the best decrees of our reuerend Fathers now are basely contemned by the worse Subiects and with you of the faction the perswasion of your owne sufficiencie to know and performe the dutie which doth most fit you in your perochiall residences hath made them the more contemptible I know that Nature hath interessed euery perticular of you a Qui libet est rei suae moderator rector arbitrer in le in remandata mandati Lex respicit ordinem ad bonuÌ„ commune Aquin lib. 2. q. â—â— with abilitie to prescribe rules vnto your selues in your priuate actions but those rules are not lawes to binde others because they haue respect more to your owne priuate then reference to the publicke good and Natures selfe which hath preuiledged you with such prerogatiue doth disanull the libertie if your rules be repugnant to the lawes of Superiours which giues me hope you will make no more appeales from your Ordinaries vnto your selues but as men conformed to better aduise accept directions from our graue Prelates the most competent iudges of decencie in this case and with sobrietie performe the Offices of your Ministrie according to the prescript of holy rule It is safer to leaue the Paines of your conduct vnto the Lawe then vnto libertie and more honourable to order your designes with correspondencie to a stayed rule then irregularlie to worke by the prescript of fancie the mutuall impartment of Christian Iohannes de Turrecremata ciuillitie being then most rightly administred when it is communicated by the line and leuell of Iustice Wherefore sith it hath pleased God to endue you with capacitie of discourse and make you not seruilely subiect to commaund as beasts but voluntarily Eccles 15. inclinable to reasons dictates as men doe not suffer affection stubbornly to carry you away but as you are men of iudgement when iudgment doth not giue order and direction for the producement of your actions distaste the very Propension that leads you vnto the action Questionlesse you could not walke in this way of singularitie nor so irkesomely contend for things so much prohibited but that you permitte your vnderstanding too much reflexe vpon your selues and who will maruaile when the admiration of your owne skill shall holde you if the conceipt of your obedience be drowned in your owne conceipt But you are the true Philodoxes of your owne opinions and will I suppose rather hazard an opposition to the Good of the Church and peace of the Countrie then haue your zeale guided by the limmits of any lawes §. 6. The more eye-full ought you the ciuill Magistrates to be ouer this creeping and incroaching euill that errour by Schisme breake not what truth by authoritie hath builded To preserue the peace of the Church is a speciall prerogatiue belonging to the supreame power of the highest commander and all be it in his Royall person there be great excellencies his Princely minde being enriched with so many heroicke and diuine vertues yet because one as one cannot possibly gouerne many his Highnesse hath with Kingly indulgence communicated part of this royaltie with you and instiled you Iustices of peace that the mention of your names may put you in minde of your duties for the conseruation of peace a Sicut vita in homine ita pax in regno sic sanitas nihil est nisi temperantia humoruÌ„ sic pax est cum vnuÌ„-quodque retinet ordinem suuÌ„ et sicut recedente sanitate tendit homo ad interitum Sic discedente pace regnum tendit ad desolationem vnde vltimum quod attenditur pax est Vnde Philosophus inquit sicut medicus ad sanitatem sic defensor respub tendere debet ad pacem Aquin in mat cap 12 without which if so be it were possible that all other complements of common good might be had in their full perfection neuerthelesse the common-wealth that should possesse them diuorced from concord could be but a spectacle of commiseration Euen as that body which adorned with sundry admirable helpes wanteth health the chiefest thing that nature desireth Prosperitie honoureth Peace as her parent and the prosperous peace of all well ordered common-weales doth acknowledge religion for her cheefest staye as well in regarde of that blessed protection which Gods mercifull hand bestoweth vpon them who faithfully serue him as also for the seruiceable disposition which Religion worketh both in the gouernours and them that are gouerned When they from whose habilities the duties of commaund and seruice proceed doe with constant resolution of minde acknowledge Heauens diuine Empire ouer all and with assured confidence repose in the assistance of God Almightie that inflameth them which are in place of authoritie with desire to resemble God in the action of common good
sociable life where is the bonde of your submission to morrall dutie where is the power of the Church to admitte or reiect what shall be necessarie or inconuenient for the safetie and securitie of her societie If it be lawfull for euery passionate spirit carried with an affectation of Noueltie to repeale Lawes which Authoritie hath enacted to breake customes which Antiquitie hath commended to change Ordinances which Experience hath approued to peruert order which Iudgement hath established and by suiting all occurrents to their priuate humors to innouate that forme of gouerment which this kingdome hath happily followed and heauen richly blessed where is that so much valued wisdome of the Auncient where is the allowance which time giueth to things profitablie honest where is that supremicie which God hath impropriate to the Scepter of Princes as their peculiar right \ I heare you confesse it take heede you be not found secretly to vndermine it but if you be reall as you are verball in the recognition of his supreame Authoritie forgoe the thoughts of your Consistoriall gouerment which affecteth the vsurpation of his Princely rule and giue his religious Offices in the gouerment of the Church their honourable issues in your obedience to that forme of Church gouerment which he hath allowed and especially declared in that booke of Vniformitie wherein if there had beene that apparant cause of reformation as you pretended we haue iust cause to say it was more in his heart to haue done it then in yours to desire it §. 13. You implead the formes and Ceremonies as superstitious Proclam 5. Marti 1603 Proclā 16. Iulii 1604. Epist ad Lodouicū Borbonium principem and not Apostolicke yet you heard them to bee iustified out of the practise of the primitiue Church And Beza warranteth you are not absolutely bound to imitate the times which haue beene in euery particuler or without exception to receaue the Ceremonies which the Church Apostolicke esteemed as most profitable for their times And seeing that those graue learned men vpon whose iudgment you laide the Burthen of vpholding your cause by argument did in that committall conference giue their consent to the obseruation of the rites in vse you should haue presently imbraced them as free from all supposall of superstition \ If we did so iustly deserue to be touched with the note of superstition as in this case you haue imagined we doe I would rather humblie seeke and suppliantly begge pardon of my soules Sauiour then meditate wordes of perswasion for your submission vnto this order Wherein those vnsownder times whereof you speake haue done amisse that comes not within the Circuite of my thoughts but seeing this Church whereof you are members vnlesse by pertinacie in Schisme you disioynt your selues hath required you to reuerence this order as holy to obserue it as behoouefull for the excercise of Christian dutie I do greatly wish that your mindes now possessed with dislike would not set them vp as your markes to shoote at nor by way of Scorne to contradict what Authoritie hath seriouslie commaunded but with ready destination to receaue whatsoeuer is in the exercise of Religion according to the Lawes for that purpose now established §. 14. Some of them I thinke you could be contented with but the Crosse stands in your way and I maruaile not your selues delight so much to stand in Discourse of the troubles at Frāckford pa. 54. the Crosse-way yet did the Church by your owne confession for one thousand and three hundred yeares obserue the Ceremonie of Crossing as an outward testimony of their inward faith insomuch Basil de spu sancto cap. 27. that all which trusted in the name of the Lord Iesu were marked with the signe of the Crosse faith Saint Basill and whosoeuer of you shall vse the signe of Counterplea to an Apological epist Sect. 2. pa. 141. the Crosse in this manner I can assure you is farre from Popish superstition if you will not beleeue me aske Maister Willet I haue heard of a man whose mouth like a Mill that cannot grinde but with foule water doth commonly ouer-runne with termes of obscenitie against the approued cerimonies of holy Church and contumelie against men of honourable seruice onelie therefore because they runne not with him in the same excesse of vnaduised zeale * Ipse Dominus crucē suā vbi eum demētia superbae impietatis irrisit in illorū qui in eū crederēt frontibus infixit vbi est quodāmodo sedes verecundiae vt de nomine eius fides nō erubescat magis dei gloriā quā hominem diligat August in Euangel tracta 53. in fine Baptiz 16. Ianu. Anno Dō 1601. Tacitus l. 14 annal Sepult 20. Ia. 1601. This fellow hearing a childe of his at the time of Baptisme to be signed with the Crosse in the forehead the seate of honesty did so frettingly disdaine thereat that in the heate of his newfangled spirit he said it would haue done as much good if it had beene done in the seate of natures impuritie But what followed this prophane contempt of that significatiue Ceremonie and Character of Christianitie I know you desire to heare and but to satisfie your desire as also to giue witnesse to the cause in hand I could contentiuely silence it least vnhappily any of you should thinke me as Caius Cassius spake of himselfe in the Romaine Senate carryed with too much loue of Auncient holy customes His next borne Childe being a goodly boye wanted that place of Natures vent Whether Nature were hindred in producing of her intended effect by some Grosse defection in the naturall causes or else that the Author of Nature who according to the rules of true Philosophie immediatly concurreth with all singular secundarie causes euen to their perticular effects for ends best knowne to his all-seeing prouidence doth at any time with-draw his co-operatiue power I recommend it to your consultation yet I doubt the tempest of your affections will beat against what the hand of iudgment doth build Many did admire it as a blowe giuen by his diuine hand whose power ruleth all from the highest Seraphyn to the lowest Syncphee and in the duty of a Christian I wish the remembrance of it might not onely water the Father with the liquor of Obedience vnto order that he may prosper as a well rooted Plant in the garden of Humilitie but also induce his brother who in the worke of his Ministery impugneth this vse of the crosse vnto a more dutifull conformity §. 15. Two things haue giuen great swaye vnto your Quāto sāctiores apparent tanto magis sub praetextu sanctitatis nocent Ambr. de Noc Archa ca. 14. sect the one is apparancie of zeale the other subtletie of discourse the glareing baites of masked follie vailed with the shew of deuotion ambitiously desiring to be esteemed what you are not you haue mislead poore beguiled Soules to that they should not and with facillitie