this last it saith Christ ordained the authority of the Keâ—es to excommunicate notorious sinners and to absolve them which are truly penitent They abuse this power at their owne pleasure as well in cursing the godly with Bell Booke and Candle as also in absolving the reprobate which are knowne to be unworthy of any Christian society And what can the Prelates and their Court say for theÌ„selues why that of Bernard may not be applied to them which hee spake of the Prelates in his time Quem dabis mihi de numero Episcoporum qui non plus invigilet subditorum evacuendis marsupijs quaâ— vicijs extirpandis Vbi est qui flectat iram Vbi est qui praedicet annum placabilem Domini Propterea relinquamus istos quia non sunt Pastores sed traditores imitemur illos qui viventes in carne plantâ—verunt Ecclesiam sanguine suo Successores omnes cupiunt esse imitatores pauci Whom wilt thou shew mee of all the Bishops who is not more vigilant to empty the peoples purses then to root out their vices Where is hee that seekes to appease wrath Where is hee that preacheth the acceptable yeere of the Lord Wherefore let usabandon these men because they are not Pastors but Traytors and let us imitate those who living in the flesh have planted the Church with their blood So hee I will not speake of their domesticall discipline but for the present and for brevity sake passe it over But from the beginning it was not so Hierome saith A negotiating Clerke and of poore rich of ignoble glorious fly from as from a kind of plague The 3. Change is in the worship of God which they goe about to turne inside outward placing the true worship which is in Spirit and Trueth in a Will-worship of mans devising consisting in some externall complements and gesticulations as cringing crouchings bowing or standing upright at some Scriptures more than at others also a punctuall observance in these formalities as in bowing to the name of Iesus to the Communion table or rather Altar as to the Mercy-seat as they teach in their books praying with their faces towards the East thus tying God to a fixed place standing at reading of the Gospell and the like Also reading their second service at their Altar as we touched before many the like And who so wil not worship after their new fashion their new discipline is to excommunicate them or to bring them into the High-coÌ„mission a place which they make worse theÌ„ Purgatory it selfe Al which oppression being an innovation is directly contrary to the Act of Conformity before the CoÌ„munion Booke bringing the Prelats into little lesse then a Praemunire The 4. change is in the civill govermeÌ„t which they labor to reduce transferre to Ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample upon the Lawes of the Land step between the King his people exercising such a lawlesse tyranny over their bodies goods as also over their coÌ„sciences as is more intollerable then the Egyptian servitude of Israel under their Taskmasters in regard wherof the Prelates power over-swaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes the people of the Land are used rather as vassals slaves to the Prelates then as the free subjects of the King And this is the case of all England at this day the people every where groaning sighing for this their boÌ„dage their miserable vexations in the Ecclesiasticall Courts Well could they but cry mightily to the Lord and make their just complaints to his vicegerent their King as their cause requireth hee would quickly send a Moses to deliver them And so much the more should they bee sensible of this evill by how much the glory of the Kings governement over a free people according to his righteous Lawes is lamentably eclipsed his power infringed and his regall Prerogative undermined The fifth innovation is in the altering of Prayer-Bookes set foorth by publicke authority And first in the Communion Booke set forth by Parliament and commaunded to bee read without any alteration and none other they have altered Sundry things as in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progeny they have put out Father of thine elect and of their Seed as it were excluding the King Queene and Seed Royall out of the number of Gods Elect. Also in the Epistle for Sunday before Easter That in the name of Iesus they haue turned into At the name of Iesus that so it may make the fairer colour for their forced bowing to the name of Iesus for which there is neither Scripture nor ancient Father The second Booke is the Prayers set forth by authority of Parliament for Solemne thankesgiving for our deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason of the Papists on every Fifth of November where in stead of this passage Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. They in the last Edition 1635. set it downe thus Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect OF THEM which say of Ierusalem c. Now whereas the words of the Originall copy doe plainely meane That all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. This latter Booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it to those Puritans that cry Downe with Babilon that is Popery which these men call Ierusalem and the true Catholike Religion Againe in the same Prayer the old copy hath these words And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion whose faith is faction whose practise is murdering of soules and bodies and to root them out of the confines of this Kingdome c. But the new Booke hath it thus And to that end strengthen the hands of our Gratious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement and Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity WHO TVRNE RELIGION INTO REBELLION AND FAITH INTO FACTION Thus these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to be termed Rebellion and their faith Faction as the ancient copy plainly shewes it to bee but turne it off from the religion to some persons which turne religion into rebellion and faith into faction So as by this turning they plainly imply that the religion of Papists is the true religion and no rebellion and their faith the true faith and no faction Thus with altering of a word they have quite perverted the sence and so turned the Cat in the Pan so as the blame is quite taken off from the Church of Rome and laid upon a few who ever they bee who turne Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction Thus what dare not these men doe that are not afraid to alter those things which are
the rule whereby God doth governe the best patterne of a Kings government and the reason is this Wee are to bee subject to our King in the performance of all due services by that bond or tye which not onely Gods Law and Ordinance but also the Kings Law doth put upon us You may remember I showed you before how Gods Law is the rule of our feare and service which wee performe unto his Majesty and to goe beside or transgresse this rule brings us under the guilt and penalty of rebellion I showed you also how wee are bound to serve God as our King by vertue of mutuall stipulation which God makes with us and we with him Semblably our subjection unto the King is to be regulated as by Gods Law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good Lawes of the King And note the completenesse of this correspondence It stayes not here but holds also in that mutuall stipulation or Covenant which the King and his Subjects make at his Coronation Where the King taking an explicit solemne oath to maintaine the ancient Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those Lawes established So consequently and implicitly all the people of the Land doe sweare fealty allegiance subjection and obedience to their King and that according to his just Lawes To this purpose it is that his excellent Majesty in the Petition of Right which he subscribed with his owne royall hand hath these words worthy to be written in golden characters The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realme and that the Statutes be put in due execution and His Subjects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof hee holds himselfe in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative And after that in full Parliament he concluded with these words Soit droit fait come est desire Let right be done as is desired And then in his Majesties speech following And I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties O blessed King ever may'st Thou live crowned with all blessings in Thy Royall selfe and Posterity being knit unto Thy people in this indissoluble bond And herein His Sacred Majestie shewed himselfe a Peereles Sonne to His Peerelesse Father who in his speech to the Parliament 1609. besides sundry other rare passages to the same purpose hath these words The King bindes himselfe by a double oath to the observation of the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Tacitly as being a King and so bound as well to protect the People as the Lawes of his Kingdome and expresly by his Oath at His Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdome is bound to observe that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his government agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge c. And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdome leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soone as hee leaves off to rule according to his lawes And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common Wealth Which words beseeming a just King I have heere set downe as an honourable testimony of such a Father of such a Sonne and all to be for the stronger reason to all subjects to performe all due obedience to their Soveraigne For if your Gracious King doe so solemnly by Sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under His Royall hand bind himselfe to maintaine the Lawes of his Kingdome and therein the Rights and Liberties of His Subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the King according to his just Laws So much of the proofe of the point Now to the Uses Here 1. Not onely Papists but the religion of Popery it selfe come under the guilt and condemnation of Rebellion forasmuch as the maine Principle of Popery is to exalt and acknowledge the Pope as supreme over all Powers as Emperors Kings Princes States c. And therefore not unworthily is their Religion branded for Rebellion and their faith for Faction and their practise murdering of soules and bodies And though some Papists will take the Oath of Allegiance as subjects to their King yet they refuse the Oath of Supremacy as acknowledging their subjection to the King upon no other termes but as subordinate to the Pope as Supreme And so the Pope and not the King is the Papists King and Soveraigne And yet how is their rebellious religion nay which is rebellion it selfe fostered and fomented in our Land to the infinite dishonour not onely of God but of the King and His Supremacy and danger of the Kingdom if God in mercy doe not prevent it The ancient Church before Antichrist the great usurper mounted aloft acknowledged no Supreme above the Emperour or every absolute Prince in his Kingdome but onely God 2. For Exhortation Heere let all good Christians and royall subjects learne to yeeld all feare honour obedience to their Soveraigne following the direction and exhortation of the Apostle Let every soule be subject to the higher powers And render to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Feare to whom feare Honour to whom honour And for the better stirring up of all those duties which subjects owe to their Soveraigne Let us often meditate of these reasons and motives fore-mentioned by the Apostle and especially considering That the King is Gods Minister to doe Iustice to punish the evill and to countenance and reward the good as also because hee attends continually upon this great office And lastly considering in speciall how our Gracious Soveraigne hath entered into Solemne and sacred Covenant with all his people to bee their King and Protector and to governe them according to his good and just lawes and to maintaine all their just Rights and Liberties and according to the Patterne of God himselfe whose vicegerent hee is to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the Kingdome prescribe and require With what alacrity then and readinesse ought all Subjects to expresse their loyalty to their Prince and with all adde their dayly and fervent prayers and supplications for the life of our gracious King that under the shadow of his righteous and religious government wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty It followeth Feare the King that is with a filiall feare as the feare of the Lord is only keeping the difference that the one is a religious filiall
my course preaching upon the whole Chapter It was objected to me that therein I did contrary to the Kings Declaration To which I answered that I never take the Kings Declaration to be intended by him for the suppressing of any part of Gods truth neither durst I ever conceive a thought so dishonourable to the King at to thinke him to be an instrument of suppressing Gods truth And have I not good ground for it For in his Majesties Declaration to All his loving Subjects of the cause which mooved him to dissolue the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall Command his Majesty mentioning Richard Mountagues Appeale which did open the way to those Schismes and divisions which have since insued in the Church expresseth himselfe in these words we did for remedy and redresse thereof and for satisfaction of the consciences of our good people not only by our publick Proclamation call in that Book which ministred matter of offence but to prevent the like danger for hereafter reprinted the Articles of Religion established in the time of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory and by a Declaration before those Articles we did tye restraine all opinions to the sense of those Articles that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovation For we call God to record before whom we stand that it is and alwayes hath been our hearts desire to be found worthy of that title which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne Defender of the faith neither shal we ever give way to the authorising of any thing where by any innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserve that vnity of Doctrine Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood florished ever since These be his Majesties expresse words Well for all this I was suspended from my Mistery Thus when they would insnare or oppresse us they lay all the burden upon the King which how injurious and dishonorable it is to his Majesty I referre to them that are best able to judge of matters of such moment Take another instance Another time namely then when I was brought to the High Commission board at London-house about that Booke of mine formerly mentioned though they had nothing at all against mee but rayling and reviling and charging me with sedition which I retorted upon themselves whereby I put them to silence for the time yet they recovering breath one of them sayd I must to prison If I must sayd I I desire to put in baile in regard of my Ministeriall charge being within three dayes of Easter No quoth my Lord of London that then was the King hath given expresse charge for YOV that no â—ale shall bee taken for YOV No my Lord Then I desire to know by what Law or Statute of the Land you doe imprison 〈◊〉 if it bee according to Law I humbly submit my selfe Otherwise I doe here claime the right and priviledge of a Subject according to the Petition of Right Well for all this to prison I must and if I found my selfe agrieved I might bring a writ of false imprisonment To the Fleet I went where I was a prisonner twelve dayes And when they sent for me forth to make me amends they put me into the High Commission out of the frying pan into the fire But blessed be God and my King by the benefit of whose good Lawes I obtayned a Prohibition against their illegall proceedings which fetcht mee off those shelves where else with the threatned storme of their Censure I must have suffered shipwracke But now I referre it to the sad consideration of the sagest whither that which hee fathered upon the King was not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse both me and the many by-standers and consequently all the people in the Land with a sinister opinion of the Kings justice constancy in keeping his solemne Covenant with his people as in that Petition of Right Though I blesse God I could never intertaine such a thought of my King that he should utter such a word as to deny his old Servant the hanfell-benefit of his gratious hand wherewith but a little before he had signed the Petition of Right for the maintenance not onely of myne but of every good Subjects just and honest cause Take yet another instance and that also at the high Commission Court where I was attending as a poore Client or rather an Innocent at the barre waiting for my Censure There a Rule for a Prohibition for Master Prinne being cendered in Court according to the course of the Kings Lawes in that behalfe presently my Lord of London then President of the Court stands vp and flyes in the face of Master Prinne and his Prohibition with great heat of passion even almost unto fury and after many threatnings to him hee uttered these words that whosoever should dare to bring the next Prohibition hee would set him fast by the heeles This was spoken alowd in open Court Now as I conceive this did not a little reflect and trench upon the Kings honor the Lawes of the Land and the Liberty of the subject What for any man to dare with open mouth and that in open Court to out-dare the Kings just goverment of his Subjects according to his good Lawes Or upon what ground did hee thus boldly beare himselfe Vpon the King His Majesty had not long before signed â—he Petition of Right Also his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the causes which mooved him to dissolve the last Parliament Published by his Majesties speciall commaund 1628. Speaking in his name that for the Parliaments full satisfaction and security Hee did by an answer framed in the forme by themselves desired to their Parliamentary Petition confirme their ancient and just Liberties and Rights which saith his Majesty Wee resolve with all constancy and justice to maintaine Whereupon then did this man dare to utter such an insolent speech Not from the King I am sure Wee have his Royall Word and Hand to the contrary And yet some perhaps might surmise that hee durst not speake thus in open Court had hee not some better ground for it than his owne desperate boldnesse Or the best Apology hee can make is that his tongue did runne before his wit and that in the flames of his passion he sacrificed his best reason and loyalty To these Instances wee will adde two or three more very remarkable and whereof wee all at this very time are eye-witnesses for they are still in acting The first is That most outragious practise of the Prelates in making havocke of the Church and of Religion by suspending excommunicating outing of Ministers from their freehold and the like because they cannot dare not read the booke for sports on the Lords day Now the Prelates and their officers herein most insolently and with a high hand proceeding neither according to Law nor
neere affinity or rather consanguinity they being sensible of the smart of his whip tooke it all upon themselves and so as Iudges in their owne cause passed their Episcopall censure upon him yea although he not only in his booke but openly before the whole Court professed and protested that hee medled not with those Prelates who received and acknowledged their Episcopall Iurisdiction from Kings and Princes and withall he alleadged and read in the audience of the Courts sundry Statutes as in King Henry the eight Edward thâ— sixt and Queene Elizabeth which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction unto the Crowne of England So as no Prelate or other Person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. But he must have it immediately from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England This Iurisdiction annexed to the Crowne of England Doctor Bastwicke alledged in Court against that usurped Iurisdiction of the Hierarchy of Rome which they challenge from Christ. Notwithstanding they alledged for themselves that they had their Episcopall authority from Christ and if they could not proove it they would cast away their Rochets So they may cast their caps too for any such proofe they can bring for it But stopping the Doctors mouth that he might not plead his cause they proceeded to a most grievous censure of him in 1000. pound fine to the King for maintaining the Royalty of His Crowne against the Prelates usurpation who would plucke away that gemme from it Imprisonment Excommunication suspension from his practise in Prison and the many miseries depending thereupon and devolving upon his Wife and children So as it is plaine they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but which with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ. And this is cleere by a threefold practise of theirs 1. Their censuring of Doctor Bastwick for this very cause that hee impugned all Episcopall Iurisdiction over Gods Ministers claimed from Christ or the Scripture So as they make it their owne cause with the Pope and his Prelates as all holding by that title and not from the authority of Kings and Princes And this is according to that in Dr. Pockâ—â—ngtons Sunday no Sabbath where hee saith pag. 48. Hereby wee may by Gods mercy make good the trueth of our Church For wee are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to St. Gregory and from him to our first Archbishops St. Austin our English Apostle downward to his Grace that now fits in his Chaire Primate of all England and Metropolitane So hee Thus wee see how our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierchie then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines fince the Reformation till but yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselues the very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome Secondly the constant practise of our Prelates proveth this for they neither have at any time nor have sought to have any the Kings Letters Parents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe Thirdly in that they labour by all meanes possible to maintaine this their absolute and independed Iurisdiction as no way depending on the King and namely by stopping the ordinary course of Law that the Kings people may bee cut off from all benefit of the Kings good Lawes and of their native ancient Liberties so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obtaine a Prohibition against their illegall practises invexing oppressing the Kings good Subjects nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their Proceedings in the High Commission makes the Courts of Instice startle So as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed For example the Ministers of Surry who are suspended from their Ministery and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all Law or Conscience yet are so disheartned and overawed that they dare not contend in Law against the Prelate for feare of further vexations and they are out of hope of any fayre hearing in an ordinary Legall way Nay when Doctor Bastwicke had procured a Habâ—as corpus to remove him out of the Bishope stincking prison in the Gate-house unto the Kings Bench. and thereupon was removed thither-yet notwithstanding they procured the reversing of this Legall Order and brought the Prisonner backe againe with avengeance and triumph to his old lodging Thus wee see they have gotten such a power into their hands as doth overtop and countermaund the Kings Lawes and the peoples Liberties Now this power they have not from the Imperiall Crowne according to the Lawes of the Land but it is a meere usurpation So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forraigne power altogether excluded in the Statute of 1. Elis. cap. 1. And it is flatly against the Oath of Supremacy in the same Statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires and lawfull Successors and to their power to defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges c. granted or belonging to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires c. Now all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which the Prelates have authority to exercise being annexed to the Crowne as is cleere by the foresayd statute either they must not claime it by another title or if they doe they are all in a Tramunire and under the guilt of perjury And whither they bee not also in a Praemunire for practising their Iurisdiction as keeping of Courts visitations c. in their owne names not having the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England I leave to the learned in the Law to judge But some will say that they defend and maintaine all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to bee from the King For in the visitation Articles for Norwich by Mathew their Lord Bishop this is one Be there any in your Parish that have denyed or perswaded any other to deny withstand or impugne the Kings Majesties Authority and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall within this Realme First I answer this is a faire colour and pretence as if it were against Papists Secondly it is against their ordinary practise as in the former examples And thirdly admit they doe sincerely professe that they have or hold no Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction but from the King yet the question is whither they will say that all those outrageous courses they how hold and
FOR GOD and the KING THE SVMME OF TWO SERMONS Preached on the fifth of November last in St. MATTHEWES FRIDAY-STREETE 1636. By HENRY BVRTON Minister of GODS Word there and then 1. PET. 2. 17. Feare GOD. Honour the KING 2. TIM 4. 1 2 3. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reproove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine c. Bernard in Dedic Ecclae Ser. 3. Non miremini fratres si durius loqui videor Quia veritas neminem palpat Printed Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. SIR What the title in the front professeth FOR GOD AND THE KING the substance thereof was by me preached in two Sermons on the last fifth of November 1636. to teach my people obedience to both And for this I was by the divine providence directed to this Text Prov. 24. 21. 22. My Sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Doctrines of which text as I thought the more necessary to be preached and pressed in these times of Apostacy and defection from the due obedience both of God and the King So I deemed that day the memoriall whereof should cause all loyall subjects for ever to detest all Innovations tending to reduce us to that Religion of Rome which plotted that matchlesse treason the most seasonable for this text as wherein our Solemne acknowledgement of our sacred thankes to God for our great deliverance the fruits whereof we injoy at this day under your Royall and happy government being a strong ingagement and inducement to every good duty both to God and the King might worke the more kindly effect in the hearers a word in season being as the Wiseman saith like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Now although the generall good acceptation of the word then preached whereby the peoples hearts were much affected being instructed and exhorted to sticke closse to God and the King in all manner of duties to each that none of those of whom my text admonisheth might worke a disvnion might have beene a sufficient motive of publishing those Sermons in print for the generall good of all your Majesties loving Subjects throughout this your Kingdome yet Lo a necessity it now layd upon mee For on December 3. after my house had beene searched by a Pursuivant Constables and Wardens of the Company of Stationers for a booke which I had not then and there the Pursuivant served me with Letters Missive from the High Commission to appeare on Twesday then next ensuing before Doctor Ducke at Chesewicke there to answer to Articles against me The Articles were all of them against my preaching and in speciall and by name against my Sermons on November 5. on Prov. 34. 21. 22. Therein was objected to me that I preached against sundry Innovations which indeed was one speciall point in my text as alterations in the booke for the fift of November alterations in the new Fast-booke contrary to your Majestes Proclamation which Orders the old Fast booke set forth by your Majesties authority to be reprinted and published alterations in the Booke of Common Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament a turning out of the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progeny these words Father of thine Elect and of their seed as if they would blot out your Majesty Qeene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect and in the Epistle on Sunday before Faster for IN the name of Iesus is now put AT the name of Iesus c. alterations in setting up of Altars Images Crucifixes in bowing to the Altar in putting downe afternoone Sermons on the Lords dayes in sundry Diocesse in allowing no other Catechising but by bare Question and Answer out of the Booke without expounding of the maine Principles of Religion to the ignorant youth and people in reading of a second Service at the Altar in the upper end of the Chancell where in many great Churches the people cannot possibly heare not even in lesser Churches or indifferent without a stentorious voyce of the Minister together with sundry other things of the like nature some truely alledged which I am readie to maintaine against the Innovators and some falsely and maliciously perverted whereof I am readie to give your Majestie a true account And in the end of all the Articles I was charged to bring in a true copie of my Sermon The conclusion was a booke tendred to me to sweare to answer to those Articles Here at I startled admiring that these things should be charged upon me as crimes which both were truthes and pertinent to my text and necessarie to admonish my people of as leading them from the feare of God and of the King I also upon the suddaine apprehended that I could expect small iustice of those that were not only the countenancers but practisers yea and which is the highest degree of all iniquity open maintainers of such innovations and that in that very Court where they ought rather to bee severely Censured and Suppressed but that on the contrarie I should be there censured as a Delinquent for executing my Ministerie in speaking the trueth and reprooving of Sinne. And againe considering with my selfe that this cause was of a higher nature then to be so much as hazzarded upon the iudgement of these who were professed parties I presently reflected my thoughts upon your Sacred Majestie as not only worthie to take the cognizance of so waightie a cause and the best able both in respect of your Princelie wisdome and unpartiall iudgement to waigh it in a just ballance but also as the prime and principall person next unto God whose honour and welfarre it most neerelie concerneth and who next after God are ingaged in my text to inquire into So as my replie to Dr. Duke was Sir I humblie appeale to the Kings Majestie my Soveraigne and Patron as my judge in this cause and before whom I shall be both a Defendant and Complainant For I hold it not fit that they who are my adversaries should be my Iudges These were the verie words of my Appeale to Your Majestie as I remember Now thou my Gracious Soveraigne that which my profest adversaries in so just a cause did unjustlie and against the Law require of me namelie to bring them a copie of my Sermon that so they might at their pleasure take advantages by perverting of my words I doe here most freelie and faithfullie in all humblenesse present to Your Majestie yea and that with manie additions and inlargements like to Ieremies rowle
that in the chiefe place Your Majestie may take a full account of the whole matter whereof nothing is concealed and so also as all Your loving and loyall Subjects may make good use of it Herein besides manie other things the reading whereof will not I hope be losse of time to Your Majestie I haue observed sundrie perillous innovations set on foot in this Your Kingdome worthie Your Majesties saddest consideration And to whom next unto God should I addresse my complaint herein but to Your Majestie whose honour I cannot but be most tenderlie sensible of so deeplie suffering in those Innovations herein mentioned For how frequentlie and Solemlie hath your Majestie made most Sacred Protestations to all Your loving Subjects that you would never suffer the least innovation to creep into Your Kingdome And here both for the comfort to us Your faithfull people and for the conviction and condemnation of our Innovators and for the refreshing of the memorie of Your Majesties Golden Sayings never to be forgotten as most honourable to Your Majestie let me set downe a few of them Your Majestie in Your Declaration to all Your loving Subjects of the causes that mooved You to dissolve the last Parliament published by Your Majesties Speciall command 1628. pag. 21. hath these words We call God to record before whom wee stand that it is and alwaies hath been our hearts desire to be found worthie of that title which we account the most glorious in al our Crowne DEFENDER OF THE FAITH neither shall wee ever give way to the authorising of anie thing whereby ante innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserve that unitie of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and florished ever since And in your Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion speaking of Ordinances and Constitutions in Convocation by Your Majesties leave and under Your Seale is added this Proviso Providing that none be made contrarie to the Lawes and Customes of the Land More might be added All which well considered how audacious yea how impious are our Innovatours how fearelesse of Your Majestie how regardlesse of Your Royall Honor that in their Innovations made such havocke commit such outrages and that upon the open theater New Rites and Ceremonies doe now not steale and creep into the Church but nudo capite are violently and furiously obtruded upon Ministers and people and that with suspension excommunication ejection out of house and home threatnings and thundrings to the refusers who dare not yeeld conformity unto them as being against both Law and Conscience and these your solemne declarations So as it seemeth these Innovators will put it to the triall whether their practises will more prevayle against your Majesties Solemne and Sacred Protestations to the contrarie which stand upon Record in aeternam rei memoriam that so they may as much as in them lyeth blast the beautie and glorie of Your Royall Name delivered in Annales to posteritie as if it should be said This King had no regard to sacred Vowes and solemne Protestations which God forbid it should ever enter into the thought of any of Your loving Subjects to suspect or whether your Majestie will looke moore narrowly into their desperate practises not suffering your self to be abused through credulitie of their blandishing flatteries and bainfull suggestions and Your people most intollerably oppressed under their lawlesse power will bee pleased upon others true reports true reports I say for who dare report falsely of them whom so few dare speake the truth against them they be so potent and vindicative to make a full Scrutiny and inquiry into their exorbitant and extravagant courses and thereupon to acquit Your honour in executing of Iustice upon the Delinquents I doe not charge any one particular person That honor is reserved to Your Majestie For as Salomon saith it is the honor of Kings to search out a matter And for me Your Majesties old and faithfull Servant while as Christ Minister a watchman of Israel yea a Sentinell perdu I discover both present and thereupon in my apprehension consequent dangers to my Soveraigne and his State and while as the poore sheep I appeale and complaine to my Shepherd oh never let my Shepherd either leave me in or deliver me into the power of the wolfe And while all along I plead for God and the King for Feare and Obedience and against Innovators the enemies of both oh let my God and my King protect their poore Servant against his adversaries the Innovators in my text Who if they quarrell these my charges I beseech Your Majestie lay Your charge upon them to make a full and cleare answer unto them What shall or can I say more Your Majesties wisedome can pierce deeper into this cause then my shallownesse is able to give intimation wherein you will easily discerne how deeply You are ingaged to close with God and Your good Subjects against all those Innovators the disturbers of the peace and distractors of the unitie of Your Kingdome so as thereby You shall become the most glorious Prince in Christendome formidable to Your enemies and amiable to all Your good Subjects whose hearts and affections being indecred hereby will become a richer Mine to Your Majestie then all the Westerne Indies to the King of Spaine And if my stile seeme sharper then usuall be pleased to impute it to my Zeale and Fidelitie for God and for Your Majestie when I am to encounter with those that he adversaries to both And if any word have dropped from my pen which malice may pervert and wrest to my prejudice I beseech Your Majestie to be my Iudge Your selfe and to consider as on the one side a weake man so on the other a Minister of Christ whose message hee durst not but faithfully discharge to his uttermost power and at his uttermost perill Nor must I looke to fare better then the Prophets of old who complained of those who made a man an offender for a word and laid a snare for him that reprooued in the gate Yea then Christ himselfe whom the Pharisees thought to intangle in his words Yet my comfort is that a Prince so gracious so righteous so religious shall be my Iudge And if my simplicitie shall be by my captious Adversaries found worthy of censure for a word misplaced or so I shall the more willinglie undergoe their censure so as they may haue their condigne punishment according to the Law for their most perrillous Innovations In fine my last comfort is and will be that in case they shall for the present beare me downe together with so Noble a cause as this is which yet I know will in time beate all us Adversaries downe sith it is Christs owne Cause I haue been a true witnesse of Christ and a faithfull subject of Your Majestie in thus freeing mine owne soule by discharging of my duety What ever become
the pranks that they play in many places of the Kingdome are by speciall warrant from the King or whither the King by some generall warrant dormant hath given them this unlimited power which they at their pleasure doe exercise For instance Will Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich say that hee hath any warrant from the King speciall or generall for making such havocks and hurliburlies in those two great Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke to the intollerable dishonour of God injury to his Ministers and people and tending to most dangerous consequences If hee have not any warrant but doth it of his owne head or by the instigation of any other Arch-Prelate then let him looke to it least he come to suffer as an usurper a bringer in of a forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome If he say he hath warrant for 〈◊〉 let him 〈◊〉 it But I hope hee will not father his desperate courses upon the King What will hee say that the King gives him a power to exercise such unheard of tyranny and injustice upon the Kings peaceable Subjects and Christs faithfull Ministers and that against the Kings Lawes and peoples Rights all which the King hath sworne againe and againe and solemnly protested to maintaine inviolable as his owne Crowne Never therefore let any man dare to pretend any such thing so dishonourable to his Majesty Againe suppose which yet is not to bee supposed that the Prelates should so farre prevaile as to procure a grant from the King to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of the Religion by Law established Yet whatsoever colour pretext or â—ow could they make for this the King to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the Power that is in the King is given unto him by God and confirmed by the Lawes of the Kingdome Now neither God in his Law nor the Lawes of the Land doe allow the King a power to alter the State of Religion or to oppresse and Suppresse the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell against both Law and Conscience For Kings are the Ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before But what doe I speake of this If all the Prelates in England did never so boldly affirme that what they doe in these extravagant courses of theirs it is by warrant from the King I would be so fat from giving any credit unto them herein that I should be the first that should addresse my humble complaint to his Majesty of such dishonour done unto him and humbly petition his Majesty to vindicate his honour from the least suspition of his giving way to or countenancing the Prelates in such their practises as cry up to heaven for vengeance upon their heads This I have urged the more both in reverence to his Sacred Majesty whose honour I cannot indure should receive the least blemish and also in reference to the point in hand because such usurpation of the Prelates cendeth directly to make a division betweene the King and his subjects cantrary to that which we teach here that good Subjects must cleave to their God and King without separation and defection which is by the ligaments of good Lawes which being broken they are as the resolution of the nerves in the naturall body or the cutting in sunder of the sinewes whereby the head and members are united and compacted in one intire body And therefore this claime which the Prelates make of their Prelation and Iurisdiction over Christs Ministers jure divino being repugnant not only to the cleare Scripture forbidding all such domination as they practise as Math. 20. 25. c. Marke 10. 42. c. 1. Pet. 5. i. c. for which they have neither the example of Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any ancient Bishops but principally of Diotrephes 3 Iohn 10. whom they imitate in affecting of preeminence in opposing Iohn the Apostle in exommunicating the Preachers in prating against them with malicious words and the like but also to the Kings Crowne to the Lawes of the Land and consequently to the Liberties of the Subjects I know not with what warrant or Conscience any Minister of Christ can submit to the Practises of these men tending to the ruine of the Kingdome of Christ in this Land and consequently of the whole Kingdome and State Now all these instances alledged are so notorious some of them fresh in memory and many witnesses of them yet living being done but the other day and others yet present before our eyes that they cannot bee denyed and their notoriousnesse makes them the more pernicious as teÌ„ding to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies with sinister affections towards their King as if hee were the prime cause of all those grievances which the Prelates in his name doe oppresse the Kings good Subjects withall But Trust in the Lord as it is my dayly prayer that hee will preserve the hearts and affections of his people closse and intire to their King and that he will discover both to the King and his people these treacherous practises of the usurping Prelates that so neither the King may thinke evill of his good people nor they have the least jealousy that his Maiesty approveth and countenanceth much lesse willeth and commaundeth his Prelates to coÌ„mit these their intollerable outrages Well come weenow to a second use which is of Exhortation and admonition to all good Subjects above all things to beware of those that cunningly insinuate themselves betweene the barke and the tree that labour to divide the head from the body and the body from the head by casting bones betweene the King and his good Subjects And here Beloued let me in the name of the Lord admonish you that whatsoever passages or outrages you see to bee done by the Prelates although they doe never so boldly pretend the Kings name for it yee believe them not Let never any Sinister opinion concerning his Sacred Majesty creepe into the closset of your brests and as a Snake either sting or poyson your true loyal hearts towards him And therfore beware of all those Factors for Antichrist whose practise is to divide Kings froÌ„ their Subjects subjects from their King that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe where it had beene in a good measure throwne downe and cast out yea by this time utterly rooted out of this Land if he had not had such strong Sticklers as his Iesuites and Priests yea the Prelates themselves as their practises plainly show to keep him in life and to set him upon his feet againe But yee Beloved abhorre these Factors And if ever they should so farre prevaile as to open a wide breach to let in a forraigne enemy which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto then
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
for the extinguishing and remaunding to hell those damnable Heresies which then began to spring up among them by the meanes of those Seeds men Arminius and Vorstius And were not the learned Workes and Writings of those Worthies of the Reformed Churches next after the Scriptures the most fit to cope with those Heresies as being better exercised against them And doth not the King pag. 377. call that the Orthodox faith which the reformed Churches did professe and whereof Calvin Beza Zanchie Iunius and others were the planters and founders amongst them And in particular did not King Iames commend Calvin as the most judicious and sound Expositer of the Scripture Nay can any man bee so impious as to imagine King Iames should doe any act in prejudice of Calvin Zanchie Beza P. Martyr and the rest whose names and reputation Arminius himselfe laboured tooth and nayle to disgrace that so hee might advance his owne cause Did not King Iames write to the States against Arminius calling him that Enemy of God How then can any man be so injurious to the memory of that Orthodox King as to thinke hee ever intended to inhibit young Students the reading of those excellent judicious learned illustrious lights of the Church and to restraine them to the ancient Fathers and Schoole-man in whose writings though many things be good and excellent yet their workes are not without their navi or spots so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere Gather Pearles out of the mud as Virgil saith of the reading of Ennius And young Students have not the maturity of judgement to put an exact difference to make choise of the things that are excellent and to leave the refuse And 〈◊〉 the same King Iames applies that old Verse to this purpose Quo semel est imbuta recens seruabit odorem Testa diu The vessell will tast a long time after of that liquor wherewith it is first seasoned And what shall become of the little brooks if their fountaine bee corrupted So the King And wee know that the Fathers and Schoole-men being commended and presented to young men in the habits of venerable antiquity are apt to beget in them the greater reverence and credence to their writings in comparison of those that are moderne and as it were but of yesterday And therefore young Students had need rather to bee admonished not to meddle with Fathers and Schoole-men till they come to riper yeeres and bee well seasoned with the pure liquor of Trueth both immediately drunke in from the fountaines of the Scriptures and derived by those uncorrupt Conduit-pipes the Divines of the Reformed Churches An unexpert Sea-man must not adventure his vessell on the Seas without an experienced Pilot that knowes the Shelues or shallowes and Rocks least he commit ship-wrack before he be aware Againe wee know what a learned Champion King Iames was against Popery Now an injudicious Reader not being well grounded aforehand comming to read some Fathers and Schoole-men may in some passages perhaps foysted in by the false fingering of the Monks as many of the writings in the volumes of the Ancients are factious and spurious bee infected with the poyson of Popish error and Superstition before hee be aware Therefore how can wee imagine that any such Order was the Kings but rather that it proceeded from some of the Prelates about him thereby the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery And to this purpose they procure another order in King Iames his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops Deanes shall handle those points And after that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name which though as wee noted before it was farre from his Majesties pious intention to inhibit any part of Gods truth to bee preached but the contrary heresies yet the Prelates perverted and extended it to an universall silencing and suppressing of all those saving Doctrines of Election Predestination effectuall vocation by grace assurance perseverance in opposition to the contrary Arminian heresies so as neither Prelates nor Presbyters must meddle with them Thus the Doctrines of the Gospell must be for ever husht layd a sleep Thus our Articles of Religion to which all our Ministers subscribe are hanged up upon the wal and cashered as the heathen Oracles of old Thus the Ministry of the Gospell is at once overthrowne and nothing but orations of morality must be taught the people And herein doe our Prelates follow the rule of Contâ—en the Iesuite in his Politicks who prescribes this rule of silencing Controversies as an excellent way for restoring their Roman-Catholicke Religion in the Reformed Churches For if truth and error bee both suppressed truth by and by vanisheth but errour doth by necessary consequence come instead thereof and prevaile As if a man should bee hoodwinck it for the space of 24. houres that hee should neither see the day nor the night by this meanes all is night to him Nor is this a devise of yesterday but Satan had broached it long agoe For the Centuriators observe that the Authors and Advocates of corruptions and errours procuring by their flattery and faire showes to great men an opinion of great learning and so much the greater by reason of their high Grace and dignity which makes them the more admired and being the Patrons of great mens vices therefore those errors being opposed by the Orthodox they labour to compose all Controversies with an Amnestia or silencing of all disputes and by that meanes they wickedly presume to reconcile Christ with Belial Truth with Errour a believer with an infidell So as the Emperor Anastasius being a favourer of the Arrian heresy was mooved by such counsels to bury the Controversies of the principall heads of Doctrine under an Amnestia But in vaine This counsell is not of God but of men Vnder this cloake and patronage of Amnestia doe corruptions and other plagues of the Church of God increase Let therefore all Potentates of this world learne that the most waighty Controversies of the Articles of faith cannot be abolished or quieted by Amnesties but rather let them be determined by the Word of God c. So they The like did the Arrian Bishops in a Councell at Seleucia called by Constantius an Arrian Emperor who did therein suppresse by a perpetuall Amnestia the mention of homousios and homotousios that so they might coyne a new faith and utterly extinguish that of the Councell of Nice Thus wee see the antiquity of this practise But wee have before sufficiently cleared our gratious Soveraigne from having the least intention of Suppressing any part of Gods truth by that his Declaration but only of the coÌ„trary errors although the Prelates do pervert presse it upoÌ„