when all the world knows both that they are the Kings and that he cannot be ignorant that they are so But of this before They hold and teach that it is more agreeable to Christian piety to be blinde rather than thus quick-sighted in our obedience and approve that of S. Gregory True obedience doth not discusse Vera obedientia nec Praepositorum intentionem discutit nec praecepta dece nit nescit enim judicare quisquis perfectè didicerit obedire D. Greg. l. 2. c. 4. in 1 Reg. the intention of superiours nor make difference of precepts He that hath learned perfectly to obey knowes not how to judge To be blind so as not to see the imperfections and failings of Superiours nor to be lesse ready for these to performe their commands and to looke onely at Him whose place they hold To be blind so as not to search the reason or to look at the causes why but to thinke it enough to know the things to be commanded and by them that are in place and power Lastly They would have obedience to be better sighted and not so blind as M. Burton hath shewed himselfe They would have obedience to have eyes to see what God commands as well as what the King and to discerne God to be the greater of the two and to be obeyed in the first place but they would not have men mistake their owne dreames and fancies for Gods commands And not this onely but to see what is commanded by their superiours and who it is that commands and to know them to be Gods Deputies to whom obedience is due as unto God himselfe And they have learned of Solomon that where the word of a King is there is power and who may Eccles 8. 2. say unto him what dost thou This is no novell Iesuiticall doctrine but sound Divinity and that which this Church ever taught and the Law of the Land ever approved if it be good Law which was long agoe delivered by Bracton with which Bract. de leg consuet Ang. c. 8. Ipse sc Rex sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Si ab eo peccatur c. I will shut up this point The King saith hee is under none but onely God And a little after If he do amisse because no writ goes out against him there is place for supplication that he would correct and amend his deed which if he doe not it is enough punishment for him that the Lord will punish it For no man must presume to enquire or discusse his actions much lesse to goe against them CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords-day falsely accused of Novelty The summe of what is held or denyed in this point by those whom Mr B. opposeth The Churches power and the obligation of her precepts The maintainers of this doctrine have not strained their braines or conscience THe last innovation in doctrine that he mentions pag. 126 is concerning the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords-day wherein he saith our novell Doctors have gone about to remove the institution of it from the foundation of Divine authority and so to settle it upon the Ecclesiasticall or humane power Thus he But in this as in the rest he betrayes most grosse and palpable ignorance and malice 1. In that he accuseth that doctrine of novelty which was ever as hath beene sufficiently demonstrated the doctrine of the Ancient Church and of the Church of England and of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas and the principall of the learned among them as Calvin Beza c. 2. In accusing those that teach this doctrine with removing the institution of the Lords day from the foundation of divine Authority See B. of Ely p. 271. c. edit 1. which taken together and as he delivers it is most false For They acknowledge the appointing of set times and dayes to the publick and solemn worship and service of God to be not onely divine but morall and perpetuall and that the common and naturall equity of the fourth Commandement B. of Ely p. 120 obligeth all man-kinde to the end of the world Secondly They affirme that the institution of the Lords day and other set and definite dayes 2 De dispens c. c. 12. Quid enim interest utrū per se an per suos ministros sive homines sive Angelos hominibus innotescat suum placitum Deus and times of Gods worship is also of divine authority though not immediately but by the Church which received her power from the holy Ghost and that Christian people are to observe the dayes so ordained in obedience to the equity of the fourth Commandement to which those dayes are subordinate and their observation to be reduced Thirdly they grant that the resting from labour on the Lords day and Christian holy 3 B. of Ely p. 121 dayes in respect of the generall is both grounded upon the law of nature and the perpetuall equity of the fourth Commandement Fourthly they grant a speciall sense of that 4 Commandement of perpetuall obligation So that they have not absolutely removed the institution of the Lords day from the foundation of divine Authority Nor is the fourth Commandement wholly abolished as he falsely and unjustly clamours That which they deny in this doctrine and concerning the fourth Commandement may be reduced under these heads They deny the fourth Commandement to be wholly morall so doth M. Burton Particularly they deny the morality and perpetuall obligation of that Commandement as it concernes the seventh day from the creation which is our Saturday And this is the Apostles Col. 2. 17. doctrine who calls it a shadow which M. Burton also granteth They deny that the peculiar manner of the sanctification of the Iewish or seventh-day Sabbath in the observation of a strict and totall rest and surcease from ordinary labours can by vertue of that commādement be extended to the Lords day or Christian holy dayes but that it together with the day on which it was required is expired and antiquated And this also M. Burton must needs grant 1. Because there is the same reason of the day and the rest required upon it both being appointed for a memoriall of Gods rest from his worke of creation and other typicall respects 2. Because otherwise he will contradict his fellowes and those that side with him in this argument who generally allow some Perkins cases Amesius Med. Theol. l. 2. c. 15. n. 23. things to bee lawfully done on the Lords day which on the Jewish Sabbath were not permitted They deny that the fourth Commandement determins the set time of Gods publick worship either to one day in the revolution of seven or to any other seventh save onely that which is there mentioned and that therefore the Lords day cannot thence bee said to have its institution as being another day than that which the Commandement speaks of which to conceive to be there meant is to
those men in whose steps Master B. hath gone to the intent that it may appeare that they of his faction may more truly be termed Innovators in this Church as being both in their doctrine and discipline new and contrary to the formes in both kindes which the first authors of those by them admired principles found here established CHAP. XXI A briefe discourse of the beginning and progresse of the Disciplinarian faction their sundry attempts for their Genevian Dearling Their Doctrines new and different from the true and ancient Tenets of the Church of England and they truely and rightly termed Innovators IT was one of the greatest evils that ever happened to this Church that in the infancy of the reformation which was happily begun in the reigne of King Edward of happy memory many for conscience sake and to avoyd the storm of persecution which fell in the dayes of Queen Mary betaking themselves to the reformed Churches abroad and especially to Geneva were drawn into such a liking of the forme of discipline then newly erected by Master Calvin there that returning home they became quite out of love with that which they found here established by Authority insomuch that set on by the perswasions and examples of Iohn Knox and other fiery spirited Zealots in Scotland they attempted and by all meanes endeavoured to advance their strongly-fancied platforme of Genevian discipline For the bringing about whereof the course they then tooke for the drawing of the people to a liking of their intentions was to pick quarels against the names and titles given to the Fathers and Governours of our Church apparrell of Ministers and some ceremonies in the booke of Common prayer retained and prescribed which they taxed of superstition and remnants of Popery And afterwards when T. C. and others who had also beene at Geneva had drunke in the opinion of Master Beza who by that time had promoted the discipline there invented by his Master and made it one of the especiall notes of the true Church as if it had till then beene maymed and imperfect what bookes were then written what seeming humble motions made what pamphlets pasquils libels flew abroad yea what violent attempts plots conspiracies and traiterous practices were then set on foot by the men of that faction are at large set forth in divers books of that argument and are yet fresh in the memories of many alive at this day What the care and couragious zeale of the Govenors of this Church and State then was for the preventing and overthrowing of these mens desperate disignes the flourishing and peacefull estate which this Church hath since by their meanes enjoyed doth abundantly speake For the authors of these innovations troubles and disorders receiving just and publick censure according to their severall demerits they which remained well-willers and abettors of that cause were glad to lie close and carry themselves more warily than before and to waite some better opportunitie for the effecting of their purpose Which they apprehending to bee offered at the comming of King Iames to this crowne began againe to move but so as beginning as it were at their old A. B. C. their complaint was principally against the use of ceremonies subscription and sundry things formerly questioned by their predecessors in the booke of Common Prayer And when that learned and judicious King had out of his wise and gratious disposition vouchsafed to take their complaint into his serious consideration and to grant them a solemne and deliberate hearing in the conference held at Hampton Court The successe of that conference to use the words of his Royall Proclamation was such as Proclamation before the Booke of common prayer happeneth to many other things which moving great expectation before they be entred into in their issue produce finall effects For to give the sum of that which there followes mighty and vehement informations were found to be supported with so weak and slender proofes that that wise King and his Councell seeing no cause to change any thing either in the booke of Common Prayer Doctrine or rites established Having caused some few things to be explained He by his Royall Proclamation commanded a generall conformity of all sorts requiring the Archbishops and Bishops to see that conformity put in practise Being thus frustrate of their hopes of bringing in their darling plat-forme some of the principall among them remaining stiffe in their opinion and opposition to Authority received a just censure and suffered deprivation others grown wiser by the example of their fellowes suffering that they might save their reputation and yet continue in their places invented a new course and yeelded a kinde of conformity not that they thought any whit better of the things but for that they held them though in themselves unlawfull not to be such as for which a man ought to hazzard not his living that might savour of covetousnesse but his ministery and the good which Gods People might by that meanes receive This project prevailed with many to make them come off to a subscription and yet gave them liberty in private and where they might freely and with safety to expresse themselves to shew their dis-affection to the things to which they had subscribed resolving not to practise what they had professed nor to use the ceremonies enjoyned further than they should be compelled And for this cause they did wisely avoid all occasions that might draw them to the publick profession of conformity by using the ceremonies and betooke themselves to the worke of preaching placing themselves as much as might be in Lectures and where any of them were beneficed getting conformable Curates under them to beare the burden of the ceremonies Thus saving themselves and maintaining their reputation with the people they gained the opportunity to instill into them their principles not only of dislike of the Church-government and rites but also of the doctrine established and though through the vigilancie and care of those that have sate at the sterne in this Church they have beene hitherto hindred from erecting their altars of Damascus publickly in our Temples yet have they using this art now a long time in an underhand way brought up the use of their owne crotchets and erected a new Church both for doctrine and discipline far differing from the true and ancient English Church and made though not a locall as some more zealous among them have by removing to Amsterdam and new-New-England yet a reall separation accounting themselves the wheat among the tares and monopolizing the names of Christians Gods children Professors and the like stiling their doctrine The Gospell The Word and their Preachers The Ministers The good Ministers Powerfull preachers and by such other distinctive names As for all other men they account them no better than * Resembling herein the Donatists of old with whom Optatus expostulates in this manner Eum qui in nomine Christi tinctus est Paganum vocas And againe Paganum vocas
so that in Baptisme infants receive remission of their sinnes and are truly regenerate These men will allow the Sacraments no such vertue accounting them as bare signes and seales of that grace which they have already received if they be elect if otherwise they hold them to be but as seales set to a blank being to no pupose and of no value acknowledging no such tie between the act of God and the Priest that what the Priest shall do visibly God should bee thought at the same time and by that meanes to effect inwardly by his grace and holy spirit And therefore when according to our forme of Ministration of Baptisme they are to say that the child baptized is regenerate some of them are faine to interlace we hope and think it true only in the judgement of charity or in case they bee elected in which case some think though others strongly contradict they may bee said truly to bee regenerate in Baptisme Of the same straine is their doctrine of the blessed Eucharist wherein they acknowledge no power of consecration in the Priest no other presence of Christ than by way of representation no other exhibition than by way of signation or obsignation nor other grace conveighed but in seeming or at best the only the assuring of what they had before which if they have not they must want for all that the Sacrament can do Thus have they made these saving ordinances of God of none effect through their traditions One thing more I cannot omit though I have already touched it in part which is their manner of observing of Fasts and the course they have devised how to have them their owne way The piety of the Church of Christ in whose steps the Church of England treads as they have their appointed solemne Festivals for the commemoration of Gods speciall mercies by publick thanksgivings and rejoycings so they have also appointed set times for fasting and humiliation as the time of Lent the foure Embers c. These though the work of fasting seem to please them they reject and scorn first for that they are set-times and perhaps because appointed by Authority for they would by their good-wils have them only occasionall and in the time of extraordinary calamities either felt or feared and to be appointed by the Minister when he shall judge the necessities of Christians so to require A second thing they dislike them for is That they are not enjoyned to be kept as Sabbaths extraordinary which is their doctrine and so to have the duties of the Sabbaths then observed after an extraordinary manner as namely abstinence from bodily labour and the works of mens particular Callings and two or more Sermons of a more than ordinary size of which I have already spoken somewhat Now because the diligence and care of the Church and State and the watchfulnes of Pursuivants hath frighted them from their private assemblies where they were wont to enjoy themselves and their owne way in this kind They have used in the City of London a new and a quaint stratagem whereby without suspicion they obtaine their desires The course they take is this Some good Christians that is Professors intimate their necessities to some Minister of note among them and obteine of them the promise of their paines to preach upon that occasion pitching upon such dayes and places as where and when Sermons or Lectures are wont to bee and having given under-hand notice to such as they judge faithfull of the day to bee observed and the places where they shall meet for that end thither they resort and mixing themselves with the crowd unsuspected have the word they so much desire with the occasion covertly glanced at so as those that are not of their counsell are never the wiser Thus I have divers times known them to begin the day upon a wednesday where they had a Sermon beginning at six in the morning and holding them till after eight that being done they post somtimes in troopes to another Church where the Sermon beginning at nine holds them till past eleven from thence againe they betake themselves to a third Church and there place themselves against the afternoone Sermon begin which holds them till night And so without danger of the Pursuivants they observe a Publick Fast as much as these hard times will give them leave after their owne way and heart I should tyre my reader if I should at large set downe their severall tenets and positions whereof some are besides others against the holy Scriptures the Doctrine of the ancient and of our mother Church of England Among which are the Doctrine of the Sabbath for which of late they have raised such lowd cryes as if without it bee established among us the glory were departed from Israel and the Arke of God taken Of the same straine are their opinions concerning contracts and their necessity which they use to solemnize in private houses with a Sermon and feasting two usuall companions I will not say to affront and baffle the orders and received customes of our Church I thinke that beyond the intention of many among them though the event proclaime that to be the attendant of their opinion and practise To these I might adde many more as their assertion of the impossibility of the observation of the Law of God not to the meere naturall man but even to the regenerate and assisted by the grace of God a point of dangerous consequence both in regard of that rub which it casts before Christians in their way to heaven and of the advantage which thereby the Iesuites have taken to cast a scandall upon our Church as if what these have in considerately broached were a part of her doctrine So likewise their traditions about callings with their many conceits about them obtruded upon many credulous and tender consciences by which they are many times needlesly affrighted and tormented while their Rabbies by tying and untying of these knots of their owne knitting doe gaine the people and suck from them no small advantage But I passe over these and many others as their innumerable signes and markes of Grace invented many of them to second that good opinion of themselves which by their faith at first they entertained I passe also their rites ceremonies and usages superstitiously observed among them in all or most of which any indifferent man may observe an affectation of singularity and opposition to the Church whereof they would seeme members omitting then all these I wil only adde somthing of their courses of late undertaken for the propagation of their new Church and Gospel amongst which the most dangerous and cunning that ever they hatched was that of the buying in of impropriations a pious a glorious worke and such as rightly intended is highly esteemed by all those that sincerely affect the good of this Church and Religion This project so specious in shew had for a long while a faire passage and the
INNOVATIONS Unjustly charged upon the Present CHVRCH and STATE OR AN ANSVVER TO THE MOST MATERIALL PASSAGES of a Libellous Pamphlet MADE BY MR. HENRY BURTON AND INTITVLED An Apologie of an Appeale c. BY CHRISTOPHER DOW B. D. LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill M DC XXXVII To the Ingenuous Reader THis Treatise was finished and intended for the Presse at the beginning of Easter Terme last at which time it was expected that M. B. and his Confederates would have had their censure Had it then comne forth the speed it made would perhaps have made some Apology for the defects of it However in all this delay I wanted both leisure and will to adde or alter any thing and resolved to let it passe in its first dresse If it seeme incompt and lesse accurate then might haply be expected the comfort is that with all faults it is a cover fit enough for such a cup. Only one thing may seeme strange That having promised it I adde nothing particularly of the Appeale and its Apology The truth is the onely point of moment which I reserved for that part was The Legality of the Bishops exercising their Jurisdictions in their owne names and of their proceedings in the High Commission The rest excepting his often repeated railings and frivolous reasons which I never thought worthy of any serious answer I have met with in the Sermons and answered so far as I thought fit Now for that point That which was spoken in that High and Honourable Court of Star-Chamber at the Censure and the expectation of somewhat shortly to be declared by Authority for the full clearing of it Made me even when this booke was more than halfe printed to alter my first determination and suppresse those things which I once intended to publish upon that part judging it altogether needlesse if not presumption to bring my poore verdict either to second or prevent so judiciall and authentick a decision and that point excepted I held the rest not worthy a peculiar Chapter I will adde no more save the best wishes of Thine in our common Saviour C. D. THE CONTENTS OF the CHAPTERS Chap. 1. Fol. 1. AN Introduction to the ensuing Discourse containing the reasons inducing the Author to undertake it and his aime in it Chap. 2. Fol. 7. A short Relation or Description of M. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the people The course he hath since taken in his Bookes and Sermons to make himselfe plausible and the Bishops envied Of the Booke called A divine Tragedie c. Chap. 3. Fol. 14. Of this booke of his The parts of it Of the title of his Sermons The dedication of it to his Majesty and some passages in it Chap. 4. Fol. 21. Of the Sermons The Authors intention in the examination of them A generall view of their materialls Their dissonancy from the Text in every part of it Their principall argument Supposed Innovations The Authors pitching upon them as containing the summe of all Chap. 5. Fol. 32. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of K. James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James his other Order for preaching of Election c. justified Chap. 6. Fol. 38. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion M. Burtons cunning trick to colour his railing against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in M. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine Chap. 7. Fol. 43. Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentalls What are fundamentalls in M. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants Chap. 8. Fol. 58. Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blinde and how quick-sighted Chap. 9. Fol. 67. Of the Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords-day falsely accused of Novelty The summe of what is held or denyed in this point by those whom Mr B. opposeth The Churches power and the obligation of her precepts The maintainers of this doctrine have not strained their braines or conscience Chap. 10. Fol. 73. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. M. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument Chap. 11. Fol. 78. Of the 1. Proposition The Declaration no inlet to profanenesse His Majesties respect to piety in it Recreations onely permitted not imposed Of the 2. Proposition The sports allowed are lawfull on those dayes and in themselves not against the Law of the Land M. Burtons seeming respect of the Fathers Of Revelling Of mixt dancing how unlawfull and how condemned by the Ancients and by the Imperiall Edicts Of Calvins judgement in this point Of the 3. Proposition The Booke no meanes of violation of the 5. Commandement Chap. 12. Fol. 97 Ministers commanded by His Majesty to reade the Book They may and ought to obey The matter of the Book not unlawfull Things unlawfully commanded may sometimes be lawfully obeyed What things are required to justifie a subjects refusing a Superiours Command Refusers to reade the Book justly punished The punishment inflicted not exceeding the offence Not without good warrant Chap. 13. Fol. 108. Of the Innovation pretended to bee in Discipline The Courts Ecclesiasticall have continued their wonted course of Iustice St. Austines Apology for the Church against the Donatists fitly serves ours The cunning used by delinquents to make themselves pitied and justice taxed Their practises to palliate and cover their faults Mr. B's endeavour to excuse Ap-Evans Mr. Burtons opposites not censorious What they thinke of those whom hee calls Professors and the profession it selfe True Piety approved and honoured in all professions The answere to this crimination summed up The censured partiall Iudges of their own censures How offences are to be rated in their censures Chap. 14. Fol. 113. Of the supposed Innovations
should be interpreted a confession of guilt and inability to wipe off such desperate and malicious slanders And herein I have for my warrant the authority of the same Father who having upon the grounds before mentioned long held his peace and with patience overcome the rage of his adversaries at length hee thus breaks forth Seeing thou Demetrianus Sed enim cum dicas plurimos conqueri quod bella crebriùs surgant quod lues quod fames saeviont quodque imbres pluvias serena longa suspendant nobis imputari tacere ultranon oportet ne jam non verecundiae sed diffidentiae esse incipiat quod tacemus dum criminationes falsas contemnimus refutare videamur crimen agnoscere Respondeo igitur c. Cypr. loc suprà citat saist many complaine that it is to be imputed to us Christians that warres so often rise that plague and famine doe rage and that wee have such long droughts We must no longer be silent lest now it bee not modesty but diffidence that we hold our peace and while we scorne to refute your criminations we should seeme to acknowledge the crime Upon these considerations and in imitation of that holy Father and Martyr I have set upon this worke in a calme and compendious way to endeavour the stopping of the mouth of detraction and to shew the groundlesnesse and vanity of those suspicious jealousies and clamors which of late have beene raysed in many parts of this Kingdome and which Mr. B. having first vented in the Pulpit did after send abroad gathered into one bundle in his book intituled An Apology of an Appeale c. And though I know it to be most true that among the ruder sort and common people the lowdest cry takes the most eares and that audacious errours and bold calumnies finde more free entertainment and welcome with light and weak judgments than peaceable and modest truth And that there seeme so great an indisposition and disaffection in the minds and hearts of some in these dayes either to the present Authority or to the things by it either commended or enjoyned that important truths and wholesome orders becomming once countenanced or pressed by authority in stead of credit and obedience receive nothing but clamor and detraction and that such as according but as duty bindeth them doe undertake to plead in their just cause or speake in their defence shall from many in stead of thankes gaine nothing but odious and opprobrious names and contumelies Yet withall I know and am perswaded that the iniquity of the times is not such but that truth and a good cause may yet finde equall judges who following the precept of our blessed Saviour Iudge not according to appearance Iohn 7. 14. but judge righteous judgment not taking their information of a cause from the cry of the crowde or rumor of the people which for the most part conveighs not the truth of the cause but the affections of the reporters but from right and solid grounds weighing things in the ballance not of profit or particular interest but of sound reason and abstracting the cause from the parties and from malevolent aspersions wherewith truth many times is obscured and defaced doe imbrace truth in the love of it And others there are no doubt who though led away for the present with the example of the multiutde and ensnared by the opinion they have unwarily drunk in of the worth of the broachers of error yet will notwithstanding be patient of better information and upon due consideration be ready to expresse their love to truth and peace To these sorts of men principally I addresse my selfe in this discourse whom I shall desire not to expect that verbosity much lesse that virulency opprobrious language which Mr. B. useth I leave that contention and victory to base mindes and shall study rather what is fit for me to speake than what he and such as he deserve to heare Neither doe I reckon upon their censure who judge of bookes not by the weight but by the words For as S. Austine saith well what is more talkative than vanity which yet cannot therefore Quid loquacius vanitate Quae non ideo potest quod veritas quia si voluerit etiam plus potest clamare quam veritas Sed considerent omnia diligenter et si forte sine studio partium judicantes talia essè perspexerint quae potius exagitari quâ—m convelli possint garrulitate impudent issima et quasi satyrica velmimica levitate cohibeant suas nugas et potius â— prudentibus emendari quam laudari ab imprudentibus eligant Aug. de civ l. 5. c. 27. doe that which truth can because it can cry lowder And I would to God that Mr. B. and if there bee any other of his minde and temper would as the same Father addes in that place consider all things diligently and if haply judging without partiality they shall perceive the things against which they have rayled such bitter invectives by their impudent pratings and Satyre-like or mimical lightnesse to be such as may rather be exagitated than confuted they would represse their scandalous trifles and choose rather to be rectified by the judicious than to be applauded by the unskilfull As for those who are the abettors and applauders of those contumelies and criminations cast upon the government and governors of the Church and State and so fautors and propagators of the suspitions and discontents received against them whether they bee in the same gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or only seduced by their leaders I shall only desire one boone from them namely that they would cease to have mens persons in admiration for profit sake or any other by-respect and endure with patience the examination of their complaints by the word of God and sound reason the only infallible rules of sound judgement That they would not as they are wont think those whom their popular breath hath swollen great to be the only oracles of truth and patrons of religion and godlinesse and in comparison of them contemne and vilifie all others even those of highest eminency and authority in the Church and State and reject whatsoever though never so reasonable shall proceed from them as if their doctrine were deadly and their persons Anathema Maranatha This request if they shall grant me I doubt not but the unnaturall heat of their distemper will in some measure be abated and they brought to entertaine a more reverent and dutifull esteeme of their superiours and begin to study to maintaine the peace of the Church which the proposterous zeale of boisterous spirits hath of late so much disturbed CHAP. II. A short Relation or Description of Mr. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the People The course hee hath since taken in his
Turpiter atrū Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne and lower parts of an ugly fish was joyned to a faire and beautifull womans face Or like some Apothecaries boxes which bearing the inscription of a Cordiall or pretious antidote containes nothing in it but some banefull drugge or deadly poyson I confess I have knowne men of his straine to start strange doctrines from texts where a man would never have dreamed of any such matter as if their texts were but a colour serving onely to bring in their owne fancies As one that preaching upon the parable of the Prodigall Luk. 15. 15. from that where it is said Hee joyned himselfe to a Citizen of that country which hee did constrained by necessity and to avoid starving observed this doctrine That it is the duty of Christians in choosing their calling to make choyse of men eminent for religion and piety Another that in that of S. Iohn Hee is the propitiation for our Iohn 15. 15. sins and not for our sins onely but for the sins of the whole world found this That Christ did not dye for all men but onely for the elect But yet Mr. Burton passes them all in that having such a Text could in all the parts of it so directly contradict it as if he had learned of the Canonist to expound constituimus by abrogamus But I go on The pretended ground of all these clamours calumniations and contumelies against the Bishops and Hierarchy we find by him set downe p. 111. in these words According to our text we are professedly against all those usurpations and innovations which the Prelates of latter dayes have haled in by the head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the Land and much more against the Law of God And indeed the summe of all these declamatory sermons and of his libels and Epistles c. is briefly this There are divers Innovations lately brought into the Church and State and that with a strong hand and strange persecution of those that yeeld not to them by the Archbishop of Cant. and some other Bishops of dangerous consequence as tending to the subversion of the religion and government established and the bringing of us back againe to idolatry and union with the Church of Rome and therefore that the Bishops ought to bee severely punished and their orders abolished So that if it appeare that this is false in every part of it As namely that the innovations which he raves upon are injuriously so termed That they are not popish or tending to the overthrow of the religion established and reconciling us to Rome That the Bishops urging these supposed innovations have kept within the bounds of their lawfull power and not exercised any tyrannie nor persecuted Gods people or the Kings good subjects If I say these severals shall be made to appeare and this by Gods assistance I doubt not but I shall be able to do to the conviction of such as are not wilfully blinded then the iniquity of his clamors the falsehood odiousness and impudency of his calumniations will without more adoe be discovered and it will be easie to judge who they are that have troubled Israel And therefore that I may not leade my readers through the maze of his manifold tautologies nor tyre my selfe and them in the wilde and pathless thicket of his impertinencies nor take the paynes to wipe off every spot of dirt which he hath cast upon his opposites My purpose is to examine this Grand crimination and to speake of the severall supposed innovations and that according to that division and in that order that wee finde them ranked by him in that forenamed place Where he thus writes And these Innovations or changes wee may reduce to eight generall heads 1. Innovation in Doctrine 2. Innovation in Discipline 3. Innovation in the worship of God 4. Innovation in the civill government 5. Innovation in the Altering of bookes 6. Innovation in the meanes of knowledge 7. Innovation in the rule of faith 8. Innovation in the rule of Maners CHAP. V. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of King James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James's other Order for preaching of Election c. justified FIrst saith he they the Prelats have laboured to bring in a change of Doctrine as appeareth by these instances 1. By procuring an Order from King James of famous memory to the Vniversities that young students should not read our Moderne learned Writers as Calvin Beza and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and Schoolemen This first crimination is farre fetcht being if I mistake not a thing acted above twenty yeeres agoe so that it seemes hee meanes to take him compasse enough the times present not affording him sufficient store and if hee had gone backe but twice as many more hee might have found the reading of Calvin and Beza accounted as great an Innovation as now he holds the debarring of men from reading of them and that by those that were as good Protestants as Mr. Burton and as farre from Popery But secondly being so long agoe done I cannot see how hee can lay it upon the present Prelates especially upon those whom hee most strives to make odious none of them being Bishops at that time But if they must inherit the guilt and punishment of their Predecessors faults In the third place how doth it appeare that it was the Bishops doing Marry because King Iames approved and magnified those Orthodox Authors and gave the right hand of fellowship to those reformed Churches which those Authors had planted or watered calling that the Orthodox faith which those Churches did professe and in particular did commend Calvin as the most judicious and sound expositor of Scripture And therefore it were impious to imagine that King James should doe any act in prejudice of Calvin c. Well But might not that judicious King or any man else approve the Authors in the general and yet dislike some things in them for which hee might thinke them not so fit for young students in Divinity to lay them for the foundation of their studies It is no prejudice to the best of them nor indeed to any man as being a common infirmity of humane nature to say that in some things they erred Much lesse can it wrong them to have the ancient Fathers from whose torches they lighted their candles preferred as the more worthy And it is one thing to give the right hand of fellowship to a particular Church which we willingly doe to all the reformed Churches beyond the Seas and another to like and approve every Tenet that any man in that Church shall hold or deliver I suppose Mr. Burton is not so uncharitable as to deny the Lutherane Churches the right hand of fellowship and to exclude them from being
a true Church and yet I beleeve hee would bee loath to agree with them in all opinions which they maintaine especially if hee knew for I have heard that in place where not many yeeres agoe he bewrayed his ignorance and was faine to be informed by a brother Minister then in presence that they held all those Tenets about Predestination Freewill and falling from grace which hee so much condemnes in those whom hee termes Arminians Neither can it be imagined that King Iames when hee acknowledged Calvin and therein did him but right to bee a most judicious expositour of Scripture ever intended to exempt him from errour when it is most manifest that hee did utterly condemne many opinions of his and that though he had been bred and brought up among those who received their doctrine and discipline from Calvin yet as himselfe professed in the Conference at Hampton-Court from the time that he was tenne yeeres old hee ever disliked their Confer p. 20. opinions and that though he lived among them he was not of them And therefore might without crossing his owne judgement enjoyne young students rather to looke into the Fathers and acquaint themselves with the judgement of the Ancient Church than to take up opinions upon trust of those moderne Authors who though as he after addes they were not without their Naevi or spots yet no man without betraying insufferable pride and ignorance will account their workes a dunghill or heape of mud where haply with much raking and prying a man may chance to light upon a Pearle so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere gather pearles out of the mud as Mr. Burton is pleased to speake I am sure other men as sound and judicious as himselfe every whit have held it a point of wisedome to draw water as neere as they can from the well-head rather than from lakes and cisternes And the truth is that King Iames of famous memory whether by the procurement of the Bishops or not it matters not for neither the Author nor the procurers need blush for it having taken some just distaste at some novell points delivered by some young Divines which trenched upon his Regall power and dignity and knowing from what pits that water was drawne and that those moderne Authors mentioned were ill affected to Monarchicall Government and injurious to the just right of Kings going hand in hand with the Iesuites in the principles of popularity Did in his Princely wisedome for the preventing of so great a danger as might ensue if such principles were drunk in at the first by young and injudicious Novices give charge to the Heads of the University of Cambridge I am sure and whether of Oxford too I know not that they should take order that young students should bee well seasoned at the beginning and well grounded in the principles of Our owne Catechisme and the Articles and Doctrine of our Church and that they should not ground their studies upon those men where they might with their first milke in Divinity sucke in such unsound opinions and dangerous to the State But rather that they would search into Antiquity and study the writings of the Fathers whose consentient Doctrine is without doubt the best and soundest Divinity And if Mr. Burton had taken this course in his studies hee had learned better obedience to his Superiours and beene lesse troublesome to himselfe and others This then is but a fetch and brought in onely to increase the heape of odium upon the Bishops with those Pag. 114. who judge of things not by weight or worth but by noise and number For there is no colour for that which he suggests that it should be done the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their the Prelats plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery seeing neither that which was done nor the end for which it was done have the least affinity with Popery but was intended for the opposing and preventing of that point of Popery or Jesuitisme which animates and armes the people against their Princes But further To this purpose saith he they procure Pag. 114. another order in King James his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops and Deanes shall handle those points And is it not great reason that those high points should bee handled with great wisedome and sobriety And who are then fitter so to handle them than the Bishops and Deanes who how contemptible soever Mr. Burton esteemes of them are presumed in reason and in the judgement of the King from whom they receive their dignities to bee the most discreet and judicious Divines Hitherto wee have no Innovation in Doctrine and much lesse any Popery For the Doctrine may bee and is still the same that it ever was from what Authors soever it is fetched and by what persons soever it be delivered So that Mr. Burton is beside the matter and hath not yet come home to the point by him proposed which was Innovations in Doctrine CHAP. VI. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion Mr. Burtons cunning trick to colour his rayling against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in Mr. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine BUt leaving King Iames hee comes to our gracious Soveraigne that now is and saith After that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name And why in King Charles his name and not by him The title calls it His Majesties Declaration and the whole tenor of it runs in His Majesties style How then shall we know it was not his This is but a cunning quirk to teach the people to decline obedience to His Majesties commands If they can be perswaded that His Majesties Declarations and Proclamations which are sent out if they concerne things that crosse their fancies be none of his acts Then to what passe things in short time will grow it is easie for any man that is but halfe witted to conjecture If men may at their liberty Father the Kings acts upon the Prelates or any other whom they favour not and then rayle at them at their pleasure and reject them as none of his His Majesty will ere long be faine to stand to his subjects courtesie for obedience to his royall commands Or if men may say of such things as come out in the Kings name that they tend to the publick dishonour of God and his word to the violation and annihilation of his commandements the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England the destruction of the peoples soules and that they are contrary to his solemne royall protestations as Mr. B. speakes about the declaration
Church or to yeeld them the name of Christians and of a Church and so to difference them from Turks and Pagans to which the profession of the same Creed and their Baptisme is sufficient And though the errors of Popery as now it stands are grosse and palpable yet to make them such as presently and absolutely to cut off all that professe and beleeve them from the Catholick Church and hope of salvation is an uncharitable groundlesse rigor and strictnesse neither can they who are not thus harshly uncharitable be justly taxed nor is it an absurd distinction as he unreverently and absurdly termed it that a Great Prelate who ever he was for he names him not used in the High Commission at the censure of Dr Bastwick when he said that We the Church of Rome differ not in Fundamētalibus but circa Fundamentalia for there may be and indeed are many intercurrent questions concerning points fundamentall disputed among us in which we and they differ and yet the fundamentalls themselves confessed by both sides For example both sides doe professe their agreement and common beliefe of that grand Fundamentall of Christianity that Iesus Christ the Son of God and Sonne of the B. Virgin is the Saviour of the world and that salvation is obtained onely by vertue of his merits Yet we doe not agree in every thing that concerns this principle or how and in what manner this vertue is efficacious unto our salvation Whether it make the good works of those that beleeve in this common Saviour properly meritorious and fully worthy of everlasting life as they will have it or onely as we contend in regard Rhemist on 2 Tim. 4. See B Andr. Ser. of justificat in Christs name of Gods gracious acceptation and by means of his promise and covenant whereby hee hath bound himselfe to reward them So that the distinction is not absurd but may most truely and fitly be said that wee may and doe differ about and not in fundamentalls That which M. Burton out of the Apostle alledgeth to crosse this is most 1 Tim. 1. 19. frivolous and vaine for he might have knowne that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place is better turned of or concerning than either in or about and so a Naufragium fidei fecerunt Beza renders it or as b Fide vacuati sunt Tremellius out of the Syriack they lost their faith so that faith is the merchandise lost or cast away and not any thing about it But granting that to erre in faith and about the faith as they may in some sense be all one yet will not that follow which hee would have but for all that there will be ground sufficient to justifie that distinction and to lay the absurdity upon those that quarrell it But this is an old theme upon which M. B. hath long wrangled and he might now doe well to give it over or if he will needs be doing let him goe lend his help to the Jesuite with whom he sides in opposing this distinction to answer Dr Potters learned and Ans to Char. mistaken Sec. 7 judicious discourse wherein it is fully and unansweraby asserted But M. Burton hath another quarrell yet but it is so weake and silly that I would not grace it with an answer but that haply some of his admirers may think it of greater moment because hee affirmes that thereby is made a change of our very Church c. This is a great matter but how is this made good Thus. My L. of Ely affirmes In his Epist to my Lo Grace of Cant. before his discourse of the Sabbath that the Romish adversary fromt he rising up of some schismaticall spirits among us uncharitably concludes that the whole body of our Church is schismaticall But in good earnest is M. Burton so deeply in love with his schismaticall humour that he cannot be content himselfe alone to be a schismatick but that he will have the maine body of our Church schismaticall or must we needs joyn with the Romish Church in their errors unlesse we wil confesse our selves guilty of the crime of schisme So they would have us indeed and M. B. it seemes so he may shew himself to be at enmity with them cares not though he draw that name upon himself and the whole Church of England whereas it hath been the care of discreet and wise men that have dealt in the controversies betweene us and them to wipe off that unjust and infamous aspersion To whom I referre him and others of his See the Ans to Char. mistaken Sect. 3. minde to be better informed and to learn That the Church of England did reform the errors and abuses of Rome without schisme And that though we have separated from thē in those things which they hold not as the Church of Christ but as the Romane and Pontifician yet we remaine still united both in the bond of charity and in those Articles of faith which that Church yet hath from Apostolicall tradition yea and in those acts of Gods worship which they yet practise according to Divine prescript that is wee and they professe one beleefe of the same Apostolike Creed as it is expounded by the foure first Generall Councels Wee approve with them the things which the Ancient Church of Christ decreed against Pelagius We and they worship and invocate the same God in the Name of the same Iesus Christ And what ever some turbulently-uncharitable haply may doe we study to reduce them from their errors and pray for their salvation accounting them not quite cut off but to continue still members though corrupt ones of the same Catholike Church But the man hath not yet done but to shew that there will come in an universall change in all our doctrine reckons up divers particulars as Iustification by works maintained openly not long agoe at the Commencement in Cambridge Iustification by charity in Mr. Shelfords Booke The Pope not Antichrist Pulpits and preaching beaten downe by the same man in his second Treatise The Virgin Mary Deified in a booke intitled The female glory c. For answere to these I say for the first That hee hath shamefully slandered the University The Heads whereof are more judicious and discreet than to suffer any position which doth directly and in terminis crosse the Articles of our Church to bee openly disputed and maintained That which I suppose he aimes at by his quoting of Fr. à S ta Clara was to this purpose That good Bona opera sunt efficaciter necessaria ad salutem Resp Dr. Duncan works are effectively necessary to salvation which position was intended and maintained in opposition to the enemies of good works of whom some deny their necessity others allowing their presence as requisite deny that they conduce any thing to the furtherance of salvation Now this is not to maintaine Iustification by works for the works here meant were such as follow justification
but to assert the Doctrine of St. Paul commanding Phil. 2. 12. us to Work out our salvation with feare and trembling and of St. Peter who tells us 2 Pet. 1. 11. That thus an entrance shall bee ministred into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ And I beleeve for I have not the Booke at hand if Mr. Shelfords justification by charity be well examined it will proove to bee no other than this at least no other than in St. Iames Iam. 2. 24. sense when he saith Yee see how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely And I would demand of any reasonable man whether the expresse words of that Apostle may not without aspersion of Popery be even openly and publikely maintained if there be no sense obtruded upon them which may crosse St. Pauls doctrine which Mr. Burton can never prove that they did whom hee chargeth with that assertion But the the truth is such is the humour that possesses many men of Mr. Burtons straine that they cannot endure any glosse upon that place of St. Iames but such as shall both make the Text like themselves full of non-sence and to turne the seeming and verball into a reall and direct contradiction of St. Paul To the third That the Pope is not Antichrist I answere that though many of the learned in our Church especially at the beginning of the ReformatioÌ„ when the greatest heat was strickeÌ„ between us and Rome have affirmed the Pope to be Antichrist and his whole religion Antichristian and that some exceeding the bounds of moderation in this point have passed abroad that with the license of authority wherein yet they are to be excused in that they have beene so intolerably provoked by the odious criminations of the adversary yet to them that calmely and seriously consider it it may not without good reason bee disputed as doubtfull whether the Pope or any of them in his person or the Papall Hierarchy bee that great Antichrist which is so much spoken of And which way soever it be determined it makes not the religion any whit the better nor frees the practises of the Popes and Court of Rome from being justly accounted and stiled Antichristian For Mr. Shelfords second Book I have not seene it and therefore will say nothing but onely that if hee seeme to set as they thinke too light by preaching and pulpits hee doth at the worst but pay them in their owne coine who have magnified it to the vilifying and contempt of publick Prayer the most sacred and excellent part of Gods worship Neither have I seene that other Booke called the Female glory nor will I spend words by way either of censure or defence of it upon sight onely of those fragments which here hee presents us with as well knowing his art and at what rate to value his credit in quotations Yet in all those panegyrick straines of Rhetorick for such for the most part they seeme rather than positiue assertions he hath not deviated so much to the one extreme as Mr. Burtons marginall hath to the other in scoffingly calling her the New great Goddesse Diana And if it bee true that hee hath not digressed in any particular Lo here the new great goddesse Diana whom the whole Pontifician world worshippeth H. B. p. 125. from the Bishop of Chichester as Mr. Burton makes him affirme I dare boldly say Mr. Burton will never bee able to finde the least point of Popery in it For it is well known that Bishop whom he as if hee had bid adieu to all civility yea and shame too termes a tried Champion of Rome and so a devout votary to the Queene of heaven hath approved himselfe such a Champion against Rome that they that have tried his strength durst never yet come to a second encounter Beside we have elsewhere other points of Pag. 67. Popish Doctrine which he saith are preached and printed of late As Auricular Confession Prayer for the dead and praying to Saints Which because I finde onely mentioned by him without any proofe to evidence the truth of his assertion I might with one word reject till hee produced the Authors which have so Preached and Printed and what it was that they have delivered touching those points But because there are many that by reason of their ignorance of the truth in these points are apt to beleeve what he affirmes and to entertaine a sinister opinion of the Churches Doctrine in them I will briefly adde some of them in this place First for Confession It cannot bee denied Of Confession but that the Church of England did ever allow the private confession of sinnes to the Priest for Booke of Common Prayer Exhortation before the Communion the quieting of mens consciences burdened with sinne and that they may receive ghostly counsell advice and comfort and the benefit of absolution This is the publike Order prescribed in our Church And it were very strange if our Church ordaining Priests and giving them power of absolution and prescribing the forme to bee used Forme of absolution in the Visitation of the sick for the exercise of that power upon confession should not also allow of such private confession To advise then and urge the use and profit of private confession to the Priest is no Popish Innovation but agreeable to the constant and resolved Doctrine of this Church and that which is requisite for the due execution of that ancient power of the Keyes which Christ bestowed upon his Church And if any shall call it auricular because it is done in private and in the eare of the Priest I know not why hee should therefore bee condemned of Popery But if Mr. Burton by Auricular Confession meane that Sacramentall Confession which the Councell of Trent hath defined to bee of absolute necessity by Divine ordinance and that which exacts that many times impossible particular enumeration of every sinne and the speciall circumstances of every sinne This wee justly reject as neither required by God nor so practised by the ancient See Bishop Ushers answer to Iesuites â—chall Church And if Mr. Burton knowes any that hath Preached or Printed ought in defence of this new pick-lock and tyrannicall sacramentall Confession hee may if he please with the Churches good leave terme them in that point Popish Innovators For the second point Simply to condemne Of prayer for the dead all prayer for the Dead is to runne counter to the constant practise of the ancient Church of Christ Prayer for the dead it cannot bee denied it is ancient saith the late learned Bishop of Winchester That the ancient Church had Commemorations Oblations and prayers for the dead the testimonies of the Fathers Ecclesiasticall Histories and ancient Liturgies in which the formes of Prayers used for that purpose are Cannon 55. found doe put out of all question and they that are acquainted with the Canons and Liturgy
of our owne Church cannot but say this Doctrine hath beene ever taught and maintained among us That is Wee praise God for all those that are departed this life in the faith of Christ and pray that they may have their perfect consummation and blisse both in body and soule c. And thus farre Prayer for the dead is no Innovation and much lesse Popish For wee maintaine no Suffrages for the reliefe of soules in the fooles-fire of Purgatory which prayers and Artic. 22. place wee condemne as fond things vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God So our Church-article speakes and in the same condemnation joines that other point of Mr. Burtons charge Invocation of Saints which Doctrine Of praying to Saints taken at the best and as the learned Papists defend it deserves that censure and as it is commonly practised by the vulgar sort among them is not foolish onely but flatly Idolatrous And therefore justly exploded and condemned by all Protestants and I dare boldly say Mr. Burton cannot produce any one of those whom hee endeavours to blemish that holds or teaches that doctrine CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blind and how quick-sighted VVEE have two changes in Doctrine yet remaining First in the doctrine of obedience to Superiours Secondly in the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords Day pag. 126. By the first hee saith Man is so set in Gods throne as all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience I verely beleeve there is none of those he meanes that have raised obedience so high but that Mr. B. would bring it downe to as low a pegge and haply considering how prone such as he are to debase it it might not be thought ill policy to exact somewhat more than of strict right it can callenge But where or by whom is this doctrine taught Of that he saith nothing here but tells us he hath spoken of it sufficiently before And indeed wee find more than enough by him spoken about this point for speaking of the connexion of the feare of the a pag. 84. Lord and of the King and from thence rightly observing that these two ought not to be separated But that God must be so honoured as wee doe also in the second place honour our Superiours And our Superiours so honoured as that in the first place we honour God Hee b pag. 8â— comes to reproove those that separate these two the second sort of whom he makes Those that separate c pag 87 the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord by attributing to Kings such an unlimited power as if he 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 Holiness And this he saith these parasites and paramours of the Kings Courts do c. All this is easily granted The doctrine there is no good Christian but will subscribe to yea and the use too and thinke those not onely worthy of reproofe but unworthy the name of Christians and to bee accounted none of Gods good subjects that shall goe about by flattery or otherwise to advance the power of the King to the prejudice of Gods supereminent soveraigntie or which when the commands of the one and the other come in opposition shall not as the Apostles choose rather to obey God than Act. 4. 12. man and as those ancient Christian Souldiers under Iulian the Apostate who as S. Augustine In Ps 124. Distinguebant dominum aeternuÌ„ a â—omino temporali tum subditi erant propter dominum aeternum notes were so subject to their temporall Lord for their eternall Lords sake as they still distinguished their eternall from their temporall Lord And though they would obey that wicked Emperor when he sent them to fight against his enemies yet when hee would have them to worship Idols or to burne Incense to them they preferred God before him and denyed their obedience And if any man shall presume to teach that which shall be contrary to this so sure and well grounded a truth hee shall thereby make himselfe the author of a doctrine impious against God and novell in the Church as by those places out of the Fathers which Mr. B. alledgeth and infinite more to the same purpose may be easily demonstrated Yet it seemes by him some have dared so much and that beside the Iesuits whom he calls the Masters of this mystery in their blinde p. 77. obedience there are gotten too many Doctors to be their Disciples and broachers of this new doctrine and againe Many false prophets are now pag. 82. abroad being possessed with the spirit of the Beast which so magnifieth the power of man and his authority in commanding that ipso facto all must yeeld obedience thereunto without further adoe And in the place formerly mentioned he makes the Bishops to be those Parasites and Court Paramors which ascribe such an unlimited power to the King But in a matter of this high nature to accuse onely is not sufficient If he can prove it as substantially as he hath boldly affirmed it let them goe for Iesuiticall Novell Doctors and Parasites and spare not Hic labor hoc opus est Here as it is wont the water sticks with him Proofes I can finde none but instead of proofes I finde conjectures and surmises of some ends which the Bishops may have to induce them to hold and teach this Doctrine Their ends he saith are 1. To keepe the K. from Parliament lest they might be brought Coram 2. By their flattery to endeare the K. unto them as the onely supporters of his Prerogative Royall thereby to protect themselves having incurred the hatred of the whole land 3. That they may borrow this abused regall Power to execute a lawless tyranny over the Kings good subjects 4. Lastly that they may trample the lawes and liberties of the subjects and in fine bring the whole State King and all under their girdle as being true to their principle That a Bishop ought not to Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed prae esse Decret de maj et obed Tit. 33. Innocent 3. be subject to Princes but rule over them These hee brings instead of reasons to make good this accusation and these he knowes to be sufficient to make thoses Judges I meane the people before whom he hath brought them to be tryed to passe sentence against them and pronounce them guilty Yet God be thanked the Bishops do not stand or fall by their sentence And prudent Judges if they find no greater proofes will rather judge the accuser guilty of Scandalum magnatum than upon such weake evidence to condemne the accused For all this notwithstanding it appeares not otherwise than by Mr.
no where doth to the Priests or Deacons but more clearely by the ancient Canons and writings of the Fathers in the primitive B. Andrewes Resp ad Epist Moâ—inaei 1. 3. Tortur Terti p. 151. Church That which results from all this is That to affirme the Episcopall order or authority as it is meerely spirituall to bee received not from the King but from God and Christ and derived by continuall succession from the Apostles is no false or arrogant assertion nor prejudicall to the Kings prerogative royall and so not dangerous to those that shall so affirme or that challenge and exercise their jurisdiction in that name For the further demonstration hereof I will also briefly set downe what power in causes Ecclesiasticall is due and challenged by the King and other Soveraigne Civill Magistrates what Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is annexed to the Crowne of this Realme which the Bishops must acknowledg thence to be received and exercised in that right My first conclusion shall be in the words of Conclu 1 our thirty seventh Article where the power of Artic. 37. Kings in causes Ecclesiasticall is described to bee only That they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the Civill Sword the stubborne and evill doers other authority than this as Queene Elizabeth in her Injunctions His Majesty neither doth ne ever will Qu. Eliz. Injunct challenge nor indeed is due to the Imperiall Crowne either of this or any other Realme Where I observe two things wherein the Soveraigne authority of Princes in causes Ecclesiasticall doth consist First in ruling Ecclesiasticall persons under which are comprised 1 their power to command and provide that spirituall persons do rightly and duly execute the spirituall duties belonging to their functions 2 to make and ordaine Lawes to that end and for the advancement and establishing of piety and true Religion and the due and decent performance of Divine worship and for the hinderance and extirpation of all things contrary thereunto Secondly in punishing them as well as others when they offend with the Civill Sword Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall persons being offenders are not exempt from the coercive power of the King but that he may punish them as well as others but it is with the Gladium spiritualem stringere est Episcoporum non Regum quan quam hic licet Episcoporum manu piorum tamen Regum sancto monitu et evaginari in vaginam recondi solet Mason de Minist Ang. l. 4. c. 1. Civill Sword as that only which he beareth not with the Ecclesiasticall or by the sentence of Excommunication It belongs to Bishops and not to Kings to draw the Spirituall Sword yet that is also wont to be unsheathed and sheathed at the godly command and motion of religious Kings And they may as pious Princes use second yea and prevent the spirituall Sword and with the Civill as namely with bodily and pecuniary punishment compell his subjects as well Ecclesiasticall as Temporall to the performance of the duties of both Tables My second conclusion or as I may rather Conclu 2 terme it my inference upon the former is That the Bishops having any civill power annexed to their places and exercising the same either in judging any civill causes or inflicting temporall punishments whether bodily or pecuniary have and use that power wholly from the King and by his grace and favour in his right That the Episcopall jurisdiction even as it is Conclu 3 truly Episcopall and meerely spirituall though in it selfe it be received only from God yet in asmuch it is exercised in his Majesties Dominions and upon his subjects by his Majesties consent command and royall Protection according to the Canons and Statutes confirmed by his Authority nothing hinders but that thus-farre all Ecclesiasticall Authority and jurisdiction may bee truly said to be annexed to the Crowne and derived from thence And this onely is the intent of those Statutes which annex the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crowne Which notwithstanding it may truly bee affirmed that the Bishops have their function and jurisdiction for the substance of it as it is meerely spirituall and so properly Ecclesiasticall by Divine right and only from Christ and that it is derived by a continuall and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles But if Master Burton conceive that the Bishops affirme that they have power to exercise this their spirituall jurisdiction within His Majesties Dominions and over His Subjects of themselves and without licence and authoritie from His Majestie Or that their temporalities their revenewes their Dignities to bee Barons of the Parliament c. or the authority that they have and use either to judge in Causes temporall or to inflict temporall punishments belong to them by Divine right or otherwise than by the favour of his Majesty and his predecessors hee makes them as absurdly ignorant and presumptuous as himselfe The other thing which I cannot let passe is that which he here cites out of the Iesuites pamphlet intituled A direction to be observed by N. N. c. wherein the Iesuit it seemes applauds the present state of our Church as comming on towards Vnion with Rome The temper and moderation of the Arch Bishop and some other learned prelates and the allowance of some things in these dayes which in former times were counted superstitious as the names of Priests and altars and the acknowledging the visible beeing of the Protestant Church for many ages to have beene in the Church of Rome c. My purpose is not here to enter the lists with the Iesuite who I doubt not ere long will bee more sufficiently answered than I have either leisure or ability to doe All that I shall say for the present is First that Master B. is willing it seemes to take dirt from any Dunghill to cast in the face of his Mother the Church of England and that though hee professe such mortall hate to Rome that the last affinity with her though many times but imaginary makes him breake forth into strange expressions of his abomination Yet hee can bee content to joyne hands with the worst of the Romanists the Iesuites and use their aide to slander and make odious the Church in which hee was bred But it is no Innovation this it hath beene a long practise of the Faction whereof he is now ambitious to become a captaine both to joyne with them in their principles and to make use of their weapons to fight against the Church wherein they live Secondly It is manifest from hence that the Iesuite and he are confederates in detraction and ignorance of the Doctrine of our Church which both of them judge of not by the authorised Doctrine publikely subscribed or the regular steps of those that have continued in the use of her ancient and laudable customes rites and ceremonies but by their owne humours and uncertaine reports of some
factiously-minded persons It being usuall with such men of both parties to mistake the religion professed on either side and as Master B. condemnes all that of Popery and superstition that is crosse to his fancied crotchets though it be the doctrine that hath been ever taught in the Church of Christ and sometimes such as himselfe hath subscribed So the Iesuites on the other side use to charge our Church with all those tenets which they finde to bee by any among us without respect had either to the consent they have with the publickly received doctrine or to the judiciall approbation that such opinions which we many times detest as much if not more than they have from any authorised act of the Church otherwise both the Iesuite and hee might have knowne that many for some of them are but meere fictions and slanders of the things they accuse of novelty have beene ever agreeable to the doctrine of this Church For who knowes not that the names of Priests and Altars are no such strangers in our Church that any man should bee fearefull of using them such as have staggered at them have beene justly counted more nice than wise Especially the name of Priest which both our booke of Common-prayer and of Ordination have ever used and kept on foot though it sounded but harshly to some eares And for that which the Iesuite cals fiery Calvinisme if he meane the Geneva discipline founded by him or any singular opinions which hee holds wherein there hath appeared more heate than truth I confesse it hath beene and is the more is the pitty the Darling of many in England but without either Canon or countenance from Authority The Church of England in reforming of Romish errors tooke no patterne from Geneva nor followed any private mans oppinion and her wisest and most judicious sons as they honour the learning and good parts of any and of Master Calvin among yea and in some things haply above others so they have ever on the other side thought it an injury to receive their denomination from any doctrine but that which is publickly taught and avowed by our owne Church and all the innovation that may seeme to bee in them is only that by the negligence of some that have beene in place or rather from their inability than to foresee the mischiefe that now since appeares contrary tenets and practices have growne so into such fashion that the Churches true tenets and rites being revived seeme no lesse strange and new than the old English habits would be judged among our present Courtiers Or perhaps which I know not why any man should be ashamed of that learning and industry being increased and the heat of contention allayed men begin to judge of opinions not by the authors but by the truth and so some things which by some have beene blasted for Popish and superstitions and by others taken up upon their credit to be such by judicious triall are found consonant to the truth of Christian religion and our Churches doctrine Neither can any without bewraying either malice or grosse ignorance call this a warping toward Popery or that Protestantisme among us waxeth wearie of it selfe when the doctrine and profession in all this seeming variation remaines still the same and unaltered CHAP. XX. The last Innovation in the Rule of manners The Scriptures acknowledged to be the sole rule of manners and how Old Canons how in force The Act before the Communion-book doth not forbid the use of ancient and pious customes Master B. incurring the penalty of that Statute Of Cathedrall Churches The argument from them frees the rites and ceremonies there used from novelty and superstition Of the Royall Chappell His dangerous insinuations referred to the censure of Authority The Close I Am now at last gotten to the eighth and last Innovation or change which he saith is in the rule of manners which rule is changed from the Word of Christ and the examples of the holy Apostles pag. 156. wherein they followed Christ to the example of the Prelates lives and the dictates of their writings An ill change certainly But where is this rule by them prescribed That he neither doth or can tell us but according to his old wont falls a railing against his Majesties Declaration for sports upon the Sundaies and against those whom he calls Anti-Sabbatarians for allowing of it notwithstanding as hath beene already sufficiently demonstrated it is no way contrary but consonant to the Word of God which they whom he taxes allow and acknowledge as the sole rule of Christian life though not so as hee would have it that a man may doe nothing either in his civill conversation or in things pertaining to the time place manner and other circumstances in the worship of God which is not to bee found in the Scriptures though commanded by superiors invested with authority from God himself And however this is no proofe of his assertion for hee cannot bring any instance wherein they propound their owne lives for a patterne or rule of Christians practise in this no nor in any other case Nay I dare boldly say that if Master B. and such as joyne with him in opinion would give the Prelates of our Church that which our blessed Saviour commanded to bee given while the Iewish Church continued to the Scribes and Pharisees who sate in Moses seate To observe and doe that Mat. 23. 2. 3. which they command them and that only wherein they command not contrary to the duty of their places or to the Word of God They will easily dispense with them for observing any further rule or for doing after their workes though it cannot be said of them as our Saviour did of the Scribes and Pharisees that they say and doe not Having nothing more to say to this point but senselesse repetitions of his old declamatory or incendiary language For a close he brings certaine arguments framed in defence of the pretended Innovations which he answers with as much confidence and little reason as hee hath used hitherto in the charging of them for such First hee saith our changers plead That they pag. 158. bring in no changes but revive those things which ancient Canons have allowed and prescribed To this he answers That in this Land wee are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or Canon-law but by the Law of God and of the King But by his favour I must tell him that neither the Law of God nor of the King doth disallow the use of the Old Canons and Constitutions though made in the time of Popery and by the Pope or Popish Prelates which are not contrary to the Law of God or of the King which yet he hath not and indeed cannot justly charge any of those things to be which he quarrels If hee desire proofe of this let him consider whether the Stat. 25. Hen. 8. 19. doe not say as much as I affirme Where having regulated divers things touching