thereof established Civility and Iustice and to his lives end he would never leave to do his best endeavours untill he might say of Scotland as one of the Emperours said of Rome Inveni lateritiam relinquo marmoream Indeed the Countrey affords more of Stone than Tile-shard They come to vote Commissioners upon the Articles of Religion whom the King commends they refuse and evermore Officers of State are suspected partial for the King and therefore they admit but of three the Chancellour Treasurer and Clerk of the Rolls They begin with the chiefest Article That what soever should be concluded by the King and the Bishops in matters of external policy should be an Ecclesiastical Law Not that the King was against the advice and assistance of a competent number of the grave and learned Ministers but to be over-ruled said he as in your former General Assemblies I shall never agree The Bishops must rule the Ministers and the King govern both in matters indifferent and not repugnant to Gods Word and so that Ariicle was formed and passeâ— Hereupon the Ministers mutiny that their Discipline should be formed to all the Ceremonies of England and Struthers in his next Sermon condemning all those Rites prayed God to save Scotland from the same sin And thus set on they frame a Protestation to the King in Parliament First against that Article and therein if remedy be not provided they shall be forced to other effects For freedom of their Church and discharge of their Consciences Their Reasons they reduce into Arguments 1. Their Reformation That the purity in Doctrine Sacraments Discipline and Order thereof hath been acknowledged rather as a Patern to be followed by all Reformed Churches of Europe than now to be put to seek it from such as never attained to it 2. That their General Assemblies formerly established to constitute and make Canons will be utterly overthrown That hitherto their Church nearest the divine and Apostolical Institution and so hath lived long without Schism and rent may now by introducing Novelties be miserably overthrown That his Majesties gracious assurance by his Letters this last Winter against all alteration of Religion and so hath been intimated in Pulpits when Rumours were dispersed of intended conformity with England These they pray may be sufficient to warn the King and Parliament not to oppress their poor Church and give grief to millions of men that otherwise would rejoice at his Majesties presence And so they resolve that rather than submit they are prepared to incur censure and to oppose This Protestation they commit to the most mad-headed man amongst them one Hewet but some of the wiser sort fearing the success desire the Arch-bishop of St Andrews to suppress it He meeting Hewet desires to peruse it and blaming the man keeps the Writing the other seizes the Paper and thus striving in the next Room the King hastily comes out and sternly fronts the Fellow who falls down of his knees and craves pardon for the Protestation professing never more to meddle therein However the King wisely suspecting some others of the same Phrensie for the present commanded that Article of the Kings Crown-prerogative not to be read till the policy of a fitter time the rest of them being read and concluded the King takes his leave and loving farewell But the Bishops had warning to summon some principal Ministers and with them to meet him at St. Andrews 10. of Iuly where the King greets them How great my care hath been for the Church saith he since I had authority and power to perform it your consciences cannot but confess I need not tell you I seek no thanks God knows my heart for true worship of him and decent order in the Church whilest I resolved of this Iourney to visit you I gave you warning to insert some Articles into your Acts of the Church those were anniversary commemorations of Christ's blessings to man as his Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the Spirit another for private use of both Sacraments a third for reverend administration of the Communion and a fourth for catechising and confirming children by Bishops I was answered that they had not been moved in any of the Churches Assembly and so I was silent And lately desiring but my Prerogative to be declared in making Ecclesiastical Laws ye mutined and protested against me But I pass all amongst many other wrongs frequent from you The Errand I have now is to know your Arguments why the same ought not to be granted Reason shall ever guide me and if my Demands are so just and religious too I will not be refused nor resisted And with that browing upon them with a full eye majestical and stern They all fell down on their knees The King went on It is a power innate a princely special Prerogative which Christian Kings have to order and dispose external things in the outward policy of the Church as We with our Bishops advice shall think â—it And Sirs said he for your approving or disproving deeceive not your selves Me ye shall not I will have my Reason not opposed They were all becom new men humbly besought they might confer and so return an uniform Answer which in two hours space produces a Retition for a General Assembly wherein all his Majesties Articles being proponed they might with common consent be received I says the King but what assurance have I of their consenting They protested that they saw no reason to the contrary But if it be otherwise and your reason now be none of theirs then the Articles refused my difficulty the more and when I shall hereafter put my own Authority in use I shall be pulpited a Tyrant Persecutour Ye were wont so to do All crying out That none durst be so mad Yet experience tells me says he that it hath been so therefore unless I be sure I shall not grant your Assembly They craved the Arch-bishop of St Andrews to answer for them but he refused having been formerly deceived At length they procured leave to assemble in November next at St Andrews Simson that subscribed to the Protestation writes to his Brethren those Articles which he calls Tricas Anglicanas the Letter-carrier was Catherwood who for his insolency to the Kings face was committed and after banished and Simson sent to Edenburgh Castle where he lay till December And so the King returns to England by the West parts and at Dunfres had his farewell Sermon by the Bishop of Galloway which made the hearers heavy at their hearts The King gone home the Assembly met but willingly would have delayed their Conclusion of the five Articles till they might inform their Flocks of the equity of them and so they went away which the King considers as an high contempt and breach of their promise and commands the Bishops of St Andrews and of Glascow precisely in their own persons to keep Christmass day next preaching of Texts according to
Child should not be saved He answered No. But if you be called though in private to baptize him and refuse I think you shall be damned But he concluded Necessity of Baptism to be necessary by lawfull Ministers and none other and yet utterly disliked Rebaptization though after either Women or Laicks Here the Bishop of Winton affirmed that to deny baptizing by private persons in case of necessity crossed all Antiquity that the Minister is not of the essence of the Sacrament yet is he of the essence of the right and lawfull Ministry thereof the commission of Christ Matth. 28. 20. Go preach and baptize Excommunication The King asked Whether the Name might not be changed and yet the censure retained or whether another coercion equivalent He was answered that it had been heretofore often considered but Queen Elizabeth resolved to be Semper eadem and not to alter what she had settled The King professing That though he lived some time as a Ward under Puritans yet since he was of his Sons age the Prince sitting by he ever disliked their opinions though he lived among them he was not of them Opus primae diei The perfect Conference The Bishops Deans and Doctors and a Scotish Minister Patrick Galloway was admitted and Reynolds Sparks Knewstubs and Chaderton The King told them all the intent of the Conference meet for every King at his entrance to the Crown Not to innovate the established Government which by long experience he found was accompanied with singular blessings five and forty years as that no Church upon the face of the earth flourished more than this of England But first to settle an uniform Order therein Secondly to plant unity for suppressing Papists and other Enemies to Religion Thirdly to amend abuses being natural to bodies Politick and to corrupt man as the shadow to the body which once being entered have motion like a wheel set going and because complaints had been made he thought best to summon the gravest and most learned to hear what could be said and so wished the Oponents to object They four kneeled down and Doctor Reynolds the fore-man after a short Preamble gratulatory signified his Majesties summons by virtue whereof these appeared reducing all matters disliked to these four Heads 1. That the Doctrine of the Church might be preserved pure according to Gods Word 2. That good Pastors might be planted to preach 3. That the Church-government might be sincerely ministred according to Gods Word 4. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety In the first that the Book of Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explain'd where obscure and enlarged where defective viz. Acts 16. the words are these After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace which seem to be contrary to the Doctrine of Gods Predestination and Election in Article 17. both these words might be explained with this addition yet neither totally nor finally and that the nine Assertions upon a conference heretofore at Lambeth might be inserted into that Book Secondly where it is said in Article 23. that none should preach or administer Sacraments in the Congregation without lawfull calling he said implied a lawfulness for any man out of the Congregation to preach c. though he had no lawfull calling Thirdly in Article 25. touching Confirmation grown partly of the corrupt following the Apostles being opposite to those in the Collect of Confirmation in the Communion Book Upon whom after the example of the Apostles argue saith he a contrariety each to other the first confessing Confirmation to be a depraved imitation of the Apostles the second grounding it on their example Acts 8. 19. as if the Bishop in confirming children did by imposing his hands as the Apostles do in those places give the visible graces of the Holy Ghost c. therefore he desired that both the contradictions might be considered and this ground of contradiction examined The Bishop of London first desired his Majesty That the antient Canon might be remembred Schismatici contra Episcopos non sunt audiendi Secondly that if any of these parties were in the Number of the 1000. Ministers who had once subscribed and yet petitioned against it they might be removed according to a very decree of an antient Counsel That no man should be admitted to speak against what he had subscribed and contrary to a statute to speak against the Liturgie and discipline established alleging what Master Cartwright had confirmed that we ought rather to conform to Orders and Ceremonies to the fashion of the Turks than to the Papists Concerning falling from Grace the said Bishop said that very many Men neglecting holiness of Life presumed of persisting in Grace laying all their Religion on Predistination if I shall be saved I shall be saved a desperate doctrine wherein we should rather reason ascendendo than descendendo Thus I live in Obedience to God In love with my Neighbour I follow my vocation c. I trust God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation But contrariwise they use this argument God hath perdestinated and chosen me to life and though I sin never so grievously I shall not be damned for whom he once loveth he loveth eternally Whereupon he shewed what was the doctrine of the Church of England briefly That we must receive Gods promises as they are set forth generally in Scripture and do that will of God which is expresly declared in Scripture The King wished that the doctrine of Predestination be tenderly handled lest on the one side Gods Omnipotencie might be questioned by impeaching the doctrine of Predestination or on the other a desperate presumption might be averred by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in grace To the second it was answered none but a Licensed Minister might preach nor administer the Eucharist or the Lords supper and for private Baptism the King said he had ordered already The third point was observed to be of Curiosity or Malice because the Article there read These five commonly called Sacraments Confirmation Penance Orders c. are not to be accounted Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following the Apostles c. Insinuateth that the making of Confirmation to be a sacrament is a corrupt imitation But the Communion-Book makes it to be according to the Apostles example which being read the King concluded it to be but a Libel Now for the ground thereof it was not so much founded on the places in the Acts but upon Heb. 6. 2. where it is made a part of the Apostles Catechism which was the opinion of the fathers and of Calvin and Fulk the one upon Hebrew 6. 1. the other upon Acts 8. 27. where with Saint Austin he saith We do not mislike that antient Ceremony of imposing of hands for strengthning and confirming such as had been Baptised being nothing else but a
Estate which we find in the Treaty of Mariage between Spain and England and being well assured how the ministers understand it who treated in the time of Philip the third that is that their meaning then was never to effect it but only by enlarging the Treaties and points of Mariage thereby to make use of the Friendship of the King of Great Brittain as well in matters of Germany as those in Flanders And suspecting that your Majesty is of the same opinion although the Demonstrations do not confirm it and that the Infanta Donna Maria is resolved to put her self into the Descalcas when she shall be pressed thereto I have therefore thought fit to present to your Majesty what my zeal hath afforded me the time most necessary for your Majesty with your Ministers to resolve what is fit The King of Great Brittain finds himself equally ingaged in two businesses to this Marriage moved thereto by conveniencies of your Majesties Friendship in making an Agreement with such Catholiques that he thinks are secretly in his Kingdom and so to be assured of them as likewise the honour in Mariage with one of the House of Austria and the best born Lady in the World The other is the Restitution of the Palatinate in which he is yet more engaged for besides that his Reputation is at stake there is added the love and interests of his Grand-children Sons of his only Daughter which in nature and reason of State are to be preferred what soever conveniencies might follow by dissembling what they suffer I dispute not That that Kings concernments herein are to be Governed with Art and Friendship He hath used both but as precisely not necessary I omit it But as a Maxim I hold these two Engagements to him are inseparable And for us though we make the Marriage we must fail in the other most necessary the restitution of the Palatinate Thus much supposed Having made the Marriage in the form as it is treated your Majesty and England will be ingaged in a War against the Emperour and the Catholick League and so to declare with your Arms. Or declaring for the Emperour and the League as certainly you will you will be forced to a War against England and yet your Sister married to his Son with the which all conveniencies whatsoever that were formerly thought upon will cease If your Majesty shall shew your self Newtral the first will appear very scandalous and with just Reason since in matters of less opposition than of Catholiques against Heretiques the Arms of this Crown hath taken part with the Godly against the convenient party And though at this time the French have taken the part of the Hollanders against us your pitty is such to send your Arms againsâ— the Rebels of that Crown of France leaving all the great considerations of State only because these men are enemies to the faith of the Church It will oblige your Majesty to give good occasion to those of the League to make use of France and other Catholick Princes ill-affected to this Crown as necessary for them so to do and these men against their own Religion will sement and assist the Heretiques for hatred to us and follow the contrary party only to leave your Majesty with that blemish that never hath befaln any of your Predecessours Besides the King of England will remain offended and disobliged seeing neither interests nor helpers do follow the allyance of this Crown is likewise the pretext of particular resentment for having suffered his Daughter and Grandchildren to be ruined in respect hereof For the Emperour though he be well affected and obliged to us in making the Translation at this time as business now stands the Duke of Bavaria being possesed of all the Dominions and though he would dispose all to our conveniencyes it will not be in his power to do it as your Majesty may see by the Memorial the Emperours Ambassadour gave you yesterday who make it certain Since in that List of the Souldiers that every one of the League is to pay Bavaria alone will pay more all than the rest joined together Which shews his power and intention not to accommodate matters but to keep to himself the superiority of all in this broken time the Emperour is now in the Dyet and the Translation is to be made in it I propose then for this Estate to conserve the means for a Conference with your Majesties Ministers for the Difficulty will be to find a Way to make the present Distracted Affairs straight again which with Lingring both the Power and the Time will be lost The Emperour as your Majesty knows by his Ambassadours desires to marry his Daughter with the King of Englands Son and I doubt not but he will be likewise glad to marry his second daughter with the Palatines Son Then I propound that these two Matches be made and set on foot presently giving the King of England full satisfaction in all his propositions for the more strict Union and Correspondence that he may agree to it And so all the conveniencies of allyance with us will be as full in this for it accommodates the matter of the Palatinate and the Succession of his Grand-children with his honour without blood or treasure together with the interest of the Emperour the conveniencies of England and the Palatinate and to reduce the Prince Elector that was an enemy to the obedience of the Church by breeding his Sonnes in the Emperours Court in the Catholique doctrine To conclude the business is great the difficulties greater than perchance have been in any other Case I am obliged thus to represent it to your Majesty and shall further shew what I think fit foe disposing of the things to the great Ministers of State if your Majesty please being helped with the good zeal of Count Gondamore and God his blessing therein so much for his Honour and your Majesties service Madrid Novem. 8. 1622. Olivares A wonder to some why this Bird was not hatcht in our Historians nest for it was fledged with the rest and writ you see but three daies after for Answer and might have been nestled in Mr. Prinns â—abal if either of them had been so honest as to preserve a truth Some reasons besides which animated King Iames to proceed having wasted much time of Tryal by his Ambassadours in Spain and with theirs here Gondamore a Man of subtile wit yet prevailed more with us by the advantage of time and our own distempers than by the virtue of any worth in him who having done here as you have heard was called home the last year and Don Iuan de Mendoza Marquess Inojosa with Don Carlos de Colonna sent hither Extraordinary with whom here passed more narrow overtures in the Match besides what was acted beyond Seas with such effects as are before remembred And being a mixed business of Love and State and yet in them the common good and quiet of Christendom involved standing upon
for fifteen yeas together to his Death at Burdeaux his Predecessour in the time of Henry the Sixth hath on his Tomb this large Title Iohn Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Washford Waterford and Valence Lord Talbot of Goodrich and Orchinfield Lord Strange of Blackmore Lord Verdon of Acton Lord Cromwell of Wingfield Lord Lovetoft of Warsop Lord Franifall of Sheffield Lord Falconbridg Knight of the Noble Order of the St. George St. Michael and the Golden Fleece great Marshal to King Henry the Sixth of France and died in the Battail of Burdeaux 1453. These he had and deserved more by the French Chronicle Orock Roe of noble birth in Ireland and by the Sir-name Mack-Mahon being purchased by might or right seem'd to privilege him in any tyranny over the People for which he was hanged his next Neighbour Brian Orock in Brenny for fear of the like turned Traitor and being pursued by Bingham President of Connaught flies into Scotland but was delivered to Queen Elizabeths command and executed for the ease of the King esteeming her Enemies his and caused Mack-Conel to give caution not to nourish Sedition by correspondence of the Hebrides and Orcades The Spaniard nourished Rebellions in Ireland the Queen protected the French against him who by the Duke of Parma was got into Picardy and his other Forces in Brittany wherefore she sends over four thousand covenanted at her cost but for two moneths under conduct of the Earl of Essex and land at Diepe expecting to joyn with the Kings Forces who came not in any reasonable time when they did it was too late to do much service yet they besiege Roan to no effect the English wasted the Queen displeased she sends for Essex but leaves the remain of his men to the command of Sir Roger Williams The Reformed Churches of Christendom increased number and repute by pious Doctrine and Discipline much to the prejudice of the Romish Catholicks that mightily opposed the publick peace of the Church and certainly had Satans help to boot to undermine the mindes of some more fiery zealous Professours that took the poor peoples affections with their seeming devout carriage and this way the Devil inâ—inuates to heighten their pride and self-conceited holiness with some pricks in the flesh and buffetings of Satan every day producing Examples of divers kindes in several places At this time more remarkable in the person of one Hacket in London illiterate and insolent seldom separate and poor who becomes suddenly seemingly holy and by degrees into that cheating way to be inspired with the evil spirit of Revelations He used says an Author a strange and monstrous form and manner of praying falling upon his face sometimes as if in an extaâ—ie otherwhile expostulating with God himself another kinde of prayer he used ordinary and familiar for as other mens devotions and ejaculations aim at the obtaining the sweet comfort of Gods heavenly presence he would in his hottest zeal intreat and as it were force upon God to depart from him and not assist such sinfull creatures which manner of prayer most of his own Disciples construed the effect of his rare and excessive humility and so as a rare Example might finde charitable censure yet it was to be adjudged in him as in truth it falls out frequent with some in these our last times the voice not of man but Satan dictated onely to him from that evil spirit that possest him for so his end discovered it in him He confederates the Devil goes by Legions with Wiginton a Genevan Minister Copinger a Gentleman and Arthington like the Fool in the Comedy a Lay admirer to be called by God to prophesie to the people and alter the English to the Genevan Discipline printing in Prose and Dog-rythm what was fit to seduce others and Hacket as the most proper person must be Arch Prophet But see how Satan brings it on Copinger and Arthington Knave and Fool tell Wiginton of Christ's appearing to them spiritually by Dreams and by Visions that Hacket was that Angel with his Fan and Hook to separate Sheep from the Goats overcome Satan and Antichrist and then follows the Day of Iudgment These prostrate themselves before Hacket in earnest prayer and he skips out of his Bed joyns his devotion with acknowledgment of his own divine nature and so seems in a Trance whilest Arthington bids Copinger in the name of Christ to annoint Hacket with the Holy Ghost and make him King kissing the Ground with bended knee and other reverence but he with careless gesture refuses being as he said already anointed by the Holy Ghost Go forth says he preach of me that Iesus Christ is come with his Fan to judg the World if they believe not let them come and kill me At the instant the Devil driving they all in fury fly abroad and cry out Christ is come repent repent that Hacket had a body truly glorified to constitute a new Discipline and Common-wealth that they were his Prophets of mercy and others of judgment for perfecting his work And this they declared by Vows Protestations of salvation to be all true that he was sole Monarch of Europe and all Kings his Vassals and the Queen to be deposed and so with a preass of people they return home to Hacket who were apprehended and are insolent before the Privy Council Hackets Crimes were condemned as Treason for the Devil prompt him to confess so much with such horrid Blasphemies as I tremble to relate He seems not as distracted but with settled gravity and temper and in the way to Execution he cries out fearfully Iehova Messias Iehova Messias behold the Heavens open Thou Son of God come down and deliver me And at the Gallows he roars out Thou God Iâ—hova Iehova Alpha and Omega c. Thou knowest that I am the true c. whom thou hast sent c. Shew some Miracle from the Clouds to deliver me from these accursed if thou wilt not then will I c. horrid Fire the Heavens and with these hands pull c. from thy Throne nay worse than can be imagined then turns to the Hangman who hastned the Halter Thou Bastard says he wilt thou hang the King of Kings and facing Heaven cried out Is this my reward for my Kingdom bestowed c. Behold I come and will revenge c. the rest Throttled with the Rope he was immediately cut down fresh alive and quartered Copinger stervs himself to death in Prison the others repent and are pardoned On the other side the Iesuits were lurking in every corner Emissaries from several Seminaries Rome France and especially from Spain against them therefore Proclamations forbid any man to be entertained as a Lodger unless his Hoast examine his condition his abode before and whether he will go to Church and Delegates in every Shire to receive the Accounts accordingly The Spaniard having very lately erected a Seminary at Valledolid in
Rebellion And therefore Proclaims all their particular proceedings with remonstance of their Misdemeanors and to prevent disorder now and confusion to follow by advise of his Councill discharges the commissioners and dissolves their convention illegal in it self and worse unlawfully executed by them Whom he commands by Name to depart home in 24 hours to attend their flocks and duties in their Ministery And no wayes to return to convene either within or without the Burroughs of Edenburgh under the pain of Rebellion But we tire the reader and yet hereby we may discover what they did in such like many more for to the death they will proceed Hereupon they consult that seing they had been convened by the warrant of Christ to take care of hazard to the Church Et ne quid ecclesia detrimenti caperet They should obey God rather than man And notwithstanding any charge to the contrary to continue together and to send to the Octavians those 8 Councellors of State formerly mentioned that seing at the entrance to their places the Church was in quiet and peace and now to be imbroyled the Enemies to truth overpowring and all by their councels and connivance The event of evil must fall upon them the Contrivers or Connivers The President hastily made answer As they began so let them end the Councills advice neither was desired nor given on either part and therefore would not meddle between the King and them but leave it to his Majesty and Nobles This answer taught them fresh advice to remonstrate to the King himself by Messengers of their own and fearing the effects the Kings anger humbly interceed for surcease of Processe against Master Blake Until his Majesty should be pleased to convoke an Assembly for deciding all controversies to the Kings content To which he consented provided they would passe by the Declinator or at least to declare that it was not a Generall but a particular Declinator used in Blakes case only as being a cause of slander and so appertaining to the judgment of the Church This by the wiser was held fit to be received as an end of contention No! Rather to stand to their tacklings Gods cause Against worldly powers Ravelling into former examples of prevailing against Princes Others argued to try Mastery with Majesty may faile of effects as yet the Court stand in some fear of the Church and to keep up their concept let us take the best conditions we can least our weaknesse appear if we have the worst and so the terror of the Church despised or neglected Much will portends little wit and as it is often seen who gripes at all grasp nought but wind and to levy all their wills is to lose all their wits of which God send them more plenty than appears by their proceedings But not prevailing the King proceeds to proclaim their departure and Blakes appearance as afore ordered The next day sunday solemnized the christning of the Princesse Bows Ambassadour gave Her name from his Queen Elizabeth and the Town of Edenburgh by their Majestrates assisted as other witnesses Yet all that day in the Churches were bitter invectives The Commissioners of the Church presented a Petition to the King and Council That seing the decision of intricate questions could work no good and was subtilly urged to ingender discention between his Majesty and the Church he would be pleased to remit the discision to a lawfull Assembly and not to incroch upon the limitts of Christs Kingdom upon any pretence but to bend his actions against the common Enemie of the Church and state the Papists Then they exhort the Noblemen to give his Majesty faithfull Counsel and not to be subject to the guilt of sin by the craft of such as seek the thraldom of the Gospel who intend to exite their honours to be the Executors of their malitious devises With order to those that presented this Petition that if the same was refused to enjoyn them to protest against the preceeding of the Councel The King rejects it as not worthy of Answer commanding to call Blake to his summons First That he affirmed in Pulpit that the Popish Lords were returned with his Majesties knowledg and further assurance wherein he had detected the treachery of his heart Secondly that he called all Kings the Divells barns and that the Divel was in the court and in the Guiders thereof Thirdly That in his prayers for Queen Ann he had used these words we must pray for her in fashion but we have no cause she will never do us good That he called the Queen of England an Atheist That he had discussed a suspention granted by the Lords of Session in Pulpit and called them Miscreants and Bribers That the Nobillity were degenerate godlesse dissemblers and enimies to the Church That the Council were Holliglasses Cormorants and men of no Religion And that he had convocated divers Noblemen and others within Saint Andrews in June 1594. caused them to take arms in troops of Horse and Foot and thereby usurped the power of King and Council After reading of the summons Robert Pont their Minister protested that the processe in hand should not prejudice the Church To which the King answered that he meant not to meddle with matters of doctrine but to censure the treasonable speeches of a Minister which he and his Councel would judg except that by scripture it could be held forth that Ministers were not subject in these cases to judicatures Blake makes answer that the accusations were false calumnies producing testimonies of two which he alleged should be preferred to aâ—y report whatsoever Next he said That to the first six points the Council were not lawfull Iudges of speeches in Pulpit but the Presbytery where the sermon was uttered And so presents a second Declinator But being put to voyces it was sentenced That the crimes and accusations mentioned in the summons were seditious and treasonable and that the King and Council were competent Judges in all matters criminall or civill as well to Ministers as other subjects The Council dissolved the King willing to conserve peace and amity to the Ministers offered terms of reconciliation and to return Blake to his charge and Pastorage Bruce answered That if it concern'd only Master Blake the offer might be accepted but the liberty of Christs Kingdom being wounded by the Proclamation and by usurping spiritual Iurisdiction of greater consequence then Master Blakes life and twenty more and that if those things were not retreated they would oppose during the last aspiration of breath The King the next morning treated with some of theirs Shewing how far he was from impairing spiritual Jurisdiction that he would amplifie and inlarge the same but said he to discourse of State in Pulpits is intollerable I clame to judg in matters of sedition and civil and criminal causes and of speeches that may import such crimes and if the Pulpit should be a place of privilege under
Abatement of his writ Nor shall any Nobleman of any other Nation hold plea in England by his name of dignity but only by his name of baptisme and Sùrname Cook 7. part Nay though he mary in England and have issue here the Father dying his Son shall not bear titles of his Fathers Honour because the title had original by a forein Prince and not by English Peerage Nay a more strange case A Postnatus of Scotland or Ireland who is a natural Subject of this Land be he the Heir of a Nobleman yet he is none of the Nobility of England But if the King summon him by writ to Parliament and therein stiled by that foraign Title then from thenceforth he is a Peer of England 39 Edw. 3 36. But more and worthy observance A Knight of any foreign Nation shall be so named in all our Courts of Pleas for the highest and lowest dignities are universal 26 Edward 4 39 Edward 3. And so shall any foraign King be sued here by his Title otherwise the writ shall abate for observe the person of a foraign King shall be here impleaded for debt or trespass of life so an Ambassadour Pardon this digression and now we return to Scotland The King grants a Commissiâ—n to certain persons to see conditions performed by the Popish Lords in reference of their obedience to the Church and for them also to subscribe to conditions for peace and quietness to the King and Country under caution of 20000. And in particular for Huntley to be advised by some Lords assigned to counsel him especially concerning the Kings service But to prevent the Kings publick intentions comes over from foraign parts one Iames Gourdon with designes of Treason and to deterr Huntley from subscribing against him was publisht a Proclamation and a thousand Crowns to apprehend him At which time there was discovered a practiâ—e of surprizeing the Isle of Elsay in the West Seas for receiving forces resolved upon by the Spaniard to be sent thither The contrivâ—r of this design was Barklay the Laird of Ladyland who had escaped out of Glascow prison last year and now returned from Spain and was secretly gotten to this Isle being a high rock four miles compass and thereon an invincible Tower somewhat ruinate of difficult access which he meant to victual But was sodainly surprized by one Knox who landing on the shore Barklay was walking down the Hill to take view of the Company not mistrusting to be known And finding that he was thus betrayed ran into the sea and drownded himself The news whereof comming to the Popish Lords made them the sooner conform which they did forthwith The King thus inabled to command ordains several Commissioners to reduce such families in the North that were in fewds particularly these between Huntley and Murray as you have heard Huntley and Forbes Arrol and Ladwhern Drum Frendraught men of considerable fortunes and fewds so that the North was cleared and quiet And now the King reminds the late behaviour of the Malapart Minister Blake who was couvented before Commissioners at Saint Andrews his Church concerning his Treasonable speeches in his former Sermon whereof he had been convicted before the Council and was now further accused as wondrous factious and so condemned and turn'd out of all And thus visitations being made through all Churches and Presbyteries a strange reformation followed both there and in the University and not only Inquisition of their Doctrines and behaviour therein but also concerning the Managment of Lectures Offices Revenues Rents all out of order untill this blessed way of altering all for good But more especially in the Colledges in place of divinity Readings Politick questions were raised whether the Election or succession of Kings were the better Government How farr the regall power extended whether Kings may not be censured for abusing the same and deposed by the people The King therefore prescribes the professors their Theam The first Master to read the common places to the Students with the Law and History of the Bible The second Master to read the New Testament The third the Prophets Ecâ—lesiastes and Canticles The fourth the Hebrew Grammer with the Psalms Proverbs and the book of Iob. A Council appointed for the Universitie and that for their better improvement and studies the Doctors Professors and Regents not being pastors should be exempted from Church-meetings Sessions Presbyteries and Assemblies these Orders and Articles assented and sworn unto in presence of the King And being Northward where pittifull ignorance possesses the common people Amongst many one Margeret Attkin apprehended upon suspition of witchcraft and threatned with Torture confessed her trade and discovering her associates to purge the Country of all if she might have but pardon she gave her reason to be assured of their guilt all of that sort having a secret mark in their eyes by which she could certainly discover them to be witches and had by deceipt the Devil also assisting gotten credit and belief and so carried through the Country for discovery of others and divers innocent women by her asseveration at Glasgow through the ignorant simplicitie of Master Iohn Cooper Minister were put to death But some wiser than the rest altered the women into other habits whom she would then acquit and so she was sent back to Fife her first aboad and then hanged But belying her self in what she had confessed she was by some supposed not guilty and the King was moved to recall the Commission which authorized proceedings against such seducers And yet the fearfull abounding of these detestable slaves to the Divel moved the King to dispatch hastily a Treatise to the press of Doemonologie in form of a Dialogue and devided into three books 1. The discription of Magi in special 2. The discription of sorceries and witchâ—raft in special 3. The discription of all these kind of spirits that trouble men or women and the conclusion Against the damnable opinions of two principally in that age One Scot an English man who denies in print such a thing as witchcraft and so maintains the old error of the Saduces in denying of spirits The other of Wierus a Germain Physitian in his publick Apologie for all witchcraft discovering thereby himself to have been one of them The Kings indeavour is to prove two things That there have been and are such devilish Arts and secondly what exact tryal and severe punishment they merit And reasoning upon Genus he leaves species differentia to be comprehended therein for example In the first book Chap. 6. speaking of the power of Magicians He saies that they can suddenly by their spirits cause to be brought all kinds of delicacies since as a thief he delights to steal and as a spirit subtilly transports them under which Genus all particulars may be comprehended as bringing wine out of a wall c. proved by reasons of the general In the second bookâ— Chap. 5
in all our Scotish discourse Yet at this time they renew their former wont as in Scotland and begin to perplex the King at his Entrance To pacifie such He appoints a Conference to be held with the Episcopacie and Them at Hampton Court In the mean time to let them see what they should trust unto he sets forth a Proclamation Against such as seditiously seek Reformation in Church Matters And that the Constitution and doctrine here is agreeable to Gods word and near to the Condition of the primitive Church And forewarnes them of publick invectives gathering of Subscriptions to supplications for Reformation savouring of Tumult sedition and violence Protesting to preserve the Estate Ecclesiasticall as politick in such form as he found it Reforming abuses if they be made apparent 14 Octob. 1603. But in truth these men were too hasty and might well remember the King of such their behaviour in Scotland which to prevent he did for ever after advance the power of Episcopacie there to even that Discipline with this in England and to inlarge their Bishops into some Eminencie heretofore clowded with Envy and Malice It was now time so to do when the Presbyterian Doctrines had amplified into these Heads The Reformation of Religion belongs to the Cominaltie The punishment of such Crimes as touching the Majesty of God doth not appertain to Kings and chief Rulers only but also to the Body of the People Princes for just causes may be deposed If Princes be Tyrants their subjects are freed from their Oath of Obedience Populo jus est ut imperium cui velit deferat Penes populum est ut leges ferat sunt Reges veluti Tabulariorum Custodes The people have the same power over the King as He hath over any Person It were good that rewards were appointed by the people for such as should kill Tyrants The People may arraign their Prince The Minister may excomunicate Him He that by excomunication is cast into Hell is not worthy of Life upon Earth Objections to some of their Doctrines with their Answers Custome is against such dealing with Princes Answ. Nothing more dangerous to be followed than Custome Ob. We must obey Kings be they good or bad Ans. It is blasphemy to say so Ob. Jeremie commanded obedience to Nebuchodonozer Ans. The Example is but singular Ob. God placeth Tyrants sometimes for punishment of the People Ans. So doth he private then sometimes to kill them Ob. The Iewes dealt not so with their Kings Ans. Their Kings were not first elected by the People but Ours have nothing but from the People Ob. Shew an Example out of Scripture Ans. Sundry good laws in divers Countries though no Example in Scriptures Ob. Saint Paul commands us to pray for Princes Tim. 2. Ans. We may punish Thieves and yet we ought to pray for them Ob. Saint Paul commands us to be subject and obedient to Princes Tit. 3. Ans. Paul writ in the Infancie of the Church the Christian not ripe nor rich for such a purpose and if Paul were now alive he would leave Kings to be punished by their Subjects not to be accounted any longer King c. These and many more such not only held by Buchanan and Knox but by their whole Consistorians beyond seas as Calvin Beza Hitamor Ursinius Vindicae contra Tyrannos Eusebius Shiladephus c. And now was their former proceedings in Scotland Examined according to their doctrines for setting up their Coâ—sistorian Discipline The Parliament in Scotland 1560. being disolved and their Book of Discipline compiled by Knox and others which their favourites notwithstanding termed but a devoutâ—Imagination yet they threatned the chiefest Noblemen if they should reject it some refused but at last it was forced upon all They appoint their Assemblies particular and general They exercise Jurisdiction and cart Saunders for Adultry And excommunicate the whole Multitude about a May-pole They burn divers places pretending of superstition Bishops houses Protestants also at Pasley the Bishop hardly escaping life The very calling of Bishops though Protestants became Antichristian and command them by their Authority to leave their Offices and Iurisdiction That they should have no voices in Parliament and desire that such as themselves should send might vote Commanding the King and His Council under pain of Excommunication to appoint no Bishops hereafter because the Brethren had concluded that estate unlawfull Beza their Consistorian Patriarch from Geneva had assured them of well doing and moves them Ne unqnam c. That they would never admit again that Plague Bishops although it might allure them of keeping Unity The Bishops being discharged they agreed of Superintendents but that device was laid aside and afterwards conclude that Ministers of the word should be equal and then began the Presbytery to flourish For then they usurped the whole Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction altering all lawes as they pleased They assembled the Kings Subjects injoyning Ecclesiastical pains unto them make decrees and execute them They Trayterously rail against the King in their Pulpits and being questioned utterly disclaim his Authority as an Incompetent Iudge That the Pulpit matters were exempt from the Judgment or correction of Princes They prescribe lawes to the King and State Appoint Fasts to the whole Kingdom when their faction were to act any enterprize Anno 1582. The King to prevent the dangerous consequence thereof divers of them were silenced and imprisoned but what was the Issue They surprize the King at Ruthen and declare it to be done for resisting the present dangers to Gods true Religion and for removing from the King the chief Authors The King being afterwards released that act was adjudged Crimen laesae Majestatis and some were hanged others fled into England Yet afterwards 1585. They avow the same and excommunicate such as would not subscribe to Them Another treasonable Attempt they had against the King at Sterlin Anno 1583. So that in the Parliament 1584. the Kings lawfull Authority Ecclesiastical was confirmed the Bishops restored and to be Treason for any man to procure diminution of the three Estates The Iudgments Senates and Presbyterian Iurisdiction discharged An Act made for calling in Buchanan's treasonable Book his Chronicle and his Iure Regni apud Scotos That none shall preach declame confer or utter scandalous words or slanders against the King or his Council or to meddle in State-affairs Sub poena c. And because they did advance their Modell as the most agreeable to the best and most Reformed Churches against Episcopacy it was examined the numbers that refuse their Sanedrim besides the Eastern and Western Reformers All in the Dutchy of Saxony Brunswick and Luxemburgh All those Churches in the Countreys of the Marquesites of Brandenburgh and Badu The Churches in the Earldoms of Henebergh Lemings Marisfeilt Stalburgh
the cause why he did write it next Analyzed that Chapter shewing the precedents and consequents thereof lastly exactly and divinely unfolded the sum of that place arguing and demonstrating that whatsoever Ben Sirach had said there of Elias Elias had in his own person while he lived performed and accomplished So that the Susurrus at the first mention was not so great as the astonishment was now at the Kings sodain sound and admirable interpretation concluding that the opposers did ill to impose upon a Man that was dead a contrary sence and smyling told the Lords what trow yee makes these men so angry with Ecclesiasticus without doubt they take him for a Bishop 2. The next objection was that old Crambe â—is posita Jesus said to his Disciples when by the Original he spake to the Pharises but bearing a double sence Disciples was to be left out or in a different letter 3. The third Objection against Subscription were Interrogatories in Baptism propounded to Infants that out of Austin Baptizare was credere The King said Ego non intelligo Bishop Winton aiming at his meaning shewed the use thereof out of Saint Austin and the reason Qui peccavit in altero credat in altero It was seconded by the King That the Question should be propounded to the party whom it principally concerned as saith he by example of my self to whom Interrogatories were propounded when he was crowned in his infancy in Scotland Then Mr. Knewstubs fell out with the Cross in Baptism first as the offence of weak Brethren Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 8. the consciences of the weak not to be offended It was answered Distingue tempora concordabunt Scripturae then a Church not settled ours long flourishing asking them How long they meant to be weak Whether five and forty years were not sufficient Then who they were For it is not now required Subscription of Laicks and Idiots but Preachers and Ministers that it was rather doubted some of them were not to be fed with milk being strong enough if not head-strong and thought themselves able to teach all the Bishops Their Objections were whether the Church had power to institute an external significant sign Answered It was used in Baptism onely as a Ceremony and as by their own example who make Imposition of hands in their Ordination of Pastors to be a sign significant all our actions in Prayer are ceremonies significant the Iews to their Moses Pasover have added signs and words Take and eat these in remembrance c. Drink this in remembrance c. Upon which addition and tradition our Saviour at his last Supper celebration used the same as approving that fact of theirs and generally that a Church may instiâ—ute a sign significant Doctor Reynolds confessed the use of the Cross ever since the Apostles but whether in Baptism Quaere It was used in Baptism in the time of Constantine who was no Papist Mr. Knewstubs said Though the Church had power to add significant signs yet not to add where Christ had ordained but one as not to add a private Seal to the great Seal of England It was answered that no sign or thing was added to the Sacrament which was fully and perfectly finished before any mention of the Cross is made Then it was opposed how far such an Ordinance of the Church was binding without impeaching Christian liberty The King told him He would not dispute that point but argue as Kings speak in Parliament Le Roy s' avisera adding that it smelt rank of Anabaptism saying A beardless Boy John Black in a conference I had with the Ministers in Scotland vouchsafed to say He would conform to my Ordinances for Doctrine but for Ceremonies they were left in Christian libertie to every man as he was more or less illuminated of Gods Spirit even till they grow mad with their own light but I will have one Doctrine one Discipline one Religion in substance and ceremony They urged the stamping the Brazen Serpent to pouder by Ezekias because the people abused it to idolatry and so it was abused in time of Popery Therefore said the King It shall continue because you say it was abused in Popery to superstition it implies it was well used before Popery and so now Here the King remembered that he had lived long with such men as these but never of them they do so peremptorily disallow of all things which had been any way used in Popery The Papists object us with Novelties which truly I cannot better answer than to tell them their abuses are new but the good things which they abused we retain and forsake the novel corruption for by the same Argument we may renounce the Trinity and all that is holy because abused in Popery What resemblance is there between the Brazen Serpent a visible thing and the sign of a Cross made in the air The Papists never ascribed any power or spiritual grace to the Cross in Baptism the material Crosses are by us demolished as you desire which the Papists used to idolatry The third general Head Church-garment Then they objected the Surplice to be a Garment used by the Priests of Isis. The King smiled Is it now borrowed from the Heathen which till now ye accounted a Rag of Popery We are not in danger of Paganism though of Papism Antiquity always used different habits in divine Service principally white Linnen and he always desired not further to separate from the Church of Rome in Doctrine or Ceremony than she had departed from her self and her Head Christ Jesus The fourth general Head Common Prayer Doctor Reynolds would not have these words With my body I thee worship They told me it was divine worship The King said It was an usual English word of Reverence not to idolatry But Doctor if you have a good Wife do her to worship and more too That nothing was more meant thereby than as Saint Paul 1 Cor. 7. 4. that to worship the Wife is for the Man to appropriate his body to her alone and as 1 Pet. 3. 7. To give honour to the Wife as to the weaker vessel So to please them was added honour to the word worship The Ring they did not except As for Churching of Women called Purification the King would not alter that decent manner in matter or words saying Women of themselves are loth enough to come to Church therefore all good ways to invite them Fourth general Head Doctor Reynolds excepted against committing Ecclesiastical Censures to Lay Chancellours seeing their Authority in Hen. 8. time was abrogated in Queen Mary's and not revived and abridged by Bishops themselves Anno 1571. ordering that Lay-Chancellours should not excommunicate in matters of correction and Anno 1584 1589. not in matters of instance The King told them He had conferred therein and would consider D. Reynolds desired to have Provincial Constitutions as the Clergy to meet
Origen yet as men they might have failings which made the Apostles themselves to leave them when they left the Hebrew letter A few hundred of years after Christ the Roman Conquests having mastered many Nations East West North and South the Old Testament spake Latine Latini Interpretes nullo `modo numerari possunt too man to be good being all from the Greek which moved Saint Hierom the best Linguist and most learned of his age to translate the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Latine most admirable Thus was it in Greek and Latine before that the faith of Christ was generally embraced in the Roman Empire but afterwards most Nations under Heaven followed their Conversions not by voice onely but by the written Word So then followed Gothick Arabick Beda into Saxon Vallus into French and after two hundred years Charls the Fifth Sur le nome Prudente and Iohn Trevisa about Richard 2. his time into English The Gospels also by many and afterwards we had it in Henry 8. his time in English that all men may say As we have heard so have we seen The Church of Rome of long time would not admit them vulgar in the Mother-tongue of any Nation but onely in Latine untill of late permitted onely to some Professours of Papistry by licence of their Confessor who must be sure to be soured with the Leven of their Superstition And would you think now at this time of Translation that our own Brethren were better content with the ancient English so long say they in use without any more Supervising alteration or quaint perusal To answer them it was said That all ancient Translatours did review their former Works and so got credit even with the Iews as accurately done So did Origen joyned with the Hebrew Original and the Seventyes Translation And Saint Austin exhorted Saint Hierom to a Palinodia or Recantation I am sure the Papists have least cause of offence from us How oft have they altered their Service-books Of late Pius Quintus did so that every several Bishop had a different Officium These were the justifiable Reasons that moved King Iames to command this Translation of such men as might say of themselves with Saint Hierom Et Hebraeum sermonem ex parte didicimus Latinum pene ab ipsis incunabilis Nor was it hastily huddled up as it is said the Seventy did it in seventy days but it was done over and over again the pains of seventy times seventy days out of Originals Hebrew Greek Latine consulting with the Translators Commentators of Chalde Hebrew Syrian Greek Latine nor neglecting the several Translations of all the Nations of Europe untill now that it comes out most perfect The Psalms of David turned into Meeter usually sung in our Churches are the very same done into the Court English then of King Edward 6. days by two or three godly men but not learned who took them from the Latine Translations commonly read in our Liturgy these Psalms the King wished might then receive more proper Language and more congruous with the Text. Himself afterwards versified som so did others very acute and learned such particular Psalms proper to their affections but the whole body was afterwards done by one and the phrase not pleasing some peoples humours who were versed in the old and mostly gotten by heart they could never be admitted publick reception by command to be bound with the Bible If fame hath nor over-spoken our Hierarchy of his time there were not other soils that yielded either so frequent flocks or better fed and went not on more happily in those high steps of true blessedness to save themselves and others in the main helps of tender Pastures and still waters by the one I mean an inuring of the people to the principles of Orthodox Doctrines by the other an immunity from factions and disturbance of the publick peace of the Church It was the Kings observation That partly the miscarriage of our People into Popery and other Errours was their ungroundedness in the points of the Catechism How should such souls be other than turned about with every winde of Doctrine that are not well ballasted with solid informations From whence it was that the King gave publick order for bestowing the later part of the Religious Day in familiar Catechizing It was the ignorance and evil disposedness of our Cavillers that taxed this course as prejudicial to Preaching yet in truth the most usefull is Catechetical this lays the Grounds the other the Walls and Roof this informs the judgment that stirs up the affection What use is there of those affections that run before the judgment or of those Walls that want Foundation And when that was in use I have heard it confessed by some that have spent the greater half of their aged life in the station of Gods holy service they repent nothing so much as not bestowing more hours in this Exercise of Catechism and might justly quarrel their very Sermons and wish the greater part of them had been thus exchanged for this speaking conference Those other divine discourses enrich the brain and the tongue at best this settles the heart these but the descant to the plain song And if herein Ministers be too much curious to satisfie the roving appetite of the tickling ears of curious Auditours their favour will be no better than injurious So may you observe an indiscreet School-master whilest he affects the thanks of an over-weening Parent mar the progress of a forward childe by raising him to an higher Form and Authour ere he have well learned his first Rules Heat of zeal to hear is as natural heat to the body there is no life of Religion without it but as the kindest heat if it be not tempered with a due equality wasts it self and the body too so doth zeal not moderated with discretion It is hard to be too vehement in contending for main and evident truths but litigious and immaterial verities may soon be over-striven for needless seeking a scruple of truth to spend a pound of peace The Church of England in whose motherhood we had just cause to pride our selves hath in much wisdom and piety delivered her judgment of all necessary points in so compleat a body of Divinity as all hearts might rest therein not their truths onely but their sufficiencies the voice of God in holy Scriptures the voice of the Church in her Articles As for her Rules Forms and Dress in Discipline let it be examined whether the Luminaria magna the Bishops were so severe as to introduce antiquated Orders or to impose novel Ceremonies rather did they institute and discontinue some though of use yet superfluous offensive to weak capacities whose judgments could not concoct such fulsom matter though palliated heretofore under lively names of Order and Decency And yet see what Sir Walter Ralegh said then prophetically writing the effects after such Ceremonies should cease The reverend care saith he which
Man deserving to pay for all it being of his designing But the Treasurer was from thenceforth for some time trusted to Commissioners At Midsummer after the King comes to Star-Chamber then intending to settle his homea-ffairs for his resolved journey into Scotland which began the next Spring and therefore now the more to exalt the Seat of Iustice of which this Court was most eminent he discharges his duty to God and his people in a most excellent Discourse the character of his inward inclination to Iustice and Piety His MAIESTIES SPEECH at his first comming to the Star-Chamber He begins with Scripture Give thy Iudgements to the King O God and thy righteousness to the Kings Son the literal sense upon the Prophet David and his Son Solomon godly and wise the mystical sense upon God and Christ his eternal Son just and righteous from which imitation all Governments especially Monarchies have been established Kings are properly Iudges and sit in the Throne of God and thence all Iudgement is derived from the King to his Magistrates not to them Privative but Cumulative So the Council of Jethro to Moses the Iudges were deputed for easier questions the more profound left to Moses So all Christian Kings govern whereby appears the neer Conjunction God and the King upwards the King and his Iudges downward the King to settle the Law of God and his Iudges to interprete the Law of the King Thus a Jove principium he comes to his Errand I. Why he came not to speak here in fourteen years as his Predicessors have done often especially Henry 7. from whom the King is descended doubly to this Crown and so desires to follow him in his best actions 2. Why he comes now For the first Though he had been an old King when he came hither and well practised to Government from twelve years of age yet here he resolved with Pythagoras to keep silence for seven years That Apprenticeship ended the Impediment was the choice of some worthy Cause betwixt King and some Subject or Subject and Subject The one might seem partial as for himself the other oblique in favour of a party But twice seven years his whole Reign here brings him openly to speak now publickly concerning the reformation of Iudicature in Westminster-Hall which heretofore he had in part delivered in private occasions Dividing his Charge 1. To himself 2. To the Judges 3. To the Auditory First He protests that as Confirmation follows Baptism so now he renews his Oath of Coronation in Justice and Law the common Law of the Land He never pressed to alter but as in the union of his person so he eudeavoured it real to conform Scotland to England not this to that anent the prophecy of his Grandfather Henry 7. That the lesser Kingdom by marriage would follow the greater not the greater the less and therefore married his eldest Daughter Margaret to James the fourth the Kings great Grandfather And so blames that nice opinion that the Union of Great Brittain would alter our Laws which he ever declined as a Maxim in matters of State and Policy Innovation and alteration makes it worse that he was sworn to these Laws and to alter them had been perjury in him Iustice may be moderated by him with mercy but in matters of Iustice he will be blind to partiality to hasten Iustice never to delay He distinguishes the Law The Inheritance of King and Subject to be determined by the Common Law set down by our Forefathers and expounded by learned men in their Comments and called Responsa Prudentum or by Statute-Law and this is Law of Inheritance The other Law Gods Law governs all Common and Municipalls as Dependents and he complains of the neglect of Divine Laws and disrespect to the Ministers of the Church which is the most pure and neerest the primitive and Apostolical Church in doctrine and discipline of any in Christendome Next to this is the Civil Law the Law of Nations It satisfies strangers and his own subjects in matters of Pyracy Mariage Wills which Law he divides Civil and Canon and complains of the contempt upon it and concludes his own charge to maintain so to purge it from two corruptions Incertainty and Novelty to cleer it to the people by advice of Iudges and to purge it of Niceties introduced by Iudges themselves And so as the Pastor takes the Sacrament himself and then distributes so he to them least it be said Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum The charge to the Iudges consists of three parts To do Iustice Generally Indifferently Fearfully Generally uprightly as to answer God and the King aud punishment from either Indifferently to all parties King and Subject Subject and Subject without delay partiallity clean and uncorrupt Fearfully Not your own conceits for you are no Law makers but Interpreters Jus dicere not Jus dare For you have no voice in Parliament but to advise And though some Laws are obscure and may be better known to you by Books and Presidents yet their interpretations must be subject to common sense and reason Ratio est anima Legis cleer Law or solid Reason But where the formality hath no place as in Denmark the State is governed by written Law no Advocate or Proctor only the parties plead and the Law is read and so sentence He complains of our curious wits Various conceipts different actions and several examples which breed questions in Law But if plain it speaks it self if otherwise as inventions abound they are to enterprete and draw a good Minor of natural Reason out of a Major of direct Law and so will follow a true Conclusion though common Law be a Mystery and your interpretation be not understood yet by the reason of Logick and common sense it will be false And as they are Iudges and divided into Benches so they must confer debate not single opinions per emendata suffragia and thus in generall to their Office And as to their Limits First Not to incroach upon Prerogatives of the Crown deal not in difficult questions ere you consult with the King and Council otherwise is to wound the King through the sides of a Private person and herein commends some of the Iudges that of late rebuked and blunted the sharp edge and vain popular honour of some Pleaders at the Bar for meddling therein The mystery of the Kings power is not lawful to be disputed which seems to wade into the weakness of Sovereigns diminishes the mystical reverence of them that sit in the Throne of God Secondly One Iudicature not to invade upon others unsit and unlawful and herein he inlarges himself That besides Common-Law there are Courts of Requests Admiralty President and Council of Wales of the North. High Commission and every Bishops Court These shall keep their limits and bounds so the common Law shall not encroach upon them nor they on that In Westminster-Hall four Courts Two Civil Common-Pleas and Exchequer Two
such as will not be themselves but their wives and families shall be and they shall appear at Church sometimes inforced by Law or for fashion these are formal to the Law and false to God The second sort are Recusants whose consciences are misled and therefore refuse the Church otherwise peaceable subjects The third are practising Recusants they will force all persons under their power and infect others to be as they are Recusants these are men of Pride and Presumption His opinion can bear with the person of a Papist so born and bred but an apostate Papist hâ— hates such deserve severe punishment He is loth to hang a Priest for Religion and saying Mass but if he refuse the Oath of Allegiance which is meerly Civil he leaves them to the Law against whom it is no persecution but Iustice and the like against those Priests that return from banishment such also as break Prison they can be no Martyrs that refuse to suffer for their conscience Saint Paul would not go forth when the doors were open and Saint Peter came not out till led by the Angell of God Then he concludes with the Ordinary charge against the numbers of Alâ—-houses too frequent buildings in and about London and also the extreme resort of the Gentry to the City bids them countenance the religious Clergy against all Papists and Puritans and God and the King will reward their service Let us remind Scotland It was eight years since the Marquess of Hunâ—lâ—y had been excommunicate upon hopes from time to time of his conformity and reconcilement but increasing insolencies was lately committed and as soon inlarged by the Chancelour underhand favouring too much the Papists The Church complain hereof to the King the Marquess posts to England to palliate his displeasure but a Messenger meets him at Huntington with command to return him home to Justice Yet here he staies until he receives new authority to appear at Court where he humbly submits and offers to communicate But being contrary to the Canons before absolution a great debate followed how to hazard him to the Church of Scotland lest by the way he should recant and indeed the King evermore endeavouring to rectifie his conscience and to recover him to be a Proselyte The adventure was thus pieced the Bishop of Catnes now at Court must consent in the name of the Scots Kirk for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to absolve him and the Form new devised so to do in respect of the correspondency of that Church with England The Scotish Church hears of this and interprets that Act as an usurpation upon their Rites which the King is fain to excuse in a long Letter to satisfie that curiosity and lest he should seem to take upon him to palliate so great a presumption of himself onely The Arch-bishop also gave his Reasons in writing without intrenching upon the independencies of so free absolute and intire Authority of Scâ—tland And withall Huntley come home must supplicate that Assembly now convened at Aberdene for their confirmation and his submission which was solemnly performed And because it was about the end of the General Assembly we shall shut it up with inserting such Articles as may enlighten the Reader to the knowledg of the Kings elaborate care and wisdom in reducing perverse Jurisdiction to this moderate issue in conformity to the Discipline of the Church of England by which we may conclude the evident signs and hopes of a full recovery in time from their peevish Hierarchy which had been prosecuted in some measure from the very time that this King took Government to himself and brought it before his death to a semblable conformity with England and might so have prospered to perfection had not their and our sins since set a period to us both 1. That for more reverence of the holy Communion the same should be celebrated Kneeling which always had been standing 2. Not to be denied the Patient desperate sick in his Bed with three or four of religious conversation to communicate with him 3. The Sacrament of Baptism not to be longer deferred than the next Sunday after the Birth and in necessity in a private house by the Minister and publication thereof the next Sunday in the Church 4. That the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and Sending down the Holy Ghost having been commendably remembred at certain days and times by the whole Church of the world every Minister upon these days should therefore commemorate the said benefits upon those set days and to make choice of several pertinent Texts of Scripture to frame his Doctrine and Exhortations thereto And because Confirmation after Baptism stuck in their stomachs and indeed the King was unsatisfied therein terming it a meer Hotch-potch and not clear to his apprehension But yet thus much was concluded That seeing the Act of Confirmation of Children is for their good Education most necessary being reduced to the primitive integrity the Minister shall catechize them after eight years old to rehearse the Lords Prayer the Belief and ten Commandments with Answers to Questions in the small Catechism used in the Church And that the Bishop in their Visitations shall bless them with Prayer for their increase of Grace and continuance of Gods heavenly gifts with them So much was done indeed and presented humbly to his Majesty with some Reasons why the same being novel to them were not as yet inserted with the Canons which the King did not then otherwise press as resolving to effect his desire at his coming personally into that Kingdom when his presence should satisfie with Reasons all scrupulous aversion About this time happened that difference in the Family of Sir Thomas Lake one of the Secretaries of State between his Wife and Daughter and the Countess of Exeter which involved him and his into ruine This Lake was a learned Gentleman brought up under Sir Fr Walsingham that subtil Secretary of State as Amanuensis to him And after good experience of his deserts was recommended to Queen Elizabeth and read to her French and Latine in which Tongues she would say that he surpassed her Secretaries and was so imployed all her time for he was reading as to quiet her spirits when the Countess of Warwick told him that the Queen was departed But not long before she received him Clerk of her Signet And he was chosen by this State in that Place to attend King Iames from Berwick And so sufficient he was that the King made use of his present service in some French dispatches by the way that he came hither which indeed Secretary Cecil had reason to resent as too much trenching on his Office And therefore craveed leave of the King that he might not attend beyond his Moneth to prejudice the other Clerks which was excused and he kept still at Court These sufficiencies of his enabled him in these times of gaining with much repute and
with sickness and thereby unable to receive the Holy communion at the Church and shall declare in his conscience his sicknes deadly desire to receive the same in his house the Minister shall not deny him so great comfort there being three or four communicants to join with him according to the Order of the Church The Parents nor Pastor shall not defer the Baptism of infants longer than the next Sunday after the Birth unless upon reasonable cause nor shall they use private Baptism in their Houses but when great need requires and then the Minister shall not deny it in the form as at Church and the next Sunday declare the same and that the infant ought to be received into Christs fold That according to the primitive integrity care was ever taken for educating of children and catechising of them now altogether neglected The Minister shall therefore catechise them and in the rehearsal of the Lords Prayer Belief and ten commandments as in the Church-catechism is used and expressed And afterwards the said children shall be confirmed by Prayer and Blessing of the Bishop for the continuance of the grace of God in them That the inestimable benefits by our Saviours Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down the Spirit hath been at certain times remembred by the whole Church of the World And therefore the Minister shall observe those times and form his Doctrine according to the Text purposely to be chosen and proper for the day These were thus obtained proclaimed and obeyed and to this day called the five Articles of Perth ratified in Parliament there the next year and the last Parliament of this Kings time when a monstrous storm thickned the face of Heaven and the factious sort said it was a sign of Gods anger against those Articles others in derision of that sense said it was rather an approbation from heaven like thunder and lightning at the giving of the Law to Moses The Bishops had much ado to go on to Action for Papistry being a Disease of the Minde and Puritanism of the Brain the Antidote of both ought to be a grave and well-ordered Church to reduce them either simply or wilfully erring But those that were refractory and factious got the more of the mad crew swarming to such to seek the Communion and to receive their Doctrine and those that would not were excommunicate upon every ordinary and frivolous occasion Excommunication the greatest Judgment upon Earth that which is ratified in Heaven a precursory or prelasory Judgment of CHRIST in the end of the World and therefore not to be used irreverently as an ordinary Process derogate to Gods honour and the power of the Keys contemtible It is urged indeed not so much for the thing it self as for the contumacy and as God's judgment seizes on the least sin of the impenitent so Excommunication may in case issue out upon the smallest offence and not upon the greatest in another case But are these contumacies such as that the party as far as the eye of the Church can discern standeth in statu reprobationis damnationis given over to final impenitence It is therefore to be wished that this Censure were restored to the true Divinity and use in cases of weight To this purpose a Bill was drawn in Parliament 23 Eliz. the gravest Assembly of her time and recommended by the gravest Counsellour but for some politick Reasons was retarded We reade of three degrees of Excommunication in the New Testament the first called Nidui A casting out of the Synod Iohn 9. 22. A separation from all commerce society eating or drinking with any person from the Marriage-bed from washing and these according to the pleasure of the Judg and quality of the offence for thirty days or more he may be present at divine Service to teach or to learn others if impenitent his punishment was increased doubling or trebling the Sentence for time or to his death His male-children were not circumcised And if he died unrepentant a stone was cast upon his Coffin as deserving to be stoned and was buried without lamentation or ceremony and not in common Burial The second was called Cherem A giving over to Satan 1 Cor. 5. 5. It differed from the first degree because it was not sentenced in a private Court but in the whole Church and Maledictions and Curses added out of the Law of Moses At the publishing Candles were lighted and when the Curses were ended then the Lights were extinct even so the Excommunicate deprived of the Light of Heaven And thus against the incestuous person 1 Cor. 5. 5. and against Himenaeus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. 20. The third was named Maran-atha viz. The Lord cometh and was instituted they say by Enoch Iud. 14. An Excommunication to death and so the phrase 1 Iohn 5. 16. There is a sin unto death viz. to deserve Excommunication to death In the Greek Church four degrees of this Censure 1. Those who were onely barred the Lord's Table all other benefits of the Church they might nay to stand by and see the Communicants and therefore called stantes 2. But he is admitted into the Church his place behinde the Pulpit and must depart with the Catechumeni such persons as were not yet baptized and so might not pray with other Christians 3. Degree admitted but into the Church-porch to hear but not to pray with others and therefore called Audientes 4. Degree such were onely permitted to stand quite without the Church weeping and requesting those that entered in to petition the Lord for mercy towards them whence called Plorantes So then they say Cain's Censure was the first and the last Enoch's The three sorts were borrowed from the three sorts of uncleaness which excluded people out of the three Camps 1. Nidui out of the Camp of God alone those defiled with the touch of the Dead 2. Cherem out of the Camp of God and Levi defiled of an issue 3. Maran-atha out of all three Camps God Levi Israel defiled with Leprosie From the Iews Greeks and Latines took the degrees of Excommunication The Emperour of the House of Austria with interwoven Marriages of Spain as aforesaid had so settled the Empire from other interests that no obstacle interposed their excessive ambition but their jealousies of the Protestant Princes and States whom they intend by degrees to reduce and in over-doing of this began the German miserable Distractions And because the Palatines too sudden accepting the Crown of Boheme was the immediat occasion I shall let in the Reader into that story The Kingdom of Boheme for many hundred years past enjoyed Sanctuary and Privileges to impower the free election of their King which is manifest in their Chronicles in many Bulls of their Emperours in their Kings Reversal Letters and divers other Examples and Antiquities Sundry practices have been against this free Election but never managed with more wiles than now Matthias the Emperour two
State with the advice of learned Prelates Insomuch that the very licensing of Preachers had beginning by Order of Star-chamber the eighth of July 19. H. 8. And that at this present divers young Studients by reading of late writers and ungrounded Divines do broach unsound and seditious Doctrines to the Scandal of the Church and disquiet of the State and that humble representations have been to the King of these inconveniences by the Arch-bishop and other Reverend Prelates of the Church besides his Princely zeal for extirpation of Schism and Dissention proceeding from those seeds And for the settling of a Religious and Peaceable Government in Church and Commonwealth does by these charge and command you to use all possible care and diligence that these limitations and cautiono herewith sent you concerning Preachers be duly observed by Each Bishop in their Iurisdictions to be communicated to each Minister in Cathedral and Parish Churches of which we expect strickt account Windsor August 4. 1621. The Directions sent with the Letter in six Articles 1. That no Preacher â—nder the degree of Bishops or Deans fall into any set discourse or Common place which shall not be warranted in Essence Substance and Effect or Natural Inference with some one Article of Religion set forth anno one thousand five hundred sixty two or in some of the Homilies by authority of the Church of England 2. That none shall preach after noon on Sundays or holy days but on some part of the Catechism or of the Creed Decalogue or the Lords prayer and to incourage such Preachers as exercise children in their Catechism which is the most landable custome of teaching in the Church of England 3. That no Preacher under the Degree of a Bishop or Dean do preach the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the universality efficacy resistibility of GODS GRACE but leave these Theams for godly and learned men and that moderately and modestly by way of use and application rather then of positive Doctrines being fitter for the School then simple Auditories 4. That no Preacher soever shall presume in any Auditory to declare limit or bound out by way of positive doctrine the Power Prerogative Iurisdiction authority or duty of Sovereign Princes or meddle with matters of State and the differences between Princes and the people but rather confine themselves to faith and good life which are all the subject of the antient Sermons and Homilies 5. That no Preacher shall causlesly without invitation from the Text fall into bitter invectives undecent railing Speeches against the persons of Papists or Puritans but rather free both the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England from the aspersing of either Adversary 6. That the Bishops be more wary in the choice and licencing of Preachers And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new body severed from the antient Clergy as being neither Parson Vicar nor Curate be licensed henceforth in the Court of faculties but only from a Recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and Seal with a Fiat from the Archbishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England I well remember these times the invectives of the Pulpits which truly the wisdom of State thought fit to suppress The Non-conformist nestled himself into a Lecture by that means depending onely upon the devotion of the Parish was that way preferred without the favour of the Bishops And first insinuating into the women Wife Daughter and Maid infusing at their homes such doctrines as might easily catch their weak pallates and thereupon begat the frequent writing of Notes from their preaching in publick as it would astonish the indifferent Reader to meet with their Blasphemies and miserable Nonsense Notes And truly those Lectures wounderfully haunted by such people in after Noon Sermons on working days with such Stuff as savoured nought but railing against the Papist or our Church discipline The looseness of Servants took liberty almost every day in the week to be easied in their Labour and Callings to pretend devotion in this Ordinance of hearing Lectures in some or other Church untill their Masters complained of that Custome These Articles therefore were seasonably published to regulate the Ministery and to order the catechising of children and Servants which Godly and effectuall Way of teaching the King had often hinted heretofore but could never sufficiently reduce the Lecturers to obedience thereto See Anno 1603. Pag. 300. What could the care of the King do more to destroy the seeds of Dissentions Yet herein how captious Our Author observes That these directions were to be observed with Caution peaceable comporâ—ment that is saies he Papist and Puritan's quiet being Equilibero the Papist in the prime scale That the Lecturer is not to be endured unless he pass the Bryars through all Courts to the Broad Seal a pingeant Ordial Trial with his Teste me ipso and so becomes Orthodox So that saies he the Lecturers are implicitely forbidden by the inaccessible charge and trouble to come to it That the Preachers by an Order of Star-chamber in Heaven were licensed Ite predicate before any Henry 's time and so bids them learn least that Spirit from whom they receive the Spirit bind not them up And indeavours to perswade That the Papist did forment the Animosity of the King against Puaitans That Bishop Lawd his Agent though in Religion he had a Mothly form and quotes a Priest in Flanders that told him so was now become Buckinghams Confessor under the Court Livery and assures the Reader that the King once thought him so though now he became the bellowes to blow the fire for the Papist to put the King upon all Projects and Monopolies to sow the seeds of division between Puritan and Protestant for all were Puritans with the high-grown-Arminian-popish party that held the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches And it is somewhat true as he remembers Us That the Courtier Minister or Lay they called Regians who saies he swell up Prerogative even to all that the people had but a bare being which in mercy was left to them poor Republicans That more reverence was done by the Clergy to the King than to God And that the Iudges to inslave the people gave sacred and Oraculous Titles of the K. as of God But saies he the well-affected by writing and discourse sought to warm the Kings cold temper with fresh spirits into his chilled vains in this divided Kingdom So he This stuff smells rank of the Doctor that refined our dead Historians work and put it out in print as we have it Certainly he had heretofore passed the Pikes to be a Preacher and run through this Ordial-Tryal of his Text-ship who in those daies might well deserve a Duns-ship but of late went out Doctor to arm his Republicans if any such men are to be as arrant Rebels as himself in what estate soever they