an Act past by the King the two Houses had nothing to do with the Ordering of it Another was one of the Nineteen Propositions where t was desired that the Nomination of all Officers and Counsellours of State might for the future go by the Maior part of Voyces of both Houses Another Argument That the King hath hitherto in all such Nominations been the only Fountaine of Honour The third was the passing of the Act for the Continuation of this Parliament Another Argument that nothing but the Kings consent could ever have made it thus Perpetuall as it is Many other Instances might be given but so undoubtedly acknowledged by Bracton By Him that wrote the Book call'd The Prerogative of Parliaments who is thought to be Sir Walter Raleigh By Sir Edward Cooke by the stiles and Formes of all the Acts of Parliament which have been made in this Kingdom and by that learned Iudge who wrote the Examination of such particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant as concerne the Law And who in a continued Line of Quotation and Proofe derives along these and the other parts of Supreme power in the King from Edward the Confessour to our present Soveraigne King Charles that to prove them to you were to adde beames to the Sunne Here then For the better stating of the Third thing I proposed to you which was That granting the King to be Supreme in this Kingdome at least so farre as I have described him how farre He is to be Obeyed and not Resisted Two things will fall under Inquiry First supposing the King not to have kept Himselfe to that Circle of power which the Lawes have drawn about Him but desirous to walke in a more Absolute compasse That He hath in somethings invaded the Liberty of his People whither such an Incroachment can justifie their Armes Next If it be proved that He hath kept within his Line and only made the Law the Rule of His Governement whether a bare Fear or Iealousie That when ever he should be able He would change this Rule which is the most that can be pretended could be a Iust cause for an Anticipating Warre The Decision of the first of these Inquiries will depend wholly upon the Tenure by which he holds His Crowne If it were puerly Elective or were at first set upon His Head by the Suffrages of the people And if in that Election His power had been limited Or if by way of paction it had been said Thus farre the King shall be Supreme thus farre the people shall be Free If there had been certaine Expresse conditions assigned Him with his Scepter that if he transgrest not his limites He should be Obeyed if He did it should be lawfull for the people to resist Him Lastly if to hinder such Exorbitances there had been certaine Ephoâ—…i or Inspectours or a Co-ordinate Senate placed as Mounds and Cliffes about Him with warrant from the Electours that when ever he should attempt to overflow his Bankes it should be their part to reinforce Him back into his Channell I must confesse to you being no better then a Duke of Uenice or a King of Sparta In truth no King but a more splendid Subject I think such a Resistance might be Lawfull Since such a Conveyance of Empire being but a conditionall contract as in all other Elections the chusers may reserve to themselves or give away so much of their Liberty as they please And where the part reserved is invaded 'T is no Rebellion to defend But where the Crowne is not Elective but hath so Hereditarily descended in an ancient line of succession from Kingâ—…o â—…o King that to finde out the Originall of it would be a taske as difficult as to find out the Head of Nilus where the Tenure is not conditionall nor hangs upon any contract made at first with the people nor is such a reciprocall Creature of their Breath as to be blowne from them and recalled like the fleeting Ayre they draw as often as they shall say it returnes to them worse then at first they sent it forth In short Sir Where the only Obligation or Tye upon the Prince is the Oath which He takes at his Coronation to rule according to the knowne Lawes of the place Though every Breach of such an Oath be an Offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus independent is accountable for his Actions yet 't will never passe for more then perjury in the Prince No Warrant for Subiects to take up Armes against Him Here then Sir should I suppose the worst that can be supposed that there was a time when the King misled as your Friend sayes by Evill Counsellours did actually trample upon the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberty of his Subiects derived to them by those Lawes yet unlesse some Originall compact can be produced where 't is agreed That upon every such Incroachment it shall be lawfull for them to stand upon their Defence unlesse some Fundamentall Contract can be shewen where 't is clearely said that where the King ceaseth to governe according to Law He shall for such misgovernment cease to be King To urge as your Friend doth such vnfortunate precedents as a Deposed Richard or a Dethroned Edward Two disproportion'd examples of popular Fury The one forced to part with his Crowne by Resignation the other as never having had legall Title to it may shew the Iniustice of former Parliaments growne strong never justifie the Pitcht-feilds which have been fought by this Since If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law Hiâ—… Rule by no other Obligation but His Oath at His Coronation Then which there cannot be a greater I confesse and where 't is violated never without Repentance scapes vnpunish't yet 't is a trespasse of which Subiects can only complaine but as long as they are Subiects can never innocently revenge But this all this while Sir is but only supposition And you know Sir what the Logician saies suppositio nihil ponit in esse what ever may be supposed is not presently true Iâ—… Calumny her selfe would turne Informer let her leave out Ship-money a greivance which being fairely laid a fleepe by an Act of Parliament deserved not to be awakened to beare a part in the present Tragedy of this almost ruined Kingdome she must confesse that the King through the whole course of His Raigne was so farre from the Invasion of His Subjects Rights that no King of England before Him unlesse it were Henry the first and King Iohn whom being Vsurpers it concern'd to comply with the People the one having supplanted his Eldest Brother Robert Duke of Normandy the other his Nephew Arthur Prince of Britaine ever imparted to them so many Rights of his owne To that Degree of Infranchisement that I may almost say He exchanged Liberties with them Witnesse the Petition of Right An Act of such Royall Grace that when He past that Bill He almost dealt with His
your running negligence which should help to make your sophisticall criticisme perfect sense Truly Sir if it be so high a fault to picture God I may justly wonder that any picture of a Saint turned into an Idoll should be retained and pleaded for by any man that pretends to be a Protestant and if it be impossible to picture God it is also impossible to picture God-man And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our Mediatour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. That the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of a comparison in point of fitness to be preserved is a truth written with a Sun-beame Sir I never durst argue from the abuse of a thing against the use of it if the thing be necessary But the Sun is necessary and Images are not necessary ergo there is no parity of reason betweene the termes of your comparison 5. It appeares to me by your shifting fallacy that you make Copes as necessary as clean Linnen 6. You will never be able to prove that all that the prelates and their Faction have borrowed out of the Missall Ritualls Breviary Pontificall of Rome are to be found in any Lyturgie received by the Primitive Church And I would intreat you to consider whether they who doe profess a seperation from the Church of Rome can in reason receive and imbrace such trash and trumpery And yet though you would willingly be esteemed a Protestant I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the Prelates have borrowed from the Court rather then Church of Rome 7. Your next Paragraph doth concerne Tradition I shall give you leave to preferre the constant and universall consent of the Church of Christ in all ages before the reason of any single man but Sir you doe very ill to call the testimony of the spirit speaking in the word to the Conscience of private men a private spirit I thinke you are more profane in the stating of this point then Bellarmine himselfe 8. You have not yet proved that any Prelate can challenge the Sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction Iure divino 9. I should be glad to know for how many yeares you will justifie the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England I beleeve the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Prelaticall faction whom you call the Church was not excellent if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is time enough for men of our time for to examine I beleeve that you will acknowledge that the Prelates did lay an Ostracisme upon those who did oppose them who were in the right both in the point of Doctrine and Disciplâ—…ne we shall in due time dispute Though Prelacy it selfe be an usurpation yet there were many other encroachments which may justly be called Prelaticall usurpations and the Parliament hath sufficiently declared its judgement in this point they have clearly proved that Prelacy had taken such a deepe root in England and had such a destructive influence not only into the pernicious evills of the Church but Civill State that the Law of right reason even Salus populi quae suprema lex est did command and compell them to take away both roote and branch you may dispute that point with them Sir you cannot prove that Prelacy is an Order of the Church as ancient as the Christian Church it self and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours 10. I am no Turkish Prophet I never preacht any piece of the Alchoran for good Doctrine much less did I ever make it a piece of the Gospell all that I say is this that Christians incorporated in a Civill State may make use of Civill and naturall means for their outward safety And that the Parliament hath a Legall power more then sufficient to prevent and restrain Tyranny Finally the Parliament hath power to defend that Civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion this last point is sure of highest consequence because it concernes Gods immediate honour and the Peoples temporall and eternall good Pray Sir shew me if you can why he who saith the Protestants in Ireland may defend their Civill right for the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloudie Rebells doth by that assertion proclaime himself a Turke and Denison the Alchoran you talke of the Papists Religion Sir their faith is faction their Religion is Rebellion they think they are obliged in conscience to put Heretiques to the sword this Religion is destructive to every Civill State into which true Protestants are incorporated therefore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this point Sir Who was it that would have imposed a Popish Service Book upon Scotland by force of Armes You presume that I conceive the King had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion Sir I am sure that they who did seduce or over-awe the King had such a designe I doe not beleeve that the Queene and her Agents the Papists in England who were certainly confederate with the Irish Rebells had any intent to settle the true Protestant Religion you cannot but beleeve that their intent was to extirpate the Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery in its stead I know Christ doth make 〈◊〉 and breake the spirituall power of Antichrist by his word and spirit for Antichrist is cast out of the hearts and consciences of men by the spirit of the Lord Iesus but Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints and will breake the temporall power of Antichrist by Civill and naturall meanes If Papists and Delinquents are in readiness to resist or assault the Parliament by Armes how can the Parliament be defended or Delinquents punished but by force of Armes I know men must be converted by a spirituall perswasion but they may be terrified by force of Armes from persecution All that I say is the Parliament may repell force with force and if men were afraid to profess the truth because of the Queenes Army and are now as fearfull to maintaine errours for feare of the Parliament the scales are even and we may by study conference disputation and prayer for a blessing upon all be convinced and converted by the undenyable demonstrations of the Spirit Sir this is my perswasion and therefore I am sure far from that Mahumetan perswasion of which I am unjustly accused 11. I am glad that you speake out and give light to your darke roome I did not accuse you of Conventiâ—…les I beleeve you hate those Christian meetings which Tertullian Minutius Pliny and others speake of we had lights and witnesses good store at our meetings And as for your conceit that I deserve to be in Bedlam because of the predominancy of my pride and passion and the irregularity of my will Sir I confess that I deserve to be in Hell a worse place then Bedlam and if you scoffe at
He sayes that no Prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation That is so calculated or Meridianized to some select minds understandings that it shall hold the candle to them only and leave All others in the Darke But if you will consent to the Comment of the most primitive Fathers on that Text The meaning of it is That as God by his Spirit did at first dictate the scripture so he dictated it in those thingswhich are necessary to Salvation intelligible to all the world of Men who will addict their minds to read it It being therefore a Rule held out to all mankind for them to order their lives and actions by and therefore universally intelligible to them it should else cease to be either Revelation or a Rule for you to hold that it cannot be understood without a second Revelation made by the same Spirit that wrote it to the private spirit of you the more-Cabinet Reader is as if you should inclose and impale to your self the Ayre or Sun-beames And should maintain that God hath placed the Sun in the firmament and given you only eyes to see him In short sir 't is to make his word which was ordained to give light to all the World a Dark Lanthorn In which a candle shines to the use of none but him that bears it Your Eighth Paragraph being the third of your eleven Questions as also the close of your ninth shall receive a latine Answer from me in the Divinity School Your next Paragraph is againe the Hydra with repullulating Heads Where first you put me to prove the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England Which being managed by a Prelaticall faction whom you say I call the Church was not excellent if I reckon from the yeare 1630. to 1640. As for the Doctrine Sir I told you before that the Primitive Church it selfe was not free from Heresies If therefore I should grant you which I never shall till you particularly tell me what those erroneous doctrines were that some men in our Church were heterodox nay hereticall in their opinions yet I conceive it to be a very neere neighbour to heresie in you to charge the doctrines of persons upon the Kingdome or Church Such Doctrines might be in England as you whether out of Choice or Luck have said yet not by the Tenets or Doctrines of the Land No more then if you should say that because M. Yerbury and some few oâ—…hers hold the Equâ—…lity of the Saints with Christ the whole Kingdome is a blasphemer and was by you confuted at S. Maries The publick doctrine of the Church of England I call none but that which was allowed to be so by an Act of Paâ—…liament of England and that Sir was contained in the 39. Articles If any Prelate or inferiour Priest for the Cicle of yeares you speak of either held or taught any thing contrary to thâ—…se as it will be hard I beleeve for you to instance in any of that side who did you shall have my consent in that particular to count them no part of our Church In the meane time Sir I beseech you be favourable to this Island and think not that for ten yeares space 't was hereticall in all the parts of it on this side Berwick Withall Sir I desire since you have assigned me an Epocha to reckon from that you will compare the worst doctrines which wore the date of the Trojan Warre among us with those which have since broke loose in the space of a Warre not halfe so long and you will find that our Church for those ten yeares you speak of wore a garment I will not say as seamless and undivided as Christs coat But since the Soldiers did cast lots upon it so much heresie as well as schisme hath torne it asunder that 't is now become like Iosephs coat imbrued in bloud where no one piece carryes colour or resemblance to another As for the Discipline and Government of our Church if you would speak your conscience and not your gall you would confess that the frame and structure of it was raised from the most Primitive Modell that any Moderne Church under the Sunne was governed by A Government so well sized and fitted to the Civill Government of the Kingdome that till the insurrection of some false Prophets who presumed to offer strange fire before the Lord and reduced a Land which flowed with milk and honey into a wildernesse they agreed together like the two Scripture-brothers Moses and Aaron and were the two banks which shut up schisme within its channell and suffered not heresie or sedition to overflow their bounds In short Sir I know not into what new forme this Kingdome may be moulded or what new creation may creep forth from the strife-full heap of things into which as into a second Chaos we are fallen But if the Civill State doe ever returne to its former selfe againe your Presbyterian Government which was brought forth at Geneva and was since nursed up in Scotland mingled with it if I be not deceived in the principles of that Government will be but a wild Vine ingrafted into a true Vpon which unequall disproportioned Incorporation we may as well expect to gather Figs of Thistles or grapes of thornes as that the one should grow so Southerne the other so Northerne that one harmonious musicall Body should arise from them thus joyned What Errors in Government or Discipline were committed by the Prelates I know not neither have you proved them hitherto chargeable with any unless this were an error that they laid an Ostracisme as you say upon those that opposed your Government I beleeve Sir when Presbytery is set up and you placed in your Consistory with your Spirituall and Lay-Brethren you will not be so negligent or so much asleep in your place as not to find an Ostracisme for those who shall oppose you in your office In the meane time Sir to call them or those who submitted to their Government A Prelaticall faction because the then wheels of their Government moved with an unanimous undisturbance is I beleeve a calumny which you would faine fasten upon them provoked I suppose by the description which I have made of the conspiracy of the False Prophets of Ierusalem in my Sermon I must deal freely with you Sir do but probably make it appear to me that this Faction in your letter was like the Conspiracy in my Sermon Do but prove to me that the Prelates devoured soules That they took to themselves the Treasure and precious things of the Land That to effect this they kindled the first spark towards a CivilWar then blew it into such a flame as could not be quencht but with the bloud of Husbands ravisht from their Wives and the slaughter of parents prest and ravisht from their children Doe but prove to me that they made one widdow or built their Honours upon the ruine or calamity of one Orphane Lastly do