But shall your Church lye fallow till that Infant King or green head of the Church come to years of discretion Do your Bishops your â—ierarchy your succession your Sacraments your being or not being Hereticks for want of Succession depend on this new found Supremacy-doctrine brought in by such a man meerly upon base occasions and for shamefull ends Impugned by Calvin and his followers derided by the Christian world and even by chief Protestants as Doctor Andrews Wâ—tton c not held any necessary point of Faith And from whom I pray you had Bishops their authority when there were no Christian Kings Must the Greek Patriarchs receive spiritual jurisdiction from the Greek Turk Did the Pope by the baptism of Princes lose the spiritual power he formerly had of conferring spiritual jurisdiction upon Bishops Hath the Temporal Magistrate authority to preach to assoil from sins to inflict Excommunications and other censures Why hath he not power to excommunicate as well as to dispense in irregularity as our late Soveraign Lord King James either dispensed with the late Archbishop of Canterbury or else gave Commission to some Bishops to do it And since they were subject to the Primate and not he to them it is cleer that they had no power to dispense with him but that power must proceed from the Prince as superior to them all and Head in the Protestants Church in England If we have no such authority how can he give to others what himself hath not Your Ordination or Conseâ—ration of Bishops and Priests imprinting no character can only consist in giving a power authority jurisdiction or as I said before Episcopal or Priestly functions If then the temporal Magistrate confers this power c. he can nay he cannot chuse but ordain and consecrate Bishops and Priests as often as he confers authority or jurisdiction and your Bishops as soon as they are designed and confirmed by the King must ipso facto be ordained and consecrated by him without intervention of Bishops or matter and form of Ordination Which absurdities you will be more unwilling to grant then well able to avoid if you be true to your own doctrines The Pope from whom originally you must beg your succession of Bishops never received nor will nor can acknowledg to receive any spiritual jurisdiction from any temporal Prince And therefore if jurisdiction must be derived from Princes he hath none at all and yet either you must acknowledg that he hath spiritual jurisdiction or that your selves can receive none from him And afterwards again sect 22. he saith But besides this defect in the personal succession of Protestant Bishops there is another of great moment which is that they want the right form of ordaining Bishops and Priests because the manner which they use is so much different from the Roman Church at least according to the common opinion of Divines that it cannot be sufficient for the essence of Ordination as I could demonstrate if this were the proper place of such a Treatise and will not fail to do if D. Potter give me occasion In the mean time the Reader may be pleased to read the Author cited here in the margent and then compare our form of Ordination with that of Protestants and to remember that if the form which they use either in consecrating Bishops or in ordaining Priests be at least doubtful they can never have undoubted Priests nor Bishops For Priests cannot be ordained but by true Bishops nor can any be true Bishop unless he be at first Priest I say their Ordination is at least doubtful because that sufficeth for my present purpose For Bishops and Priests whose Ordination is notoriously known to be but doubtful are not to be esteemed Bishops or Priests and no man without sacrilege can receive Sacraments from them all which they administer unlawfully And if we except Baptism with manifest danger of invalidity and with obligation to be at least conditionally repeated so Protestants must remain doubtful of Remission of sins of their Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and may not pretend to be a true Church which cannot subsist without undoubted true Bishops and Priests nor without due administration of Sacraments which according to Protestants is an essential note of the true Church And it is a world to observe the proceeding of English Protestants in this point of their Ordination For first An. 3 Ed. 6. cap. 2. when he was a Child about twelve years of age it was enacted That such a form of making and consecrating of Bishops and Priests as by six Prelates and six other to be appointed by the King should be devised Mark well this word devised and set forth under the Great Seal should be used and none other But after this Act was repealed 1 Mar. Sess 2. Insomuch as that when afterwards An. 6 7 Regin Eliz. Bishop Bonner being indicted upon a Certificate made by Doctor Horn a Protestant Bishop of Winchester for his refusal of the Oath of Supremacie and excepting against the Indictment because Dr. Horn was no Bishop they were all at a stand till An. 8 Eliz. cap. 1. the Act of Ed. 6. was renewed and confirmed with a particular Proviso That no man should be impreached or molested by means of any Certificate by any Bishop or Archbishop made before this last Act whereby it is cleer that they made some doubt of their own Ordination and that there is nothing but uncertainty in the whole business of their Ordination which forsooth must depend on six Prelates the Great Seal Acts of Parliament being contrary one to another and the like So that you see all along the authority and interposition of the Magistrate is scoffed at and by them made ineffectual in the ordering of the affairs of the Church nay the Church must be no Church if not wholly and independently governed by the Clergy and a Clergy too that do particularly derive their Ordination and power from a forein Head and according to Rights and Ceremonies then abolished If none but true Priests can administer the Sacraments nor none but true Bishops make true Priests nor none but the Pope make true Bishops but that the authority of the Magistrate doth interpose why then no true Sacraments nor no true Church by their doctrine And to that purpose he doth put a mark upon the word devised as deriding the Civil power therein 38. If we shall add to this what was before him observed by Father Parsons concerning the institution of the Service-book and objected against the validity and use of it as well as the power to abolish their Mass and other Ceremonies it will make us wary in condemning less Alterations now made by a greater Power while yet we shall commend conformity to a less Power in a matter of greater alteration For he alleadgeth in his Book of the Three Conversions of England par 2. chap. 12. sect 25. That the Reformation and Service-book were made by the then Protector to Edward the
marks And so the Act goes on prescribing still greater punishments for the second and third offences by way of mulct to the Queen and her Successors 34. But now what if her Successors come to enact against the use of it and be themselves Compellers and Threateners may we not then conclude that they may lawfully interrupt or at least the other be excused for being interrupted where before in a Subject it was unlawful to interrupt or let any Parson in the doing what was by the then Law established So that by this very Act as I conceive such as have a reverend esteem and willingness to use it are not only freed foro interno but by the Clause following enacting That no person shall be at any time hereafter impeached or molested of or for any of the offences above-mentioned hereafter to be committed or done contrary to this Act unless he or they so offending be thereof indicted at the next General Sessions to be holden before any such Justices of Oyer and Determiner or Justices of Assise next after any offence committed or done contrary to the tenor of this Act we may conlude he is freed foro externo also and may for ought I can find rest free from all danger while obedient to the Queens Successory she dying without an Heir 35. And if by reason of any Oath or Obligation received at Ordination or taking degrees some should think themselves farther bound They are also to consider that as neither any derived power can go beyond that which impowers it so are they also to presume that their intentions are alike even to maintain Peace and Order by Uniformity to what is enjoyned and not to raise disturbance by opposition And surely if Oaths Vows or the like were to be held of force in such a case I see not how any Jesuite or Priest could in reason no nor in Conscience be perswaded to recede in any thing from their obedience and conformity to the Papall Sea and Ceremony when as their Promises are not only more strict but confirmed by Laws more ancient and general and which are still in the same force 36. It is also farther to be considered that when after in the Preface to our Bibles it is set down That where heretofore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm some following Salisbury use some Hereford use some the use of Bangor some of York and some of Lincoln now from henceforth all the whole Realm shall have but one use And when in the directions following that Preface it is set down That all Priests and Deacons should be bound daily to say the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly except they be let by preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause We are still to conceive that both Uniformity was aimed at and that the duty of Preaching was in the first place held necessary 37. And if we go to experience in their practise of this precept of reading of the Service Book then we shall find it apprehended as an injunction that did onely bind them ad semper velle but not ad semper agere as Mr. Hooker elsewhere speaks of Gods affirmative Precepts as Pray continually and the like and that thereupon few could give account of their daily use of it even when the hindrance of preaching studying or the like could not well be alledged as before noted And therefore if in a time when it was commanded the use of it might be forborn rather then preaching be omitted what may we think of them that in a time it is taken away will yet rather omit preaching then it to the great discouragement and scandall of many a man in his Christian obedience and Communion and to the great detriment of the nation in generall who in a time of scarcity are much wanting of that instruction which might be had from men of their abilities In which respect as I am my self a true lover of many of them for their learning and gifts in that kinde so hath the sence of mine own losse as well as that of others now made me thus large in this particular 38. But besides this and the want of satisfaction how they can in this condition uphold the Church of England in her former sentence against non conformity if upon the same score they shall slight her authority themselves They are next to consider what answer for their present Recusancy they can bring which on the other side shall not withall justifie the Recusants themselves in their separation from our Communion also For plain it is as I said before that as the drift of all the arguments brought formerly by the Papists against our Churches authority was in respect of usurpation in our Princes and want of succession lawfull ordination and the like in our Priests so was the sum of all their Doctrine that wrote in defence of what was done by us brought to this issue That these things were not essentiall to Salvation or to the being of a Church That each Christian Church having as heretofore set down a power within it self for ordering its own affairs had as well power to abbreviate or abrogate what was in former times or by other Churches instituted before as to institute that which was new so that the casting out from our Service Book and leaving out of our publike Forms of Worship all such Prayers Ceremonies and Observations as in the opinion of those that then had power in the Church had on the one side little or no footing in Scripture and which had on the other side greatest Superstition cast towards them was then held lawfull as by that Declaration annexed to our Bibles concerning Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained may appear And if it was then held agreeable and the Church thought a fit Judge wherein Superstition was most to be feared and what was the best way of Reformation how can we now change our Principle unlesse we joyn with the adversary to dâ—â—â—de the fact as done by the Civil power and Magistrate and with them neither own England for a Church nor him for head thereof Let us hear a little what Father Not the Jesuite in his Book called Charity maintained doth to this purpose alledge in his answer to Doctor Potter after some dispute Chap. 6. about the truth of our Ministery for want of Succession visibly derived from the Pope and Church of Rome he saith at last Sect. 20. But grant their first Bishops had such Authority from the Church of Rome after the decease of those men who gave authority to their pretended Successors The Primate of England but from whom had he such authority And after his decease who shall confer authority upon his Successors The temporall Magistrate King Henry neither a Catholique nor a Protestant King Edward a child Queen Elizabeth a woman an Infant of one houres age is true King in case of his Predecessors decease
entring the Land durst not claim any right to the Crown as his right but onely to the Dukedom of York wearing also the Badge of Henry the Sixth's eldest Son in tâ—ken of his Homage What shall we say when he after in cruel manner smoâ—e him on the face with his Gantlet and caused him to be slain by his own servants and caused also the Father to whom â—e had formerly done homage to be imprisoned murthered and scornfully buried a person so good that he was called by the name of the Holy Yet do we not find but for all this while he had possession he had due loyalty and subjâ—ction acknowledged unto him and the Crown entailed on his Family 73. Against the Right of his Son Edward the Fifth King Richard the Third enters and might well also be called Usurper because he exercised Kingly power before the other was actually dispossessed And yet as ill as he was otherwise also is he generally obeyed and fought for 83. Henry the Seventh succeeds but he not taking to himself Kingly power till he were in full possession is not called Usurper Although his title was not so good as the others whom we are however to expect to be called Usurper and Tyrant also the more to dignifie the other now in possession when as yet although the said Richard were an Usurper as to his Nephews he was none to him Again although Richard were dead yet were there others living and in England too of a far more lineal and legal claim to the Crown as was the Lady Elizabeth Daughter to Edward the Fourth and the Earl of Warwick Son to the elder Brother of King Richard George Duke of Clarence to whom and his Heirs the Crown was also by Parliament given by Henry the Sixth in case he should die without issue as he did And yet further he stood by Act of Parliament attainted of Treason and had his Lands and Goods with those of his followers confiscate to the said King Richard May he not also be called Usurper for that he not onely exercised Kingly power before he was married to the Lady Elizabeth the right Heir but that afterwards he never so much as joyned her name in Acts of State and Sovereignty when by the Law of the Land she should have been chief as was adjudged on the case of Queen Mary and King Philip. And although he also brings in a new Family to wit that of Tudor in place of Plantagenet yet being in possession of the Crown he hath not the stile of Usurpation so thrown upon him as to take off the Subjects duty of allegiance Nor do I think that any will commend them for Loyalty that did after rise in the behalf of Perkin Warbeck although the Subjects generally thought him to be the right Heâ—r indeed and no counterfeit 39. Henry the Eighth succeds him upon the same Title and Edward the Sixth him with very small dispute of their Right 40. Queen Mary finds another Claimer to retard her possession namely the Lady Jane Grey And truly had she not bestirred herself and frighted the other party by a much greater power I beleeve the other would with her possession have been generally reputed and obeyed as the legal Heir having all the State conformation could be then expected For the Lords of the Council that then acted all publick affairs caused her to be proclaimed in London and no worse a man then B Ridley in a Sermon at Pauls Cross perswaded obedience to Lady Jane and invighed earnestly against the Title of Lady Mary as witnesseth Stow fol. 1033. And it is like he might use the same motives against the succession of her as are recorded by Mr. Camden in his introduction to the Annals of Queen Elizabeth to have been used against the succession of her and her Sister also To wit for that the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth were by the Act of Parliament judged illegitimate which Act was never duely repealed notwithstanding that the King their Father had by the same Act declared that they should succeed in order after Edward the Sixth if his issue should fail and for that the said Sisters could not by the Common Law of England be Successors Hereditarily to King Edward because they were not Germans that is of the whole blood by Father and Mother but as our Lawyers term it of the half blood It was also signified that Henry the Eighth by his last Will and Testament conveyed the title of the Crown to the said Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth should marry with Foreign Princes which might revoke the Bishop of Romes Authority now banished out of England and subject the English under a foreign yoke And to the same purpose also were produâ—ed Letters Pattents of King Edward the Sixth made a little before his death and signed with the hands of many Noblemen Bishops Judges and others But all this notwithstanding those very Lords that had before caused her to be proclaimed finding afterwards themselves unable to put her into full possession they wisely laid Title aside proclaimed the other and made what haste they could to obtain her favour Dutifully and wisely preferring that which was the sure way to publick peace and benefit although hazardous and disadvantagious to their own before a more sure way to their own advance with the loss of that which was publick 41. What shall we now think of the lawfulness of all those transactions which all along in those times were performed to the several Princes here was there never any obedience rightly given but to Edward the Second and Queen Elizabeth because they two onely could prescribe as to the term of a Hundred years since the Crown was usurped by their Progenitors and this hapening to them but towards the end of their Reigns shall we conclude that what was done before or towards any other was not legally done and to be esteemed acts of fear and flattery more then of Duty How comes it to pass that the Laws made by these several Princes nay by Richard the Third himself are acknowledged for Laws of force If possession of the Law-makers place gave them a right to make laws will it not also give them a right to their Subjects obedience Beyond all which if we will be truly regarding the injury offered to the deposed Family and think our selves obliged to sâ—e right therein done without regard to the publick will it not follow that this injury being the higher and the more as the party doing it was nearer in relation or of kin to those he did it that therefore an Usurpation made by a stranger is not so heinous as where a Son usurpeth against his Fathers likeing as Edward the Third did or an Uncle against Nephews as King John and Richard the Third or one Brother against another or the like as is to be observed in this long story In which cases to alleadge they had consent of the people this will not make any thing lawful as