their Persons H. B. displeased that the Bishops doe challenge their Episcopall authoritie from our Saviour The challenge of Episcopall power from Christ and his Apostles neither new nor strange as H. B. pretednds Of the Episcopall succession in the Church of England Episcopall succession how esteemed and valued amongst the Antients The derivation of Episcopall discent from the Church of Rome no prejudice vnto the Hierarchy or Church as H. B. makes it The Bishops antiently called Reverend Fathers The scandalous and scornfull attributes given by H. B. to the Bishops in the generall and to some of the chiefe of them in particular A briefe replie to all his cavills against the chiefe of those particulars H. B. makes his addresse to all sorts of people to joyne together with the King to destroy the Bishops and is content to run an hazard of his own life so it may be done The ruine of the Bishops made by H. B. the only present meanes to remove the Plague A generall answere to these slanderous and Seditious passages LEt us now looke upon your dealing with my LL. the Bishops how you handle them their place their persons their proceedings who being the principall object of your malice must not expect more civill usage then the King their Master especially considering in cold blood how they have provoked you by calling you forth upon the stage However use them as you please you have one good shelter For if your stile seeme sharper then usuall wee are to blame if wee impute it not to your zeal and fidelity for God and the King being you are to encounter those who be adversaries to both Begin then zealous sir wee stand ready for you First then you quarrell with the calling and stomack it exceedingly that some of them should say in the High Commission being put unto it by your Brother Bastwick that they had their Episcopal authority from Christ and if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets And so say you they might their Capps too for any such proofe they can bring for it p. 68. What more It 's plaine that they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ Ibid. Well then what hurt of this Thus you see our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierarchy then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines since the Reformation till yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselves they very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome And this you say because it is affirmed by Dr. Pocklington that we are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from Saint Peter to Saint Gregory and from to our first Archbishop Saint Austin our English Apostle downwards to his Grace that now sits in the chaire c. p. 69. Thus also in the Newes from â—pswich you are much offended with the Prelates that they will needs be Lord Bishops jure divino by the holy Ghosts own institution and shame not to stile themselves the Godly Holy Fathers of our Church and Pillars of our faith when as their fruites and actions manifest them to be nought else but Step-fathers and Catter-pillers the very pests and plagues of both And not long after you bestow a gentle touch on Dr. Pocklington calling the Prelates as your use is the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist from whom D. Pocklington boasts they are lineally descended But whatsoever be the claime from Christ or his Apostles or the Church of Rome you have found out a fitter Author of the holy Hierarchie even the spirit that beares rule in the aire the devill Who doth not only haunt the Pallaces of Prelates perhaps he went sometimes upon your occasions but hath infused such a poison into the chaire of this Hierarchie as that man who sits in it had need to be strongly fortified with Preservatives and Antidotes of true Reall Grace not nominall and titular that is able to overcom the infection of it p. 106. This is the summe of what you say or repeat rather with a nil dictum quod and this is hardly worth the saying by so great a Rabbin the answere being made before the objection yet since you say it something must bee sayd about it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your first exception is that the Episcopall authoritie is claimed from Christ and that some of the Bishops said in the High Commission that if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets This is no more then what had formerly beene said in the conference at Hampton Court when on occasion of Saint Hieromes saying that a Bishop was not divinae ordinationis the Bishop of London Dr. Bancroft interposed that unlesse hee could prove his ordination lawfull out of the Scriptures he would not be a Bishop foure houres You see then this is no new saying devised but yesterday and contrary to what hath beene the judgement of all our Divines since the reformation as you please to tell us The learned workes of Bishop Bilson entituled The Perpetuall government of Christs Church and those of Dr. Adrian Saravia against your Patriarke Theodore Beza de diversis ministerii gradibus with many others of those times shew manifestly that you are an impudent Impostor and care not what you say so you make a noise And yet I cry you mercy I may mistake you not knowing exactly what you meane by your Our Divines For if by your Divines you meane the Genevian Doctors Calvin and Beza Viret and Farellus Bucan Vrsinus and those others of forreine Churches whom you esteeme the onely Orthodox professours you may affirme it very safely that the derivation of Episcopall authority from our Saviour Christ is utterly disclaimed by your Divines Calvin had never else invented the Presbytery nor with such violence obtruded it on all the reformed Churches neither had Beza divided Episcopatum into Divinum humanum and Satanicum as you know he doth But if by our Divines you meane those worthies of the Church who have stood up in maintenance of the holy Hierarchie against the clamours and contentions of the Puritan faction or such as are conformable unto the Articles and orders of the Church of England you do most shamelessely traduce them as your custome is and make them Patrons of that Tenet which they most opposed For tell me of a truth who is it which of our Divines that holds Episcopall authority to be derived from any other fountaine then that of Christ and his Apostles and that conceive their ordination is not de jure divino grounded and founded on the Scriptures and thence deduced by necessary evident and undeniable illation if any such there be hee is one of yours Travers and Cartwright and the rest of your Predecessours men never
owned for hers by the Church of England Of whom wee may affirme what the historian saith of the Athenians when besieged by Sylla animos extra moenia corpora necessitati servientes intra muros habuerunt Geneva had their hearts we their bodies onely I hope you doe not here expect that I should show you what precedencie or superioritie our Saviour gave the twelve Apostles before and over all the Seaventie or how the Apostles in their owne persons exercised authority over other Pastors or how they setled severall Bishops in convenient places as Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete with power of ordination Tit. 1.5 and power of Ecclesiasticall censure 1 Tim. 5.19 or finally what successours they left behind them in those particular Sees where they most resided This were but actum agere to sing our old songs over as you use to doe and therefore I referre you to the writings of those worthies before remembred our Divines indeed Nor had I said thus much but to let you see that neither the claime is new devised but yesterday nor by all our Divines disclaimed since the reformation both which with shame enough you are bold to say The next thing that offends you and you clamour of is that they claime a visible and perpetuall succession downe from S. Peter to Pope Gregory from him by Austin the Monke first Arch Bishop of Canterbury unto his Grace now being and Sic de coeteris For by this meanes you say they make themselves the very limbes of the Pope the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and consequently our Church a member of that Romish Synagogue Who would have thought but this had pleased you For if the Bishops bee the sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and the Church a member of the Romish Synagogue then are you acquitted and all your clamours raylings and opposition aswell against the one as the other may be fairely justified But let your inference alone till another time what is it that you quarrell in the ground thereof Is it that Saint Peter was at Rome or was Bishop there whether for 25. yeares as Eusebius tell 's us we will not dispute you may remember it is granted or rather not denyed by Calvin HOwever his minde served him to have made a question of it yet propter Scriptorum consensum non pugno the evidence was so strong hee could not deny it Is it that Gregory Pope of Rome sirnamed Magnus after a long descent succeeded him The Tables of succession in the Church of Rome make that cleare enough and Irenaeus brings downe the succession till his owne time during which time the lineall succession in that Church by reason of the many persecutions under which it suffered might be made most questionable That Gregory sent this Austin into England to convert the Saxons and made him having before beene consecrated by the Archbishop of Arles the first Archbishop of the English is generally delivered by all our writers from Venerable Bede to these present times as by those also which have writ the life of the sayd Pope Gregory Finally that my Lord the Archbishop that now is is lineally descended in a most faire and constant tenour of succession you shall easily finde if you consult the learned labours of Mr. Francis Mason de ministerio Angâ—icano The Papists would extremely thanke you and thinke you borne into the world for their speciall comfort could you but tell them how to disprove that lineall succession of our Prelates which is there laid downe A thing by them much studied but conatu irrito and never cast upon our Prelates as a staine or scandall that they could prove their Pedegree from the holy Apostles till you found it out Whatever you conceive hereof you cannot choose but know that the succession of the Prelates in the purest times was used as an especiall argument against those Sects and heresies which were then on foote And since you challenge Dr. Pocklington for the succession of the Bishops in the Church of England I will send you to him for three instances which might have satisfied you in that point if you will be satisfied the first from Irenaeus l. 3. cap. 3 4 5. the second from Tertullian de praescript cap. 11. and the last from S. Austin contra Petil. l. 2. c. 51. In all of which it is apparant and see them you must needs being the occasion of his instance in the Church of England that the succession of the Bishops in their severall Churches ita ut primus sit aliquis ex Apostolis beginning their discent from some one or other of the holy Apostles hath beene a speciall meanes to confound those hereticks which tooke up armes against the Church as some men doe now Now for your instance you pleade that if this rule of succession hold our Bishops are the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and tell me then I pray you Sir whose sonne are you that had your ordination and received your Ministrie from those Bishops which were so discended you must needes be a limb of the Pope also like it as you list But never feare it Sir there is no such danger as you dreame of either that any Priest or Prelate in the Church of England should therefore bee a sonne of the Roman Antichrist or that the Church should be a member of that Romish Synagogue because wee claime by and from them a visible succession of and in the sacred Hierarchie Wee may receive our orders from them and chalenge a succession by them from the blessed Apostles and yet not bee partakers with them in their corruptions When Hezekiah purged the temple and set all things right which had beene formerly amisse in the Iewish Church thinke you that the High-Priests which followed after thought it a shame to fetch their Pedegree from Aaron Or doe you finde it was objected against them that did that because some of those from and by whom they claimed it had misbehaved themselves in so great an office and possibly advanced Idolatry in that tottering state therefore all those that followed them and descended from them were also guilty of the same crimes Or to come nearer to your selfe thinke you your ministery the worse because you did receive it from the hands of them whom you accuse for true borne sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and that your brethren in New England will not thinke themselves the purest and most perfect Church in the Christian world although they once were members of that here established which they have forsaken T' was not the purpose of those holy men in King Edwards time to make a new Church but reforme the old and onely to pare off those superfluities which had in tract of time beene added to Gods publicke service In which regard they kept on foote the Priesthood and Episcopate which they had received with many of those rites and ceremonies to which they were before accustomed not taking either
neither For at the beginning of November when you Preached that Pasquil of the Fifteene hundred there were not twice fifteen that 's not halfe your number involved in any Ecclesiasticall censure of what sort soever and not above sixteene suspended Sixtie and sixteene are alike in sound but very different in the number and of those sixteene eight were then absolved for a time of further triall to be taken of them and two did voluntarily resigne their places so that you have but six suspended absolutely and persisting so Now of the residue there was one deprived after notorious inconformitie for 12. yeeres together and finall obstinacie after sundry severall monitions eight excommunicated for not appearing at the Court and foure inhibited from preaching of the which foure one by his education was a Draper another was a Weaver and the third was a Taylor Where are the 60. now that you so cry out of I have the rather given you this in the particulars which were collected faithfully unto my hands out of the Registerie of that Diocesse that you and other men may see your false and unjust clamours the rather because it was related to me by a friend of mine in Glocestershire that it went current there amongst your Brethren that your said 60. were suspended for no other cause then for repeating the doxologie at the end of the Lords Prayer So for your other number betweene 60. and 80. suspended upon day till Christmasse or Christide as you please to phrase it upon examination of the Registers there appeare but eight and those not all suspended neither two being Excommunicated for not appearing Eighty and Eight doe come as neere in sound as Sixtie and Sixteene before but differ more a great deale in the Calculation And so much for the grand persecution in the Diocesse of Norwich How doe you find it pray you in other places Why more or lesse say you over al the Kingdom For you complaine as truly but more generally p. 27. that many Godly Ministers in these dayes are most unjustly illegally yea and incanonically also in a most barbarous and furious manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and deprived of all livelihood and means to maintaine themselves How just soever the cause be on the Prelates part and that there be no other means to bring things to right there where the Orders of the Church are so out of order then by the exemplary punishment of the most pervers to settle and reduce the rest yet persecution it must be if you please to call it so Such Innocent people as your selfe that runne point-blanck against the Orders of the Church cannot be censured and proceeded with in a legall way but instantly you cry out a Persecution But thus did your Fore-fathers in Queene Elizabeths time et nil mirum est si patrizent filij CHAP. VI. The foure first Innovations charged by H. B. upon the Bishops most clearely proved to be no Innovations Eight Innovations charged upon the Bishops by H. B. King James his order to young Students in Divinity made an Innovation in point of doctrine the reason of the said order and that it was agreeable to the old Canons of this Church Another Order of King James seconded by his Majesty now being with severall Bookes of private men made an Innovation of the Bishops No difference betweene the Church of Rome and England in Fundamentalls Private opinions of some men made Innovations in point of doctrine The Pope not Antichrist for any thing resolved by the Church of England The doctrine of Obedience and of the Sabbath not altered but revived explained and reduced to what it was of old No Innovation made in point of discipline A generall view of Innovations charged upon the Bishops in point of worship Bowing at the Name of Jesus praying towards the East and adoration towards the Altar no new Inventions not standing up at the holy Gospel Crosse-worship falsely charged upon the Bishops No Innovation made by the Bishops in the civill government The dignity and authority of the High-Commission AS is the persecution such are the Innovations also which you have charged upon the Bishops both yours and so both false alike Yet such a neat contriver are you that you have made those Innovations which you dreame of the cause of all that persecution which you so cry out of For in your Pasquil it is told us that we may see or heare at the least of oâ—d heaving and shoving to erect Altar-worship and Jesu-worship and other inventions of men and all as is too plaine to set up Popery againe and for not yeelding to these things ministers are suspended excommunicated c. pag. 25 And pag. 64. you ground the persecution as you call it in the Diocesse of Norwich upon the violent and impetuous obtruding of new Rites and Ceremonies monies You call upon the Bishops by the name of Iesuiticall novell Doctors to blush and be ashamed and tell them that they doe suspend excommunicate and persecute with all fury Gods faithfull ministers and all because they will not they may not they dare not obey their wicked commands which are repugnant to the lawes both of God and man p. 81. If this be true if those that bee thus dealt with bee Gods faithfull ministers and the commands imposed upon them so wicked as you say they are contrary to the lawes both of God and man and tending so notoriously to set up Popery againe you have the better end of the staffe and will prevaile at last no question Meane while you have good cause as you please to tell us to comfort your selfe and blesse the name of God in that he hath not left himselfe without witnesse but hath raised up many zealous and couragious champions of his truth I meane faithfull ministers of his word who chuse rather to lose all they have then to submit and prostitute themselves to the wicked unjust and base commands of usurping Antichristian mushromes their very not yeilding in this battel being a present victory p. 83 But on the other side if the commands of the Superior be just and pious agreeable to the orders of the Church and all pure antiquity then are your godly faithfull ministers no better then factious and schismaticall persons and you your own deare self a seditious Boutefeiu so to incourage and applaud them for standing out against authority This we shall see the better by looking on those Innovations which as you say The Prelates of later dayes have haled in by head and shoulders being besides and against the law of the land and much more the law of God p. 111. These you reduce to these eight heads viz. 1. Innovation in doctrine 2. in discipline 3. in the worship of God 4. in the Civill government 5. in the altering of bookes 6. in the meanes of knowledge 7. in the rule of faith and 8. in the Rule of manners It is a merry world mean-while when you
are still the same Primus ad extremum similis sibi You and the Black Moores skinne will wash white together This is I hope enough to satisfie you touching the crying up of fasting and for the crying downe of preaching on the dayes of fast that hath beene spoken of already How far it is suppressed at all other times you meane to tell us in the next of your generall heades and we expect to heare what you have to say On then Your sixt generall innovation is in the meanes of salvation in which there are particulars very many which you charge them with As viz. in suppressing lectures cutting short preaching forbidding any prayer before the Sermon but that barren forme of words in the Canon using no prayer at all after the Sermon but reading a second or third service at the Altar Having no sermon in the afternoone catechizing onely for halfe an houre and that by question and answer onely and finally limiting all Sermons in great Cities and the universities to one houre so as the people cannot enjoy the benefit of more then one Sermon a day p. 150. These are the severalties contained in that generall head and they relate either to preaching or to praying or indeed altogether unto preaching and unto praying no further then as subservient thereunto First for suppressing Lectures why doe you reckon that for an innovation when as the very name of Lecturers and Lectures are in themselves a new and late invention borrowed by Travers and the rest towards the latter end of Queene Elizabeths time from the new fashions of Geneva We in the Church of England know no other names but Bishops and Curats and Curats are againe divided into Parsons Vicars and those which doe officiate for and under them now in the use of speech called Curats as by a proper and distinct name Your Lecturer hath no place in the prayers of the Church of England nor none amongst the termes of Law But being Geneva had it so a Doctor superadded to the ordinary Pastor whose office onely was to teach not to administer the sacraments or execute any other ministry to the Priest belonging it must needes bee disposed so here that by degrees insensibly wee might be brought more neere that Church There is a story of the Bats or Reremice that when the birds came to demand tribute of them shewing them their brests they said they were beasts and when the beasts came to them and craved the like shewing them their wings they said they were birds Your Lecturers in the same occasion are like these Reremice When subsidies were granted for his Majesties use if any thing was demanded of them by the Clergie they had no benefice no title and so passed for Lay and on the like demand made by the Laity they onely shewed their gownes and that made them Clergie Being then in themselves but a new invention and such as tended to bring in the greatest innovation in this Church that possibly could be projected how could you reckon the suppressing of them an innovation Now for these Lecturers we may distinguish them into Weekes-day Lecturers and Lords-day Lecturers As Weeke-day Lecturers you complaine how they are suppressed by that restriction in his Majesties Proclamation about the fast and tell us that the Prelates doe extend the letter of the Proclamation that if but one house in a Parish be infected the pestilence thus continuing and the fast not ceasing all wednesday sermons in the whole City must be suppressed p. 147 If so as so it is not you know well enough what reason had you of complaint Are there not holidayes so many that you and yours doe reckon them as a burthen both to Church and State Observe the holy dayes as you ought with prayers and Preaching and see what losse the Church would have or any of the people finde for want of Wednesday or any other weeke-day Lectures As Lords-day Lecturers we shall meete them in the afternoone wherein all sermons are put downe if you tell us true Next followes cutting short of Preaching How comes that to passe For that we must needes seeke elsewhere for here you tell us not Looke therefore in your 17. p. and there wee have it There you find fault with them that are all for outward formalities you being for none at all your selfe in that they place all the service of God in reading long-prayers and thereby excluding preaching as unnecessary and p. 158. commanding of long Matins instead of Preaching which as they are performed in Cathedrall Churches you call prophanely Long Babylonish service p. 160. This is the blocke you stumble at that whereas formerly you used to mangle and cut short the service that you might bring all piety and the whole worship of God to your extemporary prayers and sermons now you are brought againe to the antient usage of reading the whole prayers as you ought to do And call you this an innovation Are not you he that told us that the Communion-booke set forth by Parliament is commanded to be reade without any alteration and none others p. 130. And if you reade it not as it is commanded make you alteration thinke you Doe you not finde it also in the 14. Canon that All Ministers shall observe the Orders rites and ceremonies prescribed in the Booke of Common-prayer as well in reading the holy Scriptures and saying of Prayers as in administration of the Sacraments without diminishing in regard of preaching or any other respect how like you that Sir or adding any thing to the matter or forme thereof The very selfe same answer we must also make to another of your cavils about the using of no prayer at all after the Sermon but reading a second or third service at the Altar For being it is so appointed in the booke of Common Prayer that on the holidaies if there be no Communion shall be said all that is appointed at the Communion untill the end of the Homilie concluding with the Praier for the whole state of Christs Church c. The innovation is on your part who have offended all this while not onely against the Canon but the Act of Parliament by bringing in new formes of your owne devising As for forbidding any prayer before the Sermon but that barren forme of words in the Canon for being in the Canon you can give it no better Epithite if any such forbidding be it s but agreeable unto the Canon which hath determined of it long agoe and so no innovation of these present times Nor was that Canon any new invention neither when it first was made but onely a repetition and confirmation of what had formerly beene ordered both in King Edward the sixt the Queenes injunctions according to the rule and practise of the former times the Preachers then using no forme of prayers before their Sermons but that of bidding moving or exhorting which is now required in the Canon as may be plainely seene in Bishop
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it
roborat was the Fathers Maxime I never read of Fast and preach till you made the Canon at least till you first brought it hither if you made it not And yet because of this and such like terrible Innovations as this you flie out extremely First unto Gods most secret Counsailes affirming most unchristianly and withall most shamelesly that this restraint of preaching in infected places was the occasion that the plague increased double to any weeke since the Sicknesse beganne p. 144. that it brought with it a double increase of the plague p. 50. an extraordinary increase the very first week of the fast together with most hideous stormes c. p. 148. Sir you forget that which was taught you by the Prophet Abscondita Domino Deo nostro that secret things belong to God and wee may aske this question of you out of holy Scripture What man hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Surely untill you usurped that honor by reason of that extraordinary calling which you so much brag of no man ever did Yet since you are so curious in the search of causes wil needs tell us what occasioned so great a sicknes look in the last words of the second homily of Obedience and you will find that nothing drawes down greater plagues from almighty God then murmuring rebellion against Gods Annointed Next you fall foule upon his Majesty and tell him plainly in effect but cunningly as you imagine that if he look not better to his Protestations the beauty of his royall name will bee blasted in the Annals delivered to posterity and that in them it will be said This King had no regard to sacred vowes and solemne protestations I see what Chronicles we shall have when you come to write them Caesarum contumeliis referta there 's no question of it From pulling downe of Preaching proceed wee next to setting up Idolatry which how you charge the King withall must next be shewed You tell us that the Prelates to justifie themselves in those Innovations which you unjustly lay upon them do plead the whole equipage furniture and fashion of the Kings Chappell as a pattern for all Churches in which there is an Altar and bowing towards it Crucifixes Jmages and other guises And why should Subjects be wiser then their King p. 165. To this you answer that the worship and service of God and of Christ you wil needs separate Christ from God do I what I can is not bee regulated by humane examples but by the divine rule of the Scriptures In vaine do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men p. 165. Well said the service in the Kings Chappell and that which is conforme unto it is a â—aine worship in the first place And what follows next The three Children would not bow to the Kings goodly golden Image The old Christians would not so much as offer incense in the presence of Julian the Emperour at his Altar nor at his command though he propounded golden rewards to the doers and fiery punishment to the denyers p. 166. This is plaine enough Here 's the Kings Chappell and the furniture thereof compared to Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julians Altar by consequence the King resembled â—o those wicked tyrants I now perceive what 't was you meant when you extoll'd so highly that Parrhesia which you conceive so necessary in a child of God p. 26.27 instancing there as here in the three Children Who feared neither the Kings big looks nor furious threats and Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who comming before Julian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith As in Elias when he retorted King Ahabs words upon him and the stout answer which Elisha made to the King of Israel adding for close of all that it were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardice of these times You would have every man it seemes as bold a Bravo as your selfe to bid defiance to the King at least to stand it out against all authority For for the proof of that brave Parrhesia which you so extoll you instance chiefly in such opposition as was made to Kings and therefore all your uses must be construed to reflect that way now your fourth use is this This makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacie in these dayes of lukewarmnesse and Apostacie in the proposall of your uses p. 128. and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and idolatry and superstition obtruded in stead thereof when notwithstanding we see many Ministers of Iesus Christ to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and a good conscience they will part with their ministerie liberty lively-hood and life too if need were This is that which keeps Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captains to keep their ground and not to flie the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemie c. p. 31. They are your own words one of the pious uses which you make of your so celebrated Parrhesia that freedome and liberty of speech against Kings and Princes or whatsoever is called God which you so specially commend unto your disciples Well then here 's superstition and idolatry but is there not a feare of the Masse also Sure it seemes there is For thus you close your answer touching the equipage as you call it of the Kings chappell the fashion and furniture thereof Lastly suppose which we trust never to see and which our hearts abhorre once to imagine Masse were set up in the Kings Chappell is this a good argument why it should be admitted in all the Churches throughout the Realm of England p. 166 Why how now zealous sir what Suppositions Ifs And 's in such an odious intimation as setting up of Masse in the Kings Chappell I will not tell you any thing of my opinion in this place but keepe it till I meet you at the halfe turne in the close of all Onely I needs must tell you here you might have dealt more curteously with your Soveraigne and Patron as you stile him had you the least part of that piety which you pretend to seeing so manifestly that in Seneca's words Jllius vigilia omnium domos illius labor omnium otia illius industria omnium delicias illius occupatio omnium vacationem tueatur The Kings great care to keepe his people in wealth peace and godlinesse if considered rightly might make the vilest of us all to serve honour and humbly obey him according to Gods holy word and Ordinance But you and such as you have a speciall priviledge which I much muse you did not plead when you were questioned publickely for your misdemeanours CHAP. IV. A plaine discoverie of H. B. quarrells against the Bishops in reference to their calling and
the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For