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A17306
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A plea to an appeale trauersed dialogue wise. By H.B.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1626
(1626)
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STC 4153; ESTC S106969
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84,171
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122
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A PLEA TO AN APPEALE Trauersed Dialogue wise By H. B. August De Tempore Sermo 98. Idcirco Doctrinam Catholicam contradicentium obsidet impugnatio vt fides nostra non otio torpescat sed multis exercitationibus elimetur Ibid. There must be heresies euen among you that they which are approued may bee made manifest among you 1. Cor. 11. 19. Printed at London by W. I. 1626. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES KING OF GREAT Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most gratious Soueraigne IF it be a mans glory to passe by an offence how much more a Kings who being armed with power to reuenge his pardon is the more glorious the more gratious This is Your Maiesties glory that You haue passed by the offence of Your seruant and Your glory how beautifully shall it shine forth if Your noble pardon shall be sealed with Your Royall Patronage of this poore Plea which if it passe not vnder the Priuiledge of the Caesarean Maiestie it is like to fare the worse for the Atturneys sake whom besides his many personall imperfections the very scarres of his late disgrace with so gracious a Maister expose with his Plea as no lesseridiculous to the Antagonists then Dauids sling was to Golia◠and his Philistims Who if they aske me vpon what hope I presumed to impleade an Appeale to Caesar I cannot answere with Solon vpon old age rather vpon pouerty rather vpon Caesars equity rather vpon the causes verity Yea my duty to God to your Maiestie to the sacred memory of your Royall Father to the Church of God to my Mother Church of England to the State to my Reuerend Fathers to my reproached Brethren all these summon me from my sweete safe Priuacy to runne a hazzard vpon the Theater of importune opposition And see also Dread Soueraigne how deeply You stand ingaged in this Plea Therein seuen Plaintifes sollicite Your Grace for justice First Truth she complaines of hard vsage how shee is driuen to seeke corners sith shee cannot passe the Presse Cum Priuilegio but must be silēced yea Gagged least while shee refuseth to subscribe to An Appeale she should by writing cleare her Doctrines from the infamous terme of Puritanisme and her selfe from being reproached for a Puritan The next Plaintife is Gods Glory Grace Gospell complaining they are vndermined ouerturned by an Appeale wherein Gods foundation of his free grace and mercy in electing vs in his Son to saluation is laid vpon the sandy ground of Mans freewill his eternall and vnrepentant loue to his Elect made to depend vpon the haire of humaine mutability standing on its owne vnsteddy bottome to fall totally finally The third Plaintife is the Sacred Ashes of Your Royall Father of famous memory complaining His honor is polluted prophaned in a high degree by An Appeale so much depressing the Synod of Dort which His Maiestie so much graced and exalting Arminianisme which His sacred Maiestie so much detested The fourth Plaintife is Gods Church especially our Mother Church of England iustly complaining how impiously she is abused and her Doctrines traduced by an Appeale as if in the very Fundamentalls as Praedestination Election Freewill Iustification Faith Perseuerance in sauing grace Certainty of saluation and the like shee iumped with the Apostatized Church of Rome and her confederate Arminians as if her Doctrines were not the same with the holy Scriptures as if they must be rated by a few priuate spirits ingrossing as by a Monopoly the name of the Church of England reducing Ecclesia Romana to Curia Romana as if her Doctrines were as mutable as their vniust Iudges who Cameleon like will change colour with euery obiect of time The fifth Plaintife is the State complaining of a ruefull distraction and rent it suffereth by a most factious and seditious Appeale which coming very vnseasonably like a disastrous Comet portendeth vniuersall ruine both to Church and State if the vast breach made thereby for the grand enemy to enter bee not all the sooner and surer if possible made vp againe The sixth Plaintife is the Ghost of some of the Reuerend forefathers of our Church as Doctor Bancroft once Bishop of London and Doctor Ouerall once Deane of Pauls and Bishop of Norwich complaining that their speeches in the Conference at Hampton Court Ianua 14. 1603. now lately printed the one about Praedestination the other Perseuerance in grace are pitifully and palpably peruerted in An Appeale to the great reproach of their owne Credits and in them the scandall of the Church of England The seuenth Plaintife is the Communion of Saints militant in this Church and elswhere yea some now Triumphant in heauen complaining that notwithstanding they striue both in faith and practise to come as neere as is possible for humaine frailtie to Christ and his Apostles yet for that very cause they are persecuted and reproached in An Appeale with the odious name of Puritan and what not Now all these Plaintifes most noble King do as by speciall interest craue iustice at Your Maiesties hands Truth claimes it as You are King of England Defender of the faith that as It makes You free so You would it with full priuiledge to plead its owne cause Gods glory claimes it of You as whom aboue all Princes in Christendome He hath put such a rich crowne of grace and glory vpon that thereby Your Maiestie might learne how highly to prize His infinite glory which the more You stand for against its enemies the more firmely it shall make You to stand against all Your Aduersaries The Sacred Ashes of Your royall Father of pious memory require justice of You not onely as you are a King but as the most pious Son of such a Father that as by An Appeale You are called to be an vmpire You would accordingly determine whither in Your judgement the Synod of Dort with the Decrees of it be rather to be reiected and set at nought for the Appealers vilifying and disclaming of it or religiously maintained by Your Maiestie at least for the incomparable judgement of King IAMES who both sent thither a learned select representatiue Church of England and Himselfe also gaue His royall assent to all the conclusions of it as being in all points consonant to the Doctrine of the Church of England The Church of England with the State like Hipocrates twinnes mutually affected with each others weale or woe both liuing together both dying together with one heart and voyce humbly craue justice of Your Maiestie as being next vnder Christ ouer both in all causes ouer all persons the onely supreme Gouernour that You would chastise their contumacious children who fasten reproaches and hasten ruines to both The fame of our Forefathers craveth justice of Your Maiestie to free them from the false aspersion of blasphemy and from the opinion of being Arminians All Gods children co-heires with Your Maiestie of the same Kingdome of glory implore Your iustice to rescue their innocency
Church and State then serue to edification c. Appeale pag. 42. 78. 80. Which speeches and the like whether doe they tend but to suppresse those Doctrines of the Gospell whereby God is most glorified and man most humbled shall we spare such When Policarpus met Marcion the hereticke casually and neglecting him was asked of him Dost thou not know vs He replyed I know thee for the Diuels eldest childe Such was the zeale of holy men in times past against not onely those that were Hereticks but hinderers of the truth The Apostle wished that those false teachers of legall righteousnesse were euen cut off which troubled the Church of Galatia Therefore what cause any faithfull Minister of Christ hath to vse sharpnesse of stile to seditious seducers and troublers of Church and State in so famous a Kingdome in so perilous a season too let any indifferent man iudge And consider iudicious Reader if we had not a King seasoned from his very cradle with the knowledge of the true faith of Christ hauing now growne vp therein to a goodly ripenesse in regard whereof we haue small cause to suspect his constancy herein iâ—to what danger were we and Gods religion brought when such kind of Ministers are not wanting to helpe forward the reerecting of the Romish Baal in our Land had they but a young Manasses to restore the Altars and Groues which the good King Ezechiah his Father had pulled downe But to conclude sith these two fore named Worthies worthy to be named againe the Reuerend Bishop of Chichester Dostor Carlton and the Worshipfull Maister Francis Rovs haue so learnedly and zealously confuted some materiall points in the Appeale which like expert archers making speciall choyse of for their marke they haue hit home although I could haue wished that they had with no lesse felicity coped with the rest of the materialls in the booke yet sith they haue ben pleased to leaue behind them some liberall gleanings yea some whole ricks of tares to be cut vp and carried away from Gods wheat field I will craue leaue to shew at least my good will in all hoping my defects will finde pardon of all them who though they can yet forbeare to make their best supply The blasphemer was to be stoned of the whole Congregation some hitting one part some another till he were beaten downe and buried vnder the heape Yet in this Impression the Plea reacheth no farther then the first part of the Appeale Which if it finde courteous intertainment the other part is forth comming and wants but time to helpe the slownesse of the Presse to bring it forth Farewell Thine in the Lord H. B. Good Reader correct these faults with thy pen with others of smaller note The rest are noted in the end of the booke Amend first then reade Page 7 line 19 reade scantling l. 28 r. Doctrines p. 51 l. 13. r. preuifion p. 52 l 6 r. â—ssâ—s p. 54. l. 21. r. 4. 5. l. 29 r. sâ—â—scos p. 82. l. 3 1. â—â—â—â—â—ude 10. l. 9 1. vn 〈◊〉 c. Whence l. 13 1. anima l. 24 1. prâ—â—â—ceth p. 83 l. 15 r. the beginnâ—ng p. 84. l. 35 1. into him p. 85 l. 24 r. quomodo p. 87 l 13 1. â—xecrated p. 91 l. 30 1 ground of hope l. 35 r. his Maiesties A PLEA TO AN APPEALE Asotus Babylonius Orthodoxus ASotus Master Babylonius you are well met Babylonius And you Master Asotus Asotus Sir I thanke you for your last good company at the Ordinary and especially for your both merry and learned discourse wherein among other passages you wittilie disciphered the nature of a Puritan that common opposite to vs both I was much delighted to heare you and haue often thought of you since and shall loue you the better for it for of all men I cannot away with these Puritans a precise sect crosse and contrary to all other men A man may not sweare an oath forsooth nor play the good fellow a little in drinking a cup or two more then needs for good fellowship-sake nor loue a wench and the like but wee must passe their most sharpe censure Nay hauing deeply waighed the matter I am perswaded that were it not for these Puritans wee and you should agree together as louing brethren and Countreymen Babylonius Are you aduised of that friend Asotus you haue hit the very nayle on the head and herein you discouer your wisdome and judgement For it were no hard matter I wis to reconcile you and mee and such as wee are as well in Religion and opinion as we are already in affection were it not for these make-bate Puritans And you haue well said in saying we and you for howsoeuer the Puritans both in England and beyond the seas I meane the Caluinists and Hugenots are called Protestants yet betweene them and vs Romane Catholicks there is a great Gulfe set so that there is no hope of reconciliation betweene vs. And indeed for those ciuill and good fellow Protestants whom I know you meane that hold of the Church of England and of the Doctrine of the Church for the prop and piller of their Faith there is great hope that they will ere long be reconciled to the holy mother Church of Rome for he that beleeueth as the Church beleeueth is not farre from the kingdome of God But these Puritans they will not acknowledge any rule of faith from the Church but are all for Scriptures Scriptures so that so long as they are of that minde there is no hope of reconciliation betweene vs and them vnlesse they will yeeld to this Manime That the Church is the Iudge and interpreter of the Scriptures which they most obstinately deny Asotus But by your leaue Master Babylonius I neuer vnderstood but that the Doctrine of the Church of England was all one with the Doctrine of the Scriptures as I euer haue ben taught Babylonius I will not take vpon me now to dispute that point but haue you not seene an excellent Booke set out of late by one of your most learned Ministers which he calls his Appeale to Caesar. Asotus I haue heard of it the Author is highly commended by some for a great Scholler but a great many on the other side and especially those we call Puritans doe very much condemne the booke saying it is written in the gall of bitternesse and with the spirit of sedition enough to set all in a combustion if his books should passe for currant Babylonius In the gall of bitternesse That was the doome of Saint Peter vpon Simon Magus but by such like puritanicall censures you may the better judge of the worthinesse of the booke which is both learnedly and wittily pend Asotus You say well I thinke neuer a whit the worse of the booke for the Puritans taxing of it nor the Author the lesse learned when you Master Babylonius sticke not so to commend him Babylonius I must needs ingenuously confesse that I like the booke the better