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A17300
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For God, and the King. The summe of two sermons preached on the fifth of November last in St. Matthewes Friday-streete. 1636. / By Henry Burton, minister of Gods word there and then.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 4142; ESTC S106958
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113,156
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176
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neere affinity or rather consanguinity they being sensible of the smart of his whip tooke it all upon themselves and so as Iudges in their owne cause passed their Episcopall censure upon him yea although he not only in his booke but openly before the whole Court professed and protested that hee medled not with those Prelates who received and acknowledged their Episcopall Iurisdiction from Kings and Princes and withall he alleadged and read in the audience of the Courts sundry Statutes as in King Henry the eight Edward thâ— sixt and Queene Elizabeth which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction unto the Crowne of England So as no Prelate or other Person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. But he must have it immediately from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England This Iurisdiction annexed to the Crowne of England Doctor Bastwicke alledged in Court against that usurped Iurisdiction of the Hierarchy of Rome which they challenge from Christ. Notwithstanding they alledged for themselves that they had their Episcopall authority from Christ and if they could not proove it they would cast away their Rochets So they may cast their caps too for any such proofe they can bring for it But stopping the Doctors mouth that he might not plead his cause they proceeded to a most grievous censure of him in 1000. pound fine to the King for maintaining the Royalty of His Crowne against the Prelates usurpation who would plucke away that gemme from it Imprisonment Excommunication suspension from his practise in Prison and the many miseries depending thereupon and devolving upon his Wife and children So as it is plaine they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but which with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ. And this is cleere by a threefold practise of theirs 1. Their censuring of Doctor Bastwick for this very cause that hee impugned all Episcopall Iurisdiction over Gods Ministers claimed from Christ or the Scripture So as they make it their owne cause with the Pope and his Prelates as all holding by that title and not from the authority of Kings and Princes And this is according to that in Dr. Pockâ—â—ngtons Sunday no Sabbath where hee saith pag. 48. Hereby wee may by Gods mercy make good the trueth of our Church For wee are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from St. Peter to St. Gregory and from him to our first Archbishops St. Austin our English Apostle downward to his Grace that now fits in his Chaire Primate of all England and Metropolitane So hee Thus wee see how our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierchie then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines fince the Reformation till but yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselues the very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome Secondly the constant practise of our Prelates proveth this for they neither have at any time nor have sought to have any the Kings Letters Parents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe Thirdly in that they labour by all meanes possible to maintaine this their absolute and independed Iurisdiction as no way depending on the King and namely by stopping the ordinary course of Law that the Kings people may bee cut off from all benefit of the Kings good Lawes and of their native ancient Liberties so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obtaine a Prohibition against their illegall practises invexing 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 Instice 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 For example the Ministers of Surry who are suspended from their Ministery and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all Law or Conscience yet are so disheartned and overawed that they dare not contend in Law against the Prelate for feare of further vexations and they are out of hope of any fayre hearing in an ordinary Legall way Nay when Doctor Bastwicke had procured a Habâ—as corpus to remove him out of the Bishope stincking prison in the Gate-house unto the Kings Bench. and thereupon was removed thither-yet notwithstanding they procured the reversing of this Legall Order and brought the Prisonner backe againe with avengeance and triumph to his old lodging Thus wee see they have gotten such a power into their hands as doth overtop and countermaund the Kings Lawes and the peoples Liberties Now this power they have not from the Imperiall Crowne according to the Lawes of the Land but it is a meere usurpation So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forraigne power altogether excluded in the Statute of 1. Elis. cap. 1. And it is flatly against the Oath of Supremacy in the same Statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires and lawfull Successors and to their power to defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges c. granted or belonging to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires c. Now all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which the Prelates have authority to exercise being annexed to the Crowne as is cleere by the foresayd statute either they must not claime it by another title or if they doe they are all in a Tramunire and under the guilt of perjury And whither they bee not also in a Praemunire for practising their Iurisdiction as keeping of Courts visitations c. in their owne names not having the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England I leave to the learned in the Law to judge But some will say that they defend and maintaine all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to bee from the King For in the visitation Articles for Norwich by Mathew their Lord Bishop this is one Be there any in your Parish that have denyed or perswaded any other to deny withstand or impugne the Kings Majesties Authority and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall within this Realme First I answer this is a faire colour and pretence as if it were against Papists Secondly it is against their ordinary practise as in the former examples And thirdly admit they doe sincerely professe that they have or hold no Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction but from the King yet the question is whither they will say that all those outrageous courses they how hold and
it is said Rebels doe not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly profane and pollute the Sabbath day Serving Satan and by doing of his worke making it the Divels day instead of the Lords day And surely if this liberty of youth bee not all the sooner restrained the whole Land may rue it one day And therefore if the Prelates had any regard either to the honour of God and of his Word or to the setled peace of the Kingdome as they have but little as appeareth too palpably by their practises in disturbing and disordering of all they would have been so faire from procuring the republishing and from pressing and oppressing Ministers about the said booke as they would rather have become humble suiters to his Majesty to have set forth some severe Edict for the better Sanctification of the Lords day that so the people might be kept in better obedience both to God and to his Majestey Forasmuch also as the giving libertie of such sports whereby it is manifestly profained is without all example in any age of the world and their so pressing of it with that cursed and tyranicall tigor both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes such as are not so well acquainted with His Majesties either noble and Christian disposition or His many solemne Protestations to keepe Religion safe and sound I know not what strange Scruples on feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of His Majestie when indeed the whole burden of the blame is to be laid upon the Prelates as either the chiefe procures of these things or the not hindereâ— of them The last instance wheâ—â—in the Prelates doe indanger a division betweene the King and his good Subjects whom the Lord preserue in a perpetual bond of unity is their most impetuous and violent obtruding of new â—ites and Ceremonies which they haue begun through some whole Diocesse and exacting a new conformity in all Ministers there unto This is another snare wherewith they may catch more Ministers either to outt them of their Ministery and living or else to captivate them for ever as vassalls for whatsoever base uses their good Masters will put them unto And herein they haue made a faire progresse already as for example in two whole Counties Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space they haue made the fowlest havocke of good Ministers and their flocks now left desolate and exposed to the Wolues as sheepe without their sheepheard as our eyes have never seene For there are already Threescore Ministers in that one Diocesse suspended and betweene three and Fowrescore more have time given them now till Christ-tide by which time either they must bid their good Conscience farewell or else their precious Ministery and necessary meanes Neither I thinke can it be shewed that in all Queene Maries time there was so great havocke made in so short a time of the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole Land And now doe those Counties and Countries groane under this intolerable burthen remedilesse if God and the King doe not relieve them And our neigbours house being thus on fire doth it not concerne us all to looke to it For they say that this shall be a precedent for all England But upon what ground is all this What authority doe they shew for these outrages The King That is answered before by his solemne Protestations to the contrary But they plead the Act of Parliament for Vniformity before the Communion Booke wherein is reserved a power to the Queene with advise of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan to ordayne and publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Hereupon they ground all their Innovations But for this First obserue that this clause of the Act is limmited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her Successors of the Crowne they are still expressed Secondly admit it was intended to the Successors yet it is with that qualification as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edefying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Misteries and Sacraments Well To bring our new Rites to this Rule First doe they make to the Advancement of Gods glory What Superstitious Idolatrous worship of wooden Aultars What a complementall Crouch to Iesus when they Crucifie Christ What to bow before a Crucifix Againe for the edifying of his Church What by the Preaching and not praying in the Pulpit before and after his Sermon What by the expounding of the Catechisme What by reading a second Service at the Altar where the people cannot heare it And for due reverence to Christs Sacraments What by possessing the people with an opinion of a Popish reall presence What by offering Christ in sacrifice upon a Wooden Altar By a Priest of mans making What by drawing the people to a new adoration by bringing them up close to the new Altar But they will say all makes for them And who shall bee judges but themselves who are the Church Therefore Lastly I answer for all that no humane rationall creature can bring the least shadow of colour that this Act did giue the Queene or her succssors any power to set up Popery againe This is out of all question But now our New Reformers are tooth and nayle for setting up Popery againe witnesse their hoysing up Altars in most places as also of Images Crucifixes with adorations putting downe of the meanes of knowledge as Preaching and bringing in of Ignorance also preaching for sundry points of Popery as Auricular Confession praying to Saints yea printing of such Sermons prayer for the dead and many other All which while they set up with a high hand and so as if the King gaue them authority so to doe of which all his Solemne protestations I say doe sufficiently resolve us the contrary they must needs mightily shake and unsettle the peace of the State by these their dangerous and desperate attempts and sill the peoples minds with musings what the issue will bee and how the King will digest these things at the Prealates hands which tend to the most dangerous dividing and renting of the Kingdome asunder The next instance is their arrogating of their Episcopall title and office of Superiority from Christ and his Apostles This they did lately in the High Commission Court and that upon occasion of Doctor Bastwicks cause then before them Where hee was accused and severely censured for writting a Booke intituled Flagellum Potificis Episcoporum Latialium in which booke bee whipped that usurped authority of the Roman Hierarchy through whose sides by reason of their