to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâ—e pâ—as constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their
SCRINIA RESERATA A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF John Williams D.D. Who some time held the Places of L d Keeper of the Great Seal of England L d Bishop of Lincoln and L d Archbishop of York CONTAINING A SERIES OF THE Most Remarkable Occurrences and Transactions of his LIFE in Relation both to CHURCH and STATE Written by JOHN HACKET Late Lord Bishop of LITCHFIELD and COVENTRY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. de laudibus Athanasii Vita mortuorum in memoriâ vivorum est posita Cicero Philip. nonâ IMPRIMATUR Nov. 27. 1692. JO. Cant. In the SAVOY Printed by Edw. Jones for Samuel Lowndes over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand M. DC XC III. THE PROEM READER Paragr 1. BOOKS are sown so thick in all Countries of Europe that a new one which one adds more to the former Gross had need of an Apology The easie Dispatch of so many Sheets in a day by the readiness of Printing hath found the World a great deal more Work then needs Many that love Knowledge both Industrious and of sound Judgment are not nice to say that Repletion of Authors hath begat Loathing Which is a Reason likewise or a Pretence that divers who are Learned and full Men contain their Liquor in their Vessels and never broach it in the Press to make it Publick because they think it is Folly to contribute to Waste and Excess I am one of those I confess that wish it were possible that a Moses could be raised up to restrain us from bringing more either of our Pamphlets or Volumes to the Work of the Tabernacle For the Stuff already is sufficient for all the Work to make it and too much Exod. 36.7 2. How shall I answer it therefore Or how shall I defend that I am constant to mine own Judgment in this Design that I thrust my Labours into the World What Warrant can I plead that I build a new Cottage upon the Waste I conceive that it will stand for satisfaction that I set forth an History of Things not travers'd before but of memorable Passages running through the Channel of one Man's Life in our present Age. It is a Debt owed to Posterity to furnish them with the true Knowledge of sore-gone Occurrences worthy to be Registred as I believe these ensuing are A Tradition must be kept of famous Exploits especially moving upon the Stage of turbulent Times For when it is skilfully drawn through the Acts of famous Men it will rouze up our Children by Emulation as much as by Precept and give them double advantage to seek Virtue and Glory But better it will be to have it coarse spun then quite omitted For such will serve for Cork to keep a Net from sinking 3. This Century of our Account from Christ's Birth wherein we live now wasting beyond the middle hath been happy in this That it hath brought forth in our Kingdom of England many of great Renown Wise and Eloquent deep in Learning and sage in Counsels in a word to be praised as much as the best of their Forefathers yet granting to all both former and latter an Allowance for some Grains of Frailties It were pity their Memorial should perish with them Caesar was a large seeker of Glory yet grudge no Man a share in Glory as testifies that little which remains of his Oration for the Bithynians saying It is a Duty required from the surviving Generation to keep them alive in their good Name who deserv'd it and can endure the Censure of the World for ever I listen to his Encouragement yet measuring my Strength by mine own Meet-wand I task my self to set up a Pillar but for one Man's Memory The Event will clear me that I stint not my self to this one Theme to do but little But First Because there is so much Kernel in one Shell I must set forth a great Bishop a great Judge a great Counsellor in all these Capacities most active in most active Times Such a Mill will not go with a little Water Beside the Turnings and Returnings of his Fortune multiformous Changeableness rather Prodigious then Strange by Honour and Dishonour by Evil Report and good Report 2 Cor. 6.8 Which will draw considerate Thoughts for no little time to this one Center As Pliny writes of the Emperor Augustus his Life interwoven with much Glory Lib. 7. Nat. Hist c. 45. and much Misfortune Si diligenter aestimentur sancta magna sortis humanae reperiantur volumina So it is highly remarkable that in this one Piece a diligent Eye may discern all the Colours of human Inconstancy and Instability 4. Secondly I spend all my little Skill upon this Subject for I can draw no Picture so like because I knew none so well I noted his Ways and Worth in the University when I was but young I observ'd him in his earliest Preferments when he came first sledge out of the Nest I was taken into his Houshold Service as soon as he ascended to his highest Office And commencing from that time till thirty Years expired with his Life I trespass not against Modesly if I say I knew his Courses as much and saw them at as near a distance as any Man beside I have as much Intelligence from an Eye-witness Information and from his familiar Conference with me as can be expected from any Writer of the Memorials of a great Statist Qui audiunt audita dicunt qui vident planè sciunt says Plautusvery well He that reports but what he hears must confess he is at uncertainty he that sees a Thing done can relate it perfectly Pliny hath cast down a great deal of that which he built up in the seventh Book of his Natural History with this Passage in his Proem Nec in plerÃsque corum obstringam sidem meam potiúsque ad autores relegabo He would make Faith for little of that which he wrote but turns his Reader over to such Authors as himself did not trust in I am far from such Prevarication I drew the knowledge of those things of most moment which I shall deliver from the Spring-Head And I trust in God that I have incorporated them into this Frame with Integrity This then is my confidence to make this Compilement that my Tools were whetted at home I need not repair to the Allophyli or Philistins to sharpen my Axe at their Grind-stone 5. Thirdly I am full of willingness to be the Father of this Child And nothing is apter for a Man to undergo then that which is agreeable to his Delight I profess it is not the least of my drifts to sweeten my Master's Memory with a strong composed Perfume and to carve him out in a commendable but a true Figure Suffer me to put one Day to his Life after his Decease When a worthy Man's Fame survives him through their help that light a Candle for that use that others in succession of Ages may perfectly behold him it is
at Chattam and to ride near to St. Anderos to bring the Prince for England if there were a rupture in the Treaty But if they should suddenly strike Hands and make a Bargain my Lord Duke had his Thoughts upon a Question which if it should be ask'd he would not be surpriz'd as if he were ignorant what to answer that is What Dowry should be granted to the Princely Bride Therefore he consulted the Lord Keeper and required Satisfaction to be brought by a Courier that must not spare Horse-Flesh who was hied away as fast as he could be with this Answer May 14. My Illustrious Lord THe Dowry about which your Grace requires the speediest Direction must consist in some of the Kings fair Mansion Houses and in Revenue For both which the Mannor-Houses and the just Sum of the Joynture I must refer to you and can do no otherwise to my Lord of Bristol's former Conclusions with that Council But whether it should be allotted in Land or other Revenue I cannot yet convince mine own Judgment fully which were better Sometimes I consider it were good that a great part were named out of Customs and such other Incomes lest our Poverty in Crown-Lands be discovered Sometimes I find it for certain more advantageous to his Highness to have all the Joynture in Land and that the choicest of our Kingdom because being once in the Joynture it is sure to be preserv'd in the Crown and no longer subject to be begg'd or begger'd by Fee-Farms and unconscionable Leases And I believe your Lordship will so advise it Or if you please the Sum being agreed upon you may suspend the rest till you return that Counsel in the Law on all sides may put their Cases upon it Your Grace will give me leave to observe that now is the first time that any Daughter-in-Law of this Crown had any other set Maintenante than was granted to her voluntarily by her Husband But your Grace may reply That this is the first Portion of so great a Bulk And it is no way inconvenient for his Highness that she have a Copious Maintenance confirm'd to her in present as I could tell your Grace at large if I were present with you All is right here to your Lordship's Good and I will be vigilant to keep it so Nor will I serve his Majesty in that place wherein I shall not be so heedful as to be able to yield an account of any Disservice or Offer that way which may concern your Grace c. By the same Messenger at the same time another Dispatch was posted to the Prince in answer to his Highness who had signified his Pleasure was That the Recusants should be gratified for his sake warily and not by broad Day-light to shew that he was sensible of those Hospital Civilities which he then received from some Cards of their Suit Whereupon the Lord Keeper writes May it please your Highness I Would I had any Abilâ—â—â—â—â— to serve your Highness in this place wherein you have set me and what far more Grace and Favour Countenanced and Encouraged me To observe your Highnesses Commands I am sure the Spanish Ambassador resiant must testifie that since your Highnesses Departure he hath been denied no one Request for Expedition of Justice or ease of Catholicks although I usually hear from him twice or thrice a Week which I observe the more Superstiticusly that he might take knowledge how sensible we are of any Honour done to your Highness And yet in the Relaxation of the Roman Catholicks Penalties I keep off the King from appearing in it as much as I can and take all upon my self as I believe every Servant of his ought to do in such Negotiations the Events whereof be hazardous and uncertain God Bless your Highness as in all other so especially in this present Business of so main Importance c. These are the Negotiations which the Lord Keeper for his Share at this Season brooded under the Wings of Fidelity and Prudence How well let the Wise and Unbiassed be Judges Such will not be Cajol'd into a wrong Belief by Corruptors of History as Heraclides serv'd his Scholars Quos duplo reddidu sluitiores quam acceperat ubi nihil poterant discere nisi Ignorantiam Cicer. Orat. pro Flacco 140. It is enough declared how the great Matters about the Match went here The Dispensation of Pope Gregory the XV. turn'd them round in Spain till they were giddy with the Motion It was expected it should come in the common Church Style an absolute and Canonical Dispensation and no more only for her Sake that was in Submission to his Laws But it was Compounded with so many Reservations and ill-visag'd Provisoes that it swell'd like a Tympany The Pope knew with home he had to deal For there are none in the Earth more Superstitious to do him Honour then the King of Spain and his People That King would make the Pope too big for a Priest that the Pope might make him too great for a King Nor is there any other intent to make that Patriarch of the West the sole capacious Fountain from which all Pipes of Grace and Indulgence Ecclesiastical should be fill'd and run abroad but principally to Water his own Garden What between the Nuncio Resiant at Madrid who was Commanded to stop all Proceedings till safety were granted nay and put in Execution both for English and Irish Catholicks as much as they ask'd What with the Charge given to the Inquisitor General to use all possible diligence to draw the Prince to his Holiness's Obedience What with Olivarez's frowardness of whom the Duke could not obtain to put a Postscript in his Letter to the Pope that to add these new and un-relish'd Conditions with which the Dispensation was Clogg'd would be interpreted the worst of Unkindness what with all these together his Highness might say Fat Bulls of Basan have compassed me in on every side A little Honey God wot a little was allowed to to the Lip of the Cup if he would Taste of that Potion that was that from thenceforth his Highness might have access to his Dearly Affected Mistress not as formerly a bare Visitant but now as a Lover so some of their chief States were in presence to hear all their Conference a Rule which they say is never Infring'd in the grave way of the Castilian Wooing The old Man Gregory the XV. gave light himself to his Friends and Servants in Spain what they should do by the Flame of his own Zeal For he sent a Letter to the Prince Signed with the Signet-Ring of St. Peter to exhort his Highness with many words to reduce himself and the Kingdoms of which he was the Heir to the Subjection of the Roman See Hereupon some of our Hot-Heads in England made it a Quarrel and a Calumny that the Prince sent an Answer of Civility to the Popes Epistle Civility though it is a thing unknown among the Plebeians and Clowns
excluded the Kingdom of Heaven for want of that Ordinance This shift is vulgarly approved among you in all places of the World Then let that content Catholick Parents in England which is so general a remedy among your own Devotees in case of necessity And this Bush will stop the first Gap Next If the Baptized die without Confirmation none ever made it a Salvation-hazard Especially that Ceremony being not stubbornly rejected but privatively intercepted because the proper Instrument is not in the way to act it For how many Biscainers have never heard of it In whose Craggy Mountains I am told a Bishop appears as seldom as a black Swan I presume your Lordship is a Mainteiner of the Canonical Privileges of Episcopacy and you know without a Bishop's shop 's Hand the Blessing of Confirmation hand no Validity by the Canons and perhaps no Entity in the Doctrine of the best Antiquity Now if this Sacrament which comes limping after Baptism must have a Bishop's Crosier to stay it up I know not whether our Romish Male contents demand that Then here 's a Tale of new Tidings comes to my Ears that to integrate Sacred Offices they would have the Presence of a Bishop as well as of a Priest and then these Adonijahs fly so high to ask for Abishag that they may ask the Kingdom also The Ministers of the King of Spain upon such an Occasion as your Lordship is employed in offered at such a thing in their Propositions to my Royal Master's Commissioners It pleaseth the Castilian Mouth to speak big and ask high but we checkt them with repulse and disdeign And good Cause for it A Bishop will think his Wings pinion'd if he have not a Consistory for Jurisdiction Vexations of Jurisdictive Power will provoke Appeals to the Court of Rome And then my Masters People should crouch for Justice to a Foreign Potentate But that Beast shall never get the Head to run a Wild-Goose-Chase where it lists while he holds the Bridle in his Hand My Lord Ambassador There is nothing discoverable though the wideness of the British Ocean flow still between us and your Bishops that their absence should cross their Party that is among us from entering into Eternal Life Which makes the Sacrament of Order not to belong to our Argument But Marriage doth it is Gods Ordinance who joyned Man and Woman together in Paradise and is fittest to be celebrated among Christians in the Paradise of the Church-Assembly And to be blessed by those Servants of God his Priests who are to bless his People in all things especially in so great a Mystery The Question is Whether a Man should scruple not to Wed a Woman unless she were joyned to him by the Priests of his own Communion My Lord Let me set the shape of it before you in another Glass If a Roman born and bred made choice of a Greekish Woman for his Wife among Greeks in Morea or Thessalonica would the Wedlock be esteemed ineffectual if a Priest of the Ordination of the Greek Church did tie the Knot The Ordination of our Clergy is nearer to you than the Greeks Indeed I never heard but a good Wife and a rich Portion would be welcom to a Recusant though a Minister made by Imposition of Hands in this Kingdom did joyn them And I never heard that such Married Ones as departed out of our Church to yours were question'd among you upon the Truth of their Matrimony which they brought with them from hence And 't is well done of you lest we should require Exceptions and make the Issue of the most of the Roman Catholiques in the Land Illegitimate It is in our Power to do so because they are not scrupulously Married by that Form which our Laws have provided and with an even Obedience to every tittle of our Prescriptions But many things are lawful which are not expedient 224. The Annoiting of the Sick may come in next or in what Order you will my Lord. I know it is called Extreme Unction in some Writers sense because it is the Extreme Sacrament when the Soul is about to take its leave of all Sacraments As soon as I have named it I am ready to shake Hands and part with it What if some in the infirmity of their Sickness desire it because the Tradition of the Church hath commended it Yet none is so superstitious to think that Comfort cannot be infused into them that are at the point of Death sufficiently without it St. Stephen departed without Extreme Unction and yet the Lord Jesus receiv'd his Spirit Men condemn'd by the Law and led to Execution but well prepar'd for a better Life by their Ghostly Fathers neither have it nor crave it But they that are most impotent most affected with Languor are subject to a most disorder'd Appetite Why suppose then one that is sick should have this Pica and long to be Annoiled Why might not a Lay-Friend Annoil as well as Baptize Eckius would have us believe that the blessed Virgin and your peculiar Saint St. Genouefa have Anointed many that were sick and they have recover'd Yet lest it should be evaded that these were Persons of miraculous Endowments hear the Words of Pope Innocent the First that are as large as can be and allowed to be his speaking of this sick Man's Salve Omnibus uti Christianis licet in suâ aut suorum necessitate inungendo Which Papal Sentence our Countryman Bede quotes and makes it full on this wise not only Presbyters but any Christians may Anoint the Infirm in case of necessity Will you have the Judgment of some that are latter than Innocent and Bede Hear one but a sound Card Bonaventure upon the Sentences Potest dispensari in casu necessitatis à non Sacerdotibus For the Sacrament of the Altar my Lord as you speak in your Dialect it is necessary Necessitate Praecepti non Medii say both your Divines and ours That is in a longer Paraphrase the Commandment to Take and Eat I and to Drink too must necessarily be obeyed by them that can keep it But it hath not such a strict tie with the Covenant of Salvation That all they shall fail of final Mercy who are impeded to partake without any fault of theirs Infants lack the taste of that Heavenly Food and are not prejudiced For our Saviour requir'd it of none but of such as could actually believe that he died for the Sins of the World Is not the same Indulgence intended towards them and far rather who believe in Christ's Death and would enjoy the Sacrament that Annuntiates his Death but cannot Your Gravest Authors do please themselves in the Words of Rupertus and they are grown to be the trivial Quotation upon this Case Non judicatur apud Deum non manducare nisi qui manducare noluit qui non curavit qui neglexit The desire of the Heart supplies the defect of actual Manducation Time was more than 1300 Years ago when those that
and which I did not look for by one and no more I hope devoted to those Corollaries of Theology which in this last Age are named from the Belgick Doctor Arminius It is the Observator on H. L. If King James had not stopt the Current of those Opinions especially as he says P. 23. in his Declaration against Vorstius Or if for Reasons of State he had not joyned himself to his dear Confederate Maurice Prince of Orange to call the Synod of Dort to suppress a Party under the Countenance and Command of Jo. Olden Barnevâ— by him used to undermine the Power of Maurice I doubt not but he had scap'd free from the Observator's Censure But since he was vigilant to attend the Affairs of the Protestant Churches in all their Harbors and looked circumspectly to quell Commotions in the Netherlands he must by no means pass for Great-Britain's Solomon nay it is no hard matter to prove that he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him This is too large a Field to run over but many wise Princes have been abused in some Treaties as Queen Elizabeth at St. Quintins about the Restoring of Calis in 88 by the dodges of the Prince of Parma and over and over by King Henry the Fourth of France So was this King foiled at Madrid about the Marriage of his Son upon which his Chief Plots did depend by the Croâ—ness of his own Ministers I have heard some observe like this Censurer that his Wisdom wanted Pertinacy and Severity which proceeded from the Gentleness of his Nature not apt to keep others in so hard as he should In this Kingdom I am sure his greatest and most dangerous contriving Enemies found his Wisdom that maugre all Devices to oppose his Title he took the Crown of England so quietly and enjoyed it so peaceably that it was the Amazement of all Princes Ireland found his Wisdom so admirably civiliz'd so enriched with Trade by the Plantation at London-Derry so furnished with true Religion and excellent Learning and Means to nourish it so quiet from Rebellion in all his Days that whoso doth not praise it must be stupid or envy it Scotland found his Wisdom whose Borders he scoured from Thieves whose Fewds he reconciled whose Ecclesiastical Government he setled whose Mouths a small few excepted he kept from Murmering and whose Swords he kept sheathed so ready to be drawn upon every Alarum that those Days were Halcyonian Days from Tweed to the Orcades But for England says the Observator he neglected the Affairs of State and Care of Government to hunt after Pleasures deserting the Imperial City to sport himself at Roiston and Nowmarket and such obscure Places which were to him as the Isle of Capreae was to Tibarius Caesar What! the Isle of Capreae where Tiberius practised his odious Lasts not to be named which the well-moralized Romans did abhor Hac vâ—rò ni P. Clodius dixit unquam Cic. Phil. 2. The Devil and the Jesuits durst not say so the most venemous Scorpion did never touch him with that Sting And did ever any Christian in the first Ages of the Church when their Blood was shed like Water on every side did ever any of them stigmatize the most loathsome-liv'd Emperor and Tyrant with such Words Never And let the great Annalist be heard Baron an 75. com 4. Nunquam in tot acerbissimis ab Imperatoribus illatis in Christianos persecutionibus quem piam illorum ob diccitatem conventum esse judicio quis poterit invenire I will give this Complaint over though it deserves a long Invective for I treat of a most merciful King who was most remissive of Wrongs no Spiller of Blood but of Beasts in Hunting that never shewed himself unsavory with the Froward 2 Sam. 22.27 Nec quicquam est gloriosius Principe impune Lesâ— Senec. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 233. It is said but mistaken that Government was neglected at those Hunting-Houses and by the way Why are they called obscure Places Royston and Newmarket petty if compared with London but they are Market-Towns and great Thorow-Fares where the Court was so frequented both for Business and Recreations that many of the Followers could not find a Lodging in that Town nor scarce in the Villages round about it I held Acquaintance with some that attended the Principal Secretaries there who protest they were held to it closer and sate up later in those Retirements to make Dispatches than at London The King went not out with his Hounds above three Days in the Week and Hunting was soon over Much of the time his Majesty spent in State Contrivances and at his Book I have stood by his Table often when I was about the Age of Two and twenty Years and from thence forward and have heard learned Pieces read before him at his Dinners which I thought strange but a Chaplain of James Mantague Bishop of Winton told me that the Bishop had read over unto him the four Tomes of Cardinal Bellarmine's Controversies at those Respites when his Majesty took fresh Air and weighed the Objections and Answers of that subtle Author and sent often to the Libraries in Cambridge for Books to examine his Quotations Surely then whatsoever any Caper witted Man may observe neither was the King's Chastity stained nor his Wisdom lull'd asleep nor his Care of Government slackned by Lodging in those Courts remote from London where he was freer from Disturbances But as Iâ—ocrates said of Evagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had the Dexterity to purchase less Labour with much Ease and to shift the Toil of a King sometimes into the Pleasure of a Scholars Studies Neither would I have had the Observator tax him that he ict loose the golden Reins of Discipline held by his Predecessors with so strict a Hand and opened the first Gap unto these Consusions and what Discipline King James is charged to slacken the Observator best knows his own Meaning I am no Phormio to teach Hannibal how to Govern But to draw our fatal Confusions from the Prosperity enjoyed by his Mildness and Peace must be stretch'd out of long spun Deductions like that in Tully Wo to the Mountain Ida where the Trees grew whose Timber made the Ships that carried Paris to Rape Helen which stir'd up the Greeks to revenge it and to Sack Troy Or thus Wae be to Joseph that sent for his Father and Brethren and planted them in Aegypt in a fat Soil where their Stock increased whose Increase was dreaded which caused the Male Children to be drowned and the Israelites to be oppressed by Pharaoh's Task-Masters This was visible before our Eyes the precious Things of Heaven and the precious Things of the Earth and the Fulness of the Earth abounded in his Reign and many years after by the Good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush All that hath fallen out since is from the Hand of the Lord upon a People the most Unthankful and
plausible and may run well with the close of Beza's Epigram in Parodie Quod tu fecisti sit licet ingens At quod non saceres hoâ— ego miror opus 134. But the Injuries done to private Man were Trifâ—les to the great Affairs that were in hand His Majesty's Affairs which were in great decadence took him up wholly and how could he be safe A good Subject cannot make any difference between the King's Fortunes and his own A full Declaration of the Storms that were rais'd concerns not this piece It was apparent that the Scotch were at one end of the Fray in the North and the Presbyterians about London at the other end in the South both confederate to root up cast down syndicate controul and do what they lust and let them have their own will it would scarce content them Our wise Church-man knew that he that fears the worst prevents it soonest Therefore he did not lose a minute to try all his Arts if he could quench the flame amongst the heady Scots whose common sort were like their Preachers Tumidi magis animi quà m magni as Casaubon notes it in the Atherians Lib. 1. Athen. cap. 20. rather of a swelling than a noble Spirit Their own polite Historian says more Dromond Jam. 5. p. 161. That Hepburn Prior of St. Andrews the Oracle of the Duke of Albany told him That he must remember that the People whom he did command for he was Regent were ever fierce mutinously proud and know not how to obey unless the Sword were drawn What hope then of their Submission when they had framed Covenants Articles gathered a Convention no less in Power no less in Name than a Parliament without their Prince's leave and became Assailants to maintain that and what they would have more with the Sword Let all Ages remember that this sprung from no other occasion but that the King invited them to prayer in publick in such a Form of Liturgy as himself used putting no greater burden upon their Conscience than upon his own The Peccatulum was that there wanted a little in mode and usual way to commend the Book unto them Perhaps the Error went a little further that King James his Promise was not observ'd as the Reverend Spotswood doth not conceal it p. 542. That the Lord Hamilton King James his Commissioner having ratified the Articles of Perth by Act of Parliament assured the People that his Majesly in his days should never press any more change and alteration in matters of that kind without their consent Admit this Promise calculated for the days of King James was obliging as far as the Meridian of King Charles yet nothing was presented to them against true Doctrine or Divine Worship for all the Learning of their Universities could never make the matter of the Liturgy odious And let it be disputed That the Book was not authoritative without the publick Vote and Consent of the Nation in some Representative Yet if a Prince so pious so admirable in his Ethicks did tread one inch awry in his Politicks must the Cannon be brought into the Field and be planted against him to subvert his Power at Home and to dishonour him abroad was it ever heard that upon so little a Storm Seamen would cut Cabble and Mast and throw their Cargo over-board when there was no fear to shipwrack any thing but Fidelity and Allegiance God was pleased to deprive us of Contentment and Peace for our own wickedness or Civil Discords that lasted near as long as the Peloponnesian War had never risen from so slender an occasion The merciful and soft-hearted King could have set his Horse-feet upon their Necks in his first Expedition which stopt at Barwick if he had not been more desirous of Quietness than Honour and Victory I guess whom Dromond means in the Character of Jam. 3. p. 118. That it is allowable in men that have not much to do to be taken with admiration of Watches Clocks Dials Automates Pictures Statues But the Art of Princes is to give Laws and govern their People with wisdom in Peace and glory in War to spare the humble and prostrate the proud Happy had it been if his Majesty had followed valiant Counsel to have made himself compleat Conquerour of those Malapert Rebels when they first saw his face in the North. But the Terms of Pacification which they got in one year served them to gather an Army and to come with Colours display'd into England the next year which was the periodical year of the King's Glory the Churches Prosperity the Common Laws Authority and the Subjects Liberty Threescore and eighteen years before when England and Scotland were never at better League Abr. Hartwell passeth this Vote in his Reginâ literatâ more like a Prophet than a Poet Nostráque non iterùm Saxo se vertat in arva Non Gallus sed nec prior utrôque Scotus 135. And what could Lesly have done then with a few untrain'd unarmed Jockeys if we had been true among our selves The Earl of Southampton spake heroically like a Peer of an ancient Honour That the Bishop of Durham with his Servants a few Millers and Plowmen were wont to beat those Rovers over the Tweed again without raising an Army If the People had not imprudently chosen such into our Parliament as were fittest to gratifie the Scots day had soon cleared up and Northern Mists dispersed But our foolish heart was darkned and any Scourge was welcome that would chastise the present Government we thought we could not be worse when we could scarce be better We greedily took this Scotch Physick when we were not sick but knew not what it was to be in health An Ounce of common Sense might have warned us That a Kingdom may consist with private mens Calamities but private mens Fortunes cannot consist with the ruin of a Kingdom The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil. Many in England thought they sat at a hard Rent because of Ship-money and would fire the House wherein their own Wealth was laid up rather than pay their Landlord such a petty Tribute as was not mist in times of Plenty but in short time their Corn and Plate went away at one swoop when their stock was low The exacting of Ship-money all thought it not illegal but so many did as made it a number equivalent to all And a Camel will bear no more weight than was first laid upon him Nec plus instituto onere recipit Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. This disorder'd the Beast and being backt with some thousands of Rebels march't on as far as Durham made him ready to cast his Rider The Royal part was at a stand and could go no further than this Question What shall we do As Livy says of the Romans catch't in an Ambush at Caudis Intuentes alii alios cum alterum quisque compotem magis mentis ac consilii ducerent In such a Perplexity every man asks his Fellow What 's best
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fec◠malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
this Common-wealth is no more in being it sufficeth it hath been once and that planted by God himself who would never have appointed persons in Holy Orders to intermeddle with things they ought not to intermeddle withal I will go on with my Chronology of persons in Holy Orders and only put you in mind of Ely and Samuel among the Judges of Sadock's Employment under K. David of Jehojada's under his Nephew King Joash and would sain know what Hurt these men in Holy Orders did by intermedling in Secular Affairs of that time Now we are returned from the Captivity of Babylon I desire you to look upon the whole Race of the Maccabâ—s eveâ— to Antigonus the last of them all taken Prisoner by Pompey and 〈◊〉 afterwards by M Antony and shew me any of those Princes a Woman or two excepted that was not a Priest and a Magistrate 161. We are now come to Christ's time when methinks I hear St. Paul 23. of the Acts excuse himself for reviling of the High-Priest I wist not Brethren that he was the High-â—iest for it is written Thoushalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Where observe that the word Ruler in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same word that is used by St. Paul Rom. 13.3 where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated by Beza Magistrates Then you must be pleased to imagine the Church asleep or almost dead under Persecution for almost 300 years until the happy days of the Emperor Constantine and not expect to find many Magistrates among the Christians Yet you shall find St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.5 offend against this Bill and intermeddle Knuckle-deep with Secular Affairs by inhibiting the Corinthians very sharply for their Chicanery their Pettisoggery and common Barretry in going to Law one with another Besides that as all learned men agree both the Apostles and Apostolical men that lived presently after them had a miraculous power of punishing exorbitant Crimes which supplied the power of the ordinary Magistrate as appears in Ananias and Sapphira the incestuous Corinthian and many others But then from Constantine's Age till the Reformation began by Luther Churchmen were so usually employed in managing of Secular Affairs that I shall confess ingenuously it was too much there lying an Appeal from the Courts of the Empire to the Bishops Judicatory as you shall find it every where in the Code of Justinian So it was under Carolus Magnus and all the Carolovingian Line of our neighbour Kingdom of France So and somewhat more it was with us in the Saxon Heptarchy the Bishop and the Sheriff sitting together check by jowl in their Turns and Courts But these exorbitant and vast Employment in Secular Affairs I stand not up to desend and therefore I will hasten to the Reformation Where Mr. Calvin in the fourth Book of his Institutions and eleventh Distinction doth confess that the holy men heretofore did refer their Controversies to the Bishop to avoid Troubles in Law You shall find that from Luther to this present day in all the flux of Time in all Nations in all manner of Reformations persons in Holy Orders were thought fit to intermeddle in Secular Affairs Brentius was a Privy-Councillor to his Duke and Prince Functius was a Privy-Councillor to the great Duke of Borussâ—a as it is but too notoriously known to those that are versed in Histories Calvin and Beza while they lived carried all the Council of the State of Geneva under their own Gowns Bancroft in his Survey c. 26. observeth that they were of the Council of State there which consisteth of Threescore And I have my self known Abraham Scultetus a Privy-Councillor to the Prince Palatine Reverend Monsieur Du Moulin for many years together a Councillor to the Princess of Sedan his Brother-in-law Monsieur Rivet a great learned Personage now in England of the Privy-Council of the Prince of Orange You all hear and I know much good by his former Writings of a learned man called Mr. Henderson and most of your Lordships understand better than I what Employment he hath at this time in this Kingdom And truly I do believe that there is no Reformed Church in the World settled and constituted by the State wherein it is held for a point in Divinity that persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs Which is all I shall say of this Duty of Ministers in point of Divinity 162. Now I come to the second Duty of men in Holy Orders in point of Conveniency or Policy and am clearly of opinion that even in this Regard and Reâ—ection they ought not to be debarred from modestly intermeddling in Secular Affairs for iâ— there be any such Inconvenience it must needs arise from this That to exercise some Secular Jurisdiction must be evil in it self or evil to a person in Holy Orders Which is neither so nor so for the whole Office of a subordinate civil Magistrate is most exactly described in Rom. 13. v. 3 4. and no man can add or detract from the same The Civil Power is a Divine Ordinance set up to be a Terror to the Evil and an Encouragement to Good Works This is the whole compass of the Civil Power And theresore I do here demand with the most learned Bishop Davenant that within a few days did sit by my side in the Eleventh Question of his Determinations What is there of Impiety what of Unlawfulness what unbecoming either the Holiness or Calling of a Priest in terrifying the bad or comforting the good Subject in repressing of Sin or punishing of Sinners For this is the whole and entire act of Civil Jurisdiction It is in its own nature repugnant to no Person to no Function to no fort or condition of Men let them hold themselves never so holy never so seraphical it becomes them very well to repress Sin and punish Sinners that is to say to exercise in a moderate manner Civil Jurisdiction if the Soveraign shall require it And you shall find that this Doctrine of debarring persons in Holy Orders from Secular Employments is no Doctrine of the Reformed but the Popish Church and first brought into this Kingdom by the Popes of Rome and Lambeth Lanfrank Anselm Stephen Langton and the rest together with Otho and Ottobon and to this only end that the man of Rome might withdraw all the Clergy of this Kingdom from their obligation to the King and Nobility who were most of them great Princes in those times and thereby might establish and create as in great part he did Regnum in Regno a Kingdom of Shavelings in the midst of this Kingdom of England And hence came those Canons of mighty consequence able to shoot up a Priest at one shot into Heaven as that he must not meddle with matters of Blood that he must not exercise Civil Jurisdiction that he must not be a Steward to a Noble-man in his House and all the rest of this Palea and
Languages are you not astonish'd at it Which you will not believe though it be told you Habbak 1.5 Crediderim tunc ipsam fidem humana negotia spectantem moestum vultum gessisse Valer. lib. 6. whom Cromwel their Paymaster used as they deserv'd and after that day would never believe the false Lesly that made the Market nor the turbulent Kirk in any thing Cromwel was cunning in that Art and could see through Lesly and his treacherous Nature that if Lesly had advantage to betray him he would take ready Mony for him Like Ptolemy that betray'd Pompey to Caesar's Executioners Qui Pompeii caedem partium fato non Caesari dederat Haud dubiè idem in ipsum ausurus si expediret He would have serv'd Caesar so if Caesar had been the Blot to hit and by that to win the Game he play'd for Florus lib. 4. c. 8. There were Thousands and Millions of the Scots innocent of this Crime Onus invidiae non exuperabile terris Manil. lib. 2. which struck Grief to the bottom of their Souls to hear it that wash'd their Hands from the foulness of it and cursed the Traytors to Damnation who had left such an indelible Stain upon their Kingdom But what an iniquous thing it is that the Contagion of a part should infect the Honour of all the good People of a Country 207. England deserv'd worse and heard worse than these Jocky-Pedlars that chaffer'd away their King and our Countrymen are received abroad in some places to this day as the Off-scouring of Europe Our Gentlemen that travel know it how the Spaniards shrugg'd and stopp'd their Noses at them when they met them in Madrid There is a Reason why the French give them no less Civility than they were wont their Heads were in the Plot of our Civil Wars they look'd on as unconcern'd Spectators till our King was taken out of the way and instantly confederated with our new States the Traytors and consented to all their Articles and base Demands So much are they fallen from that Honour which their own Thuanus gives them an 1559. p. 616. Afflict is Principibus fidum ac tutissimum semper fuit apud Gallos persugium This perhaps was true when such sage Senators as Thuanus sway'd the Court But how much of late is the case alter'd But I hasten to the beginning and end of the saddest Tragedy that ever was acted since that of our Blessed Saviour Our Innocent King a Lamb dumb before the Shearer being cheated out of the Presbyterian Guards which kept him Cromwel and his Maniple of Miscreants seized on him Cromwel that Imp of Satan compounded of all Vice and Violence and Titan-like Courage devoid of all Pity and Conscience the greatest of the Souldiery and by his Arts greater than them all waxen to be a Colossus between whose strides the Seas flowed his Countenance confess'd him a Tyrant such as Domitian was Saevus ille vultus rubor à quo se contra ruborem muniebat Tacit. Vit. Jul. Agr. But he that blusheth always can give no Testimony of Shame in his Face He regarded not Parliament Courts of Law Patents Charters much less any Canons which Holy Church had ever appointed no nor the Scriptures of God in comparison of some new Light shining in the Lanthorn of his own Head But his way was to govern three Kingdoms by his Armies the Armies by the Agitators and the Agitators by himself whom he shot dead upon the place if they cross'd his Will Superbus sanguinarius volens militariter imperare It is as true Cromwel as it was Macinus in Capitol's History But that which sped him in all his Villanies was Perjury like Ferdinand the Castilian Ferdinandus grande perfidiae lucrum tulit Thuan. anno 1502. a very Lysander in Plutarch that couzened men with Oaths as Nurses do Children with Plums and Cake-bread He took as many Oaths they were the Full-Moons of his Protestations and kept as few as any that was ever baptised in the Name of Christ unless Pope Alexander the Sixth did match him Quo nemo speciosius juramentum juravit qui minus praestitit nemo unquam fuit Match Resp p. 76. He was so accustom'd to forswear himself that he could not leave it in Toys and Driblets yet would sooner keep Faith with Fernando the Portugal Jew to provide him the best Sacks and Tobacco than with his Cabinet and all the fawning Folk that were about him If I had ever met with a more odious Passage than that in St. Basil ep 246. I would afford it him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Morsel fit for the Devil's Stomach This arch-juggler to feel the Pulse of the People suffer'd His Majesty's Servants to have better access to him than was under the Presbyterian Restraint and he set out Declarations in print That no sure Peace could be made without due care taken for His Majesty and his Posterity You would think he had been as penitent and as much changed as Apuleius was lib. 4. Statis jaâ— dolis abjectis asinum me bonae frugi Dominis exhibere that he was grown weary of all his Roguerieâ— in his transformed shape Yet these were but Tricks to rock all those asleep who he knew would oppose him if they were prepared Sonmo occupari ut possint lenes audiendae sunt naeniae Arnob. lib. 7. But as soon as he had disposed his Forces to bridle all popitious and strong places of the Land and to controul the Assurance that the City of London might make to save the King's Life he sell to compass that which Plutarch in Solon's Life calls the most hated thing among men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Perpetuity or Eternity of falling out and to implicate the souldiers in such a Crime as could not be pardon'd to make Rebellion immortal So Tolumnius put the Fidenates on such an Action as they must fight with Rome to the last man and never hope for Peace Liv. lib. 5. Fidennates cruento seâ—lere interficiendi legatos implicuit ne spem ullam à Romanis possint recipere And together he found a means to forgive himself all the Mischief he had done by getting himself above all Law and Power that might question him Matchiavel could find no fault in Cromwel as he did in Pagalous because he kill'd not Pope Julius the Second when he had him in Perusium Sic rei magnitudo omnia priora seclerâ— obtegere potuit à periculo conservare De Rep. l. 1. c. 〈◊〉 So he calls his Familiar Ireton to him the common Sewer of Malice Sator sartorque scelerum messor maximus Plaut and these complot to draw in above an hundred more to sit in an High Court of Justice give them their Phrase to bring the King in person to be try'd before them the Indictment is studied and made ready but St. John and Dorilaus The great Bellows that blew out the fatal Sentence was that Son of Perdition Bradshaw the Rider upon the red
foolish in their several Extreams of Years I prostrate at the Feet of your Princely Clemency Which was granted as soon as the Paradox was unridled to pitch upon them Another Gust that blew from the same Cape I mean from the Pulpit began to be so boisterous that it came very cross to his Majesty's Content Our Unity among our selves was troubled in Point of Doctrine which was not wont The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands having lately determined some great Controversies awakned the Opposition of divers Scholars in our Kingdom who lay still before Learned and Unlearned did begin to conflict every Sunday about God's Eternal Election Efficacy of Grace in our Conversion and Perseverance in it with much Noise and little Profit to the People The King who lov'd not to have these Dogmatizers at Variance us'd all speed to take up the Quarrel early that our Variances might not reproach us to them that were without For there was that in him which Pope Leo applauded in Marcian the Emperor Ep. 70. In Christianissimo Principe sacerdotalis affectus He was a mixt Person indeed a King in Civil Power a Bishop in Ecclesiastical Affections After he had struggled with the Contentious Parties a while and interposed like Moses Sirs ye are Brethren Acts 7.26 and that this rebated not the keen Edge of Discord he commanded Silence to both Sides or such a Moderation as was next to Silence First Because of the Sublimity of the Points The most of Men and Women are but Children in Knowledge and strong Meat belongs to them only that are of full Age Hebr. 5.14 St. Austin subscribed to that Prudence Lib. 2. de porsev c. 16. Unile est ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Secondly Because the ticklish Doctrine of Predestination is frequently marr'd in the handling either by such as press the naked Decree of Election standing alone by it self and do not couple the Means unto it without which Salvation can never be attained or by those that hold out God's peremptory Decrees concerning those whom especially he hath given to Christ and do not as much or more enforce the Truth of Evangelical Promises made to all and to every Man that whosoever believeth in the Son of God shall not be confounded Now let the Reader consider all the Premises and he shall find how the Instructions that follow depend upon them Which in Form and Stile were the Lord Keepers in the Matter his Majesty's Command and were called Directions concerning Preachers 101. Forasmuch as the Abuses and Extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all Ages repressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of Grave and Learned Prelates insomuch as the very Licencing of Preachers had his Beginning by an Order of the Star-Chamber 〈◊〉 July 〈◊〉 Hen. 8. And that at this present young Students by Reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach Doctrines many times unprofitable unfound Seditious and Dangerous to the Scandal of this Church and Disquieting of the State and present Government His Majesty hath been humbly entreated to settle for the present either by Proclamation Act of Council or Command the several Diocesans of the Kingdom these Limitations and Cautions following untill by a general Convocation or otherwise some more mature Injunctions might be prepared and enacted in that behalf First That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any Discourse or common Place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and Division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or natural Inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562 or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a Help to the Non-preaching but withal for a Pattern and a Boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instruction for the Performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies Secondly That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation upon Sundays and Holy Days hereafter in the Afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some Part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend this Afternoon's Exercise in the Examining of the Children in their Catechisms and in the Expounding the several Heads and Substance of the same which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England Thirdly That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity at the least do henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of positive Docttine as being Points fitter for the Schools and Universitles than for simple Auditories Fourthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to Declare Limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Sermon or Lecture the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or to meddle with Matters of State and the References between Princes and the People otherwise than as they are Instructed and Precedented in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies Fifthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any Invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent raising Speeches or Scoslings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd thereunto by the Texts of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other Infection Lastly That the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath just Cause to blame for former Remisness be more wary and choice in Licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licenses in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new Body severed from the ancient
Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and â—at Toerâ—ion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to 〈◊〉 If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to 〈…〉 in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him 〈◊〉 Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered 〈…〉 Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented 〈…〉 then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that