for they feare not the King they honour him not they love him not they obey him not How Doe not these novellers honour love feare the King Who seeme more True Yet as was shewed before these are the most dangerous enemies of the King who under a pretence of honor and love doe machinate the overthrow of his Kingdome and State as by altering the State of religion and by that meanes alienating and unsettling the hearts of his Subjects by filling them with feares and suspicions as if the King gave these novellers authority so to doe which farre bee it from every good Subjects heart once to imagine For the King and Novellers here doe stand in opposition one against the other Can those be the Kings friends that goe about to divide betweene him and his good Subjects Or to expose his Kingdome to Gods displeasure by corrupting his worship and oppressing his truth It s impossible Therefore to joyne with such is to partake with the Kings false friends and fawning enemies Now for the close of all with application to this present occasion in the thankefull memory of this dayes deliverance from the Gunpowder plot a deliverance never to bee cancelled out of the Calender but to bee written in every mans heart for ever this serveth first for caution to all to take heed how they any way partake with those that bee given to change And to the end wee may the better take heed I will propose onely two examples which it concernes us most at this present to take notice of The first of the Gun-powder Plotters who if their plot had taken effect had prooved notorious Changers For as Popery it selfe is a religion of Changes as from antiquity of truth to novelty of error though they falsely pretend the contrary like the Gibeonites with their old shooes and mouldy bread as if they had come from farre when they dwelt hard by so it can rest no where but is a Mother pregnant in plotting and producing of changes in States Kingdomes Common-weales only unchangeable in this that she makes her selfe Supreme and Sole Mistresse where ever the cometh Accordingly those her Sons whom she had fostered as fit sparkes for such a combustion were set on worke to produce the most monstrous Change that ever the world saw on such a suddaine if it had taken place But our God though he winked at them and suffered them to come to the very upshot of their hope strikes in on a suddaine and in the very nick puts a divine sentence in the lippes of the King who by a strange interpretation of a word in one of their own Letters to a Popish Noble-man not according to the Grammaticall sense of the Letter smelling a sent of fire from the mention of burning the Letter and the danger is past thereupon sent the Lord Chamberlaine to search about the Parliament-house and under it Where entring into the Sellar underneath the upper-house hee found a great many Billets and Faggots heaped up not yet suspecting what lurked underneath But the last search was made for more privacy by Sr. Thomas Knevet who first met with Faux and his Lanthorne with his Matches about him ready against the next morning to blow up King Queene Prince Peeres Nobles Knights Burgesses assembled then and there in Parliament and making him sure first entred the Sellar and found no lesse then 36. Barrells of Gun-powder lying Couchant under Billets and Barres of Yron Thus through Gods mercy the change was prevented the change of a Noble Kingdome into an Anarchy and Babilonian tyranny a change of Christs Religion into Antichrists of Tables into Altars of Preaching Ministers of the Gospel into sacrifising Masse-Priests of light into darkenesse of Christ into Belial of the Temple of God into a temple of Idolls of fundamentall just lawes of a Kingdome into Papall Canons of the Liberty of the Subjects into the servitude of slaves of Regall Edifices and Monuments into vast solitude ruinous heapes Yea what tongue can tell or what heart conceive the miserable changes that must have ensued upon that desperate designe if it had beene effected But blessed be God who hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth but hath turned the Change another way for in stead of taking us in their snare themselues were taken therein in stead of blowing up the heads and bodies of this Kingdome together with the house and all their owne bodies were quartered and their heads set upon the top of the Parliament-house to their perpetuall infamie and in stead of a day of lamentation and woe and crying in the streets wee keep it a day of rejoycing of solemne thankesgiving and of singing of Psalmes ever since till this every day And ever may wee so in all thankfullnesse celebrate the memory of this day that wee may never provoke God to deliver us up into the hands of those mercilesse Philistimes Finally as the Lord hath made our Fifth of November a glorious day by such a deliverance So on the other side Hee hath branded their fifth of November with the note of a perpetuall curse and ignomy as in that fall of the House in the Black-Friers on their fifth of November when one of their Popish Priests or Predicants would presume to Preach like a Roman Fox to the English Geese the house by the speciall judgement of God suddenly falling upon their heads which flew both the Preacher and some hundreds of the hearers So as wee have cause to remember that Fifth of November also to the glory of our God who alone avenged his cause on those Idolaters But notwithstanding all these things so remarkable both Gods great mercy in delivering vs on our fifth of November and also his severe and just judgement in noting the fifth of November in their Calender with purple Letters died in the blood of so many persons Yet doe they relent Are their Consciences convicted Is their malice abated alas no such thing But as the Prophet told the King of Israel when God had given him the Victory over the King of Syria Goe strengthen thy selfe and marke and see what thou dost for at the returne of the yeere the King of Syria Will come up against thee And so it prooved For the servants of the King of Syria said unto him Their Gods are Gods of the hills but let us fight on the plaine and wee shah be stronger than they So the Pontificians not succeeding that way they try another way What is that way Wee cannot better compare it then to that of Baalam who when hee could not by all his Inchantments conjure up from hell one curse upon Gods people then hee goes a politicke way to worke hee giues Balack the King of Moab crafty counsell to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel to eate things sacrificed to Idolls and to commit fornication as yee may see Numb 25. 1. 2. c. This indeed was the
you whom yee shall feare feare him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you him feare Where Christ exhorts us to this feare of God by a threefold motive 1. that hee calls us friends And surely such as truely feare God are the friends of Christ from whom no feare of men can divide them as we sayd before 2. hee forewarnes us that we may not bee unarmed with this feare of God least otherwise wee bee on a suddaine surprised and overthrown before wee be aware when the great red Dragon with all his terror presents himselfe before the woman ready to bring forth a masculine birth which with the mother he threatens to devoure And so much the more when the Dragon is 〈◊〉 powerfull as with his tayle to draw the third part of the Starres of heaven and to cast them to the earth that is when the greatest part of those who in their heavenly Orbes and Motions are as Starry lights shining in their doctrine and life are either by the Dragons threats or the traines and wiles of his dog-like flattering tayle cast from their heavenly station to the earth when the love or feare of earthly things swayes more with them to draw them downewards then of heavenly to fixe them on Christ. Thirdly Christ in the forenamed place redoubles his premonition Yea I say unto you feare HIM by which hee would intimate unto us of what force the feare of man is to draw us away from our station with God if wee bee not well rooted in the feare of God Thirdly here is an use of caution to those that are apt to be censorious of those to whom God hath given a greater and more extraordinary measure of Christian zeale and courage for Christ. For such a vertue as it is more eminent so it drawes upon it a great deale of envy especially from those which as they idolize their counterfeit discretion and Christian prudence as they tearme it and all because they love to sleep in a whole skin and are loth to hazard a haire of their head for Christ so on the other side they clevate and slight the noble zeale and courage of those whom they see so farre to out strip them in this heroick grace and invincible love to Christ yea they are ready to tearme it rashnesse and indiscretion especially if the successe proove an imprisonment or other vexation from those who with their might bearedowne the right and then they applawde and hugge their owne prudence and discretion when in the meane time they injoy their peace and cease at home For as an evill attempt if it hit well is called a vertue so the best actions being attended with an issue not answerable are deemed by unjust judges vicious and erronious Fourthly and lastly is the true feare of God such a rare and excellent vertue and so invincible overcōming all other feares Then this makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacy and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and Idolatry and Superstition obtruded insteed thereof when notwithstanding wee see many Ministers of Iesus Christ though but few comparatively in respect of the whole multitude to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and of a good conscience they will part with their Ministry liberty livelyhood and life too if need were This is that which keepes Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captaines to keepe their ground and not to fly the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemy Here is hope that the cause will prevaile at length But if all should yeeld or fly then the field were lost without recovery Yet how many doe like Demosthenes who seeing his party beginne to bee put to the worst takes his heeles and being asked why hee fled so fast Oh saith he that I may preserve my selfe to fight another time Then sure hee would doe great feats But in the meane time the enemy is master of the field and now there is no more place of fighting So prudent Souldiers and captaines among us seeing Christs side in mans judgement to be distressed by the enemies prevailing power thinke it good discretion rather to yeeld to the present extremity and so to reserve themselves for better times when in the meane time the cause is by them betrayed and themselves soled captive that their captaine Christ will never trust to such captaines againe as to commit the leading of his people under the false colours of their empty pretences Yea and the people too are willing and perswade their Ministers to yeeld in those smaller matters as they conceive rather then to forgoe their Ministry not waighing either the dangerous consequēces of such beginnings or the worthlessenesse of such Ministers as shall doe such certaine evill that a supposed and but supposed onely good may come thereof Whose damnation is just as the Apostle speaketh For Rome was not build in one day And Rome being about to bee rebuilt in this land cannot bee done all at once but it must bee by degrees although the builders doe every day get ground and their building goes on a maine with an incredible celerity But I trust they make more hast then good speed And me thinkes I see the issue of their building in that of the Tower of Babell of which the Lord said Behold the people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to doe and now nothing will bee restrained from them which they have imagined to doe Even so our new Babel-builders upon a strong combination and faction against Christ and his Kingdome have begun to build a Tower reaching to heaven in their high imagination as if they would as the Giants of old pull Christ out of his Throne and all outward likelyhoods conspire unto their more than hoped for successe which no externall meanes can prevent but as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so ò Lord. Yet as wee said before Gods children must take heed for their parts that they bring not so much as a sticke or a stone to this building but that they hinder and stop the beginning and creeping in of Idolatry and Superstition which else is as a breaking in of the Sea that so overflowes the land and so gaines more ground every tide till it grow incurable This we have seene in these Innovations First Pewes at Chancel-ends must be remooved that so none may sit above God Almighty Though this at first dash brings the Reall Presence Well what 's next It 's fit to remoove the Table Altarwise This was with much hard tugge effected in Saint Gregories by Pauls at least for the neere neighbourhood it
Iurisdiction of Bishops jure divino as being no where found in the Scripture but the contrary sayd openly that in matters of divinity wee are not tyed to the Scriptures but to the Vniversall Catholicke Church in all ages for how said hee shall wee know the Scriptures but by the Church And therefore not without some reason doth that Iesuite in his Pamphlet printed in English 1636 intituled A Direction to bee observed by N. N. make a laudable mention of that great Prelate saying Although I ought not to dissemble but doe gladly acknowledge and deservedly publish in this occasion for a patterne to others in this Realme the care of the Chiefest Prelate in England in prohibiting the sale of Bookes tending to Socinianisme So there But what meaneth the Iesuite here by Socinianisme Hee tells us plainly pag. 16. and 17. in these words First then I say that the very Doctrine of Protestants if it be followed closely and with coherence to it selfe must of necessity induce Socinianisme This I say confidently and evidently proove by instancing in one errour which may well bee termed the Capitall and mother Heresy from which all other must follow at ease I meane their hereâ—y in affirming that the perpetually visible Church of Christ descended by a never interrupted succession fromour Saviour to this day is not infallible in all that it proposeth to bee believed as revealed truthes For if the infallibility of such a publicke Authority bee once impeached what remaines but that every man is given other to his owne wit and discourse And talke not here of holy Scripture And a little after And indeed take away the authority of Gods Church no man can bee assured that any one Booke or parsell of Scripture was written by divine inspiration or that all the contents are infallibly true which are the direct errours of Socinians So hee Where wee see what his meaning is when hee commends the chiefe Prelate as a patterne to all other in prohibiting such bookes as exalt the sole authority of holy Scripture as the onely Rule of faith Thus not unde servedly hee commends him for upholding the authority of the Church to wit of the Pope primarily and next after him the Prelates as whereon depends the authority and sence of Scripture Well But is this the way of setling the faith of Christians in the true religion Nay is it not the high ready way to unsetle all to make religion a wether-cocke to be turned this way or that way as the winde of mans unstable erronious fancy shall blow move it And for proofe hereof let us but obserue what the same Iesuite faith a little after For writing of the present state of our Church and that since this new generation of Doctors and Prelates hath Sprung up amongst us I know not from what Popish root hee saith * And to speake the trueth what learned judicious man can after unpartiall examination imbrace Protestantisme which waxeth even weary of it selfe Its Professors they especially of greatest worth learning and authority declare themselves to love temper and moderation allow of many things which some yeeres agoe were usually condemned as Superstitious and Artichristian and are at this time more unresolved where to fasten then at the infancie of their Church Thus by the way hee sheweth who they bee that are the chiefe Fathers of that new-fangle religion of Protestancy of late birth in England namely those of greatest worth learning and authority as the Prelates are counted to bee who are of that temper and moderation as they allow of many things which some yeeres agoe were usually condemned as superstitious and Antichristian But how doth the Iesuite demonstrate this Pag. Twenty two Hee saith For doe not the Protestant Churches begin to looke with another face Their walls to speake with a new language Their Preachers to use a sweeter tone Their annuall publicke Tentes in their Vniversities to bee of another style and matter Their books to appeare with titles and arguments which once would have caused a mighty scandal among the brethren Their doctrine to be altered in many things and even in those very paints for which their Progenitors for sooke the then visible Church of Christ Their 39 Articles that is the summe the Confession and almost the Greed of their Faith are patient Patient They are ambitious of some sense wherein they may seeme to bee Catholicke To alledge the necessity of wife and children in these dayes is but a weake plea for a married Minister to compasse a Benefice Fiery Calvinisme once a darling in England is at length accounted Heresy yea and little lesse then Treason Men in word and writing use willingly the once fearefull names of Priests and Altars Nay if one doe but mutter against the placing of the Altar after the old fashion for a warning hee shall be well warmed by a coale from the Altar English Protestants are now put in mind that for exposition of Scripture by canon they are bound to follow the ancient Fathers And to conclude all in one maine point The Protestant Church in England willingly professeth so small Antiquity and so weake subsistence in it selfe that they acknowledge no other visible being for many Ages but in the Church of Rome So the Iesuite Behold here now Protestant Reader what testimony a Iesuite can give of the present state of our Church and that out of his owne reading and observation and which we our selves cannot deny all which hee ascribeth to the Prelates as those whom hee indigitates for men of greatest worth learning authority who declare their Innovations as Sodome her sinnes and hide them not even our enemies now their friends being witnesses who gladly feed their infants with the pappe of our new Papisme But to returne to our particular point of Innovation concerning the rule of faith which our Prelats have turned off from the holy Scripture to the authority of the Church this is the maine upshot in Dr. Whites Treatise of the Sabbath day wherein he tyes the observation of the Lord day to that limitation which the Prelates of the Church doe or shall prescribe so also all other matters of Religion And doe they not also overthrow the Scriptures as the rule of faith in that they restraine the preaching of them to their illiberall allowance inhibiting such and such points to be medled with as before is shewed doe they not place the Communion booke as a rule of faith in all matters of Religion wherin the Arch-Bishops definitive sentence must determine as Recv ibid. p. 206. The 8th innovation or Change is in the rule of manners which rule must not be any more the word of Christ and the writings and examples of the holy Apoles wherein they followed Christ for that is counted too precise and puritanicall but our Prelates have prescribed a new rule of Christian manners to wit the example of