Canon upon what authority doe they goe Surely they lay all the load upon the King Why upon the King Doth the King commaund that Ministers shall read it in their Congregations No such thing The Booke Orders that it bee published in Churches but expresseth not that it bee read by the Ministers Indeed it saith Wee further wiâ—l that publication of this our Commaund bee made by order from the Bishops c. Now the publication of the Commaund differs from the reading of the Booke The commaundement may be published and yet not the Booke read Well but it pleaseth their Lordships so to extend their order Ministers must read it But they dare not doe it as being against their Consciences If not what then They must bee suspended and are By what Law or Canon That matters not their will is so But if they alledge the Kings authority as they doe where show they the King hath given them this authority to proceed so illegally and incanonically The Booke orders no such severe and wicked Censures to be inflicted upon any in that behalfe No nor yet gives the Bishops any expresse order or power at all to punish any Minister in this case And will no lesse Censure then serve the turne then suspension excommunication deprivation and the like but they are rebells against the King If so then there is a Law to punish them But how are they rebells They resist not they doe no violence to authority All disobedience is not rebellion For then Daniel and the three children had beene rebells for not obeying the Kings Commandement But the Ministers I say that refuse to read the Booke doe not therein directly disobey the King For first the Booke expresseth no such Commaundement that Ministers shall read the Booke as before Secondly no wife and honest man can ever imagine that the King should ever intend to commaund that which mainly tends to the publicke dishonour of God and his Word to the violation and annihilation of the holy commandement touching the Sabbath to the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England which in the Homily clearly fully grounds the sanctification of the Lords day which it calls our Christian Sabbath-day upon the fourth commaundement and conseqnently to the destruction of the peoples soules For this were against all those solemne royall Protestations of the King as where he sayth Neither shall we give way for the authorising of any thing whereby any innovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine c. But the reading of this Booke by the Ministers is to bring in and that not creepingly and by stealth but by the head and shoulders as it were by a flood gate set open a mighty innovation of the unity or Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which hath beene ever since the Reformation and so from the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory constantly universally and unanimously maintayned in the Church of England untill this late faction of Anti-Sabbatarians started up to cry downe all Sanctification all power and purity of Religion And indeed the innovation of the Doctrine of the Sabbath bring in with it an universall innovation of all Religion as experience is an eye-witnesse Therefore for certaine the King never gave authority to the republishing of this Booke in case it should any way tend to any innovation or violation of the unity of Doctrine professed and maintained in our Church Againe the profanation of the Sabbath or Lords-day which the Booke seemes to give allowance unto as in sundry sports there specified is directly against the very first Act of Parliament in the first of King Charles an auspicious beginning promising a religious and gracious Raigne where it is expressely sayd For as much as there is nothing more acceptable to God then the true and sincere service and worship of Him according to his holy will and that the holy keeping of the Lords day is a principal part of the true service of God and therefore all unlawfull exercises and pastimes are prohibited upon that day Now what are unlawfull exercises and pastimes prohibited on that day Namely not only those there specified but all other unlawfull pastimes as there it is sayd What are those By name all dancing leaping rebelling and such like in termes condemned by Imperiall Edicts Decrees of Councells writings of ancient Fathers of all learned Divines both Protestants and Papists in all ages And King Iames of famous memory in his Basilicon Doron to his Sonne hath these words Certaine dayes in the yeare would be appointed for delighting the people with publicke Spectacles of all honest games and exercises of armes as also for conveening of neighbours for intertaining friendship and heartlinesse by honest feasting and merrinesse as in making playes and lawfull games in May c. So that alwayes the Sabbaths be kept holy no unlawful pastimes be used By which words it is evident that all Sports on the Sabbaths or Lords dayes are condemned as unlawfull which yet are by King Iames allowed on other dayes Now will any say that our gracious Soveraigne the Peerelesse Sonne of so Peerelesse a Father doth herein disobey his Royall Fathers instruction as to allow May-games and the like as lawfull on the Sabbath which Hee expressely and by name forbids to bee used on that day Object But the Booke for Sports was first published in Print in K. Iames his name and therein May-games and other Sports are alowed on the Sabbath dayes Answ. It s too true But if wee consider the maner of putting forth of that booke at first we shall finde how light it is to hold waight or to preponderate that learned and judicious Booke honorably Stiled Basilicon Doron First it was procured compiled and published in time of his Majesties Progresse into Scotland when he was more then ordinarily merily disposed They that were the compilers of it for we must not thinke the Kings leasure served him to doe it for their officiousnesse Populo ut placerent God rewarded them the one not long after injoying his life the other surviving out-living both his favour place in Court Againe it was never read nor yet pressed upon any Minister to be read during King Iames his raigne which lasted six yeares after the publishing of the said Booke in Print Thirdly it was not ratified under the Kings broad Seale as publick royall Acts use to be to make them authenticall Fourthly this booke was not inserted in his royall works sent to Oxford as not sutable to be ranked among so many learned and pious workes Lastly it was never in his raigne used as a snare and engine to outt good Ministers out of their Ministry and living as it is now used by the Prelates Quest. But how came it to be revived republished K. Iames being dead and this book also having no place in his royall Workes to preserve the memory of it Answer By whose
it is said Rebels doe not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly profane and pollute the Sabbath day Serving Satan and by doing of his worke making it the Divels day instead of the Lords day And surely if this liberty of youth bee not all the sooner restrained the whole Land may rue it one day And therefore if the Prelates had any regard either to the honour of God and of his Word or to the setled peace of the Kingdome as they have but little as appeareth too palpably by their practises in disturbing and disordering of all they would have been so faire from procuring the republishing and from pressing and oppressing Ministers about the said booke as they would rather have become humble suiters to his Majesty to have set forth some severe Edict for the better Sanctification of the Lords day that so the people might be kept in better obedience both to God and to his Majestey Forasmuch also as the giving libertie of such sports whereby it is manifestly profained is without all example in any age of the world and their so pressing of it with that cursed and tyranicall tigor both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes such as are not so well acquainted with His Majesties either noble and Christian disposition or His many solemne Protestations to keepe Religion safe and sound I know not what strange Scruples on feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of His Majestie when indeed the whole burden of the blame is to be laid upon the Prelates as either the chiefe procures of these things or the not hindereâ— of them The last instance wheâ—â—in the Prelates doe indanger a division betweene the King and his good Subjects whom the Lord preserue in a perpetual bond of unity is their most impetuous and violent obtruding of new â—ites and Ceremonies which they haue begun through some whole Diocesse and exacting a new conformity in all Ministers there unto This is another snare wherewith they may catch more Ministers either to outt them of their Ministery and living or else to captivate them for ever as vassalls for whatsoever base uses their good Masters will put them unto And herein they haue made a faire progresse already as for example in two whole Counties Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space they haue made the fowlest havocke of good Ministers and their flocks now left desolate and exposed to the Wolues as sheepe without their sheepheard as our eyes have never seene For there are already Threescore Ministers in that one Diocesse suspended and betweene three and Fowrescore more have time given them now till Christ-tide by which time either they must bid their good Conscience farewell or else their precious Ministery and necessary meanes Neither I thinke can it be shewed that in all Queene Maries time there was so great havocke made in so short a time of the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole Land And now doe those Counties and Countries groane under this intolerable burthen remedilesse if God and the King doe not relieve them And our neigbours house being thus on fire doth it not concerne us all to looke to it For they say that this shall be a precedent for all England But upon what ground is all this What authority doe they shew for these outrages The King That is answered before by his solemne Protestations to the contrary But they plead the Act of Parliament for Vniformity before the Communion Booke wherein is reserved a power to the Queene with advise of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan to ordayne and publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Hereupon they ground all their Innovations But for this First obserue that this clause of the Act is limmited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her Successors of the Crowne they are still expressed Secondly admit it was intended to the Successors yet it is with that qualification as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edefying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Misteries and Sacraments Well To bring our new Rites to this Rule First doe they make to the Advancement of Gods glory What Superstitious Idolatrous worship of wooden Aultars What a complementall Crouch to Iesus when they Crucifie Christ What to bow before a Crucifix Againe for the edifying of his Church What by the Preaching and not praying in the Pulpit before and after his Sermon What by the expounding of the Catechisme What by reading a second Service at the Altar where the people cannot heare it And for due reverence to Christs Sacraments What by possessing the people with an opinion of a Popish reall presence What by offering Christ in sacrifice upon a Wooden Altar By a Priest of mans making What by drawing the people to a new adoration by bringing them up close to the new Altar But they will say all makes for them And who shall bee judges but themselves who are the Church Therefore Lastly I answer for all that no humane rationall creature can bring the least shadow of colour that this Act did giue the Queene or her succssors any power to set up Popery againe This is out of all question But now our New Reformers are tooth and nayle for setting up Popery againe witnesse their hoysing up Altars in most places as also of Images Crucifixes with adorations putting downe of the meanes of knowledge as Preaching and bringing in of Ignorance also preaching for sundry points of Popery as Auricular Confession praying to Saints yea printing of such Sermons prayer for the dead and many other All which while they set up with a high hand and so as if the King gaue them authority so to doe of which all his Solemne protestations I say doe sufficiently resolve us the contrary they must needs mightily shake and unsettle the peace of the State by these their dangerous and desperate attempts and sill the peoples minds with musings what the issue will bee and how the King will digest these things at the Prealates hands which tend to the most dangerous dividing and renting of the Kingdome asunder The next instance is their arrogating of their Episcopall title and office of Superiority from Christ and his Apostles This they did lately in the High Commission Court and that upon occasion of Doctor Bastwicks cause then before them Where hee was accused and severely censured for writting a Booke intituled Flagellum Potificis Episcoporum Latialium in which booke bee whipped that usurped authority of the Roman Hierarchy through whose sides by reason of their
their owne lives and the dictates of their writings the Summe whereof is to make a mixed Religion conversation of Christians which is partly holy in an external forme of godlinesse without the power thereof partly in admitting allowing approving applauding countenancing and dispensing by Episcopall authority of a heathenish kinde of life and that especially in most Sacred times as the Lords day which though dedicated wholly to the worship and service of God yet the rule of the Sanctification hereof which is the 4th Commaundement and the example of Christs and his Apostles these novellers do altogether reject as abolished instead thereof advance their new Traditions which is to allow one part of the Day for God and the rest to mans carnall Lusts Sin the world the Devil as our Homily Saith So as the due observation and Sanctification of the Lords day being a platforme and patterne of a Christian Conversation a Christian being that in his whole life in a proportion which he is on the Lords day and this platforme being defaced and broken by our Anti-Sabbatarians it followeth that together with their impions crying downe of the 4th CoÌ„maundement and so accordingly the due Sanctification of the Lords day intire without mixture of heathenish Sports and Pastimes they deface and destroy the very face beauty power of all religion so do set up a new Forme of it never allowed of as by a Law in the world before And herein doe our Apostates out strip the very Pontificians themselves who did never yet mak a Law nor take upon them to allow any other rule of Christian life than the Scriptures although they have with our innovators denyed the Scripture to be the onely and absolute rule of faith independent upon any humain power For even Bellarmine exclameth against and disclameth that dissolute profanation of Sacred dayes in practise among the Papists in their vaine Sports and Pastimes for which cause the very Turkes do scorne saith he the Christian Religion Saying O what a God have the Christians what a famous Law giver who â—ither commandeth or permitteth these things Now if the Turkes should upbrayd us in England and cast vs in the teeth with our Lord Lawgiver Iesus Christ as if he eyther commaunded or allowed Sports Pastimes upon the Lords day our answere must be that our great Lawgiver Christ doth not any way tolerate much lesse commaund any Sports or Pastimes on his Sacred day as wherewith both God is dishonoured his day profaned but out Lord-Prelates are they who doe usurpe unto themselves a Lawlesse power to dispense with that part of the Lords-day as they please wherein men may runne riot and keep their Bacchanals and their Floralia without controwle such as Christ and his word forbids to be done on any day Much more might be spoken of the Late Changes but this suffice for the present But what speakewe of Changes Our Changes doe plead that they bring in no changes but revive those things which ancient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at Gloria Patri and at the reading of the Gospell bowing at the nameing of Iesus and to the High Altar remooving the Communion Table to stand Altarwise at the East-end of the Chancell praying with the face towards the East where the Altar standeth placing of Images in Churches erecting of Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Martins instead of Preaching and the like To this we answere that we in this Land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the Law of God of the King Although I once heard a Papall Canon was alledged in opposition to a Parliamentary Statute in K. Edw. 6. his raigne alledged by the adverse Advocates it passed for Currant none gain-saying it But as for those Rites Ceremonies to be used in our Church they are by an Act of Parliament prefixed to the CommunioÌ„ booke restrained to those only which are expressed in the same booke and if any by private authority shall presume to introduce into practise any other besides these he is to suffer imprisonment for a time and if he persist perpetuall imprisonment and losse of all his spirituall promotions during his life But besides all this these men have one speciall Sancturary to fly unto that is their Cathedrall Churches where they may lay hold upon the hornes of their Altars These be their old high places not remooved These as they are commonly used bee the ancient dennes of these old Foxes to which they flie being this pursued of whom the Scripture saith Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoile the Vines These bee those nests and nurceries of Superstition and Idolatry wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her usum Sarum in life to this very day And now these are be come impregnable bulworkers to patronize our Re-builders of Babell in all their innovations Innovations Say they Wee bring in no innovations no new rites but what hath beene in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent Places even the Mother Churches of the Land Now all that wee goe about is to reduce inferiot churches to an unity and conformity to their Mother Churches So as thus bringing all to unity wee shall take off that reproach which the adversaries cast upon us in this kinde and which wee shall then retort upon themselues for their diffentions betweene their Regulars and Seculars Thus doe our Master-builders plead and so by their cunning insinnuations under a pretence of Piety and peace of unity and uniformity preaching peace peace when nothing but warre is in their heart hand as Psal. 55. 21. and 59. 7. doe so farre prevaile that before wee bee aware they will by this meanes pretrily reduce us to a perfect peace and unity with old Mother Rome againe For these Mother Churches to which all Danghter Churches must conforme are they not the naturall daughters of Rome Doe they not from top to toe exactly resemble her Her pompous Service her Altars Palls Copes Crucifixes Images superstitious gestures and Postures all instruments of musicke as at the dedication of the King of Babylons Image Long Babylonish Service so bellowed and warbled out as the heareers are but little the wiser Are not these high Places also the receptacles and nurceries of a number of idle bellies to say no worse Doe not the fat Prebends So cramme their Residenciaries that the while their starveling Flocks in the countrey doe famish for want of spirituall Food But as Erasnius said of Luther how his fault was that he meddled with the Popes Miter and the Monkes bellies But this I note by the way to show how all those that are maintained by Cathedralls are ingaged to helpe forward those Innovations that are now on foot because they make much for the supporting of their Papall Pompe But let us a
thy fâ—are will I worship towards thy holy Temple So Psal. 2. 11. Serve the Lord in feare Which I say is such a feare as hath in it faith love affiance and other graces 5. Lastly wee are bound to performe all obedience to God in a holy feare by vertue of the Word of God as the rule and of the Covenant God hath made with us in his Word and we with him Gods Law is so the rule of our feare and obedience to God as it is death to feare or obey him otherwise then hee hath commaunded us in his Law Els it is rebellion not obedience will worship not service to God And this wee are bound to by mutuall Couenant 1. God binds himselfe to be our God and King by Covenant in his word as Exod. 20. Secondly wee bind our selves by a reciprocall Covenant as in our Baptisme to bee his Servants and to serve him as hee hath commaunded in his Law Vse of this point is first for reproofe and conviction of the whole Romane Synagogue as being altogether devoyd of the true feare of God and consequently is no true Church of Christ â—…one of the Kings Daughter none of his spowse Why For all her feare towards God is taught by the precept of men her service of God is a Masse of Idolatry and Superstition Will-worship of mans invention and therefore though they draw neere to God with their lipps yet their hearts are farre from him And so in vaine they worship him nay they worship the Devill and not God as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. 10. 20. For all Idolatry as that of the breaden god in the Masse is the worship of the Devill They will say they worship God in the Host So did the Pagans plead for themselues that they worshipped God in their Idols Yet saith the Apostle I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devills and not to God And God disclaimes all worship of Him that is not according to His Word and He abhorres such presumptuous worshippers as those that doe not feare him So as secondly heere are justly reprooved those men as wanting the true feare of God who in these dayes shew themselves Antichrists Factors both in teaching practising and pressing new Formes of worship Secundum usum Sarum and setting them up againe in Churches as Altar-worship Iesu-worship Image-worship Crosse-worship and the like A plaine evidence that these men what ever they most hypocritically pretend and would bee accounted as a new kind of Saints dropped downe out of the cloudes as most holy and devoute persons have no true feare of God in them Yea their hearts are far from God Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an Image and Crucifix towards the sound and sillables of Iesus then towards the Lord Christ. For did they truely feare Christ they would not as they doe so desperately and furiously persecute him in his faithfull Ministers and members and make havocke and turne upside-down the very glory of Christ's Kingdome in the Ministery of His Word and power of Religion and purity of his worship which they altogether trample under and defile with their Wolvish feete Therefore forasmuch as they set up and teach a false feare and worship of God in the Churches I saith the Lord will proceede to doe a marvellous worke among the people even a marvellous worke and a wonder for the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And v. 16. Surely your turning of things upside-downe shall bee esteemed at the Potters clay But of these more in their proper place A 2. 〈◊〉 â—s for instruction to teach us wherein the true filiall feare of God consisteth namely in the true worship and service of God internall and externall according to the exact forme and prescript of his Word Not to swerve one haires bredth from it Againe that true feare of God stnads in an universall obedience to all and every of his Commandements not onely those of the first Table but those of the second nor onely those of the second but those of the first So as Thirdly this may condemne two sorts of grosse Hypocrites 1. Those that seeme exact and punctuall in observing the Commandements of the second Table they are no Adulterers no Drunkards no inordinate livers they are not notorious offenders and what then Hereupon they applaud themselves and would be esteemed of the World good Christians and with the Pharisee thanke God that in these things they are not as other men Extortioners Vnjust c. They live peacably with their Neighbors they pay every man his owne and the like But what 's all this without the feare of God Where is their Piety and Love to God expressed in the duties of the first Table Are they willingly and grosly ignorant of the knowledge of God Doe they hate contemne neglect his words Doe they despise his faithfull Ministers Doe they speake evill of the Way and Profession of Godlinesse Doe they profane the Lords Sabbaths Yea doe they comply with Idolaters in their Altar-worship and Iesu-worship and the like and yet would they bee accounted good honest men Can they be honest and good men that are enemies of God and of the Profession yea and name of holinesse and of the power of Religion and of the true Saints and servants of Iesus Christ Can they be good Christians which are enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose end is damnation whose God is their belly and which minde earthly things On the other side there is another sort of Hypocrites who place all their Religion in the outward performances and duties of the first Table professe a great deale of Religion would seeme very devout but yet are like the Pharisees who under a colour of long prayers devoure Widowes houses Of these Hypocrites there are two sorts 1. Of them that are all for outward formality but their hypocrisie bewrayeth it selfe two wayes First in that though they seeme very devoute in frequenting the Church yet it is in a false way mingling mens devices of will-worship with Gods Ordinance in dividing the Lords day betweene God and the Devill allowing to God onely two houres of the day for his publike worship and the rest of the day to the lusts of men Secondly in that they place all the service of God in reading of long Prayers and thereby exclude Preaching as unnecessary And yet they make no bones of oppressing Gods people and the Kings good Subjects with burthens intollerable to bee borne The second sort is of them that will seeme Religious and to give God his due but make no conscience of giving to all men their due they will make no scruple of Lying of over-reaching in bargaining of living in some secret raigning lust of oppressing of defrawding and the like These are so much the more to be abhorred because by their meanes Religion and the name of
God is evill spoken of And such have beene and will bee in all ages Yet woe be to them that hereupon take occasion to cast an aspersion of reproach upon religion and all the sincere Professors thereof because of a few hypocriticall and false hearted Christians so called who have a forme of godlinesse but deny the power thereof There was among the twelve Apostles one Iudas a traytor a thiefe a notorious hypocrite were therefore all the rest so God forbid And yet is not this one of those subtile practises which Iesuites and their complices the Popes Factors here in England doe familiarly use taking all occasions by laying forth the examples of some faylings or perhaps some grosse sinne in one that is a Professor to brand the whole profession of Religion In so much as they take the paines and spend their time and witts in setting forth pamphlets yea some larger volumes as of that poore distracted man Ap-Evans who as they write should kill his Mother and Brother and all forsooth because they kneeled in receiving the holy Communion Now it is most evident to every sober and rationall man that this poore wretch was out of his witts else he had never done such an outragious act And yet what a hubbub is made hereof how must the Presse sweat with printing this tale of a mad man how must the Court and City and Countrey ring of it And to what end Namely to beware of these Puritans to hate all Puritans for Evans his sake Alas poore Puritans must they all fare the worse for one mad man Yet this is the charity of those that are profest enemies to true sanctity and sincerity And it matters not whither it be true or false it must be believed for truth though this of Evans was in another written copy offered to be licensed but rejected shewed to be quite contrary to the first relation And thus the accuser of the brethren wants not his agents to make advantage of the falls or faylings of some Professors not only to the branding of their persons but even of Religion it selfe and the whole profession of it As when some possessed and overcome with that malevolent humour of blacke melancholy through Satans prevailing over the weaker part doe make themselves away oh how is this exagitated and occasion taken thereby to exclame against Religion or some Puritan Preachers that by the doctrine of Predestination drive men to dispaire and therefore some strict order must bee taken for the suppressing of this Doctrine as dangerous and desperate which notwithstanding the 17. article of our Religion commends Saying The godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feele in themselves the working of the spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirme their faith of eternall salvation to be inioyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So the article which I note by the way But the conclusion is the men of the world will have Gods children or Professors of Religion either as the pure and perfect Angels without the least spot of sinfull infirmity or if they be at any time overtaken with humane frailty then they must be taken for blacke divels and their religion to come from hell But all good Christians and wise men of upright judgement will beware of this rocke not to bee Scandalized and fall fowle upon the Religion of Christ either for the hypocrisie of some false Professors or for the infirmity of those that bee sincere and upright in their way but are attended with faylings and humane frailty Concerning which the Apostle gives this good lesson Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault yee which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse Considering thine owne selfe least thou also be tempted And againe we that are strong ought to beare the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves So much of this point That it is the duty of every true Christian thus to feare the Lord as hath beene sayd Againe as there is in Scripture a feare of obedience which feare comprehends the whole service of God and is the whole of a Christian man So there is also a feare of adherence whereby the soule cleaveth inseparably to God This feare is layd downe in Ier. 32. 40. v. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me This is the feare of adherency And this further sheweth how this feare is not without faith hope and charity as without which it cannot adhere unto God Now from this feare of adherency we learne That the true feare of God in his children preserves them from falling from God and his worship This is confirmed by the forenamed place in Ieremy And this is notably set forth Psal. 1â—2 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord c. Surely he shall not be mooved for euer v. 6. hee shall not be afraid of evill tidings for his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord v. 7. This is a speciall property and character of the true child of God So 1. Iohn 2 19. speaking of Apostates They went out from us for they were not of us for had they beene of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Where wee note these particulars 1. All they that are of us to wit true believers doe no doubt continue in the Communion of Saints 2. They that for a time seeme to be of the number of Gods children and afterwards fall away it is a certaine signe that they were not indeed what they once seemed to be So 2. Iohn 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God hee that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Sonne And it is worth the nothing by the way what is added in the very next words If there come any unto you and bring you not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed for hee that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evill deeds So that this is the doctrine of Christ namely the doctrine of adherency and perseverance of the Saints in grace as here in the grace of feare This doctrine might further be illustrated and confirmed by many reasons as 1. from the covenant of God I will make an everlasting Covenant with you that I will not turne away from you to doe you good Ier. 32. 40. This is that foundation of God that stands sure and
property peculiar to him So Psal. 25. 12. What man is HEE that feareth the Lord Find me such a man give wee such a man Why what of him Hee is in speciall favour with God Him shall he teach in the way which hee shall choose Yea God will acquaint him with his Secrets as accounting him his most intimate friend For v. 14. The Secret of the Lord is with them that feare him And these are so rare like to rich and rare jewells that Solomon himselfe could find but one man of a thousand But especially doth the eminency of that man that truely feares God appeare when other feares stand in opposition against it as feare of cruell men losse of liberty livelyhood and the like As Moses his rod was not so famous for being though miraculously turned into a Serpent for even the Magitians of Egypt by their inchantments could in show turne their rods also into Serpents but herein it was admirable in the eyes of all the Beholders that thus being a Serpent it devoured all the Magitians Serpents And such is true feare in Gods Child when it stands in emulation or opposition with other feares though they seeme never so terrible as the Magitians Serpents yet it overcomes and devoures them all Such was Daniels feare devouring the terror of the hungry Lyons which could not devoure him such the feare of those 3. Children who feared neither the Kings bigge and furious threats nor his seven fold heated fiery fornace Such was Nehemiahs who being threatened mooved to fly answered should such a man as I fly So as indeed the true feare of God is true fortitude and magnanimity For this who will not admire Elias when hee retorted K. Ahabs words upon him I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house c And Elisha who being brought before the King of Israell said to him Were it not that I regard the presence of Iehoshaphat the King of Iuda I would not looke toward thee nor see thee Such a spirit of holy feare was in the Martyrs and Confessors Maris Bishop of Chalcedon being blind and cōming before the Emperour Iulian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith And when Iulian objected to him his blindnesse and asked him upbraidingly If his God the Galilean meaning Christ could not cure his blindnesse he replied But I thanke my God that I am blind that I may not behold such a wretched and Impious Apostata as thou art It were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardise of our times But yet this Parrhesia this liberty and freedome of speech in such cases is not without the feare of God but is a branch and fruit that springeth of it And this feare showeth it selfe in sundry manners according either to the present occasion or the naturall disposition of a child of God being seasoned and sanctified and guided by Gods Spirit Sometimes it showes it selfe in meeknesse and mildnesse sometimes in a greater measure of zeale and roughnesse and yet all from the selfesame spirit of godly feare Of this latter kind are those former examples Of the former that of a poore English Bishop whom when Theodor the Grecian Archbishop of Canterbury without any just cause deprived of his Bishopricke saying Although wee can charge you with nothing yet that wee will we will Sic volo sic jubeo the poore Bishop humbly replyed Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and I from you to Christ. And how many godly Ministers in these our dayes being most unjustly and illegally yea and in canonically also and that in a most barbarous and furious insolent manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and so deprived of all livelyhood and meanes to maintaine themselves their wives and children and withall rayled upon and reviled and most outragiously used as if they were dogs and not men have cause and occasion so to answer those that thus use them Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and we from you to Christ. But what care these miscreants for Christ who thus persecute him in his members and Ministers Yet this is a comfort to all such Ministers as stand for Christ that as they appeale and commit their cause to him whose cause it is so hee will certainly vindicate both his righteous cause his faithfull servants in due time When Stephen was stoned he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God as ready to revenge his cause which not long after he did upon all the obstinate and rebellious Iewes in Ierusalem Vse 1. Now for use of this point it first gives occasion to Christians in these dayes of lukewarmenesse and apostacy to make proofe of their graces and especially of the feare of the Lord in them whither it be such as devoures and swalloweth downe all worldly feares Secondly sith this feare is so excellent and rare wee should be the more earnest in getting it as he in the Gospell was to buy the goodly pearle He gave all he had for it And surely it was richly worth it For as Christ saith What shall it profit a man if he shall win the whole world and loose his owne soule Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule A man may by his discretion or Christian Prudence as they call it so carry the matter as to secure himselfe from feare of the world for he can give way and conforme himselfe quietly to all humaine impositions and can commaund his conscience to beare with them notwithstanding it doe secretly whisper in his eare that this ought not to be done as being an intollerable dishonor to Christ a disgrace to his Ministry a forfeiture of his Christian liberty a Scandall to Religion and a base betraying of the cause of Christ and of the salvation of his owne soule But yet he wants not reasons for it Thereby he shall preserve his Ministry and his credit too in not being accounted refractory hee shall thus purchase his peace and retaine his meanes for him and his without which he and they must begge and the like Alas poore soule what 's thy Ministry worth when thou hast abased it and inthralled it to be impious inventions and impositions of men or when thou injoyest it with the losse of its vigor power dignity authority or when thou retainest it together with thy outward liberty livelyhood peace credit with the misjudging world and loosest thy Christ thy peace of conscience thy credit with all good and wise men yea heaven and all what will all thy discretion and Christian prudence advantage thee O let us rather learne to bee fooles for Christs cause let us feare the Lord and not men not the world It 's Christs counsell to all his that are his friends saying I say unto you my friends Bee not affraid of them that kill the body and after that can doe no more but I will forewarne
hath to Pauls and that the daughter may be somewhat like the mother Ezech. 16. 44. As is the mother so is the daughter though the table doe not stand end-wayes an as Altat but with the end to the wall Well yet a rayle must be made about it to infinuate into the peoples mindes an opinion of some extraordinary sanctity in the Table more then in other places of the Church as the Pew Pulpit or Font. Yet all this may seeme tolerable and without danger Well the like is done in other places But this growes further on in many places adorations practised to this new Altar-God yea pleaded for in pulpits and in printed books yea that in sundry Colledges in the Universities the seminaries and seed plotts of learning and Religion so farre pressed as the exemplary practises of those that bee the Heads or Superiors there may any way draw and induce the inferior Students to their imitation either through feare of displeasure or for hope of preferrement Which how perillous it is tending to corrupt the whole land with superstition and Idolatry every one may see Well now what 's the next Thus farre wee now see Popery like a thiefe stollen in upon us step by step when wee as men asleep in our beds suspected no danger And perhaps the next degree will bee the placing of their God-Almighty in the Host or Pix visibly and conspicuously upon the Altar and a Masse with the piping of the Organs chanted unto it as the Israelites did about their Calfe Exodus 32. Therefore doth it not concerne Gods Ministers and people too even from the highest to the lowest as one man to stand out against this creeping gangrene that having begun but in the least member never ceaseth creping till at length it hath prevailed over the principall parts so brought death to the whole body and this such a death as kills the soule and bringe us all backe againe under the most intollerable yoake and bondage of Satan and Antichrist from the which the Lord had so mightily and mercifully delivered us Thus much of the feare of the Lord. Come we now to the next point which is the feare of the King In which we are to observe 1. The kind of this feare 2. The order of it next to the feare of the Lord 3. The Connexion of it with the feare of the Lord being so combined that the one cannot stand without the other First then for the kind of this feare I told you in the opening of the text that it is a Civill feare differing from the feare of the Lord which is a religious feare and so a part of his worship and consequently incommunicable to any creature Yet so as I told you there is a similitude betweene this Civill feare to the King and that religious feare of the Lord. As 1. as the true feare of the Lord comprehends in it all duties and services due from us to God so the feare of the King contaynes all duties due from Subject to their King 2. as the feare of the Lord is a filiall feare so the feare of the King 3. As the feare of the Lord is a feare of adherency so the feare of the King Of these in order and of the points of instruction thence arising Every true Subject and every true servant of God ought to feare his King that is performe all duties and offices whatsoever due from a subject to his Prince For the opening hereof wee must know that the feare of the King containes all duties of a Christian Subject to his King For that which is sayd here Feare the Lord and feare the King is expressed by Peter thus Feare God Honour the King As in the fifth Commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother Here as by Father and Mother all Superiors that stand in a bond of relation to inferiours as Parents Masters Magistrates Ministers and above all the chiefe Magistrate the Prince is meant so under this word honor all kindes of duty and service due from all inferiours to their Superiours respectively are comprized This is expressed also by Peter Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whither it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doâ—rs and for the prayse of them that doe well This is yet more fully and amply set downe by the Apostle Paul Rom. 13. Where this doctrine is not only prooved but pressed and confirmed by many strong reasons First the doctrine is propounded in the duty injoyned vers 1. Let every soule bee subject to the higher powers The Precept is universall to every creature not Pope nor Cardinall nor Prelate excepted All living under the Kings Dominion must bee subject to the King And the reasons are there rendred 1. Because those higher Powers are of God So as hee that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Secondly the penalty upon rebells They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rebells shall not escape eyther the just hand of man or of God whose ordinance is resisted in resisting of the power Thirdly from the excellent office that the Powers doe beare which is to execute justice and judgement betweene Subjects For Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evill And as he rewards the evill with punishment so the good with prayse For wilt thou not be affrayd of the power Doe that which is good and thou shalt have prayse of the same For hee is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou doe that which is evill bee affrayd for hee beareth not the sword in vaine for hee is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Fourthly there is a necessity of this subjection vers 3. Wherefore ye must bee subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake So as if feare of wrath be not a bond strong enough yet conscience is which will dispense with no man For Gods ordinance bindes the Conscience Fifthly from the end of paying tribute vers 6. For for this cause pay yee tribute also For what cause That is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for the execution of justice in punishing the evill in praysing and countenancing the good And hereupon the Apostle reinforceth his exhortation as an use of the point Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Againe to the former reasons expressed by the Apostle wee may adde one more answerable and correspondent to that fore-alledged of our obedience unto God for as I said in all things the feare of the King holds a resemblance with the feare of the Lord as being the most exact and perfect patterne of it even as God is the best patterne for a King and
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
the Scriptures as if it ordained any thing to the contrary but to the writing or tradition of the Scripture which among the Corinthians was in the vulgar tongue Here al that heare may hisse But what saith he to the 28. Article which condemneth Transubstantiation Surely his Reconciliation heere is at a stand For hee is forced to Say that Negare Transubstantiationem divinâ— c. To deny divine Transubstantiation in this fearefull Mystery is against the verity of Faith as it is defined in the Councels of Lateran Trent It is well then Herein in the point of Transubstantiation no Reconciliation betweene us and Trent Then what hope hath he to reduce us to Rome or to re-erect his Masse in England yes he hath one hope What is that By calling here a nationall Synod Of whom Not of those whom he calls Calvinists and Puritans who are of the Orthodox party For he sayth Deponentes secundum pristinam conversationeÌ„ verterem homineÌ„ nempe Calvinisticum qui corrumpitur c. Putting off as touching the former conversation the old man to wit the Calvinisticall which is corrupted And in his Paraphrase on the 37. Article utinam denuo c. Now I would to God that by publick authority the matter for the dignity of it Puritanis non â—ntermixtis the Puritans not intermedling or intermixt might out of an affection of revnion be throughly scanned For I know the Puritans abhorre this For they fly all communion with us and abominate us as the body of Satan and Antichrist as Cassander said of some Christians This doth Franciscus apply to the Puritans whom he would have vtterly excluded from a Synod assembled to revnite Rome and England And can ye blame him Did not the Trent-Conventicle in truth though they pretended the contrarie exclude Protestants from them And did not the Protestants being invited as warily refuse to come and that by the example of Iohn Hâ—ss when they might answere the Popes counterfet invitatioÌ„ as the Fox did the sick-Lyon refusing to visit him in his deÌ„ne Quia me vestigia terrent c. No no quoth Renâ—ld for full well I see All foot-sleps towards you none towards me Now who are those Puritans he excepts against as not to be admitted to the Synod Perhaps he may find some few Puritan tantum non in Episcopatu Bishops that are for doctrine Orthodox So also many Doctors and Divines that are Orthodox these must have noe place in his Synod And why Good reason For how els will he reconcile Romes night and our English twilight together in one League if the meridian light come betwene Or how shall Romes cold and livelesse religion have fellowship with ouâ— Lukewarme Neuters and moderate men if true Christian zeale come betwene and make an interruption Away therefore with Puritans and Calvinists out of their Synod Who then Onely peaceable and indifferent men as Ely Chichester and all other well affected to Rome and above all the Arch-Prelates as to whose definitive sentence all other Divines must vaile Bonnet captivate their judgements and therein rest themselues For these or one of them with his mighty traine is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres of heauen But this by the way for Franciscus And to this agreeth the common cry among the Factionists and Factors for Rome that wee and they differ not in Fundamentalls Yea a great Prelate in the High Commission Court said openly at the Censure of Dr. Bastwick That wee and the Church of Rome differ not in FundameÌ„talibus but onely circa Fundamentalia Though the distinction bee absurd it being all one according to the Apostle to erre in fide circa fidem For circa fidem concerning or about faith men may make ship-wracke Yet this hee spake in defence of a little Pamphlet of one Chowne which he dedicated to his Lordship wherein hee affirmeth That the Church of Rome and wee differ not in Fundamentalibus and that the Church is one over the World whereby he would conclude our Church to be one the same with that of Rome And to this purpose is that of Dr. White in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Lords Grace of Canterbury before his discourse of the Sabbath in these words But from this which is delivered I shall intreaâ—e your Grace and all other impartiall and intelligent Readers to consider the vncharitable construction of Romish adversaries who from the rising up of some Schismaticall Spirits amongst us conclude that the maine body of our Church is Schismaticall And pag. 5. ibid. Now Schismaticall heere must needs be in relation to the Church of Rome as from which Romish adversaries object wee are Schismaticall which Dr. White cleareth and calls it an vncharitable construction of Romish adversaries So as heere is a change of our very Church and a bringing of us back to a reconciliation union with the Church of Rome as from which wee have made no such Schisme as they uncharitably charge us withall And thus will come in an universall change in all our Doctrines As in the Commencement at Cambridge not long agoe was openly maintained justification by Workes And Shelfords booke will proove justification by Charity And that the Pope is not Antichrist contrary to the resolved Doctrines of our Church in our Homilies and elsewhere As Homily against wilfull rebellion part 6. The Pope is the Babilonicall Beast of Rome c. Also the Second part of the Sermon for Whit-sunday The Pope the Devill and all the Kingdome of Antichrist And in a Prayer for private Families in the Communion-Booke by publike authority Confound Satan and Antichrist c. And Shelfords Second Treatise is to beate downe true Preaching and Pulpits for hee saith hee cannot finde a Pulpit in all the Scripture How Did the old Priest never read the 8. of Nehemiah appointed to bee read for the 27. of May wherein hee might find both a Pulpit vers 4. and Preaching vers 8 I omit many more passages in that Authour of the like nature all contrary to the expresse Doctrines of our Church according to the Scriptures And yet this Booke was licenced by the Vicechancellor of Cambridge that then was Dr. Beale and published at the very Commencement whereat my selfe then was that so it might poysonall England Adde wee hereunto another Booke intitled the Female glory By Anthony Stafford printed by authority 1635. Wherein hee mightily deifies the Virgin Mary calling her The grand white immaculate Abbesse of the Snowie Nunneries of those votaries to whom hee speakes before whom hee would have them to kneele presenting the All-saving babe in her armes with due veneration Loe heere a change of our God into a Goddesse And there hee commends the Sacred Arethmitick in praying on their beades And pag. 153. hee commends Candlem as day for the Lights burning and Masse-singing taken from the Heathen guise and converted into Christian. And That which was performed