Clergy in the Church of of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England Page 167 2. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish-Minister but by his Easter-Offering Page 171 3. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended Page 174 The History of Episcopacy PART I. CHAP. I. The Christian Church first founded by our Lord and Saviour in an imparity of Ministers 1. THE several Offices of Christ our Saviour in the Administration of his Church Page 187 2. The aggregating of Disciples to him Page 188 3. The calling of the Apostles out of them and why twelve in number ibid. 4. Of the Name and Office of an Apostle Page 189 5. What things were specially required unto the making of an Apostle Page 190 6. All the Apostles equal in Authority amongst themselves ibid. 7. The calling and approinting of the 70 Disciples Page 191 8. A reconciliation of some different Opinions about the number Page 192 9. The twelve Apostles superiour to the Seventy by our Saviours Ordinance ibid. 10. What kind of superiority it was that Christ interdicted his Apostles Page 193 11. The several powers faculties and preheminences given to the Apostles by our Saviour Christ Page 194 12. That the Apostles were Bishops averred by the ancient Fathers ibid. 13. And by the text of holy Scripture Page 195 CHAP. II. The foundation of the Church of Hierusalem under the Government of Saint James the Apostle and Simeon one of the Disciples the two first Bishops of the same 1. Matthias chosen in the place of Judas Page 196 2. The coming of the Holy Ghost and on whom it fell Page 197 3. The greatest measure of the Spirit fell on the Apostles and therewithal the greatest power ibid. 4. The several Ministrations in the Church then given and that in ranking of the same the Bishops are intended in the name of Pastors Page 198 5. The sudden growth of the Church of Hierusalem and making Saint James the first Bishop there ibid. 6. The former point deduced from Scripture Page 199 7. And proved by the general consent of Fathers ib. 8. Of the Episcopal Chair or throne of James and his Successors in Hierusalem Page 200 9. Simeon elected by the Apostles to succeed Saint James Page 201 10. The meaning of the word Episcopus and from whence borrowed by the Church ibid. 11. The institution of the Presbyters Page 202 12. What interest they had in the common business of the Church whilst St. James was Bishop ib. 13. The Council of Jerusalem and what the Presbyters had to do therein Page 203 14. The institution of the Seven and to what Office they were called ibid. 15. The names of Ecclesiastical Functions promiscuously used in holy Scripture Page 204 CHAP. III. The Churches planted by Saint Peter and his Disciples originally founded in Episcopacy 1. The founding of the Church of Antioch and that Saint Peter was the first Bishop there Page 205 2. A reconciliation of the difference about his next Successors in the same Page 206 3. A List of Bishops planted by him in the Churches of the Circumcision Page 207 4. Proofs thereof from St. Peters general Epistle to the Jews dispersed according to the exposition of the Ancient Writers ibid. 5. And from Saint Pauls unto the Hebrews Page 208 6. Saint Pauls Praepositus no other than a Bishop in the Opinion of the Fathers ibid. 7. Saint Peter the first Bishop of the Church of Rome Page 209 8. The difference about his next Successors there reconciled also ibid. 9. An Answer unto such Objections as have been made against Saint Peter's being Bishop there Page 210 10. Saint Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria and of his Successors Page 221 11. Notes on the observations of Epiphanius and Saint Hierom about the Church of Alexandria Page 212 12. An observation of Saint Ambrose applyed unto the former business ibid. 13. Of Churches founded by Saint Peter and his Disciples in Italy France Spain Germany and the Isle of Britain and of the Bishops in them instituted Page 213 CHAP. IV. The Bishoping of Timothy and Titus and other of Saint Pauls Disciples 1. The Conversion of Saint Paul and his ordaining to the place of an Apostle Page 214 2. The Presbyters created by Saint Paul Acts 14. of what sort they were Page 215 3. Whether the Presbyters or Presbytery did lay on hands with Paul in any of his Ordinations Page 216 4. The people had no voice in the Election of those Presbyters by Saint Paul ordained Page 217 5. Bishops not founded by Saint Paul at first in the particular Churches by him planted and upon what reasons ibid. 6. The short time that the Churches of Saint Pauls Plantation continued without Bishops over them Page 218 7. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus by Saint Paul according to the general consent of Fathers Page 219 8. The time when Timothy was made Bishop according to the holy Scripture Page 220 9. Titus made Bishop of Cretans and the truth verified herein by the antient Writers Page 221 10. An Answer unto some Objections against the subscription of the Epistle unto Titus ibid. 11. The Bishoping of Dionysius the Areopagite Aristarchus Gaius Epaphroditus Epaphras and Archippus Page 222 12. As also of Silas Sosthenes Sosipater Crescens and Aristobulus Page 223 13. The Office of a Bishop not incompetible with that of an Evangelist ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given unto Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops by the Word of God 1. The authority committed unto Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only Page 224 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the exposition of the Fathers Page 225 3. Bishops alone both might and did ordain without their Presbyters Page 226 4. That Presbyters might not ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Colluthus and Ischyras ibid. 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop Page 227 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein Page 228 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas objected and declared ibid. 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peculiar to the Bishop Page 229 9. To whom the Ministration of the Sacraments also doth in chief belong Page 230 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains therein ibid. 11. Bishops to silence and reprove such Presbyters as preach other Doctrines Page 231 12. As also to correct and reject the Heretick ibid. 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters in point of life and conversation doth
Page 477 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers ibid. 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland Page 478 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. ibid. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. Page 479 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. Page 480 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII Page 481 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry ibid. CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred Page 483 2. The Lords day and the other Holy-days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 484 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer-book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment Page 485 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Reign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day Page 486 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath ibid. 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath Page 487 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented Page 489 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof Page 490 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland Page 491 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his Declaration about Lawful sports on the Lords day Page 493 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred ibid. 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy-days have stood in Scotland since the Reformation of Religion in that Kingdom Page 494 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James Page 496 14. An exortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History Page 497 Historia Quinqu-Articularis Or a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the Blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof Page 505 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome Page 506 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills of men ibid. 4. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine Page 507 5. The Error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continued by the rigid Lutherans ibid. 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lie hidden under the Decree and the incompatibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment ibid. 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the Will abused by Pelagius and his followers Page 508 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it ibid. 9. The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spiritual matters ibid. 10. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ Page 509 CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestination and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation Page 510 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way ibid. 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other Page 511 4. The Historians judgment interposed between the Parties ibid. 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences ibid. 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following Page 512 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees ibid. 8. The judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace ibid. 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin ibid. 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it Page 513 CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings Page 314 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof ibid. 3. The several judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega ibid. 4. The different judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedom of the Will were lost in Adam ibid. 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God Page 515 6. The opinion of Frier Catanca in the point of irresistibility ibid. 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected ibid. 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties Page 516 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the five Controverted Points ibid. 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches Page 517 CHAP. IV. The judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in Five Points betwixt the
Divinity as well as undertake the profession of it but afterward persuaded thereto by a Right Reverend and Learned Person Mr. Buckner he seriously applied himself to this Study and holy Profession receiving the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distinct times in S. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon these words of our Blessed Saviour to S. Peter Luk. 22.32 And when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he informs us with his own Pen Theol. Vit. praef to the Reader When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King James which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversie and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators His Geography was in less than three years Reprinted And in this second Edition was enlarged and again presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him graciously received with most affectionate commendations of the Author But it met with another kind of entertainment from King James for the Book being put into the hands of that Learned Monarch by Dr. Young then Dean of Winton who design'd nothing but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn thereby the King at first exprest his great value he had for the Author but unfortunatly falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more famous Kingdom King James became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper to call the Book in The Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties displeasure and advised him to repair to Court and make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound But he rather chose to abide in Oxford and acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business afterward sent an Apology and Explanation of his meaning That the burden under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers which was after corrected and amended In the year 1625. he took a Journey with Mr. Levet of Lincolns-Inn into France where he visited more Cities and made more observations in five weeks time for he stayed no longer than many others have done in so many years The particulars of this Journey he reduced into writing and some years after gratifi'd his Countrey with the publication of it together with some other excellent remarks made by him when he went in attendance upon the Earl of Danby to the Isle of Gernsey and Jersey Anno Dom. 1628. Had King James lived to have perused that Book Mr. Heylyn had needed no other Advocate to have restored him to his Princely favour and protection For never was the vanity and levity of the Monsieurs and deformity and sluttishness of their Madams more ingeniously exposed both in Verse and Prose than in the account that he gives of his Voyage into France On April the 18th 1627. he opposed in the Divinity-School and on Tuesday the 24th following he answered pro formâ upon these two Questions viz. An Ecclesia unquam fuerit invisibilis An Ecclesia possit errare Both which he determined in the Negative Upon occasional discourse with him he was pleased once to shew me his Supposition which I read over in his House at Lacies-Court in Abingdon but I had not then either the leisure or good luck to transcribe a Copy of it which would have been worth my pains and more worthy of the Press to the great satisfaction of others For my part I can truly say that I never read any thing with more delight for good Latin Reason and History which that Exercise was full of but since both it and many other choice Papers in his Study through the carelesness of those to whose custody they are committed I suppose are utterly lost and gone ad blattarum tinearum Epulas In stating of the first Question that caused the heats of that day he fell upon a quite different way from that of Dr. Prideaux the Professor in his Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and contrary to the common opinion of other Divines who generally prove the visibility of the Protestant Church from the poor persecuted Christians dispersed in several places as the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Wicklifists in England and the Hussiets in Bohemia which manner of proceeding being disliked by Mr. Heylyn as that which utterly discontinued the Succession of the Hierarchy which the Church of England claims from the very Apostles and their immediate Successors He rather chose to find out a continual visible Church in Asia Ethiopia Greece Italy yea and Rome it self as also in all the Western Provinces then subject to the power of the Roman Bishop when he was the chief Patriarch which Mr. Heylyn from his great knowledge and more than ordinary abilities in History strenuously asserted and proved to which the Professor could make but weak replies as I have heard from knowing persons who were present at that Disputation because he was drawn out of his ordinany byass from Scholastical Disputation to forein Histories in which encounter Mr. Heylyn was the invincible Ajax Nec quisquam Ajacem superare possit nisi Ajax But chiefly the quarrel did arise for two words in Mr. Heylyns Hypothesis after he had proved the Church of England received no Succession of Doctrine or Government from the Berengarians Wicklifists c. who held many Heterodoxies in Religion as different from the established Doctrine of our Church as any point which was maintained at that time in the Church of Rome that the Writers of that Church Bellarmin himself hath stood up as cordially in maintenance of some fundamental points of the Christian Faith against Anti-Trinitarians Anabaptists and other Heretiques of these last Ages as any our Divines and other Learned men of the Protestant Churches which point Mr. Heylyn closed up with these words Vtinam quod ipse de Calvino sic semper errasset nobilissimus Cardinalis at which words the Reverend Doctor was so impatient in his Chair that he fell upon the Respondent in most vile terms calling him Papicola Bellarminianus Pontificius c. to draw the hatred of the University upon him according to the saying Fortiter calumniare aliquid adhaerebit grievously complaining to the younger sort of his Auditors unto whom he made his chiefest addresses of the unprofitable pains he took among them if Bellarmin whom he had laboured to confute for so many years should be honoured with the Title of Nobilissimus Notwithstanding the Respondent acquitted himself bravely before the Company ascribing no more honour to Bellarmin
or exhorting but taking to themselves the liberty of their own expression for the phrase and stile according to the purpose and effect of the said Injunction And it is worth our noting too that presently upon the end of this exhortation or bidding of the Prayers used by Dr. Parker there followeth in the book these words Hic factae sunt tacitae preces By all which we may perceive most evidently that it was then the peoples practice and is now our duty immediately upon the bidding of the Prayers or on the Preachers moving of the people to joyn with them in Prayer as the Canon hath it to recollect the heads recommended to them and tacitly to represent them to the Lord in their devotions or otherwise to comprechend them in the Pater-noster with which the Preacher by the Canon is to close up all And now being come to the times of King Edward the sixth we will next look on Bishop Latimer the fourth of these five Prelates whom before I spake of who living in King Henry and King Edwards times and in their times using that Form of bidding Prayers which is prescribed both in the Canon and Injunctions shews plainly that the antient practice in this kind was every way conform to the present Canon and the old Injunctions And first to keep our selves to King Edwards Reign we have eight passages in his Sermons preached in that Kings time whereby we may perceive what the usage was six of them laid down in brief and two more at large the two last being as a comment on the former six of the six brief the first occurs in his 2d p. 33. Sermon before King Edward thus Hitherto goeth the Text That I may declare this the better to the edifying of your Souls and the glory of God I shall desire you to pray c. So in his third before the King p. 42. March the 22. Before I enter further into this matter I shall desire you to pray c. And in the fourth March 29. That I may have grace so to open the remnant of this Parable that it may be to the glory of God and edifying of your souls I shall desire you to pray in the which prayer c. And in the 5th Sermon before the King on the 6th of April p. 51. having entred on his matter he thus invites them to their Prayers And that I may have grace c. So in the sixth April the 13th This is the story and that I may declare this Text so as it may be to the honour of God and the edifying of your souls and mine both I shall desire you to help me with your prayers in the which c. The last is in a Sermon before that King p. 108. Preached at the Court in Westm An. 1550. where he doth it thus Here therefore I shall desire you to pray c. These instances compared with the other two make the matter plain whereof the first is in the seventh before King Edward April 19. 1549. Thus This day we have in memory Christs bitter passion and death the remedy of our Sin Therefore I intend to treat of a piece of the story of his passion I am not able to treat of all that I may do this the better and that it may be to the honour of God and the edification of your Souls and mine both I shall desire you to pray c. In this prayer I shall desire you to remember the Souls departed with laud and praise to Almighty God that he did vouchsafe to assist them at the hour of their death I shall desire you to pray c. And in the which c. What mean these caetera's That we shall see most manifestly in his Sermon Preached at Stamford p. 88. Octob. 9. 1550. which shews indeed most fully that the Form of bidding Prayers then used was every way conform to the Injunction of King Edward VI. and very near the same which was prescribed after by the Queens Injunction For having as before proposed his matter he thus bids the Prayers And that I may at this time so declare them as may be for Gods glory your edifying and my discharge I pray you to help me with your prayers in the which prayer c. For the Vniversal Church of Christ through the whole world c. for the preservation of our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth sole Supreme Head under God and Christ of the Churches of England and Ireland c. Secondly for the Kings most honourable Council Thirdly I commend unto you the Souls departed this life in the Faith of Christ that ye remember to give laud praise and thanks to Almighty God for his great goodness and mercy shewed unto them in that great need and conflict against the Devil and Sin and that gave them in the hour of death faith in his Sons Death and Passion whereby they conquer and overcome and get the victory Give thanks I say for this adding prayers and supplications for your selves that it may please God to give you like faith and grace to trust only in the death of his dear Son as he gave unto them For as they be gone so must we and the Devil will be as ready to tempt us as he was them and our sins will light as heavy upon us as theirs did upon them and we were as weak and unable to resist as were they Pray therefore that we may have Grace to die in the same faith as they did and at the latter day to be raised with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and be partakers with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven for this and all other graces let us say the Lords prayer Now unto Bishop Latimer we will joyn another of the same time and as high a calling which is Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester of whom whatever may be said in other respects in this it cannot be objected but that he followed the Form and Order then prescribed for in a Sermon Preached before King Edward VI. Anno 1550. being the Fourth of that Kings Reign before the naming of his Text for ought appears he thus bids the Prayer Most honourable Audience I purpose by the grace of God to declare some part of the Gospel that is accustomably used to be read in the Church at this day and that because without the special grace of God neither I can speak any thing to your edifying nor ye receive the same accordingly I shall desire you all that we may joyntly pray all together for the assistance of his grace In which prayer I commend to Almighty God your most excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord King of England France and Ireland and of the Church of England and Ireland next and immediately under God here on earth Supream Head Q. Katharine Dowager my L. Maries grace and my L. Elizabeths grace your Majesties most dear Sisters my L. Protectors grace with all others of your most honourable
had any thing to do in the Land at all For as I am informed by Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures lib. 1. cap. 9. Sect. 73. fol. 58. It appeareth by the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings and especially of King Alfred that the first King of this Realm had all the lands of England in Demesne and les grands manours royalties they reserved to themselves and with the remnant they for the defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath So he the professed Champion of the Common Laws And at this time it was when all the Lands in England were the Kings Demesne that Ethelwolph the second Monarch of the Saxon race his father Egbert being the first which brought the former Heptarchie under one sole Prince conferred the Tithes of all the Kingdom upon the Church by his royal Charter Of which thus Ingulph Abbot of Crowland an old Saxon Writer a Anno 855. Rex Ethelwulfus omnium Praelatorum Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis Provinciis totius Angliae praeerant gratuito Consensu tunc primo cum decimis terrarum bonorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Anno 855. which was the 18. of his Reign King Ethelwulph with the consent of his Prelates and Princes which ruled in England under him in their several Provinces did first enrich the Church of England with the Tithes of all his Lands and Goods by his Charter Royal. Ethelward an old Saxon and of the blood Royal doth express it thus b Decimavit de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine Principatus sui sic constituit Ethelward He gave the Tithe of his possessions for the Lords own portion and ordered it to be so in all the parts of the Kingdom under his command Florence of Worcester in these words c Aethelwulphus Rex decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali servitio tributo liberavit in sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi pro Redemptione Animae suae Praedecessorum suorum uni trino Deo immolavit Florent Wigorn. King Ethelwolfe for the Redemption of his own soul and the souls of his Predecessors discharged the tenth part of his Realm of all Tributes and Services due unto the Crown and by his perpetual Charter signed with the sign of the Cross offered it to the three-one God Roger of Hovenden hath it in the self same words and Huntingdon more briefly thus d Totam terram suam propter amorem Dei Redemptionem ad opes Ecclesiarum decimavit Henr. Huntingd. That for the love of God and the redemption of his soul he tithed his whole Dominions to the use of the Church But what need search be made into so many Authors when the Charter it self is extant in old Abbot Ingulph and in Matthew of Westminster and in the Leiger Book of the Abbey of Abingdon which Charter being offered by the King on the Altar at Winchester in the presence of his Barons was received by the Bishops and by them sent to be published in all the Churches of their several Diocesses a clause being added by the King saith the Book of Abingdon That whosoever added to the gift e Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos siquis vero mutare vel minuere praesumpserit noscat se ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit God would please to prosper and increase his days but that if any did presume to diminish the same he should be called to an account for it at Christs Judgment-seat unless he made amends by full satisfaction In which as in some other of the former passages as there is somewhat savouring of the errour of those darker times touching the merit of good works yet the authorities are strong and most convincing for confirmation of the point which we have in hand Now that the King charged all the Lands of the Kingdom with the payment of Tithes and not that only which he held in his own possession is evident both by that which was said before from Sir Edward Coke and by the several passages of the former Authors For if all the Lands in the Kingdom were the Kings Demesnes and the King conferred the Tithes of all his Lands on the Church of God it must follow thereupon that all the Lands of the Realm were charged with Tithes before they were distributed amongst the Barons for defence of the Kingdom And that the Lands of the whole Realm were thus charged with Tithes as well that which was parted in the hands of Tenants as that which was in the occupancy of the King himself the words before alledged do most plainly evidence where it is said that he gave the tenth of all his Lands as Ingulph the Tithe of his whole Land as Henry of Huntingdon the tenth part of his whole Kingdom as in Florence of Worcester the tenth part of the Lands throughout the Kingdom in the Charter it self And finally in the Book of Abingdon the Charter is ushered in with this following Title viz. Quomodo Ethelwolfus Rex dedit decimam partem regni sui Ecclesiis that is to say how Ethelwolf gave unto the Church the tenth part of his Kingdom This makes it evident that the King did not only give de facto the Tithe or the tenth part of his whole Realm to the use of the Clergy but that he had a right and a power to do it as being not only the Lord Paramount but the Proprietary of the whole Lands the Lords and great Men of the Realm not having then a property or estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole land was And though it seems by Ingulph their consents were asked and that they gave a free consent to the Kings Donation yet was this but a matter of Form and not simply necessary their approbation and consent being only asked either because the King was not willing to do any thing to the disherison of his Crown without the liking and consent of the Peers or that having their consent and approbation they should be barred from pleading any Tenant-right and be obliged to stand in maintenance and defence thereof against all pretenders And this appears yet further by a Law of King Athelstanes made in the year 930 about which time not only the Prelates of the Church as formerly but the great Men of the Realm began to be setled in Estates of permanency and to claim a property in those Lands which they held of the Crown and claiming so begun it seems to make bold to subduct their Tithes For remedy whereof the King made this Law commanding all his Ministers throughout the Kingdom that in the first place they should pay the Tithes
bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended which is the third and last of my Propositions and is I hope sufficiently and fully proved or at the least made probable if not demonstrative I have said nothing in this Tract of the right of Tithes or on what motive or considerations of preceding claim the Kings of England did confer them upon the Clergy Contenting my self at this time with the matter of fact as namely that they were setled on the Church by the Kings of this Realm before they granted out Estates to the Lords and Gentry and that the Land thus charged with the payment of Tithes they passed from one man to another Ante Concilium Lateranense bene toterant Laici decimas sibi in feudum retinere vel aliis quibuscunque Ecclesiis dare Lindw in Provinc cap. de decimis until it came unto the hands of the present Occupant which cuts off all that claim or title which the mispersuaded subject can pretend unto them I know it cannot be denied but that notwithstanding the said Grants and Charters of those ancient Kings many of the great men of the Realm and some also of the inferiour Gentry possessed of Manours before the Lateran Council did either keep their Tithes in their own hands or make Infeodations of them to Religious houses or give them to such Priests or Parishes as they best affected But after the decree of Pope Innocent the third which you may find at large in Sir Edw. Cokes Comment upon Magna Charta and other old Statutes of this Realm in the Chapter of Tithes had been confirmed in that Council Anno 1215 and incorporated into the Canons and conclusions of it the payment of them to the Minister or Parochial Priest came to be setled universally over all the Kingdom save that the Templars the Hospitalers and Monks of Cisteaux held their ancient priviledges of being excepted for those Lands which they held in Occupancy from this general rule Nor have I said any thing of Impropriations partly because I am persuaded that the Lords and Gentry who have their Votes or Friends in Parliament will look well enough to the saving of their own stakes but principally because coming from the same original grant from the King to the Subjects and by them setled upon Monasteries and Religious houses they fell in the ruine of those houses to the Crown again as of due right the Tithes should do if they be taken from the Clergy and by the Crown were alienated in due form of Law and came by many mean conveyances to the present Owners Onely I shall desire that the Lords and Commons would take a special care of the Churches Patrimony for fear lest that the prevalency of this evil humour which gapes so greedily after the Clergies Tithes do in the end devour theirs also And it concerns them also in relation to their right of Patronage which if this plot go on will be utterly lost and Churches will no longer be presentative at the choice of the Patron but either made Elective at the will of the People or else Collated by the Trustees of the several Counties succeeding as they do in the power of Bishops as now Committee-men dispose of the preferments of the Sequestred Clergy If either by their power and wisdom or by the Arguments and Reasons which are here produced the peoples eyes are opened to discern the truth and that they be deceived no longer by this popular errour it is all I aim at who have no other ends herein but only to undeceive them in this point of Tithes which hath been represented to them as a publick grievance conducing manifestly to the diminution of theâ—â— gain and profit If notwithstanding all this care for their information they will run headlong in the ways of spoil and sacrilege and shut their eyes against the light of the truth shine it never so brightly let them take heed they fall not into that â—â—â—â—tuation which the Scripture denounceth that seeing they shall see but shall not perceive and that the stealing of this Coal from the Altars of God burn not down their Houses And so I shut up this discourse with the words of our Saviour saying that no man tasteth new wine but presently he saith that the old is better ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England VINDICATED PART II. Containing the Defence thereof V. In retaining the Episcopal Government AND VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons Framed and Exhibited in an HISTORY of EPISCOPACY By PETER HEYLYN D. D. HEB. XIII 17. Obedite Praepositis vestris subjacete eis Ipsi enim pervigilant quasi rationem pro Animabus vestris reddituri ut cum gaudio hoc faciant non gementes CYPRIAN Epist LXV Apostolos id est EPISCOPOS Praepositos Dominus elegit Diaconos autem post Ascensum Domini in coelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesiae Ministros LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Quarrels and Disputes about Episcopacy had reposed a while when they broke out more dangerously than in former times In order whereunto the people must be put in fear of some dark design to bring in Popery the Bishops generally defamed as the principal Agents the regular and establisht Clergy traduc'd as the subservient Instruments do drive on the Plot Their actings in Gods publick Worship charged for Innovations their persons made the Common subjects of reproach and calumny The News from Ipswich Bastwicks Let any and the Seditious Pamphlets from Friday-street with other the like products of those times what were they but Tentamenta Bellorum Civilium preparatory Velitations to that grand encounter in which they were resolved to assault the Calling The Calling could not be attempted with more hopes of Victory than when it had received such wide wounds through the sides of those persons who principally were concerned in the safety or defence thereof The way thus opened and the Scots entring with an Army to make good the pass the Smectymnuans come upon the Stage addressing their discourse in Answer to a Book called An Humble Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled Anno 1640. amongst whom they were sure beforehand of a powerful party to advance the Cause which made them far more confident of their good suocess than otherwise they had reason to expect in a time less favourable And in this Confidence they quarrelled not the Rocket or the Officers Fees the Oath ex officio the Vote in Parliament or the exorbitant jurisdiction of the High-Commission at which old Martin and his followers clamoured in Queen Elizabeths time Non gaudet tenui sanguine tanta sitis Their stomach was too great to be satisfied with so small a sacrifice as the excrescences and adjuncts of Episcopacy which seemed most offensive to their Predecessors
incumbent on the Pastoral Office doth many times inflict such sentences for the publick safety of the Flock I might be infinite in this search but that I have spoke somewhat to the point already and am moreover saved all further labour in it by our learned Andrews affirming positively and expresly Resp ad Epis Petri Motinaei Apud veteres Pastorum nomen vix adhiberi nisi cum de Episcopis loquuntur the name of Pastor is scarce used among the Ancients but when they have occasion to speak of Bishops And Binius in his Notes upon the Councils excepts against a fragment of the Synod of Rhemes said to be held Anno 630. as not of that antiquity which is there pretended and that he doth upon this reason only Eo quod titulum â—astoris tribuat Parocho because the stile of Pastor is there given to the common Presbyter Tom. 3. part 2. p. 978. contrary to the usage of those elder times And certainly it is no wonder that it should be so that he who is Episcopus Pastor animarum the Bishop and Pastor of our Souls as Saint Peter calls him 1 Petri 2 2â— should confer on them both his Titles since he hath substituted and appointed them to be his Vicars here on Earth The Pope may challenge if he will this Title to himself alone but since antiquity hath given it to all Bishops equally to every one as much as to him of Rome Saint Ambrose hath resolved it generally Ambros in 1. ad cor cap. 11. Episcopus personam habet Christi the Bishop saith he susteineth the person of Christ and therefore every Woman ought to behave her self before the Bishop as before her Judg giving this reason therewithal Quia Vicarius domini est because he is the Vicar of the Lord. The Commentaries on Saint Matthew ascribed to Chrysostom doth affirm the same Opus imperfect in Matth. hom 17. where shewing that such men as persecuted or molested those of the holy Sacerdotal Order were either Gentiles or at least sordid and sensless Christians he gives his reason for the same Quia nec intelligunt nec considerant sacerdotes Christi Vicarios esse because they neither understand nor do consider that the Bishops whom he there meaneth by Sacerdotes are the Vicars of Christ Saint Austin to the same effect Lib. qu. vet N. test qu. 127. as before Saint Ambrose The Bishop is to be more pure and pious than another man for he seemeth to sustein the person of God Est enim Vicarius ejus for he is his Vicar The Fathers in the Council of Compeigne Anno 833. thus Scire omnes convenit Concil Com. it behoveth all men to understand what is the nature of the Government or Ministry of Bishops Quos constat esse Christi Vicarios who as it evidently appears are the Vicars of Christ Nay even Blesensis Petr. Blesens Serm. 47. though he lived and writ when the Papacy was at the height makes this description of a Bishop Ordinatur Christi Vicarius Ecclesiae Praelatus c. He is ordained a Vicar of Christ a Prelate of the Church a Father of men and a Pastor of Souls So far the Ancients have attested to the present business and yet there is one Testimony more which as it is more ancient so it is as pertinent as any hitherto produced viz. The Declaration of the Fathers in the Council of Carthage Anno 258. or rather the attestation of the Fathers to that which was affirmed by Clarus of Muscala one of the Bishops there assembled who being to give his Vote upon the business then in agitation first thus laid his grounds Conc. Carth. sub Cypr. Manifesta est sententia Domini nostri c. The judgment of our Lord and Saviour JESVS Christ is plain and evident bequeathing that authority unto his Apostles which had been given him by his Father to which Apostles we are now the successours eadem potestate Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes governing the Church by that authority which they had before In which we see a clear and manifest derivation of this power this Vicarship from God the Father unto Christ from Christ to his Apostles and by them also to the Bishops and their successours in the Church for ever Not that each Bishop in particular hath some particular Apostle whom he doth succeed I conceive not so but that the Bishops generally do succeed the Apostles and are in general Vicars unto Christ our Saviour as to the general Government of the Church of God Apostolis datos esse Episcopos successores non siagulis Apostolis sed in solidum universis De rep Eccles l. 2. c. 5. n. 3. as the unfortunate Arch-Bish of Spalato hath right well observed conform unto the Tenet of the Fathers in this very point The sum of these three Sections then in brief is this Christ by the mission which he had from his heavenly Father devolves all power on his Apostles for teaching governing and directing his little flock and they being sensible of their own mortality ordain by like authority a line of Bishops to succeed them ad consummationem seculi by whom that care might be perpetuated In whom as there is plenitudo potestatis a fulness of authority for that end and purpose Amb. in Ep 4. the Bishop as is said by Ambrose being made up of all the Orders in the Church nam in Episcopo omnes ordines sunt as his words there are so he both doth and may assume such and so many associates assistants and subservient Ministers in partem oneris for the discharge of this great trusi as were assumed by the Apostles or ordained by them rather for the publick service of the Church Thus have we seen the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour dispersed in very little time over all parts and quarters of the World of so much of it at the least whereof the Acts and Monuments have been recorded to posterity and therewith a transmission also of that form of Government which was begotten by it and grew up with it Nor is there any doubt at all but that into what coasts soever the Lords Apostles preached the one they also in the same did plant the other The late discoveries of those parts and Countreys which were unknown unto our Predecessours make this clear enough there being no place nor Region how remote soever where there was extant any thing of the Christian Faith in which there were not found as apparent footsteps of the Episcopal form of Government A pregnant evidence that as the Lords Apostles were by the Holy Ghost instructed in that Faith which they were to preach so by the same eternal Spirit they were directed to that form of Government which they were to plant They could not else have fallen so unanimously on the self same project nor had God blessed it with so flourishing and fair increase a growth so suddain and miraculous had
King c. hath ordained and established that no Cordwainer or Cobler within the City of London or within three miles of any part of the said City c. do upon any Sunday in the year or on the Feasts of the Ascension or Nativity of our Lord or on the Feasi of Corpus Christi sell or command to be sold any Shwe Huseans i. e. Bootes or Galoches or upon the Sunday or any other of the said Feasts shall set or put upon the feet or legs of any person any Shwes Huseans or Galoches upon pain of forfeiture and loss of O shillings as often as any person shall do contrary to this Ordinance Where note that this restraint was only for the City of London and the parts about it which shews that it was counted lawful in all places clse And therefore there must be some particular motive why this restraint was laid on those of London only either their insolencies or some notorious neglect of Gods publick service the Gentle craft had otherwise been ungently handled that they of all the Tradesmen in that populous City should be so restrained Note also that in this very Act there is a reservation or indulgence for the Inhabitants of S. Martins le Grand to do as formerly they were accustomed the said Act or Statute not withstanding 14 15 of H. 8. cap. 9. Which very clause did after move King Henry VIII to repeal this Statute that so all others of that trade might be free as they or as the very words of the Statute are That to the Honour of Almighty God all the Kings Subjects might be hereafter at their liberty as well as the Inbabitants of S. Martins le Grand Now where it seemeth by the Proeme of the Statute 17. of this King Edward IV. c. 3. that many in that time did spend their Holy-days in dice Quoits Tennis bowling and the like unlawful Games forbidden as is there affirmed by the Laws of the Realm which said unlawful Games are thereupon prohibited under a certain penalty in the Statute mentioned It is most manisest that the Prohibition was not in reference to the time Sundays or any other Holy-days but only to the Games themselves which were unlawful at all times For publick actions in the times of these two last Princes the greatest were the battels of Towton and Barnet one on Palm-Sunday and the other on Easter-day the greatest Fields that ever were fought in England And in this State things stood till King Henry VIII Now for the doctrine and the practice of these times before King Henry the VIII and the Reformation we cannot take a better view than in John de Burgo Chancellor of the University of Cambridg I pitta Oâ—â—i Pl. 12. 11. D. about the latter end of King Henry the sixth First Doctrinally he determincth as before was said that the Lords day was instituted by the authority of the Church and that it is no otherwise to be observed than by the Canons of the Church we are bound to keep it Then for the name of Sabbath that the Lords day quaelibet dies statuta ad divinam culturam Id. lb. E. and every day appointed for Gods publick service may be so entituled because in them we are to rest from all servile works such as are Arts Mechanick Husbandry Law-days and going to Markets with other things quae ab Ecclesia determinantur I l ply 5.9 cap. 7. H. which are determined by the Church Lastly that on those days insistendum est orationibus c. We must be busied at our prayers the publick service of the Church in Hymns and in spiritual Songs and in hearing Sermons Next practically for such things as were then allowed of he doth sort them thus First generally Non tamen prohibentur his diebus faccre quae pertinent ad providentiam necessariorum c. We are not those days restrained from doing such things as conduce to the providing of necessaries either for our selves or for our Neighbours as in preserving of our persons or of our substance or in avoiding any loss that might happen to us Id. ib. J. Particularly next si jacentibus c. In case our Corn and Hay in the Fields abroad be in danger of a Tempest we may bring it in yea though it be upon the Sabbath Butchers and Victualers if they make ready on the Holy days what they must sell the morrow after either in open Market or in their shops in case they cannot dress it on the day before or being dressed they cannot keep it Id. ib. L. non peccant mortaliter they fall not by so doing into mortal sin vectores mercium c. Carriers of Wares or Men or Victuals unto distant places in case they cannot do it upon other days without inconvenience are to be excused Barbers and Chirurgions Smiths or Farriers if on the Holy days they do the works of their daily labour Id. ib. M. especially propter necessitatem eorum quibus serviunt for the necessities of those who want their help are excusable also but not in case they do it chiefly for desire of gain Id. ib. N. Messengers Posts and Travellers that travel if some special occasion be on the Holy days whether they do it for reward or not non audeo condemnare are not at all to be condemned As neither Millers which do grind either with Water-mils or Wind-mils and so can do their Work without much labour but they may keep the custom of the place in the which they live not being otherwise commanded by their Ordinaries Id. ib. O. secus si traciu jumentorum multuram faciunt but if it be an Horse-mill then the case is altered So buying and selling on those days in some present exigent as the providing necessary Victuals for the day was not held unlawful dum tamen exercentes ea non subtrabunt se divinis officiis in case they did not thereby keep themselves from Gods publick Service Lastly Id. ib. Q. for Recreations for dancing on those days he determins thus that they which dance on any of the Holy days either to stir themselves or others unto carnal lusts commit mortal sin and so they do saith he in case they do it any day But it is otherwise if they dance upon honest causes and no naughty purpose and that the persons be not by Law restrained Choreas ducentes maxime in diebus sestis causa incitanda se vel alios ad peccatum mortale peccant mortaliter similiter si in profestis diebus hoc fiat secus si hoc fiat ex causa honesta intentione non corrupta à persona cui talia non sunt probibita With which determination I conclude this Chapter CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords Day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
prescribed by the Church of England shewed plainly their dislike of those Sabbath Doctrines which had been lately set on foot to the dithonour of the Church and diminution of her authority in destinating other days to the service of God than their new Saint-Sabbath Yet did not this the Churches care either so satisfie their desires or restrain the follies of those men who had embraced the New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forwards to advance that business which was now made a part of the common cause no book being published by that party either by way of Catechism or Comment on the Ten Commandments or moral Piety or systematical Divinity of all which these last times have produced too many wherein the Sabbath was not pressed upon the consciences of Gods people with as much violence as formerly with authority upon the Jews And hereunto they were encouraged a great deal the rather because in Ireland what time his Majesties Commissioners were employed about the setling of that Church Anno 1615. there passed an Article which much confirmed them in their Courses and hath been often since alledged to justifie both them and their proceedings Art 56. The Article is this The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both private and publick What moved his Majesties Commissioners to this strict austcrity that I cannot say but sure I am that till that time the Lords day never had attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith though of some mens fancies Nor was it like to be of long continuance it was so violently followed the whole Book being now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of England confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Anno 1634. Nor was this all the fruit neither of such dangerous Doctrines that the Lords day was grown into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath but some that built on their foundations and ploughed with no other than their Heifers endeavoured to bring back again the Jewish Sabbath as that which is expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment and abrogate the Lords day for altogether as having no foundation in it nor warrant by it Of these one Thraske declared himself for such in King James his time and therewithal took up another Jewish Doctrine about Meats and Drinks as in the time of our dread Soveraign now being Theophilus Braborne grounding himself on the so much applauded Doctrine of the morality of the Sabbath maintained that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed and wrote a large Book in defence thereof which came into the World 1632. For which their Jewish doctrines the first received his censure in the Star-Chamber and what became of him I know not the other had his doom in the High-Commission and hath since altered his opinion being misguided only by the principles of some noted men to which he thought he might have trusted Of these I have here spoken together because the ground of their opinions so far as it concerned the Sabbath were the very same they only make the conclusions which of necessity must follow from the former premisses just as the Brownists did befoe when they abominated on the Communion of the Church of England on the Puritan principles But to proceed This of it self had been sufficient to bring all to ruin but this was not all Not only Judaism did begin but Popery took great occasion of increase by the preciseness of some Magistrates and Ministers in several places of this Kingdom in bindring people from their Recreations on the Sunday the Papists in this Realm being thereby persuaded that no honest Mirth or Recreation was tolerable in our Religion Which being noted by King James in his progress through Lancashire King James's Declarat it pleased his Majesty to set out his Declaration May 24. Anno 1618. the Court being then at Greenwich to this effect that for his good peoples lawful Recreations his pleasure was that after the end of Divine Service they should not be disturbed letted or discouraged from any lawful Recreations such as Dancing either Men or Women Archery for Men Leaping Vaulting or any other such harmless Recreations nor from having of May-games Whitsun-Ales or Morrice-dances and setting up of May-poles or other sports therewith used so as the same be had in due and cenvenient time without impediment or let of Divine Service and that Women should have leave to carry Rushes to the Church for the decoring of it atcording to their old custom withal prohibiting all unlawful Games to be used on the Sundays only as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited Bowling A Declaration which occasioned much noise and clamour and many scandals spread abroad as if these Counsels had been put into that Princes head by some great Prelates which were then of most power about him But in that point they might have satisfied themselves that this was no Court-doctrine no New-divinity which that learned Prince had been taught in England He had declared himself before when he was King of the Scots only to the self-same purpose as may appear in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. This was the first Blow in effect which had been given in all his time to the new Lords day Sabbath then so much applauded For howsoever as I said those who had entertained these Sabbatarian Principles spared neither care nor pains to advance the business by being instant in season and out of season by publick Writings private Preachings and clandestine insinuations or whatsoever other means might tend to the promotion of this Catholick Cause yet find we none that did oppose it in a publick way though there were many that disliked it only one Mr. Loe of the Church of Exeter declared himself in his Effigiatio veri Sabbatismi Anno 1606. to be of different judgment from them and did lay down indeed the truest and most justifiable Doctrine of the Sabbath of any Writer in that time But being written in the Latin Tongue it came not to the peoples hands many of those which understood it never meaning to let the people know the Contents thereof And whereas in the year 1603 at the Commencement held in Cambridg this Thesis or Proposition Dies Dominicus nititur Verbo Dei was publickly maintained by a Doctor there and by the then Vice-Chancellour so determined neither the following Doctors there or any in the other University that I can hear of did ever put up any Antithesis in opposition thereunto At last some four years after his Majesties Declaration before remembred Anno 1622. Doctor Prideaux his Majesties Professour for the University of Oxon did in the publick Act declare his judgment in this point de Sabbato
Christ came to be a Lamb without spot who by the Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world Than which there can be nothing more conducible to the point in hand And to this purpose also when Christ our Saviour was pleased to Authorize his Holy Apostles to preach the good Tidings of Salvations he gave them both a Command and a Commission To go unto all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 So that there was no part of the World nor any Creature in the same that is to say no rational Creature which seems to be excluded from a Possibility of obtaining Salvation by the Preaching of the Gospel to them if with a faith unfeigned they believe the same which the Church further teacheth us in this following Prayer appointed to be used in the Ordering of such as are called to the Office of the holy Priesthood viz. Almighty God and Heavenly Father which of thine Infinite Love and Goodness toward us hast given to us thy only and most Dear Beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and Author of Everlasting Life who after he had made perfect our Redemption by his Death and was ascended into Heaven sent forth abroad into the world his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors and Pastors by whose labour and Ministry he gathered together a great Flock in all the parts of the World to set forth the Eternal Praise of his Holy Name For these so great Benefits of thy Eternal Goodness and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call thy Servant here present to the same Office and Ministry of Salvation of Mankind we render unto thee most hearty thanks and we worship and praise thee and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call upon thy Name that we may shew our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits and that we may daily increase and go forward in the knowledg and faith of thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit So that as well by these thy Ministers as by them to whom they shall be appointed Ministers thy Holy Name may be always glorified and thy Blessed Kingdom enlarged through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Vnity of the same Holy Spirit world without end Amen Which Form in Ordering and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons I note this only by the way being drawn up by those which had the making of the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth of the said King was afterwards also ratified by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth and ever since hath had its place amongst the publick Monuments and Records of the Church of England To these I shall only add one single testimony out of the Writings of each of the three godly Martyrs before remembred the point being so clearly stated by some of our Divines commonly called Calvinists though not by the Outlandish also that any longer insisting on it may be thought unnecessary First then Bishop Cranmer tells us in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner of Winchester aforementioned That our Saviour Christ according to the will of his Eternal Father when the time thereof was fully accomplished taking our Nature upon him came into this World from the high Throne of his Father to declare unto miserable Sinners the Goodness c. To shew that the time of Grace and Mercy was come to give light to them that were in darkness and in the shadow of death and to preach and give Pardon and full Remission of sin to all his Elected And to perform the same he made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the sins of the whole World More briefly Bishop Latimer thus The Evangelist saith When Jesus was born c. Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. What is Jesus Jesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankind born into the World This Title and Name To save appertaineth properly and principally unto him for he saved us else had we been lost for ever Bishop Hooper in more words to the same effect That as the sins of Adam Pref. to the ten Commandments without Priviledg or Exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this Promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams Posterity as to Adam as it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the World Next for the point of Vniversal Vocation and the extent of the Promises touching life Eternal besides what was observed before from the Publick Liturgy we find some Testimonies and Authorities also in the Book of Homilies In one whereof it is declared That God received the learned and unlearned and casteth away none Hom. of Holy Scrip. p. 5. but is indifferent unto all And in another place more largely that the imperfection or natural sickness taken in Adam excludeth not that person from the promise of God in Christ except we transgress the limits and bounds of this Original sin by our own folly and malice If we have Christ then have we with him Hom. against fear of death p. 62. and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our hearts wish or desire as Victory over death sin hell c. The truth hereof is more clearly evidenced in the Writings of the godly Martyrs so often mentioned as first of Bishop Latimer who discourseth thus We learn saith he by this sentence that multi sunt vocati that many are called c. that the preaching of the Gospel is universal that it appertaineth to all mankind Serm. Septure that it is written in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum through the whole world their sound is heard Now seeing that the Gospel is universal it appeareth that he would have all mankind be saved that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all mankind saved his salvation is sufficient to save all mankind Thus also in another place That the promises of Christ our Saviour are general they appertain to all mankind He made a general Proclamation saying Qui credit in me 1 Serm Lincol habet vitam aeternam Whosoever believeth me hath eternal life And not long after in the same Sermon That we must consider wisely what he saith with his own mouth Venite and me omnes Hook pres to Commo c. Mark here he saith mark here he saith Come all ye wherefore should any body despair or shut out himself from the promises of Christ which be general and appertain to the whole
being thus discharged he shews in the next place Ibid. 48. that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinful man or of the wicked sinful man but rather that they shoudl turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Goats in St. Matthews Gospel Ite malidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither Death nor Hell for damned men The last branch of his Discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his Chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth every living soul to be saved and to come to the Kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his Son to save every soul and to bring it to the Kingdom of Heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of Heaven 6. The nelgect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Council and Determination of God The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of che old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his furtehr satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be considered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel duo vel nemo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Council being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having Authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Council-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Archbiship of York in the Reign of King Charles 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook Hill Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwich in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an Enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him But against this it is objected by Mr. Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as Heretical 2. That upon this Sermon Perpetulty c. 304. and the Controversies that arose upon it in Cambridg between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the siad Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridg where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was madea t St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given it would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridg whither the Preacher had retited after he had performed the service he was called unto and if it were injoyned by the High Commission and performed accordingly there is no question to be made but that we should have heard of in the Anti-Arminianism where there are no less than eight leaves spend in relating the story of a like Recantation pretended to be made by one Mr. Barret on the tenth of May 1595. and where it is affirmed that the said Mr. Harsnet held and maintained the same errors for which Barret was to make his Recantation But as it will be proved hereafter that no such Recantation wass made by Barret so we have reason to believe that no such Recantation was imposed on Harsnet Nor secondly can it be made good that the Controversies between Doctor Whitacres and Dr. Baroe were first occasioned by this Sermon or that Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same For it appears by a Letter written from the heads of that University to their Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Burleigh dated March 18. 1595. that Baroe had maintained the same Doctrines and his Lectures and Determinations above 14 years before by their own account for which see Chap. 21. Numb 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enopugh that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more than probable that he was not required so to do by that
Kings than of the Thief that steals thy goods or the Adulterer that defiles thy marriage-bed or the Murderer that seeks thy life all which are reckoned for Gods curses in the holy Scripture The point we purpose to make proof of goeth not down so easily that is to say That in the vilest men and most unworthy of all honour if they be once advanced to the publick Government there doth reside that excellent and divine Authority which God hath given in holy Scripture to those who are the Ministers of his heavenly Justice who therefore are to be reverenced by the Subject for as much as doth concern them in the way of their publick duties with as much honour and obedience as they would reverence the best King were he given unto them And first the Reader must take notice of the especial Act and Providence of Almighty God SECT 26. not without cause so oft remembred in the Scriptures in disposing Kingdoms Dan. 2 21 37. and segging up such Kings as to him seems best The Lord saith Danicl changeth the times and the seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings And in another place That the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Which kind of sentences as they are very frequent in the Scriptures so is that Prophesie most plentiful and abundant in them No man is ignorant that Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Hierusalem was a great spoiler and oppressor yet the Lord tells us by Ezechicl that he had given unto him the land of Egypt for the good service he had done in laying it waste on his Commandment Dan. 2.37 And Daniel said unto him thus Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory And wheresoever the children of men dwell the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all Again to Belshazzer his son Dan. 5.18 The most high God gave unto Nebuchadnezzar thy father a Kingdom and majesty and glory and honour and for the majesty that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him Now when we hear that Kings are placed over us by God let us be pleased to call to mind those several precepts to fear and honour them which God hath given us in his Book holding the vilest Tyrant in as high account as God hath graciously vouchsafed to estate him in When Samuel told the people of the house of Israel what they should suffer from their King 1 Sam. 8.11 he expressed it thus This will be the manner of the King which shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and some shall run before his Chariots And he will appoint him Captains over thousands and Captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of War and instruments of his Chariots And he will take your daughters to be his Confectionaries and to be Cooks and to be Bakers And he will take your fields and your Vineyards and your Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give to his Officers and to his Servants And he will take your men-servants and your maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your Asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his Servants Assuredly their Kings could not do this lawfully whom God had otherwise instructed in the Book of the Law but it is therefore called Jus Regis the right of Kings upon the Subject which of necessity the Subjects were to submit unto and not to make the least resistance As if the Prophet had thus said So far shall the licentiousness of your Kings extend it self which you shall have no power to restrain or remedy to whom there shall be nothing left but to receive the intimation of their pleasures and fulfil the same But most remarkable is that place in the Prophet Jeremy SECT 27. which though it be somewhat of the longest I will here put down because it doth so plainly state the present question Jer. 27. â— I have made the earth saith the Lord the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my out-stretched Arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me And now have I given all these Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon my Servant and the Beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him and all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son until the very time of his Land come and it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence wherefore serve the King of Babylong and live We see by this how great a measure of obedience was required by God towards that fierce and cruel Tyrant only because he was advanced to the Kingly Throne and did by consequence participate of that Regal Majesty which is not to be violated without grievous sin Let us therefore have this always in our mind and before our eyes that by the same decree of God on which the power of Kings is constituted the very wickedest Princes are established and let not such seditious thoughts be admitted by us that is to say that we must deal with Kings no otherwise than they do deserve and that it is no right nor reason that we should shew our selves obedient subjects unto him who doth not mutually perform the duty of a King to us It is a poor objection which some men have made viz. that that command was only proper to the Israelites for mark upon what grounds the command was given SECT 28. I have given saith the the Kingdom unto Nebuchadnezzar wherefore serve him and ye shall live and thereupon it needs must follow that upon whomsoever God bestows a Kingdom to him we must address our service and that assoon as God hath raised any to the Regal Throne he doth sufficiently declare his will to be that he would have that man to reign over us Some general testimonies of this truth are in holy Scripture For thus saith solomon For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 24.2 and job He looseth the band of Kings and girdeth their loins with a girdly Job 12.18 Which if confessed there is no remedy at all but we must serve those Kings if we mean to
live There is another Text in the Prophet Jeremy by which the People are commanded to seek the peace of Babylon Jer. 29.7 whither God had caused them to be carried away captive and to pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof was their peace to be Behold the Israelites being despoiled of their Estates driven from their houses carried into exile and plunged in a most miserable thraldom are yet required to pray for the prosperity of the Conqueror not only as we are commanded in another place to pray for them that persecute us but that his Empire might continue in peace and safety that they themselves might quietly enjoy the protection of it Thus David being appointed King by the Lords own Ordinance and anointed with his holy Oyl when undeservedly he was persecuted and pursued by Saul would not give way that any corporal hurt should be done to that sacred person whom God had raised unto the Kingdom The Lord forbid saith he 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. Again But mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lords Anointed And again who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch my hand against the Lords Anointed This reverence and dutiful regard we ought to carry towards our Governors SECT 29. to the very end however they may chance to prove Which therefore I repeat the oftner that we may learn not to enquire too narrowly into the men but to rest our selves content with this that they sustain that place or person by the Lords appointment in which he hath imprinted and ingraved a most inviolable character of sacred Majesty But some will say that Rulers owe a mutual duty to their Subjects That hath been formerly confessed from which if any should infer that no obedience must be yielded but to their just and legal power he were a very sorry disputant Husbands are bound in mutual bonds unto their Wives and so are Parents to their Children Suppose that both neglect their duties that Parents who are prohibited by God to provoke their Children unto wrath be so untractable and harsh to them that they do grieve them above measure with continual sourness and that Husbands who are commanded to love their Wives and to give honour to them as the weaker vessel should use them with contempt and scorn should therefore Children be the less obedient to their Parents or Wives less dutiful to their Husbands We see the contrary that they are subject to them though both lewd and froward Since therefore nothing doth concern us more than that we trouble not our selves with looking into the defects of other men but carefully endeavour to perform those duties which do belong unto our selves more specially ought they to observe this rule who live under the authority and power of others Wherefore if we are inhumanely handled by a cruel Prince or by a covetous and luxurious Prince dispoiled and rifled if by a slothful one neglected or vexed for our Religion by a lewd and wicked let us look back upon our sins which God most commonly correcteth with this kind of scourges the thought whereof will humble us and keep down the impatience of our angry spirits Let us consider with our selves that it appertains not unto us to redress these mischiefs that all which doth belong to us is to cry to God Prov. 21.1 in whose hands are the hearts of Kings and be turneth them whithersoever he will He is that God which standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth amongst the Gods before whose face all Kings shall fall and be confounded and all the Judges of the earth who do not reverence his Christ but make unjust Laws to oppress the Poor and offer violence to the man of low condition and make a spoil of Widows and a prey of Orphans And here we may as well behold his goodness SECT 30. as his power and providence For sometimes he doth raise Avengers from amongst his servants and furnisheth them with power sufficient as well to execute vengeance on such wicked Rulers as to redeem his People so unjustly vext from the house of bondage and sometimes useth to tht end the fierce wrath of others who think of nothing less than to serve his turn Thus he redeemed his People Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh by the hand of Moses from Cushan King of Syria by Othoniel from other thraldoms by some other of their Kings and Judges Thus did he tame the pride of Tyre by the arms of Egypt the insolence of Egypt by the Assyrians the fierceness of Assyriah by the Chaldeans the confidence of Babylon by the Medes and Persians after that Cyrus had before subdued the Medes Thus did he sometimes punish the ingratitude of the Kings of Judah and Israel and that ungodly contumacy which they carried towards him notwithstanding all his benefits conferred upon them by the Assyrians first the Babylonians after But we must know that though these several instrunents did the self same work yet they proceeded not in the self same motives For the first sort being thereto lawfully authorized and called by Almighty God by taking up Arms against their Kings did nothing less than violate that sacred Majesty which is inherent in King by Gods holy Ordinance but being armed from Heaven did only regulate and chastise the lesser power by the help of the greater as Princes use sometimes to correct their Nobles The later sort though guided by the hand of God as to him seemed best so that they did unknowingly effect what he had to do intended only the pursuit of their own designs But what soever their designs and intentions were the Lord did justly use them to effect his business SECT 31. when by their means he broke the bloody Scepters of those insolent Kings and overthrew their wicked and tyrannical Empires Hear this ye Princes and be terrified at the hearing of it But let not this afford the least encouragement unto the Subject to violate or despise the Authority of the Magistrate which God hath filled so full of majesty and fortified by so many Edicts from the Court of Heaven though sometimes an unworthy person doth enjoy the same and such a one as doth dishonour it by his filthy life Nor may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power of executing vengeance is devolved on us to whom no other precept hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam si qui nunc sint
honour of the Empire and the publick safety Nor is this any new authority which the Ecclesiastical Estate hath gained in the latter times but such wherein they were intrusted from the first beginning of that Empire It being affirmed by Aventinus a Writer of unquestioned credit that long before the institution of the seven Electors which was in An. 996. the Prelates the Nobility and the chief of the People had the election of the Emperour Aventini Annal Boiorum l. 5. And if the Prelates were intrusted in so high a point as the Election of the Emperour or the Soveraign Prince no question but they were imployed also in his publick Councels in matters which concerned the managery of the Common-wealth Next pass we over into France and there we find the Subjects marshalled into three Estates whereof the Clergy is the first Rex coactis tribus Ordinibus Sacerdotio Nobilitate Plebe Paul Aemilius hist Franc. l. 9. subsidia rei pecuniariae petiit that is to say the King assembling or conveening the three Estates viz. the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons demanded subsidies for the support of his Estate So Paulus Aemilius doth inform us Out of these three are chosen certain Delegates or Commissioners some for each Estate as often as the Kings occasions do require their meeting the time and place whereof is absolutely left unto his disposing and these thus met do make up the Conventus Ordinum or L' Assemblie des Estats as the French men call it in form much like the English Parliament but in nothing else the power and reputation of it being much diminished in these latter times especially since the great improvement of the Court of Parliament fixed and of long time fixed in Paris Which Court of Parliament as it was instituted at the first by Charles Martel Mayre of the Palace to the Merovignian line of France and Grand-father to Charle magne so it consisted at the first of the same ingredients of which the great Assembly des Estats consisteth now that is to say the Prelates and the Peers and certain of the principal Gentry which they call La Nebless together with some few of the most considerable Officers of the Kings houshold A Court of such esteem in the former time that the Kings of Sicily Cyprus Bohemia Scotland and Navar Andre du Chesne have thought it no disparagement unto them to be members of it and which is more when Frederick the second had spent much time and treasure in his quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth he was content to submit the whole cause in difference unto the judgement of this Court But being at last become sedentaire and fixed at Paris as other ordinary Courts of Justice were which was in An. 1286. or thereabouts the Nobles first and after them the Bishops withdrew themselves from the troubles of it and left it to the ordering of the Civil Lawyers though still the Peers do challenge and enjoy a place therein as oft as any point of moment is in agitation the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denys continuing constant members of it to this very day But for the Assembly des Estats or Conventus Ordinum made up of the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons as before I told you he that would see the manner of it the points there handled and that remainder of authority which is left unto them let him repair unto Thuanus Thuan. hist sui temp lib. and look upon the great Assembly held at Bloys An. 1573. He shall find it there Pass we next over the Pyrenees to the Realms of Spain and we shall find in each the same three Estates whose meeting they call there by the name of Curia Bodin de Repub lib. 3. c. the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminency consisting of the Clergy the Nobility and Commissioners of the Provinces and most antient Cities But we must tell you by the way that long before the institution of these Courts and long before the division of Spain into so many Kingdoms the Prelates of that Church were of such authority that a chief stroke in the election of their Kings did belong to them For in the eighth Council of Toledo summoned by Recesvintus the 25th of the Gothish race of the Kings of Spain An. 653. so long agoe in which were present 52 Bishops 12 Abbots and the Delegates of Vicars of ten other Bishops who could not personally attend the service it was ordered with the Kings consent that from thenceforth the Kings of Spain should be elected in the Regal City or in what other place soever the King should happen to decease by the joynt suffrages of the Prelates and the great Lords of the Court Majores Palatii as the Canon calls them Concil Tolet. VIII Can. 10. But take the whole Canon with you for the more assurance and you find it thus Abhinc ergo deinceps ita erunt in Regni gloria praeficiendi Rectores ut aut in urbe Regia aut in loco ubi Princeps decesserit cum Pontisicum Majorumque Palatii omnimodo eligantur assensu But after Spain became divided into several Kingdoms and that each Kingdom had its Court or Curia as they call their Parliament the Clergy were esteemed in each for the third Estate the first indeed of all the three and either in person or by their Proxies made up the most considerable part in those publick meetings For proof of which we need but look into the General History of Spain translated out of French by Grimston and we shall find a Court or Parliament for the Realm of Aragon consisting of the Bishops Nobles and Deputies of Towns and Commonalties having place in the said Estates conveened by King James at Saragossa Anno 1325. for setling the Succession and declaring the Heir another at Monson Gen. hist of Spain l. 14. Id. lib. 11. where the Estates of Aragon and Catalogne did conveen together 1236. to consult about the Conquest of Valentia and before that another Assembly of the Bishops and Noblemen called at Saragossa by Alfonso the Great touching the War against the Moores Id. lib. 9. And as for the Realm of Naples and Sicily being appends on this Crown there is little question to be made but that the Bishops and Clergy of both enjoyed the place and priviledges of the third Estate both Kingdoms being antiently hoden of the Pope and of his Erection and the Italian Bishops as lying directly under his nose more amply priviledged for the most part than in other Countries Thus for Castile we find a Parliament of Lords Prelates and Deputies of Towns summoned at Toledo by Alfonso the Noble An. 1210. upon occasion of an invasion made by the Moores another before that at Burgos Id. lib. 10. under the same King Anno 1179. for levying of money on the people to maintain the Wars that great Convention of the States held
their Synods as with some Laws or Ordinances which were lately passed more to the advantage of the Clergy than the common people put in a Bill to this effect viz. That no Act nor Ordinance should from thenceforth be made or granted on the petition of the said Clergy without the consent of the Commons and that the said Commons should not be bound in times to come by any constitutions made by the Clergy of this Realm for their own advantage to which the Commons of this Realm had not given consent The reason of the which is this and 't is worth the marking car eux ne veullent estre obligez a nul de vos estatuz ne Ordinances faitz sanz leur assent because the said Clergy did not think themselves bound as indeed they were not in those times by any Statute Act or Ordinance made without their Assent in the Court of Parliament Which clearly shews that in those times the Clergy had their place in Parliament as the Commons had Put all which hath been said together and tell me if it be not clear and evident that the inferiour Clergy had their place in Parliament whether the clause touching the calling of them thither were not more than verbal in the Bishops Writs and is true that in the Writ of summons directed to their several and respective Bishops they were called only ad consentiendum to manifest their consent to those Acts and Ordinances which by the Common-council of the Realm were to be ordained But then it is as true withal that sometimes their advice was asked in the weighty matters as in the 21 of King Richard the 2. and sometimes they petitioned and remonstrated for redress of grievances as in the instances and cases which were last produced And 't is as true that if they had been present only ad consentiendum to testifie their assent to those Acts which by the Common-council of the Realm were proposed unto them their presence was as necessary and their Voice as requisite to all intents and purposes for ought I can see as the Voice and presence of the Commons in the times we speak of For in the Writs of summons issued to the several Sheriffs for the electing of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend the Parliament it is said expresly first that the King resolveth upon weighty motives touching the weal and safety both of Church and State to hold his Parliament Forma Brevis pro summonit Parliamenti ibidem cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquium habere tractare then and there to advise and treat with the Prelates Peers and Nobles of this Realm Which words are also expresly used in the Writs of summons directed to the Bishops Titles of Hon. part 2. cap. 5. and to every of them who also are required in a further clause consilium suum impendere to give the King their best advice in his great affairs So that the Prelates and Nobility convened in Parliament made the Kings great Council and were called thither to that end What then belonged unto the Commons 1. No more than did belong to the Clergy also that is to say the giving of their consent to such Laws and Statutes as should there be made Which notwithstanding in Tract of time gave them such a sway and stroke in the course of Parliaments that no Law could be made nor no Tax imposed without their liking and allowance And this is that which is expressed in the last clause of the said Writ by which the Knights and Burgesses are to come prepared ad faciendum consentiendum iis quae tunc ibidem de consilio dicti Regni nostri super negotiis antedictis contigerint ordinari Forma Brevis c. Which is the very same which you had before in the Writ directed to the Bishops for summoning the Clergy of their several Diocesses and that here is a faciendum which the other had not A word which if you mark it well hath no operation in the construction of the Text except it be in paying Subsidies or doing such things as are appointed to be done by that great Council of the Kingdom Which clause though it be cunningly left out that I may say no worse in the recital of the Writ by the Author of the Book entituled The Prerogative and practice of Parliaments is most ingenuously acknowledged in the Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled at Oxon Declaration of the Treaty p. 15. where it is said That the Writs of summons the foundation of all power in Parliament are directed to the Lords in express terms to treat and advise with the King and the rest of the Peers of the Kingdom of England and to the Commons to do and consent to those things which by that Common-council of England should be ordained And thus it stands as with the common people generally in most states of Christendom so with the Commons anciently in most states of Greece of which Plutarch telleth us Plutarch in Lâ—curgo That when the people were assembled in Council it was not lawful for any of them to put forth matters to the Council to be determined neither might any of them deliver his Opinion what he thought of any thing but the people had only authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give their assent unto such things as either the Senators or their Kings do propound unto them But against this it is objected first that it is not to be found at what time the Clergy lost their place and Vote in Parliament and therefore it may reasonably be presumed that they had never any there and 2dly that if they had been called ad consentiendum though no more than so we should have found more frequent mention of their consent unto the Acts and Statutes in our printed Books For answer unto which it may first be said that to suppose the Clergy had no Voice in Parliament because it is not to be found when they lost that priviledg is such a kind of Argument if it be an argument as is made by Bellarmine Bellarm. de Eccl. lib 4. c. 5. to prove that many of the controverted Tenets of the Church of Rome are neither erroneous nor new because we cannot say expresly quo tempore quo autore when and by whose promoting they first crept in And though we cannot say expresly when the inferiour Clergy lost their place in Parliament in regard it might be lost by discontinuance or non-usage or that the clause was pretermitted for some space of time the better to disuse them from it or that they might neglect the service in regard of their attendance in the Convocation which gave them power and reputation both with the common people yet I have reason to believe that this pretermission and disuse did chiefly happen under the Government of the Kings of the House of Lancaster who being the true Heirs and
expresly and in terminis to represent the three Estates of the Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen This makes it evident that the King was not accounted in the times before for one of the three Estates of Parliament nor can be so accounted the present times For considering that the Lords and Commons do most confessedly make two of the three Estates and that the Clergy in another Act of Parliament of the said Queens time are confessed to be one of the greatest States of the Realm which Statute being still in force Statut. 8. Eliz. cap. 1. doth clearly make the Clergy to be the third either there must be more than three Estates in this Kingdom which is against the Doctrine of the present times or else the King is none of the Estates as indeed he is not which was the matter to be proved But I spend too much time in confuting that which hath so little ground to stand on more than the dangerous consequences which are covered under it For if the King be granted once to be no more than one of the three Estates how can it choose but follow from so sad a principle that he is of no more power and consideration in the time of Parliament than the House of Peers which sometimes hath consisted of three Lords no more or than the House of Commons only which hath many times consisted of no more than eighty or an hundred Gentlemen but of far less consideration to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever than both the Houses joyned together What else can follow hereupon but that the King must be co-ordinate with his two Honses of Parliament and if co-ordinate then to be over-ruled by their joynt concurrence bound to conform unto their Acts and confirm their Ordinances or upon case of inconformity and non-compliance to see them put in execution against his liking and consent to his foul reproach And what at last will be the issue of this dangerous consequence but that the Lords content themselves to come down to the Commons and the King be no otherwise esteemed of than the chief of the Lords the Princeps Senatus if you will or the Duke of Venice at the best no more which if Sir Edward Dering may be credited as I think he may in this particular seems to have been the main design of some of the most popular and powerful Members then sitting with him for which I do refer the Reader to his book of Speeches Which dangerous consequents whether they were observed at first by these who first ventured on the expression or were improvidently looked over I can hardly say Certain I am it gave too manifest an advantage to the Antimonarchical party in this Kingdom and hardned them in their proceeding against their King whom they were taught to look on and esteem no otherwise than as a Joint-tenant of the Sovereignty with the Lords and Commons And if Kings have partners in the Sovereignty they are then no King such being the nature and Law of Monarchy that si divisionem capiat interitum capiat necesse est Laciant Institut Div. l. 1. c. if it be once divided and the authorities thereof imparted it is soon destroyed Such is the dangerous consequence of this new Expression that it seemeth utterly to deprive the Bishops and in them the Clergy of this Land of all future hopes of being restored again to their place in Parliament For being the Parliament can consist but of three Estates if the King fall so low as to pass for one either the Bishops or the Commons or the Temporal Lords must desert their claim the better to make way for this new pretension and in all probability the Commons being grown so potent and the Nobility so numerous and united in bloud and marriages will not quit their interesse and therefore the poor Clergy must be no Estate because less able as the World now goeth with them to maintain their Title I have often read that Constantine did use to call himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop or superintendent of his Bishops Euseb de vita Constant and I have often heard our Lawyers say that the King is the general Ordinary of the Kingdom but never heard nor read till within these few years that ever any King did possess himself of the Bishops place or Vote in Parliament or sat there as the first of the three Estates as anciently the Bishops did to supply their absence By which device whether the Clergy or the King be the greater losers though it be partly seen already future times will shew This Rub removed we next proceed to the examination of that power which by our Author is conferred on the three Estates which we shall find on search and tryal to be very different according to the constitution of the Kingdom in which they are For where the Kings are absolute Monarchs as in England Scotland France and Spain Bod in de Repuô l. 1. c. the three Estates have properly and legally little more Authority than to advise their King as they see occasion to present unto his view their common grievances and to propose such remedies for redress thereof as to them seem meetest to canvass and review such erroneous judgments as formerly have passed in inferiour Courts and finally to consult about and prepare such Laws as are expedient for the publick In other Countreys where the Kings are more conditional and hold their Crowns by compact and agreement between them and their Subjects the reputation and authority of the three Estates is more high and eminent as in Polonia Denmark and some others of the Northern Kingdoms where the Estates lay claim to more than a directive power and think it not enough to advise their King unless they may dispose of the Kingdom also or at least make their King no better than a Royal Slave Thus and no otherwise it is with the German Emperors who are obnoxious to the Laws Thuan. hist sui temp l. 2. and for their Government accomptable to the Estates of the Empire insomuch that if the Princes of the Empire be persuaded in their consciences that he is likely by his mal-administration to destroy the Empire and that he will not hearken to advice and counsel ab Electorum Collegio Caesaria potestate privari potest Anonym Script ap Philip. Paraeum in Append ad Rom. 13. he may be deprived by the Electors and a more fit and able man elected to supply the place And to this purpose in a Constitution made by the Emperor Jodocus about the year 1410. there is a clause that if he or any of his Successors do any thing unto the contrary thereof the Electors and other States of the Empire sine rebellionis vel infidelitatis crimine libertatem babeant Goldast Constit Imperial Tom. 3. p. 424. should be at liberty
without incurring the crimes of Treason or Disloyalty not only to oppose but resist them in it The like to which occurrs for the Realm of Hungary wherein K. Andrew gives Authority to his Bishops Lords Bonfinius de Edict publ p. 37. and other Nobles sine nota alicujus infidelitatis that without any imputation of Disloyalty they may contradict oppose and resist their Kings if they do any thing in violation of some Laws and sanctions In Poland the King takes a solemn Oath at his Coronation to confirm all the Priviledges Rights and Liberties which have been granted to his Subjects of all ranks and Orders by any of his Predecessors and then adds this clause quod si Sacramentum meum violavero incolae Regni nullam nobis obedientiam praestare tenebuntur which if he violates his Subjects shall no longer be obliged to yield him Obedience Which Oath as Bodin well observeth Bodin de Rep. lib. 2. cap. 8. doth savour rather of the condition of the Prince of the Senate than of the Majesty of a King The like may be affirmed of Frederick the first King of Danemark who being called unto that Crown on the ejection of K. Christian the 2d An. 1523. was so conditioned with by the Lords of the Kingdom that at his Coronation or before he was fain to swear that he would put none of the Nobility to death or banishment but by the judgment of the Senate that the great men should have power of life or death over their Tenants and Vassals and that no Appeal should lie from them to the Kings Tribunal nor the King be partaker of the confiscations nec item honores aut imperia privatis daturum Id. ibid. c. nor advance any private person to Commands or Honours but by Authority of his great Council Which Oath being also taken by Frederick the second made Bodinus say that the Kings of Danemark non tam reipsa quam appellatione Reges sunt were only titular Kings but not Kings indeed Which Character he also gives of the King of Bobemia Id. ibid. p. 88. But in an absolute Monarchy the case is otherwise all the prerogatives and rights of Sovereignty being so vested in the Kings person ut nec singulis civibus nec universis fas est c. that it is neither lawful to particular men nor to the whole body of the Subjects generally to call the Prince in question for Life Fame or Fortunes Id. ibid. p. 210. and amongst these he reckoneth the Kingdoms of France Spain England Scotland the Tartars Muscovites omnium pene Africae Asiae imperiorum and of almost all the Kingdoms of Africk and Asia But this we shall the better see by looking over the particulars as they lie before us But first before we come unto those particulars we will look backwards on the condition and Authority of the Jewish Sanbedrim which being instituted and ordained by the Lord himself may serve to be a leading Case in the present business For being that the Jews were the Lords own people and their King honoured with the Title of the Lords Anointed it will be thought that if the Sanhedrim or the great Council of the seventy had any Authority and power over the Kings of Judah of whose jus Regni such a larger description is made by God himself in the first of Sam. cap. 8. the three Estates may reasonably expect the like in these parts of Christendom Now for the Authority of the Sanhedrim it is said by Cardinal Baronius that they had power of Judicature over the Law the Prophets and the Kings themselves Baron Annai Eccl. An. 31. sect 10. Erat horum summa autoritas ut qui de lege cognoscerent Prophetis simul de Regibus judicarent Which false position he confirms by as false an instance affirming in the very next words horum judicio Herodem Regem postulatum esse that King Herod was convented and convicted by them for which he cites Josphus with the like integrity I should have wondred very much what should occasion such a gross mistake in the learned Cardinal had I not shewn before that as he makes the Sanhedrim to rule the King so he hath made the high Priest to rule the Sanhedrim which to what purpose it was done every man can tell who knoweth the Cardinal endeavoureth nothing more in his large Collections than to advance the dignity and supremacy of the Popes of Rom. But for the power pretended to be in the Sanhedrim Id. in Epist dedicator and their proceedings against Herod as their actual King Josephus whom he cites is so far from saying it that he doth expresly say the contrary For as Josephus tells the story Hyrcanus was then King not Herod and Herod of so little hopes to enjoy the Kingdom that he could not possibly pretend any Title to it But having a command in Galilee procured by Antipater his Father of the good King Hyrcanus he had played the wanton Governor amongst them and put some of them to death against Law and Justice For which the Mothers of the slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did often call upon the King and people in the open Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Herod might answer for the murther before the Sanhedrim Joseph Antiq. Judic l. 14. cap. 17. Which being granted by the King he was accordingly convented by them and had been questionless condemned had not the King who loved him dearly given him notice of it on whose advertisement he went out of the Town and so escaped the danger This is the substance of that story and this gives no Authority to the Court of Sanhedrim over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Others there are who make them equal to the Kings though not superiour Magnam fuisse Senatus autoritatem Regiae velut parem saith the Learned Grotius Grotius in Matth. cap. 5. v. 22. And for the proof thereof allege those words of Sedechias in the Book of Jeremy who when the Princes of his Realm required of him to put the Prophet to death Jerem. 38.5 returned this Answer Behold he is in your hand Rex enim contra vos nihil potest for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Which words are also cited by Mr. Prynne to prove that the King of England hath no Negative Voice but by neither rightly For Calvin who as one observeth composed his Expositions on the book of God according to the Doctrine of his Institutions would not have lost so fair an evidence for the advancing of the power of his three Estates Prynne of Parl. pt 2. p. 73. Hookers Preface had he conceived he could have made it serviceable to his end and purpose But he upon the contrary finds fault with them who do so expound it or think the King did speak so honourably of his Princes ac si nihil iis sit
from his three Estates than that which is afforded to the Kings of France Id. ibid. which being but general and comparative is yet enough to let us see that the Assembly of Estates in the Realms of Spain which they call the Curia is very observant of their King and obsequious to him and have but little of that power which is supposed by our Author to be inherent in the three Estates of all the Christian Kingdoms But this Bodinus proveth more particularly ascribing to the King and to him alone the power of calling this Assembly when he sees occasion and of dissolving it again when his work is done according as is used both in France and England And when they are assembled and met together their Acts and Consultations are of no effect further than as they are confirmed by the Kings consent Which he declareth in the same Form eadem formulâ quâ apud nos that hath accustomably been used by the Kings of France which is authoritative enough that is to say decernimus statuimus volumus We will and we appoint and we have decreed The Kings of Spain Id. ibid. p. 90. though not so despotical in their Government as the French Kings are are as absolute Monarchs and have as great an influence on the three Estates to make them pliant to their will and to work out their own ends by them as ever had the French Kings on their Courts of Parliament a touch whereof we had before in the former Chapter And this we may yet further see by their observance of the pleasure of King Philip the 2d Who having maried the Lady Elizabeth Daughter of Henry the 2d of France Convocatos Castellae reliquarum Hispaniae Provinciarum Ordines calling together the Estates of Castile and his other Provinces of Spain Thuan. hist sui temp l. 23. he caused them to swear to the succession of his Son Prince Charles whom he had by the Lady Mary of Portugal and after having on some jealousies of State put that Prince to death caused them to swear to the succession of another Son by the Lady of Austria And for the power of his Edicts which they call Pragmaticas they are as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament or any kind of Law whatever Examples of the which are very obvious and familiar in the Spanish Histories For though there be a body of Laws in use amongst them partly made up of some old Gothish Laws and Constitutions and partly of some parts of the Law imperial yet for the explanation of the Laws in force if any doubt arise about them or for supplying such defects which in the best collection of the Laws may occur sometimes the Magistrates and Judges are to have recourse to the King alone and to conform to such instructions as he gives them in it And this is it which was ordained by Alfonso the tenth qui etiam magistratus ad judices Principem adire jussit quoties patrio jure nihil de proposita causa seriptum esset as Bodinus hath it Bodin de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 8. 'T is true that for the railing of supplies of money and the imposing of extraordinary Taxes upon the Subject the Kings of Spain must be beholden to the three Estates without whose consent it cannot legally be done But then it is as true withal Id. ibid. p. 90. that there are customary Tributes called Servitia which the King raiseth of his own Aurhority without such consent And their consenting to the extraordinary is a thing of course the Spanish Nation being so well affected naturally to the power and greatness of their Kings whom they desire to make considerable if not formidable in the opinion of their Neighbours that the Kings seldom fail of moneys if the Subjects have it Finally that we may perceive how absolute this Monarch is over all the Courts or Curias of his whole Dominions take this along according as it stands verbatim in the Spanish History Spanish Hist 67. by Iyrannel The King of Spain as he is a potent Prince and Lord of many Countreys so hath he many Councils for the managing of their affairs distinctly and apart without any confusion every Council treating only of those matters which concern their Jurisdiction and charges with which Councils and with the Presidents thereof being men of chief note the King doth usually confer touching matters belonging to the good Government preservation and increase of his Estates and having heard every mans Opinion he commands that to be executed which he holds most fit and convenient Next let us take a view of Scotland and we shall find it there no otherwise I mean in reference to the point which is now in question than in France or Spain For besides that Bodinus makes it one of those absolute Monarchies ubi Keges sine controversia omnia jura Majestatis habent per sese Bodin de Repub l. 2. c. 7. Cambden in Britan. descript in which the Kings have clearly all the Rights of Majesty inherent in their own persons only it is declared in the Records of that very Kingdom that the King is directus totius Dominus the Sovereign Lord of the whole State and hath all authority and jurisdiction over all Estates and degrees as well Ecclesiaestical as Lay or Temporal And as for those Estates and Degrees convened in Parliament we may conjecture at their Power by that which is delivered of the Form or Order which they held it in Form of holding the Parl. in Scotland which is briefly this As soon as the Kings Writ is issued out for summoning the Estates to meet in Parliament he maketh choice of eight of the Spiritual Lords such on whose wisdom and integrity he may most rely which eight do chuse as many of the Temporal Lords and they together nominate eight more out of the Commissioners for the Counties and as many out of the Commissioners for the Towns or Burroughs These 32 thus chosen are called Domini pro Articulis Lords of the Articles and they together with the Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal and principal Secretaries of State and the Master of the Rolls whom they call Clerk Register do admit or reject every Bill but not before they have been shewn unto the King if they pass there they are presented afterwards to the whole Assembly where being throughly weighed and examined and put unto the Votes of the House such of them as are carried by the major part of the Voices for the Lords and Commons sit together in the same House there are on the last day of the Sessions exhibited to the King who by touching them with his Scepter pronounceth that he either ratifieth and approveth them or that he doth disable them and make them void But if the business be disliked by the Lords of the Articles it proceeds no further and never comes unto the consideration of the Parliament
one is fundamental and held by the two Houses on no worse a title than a fundamental Constitution which is as much as any reasonable Parliamentarian need desire to have Therefore in Answer to the Fuller not taking notice of his foolish and seditious inferences we will clear those points 1. That the two Houses of Parliament are not co ordinate with the King but subordinate to him And 2. That the power of making Laws is properly and legally in the King alone As for the first we had before a Recognition made by Act of Parliament by which the Kingdom of England is acknowledged to be an Empire governed by one supream Head and King to whom all sorts and degrees of people ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience 24 H. 8. c. 12. which certainly the Lords and Commons had not made to the dethroning of themselves their Heirs and Successors from this co-ordinative part of Sovereignty if any such co-ordination had been then believed Or if it be supposed to excuse the matter that King Henry VIII being a severe and terrible Prince did wrest this Recognition from them which yet will hardly serve for a good defence what shall we say to the like recognition made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign 1 Eliz. c. 1. when she was green in State and her power unsetled and so less apt to work upon her people by threats and terrors Assuredly had the Houses dream't in those broken times of that co-ordinative Sovereignty which is now pretended they might have easily regained it and made up that breach which by the violent assaults of King Henry VIII had been made upon them which was a point they never aimed at Besides if this co-ordinative Majesty might be once admitted it must needs follow that though the King hath no Superiour he hath many Equals and where there is equality there is no subjection But Bracton tells us in plain terms not only that the King hath no Superiour in his Realm except God Almighty but no Equal neither and the reason which he gives is exceeding strong Quia sic amitteret praeceptum cum par in Parem non habeat potestatem Beacton de leg Angl. l. 1. c. 8. because he could not have an Equal but with the loss of his Authority and Regal Dignity considering that one Equal hath no power to command another Now lest the Fuller should object as perhaps he may that this is spoken of the King out of times of Parliament and of the Members of the Houses seorsim taken severally as particular persons but when they are convened in Parliament then they are Sovereigns and no Subjects first he must know that by the Statute of Queen Elizabeth all of the House of Commons are to take the Oath before remembred for the defending of all preheminences and authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and for bearing faith and true allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and that if any of them do refuse this Oath Stat. 5. Eliz. 1. he is to have no voice in Parliament 2. He cannot choose but know that even sedente Parliamento both the Lords and Commons use to address themselves to his Sacred Majesty in the way of supplication and petition and certainly it is not the course for men of equal rank to send Petitions unto one another and that in those Petitions they do stile themselves his Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects Which is not only used as the common Complement which the hypocrisie of these times hath taken up though possibly it might be no otherwise meant in some late addresses but is the very phrase in some Acts of Parliament 25 Hen. 8. c. 22. c. as in the Acts at large doth at full appear 3. They may be pleased to know how happy a thing it was for the Realm of England that this Fuller did not live in former times For had he broached this Doctrine some Ages since he would have made an end of Parliaments Princes are very jealous of the smallest points of Sovereignty and love to Reign alone without any Rivals their Souls being equally made up of Pompeys and Caesars and can as little brook an Equal as endure a Superiour And lastly I must let him know what Bodinus saith who telleth us this Legum ac edictorum probatio aut publicatio quae in Curia vel Senatu fieri solet Bedin de Rep. l. 1. c. 8. non arguit imperii majestatem in Senatu vel Curia inesse viz. That the publishing and approbation of Laws and Edicts which is made ordinarily in the Court or Parliament proves not the Majesty of the State to be in the said Court or Parliament And therefore if the power of confirmation or rejecting be of a greater trust and more high concernment than that of consulting and consenting as no doubt it is the power of consulting and consenting which the Fuller doth ascribe to the two Houses of Parliament will give them but a sorry title to Co-ordinative Sovereignty This leads me on unto the Power of making Laws which as before I said is properly and legally in the King alone tanquam in proprio Subjecto as in the true and adequate subject of that Power And for the proof thereof I shall thus proceed When the Norman Conqueror first came in as he won the Kingdom by the Sword so did he govern it by his Power His Sword was then the Scepter and his Will the Law There was no need on his part of an Act of Parliament much less of calling all the Estates together to know of them after what Form and by what Laws they would be governed It might as well be said of him as in the flourish and best times of the Roman Emperors Justin Institut l. 1. c. Quod Principi placuerit legis babet vigorem that whatsoever the King willed it did pass for Law This King and some of his Successors being then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and having a despotical power on the lives and fortunes of their Subjects which they disposed of for the benefit of their Friends and followers Normans French and Flemings as to them seemed best But as the Subjects found the Yoke to be too heavy and insupportable so they addressed themselves in their Petitions to the Kings their Sovereigns to have that Yoke made easier and the burden lighter especially in such particulars of which they were most sensible at the present time By this means they obtained first to have the Laws of Edward the Confessor contain'd for the most part in the Great Charter afterwards and by this means that is to say by pouring out their prayers and desires unto them did they obtain most of the Laws and Statutes which are now remaining of the time of King Henry the 3d and King Edward the first Many of which as they were issued at the first either in Form