through the lower part thereof over which there is a passage by two fair Bridges one of them the more ancient and the the better fortified belonging heretofore to the old Helvetians but broken down by Iulius Caesar to hinder them from passing that way into Gallia The compass of the whole City not above two Miles the Buildings fair and for the most part of Free-stone the number of the inhabitants about seventeen thousand and the whole Territory not exceeding a Diameter of six Leagues where it is at the largest Brought under the obedience of the Romans by the power of Caesar it continued a member of that Empire till the Burgundians in the time of Honorius possessed themselves of all those Gallick Provinces which lay toward the Alpes In the Division of those Kingdoms by Charles the Bald it was made a part of Burgundie called Transjurana because it lay beyond the Iour and was by him conferred on Conrade a Saxon Prince son of Duke Witibind the third and younger brother of Robert the first Earl of Anjow At the expiring of whose line by which it had been held under several Titles of King Earl and Duke it was by Rodolph the last Prince bestowed on the Emperour Henry sirnamed the Black as his nearest kinsman and by that means united to â—he Germane Empire governed by such Imperial Officers as were appointed by those Emperours to their several Provinces till by the weakness or improvidence of the Lords in Chief Those Officers made themselves Hereditary Princes in their several Territories 3. In which division of the prey the City and Signiory of Geneva which before was governed by Officiary and Titulat Earls accountable to the German Empire was made a Soveraign Estate under its own Proprietary Earls as the sole Lords of it Betwixt these and the Bishâ—ps Susiraâ—ans to the Archbishop of Vienna in Daulphine grew many quarrels for the absolute command thereof In time the Bishops did obtain of the Emperour Frederick the first that they and their Successors should be the sole Princes of Geneva free from all taxes and not accountable to any but the Emperours which notwithstanding the Earl continuing still to molest the Bishops they were fain to call unto their aid the Earl of Savoy who took upon him first as Protector onely but afterwards as Lord in Chief For when the Rights of the Earls of Geneva by the Marriage of Thomas Earl of Savoy with Beatrix a Daughter of the Earls fell into that house then Ame or Amade the first of that name obtain'd of the Emperour Charles the Fourth to be Vicar-General of the Empire in his own Country and in that right Superiour to the Bishop in all Temporal matters and Ame or Amade the first Duke got from Pope Martin to the great prejudice of the Bishops a grant of all the Temporal jurisdictions of it After which time the Bishops were constrained to do homage to the Dukes of Savoy and acknowledge them for their Soveraign Lords the Authority of the Dukes being grown so great notwithstanding that the people were immediately subject unto their Bishop onely that the Money in Geneva was stamped with the Dukes Name and Figure capital offenders were pardoned by him no sentence of Law executed till his Officers first made acquainted nor league contracted by the people of any validity without his privity and allowance and finally the Keys of the Town presented him as often as he should please to lodge there as once for instance to Charles the Third coming thither with Beatrix his Wife Daughter of Portugal But still the City was immediately subject to the Bishops onely who had as well the Civil as the Ecclesiastial jurisdiction over it as is confest by Calvin in a Letter unto Cardinal Sadolet though as he thought extorted fraudulently or by force from the lawful Magistrate which lash he added in defence of the Genevians who had then newly wrested the Supream Authority out of the hands of the Bishop and took it wholly upon themselves it being no Felony as he conceived to rob the Thief or to deprive him of a power to which he could pretend no title but an usurpation 4. In this condition it continued till the year 1528 when those of Berne after a publike Disputation held hâ—d made an Alteration in Religion defacing Images and innovating all things in the Church on the Zuinglian Principles Viretus and Farellus two men exceeding studious of the Reformation had gained some footing in Geneva about that time and laboured with the Bishop to admit of such Alterations as had been newly made in Berne But when they saw no hopes of prevailing with him they practised on the lower part of the People with whom they had gotten most esteem and travelled so effectually with them in it that the Bishop and his Clergie in a popular tumult are expelled the Town never to be restored to their former Power After which they proceeded to reform the Church defacing Images and following in all points the example of Berne as by Viretus and Farellus they had been instructed whose doings in the same were afterwards countenanced and approved by Calvin as himself confesseth Nor did they onely in that Tumult alter every thing which had displeased them in the Church but changed the Government of the Town disclaiming all Allegiance either to their Bishop or their Duke and standing on their own Liberty as a Free Estate governed by a Common Council of 200 persons out of which four are chosen annually by the name of Syndicks who sit as Judges in the Court the Mayors and Bayliffs as it were of the Corporation And for this also they were most indebted to the active counsels of Farellus whom Calvin therefore calls the father of the publike Liberty and saith in an Epistle unto those of Zurick dated 26 Novemb. 1553 that the Genevians did owe themselves wholly to his care and counsels And it appears by Calvin also that the people could have been content to live under their Bishop if the Bishop could have been content to reform Religion and more then so that they had deserved the greatest Censures of the Church if it had been otherwise For thus he writes in his said Letter to Cardinal Sadolet Talem nobis Hierarchiam si exhibeant c. If saith he they could offer to us such a Hierarchy or Episcopal Government wherein the Bishops shall so rule as that they refuse not to submit themselves to Christ that they also depend upon him as their onely head and can be content to refer themselves to him in which they will so keep brotherly society amongst themselves as to be knit together by no other bond then that of Truth then surely if there shall be any that will not submit themselves to that Hierarchy reverently and with the greatest obedience that may be I must confess there is no kinde of Anathema or casting to the devil which they are not worthy of But
of the Queen not much improved in case it were not made more miserable In the time of K. IAMES some Propositions had been offered by Him in the Conference at Hampton-Court about sending Preachers into Ireland of which he was but half King as himself complained their Bodies being subject unto his Authority but their Souls and Consciences to the Pope But I find nothing done in pursuance of it till after the year 1607 where the Earl of Ter-ownen Ter-connel Sir Iohn Odaghartie and other great Lords of the North together with their Wives and Families took their flight from Ireland and left their whole Estates to the King 's disposing Hereupon followed the Plantation of Vlster first undertaken by the City of London who fortified Colraine and built London-Derrie and purchased many thousand Acres of Lands in the parts adjoyning But it was carried on more vigorously as more unfortunately withall by some Adventurers of the Scottish Nation who poured themselves into this Countrey as the richer Soil And though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own Fortunes there and set up Preaching in all Churches whersoever they fixed yet whether it happened for the better or for the worse the event hath showed For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the publick Liturgy and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England 32. Nor did the Doctrine speed much better if it sped not worse For Calvinism by degrees had taken such deep root amongst them that at the last it was received and countenanced as the only Doctrine which was to be defended in the Church of Ireland For not contented with the Articles of the Church of England they were resolved to frame a Confession of their own the drawing up whereof was referred to Dr. Iames Vsher then Provost of the Colledg of Dublin and afterwards Arce-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland By whom the Book was so contrived that all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigors were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church For first the Articles of Lambeth rejected at the Conference at Hampton-Court must be inserted into this Confession as the chief parts of it And secondly An Article must be made of purpose to justifie the Morality of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and to require the spending of it wholly in Religious Exercises Besides which deviations from the Doctrine of the Church of England most grievous Torments immediately in His Soul are there affirmed to be endured by Christ our Saviour which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The Abstinencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be lawfully called who are called unto the work of the Ministry by those that have publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so they be authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed to the Church in making Canons or Censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same The Pope made Antichrist according to the like determination of the French Hugonots at Gappe in Daulphine And finally Such a silence concerning the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if they were not a distinct Order from the common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own private Opinions were dispersed in several places of the Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in the Convocation of the year 1615 and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King IAMES 33. What might induce King IAMES to confirm these Articles differing in so many points from his own Opinion is not clearly known but it is probable that he might be drawn to it on these following grounds For first He was much governed at that time in all Church-concernments by Dr. George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Dr. Iames Mountague Bishop of Bath and Wells who having formerly engaged in maintenance of some or most of those Opinions as before is said might find it no hard matter to perswade the King to a like approbation of them And secondly The King had so far declared himself in the Cause against Vorstius and so affectionately had espoused the Quarrel of the Prince of Orange against those of the Remonstrant Party in the Belgick Churches that he could not handsomely refuse to confirm those Doctrines in the Church of Ireland which he had countenanced in Holland Thirdly The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other Extream before they could be straight and Orthodox in these points of Doctrine Fourthly and finally It was an usual practise with that King in the whole course of His Government to balance one Extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans against the Papists that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety But whether I hit right or not certain it is that it proved a matter of sad consequence to the Church of England there being nothing more ordinary amongst those of the Puritan Party when they were pressed in any of the points aforesaid then to appeal unto the Articles of Ireland and the infallible Judgment of K. IAMES who confirmed the same And so it stood until the year 1634 when by the Power of the Lord Deputy Wentworth and the Dexterity of Dr. Iohn Bramhall then Lord Bishop of Derry the Irish Articles were repealed in a full Convocation and those of England authorised in the place thereof 34. Pass we next over to the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey where the Genevian Discipline had been setled under Queen ELIZABETH and being so setled by that Queen was confirmed by K. IAMES at his first coming to this Crown though at the same time he endeavoured a subversion of it in the Kirk of Scotland But being to do it by degrees and so to practise the restoring of the old Episcopacy as not to threaten a destruction to their new Presbyteries it was thought fit to tolerate that Form of Government in those petit Islands which could have no great influence upon either Kingdom Upon which ground he sends his Letter to them of the 8 th of August first writ in French and thus translated into English that is to say 35. JAMES by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Vnto all those whom these Presents shall concern greeting Whereas We Our selves and the Lords of Our Council have been given to understand that
allure the people to adhere unto them they flatter them with an hope of an absolute Freedom and such a power in Sacred matters as should both authorize and justifie their approaches to the holy Altar without the intervention of Priest or Prelate Which being done they boldly shew themselves against Moses and Aaron and told them plainly to their faces that they took more upon them then belonged to either that all the Congregation was holy every one of them in regard that God appeared so visibly amongst them and therefore that they had done that which they could not justifie in lifting themselves above the Congregation of the Lord. In which it is to be observed that though some of the chief Princes of the House of Dan and perhaps many also of the other Tribes did appear in the Action yet it is plainly called in Scripture The Gain-saying of Korah either because the practice was of his Contrivement or chiefly carried on by the power and credit which he and his Accomplices of the Tribe of Levi had gained amongst the common people by reason of their Interests and Concernments in Sacred matters so excellent are the opportunities which are afforded to unquiet and seditious men when either by â— seeming zeal to the Worship of God or by some special place and interest in his Publick Service they are become considerable in the eyes of the Vulgar These were the first seeds of those dangerous Doctrines and most unwarrantable practices which afterwards brought forth such sad effects toward the latter end of the Jewish State when the Pharisees began to draw unto themselves the managing of all affairs both Sacred and Civil They were not ignorant of that high displeasure which God had manifestly shewn against the principal Authors of that first Sedition who under the pretence of regulating the Authority of his two Chief Ministers had put a baffle as it were upon God himself whose Servants and Ministers they were The Pharisees therefore were content that both the Chief-Priest and the Supreme Prince should still preserve their rank and station as in former times but so that neither of them should be able to act any thing of weight and moment but as directed by their counsels and influenced by their assistance For the obtaining of which point what arts they used what practices they set on foot and by what artifices they prevailed upon mens affections as also into what calamities they plunged that Nation by the abuse of their Authority having once obtained it shall be laid down at large in the following History All the particulars whereof the Reader is desired to observe distinctly that he may see how punctually the Presbyterians of our times have played the Pharisees as well in the getting of their power by lessening the Authority both of Prince and Prelate as in exasperating the people to a dangerous War for the destruction of them both the calling in of Foreign forces to abet their quarrel the fractions and divisions amongst themselves and the most woful Desolation which they have brought upon the happiest and most flourishing Church which the Sun of Righteousness ever shined on since the Primitive times Nec ovum oâ—o nec lac lacti similius Iupiter could not make himself more like Amphitrio nor Mercury play the part of Sociae with more resemblance then the ensuing Story may be parallel'd in our late Combustions Actor for Actor Part for Part and Line for Line there being nothing altered in a manner in that fearful Tragedie but the Stage or Theatre Change the Stage from Palestine or the Realm of Iuda and we shall see the same Play acted over again in many parts and Provinces of the Christian Church In which we finde the Doctrines of the Pharisees revived by some their Hypocrisie or pretended Purity taken up by others their Artifices to encrease their party in the gaining of Proselytes embraced and followed by a third till they grew formidable to those powers under which they lived and finally the same Confusions introduced in all parts of Christendom in which their counsels have been followed Which I shall generally reduce under these four heads that is to say The practices of the Novatians in the North the Arrians in the East the Donatists in Affrick or the the Southern parts and the Priscillianists in the Western The arts and subtilties of the Pharisees were at first suppos'd to be too Heterogeneous to be all found in any one Sect of Hereticks amongst the Christians till they were all united in the Presbyterians the Sects or Hereticks above mentioned participating more or less of their dangerous counsels as they conceived it necessary to advance their particular ends In the pursuance of which ends as the Arrians ventured upon many points which were not known to the Novatians and the Donatists upon many more which were never practised by the Arrians so the Priscillianists did as much exceed the Donatists in the arts of mischief as they themselves have been exceeded by the Presbyterians in all the lamentable consequents and effects thereof which I desire the Reader to consider distinctly that he may be his own Plutarch in fitting them and every one of them with a perfect parallel in reference to those men whose History I shall draw down from the time of Calvin unto these our days tracing it from Geneva into France from France into the Netherlands from the Netherlands to Scotland and from thence to England And in this search I shall adventure upon nothing but what is warranted by the Testimony of unquestioned Authors from whose sence I shall never vary though I may finde it sometimes necessary not to use their words And by so doing I shall keep my self unto the rules of a right Historian in delivering nothing but the Truth without omitting any thing for fear or speaking any thing in favour of the adverse party but as I shall be justified by good Authors THE CONTENTS Lib. I. Containing THe first Institution of Presbytery in the Town of Geneva the Arts and Practices by which it was imposed on the neck of that City and pressed upon all the Churches of the Reformation together with the dangerous Principles and Positions of the chief Contrivers in the pursuance of their project from the year 1536 to the year 1585. Lib. II. Containing Their manifold Seditions Conspiracies and Insurrections in the Realm of France their Libelling against the State and the Wars there raised by their procurement from the year 1559 to 1585. Lib. III. Containing Their Positions and Proceedings in the Higher Germany their dangerous Doctrines and Seditions their Innovations in the Church and alteration in the Civil Government of the Belgick Provinces from the year 1559 to the year 1585. Lib. IV. Containing Their Beginning Progress and Positions their dangerous Practices Insurrections and Conspiracies in the Realm of Scotland from the year 1544 to the year 1566. Lib. V. Containing A further discovery of their dangerous Doctrines their
in all the Churches of his Platform In which as his Doctrine in some other points had first prepared the way to bring in his Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support these Doctrines and crush all them that durst oppose them Onely it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat milder then the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself though in some passages of his Writings he may seem to look the same way also hath placed more judiciously in Massa corrupta in the corrupted mass of mankinde and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for Election or Reprobation of particular Persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election oâ— Reprobation of particular men the restoring of the benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom onely they had honoured with the glorious Name of Gods Elect the working on them by the irresistable power of Grace in the act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of their Deviation insomuch that they were scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main Foundation which they built upon but generally passed under the name of Calvinists as the other did Which Doctrines though I charge not wholly on the score of Presbytery in regard that many of our English Divines who abhorred that Government appeared in favour of the same yet I may truely father them on the two grand Patrons of the Presbyterians by whom they have been since exposed as their dearest darling and no less eagerly contended for then the holy Discipline 23. Another of Calvins great designs was to cry down that Civil Idolatry which he conceived had been committed unto Kings and Princes in making them Supreme and uncontrollable in their several Countries For pulling down of whose Authority even in Civil Matters he attributes such power to such popular Officers as are by them appointed for the ease of their Subjects that by his Doctrine they may call the Supreme Magistrate to a strict account whensoever they shall chance to exceed those bounds which they had prescribed unto themselves onely by which they may be circumscribed by others For having in the last Chapter of his Institutions first published in the year 1536 exceeding handsomely laid down the Doctrine of Obedience and the unlawfulness of resistance in what case soever he gives in the close such a qualification as utterly overthrows his former Doctrine and proved the sole ground of such Rebellions Treasons and Assassinates as have disfigured the otherwise undefiled beauty of the Church of Christ. Which passages I shall here lay down in the Authors words with a translation by their side that the Reader may perceive there is no wrong done him and afterwards proceed to the discovery of those sad effects which have ensued upon them in too many places wherein his Discipline hath either been received or contended for His Doctrine in which point is this that followeth 24. Neque enim si ultio Domini est â—ffraenaiae dominationis correctio ideo protinus demandatum nobis arbitremur quibus nullum aliud quam parendi patiendi datum est mandatum De privatis hominibus semper loquar Nam si qui nunc sint Populares Magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam forte potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singuli Regnis tres Ordines cum primarios conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Regum licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassantibus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniverunt eorum dissimulationem nefaria nefaria perfidia non carere affirmem quia populi libertatem cujus se Dei ordinatione tutores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt 24. Nor may we think because the punishment of Licentious Princes belongs to God that presently this power is devolved on us to whom no other warrant hath been given by God but onely to obey and suffer But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any Popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as were the Ephori set up of old against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchy against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the world goes the three States are seiz'd in each several Kingdom when they are solemnly assembled so far am I from hindring them to put restraints upon the exorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a persidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects liberties of which they knew they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance 25. Which dangerous Doctrine being thus breathed and broached by Calvin hath since been both professed and practised by all his Followers as either they had opportunity to declare themselves or strength enough to put the same in execution Some of whose words I shall here add as a tast to the rest and then refer the rest to their proper places And first we will begin with Beza who in his twenty fourth Epistle inscribed to the Outlandish Churches in England doth resolve it thus If any man saith he contrary to the Laws and Liberties of his native Country shall make himself a Lord or Supreme Magistrate over all the rest or being lawfully invested with the Supreme Magistracie should either unjustly spoil or deprive his Subjects of those Rights and Priviledges which he hath sworn to them to observe or otherwise oppress them by open Tyranny that then the ordinary and inferiour Officers are to oppose themselves against them who both by reason of their several Offices and by Gods appointment are bound in all such cases to protect the Subjects not onely against Forreign but Domestick Tyrants Which is as much as could be possibly contrained in so narrow a compass And if he were the Author as some say he was of the Book called Vindiciae contra Tyrannos published under the name of Stephanus Brutus there hath been no Rebellion raised since that Book was written or likely to be raised in the times ensuing which may not honestly be charged upon his account But because the Author of this Book is commonly reported to be meerly French and none of the Genevian Doctors we may possibly hear more of him in that part of our History which relateth to the Actings of the Presbyterians in the
Gospel did with Christ our Saviour adorned them in their Royal Robes with their Crowns and Scepters and then exposed them to the scorn of the common Souldiers the insolencies and reproaches of the raskal Rabble 28. Nor do they deal much better with them in reference to their power in Spiritual Matters which they make either none at all or such as is subservient onely to the use of the Church Calvin first leads the way in this as he did in the other and seems exceedingly displeased with King Henry the Eighth for taking to him the title of Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England Of this he makes complaint in his Commentary on the 7 of Amos not onely telling us what inconsiderate men they were who had conferred upon him any such Supremacie but that himself was very much disquieted and offended at it And though he be content to yeild him so much Authority as may enable him to make use of the Civil Sword to the protecting of the Church and the true Religion yet he condemns all those of the like inconsiderateness who make them more spiritual that is to say of greater power in Sacred Matters then indeed they are The Supreme power according to the Rules of Calvins Platform belongs unto the Consistory Classes or Synodical Meetings to which he hath ascribed the designation of all such as bear publick Office in the Church the appointing and proclaiming of all solemn Fasts the calling of all Councils or Synodical Meetings the censuring of all misdemeanors in the Ministers of holy Church in which last they have made the Supreme Magistrate an incompetent Judge and therefore his Authority and final Judgement in such cases of no force at all Beza treads close upon the heels of his Master Calvin and will allow no other power to the Civil Magistrate then to protect the Church and the Ministry of it in propagating and promoting the True Worship of God It is saith he the Office of the Civil Magistrate to use the Sword in maintenance and defence of Gods holy Church as it is the duty of the Ministers and Preachers of it to implore their aid as well against all such as refuse obedience to the Decrees and Constitutions of the Church as against Hereticks and Tyrants which endeavoured to subvert the same In which particulars if the Magistrate neglects to do his duty and shall not diligently labour in suppressing Heresie and executing the Decrees of the Church against all opponents what can the people do but follow the Example of the Mother-City in taking that power upon themselves though to the total alteration and subversion of the publick Government For from the Principles and practice of these great Reformers it hath ever since been taken up as a Ruled case amongst all their Followers that if Kings and Princes should refuse to reform Religion that then the inferiour Magistrates or the Common people by the direction of their Ministers both may and ought to proceed to a Reformation and that by force of Arms also if need so require 29. That by this Rule the Scots did generally walk in their Reformation under the Regencie of Mary of Lorreign Queen-Dowager to Iames the Fifth and after her decease in the Reign of her Daughter we shall show hereafter And we shall show hereafter also that it was published for good Genevian Doctrine by our English Puritans That if Princes hinder them that travail in the search of this holy Discipline they are Tyrants to the Church and the Ministers of it and being so may be deposed by their subjects Which though it be somewhat more then Calvin taught as to that particular yet the conclusion follows well enough on such faulty Premises which makes it seem the greater wonder in our English Puritans that following him so closely in pursuit of the Discipline their disaffection unto Kings and all Soveraign Princes their manifest contempt of all publick Liturgies and pertinaciously adhering to his Doctrine of Predestination they should so visibly dissent him in the point of the Sabbath For whereas some began to teach about these times that the keeping holy of one day in seven was to be reckoned for the Moral part of the fourth Commandment he could not let it pass without some reproof for what saith he can be intended by those men but in defiance of the Jews to change the day and then to add a greater Sanctity unto it then the Jews ever did First therefore he declares for his own Opinion that he made no such reckoning of a seventh-day-Sabbath as to inthral the Church to a necessity of conforming to it And secondly that he esteemed no otherwise of the Lords-day-Sabbath then of an Ecclesiastical Constitution appointed by our Ancestors in the place of the Jewish Sabbath and therefore alterable from one day to another at the Churches pleasure Followed therein by all the Churches of his party who thereupon permit all lawful Recreations and many works of necessary labour on the day it self provided that the people be not thereby hindred from giving their attendance in the Church at the times appointed Insomuch that in Geneva if self all manlike exercises as running vaulting leaping shooting and many others of that nature are as indifferently indulged on the Lords day as on any other How far the English Puritans departed from their Mother-Church both in Doctrine and Practice with reference to this particular we shall see hereafter when they could finde no other way to advance Presbytery and to decry the Reputation of the ancient Festivals then by erecting their new Sabbath in the hearts of the people 30. It is reportred by Iohn Barkley in his Book called Parenesâ—s ad Scotos that Calvin once held a Consultation at Geneva for transferring the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday Which though perhaps it may be true considering the inclination of the man to new devices yet I conceive that he had greater projects in his Head and could finde other ways to advance his Discipline then by falling upon any such ridiculous and odious Counsel He had many Irons in the fire but took more care in hammering his Discipline then all the rest First by entitling it to some express Warrant from the holy Scripture and afterwards by commending it to all the Churches of the Reformation In reference to the first he lets us know in his Epistle to Farellus Septemb. 16. 1543. that the Church could not otherwise subsist then under such a Form of Government as is prescribed in the Word and observed in old times by the Church And in relation to the other he was resolved to make his best use of that Authority which by his Commentaries on the Scriptures his Book of Institutions and some occasional Discourses against the Papists he had acquired in all the Protestant and reformed Churches Insomuch that Gasper Ligerus a Divine of Witteberge by his Letters bearing date Feb. 27. 1554
leisure to coâ—sult the same or otherwise may make a judgement of them by this small scantling as the wise Mathematician took the just measure of the body of Hercules by the impression which he made in the sand by one of his Feet And therefore I shall look no further then upon such specialities as have relation to the Doctrine Discipline or Forms of Worship which are most proper to the rest Some of the Brethren not fully setled in a Church had laid aside the singing of Psalms either for fear of being discovered or otherwise terrified and discouraged by the threats of the adversary For this he reprehends them in a tedious Letter dated Iuly 19. 1559. imputes it to their fearfulness or pasillanimity accuseth them of plain tergiversation and shutting up all passages against the entrance of the Graces of Almighty God The Brethren of Mont-Pelyard for I think the former lived in Mettz the chief City of Lorrein were required by the Guardians of their Prince that is to say the Palatine of Zuibrook and the Duke of Wirtenberge to hold conformity in some Ceremonies with the Lutheran Church as namely in the Form of their Catechising the manner of Administring the Holy Sacrament the Form of publick Prayers and Solemnizing of Marriages They were required also to imploy themselves in Preaching down the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome in some small Signiories which were lately fallen unto their Prince and had not formerly been instructed in the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches But absolutely they refused the one and would do nothing in the other without Calvins leave to whose infallible judgement and determination they refer the points whereunto he returns such answer by his Letters bearing date September 25. 1562 as confirmed them in their first refusal excepting more particularly against suffering Midwives to Baptize and against praying for the joyful Resurrection of a man deceased at the time of his Burial But in the other he adviseth them to accept the charge as visibly conducing to the propagation of the true Religion and the inlarging of Christs Kingdom 37. So for the Discipline which seemed to be devised at first upon humane prudence accommodated to the present condition of Geneva onely the use of Excommunication had been discontinued in the Protestant Churches and no such creatures as Lay-Elders heard of in the Primitive times or glanced at in the holy Scriptures So that to trust them with the power of the Churches-censures could not pretend to any ground in the Word of God supposing that the use of Excommunication was to be every where received Calvin himself confesses in his Letter unto those of Zurick that in the judgement of most Learned and Religious men there was no need of Excommunication under Christian Princes Beza acknowledgeth the like in the Life of Calvin and what Ligerus saith for the Church of Saxonie hath been shewed already But by degrees it came to be intituled to Divine Authority at first commended as convenient and at last as necessary With the opinion of the Sacred and Divine Authority of the holy Discipline he had so far possessed Saligniar a man of Eminent power in the City of Paris and one that for thirty years before had declared himself in favour of the Reformation that he acknowledgeth it in the end to be Apostolical For in his Letter written unto Calvin on the Ides of December he lets him know how vehemently he did desire that they might have such a Form of Ecclesiastical Polity as Calvin seemed to breath and could not be denyed to be Apostolical From hence it was that he declared so positively in his Epistle to Poppius February 25. 1559 that the Magistrates were to be sollicited for the Exercise of Excommunication by publick Authority which if it could not be obtained the Ministers were to make this protestation that they durst not give the Sacrament to unworthy receivers for fear of coming under the censure of casting that which was holy before Dogs and Swine More fully in his answer to some questions about the Discipline in which we finde and that goes very high indeed that the safety of the Church cannot otherwise be provided for then by the free use of Excommunication for the purifying of the same from filth the restraint of licentiousness abolishing enormous crimes and the correcting of ill manners the moderate exercise whereof he that will not suffer doth plainly shew himself to be no sheep of our Saviours Pasture 38. And so far Calvin had proceeded but he went no further neither condemning the Estate of Bishops as Antichristian and unlawful nor thinking his Lay-elders so extreamly necessary that no Decree of Excommunication could be past without them But Beza who succeeded in the Chair of Calvin is resolved on both For Calvin having sate eight and twenty years in the Chair of Geneva ended his life in the year 1564. During which time he had attained to such an height of Reputation that even the Churches of the Switzers lost the name of Zuinglians and thought it no small honour to them as well as those of Germany France Pole or Scotland to be called Calvinian Onely the English held it out and neither had imbraced his Doctrines nor received his Discipline And though the Puritan party in it took the name of Calvinists our Divines commonly called Calvinists say the two Informers yet both Saravia stomached it to be so accounted Mountague in answer to the two Informers doth protest against it and all the true sons of the Church of England do as much disclaim it Beza endeavoured what he could to introduce his Discipline and Forms of Worship into all the Churches which did pretend to any Reformation of their ancient Errours In the pursuit whereof he drives on so furiously like Iehu in the holy Scriptures as if no Kings or Princes were to stand before him Scarce was he setled in his Chair when one of his professed Champions for Presbytery puts himself into Heidelberg which had not long before admitted the Calvinian Doctrines but not submitted to the Discipline as extrinsecal to them This Champion therefore challenges the Divines thereof to a disputation publickly holds forth this proposition which he then defended that is to say That to a Minister with his Elders there is power given by express warrant from Gods Word to Excommunicate all offenders even the greatest Prince From hence proceeded that dispute which afterwards Erastus of whom more hereafter maintained with Beza the point being put upon this issue Whether all Churches ought to have their Eldership invested with a power of Excommunication and that Lay-elders were so necessary in every Eldership that nothing could be done without them In which dispute as it is very well observed by judicious Hooker they seemed to divide the whole truth between them Beza most truely holding the necessity of Excommunication in a Church well constituted Erastus no less truely shewing
Tyrants of preceding times which comes up close to those irreverent and lewd expressions which frequently occur in Calvin Beza Knox c. in reference to the two Mary's Queens of England and Scotland and other Princes of that age which have been formerly recited in their proper places 35. The Royal Family being thus wretchedly exposed to the publick hatred he next applyes himself to stir up all the world against them both at home and abroad And first he laboureth to excite some desperate Zealot to commit the like assassinate on the King then Reigning as one Bodillus is reported in some French Histories to have committed on the person of Chilprick one of the last Kings of the Merovignians which he commemorates for a Noble and Heroick action and sets it out for an example and encouragement to some gallant French-man for the delivery of his Country from the Tyranny of the House of Valois the ruine whereof he mainly drives at in his whole designe And though he seem to make no doubt of prevailing in it yet he resolves to try his Fortune otherwise if that should fail And first beginning with their next neighbour the King of Spain he he puts them in remembrance of those many injuries which he and his Ancestors had received from the House of Valois acquaints him with the present opportunity which was offered to him of revenging of thoâ—e wrongs and making himself Master of the Realm of France and chalks him out a way how he might effect it that is to say by coming to a present Accord with the Prince of Orange indulging Liberty of Conscience to the Belgick Provinces and thereby drawing all the Hugonots to adhere unto him which counsel if he did not like he might then make the same use of the Duke of Savoy for whom the Hugonots in France had no small affection and by bestowing on him the adjoyning Regions of Lyonoise Dâ—ulphine and Provence might make himself Lord of all the rest without any great trouble The like temptation must be given to the Queen of England by putting her in minde of her pretences to the Crown it self and shewing how easie a thing it might be for her to acquire those Countries whose Arms and Titles she assumed with like disloyalty he excites the Princes of the Empire to husband the advantage which was offered to them for the recovering of Metz Toule and Verdun three Imperial Cities by this Kings Father wrested betwixt fraud and force from Charles the Fifth and ever since incorporated with the Realm of France If all which failed he is resolved to cast himself on the Duke of Guise though the most mortal and implacable enemy of the Hugonot Faction and makes a full address to him in a second Epistle prefixt before the Book it self in which he puts him in remembrance of his old pretensions to the Crown of France extorted by Hugh Capet from his Ancestors of the House of Loraigne offereth him the assistance of the Hugonot party for the recovery of his Rights and finally beseeches him to take compassion of his ruined Country cheerfully to accept the Crown and free the Kingdom from the spoil and tyranny of Boyes and Women together with that infinite train of Strangers Bawdes and Leachers which depend on them which was as great a Master-piece in the art of mischief as the wit of malice could devise 36. As for his Doctrines in reference to the common duties between Kings and Subjects we may reduce them to these heads that is to say 1. That the Authority of Kings and Supreme Magistrates is circumscribed and limited by certain bounds which if they pass their Subjects are no longer tyed unto their obedience that Magistrates do exceed those bounds when either they command such things as God forbiddeth or prohibit that which he commands that therefore they are no longer to be obeyed if their Commands are contrary to the Rules of Piety or Christian Charity of which the Subjects must be thought the most competent Judges 2. That there were companies and societies of men before any Magistrates were set over them which Magistrates were no otherwise set over them then by common consent that every Magistrate so appointed was bound by certain Articles and Conditions agreed between them which he was tyed by Oath to preserve inviolable that the chief end for which the people chose a Superiour Magistrate was that they might remain in safety under his protection and therefore if such Magistrates either did neglect that end or otherwise infringe the Articles of their first Agreement the Subjects were then discharged from the bond of obedience and that being so discharged from the bond of obedience it was as lawful for them to take up Arms against their King in maintainance of their Religion Laws and Liberties if indangered by him as for a Traveller to defend himself by force of Arms against Thieves and Robbers 3. That no Government can be rightly constituted in which the Grandeur of the Prince is more consulted then the weal of the People that to prevent all such incroachments on the Common Liberty the people did reserve a power of putting a curb upon their Prince or Supreme Magistrates to hold them in such as the Tribunes were in Rome to the Senate and Consuls and the Ephori to the Kings of Sparta that such a power as that of the Spartan Ephori is vested in the seven Electors of the German Empire which gives them an Authority to depose the Emperour if they see cause for it and that the like may be affirmed of the English Parliaments who oftentimes have condemned their Kings but he knows not whom 4. That by the first constitutions of the Realm of France the Supreme power was not entrusted to the King but the three Estates so that it was not lawful for the King to proclaim a War or to lay Taxes on the people but by their consent that these Estates assembled in a Common Council did serve instead of eyes and ears to a prudent Prince but to a wicked and ungoverned for Bit or Bridle and that according to this power they dethroned many of their Kings for their Lusts Luxuries Cruelty Slothfulness Avarice c. that if they proceeded not in like manner with the King then Reigning it was because they had an high esteem with scorn and insolence enough of his eminent Vertues his Piety Justice and Fidelity and the great commendations which was given of his Mothers Chastity and therefore finally which was the matter to be proved by those Factious Principles that it was altogether as lawful for the French to defend themselves their Laws and Liberties against the violent assault of a furious Tyrant so he calls their King as a Traveller by Thieves and Robbers Which Aphorisms he that listeth to consult in the Author may finde them from pag. 57. to 66. of the second Dialogue and part 1. pag. 8. 37. But notwithstanding these indignities
the chief Church of Heidelberg the principal City of the lower Palatinate and the chief Seat of his 〈◊〉 The news whereof encouraged all the rest of the Protestant Princes to congratulate with him and to desire him to embrace the Confession of Ausberge to which he readâ—ly accorded and setled all things in his Countries by the Lutheran Model as well for Government and Doctrine as for Forms of Worship In which condition it continued during the residue of his life and the short Government of Otho-Henry who succeeded him in those Estates and was the last of the direct Line of the House of Bavaria After whose death Anno 1559 succeeded Frederick Duke of Simmeren descended from Steven Palatine of Zuidbrook or Bipont younger son of the Emperour Rupert From whom the Princes of the other House had delivered their Pedigree Which Prince succeeding by the name of Frederick the Third appeared more favourable to the Zuinglian then the Lutheran Forms animated thereunto by some â—eedy Courtiers in hope to make a prey of â—lebe and Tythes and other poor remainders of the Churches Patrimony 2. For the advancing of this Work Gualâ—er a very moderate and learned man is desired from Zurick and cheerfully undertakes the Service in which he prospered so well that he took off most of the Princes from their former opinions and brought them to conform their judgements in all points of Doctrine to the Confession of the Switzer or Helvetian Churches The Discipline of which Churches differed at that time from Calâ—ins Platform as appears clearly by some passages in a Letter of Bullingers bearing date Decemb. 13. 1553 when Calvin was necessitated to beg some tolerable approbation of his new Device For there it is expresly said that though their Discipline at Zurick and the rest of the Cantons agreed not in all points with that of the Consistory which had been setled at Geneva but was accommodated to the temper of their own Dominions yet they desired not the subversion of Calvins Model which seemed so necessary at that time for the Town of Geneva that they advised not to have it altered But more particularly it appears by Beza in the life of Calvin and by the Letter of Ligerus before remembred that Excommunications were not used in any of the Reformed Churches whether they were of Lutheran or Zuinglian judgement But scarce had Gualter so setled Zuinglianism in the Church of Heidelberg and those which did depend upon it when a bold Challenger from Geneva deâ—ies them all and undertakes to prove this Proposition in the publick Schools That to a Minister assisted with the help of his Eldership doth appertain the power of Excommunication by the Law of God Hereupon followed that famous Disputation in the Schools of Heidelberg the substance whereof we finde drawn up in Vrsines Catechism from pag. 835. to pag. 847. of the English Edition By which it doth appear that the name of the Respondent was George Withers a Native of England and that one Peter Boquine was the Moderator and therefore Withers must be taken to have made the Challenge The Theses then maintained by Withers were these two that follow viz That to the sincere preaching of the Word and the lawful administration of the Sacraments is required an Office or Power of Government in the Church 2. That a Minister with his Eldership ought to enjoy and exercise a Power of Convicting Reproving Excommunicating and Executing any part of Ecclesiastical Discipline or any Offenders whatsoever even on Princes themselves 3. The Arguments by which the Respondent was assaulted together with the answers which were made unto them were taken by the pen of Vrsine a Divine of Heidelberg who was present at the Disputation and by his means transmitted to the use of the Church the Title of his Abstract this viz. 〈◊〉 Arguments assoyled whereby some in a publiâ—k Disputation held in Heidelberg 1568 June 10. Dr. Peter Boquine being Moderator and Mr. George Withers English man Respondent endeavoured to abolish Ecclesiastical Discipline Which Arguments and their solutions were taken word for word from the mouth of Dr. Ursine at the repetition of this disputation on the next day privately made in Colleg. Sapient For further satisfaction I refer the Reader to the Book it self and shall now onely add this note viz. that as the Arguments were not found sufficient to beat down that power which Christ had left unto his Church for excommunicating scandalous and notoriâ—us sinners so neither were the Answers strong enough to preserve Lay-elders in the possession of a power that belonged not to them Which was in time the issue of the disputation which afterwards was so hotly followed between Theodore Beza on the one side and Dr. Thomas Erastus whom Calvin mentioneth in his Epistle to Olerianus Doctor of Physick on the other Beza evincing the necessity of Excommunication in the Church of Christ and Erastus proving nothing to the contrary but that Lay-elders were not necessary to the exercise of it Which disputation lasted long and effected little managed on both sides in Printed Tractates the last of which was that of Beza first published at Geneva reprinted afterwards at London An. 1590. But in the mean time the Genevian Discipline was admitted in both Palatinates the Country divided into Classes and Synodical meetings those Classes subdivided into their Presbyteries and each Presbytery furnished with a power of Excommunication and exercising such Church-censures as the Fact required But then we are to know withal that those wise Princes being loath to leave too much Authority in the hands of the Elderships with whose encroachments on the power of the Civil Magistrate they were well acquainted appointed some Superiour Officers of their own nomination to sit as Chief amongst them without whom nothing could be done and they were sure that by them nothing would be done which either might intrench upon their Authority or their people's Liberty A temperament for which they were beholden to the said Erastus who being a Doctor of Physick as before was noted devised this Pill to purge Presbytery of some Popish humours which secretly lay hid in the body of it 4. The like alloy was mixed with the Genevian Discipline in the Churches of Hassia Nassaw and those other petite Estates and Signories which make up the Confederacie of the Wetterâ—vians Which having once received the Doctrine of Zuinglius did shortly after entertain the Calvinian Elderships but moderated and restrained in those Exorbitancies which the Presbyterians actually committed in the Realm of Scotland and in most places else subjected unto their Authority But in regard the Palatine Churches are esteemed as a Rule to the rest the rest of Germany I mean in all points of Doctrine and that the publick Catechism thereof is generally reckoneâ— for Authentick not onely in the Churches of the Higher Germany but in the Netherland-Churches also it will not be amiss to take notice of them in such Doctrinal Points
and in his own Patrimonial Right was Lord of the strong Towns and goodly Signories of Breda Grave and Diest in the Dukedom of Brabant In the right of which last Lordship he was Burgrave of Antwerp He was also Marquess of Vere and Vlushing with some jurisdiction over both in the Isle of Walcheren by Charles the Fifth made Knight of the Golden Fleece and by King Philip Governour of Holland Zealand and the County of Burgundy All which he might have peaceably enjoyed with content and honour as did the Duke of Areschot and many others of the like Nobility if he had aimed onely at a personal or private greatness But it is possible that his thoughts carryed him to a higher pitch and that perceiving what a general hatred was born by the Low Country-men against the Spaniard he thought it no impossible thing to dispossess them at the last of all those Provinces and to get some of them for himself And he had put fair for it had not death prevented him by which his life and projects were cut off together For compassing which projects he made use of that Religion which best served his turn being bred a Lutheran by his Father he profest himself a Romanist under Charles the Fifth and after finding the Calvinians the more likely men to advance his purposes he declared himself chiefly in their favour though he permitted other Sects and Sectaries to grow up with them in which respect he openly opposed all Treaties Overtures and Propositions looking towards a peace which might not come accompanied with such a liberty of Conscience both in Doctrine and Worship as he knew well could never be admitted by the Ministers of the Catholick King But the Calvinians of all others were most dear unto him By his encouragement the Belgick Confession was drawn up and agreed upon 1567. By his countenance being then Burgrave and Governour of Antwerp as before is said they set up their Consistory in that City as afterwards in many others of the Dukedome of Brabant and by his favour they attained unto such Authority and took such deep root in Holland Zealand and the rest of the Provinces under his command that they prevailed in fine over all Religious Sects and Sectaries which are therein tolerated 57. And that they might the better be enabled to retain that power which under him they had acquired they were resolved not to return again to their first obedience which they conceived so inconsistent with it and destructive of it To this end they commit the Government to some few amongst them under the name of the Estates who were to govern all affairs which concerned the publick in the nature of a Common-wealth like to that of the Switzers so much the more agreeable to them because it came more neer to that form or Polity which they had erected in the Church And in this posture they will stand as long as they can which if they found themselves unable to continue with any comfort and that they needs must have a Prince they will submit themselves to the French and English or perhaps the Dane to any rather then their own And to this point it came at last for the Prince of Parma so prevailed that by the taking of Gaunt and Bruges he had reduced all Flanders to the Kings obedience brought Antwerp unto terms of yeilding and carried on the War to the Walls of Vtrecht In which extremity they offered themselves to the French King but his affairs were so perplexed by the Hugonots on the one side and the Guisian Faction on the other that he was not in a fit capacity to accept the offer In the next place they have recourse to the Queen of England not as before to take them into her protection but to accept them for her Subjects and that the acceptance might appear with some shew of justice they insist on her descent from Philip Wife to King Edward the Third Sister and some say Heir of William the Third Earl of Holland Haynalt c. Which Philip if she were the Eldest Daughter of the said Earl William as by their Agents was pretended then was the Queens Title better then that of the King of Spain which was derived from Margaret the other Sister Or granting that Philip was the younger yet on the failer or other legal interruption of the Line of Margaret which seemed to be the case before them the Queen of England might put in for the next Succession and though the Queen upon very good reasons and considerations refused the Soveraignty of those Countries which could not without very great injury to publick justice be accepted by her yet so far she gave way to her own fears the ambition of some great persons who were near unto her and the pretended Zeal of the rest that she admitted them at the last into her protection 58. The Earl of Leicester was at that time of greatest power in the Court of England who being a great favourer of the Puritan Faction and eagerly affecting to see himself in the head of an Army sollicited the affair with all care and cunning and it succeeded answerably to his hopes and wishes The Queen consents to take them into her protection to raise an Army of five thousand Foot and one thousand Horse to put it under the Command of a sufficient and experienced General and to maintain it in her pay till the War were ended And it was condescended to on the other side that the Towns of Brill and Vlushing with the Fort of Ramekins should be put into the hands of the English that the Governour whom the Queen should appoint over the Garrisons together with two other persons of her nomination should have place and suffrage in the Council of the States United that all their own Forces should be ranged under the Command of the English General and that the States should make no peace without her consent By which transaction they did not onely totally withdraw themselves from the King of Spain but suffered the English to possess the Gates of the Netherlands whereby they might imbar all Trade shut out all Supplies and hold them unto such conditions as they pleased to give them But any Yoke appeared more tolerable then that of the Spaniard and any Prince more welcome to them then he to whom both God and Nature had made them subject According unto which agreement Vlushing is put into the hands of Sir Philip Sidney the English Army under the Command of the Earl of Leicester and which is more then was agreed on an absolute Authority over all Provinces is committed to him together with the glorious Titles of Governour and Captain-General of Holland Zealand and the rest of the States United which how it did displease the Queen what course was took to mitigate and appease her anger what happened in the war betwixt him and the Prince of Parma and what cross Capers betwixt him and the States themselves is not
my purpose to relate It is sufficient that we have presented to the eye of the Reader upon what principles the Netherlands were first embroyled whose hands they were by which the Altars were prophaned the Images defaced Religious Houses rifled and the Churches ruinated And finally by what party and by whose strange practices the King of Spain was totally devested of all those Provinces which since have cast themselves into the form of a Common-wealth 59. Which being thus shortly laid together in respect of their Politicks we must look back and take another view of them in their Ecclesiasticks In which we shall finde them run as cross to all Antiquity as they had done to Order and good Government in their former Actings And the first thing we meet with of a Church-concernment was the publishing of their Confession of their Faith and Doctrine Anno 1565 or thereabouts as many national and provincial Churches had done before but differing in many great points from that of Ausberg and therefore the less acceptable unto the Lutheran party and the more distasteful to the Romish In which Confession to be sure they must hold forth a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ they had not else come up to the Example and designe of the Mother-City which was to lay all flat and level in the publick Government For in the XXXI Article it is said expresly that for as much as concerns the Ministers of Gods holy Word in what place soever they shall execute that Sacred Calling they are all of them to enjoy the same Power and Authority as being all of them the Ministers of Jesus Christ the onely Universal Bishop and the onely Head of his Body which is the Church And for the Government of the Church it was declared to be most agreeable to that Sacred and Spiritual Polity by God prescribed in his Word that a Consistory or Ecclesiastical Senate should be Ordained in every Church consisting of Pastors Elders and Deacons to whose charge and care it should belong that true Religion be preserved sound Doctrine preached and that all vitious and lewd livers should be restrained and punished by the Churches Censures For turning which Aerian Doctrines into use and practice they did not only animate all Orders and Degrees of men not to admit their new Bishops where they were not setled or to expel them where they were but alienated and dismembred all such Lands and Rents by which they were to be maintained This they conceived the readiest way to make sure work with them for when the maintainance was gone the Calling was not like to hold up long after And this being done as they had first set up their Consistories in Antwerp and such other Cities in which they were considerable for power and number so by degrees they set up their Presbyteries in the lesser Towns which they united into Classes and ranged those Classes into National and Provincial Synods In which they made such Laws and Canons if some of their irregular Constitutions may deserve that name as utterly subverted the whole Frame of the ancient Discipline and drew unto themselves the managery of all Affairs which concerned Religion 60. But that they might not be supposed therein to derogate from the Authority of the Civil Magistrate they are content to give him a coercive power in some matters which were meerly Civil and therefore in plain terms condemn the Anabaptists for seditious persons Enemies to all good Order and publick Government But then they clog him with some Duties in which he was to be subservient to their own designs that is to say the countenancing of the Sacred Ministry removing all Idolatry from the Worship of God the ruinating and destroying of the Kingdom of Antichrist And what they meant by Antichrist Idolatry and the Sacred Ministry is easie to be understood without the help of a Commentary Which Duties if the Magistrate shall discharge with care and diligence he would ease them of much labour which otherwise they meant to take upon themselves if not they must no longer stay his leisure nor expect his pleasure but put their own hands unto the work and so it was delivered for good Doctrine by Snecanus a Divine of West-Friesland for which see lib. 8. num 23. Which though it be the general Doctrine of all the party yet never was it preached more plainly then by Cleselius a Calvinian of Rotterdam who openly maintained that if the Magistrates took no care to reform the Church that then it did belong to the common people And they as he informs us were obliged to do it even by force and violence not onely to the shedding of their own but their Brethrens blood So principled it could be no marvail if they turned out the Bishops to make room for their own Presbyteries defaced all Churches that retained any thing in them of the old Idolatries and finally pulled down even the Civil Magistrate when his advancing did not stand with their ends and purposes Flacius Ilyricus the founder of the Stiff or Rigid Lutherans had led the way unto them in the last particular By whom it was held forth for a Rule in all Church-Reformations that Princes should be rather terrified with the fear of Tumults then any thing which seemed to savour of Idolatry or Superstition should either be tolerated or connived at for quietness-sake Concurring with him as they did in his Doctrines of Predestination Grace Freewil and things indifferent they were the better fitted to pursue his Principles in opposition unto all Authority by which their Councils were controuled or their Power restrained And by this means the publishing of their Confession with these Heads and Articles they did not onely justifie their exorbitancies in the time then past but made provision for themselves in the times to come 61. In such other points of their Confession as were meerly doctrinal and differing from the general current of the Church of Rome they shew themselves for the most part to be Anti-Lutheran that is to say Zuinglians in the point of the Holy Supper and Calvinists in the Doctrine of Predestination In which last point they have exprest the Article in such modest terms as may make it capable of an Orthodox and sober meaning For presupposing all mankinde by the Fall of Adam to be involved by Gods just judgement in the Gulph of Perdition they make them onely to be predestinate to eternal life whom God by his eternal and immutable counsel hath elected in Christ and separated from the rest by the said Election But when the differences were broken out betwixt them and such of their Brethren which commonly past amongst them by the name of Remonstrants and that it was pretended by the said Remonstrants that the Article stood as fair to them as the opposite party the words were then restrained to a narrower sence then the generality of the expression could literally and
had they stood to that they had been unblameable but finding by the Subscriptions which they had received from all parts of the Kingdom that they were nothing inferiour to their Adversaries in power and number they were not able to hold long in so good an humour Howsoever it was thought expedient for the avoiding of Scandal that they should first proceed in the way of supplication to the Queen and Council in which it was desired that it might be lawful for them to meet publickly or privately for having the Common-prayers in the vulgar tongue that the Sacrament of Baptism might be administred in the same Tongue also the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kindes according to Christs Institution and that a Reformation might be made of the wicked lives of Prelates Priests and other Ecclesiastical persons The Queen of Scots was in the mean time Married to the Daulphin of France upon whose head it was desired by the French that at the least the Matrimonial Crown should be solemnly placed and that all the French Nation should forthwith be naturalized in the Realm of Scotland For the better effecting whereof in the following Parliament the Queen Regent thought it no ill peece of State-craft so far to gratifie the Petitioners in their desires as to license them to meet in publick or private for the exercise of their own Religion so that it were not in the City of Edenborough or the Port of Leith for fear some Tumult or Sedition might ensue upon it But not content with this Indulgence they were resolved to move the Parliament for an Abrogation of all former Laws made against Sects and Heresies by which they might incur the loss of Life Land or Liberty and that none of their profession should be condemned for Heresie unless they were first convinced by the Word of God to have erred from the Faith which the holy Spirit witnesseth to be necessary to mans Salvation 11. But hereunto they could not get the Queens consent And thereupon they caused a Protestation to be drawn and openly pronounced in the face of the Parliament in which it was declared amongst other things that neither they nor any other of the Godly who pleased to joyn with them in the true Faith grounded upon the Word of God should incur any danger of Life or Lands or other particular pains for not observing such acts as have passed heretofore in favour of their Adversaries or for violating such Rites as have been invented by man without the Commandment of God that if any Tumult or Uproar should happen to arise in the Realm or that any violence should be used in reforming of such things as were amiss in the state of the Church the blame should not be laid on them who had desired that all things might be rectified by publick Order And finally that they pretended to no other end but onely for the reforming of such abuses as were found in Religion and therefore that they might no otherwise be thought of then as faithful and obedient Subjects to Supreme Authority And now the Scheme begins to open the Town of Perth by some called St. Iohnstone declared in favour of the Lords of the Congregation which name they had took unto themselves the news whereof was so unpleasing to the Queen that she commanded the Lord Ruthuen a man of principal Authority in the parts adjoyning to take some order for suppressing those Innovations in Religion which some busie people of that Town had introduced To which he answered That he was able if she pleased to force their bodies and to seize their goods but that he had no power to compel their Consciences which answer did not more displease the Queen then it encouraged those of the Congregation who now from all parts flocked to Perth as a Town strong by scituation well fortified and standing in a fruitful Country from whence they might receive all necessaries if any open force or violence should be used against them 12. Knox in the mean time had retreated to his charge at Geneva not thinking fit to tempt that danger by an unseasonable return which he had so narrowly escaped at his being there He onely waited opportunity to go back with safety and would not stir though frequently sollicited by his Friends in Scotland In so much that means was made to Calvin by especial Letters to re-ingage him in the Cause Which Letters were brought to him in the Month of November Anno 1558. And that it may appear what influence Calvin had upon all the counsels and designes of the Congregation he is advertised from time to time of their successes of the estate of their Affairs whether good or bad in so much that when the Queen Regent had fed them with some flattering hopes Calvin is forthwith made acquainted with their happiness in it And who but he must be desired to write unto her that by his Grave counsel and exhortation she might be animated to go forward constantly in promoting the Gospel But though these Letters came to Calvin in the Month of November yet we finde not Knox in Scotland till the May next following when those of his party had possessed themselves of the Town of Perth though he loved Calvin well and the Gospel better yet all that a man hath he will give for his life and Knox was dearer to himself then either of them But unto Perth he comes at last on the fifth of May. In the chief Church whereof he preached such a thundring Sermon against the Adoration of Images and the advancing of them in places of Gods publick Worship as suddenly beat down all the Images and Religious Houses within the Precincts of that Town For presently after the end of the Sermon when almost all the rest of the people were gone home to dinner some few which remained in the Church pullâ—d down a glorious Tabernacle which stood on the Altar broke it in pieces and defaced the Images which they found therein Which being dispatched they did the like execution on all the rest in that Church and were so nimble at their work that they had made a clear riddance of them before the tenth man in the Town was advertised of it The news hereof causeth the Rascal Multitude so my Author calls them to resort in great numbers to the Church But because they found that all was done before they came they fell with great fury on the Monastery of Carthusian Monks and the Houses of the Preaching and Franciscan Fryars beginning wiâ—h the Images first but after spoyling them of all their provisions Bedding and Furniture of Houshold which was given for a prey unto the poor And in the ruinating of these Houses they continued with much force and eagerness so that within the compass of two days they had left nothing standing of those goodly Edifices but the outward Walls 13. It was reported that the Queen was so inraged when she heard the news that she vowed
into France yet afterwards with one thousand Foot and some remainders of his Horse he recovered Leith and joyned himself unto the rest of that Nation who were there disposed of Of all which passages and provocations the Chief Confederates of the Congregation were so well informed as might assure them that Queen Elizabeth would be easily moved for her own security to aid them in expelling the French and then the preservation of Religion and the securing of themselves their Estates and Families would come in of course 22. It was upon this Reason of State and not for any quarrel about Religion that Queen Elizabeth put her self into Arms and lent the Scots a helping hand to remove the French And by the same she might have justified her self before all the World if she had followed those advantages which were given her by it and seized into her hands such Castles Towns and other places of importance within that Kingdom as might give any opportunity to the French-Scots to infest her Territories For when one Prince pretends a Title to the Crown of another or otherwise makes preparations more then ordinary both by Land and Sea and draws them together to some place from whence he may invade the other whensoever he please the other party is not bound to sit still till the War be brought to his own doors but may lawfully keep it at a distance as far off as he can by carrying it into the Enemies Country and getting into his power all their strong Passes Holds and other Fortresses by which he may be hindred from approaching nearer But this can no way justifie or excuse the Scots which are not to be reckoned for the less Rebels against their own undoubted Soveraign for being subservient in so just a War to the Queen of England as neither the Caldeans or the wilde Arabians could be defended in their thieving or Nebuchadnezzar justified in his pride and Tyranny because it pleased Almighty God for tryal of Iobs faith and patience to make use of the one and of the other for chastising his people Israel The point being agitated with mature deliberation by the Councel of England it was resolved that the French were not to be suffered to grow strong so near the Border that the Queen could not otherwise provide for her own security then by expelling them out of Scotland and that it was not to be compassed at a less expence of bloud and Treasure then by making use of the Scots themselves who had so earnestly supplicated for her aid and succours Commissioners are thereupon appointed to treat at Barwick Betwixt whom and the Agents for the Lords of the Congregation all things in reference to the War are agreed upon The sum and result whereof was this That the English with a puissant Army entred into Scotland reduced the whole War to the Siege of Leith and brought the French in short time into such extremities that they were forced in conclusion to abandon Scotland and leave that Country wholly in a manner to the Congregation 23. These were the grounds and this the issue of those counsels which proved so glorious and successful unto Queen Elizabeth in all the time of her long Reign For by giving this seasonable Aid to those of the Congregation in their greatest need and by feeding some of the Chiefs amongst them with small annual Pensions she made her self so absolute and of such Authority over all the Nation that neither the Queen Regent nor the Queen her self nor King Iames her son nor any of their Predecessors were of equal power nor had the like Command upon them The Church was also for a while a great gainer by it the Scots had hitherto made use of the English Liturgie in Gods publick Worship the fancie of extemporary Prayers not being then taken up amongst them as is affirmed by Knox himself in his Scottish History But now upon the sence of so great a benefit and out of a desire to unite the Nations in the most constant bonds of friendship they binde themselves by their subscription to adhere unto it For which I have no worse a Witness then their own Buchanan And that they might approach as near unto it in the Form of Government as the present condition of the times would bear as they placed several Ministers for their several Churches as Knox in Edenborough Goodman at St. Andrews Aeriot at Aberdeen c. so they ordained certain Superintendants for their Ministers all the Episcopal Sees being at that time filled with Popish Prelates And happy it had been for both had they continued still in so good a posture and that the Presbyterian humour had not so far obliterated all remembrance of their old affections as in the end to prosecute both the Liturgie and Episcopacie to an extermination And there accrued a further benefit by it to the Scots themselves that is to say the confirmation of the Faith which they so contended for by Act of Parliament for by difficulties of Agreement between the Commissioners authorized on all sides to attone the differences it was consented to by those for the Queen of Scots that the Estates of the Realm should convene and hold a Parliament in the August following and that the said Convention should be as lawful in all respects as if it should be summoned by the particular and express command of the Kings themselves According to which Article they hold a Parliament and therein pass an Act for the ratification of the Faith and Doctrine as it was then drawn up into the Form of a Confession by some of their Ministers But because this Confession did receive a more plenary Confirmation in the first Parliament of King Iames we shall refer all further speech of it till we come to that They also passed therein other Acts to their great advantage first for abolishing the Popes Authority the second for repealing all former Statutes which were made and maintained of that which they called Idolatry and the third against the saying or hearing of Mass. 24. It was conditioned in the Articles of the late agreement that the Queen of Scots should send Commissioners to their present Parliament that the results thereof might have the force and effect of Laws but she intended not for her part to give their Acts the countenance of Supreme Authority and the Chief-leading-men of the Congregation did not much regard it as thinking themselves in a capacity to manage their own business without any such countenance For though they had addressed themselves to the King and Queen for confirmation of such Acts as had passed in this Parliament yet they declared that what they did was rather to express their obedience to them then to beg of them any strength to their Religion They had already cast the Rider and were resolved that neither King nor Queen should back them for the time to come The Qâ—een Regent wearied and worn out with such horrid insolencies departed this
visitation of all the Ministers and Churches in their several bounds to fix their dwellings in the chief Towns or Cities within the same and to be chosen by the Burgesses of the said Towns or Cities together with the suffrages of the Ministers of their several Circuits and more particularly that the County or Province of Lothaine shall be abstracted from the Diocess of St. Andrews and have a Superintendent of its own who was to keep his Residence in the City of Edenborough which afterwards in the year 1633 was erected by King Charles into a Bishops See and Lothaine assigned him for his Diocess as was here devised That for the better maintainance of the Ministers and Superintendents as also for defraying of all other publick charges which concerned the Churches the lands belonging unto the Bishops as also to all Cathedral and Convenâ—â—al Churches and to the Houses of Monks and Fryars shall be set apart not otherwise to be imployed That in all Churches there be two Elders annually chosen to be associate with the Ministers in the Cognizance of all Ecclesiastical Causes and in the Censures of the Church That the said Elders shall have power not onely to admonish but correct their Ministers if occasion be but not to proceed to deprivation without the allowance and consent of the Superintendent and that the Deacons shall be joyned as Assistants in judgement with the Elders and Ministers That no man presume to eat or drink or otherwise to converse familiarly with excommunicate persons except those of his own Family onely That their Children should not be Baptised till they came unto the years of discretion And that all Murtherers and other Malefactors punishable by death according to the Laws of the Land though they be pardoned for the same by the supreme Magistrates shall notwithstanding be esteemed as excommunicate persons and not received into the Church without such satisfaction and submission as is required of other notorious offenders by the Rules of the Discipline It appears also by this Book that there was one standing Supreme Câ—uncil for ordering the Affairs of the Church and by which all publick grievances were to be redressed but of what persons it consisted and in what place it was held is not mentioned in it 28. This Book being tendered to the consideration of the Convention of Estates was by them rejected whether it were because they could not make such a manifest separation from the Polity of the Church of England or that it concerned them more particularly in their own proper interest in regard of the Church-lands Tythes which they had amongst them or perhaps for both Certain it is that some of them past it over by no better Title then that of some devout Imaginations which could not be reduced to practice This so offended Knox and others who had drawn it up if any other but Knox onely had a hand therein that they spared not bitterly to revile them for their coldness in it taxing them for their carnal liberty their love untâ—â— their worldly Commodities and their corrupt imaginations Some of them are affirmed to have been licentious some greedily to have griped the possessions of the Church and others to be so intent upon the getting of Christs Coat that they would not stay till he was crucified Of the Lord Erskin who refused to subscribe to the Book it is said particularly that he had a very evil woman to his Wife and that if the Schools the poor and the Ministry of the Church had their own his Kiâ—â—hâ—n would have lacked two parts of that which he then possessed Of all of them it was admired that for such a long continuance they could hear the threatnings of God against Thieves and Robbers and that knowing themselves to be guilty of those things which were most rebuked they should never have any remorse of Conscience nor intend the restoring of those things which they had so stolen For so it was if they may be believed that said it that none in all the Realm were more unmerciful to the poor Ministers then they that had invaded and possessed themselves of the greatest Rents of right belonging unto the Church and therein verified as well the old Proverb That the belly hath no ears at all as a new observation of their own devising That nothing would suffice a wretch Such were the discontents and evaporations of these zealous men when they were crossed in any thing which concerned them in their power or profit 30. But in another of their projects they had better Fortune They had sollicited the Convention of Estates for demolishing of all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry in which number they accounted all Cathedral Churches as well as Monasteries and other Religious Houses which they insisted on the rather because it was perceived and perhaps given out that the â—apists would again erect their old Idolatry and take upon them a command as before they did upon the Consciences of the people that so as well the great men of the Realm as such whom God of his Mercy so they tell us had subjected to them should be compelled to obey their lawless appetites In this some hopes were given them that they should be satisfied but nothing done in execution of the same till the May next following And possibly enough it might have been delayed to a longer time if the noise and expectation of the Queens return had not spurred it on For either fearing or not knowing what might happen to them if she should interpose her power to preserve those places whose demolishing they so much desired they introduce that Discipline by little and little which they could not settle all at once They begin first planting Churches and nominating Superintendents for their several Circuits they superinduce their own Ministers over the heads of the old incumbents establish their Presbyteries divide them into several Classes and hold their general Assemblies without any leave desired of the Queen or Council They proceed next to execute all sorts of Ecclesiastical Censures and arrogate Authority to their selves and their Elders to Excommunicate all such as they found unconformable to their new devices For the first tryal of their power they convent one Sanderson who had been accused to them for Adultery whom they condemned to be carted and publickly exposed unto the scorn of Boys and Children An uproar had been made in Edenborough about the chusing of a Robbinhood or a Whitson-Lord in which some few of the preciser sort opposed all the rest and for this crime they excommunicate the whole multitude wherein they shewed themselves to be very unskilful in the Canon-law in which they might have found that neither the Supreme Magistrate nor any great multitudes of people are to be subject to that Censure They proceed afterwards to the appointing of solemn Fasts and make choice of Sunday for the day which since that time hath been made use of for those Fasts more then any
hated thirdly the weakning of the Queen both in power and credit and consequently the drawing of all Affairs to their own disposing Bothwel in order to the plot makes use of Ledington to prompt the Queen to a Divorce which he conceived might easily be effected in the Court of Rome and is himself as diligent upon all occasions to work upon the Queens displeasures and make the breach wider betwixt her and her Husband The greatness of which breach was before so visible that nothing was more commonly known nor generally complained of amongst the people But never was it made so eminently notorious in the eye of Strangers as at the Christening of the young Prince in December following At which time she would neither suffer the Ambassadors of France or England to give him a visit nor permit him to shew himself amongst them at the Christening Banquet From Stirling where the Prince was Christened he departs for Glasco to finde some comfort from his Father To which place he was brought not without much difficulty for falling sick upon the way it appeared plainly by some symptoms that he had been poysoned the terrible effects whereof he felt in all the parts of his body with unspeakable torments But strength of Nature Youth and Physick did so work together that he began to be in a good way of recovery to the great grief of those who had laid the plot Some other way must now be taken to effect the business and none more expedient then to perswade the Queen to see him to flâ—tter him with some hopes of her former favour and bring him back with her to Edenborough which was done accordingly At Edenborough he was lodged at a private house on the outside of the Town an house unseemly for a King as Knox confesseth and therefore the fitter for their purpose where on the 9 of February at night the poor Prince was strangled his dead body laid in an Orchard near adjoyning with one of his Servants lying by it whom they also murthered and the house most ridiculously blown up with powder as if that blow could have been given without mangling and breaking the two bodies in a thousand pieces 8. The infamy of this horrid murther is generally cast upon the Queen by the arts of those whom it concerned to make her odious with all honest men nor did there want some strong presumptions which might induce them to believe that she was of the counsel in the fact and with the good Brethren of the Congregation every presumption was a proof and every weak proof was thought sufficient to convict her of it But that which most confirmed them in their suspitions was her affection unto Bothwel whom she first makes Duke of Orknay and on the 15 of May is married to him in the Chappel of Halyrood-house according to the form observed by those of the Congregation But against these presumptions there were stronger evidences Bothwel being compelled not long after to flee into Denmark did there most constantly profess both living and dying that the Queen was innocent Morton affirmed the same at his execution above twelve years after relating that when Bothwel dealt with him about the murther and that he shewed himself unwilling to consent unto it without the Queens Warrant and Allowance Bothwel made answer that they must not give themselves any hope of that but that the business must be done without her privity But that which seems to make most for her justification was the confession of Hepbourne Daglish and others of Bothwels servants who were condemned for murdering the young King and being brought unto the Gallows they protested before God and his holy Angels that Bothwel had never told them of any other Authors of so lewd a counsel but onely the two Earls of Morton and Murray In the mean time the common infamy prevailed and none is made more guilty of it then this wretched Queen who had been drawn to give consent to her marriage with Bothwel by the sollicitation and advice of those very men who afterwards condemned her for it In order to whose ends Buchanan publishes a most pestilent and malicious Libel which he called The defection wherein he publickly traduced her for living an adulterous life with David Risio and afterward with Bothwel himself that to precipitate her unlawful marriage with him she had contrived the death of the King her husband projected a Divorce between Bothwel and his former Wife contrary to the Laws both of God and Man Which Libel being printed and dispersed abroad obtained so much credit with most sorts of people that few made question of the truth of the accusations Most true it is that Buchanan is reported by King Iames himself to have confessed with great grief at the time of his death how falsly and injuriously he had dealt with her in that scandalous Pamphlet but this confession came too late and was known to few and therefore proved too weak a remedy for the former mischief 9. He published at the same time also that seditious Pamphlet which he entituled De jure Regni apud Scotos In which he laboured to make proof that the Supreme power of the Scottish Nation was in the body of the people no otherwise in the King but by delegation and therefore that it was in the peoples power not onely to control and censure but also to depose and condemn their Kings if they found them faulty The man was learned for his time but a better Poet then Historian and yet a better Historian then he was a States-man For being of the Genevian Leven he fitted all his State-maximes unto Calvins Principles and may be thought in many points to out-go his Master Now in this Pamphlet we may finde these Aphorisms laid down for undoubted truths which no true Scot must dare to question unless he would be thought to beâ—â—ary his Country that is to say That the people is better then the King and of greater Authority That the people have right to bestow the Crown at their pleasure That the making of the Laws doth belong to the people and Kings are but Masters of the Rolls That they have the same power over the King that the King hath over any one man That it were good that rewards were appointed by the people for such as should kill Tyrants as commonly there is for those that have killed either Wolves or Bears or have taken their Whelps That the people may arraign their Princes that the Ministers may excommunicate their King and that whosoever is by Excommunication cast into Hell is made thereby unworthy to live on earth 10. And that he might make sure work of it he takes upon him to reply upon all Objections which sober and more knowing men had found out to the contrary For whereas it had been objected That custom was against such dealing with Princes That Jeremiah commanded obedience to Nebuchadnezzar That God placed Tyrants sometimes for punishment of his people
the King in â—â—rliament and the approving of the same deferred to a furâ—her time they took this not for a delay but a plain denyal and therefore it was agreed in the next general Assembly as before is said to put the same in execution by their own Authority without expecting any further confirmation of it from the King or Council Which that they might effect without fear of disturbance they first discharge the Bishops and Superintendents from intermedling in Affairs which concerned Religion but onely in their own particular Churches that so their Elderships according to this new establishment might grow up and flourish And then they took upon them with their own adherents to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction without respect to Prince or Prelate they altered the Laws according to their own appetite they assembled the Kings Subjects and injoyned Ecclesiastical pains unto them they made Decrees and put the same in execution they prescribed Laws to the King and State they appointed Fasts throughout the whole Realm especially when some of their Faction were to move any great enterprise they used very traytorous seditious and contumelious words in the Pulpits Schools and otherwise to the disdain and reproach of the King and being called to answer the same they utterly disclaimed the Kings Authority saying he was an incompetent Judge and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes And finally they did not onely animate some of those that adhered unto them to seize upon the Kings person and usurp his power but justified the same in one of their general Assemblies held at Edenborough for a lawful Act ordaining all those to be excommunicated which did not subscribe unto the same This we take up by whole-sale now but shall return it by retail in that which follows 37. And first they begin with Mr. Iames Boyd Archbishop of Glasco a man of a mild and quiet nature and therefore the more like to be conformable to their commands requiring him to submit himself to the Assembly and to suffer the corruptions of the Episcopal Order to be reformed in his person To which proud intimation of their will and pleasure he returned this Answer which for the modesty or piety thereof deserves to be continued to perpetual memory I understand saith he the name Office and Reverence given to a Bishop to be lawful and allowed by the Scriptures of God and being elected by the Church and King to be Bishop of Glasco I esteem my Office and Calling lawful and shall endeavour with all my power to perform the duties required submitting my self to the judgement of the Church if I shall be tryed to offend so as nothing be required of me but the performance of those duties which the Apostle prescribeth Finding him not so tractable as they had expected they Commissionate certain of their Members to require his subscription to the Act made at Stirling for reformation of the State Episcopal by which it was agreed that every Bishop should take charge of some flock in particular And this they prest upon him with such heat and violence that they never left prosecuting the poor man till they had brought him to his Grave By none more violently pursued then by Andrew Melvin whom he had brought to Glasco and made Principal of the Colledge there gave him a free access to his House and Table or otherwise very liberally provided for him But Scots and Presbyterians are not won by favours nor obliged by Benefits For Melvin so disguised his nature that when he was in private with him at his Table or elsewhere he would use him with all reverence imaginable giving him the title of his Lordship with all the other honours which pertained unto him but in all particular Meetings whatsoever they were he would onely call him Mr. Boyd and otherwise carried himself most despitefully towards him 38. Their rough and peremptory dealing with this Reverend Prelate discouraged all the rest from coming any more to their Assemblies Which hapned as they could have wished For thereupon they agree amongst themselves upon certain Articles which every Bishop must subscribe or else quit his place that is to say 1. That they should be content to be Ministers and Pastors of a flock 2. That they should not usurp any criminal jurisdiction 3. That they should not vote in Parliament in the name of the Church unless they had a Commission from the general Assembly 4. That they should not take up for maintaining their ambition the Rents which might maintain many Pastors Schools and Poor but content themselves with a reasonable portion for discharge of their Offices 5. That they should not claim the title of Temporal Lords nor usurp any Civil Iurisdiction whereby they might be drawn from their charge 6. That they should not Empire over Presbyteries but be subject to the same 7. That they should not usurp the power of Presbyteries nor take upon them to visit any bounds that were not committed to them by the Church 8. That if any more corruptions should afterwards be tryed the Bishop should agree to have them reformed These Articles were first tendred to Patrick Adamson Archbishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of all Scotland against whom they had a former quarrel not onely because he was preferred elected and admitted to that eminent Dignity without their consent but had also exercised the Jurisdiction which belonged unto it in express and direct opposition unto their commands And first they quarrelled with him for giving Collation unto Benefices and for giving voice in Parliament not being authorized thereunto by the Kirk They quarrelled with him afterwards for drawing or advising the Acts of Parliament Anno 1584 which they conceived to be so prejudicial to the Rights of the Kirk and held the King so hard unto it that he was forced to counsel the poor Prelate to subscribe some Articles by which he seemed in a manner to renounce his Calling of which more hereafter They quarrelled with him again in the year 1589 for marrying one of the Daughters of the late Duke of Lenox to the Earl of Huntly without their consent wherein the King was also fain to leave him to their discretion And finally they so vexed and persecuted him from one time to another upon pretence of not conforming to their lawless pleasures that they reduced him in the end to extreme necessity published a false and scandalous Paper in his name as he lay on his death bed containing a Recantation as they called it or rather a renouncing of his Episcopal Function together with his approbation of their Presbyteries which Paper he disowned at the the hearing of it By which and many such unworthy courses they brought his gray hairs as they did some others of his Order with shame and sorrow to the Grave 39. Mention was made before of an Act of Parliament made in the time of the Interregnum before the Queens coming back from
the Presbyterians gave themselves good hopes of the new Archbishop and they soon found how plâ—ant he was like to prove to their expectation He entred on this great Charge in the Moneth of February 1575 at which time the Prelates and Clergie were assembled in a Convocation by whom a Book of Articles was agreed upon for the better Reiglement of the Church In the end whereof this Article was superadded by their procurement viz. That the Bishops should take order that it be published and declared in every Parish-Church within their Diocesses before the first day of May then next following That Marriages might be solemnized at all times in the year so that the Banes on their several Sundays or Holidays in the Service-time were openly asked in the Church and no impediment objected and so that also the said Marriages be publickly solemnized in the face of the Church at the aforesaid time of Morning-Prayer But when the Book was offered to the Queens peiusal she disliked this Article and would by no means suffer it to be printed amongst the rest as appears by a Marginal Note in the Publick Regâ—ster of that Convocation Which though it might sufficiently have discouraged them from the like Innovations yet the next year they ventured on a business of a higher nature which was the falsifying and corrupting of the Common-Prayer-Book In which being then published by Richard Iugge the Queens Majesties Printer and published Cum Privilegio Regiae Majestatis as the Title intimates the whole Order of Private Baptism and Confirmation of Children was quite omitted In the first of which it had been declared That Children being born in Original sin were by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism ascribed unto the number of Gods Children and made the Heirs of Life Eternal and in the other Thâ—t by the Imposition of hands and Prayer they receive strength against sin the world and the Devil Which grand omissions were designed to no other purpose but by degrees to bring the Church of England into some Conformity to the desired Orders of Geneva This I find noted in the Preface of a book writ by William Reynolds a virulent Papist I confess but one that may be credited in a matter of Fact which might so easily have been refuted by the Book it self if he had any way belyed it 15. Nothing being done for punishing of this great abuse they enter upon another Project Which seemed to tend onely to the encrease of Piety in the Professors of the Gospel but was intended really for the furtherance of the Holy Discipline The design was that all the Ministers within such a Circuit should meet upon a day appointed to exercise their gifts and expound the Scriptures one being chosen at each meeting for the Moderator to govern and direct the Action the manner whereof was 〈◊〉 that followeth The Ministers of some certain Precinct did meet 〈◊〉 some week days in some principal Town of which Meeting some ancient grave Minister was President and an Auditory admitteâ— of Gentlemen and other persons of Leisure There every Minister successively the youngest still beginning did handle one and the same piece of Scripture spending severally some quarter of an hour and better but in the whole some two hours And the Exercise being begun and concluded with prayer the President giving them another Theam for the next Meeting which was every Fortnight the said Assembly was dissolved The Exercise they called by the name of Prophecying grounded upon those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.13 viz. For ye may all prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted But finding that the Text was not able to bear it out they added thereunto such pious and prudential Reasons as the best wits amongst them could devise for the present And though this Project was extreamly magnified and doted on with no less passion by some Countrey-Gentlemen who were enamored of the beauty and appearance of it yet was it found upon a diligent enquiry that there was something else intended then their Edification For it was easie to be proved that under colour of those Meetings for Religious Exercises the Brethren met together and consuâ—ted of the common business and furiously declaimed against Church and State 16. These Meetings Grindal first connived at when he sate at York under pretence of training up a preaching Ministery for the Northern parts But afterwards he was so much possessed with the fancy of it that he drew many of the Bishops in the Province of Canterbury to allow them also By means whereof they came to be so frequent in most parts of the Kingdom that they began to look with a face of danger both on Prince and Prelate For having once settled themselves in these new Conventions with some shew of Authority the Leading-Members exercised the Jurisdiction over all the rest intrenching thereby on the power of their several Ordinaries And they incroached so far at last on the Queens Prerogative as to appoint days for solemn Fasts under pretence of Sanctifying those Religious Exercises to the good of the Nation as afterwards in their Classical and Synodical Meetings which took growth from hence Three years these Prophesyings had continued in the Province of Canterbury before the Queen took notice of them But then they were presented to her with so ill a complexion that she began to startle at the first sight of them And having seriously weighed all inconveniences which might thence ensue she sends for Grindal to come to her reproves him for permitting such an Innovation to be obtruded on the Church and gave him charge to see it suddenly suppressed She complained also that the Pulpit was grown too common invaded by unlicensed Preachers and such as preached sedition amongst the people requiring him to take some order that the Homilies might be read more frequently and such Sermons preached more sparingly then of late they had been 〈◊〉 this was hard meat not so easily chewed therefore not like to be digested by so weak a stomach Instead of acting any thing in order to the Queens Commands he writes unto her a most tedious and voluminous Letter In which he first presents her with a sad remembrance of the Discourse which past between them and the great sorrow which he had conceived on the sense thereof Which said he falls into a commendation of Sermonizing of the great benefit thereby redounding unto all her Subjects the manifold advantages which such preachings had above the Homilies of whâ—â— necessary use those Prophesyings were toward the training up of Preachers In fine he also lets her know that by the example of S. Ambrose and his proceedings toward Theodosius and Valentinian two most mighty Emperors he could not satisfie his conscience in the discharge of the great trust committed to him if he should not admonish her upon this occasion not to do any thing which might draw down Gods displeasure upon her and the Nation by stopping the
again by Admonition or Threatning of God's Judgments or by Correction It appertains to the Eldership to take heed that the Word of God be purely preached within their bounds the Sacraments rightly ministred the Discipline entertained and Ecclesiastical Goods uncorruptly distributed It belongeth to this kind of Assemblies To cause the Ordinances made by the Assemblies Provincial National and general to be kept and put in execution To make Constitutions which concern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Kirk for decent Order in the particular Kirk where they govern providing that they alter no Rules made by the Provincial and General Assemblies and that the Provincial Assemblies aforesaid be privy to the Rules that they shall make and to abolish Constitutions tending to the hurt of the same It hath power to excommunicate the obstinate formal process being had and due interval of times observed Anent particular Kirks if they be lawfully ruled by sufficient Ministers and Session they have Power and Jurisdiction in their own Congregation in matters Ecclesiastical and decrees and declares the Assemblies Presbyteries and Sessions-Jurisdiction and Discipline aforesaid to be in all times coming most just good and godly in it self notwithstanding whatsoever Statutes Acts Canons Civil and Municipal Laws made to the contrary to which and every one of them these Presents shall make express derogation 44. And because there are divers Acts of Parliament made in favour of the Papistical Church tending to the prejudice of the Liberty of the true Kirk of God presently professed within this Realm Jurisdiction and Discipline thereof which stand yet in the Books of the Acts of Parliament not abrogated nor annulled Therefore His Highness and Estates foresaid hath abrogated casted and annulled and by the tenour hereof abrogates casts and annuls all Acts of Parliament made by any of His Highness Predecessors for maintenance of Superstition and Idolatry with all and whatsoever Acts Laws and Statutes made at any time before the day and date hereof against the Liberty of the true Kirk Jurisdiction and Discipiline thereof as the same is used and exercised within this Realm And in special that Act of Parliament holden at Sterling the 4 th of November 1543 commanding obedience to be given to Eugenius the Pope for the time the Act made by K. Iames the 3d in His Parliament holden at Edenborough the 24 th of February in the year of God 1480. And all other Acts whereby the Pope's Authority is established The Act of the said King Iames in his Parliament holden at Edenborough the 20 th of November 1469 anent the Saturday and other Vigils to be Holy-day from Even-song to Even-song Item That part of the Act made by the Queen-Regent holden at Edenborough the first day of February 1551 giving specially License for holding of of Pasch and Zuil 45. And further the King's Majesty and Estates aforesaid declare That the 129 th Act of Parliament holden at Edenborough the 22 d of May in the year of God 1584 shall no ways be prejudicial or derogate any thing from the Priviledg that God hath given the Spiritual Office-bearers in the Kirk concerning Heads of Religion Matters of Heresie Excommunication Collation or Deprivation of Ministers or any such like Ecclesiastical Censures specially grounded and having warrant of the Word of God Item Our Soveraign Lord and Estates of Parliament foresaid abrogates casts and annihilates the Acts of the same Parliament holden at Edenborough the same year 1584 granting Commission to Bishops and other Judges constitute in Ecclesiastical Causes to receive His Highness Presentation to Benefices to give Collation thereupon and to put Order to all Causes Ecclesiastical which His Majesty and Estates foresaid declares to be expired in the self and to be null in time coming of none avail force or effect And therefore ordains all Presentations to Benefices to be direct to the particular Presbyteries in all time coming with full Power to give Collation thereupon and to put Order to all Matters and Causes Ecclesiastical within their bounds according to the Discipline of the Kirk Providing the foresaid Presbyters be bound and astricted to receive and admit whatsoever qualified Minister presented by His Majesty or Laick Patrons 46. Such was the Act by which the Presbyterian Discipline was setled in the Kirk of Scotland They had given Him trouble enough before when they had no authority of Law to confirm their actions But now He must expect much more and they will see His expectation satisfied to the very full So that it may be much admired that He yeelded to it the rather in regard the Reasons of it are not certainly known nor very easie to be guessed at Whether it were that he were not well enough informed touching the low condition which the English Puritans were at this time brought to or that He stood so much in fear of the Earl of Bothwell whose treacherous practises threatned Him with continual danger that He was under a necessity of conforming to them for His own preservation or that He thought it His best way to let them have their own Wills and pursue their own Counsels till they had wearied both themselves and the rest of the Subjects by the misgovernment of that Power which He had given them or whether it were all or none of these it is hard to say Nor is it less to be admired that the Nobility of Scotland who had found the weight of that heavy yoke in the times fore-going should take it so easily on their necks and not joyn rather with the King to cast it off But they had gotten most of the Church-Lands into their possession and thought it a greater piece of wisdom to let the Presbytery over-top them in their several Consistories than that the Bishops Deans and Chapters or any other who pretended unto their Estates should be restored again to their Power and Places and thereby brought to a capacity of contending with them for their own In which respect they yeelded also to another Act against the everting of Church-Lands and Tenths into Temporal Lordships for To what purpose should they strive for such empty Titles as added little to their profit and not much to their pleasures There also passed some other Acts which seemed much to favour both the Kirk and the Kirk-men as namely For the ratification of a former Act 1587 in favour of the Ministers their Rents and Stipends for enabling Lay-Patrons to dispose of their Prebendaries and Chaplinaries unto Students and that no Benefices with Cure pay any Thirds There passed another Act also which concerned the Glebes and Manses in Cathedral Churches preserved of purpose by the King though they thought not of it that when he found it necessary to restore Episcopacy the Bishops might find Houses and other fit Accommodations near their own Cathedrals 47. Thus have the Presbyterians gained two Acts of great importance The one for setling their Presbyteries in all parts of the Kingdom The other for repressing all
to go off with credit he prepares for Ireland But long he had not dwelt on his new Preferment when either he proved too hot for the Place or the Countrey by reason of the following Warrs grew too hot for him Which brought him back again to England where he lived to a very great age in a small Estate more comfortably than before because less troublesome to the Church than he had been formerly 18. Thus have we seen Travers taken off and Beza quieted nor was it long before Cartwright was reduced to a better temper But first it was resolved to try all means for his delivery both at home and abroad Abroad they held intelligence with their Brethren in the Kirk of Scotland by means of Penry here and of Gibson there two men as fit for their Designs as if they had been made of purpose to promote the Mischief Concerning which thus Gibson writes in one of his Letters to Coppinger before remembred whereby it seems that he was privy to his practices also The best of our Ministers saith he are most careful of your estate and had sent for that effect a Preacher of ours the last Summer of purpose to confer with the best affected of your Church to lay down a plot how our Church might best travel for your relief The Lord knows what care we have of you both in our publick and private Prayers c. For as feeling-members of one body we reckon the affliction of your Church to be our own This showed how great they were with child of some good Affections but there wanted strength to be delivered of the Burthen They were not able to raise Factions in the Court of England as Queen ELIZABETH had done frequently on their occasions in the Realm of Scotland All they could do was to engage the King in mediating with the Queen in behalf of Cartwright Vdal and some others of the principal Brethren then kept in Prison for their contumacy in refusing the Oath And they prevailed so far upon Him who was not then in a condition to deny them any thing as to direct some Lines unto Her in this tenour following 19. RIght Excellent High and Mighty Princess Our dearest Sister and Cousin in Our heartiest manner We recommend Us unto You. Hearing of the Apprehension of Master Vdal and Master Cartwright and certain other Ministers of the Evangel within Your Realm of whose good Erudition and Faithful Travels in the Church We hear a very credible commendation however that their diversity from the Bishops and other of Your Clergy in matters touching their Conscience hath been a mean by their delation to work them your misliking at this time We cannot weighing the Duty which We owe to such as are afflicted for their Conscience in that Profession but by Our most effectuous and earnest Letter interpone Us at Your Hands to stay any harder usage of them for that cause Requesting You most earnestly That for Our Cause and Intercession it may please You to let them be relieved of their present Strait and whatsoever further Accusation or Pursuit depending upon that ground respecting both their former Merit in setting forth the Evangel the simplicity of their Conscience in this Defence which cannot well be their Lett by Compulsion and the great slander which would not fail to fall out upon their further straitning for any such occasion Which We assure Us Your Zeal to Religion besides the expectation We have of Your good will to pleasure Us will willingly accord to Our Request having such proofs from time to time of Our like disposition to You in any matter which You recommend unto Us. And thus Right Excellent Right High and Mighty Princess Our dear Sister and Cousin We commit You to God's Protection Edenborough Iune 12. 1591. 20. This Letter was presented to the Queen by the hands of one Iohnson a Merchant of that Nation then remaining in London But it produced not the Effect which the Brethren hoped for For the Queen looked upon it as extorted rather by the importunity of some which were then about Him than as proceeding from Himself who had no reason to be too indulgent unto those of that Faction This Project therefore not succeeding they must try another and the next tryal shall be made on the High Commission by the Authority whereof Cartwright and Snape and divers others were committed Prisoners If this Commission could be weakned and the Power thereof reduced to a narrower compass the Brethren might proceed securely in the Holy Discipline the Prisoners be released and the Cause established And for the questioning thereof they took this occasion One Caudreys Parson of North-Luffengham in the County of Rutland had been informed against about four years since in the High Commission for preaching against the Book of Common-Prayer and refusing to celebrate Divine Service according to the Rules and Rubricks therein prescribed For which upon sufficient proof he was deprived of his Benefice by the Bishop of London and the rest of the Queen's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes Four years together he lay quiet without acting any thing against the Sentence of the Court But now it was thought by some of those Lawyers whom Travers had gained unto the side to question the Authority of that Commission and consequently the illegality of his Deprivation In Hillary Term Anno 1591 the Cause was argued in the Exchequer Chamber by all the Judges according to the usual custom in all cases of the like importance and it was argued with great Learning as appears by the sum and substance of their several Arguments drawn up by Coke then being the Queen's Sollicitor-General and extant amongst the rest of his Reports both in English and Latin inscribed De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico but known most commonly by the name of Cawdrey's Case In the debating of which Point the Result was â—his That the Statute of 10 of the Queen for restoring to the Crown the ancient Iurisdiction c. was not to be accounted introductory of a new Authority which was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old which naturally and originally did belong to all Christian Princes and amongst others also to the Kings of England For proof whereof there wanted not sufficient evidence in our English Histories as well as in some old Records of unquestioned Credit exemplifying the continual practise of the Kings of England before and since the Norman Conquest in ordering and directing matters which concerned the Church In which they ruled sometimes absolutely without any dispute and sometimes relatively in reference to such opposition as they were to make against the Pope and all Authority derived from the See of Rome 21. Against this Case so solidly debated and so judiciously drawn up when none of the Puritan Professors could make any Reply Parsons the Iesuit undertook it but spent more time in searching out some contrary Evidence which might make for the Pope than in disproving that
City of Embden and afterwards in all places under his command prohibiting the exercise of all Religion but the Lutheran only Which Prohibition notwithstanding some Anabaptists from the Neighbouring Westphalia found way to plant themselves in Embden where liberty of Trade was freely granted to all comers which allured thither also many Merchants and Artificers with their Wives and Families out of the next-adjoining Provinces of Holland Zealand and West-Friesland then subject to the King of Spain Who being generally Calvinians in point of Doctrine were notwithstanding suffered to plant there also in regard of the great benefit which accrued unto it by their Trade and Manufactures But nothing more encreased the Power and Wealth of that City than the Trade of England removed from Antwerp thither on occasion of the Belgick Troubles and the great fear they had conceived of the Duke of Alva who seemed to breathe nothing but destruction unto their Religion And though the English Trade was removed not long after unto Hambourgh upon the hope of greater Priviledges and Immunities than they had at Embden yet still they kept a Factory in it which added much to the improvement of their Wealth and Power insomuch that the Inhabitants of this Town only are affirmed to have Sixty Ships of One hundred Tun a-piece and Six hundred lesser Barks of their own besides Seven hundred Busses and Fishing Boats maintained for the most part by their Herring-fishing on the Coast of England 44. Having attained unto this Wealth they grew proud withall and easily admitting the Calvinian Doctrines began to introduce also the Genevian Discipline connived at by Ezardus the second the Son of Enno in respect of the profit which redounded by them to his Exchequer though they began to pinch upon him to the diminution of his Power In which condition it remained till his marriage with Catharine the Daughter of Gustavus Ericus King of Sweden who being zealously addicted to the Lutheran Forms and sensible of those great Incroachments which had been made upon the Earl's Temporal Jurisdiction by the Consistorians perswaded him to look better to his own Authority and to regain what he had lost by that Connivence Something was done for the recovering of his Power but it went on slowly hoping to compass that by time and dissimulation which he could not easily obtain by force of Arms. After whose death and the short Government of Enno the second the matter was more stoutly followed by Rodolphus the Nephew of Catharine who did not only curb the Consistorians in the exercise of their Discipline but questioned many of those Priviledges which the unwariness of his Predecessors had indulged unto them The Calvinians had by this time made so strong a Party that they were able to remonstrate against their Prince complaining in the same That the Earl had violated their Priviledges and infringed their Liberties That he had interposed his Power against Right and Reason in matters which concerned the Church and belonged to the Consistory That he assumed unto himself the Power of distributing the Alms or publick Collections by which they use to bind the poor to depend upon them That he prohibited the exercise of all Religions except only the Confession of Ausberg And that he would not stand to the Agreement which was made betwixt them for interdicting all Appeals to the Chamber of Spires Having prepared the way by this Remonstrance they take an opportunity when the Earl was absent arm themselves and seize by force upon his Castle demolished part of it which looks toward the Town and possest themselves of all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition with an intent hereafter to employ them against him And this being done they govern all Affairs in the Name of the Senate without relation to their Prince making themselves a Free-Estate or Commonwealth like their Belgick Neighbours 45. Extreamly moved with this affront and not being able otherwise to reduce them to a sense of their duty he borrows Men and Arms from Lubeck to compel them to it With which assistance he erects a Fort on the further side of the Haven to spoil their Trade and by impoverishing the people to regain the Town The Senate hereupon send abroad their Edicts to the Nobility and Commons of East-Friesland it self requiring them not to aid their own lawful Prince with Men Arms or Money threatning them if they did the contrary to stop the course of all Provisions which they had from their City and by breaking down their Dams and Sluces to let the Ocean in upon them and drown all their Countrey Which done they make their Applications to the States of Holland requiring their assistance in that common Cause to which they had been most encouraged by their Example not doubting of their Favour to a City of their own Religion united to them by a long intercourse of Trade and resemblance of Manners and not to be deserted by them without a manifest betraying of their own Security All this the States had under their consideration But they consider this withall That if they should assist the Embdeners in a publick way the Earl would presently have recourse for some aid from the Spaniard which might draw a Warr upon them on that side where they lay most open Therefore they so contrived the matter with such Art and Cunning that carrying themselves no otherwise than as Arbiters and Umpires between the Parties they discharged some Companies of Soldiers which they had in West-Friesland who presently put themselves into the Pay of the Embdens and thereby caused the Earl to desist from his Intrenchments on the other side of the Haven After which followed nothing but Warrs and Troubles between the City and the Earl till the year 1606. At what time by the Mediation of the English Ambassador and some other Honourable Friends the differences were compromised to this effect That all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition which were found in the Castle should be restored unto the Earl That he should have to his own use the whole Profit of the Imposts which were laid on Wine and half the benefit of those Amercements or Fines which should be raised upon Delinquents together with the sole Royalties both of Fishing and Hunting And on the other side That the Embdeners should have free Trade with all the Profits and Emoluments belonging to it which should be granted to them by Letters Patents But for admitting him to any part of the Publick Government or making restitution of his House or Castles the ancient Seat of his abode as there was nothing yeelded or agreed on then so could he never get possession of them from that time to this Which said we must cross over again into the Isle of Brittain where we shall find the English Puritans climbing up by some new devices and the Scottish Presbyterians tumbling down from their former height till they were brought almost to as low a fall as their English Brethren AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The
his defence And he accordingly declared in all humble manner That he and his Associates had not made any Canons Articles or Decrees with an intent that they should serve hereafter for a standing-Rule to direct the Church but only had resolved on some Propositions to be sent to Cambridg for quieting some unhappy differences in that University With which Answer Her Majesty being somewhat pacified commanded notwithstanding That he should speedily recall and suppress those Articles Which was performed with such Care and Diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found for a long time after 8. As for the Articles themselves they were so contrived that both the Sabbatarians and the Supra-lapsarians very considerably at odds amongst themselves might be sheltred under them to the intent that both may be secured from the common Adversary Which Articles I find translated in these following words viz. I. God from Eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated II. The moving or efficient Cause of Predestination unto life is not the fore-sight of Faith or of Perseverance or of Good Works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the Good Will and Pleasure of God III. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can neither be augmented nor diminished IV. Those who are not predestinate to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying-faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Elect either totally or finally VI. A man truly faithful that is such an one who is endued with a justifying-faith is certain with the full assurance of Faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. VII Saving-Grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No man can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved 9. Such were the Articles of Lambeth so much insisted on by those of the Calvinian Faction in succeeding times as comprehending in them the chief Heads of Calvin's Doctrine in reference to the points of the Divine Election and Reprobation of Universal Grace and the impossibility of a total or a final falling from the true justifying-faith which were the subject of the Controversies betwixt Baroe and Whitacre Some have adventured hereupon to rank this most Reverend Arch-bishop in the List of these Calvinists conceiving that he could not otherwise have agreed to those Articles if he had not been himself of the same Opinion And possible it is that he might not look so far into them as to consider the ill consequences which might follow on them or that he might prefer the pacifying of some present Dissenters before the apprehension of such Inconveniences as were more remote or else according to the custom of all such as be in Authority he thought it necessary to preserve Whitacre in power and credit against all such as did oppose him the Merit and Abilities of the man being very eminent For if this Argument were good it might as logically be inferred That he was a Iesuit or a Melancthonian at the least in these points of Doctrine because he countenanced those men who openly and professedly had opposed the Calvinian In which respect as he took part with Hooker at the Council-Table against the Complaints and Informations of Travers as before is said so he received into his service Mr. Samuel Harsnet then being one of the Fellows of Pembroke-Hall who in a Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross the 27 th of October 1584 had so dissected the whole Zuinglian Doctrine of Reprobation as made it seem most ugly in the ears of his Auditors as afterwards in the eyes of all Spectators when it came to be Printed Which man he did not only entertain as his Chaplain at large but used his Service in his House as a Servant in ordinary employed him in many of his Affairs and finally commended him to the care of King IAMES by whom he was first made Master of Pembroke-Hall and afterwards preferred to the See of Chichester from thence translated to Norwich and at last to York 10. No less remarkable was this year for the repairing of the Cross in Cheap-side which having been defaced in the year 1581 and so continued ever since was now thought fit to be restored to its former beauty A Cross it was of high esteem and of good Antiquity erected by K. Edward the first Anno 1290 in honour of Queen Elienor his beloved Wife whose Body had there rested as it was removed to the place of her Burial But this Cross being much decayed Iohn Hatherly Lord Mayor of London in the year 1441 procured leave of K. HENRY the 6 th to take it down and to re-edifie the same in more beautiful manner for the greater honour of the City Which leave being granted and 200 hundred Fodder of Lead allowed him toward the beginning of the Work it was then curiously wrought at the charge of divers wealthy Citizens adorned with many large and massie Images but more especially advanced by the Munificence of Iohn Fisher Mercer who gave Six hundred Marks for the finishing of it The whole Structure being reared in the second year of K. HENRY the 7 th Anno 1486 was after gilded over in the year 1522 for the entertainment of the Emperor CHARLES the fifth new burnished against the Coronation of Queen Anne Bullen Anno 1533 as afterwards at the Coronation of King EDWARD the sixth and finally at the Magnificent Reception of King PHILIP 1554. And having for so long time continued an undefaced Monument of Christian Piety was quarrelled by the Puritans of the present Reign who being emulous of the Zeal of the French Calvinians whom they found to have demolished all Crosses wheresoever they came they caused this Cross to be presented by the Jurors in several Ward-Motes for standing in the High-way to the hindering of Carts and other Carriages but finding no remedy in that course they resolved to apply themselves unto another In pursuance whereof they first set upon it in the night Iune 21 Anno 1581 violently breaking and defacing all the lowest Images which were placed round about the same that is to say the Images of Christ's Resurrection of the Virgin MARY K. EDWARD the Confessor c. But more particularly the Image of the blessed Virgin was at that time robbed of her Son and her Arms broke by which she held Him in her Lap and her whole Body haled with Ropes and left likely to fall Proclamation presently was made with promise of Reward to any one that could or would discover the chief Actors in it But without effect
Acts being past Patterns were sent from London in a short time after for the Apparel of the Lords of the Session the Justice and other inferior Judges for the Advocates the Lawyers the Commissairs and all that lived by practise of the Law with a command given to every one whom the Statutes concerned to provide themselves of the Habits prescribed within a certain space under the pain of Rebellion But for the habit of the Bishops and other Church-men it was thought fit to respite the like appointment of them till the new Bishops had received their Consecration to which now we hasten 23. But by the way we must take notice of such preparations as were made towards it in the next General Assembly held at Glasgow Anno 1610 and managed by the Earl of Dunbar as the former was in which it was concluded That the King should have the indiction of all General Assemblies That the Bishops or their Deputies should be perpetual Moderators of the Diocesan Synods That no Excommunication or Absolution should be pronounced without their approbation That all presentations of Benefices should be made by them and that the deprivation or suspension of Ministers should belong to them That every Minister at his admission to a Benefice should take the Oath of Supremacy and Canonical Obedience That the Visitation of the Diocese shall be performed by the Bishop or his Deputy only And finally That the Bishop should be Moderator of all Conventions for Exercisings or Prophesyings call them which you will which should be held within their bounds All which Conclusions were confirmed by Act of Parliament in the year 1612 in which the Earl of Dumferling then being Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom sate as chief Commissioner who in the same Session also procured a Repeal of all such former Acts more patticularly of that which passed in favour of the Discipline 1592. as were supposed to be derogatory to the said Conclusions In the mean time the King being advertised of all which had been done at Glasgow calls to the Court by special Letters under his Sign-Manual Mr. Iohn Spotswood the designed Arch-bishop of Glasgow Mr. Gawen Hamilton nominated to the See of Galloway and Mr. Andrew Lamb appointed to the Church of Brechin to the intent that being consecrated Bishops in due Form and Order they might at their return give consecration to the rest of their Brethren They had before been authorized to vote in Parliament commended by the King unto their several Sees made the perpetual Moderators of Presbyteries and Diocesan Synods and finally by the Conclusions made at Glasgow they were restored to all considerable Acts of their Jurisdiction The Character was only wanting to compleat the Work which could not be imprinted but by Consecration according to the Rules and Canons of the Primitive times 24. And that this Character might be indelibly imprinted on them His Majesty issues a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Bishops of London Ely Wells and Rochester whereby they were required to proceed to the Consecration of the said three Bishops according to the Rules of the English Ordination which was by them performed with all due solemnity in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's House near the Church of St. Pauls Octob. 21 1610. But first a scruple had been moved by the Bishop of Ely concerning the capacity of the persons nominated for receiving the Episcopal Consecration in regard that none of them had formally been ordained Priests which scruple was removed by Arch-bishop Bancroft alledging that there was no such necessity of receiving the Order of Priesthood but that Episcopal Consecrations might be given without it as might have been exemplified in the Cases of Ambrose and Nectarius of whichâ— the first was made Arch-bishop of Millain and the other Patriarch of Constantinople without receiving any intermediate Orders whether of Priest Deacon or any other if there were any other at that time in the Church And on the other side the Prelates of Scotland also had their Doubts and Scruples fearing lest by receiving Consecration of the English Bishops they might be brought to an acknowledgment of that Superiority which had been exercised and enjoyed by the Primates of England before the first breaking out of the Civil Warrs betwixt York and Lancaster Against which fear the King sufficiently provided by excluding the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who only could pretend to that Superiority out of His Commission which Bancroft very cheerfully condescended to though he had chiefly laid the plot and brought on the work not caring who participated in the Honour of it as long as the Churches of both Kingdoms might receive the Benefit 25. This great Work being thus past over the King erects a Court of High Commission in the Realm of Scotland for ordering all matters which concerned that Church and could not safely be redressed in the Bishops Courts He also gave them some Directions for the better exercise of their Authority by them to be communicated to the Bishops and some principal Church-men whom he appointed to be called to Edenborough in the following February where they were generally well approved But as all general Rules have some Exceptions so some Exceptions were found out against these Commissions and the proceedings thereupon Not very pleasing to those great Persons who then sate at the Helm and looked upon it as a diminution to their own Authority and could not brook that any of the Clergy should be raised to so great a Power much more displeasing to the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery who now beheld the downfall of their glorious Throne which they had erected for themselves in the Name of Christ. One thing perhaps might comfort them in the midst of their sorrows that is to say the death of the most Reverend Arch-bishop Bancroft who left this life upon the second of November not living above thirteen days after the Scottish Bishops had received Consecration For which great blessing to the Church he had scarce time to render his just acknowledgments unto God and the King when he is called on to prepare for his Nunc Dimittis And having seen so great a work accomplished for the glory of God the honour of his Majesty and the good of both Kingdoms beseecheth God to give him leave to depart in peace that with his eyes he might behold that great Salvation which was ordained to be a Light unto the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his people Israel 26. Bancroft being dead some Bishops of the Court held a Consultation touching the fittest Person to succeed him in that eminent Dignity The great Abilities and most exemplary Piety of Dr. Lancelot Andrews then Bishop of Ely pointed him out to be the man as one sufficiently able to discharge a Trust of such main importance and rather looked on as a Preferment to that See than preferred unto it Him they commended to King IAMES who had him in a high
the Dukes of Bouilâ—on That he was most disgracefully deprived of his Place and Function by those of the Calvinian Party because he had delivered in a Sermon on those words of St. â—ames c. 1. v. 13. God tempteth no man c. That God was not the Author of Sin 7. But possibly it may be said That these Oppressions Tyrannies and Partialities are not to be ascribed to the Sect of Calvin in the capacity of Presbyterians but of Predestinarians and therefore we will now see what they acted in behalf of Presbytery which was as dear to all the Members of that Synod but the English only as any of the Five Points whatsoever it was For in the Hundred forty fifth Session being held on the 20 th of April the Belgick Confession was brought in to be subscribed by the Provincials and publickly approved by the Forreign Divines In which Confession there occurred one Article which tended plainly to the derogation and dishonour of the Church of England For in the Thirty one Article it is said expresly That forasmuch as doth concern the Ministers of the Church of Christ in what place soever they are all of equal Power and Authority with one another as being all of them the Ministers of Iesus Christ who is the only Vniversal Bishop and sole Head of His Church Which Article being as agreeable to Calvin's Judgment in point of Discipline as their Determinations were to his Opinion in point of Doctrine was very cheerfully entertained by the Forreign Divines though found in few of the Confessions of the Forreign Churches But being found directly opposite to the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops with which a parity of Ministers can have no consistence was cordially opposed by the Divines of the British Colledg but most especially by Dr. George Carlton then Lord Bishop of Landaff and afterwards translated to the See of Chichester who having too much debased himself beneath his Calling in being present in a Synod or Synodical Meeting in which an ordinary Presbyter was to take the Chair and have precedency before him thought it high time to vindicate himself and the Church of England to enter a Legal Protestation against those proceedings Which though it was admitted and perhaps recorded received no other Answer but neglect if not scorn withall Concerning which he published a Declaration after his return in these words ensuing 8. When we were to yeeld our consent to the Belgick Confession at Dort I made open protestation in the Synod That whereas in the Confession there was inserted a strange conceit of the Parity of Ministers to be instituted by Christ I declared our dissent utterly in that point I showed that by Christ a Parity was never instituted in the Church that he ordained Twelve Apostles as also Seventy Disciples that the Authority of the Twelve was above the other that the Church preserved this Order left by our Saviour And therefore when the extraordinary Power of the Apostles ceased yet this ordinary Authority continued in Bishops who succeeded them who were by the Apostles left in the Government of the Church to ordain Ministers and to see that they who were so ordained should preach no other Doctrine that in an inferior degree the Ministers were governed by Bishops who succeeded the Seventy Disciples that this Order hath been maintained in the Church from the times of the Apostles and herein I appealed to the Iudgment of Antiquity and to the Iudgment of any Learned man now living and craved herein to be satisfied if any man of Learning could speak to the contrary My Lord of Salisbury is my Witness and so are all the rest of our Company who speak also in the Cause To this there was no answer made by any whereupon we conceived that they yeelded to the truth of the Protestation But it was only he and his Associates which conceived so of it and so let it go 9. His Lordship adds that in a Conference which he had with some Divines of that Synod he told them That the cause of all their troubles was because they had no Bishops amongst them who by their Authority might repress turbulent spirits that broached Novelty every man having liberty to speak or write what they list and that as long as there were no Ecclesiastical men in Authority to repress and censure such contentious Spirits their Church could never be without trouble To which they answered That they did much honour and reverence the good Order and Discipline of the Church of England and with all their hearts would be glad to have it established amongst them but that could not be hoped for in their State that their hope was That seeing they could not do what they desired God would be merciful to them if they did what they could This was saith he the sum and substance of their Answer which he conceived to be enough to free that people from aiming at an Anarchy and open-Confusion adding withall that they groaned under the weight of that burden and would be eased of it if they could But by his Lordship's leave I take this to be nothing but a piece of dissimulation of such a sanctified Hypocrisie as some of the Calvinians do affirm to be in Almighty God For certainly they might have Bishops if they would as well as the Popish Cantons of the Switzers or the State of Venice of which the one is subject to an Aristocracy the other to a Government no less popular than that of the Netherlands In which respect it was conceived more lawful by the late Lord Primate for any English Protestant to communicate with the Reformed Churches in France who cannot have Bishops if they would than with the Dutch who will not have Bishops though they may there still remaining in their hands Seven Episcopal Sees with all the Honours and Revenues belonging to them that is to say the Bishoprick of Harlem in Holland of Middlebourgh in Zealand of Lewarden in Friesland of Groining in the Province so called of Deventer in the County of Overyssell and of Ruremond in the Dutchy of Gueldress all of them but the last subordinate to the Church of Vtrect which they keep also in their Power 10. Somewhat was also done in the present Synod in order to the better keeping of the Lord's Day than it had been formerly For till this time they had their Faires and Markets upon this day their Kirk-masses as they commonly called them Which as they constantly kept in most of the great Towns of Holland Zealand c. even in Dort it self so by the constant keeping of them they must needs draw away much people from the Morning-Service to attend the business of their Trades And in the Afternoon as before was noted all Divine Offices were interdicted by a Constitution which received life here Anno 1574 that time being wholly left to be disposed of as the people pleased either upon their profit or their recreation But their
those out-rages Doubly affronted and provoked the King resolves to right Himself in the way of Arms. But at the instant request of Des Diguiers before remembred who had been hitherto a true Zealot to the Hugonot Cause he was content to give them Four and twenty days of deliberation before he drew into the Field He offered them also very fair and reasonable Canditions not altogether such as their Commissioners had desired for them but far better than those which they were glad to accept at the end of the Warr when all their strengths were taken from them But the Hugonots were not to be told that all the Calvinian Princes and Estates of the Empire had put themselves into a posture of Warr some for defence of the Palatinate and others in pursuance of the Warr of Bohemia Of which they gave themselves more hopes than they had just cause for In which conjuncture some hot spirits then assembled at Rochel blinded with pride or hurried on by the fatality of those Decrees which they maintained to be resolved upon by God before all Eternity reject all offers tending to a Pacification and wilfully run on to their own destruction For presently upon the tendry of the King's Proposals they publish certain Orders for the regulating of their Disobedience as namely That no Agreement should be made with the King but by the consent of a General Convocation of the Chiefs of their Party about the payment of their Soldiers Wages and intercepting the Revenues of the King and Clergie toward the maintenance of the Warr. They also Cantoned the whole Kingdom into seven Divisions assigned to each of those Divisions a Commander in Chief and unto each Commander their particular Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and other Officers with several Limitations and Directions prescribed to each of them for their proceeding in this service 38. This makes it evident that the King did not take up Arms but on great necessities He saw his Regal Authority neglected his especial Edicts wilfully violated his Gracious Offers scornfully slighted his Revenues Feloniously intercepted his whole Realm Cantoned before his face and put into the power of such Commanders as he could not trust So that the Warr being just on his part he had the more reason to expect such an issue of it as was agreeable to the Equity of so good a Cause He had besides all those Advantages both at home and abroad which in all probability might assure him of the End desired The Prince Elector Palatine had been worsted in the Warr of Bohemia and all the Princes of the Union scattered to their several Homes which they were hardly able to defend against so many Enemies so that there was no danger to be feared from them And on the other side the King of Great Britain whom he had most cause to be afraid of had denied assistance to his own Children in the Warr of Bohemia which seemed to have more Justice in it than the Warr of the Hugonots and therefore was not like to engage in behalf of strangers who rather out of wantonness than any unavoidable necessity had took up Arms against their Lawful and Undoubted Soveraign At home the Rochellers were worse befriended than they were abroad I mean the Common-wealth of Rochel as King LEWIS called it The whole Confederacy of the Hugonots there contrived and sworn to they had Cantoned the whole Realm into seven Divisions which they assigned to the Command of the Earl of Chastillon the Marquess De la Force the Duke of Soâ—bize the Duke of Rohan the Duke of Trimoville the Duke Des Diguer and the Duke of Bouillon whom they designed to be the Generalissimo over all their Forces But neither he nor Des Diguers nor the Duke of Trimoville nor Chastillon would act any thing in it or accept any such Commissions as were sent unto them Whether it were that they were terrified with the ill success of the Warr of Bohemia or that the Conscience of their duty did direct them in it I dispute not now So that the Rochellers being deserted both at home and abroad were forced to rely upon the Power and Prudence of the other three and to supply all other wants out of the Magazine of Obstinacy and Perversness with which they were plentifully stored Two instances I shall only touch at and pass over the rest The town of Clerack being summoned the 21 of Iuly 1621 returned this Answer to the King viz. That if he would permit them to enjoy their Liberties withdraw his Armies and leave their Fortifications in the same estate in which he found them they would remain his faithful and obedient Subjects More fully those of Mount Albon on the like occasion That they resolve to live and dye not in obedience to the King as they should have said but in the Vnion of the Churches Most Religious Rebels 39. Next let us look upon the King who being brought to a necessity of taking Arms first made his way unto it by his Declaration of the second of April published in favour of all those of that Religion who would contain themselves in their due obedience In pursuance whereof he caused five persons to be executed in the City of Tours who had tumultuously disturbed the Hugonots whom they found busied at the burial of one of their dead He also signified to the King of Great Britain the Princes of the Empire and the States of the Netherlands That he had not undertook this Warr to suppress the Religion but to chastise the Insolencies of Rebellious Subjects And what he signified in words he made good by his deeds For when the Warr was at the hottest all those of the Religion in the City of Paris lived as securely as before and had their accustomed Meetings at Charenton as in times of peace Which safety and security was enjoyed in all other places even where the King's Armies lodged and quartered Nay such a care was taken of their preservation that when some of the Rascality in the City of Paris upon the first tydings of the death of the Duke of Mayenne who had been slain at the Siege of Mont-albon amongst many others breathed nothing but slaughter and revenge to the Hugonot Party the Duke of Mounbazon being then Governour of the City commanded their Houses and the Streets to be safely guarded so that no hurt was done to their Goods or Persons And when the Rabble being disappointed of their Ends in Paris had run tumultuously the next day to Charenton and burned down their Temple an Order was presently made by the Court of Parliament for the re-edifying it at the King 's sole Charges and that too in a far more beautiful Fabrick than before it had But in the conduct of the Warr he governed not his Counsels with like moderation suffering the Sword too often to range at liberty as if he meant to be as terrible in his Executions as he desired to be accounted just in his Undertakings But
of time in which the Commons were intent on the Warr of Ireland and the Puritans as much busied in blowing the Trumpet of Sedition in the Kingdom of England it only showed the King's good meaning with his want of Power In which conjuncture hapned the Impeachment and Imprisonment of Eleven of the Bishops Which made that Bench so thin and the King so weak that on the 6 th of February the Lords consented to the taking away of their Votes in Parliament The News whereof was solemnized in most places of London with Bells and Bouâ—â—res Nothing remained but that the King should pass it into Act by his Royal Assent by some unhappy Instrument extorted from Him when he was at Canterbury and signified by His Message to the Houses on the fourteenth of that Month. Which Condescention wrought so much unquietness to His Mind and Conscience and so much unsecureness to His Person for the rest of His Life that He could scarce truly boast of one day's Felicity till God was pleased to put a final period to His Grieâ—s and Sorrows For in relation to the last we find that the next Vote which passed in Parliament deprived Him of His Negative Voice and put the whole Militia of the Kingdom into the hands of the Houses Which was the first beginning of His following Miseries And looking on Him in the first He will not spare to let us know in one of his Prayers That the injury which he had done to the Bishops of England did as much grate upon his Conscience as either the permitting of a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland or suffering innocent blood to be shed under colour of Iustice. 12. For so it was that some of the prevailing-Members in the House of Commons considering how faithfully and effectually the Scots had served them not only voted a Gratuity of Three hundred thousand pounds of good English Money to be freely given them but kept their Army in a constant and continual Pay for Nine Months together And by the terror of that Army they forced the King to pass the Bill for Trienial Parliaments and to perpetuate the present Session at the will of the Houses to give consent for Murthering the Earl of Strafford with the Sword of Justice and suffering the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be banished from him to fling away the Starr-Chamber and the High-Commission and the Coercive Power of Bishops to part with all his right to Tonnage and Poundage to Ship-money and the Act for Knighthood and by retrenching the Perambulation of His Forests and Chases to leave his Game to the destruction of each Bore or Peasant And by the terror of this Army they took upon them to engage all the Subjects of the Kingdom in a Protestation first hammered on the third of May in order to the condemnation of the Earl of Strafford for maintenance of the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament standing to one another in pursuance of it and bringing all persons to condign punishment who were suspected to oppose them Encouraged also by the same they took upon them an Authority of voting down the Church's Power in making of Canons condemning all the Members of the late Convocation calumniating many of the Bishops and Clergy in most odious manner and vexing some of them to the Grave And they would have done the like to the Church it self in pulling down the Bishops and Cathedral Churches and taking to themselves all their Lands and Houses if by the Constancy and Courage of the House of Peers they had not failed of their Design But at the last the King prevailed so far with the Scots Commissioners that they were willing to retire and withdraw their Forces upon His Promise to confirm the Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and reach out such a Hand of Favour unto all that Nation as might estate them in a happiness above their hopes On this assurance they march homewards and He followeth after Where he consents to the abolishing of Bishops and alienating all their Lands by Act of Parliament suppresseth by like Acts the Liturgy and the Book of Canons and the five Articles of Perth rewards the chief Actors in the late Rebellion with Titles Offices and Honours and parts with so much of His Royal Prerogative to content the Subjects that He left Himself nothing of a King but the empty Name And to sum up the whole in brief In one hour He unravelled all that excellent Web the weaving whereof had took up more than Forty years and cost His Father and Himself so much Pains and Treasure 13. By this Indulgence to the Scots the Irish Papists are invited to expect the like and to expect it in the same way which the Scots had travelled that is to say by seizing on His Forts and Castles putting themselves into the Body of an Army and forcing many of His good Protestant-Subjects to forsake the Kingdom The Motives which induced them to it their opportunities for putting it in execution and the miscarriage of the Plot I might here relate but that I am to keep my self to the Presbyterians as dangerous Enemies to the King and the Church of England as the Irish Papists For so it hapned that His Majesty was informed at His being in Scotland That the Scots had neither took up Arms nor invaded England but that they were encouraged to it by some Members of the Houses of Parliament on a design to change the Government both of Church and State In which he was confirmed by the Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom presented to Him by the Commons at His first coming back the forcible attempt for breaking into the Abby of Westminster the concourse of seditious people to the Dores of the Parliament crying out that they would have no Bishops nor Popish Lords and their tumultuating in a fearful manner even at White-Hall Gates where they cryed out with far more horror to the Hearers That the King was not worthy to live that they would have no Porter's Lodg between Him and them and That the Prince would govern better Hereupon certain Members of both Houses that is to say the Lord Kimbolton of the Upper Hollis and Haslerig Hampden Pym and Stroud of the Lower-House are impeached of Treason a Serjeant sent to apprehend them and command given for sealing up their Trunks and Closets 14. But on the contrary the Commons did pretend and declared accordingly That no Member of theirs was to be impeached arrested or brought unto a Legal Trial but by the Order of that House and that the sealing up of their Trunks or Closets was a breach of Priviledg And thereupon it was resolved on Monday Ian. 3. being the day of the Impeachment That if any persons whatsoever should come to the Lodgings of any Member of the House or seize upon their persons that then such Members should require the aid of the Constable to keep such persons in safe custody till the House gave
49. Such being the issue of the Warr let us next look upon the Presbyterians in the acts of Peace in which they threatned more destruction to the Church than the Warr it self As soon as they had setled the strict keeping of the Lord's-day-Sabbath suppressed the publick Liturgy and imposed the Directory they gave command to their Divines of the Assembly to set themselves upon the making a new Confession The Nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England were either thought to have too much of the ancient Fathers or too little of Calvin and therefore fit to be reviewed or else laid aside And at the first their Journey-men began with a Review and fitted Fourteen of the Articles to their own conceptions but in the end despairing of the like success in all the rest they gave over that impertinent labour and found it a more easie task to conceive a new than to accommodate the old Confession to their private Fancies And in this new Confession they establish the Morality of their Lord's-day-Sabbath declare the Pope to be the Antichrist the Son of Perdition and the Man of Sin And therein also interweave the Calvinian Rigours in reference to the absolute Decree of Predestination Grace Free-will c. But knowing that they served such Masters as were resolved to part with no one Branch of their own Authority they attribute a Power to the Civil Magistrate not only of calling Synods and Church-Assemblies but also of being present at them and to provide that whatsoever is therein contracted be done agreebly to the Mind and Will of God But as to the matter of Church-Government the Divine Right of their Presbyteries the setting of Christ upon his Throne the Parity or Imparity of Ministers in the Church of Christ not a word delivered Their mighty Masters were not then resolved upon those particulars and it was fit the Holy Ghost should stay their leisure and not inspire their Journey-men with any other Instruction than what was sent them from the Houses 50. But this Confession though imperfect and performed by halves was offered in the way of an Humble Advice to the Lords and Commons that by the omnipotency of an Ordinance it might pass for currant and be received for the established Doctrine of the Church of England The like was done also in the tendry of their Larger Catechism which seems to be nothing in a manner but the setting out of their Confession in another dress and putting it into the form of Questions and Answers that so it might appear to be somewhat else than indeed it was But being somewhat of the largest to be taught in Schools and somewhat of the hardest to be learned by Children it was brought afterwards into an Epitome commonly called The lesser Catechism and by the Authors recommended to the use of the Church as far more Orthodox than Nowel's more clear than that contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and not inferior to the Palatine or Genevian Forms But in all three they held forth such a Doctrine touching God's Decrees that they gave occasion of reviving the old Blastian Heresie in making God to be the Author of Sin Which Doctrine being new published in a Pamphlet entituled Comfort for Believers in their Sins and Troubles gave such a hot Alarm to all the Calvinists in the new Assembly that they procured it to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman But first they thought it necessary to prepare the way to that execution by publishing in print their detestation of that abominable and blasphemous Opinion That God hath a hand in and is the Author of the sinfulness of his people as the Title tells us So that now Calvin's Followers may sleep supinely without regard to the reproaches of uncivil men who had upbraided them with maintaining such blasphemous Doctrine The Reverend Divines of the Assembly have absolved them from it and showed their Detestation of it and who dares charge it on them for the time to come 51. But these things possibly were acted as they were Calvinians and perhaps Sabbatarians also and no more than so And therefore we must next see what they do on the score of Presbytery for setting up whereof they had took the Covenant called in the Scots and more insisted on the abolition of the Episcopal Function than any other of the Propositions which more concern them To this they made their way in those Demands which they sent to Oxon the Ordinance for Ordination of Ministers and their advancing of the Directory in the fall of the Liturgy They had also voted down the Calling of Bishops in the House of Commons on Septemb. 8. 1642 and caused the passing of that Vote to be solemnized with Bells and Bonfires in the streets of London as if the whole City was as much concerned in it as some Factious Citizens But knowing that little was to be effected by the Propositions and much less by their Votes they put them both into a Bill which past the House of Peers on the third of February some two days after they had tendred their Proposals to the King at Oxon. And by that Bill it was desired to be Enacted That from the Fifth of November the day designed for the blowing up the Parliament by the Gun-powder-Traytors which should be in the year of our Lord 1643 there should be no Archbishops Bishops Commissaries c. with all their Train recited in the Oxon Article Numb 21. in the Church of England That from thenceforth the Name Title and Function of Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors c. or likewise the having using or exercising any Iurisdiction Office and Authority by reason or colour of any such Name Dignity or Function in the Realm of England should utterly and for ever cease And that the King might yeeld the sooner to the Alteration they tempt him to it with a Clause therein contained for putting him into the actual possession of all the Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments belonging to the said Arch-bishops or Bishops or to any of them And for the Lands of Deans and Chapters the Brethren had a hope to parcel them amongst themselves under the colour of encouraging and maintaining of a Preaching-Ministry some sorry pittance being allowed to the old Proprietaries and some short Pension during life to the several Bishops 52. Such was the tenour of the Bill which found no better entertainment than their Propositions So that despairing of obtaining the King's consent to advance Presbytery they resolved to do it of themselves but not till they had broken the King's Forces at the Battel of Naisby For on the nineteenth of August then next following they publish Directions in the name of the Lords and Commons after advice with their Divines of the Assembly for the chusing of RVLING-ELDERS in all the Congregations and in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom in order to the speedy setling of Presbyterial
Government Amongst which no small care was taken for making twelve Classes of the Ministers of London only and after for dividing each particular County into several Classes with reference to the largeness and extent thereof Which Orders and Directions were after seconded by the Ordinance of October the twentieth containing certain Rules for the suspension of scandalous and ignorant persons from the holy Supper and giving power to certain persons therein named to sit as Judges and Tryers as well concerning the Election as the Integrity and Ability of all such men as are elected Elders within any of the Twelve Classes of the Province of London It is not to be thought but that the London-Elderships made sufficient haste to put themselves into the actual possession of their new Authority But in the Countrey most men were so cold and backward that the Lower-House was fain to quicken them with some fresh Resolves by which it was required on the twentieth of February That choice be forthwith made of Elders thoroughout the Kingdom according to such former Directions as had past both Houses and that all Classes and Parochial Congregations should be thereby authorised effectually to proceed therein And that the Church might be supplied with able Ministers in all times succeeding the Power of Ordination formerly restrained to certain persons residing in and about the City of London according to the Ordinance of the second of October 1644. is now communicated to the Ministers of each several Classes as men most like to know the wants of the Parish-Churches under their Authority 53. But here it is to be observed that in the setling of the Presbyterian Government in the Realm of England as the Presbyteries were to be subordinate to the Classical Provincial and National Assemblies of the Church so were they all to be subordinate to the Power of the Parliament as appears plainly by the Ordinance of the fourteenth of March which makes it quite another thing from the Scottish Presbyteries and other Assemblies of that Kirk which held themselves to be supream and unaccountable in their actings without respect unto the King the Parliament and the Courts of Justice But the truth is that as the English generally were not willing to receive that yoak so neither did the Houses really intend to impose it on them though for a while to hold fair quarter with the Scots they seemed forward in it And this appears sufficiently by a Declaration of the House of Commons published on the seventeenth of April 1646 in which they signifie That they were not able to consent to the granting of an Arbitrary and unlimited Power and Iurisdiction to near Ten thousand Iudicatories to be erected in the Kingdom which could not be consistent with the Fundamental Laws and Government of it and which by necessary consequence did exclude the Parliament from having any thing to do in that Iurisdiction On such a doubtful bottom did Presbytery stand till the King had put himself into the Power of the Scots and that the Scots had posted him in all haste to the Town of Newcastle Which caused the Lords and Commons no less hastily to speed their Ordinance of the fifth of Iune For the present setling of the Presbyterial Government without further delay as in the Title is exprest And though it was declared in the end of that Ordinance That it was to be in force for three years only except the Houses should think fit to continue it longer yet were the London-Ministers so intent upon them that they resolve to live no longer in suspence but to proceed couragiously in the execution of those several Powers which both by Votes and Ordinances were intrusted to them And to make known to all the World what they meant to do they published a Paper with this Title that is to say Certain Considerations and Cautions agreed upon by the Ministers of London and Westminster and within the Lines of Communication Iune the nineteenth 1646. According to which they resolve to put the Presbyterial Government into execution upon the Ordinances of Parliament before published 54. In which conjuncture it was thought expedient by the Houses of Parliament to send Commissioners to Newcastle and by them to present such Propositions to his Sacred Majesty as they conceived to be agreeable to his present condition In the second of which it was desired That according to the laudable Example of his Royal Father of happy memory he would be pleased to swear and sign the Solemn League and Covenant and cause it to be taken by Acts of Parliament in all his Kingdoms and Estates And in the third it was proposed That a Bill should pass for the utter abolishing and taking away of Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Commissaries Deans c. as they occur before in the Oxon Articles Num. 21. That the Assembly of Divines and Reformation of Religion according to the said Covenant should be forthwith setled and confirmed by Act of Parliament and that such unity and uniformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms should in like manner be confirmed by Act of Parliament as by the said Covenant was required after Advice first had with the Divines of the said Assembly It was required also in the said Propositions That he should utterly divest himself of all power to protect his people by putting the Militia into the hands of the Houses and that he should betray the greatest part of the Lords and Gentry which had adhered unto him in the course of the Warr to a certain ruin some of which were to be excluded from all hope of Pardon as to the saving of their Lives others to forfeit their Estates and to lose their Liberties the Clergy to remain under sequestration the Lawyers of both sorts to be disabled from the use of their Callings Demands of such unreasonable and horrid nature as would have rendred him inglorious and contemptible both at home and abroad if they had been granted 55. These Propositions were presented to him on the eleventh day of Iuly at Newcastle by the Earls of Pembroke and Suffolk of the House of Peers Erle Hipisly Robinson and Goodwin from the House of Commons Of whom his Majesty demanded Whether they came impowred to treat with him or not And when they answered That they had no Authority so to do He presently replied That then the Houses might as well have sent their Propositions by an honest Trumpeter and so parted with them for the present His Majesty had spent the greatest part of his time since he came to Newcastle in managing a dispute about Church-Government with Mr. Alexander Henderson the most considerable Champion for Presbytery in the Kirk of Scotland Henderson was possest of all advantages of Books and Helps which might enable him to carry on such a Disputation But His Majesty had the better Cause and the stronger Arguments Furnished with which though destitute of all other Helps than what he had within himself he prest his Adversary so hard
and gave such satisfactory Answers unto all his Cavils that he remained Master of the Field as may sufficiently appear by the Printed Papers And it was credibly reported that Henderson was so confounded with grief and shame that he fell into a desparate sickness which in fine brought him to his Grave professing as some say that he dyed a Convert and frequently extolling those great Abilities which when it was too late he had found in his Majesty Of the particular passages of this Disputation the English Commissioners had received a full Information and therefore purposely declined all discourse with his Majesty by which the merit of their Propositions might be called in question All that they did was to insist upon the craving of a positive Answer that so they might return unto those that sent them and such an Answer they shall have as will little please them 56. For though his Fortunes were brought so low that it was not thought safe for him to deny them any thing yet he demurred upon the granting of such points as neither in Honour nor in Conscience could be yeelded to them Amongst which those Demands which concerned Religion and the abolishing of the ancient Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops may very justly be supposed to be none of the least But this delay being taken by the Houses for a plain denial and wanting money to corrupt the unfaithful Scots who could not otherwise be tempted to betray their Soveraign they past an Ordinance for abolishing the Episcopal Government and setling their Lands upon Trustees for the use of the State Which Ordinance being past on the ninth of October was to this effect that is to say That for the better raising of moneys for the just and necessary Debts of the Kingdom in which the same hath been drawn by a Warr mainly promoted in favour of Arch-bishops and Bishops and other their Adherents and Dependents it was ordained by the Authority of the Lords and Commons That the Name Title Stile and Dignity of Arch-bishop of Canterbury Arch-bishop of York Bishop of Winchester and Bishop of Durham and all other Bishops or Bishopricks within the Kingdom should from and after the fifth of September 1646 then last past be wholly abolished or taken away and that all persons should from thenceforth be disabled to hold that Place Function or Stile within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales or the Town of Berwick or exercise any Iurisdiction or Authority â—hereunto formerly belonging by vertue of any Letters Patents from the Crown or any other Authority whatsoever any Law or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding As for their Lands they were not to be vested now in the Kings possession as had been formerly intended but to be put into the power of some Trustees which are therein named to be disposed of to such uses intents and purposes as the two Houses should appoint 57. Amongst which uses none appeared so visible even to vulgar eyes as the raising of huge Sums of Money to content the Scots who from a Remedy were looked on as the Sickness of the Common-wealth The Scots Demands amounted to Five hundred thousand pounds of English money which they offered to make good on a just account but were content for quietness sake to take Two hundred thousand pounds in full satisfaction And yet they could not have that neither unless they would betray the King to the power of his Enemies At first they stood on terms of Honour and the Lord Chancellor Lowdon ranted to some tune as may be seen in divers of his Printed Speeches concerning the indelible Character of Disgrace and Infamy which must be for ever imprinted on them if they yeelded to it But in the end the Presbyterians on both sides did so play their parts that the sinful Contract was concluded by which the King was to be put into the hands of such Commissioners as the two Houses should appoint to receive his Person The Scots to have One hundred thousand pounds in ready money and the Publick Faith which the Houses very prodigally pawned upon all occasions to secure the other According unto which Agreement his Majesty is sold by his own Subjects and betrayed by his Servants by so much wiser as they thought than the Traytor Iudas by how much they had made a better Market and raised the price of the Commodity which they were to sell. And being thus sold he is delivered for the use of those that bought him into the custody of the Earl of Pembroke who must be one in all their Errands the Earl of Denbigh and the Lord Mountague of Boughton with twice as many Members of the Lower House with whom he takes his Journey towards Holdenby before remembred on the third of February And there so closely watcht and guarded that none of his own Servants are permitted to repair unto him Marshal and Caril two great sticklers in behalf of Presbytery but such as after warped to the Independents are by the Houses nominated to attend as Chaplains But he refused to hear them in their Prayers or Preachings unless they would officiate by the publick Liturgy and bind themselves unto the Rules of the Church of England Which not being able to obtain he moves the Houses by his Message of the 17th of that Month to have two Chaplains of his own Which most unchristianly and most barbarously they denyed to grant him 58. Having reduced him to this streight they press him once again with their Propositions which being the very same which was sent to Newcastle could not in probability receive any other Answer This made them keep a harder hand upon him than they did before presuming that they might be able to extort those Concessions from him by the severity and solitude of his restraint when their Perswasions were too weak and their Arguments not strong enough to induce him to it But Great God! How fallacious are the thoughts of men How wretchedly do we betray our selves to those sinful hopes which never shall be answerable to our expectation The Presbyterians had battered down Episcopacy by the force of an Ordinance outed the greatest part of the Regular Clergy of their Cures and Benefices advanced their new Form of Government by the Votes of the Houses and got the King into their power to make sure work of it But when they thought themselves secure they were most unsafe For being in the height of all their Glories and Projectments one Ioice a Cornet of the Army comes thither with a Party of Horse removes his Guards and takes him with them to their Head-Quarters which were then at Woburn a Town upon the North-west Road in the County of Bedford Followed not long after by such Lords and others as were commanded by the Houses to attend upon him Who not being very acceptable to the principal Officers were within very few weeks discharged of that Service By means whereof the Presbyterians lost all those great advantages
onely Excommunicate her person deprive her of her Kingdoms and absolve all her Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance but commands all her Subjects of what sort soever not to obey her Laws Injunctions Ordinances or Acts of State The Defection of the Papists had before been voluntary but is now made necessary the Popes command being superadded to the scandal which had before been given them by the Puritan Faction For after this the going or not going to Church was commonly reputed by them for a signe distinctive by which a Roman Catholick might be known from an English Heretick And this appears most plainly by the Preamble to the Act of Parliament against bringing or executing of Bulls from Rome 13 Eliz. 2. Where it is reckoned amongst the effects of those Bulls and Writings That those who brought them did by their lewd practices and subtile perswasions work so farforth that sundry people and ignorant persons have been contented to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and to have withdrawn and absented themselves from all Divine Service most godlily exercised in this Realm By which it seems that till the roaring of those Bulls those of the Popish party did frequent the Church though not so generally in the last five years as our Learned Andrews hath observed as they did the first before they were discouraged by the Innovations of the Puritan Faction 33. But for their coming to our Churches for the first ten years that is to say before the first beginning of the Puritan Schism there is enough acknowledged by some of their own Parsons himself confesseth in his Pamphlet which he calls by the name of Green-Coat That for twelve years together the Court and State was in great quiet and no question made about Religion Brierly in his Apologie speaks it more at large by whom it is acknowledged That in the beginning of the Queens Reign most part of the Catholicks for many years did go to the Heretical Churches and Service That when the better and truer opinion was taught them by Priests and Religious men from beyond the Seas as more perfect and necessary there wanted not many which opposed themselves of the elder sort of Priests of Queen Maries days and finally That this division was not onely favoured by the Council but nourished also for many years by divers troublesome people of their own both in teaching and writing On which the Author of the Reply whomsoever he was hath made this Descant viz. That for the Catholicks going to Church it was perchance rather to be lamented then blamed before it came to be a sign Distinctive by which a Catholick was known from one who was no Catholick Thus as the Schisms began together so are they carried on by the self-same means by Libelling against the State the Papists in their Philopater the Puritans in Martin Mar-Prelate and the rest by breeding up their novices beyond the Seas the Roman Catholicks at Rheims and Doway the Presbyterians at Geneva Amsterdam or Saumure by raising sedition in the State and plotting Treason against the person of the Queen the Papists by Throgmorton Parry Tichbourn Babington c. the Puritans by Thacker Penry Hacket Coppinger c. And finally by the executions made upon either part of which in reference to the Presbyterians we shall speak hereafter But as none of Plutarchs Parallels is so exact but that some difference may be noted and is noted by him betwixt the persons and affairs of whom he writes so was there a great difference in one particular between the fortunes of the Papists and the contrary faction The Presbyterians were observed to have many powerful Friends at Court in which the Papists had scarce any but mortal Enemies Spies and Intelligencers were employed to attend the Papists and observe all their words and actions so that they could not stir without a discovery But all mens eyes were shut upon the other party so that they might do what they listed without observation Of which no reason can be given but that the Queen being startled at the Popes late Bull and finding both her Person and Estate indangered under divers pretences by many of the Romish party both at home and abroad might either take no notice of the lesser mischief or suffer that faction to grow up to confront the other 34. And now comes Cartwright on the Stage on which he acted more then any of the Puritan Faction till their last going off again in the Reign of this Queen It was upon a discontent that he first left Cambridge and in pursuance of the same that he left the Church For being appointed one of the Opponents at the Divinity-Act in Cambridge Anno 1564 at such time as the Queen was pleased to honor it with her Royal presence he came not off so happily in her esteem but that Preston of Kings Colledge for action voyce and elocution was preferred before him This so afflicted the proud man that in a sudden humour he retires from the University and sets up his studies in Geneva where he became as great with Beza and the rest of that Consistory as ever Knox had been with Calvin at his being there As soon as he had well acquainted himself with the Form of their Discipline and studied all such points as were to be reduced to practice at his coming back well stocked with Principles and furnished with Instructions he prepares for England and puts himself into his Colledge Before upon the apprehension of the said neglect he had begun to busie himself with some discourses against the Ecclesiastical Government then by Law established and seemed to entertain a great opinion of himself both for Learning and Holiness and therewithal a great contemner of such others as continued not with him But at his coming from Geneva he became more practical or pragmatical rather condemning the Vocation of Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers the Administration of our holy Sacraments and observations of our Rites and Ceremonies And buzzing these conceits into the Heads of divers young Preachers and Scholars of the University he drew after him a great number of Disciples and Followers Amongst whom he prevailed so far by his secret practices but much more by a Sermon which he Preached one Sunday-morning in the Colledge-Chappel that in the afternoon all the Fellows and Scholars threw aside their Surplices which by the Statutes of the House they were bound to use and went to the Divine Service onely in their Gowns and Caps Dr. Iohn Whitgift was at that time Master of Trinity Colledge and the Queens Professor for Divinity a man of great temper and moderation but one withal that knew well how to hold the Reins and not suffer them to be wrested out of his hand by an Head-strong beast Cartwright was Fellow of that Colledge emulous of the Masters Learning but far more envious at the Credit and Authority which he had acquired for which cause he procured himself to be
chosen the Professor for the Lady Margaret that he might come as near to him as he could both in place and power But not content with that which he had done in the Colledge he puts up his Disciples into all the Pulpits in the University where he and they inveigh most bitterly against the Government of the Church and the Governours of it the Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Liturgie established and the Rites thereof And though Whitgift Preached them down as occasion served with great applause unto himself but greater satisfaction to all moderate and sober men yet Cartwright and his Followers were now grown unto such a head that they became more violent by the opposition 32. It hapneth commonly as a Learned man hath well observed That those fervent Reprehenders of things established by publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men and such as will not easily be taken off from their prosecutions by any fair and gentle usage Which Whitgift found at last alter all his patience insomuch that having many times in vain endeavoured by gentle Admonitions and fair perswasions to gain the man unto himself or so to moderate and restrain him as that he should no longer trouble both that Colledge and the whole University with his dangerous Doctrines he was necessitated in the end to expel him out of the House and after to deprive him also of the Margaret-Lecture Which last he acted as Vice-chancellor upon this account that he had delivered divers errors in his Lectures which he had neither recanted as he was required nor so expounded as to free himself from that imputation and that withal he had exercised the Function of a Minister without being able to produce any Letters of Orders Hereupon Cartwright and his Followers began to mouth it complaining that the man had been mightily wronged in being deprived of his preferments in the University without being called unto his answer that Cartwright had made many offers of Disputation for tryal of the points in Question but could never be heard and therefore that Whitgift supplyed this by excess of power which he was not able to make good by defect of Arguments To stop which clamour Whitgift not onely offered him the opportunity of a Conference with him but offered it in the presence of sufficient witnesses and put the man so hard unto it that he not onely declined the Conference at the present but confest that Whitgift had made him the like offers formerly and that he had refused the same as he now did also All which appears by a Certificate subscribed by eight sufficient Witnesses and a publick Notary dated the 18 of March 1570. But this disgrace was followed by a greater much about that time for finding himself in a necessity to depart from Cambridge he would have taken the degree of Doctor along with him for his greater credit but was denyed by the major part of the Regent Masters and others which had votes therein which so displeased both him and all his adherents that from this time the Degrees of Doctors Batchellors and Masters were esteemed unlawful and those that took them reckoned for the Limbs of Antichrist as appears by the Genevian Notes on the Revelâ—tion But for this and all the other wrongs which he had suffered as was said in the University he will revenge himself upon the Church in convenient time and in convenient time we shall hear more of it 36. In the mean season we must make a step to Banstâ—ed in Surrey where we shall finde a knot of more Zealous Calvinists then in other places so Zealous and conceited of their own dear Sanctity that they separated themselves from the rest of their brethren under the name of the Anoynted The Bond of Peace was broken by the rest before and these men meant not to retain the unity of spirit with them as they had done formerly Their Leader was one Wright their Opinions these viz. That no man is to be accused of sin but he that did reject the truths by them professed That the whole New Testament contained nothing but predictions of things to come and therefore that Christ whom they grant to have appeared in the flesh before shall come before the Day of Iudgement and actually perform those things which are there related That he whose sins are once pardoned cannot sin again And that no credit was to be afforded to men of Learning but all things to be taught by the Spirit onely Of these men Sanders tells us in his Book De visibile Monarchia Fol. 707 and placeth them in this present year 1570. But what became of them I finde not there or in any others And therefore I conceive that either they were soon worn out for want of Company or lost themselves amongst the Anabaptists Familists or some other And this I look upon as one of the first Factions amongst the Puritans themselves after they had begun their separation from the Church of England Which separation so begun as before is said was closed again about this time by the hands of those who first had laboured in the breach 37. For so it was that either out of love to their own profit or the publick peace some of them had consulted Beza touching this particular that is to say Whether he thought it more expedient for the good of the Church That the Ministers should chuse rather to forsake their Flocks then to conform unto such Orders as were then prescribed Whereunto he returns this Answer That many things both may and ought to be obeyed which are not warrantably commanded That though the Garments in dispute were not imposed upon the Church by any warrant from the Word of God yet having nothing of impiety in them he conceived that it were fitter for the Ministers to conform themselves then either voluntarily to forsake their Churches or be deprived for their refusal That in like manner the people were to be advised to frequent the Churches and hear their Pastors so apparelled as the Church required rather then utterly to forsake that spiritual food by which their souls were to be nourished to eternal life But so that first the Ministers do discharge their Consciences by making a modest protestation against those Vestments as well before the Queens Majesty as their several Bishops and so apply themselves to suffer what they could not remedy This might have stopt the breach at the first beginning if either the English Puritans had not been too hot upon it to be cooled so suddenly or that he had not made his own good counsel ineffectual in the close of all In which he tells them in plain terms That if they could no otherwise preserve their standing in the Church then either by subscribing to the lawfulness of the Orders Rites and Ceremonies which were then required or by giving any countenance to them by a faulty silence they should then finally give way to that open violence which they were