King and Court were his Foes for it ever after and above all Bishop Laud whom he calls Filius ante diem sets himself against him and as if not content to succeed him he endeavour'd to supplant him as if a falling Tree stood in need of felling he being now exceeding old Fuller Ch. Hist Cent. 17. B. 11. p. 128. CHAP. IV. BUt leaving K. James as he lest his Throne to K. Charles the First a few Remarks upon his Reign As First Mr. Fuller tells us how Bishop Laud that grand Master of Ceremonies c. had entred into his Diary that the Parliament in the fourth year of Charles the First Anno Dom 1628. did earr estly endeavour his Destruction Cent. 17. Book 11. pag. 132. In which Parliament Mr. Pryn charges Dr. Manwaring that he taught The Consciences of Subjects are bound to obey illegal Commands c. yea and damns them in case of Disobedience c. Relating likewise how Dr. Cozens set up in Durham a marble Altar with Cherabims which cost Two thousand Pound and he made a Gaudy Cope with the Trinity Embroider'd upon it whereon was God the Father in the figure of an Old Man and another with a Crucifix and Christs In age having a Red Beard and a Blew Cap upon his Head c. And how this same Dr. lighted two hundred Wax Candles about his Altar upon Candlemass-Day And how he forbad singing of Psalms but Commanded Anthems to be Sung and among the Rest an Anthem of the three Kings of Colain Gaspar Belthazar and Mclchior c. And how this Dr. procured a Consecrated Knife wherewith to cut his Sacrament Bread c. Ibidem pag. 173. The 2d Remark Is that of Mr. Fuller's saying those high Prelates call the Bp. of Armagh Dr. Vsher D. Morton Dr. Hall Dr. Sanders Dr. Brownrigg Dr. Holdsworth all those famous Doctors a Company of Puritanical Bishops that were Doctrinal tho' not Disciplinary Puritans who said that the Doctrine of the Council of Trent was preached by these Bishops Fuller Ch. Hist pag. 174.175 Remark the third Mr. Fuller relateth how the grievances of Arch-Bishop Williams did much hasten if not chiefly cause the Suppression of that Ecclesiastick Court the Star Chamber the two Arch-Bishops being therein engaged against each other pag. 159. and likewise how the Convocation in the Year 1640. had full Commission from King Charles the 1st either to alter the old Canons or to make new ones which Royal Power had not been granted for many Years before Fuller ibidem pag. 168. And how after that Parliament was dissolved the Convocation still sate wherem to fewer than thirty six of themselves were Dissenters among them but their Oath obliged them that none should ever give consent to the altering of the Church Government which Oath seemed to Abridge the Liberty and Authority of both King and Parliament who had a power of alteration when they saw cause for it Beside this Oath saith he had a Windy Et caetera in it a Cheverel word which like a Cheverel point might be stretched out at pleasure This same figure c. in the Oath the Witty Poet Cleveland my Contemporary in the University call'd the Curled Lock of Anti-Christ And tho time was given for Conforming to this Et caetera Oath until the twenty ninth of September to deliberate upon it yet some over active Bishops saith Mr. Fuller did presently press the Oath upon some Ministers yea and to take this Bishop's Oath kneeling which is a Ceremony saith he that is never exacted nor observed in taking the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King pag. 171. And how Dr. Turner in his Convocation Sermon blamed some Bishops for their being too meek and moderate and bidding them that with equal strictness they would press forward an Vniversal Conformity And indeed they did as he bad them pushing End-ways this matter of Conformity until they set all the Kingdom into a Flame in the late Civil Vncivil Wars c. Remark the Fourth By all the aforesaid tho' it be not the Tenth part of what Mr. Fuller saith c. It cannet be wordred at that so many Nonconformists both of the Presbyterial and Congregational Judgment have separated themselves from such a Church of England so Characterized not only by Dr. Ames in his fresh suit against Ceremonies and Mr. Robinsons Justification of a separation from the Church of England and the Remonstrance of Mr. Cartwright Subscribed by a thousand Ministers here in England beside Zarchy's Epistle to the Queen at large all which and many more Authors of that Subject I have by me To say nothing of Calvin Beza c. This Mr. Fuller being an Episcopal Divine tells Tales enow out of his Church for which doing he could rise no higher than a poor Preb ndary Let him be Instar omnium c. Remark the Fifth If any enquire more after the particular Reasons of the Nonconformists Separation from the Church of England take this brief Account as this Tract will admit of c. Reason the 1st Upon the same ground that the Church of England separateth from Rome do we separate from them Dr. Stillingsteet in his Dialogue for justifying their Separation from home saith pag. 165. We think the Requiring of doubtful things for certain false for true new for old absurd for Reasonable is ground enough for us not to embrace communion with that Church unless it may be had upon better terms Now let the Mouth of this battering Cannon be but turn'd against the Church of England as 't is there against the Church of Rome it will assuredly give as loud a Report and do as much Execution for us in justifying our Separation as well as theirs Seeing there are Imposed on us Doubtful things for certain c. And we think this is ground enough for us as well as for themselves not to Embrace the Communion of such a Church Why may not our we think so be as good as their we think so Why may not our Rouland be as good as their Oliver What is good Sawce for a Goose may be as good Sawce for a Gander c. Reason the 2d A Comparison betwixt the Primitive and the Present English Church The Nonconformists find a great many Humane Inventions in the latter that were never Divine Institutions in the former Such as Cathedral Musick with Organs Chancellours Commissaries Officials Pompous Prelates with sole Power of Ordination and Excommunication Calling of Ministers without the express consent of the Congregations over which they are placed Ministers going to Law for their Places Pluralities Non Residents Dumb Curates Simony Prophane Contemners of Religion made Members of the Church Carnal proceedings in Spiritual Courts Bribes for Ordinations Citations Absolutions and many more such Additionals of the same Brann whereof there was not the least shew or shadow allowed in the Primitive Church Now the Noncons Argue with their Lord and Master Non erat sic ab initio nec
Answered to which a Reply was made CHAP. II. THIS Chapter is a more particular History of the first Seperation from the Church of England as it was then constituted in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth by the Non-conformists of that time who were partly of the Presbyterial and partly of the Congregational Judgment which the sequel may demonstrate The first Remark is the Non-conformity of Mr. Cartwright in these following Propositions under his own hand-writing were As 1. That the Names of Arch-bishops and of Arch-deacons ought to be abolished with all their Offices and Exercises of Power 2. That the Names of the Legitimate Ministers in the Church such as are Bishops and Deacons so far as they are separated from those Functions that are simply set down in the Word of God ought to be removed and reduced to their first Apostolical Institution namely That the Deacons should serve the Tables of the Poor and the Bishops give themselves to the Word and Prayer 3. That the Government of the Church ought not to be committed to the Chancellours of Bishops or to the Officers of Archdeacons but to a fit Ministry and Presbytery of the same Church 4. That no Minister ought to be a Wanderer or running at random but every one should be fixed to his own proper place 5. No Man ought to make himself Minister of any People by a Mandamus from the Sovereign to the Electors of such to officiate c. 6. Ministers ought not to be made by the Authority and Power of Bishops onely much less in the Bishop's Study or any private place but should be chosen by the Church it self c. Concluding thus That every Man is bound by his Calling to reform those Deformities to wit Magistrates by their Power Ministers by their Preaching and People by their Prayers All jointly must promote this aforesaid Reformation These were the Crimes for which Doctor Whitgift then Vice-chancellour expelled Mr. Cartwright out of Cambridge after which K. James then King of Scotland sent for him profering to make him Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews and the Archbishop of Dublin also sent for him into Ireland profering him Preferment in that Kingdom but the Earl of Leicester fixed him after his Return from Travel beyond Sea making him Master of the Hospital at Warwick at which time that pestilent piece the Rhemish Testament came forth and look'd on of such dangerous consequence that it required the ablest Pen to answer it Hereupon Sir Francis Walsingham the Queen's right-hand and eye courted Mr. Cartwright to the Undertaking sent him an Hundred pound few such gifts now a days to Non-conformists to furnish him for the Work Yea the Learned Doctors of Cambridge and the Ministers of London and Suffolk exhorted him to undertake it Notwithstanding all this Arch bishop Whitgift sent him a politive Prohibition fearing saith Dr. Fuller lest any of his Dry Blows and Distastfull Passages shot at Rome might glance at Canterbury Ch. Hist Cent. 16. pag. 171. The second Remark is I to avoid prolixity am constrained to omit the many Stories of Non-conformity form Henry the VIII's Reformation in his abolishing the Pope's Supremacy and the abolishing of Abbies c. And of that under Edward the Sixth which I have by me from Stow Dr. Heylin Sir Richard Baker c. but beg leave to insert one or two Stories out of peevish Peter Heylin saying The People might have rested in the Reformation of Edward the Sixth if Calvin's pragmatical Spirit as he styles it had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some Passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left soliciting the Lord Protector and the Universities till he had laid the first foundation of the Zuinglian Faction to which they were encouraged by the Indulgence granted to John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Privilege of a Non conformist Church for him and his people distinct from the Church of England in Government and Form of Worship This much animated saith he the Zuinglian Gospellers to practise first upon the Church and being countenanced by the Earl of Warwick then quarrelled with Episcopal Habits against Copes Tippets Surplices c. but at last fell upon the Altars which were left standing as they had been in times of Popery by the Rules of the Liturgy Then were some rude People encouraged saith he under-hand by the Grandees of the Court to beat down some Altars which made way for an Order of the Council Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places Hereupon the costly Coverings of the Altars together with their rich Priestly Grarments made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or embroidered Velvet the meanest of them being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent trimming were handsomely converted to private use for Carpets Cushions Coverlids c. for the Court Lords This change saith he drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction so he brands the Puritans of that day by this Name as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs K. Ed. died whose death saith he I cannot reckon for an Infelicity to the Church of England for he being ill-principled in himself and easily inclined to embrace such Counsels would have put down Bishopricks also and left the Church to her natural Nakedness Dr. Heylin's Preface to his History of Reformation The third Remark is from Dr. Helyn pag. 72 75 79 c. After he had made the Lord Protector a most sacrilegious person in pulling down Churches wherewith to build his Somerset-House in the Strand c. He brings in this Story of the bringing in of Presbytery into England the Arch-bishop Cranmer sent for Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr who were more addicted to the Zuinglian than the Lutheran Doctrines the former was placed in the Doctor 's Chair at Cambridge holding correspondency with Calvin but soon died but the latter Peter Martyr in his Divinity Lectures at Oxford declared himself a Zuinglian and no fast friend to Ceremonies I add this to Dr. Heylin saying Ego cum Canonicus Oxoniae essem super-polliceis uti non auderem I while Canon of Christ's Church in Oxford durst not wear a Surplice But the Dr. proceeds in his Story how much the Zuinglian Gospellers were against the Book of Homilies c. and how Dr. Hooper being design'd Bishop of Gloucester refused to be consecrated by Archbishop Cranmer in such Habits as Bishops are required to wear by the Rules of the Church which Refusal put a stop to his Consecration but he repairing to his Patron the Earl of Warwick obtained his Letter to the Arch bishop desiring a forbearance of these Habits adding also that it was the King's desire as well as his own and requested farther that he would not charge him with any Oath burthensome to his Conscience namely the Oath of Canonical Obedience yea the King likewise
kind of high flown persecuting Conformists feared some remarkable change to be brought in by K. James's coming to the Crown who had been train'd up by the Kirk of Scotland in the Presbyterial way See Mr. Rich. Sedgwick's Life writ by Mr. Clark pag. 397. in Fol. N. B. Thus might I carry on this History of Nonconfermity both through K. James the First and K. Charles the First yea and Charle the Second and James the Second but this would make a Volume All that can be contain'd here is the History of the Infancy of it in the first Reformers CHAP. III. Remark 1st UPon K. James's Reign in the year 1605. at Hampton-Court he calls an Assembly of Divines to confer about the Liturgy and Church Government where he told them that his End of calling them together was not to make any Alteration which was not requisite seeing he found all things so well setled already but like a wise Physician he would search into the supposed Diseases and remove the occasion of Complaints whereupon the Prelates of his Privy Council were dismissed and the Monday after he calls in the complaining Doctors telling them he meant not to alter the Church Government so well setled already but to settle Vniformity and Vnity c. Dr. Reynolds the Foreman reduceth their Grievances to these four Heads First For preserving true Doctrine Secondly For placing Good Pastors Thirdly For sincere Church-Government And Fourthly For explaining some passages in the Service-Book Of this Conference c. I must refer my Reader to Mr. Fuller's Church History who according to his Name gives a fuller Account than this small Treatise is capable of Some brief touches make Remark the Second Mr. Fuller saith that Dr. Barlow then an opposite to the Nonconformists doth not give an impartial Relation of this Conference Whereupon he wittily saith If the Israelites be forced to whet their Tools with the Philistims no wonder if the Thilistims set a sharper edge on their own and a blunter upon their enemies Weapons he was a Party and so was partial in favouring the Conformists c. But Mr. Fuller Cent 17. Book 10. pag. 21. c. Saith here was great odds only these four Reinolds Knewstubbs Spark and Chaderton called to cope with 8 Bishops 8 Deans and two Doctors beside the King and his Privy Council Nor were they called to have their Scruples satisfyed but his Pleasure propounded the King call'd them not that he might know what they could say but that they might know what he would do in the matter For tho they petition'd for a full Reformation of Church-Service Livings Ministers and Discipline and that with a Millenary Petition subscribed with about a thousand Ministers hands yet got they not the Kings Ear but he cryed to them No Bishop no King and as they dealt with my mother so would they deal with me I 'le make you conform or banish you c. But he order'd a new Translation of the Bible differing from that of Geneva charging the Translators to keep the old Ecclesiastick words as Church and not Congregation and Easter c. and not to make any marginal Notes as were in the Geneva Bibles against which he much exclaimed and more especially its Notes upon Exod. 1.19 which allows Disobedience to Kings and on 2 Chron. 15.16 saying Asa should have kill'd the Queen and not deposed her only Remark the Third Mr. Fuller says further when Dr. Reynolds wâ—… complaining against Arminian Doctrine lazy Ministers bad Goverâ—…ment of the Church and Common Prayer c. saying It was tâ—… cry of the People Such a Church c. will bring the Souls of thâ— Nation into a faint and feeble condition having no warm meet provided for them save only the cold Homilies and the Starve-us-Book â—… Bishop Bancroft at this Hampton-Court Conference answered only with urging that old Canon Schismatici contra Episcopos non sunt audiendi Schismaticks ought not to be heard in their complaining against the Bishops and said He was beholden to the King to suffer him thus to speak against the Laturgy contrary to the Statute in the first year of Q. Elizabeth and that probably he was of the same mind with Mr. Cartwright who would conform in Ceremonie rather to the Turks than to the Papists Book 10. pag 11. Cent. 17. And the same Bishop Bancroft bade K. James remember the Speech of the French Ambassador Rognee who said That if the Reformed Church in France had kept the same Order both in Service and in Ceremonies there would have been a thousand more Protestants than there be in that Land intimating That if the Protestants there had embraced the same Service and Ceremonies with the Prelates in England which they could not do but differed from them the Popish Party in France would have been pleased with them and their Conformity would have prevenâ—ed the Parisian Massacâ—e pag. 15. The same Bishop said likewise That in a Church newly planted Preaching is most necessary but it is not so in a Church long established as ours is whereby his Design was to thrust out Sermons as unnecessary by the more necessary Service-Book pag. 15. Remark the Fourth But the Lord Chancellor said at that same Hampton Court Conference that Church-Livings at that time wanted rather Learned-men than Learned men any Church livings Many such pining for want of Places through their Nonconformity and to this Complaint he added That he wished every Learned man were supplyed with a single Coat to wit one Church-Benefice before that others be thatched on with double and treble Coats in their Pluralities c. p. 16. Mr. Knewstubb the Nonconformist at the same Conference said Put the case That the Church hath Power to add any significant Signs it may not add them where Christ hath already ordered them This derogates from the Authority of Christ as much as if any should presume to add any thing to the Great Seal of England c. These few instances I have inserted in this small Tract out of Mr. Fuller who was a famous Episcopal Divine c. Remark the Fifth Tho King James was look'd upon by the Prelates as no better than an Arrant Puritan when he came first to the Crown of England and was the first King that ever was proclaimed K. of Great Britain France and Ireland yet Cluverius testifies of him That he left the Church of England as he found it at the Death of Q. Elizabeth without any Reformation or Redress of Grievances therein insomuch that some severely enough describing his Court and Character discover much of his King craft even such as were Eye witnesses or Ear-witnesses thereof and so making good his own Motto Qui nescit dissimulare nescit Regnare He that cannot Dissemble ought not to Reign Mr. Fuller tells us That in his time Archbishop Abbot's stiffness about the Earl of Essex's Divorce c. though it was to his eternal Honour in not complying with the Bawdy Bishops yet the