Chancellour of this University whereby it is manifest that these Laws and Ordinances are so established and ratified both by Sovereign and Subalternal Authority Temporal and Spiritual that nothing further can be required but your ready acceptance and obedience whereof I make no doubt For to do you right you have already shewed so effectual Conformity and at this present express such alacrity and forwardness that I rather see cause to commend and encourage you than to exhort and stir you up or any way to importune you by any further Speech yet because there is generally in Man's nature a secret curiosity and prejudice against all things that appear extraodinary and new especially when they impose any Duty and require obedience at their hands I must crave leave in discharge of my own Duty to satisfie those which hereafter may be inquisitive into these Proceedings to insist a little upon those principal Respects which demonstrate the full Authorization and absolute necessity of submission to these Laws That which Commands in chief and which no reason can withstand is his Majesty's Sovereign Power by which these Statutes as you see are both enacted and confirmed Him we all acknowlege to be our supream Governour both of Church and Commonwealth over all Causes and Persons and to his Supremacy and Allegiance we are all obliged by Oath This then we must build upon as an Axiom and fundamental Rule of Government That all our Laws and Statutes are the King's Laws and that none can be enacted changed or abrogated without him so all Courts of Law or Equity are properly the King's Courts all Justice therein administred be it Civil or Martial is the King's Justice and no Pardon or Grace proceeds from any but from the King And as of Justice so is he the Source of Honour all Dignities all Degrees all Titles Arms and Orders come orignally from the King as Branches from the Root And not only particular Men and Families but all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all their Jurisdictions and Governments established by him and by him for publick good to be changed or dissolved So his Power reacheth to Foreign Plantations where he may erect Principalities and make Laws for their good Government which no man may disobey And as in the temporal so in the State Ecclesiastical his Regal Power by ancient Right extendeth to the erection of Bishopricks Deanries and Cathedral Churches and to settle Orders for Government in all Churches by the advice of his own 〈◊〉 without any Concurrence of Forreign Usurping Power But for Universities and Colleges they are the Rights of Kings in a most peculiar manner For all their Establishments Endowments Priviledges and Orders by which they subsist and are maintained are derived from Regal Power And as it is your greatest Honour so it is your greatest Safety That now this Body of your Laws as well as your Priviledges and Immunities are established ratified and confirmed by the King And more I shall not need to say in this Point In the next place you may consider for your incouragement to receive this great Favour and Benefit from his Majesty with ready and thankful Minds that your Chancellor's worthy Care had a chief operation in advancing this great work whose nearness to his Majesty in a place of that Eminency and sincere Conformity to his Orders and Commands and most watchful Care over that part of the Government which is committed to his Trust inableth him to support and may give you confidence to obey that which his Majesty recommendeth by so good a Hand specially in Matters concerning the good Government of the Church or of the Schools In the Church whereof he is Primate and Metropolitan his Power is very large and his extraordinary endeavours in it deserve at least to be well understood In former times when Church-men 〈◊〉 Rule the greatest Prelates gave the first way to alienate Church Livings Whereas this worthy Prelate maketh it his chief work to recover to the Church for the furtherance of God's Service what may be now restored And what therein he hath effected under his Majesty's gracious and powerful Order not England alone but Scotland and Ireland can abundantly witness Again what help and relief he procureth dayly for Ministers oppressed by rich incroaching Neighbours or Patrons what Collections and Contributions he obtaineth to re-edify to repair and adorn Churches and what great Structures are now in Hand and much advanced by his Judgment Care and Zeal in our most famous Monuments dedicated to God's service we may behold with Joy and future Ages will 〈◊〉 to his Majesty's eternal Glory by whose Power and Order all is performed and to the Honour of our Country and for encouragement and example of those that shall succeed who will acknowledge with us that this Man is indeed as he is by his just stile a most Reverend and Beneficial Father of the Church And for this University what better Evidence can be desired of his singular Love and Beneficence than first that stately Building whereby he hath made himself another Founder of that College which bred him to this height of worth And secondly those many rare and exquisite Manuscripts and Authors wherewith he hath replenished your renowned publick Library And if you add hereunto his constant Care to maintain you in all your Rights and Priviledges and to assist you in your Preferments And finally in collecting this great Volume of Ordinances for the present and further Government of this famous University You have Monuments sufficient to eternize among you and all men his memory and desert And this work is that which now remaineth in the third place to be further stood upon For 't is not as some may think either a Rhapsody of overworn and unuseful Ordinances nor yet an imposition of Novel Constitutions to serve the present Times But our Royal Justinian by the Labour and Direction of this prudent person hath collected into a Pandect or Corpus juris Academici all the ancient approved Statutes which in former times were scattered and so neglected And tho many great Prelates have heretofore undertaken this Work yet it ever miscarried till the piercing Judgment and undefatigible Industry of this man took it in hand and happily as now you see hath put you into possession of it whereof the use can hardly be valued For by these Rules You that are Governors may know what to command and those that are under you may know how to obey and all may understand how to order their Behaviour and their Studies whereby they may become most profitable Members in the Church and Common-wealth which is the main cause why his Majesty requireth them so strictly to be obeyed For let me speak freely out of that true affection which I bear to you all Deceive not your selves with a vain opinion that Kings and Princes give great Donations Priviledges and
Life time as if God would give a pattern in the first High Priest under the Law what his Successours in some Cases might and in some must do in great and Civil Affairs And not so only but to instruct the Successours of Moses also what value they should put upon Aaron and his Successours if they will follow the way which God himself prescribed and which hath been taken up and followed in all well govern'd Kingdoms as well Christian as Heathen till this very time that this ignorant boisterous Faction hath laboured to bear sway as a learned Country-Man of ours hath observed And therefore though God set the pattern in Aaron yet he continued it farther to shew as I conceive that his Will was it should continue For no sooner was Aaron dead but his Son Eleazar succeeded in all those great Civil employments as well as in the Priesthood For when the People of Israel were come into the plain of Moab near Jerico and were ready to enter into the Land of Promise God himself joyned Eleazar with Moses for the numbring of all the People that were found fit for War which they were to expect at their entrance into Canaan Numb 26. 1 3. In the difficult point of Inheritance for the Daughters of Zelophehad when they came and demanded right of Moses their demand was made to him and Eleazar and the Princes of the Congregation Numb 27. 2. which they would not have done had not Eleazar had a Vote in that Judicature with Moses and the Princes And no less than God himself commanded Moses to declare Joshua to be his Successour in the presence of the Congregation Josh. 17. 4. And orders farther that Joshua shall stand before Eleazar the Priest and that Eleazar shall ask Counsel for him after the Judgment of Vrim before the Lord. Numb 27. 18 19 23. Now I would fain know of this Lord whether Eleazar might give Joshua the Counsel which he asked of God for him If he might not why did God appoint him to ask it for Joshua If he might then he might give Counsel in Temporal Affairs for so runs the Text about the War to be had with the Canaanites At Eleazar's word they should go out and at his word they should come in both Joshua and all the Children of Israel Phineas the Son of Eleazar but Priest too though not High Priest till after his Father's Death was employed by Moses in the War against the Midianites Numb 31. 6. and the Trumpets put into his Hands After the Victory over them the Captains and the Spoil were brought to Moses Eleazar and the chief Fathers of the Congregation to divide them v. 12 26. and an express Law ordained that if there be a matter too hard for them in Judgment I pray mark it 't is between blood and blood between plea and plea between stroke and stroke these are no Ecclesiastical Matters I trow that they should go unto the Priests the Levites and to the Judges that shall be in those days Deut. 17. 8 9. and he that will not hearken unto the Priest and Judge shall die v. 12. Was the Priest here excluded from all Temporal affairs Nay was he excluded from any when his Judgment was required between Blood and Blood Nay the Geneva Note adds here that the Judge was to give Sentence as the Priests counsel him by the Law of God which gives the Priest a greater power than the Judge since he was to follow the Priest's Direction and Dr. Raynolds tells us very learnedly that this Law was made to establish the highest Court of Judgment among that People in which all harder Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil should be determined without farther Appeal When the People made War and came nigh unto the Battle the Priest was to approach and speak unto them and when he had done the Officers were to speak to them likewise which must needs imply that the Priests which were present were not strangers to some at least of the Counsels of the War Deut. 20. 2 5. and the whole Law the Judicial as well as the rest was delivered by Moses after he had written it unto the Priests the Sons of Levi and unto all the Elders of Israel Deut. 31. 9. so was the Priest trusted with the Custody and in the discussing of the Law and as is before mentioned Eleazar had his Hand in distributing the Land of Canaan to the several Tribes as well as Joshua and the other Elders of Israel Josh. 14. 1. Nay though this were not ordinary and usual yet Eli was so far trusted with and employed in Temporal Affairs as that being High Priest he was also Judge over Israel fourty Years 1 Sam. 4. 18. and after him Samuel a Levite Judged Israel and no Man better Yea and after the Captivity of Babylon also for well near five Hundred Years the Priesthood had the greatest Stroke in the Government as under the Maccabees and they did all that belonged unto them very worthily and it pleased God to make that Family very victorious After Samuel when that People had Kings to Govern them in that great and most unnatural Conspiracy of Absalom against his Father David in that great distress Hushai was ordered by David to return and mix himself with the Counsels of Absalom and to impart all things to Zadoc and Abiathar the Priests that by them and their Sons David might come to know what was useful or necessary for him to do 1 Sam. 15. 27. 32. 35. and Hushai's making no scruple nor reply to this makes it clear that Zadoc and Abiathar were formerly trusted with David's Counsels and that Hushai had observ'd them to be prudent and secret And when David was old he called a kind of Parliament for the settling his Son Solomon in the Kingdom To that great Assembly he gathered together all the Princes of Israel with the Priests and the Levites 1 Chron. 23. 1 2. so far was he from turning their Votes out of the House of that great Consultation that Six Thousand of them were by the Wisdom of that Senate made Officers and Judges throughout the Kingdom v. 4. and this was done on both sides of Jordan in all businesses of the Lord and in the Service of the King 1 Chron. 26. 30 32. In the beginning of Solomon's Reign Abiathar the High Priest was in all the great Counsels of that State but falling into the Treason of Adonijah he was deprived by Solomon and Zadock made High Priest in his Room 1 King 2. 27 35. And when Jehosaphat repaired the decays of that State he set the Priests and the Levites in their right places again according to that Law in Deut. 17. 8 9. and restored to them that Power in Judicature which was by God's appointment settled in them 2 Chron. 19. 8. And that he had relation to that Law is manifest because he pitches almost upon the same words v. 10. as Dr. Raynolds hath observed before
1. But the Rule drawn down to particulars is from the the commended Practice of the Kings of Juda under the Law Now if these can give us no Rule then we have none at all brought down to particulars wherein that Power consists And here this Lord being a known Separatist from the Church of England as appears most manifestly by another Speech of his Lordship 's in Parliament and printed with this separates I doubt from her Doctrine too and will not could he speak out with safety allow Kings any Power at all in Church Affairs more than to be the Executioners to see the Orders of their Assemblyes executed in such things as they need the Civil Sword And therefore he doth wisely in his generation to say That the things which were before can give no Rule in this The other is that there is of late a Name of Scorn fastned upon the Brethren of the Separation and they are commonly called Round-heads from their Fashion of cutting close and rounding of their Hair A Fashion used in Paganism in the times of their Mournings and sad occurrences as these seem to do puting on in outward shew at least a sowr Look and a more severe Carriage than other Men. This Fashion of Rounding the Head God himself forbids his People to practise the more to withdraw from the Superstitions of the Gentiles Ye shall not round the Corners of your Heads Lev. 19. 27. This express Text of Scripture troubled the Brownists and the rest extreamly and therefore this Lord being a great favourer of theirs if not one himself hath thought upon this way to ease their minds and his own For 't is no matter for this Text nor for their resembling Heathen Idolaters they may round their Heads safely since those things which were before can give no Rule in this And I do not doubt but that if this World go on the dear Sisters of these Rattle-heads will no longer keep silence in their Churches or Conventicles since the Apostle surely is deceived where he saith that Women are not permitted to speak in the Churches because they are to be under Obedience as also saith the Law 1 Cor. 14. For the Law and those things which were before can give no Rule in this and therefore they shall not need to go as high as Adam to answer this They shall not need in this nor we in that of Episcopacy go so high as Adam But yet we may if we will for so high the Apostle goes in this place And I thank this Lord for that Liberty if he means so well that though we need not go so high yet we may if we list And this is most certain that any State Christian may receive all or as much of the Judicial Law of Moses as they please and find fit for them and as much of the Ceremonial as detracts not from Christ come in the Flesh. And since all Law is a Rule this could not be done if those Laws being before could be no Rule to us This is proof enough as I conceive that these things which were before can give a Rule to us now under the Gospel My Lord thinks not so for this Reason Because they are of another Nature Secondly therefore the Reason comes to be examined Wherein I shall weigh two things First Whether the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ are things of another Nature and how far And Secondly Whether this be universally true that among things of another Nature one cannot give a Rule to another 1. For the first I shall easily acknowledge a great deal of difference between the Law and the Gospel They differ in the Strictness of the Covenant made under either They differ in the Sacraments and Sacramentals used in either They differ in the Extent and Continuance of either They differ in the Way and Power of justifying a Sinner and perhaps in more things than these And in these things in which they thus differ and qua as they so differ the Law can give no Rule to Christians but whether these differences do make the Law and the Gospel things of quite another Nature which are the words here used I cannot but doubt a little First because more or less strictness doth not vary the Covenant in Nature though it doth in Grace for Magis Minus non variant speciem More or Less in any thing does not make a specifical Difference and therefore not in Nature And use of different Sacraments do not make things to be of another Nature where Res Sacramenti the Substance of the Sacrament is one and the same And so 't is here For one and the same Christ is the Substance of Circumcision and the Pascal Lamb as well as of Baptism and the Eucharist For our Fathers under the Law did all cat the same spiritual meat and did all drink of the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them And that Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. And much less can Extent or Continuance vary Nature Not Extent for Fire contained in a Chimny and spread miserably over a City is one and the same in Nature Not Continuance for then a Father and his Son should not be of the same Nature if the one live longer than the other And as for the way and Power of Justification they difference the Law and the Gospel not so much in their Nature as in their Relation to Christ who alone is our Justification 1 Cor. 1. 30. and was theirs also who lived under the Law for both they and we were and are justified by the same Faith in the same Christ. And this seems to me very plain in Scripture For to this day saith the Apostle the Vail remains upon the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament which Vail is done away in Christ but we all with open Face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 14 18. So one and the same Christ is in the Old Testament as well as in the New Not so plainly but there though under a Vail Now a Vail on and a Vail off a dimmer and a clearer sight in and by the one than by the other do in no case make the things of another Nature Again We find it expresly written Gal. 3. 24. That the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by Faith Our School-master therefore it must needs be able to give Rules unto us or else it can never teach us And the Rules it gives are very good too or else they can never bring us unto Christ that we may be justified by Faith which to do St. Paul here tells us is the End of the Law 's Instruction And this Instruction it could not so fully give if this School-master were so of another Nature as that it could not give us a Rule in this Besides the Type and the Antitype the Shadow and the Substance
rest For out of all doubt their Votes do hurt sometimes and it may be more often and more dangerously than the Bishops Votes And when this Lord shall be pleased to tell us what those other Irregularities are which are as antient and yet redressed I will consider of them and then either grant or deny In the mean time I think it hath been proved that it is no Irregularity for a Bishop that is called to it by Supreme Authority to give Counsel or otherwise to meddle in Civil Affairs so as it take him not quite off from his Calling And for his Lordship 's Close That this is not so antient but that it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio his Lordship is much deceived For that Speech of our Saviour's St. Matthew 19. 8. is spoken of Marriage which was instituted in Paradise and therefore ab initio from the beginning must there be taken from the Creation or from the Institution of Marriage soon after it But I hope his Lordship means it not so here to put it off that Bishops had not Votes in the Parliaments of England from the Creation For then no question but it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio But if his Lordship or any other will apply this Speech to any thing else which hath not its beginning so high he must then refer his Words and meaning to that time in which that thing he speaks of took its beginning as is this particular to the beginning of Parliaments in this Kingdom And then under Favour of this Lord the voting of Bishops in Parliament is so antient that it cannot be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio For so far as this Kingdom hath any Records to shew Clergy-Men both Bishops and Abbots had free and full Votes in Parliament so full as that in the first Parliament of which we have any certain Records which was in the Forty and ninth Year of Henry the Third there was Summoned by the King to Vote in Parliament One hundred and twenty Bishops Abbots and Priors and but Twenty three Lay-Lords Now there were but Twenty six Bishops in all and the Lords being multiplied to the unspeakable Prejudice of the Crown into above One hundred besides many of their young Sons called by Writ in their Father's Life-time have either found or made a troubled time to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the House 2. To the Objection for being Established by Law his Lordship says The Law-makers have the same Power and the same Charge to alter old Laws inconvenient as to make new that are necessary The Law-makers have indeed the same Power in them and the same Charge upon them that their Predecessors in former Times had and there 's no question but old Laws may be Abrogated and new ones made But this Lord who seems to be well versed in the Rules and Laws of Government which the poor Bishops understand not cannot but know that it 's a dangerous thing to be often changing of the Laws especially such as have been antient and where the old is not inconvenient nor the new necessary which is the true State of this Business whatever this Lord thinks 3. And for the Third Objection the Privileges of the House this Lord says it can be no Breach of them For either Estate may propose to the other by way of Bill what they conceive to be for publick Good and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing This is an easie Answer indeed and very true For either Estate in Parliament may propose to the other by way of Bill and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing and there is no Breach of Privilege in all this But this easie Answer comes not home For how my Lord understands this Objection I know not it seems as if it did reach only to the external Breach of some Privilege but I conceive they which made the Objection meant much more As namely that by this Bill there was an aim in the Commons to weaken the Lords House and by making their Votes fewer to be the better able to work them to their own Ends in future Businesses So the Argument is of equal if not greater strength against the Lord's yielding to the Bill to the Iufringement of their own strength than to the Commons proposing it and there is no doubt but that the Commons might propose their Bill without Breach of Privilege but whether the Lords might grant it without impairing their own strength I leave the future Times which shall see the Success of this Act of Parliament to judge of the Wisdom of it which I shall not presume to do I thought his Lordship had now done but he tells us 4. There are two other Objections which may seem to have more force but they will receive satisfactory Answers The one is that if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earls This Lord confesses the two Arguments following are of more force but he says they will receive satisfactory Answers And it may be so But what Answers soever they may receive yet I doubt whether those which that Lord gives be such For to this of taking away of Barons and Earls next his Lordship Answers two things First he says The Reason is not the same the one sitting by an Honour invested in their Blood and Hereditary which though it be in the King alone to grant yet being once granted he cannot take away The other sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their Office they sit not To this there have been enough said before yet that it may fully appear this Reason is not Satisfactory this Lord should do well to know or rather to remember for I think he knows it already that though these great Lords have and hold their Places in Parliament by Blood and Inheritance and the Bishops by Baronies depending upon their Office yet the King which gives alone can no more justly or lawfully alone away their Office without their Demerit and that in a legal way than he can take away Noblemens Honours And therefore for ought is yet said their Cases are not so much alike as his Lordship would have them seem In this indeed they differ somewhat that Bishops may be deprived upon more Crimes than those are for which Earls and Barons may lose their Honours but neither of them can be justly done by the King's Will and Pleasure only But Secondly for farther Answer this Lord tells us The Bishops sitting there is not so essential For Laws have been and may be made they being all excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Laws made by the King and them the Lords and Earls excluded This Reason is as little satisfactory to me as the former For certainly according to Law and Prescription of Hundreds of Years the Bishops sitting
but two Objections should Malice it self go to work The one is That I moved His Majesty to command the Change And the other That now when I saw my self challeng'd for it I procured His Majesty's Hand for my security To these I Answer clearly First That I did not move the King directly or indirectly to make this Change And Secondly That I had His Majesty's Hand to the Book not now but then and before ever I caused them to be Printed as now they are And that both these are true I here again freely offer my self to my Oath And yet Fourthly That you may see His Gracious Majesty used not his Power only in commanding this Change but his Wisdom also I shall adventure to give you my Reasons such as they are why this Alteration was most fit if not necessary My first Reason is In the Litany in Henry VIII his time and also under Edward VI. there was this Clause From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities from all false Doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us But in the Litany in Queen Elizabeth's time this Clause about the Pope was left out and it seems of purpose for avoiding of Scandal And yet the Prelates for that not accounted Innovators or Introducers of Popery Now 't is a far greater Scandal to call their Religion Rebellion than 't is to call thir chief Bishop Tyrant And this Reason is drawn from Scandal which must ever be avoided as much as it may My second Reason is That the Learned make but Three Religions to have been of old in the World Paganisns Judaism and Christianity And now they have added a Fourth which is Turcism and is an absurd mixture of the other Three Now if this ground of theirs be true as 't is generally received perhaps it will be of dangerous Consequence sadly to avow that the 〈◊〉 Religion is 〈◊〉 That some Opinions of theirs teach Rebellion that 's apparently true the other would be thought on to say no more And this Reason well weighed is taken from the very Foundations of Religion it self My third Reason is Because if you make their Religion to be Rebellion then you make their Religion and Rebellion to be all one And that is against the ground both of State and the Law For when divers Romish Priests and Jesaits have deservedly suffered Death for Treason is it not the constant and just Profession of the State that they never put any Man to Death for Religion but for Rebellion and Treason only Doth not the State truly affirm That there was never any Law made against the Life of a Papist quatenus a Papist only And is not all this stark false if their very Religion be Rebellion For if their Religion be Rebellion it is not only false but impossible that the same Man in the same Act should suffer for his Rebellion and not for his Religion And this King James of ever blessed Memory understood passing well when in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs he saith I do constantly 〈◊〉 that no Papist either in my time or in the time of the late 〈◊〉 ever died for his Conscience Therefore he did not think their very Religion was Rebellion Though this Clause passed through Inadvertency in his time And this Reason is grounded both upon the Practice and the Justice of the Law Which of these Reasons or whether any other better were in His Majesty's Thoughts when he commanded the Alteration of this Clause I know not But I took it my Duty to lay it before you that the King had not only Power but Reason to command it 10. The Tenth Innovation is That the Prayer for the Navy is 〈◊〉 out of the late Book for the Fast. To this I say There is great Reason it should For the King had no declared Enemy then nor God be thanked hath he now 〈◊〉 had he then any Navy at Sea For almost all the Ships were come in before the Fast-Book was set out But howsoever an excellent Consequence it is if you mark it The Prayer for the Navy was left out of the Book for the Fast therefore by that and such like Innovations the Prelates intend to bring in Popery Indeed if that were a piece of the Prelates Plots to bring in Popery from beyond Sea then they were mightily overseen that they left out the Prayer for the Navy But else what Reason or Consequence is in it I know not unless perhaps Mr. Burton intended to befriend Dr. Bastwick and in the Navy bring hither the Whore of Babylon to be ready for his Christening as he most prophanely Scoffs Well I pray GOD the time come not upon this Kingdom in which it will be found that no one thing hath advanced or ushered in Popery so fast as the gross Absurdities even in the Worship of God which these Men and their like maintain both in Opinion and Practice 11. The Eleventh Innovation is The Reading of the Second Service at the Communion-Table or the Altar To this First I can truly say That since my own Memory this was in use in very many Places as being most proper for those Prayers are then read which both precede and follow the Communion and by little and little this antient Custom was altered and in those Places first where the Emissaries of this Faction came to Preach And now if any in Authority offer to reduce it this antient Course of the Church is by and by called an Innovation Secondly With this the Rubricks of the Common-Prayer Book agree For the first Rubrick after the Communion tells us that upon Holy-Days though there be no Communion yet all else that 's appointed at the Communion shall be read Shall be read That 's true but where Why the last 〈◊〉 before the Communion tells us That the Priest standing at the North-side of the Holy Table shall say the Lord's Prayer with that which follows So that not only the Communion but the Prayers which accompany the Communion which are commonly called the Second Service are to be read at the Communion Table Therefore if this be an Innovation 't is made by the Rubrick not by the Prelates And Mr. Burton's Scoff that this Second Service must be served in for Dainties savours too much of Belly and Prophanation 12. One think sticks much in their Stomachs and they call it an Innovation too And that is Bowing or doing Reverence at our first coming into the Church or at our nearer Approaches to the Holy Table or the Altar call it whether you will in which they will needs have it That we Worship the Holy Table or God knows what To this I Answer First That God forbid we should Worship any thing but GOD Himself Secondly That if to Worship GOD when we enter into his House or approach his Altar be an Innovation 't is a very old one For Moses did Reverence at the very Door of the
should please God to make me able to do it I pray do this with as much convenient speed as you can and privately without noise So to God's Blessing and Protection c. Lambeth F. omnium Sanctorum 1639. W. Cant. THE University of Oxford in the time of King Edw. III. had the sole keeping of the Assize of Bread and Drink in Oxford and the Government and Correction of all manner of Victuallers and Victualling and Tippling-Houses there This Power continued in the University for about 200 Years without Interruption until the Statute of 5 6 Edw. 6. which gave power to two Justices of Peace in every Shire or City to License Ale-Houses and ordained That none should keep any Ale-House but such as should be so Licensed By colour of this Statute in regard there was therein no express saving of the Privileges of the University the Mayor and Aldermen of Oxford being Justices there have Licensed Ale-Houses The Chancellor of the University and his Vice-Chancellor Commissary and Deputy at the time of the making of the said Statutes were Justices of Peace within the City And the Privileges of both Universities were afterwards in 13 Eliz. confirmed by Act of Parliament and in all Acts of Parliament since made touching Ale-Houses the Correction and Punishment of all Ale-House-keepers and Tipplers in Ale-Houses in the University is reserved solely to the Governor of the University The University of Cambridge in the Fifth Year of King Richard II. had their Privileges by Parliament granted to them such as the University of Oxford had and no other Yet when the Officers of the Town in the Sixth Year of Queen Elizabeth attempted to License Ale-House they were restrain'd by the Queen's Letter and that University hath ever since quietly enjoy'd the Privileges of the sole Licensing of Ale-Houses In the Book of Directions touching Ale-Houses set forth 1608. His late Majesty declared that the Officers of both Universities should have the Power of Licensing and ordering of Ale-Houses and not the Officers or Justices of the Town And His Majesty in his Charter of Confirmation of the Liberties of the University of Oxford in the Eleventh Year of his Reign hath been graciously pleased to grant that no License shall be made to any Victualler or Ale-House-keeper without the special assent of the Chancellor There are now 300 Ale-Houses Licensed in Oxford which occasion great Disorder in the University It is therefore most humbly desired on the behalf of the said University That his Majesty would be pleased by his gracious Letters to be directed to the Mayor and Commonalty of Oxford to command them not to intermeddle in the Licensing of any Person to keep Ale-House or Tap-House within the Jurisdiction or Liberty of the said University or City of Oxford TRusty and Well-beloved we Greet you well We are informed that our University of Oxford had heretofore the Government Correction of all manner of Ale-House-keepers Ale-Houses and Tippling-Houses within the Liberties thereof And we were graciously pleased lately by our Letters Patents to grant to our said University That no Ale-Houses without the special consent of the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor should be Licensed there It seems strange to us which we hear that there should be now Three hundred Ale-Houses in Oxford And we believe they would not have risen to that number had the power of Licensing them rested only with the Vice-Chancellor and other Governors of our said University as it doth in our University of Cambridge We do therefore charge and require you as you tender our Pleasure and mean to enjoy the Liberties which you use under our Favour and Goodness that you henceforth meddle not in the Licensing of any Person to keep Ale-Houses Tap-Houses or Victualling-Houses within the Jurisdiction or Liberty of the said University and City of Oxford but that you leave the same to the Vice-Chancellor and other Justices of Peace there who are Members of the said University Given at Westminster the 27th of October 1639. To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Mayor Bailiffs and Commonalty of our City of Oxford I sent away these Letters to the Vice-Chancellor upon Friday November 8th W. Cant. UPON pretence that it was not in me alone to absolve the Chandlers on Monday last I brought them to the Meeting of the Heads Where having in the first Place pleaded Ignorance in excuse of their Contumacy they then confessed openly That it belonged to the Vice-Chancellor to regulate them in their Trade and humbly besought me to raise their Price This done I dismissed them caused the Register to make an Act of what had passed and four days after viz. on the first of November granted their Request so that I hope the University's Right in this particular is now settled for ever hereafter Novemb. 4. 1639. A. Frewen I Am informed by Mr. Lenthall That for the Physick-Garden the Earl of Danby intends to put his Heir the Vice-Chancellor the Dean of Christ-Church and the President of St. Mary Magdalen-College in trust to see his promised 100 l. per Annum for ever hereafter imployed as he shall direct A. Frewen To this my Answer was as followeth I Like the Earl of Danby's Business worse and worse and the joining of his Heir to those Heads you mention worst of all For if he may not ever do and have what he list you shall have greater Imputations of Ingratitude thrown upon you than the thing is worth And now I begin to believe you will have nothing settled till his Death Lambeth Novemb. 7. 1639. W. Cant. EVery Body speaks well of the Examinations And tho' I would not put any such Burthen upon the Heads of Houses yet you should do very well if you could handsomly insinuate it to them what an Advance it would be to the University in that Business if now and then at their leisure some one or other of them would come thither and sit with the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors to hear the Examinations But this I leave free to you and them Lambeth November 7. 1639. W. Cant. AT this time the Vice-Chancellor sent me word that after they had visited Sir Thomas Bodley's great Library they went to see my Books and Coins and that having compared them with their Catalogue they found all well and safe But yet the Library-keepers had a great charge given them to look carefully to them being they stood unchained and the place where they stand almost hourly frequented by Strangers who come to see them Novemb. 11. 1639. A. Frewen My Answer to this was as followeth SIR I Thank you heartily for your Care of my Books And I beseech you that the Library-keeper may be very watchful to look to them since they stand unchain'd And I would to God the Place in the Library for them were once ready that they might be set up safe and and chained as the other Books are and yet then if there be not care
it be denied And therefore our humble Suit to Your Lordship is That by Your good furtherance we may receive the Opinion of the Honourable Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council what shall be done in the Premisses And whether Mr. Mayor shall be freed of all Danger for not setting a Watch in these troublesom Times or not And so craving Pardon for our so often troubling You we remember our Humble Service to Your Lordship and render many Thanks always remaining Oxon June 24. 1640. Your Lordship 's to be commanded John Smith Mayor William Potter John Nixon Thomas Smith Leo. Bowman John Sare William Charles Humphrey Whistler Henry Southam Martin Wright Roger Griffin Walter Cave Bailiffs William Poole Bailiffs SIR THE Mayor of Oxford hath lately sent these two Letters above written one to the Lords of the Council and the other to the Earl of Berks to shew to the Lords And I here send you the Copies of them both The Letter to the Lords is most concerning Greene and his Inn in which I do desire you to make a clear and distinct Answer to these Particulars following As First Whether this Inn be the Inheritance of Lincoln-College and whether Greene is possessed of it by the Marriage of the Widow in the Right of his Son-in-Law And this the rather because your first Information said That the Town authorized him to keep this Inn. Secondly You may see by this how angry they are about their Victuallers where they directly charge you That amongst others you took a Recognizance of the said Greene but never certified the said Recognizance nor any other to the Sessions according to the Law To which also it will be fit you give Answer Thirdly They say they have only the Name of Mayor and Magistrates and speak in all the rest of their Letter as if all the Town Privileges were invaded by the University And here I would have you answer two things The one That they offer to invade the University Privileges which I conceive is true And the other Whether so many as they mention did refuse the Offices of Mayor and Bailiffs this last Year Their second Letter is only concerning their Night-Watch in which I think there is a manifest invading of the Vniversity Privilege And Proctor Allibond is challenged by Name But they have taken a very cunning rise for their Business for they put it all upon their Care for a Watch by reason of the Seditious Tumult at Farrington There is great reason that Mr. Mayor should be freed from all Danger about setting of a Watch save only such as is his Duty to set but the Lords will not give me their Opinion till they have an Answer from the University how the Mayor's Watch and the University Privileges stand together I pray therefore send a full Answer to this Particular especially But I pray send your whole Answer in such fair Terms as that I may shew it whole and entire to the Lords but let the matter be as full home as you can Lambeth July 3. 1640. W. Cant. Most Reverend IN the Name of the whole University as well as in my own I return Your Grace humble Thanks for the Notice which by Your last Letter You have been pleased to give me of a late Information preferred by this Town unto the Lords of the Council against us To the several Branches whereof I will make bold to return a brief Answer that it may the more fully appear unto Your Grace how false in some and groundless in all Particulars the Complaint is 'T is true That Green's House belongs to Lincoln-College and that he now enjoys it by the Right of his Wife But this makes it not to be an Inn that must be done by License which he must either have from the Town as all other Inns as yet have or else he hath none For confident I am that he hath not any from the Vniversity By Virtue of His Majesty's late gracious Grant unto us we License Ale-House-Keepers and Victuallers Above which Rank until better informed now by the Town we conceived Inn-holders to be and therefore meddled not with them If Greene came in the throng at the beginning of Lent to be bound by me from dressing of Flesh the which I remember not he came not called For by my Warrant I then Summoned none but Privileged Persons and such only of the Town as by the Power given the University by His Majesty had been allowed by us The Recognizance of those 〈◊〉 Licensed I confess I returned not to the Quarter-Sessions and that for this Reason His Majesty by the fore-mention'd Letter was pleased to grant us the same Authority over Ale-Houses and Victuallers which the University of Cambridge hath No Recognizances are returned there whereof I am certain for I sent thither purposely in November last to enquire And therefore none by us The University there keeps them in its own Power and so do we The Town-Clerk who Pen'd the Letter does I grant by this means lose some petty Fees which the Poor Men now save in their Purses he formerly had whilest the power of Licensing was in them But this is a very weak Plea in a Business of such Consequence Nor indeed are those Fees now considerable we having already reduced those Ale-Houses to Five Score which before were Three Hundred A great number And yet not to be marvelled at when one Man this Mayor's Father-in-Law Bosworth a Brewer and Justice of the Town was as I have credibly been informed in a very short time the means of Licensing an Hundred for his part upon Conditions which tied them faster than their Recognizance to the King that they should take all their Beer of him nor did he stand single Others they have who trod after him in the very same steps which makes me wonder with what Face they can complain of the Loss of a Power which they so grosly abused And yet more I marvel at their Complaint against us for invading their Liberties when themselves are so notoriously guilty of daily Attempts upon ours without any colour at all of Right for their so doing Witness their Intrusion into the Office of Clerk of the Market Their Enquiries at their Leets touching the Cleansing and Paving of the Streets Their refusing to be regulated by the Vice-Chancellor as heretofore touching the Price of their Candles Arresting and Suing of Privileged Persons in their City Court Taking of Felons Goods and interrupting our Proctors in their Night Walk Nor can I amongst these Grievances omit their present multiplying of Cottages and Inmates in all Parts of the Town in despight of the Inhibition to the contrary sent unto them by Letters from the Lords of the Council whereof they have in a friendly manner been put in mind by the University both at their Publick Sessions and at other times If the Mayors of Oxford have now as is pretended only the Title not the Authority of the Place they are
would have suffered him to take that place upon him so contrary to the command of Christ and the Practice of the Apostles if it had been so indeed Or would they have suffer'd their Preachers which then attended their Commissioners at London not only to meddle with but to preach so much temporal Stuff as little belonged to the Purity of the Gospel had they been of this Lord's Opinion Surely I cannot think it But let the Bishops do but half so much yea though they be commanded to do that which these Men assume to themselves and 't is a venture but it shall prove Treason against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and an endeavouring to bring in an Arbitrary Government Well! I 'll tell you a Tale. There 's a Minister at this day in London of great Note among the Faction well esteem'd by this Lord and others of this Outcry against the Bishops Votes in Parliament and their meddling in Civil Affairs this Man I 'll spare his Name being pressed by a Friend of his how he came to be so eager against the Church of which and her Government he had ever heretofore been an Upholder and had Subscribed unto it made this Answer Thou art a Fool thou knowest not what it is to be the Head of a Party This Man is one of the great Masters of the present Reformation and do you not think it far more inconsistent with his Ministerial Function to be in the Head of a turbulent Faction to say the least of them than for a Bishop to meddle in Civil Affairs Yet such is the Religion of our Times But 't is no matter for all this his Lordship hath yet more to say against the Ambition of the Prelates For Their Ambition and intermeddling with Secular Affairs and State Business hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World and this no Man can deny that is versed in History This is the same over and over again saving that the Expression contains in it a vast Untruth For they that are versed in History must needs say 't is a loud one that Bishops meddling in Temporal Affairs hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World What a happiness hath this Lord that his pale Meagerness cannot blush at such thing as this Yea but he will prove it here at home in this Kingdom For says he We need not go out of our own Kingdom for Examples of their Insolency and Cruelty When they had a dependency upon the Pope and any footing thereby out of the Land there were never any that carryed themselves with so much Scorn and Insolency towards the Princes of this Kingdom as they have done Two of them the Bishop that last spake hath named but instances of many more may be given whereof there would be no end 'T is true indeed we need not go out of our own Kingdom for Examples of their Insolency and Cruelty For in so many Ages 't is no wonder in any Kingdom to find some bad Examples be it of Insolency Cruelty or what you will Especially in the midst of so much Prosperity as accompanied Clergy-Men in those times But 't is true too that there are far more Examples of their Piety and Charity would this Lord be pleased to remember the one with the other As for their bad Examples his Lordship gives a Reason why not all but some of them carryed themselves with so much Scorn and Insolency towards their Princes even with almost as much as this Lord and his Faction carry themselves at this day towards their mild and gracious King And the Reason is a true one it was their dependency upon the Pope and their footing which thereby they had to subsist out of the Land which may and I hope will be a sufficient warning to his Majesty and his Successours never to let in again a foreign Supream Power into any of his Dominions For 't is to have one State within yet not dependent upon the other which can never be with Safety or Quiet in any Kingdom And I would have the World consider a little with what Insolency and perhaps Disallegiance this Lord and his Round-head Crew would use their Kings if they had but half so strong a foreign dependance as the Bishops then had that dare use the most gracious of Kings as they do this present day Two of these Insolent ones this Lord says the Bishop that last spake named Lincoln stands in the Margin by which it appears that Dr. John Williams then Bishop of Lincoln and since Arch-Bishop of York was the Man that named two but because this Lord names them not I know not who they are and therefore can say nothing for or against them but leave them to that Lord which censured them As for that which follows that the instances of many more may be given whereof there would be no end This is a piece of this Lord 's loud Rhetorick which can have no Truth in it especially relating as it doth to this Kingdom only But whereas this Lord said immediately before that their meddling in State business hath been the cause of shedding more Christian Blood than any thing else in the Christian World and in the very next words falls upon the proof of it in this Kingdom I must put him in mind that one Parliament in England namely that which most irreligiously and trayterously deposed Richard II. was the cause of the effusion of more Christian Blood amongst us than all the Bishops that ever were in this Kingdom For that base and unjust Parliament was the cause of all the Civil Wars those Bloody Wars which began in the Heir's time after the Usurpation of Henry IV. and ceased not till there were slain of the Royal Blood and of Nobles and the common People a Numberless Number And I heartily beg it of God that no disloyal Parliament may ever bring this Kingdom into the like distress For our Neighbours are far stronger now than they were then and what desolation it might bring upon us God in Heaven knows So this Lord may see if he will what a Parliament it self being misgoverned may do But will his Lordship think it Reason to condemn all Parliaments because this and some few more have done what they should not do as he here deals by Bishops Sure he would not But having done with the Bishops dependency on the Pope he goes on and tells us farther that Although the Pope be cast off yet now there is another Inconvenience no less prejudicial to the Kingdom by their sitting in this House and that is they have such an absolute dependency upon the King that they sit not there as free Men. I am heartily sorry to see this Lord thus far transported The Pope is indeed cast off from domineering over King Church and State But I am sorry to hear it from this Lord that this other
Inconvenience by Bishops sitting in the House of Parliament is no less prejudicial to the Kingdom Where first I observe that this Lord accounts the Pope's ruling in this Kingdom but a matter of inconvenience for so his words imply For that must be one Inconvenience if the Bishops voting be the other and I am sure the Laws both of this Church and State make it far worse than an Incovenience Had I said thus much I had been a Papist out of Question Secondly I 'll appeal to any prudent and moderate Protestant in the Christian World whether he can possibly think that the Bishops having Votes in the Parliaments of England can possibly be as great or no less an Inconvenience than the Pope's Supremacy here And I believe this Lord when he thinks better of it will wish these words unsaid Well! but what then is this inconvenience that is so great Why my Lord tells us 't is because they have such an absolute dependency upon the King that they sit not there as free-Men Where first 't is strange to me and my Reason that any dependency on the King be it never so absolute can be possibly so great an Inconvenience to the King as that upon an Independent foreign Power is the King being sworn to the Laws but the Pope being free and as he challenges not only independent from but superiour to both King and Laws Secondly I conceive the Bishops dependency is no more absolute upon the King than is the dependence of other Honourable Members of that House and that the Bishops sit there as absolute free-men as any others not excepting his Lordship And of this Belief I must be till the contrary shall be proved which his Lordship goes thus about to do That which is requisite to Freedom is to be void of Hopes and Fears he that can lay down these is a Free-man and will be so in this House But for the Bishops as the case stands with them it is not likely they will lay aside their Hopes greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy and for their Fears they cannot lay them down since their Places and Seats in Parliament are not invested in them by Blood and so hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon that Office so that they may be 〈◊〉 of their Office and thereby of their Places at the King's pleasure My Lord's Philosophy is good enough for to be void of Hopes and Fears is very requisite to Freedom and he that can lay these down is a Free-man or may be if he will But whether he will be so in that great House I cannot so well tell For though no Man can be free that is full charg'd with Hopes or Fears yet there are some other things which collaterally work upon Men and consequently take off their Freedom almost as much as Hopes and Fears can do Such are Consanguinity Affinity especially if the Wife bears any sway private Friendship and above all Faction And therefore though I cannot think that every Man will be a Free-man in that House that is void of Hopes and Fears yet I believe he may if he will Now I conceive that in all these collateral Stiflings of a Man's Freedom the Lay Lords are by far less free than the Bishops are Again for the main bars of Freedom Hopes and Fears into which all the rest do some way or other fall I do not yet see but that Bishops even as the case stands with them may be as free and I hope are in their Voting as Temporal Lords For their Hopes this Lord tells us 't is not likely they will lay them aside greater Bishopricks being still in expectancy Truly I do not know why a deserving Bishop may not in due time hope for a better Bishoprick and yet retain that Freedom which becomes him in Parliament as well as any Noble-man may be Noble and Free in that great Court and yet have moderated Hopes of being called to some great Office or to the Council-table or some honourable and profitable Embassage or some Knighthood of the Garter of all or some of which there is still expectancy Lay your Hand on your Heart my Lord and examine your self As for Fears his Lordship tells us roundly the Bishops cannot lay them down Cannot Are all the Bishops such poor Spirits But why can they not Why because their Places in Parliament are not hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon it so that they may be deprived of their Office and thereby of their Place at the King's pleasure First I believe the Bishops gave their Votes in Parliament as freely to their Conscience and Judgment as this Lord or any other Secondly If any of them for Fear or any other motive have given their Votes unworthily I doubt not but many Honourable Lords have at some time or other forgot themselves and born the Bishops company though in this I commend neither Thirdly I know some Bishops who had rather lose not their Baronies only but their Bishopricks also than Vote so unworthily as this Lord would make the World believe they have done Lastly it is true their Seat in Parliament depends on their Barony their Barony on their Office and if they be deprived of their Office both Barony and Seat in Parliament are gone But I hope my Lord will not say we live under a Tyrant and then I will say Bishops are not deprivable of their Office and consequently not of the rest at the Kings Pleasure But this Lord proceeds into a farther Amplification And to whet his inveterate Malice against the King says as follows Nay They do not so much as sit here dum bene se gesserint as the Judges now by your Lordships Petition to the King have their Places granted them but at Will and Pleasure and therefore as they were all excluded by Edward the First as long as he pleased and Laws made excluso Clero so may they be by any King at his Pleasure in like manner They must needs therefore be in an absolute dependency upon the Crown and thereby at Devotion for their Votes which how prejudicial it hath been and will be to this House I need not say If I could wonder at any thing which this Lord doth or says in such Arguments as these when his Heart is up against the Clergy I should wonder at this For if he will not suppose the King's Government to be Tyrannical the Bishops have their Places during Life and cannot justly be put out of them unless their Miscarriage be such as shall merit a Deprivation And therefore by this Lord 's good leave they have as good a Tenure as the Judges is of a Quamdiu bene se gesserint And this they have without their Lordships Petition to the King as his Lordship tells us was fain to be made for the Judges thereby galling the King for giving some Patents to the Judges during Pleasure which as
in that House is as essential as the Lords And this about the Laws made without them is built only upon some difficult emergent Cases from which they desired to be exempt and free themselves Not from any constraint of the State nor from any Opinion of the King Peers or People that it was fit to make Laws without them But to this we have given an Answer before But this Objection of taking away the Earls and Barons next strikes as I conceive another way at the Lord's House than either of those Answers or Reasons seem to meet with And perhaps this Lord himself is willing to pass it by if he does see it and 't is thus The House of Commons sees and knows well enough that should they bring up a Bill open and with a bare edge to take away the Votes from the Lords it could not possibly be endured by either King or Peers Therefore the Bill which may come to take them away next and which may be meant in this Objection may be a Bill to make one House of both and set them altogether under the pretence of greater Unity and more free and quick dispatch of all Business all Messages and Conferences and breach of Correspondencies and Differences happening between the Two Houses while they are Two being by this means taken away And this I am sure hath been much spoken of since this Parliament began and may with far more ease be next compassed now the Bishops are thrust out both because there are fewer in the Lord's House to help to cast out such a Bill and because the Commons House which would willingly receive the Lords in among them would never admit the Bishops into their House So that both ways this is made far more easie to Pass And should this happen I would fain know of this Lord wherein this Objection would fail that they might the next time remove the Barons and the Earls Not remove them from making Laws as his Lordship speaks of it but remove them into the House of Commons where their Votes shall be swallow'd up among the many and might be quite overmaster'd though they should not all Agree and Vote one way For then the meanest Commoner in that House would have his Vote as great as the greatest Earls Whereas now in their own House being distinct though all the House of Commons agree upon a Bill or any thing else the Lords may if they see Reason alter or reject it So that if hereafter they be reduced to one House I make no question but their Votes are gone next after the Bishops And if his Lordship shall think this an impossible Supposition let him know it is not half so impossible as that which he made before of the Heavenly Bodies breaking out of their own Spheres But we are now come to the last Objection the other of the two which his Lordship says are stronger And 5. The other Objection is this That this Bill alters the Foundation of this House and Innovations which shake Foundations are dangerous And truly this Objection seems to me very strong but perhaps that is by reason of my Weakness for my Lord tells us before that it is capable of a satisfactory Answer and here his Lordship gives two for failing I Answer First That if there should be an Errour in the Foundation when it shall be found and the Master-Builders be met together they may nay they ought rather to amend it than to suffer it to run on still to the prejudice and danger of the whole Structure This Answer whatever this Lord thinks of it is not satisfactory and the thing will be full of danger whensoever it shall be put to trial For Foundations are seldom meddled withal but with great hazard and a Fundamental Errour in a Kingdom is born with more Safety to the whole than it can be taken away And this happens partly because among the many Subjects of a Kingdom there are different Judgments and as different Affections whence it follows that all Men are not of Opinion that that which is called an Errour in the Foundation is so indeed Nor do the Affections of all Men dislike it nay perhaps the greater perhaps the better part will approve it In this Case if the Master-Builders fall to mending of this somewhat boisterously may they not rend all in pieces to fall about their own Ears and other Mens And partly because the Master-Builders which are to meet to repair the decays of the State though in all Ages they have the same Authority to make Laws yet they have not in all Ages the same Skill and Wisdom for the making or the mending of them Whence it follows that even the Master-Builders themselves may mistake and call that the Errour which is indeed a great part of the Strength of the Foundation And so by tampering to mend that which is better already endanger the shaking if not the fall of the whole Structure which they would labour to preserve And I pray God Posterity do not find it that even the Master-Builders which are now met be not so deceived and with as ill Success in casting the Bishops Votes out of the House under the Name of an Errour in the Foundation But if this Answer satisfie not his Lordship may hope his next will For Secondly he says This is not Fundamental to this House For it hath stood without them and done all that appertains to the Power thereof without them yea they being wholly 〈◊〉 and that which hath been done for a time at the King's pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time and when it appears to the fit and for publick good not only mahy but ought to be done altogether by the Supreme Power It seems this Lord distrusts his former Answer about mending Fun damental Errours in a State and therefore here he denies that Bishops and their Votes are Fundamental to the Lords House But I doubt his Lordship is mistaken in this For that is Fundamental in any Court which in that Court is first laid and settled upon which all the future Structure is raised Now in the Lords House of Parliament the Bishops Votes were laid at the very first as well as the Votes of the Lords Temporal Nay with a Precedency both in Place and Number and all the Ordinances and Powers of that great Court have equally proceeded from the Votes of the Bishops and the Lords and therefore for ought which yet appears to me either the Lords Vote are not Fundamental to that House or the Bishops are But his Lordship proves they are not Fundamental to that House because that House hath stood without them But weakly enough God knows like a House whose Foundations are shaken upon one side and because that House hath done all that appertains to the Power of it without them It may be so But I doubt whether it did all that appertains to the Wisdom of it without them For this
relation again to that Parliament under Edward the First from which his Lordship says Bishops were excluded and we know that Parliament is called Indoctum Parliamentum the unlearned Parliament For all the Lawyers were excluded from that Parliament as well as the Clergy-Men And therefore were this Lord indifferent he might argue that Lawyers Votes are not Fundamental in the Commons House which is true tho' no way convenient rather than that Bishops Votes are not Fundamental in the Lords House which is utterly against all Truth and Convenience But his Lordship's Tooth is so sharp and so black against that Order that he snaps at them upon all and upon no Occasion and would invenom them had he Power To make this seem the better his Lordship ends this Speech with a piece of Philosophy which I cannot approve neither For he says That which hath been done for a time at the King's Pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time For First this Proposition is unsound in it self For many Cases may happen in which divers things may be done for a Prince's Pleasure once or for a time and with no great danger which continued or often repeated will be full of danger and perhaps not endured by the Subject Secondly I am confident let the Tables be but turned from a Bishop to a Lay-Man and this Lord shall eat his own Proposition For instance in another Parliament and in a time generally received to be as good as that of Edward the First in Queen Elizabeth's time and within my own Memory Mr. Peter Wentworth moved in the House of Commons to have an Heir apparent declared for the better and securer Peace of the Kingdom in After-times The Queen for her meer Will and Pleasure for that which he did was no Offence against Law took him either out of the House or so soon as he came out of the House clap'd him up in the Tower where he lay till his Death What will this Lord say to this Will he say this was done once at the Prince's Pleasure Why then I return his Proposition upon him and tell him that that which was done once at one Prince's Pleasure may be done oftner at other Prince's Pleasure with as little danger Or will this Lord say this was not done at the Queen's Pleasure but but she might justly and legally do so Then other Princes of this Realm having the same Power residing in them may do by other Parliament Men as she did with this Gentleman And which soever of the two he shall say King Charles had as good Right and with as little Breach of Parliament-Privilege to demand the Six Men which by his Attorney he had accused of Treason as that great Queen had to lay hold on Mr. Wentworth Since I had written this the Observer steps in and tells us That a meer Example though of Queen Elizabeth is no Law for some of her Actions were retracted and that yet without question Queen Elizabeth might do that which a Prince less beloved could never have done 'T is true that a meer Example is not a Law and yet the Parliaments of England even in that happy Queen's Time were not apt to bear Examples against Law and if that she did were not against Law that 's as much as I ask For then neither is that against Law which King Charles did upon a far higher Accusation than could be charged against Mr. Wentworth 'T is true again that Queen Elizabeth might do that which a Prince less beloved could not have done that is she might do that with safety which a Prince less beloved could not do that is not do with safety But whatsoever is lawful for one Prince to do is as lawful for another though perhaps not so expedient in regard of what will be well or ill taken by the People But otherwise the Peoples Affection to the Prince can be no Rule nor Measure of the Princes Justice to the People I will be bold to give him another Instance King Charles demanded Ship-Money all over the Kingdom Either he did this justly and legally for the Defence of himself and the Publick or he did it at his Will and Pleasure thinking that an honourable and fit way of Defence I am sure this Lord will not say he did it legally for his Vote concurred to the condemning of it in Parliament And if he say he did it at his own Will and Pleasure then I would fain know of his Lordship whether this which was done for a time at the King's Pleasure may be done with as little danger to the Liberty of the Subject and the Property of his Goods for a longer time and so be continued on the Subject And if he says it may why did he Vote against it as a thing dangerous And if he says it may not then he must Condemn his own Proposition For he cannot but see that that which is once done or done for a short time at a Prince's Will and Pleasure cannot be often repeated or continued but with far greater danger than it was once done Though for the thing it self if it were not legal I am sorry it is not made so For it would be under God the greatest Honour and Security that this Nation ever had Whereas now the Tugging which falls out between the King's Power and the Peoples Liberty will in time unless God's infinite Mercy prevents it do that in this Kingdom which I abhor to think on This Lord goes on yet and tells us That that which hath been so done for a time when it appears to be fit and for publick Good not only may but ought to be done altogether by the Supream Power So then here this is his Lordship's Doctrine that that which was once done at a Prince's Will and Pleasure when it shall appear to be fit and for the publick Good as he supposeth here the taking away of Bishops Votes to be it not only may but ought to be done altogether by the Supream Power as now that is done by Act of Parliament Not only may but ought Soft a little His Lordship had the same Phrase immediately before Why but First every thing that is fit ought not by and by to be made up into a Law For fitness may vary very often which Laws should not Secondly Every thing that is for the publick Good is not by and by to be made up into a Law For many things in Times of Difficulty and Exigency may be for publick Good which in some other Times may be hurtful and therefore not to be generally bound within a Law And if his Lordship shall say as here he doth that they ought to be done altogether and be made up into a Law by the Supream Power but fitted only to such Times under his Lordship's Favour that ought not to be neither For let such a Law be made and he that is once Master of the Times will have the Law ready to
is made by these Men as if it were Contra Regem against the King in Right or in Power But that 's a meer ignorant shift for our being Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right takes nothing from the King 's Right or Power over us For though our Office be from God and Christ immediately yet may we not exercise that Power either of Order or Jurisdiction but as God hath appointed us that is not in His Majesty's or any Christian King's Kingdoms but by and under the Power of the King given us so to do And were this a good Argument against us as Bishops it must needs be good against Priests and Ministers too for themselves grant that their Calling is Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet I hope they will not say that to be Priests and Ministers is against the King or any his Royal Prerogatives Next Suppose our Callings as Bishops could not be made good Jure Divino by Divine Right yet Jure Ecclesiastico by Ecclesiastical Right it cannot be denied And here in England the Bishops are confirmed both in their Power and Means by Act of Parliament So that here we stand in as good Case as the present Laws of the Realm can make us And so we must stand till the Laws shall be repealed by the same Power that made them Now then suppose we had no other string to hold by I say suppose this but I grant it not yet no Man can Libel against our Calling as these Men do be it in Pulpit Print or otherwise but he Libels against the King and the State by whose Laws we are established Therefore all these Libels so far forth as they are against our Calling are against the King and the Law and can have no other purpose than to stir up Sedition among the People If these Men had any other Intention or if they had any Christian or charitable desire to reform any thing amiss why did they not modestly Petition his Majesty about it that in his Princely Wisdom he might set all things right in a Just and Orderly manner But this was neither their Intention nor Way For one clamours out of his Pulpit and all of them from the Press and in a most virulent and unchristian manner set themselves to make a Heat among the People and so by Mutiny to effect that which by Law they cannot and by most false and unjust Calumnies to defame both our Callings and Persons But for my Part as I pity their Rage so I heartily pray God to forgive their Malice No Nation hath ever appeared more jealous of Religion than the People of England have ever been And their Zeal to God's Glory hath been and at this day is a great honour to them But this Zeal of theirs hath not been at all times and in all Persons alike guided by knowledge Now Zeal as it is of excellent use where it sees its way so it is very dangerous company where it goes on in the dark And these Men knowing the Disposition of the People have laboured nothing more than to misinform their knowledge and misguide their Zeal and so to fire that into a Sedition in hope that they whom they causlesly hate might miscarry in it For the main scope of these Libels is to kindle a Jealousie in Mens Minds that there are some great Plots in Hand dangerous Plots so says Mr. Burton expresly to change the Orthodox Religion established in England and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition in the room of it As if the external decent worship of God could not be upheld in this Kingdom without bringing in of Popery Now by this Art of theirs give me leave to tell you that the King is most desperately abused and wounded in the Minds of his People and the Prelates shamefully The King most desparately For there is not a more cunning trick in the World to withdraw the Peoples Hearts from their Sovereign than to persuade them that he is changing true Religion and about to bring in gross Superstition upon them Aud the Prelates shamefully For they are charged to seduce and lay the Plot and be the Instruments For his Majesty first This I know and upon this occasion take it my Duty to speak There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere in his Religion nor more constant to it than the King And he gave such a Testimony of this at his being in Spain as I much doubt whether the best of that Faction durst have done half so much as his Majesty did in the Face of that Kingdom And this you my Lord the Earl of Holland and other Persons of Honour were Eye and Ear Witnesses of having the happiness to attend Him there And at this day as his Majesty by God's great Blessing both on him and us knows more so is he more settled and more confirmed both in the Truth of the Religion here established and in Resolution to maintain it And for the Prelates I assure my self they cannot be so base as to live Prelates in the Church of England and labour to bring in the Superstitions of the Church of Rome upon themselves and it And if any should be so foul I do not only leave him to God's Judgment but if these Libellers or any other can disdover that his base and irreligious falshood to shame also and severe Punishment from the State And in any just way no Man's Hand shall be more or sooner against him than mine shall be And for my self to pass by all the scandalous reproacbes which they have most injuriously cast upon me I shall say this only First I know of no Plot nor purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly I have ever been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And to these two I here offer my Oath Thirdly If the King had a mind to change Religion which I know he hath not and God forbid he should ever have he must seek for other Instruments For as basely as these Men conceive of me yet I thank God I know my Duty well both to God and the King And I know that all the Duty I owe to the King is under God And my great happiness it is though not mine alone but your Lordships and all his Subjects with me that we live under a Gracious and a Religious King that will ever give us leave to serve God first and Him next But were the days otherwise I thank Christ for it I yet know not how to serve any Man against the Truth of God and I hope I shall never learn it But to return to the business what is their Art to make the World believe a change of Religion is endeavoured What Why forsooth they say there are great Innovations brought in by the Prelates and such as tend to the advancing of Popery Now that the Vanity and Falshood of this may appear I shall humbly
defire your Lordships to give me leave to recite briefly all the Innovations charged upon us be they of less or greater Moment and as briestly to answer them And then you shall clearly see whether any cause hath been given of these unsavory Libels and withall whether there be any shew of cause to fear a change of Religion And I will take these great pretended Innovations in order as I meet with them First I begin with the News from Ipswich Where the First Innovation is that the last Years Fast was enjoyned to be without Sermons in London the Suburbs and other infected Places contrary to the Orders for other Fasts in former times Whereas Sermons are the only means to humble Men c. To this I say First That an after-Age may without Offence learn to avoid any visible Inconvenience observed in the former And there was visible Inconvenience observed in Mens former flocking to Sermons in Infected Places Secondly This was no particular Act of Prelates but the business was debated at the Council-Table being a matter of State as well as of Religion And it was concluded for no Sermons in those Infected Places upon this Reason that Infected Persons or Families known in their own Parishes might not take occasion upon those by-days to run to other Churches where they were not known as many use to do to hear some humorons Men Preach For on the Sundays when they better kept their own Churches The Danger is not so great altogether Nor Thirdly is that true that Sermons are the Only means to humble Men. For though the Preaching of God's Word where it is performed according to his Ordinance be a great means of many good Effects in the Souls of Men Yet no Sermons are the only means to humble Men. And some of their Sermons are fitter a great deal for other Operations Namely to stir up Sedition as you may see by Mr. 〈◊〉 for this his printed Libel was a Sermon first and a Libel too And 't is the best part of a Fast to abstain from such Sermons 2. The Second Innovation is That Wednesday was appointed for the Fast-day and that this was done with this Intention by the Example of this Fast without Preaching to suppress all the Wednesday Lectures in London To this I answer First That the appointing of Wednesday for the Fast-day was no Innovation For it was the day in the last Fast before this And I my self remember it so above forty years since more than once Secondly If there be any Innovation in it the Prelates named not the day my Lord Keeper I must appeal to your Lordship The day was first named by your Lordship as the usual and fittest day And yet I dare say and swear too that your Lordship had no aim to bring in Popery nor to suppress all or any the Wednesday Lectures in London Besides these Men live to see the Fast ended and no one Wednesday Lecture suppressed 3. The Third Innovation is that the Prayer for seasonable weather was purged out of this last Fast-Book which was say they one cause of Ship-wrecks and tempestuous weather To this I say First in the General this Fast-Book and all that have formerly been made have been both made and published by the command of the King in whose sole Power it is to call a Fast. And the Arch-Bishop and Bishops to whom the ordering of the Book is committed have power under the King to put in or leave out whatsoever they think fit for the present Occasion as their Predecessors have ever done before them Provided that nothing be In contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England And this may serve in the General for all Alterations in that or any other Fast-Book or Books of Devotion upon any particular Occasions which may and ought to vary with several times and we may and do and will justifie under his Majestys Power all such Alterations made therein Secondly For the particular When this last-Book was set out the weather was very seasonable And it is not the custom of the Church nor fit in it self to pray for seasonable weather when we have it but when we want it When the former Book was set out the weather was extreme ill and the Harvest in Danger Now the Harvest was in and the weather good Thirdly 〈◊〉 most inconsequent to say that the leaving that Prayer out of the Book of Devotions caused the Shipwrecks and the Tempests which followed And as bold they are with God Almighty in saying it was the cause For sure I am God never told them that was the cause And if God never revealed it they cannot come to know it yet had the Bishops been Prophets and foreseen these Accidents they would certainly have prayed against them Fourthly Had any Minister found it necessary to use this Prayer at any one time during the Fast he might with ease and without Danger have supplied that want by using that Prayer to the same purpose which is in the Ordinary Liturgy Fifthly I humbly desire your Lordships to weigh well the Consequence of this great and dangerous Innovation The Prayer for fair weather was left out of the Book for the Fast Therefore the Prelates intend to bring in Popery An excellent Consequence were there any shew of Reason in it 4 The Fourth Innovation is That there is one very useful Collect left out and a Clause omitted in another To this I answer First As before It was lawful for us to alter what we thought fit And Secondly Since that Collect made mention of Preaching and the Act of State forbad Sermons on the Fast-days in infected Places we thought it fit in pursuance of that Order to leave out that Collect. And Thirdly For the branch in the other which is the first Collect though God did deliver our 〈◊〉 out of Romish Superstition yet God be blessed for it we were never in And therefore that clause being 〈◊〉 expressed we thought fit to pass it over 5. The Fifth Innovation is That in the sixth Order for the Fast there is a passage left out concerning the abuse of Fasting in relation to Merit To this I answer That he to whom the ordering of that Book to the Press was committed did therefore leave it out because in this Age and Kingdom there is little Opinion of Meriting by Fasting Nay on the contray the Contempt and Scorn of all Fasting save what humorous Men call for of themselves is so rank that it would grieve any Christian Man to see the necessary Orders of the Church concerning Fasting both in Lent and at other set times so vilified as they are 6. The Sixth Innovation is That the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Children are dashed that 's their phrase out of the new Collect whereas they were in 〈◊〉 Collect of the former Book For this First The Author of the News knows full well that they are left out of the