hath declaimed against them Regâ—um est cum bene feceris male audire And it is very well observed by our incomparable Hooker to be the lot of all that deale in publicke affaires whether of Church or Commonwealth that what men list to surmise of their doings be it good or ill they must before hand patiently arme their mindes to endure Besides being placed on high as a watch-tower they know full well how many an envious eie will be cast upon them especially amongst such men as brother B. to whom great eminences are farre more dreadfull then great vices and a good name as dangerous as a bad Sinistra erga eminentes interpretatio nec minus periculum ex magna fama quam ex mala And herein they may comfort and rejoyce their hearts that whatsoever sinister and malicious censures are now passed upon them yet there will one day come a time in which all hearts shall be open all desires made knowne and when no counsels shall be hid and then the Lord shall make it knowne who were indeed on his side and who against him In the meane time suspence of censure and exercise of charity were farre more sit and seemely for a Christian man then the pursuite of those uncharitable and most impious courses whereby you goe about to bring the Church of God and the Rulers of it into discredit and contempt I know assuredly how gloriously soever you conceive of your owne deere selfe that you are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no searcher of the heart nor no discerner of the spirits And therefore I am bold to tell you what I have learned from Venerable Bede viz. ut ea facta quae dubium est quo animo fiant in meliorem partem interpretemur that all mens actions whereof we know not the intent should be interpreted to the better How much the rather should this rule be in use amongst us in points of counsell the hearts of Kings for he hath had his share in the declamation being unsearchable in themselves and unseene to us the resolutions of the Church grounded on just and weighty reasons being to be obeyed and not disputed much lesse rashly censured This counsell if it come too late to you may yet come soone enough to others and to them I leave it CHAP. V. An Answer to the quarrells of H. B. against the Bishops in reference to their Iurisdiction and Episcopall government H.B. endites the Bishops in a Premunire for exercising such a jurisdiction as is not warrantable by the Lawes The Bishops not in danger of any Statute made by King Henry the eight The true intention of the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. The Court of High-Commission in the same established The Statute 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. on what ground enacted repealed by Qu. Mary and so still continueth The use of excommunication taken away by that statute of King Edward A finall answer to the cavills about the exercise of Episcopall jurisdiction Why H. B. and the Brethren doe seeme to pleade so hard for the Kings supremacie the Bishops chalenged for oppressing the Kings leige people the Iudges for not sending out their Prohibitions to reteine them H. B. the onely Clergie man that stands for Prohibitions King Iames his order in that case The quality of their offence who are suspended by their ordinaries for not publishing the book for sports The Bishops charged with persecuting Gods faithfull Ministers and how deservedly HAving made knowne your good affections unto the calling and the persons we must now see what you have to say against the proceedings of the Bishops in their place and calling For sure you would not have it thought that you have lifted up your voyce so like a Trumpet to startle and awaken the drowzie world and that there was no cause to provoke you to it No there was cause enough you say such as no pure and pious soule could endure with patience their whole behaviour both in the consistory and the Church being so unwarrantable For in their consistory they usurpe a power peculiar to the supreme majestie and grievously oppresse the subject against law and conscience and â—n the Church they have indeavoured to erect a throne for Antichrist obtruded on it many a dangerous innovation and furiously persecuted the Lords faithfull servants for not submitting thereunâ—o Therefore no wonder to be made if being called forth by Christ who hath found you faithfull to stand in his cause and witnesse it unto the world you persecute the Prelacie with fire and halter and charge them with those usurpations oppressions innovations and persecutions which you have brought in readinesse to make good against them hoping in very little time to see their honour in the dust and the whole government of the Church committed to the holy Elders whereof you are chiefe In case you cannot prove what you undertake you are contented to submit to the old Law amongst the Locrians let the Executioner do his office I take you at your word and expect your evidence first that the Prelates have usurped a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie which is the first part of your charge How prove you that Marry say you because of sundry statutes as in King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeths time which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction unto the Crowne of England so as no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England pag. 68. So farre the tenor of the Law if you tell us true or rather if your learned Counsell rightly informed Dr. Bastwicke in it from whose mouth you tooke it Now for the practise of our Prelates you tell us that they neither have at any time nor never sought to have any the Kings Letters patents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe pag. 69. There be your Major and your Minor The conclusion followes So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forreine power altogether excluded in the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. And it is flatly against the oath of supremacie in the same statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes highnesse her heires and lawfull successors and to their power to defend all jurisdictions priviledges c. granted to the Queenes highnesse her heires c. p. 70.71 In fine you bring them all in a premunire leave them to the learned in the law of which if you were one or that your learned Counsell might sit Iudge to decide the controversie Lord have mercy upon them For answer hereunto wee would faine know of
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
Acts of Court I see no cause at all why you should demand them For having at the first declined the judgement of that Court by the refusall of the oath and your said Appeale and afterwards contemptuously neglected your appearance on the second summons what cause had you to expect any favour from them or to consult those Acts which you cared not for Especially considering you continued still in your disobedience and desired the Articles not to answer to them but thereby as you say your selfe to perfect your Appeale or rather as it may be thought to scatter them abroad in imperfect copies with such false answers to them as you pleased to make Your selfe and such as you have long used the art of getting the first start upon mens affections non ignari instandum famae prout prima successerint fore vniversa But come we now unto the maine of your Appeale in reference to the illegality of proceedings in your owne particular for all that hath beene answered hitherto was but the vantage as it were which you cast in out of your abundance to make up the reckoning It is pretended that being charged with sedition you were not bound to answer to it And why Because sedition is no ecclesiasticall offence against the Church but a civill against the King and State and therefore to be tried onely in his Majesties Courts of Civill Iustice and not before the High Commissioners who have no cognizance thereof Your Enthimeme doth halt extreamely For there are many matters punishable in either jurisdiction which since you are ignorant I will name you some Vsury contrary to the statute 21. Iac. c. 17. is punishable at the Common-law and it is also punishable in the Court Christian as in the 109. Canon The selfe same Canon reckoneth drunkennesse and swearing as punishable by the Ordinary upon presentment and yet are punishable by the Civill Magistrate by vertue of two severall statutes viz. 4. Iac. 5.21 Iac. and 21. Iac. 20. So for prohibited either workes or recreations on the Lords day the parties so offending are by the Statute 1 Car. c. 1. 3. Car. c. 1. to be convented and corrected by the Iustices of the Peace and yet there is a salvo there for the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to proceed as formerly All persons that offend against the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. either in depraving the Booke of Common prayer or else not using it as they ought to doe or using any other forme of prayer N. B. then is there prescribed c. are punishable either by enditement at the Common-law or by the censures of the Church According as complaint is first made unto either Court I could informe you of many such particulars were it convenient So that you see your proposition is not true in that full latitude wherein you propound iâ— viz. because sedition is to be tryed in the Courts of civill Iustice therefore in you and as it was an offence by you committed it was not to be censured in the High Commission For Sir I hope you can distinguish betweene sedition in the field or in the Market-place and a seditious Sermon for Sermon I must call it for feare of angring you in the Church or Pulpit Had you behaved your selfe seditiously in any other place no better dealing with you then by the Constable first and so on But if you preach seditiously and make the House and Ordinance of God onely a Pandar to your discontent or your ambition I hope my Lords the Iudges will not be offended if your Superiours in the Lord doe chastise you for it yet this at last you make a just gravamen upon the which you might appeale But had you thought indeed as you say you doe that the Ecclesiasticall Commssioners could take no cognizance of the crime objected to you you might with better hopes have labored for a prohibition as formerly you did upon weaker grounds then runne your selfe so hastily on a new experiment of making an Appeale when you were not grieved Lastly you pleade that being the matter charged upon you was Sedition and so if true your life might have beene called in question you were not bound to take the oath propounded to you and this you ground upon a Passage of Arch-Bishop Whitgift in the conference at Hampton Court saying as you report his words that in matter of life liberty and scandall it is not the course of that Court to require any such oath wherein you doe most shamelessely misreport the words of the said Arch-Bishop All that he said is this which will helpe you little viz. If any Article did touch the party any way either for life liberty or scandall he might refuse to answer neither was he urged thereunto He doth not say as you make him say that in those cases there recited it was not the course of that Court to require any such oath but that the party might refuse to answer to those Articles which did so concerne him It is the custome of the Court to give an oath unto the party to answer truely to such Articles as shall be propounded and the indulgence of the Court at the examination that if the party will he may chalenge any of them as not being bound by law to answer to them and his refusall if the law binde him not to answer is to be allowed You might then subtile Sir have tooke the oath and yet demurred on any such Article when you came unto it And so farre we have traced you in your Apologie wherein is nothing to be found but poore surmises which being proved onely by an Aio might have beene answered with a Nego but that I am resolved to dissect you throughly and lay you open to the world which hath so long beene seduced by you CHAP. II. The Kings authority restrained and the obedience of the subject limited within narrow bounds by H. B. with the removall of those bounds The title of the Sermon scanned and the whole divided H. B. offended with the unlimited power of Kings the bounds by him prescribed to the power of Kings both dangerous and doubtfull The power of Kings how amplified by Iewes Christians Heathens What the King cannot doe and what power is not in him by Mass Burtons doctrine The Positive Lawes of the Realme conferre no power upon the King nor confirme none to him The whole obedience of the subject restrained by H. B. to the Lawes of the Realme and grounded on the mutuall stipulation betweene King and people The dangerous sequells of that doctrine A Pravis ad praecipitia Wee are on the declining hand out of the Hall into the Kitchin from an Apologie that was full of weakenesse unto a Sermon or rather a Pasquill farre more full of wickednesse yet were we guided either by the Text or Title we might perswade our selves there were no such matter nothing but piety and zeale and whatsoever a faire shew can promise But for the
Title Sir I hope you know your owne words in your doughtie dialogue betweene A. and B. you know the proverbe Fronti rara fides the fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences For whereas you entitle it for God and the King you doe therein as Rebells doe most commonly in their insurrections pretend the safety of the King and preservation of Religion when as they doe intend to destroy them both The civill warre in France raised by the Duke of Burgundy and Berry against Lewis the eleventh was christned by the specious name of Le bien Public for the Common-wealth but there was nothing lesse intended then the common good And when the Iewes cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini they did but as you doe abuse the people and colour their ambition or their malice choose you which you will with a shew of zeale So that your Title may be likened very fitly to those Apothecaries boxes which Lactantius speakes of quorum tituli remedium habent pixides venenum poysons within and medecines writ upon the Paper So for your Text we will repeat that too that men may see the better how you doe abuse it My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Prov. 24.21 22. A Text indeed well chosen but not well applyed For had you looked upon your selfe and the Text together and followed the direction which is therein given you you had not so long hunted after Innovations as for these many yeares it is knowne you have and so might possibly have escaped that calamitie which is now like to fall upon you But it 's the nature of your humour as of some diseases to turne all things unto the nourishment of the part that is ill affected Meane while you make the Scriptures but a nose of wax as Pighius once prophanly called it by wresting it maliciously to serve your turnes and so confirme the vulgar Papists in contempt of that which were it not for you and such as you they might more easily bee induced both to heare and reverence Now for the method of your Sermon I meane to call it so no more though you observe no method in it but wander up and downe in repetitions and tautologies as your custome is I must thus dispose it The passages therein either of scandall or sedition I shall reduce especially unto these two heads those which reflect upon the Kings most excellent Majestie and those which strike directly against the Bishops That which reflects upon the King either relates to his authoritie or his actions That which doth strike against the Bishops is to be considered as it is referred either unto their place or to their persons or finally to their proceedings and these proceedings are againe to bee considered eyther in reference to their Courts and behaviour there or to their government of and in the Church and carriage in that weighty office wherein you charge them with eight kinds of Innovations most of the generall kinds being sub-divided into several branches For a conclusion of the whole I shall present unto your selfe by way of Corollarie or resultancie out of all the premisses how farre you are or may prove guilty of sedition for that Pulpit pasquill of yours and so commend you to repentance and the grace of God In ripping up whereof as I shall keepe my selfe especially to your Pulpit-Pasquill so if I meete with any variae lectiones in your Apologie or Epistles or the Newes from Ipswich or your addresses to the Lords of the Privie Councell and my Lords the Iudges I shall use them also either for explication or for application Such your extravagancies as cannot easily be reduced to the former heads I either shall passe over or but touch in transitu This is the order I shall use First for the King you may remember what I told you was the Puritan tenet that Kings are but the Ministers of the Common-wealth and that they have no more authority then what is given them by the people This though you doe not say expresly and in terminis yet you come very neare it to a tantamont finding great fault with that unlimited power which some give to Kings and as also with that absolute obedience which is exacted of the subject One of your doctrines is that all our obedience to Kings and princes and other superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Your reason is because the King is Gods Minister and Vice-gerent and commands as from God so for God and in God Your doctrine and your reason might become a right honest man But what 's your use Your first use is for reprehension or refutation of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then rebells and to deserve to be hanged drawne and quartered that refuse to obey them pag. 77. So pag. 88. a second sort come here to be reproved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almightie himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his holinesse So pag. 89. Thus these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe to the ground Finally you reckon it amongst the Innovations wherewith you charge the Prelats in point of doctrine that they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to superiours setting man so in Gods Throne that all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience whose onely rule is the word of God pag. 126. In all which passages however you pretend the word of God the fundamentall Lawes of state and conscience yet clearely you expresse your disaffection unto the soveraignty of Princes and in effect leave them no greater power then every private man shall thinke fit to give them Besides there is a tacite implication also that the King exercises an unlimited power which cannot possibly consist with the subjects conscience the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome or the word of God It had beene very well done of you to have told the people what were the fundamentall lawes of State which were so carefully to be preserved within what bounds and limits the authority of Kings is to be confined and to have given them a more speciall knowledge of the rule of conscience For dealing thus in generalls onely Dolosus versatur in generalibus you know who sayd it you have presented to the people a most excellent ground not onely
reach you may see in the first of Sam. and 8 chap. though in concreto a just Prince will not breake those lawes which he hath promised to observe Princes are debtors to their subjects as God to man non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendo as S. Austine hath it And we may say of them in S. Bernards words Promissum quidem ex misericordia sed ex justitia persolvendum that they have promised to observe the lawes was of speciall grace and its agreeable to their justice to observe their promise Otherwise we may say of kings as the Apostle of the just Iusto lex non est posita saith the Apostle and Principi lexnon est posita saith the law of nature Doe you expect more proofe than you use to give Plutarch affirmes it of some kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not governe onely by the law but were above it The like saith Dion of Augustus Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was sure and had an absolute authoritie aswell upon his lawes as upon himselfe Besides in case the power of kings were restrained by law after the manner that you would have it yet should the king neglect those lawes whereby you apprehend that his power is limited how would you helpe your selfe by this limited power I hope you would not call a Consistorie and convent him there or arme the people to assert their pretended liberties though as before I said the Puritan tenet is that you may doe both Your learned Councell might have told you out of Bracton an ancient Lawyer of this kingdome omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And Horace could have told you that kings are under none but God Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis as he there hath it You may moreover please to know what Gregorie of Tours said once to a king of France Si quis e nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si vero tu excesseris quis te corripiet c. If any of us O king offend against the rules of justice thou hast power to punish him but if thou breake those rules who hath power to doe it We tell you of it and when you list you please to heare us but when you will not who shall judge you but he that tels us of himselfe that he is justice This was you see the ancient doctrine touching the power and right of kings not onely amongst Iewes and Christians but in heathen states what ever new opinion of a limited power you have pleased to raise But you goe further yet and tell us of some things the king cannot do and that there is a power which the king hath not what is it say you that the king cannot doe Marry you say he cannot institute new rites and ceremonies with the advise of his Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or the Metropolitan according as some pleade from the Act of Parliament before the Communion booke pag. 65. Why so Because according to your law this clause of the Act is limited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her successours of the Crowne This you affirme indeede but you bring no proofe onely it seemes you heard so from your learned councell You are I see of Calvins minde who tels us in his Commentarie on the 7 of Amos what had beene sayd by Doctor Gardiner after Bishop of Winchester and then Ambassadour in Germany touching the headship or Supremacie of the king his master and closeth up the storie with this short note inconsiderati homines sunt qui faciunt eos nimis spirituales that it was unadvisedly done to give kings such authority in spirituall matters But sir I hope you may afford the king that power which you take your selves or which your brethren at the least have tooke before you who in Queene Elizabeths time had their Classicall meetings without leave or licence and therein did ordeine new rites new Canons and new formes of service This you may doe it seemes though the kings hands are bound that he may not doe it And there 's a power too as you tell us that the king neither hath nor may give to others Not give to others certainely if he have it not for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is But what is this you first suppose and take for granted that the Bishops make foule havocke in the Church of God and persecute his faithfull servants and then suppose which yet you say is not to be supposed that they have procured a grant from the king to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of religion by law established And on these suppositions you doe thus proceede Yet whatsoever colour pretext or shew they make for this the king to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the power that is in the king is given him by God and confirmed by the lawes of the kingdome Now neither God in his law nor the lawes of the land doe allow the king a power to alter the state of religion or to oppresse and suppresse the faithfull ministers of the Gospell against both law and conscience For kings are the ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before p. 72.73 So you and it was bravely said like a valiant man The Brethren now may follow after their owne inventions with a full securitie for since you have proclaimed them to be faithfull ministers no king nor Keisar dares suppresse them or if he should the lawes of God and the law of the land to boote would rise in judgement to condemne him for usurpation of a power which they have not given him But take me with you brother Bâ—â— and I perhaps may tell you somewhat that is worth your knowledge And I will tell you sir if you please to hearken that whatsoever power is in the king is from God alone and founded on the law of nature The positive lawes of the land as they conferre none on him so they confirme none to him Rather the kings of England have parted with their native royalties for the peoples good which being by their owne consent established for a positive law are now become the greatest part of the subjects liberties So that the liberties possessions and estates of the kings leige people are if you will confirmed by the lawes of the land not the kings authoritie As for the power of kings which is given by God and founded on the law of nature how farre it may extend in the true latitude thereof we have said already Whether to alter the state of religion none but a most seditious spirit such as yours would put unto the question his majesties pietie and zeale being too well knowne to give occasion to such quaeres Onely I needes must
you where it is said what Law what Statute so resolves it that no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters patents under the great Seale of England None of the Acts of Parliament made by King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt or Queene Elizabeth speake one word that way The act of the Submission of the Clergie 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19. on which your fond conceipt is grounded if it hath any ground at all saith not as you would have it say the Clergie shall not put in ure c. any constitutions of what sort soever without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe but that without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe first had they should not enact or put in ure any new Canons by them made in their Convocations as they had done formerly This law observed still by the Clergy to this very day not meeting in their Convocation untill they are assembled by his Majesties writ directed to the Archbishop of either Province nor when assembled treating of or making any Canons without the Kings leave first obteined nor putting any of them in execution before they are confirmed by his sacred Majestie under the broad Seale of England Is there no difference gentle brother betweene enacting new Canons at their owne discretion and executing those which custome and long continuance of time have confirmed and ratified If you should bee so simple as so to thinke as I have no great confidence either in your law or wisedome you may be pleased to understand that by the very selfe same statute All Canons which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes statutes and customes of the Realme nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings prerogative Royall shall be now still executed and used as they were before the making of that act till the said Canons should be viewed by the 32. Commissioners in the same appointed which not being done as yet although the said Commission was revived by Parliament 3 4. to Edw. 6. c. 11. all the old Canons quallified as before is said are still in force So that for exercise of any Episcopall jurisdiction founded upon the said old Canons or any of the new which have beene since confirmed by the King or his predecessours there 's no necessity of speciall Letters Patents under the broad Seale of England as you faine would have it There was another Statute of King Henry the eight concerning the Kings highnesse to bee the supreame head of the Church of England and to have authority to reforme all errors heresies and abuses in the same But whatsoever power was therein declared as due and proper to the King is not now materiall the whole act being repealed A. 1. 2. Ph. and M. c. 8. and not restored in the reviver of Qu. Eliz. 1. Eliz. c. 1. in which you instance in your Margin Nor can you finde much comfort by that Statute 1. Eliz c. 1. wherein you instance if you consider it and the intention of the same as you ought to doe You may conjecture by the title of it what the meaning is For it 's intituled An act restoring to the Crowne the antient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and spirituall and abolishing all forreine power repugnant to the same The preamble unto the act makes it yet more plaine Where it is sayd that in the time of King Henry the eight divers good Lawes and Statutes were made and established aswell for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forreine powers and authorities out of this Realme c. as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperiall Crowne thereof the antient jurisdictions authorities superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging and apperteining by meanes whereof the subjects were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forreine power and authority as before that was usurped Which makes it manifest that there was no intent in the Queene or Parliament to alter any thing in the ordinary power Episcopall which was then and had long before beene here established but to extinguish that usurped and forreine power which had before beene chalenged by the See of Rome and was so burdensome unto the subject The body of the Act is most plaine of all For presently on the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction spirituall and Ecclesiasticall heretofore used within this Realme there followeth a declaration of all such jurisdictions c. as by any spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power and authority hath heretofore or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner errours heresies schismes c. to bee for ever united and annexed to the imperiall crowne of this Realme Then in the next words followeth the establishment of the High Commission it being then and there enacted that the Queenes highnesse her heires and successours shall have full power and authority by vertue of the said act by letters Patents under the great Seale of England to assigne name and authorise c. such person or persons being naturall borne subjects to her highnesse her heires and successours as her Majestie shall thinke meete to exercise use occupie and execute under her highnesse her heires and successours all manner of Iurisdictions priviledges and preheminences within these her Realmes of England c. and to visit reforme order redresse correct and amend all such errours heresies schismes abuses offences contempts enormities whatsoever which by any manner Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power authority or jurisdiction can or may be lawfully reformed c. Plainely in all this act there is nothing contrary to that ordinary jurisdiction which is and hath beene claimed and exercised by Episcopall authority in the Church of England nothing at all which doth concerne the purchasing or procuring of Letters Patents for their keeping Courts and Visitations as you seduced by your learned Counsaile beare the world in hand My reason is because whatever jurisdiction was here declared to be annexed unto the crowne is called a restoring of the antient jurisdiction unto the same and certainely the ordinary Episcopall power of ordination excommunication and such like Ecclesiasticall censures were never in the crowne in fact nor of right could be and therefore could not be restored And secondly because whatever power is here declared to be in the Queene her heires and uccessours shee is inabled to transferre upon such Commissioners as shee or they shall authorise under the great Seale of England for execution of the same Now we know well that there is no authority in the high Commission which is established on this clause derogating from the ordinary Episcopall power and therefore there was none supposed in
the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For
advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
admitted The high Commissioners neither parties in the cause nor Adversaries to the Person of the Appellant The Bishops no usurpers of the Jurisdiction belonging to the King The Oath of Supremacie not derogatorie to Episcopall power Objections against the Oath Ex Officio with an answere to them Other objections against the Proceedings in the high-Commission answered Of giving forth a Copie of ones Sermon upon Oath Sedition how it may be punishable in the High Commission Archbishop Whitgifts name abused and his words mis-reported by H. B. HItherto Mass Burton wee have laid you open by the way of an Historicall narration though all Historicall narrations be offensive to you for the sake of one and consequently spake only of you in the third Person as hic et ille But being now employed in the Examiners Office I must deale with you as if Coram in the second Person which I perswade my self will better sort with your ambition the second Person if you remember so much of your Accidens being more worthy then the third And first I would faine know what mooved you to appeale unto His Majestie at your first conventing before you had just grievance or an unjust sentence Your conscience sure accused you and pronounced you guiltie and told you what you should expect in a legall triall and on the other side your presumption flattered you that being an Old Courtier though worn out of favour you might have some friend there to promote your suite Sir you forget it seemes what is related in the conference at Hampion Court in the self same case My L. of London moved his M tie that then was K. James of B. memory that Pulpits might not be made Pasquils Pray sir mark this well wherin every humorous or discontented fellow might traduce his Superiors This the King very gratiously accepted exceedingly reproving that as a lewd custom threatning that if he should but heare of such a one in a Pulpit He would make him an example this is just your case And that if any thing were amisse in the Church Officers not to make the Pulpit a place of personall reproofe but to let His Majestie heare of it yet by degrees First let complaint be made unto the Ordinarie of the place from him to goe to the Archbishop from him to the Lords of the Counsell and from them if in all these places no remedie is found to his own self which Caveat His Majestie put in for that the Bp. of London had told him that if he left himself open to admit of all complaints neither His Majestie should ever be quiet nor his under Officers regarded seeing that now already no fault can be censured but presently the delinquent threatneth a complaint to the King Here is a long gradation and that after censure but you will venter on the King per saltem not by faire degrees and that not only before censure but before any grievance to be complained of The King would quickly have his hands full were that course allowed of and wee must needs conceive him God as well by nature as resemblance it being impossible he should have any spare time left either to eare sleepe or refresh his Spirits or whatsoever other businesse doth concern this life or shew him mortall But wee must needs conceive there was some speciall reason in it which might induce you to cry out before you were hurt more then the matter of the Articles which were read vnto you or your own guiltie conscience which had precondemned you Yes sure for you except against as well the incompetencie of the Judges as the illegall manner of proceedings in the high Commission The Judges you except against excepting those honorable Nobles Judges Counsellers of state which are seldome there as parties in the cause and adversaries to your person for the causes sake p. 6. parties because you have traduced them for Innovators and Adversaries for the reasons which hereafter follow Suppose them parties and what then Then by the Lawes of God and nature as also by the Common Canon and Civill Lawes they are prohibited from being Judges This is the first Crutch your Appeale halts with and this will faile you For howsoever it be true in ordinary course that no man can be Judge in his own cause there where the cause concernes himself in his own particular yet it is otherwise in a body aggregate or a publick person Suppose in time of Parliament a man should taxe that great assembly with some grievous crime should the whole body be disabled from proceeding with him Or that a man should raise some odious scandall on my Lords the Judges should he escape unpunished because there is none else to judge him Or that some sawcie fellow behaves himself audaciously and Contra bonos more 's before the Justices on the bench at their Quarter Sessions should not the Bench have power to bind him to his good behaviour Or that a man within the Liberties of London should say a fig for my Lord Major might not my Lord Major clap him in the Counter And yet the Parliament and the Judges and the Justices and the Lord Major of London are asmuch parties in these cases as the Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors and the rest of the High Commission are by you said and only said to be in the other For that they are not parties wee shall see anon when wee shall come to cleere them of those imputations which in a furious zeal you have laid upon them That which you next attempt is to prove them Adversaries and Adversaries to your person for the causes sake Good Sir what see you in your self that you should think such great and eminent men should beare malice to you Tullie a wiser man then you and a better Orator as I take it and in more credit with the common people though you grieve to heare it might have taught you better Non video nec in vita nec in gratia nec in hac mea mediocritate quid despicere possit Antonius Was it not you sweet Sir that did Protest thus roundly of my LL. the Bishops I speake not this God is my witnesse out of any base envy to their Lordly honor and pompe which is so far beneath my envy Poore soul are those great persons and their honors beneath your envie and is your person a fit marke for theirs Diogenes and your self two magnanimious Cynicks You know the story wel enough and can best applie it Calco Platonis fastum sed mafore fastu Yea but they are the Adversaries of your person for the causes sake Say then the Adversaries of the cause let your person goe as a contemptible thing that provokes no Adversary Yet wee will take you with us to avoid exceptions and see what proofe you have to make them Adversaries to your person for the causes sake And first they are your Adversaries because the Adversaries of those trueths by you delivered in
to dispute but to disobey the Kings commands Now Sir I pray you what are you or by what spirit are you guided that you should finde your selfe agreeved at unlimited power which some of better understanding then your selfe have given to Kings or thinke it any Innovation in point of doctrine in case the doctrine of obedience to our superiours bee pressed more home of late then it hath beene formerly Surely you have lately studied Buchannan dejure regni or the vindiciae writ by Beza under the name of Iunius Brutus or else perhaps you went no further then Paraeus where the inferiour Magistrates or Calvin where the three estates have an authority to controule and correct the King And should the King be limited within those narrow bounds which you would prescribe him had you power he would in little time be like the antient Kings of Sparta in which the Ephori or the now Duke of Venice in which the Senate beare the greatest stroke himselfe meane time being a bare sound and an emptie name Stet magni nominis umbra in the Poets language Already you have layd such grounds by which each private man may not alone dispute but disobey the Kings commandements For if the Subject shall conceive that the Kings command is contrary to Gods word though indeede it be not or to the fundamentall lawes of state although hee cannot tell which be fundamentall or if he finde no precedent of the like commands in holy Scripture which you have made to be the onely rule of conscience in all these cases it is lawfull not to yeeld obedience Your selfe have given us one case in your Margin pag. 77. we will put the other Your reprehension is of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of state yet presse men to obedience to them your instance is of one which was shrewdly threatned how true that is we meane to tell the world hereafter for refusing to doe that which was not agreeable to the word of God viz. for refusing to read the booke of sports as you declare it in the Margin pag. 26. whether you referre us So then the case is this The King permits his people honest recreations on the Lords day according as had beene accustomed till you and your accomplices had cryed it downe with order to the Bishops to see his declaration published in the Churches of their severall diocesses respectively This publication you conceive to bee repugnant to Gods word though none but a few factious spirits ever so conceived it and that your doctrine of the Sabbath be contrary to all antiquity and moderne Churches and therefore by your rule they doe very well that refuse to publish it It 's true indeed in things that are directly contrary to the law of God such as carry in them a plaine and manifest impietie there is no question to be made but it is better to obey God then man But when the matter chiefly resteth either in misapplying or misunderstanding the word of God a fault too incideÌ„t to ignorant unstable men to none more then to your disciples their teachers too or that the word of God be made a property like the Pharisees Corban to justifie your disobedience unto Kings and Princes your rule is then as false as your action faulty So for your second limitation that 's but little better and leaves a starting hole to malicious persons from whence to worke on the affections of the common people For put the case the King in necessary and emergent causes touching the safety of his empire demand the present ayde of all his subjects and any Tribunitian spirit should informe them that this demand is contrary unto the fundamentall lawes of state according to your rule the subject is not bound to obey the king nay he might refuse it although the busines doth concerne especially his owne preservation But your third limitation that of conscience is the worst of all For where you make the word of God to be the onely rule of conscience you doe thereby conclude expressely that neither Ecclesiasticall or Civill ordinances doe binde the conscience and therein overthrow the Apostles doctrine who would have Every soule be subject to the higher powers not for wrath onely but for conscience sake So that in case the king command us any thing for which we finde not some plaine precept or particular warrant in the word of God as if the King command all Lecturers to read the service of the Church in their â—oodes and surplices before their Lectures such his command is plainely against conscience at least the Lecturers are not bound in conscience to submit unto it because there is no speciall precept for it in holy Scripture And certainely this plea of conscience is the most dangerous buckler against authoritie which in these latter ages hath beene taken up So dangerous that were the plea allowed and all the judgements of the king in banco permitted to bee scanned and traversed in this Court of Conscience there were a present end of all obedience Si ubi jubeantur quaerere singulis liceat peunte obsequio imperium etiam intercidit as he in Tacitus If every man had leave to cast in his scruple the balance of authority would be soone weighed downe Yet since you are so much agreived at the unlimited power which some gives to Kings will you be pleased to know that Kings doe hold their crownes by no other Tenure than Dei gratia and that what ever power they have they have from God by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice So say the Constitutions ascribed to Clements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Irenaeus also an antient father Cujus jussu homines nascuntur ejus jussu reges constituuntur And Porphyrie remembreth it amongst the Tenets of the Essees a Iewish Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man ever did beare rule but by Gods appointment Holding then what they have from God whose deputies they are and of whose power they are partakers how and by whom doe you conceive they should be limited doubtlesse you meane to say by the lawes of the Land But then if question be demanded who first made those lawes you must needes answere also the kings themselves So that in case the kings in some particulars had not prescribed limits unto themselves and bound their owne hands as it were to enlarge the peoples neither the people nor any lawes by them enacted could have done it Besides the law of Monarchie is founded on the Law of nature not on positive lawes and positive lawes I trow are of no such efficacie as to annihilate any thing which hath its being and originall in the law of nature Hence is it that all soveraigne Princes in themselves are above the lawes as Princes are considered in abstracto and extent of power and how farre that extent will
tell you that you tye up the kings hands too much in case he may not meddle with a company of Schismatickes and refractarie persons to all power and order onely because you have pronounced them to be faithfull ministers of the Gospell Such faithfull ministers of the Gospell as you and yours must bee suppressed or else there never will be peace and unitie in the Citie of God And yet I see you have some scripture for it more than I supposed kings being as you tell us from S. Paul the ministers of God for the good of their people and no more then so I thought S. Paul had also told us that the King is a minister of God an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill yea more than so too brother B. and it may concerne you viz. if thou doe that which is evill be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vaine Aut undequaque pietatem tolle aut undequaque conserva Take the whole text along good sir or take none at all and if you take all be afraid as you are advised verbum sapienti I must goe forwards with you yet from the authoritie of the king to the obedience of the subject which you doe presse indeede but on such false grounds as in conclusion overthrow the whole frame of government The absolute obedience of the subject you have dashed alreadie and reckon it amongst those Innovations in point of doctrine which you have charged upon the Prelates and in the place thereof bring in a limited or conditionall obedience of your owne devising Your first condition or limitation rather is viz. that our subjection unto the king is to be regulated as by Gods law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good laws of the king p. 38. the king as you informe us p. 42. having entred into solemne and sacred covenant with all his people to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the kingdome prescribe require as on the other side the people swearing no other obedience to the king than according to his just lawes pag. 39. and 40. In which restraint there are two things to be observed first that wee are to obey the king no farther than there is law for it and secondly no farther than that law seemes good So that in case the king commands his people any thing for which he hath no positive law to warrant his command and of this sort are many Proclamations orders decrees injunctions set out from time to time by the kings authoritie and Prerogative royall by brother Burtons rule the people are at liberty to obey or not And on the other side in case the said command bee grounded on some positive law which they like not of whether it be a Penall statute or some old Act of Parliament almost out of use by the reviving of the which they may be prejudiced in purse or otherwise this is no good law in their judgement and so no more to be obeyed than if the kings command were founded on no law at all But your next limitation is farre worse than this though this bad enough For in the next place you have grounded all obedience on the peoples part upon that mutuall stipulation which the king and his subjects make at his Coronation Where the king takes an explicite solemne oath to mainteine the antient lawes and liberties of the kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those lawes established consequently and implicitely all the people of the land doe sweare fealtie allegiance subjection and obedience to their king and that according to his just lawes pag. 39. your inference from hence is this that if the king so solemnely by sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under his royall hand doe bind himselfe to maintaine the lawes of his kingdome and therein the rights and liberties of his subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the king according to his just lawes p. 40. So that according to your doctrine the people is no longer to obey the king than the king keepes promise with the people Nay of the two the people have the better bargaine the king being sworne explicitely and solemnely to maintaine their liberties the people onely consequently and implicitely to yeeld him subjection Is not this excellent doctrine think you or could the most seditious person in a state have thought upon a shorter cut to bring all to Anarchie for if the subject please to misinterpret the kings proceedings and thinke though falsely that he hath not kept his promise with them they are released ipso facto from all obedience and subjection and that by a more easie way then suing out a dispensation in the Court of Rome You tell us p. 129. of the kings free subjects and here you have found out a way to make them so a way to make the subject free and the king a subject and hard it is to say whether of the two be the greater Contradiction in adjecto I have before heard of a free people and of free states but never till of late of a free subject nor know I anyway to create free subjects but by releasing them of all obedience to their Princes And I have read too of Eleuthero Cilices which were those people of Cilicia that were not under the command of any king but never reade of an Eleuthero Britannus nor I hope never shall I will but aske you one question and so end this point You presse the kings oath very much about maintaining of the lawes of the Kingdom as pag. 39.40 and 42. before recited as also pag. 72. againe and againe and finally in your addresse to my LL. the Judges is it by way of Commemoration or of Exprobration if of Commemoration you forget the Rule memorem immemorem facit qui monet quae memor meminit But if of Exprobration what meant you when you needed not to tell us that in a point of Civill Government it is a dangerous thing to change a Kingdom setled on good lawes into a tyranny and presently thereon to adde a certaine speech of Heraclitus Viz. That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls I only aske the question take you time to answere it CHAP. III. An Answere to the Challenge of H. B. against His Majesties Actions and Declarations The King accused for breach of promise touching the Petition of Right but falsly His Majesties Declaration before the Articles censured by H.B. as tending to suppresse the Trueth and advance the contrary errours Of the law of Amnestie His Majesties Declaration about Sports condemned and censured H. B. fall's scandalously fowle upon King James by reason of the like Declaration by him set forth H. B. makes the people jealous of the Kings intentions His Majestie accused for the restraint of Preaching in infected places contrary to his
and such as you the Innovators and Novatians of the present times complaine of other men for that very fault of which your selves are onely guilty Quis tulerit Gracchos But to goe with you point per point what Innovations have you to complaine of in point of doctrine Marry say you There was an order procured from King Iames of famous memory to the Universities that young Students should not reade our moderne learned writers as Calvin Beza and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and School-men p. 111. Quid hoc ad Ithycli boves What have the Bishops now alive to do with any act of King James his time or how can this direction of that learned Prince bee brought within the compasse of Innovations in point of doctrine Directions to young Students how to order and dispose their studies are no points of doctrine nor doe I finde it in the Articles of the Church of England that Calvin or Beza are 〈◊〉 bee preferred before Saint Austin or Aquinas But doe you know the reason of the said direction or if you do not will you learne Then I will tell you There was one Knight a young Divine that preached about that time at Saint Peters in Oxford and in his Sermon fell upon a dangerous point though such perhaps as you like well of viz. that the inferiour Magistrate had a lawfull power to order and correct the King if he did amisse using this speech of Trajans unto the Captaine of his Guard Accipe hunc gladium quem pro me si bene imperavero distringes sin minus contra me For this being called in question both in the University and before the King he layed the fault of all upon some late Divines of forraigne Churches who had misguided him in that point especially on Paraeus who in his Comment on the Romans had so stated it and in the which he found that saying of the Emperour Trajan On this confession Paraeus Comment on that Epistle was publickly and solemnly burnt at Oxford Cambridge and Saint Pauls Crosse London And shortly after came out that order of King James prohibiting young ungrounded Students to beginne their studies in Divinity with such books as those in whom there were such dangerous positions tending so manifestly to Anarchy and disobedience but that they should beginne with the holy Scriptures so descendendo to the Fathers and the School men and by degrees to those Divines you so much magnifie Whâ—â— hurt in this good sir but that it seemes you are possessed with your old feare that by this means the Kings may come to have an unlimited power and absolute obedience will be pressed more throughly on the subjects conscience Besides you cannot but well know that generally those divines of forraigne Churches are contrary in the point of discipline unto the Hierarchy and rites of the Church of England which some implicitely and some explicitely have opposed and quarrelled Which as it is the onely reason why you would have them studied in the first place that so young students might be seasoned with your Puritan principles so might it be another motive why by the Kings direction they should come in last that Students finding in the Fathers Councels and Ecclesiasticall historians what was the true and ancient kinde of governement in the Church of Christ might judge the better of the modernes when they came to reade them Nor was this any new direction neither it being ordered by the Canons of the yeere 1571. Cap. de Concionatoribus that nothing should bee preached unto the people but what was consonant unto the doctrine of the old and new Testament quodque ex illa ipsâ doctrina Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint and had beene thence collected by the Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops As for your dealing with the Fathers of whom you say as Virgil said of Ennius that they which reade them must margaritas e Coeno legere gather pearles out of the mud p. 112. that's but a tast of your good manners Nor would you slight them so I take it but that the most of them were Bishops But whatsoever you thinke of them a wiser man then you hath told us qui omnem Patribus adimit authoritatem nullam relinquet sibi Your second Innovation in point of doctrine is so like the first that one would sweare they were of one mans observation and that is the procuring of another order in King James his naâ—â— inhibiting young Ministers to preach of the doctrines of election and reprobation and that none but Bishops and Deanes should handle those points Good Sir what hurt in this Are those deepe mysteries of Gods secret Counsailes fit argument for young unexperienced Preachers wherein calores juveniles excercere to trie their manhood and give the first assay of their abilities or call you this an Innovacion in point of doctrine when as for ought you have to say the doctrine in those points continued as before it did onely the handling of the same was limited and restrained to graver heads The like complaint you make of his Majesties Declaration before the Articles by meanes whereof you say the doctrins of the Gospell must bee for ever husht and laied asleepe p. 114. what Sir are all the doctrines of the Gospel husht and laied asleepe because you are inhibited to preach of predestination and that not absolutely neither but that you may not wrest the Article in that point as you were accustomed This was the Devills plea to Eve and from him you learnt it that God had said to our first father hee should not eate of every or any tree in the Garden of Eden whereas he was restrained onely from the tree of knowledge of good and evill But hereof wee have spoke alreadie and referre you thither Hitherto also you reduce the publishing of certaine bookes most of the which were either answer'd or called in and therefore you have little reason to except against them My Lord of Chichesters appeale was as you say called 〈◊〉 by our gracious Soveraigne and had not other men free leave to print and publish a discourse in answere to it The Historicall narration you disliked and that was called in too to please you If Doctor Jacksons bookes were as you falsly tell us to maintaine Arminianisme I doubt not but you have in keeping a booke invisible to any but to such as you said to bee writ by Doctor Twisse as much against his person as against his argument For Doctor Cosens Private Devotions that still lieth heavy on your komacke as not yet digested though both your selfe and your learned Counsell disgorged your selves upon him in a furious manner Brownes prayer before his Sermon if you are agrieved at you may finde the verie clause verbatim in King Edwards first liturgie Anno 1549. which in that verie act of Parliament wherein the second was confirmed is said to bee a very Godly order agreeable to the word of God and
alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it
superstition and stiling the conformable ministers of this Church a generation of Idolatrous sacrificing Masse-priests You know what he in Tacitus replied on the like occasion Tu linguae ego aurium Dominus sum And you may raile on if you please for any answere we shall give you but neglect and patience Onely I will be bold to tel you that were it not for those Cathedralls howsoever you vilifie and miscall them we had not onely before this time beene at a losse amongst ourselves in the whole forme and order of divine service heere established but possibly might have had farre more Recusants in this kingdome then now wee have Which if you take to be a Paradox as no doubt you will you may remember that it was affirmed by Marquesse Rhosny Ambassadour here for King Henry the fourth of France having observed the majestie of our divine service in Cathedrals that if the same had bin observed by the Protestants in France there had not been so many Papists left in it as there were at that time For your particular instances in the Cathedrall Churches of Durham Bristol Saint Pauls and Wulpher Hampton 161. though I trowe Wulpherhampton bee no Cathedrall but that you have a minde to match your friend the Minister for his Cathedrall Church at Dâ—ver the most that you except against are things of ornament which you are grieved to see you more rich and costly then they have been formerly Judas and you alike offended at any cost that is bestowed upon our Saviour either on his bodie or about his Temples both of you thinking all is lost that is so disposed of and that it would doe better in the common bagg whereof hee was and you perhaps have beene the bearers And so I should proceed to the third Argument which you have made in the behalfe of these Innovations as you cal them drawn from the furniture fashion of his M â—â— Chappell and to an answer thereunto But we have met with them already partly in answere to your own wretched seditious comparison of his Majesties Chappell and the Altar there to Julian the Apostates Altar and Nebuchadnezzars golden image and partly in reply to the selfe same answers made to the sold Argument by your friend the Minister your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true yoake-fellow in this cause whither I referre you So having traced you up and downe from one end of your Pasquill unto the other and looked upon those factious and seditious doctrines which you have preached unto the people nothing remaineth but that I lay before you and your Audience a word of Application and so conclude THE CONCLUSION Containing an addresse to H. B. and representing to him the true condition of his crime and punishment thereto belonging if he should be dealt withall according to the Law in that behalfe Oldnols case The Puritanes use to practise on the people for the accomplishment of their designes Scandalum magnatum what it is and how punished Seditious writings brought within the compasse of Treason and severall persons executed for the same Many of the Principall of the faction hanged up by a particular Statute in Q. Elizabeths time The power ascribed unto the people by the Puritan doctrine An Exhortation to the People to continue in obedience to God the King and his publike Ministers No further Answeres to be looked for to those pestilent libells which every day are cast abroad The close of all IT pleased King James of blessed memory to leave unto the World at once both a complaint for and commendation of the Church of England It is a signe saith he of the latter dayes drawing on even the contempt of the Church and of the Governours and Teachers thereof now in the Church of England which I say in my conscience of any Church that ever I read or knew of present or past is most pure and neerest the Primitive and Apostolicall Church in Doctrine and Discipline and is sureliest founded upon the Word of God of any Church in Christendome Which commendation as the Church doth still retaine so may it take up the complaint in more grievous manner those times being modest then in respect of these and those contempts which he complaines of being now growne to such an height Supra quod ascendi non possit that greater cannot be imagined Wherein as the Triumviri whom at first I spake of have well played their parts so there is none of any age nor all together in all ages which hath shewne greater malice unto the Church and to the Governors and Teachers of it then you Mas Burton Not to the Bishops only and inferiour persons whom either for their place or calling you were bound to honour but to the supreame Governor thereof your Soveraign and Patron as you please sometimes to call him your carriage towards whom I shall first lay down according as before delivered and after tell you my opinion freely what I thinke therein First for the King you call His royall power in question and are offended very much that any one should attribute unto him an unlimited power as you meane unlimited or that the Subject should be taught that his obedience must be absolute that being say you a way to cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe unto the ground You tell us of some things the King cannot doe and that there is a power in government which he neither hath nor may transferre upon another You had my censure of this before in the Second Chapter Yet I will here be bold to tell you that as it is a kind of Atheisme to dispute pro and con what God can doe and what hee cannot though such disputes are raised sometimes by unquiet witts so it is a kind of disobedience and disloyalty to question what a King can doe being Gods Deputie here on earth especially to determine what he can and what he cannot Then for the obedience of the Subject you limit it to positive lawes the King to be no more obeyed then there is speciall Law or Statute for it the Kings Prerogative Royall being of so small a value with you that no man is to prize it or take notice of it further then warranted by Law and which is worse you ground this poore obedience which you please to yeeld him upon that mutuall stipulation which is between the King and people and thereby teach the people that they are no longer to obey the King then he keeps promise with the people This ground of obedience laied you next proceed unto the censure of his Majesties actions complaining that in your commitment unto Prison his Majestie had not kept his solemne covenant made with his people touching their Petition which you call of right That by his Declaration before the Articles the Doctrines of Gods Grace and mans salvation have beene husht and silenced and that by silencing those needlesse controversies there is a secret purpose to suppresse Gods truth
instruction of others those most especially whom you have seduced My use shall be that they continue stedfast in their full obedience to God the King Gods deputie the Prelates of the Church being Gods Ministers and the Kings and that they doe not suffer themselves to bee carryed up and downe with every blast of doctrine by the subtletie of those who onely labour to deceive them I know it is a fine perswasion to make the common people think that they have more then private interest in the things of God and in the government of States nothing more plausible nor welcome to some sort of men such whom you either make or call free Subjects This Buchanans device to put the sword into the hands and managing of the people in that his most seditious maxime Populo jus est imperium eui velit deferat And such the doctrine of Cleselius one of your brethren in the cause a furious Contra-Remonstrant of Roterdam who laid it for a doctrine before his audience that if the Magistrates and Ministers did not do their parts to preserve Religion then the people must licet ad sanguinem usque pro ea pugnarent what blood soever should bee spent in pursuite thereof Such grounds were also laid in Queene Elizabeths time by those who then were held as you thinke your selfe the Grand supporters of the cause men like to Theudas in the Acts who thought themselves as you doe now to be some great Prophets and drew much people after them so many that they threatned to petition to the Queenes highnesse with no fewer then 100000. hands But what became of these jolly fellowes They perished as many as followed after them redacti sunt ad nihilum and are brought to nothing nothing remaining of them now but the name and infamy Nor can I promis better to those who pursue their courses and either furiously runne or else permit themselves to bee drawne along into those rash counsailes which as they are begunne in disobedience and prosecuted equally with pride and malice so can we not expect that they should have a better end then calamitous ruine And therefore I shall earnestly beseech and exhort all those who have beene practised with by this kind of spirits if such at least may cast their eyes on any thing which is not made to feede their humour that they would seriously endeavour the Churches peace and conscionably submit themselves to their superiours in the Lord not following with too hastie feete those Ignes fatui who onely leade them on to dangerous precipices and dreadfull down-falls The greatest vertue of a Subject is his free obedience not grudgingly or of necessity or for feare of punishment whether it be unto the King as unto the chiefe or unto Governours as unto them which are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well Suspition as it is in Kings the sicknesse of a tyrant and so his Majestie King Iames conceived it so is it in a Subject the disease and sicknesse of a mischievous braine apt upon every light surmise to entertaine undutifull and pernitious counsailes The safest man is he that thinkes no evill and entertaines not rashly those unjust reports which are devised and spread abroad by malicious wits of purpose to defame their betters that they themselves might gaine applause and be cryed up and honoured yea tantum non adored by poore ignorant men who doe not understand aright what their Projects ayme at Lastly I must informe both you and them that howsoever it was thought not to bee unfit that at this present time an Answer should be made unto all your quarrells that so the people whom you have seduced might see the errour of their courses yet neither you nor they must expect the like on all or any of those factious provocations which every day are offered to the publicke governement Things that are once established by a constant law are not at all to be disputed but much lesse declamed against or if they bee will finde more shelter from the lawes then from their Advocates These scandalous and seditious pamphlets are now growne so rife that every day as if wee lived in the wild of Africke doth produce new Monsters there being more of them divulged at this present time then any former age can speake of more of these factious spirits quam muscarum olim cum caletur maxime then there are Scarabees and Gad-flies in the heat of Summer And should the State thinke fit that every libell of yours and such men as you should have a solemne Answer to it you would advance your heads too high and thinke you had done somthing more then ordinary which should necessitate the state to set out Apologies That as it would encourage you to pursue your courses so would it suddenly dissolve the whole frame of government which is as much endangered by such disputations as by disobedience And yet I would not have you thinke that you are like to find those daies whereof Tacitus speaks ubi sentire quae velis quae sentias loqui liceat in which you may be bold to opine what you list and speake what ever you conceive much lesse to scatter and disperse in publick what ever you dare speake in private Princes have other waies to right themselves and those which are in authority under them then by the pen and such as will fall heavier if you pull them on you Kings the governors of states as they participate of Gods power and patience so doe they imitate him in their justice also and in their manner of proceeding against obstinate persons God is provoked every day so Kings God did sometimes expostulate with his faulty people and so doe Kings God sometimes did imploy his Prophets to satisfie the clamours and distrusts of unquiet men and thus Kings doe also But when the people grew rebellious and stif-necked and would not heare the Charmers voice charme hee never so wisely God would no longer trouble himselfe in seeking to reclaime them from their peevish folly but let them feele the rod and the smart thereof till the meere sense of punishment had weaned them from it So howsoever it bee true convitia spreta exolescunt that scandalous pamphlets such as yours and those which if not yours are now spread abroad have many times with much both moderation wisdome been slighted and neglected by the greatest persons yet if the humor be predominant and the vein malignant it hath beene found at other times as necessary that the tongue which speaketh proud words be cut off for ever Nor would I have you so farre abuse your selfe as to conceit that none of these seditious Pasquils which are now cast into the world doe concerne the King For as Saint Paul hath told us that whosoever doth resist the power resists the ordinance of God because there is no power but it is from