ΚΕΙΜΗΛΙΑ ' ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΙΚΑ THE HISTORICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS Of the Reverend and Learned Peter Heylyn D. D. Now Collected into one Volume I. Ecclesia Vindicata Or The Church of ENGLAND Justified 1. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation 2. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy 3. In prescribing a set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons 4. In her Right and Patrimony of Tythes 5. In retaining the Episcopal Government 6. And the Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons II. The History of the SABBATH in two Parts III. Historia Quinquarticularis Or A Historical Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the Five Controverted Points reproach'd in these last times with the Name of Arminianism IV. The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion proving the Kingly Power to be neither Co-ordinate nor Subordinate to any other upon Earth To which are Added V. A Treatise de jure Paritatis Episcoporum Or A Defence of the Right of Peerage of the English Bishops AND An Account of the Life of the AUTHOR Never before Published With an exact Table to the whole LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1681. THE LIFE OF The most Learned and Reverend Dr. PETER HEYLYN TO Write the Lives of worthy Personages was ever accounted a most laudable custom amongst the Heathens For to perpetuate the memory of the Dead who were eminent in Vertue did manifestly conduce to the publique benefit of the Living much more the Ancient Christians in their time both solemnly retained this practice and adjudged it an act of Piety and Justice to the Deceased If they were Men of Fame for Learning or other Virtues to Celebrate their praises to Posterity and by this means stir up Emulation in others to follow so noble precedents before them For which cause S. Jerom writ his Catalogus illustrium Virorum before whom also Eusebius with others in short recorded to future Ages the holy Lives of those Primitive Fathers who were signally active or passive for the Christian Faith Tacit. lib. 4. Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit saith the Historian Posterity doth render to every man the Commendation he deserves Therefore for the Reverend Authors sake and in due Veneration of his Name which I doubt not is honoured by all true Sons of the Church of England both for his Learned Writings and constant Sufferings in defence of her Doctrine and Discipline established by Law here is faithfully presented to them a true and compleat Narrative of his Life before his Elaborate Works Reprinted to answer the common expectation of men in this case who would read his Person together with the ordinary and extraordinary occurrences of Providence that befel him as well as his Books that were long before published to the World To give satisfaction in the former here is nothing inserted but the Relations of truth which hath been often heard from his own mouth spoken to his dearest Friends or written by his Pen in some loose fragments of Paper that were found left in his Study after his death upon which as on a sure foundation the whole Series and Structure of the following Discourse is laid together but would have been more happily done if he had left larger Memoirs for it Nothing was more usual in ancient times than for good men saith Tacitus to describe their own Lives Suam ipsi vitam narrare In vita Jul. Agric. fiduciam potius morum quam arrogantiam arbitrati sunt Upon a confidence of their right behaviour rather than to be supposed any arrogancy or presumption in them First of all I shall begin with his Birth In that Country above all other enobled with the famous seat of the Muses to which he was a constant Votary Cambd. Britt by Cambden Oxford is called the Sun Eye and Soul of Great Britain by Matthew Paris the second School of the Church the present Author saith co-eval to Paris if not before it the glory of this Island and of the Western parts near which place or noble Athens Peter Heylyn was Born at Burford an ancient Town of good Note in the County of Oxford upon the 29th day of Novemb. An. Dom. 1600. in the same year with the Celebrated Historian Quensted Dialog de pat illust vir Jacobus Aug. Thuanus on both whom the Stars poured forth the like benign influences But the former viz. Peter Heylyn had not only the faculty of an Historian but the gift of a general Scholar in other Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as will appear to any one that reads his laborious Writings He was second Son of Henry Heylyn Gentleman Descended from the Ancient Family of the Heylyns of Pentre-Heylyn in Moungomery-Shire then part of Powis-Land from the Princes whereof they were derived and unto whom they were Hereditary Cup-Bearers for so the word Heylyn doth signifie in the Welsh or Brittish Language An Honourable Office in most Nations which we find in Divine as well as Profane History Neh. 1.11 Magni honoris erat Pincernae munus apud Persás saith Alex. ab Alex. And if Cambden Clarencieux be of good Authority the Reverend Doctor deriveth his Pedegree from Greno ap Heylyn who descended from Brockwell Skythrac one of the Princes of Powis-Land a man of so great Authority with the Princes of north-North-Wales that Llewellyn the last Prince of that Country made choice of the said Grono-ap-Heylyn to treat with the Commissioners of Edward I. King of England for the concluding a final Peace between them which afterwards being broken by L'lewellyn in him ended all the Princes of north-North-Wales after they had Reigned for the space of 405. years a goodly time that scarcely the greatest Monarchies in the World have withstood their fatal period and dissolution Yet the Family of Pentre Heylyn from whom the said Grono-ap-Heylyn descended in a direct Line continued their Seat until the year Anno Dom 1637. at which time Rowland Heylyn Alderman and Sheriff of London and Cousin-german to Dr. Heylyn's Father dying without Issue-Male the Seat was transferred into another Family into which the Heiresses Married but if the Doctor had lived a little longer he intended to have repurchased that Seat and bring it back again into the Name and Family His Cousin Mr. Rowland Heylyn before his death caused the Welch and Brittish Bible to be Printed at his own Charges in a portable Volume for the benefit of his Country-men which was before in a large Church Folio also the Practice of Piety in Welch a Book though common not to be despised besides a Welch Dictionary for the better understanding of that Language One thing of chief remark is a Tradition among the Heylyns deriving their Pedigree from Brockwell Skythrac in whose Family was ever observed that one of them had a gag Tooth and the same a notable Omen of good
Fortune which mark of the Tooth is still continued in the Doctors Family These and such like signatures of more wonderful form are indeed very rare yet not without example So Seleucus and his Children after him were Born with the figure of an Anchor upon their Thigh as an infallible mark of their true Geniture saith Justin Origenis hujus argumentum etiam posteris mansit Si quidem filii nepotesque ejus anchoram in semore veluti notam generis naturalem habuere Just Hist lib. 15. The Mother of Dr. Heylyn was Eliz. Clampard Daughter of Francis Clampard of Wrotham in Kent Gent. and of Mary Dodge his Wife descended in a direct Line from Peter Dodge of Stopworth in Cheshire unto whom King Edw. I. gave the Seigniory or Lordship of Padenhugh in the Barony of Coldingham in the Realm of Scotland as well for his special Services that he did in the Sieges of Barwick and Dunbar as for his Valour shewed in divers Battels encontre son grand Enemy Rebelle le Baillol Roy d'Escose Vasial d'Angleterre as the words are in the original Charter of Arms given to the said Peter Dodge by Guyen King of Arms at the Kings command dated April the 8th in the 34th year of the said K. Edw. I. one of the Descendants from the said Peter Dodge was Uncle to Dr. Heylyns Mother and gave the Mannor of Lechlade in Glocestershire worth 1400 l. per annum to Robert Bathurst Esq Uncle to the Doctor and Grand-father to that honest and loyal Gentleman Sir Edw. Bathurst now living In the sixth year of his Age he was committed to the Tuition of Mr. North School-master of Burford under whose instructions he profited so well that in a short time he could make true Latin and arrived to an ability of making Verses to which excellency together with History his genius was so naturally addicted that at the Age of ten years he framed a story in Verse and Prose which he composed in imitation of the destruction of Troy with some other Books of Chivalry upon which he was then very studious and intent I presume to mention it as an argument of the prodigious pregnancy of those endowments which God had bestowed on him for he may be truly accounted one of the praecoces fructus the forward fruits of his Age that was soon ripe and contrary to the Proverb was of lasting duration It may be affirmed of him as it was of Lipsius Ingenium habuit docile omnium capax memoria non sine praeceptorum miraculo etiam in puero quae in senectute non defecit His old Master North dying he was committed to another who succeeded in the same School viz. Mr. Davis a right Reverend and good man by whom he was sent to Oxford in the beginning of Decemb. 1613. at the 14th year of his Age and placed under the Tuition of Mr. Joseph Hill an ancient Batchelor in Divinity once one of the Fellows of Corpus Christi Coll. but then a Commoner of Hart-Hall Mr. Walter Newbery afterward a Zealous Puritan was made choice of to instruct him in Logick and other Academical Studies wherein he made such good progress that upon the 22 of July 1614. he stood to be Demy of Magdalen College which he missed of at the first Election but in the year after succeeded having endeared himself to the President Dr. Langton and Fellows of the same Colledge by the pleasantness of a Latin Poem upon a Journey that he made with his two Tutors unto Woodstock After his admission into that noble Foundation within the space of a twelve month he was made Impositor of the Hall in which Office he acquitted himself so excellently that the Dean of the College continued him longer in it than any ever before for which reason he was called by those Scholars of his own standing Perpetual Dictator He then composed an English Tragedy celled Spurius which was so well approved by some Learned Persons in the College that the President caused it to be privately Acted in his own Lodgings In July 1617. he obtained his grace for the Degree of Batchelor of Arts according to the College Statutes which requiring some exercise to be performed by a Batchelor of Arts in the long Vacation he began his Cosmographical Lectures and finished them in the end of the next August His performance of this exercise drew that whole Society into a profound admiration of his great Learning and Abilities insomuch that before he had done reading those Lectures he was admitted Fellow upon probation in the place of Mr. Love And that he might give a testimony of his grateful mind to them he writ a Latin Comedy which he called Theomachia which he finished and transcribed in a fortnight space on July the 19th 1619. He was admitted in verum perpetuum socium and not long before was made Moderator of the Senior Form which he retained above two years and within that compass of time he began to write his Geography accordingly as he design'd when he read his Cosmography Lectures which Book he finished in little more than two months beginning at Feb. 22. and compleating it on the 29th of April following At the next Act which was Anno Dom. 1620. he was admitted Master of Arts the honour of which degree was more remarkable because that very year the Earl of Pembroke Chancellor of the University signified his pleasure by special Letters That from that time forward the Masters of Arts who before sate bare should wear their Caps in all Congregations and Convocations He committed his Geography to the perusal of some Learned Friends which being by them well approved he obtained his Fathers consent for the Printing of it which was done accordingly Novemb. 7. 1621. The first Copy of it was by him presented to King Charles the First then Prince of Wales unto whom he Dedicated it and by whom together with its Author it was very graciously received being introduced into the Princes presence by Sir Robert Carre since Earl of Ancram one of the Gentlemen of his Highnesses Bed-Chamber In some months after his Father died at Oxon with an Ulcer in his Bladder occasioned by the Stone with which he had been many years grievously afflicted He was conveyed to Lechlade in Glocestershire where he was buried near his Wife who departed this life six years before him and was solemnly buried in the Chancel of that Parish Church Septemb. the 15th 1622. he received Confirmation from the hands of Bishop Lake in the Parish Church of Wells and in a short time after exhibited a Certificate to Dr. Langton concerning his Age by which means he obtained a Dispensation notwithstanding any local Statutes to the contrary that he should not be compell'd to enter into holy Orders till he was 24 years of Age according to the time appointed both by the Canons of the Church and the Statutes of the Realm His fear was then very great to enter upon the study of
Divinity as well as undertake the profession of it but afterward persuaded thereto by a Right Reverend and Learned Person Mr. Buckner he seriously applied himself to this Study and holy Profession receiving the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distinct times in S. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon these words of our Blessed Saviour to S. Peter Luk. 22.32 And when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he informs us with his own Pen Theol. Vit. praef to the Reader When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King James which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversie and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators His Geography was in less than three years Reprinted And in this second Edition was enlarged and again presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him graciously received with most affectionate commendations of the Author But it met with another kind of entertainment from King James for the Book being put into the hands of that Learned Monarch by Dr. Young then Dean of Winton who design'd nothing but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn thereby the King at first exprest his great value he had for the Author but unfortunatly falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more famous Kingdom King James became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper to call the Book in The Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties displeasure and advised him to repair to Court and make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound But he rather chose to abide in Oxford and acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business afterward sent an Apology and Explanation of his meaning That the burden under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers which was after corrected and amended In the year 1625. he took a Journey with Mr. Levet of Lincolns-Inn into France where he visited more Cities and made more observations in five weeks time for he stayed no longer than many others have done in so many years The particulars of this Journey he reduced into writing and some years after gratifi'd his Countrey with the publication of it together with some other excellent remarks made by him when he went in attendance upon the Earl of Danby to the Isle of Gernsey and Jersey Anno Dom. 1628. Had King James lived to have perused that Book Mr. Heylyn had needed no other Advocate to have restored him to his Princely favour and protection For never was the vanity and levity of the Monsieurs and deformity and sluttishness of their Madams more ingeniously exposed both in Verse and Prose than in the account that he gives of his Voyage into France On April the 18th 1627. he opposed in the Divinity-School and on Tuesday the 24th following he answered pro formâ upon these two Questions viz. An Ecclesia unquam fuerit invisibilis An Ecclesia possit errare Both which he determined in the Negative Upon occasional discourse with him he was pleased once to shew me his Supposition which I read over in his House at Lacies-Court in Abingdon but I had not then either the leisure or good luck to transcribe a Copy of it which would have been worth my pains and more worthy of the Press to the great satisfaction of others For my part I can truly say that I never read any thing with more delight for good Latin Reason and History which that Exercise was full of but since both it and many other choice Papers in his Study through the carelesness of those to whose custody they are committed I suppose are utterly lost and gone ad blattarum tinearum Epulas In stating of the first Question that caused the heats of that day he fell upon a quite different way from that of Dr. Prideaux the Professor in his Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and contrary to the common opinion of other Divines who generally prove the visibility of the Protestant Church from the poor persecuted Christians dispersed in several places as the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Wicklifists in England and the Hussiets in Bohemia which manner of proceeding being disliked by Mr. Heylyn as that which utterly discontinued the Succession of the Hierarchy which the Church of England claims from the very Apostles and their immediate Successors He rather chose to find out a continual visible Church in Asia Ethiopia Greece Italy yea and Rome it self as also in all the Western Provinces then subject to the power of the Roman Bishop when he was the chief Patriarch which Mr. Heylyn from his great knowledge and more than ordinary abilities in History strenuously asserted and proved to which the Professor could make but weak replies as I have heard from knowing persons who were present at that Disputation because he was drawn out of his ordinany byass from Scholastical Disputation to forein Histories in which encounter Mr. Heylyn was the invincible Ajax Nec quisquam Ajacem superare possit nisi Ajax But chiefly the quarrel did arise for two words in Mr. Heylyns Hypothesis after he had proved the Church of England received no Succession of Doctrine or Government from the Berengarians Wicklifists c. who held many Heterodoxies in Religion as different from the established Doctrine of our Church as any point which was maintained at that time in the Church of Rome that the Writers of that Church Bellarmin himself hath stood up as cordially in maintenance of some fundamental points of the Christian Faith against Anti-Trinitarians Anabaptists and other Heretiques of these last Ages as any our Divines and other Learned men of the Protestant Churches which point Mr. Heylyn closed up with these words Vtinam quod ipse de Calvino sic semper errasset nobilissimus Cardinalis at which words the Reverend Doctor was so impatient in his Chair that he fell upon the Respondent in most vile terms calling him Papicola Bellarminianus Pontificius c. to draw the hatred of the University upon him according to the saying Fortiter calumniare aliquid adhaerebit grievously complaining to the younger sort of his Auditors unto whom he made his chiefest addresses of the unprofitable pains he took among them if Bellarmin whom he had laboured to confute for so many years should be honoured with the Title of Nobilissimus Notwithstanding the Respondent acquitted himself bravely before the Company ascribing no more honour to Bellarmin
we may see by what Authority they proceed in their Constitutions and then declare what was acted by the Clergy in that Reformation In which I shall begin with the ejection of the Pope and setling the Supremacy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm descending next to the Translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue the Reformation of the Church in Doctrinals and forms of Worship and to proceed unto the Power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the direction of the people in the exercise of their Religion concluding with an Answer to all such Objections by what part soever they be made as are most material And in the canvassing of these points I doubt not but it will appear unto you that till these late busie and unfortunate times in which every man intrudeth on the Priestly Function the Parliaments did nothing at all either in making Canons or in matters Doctrinal or in Translation of the Scriptures Next that That little which they did in reference to the Forms and Times of Worship was no more than the inflicting of some temporal or legal penalties on such as did neglect the one or not conform unto the other having been first digested and agreed upon in the Clergy way And finally that those Kings and Princes before remembred by whose Authority the Parliaments did that little in those Forms and Times did not act any thing in that kind themselves but what was warranted unto them by the Word of God and the example of such godly and religious Emperors and other Christian Kings and Princes as flourished in the happiest times of Christianity This is the sum of my design which I shall follow in the order before laid down assuring you that when you shall acquaint me with your other scruples I will endeavour what I can for your satisfaction 1. Of calling or assembling the Convocation of the Clergy and the Authority thereof when convened together AND in this we are first to know that anciently the Arch-bishop of the several Provinces of Canterbury and York were vested with a power of Convocating the Clergy of their several and respective Provinces when and as often as they thought it necessary for the Churches peace And of this power they did make Use upon all extraordinary and emergent cases either as Metropolitans and Primates in their several Provinces or as Legati nati to the Popes of Rome But ordinarily and of common course especially after the first passing of the Acts or Statutes of Praemuniri they did restrain that power to the good pleasure of the Kings under whom they lived and used it not but as the necessities and occasions of these Kings or the distresses of the Church did require it of them and when it was required of them the Writ or Precept of the King was in this form following Rex c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri N. Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati Apostolicae sedis Legato salutem Quibusdam ardius urgentibus negotiis defensionem securitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae ac pacem tranquillitatem bonum publicum defensionem Regni nostri subditorum nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus Vobis in Fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini rogando mandamus quatenus praemissis debito intuito attentis ponderatis universos singulos Episcopos vestrae Provinciae ac Decanos Priores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbates Priores alios Electivos exemptos non exemptos nec non Archidiaconos Conventus Capitula Collegia totumque Clerum cujuslibet Dioceseos ejusdem Provinciae ad conveniendum coram vobis in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito Convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super praemissis aliis quae sibi clarius proponentur tunc ibidem ex parte nostra Et hoc sicut nos statum Regni nostri ac honorem utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis nullatenus omittatis Teste meipso c. These are the very words of the antient Writs and are still retained in these of later times but that the Title of Legatus sedis Apostolicae then used in the Arch-bishops style was laid aside together with the Pope himself and that there is no mention in them of Abbots Priors and Convents as being now not extant in the Church of England And in this Writ you may observe first that the calling of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to a Synodical Assembly belonged to the Arch-bishop of that Province only the like to him of York also within the Sphere or Verge of his Jurisdiction Secondly that the nominating of the time and place for this Assembly was left to the Arch-bishops pleasure as seemed best unto him though for the most part and with reference unto themselves and the other Prelates who were bound to attend the service of the King in Parliament they caused these Meetings to be held at the time and place at and to which the Parliament was or had been called by the Kings Authority Thirdly That from the word Convocari used in the Writ the Synodical Meetings of the Clergy were named Convocations And fourthly That the Clergy thus assembled in Convocation had not only a power of treating on and consenting unto such things as should be there propounded on the Kings behalf but a power also of concluding or not concluding on the same as they saw occasion Not that they were restrained only to such points as the King propounded or were proposed in his behalf to their consideration but that they were to handle his business with their own wherein they had full power when once met together In the next place we must behold what the Arch-bishop did in pursuance of the Kings command for calling the Clergy of his Province to a Convocation who on the receipt of the King 's Writ presently issued out his Mandate to the Bishop of London Dean by his place of the whole Colledge of Bishops of that Province requiring him immediately on the sight hereof and of the King 's Writ incorporated and included in it to cite and summon all the Bishops and other Prelates Deans Arch-Deacons and capitular Bodies with the whole Clergy of that Province that they the said Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons in their own persons the Capitular Bodies by one Procurator and the Clergy of each Diocess by two do appear before him at the time and place by him appointed and that those Procurators shouldbe furnished with sufficient powers by those which sent them not only to treat upon such points as should be propounded touching the peace of the Church and defence and welfare of the Realm of England and to give their counsel in the same sed ad consentiendum iis quae ibidem ex communi deliberatione ad honorem Dei Ecclesiae in praemissis contigerent
Articles had been concluded and condescended upon by the Prelates and Clergy of the Realm in their Convocation as appeareth in the very words of the Injunction For which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1247. I find not any thing in Parliament which relates to this either to countenance the work or to require obedience and conformity from the hand of the people And to say truth neither the King nor Clergy did account it necessary but thought their own Authority sufficient to go through with it though certainly it was more necessary at that time than in any since The power and reputation of the Clergy being under foot the King scarce setled in the Supremacy so lately recognized unto him and therefore the Authority of the Parliament of more Use than afterward in Times well ballanced and established 'T is true that in some other year of that Princes Reign we find some Use and mention of an Act of Parliament in matters which concerned Religion but it was only in such Times when the hopes of Reformation were in the Wane and the Work went retrogade For in the year 1539. being the 31. H. 8. When the Lord Comwels power began to decline and the King was in a necessity of compliance with His Neighbouring Princes there passed an Act of Parliament commonly called the Statute of the six Articles or the Whip with six strings In which it was Enacted That whosoever by word or writing should Preach Teach or publish that in the blessed Sacraments of the Altar under form of Bread and Wine there is not really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or affirm otherwise thereof than was maintained and taught in the Church of Rome should be adjudged an Heretick and suffer death by burning and forfeit all his Lands and Goods as in case of High Treason Secondly That whosoever should Teach or Preach that the Communion of the blessed Sacrament in both kinds is necessary for the health of mans soul and ought to be maintained Thirdly Or that any man ofter the Order of Priesthood received might Marry or contract Matrimony Fourthly Or that any Woman which had vowed and professed Chastity might contract Marriage Fifthly Or that private Masses were not lawful and laudable or agreable to the Word of God Or sixthly That auricular Confession was not necessary and expedient to be used in the Church of God should suffer death and forfeit Lands and Goods as a Felon 31 H. 8. c. 14. The rigour of which terrible Statute was shortly after mitigated in the said King's Reign 32 H. 8. c. 10. and 35 H. 8. c. 5. and the whole Statute absolutely repealed by Act of Parliament 1 E. 6. c. 12. But then it is to be observed first that this Parliament of K. H. 8. did not determine any thing in those six points of Doctrine which are therein recited but only took upon them to devise a course for the suppressing of the contrary Opinions by adding by the secular Power the punishment of Death and forfeiture of Lands and Goods unto the censures of the Church which were grown weak if not unvalid and consequently by degrees became neglected ever since the said K. Henry took the Headship on Him and exercised the same by a Lay Vicar General And secondly you must observe that it appeareth evidently by the Act it self that at the same time the King had called a Synod and Convocation of all the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy that the Articles were first deliberately and advisedly debated argued and reasoned by the said Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy and their opinions in the same declared and made known before the matter came in Parliament And finally That being brought into the Parliament there was not any thing declared and passed as doctrinal but by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and other Learned men of the Clergy as by the Act it self doth at large appear Finally Whatsoever may be drawn from thence can be only this That K. Hen. did make use of his Court of Parliament for the establishing and confirming of some points of Popery which seemed to be in danger of a Reformation And this compared with the Statute of the 34. and 35. prohibiting the reading of the Bible by most sorts of people doth clearly shew that the Parliaments of those times did rather hinder and retard the work of Reformation in some especial parts thereof than give any furtherance to the same But to proceed There was another point of Reformation begun in the Lord Cromwels time but not produced nor brought to perfection till after his decease and then too not without the Midwifery of an Act of Parliament For in the year 1537. the Bishops and others of the Clergy of the Convocation had composed a Book entituled The Institution of a Christian Man which being subscribed by all their hands was by them presented to the King by His most excellent judgment to be allowed of or condemned This Book containing the chief Heads of Christian Religion was forthwith Printed and exposed to publick view But some things not being clearly explicated or otherwise subject to exception he caused it to be reviewed and to that end as Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Engl. I speak the very words of the Act of Parl. 32. H. 8. c. 26. appointed the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and also a great number of the best learned honestest and most vertuous sort of the Doctors of Divinity men of discretion judgment and good disposition to be called together to the intent that according to the very Gospel and Law of God without any partial respect or affection to the Papistical sort or any other Sect or Sects whatsoever they should declare by writing and publish as well the principal Articles and points of our Faith and Belief with the Declaration true understanding and observation of such other expedient points as by them with his Graces advice counsel and consent shall be thought needful and expedient as also for the lawful Rights Ceremonies and observation of Gods Service within this Realm This was in the year 1540. at what time the Parliament was also sitting of which the King was pleased to make this special use That whereas the work which was in hand I use again the words of the Statute required ripe and mature deliberation and was not rashly to be defined and set forth and so not fit to be restrained to the present Session an Act was passed to this effect That all Determinations Declarations Decrees Definitions and Ordinances as according to God's Word and Christ's Gospel should at any time hereafter be set forth by the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Doctors in Divinity now appointed or hereafter to be appointed by his Royal Majesty or else by the whole Clergy of England in and upon the matter of Christ's Religion and the Christian Faith
in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by subscriptions of their hands 5 6. Edw. 6. chap. 12. And for the time of Q. Elizabeth it is most manifest that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reign then only the said Articles of K. Edward's Book and that which was delivered in the Book of Homilies of the said Kings time In which the Parliament had as little to do as you have seen they had in the Book of Articles But in the Convocation of the year 1562. being the fifth of the Q. Reign the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said book of Articles and altering what they thought most fitting to make it more conducible to the use of the Church and the edification of the people presented it unto the Queen who caused it to be published with this Name and Title viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. for the avoiding of diversity of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion put forth by the Queens Authority Of any thing done or pretended to be done by the power of the Parliament either in the way of Approbation or of Confirmation not one word occurs either in any of the Printed Books or the Publick Registers At last indeed in the 13th of the said Queens Reign which was 8 years full after the passing of those Articles comes out a Statute for the Redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church In which it was enacted That all such as were Ordained Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments after any other form then that appointed to be used in the Church of England all such as were to be Ordained or permitted to Preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with Cure of souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles and testifie their assent unto them Which shews if you observe it well that though the Parliament did well allow of and approve the said Book of Articles yet the said Book owes neither confirmation nor authority to the Act of Parliament So that the wonder is the greater that that most insolent scoff which is put upon us by the Church of Rome in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria-Religio should pass so long without controle unless perhaps it was in reference to our Forms of Worship of which I am to speak in the next place But first we must make answer unto some Objections which are made against us both from Law and Practice For Practice first it is alledged by some out of Bishop Jewel in his Answer to the Cavil of Dr. Harding to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiastical Causes debated in Parliament and that it is apparent by the Laws of King Ina King Alfred King Edward c. That our Godly Fore-fathers the Princes and Peers of this Realm never vouchsafed to treat of matters touching the Common State before all Controversies of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical had been concluded Def. of the Apol. part 6. chap. 2. sect 1. But the answer unto this is easie For first if our Religion may be called Parliamentarian because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament then the Religion of our Fore-fathers even Papistry it self concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Hen. 8. and Q. Maries time must be called Parliamentarian also And secondly it is most certain that in the Parliaments or Common-Councils call them which you will both of King Inas time and the rest of the Saxon Kings which B. Jewel speaks of not only Bishops Abbots and the higher part of the Clergy but the whole Body of the Clergy generally had their Votes and Suffrages either in person or by proxie Concerning which take this for the leading Case That in the Parliament or Common-Council in K. Ethelberts time who first of all the Saxon Kings received the Gospel the Clergy were convened in as full a manner as the Lay-Subjects of that Prince Convocati Communi Concilio tam Cleri quam Populi saith Sir H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councils Anno 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina which leads the way in Bishop Jewel it was saith the same Sr. H. Spelman p. 630. Communi Concilium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum nec non omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorumque totius Regni Where doubtless Sapientes and Seniores and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiastical notion must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi which shews the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book against Dr. Cousins viz. That the Parliament as it is now constituted hath an ancient genuine just and lawful Prerogative to establish true Religion in our Church and to abolish and suppress all false new and counterfeit Doctrines whatsoever Unless he means upon the post fact after the Church hath done her part in determining what was true what false what new what ancient and finally what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit and what sincere And as for Law 't is true indeed that by the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath power to determine and judge of Heresie which at first sight seems somewhat strange but on the second view you will easily find that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies not formerly declared for such in any of the first four General Councils nor in any other General Cuncil adjudging by express words of holy Scripture as also that in such new Heresies the following words restrain this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to do and where they are to make use of the secular sword for cutting off a desperate Heretick from the Church of CHRIST or rather from the Body of all Christian people 5. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the Times appointed thereunto THIS Rub removed we now proceed unto a view of such Forms of Worships as have been setled in this Church since the first dawning of the day of Reformation in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat though it be not much The first point which was altered in the publick Liturgies was that the Creed the Pater-noster and the Ten Commandements were ordered to be said in the English Tongue to the intent the people might be perfect in them and learn them without book as our Phrase is The next the setting forth and using of the English Letany on such days and times in which it was accustomably to be read as a part of the Service But neither of these two was done by Parliament nay to say truth the Parliament did nothing in them All which was done in either of them
came out in some years succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monumens and writings of feigned Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up Lights in any Churches but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Arch-Bishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white meats in the time of Lent the abolishing the Fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the days of St. Clement St. Katherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reign without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts and Mon. fol. 1385 1425 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. E. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the Use of the Subjects And of the several Letters missive which went forth in his Name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas-day of Ashes in Lent and of Palms on Palm-sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the Kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13 1548. for abrogating of private Masses June 24 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same year for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes Book of Acts and Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Council or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the year 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the Authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well settled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the Godly Kings and Princes in the Jewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God and to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A Book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. All tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Jerusalem with the advice and counsel of the Metropolitan and some other Godly Prelates who were then a-about her by whom they were agreed on and subscribed unto before they were presented to her without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better settled and the first difficulties of her Reign passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it and they being met in Convocation and thereto Authorised as the Laws required did make and publish several Books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queen under the broad Seal of England were in force of Laws to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formal words Her Heirs and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queen No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have than in the Canons of year 1603. being the first year of King James made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King for though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsettled times for the perpetual standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent cases did require new rules and whilst there is a possibility of Mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in causes Ecclesiastical to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated April 12. and June 25. full free and lawful liberty licence power and authority to convene treat debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royal assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his Heirs and lawful Successors straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUT against this all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more Authority and Jurisdiction nisi à Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do or conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the several Statutes 24 H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of Electing and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seals they shall use these of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5. 6 E. 6. for Authorizing of the Book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in Consecrating any Arch Bishop or bishop within this Realm To give a general answer to each several cavil you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their Calling together with
or putting their results into execution without his consent but put him into the actual possession of that Authority which properly belonged to the Supremacy or the Supream Head in as full manner as ever the Pope of Rome or any delegated by and under him did before enjoy it After which time whatsoever the King or his Successors did in the Reformation as it had virtually the power of the Convocations so was it as effectual and good in Law as if the Clergy in their Convocation particularly and in terminis had agreed upon it Not that the King or his Successors were hereby enabled to exercise the Keys and determine Heresies much less to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as the Papists falsly gave it out but as the Heads of the Ecclesiastical Body of this Realm to see that all the members of that Body did perform their duties to rectifie what was found amiss amongst them to preserve peace between them on emergent differences to reform such errors and corruptions as are expresly contrary to the Word of God and finally to give strength and motions to their Councils and Determinations tending to Edification and increase of Piety And though in most of their proceedings towards Reformation the Kings advised with such Bishops as they had about them or could assemble without any great trouble or inconvenience to advise withal yet was there no necessity that all or the greater part of the Bishops should be drawn together for that purpose no more than it was anciently in the Primitive Times for the godly Emperors to call together the most part of the Bishops in the Roman Empire for the establishing of the matters which concerned the Church or for the godly Kings of Judah to call together the greatest part of the Priests and Levites before they acted any thing in the Reformation of those corruptions and abuses which were crept in amongst them Which being so and then withal considering as we ought to do that there was nothing altered here in the state of Religion till either the whole Clergy in their Convocaton or the Bishops and most eminent Church-men had resolved upon it our Religion is no more to be called a Regal than a Parliament-Gospel 6. That the Clergy lost not any of their just Rights by the Act of Submission and the power of calling and confirming Councils did anciently belong to the Christian Princes If you conceive that by ascribing to the King the Supream Authority taking him for their Supream Head and by the Act of Submission which ensued upon it the Clergy did unwittingly ensnare themselves and drew a Vassallage on these of the times succeeding inconsistent with their native Rights and contrary to the usage of the Primitive Church I hope it will be no hard matter to remove that scruple It 's true the Clergy in their Convocation can do nothing now but as their doings are confirmed by the Kings Authority and I conceive it stands with reason as well as point of State that it should be so For since the two Houses of Parliament though called by the Kings Writ can conclude nothing which may bind either King or Subject in their civil Rights until it be made good by the Royal Assent so neither is it fit nor safe that the Clergy should be able by their Constitutions and Synodical Acts to conclude both Prince and People in spiritual matters until the stamp of Royal Authority be imprinted on them The Kings concurrence in this case devesteth not the Clergy of any lawful power which they ought to have but restrains them only in the exercise of some part thereof to make it more agreeable to Monarchical Government and to accommodate it to the benefit both of Prince and People It 's true the Clergy of this Realm can neither meet in Convocation nor conclude any thing therein nor put in execution any thing which they have concluded but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority But then it is as true withal that this is neither inconsistent with their native Rights nor contrary unto the usage of the Primitive Times And first it is not inconsistent with their native Rights it being a peculiar happiness of the Church of England to be always under the protection of Christian Kings by whose encouragement and example the Gospel was received in all parts of this Kingdom And if you look into Sir Henry Spelman's Collection of the Saxon Councils I believe that you will hardly find any Ecclesiastical Canons for the Government of the Church of England which were not either originally promulgated or after approved and allowed o either by the Supream Monarch of all the Saxons or by some King or other of the several Heptarchies directing in their National or Provincial Synods And they enjoyed this Prerogative without any dispute after the Norman Conquest also till by degrees the Pope in grossed it to himself as before was shewn and then conferred it upon such as were to exercise the same under his Authority which plainly manifests that the Act of Submission so much spoke of was but a changing of their dependance from the Pope to the King from an usurped to a lawful power from one to whom they had made themselves a kind of voluntary Slaves to him who justly challenged a natural dominion over them And secondly that that submission of theirs to their natural Prince is not to be considered as a new Concession but as the Recognition only of a former power In the next place I do not find it to be contrary to the usage of the Primitive times I grant indeed that when the Church was under the command of the Heathen Emperors the Clergy did Assemble in their National and Provincial Synods of their own Authority which Councils being summoned by the Metropolitans and subscribed by the Clergy were of sufficient power to bind all good Christians who lived within the Verge of their jurisdiction They could not else Assemble upon any exigence of affairs but by such Authority But it was otherwise when the Church came under the protection of Christian Princes all Emperors and Kings from Constantine the Great till the Pope carried all before him in the darker times accompting it one of the principal flowers as indeed it was which adorned their Diadems I am not willing to beat on a common place But if you please to look into the Acts of ancient Councils you will find that all the General Councils all which deserve to be so called if any of them do deserve it to have been summoned and confirmed by the Christian Emperors that the Council of Arles was called and confirmed by the Emperor Constantine that of Sardis by Constans that of Lampsacus by Valentinian that of Aquileia by Theodosius that of Thessalonica National or Provincial all by the Emperor Gratian That when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the French the Councils of Akon Mentz Meldun Wormes and Colen received both life and
regulated by the three Estates 6. Of what Authority they have been antiently in the Parliaments of Scotland 7. The King of England always accounted heretofore for an absolute Monarch 8. No part of Sovereignty invested legally in the English Parliaments 9. The three Estates assembled in the Parment of England subordinate unto the King not co-ordinate with him 10. The Legislative power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone 11. In what particulars the power of the English Parliament doth consist especially 12. The Kings of England ordinarily over-rule their Parliaments by themselves their Council and their Judges 13. Objections answered touching the power and practice of some former Parliaments and the testimonies given unto them 14. No such Authority given by God in Holy Scripture to any such Popular Magistrates as Calvin dreams of and pretends 15. The Application and Conclusion of the whole discourse I Have been purposely more copious in the former Chapter because I thought it necessary to declare and manifest who made the three Estates in each several Kingdom which are pretended by our Author to have such power of regulating the Authority and censuring the actions and the persons of their Sovereign Princes And this the rather in regard it is thought of late and more than thought presented to the world in some publick writings especially as it relates to the Realm of England that the King the Lords and Commons make the three Estates which brings the King into an equal rank with the other two in reference to the business and affairs of Parliament A fancy by what accident soever it was broached and published which hath no consistence either with truth or ordinary observation or with the practice of this Realm or of any other For the proof of this my position that the King is none of the three Estates as is now pretended if all proofs else should fail I have one from Calvin whose judgment in this point amongst many of us will be instar omnium Calvin instit 4. cap. ult For where he saith in singulis Regnis tres esse Ordines that there are three Estates in each several Kingdom and that these three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever they call their meeting are furnished with a power Regum lididinem moderandi of moderating the licentiousness of Kings and Princes and that they become guilty of perfidious dissimulation si Regibus impotenter grassantibus c. If they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people I trow it cannot be conceived that the King is any one of the three Estates who are here trusted or at least supposed to be intrusted with sufficient power as well to regulate his authority as to control his actions If Calvin be allowed to have common sense and to have wit and words enough to express his meaning as even his greatest Adversaries do confess he had it must be granted that he did not take the King of what Realm soever to be any of the three Estates or if he did he would have thought of other means to restrain his insolencies than by leaving him in his own hands to his own correction Either then Calvin is mistaken in the three Estates and if he be mistaken in designing the men he aims at may he not be mistaken in the power he gives them or else the King is none and indeed can be none of the three Estates qui primarios conventus peragunt who usually convene in Parliament for those ends and purposes before remembred But not to trust to him alone though questionless he be ideoneus testis in the present case Let us behold the Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ordinum in France from whence it is conceived that all Assemblies of this kind had their first Original and we shall find a very full description of them in the Assembly des Estats at Bloys under Henry III. Anno 1577. of which thus Thuanus Rex in sublimi loco sub uranisco sedebat Thanus in histor sci temp l. 63. c. The King saith he sate on an high erected Throne under the Canopy of State the Queen-Mother and the Queen his Wife and all the Cardinals Princes Peers upon either hand And then it followeth Transtris infra dispositis ad dextram suam sacri Ordinis Delegati ad laevam Nobilitas infra plebetus ordo sedebat that on some lower forms there sate the Delegates of the Clergy towards the right hand of the King the Nobility towards the left and the Commissioners for the Commons in the space below We may conjecture at the rest by the view of this Of those in Spain by those Conventions of the States which before we spake of at Burgos Monson Toledo and in other places in which the King is always mentioned as a different person who called them and dissolved them as he saw occasion For Scotland it is ordinary in the stile of Parliaments to say the King and the Estates do ordain and constitute for which I do refer you to the Book of Statutes which clearly makes the King to be a different person from the Estates of that Kingdom And as for England Statutes of Scotland besides what may be gathered from the former Chapter we read in the History of Titus Livius touching the Reign and Acts of King Henry V. that when his Funerals were ended the three Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declared his Son King Henry VI. being an Infant of eight months old to be their Sovereign Lord Tit. Liv. M. S. in Bibl. Bodl. as his Heir and Successor And in the Parliament Rolls of King Richard III. there is mention of a Bill or Parchment presented to that Prince being then Duke of Glocester on the behalf and in the name of the three Estates of this Realm of England that is to wit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Commons by name which forasmuch as neither the said three Estates nor the persons which delivered it on their behalf were then Assembled in form of Parliament was afterwards in the first Parliament of that King by the same three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament I speak the very words of the Act it self and by Authority of the same enrolled Ap. Speed in K. Rich. 3. recorded and approved And at the request and by the assent of three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be pronounced decreed and declared that our said Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted Heir of this Realm of England 1 Eliz. cap. 3. c. And so it is acknowledged in a Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament assembled being said
no appeal but only to the whole body of that Court the King Case of our Assairs p. 7 8. and both the Houses the Head and Members But this they do not as the upper House of Parliament but as the distinct Court of the Kings Barons of Parliament of a particular and ministerial jurisdiction to some intents and purposes and to some alone which though it doth invest them with a power of judicature confers not any thing upon them which belongs to Sovereignty Then for the Commons all which the Writ doth call them to is facere consentire to do and consent unto such things which are ordained by the Lords and Common Council of the Kingdom of England and sure conformity and consent which is all the Writ requireth from them are no marks of Sovereignty nor can an Argument be drawn from thence by the subtlest Sophister to shew that they are called to be partakers of the Sovereign power or that the King intends to denude himself of any branch or leaf thereof to hide their nakedness And being met together in a body collective they are so far from having any share in Sovereignty that they cannot properly be called a Court of Judicature as neither having any power to minister an Oath Id. p. 9. or to imprison any body except it be some of their own Members if they see occasion which are things incident to all Courts of Justice and to every Steward of a Leet insomuch that the House of Commons is compared by some and not incongruously unto the Grand Inquest at a general Sessions whose principal work it is to receive Bills and prepare businesses Review of the Observat p. 22. and make them fit and ready for my Lords the Judges Nay so far were they heretofore from the thoughts of Sovereignty that they were lyable to sutes and punishments for things done in Parliament though only to the prejudice of a private Subject until King Henry VIII most graciously passed a Law for their indemnity For whereas Richard Strode one of the company of Tinners in the County of Cornwall being a Member of the Commons House had spoken somewhat to the prejudice of that Society and contrary to the Ordinances of the Stanneries at his return into the Country he was Arrested Fined Imprisoned Complaint whereof being made in Parliament the King passed a Law to this effect viz. That all suites condemnations 4 Hen. 8. c. 8. executions charges and impositions put or hereafter to be put upon Richard Strode and every of his Complices that be of this Parliament or any other hereafter for any Bill speaking or reasoning of any thing concerning the Parliament to be communed and treated of shall be void and null But neither any reparation was allowed to Strode nor any punishment inflicted upon those that sued him for ought appears upon Record And for the Houses joyned together which is the last capacity they can claim it in they are so far from having the supream Authority that as it is observed by a learned Gentleman they cannot so unite or conjoyn as to be an entire Court either of Sovereign or Ministerial jurisdiction no otherwise co-operating than by concurrence of Votes in their several Houses for preparing matters in order to an Act of Parliament Case of our Affairs p. 9. Which when they have done they are so far from having any legal Authority in the State as that in Law there is no stile nor form of their joynt Acts nor doth the Law so much as take notice of them until they have the Royal Assent So that considering that the two Houses alone do no way make an entire Body or Court and that there is no known stile nor form of any Law or Edict by the Votes of the two Houses only nor any notice taken of them by the Law it is apparent that there is no Sovereignty in their two Votes alone How far the practice of the Lords and Commons which remain'd at Westminster after so many of both Houses had repaired to the King c. may create Precedents unto Posterity I am not able to determine but sure I am they have no Precedent to shew from the former Ages But let us go a little further and suppose for granted that the Houses either joynt or separate be capable of the Sovereignty were it given unto them I would fain know whether they claim it from the King or the People only Not from the King for he confers upon them no further power than to debate and treat of his great Affairs to have access unto his person freedom of speech as long as they contain themselves within the bounds of Loyalty authority over their own Members Hakewell of passing Bills in Parliament which being customarily desired and of course obtained as it relates unto the Commons shews plainly that these vulgar priviledges are nothing more the rights of Parliament than the favours of Princes but yet such favours as impart not the least power of Sovereignty Nor doth the calling of a Parliament ex opere operato as you know who phrase it either denude the King of the poorest robe of all his Royalty or confer the same upon the Houses or on either of them whether the King intend so by his call or otherwise For Bodin whom Mr. Prynn hath honoured with the title of a grand Politician Prynn of Parliament par 2. p. 45. Bodin de Repub doth affirm expresly Principis majestatem nec Comitorum convocatione nec Senatus populique praesentia minui that the Majesty or Sovereignty of the King is not a jot diminished either by the calling of a Parliament or Conventus Ordinum or by the frequency and presence of his Lords and Commons Nay to say truth the Majesty of Sovereign Princes is never so transcendent and conspicuous as when they sit in Parliament with their States about them the King then standing in his highest Estate as was once said by Henry VIII who knew as well as any of the Kings of England how to keep up the Majesty of the Crown Imperial Nor can they claim it from the People who have none to give for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is The King as hath been proved before doth hold his Royal Crown immediately from God himself not from the contract of the People He writes not populi clementia but Dei gratia not by the favour of the People but by the grace of God The consent and approbation of the People used and not used before the day of Coronation is reckoned only as a part of the solemn pomps which are then accustomably used The King is actually King to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever immediatly on the death of his Predecessor Nor ever was it otherwise objected in the Realm of England till Clark and Watson pleaded it at their Arraignment in the first year of King James Speeds History in K James Or grant
times the Kings did graciously vouchsafe to pass the whole Bill in that Form which the Houses gave it or to reject it wholly as they saw occasion yet still the Privy Council and the Judges and the Council learned in the Laws have and enjoy their place in the House of Peers as well for preservation of the Kings Rights and Royalties as for direction to the Lords in a point of Law if any case of difficulty be brought before them on which occasions the Lords are to demand the Opinion of the Judges and upon their Opinions to ground their Judgment As for Example In the Parliament 28 of Hen. VI. The Commons made suit that William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk should be committed to Prison for many Treasons and other Crimes and thereupon the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges 28 Hen. 6. whether he should be committed to Prison or not whose Answer was that he ought not to be committed in regard the Commons had not charged him with any particular offence but with generals only which Opinion was allowed and followed In another Parliament of the said King held by Prorogation one Thomas Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Cemmons was in the Prorogation-time condemned in 1000 l. damages upon an Action of Trespass at the suit of Richard Duke of York and was committed to Prison for execution of the same The Parliament being reassembled the Commons made suit to the King and Lords to have their Speaker delivered to them according to the Privilege of Parliaments The priviled of the Barons p. 15. the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges in it and upon their Answer did conclude that the Speaker should stilll remain in Prison according to Law notwithstanding the privilege of Parliament and according to this resolution the Commons were commanded in the Kings name to chuse one Tho. Carleton for their Speaker which was done accordingly Other Examples of this kind are exceeding obvious and for numbers infinite yet neither more in number nor more obvious than those of our Kings serving their turns by and upon their Parliaments as their occasions did require For not to look on higher and more Regal times we find that Richard the 2d a Prince not very acceptable to the Common people could get an Act of Parliament 21 Ric. 2. to confirm the extrajudicial Opinion of the Judges given before at Notingham that King Henry IV. could by another Act reverse all that Parliament entail the Crown to his posterity 1 Hen. 4. and keep his Dutchy of Laneaster and all the Lands and Scigneuries of it from being united to the Crown that King Edward the 4th could have a Parliament to declare all the Kings of the House of Lancaster to be Kings in Fact but not in Right 1 Ed. c. 1. and for uniting of that Dutchy to the Crown Imperial notwithstanding the former Act of separation that King Richard the 3d could have a Parliament to bastardize all his Brothers Children Speeds Hist in K. Richard 3. Verulams Hist of K. Hen. 7. 11 Hen. 7. c. 10. to set the Crown on his own Head though a most bloody Tyrant and a plain Usurper that K. Henry VII could have the Crown entailed by an Act of Parliament to the issue of his own body without relation to his Queen of the House of York which was conceived by many at that time to have the better Title to it another for paying a Benevolence which he had required of the Subject though all Benevolences had been damned by a former Statute made in the short but bloudy reign of King Richard the 3d that King Henry VIII could have one Act of Parliament to bastardry his Daughter Mary in favour of the Lady Elizabeth 65 Hen. 8. c. 22 28. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 1. another to declare the Lady Elizabeth to be illegitimate in expectation of the issue by Queen Jane Seymour a third for setling the succession by his Will and Testament and what else he pleased that Queen Mary could not only obtain several Acts in favour of her self and the See of Rome but for the setling of the Regency on the King of Spain 1 Mar. ses 2. c. 1 2. 1. 2 Ph. M. c. 8.10 in case the Children of that Bed should be left in non-age And finally that Queen Elizabeth did not only gain many several Acts for the security of her own Person which were determinable with her life but could procure an Act to be passed in Parliament for making it high Treason to affirm and say That the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the Rights and Titles which any person whatsoever might have to the Crown 13 Eliz. c. 1. And as for raising moneys and amassing Treasures by help of Parliaments he that desires to know how well our Kings have served themselves that way by the help of Parliaments let him peruse a book entituled the Privilege of Parliaments writ in the manner of Dialogue between a Privy Counsellor and a Justice of Peace and he shall be satisfied to the full Put all that hath been said together and sure the Kingdom of England must not be the place in which the three Estates convened in Parliament have power to regulate the King or restrain his actions or moderate his extravagances or where they can be taxed for persidious treachery of they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common-people or otherwise abuse that power which the Lord hath given them Calvin was much mistaken if he thought the contrary or if he dreamt that he should be believ'd on his ipse dixit without a punctual enquiry into the grounds and probability of such a dangerous intimation as he lays before us But against this it is objected that Parliaments have disposed of the Militia of the Kingdom of the Forts Castles Ports and the Navy Royal not only without the Kings leave but against his liking that they have deposed some Kings and advanced others to the top of the Regal Throne And for the proof of this they produce Examples out of the Reign of King Henry III. Edw. II. and King Richard the second Examples which if rightly pondered do not so much prove the Power as the Weakness of Parliaments in being carried up and down by the private conduct of every popular pretender For 't is well known that the Parliaments did not take upon them to rule or rather to over-look K. Henry III. but as they were directed by Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester who having raised a potent faction in the State by the assistance of the Earls of Glocester Matth. Paris Henr. 3. Hereford Derby and some others of the great Lords of the Kingdom compelled the King to yield unto what terms he pleased and made the Parliaments no other than a means and instrument to put a popular gloss on his wretched purposes And
't is well known that the ensuing Parliaments which they instance in moved not of their own accord to the deposing of K Edw. the 2d or K. Richard the 2d but sailed as they were steered by those powerful Councils which Qu. Isabel in the one Walsingham in Hist Angl. Hypodig Neustriae and Henry Duke of Lancaster in the other did propose unto them It was no safe resisting those as their cold wisdoms and forgotten loyalties did suggest unto them qui tot legionibus imperarent who had so many thousand men in Arms to make good their project and they might think as the poor-spirited Citizens of Samaria did in another case but a case very like the present Behold two Kings stood not before him 2 Kings 10.4 how then can we stand For had it been an Argument of the power of Parliaments that they deposed one King to set up another dethroned King Richard to advance the Duke of Lancaster to the Regal Diadem they would have kept the House of Lancaster in possession of it for the full demonstration of a power indeed and not have cast them off at the first attempt of a new plausible pretender declared them to be kings in fact but not in right whose lawful right they had before preferred above all other Titles and set the Crown upon the heads of their deadly Enemies In the next place it is objected that Parliaments are a great restraint of the Sovereign power according to the Doctrine here laid down by Calvin in that the King can make no Laws nor levy any money upon the Subject but by the counsel and assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament But this Objection hurts as little as the former did For Kings to say the truth need no Laws at all In all such points wherein they have not bound themselves by some former Laws made for the common use and benefit of the Subject they are left at liberty and may proceed in governing the people given by God unto them according to their own discretion and the advice of their Council New Laws are chiefly made for the Subjects benefit at their desire on their importunate requests for their special profit not one in twenty nay I dare boldly say not one in an hundred made for the advantage of the King either in the improvement of his power or the encrease of his Revenue Look over all the Acts of Parliaments from the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. to the present time and tell me he that can if he finds it otherwise Kings would have little use of Parliaments and less mind to call them if nothing but the making of new Laws were the matter aimed at And as for raising Moneys and imposing Taxes it either must suppose the Kings to be always unthrifts that they be always indigent and necessitous and behind-hand with the World which are the ordinary effects of ill husbandry or else this Argument is lost and of little use For if our Kings should husband their Estates to the best advantage and make the best benefit of such Escheats and forfeitures and confiscations as day by day do fall unto them If they should follow the Example of K. Henry VII and execute the penal Laws according to the power which those Laws have given them and the trust reposed in them by their People if they should please to examine their Revenue and proportion their expence to their comings in there would be little need of Subsidies and supplies of money more than the ordinary aids and impositions upon Merchandize which the Law alloweth of and the known rights of Sovereignty backed by prescription and long custom have asserted to them So that it is by Accident not by and Nature that the Parliament hath any power or opportunity to restrain their King in this particular for where there is no need of asking there is no occasion of denying by consequence no restraint upon no baffle or affronting offered to the Regal power And yet the Sovereign need not fear if he be tolerably careful of his own Estate that any reasonable demand of his in these money-matters will meet with opposition or denial in his Houses of Parliament For whilest there are so many Acts of Grace and Favour to be done in Parliament as what almost in every Parliament but an enlargement of the Kings favours to his people and that none can be done in Parliament but with the Kings siat and consent there is no question to be made but that the two Houses of Parliament will far sooner chuse to supply the King as all wise Parliaments have done than rob the Subject of the benefit of his Grace and Favours which is the best fruit they reap from Parliaments Finally whereas it is Objected but I think it in sport that the old Lord Burleigh used to say that he knew not what a Parliament in England could not do and that K. James once said in a Parliament that then there were 500 Kings which words were taken for a Concession that all were Kings as well as he in a time of Parliament they who have given us these Objections do either misunderstand their Authors or abuse themselves For what the Lord Burleigh said of Parliaments though it be more than the wisest man alive can justifie he spake of Parliaments according as the word is used in its proper sense not for the two Houses or for either of them exclusive of the Kings presence and consent but for the supream Court for the highest Judicatory consisting of the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Representees of the Commons and then it will not serve for the turn intended And what King James said once in jest though I have often heard it used in earnest upon this occasion was spoken only in derision of some daring Spirits who laying by the modesty of their Predecessors would needs be looking into the Prerogative or finding Errors and mistakes in the present Government or medling with those Arcana imperii which former Parliaments beheld at distance with the eye of Reverence But certainly King James intended nothing less than to acknowledg a co-ordinative Sovereignty in the two Houses of Parliament or to make them his Co-partners in the Regal power His carriage and behaviour towards them in the whole course of his Government clearly shews the contrary there never being Prince more jealous in the points of Sovereignty nor more uncapable of a Rival in those points than he But yet the main Objection which we may call the Objection paramount doth remain unanswered For if the three Estates convened in Parliament or any other popular Magistrate whom Calvin dreams of be ordained by the Word of God as Guardians of the peoples Liberties and therefore authorized to moderate and restrain the power of Kings as often as they shall invade or infringe those liberties as Calvin plainly says they were or that they know
themselves from the Jewish Synagogue exposed to all the disadvantages of scorn and danger both by Jews and Gentiles For as concerning this Sect we know that every where it is spoken against so said the Jews to Paul at his coming to Rome Acts 28. â—2 Tacitus in Annal lib. XV. Homines per flagitia invisi as much about the same time the same Tacitus calls them and therefore odio humani generis convicti obnoxious to the common hatred of all men as it after followeth Persecuted upon this account by the Roman Emperors reviled by the malicious Pens of Celsus Prophyry Lucian Julian and the rest of that Rabble Thus also hath it happened to the Church of England No sooner had King Harry freed her from the Bondage of Rome but the proud Pharaohs of that City pursued him presently with their fulminations endeavouring to raise up all the Princes of the Earth against him nor had she sooner purged her self of those superstitions and corruptions which had been put upon her in the time of that Bondage but many hundreds of her children were forcibly driven through the Red Sea a Sea of their own blood to the Heavenly Canaan Persecuted after this in forein parts by the Inquisition at home by the malitious pens and practices of that dangerous Enemy And as if this had not been enough for her affliction her Bowels must be torn out by those very children which she had nourished in the faith though afterwards they scorned to own her for their Mother The first thing quarrelled on both sides is the Way and manner of her Reformation which is affirmed by those of Rome to have too little of the Pope and too much of the Parliament by those of the Genevian party to have too little of the People and too much of the Prince The Genevians or Presbyterians find themselves agrieved that in the agitating of this great Business there was no such consideration had of the common People as in other places their Lay-Elders being allowed no Vote either in the Consistory or the Convocation and consequently no care taken of the Peoples Interess which in a matter which so nearly concerned their souls was as great as any applauding for this cause the riotous proceedings in some other Countreys where the People threw down Altars defaced Images and in a pious zeal no doubt demolisht Churches laying thereby the ground-work of a more thorow Reformation than was made with us The Romanists do complain as loudly that this great Work was wholly carried on by the power of Parliaments And hereupon it is affirmed by D. Harding the first that took up Arms against this Church in Queen Elizabeths time that we had a Parliament-Religion a Parliament-Faith and a Parliament-Gospel as by Scultingius and some others that we had none but Parliament-Bishops and a Parliament-Clergy Two Clamors so repugnant unto one another that if the one of them be true the other cannot chuse but be very false And thus again the Papists generally object that in that great work of the Reformation there was no care taken of the Pope neither consulted with as the Patriarch of the Western Churches or as the Apostle at the least of the English Nation the Pope thereby unworthily deprived of that Supremacy which of antient Right belong'd unto him to the subverting of the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith Primo praecipuo Romanensium fidei articulo de Pontificis primatu immutato Hist Concil Trident. lib. 1. as my Author hath it Calvin and his Disciples on the other side are as much offended with setling the Supremacy upon the King the Master grievously complaining of it in his Comment on the 7th of Amos Calvin in Amos cap. 7. his Scholars doing the like in their several Pamphlets And though it be affirmed by Bracton one of our ancient Common Lawyers if my memory fail not that Kings are therefore anointed with holy Oyl Eo quod spiritualis jurisdictionis sunt capaces because they are capable of exercising Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction yet Calvin will have none of that condemning those for rash and inconsiderate Persons Qui faciunt eos nimis Spirituales who ascribe to them any such Authority in Spiritual matters His Followers will take after him in this particular none more professedly and at large than Caldwood or Didoclavius as he calls himself and his Associates in the Altare Damascenum To satisfie the Clamors of these opposite parties and to appease some Scruples raised thereby in Mr. G. A. of W a modest and ingenuous Gentleman my especial friend I set my self in the first place to justifie the Church of England as to the Way and Manner of her Reformation so loudly and so falsly clamoured on so little ground And by this Tract it will be proved that nothing was done here in the Reformation but what was acted by the Clergy in their Convocations or grounded on some Act of theirs precedent to it with the Advice Counsel and Consent of the Bishops and other learned men assembled by the Kings appointment and secondly that the Parliaments did nothing in it but that sometimes upon the Post-fact it was thought fit to add some strength to the Decrees and Determinations of the Church especially in inflicting punishments on the Disobedient by the Civil Sanctions And for the proof of this I have used none but Domestick Evidences that is to say the Edicts of the King the Records of Convocation and the Acts of Parliaments themselves the best assurances that can be devised in Law to convey the Truth unto us in all these particulars In the next place I have endeavoured to give satisfaction unto all those Doubts which do relate unto the King the Pope or the Churches Protestant the riotous actings of the Common People being no good ground to build a Right on either too little or too much look'd after as it is pretended in that weighty business Whose pretensions being well examined by the Testimony of the Fathers Councils and other Ecclesiastical Antiquities I hope it will appear as clearly that there was no wrong done either to the Pope or the Forein Churches in being excluded from our Councils in so great a work and that our Kings have exercised no other power in sacred matters than what is warranted unto them by the word of God and precedented with the best examples of the most godly Kings of Judah and the most pious Kings and Emperors in the happiest times Nothing in all the Managery of the Reformation but what is justifiable by the practice of the former Ages and may be drawn into Example for the Instruction and Direction of the present Powers in all occasions of like natue The next thing faulted on both sides is the publick Liturgy condemned by those of Rome first for abolishing the Mass and then for being published and communicated in the vulgar Tongue by those of the Genevian party for having too much in it of the Roman
there being a specification of the Holy-days in the Book it self with this direction These to be observed for Holy-days and none other in which the Feasts of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Apostle Barnabas are omitted plainly and upon which specification the Stat. 5 6. Ed. 6. cap. 3. which concerns the Holy-days seems most expresly to be built And for the Offices on those days in the Common-prayer Book you may please to know that every Holy-day consisteth of two special parts that is to say rest or cessation from bodily labour and celebration of Divine or Religious duties and that the days before remembred are so far kept holy as to have still their proper and peculiar Offices which is observed in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdom and the Chappels Royal where the Service is read every day and in most Parish Churches also as oft as either of them falls upon a Sunday though the people be not in those days injoined to rest from bodily labour no more than on the Coronation-day or the Fifth of November which yet are reckoned by the people for a kind of Holy-days Put all which hath been said together and the sum is this That the proceedings of this Church in the Reformation were not meerly Regal as it is objected by some Puritans much less that they were Parliamentarian in so great a work as the Papists falsly charge upon us the Parliaments for the most part doing little in it but that they were directed in a justifiable way the work being done Synodically by the Clergy only according to the usage of the Primitive times the King concurring with them and corroborating what they had resolved on either by his own single Act in his letters Patent Proclamations and Injunctions or by some publick Act of State as in times and by Acts of Parliament 6. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the People in the publick Duties of Religion WE are now come to the last part of this design unto the power of making Canons in which the Parliament of England have had less to do than in either of the other which are gone before Concerning which I must desire you to remember that the Clergy who had power before to make such Canons and Constitutions in their Convocation as to them seemed meet promised the King in verbo Sacerdotij not to Enact or Execute and new Canons but by his Majesties Royal Assent and by his Authority first obtained in that behalf which is thus briefly touched upon in the Ant. Brit. in the life of William Warham Arch Bishop of Canterbury Clerus in verbe Sacerdotij sidem Regi dedit ne ullas deinceps in Synodo ferrent Ecclesiasticas leges nisi Synodus authoritate Regia congregata constitutiones in Synodis publicatae eadem authoritate ratae essent Upon which ground I doubt not but I might securely raise this proposition That whatsoever the Clergy did or might do lawfully before the act of Submission in their Convocation of their own power without the Kings Authority and consent concurring the same they can and may do still since the act of their Submission the Kings Authority and consent co-operating with them in their Councils and giving confirmation to their Constitutions as was said before Further it doth appear by the asoresaid Act 25 H. 8. c. 19. That all such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial as were made before the said Submission which be not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal were to be used and executed as in former times And by the Statute 26 H. 8. c. 1. of the Kings Supremacy that according to the Recognition made in Convocation our said Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit repress reform order correct c. all such Errours Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be .c as may be most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of virtue in Christs Religion and for the peace unity and tranquillity of this Realm and the confirmation of the same So that you see these several ways of ordering matters for the publick weal and governance of the Church First by such ancient Canons and Constitutions as being made in former times are still in force Secondly by such new Canons as are or shall be made in Convocation with and by the Kings consent And thirdly By the Authority of the Sovereign Prince according to the Precedents laid down in the Book of God and the best ages of the Church concerning which you must remember what was said before viz. That the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are Declaratory of an old power only not Introductory of a new which said we shall the better see whether the Parliament have had any thing to do either in making Canons or prescribing Orders for the regulating of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters and unto whom the same doth of right belong according to the Laws of the Realm of England And first King Henry being restored to his Headship of Supremacy call it which you will did not conceive himself so absolute in it though at the first much enamoured of it as not sometimes to take his Convocation with him but at all times to be advised by his Prelates when he had any thing to do that concerned the Church for which there had been no provision made by the ancient Canons grounding most times his Edicts and Injunctions Royal upon their advice and resolution For on this ground I mean the judgement and conclusions of his Convocation did he set out the Injunctions of the year 1536. for the abolishing of superstitious Holy-days the exterminating of the Popes Authority the publishing of the Book of Articles which before we spake of num 8. by all Parsons Vicars and Curates for preaching down the use of Images Reliques Pilgrimages and superstitious Miracles for rehearsing openly in the Church in the English tongue the Creed the Pater noster and the Ten Commandments for the due and reverend ministring of the Sacraments and Sacramentals for providing English Bibles to be set in every Church for the use of the people for the regular and sober life of Clergy-men and the relief of the poor And on the other side the King proceeded sometimes only by the advice of his Prelates as in the injunctions of the year 1538. for quarterly Sermons in each Parish for admitting none to Preach but men sufficiently Licenced for keeping a Register-book of Christnings Weddings and Burials for the due paying of Tythes as had been accustomed for the abolishing of the commemoration of St. Thomas Becket for singing a Parce nobis Domine instead of Ora pro nobis and the like to these And of this sort were the Injunctions which
their Authority and power in Spiritual matters from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honours and possessions from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continual usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated without recourse to Tome for a confirmation which formerly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble but for the form and manner of their Consecration the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically ordained and consecrated the Bishops of that time not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the Consecration of such other Bishops Cardinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons Book de Minist Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonical Consecrations it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign and never stood in force nor practice to this day That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King the one à parte ante and the other à parte post as before I told you might indeed seem somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Primitive times or if the Book had been composed in Parliament or by Parliament-men or otherwise received more Authority from them then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom But it is plain that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days when the Papists stood most upon their points the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament but because it had too little of the Pope and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more than this and on this occasion A question had been made by captious and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not the reason of the doubt being this which I marvel Mason did not see because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign the Parliament took notice first that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and then declare that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacraments as a member of it at least as an Appendant to it and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again together with the said Book of Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts they therefore did revive now and did accordingly Enact That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination should be good in Law This is the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgment that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them than that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your last Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the Authority of the King nor with the privileges of the Clergy nor to say truth with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament as we read in Walsingham for the Reformation of the Clergy the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets and for establishing of his own Doctrines who though he had some Wheat had more Tears by odds in the Church of England And lest he might be thought to have gone a way as dangerous and unjustifiable as it was strange and new he laid it down for a position That the Parliament or Temporal Lords where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons might lawfully examine and reform the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments till she were reformed But for all this and more than this for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation which he chiefly aimed at than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry Pryn and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits to disturb the Church and set on foot those dreams and dotages which otherwise they durst not publish And to say truth as long as the Clergy were in power and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened though it were not lost by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it then did the Parliaments
begin to intrench upon the Churches Rights to offer at and entertain such businesses as formerly were held peculiar to the Clergy only next to dispute their Charters and reverse their privileges and finally to impose some hard Laws upon them And of these notable incroachments Matthew Parker thus complains in the life of Cranmer Qua Ecclesiasticarum legum potestate abdicata populus in Parliamento coepit de rebus divinis inconsulto Clero Sancire tum absentis Cleri privilegia sensim detrahere juraque duriora quibus Clerus invitus teneretur Constituere But these were only tentamenta offers and undertakings only and no more than so Neither the Parliaments of K. Edward or Q. Elizabeths time knew what it was to make Committees for Religion or thought it fit that Vzzah should support the Ark though he saw it tottering That was a work belonging to the Levites only none of the other Tribes were to meddle with it But as the Puritan Faction grew more strong and active so they applyed themselves more openly to the Houses of Parliament but specially to the House of Commons putting all power into their hands as well in Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Causes as in matters Temporal This amongst others confidently affirmed by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book called Anti-Arminianism where he avers That all our Bishops our Ministers our Sacraments our Consecration our Articles of Religion our Homilies Common-prayer Book yea and all the Religion of the Church is no other way publickly received supported or established amongst us but by Acts of Parliament And this not only since the time of the Reformation but That Religion and Church affairs were determined ratified declared and ordered by Act of Parliament and no ways else even then when Popery and Church men had the greatest sway Which strange assertion falling from the pen of so great a Scribe was forthwith chearfully received amongst our Pharisees who hoped to have the highest places not only in the Synagogue but the Court of Sanhedrim advancing the Authority of Parliaments to so high a pitch that by degrees they fastened on them both an infallibility of judgment and an omniotency of power Nor can it be denied to deal truly with you but that they met with many apt Scholars in that House who either out of a desire to bring all the grist to their own Mill or willing to enlarge the great power of Parliaments by making new precedents for Posterity or out of faction or affection or what else you please began to put their Rules in practice and draw all matters whatsoever within the cognizance of that Court In which their embracements were at last so general and that humour in the House so prevalent that one being once demanded what they did amongst them returned this answer That they were making a new Creed Another being heard to say That he could not be quiet in his Conscience till the holy Text should be confirmed by an Act of theirs Which passages if they be not true and real as I have them from an honest hand I assure you they are bitter jests But this although indeed it be the sickness and disease of the present Times and little to the honour of the Court of Parliament can be no prejudice at all to the way and means of the Reformation amongst sober and discerning men the Doctrine of the Church being settled the Liturgy published and confirmed the Canons authorized and executed when no such humour was predominant nor no such power pretended to by both or either of the Houses of Parliament But here perhaps it will be said that we are fallen into Charybdis by avoiding Scylla and that endeavouring to stop the mouth of this Popish Calumny we have set open a wide gap to another no less scandalous of the Presbyterians who being as professed Enemies of the Kings as the Popes Supremacy and noting that strong influence which the King hath had in Ecclesiastical affairs since the first attempts for Reformation have charg'd it as reproachfully on the Church of England and the Religion here established that it is Regal at the best if not Parliamentarian and may be called a Regal Faith and a Regal Gospel But the Answer unto this is easie For first the Kings intended by the Objectors did not act much in order to the Reformation as appears by that which hath been said but either by the advice and co-operation of the whole Clergy of the Realm in their Convocations or by the Counsel and consent of the Bishops and most eminent Church men in particular Conferences which made it properly the work of the Clergy only the Kings no otherwise than as it was propouned by him or finally confirmed by the Civil Sanction And secondly had they done more in it than they did they had been warranted so to do by the Word of God who hath committed unto Kings and Sovereign Princes a Supreme or Supereminent power not only in all matters of a Temporal or Secular nature but in such as do concern Religion and the Church of Christ And so St. Augustine hath resolved it in his third Book against Cresconius In hoc Reges sicut iis divinitus praecipitur pray you note that well Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt si in suo Regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanum societatem verum etiam ad Divinam Religionem Which words of his seemed so significant and convincing unto Hart the Jesuite that being shewed the Tractate writ by Dr. Nowel against Dorman the Priest in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths time and finding how the case was stated by that Reverend person he did ingenously confess that there was no Authority ascribed to the Kings of england in Ecclesiastical affairs but what was warranted unto them by that place of Augustine The like affimed by him that calleth himself Franciscus de S. Clara though a Jesuite too that you mjay see how much more candid and ingenuous the Jesuits are in this point than the Presbyterians in his Examen of the Articles of the Church of England But hereof you may give me opportunity to speak more hereafter when you propose the Doubts which you say you have relating to the King the Pope and the Churches Protestant and therefore I shall say no more of it at the present time SECT II. The manner of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified HItherto I had gone in order to your satisfaction and communicated my conceptions in writing to you when I received your Letter of the 4th of January in which you signified the high contentment I had given you in condescending to your weakness as you pleased to call it and freeing you from those doubts which lay heaviest on you And therewithal you did request me to give you leave to propound those other scruples which were yet behind relating to the King the Pope and the Protestant-Churches either too little
or too much looked after in the Reformation And first you say it is cvomplained of by some Zelots of the Church of rome that the Pope was very hardly and unjustly dealt with in being deprived of the Supremacy so long enjoyed and exercised by his Predecessors and that it was an Innovation no less strange than dangerous to settle it upon the King 2. That the Church of England ought not to have proceeded to a Reformation without the Pope considered either as the Patriarch of the Weftern world or the Apostle in particular of the English Nation 3. That if a Reformation had been found so necessary it ought to have been done by a General Council at least with the consent and co-operation of the Sister-Churches especially of those who were engaged at the same time in the same designs 4. That in the carrying on of the Reformation the Church proceeded very unadvisedly in letting the people have the Scriptures and the publique Liturgy in the vulgar tongue the dangerous consequents whereof are now grown too visible 5. That the proceedings in the point of the Common-prayer Book were meerly Regal the body of the Clergy not consulted with or consenting to it and consequently not so Regular as we fain would have it And 6. That in the power of making Canons and determining matters of the Faith the Clergy have so fettered and intangled themselves by the Act of Submission that they can neither meet deliberate conclude nor execute but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority which is a Vassalage inconsistent with their native Liberties and not agreeable to the usage of the Primitive times These are the points in which you now desire to have satisfaction and you shall have it in the best way I am able to do it that so you may be freed hereafter from such troubles and Disputants as I perceive have laboured to perplex your thoughts and make you less affectionate than formerly to the Church your Mother 1. That the Church of England did not Innovate in the Ejection of the Pope and settling the Supremacy in the Royal Crown And in this point you are to know that it hath been and still is the general and constant judgment of the greatest Lawyers of this Kingdom that the vesting of the Supremacy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm was not Introductory of any new Right or Power which was not in the Crown before but Declaratory of an old which had been anciently and originally inherent in it though of late Times usurped by the Popes of Rome and in Abeyance at that time as our Lawyers phrase it And they have so resolved it upon very good reasons the principal managery of affairs which concern Religion being a flower inseparably annexed to the Regal Diadem not proper and peculiar only to the Kings of England but to all Kings and Princes in the Church of God and by them exercised and enjoyed accordingly in their times and places For who I pray you were the men in the Jewish Church who destroyed the Idols of that people cut down the Groves demolished the high places and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent when abused to Idolatry Were they not the godly Kings and Princes only which sway'd the Scepter of that Kingdom And though 't is possible enough that they might do it by the counsel and advice of the High-Priests of that Nation or of some of the more godly Priests and Levites who had a zeal unto the Law of the most high God yet we find nothing of it in the holy Scripture the merit of these Reformations which were made occasionally in that faulty Church being ascribed unto their Kings and none but them Had they done any thing in this which belonged not to their place and calling or by so doing had intrenched on the Office of the Priests and Levits that God who punished Vzzab for attempting to support the Ark when he saw it tottering and smote Osias with a Leprosie for burning Incense in the Temple things which the Priests and Levites only were to meddle in would not have suffered those good Kings to have gone unpunished or at least uncensured how good soever their intentions and pretences were Nay on the contrary when any thing was amiss in the Church of Jewry the Kings and not the Priests were admonished of it and reproved for it by the Prophets which sheweth that they were trusted with the Reformation and none else but they Is it not also said of david that he distributed the Priests and Levites into several Classes allotted to them the particular times of their Ministration and designed them unto several Offices in the publick Service Josephus adding to these passages of the Holy Writ That he composed Hymns and Songs to the Lord his God and made them to be sung in the Congregation as an especial part of the publick Liturgy Of which although it may be said that he composed those Songs and Hymns by vertue of his Prophetical Spirit yet he imposed them on the Church appointed Singing-men to sing them and prescribed Vestments also to these Singing-men by no other power than the regal only None of the Priests consulted in it for ought yet appears The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by the Christian Emperors not only in their calling Councils and many times assisting at them or presiding in them by themselves or their Deputies or Commissioners but also in confirming the Acts thereof He that consults the Code and Novelles in the Civil Laws will find the best Princes to have been most active in things which did concern Religion in regulating matters of the Church and setting out their Imperial Edicts for suppressing of Hereticks Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do in matters which concern the Church is one of the chief Brand-marks which Optatus sets upon the Donatists And though some Christians of the East have in the way of scorn had the name of Melchites men of the Kings Religion as the word doth intimate because they adhered unto those Doctrines which the Emperors agreeable to former Councils had confirmed and ratified yet the best was that none but Sectaries and Hereticks put that name upon them Neither the men nor the Religion was a jot the worse Nor did they only deal in matters of Exterior Order but even in Doctrinals matters intrinsecal to the Faith for which their Enoticon set out by the Emperor Zeno for settling differences in Religion may be proof sufficient The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by Charles the Great when he attained the Western Empire as the Capitulars published in his Name and in the names of his Successors do most clearly evidence and not much less enjoyed and practised by the Kings of England in the elder times though more obnoxious to the power of the Pope of Rome by reason of his Apostleship if I may so call it the Christian Faith being first preached unto the English
Saxons by such as he employed in that Holy work The instances whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church are handsomely summed up together by Sir Edward Cook in the fifth part of his Reports if I well remember but I am sure in Cawdries Case entituled De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico And though Parsons the Jesuite in his Answer unto that Report hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdom from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons yet all he hath effected by it proves no more than this That the Popes by permission of some weak Princes did exercise a kind of concurrent jurisdiction here with the Kings themselves but came not to the full and entire Supremacy till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire nay even the Emperors themselves under their command So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocation to K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his proper and original power invaded by the Popes of these latter Ages though possibly the Title of Supream Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an Innovation At which Title when the Papists generally and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos did seem to be much scandalized it was with much wisdom changed by Q. Elizabeth into that of Supream Governour which is still in use And when that also would not down with some queasie stomacks the Queen her self by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign and the Clergy in their book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years after did declare and signifie That there was no Authority in sacred matters contained under that Title but that only Prerogative which had been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before and tell me if you can what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion but what is warranted unto them by the practice and example of the most godly Kings of Jewry seconded by the most godly Emperours in the Christian Church and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdom till Papal Usurpation carried all before it And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation it was no Wrong to take that from him which he had no Right to and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner Neither prescription on the one side nor discontinuance on the other change the case at all that noted Maxim of our Lawyers that no prescription binds the King or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi as their own words are being as good against the Pope as against the Subject This leads me to the second part of this Dispute the dispossessing of the Pope of that Supream Power so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors To which we say that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient yet they were not primitive and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words Ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning For it is evident enough in the course of story that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supremacy within this Kingdom in the first Ages of this Church nor in many after till by gaining from the King the Investiture of Bishops under Henry the First the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice under Henry the Second and the submission of King John to the See of Rome they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea And though by the like artifices seconded by some Texts of Scripture which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased they had attained the like Supremacy in France Spain and Germany and all the Churches of the West Yet his Incroachments were opposed and his Authority disputed upon all occasions especially as the light of Letters did begin to shine Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Council of Constance one of the Imperial Cities of High germany that the Council was above the Pope and his Authority much curbed by the Pragmatick Sanction which thence took beginning But Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris wrote a full Discourse entituled De auferibilitate Papae touching the total abrogating of the Papal Office which certainly he had never done in case the Papal Office had been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ According to the Position of that learned man The greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papal power as an Excrescence at the best in the body mystical subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served though on self ends Reasons of State and to serve their several turns by him as their needs required they did and do permit him to continue in his former greatness For Lewis the 11th King of France in a Council of his own Bishops held at Lions cited Pope Julius the 2d to appear before him and Laustrech Governour of Millaine under Francis the 1st conceived the Popes Authority to be so unnecessary yea even in Italy it self that taking a displeasure against Leo the 10th he outed him of all his jurisdiction within that Dukedom anno 1528. and so disposed of all Ecclesiastical affairs ut praefecto sacris Bigorrano Episcopo omnia sine Romani Pontificis authoritate administrarentur as Thuanus hath it that the Church there was supreamly governed by the Bishop of Bigor a Bishop of the Church of France without the intermedling of the Pope at all The like we find to have been done about six years after by Charles the Fifth Emperor and King of Spain who being no less displeased with Pope Clement the 7th Abolished the Papal power and jurisdiction out of all the Churches of his Kingdoms in Spain Which though it held but for a while till the breach was closed yet left he an example by it as my Author noteth Ecclesiasticam disciplinam citra Romani nominis autoritatem posse conservari that there was no necessity of a Pope at all And when K. Henry the 8th following these examples had banished the Popes Authority out of his Dominions Religion still remaining here as before it did the Popes Supremacy not being at the time an Article of the Churistian Faith as it hath since been made by Pope Pius the 4th that Act of his was much commended by most knowing men in that without more alteration in the face of the Church
motion from Charles the Great and his Successors in that Empire it being evident in the Records of the Gallican Church that the opening and confirming of all their Councils not only under the Caroline but under the Merovignean Family was always by the power and sometimes with the Presidence of their Kings and Princes as you may find in the Collections of Lindebrogius and Sirmondus the Jesuite and finally that in Spain it self though now so much obnoxious to the Papal power the two at Bracara and the ten first holden at Toledo were summoned by the Writ and Mandate of the Kings thereof Or if you be not willing to take this pains I shall put you to a shorter and an easier search referring you for your better information in this particular to the learned Sermon Preached by Bishop Andrews at Hampton Court Anno 1606. touching the Right and power of calling Assemblies or the right use of the Trumpets A Sermon Preached purposely at that time and place for giving satisfaction in that point to Melvin and some leading men of the Scotish Puritans who of late times had arrogated to themselves an unlimited power of calling and constituing their Assemblies without the Kings consent and against his will As for the Vessallage which the Clergy are supposed to have drawn upon themselves by this Submission I see no fear or danger of it as long as the two Houses of Parliament are in like condition and that the Kings of England are so tender of their own Prerogative as not to suffer any one Body of the Subjects to give a Law unto the other without his consent That which is most insisted on for the proof hereof is the delegating of this power by King Henry VIII to Sir Thomas Cromwel afterwards Earl of Essex and Lord high Chamberlain by the name of his Vicar General in Ecclesiastical matters who by that name presided in the Convocation Anno 1536. and acted other things of like nature in the years next following And this especially his presiding in the Convocation is looked on both by Sanders and some Protestant Doctors not only as a great debasing of the English Clergy men very Learned for those times but as deforme satis Spectaculum a kind of Monstrosity in nature But certainly those men forget though I do not think my self bound to justifie all King Harries actions that in the Council of Chalcedon the Emperor appointed certain Noble-men to sit as Judges whose names occurr in the first Action of that Council The like we find exemplified in the Ephesine Council in which by the appointment of Theodosius and Valentinian then Roman Emperors Candidianus a Count Imperial sate as Judge or President who in the managing of that trust over-acted any thing that Cromwel did or is objected to have been done by him as the Kings Commissioner For that he was to have the first place in those publick meetings as the Kings Commissioner or his Vicar-General which you will for I will neither trouble my self nor you with disputing Titles the very Scottish Presbyters the mo st rigid sticklers for their own pretended and but pretended Rights which the world affords do not stick to yield No Vassallage of the Clergy to be found in this as little to be feared by their Submission to the King as their Supream Governour Thus Sir according to my promise and your expectation have I collected my Remembrances and represented them unto you in as good a fashion as my other troublesome affairs and the distractions of the time would give me leave and therein made you see if my judgment fail not that neither our King or Parliaments have done more in matters which concern'd Religion and the Reformation of this Church than what hath formerly been done by the secular Powers in the best and happiest times of Christianity and consequently that the clamours of the Papists and Puritans both which have disturbed you are both false and groundless Which if it may be serviceable to your self or others whom the like doubts and prejudices have possessed or scrupled It is all I wish my studies and endeavours aiming at no other end than to do all the service I can possibly to the Church of God to whose Graces and divine Protection you are most heartily commended in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ By SIR Your most affectionate Friend to serve you Peter Heylyn OF LITURGIES OR SET FORMS OF PUBLIQUE WORSHIP With the Concomitants thereof IN Way of an Historical Narration By PETER HEYLYN D.D. Augustin de bono perseverantiae lib. 2. c. 22. Vtinam tardi corde infirmi c. sic audirent vel non audirent in hac quaestione Disputationes nostras ut potius intuerentur orationes suas quas semper habuit habebit Ecclesia ab exordiis suis donec finiatur hoc seculum LONDON Printed for Charles Harper and Mary Clark 1680. To the Reader WHen the disputes were first raised by those of the Genevian faction against the Divine Service of this Church it was pretended that they were well enough content to admit a Liturgy so it were such an one as tended more to edification and increase of Piety than that which was imposed and established by the Laws of this Land was given out to do That which most seemed to trouble them as they gave it out was that it had too much in it of the Roman Rituals that it was cloyed with many superstitious and offensive Ceremonies the frequent and unnecessary repetition of the Lords Prayer the ill translation of the Psalms and other Scriptures the intermixture of impertinent Responsories whereby the course of the Prayers was interrupted and finally the diffeence betwixt that Liturgie and those of other reformed Churches with which they did desire to hold a more strict Communion But being beaten from these holds as by many others so more chiefly by judicious Hooker and never daring to adventure any more in pursuit of that quarrel the Smectymnians in our times resolved upon a nearer course to effect their purposes than the Martinists had done before them and rather chose to fell down Liturgie it self as having no authority from the Word of God nor from the practice of Gods people than waste their time in lopping off the branches and excrescencies of it Accordingly they reduced the whole state of the Controversie to these two Positions 1. That if by Liturgy we understand an order observed in Church Assemblies of Praying Reading and Expounding the Scriptures Administring Sacraments c. Such a Liturgy they know and do acknowledge both Jews and Christians to have used But if by Liturgy we undersTand prescribed and stinted forms of Administration composed by some particular men in the Church and imposed upon all the rest then they are sure for so they must be understood if they say any thing that no such Liturgie hath been used ancient by the Jews or Christians 2. That the first Reformers of Religion did never intend the
Christ Synag l. 6. c. 6. Which if it were so as I have no reason to suspect the Author it was not without good cause affirmed by the Historian if one should look no further than those outward circumstances Novos illic ritus caeteris mortalibus contrarios Tacit. hist l. 5. the very same with that which is affirmed of them in the book of Hester viz. their Laws are diverse from all people Finally Hester 3.8 at the ending of their prayers the people which were present used to say Amen which word from thence hath been derived and incorporated into all the Languages which make profession of the faith Only observe that they had several Amens amongst them Christ Synag l. 1. c. 6. § 5. The first of which they called Pupillum when one understandeth not what he answers the second Surreptum when he saith Amen before the prayer be fully ended the third is Otiosum when a man thinks of something else and so saith it idly the fourth Justorum of the just when a mans mind is set on his devotions and thinks upon no other thing And so much of the Rites and Gestures which they used in prayer But it is well observed by Aynsworth that as the Lamps mention whereof is made in the 30th of Exodus do signifie the light of Gods Word and Incense the Sacrifice of prayers Aynsw Annot. in Exod. 30. so the doing of both these at one time the Incense being to be offered when the Lamps were either dressed or lighted as before was said did signifie the joyning of the word with prayer We must look therefore in the next place what room there was or whether any room at all for reading of the Law in Gods holy Temples And first for that of Solomon taking the Temple in the largest and most ample sense not only for the House but the Courts and Out-works it was ordained by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy that there the Law should publickly be read at the end of every seven years to the Congregation At the end of every seven years saith he in the solemnity of the year of release at the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God in the place that he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel Deut. 31.11 in their hearing But then withal we must take notice that such a reading as is there commanded could not be taken as a part of the publick Liturgy For by the order and prescript of Moses the Law was to be read publickly before the people in the seventh year only in the year of release because then Servants being manumitted from their bondage and Debtors from the danger of their Creditors they might attend the hearing of the Law with the greater chearfulness And in the feast of Tabernacles because it lasted longer than the other Festivals and so it might be read with the greater leisure and then it was but this Law too the book of Deuteronomy This as it was to be performed in that place alone in which the Lord should choose to place his Tabernacle and afterwards to build his Temple so makes it little if at all unto the frequent reading of the Law in the House of God It 's true that Philo tells us in a book not extant that Moses did ordain the publick reading of the Law every Sabbath day Philo. ap Euseb de Praepar Evang. l. 8. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What then did Moses order to be dene on the Sabbath day He did appoint saith he that we should meet all in some place together and there sit down with modesty and a general filence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hear the Law that none plead ignorance thereof Which custom we continue still saith he breakning with wonderful silence to the Word of God unless perhaps we give some joyful acclamation on the bearing of it some of the Priests if any present or otherwise some of the Elders reading the Law and then expounding it till the night came on But hereof by the leave of Philo we must make some doubt This was indeed the custom in our Saviours time and when Philo lived and he was willing as it seems to setch the pedigree thereof as high as might be So Salianus tells him on the like occasion Videtur Philo Judaeorum morem in Synogogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse quem à Christe Apostolis observatum legimus Salian Annal. anno m. 25 46. n. 10. And we must make the same Answer to Josephus also who tells us of their Law-maker that he appointed not that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year no oftner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Joseph contr Apion l. 2. but that once every week we should come together to hear the Law that so we might become the more perfect in it Which thing saith he all other Law givers did omit And so did Moses too by Josephus's leave For besides that no such order or command is to be found in the books of Moses there were not then nor long time after any set places destinate to religious Uses but the holy Tabernacle And how the people being planted all about the Countrey could be assembled every week before the Tabernacle or afterwards unto the Temple weekly let Philo and Josephus judge And this appears more plainly by the Book of God where we are told that K. Jehosaphat sent abroad his Visitors who carried the Book of the Law of the Lord with them 2 Chron. 17.7 9. and went through all the Cities of Judaea and taught the people A needless Office had it been as those Authors tell us if all the people met together weekly to be taught the Law But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this Of whom it is recorded that when Hilkiah the High Priest in looking over the decays and ruins of the Temple had found a book of the Law which lay hidden there and brought the same unto the King how the good Prince upon the hearing of the words of the Law rent his Garments 2 King 22.11 23.1 2. and not so only but gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book and joyned together in a Covenant with the Lord their God Had it been formerly the custom to read the law each Sabbath every week once at least unto all the people neither had that religious Prince been so ignorant of it nor had the finding of the book been counted for so strange an accident nor could it be to any purpose to call the People altogether from their several dwellings only to hear the Law read to them and go home again if it were read amongst them weekly on the Sabbath days and that of ordinary course So that whatever Philo and Josephus say there was no weekly reading
and Ministers shall move the people to joyn with them in Prayer in this Form or to this effect as briefly as conveniently they may Ye shall pray for Christs holy Catholick Church that is for the whole Congregation of Christian people dispersed through the whole world and especially for the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland And herein I require you most especially to pray for the Kings most excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord James King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour in these his Realms and all other his Dominions and Countreys over all Persons in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Ye shall also pray for our gracious Queen Ann the noble Prince Henry and the rest of the Kings and Queens Royal Issue Ye shall also pray for the Ministers of Gods holy Word and Sacraments as well Archbishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curats Ye shall also pray for the Kings most honourable Council and for all the Nobility and Magistrates of this Realm that all and every of those in their several callings may serve truly and painfully to the Glory of God and the edifying and well-governing of his people remembring the accompt they must make Also ye shall pray for the whole Commons of this Realm that they may live in true Faith and fear of God and humble obedience to the King and Brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are already departed out of this life in the Faith of Christ and pray unto God that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good examples that this life ended we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the life everlasting Always concluding with the Lords Prayer So far the Letter of the Canon in which there was not any purpose nor in the makers of the same to introduce into the Church any Form of Prayer or Invocation save those which were laid down in the Common prayer Book nor indeed could they if they would the Statute 1 Eliz. being still in force but to reduce her Ministers to the antient usage of this Church which had been much neglected if not laid aside The Canons then established were no late Invention as some give it out but a Collection of such Ordinances and pious Customs as had been formerly in use since the Reformation which being scattered and diffused in several Injunctions Orders and Advertisements published by K. Henry VIII K. Edward VI. and Q. Eliz. or in the Canons of particular Convocations in those times assembled or otherwise retained in continual practice was by the care and wisdom of the Clergy in the Synod at London An. 1603. drawn up together into one body and by his Majesty then being Authorized in due form of Law And being so Authorized by his Majesty the Canons then made had the force of Laws and were of power to bind the Subjects of all sorts according to their several and respective concernments as fully and effectually as any Statute or Act of Parliament can bind the Subject of this Realm in their goods and properties For which consult the Statute 25. H. 8. cap. 19. and the practice since Which as it may be said of all so more particularly of the Canon now in question of which it is to be considered that the main body of the same had been delivered formerly almost verbatim in the Queens Injunctions published by her Royal and Supream Authority in the first year of her Reign Anno 1559. which I will therefore here put down that by comparing both together we may the better see the true intention of that Canon and what is further to be said in the present business The Queens Injunction is as followeth The title this The Form of bidding the Prayers to be used generally in this uniform sort and then the body of it is this Ye shall pray for Christs holy Catholick Church that is for the whole Congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the whole world and especially for the Churches of England and Ireland and herein I require you most especially to pray for the Queens most excellent Majesty our Soveraign Lady Eliz. Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and supream Governour of this Realm as well in causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal You shall also pray for the Ministers of Gods holy Word and Sacraments as well Archbishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curats Ye shall also pray for the Queens most honourable Council and for all the Nobility of this Realm That all and every of these in their callings may serve truly and painfully to the glory of God and edifying of his people remembring the accompt they must make Also you shall pray for the whole Commons of this Realm that they may live in true faith and fear of God in humble Obedience and brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are departed out of this life in the faith of Christ and pray unto God that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good example that after this life we may be made partakers of the glorious resurrection in the life everlasting These are the very words of the Injunction wherein it is to be observed that as the Canon hath relation to this Injunction so neither this Injunction nor any thing therein enjoyned was of new erection but a Reviver only of the usual Form which had been formerly enjoyned and constantly observed in King Edwards days as we shall see by looking over the Injunction published and the practice following thereupon in the said Kings Reign Now the Injunction of King Edward the 6. is in this Form following The Title thus The Form of bidding the Common prayers and then the Form it self You shall pray for the whole Congregation of Christs Church and especially for this Congregation of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout prayers the Kings most excellent Majesty supreme Head immediately under God of the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the Kings Sisters Secondly you shall pray for my Lord Protectors grace with all the rest of the Kings Majesties Council for all the Lords of this Realm and for the Clergy and Commons of the same Beseeching Almighty God to give every one of them in his degree Grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to Gods glory the Kings honour and the weal of this Realm Thirdly you shall pray for all them that be departed out of this world in the faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgment may rest both Body and Soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven This was the Form first published in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI. and it continued all
Council the Spiritualty and Temporalty And I shall desire you to commend unto God with your prayers the Souls departed unto God in Christs Faith and among those most especially our late Sovereign Lord King Henry VIII your most noble Father for these and for grace necessary I shall desire you to say a Pater-nosler and so forth Which Form of his agrees most exactly with that order in the Kings Injunction not altered then in that clause for the Saints departed which as it seems continued till the alteration of the publick Liturgy Anno 1552. and then was changed with the same In other things no difference between him and that other Form which was commanded and set forth by the Queens Injunction and between him and Bishop Latimer so little that it may seem to be in words more than meaning In both we have a clear and pregnant evidence that then they used no proper and direct address to God in a formal Prayer of their own devising but only laid before the people some certain heads they were to pray for which in the Language of that time was called Bidding of prayer We should now look upon the practice in King Henries days but that I think no question can or will be made in that particular considering the severe temper of that Prince in exacting full obedience unto all his Mandates or if there be that Form of Prayer which we find used by Bishop Latimer in his Sermon Preached before the Convocation in the 28th of that Kings Reign which before we spake of may serve once for all without further Instances which brings the precept and the practice to the like Antiquity Put all that hath been said together and the sum is this That if we do interpret the Canon of the year 1603. by the Queens Injunctions and construe both of them according to the Injunctions in King Edwards and King Henries days seconded by the constant practice in all times succeeding we shall see plainly that in the intention of the Church we are to use no Prayer before our Sermons by way of Invocation to God but somewhere in them or before them to use a Form of Bidding prayer by way of Exhortation to the Auditory This said we will declare in brief how the new Form of Prayer by way of Invocation and address to God which is now generally taken up came in use amongst us and afterwards lay down some reasons not so much to oppose that Form of Invocation lately taken up as to establish and confirm the other Form of Bidding prayers founded upon the Canon the Injunctions and the antient practice Now this new Form of Invocation to deal plainly in it was first contrived and set on foot by the Puritan faction who labouring with might and main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the saying is to overthrow the publick service of this Church then by Law established endeavoured to advance in the place thereof an Arbitrary and Extemporary Form of Prayer of every ptivate mans devising and that not only before but after Sermon Calvin had so appointed in Geneva and Knex in Scotland and rather than not have it so in England also the Brethren were resolved to put all in hazard This when they could not compass with their noise and clamour they fell upon a way which came somewhat near it and was more likely far to effect their purpose Their Lecturers and Preachers yea and followers too not coming to the Church till the Service ended and their own Prayer was to begin The Book of dangerous practices and positions writ as was thought by Bishop Bancroft though not then a Bishop will give us some of those examples take one among them for a tryal and you shall find him boast himself that every Sabbath so he called it not medling with the Liturgy prescribed he used to Preach unto his people Ego singulis sabbatis si non alius adveniens locum suppleat cum praescriptâ liturgias formula nihil habens commercii in coetu concionem habeo What he professed for himself was then the practice of them all some of them as it is observed in the Conference at Hampton Court being content to walk in the Church-yard till Sermon time rather than to be present at publick prayer and is still I fear used by many Lecturers in and about the City of London Thus having limited all Gods Service unto Preaching and some Extemporary Prayer of their own devising they brought the people at last unto this persuasion that in the publick Liturgy there was nothing but a meer formality which the Law enjoyned Their Arbitrary and Extemporary Forms of Prayer savouring only of the Spirit and true devotion which when they could not bring about at the first attempt they practised with a counterfeit Devil to undertake it The seven of Lancashire when they were taught by Mr. Darrel to play the Demoniacks were also taught by him to promote the cause As often as any of those Ministers who were conformable to the Church and kept themselves unto the Forms of the publique Liturgy did come to visit them and in their hearing read some Prayers out of the Common-prayer Book the Devil was as quiet as any Lamb as if he were well pleased with that Form of Service or that there was not any thing in those Prayers or the men that used them to trouble him or disturb his peace But when as Mr. Darrel and other Brethren of the Non-conformity approached in sight who used to fall upon him with whole volleys of raw and indigested Prayers of their own devising such as they had prepared and fitted for the present occasion then were the wicked Spirits much more troubled and perplexed extreamly whereby you may perceive that even the Puritans also had a kind of Holy-water with which to fright away the Devil lest else the Papists should in any thing have the start before them And whereas the Injunction had restrained the Clergy to some certain heads by them to be commended to the Peoples prayers these men took neither care of the Form or matter of the said Injunction not of the Form for they directed their address to Almighty God in manner of a formal prayer as hath since been used against the Canon nor of the matter of the same for they began their Prayer with a long confession or a discourse rather of their own uncleanness and the corruption of mans nature fill'd it with praise and thanksgiving for particular blessings even for their Godly friends and acquaintance and ended it with a kind of a charm or transubstantiating as viz. That the words which they should speak might not be entertained as the words of a mortal man but as they were indeed the words of the immortal and living God For in that very stile I have heard it often nay they went so far in the end that the Visitation of the Sick prescribed by the Church was quite laid aside their weak estate being reduced unto
had any thing to do in the Land at all For as I am informed by Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures lib. 1. cap. 9. Sect. 73. fol. 58. It appeareth by the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings and especially of King Alfred that the first King of this Realm had all the lands of England in Demesne and les grands manours royalties they reserved to themselves and with the remnant they for the defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath So he the professed Champion of the Common Laws And at this time it was when all the Lands in England were the Kings Demesne that Ethelwolph the second Monarch of the Saxon race his father Egbert being the first which brought the former Heptarchie under one sole Prince conferred the Tithes of all the Kingdom upon the Church by his royal Charter Of which thus Ingulph Abbot of Crowland an old Saxon Writer a Anno 855. Rex Ethelwulfus omnium Praelatorum Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis Provinciis totius Angliae praeerant gratuito Consensu tunc primo cum decimis terrarum bonorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Anno 855. which was the 18. of his Reign King Ethelwulph with the consent of his Prelates and Princes which ruled in England under him in their several Provinces did first enrich the Church of England with the Tithes of all his Lands and Goods by his Charter Royal. Ethelward an old Saxon and of the blood Royal doth express it thus b Decimavit de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine Principatus sui sic constituit Ethelward He gave the Tithe of his possessions for the Lords own portion and ordered it to be so in all the parts of the Kingdom under his command Florence of Worcester in these words c Aethelwulphus Rex decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali servitio tributo liberavit in sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi pro Redemptione Animae suae Praedecessorum suorum uni trino Deo immolavit Florent Wigorn. King Ethelwolfe for the Redemption of his own soul and the souls of his Predecessors discharged the tenth part of his Realm of all Tributes and Services due unto the Crown and by his perpetual Charter signed with the sign of the Cross offered it to the three-one God Roger of Hovenden hath it in the self same words and Huntingdon more briefly thus d Totam terram suam propter amorem Dei Redemptionem ad opes Ecclesiarum decimavit Henr. Huntingd. That for the love of God and the redemption of his soul he tithed his whole Dominions to the use of the Church But what need search be made into so many Authors when the Charter it self is extant in old Abbot Ingulph and in Matthew of Westminster and in the Leiger Book of the Abbey of Abingdon which Charter being offered by the King on the Altar at Winchester in the presence of his Barons was received by the Bishops and by them sent to be published in all the Churches of their several Diocesses a clause being added by the King saith the Book of Abingdon That whosoever added to the gift e Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos siquis vero mutare vel minuere praesumpserit noscat se ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit God would please to prosper and increase his days but that if any did presume to diminish the same he should be called to an account for it at Christs Judgment-seat unless he made amends by full satisfaction In which as in some other of the former passages as there is somewhat savouring of the errour of those darker times touching the merit of good works yet the authorities are strong and most convincing for confirmation of the point which we have in hand Now that the King charged all the Lands of the Kingdom with the payment of Tithes and not that only which he held in his own possession is evident both by that which was said before from Sir Edward Coke and by the several passages of the former Authors For if all the Lands in the Kingdom were the Kings Demesnes and the King conferred the Tithes of all his Lands on the Church of God it must follow thereupon that all the Lands of the Realm were charged with Tithes before they were distributed amongst the Barons for defence of the Kingdom And that the Lands of the whole Realm were thus charged with Tithes as well that which was parted in the hands of Tenants as that which was in the occupancy of the King himself the words before alledged do most plainly evidence where it is said that he gave the tenth of all his Lands as Ingulph the Tithe of his whole Land as Henry of Huntingdon the tenth part of his whole Kingdom as in Florence of Worcester the tenth part of the Lands throughout the Kingdom in the Charter it self And finally in the Book of Abingdon the Charter is ushered in with this following Title viz. Quomodo Ethelwolfus Rex dedit decimam partem regni sui Ecclesiis that is to say how Ethelwolf gave unto the Church the tenth part of his Kingdom This makes it evident that the King did not only give de facto the Tithe or the tenth part of his whole Realm to the use of the Clergy but that he had a right and a power to do it as being not only the Lord Paramount but the Proprietary of the whole Lands the Lords and great Men of the Realm not having then a property or estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole land was And though it seems by Ingulph their consents were asked and that they gave a free consent to the Kings Donation yet was this but a matter of Form and not simply necessary their approbation and consent being only asked either because the King was not willing to do any thing to the disherison of his Crown without the liking and consent of the Peers or that having their consent and approbation they should be barred from pleading any Tenant-right and be obliged to stand in maintenance and defence thereof against all pretenders And this appears yet further by a Law of King Athelstanes made in the year 930 about which time not only the Prelates of the Church as formerly but the great Men of the Realm began to be setled in Estates of permanency and to claim a property in those Lands which they held of the Crown and claiming so begun it seems to make bold to subduct their Tithes For remedy whereof the King made this Law commanding all his Ministers throughout the Kingdom that in the first place they should pay the Tithes
f Ut imprimis de meo proprio reddant Deo decimas Episcopi mei similiter faciant de suo proprio Aldermanni mei Praepositi mei of his own estate that is to say that which he held in his own hands and had not estated out to his Lords and Barons and that the Bishops did the like of that which they held in right of their Churches and his Nobles and Officers of that which they held in property as their own possessions or inheritance By which we find that Tithes were granted to the Clergy out of all the Lands in the Kingdom and the perpetual payment of them laid as a Rent-charge on the same by the bounty and munificence of the first Monarchs of this Realm before any part thereof was demised to others And if perhaps some of the great Men of the Realm had Estates in property as certainly there were but few if any which had any such Estates in the times we speak of they charged the same with Tithes by their own consent before they did transmit them to the hands of the Gentry or any who now claim to lay hold under them So then the Land being charged thus with the payment of Tithes came with this clog unto the Lords and great Men of the Realm and being so charged with Tithes by the Kings and Nobles have been transmitted and passed over from one hand to another until they came to the possession of the present owners Who whatsoever right they have to the other nine parts either of Fee-simple Lease or Copy have certainly none at all in the Tithe or tenth which is no more theirs or to be so thought of than the other nine parts are the Clergies For whether they hold their Lands at a yearly Rent or have them in fee or for term of life or in any other tenure whatsoever it be they hold them and they purchased them on this tacite condition that besides the rents and services which they pay to the Lord they are to pay unto the Clergy or unto them who do succeed in the Clergies right a tenth of all the fruits of the Earth and of the fruits of their Cattel and all creatures titheable unless some ancient custom or prescription do discharge them of it And more than so whether they hold by yearly rent or by right of purchase they hold it at less rent by far and buy it at far cheaper rates because the land it self and the stock upon it is chargeable with Tithes as before was said than they would do or could in reason think to do were the Land free from Tithes as in some places of this Realm it is To make this clearer by Example of an House in London where according to the Rent which this House is set at the Minister hath 2 s. 9 d. out of every pound in the name of a Tithe Suppose we that the rent of the House be 50 l. the Ministers due according unto that proportion comes to 6 l. 17 s. 6 d. yearly which were it not paid and to be paid by Law to the Parish-Minister there is no question to be made but that the Landlord of the House would have raised his Rent and not content himself with the 50 l. but look for 56 l. 17 s. 6 d. which is the whole Rent paid though to divers hands And if this House were to be sold at 16 years purchase the Grantee could expect no more than 800 l. because there is a Rent of 6 l. 17 s. and 6 d. reserved to the Minister by Law which is to be considered in the sale thereof whereas if no such Rent or Tithe were to issue out of it he would have as many years purchase for the sum remaining which would inhaunce the price 110 l. higher than before it was Now by this standard we may judg of the case of Lands though by reason of the difference of the Soil the well or ill husbanding of grounds and the greatness or smalness of the stock which is kept upon them it cannot be reduced to so clear a certainty But whatsoever the full Tithe of all be worth to the Minister we may undoubtedly conclude that if so much as the Tithe comes to yearly were not paid to him the Landlord would gain it in his Rent and the Grantee get it in the sale no benefit at all redounding to the Tenant by it nor any unto him that buyeth it Or if we will suppose with one of my Pamphlets and let it be supposed this once for our better proceeding that he who officiates in a Parish where Tithes are paid in kind without any subtractions hath the fift part of every landed mans Estate that is to say four pounds in every 20 l. per annum the Purchaser or Tenant be he which he will may positively build on this in his better thoughts that if four pounds in twenty were not paid to the Minister the Tenant must pay to his Landlord and the Purchaser must buy it at the same rates as he did the rest of the Land But being that neither the Tenant pays Rent for it nor the Purchaser hath it in his grant from him that selleth the Land unto him the Tithe of the increase of their Land and stock and other creatures titheable in their possession can be none of their own but must be his and only his whom the munificence of Kings and Princes confirmed by so many Laws and Statutes have conferred it on His part indeed it is not ours not the tenth part of our Estates as my Pamphlet saith and he receives it of us as a Rent or Duty transmitted to us with the Land from one hand to another not as a matter of gift or an act of courtesie If then we pay not any thing of our own to the Parish Minister which ariseth to him from the increase of Corn and Cattel and other creatures titheable by the Law of the Land I think it cannot be affirmed by discerning men who are not led aside by prejudice and prepossessions that we give any thing at all of our own unto them more than our Easter-Offering be it more or less 'T is true some Statutes have been made about the payment of personal Tithes out of the gains arising in the way of Trade and I remember Dr. Burgess writ a book about it for which he stands as highly censured by the Independent As in the book called Tithe-gatherers no Gospel-Officers as for other things by those of the Prelatical party But then I think it is as true that either those Statutes were drawn up with such reservations or men of Trades have been so backward to conform unto them that little or no benefit hath redounded by them to the Parish-Minister more than to shew the good affections which the Parliaments of those times had unto the Clergy And if we pay nothing of our own towards the maintenance of the Clergy out of the increase
of our grounds and stock as I have plainly proved we do not and that no benefit come unto them from the gains of Trading as I think there comes not if those small vailes and casualties which redound unto him from Marriages Churchings and the like occasions be given unto him for some special service which he doth perform and not for his administration of the Word and Sacraments I hope my second Proposition hath been proved sufficiently namely that there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-Offering If so as so it is for certain there hath been little ground for so great a clamour as hath been lately raised about this particular less reason to subduct or to change that maintenance which the piety of our Kings have given and the indulgence of succeeding Princes have confirmed in Parliament without any charge unto the Subject Which change though possibly some specious colours may be put unto it will neither be really beneficial to the Clergy or Laity And that conducts me on to my last Proposition viz. III. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended This is a double Proposition and therefore must be looked on in its several parts first in relation to the Clergy whose ease is very much pretended and next in reference to the Occupant whose profit only is intended in the change desired It is pretended for the Clergy to be a very difficult thing to know the dues demandable of their several Parishes that it maketh them too much given unto worldly things As in the Kentish Petition other projects of that kind by looking after the inning and threshing out of their Corn and doth occasion many scandalous and vexatious Suits betwixt them and their Neighbours all which they think will be avoided in case the Ministers were reduced to some annual stipend And to this end it is propounded by the Army in their late Proposals that the unequal troublesome and contentious way of Ministers maintenance by Tithes may be considered of in Parliament and a remedy applied unto it But under favour of the Army and of all those who have contrived the late Petitions to that purpose I cannot see but that the way of maintenance by annual stipends will be as troublesome unequal and contentious too as that of Tithes by Law established especially if those annual stipends be raised according to the platform which is now in hand For as far as I am able to judg by that which I have seen and heard from the chief Contrivers the design is this A valuation to be made of every Benefice over all the Kingdom according to the worth thereof one year with another a yearly sum according to that valuation to be raised upon the lands of every Parish which now stand chargeable with Tithes the money so assessed and levied to be brought into one common Treasury in each several County and committed to the hands of special Trustees hereunto appointed and finally that those Trustees do issue out each half year such allowances to the Ministers of the several Parishes respect being had unto the deserts of the person and the charge of his family as they think fittest yet so that the Impropriators be first fully satisfied according to the estimate of their Tithes and Glebe This is the substance of the project And if the moneys be assessed in the way proposed only upon the landed men whether Lords or Tenants and not upon Artificers Handicrafts and men of mysterious Trades who receive equal benefit by the Ministers labours the way of maintenance by stipends will be as unequal altogether as by that of Tithes And if it be but as unequal I am sure it will be far more troublesome For now the Minister or Incumbent hath no more to do but to see his Corn brought in and housed being to be cut and cocked to his hand both by Law and Custom and being brought in either to spend it in his House or sell the residue thereof to buy other provisions Which if he think too great an avocation from his studies he may put over to his Wife or some trusty servant as Gentlemen of greater fortunes do unto their Bailiffs And I my self know divers Clergy-men of good note and quality to whom the taking up of Tithes brings no greater trouble than once a month to look over the accompts of their servants besides that many of them keeping no more in their hands than what will serve for the necessary expence of Houshold let out the rest unto some Neighbour at a yearly rent But when the Tithes are turned to money and that the Minister hath neither Corn nor Hay nor any other provision for expence of Houshold but what he buyeth by the penny what an unreasonable trouble must it needs prove to him to trudge from one Market to another for every bit of bread he eats and every handful of Malt which he is to spend And if Corn happen to be dear as it is at this present one quarter of a years provisions bought at the price of the Market may eat out his whole years allowance Besides I would fain learn for I know not yet whether the valuation be to be made yearly and to hold no longer than that year or being once agreed on to endure for ever If it be made from year to year either the Minister must be at a certain trouble in driving a new bargain every year with each several and respective Occupant within the Parish or at a greater trouble in attending the Trustees of the County till they have list and leisure to conclude it for him But if the valuation once made be to hold for ever which is I think the true intent of the design I would fain know in case the price of all Commodities should rise as much by the end of the next hundred years as it hath done in the last and so the next hundreds after that how scant a pittance the poor Minister will have in time for the subsistence of himself and his Family-charge For since the 26. of King Henry VIII when a survey was taken of all the spiritual promotions in this Kingdom and the clear yearly value of each returned into the Court of the Exchequer the prices of Commodities have been so inhanced that had not Benefices been improved proportionably but held unto the valuation which is there recorded the Ministery in general had been so poor so utterly unable to have gone to the price of the Markets that many must have digged or begged for an hungry livelyhood And yet we do not see an end of the mischief neither for when the Tithes are changed to a sum of money and the money brought into a common bank or Treasury the Minister will be sure to
Evidence he may the better be enabled to give up his Verdict I close up this Address with these words in the Book of Judges cap. 19. v. 30. Consider of it take advice and then speak your minds THE HISTORY OF EPISCOPACY The First PART From the first Institution of it by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ until the death of St. John the Apostle CHAP. I. The Christian Church first founded by our Lord and Saviour in an Imparity of Ministers 1. The several Offices of Christ our Saviour in the Administration of his Church 2. The aggregation of Disciples to him 3. The calling of the Apostles and why twelve in number 4. Of the Name and Office of an Apostle 5. What things were specially required unto the making of an Apostle 6. All the Apostles equal amongst themselves 7. The calling and appointing of the Seventy Disciples 8. A reconciliation of some different opinions about the number 9. The twelve Apostles superiour to the Seventy by our Saviours Ordinance 10. What kind of superiority it was that Christ prohibited his Apostles 11. The several Powers and preheminences given to the Apostles by our Saviour Christ 12. That the Apostles were made Bishops by our Lord and Saviour averred by the ancient Fathers 13. And by the Text of holy Scripture OF all the Types in holy Scripture I find not any that did so fully represent the nature of our Saviours Kingdom as those of David Moses and Melchizedech David a Shepherd Psal 78.71 72. Gen. 14.18 and a King Moses a Legislator and a Prince Melchisedech both King of Salem and a Priest also of the living God as that Text hath stiled him Each of these was a type of our Saviour Christ according to his Regal Office he being like Melchisedech Heb. 7.2 Exod. a King of Peace and Righteousness leading his people as did Moses out of the darkness and Idolatries of Egypt to the land of Canaan 2 Sam. and conquering like David all those Enemies which before held them in subjection This Office as it is supreme so it is perpetual That God who tells us in the Psalms that he had set his King on Zion on his holy mountain Psalm 2. Luke 1.33 hath also told us by his Angel that he should reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there should be no end But if we look upon him in his Sacerdotal and Pastoral Offices if we behold him as a Lawgiver to his Church and people we find him not fore-signified in any one of these but in all together Heb. 5.6 10. A Priest he was after the order of Melchisedech Heb. 3.2 faithful to him that did appoint him as also Moses was faithful in all his house ordering and disposing of the same according to his will and pleasure And as for the discharge of his Pastoral or Prophetical Office God likeneth him to David Ezek. 34.23 by his holy Prophet saying I will set up one Shepheard over them and he shall feed them even my servant David he shall feed them and he shall be their shepheard Which Offices although subordinate to the Regal power are perpetual also He was not made a Priest for a time or season but for ever Tu es Sacerdos in aeternum Heb. 5.6 Thou art a Priest for ever said the Lord unto him A Priest who as he once appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 so by that one offering hath he perfected for ever all them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 and sitting down at the right hand of God Heb. 7.25 he ever liveth and maketh intercession for them Of the same perpetuity also are those other Offices of Christ our Saviour before remembred He had not been sidelis sicut Moses Estius in Heb. 3. v. 2. faithful as Moses was in all his house i. e. as Estius well expounds it in administratione populi sibi credita in the well-ordering of the charge committed to him had he not constituted a set Form of Government and given the same unto his Church as a Rule for ever Nor had he faithfully discharged the part of David had he looked only to his flock whiles himself was present and took no care for the continual feeding of the same after he was returned to his heavenly glories And therefore Eph. 4.8 11 12 13. when he ascended up on high he gave gifts to men and gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledg of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ He gave them then indeed after his Ascension when he ascended up on high because he then did furnish them with those gifts and graces wherewith they were endued by the Holy Ghost and thereby fitted for the execution of the trust committed to them by their Lord. For otherwise many of them had been given already not only in the way of choice and designation but of commission and employment Ite Matth. 28.19 docete omnes Gentes had been said before It was not long after our Saviours baptism by John in Jordan that some Disciples came unto him That testimony which came down from God the Father when the Heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended on him like a Dove Matth. 3.16 was of it self sufficient to procure many followers The evidence which was given by John the Baptist added nought to this And yet that evidence prevailed so far John 1.37 that two of his Disciples when they heard him speak forsook their old Master and went after Jesus Nor did it satisfie them that they had found the Christ and had talked with him but they impart the same unto others also Thus Andrew brings in his own Brother Simon Philip invites his friend Nathancel John 1.42 46. One tells another the glad tidings that they had found him of whom Moses in the Law and all the Prophets did write and all of them desire to be his Disciples John 1.45 Afterward as his fame increased so his followers multiplyed and every Miracle that he wrought to confirm his Doctrine did add unto the number of his Proselytes So great his fame was and so great the conflux of all sorts of people that Johns Disciples presently complained I know not whether with more truth or envy John 3.26 Omnes ad eum veniunt that all men came unto him both to hear his preaching and receive his baptism And certainly it was no wonder that it should be so that all men should resort to him who was the way or seek for him who was the truth John 6.86 or follow after him who was the life Lord saith Saint Peter
time contracted somewhat of that rust and rubbish wherewith the middle ages of the Church did so much abound Yet if mine own opinion were demanded in it though I agree unto the story both for the number of the Bishops and the Metropolitans I must needs think there was some other reason for it than the relation of the number of the Flamines and Archiflamines which is there pretended And that this was not done at once but in a longer tract of time than the Reign of Lucius as was in part affirmed before That Lucius did convert the Temples of the Idols into Christian Churches setled the revenues of the same upon the Churches by him founded I shall easily grant so far forth as the bounds of his dominions will give way unto it but being there were but 28 Cities in all that part of Britain which we now call England as both from Huntingdon and Beda was before delivered and that King Lucius was but a Tributary Prince of those Regions only which were inhabited by the Trinobantes and Cattieuchlani as I do verily conceive he was I believe rather that the number of the Bishops and Archbishops which our stories speak of related to the form of government as it was afterwards established in the Roman Empire Notitia Provinc in div cap. and not to any other cause whatever Now they which have delivered to us the state of the Roman Empire inform us this That for the easier government and administration of the same it was divided into fourteen Diocesses for so they called those greater portions into the which it was divided every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces and every Province in the same conteining many several Cities And they which have delivered to us the estate of the Christian Church Notitia Prov. dignitat c. have informed us this that in each City of the Empire wherein the Romans had a Defensor Civitatis as they called that Magistrate the Christians when they gain'd that City to the holy faith did ordain a Bishop that over every Province in which the Romans had their Presidents they did place an Arch-bishop whose seat being commonly in the Metropolis of the Province gave him the name of Metropolitan and finally that in every Diocess in which the Romans had their Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the Christians also had their Primate and seated him in the same City also where the other was This ground thus layed it will appear upon examination that Britain in the time of the Roman Empire was a full Diocese of it self no way depending upon any other portion of that mighty State Ib. in Provinc Occident sup c. 3. as any way subordinate thereunto And being a Diocese in it self it was divided in those times into these three Provinces viz. Britannia prima Cambd. de divisione Britan. containing all the Countrys on the South of the River Thames and those inhabited by the Trinobantes Cattieuchlani and Iceni 2. Britannia secunda comprising all the Nations within the Severn and 3. Maxima Caesariensis which comprehended all the residue to the Northern border In the which Provinces there were no less than 28 Cities as before is said of which York was the chief in Maxima Caesariensis London the principal in Britannia prima Caer-Leon upon Vsk being the Metropolis in Britannia secunda And so we have a plain and apparent reason not only of the 28 Episcopal Sees erected anciently in the British Church but why three of them and three only should be Metropolitans For howsoever after this there were two other Provinces taken out of the former three viz. Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis which added to the former Id. ibid. made up five in all yet this being after the conclusion of the Nicene Council the Metropolitan dignity in the Church remained as before it did without division or abatement according to the Canon of that famous Synod Concil Nicen. Can. 6. And herewithal we have a pregnant and infallible Argument that Britain being in it self a whole and compleat Diocese of the Roman Empire no way subordinate unto the Praefect of the City of Rome but under the command of its own Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the British Church was also absolute and independent owing nor suit nor service as we use to say unto the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but only to its own peculiar and immediate Primate as it was elsewhere in the Churches of the other Dioceses of the Roman Empire This I conceive to be the true condition of the British Church and the most likely reason for the number of Bishops and Arch-bishops here established according to the truth of Story abstracted from those errours and mistakes which in the middle Ages of the Church have by the Monkish Writers of those times been made up with them But for the substance of the story as by them delivered which is the planting of the Church with Bishops in eminent places that appears evidently true by such remainders of antiquity as have escaped the tyranny and wrack of time For in the Council held at Arles in France Anno 314. Tom. 1. Concilior Gall. Ã Sirmundo edit we find three British Bishops at once subscribing viz. Eborius Bish of York Restitutus B. of London and Adelfus B. of Colchester there called Colonia Londinensium Gennadius also in his Tract de viris illustribus mentioneth one Fastidius by the name of Fastidius Britanniarum Episcopus Gennad in Catal amongst the famous Writers of old time placing him Anno 420 or thereabouts whom B. God win I cannot tell upon what reasons Godwin in Catal. Episc Londinens Cit. ap Armachan de Primor c. 5. Cambden in Brigant reckoneth amongst the Bishops of the See of London Particularly for the Bishops or Archbishops of the British Church we have a Catalogue of the Metropolitans of London collected or made up by Joceline a Monk of Fournest an ancient Monastery in the North being 14 in all which howsoever the validity thereof may perhaps be questioned by more curious Wits yet I shall lay down as I find it taking their names from him that little story which concerns them out of other Writers First then we have Theon or Theonus 2 Eluanus one of the two Ambassadours sent by King Lucius to the Pope 3 Cadar or Cadoeus 4 Obinus or Owinus 5 Conanus 6 Palladius 7 Stephanus 8 Iltutus 9 Theodwinus 10 Theodredus 11 Hilarius Geosr Monmouth hist Brit. Speed in descr Britan. 12 Guitelinus sent as Ambassadour to Aldrocnus King of Armorica or Little-Britain to crave his aid against the Scots and Picts who then plagued the Britains 13 Vodius or Vodinus slain by Hengist but some say by Vortiger at the first entrance of the Sateons into this Isle 14 And last of all Theonus who had been sometimes Bishop of Gloncester but was after translated hither and was the last Bishop of London of this line or Series Of
Closet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of Kings and Princes Or if the Seat or Throne here spoken of were a Tribunal as it is said by Cassiodore we must not look upon him in the Church but in the Consistory in which he would have nothing ordinary like to other Bishops but all things suted and adorned like the Bench or Judgment-seat of a Civil Magistrate As for the men to whom the execution of the Sentence was committed which is the next thing here to be considered Eusebius tells us that they were the Bishops of Rome and Italy And possibly the Emperour might commit the judgment of the cause to them because being strangers to the place and by reason of their absence not ingaged in the business or known to either of the two Pretenders they might with greater equity and indifference determine in it This is more like to be the reason than that the Emperour should take such notice of the Popes authority as to conceive the Judgments and Decrees of other Bishops to be no further good and valid quam eas authoritas Romani Pontificis confirmasset Baron in Annal Anno 272. n. 18. than as they were confirmed by the Bishop of Rome as fain the Cardinal would have it If so what needed the Italian Bishops to be joyned with him The Pope might do it of himself without their advice indeed without the Emperours Authority This was not then the matter whatsoever was and what was like to be the matter we have said already And more than that I need not say as to the reason of the reference why the Emperour made choice rather of the Western than the Eastern Bishops to cognisance the cause and give possession on the same accordingly But there is something else to be considered as to the matter of the reference to the point referred as also to the persons who by this Sovereign Authority were enabled to determine in the cause proposed And first as for the point referred whereas there were two things considerable in the whole proceedings against Paulus viz. his dangerous and heretical Doctrine and next his violent and unjust possession the first had been adjudged before in the Council and he deposed for the same With that the Bishops either of Rome or Italy had no more to do than to subscribe unto the judgment of the Synod or being being a matter meerly of spiritual cognizance might in a like Synodical meeting without the Emperors Authority as their case then stood have censured and condemned the Heresie though with his person possibly they could not meddle as being of another Patriarchat But that which here I find referred unto them was a mere Lay-fee a point of title and possession and it was left unto them to determine in it whether the Plaintiff or Defendant had the better right to the house in question This was the point in issue between the parties and they upon the hearing of the cause gave sentence in behalf of Domnus who presently upon the said award or sentence was put into possession of the house and the force removed by the appointment of the Emperour And it is worth our notice also that as they did not thrust themselves into the imployment being a matter meerly of a secular nature so when the Emperor required their advice therein or if you will make them his Delegates and High Commissioners they neither did delay or dispute the matter nor pleaded any Ancient Canons by which they might pretend to be disabled from intermedling in the same A thing which questionless some one or other of them would have done there being so many Godly and Religious Prelates interessed therein had they conceived that the imployment had been inconsistent with their holy calling A second thing to be considered in this delegation concerns the parties unto whom it was committed which were as hath been said before the Bishops of Italy and of the City of Rome In which it will not be impertinent to examine briefly why the Bishops of Italy Niceph. hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 29. and the Bishops of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by Nicephorus it is given us in the plural number should be here reckoned as distinct since both the City of Rome was within the limits and bounds of Italy and Italy subordinate or rather subject to the City of Rome the Queen and Empress of the World For resolution of which Quaere we may please to know that in the distribution of the Roman Empire the continent of Italy together with the Isles adjoyning was divided into two parts viz. the Prefecture of the City of Rome conteining Latium Tuscia and Picenum the Realm of Naples Vide chap. 3. of this 2. Part. and the three Islands of Sicily Corsica and Sardinia as before was said the head City or Metropolis of the which was the City of Rome And secondly the Diocess of Italy containing all the Western and broader part thereof from the River Magra to the Alpes in which were comprehended seven other Provinces and of the which the Metropolis or prime City was that of Millain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Athanasius Athanas in Epist iad solitar vitam agentes Optat. de Schis Dona. l. 2. So that that Church being in the Common-wealth according to that maxim of Optatus and following the pattern of the same in the proportion and fabrick of her publick Government the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy were no way under the command of the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but of their own Primate only which was he of Millain And this division seems to be of force in the times we speak of because that in the subscriptions to the Council of Arles Conc. Tom. 1. being about 40 years after that of Antioch the Bishops of Italy stand divided into two ranks or Provinces that is to say Provincia Italiae and Provincia Romana the Province of Italy of which Orosius the Metropolitan of Millain subscribeth only and then the Province of the City of Rome for which Gregorius Bishop of Porto subscribeth first In after Ages the distinction is both clear and frequent as in the Epistle of the Council of Sardica extant in Athanasius In Athanas Apolog. 2. Atha ad solitar vitam agentes and an Epistle of the said Athanasius written unto others So that according to the Premisses this conclusion followeth that the Popes or Patriarchs of Rome had no Authority in the Church more than other Primates no not in Italy it self more than the Metropolitan of Millain as may appear should all proofs else be wanting by this place and passage by which the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy taking the word Diocess in its civil sense were put into a joynt commission with the Bishops of the Patriarchat of Rome with the Pope himself Which tending so expresly to the overthrow of the Popes Supremacy as well Christopherson in his Translation of Eusebius as
day that now they will not be persuaded that it is a Dream For the awakening of the which and their reduction to more sound and sensible Counsels next to my duty to Gods Church and your Sacred Majesty have I applied my self to compose this Story wherein I doubt not but to shew them how much they have deceived both themselves and others in making the old Jewish Sabbath of equal age and observation with the Law of Nature and preaching their new Sabbath-Doctrines in the Church of Christ with which the Church hath no acquaintance wherein I doubt not but to shew them that by their obstinate resolution not to make Publication of your Majesties pleasure they tacitely condemn not only all the Fathers of the Primitive times the Learned Writers of all Ages many most godly Kings and Princes of the former days and not few Councils of chief note and of faith unquestionable but even all states of Men Nations and Churches at this present whom they most esteem This makes your Majesties interest so particular in this present History that were I not obliged unto your Majesty in any nearer bond than that of every common Subject it could not be devoted unto any other with so just propriety But being it is the work of your Majesties Servant and in part fashioned at those times which by your Majesties leave were borrowed from Attendance on your Sacred Person your Majesty hath also all the rights unto it of a Lord and Master Institut l. 1. tit 8. §. 1. So that according to that Maxim of the Civil Laws Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquirit suo your Majesty hath as absolute power to dispose thereof as of the Author who is Dread Soveraign Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and most faithful Servant PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE To them who being themselves mistaken have misguided others in these new Doctrines of the Sabbath NOT out of any humour or desire of being in action or that I love to have my hands in any of those publick quarrels wherewith our peace hath been disturbed but that Posterity might not say we have been wanting for our parts to your information and the direction of Gods People in the ways of truth have I adventured on this Story A Story which shall represent unto you the constant practice of Gods Church in the present business from the Creation to these days that so you may the better see how you are gone astray from the paths of Truth and tendries of Antiquity and from the present judgment of all Men and Churches The Arguments whereto you trust and upon seeming strength whereof you have been emboldned to press these Sabbatarian Doctrins upon the Consciences of poor people I purpose not to meddle with in this Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have been elsewhere throughly canvassed and all those seeming strengths beat down by which you were your selves misguided and by the which you have since wrought on the affections of unlearned men or such at least that judged not of them by their weight but by their numbers But where you give it out as in matter of fact how that the Sabbath was ordained by God in Paradise and kept accordingly by all the Patriarchs before Moses time or otherwise ingraft by Nature in the soul of man and so in use also amongst the Gentiles In that I have adventured to let men see that you are very much mistaken and tell us things directly contrary unto truth of Story Next where it is the ground-work of all your building that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral Natural and Perpetual as punctually to be observed as any other of the first or second Table I doubt not but it will appear by this following History that it was never so esteemed of by the Jews themselves no not when as the observation of the same was most severely pressed upon them by the Law and Prophets nor when the day was made most burdensome unto them by the Scribes and Pharisees Lastly whereas you make the Lords day to be an institution of our Saviour Christ confirmed by the continual usage of the holy Apostles and both by him and them imposed as a perpetual Ordinance on the Christian Church making your selves believe that so it was observed in the times before as you have taught us to observe it in these latter days I have made manifest to the world that there is no such matter to be found at all either in any writings of the Apostles or monument of true Antiquity or in the practice of the middle or the present Churches What said I of the present Churches So I said indeed and doubt not but it will appear so in this following Story The present Churches all of them both Greek and Latin together with the Protestants of what name soever being far different both in their Doctrine and their practice from these new conceptions And here I cannot chuse but note that whereas those who first did set on foot these Doctrines in all their other practices to subvert this Church did bear themselves continually on the Authority of Calvin and the example of those Churches which came most near unto the Plat-form of Geneva In these their Sabbath-speculations they had not only none to follow but they found Calvin and Geneva and those other Churches directly contrary unto them However in all other matters they cryed up Calvin and his Writings Hooker in his Preface making his Books the very Canon to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be confirmed yet hic magister non tenetur here by his leave they would forsake him and leave him fairly to himself that they themselves might have the glory of a new invention For you my Brethren and beloved in our Lord and Saviour as I do willingly believe that you have entertain'd these Tenets upon mis-persuasion not out of any ill intentions to the Church your Mother and that it is an errour in your judgments only not of your affections So upon that belief have I spared no pains as much as in me is to remove that errour and rectifie what is amiss in your opinion I hope you are not of those men Quos non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris who either hate to be reformed or have so far espoused a quarrel that neither truth nor reason can divorce them from it Nor would I gladly you should be of their resolutions Qui volunt id verum esse quod credunt nolunt id credere quod verum est who are more apt to think all true which themselves believe than be persuaded to believe such things as are true indeed In confidence whereof as I was first induced to compose this History so in continuance of those hopes I have presumed to address it to you to tender it to your perusal and to submit it to your censure That if you are not better furnished you may learn from hence that you have trusted
one other Reading of it publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year for ought we find in holy Scripture Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath which much about those times began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation First in Hierusalem and after by degrees in most places else as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues Houses selected for that purpose to hear the Word of God and observe the same Of which times and of none before those passages of Philo and Josephus before remembred Chap. 6. n. 4. touching the weekly reading of the Law and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of Assembles are to be understood and verified as there we noted For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law before these times besides what hath been said already we will now make manifest No Synagogue before these times for there is neither mention of them in all the body of the old Testament nor any use of them in those days wherein there were no Congregations in particular places And first there is no mention of them in the old Testament For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues in the time of David and for the proof thereof they produce these words Psal 74.8 they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land the supposition and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not composed in reference to any present misery which fefell the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time as is there complained of Therefore if David writ that Psalm he writ it as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy and in the spirit of Prophecy did reflect on those wretched times wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God and ransacked his inheritance To those most probably must it be referred the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble as it was in this Magis probabilis est conjectura ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias as Calvin notes it In Psal 74. And secondly there was no use of them before because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course and on the Sabbath days For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day we either should have found some Commandment for it or some practice of it but we meet with neither Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary We read it of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.7 that in the third year of his reign he sent his Princes Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathaneel and Micaiah to teach in the Cities of Judah These were the principal in Commission and unto them he joyned nine Levites and two Priests to bear them company and to assist them It followeth And they taught in Judah Verse 9. and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah and taught the people And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them This must needs be a needless labour in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant and extant must it be if it had been read in every Town and Village over all Judaea Therefore there was no Synagogue no reading of the Law every Sabbath day in Jehosaphats time But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this 2 Kings 12. That godly Prince intended to repair the Temple and in pursuit of that intendment Hilkiah the Priest to whom the ordering of the work had been committed found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses This Book is brought unto the King and read unto him And when the King had heard the words of the Law he rent his cloths And not so only Verse 11. Chap. 23.1 2. but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God or that the finding of the Book had been related for so strange an accident when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them Or what need such a sudden calling of all the Elders and on an extraordinary time to hear the Law if they had heard it every Sabbath and that of ordinary course Nay so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath that as it seems it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of years as Moses had before appointed For if it had been read unto them once in seven years only that vertuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof Therefore there was no Synagogue no weekly reading of the Law in Josiabs days And if not then and not before then not at all till Ezras time The finding of the Book of God before remembred is said to happen in the year 3412. of the Worlds Creation not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted there could be nothing done that concern'd this business Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra unto the Council holden in Hierusalem there passed 490 years or thereabouts Acts 15.21 Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that we may conclude for certain that till these times wherein we are there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days and in these times when it was taken up amongst them it was by Ecclesiastical institution only no divine Authority But being taken up on what ground soever it did continue afterwards though perhaps sometimes interrupted until the final dissolution of that Church and State and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretation of the holy words which did at last divide the people into sects and factions Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or in private De repub l. 2. ca. 17. yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla But in
And then the reason of this follows Ne occasione momenti pereat commoditas coelesti provisione concessa This Edict did bear date in the Nones of March Anno 321 being the 11. year of that Princes Empire and long it did not stand till he himself was fain to explain his meaning in the first part of it Fr whereas he intended only to restrain Lawsuits and contentious pleadings as being unfit for such a day his Judges and like Officers finding a general restraint in the Law or Edict durst not ingage themselves in the cognizance of any civil Cause whatever no not so much as in the Manumission of a Bondslave This coming to the Emperours notice who was a friend of Liberty and could not but well understand how acceptable a thing it was to God that works of charity and mercy should not be restrained on any days it pleased him to send out a second Edict in the July following directed to Elpidius who was then Praefectus Praetorio as I take it wherein he authorized his Ministers to perform that Office any thing in the former Law unto the contrary notwithstanding For so it runs Ibid. Sicut indignissimum videbatur diem Solis venerationis suae celebrem altercantibus jurgiis noxis partium contentionibus occupari ita gratum est jucundum eo die quae sunt maxime votiva compleri Atque ideo emancipandi manumittendi die festo cuncti licentiam habeant super his rebus Acta non prohibeantur So that not only Husbandry was permitted in small Towns and Villages but Manumission being a meer civil Act and of no small Ceremony was by him suffered and allowed in the greater Cities The first great work done by the first great Christian Prince was to declare his royal pleasure about this Day what things he thought most proper to permit and what to disallow upon it teaching all other Kings and Princes which have since succeeded what they should also do on the same occasion Nor did this pious Prince confirm and regulate the Lords day only but unto him we are indebted for many of these other Festivals which have been since observed in the Church of God It had been formerly a custom in the Christian Church carefully to observe the times and days of their departure who had preferred the Gospel before their lives and suffered many Torments and at last Death it self for the faith of Christ Euseb hist l. 4. c. 14. The Church of Smyrna and that 's the highest we need go testifieth in an Epistle writ ad Philomelienses that they did celebrate the day wherein their Reverend Bishop Polycarp did suffer Martyrdom with joy and gladness and an holy Convocation This was in Anno 170 or thereabouts And in the following Age Saint Cyprian taking notice of such men as were imprisoned for the testimony of a good Conscience appointed that the days of their decease should be precisely noted that so their memories might be celebrated with the holy Martyrs Ep. 8. l. 3. Denique dies corum quibus excedunt annotate ut commemorationes corum inter memorias martyrum celebrare possimus as there he hath it But hitherto they were only bare memorials for more they durst not do in those times of trouble their sufferings only signified to the Congregation and that they did unto this end that by exhibiting to the people their infinite indurances for the truth and testimony of Religion they also might be nourished in an equal constancy After when as the Church was in perfect peace it pleased the Emperour Constantine to signifie to all his Deputies and Lieutenants in the Roman Empire Euseb l. 4. cap. 23. that they should have a care to see those the memorials of the Martyrs duly honoured and solemnize Times or Festivals to be appointed in the Churches to that end and purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though these Festivals and Saints days became not forthwith common over all the World but were observed in those parts chiefly wherein the memory of the Saint or Martyr was in most esteem in which respect Saint Hierom calls them In Gal. 4. tempora in honore Martyrum pro diversa regionum varietate constituta yet in a little Tract of time such of them as had been most eminent as the Apostles and Evangelists were universally received and celebrated even as now they are as they are now observed in the Church of England De Martyr l. 8. and this I say upon the credit and authority of Theodoret. Who though he gives another reason and original of these Institutions informs us of these Festivals that they were modestae castae temperantia plenae performed with modesty chastity and sobriety not as the Festivals of the Gentiles were in excess and riot And not so only but he affirms this of them divinis canticis personandis sacrisque sermonibus audiendis intentae that they were solemnized with spiritual Hymns and religious Sermons and that the people used to empty out their souls to God in fervent and affectionate Prayers non sine lacrymis suspiriis even with sighs and tears As for Theodores he lived and flourished in the year 420. and speaks of these Festivals St. Peter and St. Thomas and St. Paul with others which he names particularly as things which had been setled and established a long time before and therefore could not be much after the time of Constantine who died not till the year 341 or thereabouts As for the eighth Book de Martyrib Where this passage is it is the 12. of those entituled de curandis Graec. affect And howsoever some exception hath been made against them as that they were not his whose names they carry yet find I no just proof thereof amongst our Criticks Now as the Emperour Constantine did add the Annual Festivals of the Saints unto those other Anniversary Feasts which formerly had been observed in the Christian Church so by his Royal Edict did he settle and confirm those publick meetings which had been formerly observed on each Friday weekly the Wednesday standing on the same Basis as before it did which was the custom of the Church De vit Const l. 4. c. 18. Eusebius having told us of this Emperours Edict about the honouring of the Sunday adds that he also made the like about the Friday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Sozomen adds that he enjoyned also the like Rest upon it the like cessation both from Judicature and all other Businesses and after gives this reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist l. 1. c. 8. He honoured the one saith he as being the day of our Redeemers Resurrection the other as the day of our Saviours Passion So for the practice of the Church in the following times that they used other days besides the Sundays is evident by many passages of Cyril of Hierusalem where he makes mention of the Sermon preached the day before
upon the Lords day shall yoak his Oxen and drive forth his wain dextrum bovem perdat his right hand Oxe shall be forthwith forfeit if he make Hay or carry it in if he now Corn or carry it in let him be once or twice admonished and if he amend not thereupon let him receive no less than 50 stripes Yet notwithstanding all this care when Charles the Great being King of France had mastered Germany which was 789. or thereabouts there had been little reformation in this point amongst them Therefore that Prince first published his own Regal Edict grounding himself secundum quod in lege praecepit dominus upon the prescript of Gods Law and there commands that all men do abstain from the works of Husbandry Which Edict since it speaks of more particulars at that time prohibited we will speak more thereof anon That not prevailing as it seems he caused five several Synods to be assembled at one time Anno 813. at Mentz at Rhemes at Tours at Chalons and Arles in all of which it was concluded against the Husband-man and many others more as we shall see in the next Section And yet we find some grudging still of the old disease as is apparent by a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. under Eugenius the second chap. 30. another in the same place Anno 853. under Leo the fourth Can. 30. the like in that of Compeigne held by Alexander the third what time he lived an exile in the Realm of France So for restraint of Law days or Courts of judgment those chiefly that determined of mens lives it was not brought about in these Western parts without great difficulty Witness besides the several Imperial Edicts before remembred Conc. Mogunt Anno. 813. Can. 37. Rhemens Can. 35. Turonens Can. 40. Arelatens Can. 16. being four of those Councils which were called by Charles as before was said as also that of Aken Anno 836. Can. 20. And though it was determined in the Roman Synod under Leo the fourth that no suspected person should receive judgment on that day a clause being added in the Canâ—â— legibus infirmari judicium eo die depromptum that all Acts sped upon that day were void in Law yet more than 300 years after it was so resolved of was Alexander the third in Council of Compeigne before remembred enforced particularly to revive it and then and there to set it down Ne aliquis ad mortem vel ad poenam judicetur that no man should upon that day be doomed to death or otherwise condemned unto bodily punishment So difficult a thing it was to wean the People from their labours and other civil business unto which they had been accustomed there being nothing to inforce or induce them to it but humane authority On the same reason as it seems Leo Philosophus Emperour of Constantinople did make use of Scripture when in conformity with the Western Churches he purposed to restrain the works of Husbandry on that day which till his time had been permitted The Emperour Constantine had ordained as before was shewn that all Artificers and such as dwelt in Cities should on the Sunday leave their trades but by the same Edict gave licence to the Husbandman to pursue his business as well upon that day as on any other But contrary this Leo surnamed Philosophus he began his Reign Ann 886. grounding himself for so he tells us on the Authority of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles but where he sound that warrant from the Holy Ghost and from the holy Apostles that he tells us not restrained the Husbandman from his work as well as men of other callings Nicephorus mistakes the man and attributes it to the former Leo whom before we spake of in our fourth Chapter Eccl. hist c. 22. Quo tempore primus etiam Leo constitutione lata ut dies dominicus ab omnibus absque labore omni per ocium transigeretur festusque venerabilis esset quemadmodum divis Apostolis visum est praecepit Where the last clause with the substance of the Edict make the matter plain that he mistook the man though he hit the busineses the former Leo using no such motive in all his Edict Constit 54. But take it from the Emperour himself who having told us first that the Lords day was to be honoured with rest from labour adds next that he had seen a Law he means that of Constantine quae non omnes simul operari prohibendos nonnullosque uti operentur indulgendum censuit which having not restrained all works but permitted some did upon no sufficient reason dishonour that so sacred day Then followeth Statuimus nos etiam quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit ut omnes in die sacro c. Ã labore vacent Neque Agricolae c. It is our will saith he according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles by him directed that on that sacred day whereon we were restored unto our integrity all men should rest themselves and surcease from labour neither the Husbandmen nor others putting their hand that day to prohibited work For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath which only was a shadow of ours are not we which inhabit light and the truth of grace obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death Are not we bound to keep it singularly and inviolably sufficiently contented with a liberal grant of all the rest and not encroaching on that one which God hath chosen for his service Nay were it not a retchless slighting and contempt of all Religion to make that day common and think that we may do thereon as we do on others So far this Emperour determins of it first and disputes it afterwards I only note it for the close that it was near 900 years from our Saviours birth if not quite so much before restraint of Husbandry on this day had been first thought of in the East and probably being thus restrained did find no more obedience there than it had done before in the Western parts As great a difficulty did it prove to restrain other things in these times projected although they carried it at the last The Emperour Constantine had before commanded that all Artificers in the Cities should surcease from labour on the Lords day as well as those whom he imployed in his seats of justice and questionless he found obedience answerable to his expectation But when the Western parts became a prey to new Kings and Nations and that those Kings and Nations had admitted the Laws of Christ yet did they not conceive it necessary to submit themselves to the Laws of Constantine and therefore followed their imployments as before they did And so it stood until the time of Charles the Great who in the year 789. published his regal Edict in this form that followeth In Legib.
Aquif granens Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do any servile work on the Lords day This in the general had been before commanded by his Father Pepin in the Council holden in Friuli but he now explicates himself in these particulars That is to say that neither men imploy themselves in works of Husbandry in dressing of their Vines ploughing their Lands making their Hay fencing their grounds grubbing of felling Treâ—â— working in Mines building of Houses planting their Gardens nor that they plead that day or go forth on hunting and that it be not lawful for the Women to weave or dress cloth to make Garments or Needle work to card their Wool beat Hemp wash Cloaths in publick or sheer Sheep but that they come unto the Church to divine service and magnifie the Lord their God for those good things which on that day he hath done for them After considering with himself that Fairs and Markets on this day were an especial means to keep men from Church he set out his Imperial Edict de nundinis non concedendis as my Author tells me Nor did he trust so far to his own Edict as not to strengthen it as the times then were by the Authority of the Church and therefore caused those five Councils before remembred to be Assembled at one time in four of which it was determined against all servile works and Law days as also ut mercatus in iis minime sit Concil Mogunt Can. 37. ne mercata excerceant Remens can 35. and so in those of Tours 40. and Arles 16. That of Chalons which was the fifth did only intimate that whereas the Lords day had been much neglected the better keeping of the same was to be established authentica constitutione Can. 50. by some Authentical constitution of the Emperour himself But whatsoever care this Emperour took to see his will performed and the Lords day sanctified it seems his Successour Ludovicus was remiss enough which being found as found it was the People fell again to their former labours Ploughing and Marketting and Law-days as before they did The Council held at Paris Concil Parisiens l. 1. c. 50. Anno 829. which was but sixteen years after the holding of the aforesaid Synods much complains thereof and withal adds that many of the Prelates assembled there knew both by same and by their own proper knowledge quosdam in hoc dit ruralia opera eâ—cercentes fulmine interemptos that certain men following their Husbandry on that day had been killed with lightning and others with a strange convulsion of their joints had miserably perished whereby say they it is apparent that God was very much offended with their so great neglect of that Holy day Rather with their so great neglect of their Superiours in that nor declaration of their King nor constitution of the Church could work so far upon them as to gain obedience in things conducing to Gods service Had working on that day been so much offensive in the sight of God likely it is we might have heard of some such judgments in the times before but being not prohibited it was not unlawful Now being made unlawful because prohibited God smote them for their frequent workings at times which were designed to another use not in relation to the day but their disobedience Therefore the Council did advise that first of all the Priests and Prelates then that Kings Princes and all faithful people would do their best endeavour for the restoring of that day to its ancient lustre which had so foully been neglected Next they addressed themselves particularly to Lodowick and Lotharius then the Roman Emperours ut cunctis metum incutiant that by some sharp injunction they would strike a terrour into all their Subjects that for the times to come none should presume to Plough or hold Law-days or Market as of late was used This probably occasioned the said two Emperours 852. to call a Synod at Rome under Leo the fourth Syn. Rom. Can. 30. where it was ordered more precisely than in former times ut die dominico nullus audeat mercationes nec in cibariis rebus aut quaelibet opera rustica facere that no man should from thenceforth dare to make any Markets on the Lords day no not for things that were to eat neither to do any kind of work that belonged to Husbandry Which Canon being made at Rome confirmed at Compeigne and afterwards incorporated as it was into the body of the Canon Law whereof see Decretal l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 2. became to be admitted without further question in most parts of Christendom especially when the Popes had attained their height and brought all Christian Princes to be at their devotion For then the people who before had most opposed it might have justly said Behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall we stand 2 Kings 10. Out of which consternation all men pre sently obeyed Tradesmen of all sorts being brought to lay by their Labours and amongst those the Miller though his work was easiest and least of all required his presence Nec aliquis à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominicae ad molendina aquarum vel ad aliqua alia molere audeat So was it ordered in the Council of Angeirs of which see Bochellus Anno 1282 wherein the Barber also was forbidden to use his Trade Yet were not those restraints so strict as that there was no liberty to be allowed of either for business or pleasure A time there was for both and that time made use of there being in the Imperial Edicts and Constitutions of the Church yea and the decretals of the Popes many reservations whereby the people might have liberty to enjoy themselves They had been else in worse condition than the Jews before In the Edict of Charles the Great before remembred though otherwise precise enough there were three several kinds of carriages allowed and licensed o the Lords day i.e. Hortalia carra vel victualia vel si forte necesse erit corpus cujuslibet ducere ad sepulchrum that is to say carriage of gardening Ware and carts of Victuals and such as are to carry a dead corps to burial So Theodulphus Aurelianensis who lived about the year 836. having first ut it down for a positive Rule that the Lords day ought with such care to be observed ut praeter orationes missarum solennia Epl. ap Bibl. Patr. ea quae ad vescendum pertinent nil aliud fiat that besides Prayer and hearing Mass and such things as belong to Food there is directly nothing that may be done admits of an exception or a reservation Nam si necessitaâ— fuerit navigandi vel itinerandi licentia datur For if saith he there be a necessary occasion either of setting Sail or
going a Journey this may be allowed of in case they permit not Mass and Prayers This I find extant as a Canon of the 6. General Council holden in Constantinople but since both this and all the rest of the same stamp there are nine in all are thought not to belong of right unto it I have chosen rather to rafer it to this Theodulphus though a private man amongst whose works I find it in the great Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 9. Thus in a Synod held at Coy within the Realm and Diocess of Oviedo Anno 1050. it was decreed that all men should repair to Church on the Lords day and there hear Mattins Mass and other the canonical hours as also Opus servile non exerceant nec sectentur itinera that they should do no servile work Tit. 6. nor take any Journey Yet with exceptions four or five namely unless it were for Devotions sake or to bury the Dead or to visit the Sick or finally pro secreto regis Saracenorum impetu on special business of the Kings or to make head against the Saracens The King was much beholden to them that they would take such care of his State Affairs more than some Princes might be now in case their business were at the disposing of particular men So had it been decreed by several Emperours yea and by several Councils too which for the East pars was confirmed by Emanuel Comneus the Eastern Emperiour Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all access to the Tribunal should be quite shut up that none of those who sat in Judgment should sit on any Cause that day Yet this not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. unless the King shall please on any new emergent cause as many times business comes unlooked for to appoint it otherwise Thus also for the works of labour fishing had been resirained on the Lords day as toilsom Act and on he other Holy days as well as that yet did it please Pope Alexander the third he entred on the Chair of Rome Decretal l. 2. tit 9. c 3. Anno 1160. to order by his decretal that on the Lords day and the rest it might be lawful unto those who dwelt upon the Coast Si halecia terrae inclinarint eorum captioni ingruente necessitate intendere to set themselves unto their fishing in case the Herring came within their reach and the time was seasonable Provided that they sent a convenient portion unto the Churches round about them and unto the poor Nay even the works of Handicrafts were in some sort suffered For whereas in the Council of Laodicea it was determined that men should rest on the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all their handy work and repair to Church Balsamon tells us in his Glass In Can. 29. concil Laod. that so it was resolved amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not absolutely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if with conveniency they could For still saith he he lived in Anno 1191 in case men labour on that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either because of want or any other necessity they are held excusable Lastly Chronic. Aditâ—i whereas Pope Gregory the ninth had on the Sundays and the Holy days commanded ut homines jumenta omnia quiescant that there should be a general restraint from labour both of man and beast there was a refervation also nisi urgens necessitas instet vel nisi pauperibus vel Ecclesiae gratis fiat unless on great necessity or some good Office to be done unto the poor or to the Church Nor were there reservations and exceptions only in point of business and nothing found in point of practice but there are many passages especially of the greatest persons and most publick actions left upon Record to let us know what liberty that assumed unto themselves as well on this day as the rest And in such only shall I instance and as being most exemplary and therefore most conducing to my present purpose Aventine Hist l. 3. And first we read of a great Battel fought on Palm-Sunday An. 718. between Charles Martel Grand master of the Houshold of the King of France and Hilpericus the King himself wherein the Victory fell to Charles and yet we read not there of any great necessity nay of none at all but that they might on both sides have deferred the Battel had they conceived it any sin to fight that day Upon the Sunday before Lent Anno 835. Ludovick the Emperour â—urnamed Pius or the godly together with his Prelates and others Baron which had been present with him at the Assembly held at Theonville went on his Journey unto Mets nor do we find that it did derogate at all from his Name and Piety Upon the Sunday after Whitsontide Anno 844. Ludowick Son unto Lotharius the Emperour made his solemn entrance into Rome the Roman Citizens attending him with their Flaggs and Ensigns the Pope and Clergy staying his coming in St. Peters Church there to entertain him Upon a Sunday Anno 1014. Ditmarus Hist l. 7. Otho Frising hist l. 6. c. 29. Henry the Emperour duodecim senatoribus vallatus environed with twelve of the Roman Senatours came to St. Peters Church and there was crowned together with his Wife by the Pope then being On Easter day in ipsa die paschalis solennitatis Anno 1027. Conrade the Emperour was solemnly inaugurated by Pope John Canutus King of England and Rodalph King of the Burgundians being then both present and the next Sunday after began his Journey towards Germany Upon Palm Sunday Anno 1084. Wibert Archbishop of Ravenna was solemnly inthronized in the Chair of Rome â—â—spergen Chronicon and the next Sunday after being Easter day Henry the third Imperiali dignitate sublimatus est was crowned Emperour On Passion Sunday Anno 1148. Lewis the King of France afterwards Canonized for a Saint made his first entry into Hierusalem with all his Army and yet we read not any where that it was laid in Bar against him to put by his Sainting as possibly it might be now were it yet to do What should I speak of Councils on this day assembled as that of Chartres Anno 1146. for the recovery of the Holy land of Tours on Trinity Sunday as we call it now Anno 1164. against Octavian the Pseudo-Pope that of Ferrara upon Passion Sunday Anno 1177. against Frederick the Emperour or that of Paris Anno 1226. summoned by Stephen then Bishop there on the fourth Sunday in Lent for the condemning of certain dangerous and erronious positions at that time on foot I have the rather instanced in these particulars partly because they hapned about these times when Prince and Prelate were most intent in laying more and more restraints upon their people for the more honour of this day and partly because being all of them publick actions and such as moved not forwards but by divers wheels they did require
as well upon the Saturday as upon the Sunday it is now time we turned our course and set sail for England where we shall find as little of it as in other places until that forty years ago no more some men began to introduce a Sabbath thereunto in hope thereby to countenance and advance their other projects CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Brittain from the first Planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittains 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in the Saxon Heptarchy 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings 5. New Sabbath Doctrins broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry AND now at last we are for England that we may see what hath been done amongst our selves in this particular and thereby be the better lessoned what we are to do For as before I noted the Canons of particular Churches and Edicts of particular Princes though they sufficiently declare both what their practice and opinion was in the present point yet are no general rule nor prescript to others which lived not in the compass of their Authority Nor can they further bind us as was then observed than as they have been since admitted into our Church or State either by adding them unto the body of our Canon or imitating them in the composition of our Acts and Statutes Only the Decretals of the Popes the body of their Canon Law is to be excepted which being made for the direction and reiglement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendome and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative Royal or the municipal Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England Now that we may the better see how it hath been adjudged of here and what hath been decreed ordome touching the Lords day and the other Holy-days we will ascend as high as possibly we can even to the Church and Empire of the Brittains Of them indeed we find not much and that delivered in as little it being said of them by Beda Hist l. 1. c. 8. that in the time of Constantine they did dies festos celebrare observe those Holy-days which were then in use which as before we said were Easter Whitsontide the Feasts of Christs Nativity and his Incarnation every year together with the Lords day weekly And yet it may be thought that in those times the Lords day was not here of any great account in that they kept the Feast of Easter after the fashion of the Churches in the Eastern parts decima quarta luna on what day of the week soever which certainly they had not done had the Lords day obtained amongst them that esteem which generally it had found in the Western Churches And howsoever a late writer of Ecclesiastical History endeavour to acquit the Brittains of these first Ages from the erroneous observation of that Feast Brought hist l. 4. c. 13. and make them therein followers of the Church of Rome yet I conceive not that his proofs come home to make good his purpose For where it is his purpose to prove by computation that that erroneous observation came not in amongst the Brittains till 30 years before the entrance of S. Austin and his associates into this Island and for that end hath brought a passage out of Beda touching the continuance of that custom It 's plain that Beda speaks not of the Brittish but the Scottish Christians Permansit autem apud eos the Scottish-Irish Christians as himself confesseth hujusmodi observantia Paschalis tempore non pauco hoc est usque ad annum Domini 717. per annos 150. which was as he computes it somewhat near the point but 30 years before the entrance of that Austin Now for the Scots it is apparent that they received not the faith till the year of Christ 430 not to say any thing of the time wherein they first set footing in this Island which was not very long before and probably might about that time of which Beda speaks receive the custom of keeping Easter from the Brittains who were next neighbours to them and a long time lived mingled with them But for the Brittains it is most certain that they had longer been accustomed to that observation though for the time thereof whether it came in with the first plantation of the Gospel here we will not contend as not pertaining to the business which we have in hand Suffice it that the Brittains anciently were observant of those publick Festivals which had been generally entertained in the Church of God though for the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter they might adhere more unto one Church than unto another As for the Canon of the Council of Nice Anno 198. which is there alledged Baronius rightly hath observed out of Athanasius that notwithstaning both the Canon and the Emperours Edicts thereupon tamen etiam postea Syros Cilices Mesopotamios in eodem errore permansisse the Syrians Cilicians and Mesopotamians continued in their former errours And why not then the Brittains which lay farther off as well as those that dwelt so near the then Regal City Proceed we next unto the Saxons who as they first received the faith from the Church of Rome so did they therewithal receive such institutions as were at that time generally entertained in the Roman Church the celebration of the Lords day and the other Festivals which were allowed of and observed when Gregory the Great attained the Popedom And here to take things as they lie in order we must begin with a narration concerning Westminster which for the prettiness of the story I will here insert Sebert the first Christian King of the East Saxons
having built that Church unto the honour of God and memory of Saint Peter invited Mellitus Bishop of London Adredus de Gestis Edwardi on a day appointed unto the consecration of it The night before S. Peter coming to the further side crosseth the Ferry goes into the Church and with a great deal of celestial musick lights and company performs that office for the dispatch of which Mellitus had been invited This done and being wafted back to the further side he gives the Ferri-man for his fare a good draught of Fishes only commanding him to carry one of them which was the best for price and beauty for a present from him to Mellitus in testimony that the work was done to his hand already Then telling who he was he adds that he and his Posterity the whole race of Fisher-men should be long after stored with that kind of Fish tantum ne ultra piscari audeatis in die Dominica provided always that they fished no more upon the Sunday Aldredus so reports the story And though it might be true as unto the times wherein he lived which was in the declining of the twelfth Century that Fishing on the Lords day was restrained by Law yet sure he placed this story ill in giving this injunction from St. Peter in those early days when such restraints were hardly setled if in a Church new planted they had yet been spoken of Leaving this therefore as a fable let us next look on Beda what he hath left us of this day in reference to our Ancestors of the Saxons-Race and many things we find in him worth our observation Before we shewed you how the Sunday was esteemed a Festival that it was judged heretical to hold Fasts thereon Hist l. 3. c. 23. This Ordinance came in amongst us with the faith it self S. Chadd having a place designed him by King Oswald to erect a Monastery did presently retire unto it in the time of Lent In all which time Dominica excepta the Lords day excepted he fasted constantly till the Evening as the story tells us The like is told of Adamannus Hist l. 4. c. 25. one of the Monastery of Coldingham now in Scotland but then accounted part of the Kingdom of Northumberland that he did live in such a strict and abstemious manner ut nil unquam cibi vel potus excepta die Dominica quinta Sabbati perciperet that he did never eat nor drink but on the Sunday and Thursday only This Adamannus lived in Anno 690. Before we shewed you with what profit Musick had been brought into the Church of God and hither it was brought it seems 〈◊〉 hist l. 2. c. 20. with the first preaching of the Gospel Beda relates it of Paulinus that when he was made Bishop of Rochester which was in Anno 631. he left behind him in the North one James a Deacon cantandi in Ecclesia peritissimum a man exceeding perfect in Church Musick who taught them there that form of singing Divine Service which which he learnt in Canterbury And after in the year 668 what time Archbishop Theodorus made his Metropolitical visitationn Lib. 4. c. 2. the Art of singing Service which was then only used in Kent for in the North it had not been so setled but that it was again forgotten was generally taken up over all the Kingdom Sonos cantandi in Ecclesia quos eatenusin Cantica tantum noverant ab hoc tempore per omnes Anglorum Ecclesias dicere coeperunt as that Author hath it Before we shewed how Pope Vitalianus Anno 653. added the Organ to that vocal Musick which was before in use in the Church of Christ In less than 30 years after and namely in the year 679. were they introduced by Pope Agatho into the Churches of the English and have continued in the same well near 1000 years without interruption Before we shewed you how some of the greater Festivals were in esteem before the Sunday Bed Eccl. hist l. 4. c. 19. and that it was so even in the Primitive times And so it also was in the Primitive times of this Church of England it being told us of Qu. Etheldreda that after she had put her self into a Monastery she never went unto the Bathes praeter imminentibus soleniis majoribus but on the approach of the greater Festivals such as were Easter Pentecost and Christmas for so I think he means there by Epiphanie as also that unless it were on the greater Festivals she did not use to eat above once a day This plainly shews that Sunday was not reckoned for a greater Festival that other days were in the opinion and esteem above it and makes it evident withal that they conceived not that the keeping of the Lords day was to be accounted as a part of the law of Nature or introduced into the Church by divine Authority but by the same Authority that the others were Ap. Lambert Archaion For Laws in these times made we meet with none but those of Ina a West-Saxon King who entred on his Reign Anno 712. A Prince exceedingly devoted to the Church of Rome and therefore apt enough to imbrace any thing which was there concluded By him it was enacted in the form that followeth Servus si quid operis patrarit die Dominico ex praecepto Domini sui liber esto c. If a servant work on the Lords day by the appointment of his Master he was to be set free and his Master was to forfeit 30 shillings but of he worked without such order from his Master to be whipped or mulcted Liber si hoc die operetur injussu Domini sui c. So if a Freeman worked that day without direction from his Master he either was to be made a Bondman or pay 60 shillings As for the Doctrine of these times In Luc. 59. we may best judg of that by Beda First for the Sabbath that he tell us ad Mosis usque tempora caeterorum dierum similis erat was meerly like the other days until Moses time no difference at all between them therefore not institute and observed in the beginning of the World as some teach us now Next for the Lords day that he makes an Apostolical sanction only no Divine Commandment as before we noted and how far Apostolical sanctions bind we may clearly see by that which they determined in the Council of Hierusalem Of these two Specialties we have spoken already This is the most we find in the Saxon Heptarchie and little more than this we find in the Saxon Monarchie In this we meet with Alured first the first that brought this Realm in order Lambert Archaion who in his Laws cap. de diebus festis solennibus reckoneth up certain days in which it was permitted unto Freemen to enjoy their Festival liberty as the phrase there is servis autem iis qui sunt legitima officiorum servitute astricti non item but not
holy the Lords day and you have not kept it neither repented of your sins c. I caused Repentance to be preached unto you and you believed not Thent sent I Pagans amongst you c. and because you did not keep the Lords day holy I punished you a while with famine c. Therefore I charge you all that from the ninth hour on the Saturday until Sun rising on the Monday no man presume to do any work but what is good or if he do that he repent him of the same Verily I say and swear unto you by my Seat and Throne and by the Cherubins that keep my seat that if you do not harken to this my Mandat I will no more send to you any other Epistle but I will open the heavens and rain upon you stones and wood and scalding water c. This I avow that you shall die the death for the Lords day and other festivals of my Saints which you have not kept and I will send amongst you Beasts with the heads of Lyons and the hair of Women and the tailes of Camels and they shall eat you and devour you There is a great deal more of this wretched stuff but I am weary of abusing both my pains and patience Only I cannot choose but wish that those who have enlarged their Lords day Sabbath to the same extent would either shew us some such letter or bring us any of the miracles which hereafter follow or otherwise be pleased to lengthen out the Festivals of the Saints in the self same manner as by this goodly Script they are willed to do But to procced the said Eustathius thus furnished and having found but ill success the former year in the Southern parts where he did Angliae Praelatos praedicatione sua molestare disturb the Prelates by his preachings as my Author hath it he went up to York There did he preach his doctrins and absolve such as had offended conditioned that hereafter they did shew more reverence unto the Lords day and the other Holy days doing no servile works upon them nec in diebus Dominicis exercerent forum rerum venalium particularly that on the Lords day they should hold no Markets The people hereunto assented and promised they would neither buy nor sell on the Lords day nisi forte cibum potum praetereuntibus excepting meat and drink to passengers Whereby it seems that notwithstanding all this terrour men were permitted yet to travel on the Lords day as they had occasion This coming to the notice of the King and Council my men were all fetched up such specially qui in diebus Dominicis forum rerum venalium dejecerant which had disturbed the Markets and overthrown the Booths and Merchandize on the Lords day and made to fine unto the King for their misdemeanour Then were they fain to have recourse to pretended miracles A Carpenter making a wooden Pin and a Woman making up her Web both after three on Saturday in the afternoon are suddenly smitten with the Palsey A certain man of Nafferton baking a Cake on Saturday night and keeping part until the morrow no sooner brake it for his breakfast but it gushed out blood A Miller of Wakefield grinding Corn on Saturday after three of the clock instead of Meal found his Bin full of Blood his Mill-wheel standing still of its own accord One or two more there are of the same edition And so I think is that related in the Acts and Monuments out of an old Book entituled de Regibus Angliae which now I am fallen upon these fables shall be joyned with them King Henry the Second saith the story being at Cardiffe in Wales and being to take horse there stood a certain man by him having on him a white Coat and being barefoot who looked upon the King and spake in this wise Good old King John Baptist and Peter straightly charge you that on the Sundays throughout all your Dominions there be no buying or selling nor any other servile business those only except which appertain to the preparation of meat and drink which thing if thou shalt observe whatsoever thing thou takest in hand thou shalt happily finish Adding withal that unless he did these things and amend his life he should hear such news within the twelve-moneth as would make him mourn till his dying day But to conclude what was the issue of all this Hoveden this terrible letter and forged miracles That the Historian tells us with no small regret informing us that notwithstanding all these miracles whereby God did invite the people to observe this day Populus plus timens regiam potestatem quà m divinam the people fearing more the Kings power than Gods returned unto their Marketting as before they did I say that the Historian tells it with no small regret for in that passionate discontent he had said before that inimicus humani generis the Devil envying the proceedings of this holy man so far so possessed the King and the Princes of darkness so he calls the Council that they forthwith proceeded against them who had obeyed him Which makes me think that this Eustathius was a familiar of the Popes sent hither for the introducing of those restraints which had been formerly imposed on most parts of Christendom though here they found no entertainment the Popes had found full well how ill their justlings had succeeded hitherto with the Kings of England of the Norman race and therefore had recourse to their wonted arts by prodigies and miracles to insnare the people and bring them so unto their bent And this I do the rather think because that in the following year Anno 1203. there was a Legate sent from Rome to William King of Scots with several presents and many indulgences Quae quoniam grato accepit animo Hect. Boet. lib. 13. eodem concilio approbante decretum est c. Which he accepting very kindly it pleased him with the approbation of his Parliament at that time assembled to pass a Law that Saturday from twelve at noon should be counted holy and that no man should deal in such worldly businesses as on the Feast-days were forbidden As also that at the sounding of the Bell the People should be busied only about holy actions going to Sermons hearing the Vespers or the Evensong idque usque in diem Lunae facerent and that they should continue thus until Monday morning a penalty being laid on those who should do the contrary So passed it then and in the year 1214 some eleven years after it was enacted in a Parliament at Scone Lex aquarum cap. 16. §. 2. under Alexander the third King of the Scots that none should fish in any waters à die Sabbati post vesperas usque ad diem lunae post ortum solis from Saturday after Evening prayer until Sun-rising on the Munday This after was confirmed in the first Parliament of King James the first and is to this day called the
Saturdays Slop So easily did the Popes prevail with our now friends of Scotland that neither miracle nor any special packet from the Court of Heaven was accounted necessary But here with us in England it was not so though now the Popes had got the better of King John that unhappy Prince and had in Canterbury an Archbishop of their own appointment even that Steven Langton about whom so much strife was raised Which notwithstanding and that the King was then a Minor yet they proceeded here with great care and caution and brought the Holy-days into order not by command or any Decretal from Rome but by a Council held at Oxford Ap. Lindwood Anno 1222. where amongst other Ordinances tending unto the Government of the Church the Holy-days were divided into these three ranks In the first rank were those quae omni veneratione servanda erant which were to be observed with all reverence and solemnity of which sort were omnes dies Dominici c. all Sundays in the year the feast of Christs Nativity together with all others now observed in the Church of England as also all the Festivals of the Virgin Mary excepting that of her Conception which was left at large with divers which have since been abrogated And for conclusion festum dedicationis cujuslibet Ecclesiae in sua parochia the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication of particular Churches in their proper Parishes are there determined to be kept with the same reverence and solemnity as the Sundays were Nor was this of the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication any new device but such as could plead a fair original from the Council held in Mentz anno 813. If it went no higher For in a Catalogue there made of such principal feasts as annually were to be observed they reckon dedicationem templi the consecration Feast or Wake as we use to call it and place it in no lower rank in reference to the solemnity of the same than Easter Whitsontide and the rest of the greater Festivals Now at the first those Wakes or Feasts of dedication were either held upon the very day on which or the Saints day to which they had been first consecrated But after finding that so many Holy days brought no small detriment to the Common-wealth it came to pass that generally these Wakes or Feasts of dedication were respited until the Sunday following as we now observe them Of the next rank of Feasts in this Council mentioned were those which were by Priest and Curate to be celebrated most devoutly with all due performances minoribus operibus servilibus secundum consuetudinem loci illis diebus interdictis all servile works of an inferiour and less important nature according to the custom of the place being laid aside Such were Saint Fabian and Sebastian and some twenty more which are therein specified but now out of use and amongst them the Festival of Saint George was one which after in the year 1414. was made by Chicheley then Archbishop a Majus duplex and no less solemnly to be observed than the Feast of Christmass Of the last rank of Feasts were those in quibus post missam opera rusticana concedebantur sed antequam non wherein it was permitted that men might after Mass pursue their Countrey businesses though not before and these were only the Octaves of Epiphany and of John the Baptist and of Saint Peter together with the translations of Saint Benedict and Saint Martin But yet it seems that on the greater Festivals those of the first rank there was no restraint of Tillage and of Shipping if occasion were and that necessity did require though on those days Sundays and all before remembred there was a general restraint of all other works For so it standeth in the title prefixt before those Festivals haec sunt festa in quibus prohibitis aliis operibus conceduntur opera agriculturae carrucarum Where by the way I have translated carrucarum shipping the word not being put for Plough or Cart which may make it all one with the word foregoing but for ships and sayling Carruca signifieth a Ship of the greater burden such as to this day we call Carrects which first came from hence And in this sense the word is to be found in an Epistle writ by Gildas Illis ad sua remeantibus emergunt certatim de Carruchis quibus sunt trans Scyticam vallem avecti So then as yet Tillage and Sayling were allowed of on the Sunday if as before I said occasion were Math. Westmonaster and that necessity so required Of other passages considerable in the Reign of K. Henry III. the principal to this point and purpose are his own Coronation on Whitsunday anno 1220. two years before this Council which was performed with great solemnity and concourse of People Next his bestowing the order of Knighthood on Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester accompanied with forty other gallants of great hopes and spirit on Whitsunday too Anno 1245. and last of all a Parliament Assembled on Mid-lent Sunday Parliamentum generalissimum the Historian calls it the next year after This was a fair beginning but they staid not here For after in a Synod of Archbishop Islippes he was advanced unto the See Lindw l. 2. tit de feriis Anno 1349. it was decreed de fratrum nostrorum consilio with the assent and counsel of all the Prelates then assembled that on the principal Feasts hereafter named there should be generally a restraint through all the Province ab universis servilibus operibus etiam reipubl utilibus even from all manner of servile works though otherwise necessary to the Common-wealth This general restraint in reference to the Sunday was to begin on Saturday night ab hora diei Sabbati vespertina as the Canon goes not a minute sooner and that upon good reason too ne Judaicae superstitionis participes videamur lest if they did begin it sooner as some now would have us they might be guilty of a Jewish superstition the same to be observed in such other Feasts quae suas habent vigilias whose Eves had formerly been kept As also that the like restraint should be observed upon the Feast of Christmass S. Steven S. John c. and finally on the Wakes or Dedication Feasts which before we spake of Now for the works before prohibited though necessary to the Common wealth as we may reckon Husbandry and all things appertaining thereunto so probably we may reckon Law-days and all publick Sessions in Courts of Justice in case they had not been left off in former times when as the Judges general being of the Clergy Finâ—â— of the Law l. 1. c. 3. might in obedience to the Canon-law forbear their Sessions on those days the Lords day especially For as our Sages in the Law have resolved it generally that day is to be exempt from such business even by the Common Law for the solemnity thereof to the intent that people may apply
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
in his Understanding Will Affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of St. John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinful Temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the Grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is said of many in the holy Scripture that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only right but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their Temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their unties so that they cannot be sedoced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of St. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. Cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving Doctrince once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient tranquility or assurance of mind It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Queen Maries Reign the Protestants were thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture than the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You said he have the Word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other ways as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is said to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments than in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their several Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Council of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Friezland Anno 1613. requiring and enjoying a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of all the Forces of those Vnited Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countreys made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continual Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrnats suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he march'd from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Countrey and the Rules of the Union This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Council which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of KIng James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held as Dort Anno 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissioned by King James to attend also in the Synod for th eRealm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the managing and conduct of it For as neither of them was assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more than all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Council of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion-sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part
Proclamation from the States General to banish them from their Native Countrey with their Wives and Children and so compelling them to beg their Bread even in desolate places But yet this was no end of their sorrows neither He must come under a new Cross and be calumniated for maintaining many horrid Blasphemies and gross impieties which they most abhorred For in the continuation of the History of the Netherlands written by one Cross a fellow of no parts or judgment and so more apt to be abused with a false report It is there affirmed whether with greater ignorance or malice it is hard to say That there was a Synod called at Dort to suppress the Arminians and that the said Arminians held amongst other Heresies First That God was the Authorâ—â— sin and Secondly That he created the far greater part of Man-kind only of purpose for to damn them with several others of that kind Which every man of reason knows not only to be the consequence and results of Calvins Doctrine but to be positively maintained and taught by some of his followers By which and such like subtile and malicious practises they endeavoured to expose their Adversaries to the publick hatred and make th em odious with the people till at last these poor men might have said most justly as one the primitive Christians did under the burden of the like Calumnies and Imputations Condemnati sumus quia nominamur non quia convincimur as Tertullian hath it the name of an Arminian carried a Condemnation in it self without any conviction Nor was their fury satisfied in Exauctorating Banishing and destroying those of the adverse party who lived within the compass of the Belgick Provinces the genius of the Sect being active in all parts alike in none more visibly than the neighbouring City of Ledan the principal seat and Signory of the Dukes of Bovillon Out of which Francisous Auratus a most faithful Minister of that Church is said to have been shamefully ejected for no other reason by those of the Calvinian party but because preaching on the Text of St. James 1.13 God tempteth no man c. he largely declared that God was not the Author of sin With what severity they proceeded in England when they had gotten the advantage of Power and Number and with what Calumnies and Reproaches they aspersed all those which were of a contrary persuasion to them the sequestring and ejecting of so many hundreds of learned and religious men from their several Benefices the most odious Pamphet called The first Century of Scandalous and MALIGNANT PRIESTS together with many uncharitable and disgraceful passages against them in the Writings of some Presbyterian Ministers do most clearly evidence CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. The Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being Enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard Expressions which were used of them by King James 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Propery began in Holland and pressed more importunatly in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who objected the same 6. The fourth CHarge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious people began in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridly 7. What moved King Jmaes to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesom nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian doctrine which may incline a man to seditious courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin 10. The Racrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England IT may be thought that some strange mystery of iniquity lay hidden under the Mask or Vail of the Five Articles last mentioned which made the Synodists so furiously to rage against them to use such cruelty for security is too mild a name to express their rigour towards all those who did maintain them For justifying whereof in the eye of the World both before and after the Synod course was taken to impeach their Doctrine in these points of no smaller crimes than to be destructive of Gods Grace introductory of Popery tending unto spiritual pride and to Sedition or Rebellion in the Civil Government Which Objections I shall here present as I have done the Arguments of most importance which were Excogitated and enforced against the Conclusions and Determinations of the Synod in the said five points and that being done I shall return such Answers as are made unto them First then it is objected that this Doctrine is destructive of Gods Free Grace reviving the old Pelagian Heresies â—â—â—man Annot Grotii Putat so long since condemned This is press'd by Boyerman in his Annotations on the Book of Grotius called Pietas Ordinum c. where he brings in Pareus charging them with having proceeded E Schola Caelestii Pelagii from no other School than that of Pelagius and Caelestius those accursed Hereticks Thycius another of the Contra-Remonstrants but somewhat more moderate than the rest in this particular conceives their Doctrine to incline rather to Semi-Pelagianism Et aut eandem esse aut non multo diversam and either to be the very same or not much different Declar. against Vorstius But the authority of King James was of greatest weight who in his heats against Vorstius calls them the Enemies of Gods grace Atheistical Sectaries and more particularly the Enemy of God Arminius as the King once called him To which Objection it is answered that whatsoever Paraeus and the rest might please to call them they had but little reason for it the Remonstrants speaking as honourably of the Grace of God as any other whatsoever And this they prove by comparing the first branch of the Fourth Article with that Golden saying of St. Augustine yiz. Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus
that is to say that we may will the things which are good and following or assisting that we do not will them to no purpose we are not able to do any thing in the works of Piety And by comparing the said Clause with St. Augustins words it cannot easily be discerned why the one party should be branded for the Enemies of the Grace of God while theo ther is honoured as the chief Patron and Defender of it It cannot be denied but that they ascribe somewhat more to the will of man than some of the rigid Lutherans and Calvinians do who will have a man drawn forcibly and irresistably with the cords of Grace velut inanimatum quiddam like a sensless stock without contributing any thing to his own salvation But then it must be granted also that they ascribe no more unto it than what may stand both with the Grace and Justice of Almighty God according to that Divine saying of St. Augustine viz. Si non est gratia Dei quomodo salvat mundum Si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo judicat mundum Were it not for the Grace of God no man could be saved and were there not a freedom of will in man no man with justice could be condemned And as for the Reproachful words which King James is noted to have spoken of them it hath been said with all due reverence to the Majesty of so great a Prince that he was then transported with prejudice or particular Interesse and therefore that there lay an Appeal as once to Philip King of Macedon from the King being not then well informed to the same King whensoever he should be better informed Touching their proceedings it was observed 1. That he had his Education in the Kirk of Scotland where all the Heterodoxies of Calvin were received as Gospel and therefore could not so suddenly cast off those opinions which he suckt in as it were with his MOthers Milk 2. He was much governed at that time by Dr. Mountague then Bishop of Bath and Wells and Dean of his Majesties Chappel Royal who having been a great Stickler in the Predestinarian Controversies when he lived in Cambridg thought it his best way to beat down all such Opinions by Kingly Authority which he could not over-bear by the strength of Arguments And thirdly That K. James had then a turn to serve for the Prince of Orange of which more anon which turn being served and Mountague dying not long after his ears lay open to such further informations as were offered to him which drew him to a better liking both of the Men and then Opinions than he had formerly entertained of either of them It is objected secondly that these Doctrines symbolize so much with the Church of Rome that they serve only for a Bridg for Popery to pass over into any Church into which they can obtain admittance This Calamity first laid upon them in a Declaration of the States General against Barnevelt before remembred wherein they charge him with a design of confederating with the Spaniard to change the Religion of those Countreys and countenancing to that end the Arminian party as his fittest Instruments which clamor being first raised in Holland was afterwards much cherished and made use of by the Puritan or Calvinian party amongst us in England By one of which it is alledged Justificat of the Fathers c. that Mr. Pym being to make a report to the House of Commons Anno 1626. touching the Books of Richard Mountague after Bishop of Chichester affirmed expresly that the whole scope of his Book was to discourage the well-affected in Religion and as much as in him lay to reconcile them unto Popery He gives us secondly a Fragment of a scattered Paper pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuits colledg in Bruxels in which the Writer lets him know that they had strongly fortified their Faction here in England by planting the Soveraign Drug Arminianism which he hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresie Thirdly he backs this Paper with a Clause in the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 1628. where it is said that the hearts of hsi Majesties Subjects were perplexed in beholding the daily growth and spreading of the Faction of Arminanism that being as his Majesty well knew so they say at least but a cunning way to bring in Popery To all which being but the same words out of divers mouths it is answered first That the points which are now debated between the Calvinians and the old Protestants in England between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Churches and finally between the rigid and moderate Lutherans in the upper Germany have been as fiercely agitated between the Franciscans and the Dominicans in the Church of Rome The old English Protestants the Remonstrants and the moderate Lutherans agreeing in these points with the Franciscans as the English Calvinists the Contra-Remonstrants and the rigid Lutherans do with the Dominicans So that there is a compliance on all sides with one of the said two differing parties in the Church of Rome And therefore why a general compliance in these points with the Fryers of S. Dominick the principal sticklers and promoters of that Inquisition should not be thought as a ready a way to bring in Popery as any such compliance with the Fryers of St. Francis he must be a very wise man indeed which can give the reason Secondly it is answered that the Melancthonian or moderate Lutherans which make up infinitely the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches agree in these points with the Jesuits or Franciscan Fryers and yet are still as far from relapsing to the Church of Rome as when they made the first separation from it And therefore thirdly that if Arminianism as they call it be so ready a Bridg for passing over to Popery it would be very well worth the knowing how and by what means it should come to pass that so few of the Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces and none of those whom they call Arminians in the Church of England should in so long a time pass over that Bridg notwithstanding all the provocations of want and scorn which were put upon the one and have been since multiplied upon the other In the next place it is observed that the Arminian Doctrines naturally incline a man to the sin of pride Justif of the Fathers c. p. 34. in attributing so much to the power of his own will and so little to the Grace of God in chusing both the means and working out of the end of his own salvation And for the proof hereof a passage is alledged out of the History of the Council of Trent that the first Opinion that is to say the Doctrine of Predestination according to the opinion of the Dominican Fryers as it is hidden and mystical keeping the mind humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformity of Sin and
bring them to utter tuin if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that King James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruin of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Ally he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachful names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselves it must be proved by some better evidence than the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an Answer the speech being so Hyperbolical not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to in all this business was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to find out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the death of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of five or six men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their Wars with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000 of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having gotten him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States General who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest Subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Counsels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered Commonwealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Armanians faulty in their practice against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians it as relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practices And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their Enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melancthonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered and predetermined by the eternal Will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavours in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travels to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed than as they have been predetermined by the Will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monk to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsel of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos Manil. de Sphe lib. curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy Soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not being pleased wherewith Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise than they did will Which Opinions saith he Madam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithful Ministers do sit in Council to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that came to pass of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal Ann. 1625. Cabuba p. 116. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinins as some which are opposite and contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master
fry in Hell and that he made them for no other purpose than to be the children of death and hell and that for no other cause but his meer pleasure sake and so say that God doth not only say but will swear to a lye For the Oath should have run thus As I live saith the Lord I do delight in the death of man Secondly it doth not by consequence but directly make God the Author of sin For if God without eye to sin did design men to hell then did he say and set down that he should sin for without sin he cannot come to hell And indeed doth not this Opinion say that the Almighty God in the eye of his Counsel did not only see but say that Adam should fall and so order and decree and set down his fall that it was no more possible for him not to fall than it was possible for him not to eat And of that when God doth order set down and decree I trust he is the Author unless they will say that when the Right honourable Lord Keeper doth say in open Court We order he means not to be the Author of that his Order Which said he tells us Thirdly Ibid. p. 135. that it takes away from Adam in his state of innocency all freedom of will and Liberty not to sin For had he had freedom to have altered Gods designment Adams liberty had been above the designment of God And here I remember a little witty solution is made that is if we respect Adams Will he had power to sin but if Gods Decrees he could not sin This is a filly solution And indeed it is as much as if you should take a sound strong man that hath power to walk and to lie still and bind him hand and foot as they do in Bedlam and lay him down and then bid him rise up and walk or else you will stir him up with a whip and he tell you that there be chains upon him so that he is not able to stir and you tell him again that that is no excuse for if he look upon his health his strength his legs he hath power to walk or to stand still but if upon his Chains indeed in that respect he is not able to walk I trust he that should whip that man for not walking were well worthy to be whipt himself Fourthly As God do abhor a heart and a heart and his soul detesteth also a double minded man so himself cannot have a mind and a mind a face like Janus to look two ways Yet this Opinion maketh in God two Wills the one flat opposite to the other An Hidden Will by which he appointed and willed that Adam should sin and an open Will by which he forbad him to sin His open Will said to Adam in Paradise Adam thou shalt not eat of the Tree of good and evil His Hidden Will said Thou shalt eat nay now I my self cannot keep thee from eating for my Decree from Eternity is passed Thou shalt eat that thou may drown all thy posterity into sin and that I may drench them as I have designed in the bottomless pit of Hell Fifthly Amongst all the Abominations of Queen Jezabel that was the greatest 1 Kings 21. when as hunting after the life of innocent Naboth she set him up amongst the Princes of the Land that so he might have the greater fall God planted man in Paradise as in a pleasant Vineyard and mounted him to the World as on a stage and honoured him with all the Soveraignty over all the Creatures he put all things in subjection under his feet so that he could not pass a decree from all Eternity against him to throw him down head-long into Hell for God is not a Jezabel Tollere in altum to lift up a man ut lapsu graviore ruat that he may make the greater noise with his fall But he goes on and having illustrated this cruel Mockery by some further instances he telleth us Ibid. p. 140. that the Poet had a device of their old Saturn that he eat up his Children assoon as they were born for fear least some of them should dispossess him of Heaven Pharaoh King of Egypt had almost the same plea for he made away all the young Hebrew Males lest they should multiply too fast Herod for fear our Saviour Christ should supplant him in his Kingdom caused all the young Children to be slain those had all some colour for their barbarous cruelty But if any of those had made a Law designing young Children to torments before they had been born and for no other cause and purpose but his own absolute will the Heavens in course would have called for revenge It is the Law of Nations that no man innocent shall be condemned of Reason not to hate where we are not hurt of Nature to like and love her own brood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the holy Ghost we are Gods Kindred he cannot hate us when we are innocent when we are nothing when we are not Now touching Gods Glory which is to us all as dear as our life this Opinion hath told us a very inglorious and shameful Tale for it saith the Almighty God would have many souls go to Hell and that they may come thither they must sin that so he may have just cause to condemn them Who doth not smile at the Grecians Conceit that gave their God a glorious title for killing of flies Gods Glory in punishing ariseth from his Justice in revenging of sin and for that it tells us as I said a very sad and unpleasant Tale for who could digest it to hear a Prince say after this manner I will beget met a Son that I may kill him that I may so get me a name I will beget him without both his feet and when he is grown up having no feet I will command him to walk upon pain of death and when he breaketh my Commandment I will put him to death O beloved these glorious fancies imaginations and shews are far from the nature of our gracious merciful and glorious God who hath proclaimed himself in his Titles Royal Jehovah the Lord the Lord strong and mighty and terrible slow to anger and of great goodness And therefore let this conceit be far from Jacob and let it not come near the Tents of Joseph How much holier and heavenlier conceit had the holy Fathers of the Justice of God Non est ante punitor Deus quam peccator homo God put not on the person of a Revenger before man put on the person of an Offender saith St. Ambrose Neminem coronat antequam vincit neminem punit antequam peccat he crowns none before he overcomes and he punisheth no man before his offence Et qui facit miseros ut miseratur crudelem habet miserecordiam he that puts man into miseries that he may pity him hath no kind but a cruel pity The absolute decree of Reprobation
thirty sixth Canon Directions to the Vice-Chancellor Heads c. Jan. 18. 1616. that no man in the Pulpit or Schools be suffered to maintain Dogmatically any point of doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England that none be suffered to preach or lecture in the Towns of Oxon or Cambridg but such as were every way conformable to the Church hoth in doctrine and discipline and finally which most apparently conduced to the ruin of Calvinism that young Students in Divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in doctrine and discipline to the Church of England and excited to bestow their time in the fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and abbreviations making them the grounds of their study in Divinity This seemed sufficient to bruite these doctrines in the shell as indeed it was had these directions been as carefully followed as they were piously prescribed But little or nothing being done in pursuance of them the Predestinarian doctrines came to be the ordinary Theam of all Sermons Lectures and Disputations partly in regard that Dr. Prideaux who had then newly succeeded Dr. Rob. Abbot in the Chair at Oxon had very passionately exposed the Calvinian Interest and partly in regard of the Kings declared aversness from the Belgick Remonstrants whom for the reasons before mentioned he laboured to suppress to his utmost power And yet being careful that the Truth should not fear the worse for the men that taught it he gave command to such Divines as were commissionated by him to attend in the Synod of Dort An. 1618. not to recede from the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ A point so inconsistent with that of the absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation and generally of the whole Machina of Predestination and the points depending thereupon as they are commonly maintained in the Schools of Calvin that fire and water cannot be at greater difference But this together with the rest being condemned in the Synod of Dort and that Synod highly magnified by the English Calvinists they took confidence of making those disputes the Subject of their common discourses both from the Pulpit and Press without stint or measure and thereupon it pleased his Majesty having now no further fear of any dangers from beyond the Seas to put some water into their Wine or rather a Bridle into their mouths by publishing certain Orders and directions touching Preachers and preaching bearing date the 4th of August 1622. In which it was enjoyned amongst other things Directions of preaching and Preachers That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a bishop or Dean at least do from henceforth presume to teach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Vniversality Efficacy Resistability or Irresistability of Gods Grace but rather leave those Theams to be handled by learned men and that modestly and moderately by use and application rather than by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities than for simple Auditors The violating of which Order by Mr Gabriel Bridges of Corpus Christi Colledg in Oxon by preaching on the 19. of January then next following against the absolute decree in maintenance of universal Grace and the co-operation of mans free-will prevented by it though in the publick Church of the University laid him more open to the prosecution of Dr. Prideaux and to the censure of the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of the Heads than any preaching on those points or any of them could possibly have done at mother time Much was the noise which those of the Calvinian party were observed to make on the publishing of this last Order as if their mouths were stopped thereby from preaching the most necessary doctrines tending towards mans salvation But a far greater noise was raised upon the coming out of Mountagues answer to the Gagger in which he asserted the Church to her primitive and genuine doctrines disclaimed all the Calvinian Tenents as disowned by her and left them to be countenanced and maintained by those to whom they properly belonged Which book being published at a time when a Session of Parliament was expected in the year 1624. The opportunity was taken by Mr. Yates and Mr. Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers of Ipswich to prepare an Information against him with an intent to prosecute the same in the following Session A Copy whereof being come into Mountagues hands he flies for shelter to King James who had a very great estimation of him for his parts and learning in which he had over-mastred they then though much less Selden at his own Philologie The King had already served his own turn against the Remonstrants by the Synod of Dort and thereby freed the Prince of Orange his most dear Confederate from the danger of Barnevelt and his faction Archbishop Abbot came not at him since the late deplorable misfortune which befell him at Branzil and the death of Dr. James Mountague Bishop of Winton left him at liberty from many importunities and sollicitations with which before he had been troubled so that being now master of himself and governed by the light of his own most clear and excellent Judgment he took both Mountague and his dectrines into his Protection gave him a full discharge or quietus est from all those Calumnies of Popery or Arminianism which by the said Informers were laid upon him iucouraged him to proceed in finishing his just Appeal which he was in hand with commanded Dr. Francis White then lately preferred by him to the Deanry of Carlisle and generally magnified not long before for his zeal against Popery to see it licensed for the Press and finally gave order unto Mountague to dedicate the book when printed to his Royal self In obedience unto whose Command the Dean of Carlisle licensed the book with this approbation That there was nothing contained in the same but what was agreeable to the publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But King James dying before the book was fully finished at the Press it was published by the name of Appello Caesarem and dedicated to King Charles as the Son and Successor to whom it properly belonged the Author touching in the Epistle Dedicatory all the former passages but more at large than they are here discoursed of in this short Summary And thus far we have prosecuted our Discourse concerning the Five Points disputed between the English Protestants the Belgick Remonstrants the Melancthonian Lutherans together with the Jesuits and Franciscans on the one side the English Calvinists the Contra Remonstrants the Rigid Lutherans and the Dominican Fryers on the other side In the last part whereof we may observe how difficult a thing it is to recover an old doctrinal Truth when overborn and almost lost by the
whom they found travelling on the Sunday though their business was of more concernment to them than the lifting of the Oxe or Asse out of the ditch With what a cursed rigour a Victualler hath been forced to pay ten shillings for selling a half-penny loaf to a poor man in the time of Sermon What penalty they procured to be ordained against Vintners Taylors Barbers for selling but a pint of Wine or carrying home a new suit of Cloaths or trimming the man that was to wear them on their Sabbath day And finally against all persons whatsoever for walking in the fields or streets after all the publick duties of the day were ended They may tell me what they will of their giving the right hand of Fellowship to some Divines of Transmarine Churches who differ in that Doctrine from them But quid verba audiam cum facta videam Ibid. the bleating of the Sheep and the lowing of the Oxen will not out of my ears though preferred under a pretence of making them an acceptable Sacrifice to the Lord their God But the main ondeavour of the Pamphlet is to bring me under the reproach of a Prophanation in using such words unto the King in a Petition of mine presented to him as it could not without sin be applied unto any but to Cod. A greater crime than any of the other two and as falsly charged It is suggested in the Libel that upon the sense of some indignity which was offered to me in being disturbed in my possession of a Lodging in Magdalen Colledge I made complaint unto the King of the great wrong which bad been done his Majesties creature and the workmanship of his hands and that for this expression I was checked by the Marquess of Hertford who was then Chancellor of that University for proof whereof we are referred to somewhat which was said in the Bursery of that Colledge before two of the fellows But first I hope that all things which we said in the Bursery before any two or more of the fellows Ecce inter pocula quaerant Romalides Saturi c. must not pass for Gospel nor that all Table-talk fit only for the Voider when the meal is done is to be preserved upon Record for undoubted Truths Secondly I am confident as I can be of any thing so long since done that no such expression ever passed my pen there being no visible necessity to enforce me to it I conceive Thirdly that the Libeller cannot be so much a Stranger to the Assembly Notes on Gen. 1.6 as not to know if he had learnt it no where else that it is a familiar phrase in the style of the court to say such an one was created Earl Marquess or Duke c. upon which ground the Members of the House of Peers were looked upon by our Republicans or Common-wealths men not without some contempt as his Majesties Creatures Creatures of the Prerogative as they commonly called them And therefore Fourthly that the Marquess of Hertford was not likely to reprove me for calling my self his Majesties Creature or the workmanship of his hands in reference to my temporal fortunes and the place I held about the King that Noble person acknowledging with a loyal gratitude that he received his Creation to the Honourable Title of Lord Marquess from the hands of his Majesty and that his being made Governour to the Princes Highness was the Kings sole Workmanship Finally if all expressions of this nature must be laid aside and that we must be taught a new Court-Dialect because some Divines of the Assembly and other professed enemies of Monarchical Government do not like the old we must discharge the Titles of most High and Mighty of Majesty and Sacred Majesty because disliked by Buchanan in his most seditious book de Jure Regni By whom such adjuncts are reputed inter Barbarismos Solecismos Aulicos amongst the Barbarisms and extravagancies of the Courts of Princes But for the clearer satisfaction of all equal and unbyassed persons I shall lay down the truth the whole truth and nothign but the truth as to that particular In which the Reader is to know that at his Majesties first making choice of Oxon for his Winter Quarters Anno 1642. The course of my attendance carried me to wait upon him there as a Chaplain in ordinary Where I had not been above a week when I received his Majesties command by the Clerk of the Closet for attending Mr. Secretary Nicholas on the morrow morning and applying my self from time to time to such directions as I should receive from him in order to his Majesties service Which command was afterwards re-inforced upon me when the time of my ordinary attendance of the Court was at an end for that year as can be proved by two several intimations of it under his own most Royal hand with this charge super-added to it that I was not to depart the Town without special leave I found by this that my attendance at the Court was like to last as long as the War and therefore that it did concern me to accommodate my self with Lodging and such other necessaries as might both encourage and enable me to perform those services which were required at my hands A Chamber in the Colledge being vacant within few months after by the absence of one of the Fellows and the death of the other I gained the free consent of the absent party Master Hobs by name in whom the sole right of it then remained to make use of it for my self and my little company Five moneths I quietly enjoyed it without interruption But coming from the Court on Alhallow-day I found some Souldiers in the Room who told me that they came to take possession of it for Master D. who had succeeded in the Rights of the man deceased and that they meant to keep it for him until further order This carried me back unto the Court where I acquainted Master Secretary with the indignity and affront which was put upon me desiring him either to defend me from contempt and scorn or that he would get me a discharge from that employment which had lain so long and heavy on me By his advice a short Petition was drawn up to this Sacred Majesty briefly containing the particulars before laid down and humbly praying in the close that he would graciously be pleased to extend unto me such a measure of his power and favour in the case before him as might preserve me in a fit capacity to proceed in those services which otherwise I could not be able to perform as I had done formerly His Majesty thereupon gave order to the now Lord Bishop of Lichfield being then President of the Colledge to fee me resetled for the present and to Sir Arthur Aston who was then Governour of the Town to take some strict course with his Souldiers for not giving me the like disturbance for the time to come which was the least I could expect from his
Thine always to be commanded in the Churches service P. H. Lacies Court in Abingdon Decemb. the 29th 1659. FINIS THE STUMBLING-BLOCK OF DISOBEDIENCE AND REBELLION Cunningly laid by Calvin in the Subjects way Discovered Censured and Removed By PETER HEYLYN D. D. ROM xiv 13. Offendiculum fratri tuo ne ponas Let no man put a Stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way ISAM xxiv 6. And David said to his men The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE IT will appear to any who shall read this Treatise that it was written in the time of Monarchical Government but in the later and declining times thereof when the change of that Government was in agitation and in part effected In which respect I doubt not but the publishing of this Discourse at this present time may seem unseasonable unto some and yet it may be thought by others to come out seasonably enopugh for these following Reasons 1. To give warning to all those that are in Supreme Authority to have a care unto themselves and not to suffer any Popular and Tribunitian Spirits to grow amongst them who grounding upon Calvins Doctrine both may and will upon occasion create new disturbances 2. To preserve the Dignity of the Supreme Power in what Person soever it be placed and fix his Person in his own Proper Orb the Primum Mobile of Government brought down of late to be but one of the three Estates and move in the same Planetary Sphere with the other two 3. To keep on foot the claim and Title of the Clergy unto the Reputation Rights and Priviledges of the Third Estate which doth of right belong unto them and which the Clergy have antiently enjoyed in all and to this day in most Christian Kingdoms 4. To shew unto the World on whose authority the Presbyterians built their damnable Doctrine not only of curbing and restraining the power of Princes but also of deposing them from their Regal Dignity whensoever they shall please to pretend cause for it For when the Scotch Commissioners were commanded by Queen Elizabeth to give a reason of their proceedings against their Queen whom not long before they they had deposed from the Regal Throne they justified themselves by those words of Calvin which I have chosen for the Argument of this Discourse By the Authority of Calvin as my Author hath it they endeavoured to prove that the Popular Magistrates are appointed and made to moderate and keep in order the excess and unruliness of Kings and that it is lawful for them to put the Kings that be evil and wicked into prison and also to deprive them of their Kingdoms If these reasons shall not prove the seasonableness of this Adventure I am the more to be condemned for my indiscretion the shame whereof I must endure as well as I can This being said in order to my Justification I must add somewhat of the Book or Discourse it self in which the canvasing and confuting of Calvins Grounds about the Ephori of Sparta the Tribunes of Rome and the Demarchi of Athens hath forced me upon many Quotations both Greek and Latin which to the Learned Reader will appear neitehr strange nor difficult And for the sake of the Vnlearned which are not so well verst and studied in foregin Languages I have kept my self to the direction of St. Paul not speaking any where in a strange Tongue without an Interpreter the sense of every such Quotation being either declared before or delivered after it Lastly whereas the Name of Appius Claudius doth many times occur in the History of the Roman Tribunes it is not always to be understood of the same Man but of divers men of the same Name in their several Ages as the name of Caesar in the New Testament signifieth not one man but three that is to say the Emperour Tiberius in the Gospels Claudius in the Boo of the Acts and that most bloody Tyrant Nero in the Epistle to the Philippians Which being premised I shall no longer keep the Reader in Porch or Entrance but let him take a view of the House it self the several Rooms Materials and Furniture of it long Prefaces to no long Discourses being like the Gates of Mindum amongst the Antients which were too great and large for so small a City The Argument and occasion of this following Treatise Joh. Calvini Institution Lib. 4. cap. 20â— Sect. 31. NEQVE enim si ultio Domini est effrenatae dominationis correctio ideo protinus demandatam nobis arbitremur quibus nullum aliud quam parendi patiendi datum est Mandatum De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam siqui nunc sint Populares Magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedaemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam forte potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singulis Regnis tres Ordines cum primarios Conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Regum licentiiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassantibus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniveant corum dissimulationem nefaria perfidia non carere affirmem qua populi liberiatem cujus se Dei ordinatione tuiores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt NOR may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power is devolved on us to whom no other warrant hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as were the Ephori set up of old against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchi against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the World now goes the three Estates are seized in each several Kingdom when they are solemnly assembled so far am I from hindring them to put restraints upon the exhorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a perfidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects Liberties of which they knew they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance THE STUMBLING-BLOCK OF Disobedience and Rebellion c. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Obedience laid down by CALVIN and of the Popular Officers supposed by him whereby he overthroweth that Doctrine 1. The purpose and design of the Work in hand 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin 3. And that not only to
the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some popular Officers ordained of purpose te regulate the power of Kings 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine in the point of Obedience 7. Severasl Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and his Scholars 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience 10. The method and distribution of the following Work SOME Writers may be likened unto Jeremies Figs of which the Prophet saith that if they were good they were very good Jerem. 24.4 if evil very evil such as could not be eaten they were so evil Of such a tempera nd esteem was Origen amongst the Ancients of whom it was observed not without good cause that in his Expositions of the Book of God and other learned Tractates which he writ and published where he did well none could do it better and where he failed at all no man erred more grosly And of this sort and composition was Mr. Calvin of Geneva than whom there is not any Minister of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas who hath more positively expresly laid down the Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes and the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign nor opened a more dangerous gap to disobedience and rebellions in most States of Christendom In which it is most strange to see how prone we are such is the frailty and corruption of our sinful nature to refuse the good and choose the evil to take no notice of his words when it most concerns us when we are plainly told our duties both to God and man and on the other side to take his words for Oracles his Judgment for infallible all his Geese for Swans when he saith any thing which may be useful to our purposes or serve to the advancement of our lewd designs The credit and authority of the man was deservedly great amongst the people where he lived and in short time of such authority and esteem in the World abroad that his works were made the only Rule to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be conformed and if a Controversie did arise either in points Dogmatical or a case of Conscience his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was sufficient to determine in it at least to silence the gainsayers And as it is observed in the works of Nature that corruptio optimi est pessima and that the sweetest meats make the sourest exrements so the opinion and esteem which some of the Reformed Churches and conceived of him which to say the truth was great and eminent and the ill use they made of some words and passages in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes have been the sad occasion of those Wars and miseries which almost all the Western parts of Christendom have been so fatally involved in since the times he lived Which words and passage as they are cautelously laid down and compassed round with many fair expressions of affection to the Supream Powers that they might pass without discovery and be the sooner swallowed by unwary men so by his followers who are exceeding wise in their Generations have they been hidden and concealed with all art that may be For though they build their dangerous Doctrines upon his foundation and toss this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ball of discord and dissension from one hand to another yet do they very cunningly conceal their Author and never use his name to confirm their Tenets And this they do upon this reason that if their Doctrine give offence unto Christian Princes and any of their Pamphlets be to feel the fire or otherwise come under any publick censure as not lonce since hapned to Paraeus the Patron of their Sect might escape untouched and his authority remain unquestioned to give new life unto their hopes at another time In which respects and withal seeing that the heads of this monstrous Hydra of sedition do grow the faster for the cutting and that the lopping off the Branches keeps the Trunk the fresher I shall pass by the petit Pamphleters of these times and strike directly at the head and without medling with the boughs or branches will lay my Ax immediately to the root of the Tree and bring the first Author of these factious and Antimonarchical Principles which have so long disturbed the peace of Christendom to a publick trial A dangerous and invidious undertaking I must needs confess but for my Countreys and the truths sake I will venture on it and in pursuance of the same will first lay down the doctrine of Obedience as by him delivered which I shall faithfully translate without gloss or descant and next compare his Doctrine with our present practice noting wherein his Scholars have forsaken their Master with application unto those who do most admire him and finally I shall discover and remove that Stumbling-block which he hath cunningly laid before us but hid so secretly that it can hardly be discerned at which so many a man hath stumbled both to the breaking of his own neck and his Neighbours too This is the race that I am to run the prize I aim at is no other than forasmuch as in me lieth to do good to all men to those especially who think themselves to be of the houshold of Faith And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us on in Gods Name Subditorum erga suos Magistratus Officium primum est de eorum functione quà m honorificientissimè sentire Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. fect 22. c. the first duty of the Subjects towards their Magistrates is to think wondrous honourably of their place and function which they acknowledg to be a jurisdiction delegated by Almighty God and therefore are by consequence to respect and reverence them as the Ministers and Deputies of God For some there are who very dutifully do behave themselves towards their Magistrates and would have all men do the like because they think it most expedient for the Common-wealth and yet esteem no otherwise of them than of some necessary evils which they cannot want 1 Pet. 2.17 Prov. 24.21 But St Peter looks for more than this when he commandeth us to honour the King and so doth Solomon also where he requires us to fear God and the King For the first under the term of honouring comprehends a good esteem a fair opinion the other joyning God and the King together shews plainly that in the person of a King there is a Ray of sacred majesty And that of Paul is richly worth our observation Rom. 13.5 where
Kings than of the Thief that steals thy goods or the Adulterer that defiles thy marriage-bed or the Murderer that seeks thy life all which are reckoned for Gods curses in the holy Scripture The point we purpose to make proof of goeth not down so easily that is to say That in the vilest men and most unworthy of all honour if they be once advanced to the publick Government there doth reside that excellent and divine Authority which God hath given in holy Scripture to those who are the Ministers of his heavenly Justice who therefore are to be reverenced by the Subject for as much as doth concern them in the way of their publick duties with as much honour and obedience as they would reverence the best King were he given unto them And first the Reader must take notice of the especial Act and Providence of Almighty God SECT 26. not without cause so oft remembred in the Scriptures in disposing Kingdoms Dan. 2 21 37. and segging up such Kings as to him seems best The Lord saith Danicl changeth the times and the seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings And in another place That the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Which kind of sentences as they are very frequent in the Scriptures so is that Prophesie most plentiful and abundant in them No man is ignorant that Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Hierusalem was a great spoiler and oppressor yet the Lord tells us by Ezechicl that he had given unto him the land of Egypt for the good service he had done in laying it waste on his Commandment Dan. 2.37 And Daniel said unto him thus Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory And wheresoever the children of men dwell the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all Again to Belshazzer his son Dan. 5.18 The most high God gave unto Nebuchadnezzar thy father a Kingdom and majesty and glory and honour and for the majesty that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him Now when we hear that Kings are placed over us by God let us be pleased to call to mind those several precepts to fear and honour them which God hath given us in his Book holding the vilest Tyrant in as high account as God hath graciously vouchsafed to estate him in When Samuel told the people of the house of Israel what they should suffer from their King 1 Sam. 8.11 he expressed it thus This will be the manner of the King which shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and some shall run before his Chariots And he will appoint him Captains over thousands and Captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of War and instruments of his Chariots And he will take your daughters to be his Confectionaries and to be Cooks and to be Bakers And he will take your fields and your Vineyards and your Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give to his Officers and to his Servants And he will take your men-servants and your maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your Asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his Servants Assuredly their Kings could not do this lawfully whom God had otherwise instructed in the Book of the Law but it is therefore called Jus Regis the right of Kings upon the Subject which of necessity the Subjects were to submit unto and not to make the least resistance As if the Prophet had thus said So far shall the licentiousness of your Kings extend it self which you shall have no power to restrain or remedy to whom there shall be nothing left but to receive the intimation of their pleasures and fulfil the same But most remarkable is that place in the Prophet Jeremy SECT 27. which though it be somewhat of the longest I will here put down because it doth so plainly state the present question Jer. 27. â— I have made the earth saith the Lord the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my out-stretched Arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me And now have I given all these Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon my Servant and the Beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him and all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son until the very time of his Land come and it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the King of Babylon that Nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence wherefore serve the King of Babylong and live We see by this how great a measure of obedience was required by God towards that fierce and cruel Tyrant only because he was advanced to the Kingly Throne and did by consequence participate of that Regal Majesty which is not to be violated without grievous sin Let us therefore have this always in our mind and before our eyes that by the same decree of God on which the power of Kings is constituted the very wickedest Princes are established and let not such seditious thoughts be admitted by us that is to say that we must deal with Kings no otherwise than they do deserve and that it is no right nor reason that we should shew our selves obedient subjects unto him who doth not mutually perform the duty of a King to us It is a poor objection which some men have made viz. that that command was only proper to the Israelites for mark upon what grounds the command was given SECT 28. I have given saith the the Kingdom unto Nebuchadnezzar wherefore serve him and ye shall live and thereupon it needs must follow that upon whomsoever God bestows a Kingdom to him we must address our service and that assoon as God hath raised any to the Regal Throne he doth sufficiently declare his will to be that he would have that man to reign over us Some general testimonies of this truth are in holy Scripture For thus saith solomon For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 24.2 and job He looseth the band of Kings and girdeth their loins with a girdly Job 12.18 Which if confessed there is no remedy at all but we must serve those Kings if we mean to
live There is another Text in the Prophet Jeremy by which the People are commanded to seek the peace of Babylon Jer. 29.7 whither God had caused them to be carried away captive and to pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof was their peace to be Behold the Israelites being despoiled of their Estates driven from their houses carried into exile and plunged in a most miserable thraldom are yet required to pray for the prosperity of the Conqueror not only as we are commanded in another place to pray for them that persecute us but that his Empire might continue in peace and safety that they themselves might quietly enjoy the protection of it Thus David being appointed King by the Lords own Ordinance and anointed with his holy Oyl when undeservedly he was persecuted and pursued by Saul would not give way that any corporal hurt should be done to that sacred person whom God had raised unto the Kingdom The Lord forbid saith he 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. Again But mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lords Anointed And again who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch my hand against the Lords Anointed This reverence and dutiful regard we ought to carry towards our Governors SECT 29. to the very end however they may chance to prove Which therefore I repeat the oftner that we may learn not to enquire too narrowly into the men but to rest our selves content with this that they sustain that place or person by the Lords appointment in which he hath imprinted and ingraved a most inviolable character of sacred Majesty But some will say that Rulers owe a mutual duty to their Subjects That hath been formerly confessed from which if any should infer that no obedience must be yielded but to their just and legal power he were a very sorry disputant Husbands are bound in mutual bonds unto their Wives and so are Parents to their Children Suppose that both neglect their duties that Parents who are prohibited by God to provoke their Children unto wrath be so untractable and harsh to them that they do grieve them above measure with continual sourness and that Husbands who are commanded to love their Wives and to give honour to them as the weaker vessel should use them with contempt and scorn should therefore Children be the less obedient to their Parents or Wives less dutiful to their Husbands We see the contrary that they are subject to them though both lewd and froward Since therefore nothing doth concern us more than that we trouble not our selves with looking into the defects of other men but carefully endeavour to perform those duties which do belong unto our selves more specially ought they to observe this rule who live under the authority and power of others Wherefore if we are inhumanely handled by a cruel Prince or by a covetous and luxurious Prince dispoiled and rifled if by a slothful one neglected or vexed for our Religion by a lewd and wicked let us look back upon our sins which God most commonly correcteth with this kind of scourges the thought whereof will humble us and keep down the impatience of our angry spirits Let us consider with our selves that it appertains not unto us to redress these mischiefs that all which doth belong to us is to cry to God Prov. 21.1 in whose hands are the hearts of Kings and be turneth them whithersoever he will He is that God which standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth amongst the Gods before whose face all Kings shall fall and be confounded and all the Judges of the earth who do not reverence his Christ but make unjust Laws to oppress the Poor and offer violence to the man of low condition and make a spoil of Widows and a prey of Orphans And here we may as well behold his goodness SECT 30. as his power and providence For sometimes he doth raise Avengers from amongst his servants and furnisheth them with power sufficient as well to execute vengeance on such wicked Rulers as to redeem his People so unjustly vext from the house of bondage and sometimes useth to tht end the fierce wrath of others who think of nothing less than to serve his turn Thus he redeemed his People Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh by the hand of Moses from Cushan King of Syria by Othoniel from other thraldoms by some other of their Kings and Judges Thus did he tame the pride of Tyre by the arms of Egypt the insolence of Egypt by the Assyrians the fierceness of Assyriah by the Chaldeans the confidence of Babylon by the Medes and Persians after that Cyrus had before subdued the Medes Thus did he sometimes punish the ingratitude of the Kings of Judah and Israel and that ungodly contumacy which they carried towards him notwithstanding all his benefits conferred upon them by the Assyrians first the Babylonians after But we must know that though these several instrunents did the self same work yet they proceeded not in the self same motives For the first sort being thereto lawfully authorized and called by Almighty God by taking up Arms against their Kings did nothing less than violate that sacred Majesty which is inherent in King by Gods holy Ordinance but being armed from Heaven did only regulate and chastise the lesser power by the help of the greater as Princes use sometimes to correct their Nobles The later sort though guided by the hand of God as to him seemed best so that they did unknowingly effect what he had to do intended only the pursuit of their own designs But what soever their designs and intentions were the Lord did justly use them to effect his business SECT 31. when by their means he broke the bloody Scepters of those insolent Kings and overthrew their wicked and tyrannical Empires Hear this ye Princes and be terrified at the hearing of it But let not this afford the least encouragement unto the Subject to violate or despise the Authority of the Magistrate which God hath filled so full of majesty and fortified by so many Edicts from the Court of Heaven though sometimes an unworthy person doth enjoy the same and such a one as doth dishonour it by his filthy life Nor may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power of executing vengeance is devolved on us to whom no other precept hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam si qui nunc sint
Sect. 23. or be tumultuously active in it His followers will not trust the Magistrates in the performance of their own Office but are all Counsellors and Statesmen and think that nothing is done well but what is done as they would have it and by their own hands too ◠one other Whether things be amiss or not they must needs be doing Not by presenting their desires for a Reformation and making known the fault if such fault there be to their Supream Magistrates which was the way their Master taught them but by raising tumults to affright them The attempt of the French Hugonots at Ambois upon Charles the ninth and the two tumults at Edenburgh the one about the year 1593. against the person of King James and the other in the year 1637. against the Ministers of King Charles whill not be forgotten whilst Calvin and his Institutions are in print amongst us Calvin requires that we should yield obedience not only to such Kings and Princes Sect. 25. which faithfully and as they ought do discharge their Office but even to all those also which do nothing less than perform their duties not only to the meek and gentle but even unto the fiercest and most cruel Tyrant if any such be raised by God to the Kingly Throne Sect. 27. His followers resolve not to yield obedience to their Kings and Princes though they can charge them with no fault but their too much lenith unless it be that they have caused them to surfeit upon peace and plenty or that the people grew too rich and lived too happily and drove too great a Trade under their command and are so far from yielding obedience to a Tyrant or a severe and cruel Prince call him which you will that neither the innocent minority of Charles the ninth nor the moderate Government of the Dutchess of Parma in the Netherlands nor the mild peaceable temper of King James when he reigned in Scotland could save them from their insolencies and insurrections Finally Calvin doth declare that though we be inhumanly handled by a cruel Prince or by a covetous or luxurious Prince dispoiled and rifled though by a slothful one neglected or vexed for our Religion by a lewd and wicked yet it pertains not unto us to redress these mischiefs that all the remedy that we have is to cry to God Sect. 29. Sect. 31. Sect. 27. and till God takes the work in hand to obey and suffer and absolutely condemns those seditious thoughts which some men are too apt to harbour that we must deal with Kings no otherwise than they shall deserve His Followers if they think themselves oppressed though indeed they are not or that Religion is in danger though indeed it be not or the honour of the State neglected though never of so much repute nor so bravely managed will not descend so low as to cry to God or be so pusillanimous and so poorly minded as only to obey and suffer that were a weakness fit for none but the primitive Christians but take the Sword into their hands be it right or wrong to force their Kings to come unto a reckoning with them as if they would have reparation from them for their former sufferings and would have reparation no way but that And as for dealing with their Kings no otherwise than they do deserve although the maxim be unsafe and the very though thereof seditious as their Master tells them would they would hold themselves to that which had they done so many Kings in Christendom had not been so unjustly handled driven from their Palaces expelled their Cities robbed of their Fortresses and Revenues assaulted in the open Fields and forced sometimes to change both their Council and their Guards the ordinary practice by the Hugonots in France the Presbyterians in Scotland the Calvinists in the Netherlands and indeed where not had they been dealt withal no otherwise than they deserved Next let us look upon them in their points of Doctrine and we shall find the Scholars and their Master at a greater distance than before we saw them at in point of practice Calvin determines very soundly that Kings h ave their Authority from none but God non nisi à se habere imperium Sect. 2◠that the supream Magistracy is a jurisdiction devolved from God upon the person of the Magistrate or delegata à Deo jurisdictio Sect. 22. that it is the singular work or act of God to dispose of Kingdoms and to set up such Kings as to him seems meet which he calls Singularem Dei actionem in distribuendis Regnis statuendisque QVOS ILLI VISVM FVERIT REGIBVS and finally that in every King or Supream Governor ther is inviolabilis majestas Sect. 2◠and indelible character of Majesty imprinted by the hand of God His Scholars tell us that Kings are only creatures of the peoples making and that whatever power they have is derived from them The Observator and the Fuller Answer unto Dr. Fern and almost all our later Scriblers do resolve it so They tell us secondly which must needs follow from the former that the people have the sole power of disposing Kingdoms and setting up such Kings as they list themselves and being so set up that there is no more Majesty no brighter beam of Gods divinity in them than in other men Buchanan so affirms for certain Populo jus est imperium cui velit deferat Buchanan de jure regni and confidently reckoneth those reverend Attributes of Majesty and Highness which usually are given to Kings and Princes inter soloecissimos barbarismos Aulicos Id. in Epist ad amongst the Solecisms and absurdities of Princes Courts Calvin determins very Orthodoxly that though the King degenerate and become a Tyrant though he infringe the Subjects liberties and invade their fortunes persecute them for their piety and neglect their safety and be besides a vitious and libidinous person yet still his Subjecs ae to look upon him in all things which pertain to their publick duties was as much honour and obedience as they would do the justest and most vertuous Prince that was ever given unto a people Eadem in reverentia dignatione habendum Sect. 25. quantum ad publican obedientiam attinet qua optimum Regem si daretur habituri essent His Scholars sing another Song and use all arts imaginable to excite the people to rise against them and destroy them The Author of that scandalous and dangerous Dialogue entituled Eusebius Philadelphus doth expresly say that of all good actions the murther of a Tyrant is most commendable Buchanan accounts it a defect in Polities Euseb Philadelph Dial. Buchanan de jure regni proemia eorum interfecoribus non decerni that publick honours and rewards are not propounded unto such as shall kill a Tyrant and some late Pamphleters conclude it lawful to rebel in the case of Tyranny because forsooth If a King exercising
Tyranny over his Subjects may not be resisted that is to say if the Subject may not take up Arms against him he and his followers may destroy the Kingdom And and we are fallen upon the business of Resistance Calvin allows of no case for ought I can see in which the Subject lawfully may resist the Sovereign Sect. 23. quandoquidem resisti magistratui non potest quin simul resistatur Deo forasmuch as the Magistrate cannot be resisted but that God is resisted also and reckoning up those several pressures whereof Samuel spake unto the Jews and which he calls jus Regis as himself translates it he concludes at last Sect. 26. cui parere ipsi necesse esset nec obsistere liceret that no resistance must be made on the Subjects part though Kings entrench as much upon them both in their liberties and properties as the Prophet speaks of His Scholars are grown wiser and instruct us otherwise Paraeus saith that if the King assault our persons or endeavour to break into our Houses we may as lawfully resist him as we would do a Thief or Robber on the like occasions And our new Master have found out many other Cases in which the Subject may resist and which is more than so is bound to do it Paraeus in Rom. cap. 13. as namely in his own behalf and in Gods behalf in behalf of his Countrey and in behalf of the Laws and in so many more behalfs that they have turned most Christian Kings out of half their Kingdoms But to go on Calvin determins very rightly that notwithstanding any Contract made or supposed to be made between a King and his people yet if the King do break his Covenants and oppress the Subject the Subject can no more pretend to be discharged of his Allegiance than the Wife may lawfully divorce herself from a froward Hisband or Children throw aside that natural duty which they owe their Parents because their Parents are unkind and it may be cruel Those which do otherwise conclude from the foresaid Contract he calls insulsos ratioeinatores Sect. 29. but sorry and unsavory Disputants and reckoneth it for a seditious imagination that we must deal no otherwise with Kings than they do deserve nec aequum esse ut subditos ei nos praestemus qui vicissim Regem nobis non se praestet Sect. 27. or to imagine that it is neither sense nor reason that we should â—â—ew our selves obedient subjects unto him who doth not mutually perform the duty of a King to us His Scholars are grown able to teach their Master a new Lesson and would tell him if he were alive that there is a mutual Contract between King and Subjects and if he break the Covenant he forfeiteth the benefit of the Agreement and he not performing the duty of a King they are released from the duty of Subjects As contrary to their Masters Tenet as black to white and yet some late Pamphleters press no doctrine with such strength and eagerness as they have done this Nor have the Pulpits spaâ—ed to publish it to their cheated Auditories as a new Article of Faith that if the Ruler perform not his duty the Contract is dissolved and the people are at liberty to right themselves What excellent uses have been raised from this dangerous Doctrine as many Kings of Christendom have fest already so posterity will have cause to lament the mischiefs which it will bring into the World in succeeding Ages Finally Calvin hath determined and exceeding piously that if the Magistrate command us any thing which is contrary to the Will and word of God we must observe Saint Peters Rule and rather choose to obey God than men and that withal we must prepare our selves to endure such punishments as the offendd Magistrate shall inflict upon us for the said refusal Sect. 32. Et quicquid potius perpeti quam à veritate deflectere and rather suffer any Torments than forsake the way of Gods Commandments The Magistrate as it seems by him must at all times be honoured by us either in our active obedience or in our passive if we refuse to do his will we must be content to suffer for it His Scholars are too wise to submit to that and are so far form suffering for the testimony of the Gospel and a good conscience that they take care to teach the people that it is lawful to rebel in behalf of God to preserve the true Religion when it is in danger or when they think it is in danger by force of Arms and to procure the peace of Hierusalem by the destruction of Babylon Which being so the difference being so great and irreconcileable between the Followers and their Leader in the point of practice between the Master and the Scholars in the points of Doctrine me thinks it were exceeding fit the man were either less admired or better followed that they who cry him up for the great Reformer would either stand to all his Tenets or be bound to none that they would be so careful of the Churches peace and their own salvation as not to swallow down his Errors in his points of disciplines and pass him by with a Magister non tâ—netur when he doth preach Obedience to them and doth so solidly discourse of the powers of Government Tilly Philip. 2. Aut undique religionem suam toliant at usquequaque conserent as Tully said of Antony in another case But of this no more Hitherto CALVIN hath done will few better of the Genevian Doctors none ne unus quidem not so much as one But there 's an herb which spoils the pottage an HERB so venomous that it is mors in olla unto them that taste it The figs in the next basket are evil Jerem. 24. very evil not to be eaten as it is in the Prophets words they are so evil In that before he did exceeding soundly and judiciously law down the doctrine of obedience unto Kings and Princes and the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against their Sovereign In this to come he openeth a most dangerous gap to disobedience and rebellions in most States in Christendom in which his name is either reverenced or his works esteemed of For having fully expressed the points before delivered unto the conscience of the Subject and utterly disabled them from lifting up their hands against the Supream Magistrate on any occasion whatsoever he shews them how to help themselves and what course to take for the asserting of their Liberties and the recovery of their Rights if the Prince invade them by telling them that all he spake before was of private persons Sect. 31. but that if there were any popular Officers such as the Ephori of Sparta the Tribunes of Rome the Demarchi of Athens ordained for the restraint of Kings and Supream Governours it never was his meaning to include them in it And such power he doth suppose to be in the three Estates of
every Kingdom when they are solemnly assebled whom he condemns as guilty of perfidious dissimulation and the betrayers of the Subject Liberties whereof they are the proper and appointed Guardians if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insuit on the common people This is the gap through which rebellions and seditions have found to plausible a passage in the Christian World to be dethroning of some Kings and Princes the death of others For through this gap broke in those dangerous and seditious Doctrines that the inferiour Magistrates are ordained by God and not appointed by the King or the Supream Powers that being so ordained by God that are by him inabled to compel the King to rule according unto justice and the Laws established that if the King be refractory and unreclaimable they are to call him to account and to provide for the safety of the Common-wealth by all ways and means which may conduce unto thepreservation of it and finally which is the darling Doctrine of these later times that there is a mixture in all Governments and that the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever we do call their meeting are not subordinate to the King but co-ordinate with him and have not only a supplemental power to supply what is defective in him but a coercive also to restrain his Actions and a Corrective too to reform his Errors But this I give you now in the generals only hereafter you shall see it more particularly and every Author cited in his own words for the proof hereof Many of which as they did live in Calvin's time and by their writings gave great scandal to all Sovereign Princes but more as to the progress of the Reformation so could not Calvin choose but be made acquainted with the effects and consequences of his dangerous principles Which since he never did retract upon the sight of those seditious Pamphlets and worse than those those bloody tumults and rebellions which ensued upon it but let it stand unaltered to his dying day is a clear argument to me that this passage fell not from his Pen by chance but was laid of purpose as a Stumbling-block in the Subjects way to make him fall in the performance of his Christian duty both to God and man For though the Book of Institutions had been often printed in his life time and received many alterations and additions as being enlarged from a small Octavo of not above 29 sheets to a large Folio of 160 yet this particular passage still remained unchanged and hath continued as it is from the first Edition of it which was in the year 1536 not long after his first coming to Geneva But to proceed in our design What fruits these dangerous Doctrines have produced amongst us we have seen too plainly and we may see as plainly if we be not blind through what gap these Doctrines entred on what foundation they were built and unto whose Authority we stand indebted for all those miseries and calamities which are fallen upon us Yet to say truth the man desired to be concealed and not reputed for the Author of such strange conclusions which have resulted from his principles and therefore lays it down with great Art and caution Si qui and Fortè and ut nunc res habent that is to say Perhaps and as the World now goes and if there be such Officers as have been formerly as the three disguises which he hath masked himself and the point withal that he might pass away unseen And if there be such Officers as perhaps there are or that the world goes here as it did at Sparta or in the States of Rome and Athens as perhaps it doth or that the three Estate of each several Kingdom have the same authority in them as the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes had as perhaps they have the Subject is no doubt in a good condition as good a man as the best Monarch of them all But if the Ephori the Demarchi and the Tribunes were not appointed at the first for the restraint and regulating of the Supream Powers as indeed they were not and if the three Estates in each several Kingdom have not that authority which the Ephori and the Tribunes did in fine usurp and the Demarchi are supposed to have as indeed they have not perhaps and peradventure will not serve the turn The Subject stands upon no better grounds than before he did Therefore to take away this stumbling-block and remove this rub I shall propose and prove these three points ensuing 1. That the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not instituted at the first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author 2. If they were instituted for those ends yet the illation thereupon would be weak and childish as it relates of Kings and Kingdoms And 3. That the three Estates in each several Kingdom without all peradventures have no such authority as the Author dreams of and therefore of no power to controul their King Which If I clearly prove as I hope I shall I doubt not but to leave the cause in a better condition than I found it And in the proof of these the first point especially if it be thought that I insist longer than I needed on the condition of the Spartan Ephori the Roman Tribunes and the Demarchi of Athens and spend more cost upon it than the thing is worth I must intreat the Reader to excuse me in it I must first lay down my grounds and make sure work there before I go about my building And being my design relates particularly to the information and instruction of the English Subject I could not make my way unto it but by a discovery of the means and Artifices by which some petit popular Officers attained unto so great a mastery in the game of Government as to give the Check unto their Kings Which being premised once for all I now proceed unto the proof of the points proposed and having proved these points I shall make an end Haec tria cum docuero perorabo in the Orators Language CHAP. II. Of the Authority of the Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Kings of Sparta absolute Monarchs at the first 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government 8. By what degrees the Ephori encroached on the Spartan Kings 9. The
insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand I Know it is conceived by some that the Kings of Sparta were but titular that they were little more than Subjects at best of no more power and influence in the publick Government Unlawfulness of resistance p 90. than the Duke of Venice at this day in that Republick And to say truth they were but little better in the latter times though not altogether so restrained after Lycurgus first and the Ephori afterwards had by their power and practices intrenched upon them and pared away so many of the fairest Jewels in the Regal Diadem But ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning the Spartan Kings being at first as absolute Monarchs as any other of those times Tacit. Annal. ubi addictius regnabantur when men were most devoted to the will of Princes For if we look into the ancient stories of the States of Greece it will there be found that at the return of the Heraclidae into Peloponnesus under the conduct of Temenus Ctesiphon and Aristodemus the sons of Aristomachus of the race of Hercules Temenus possessed himself of Argos Ctesiphon of Messene and Aristodemus conquered the City and Dominion of Sparta which dying very shortly after he left unto his two sons Eurysthenes and Procles Pausanias in Lacon l. 3. with the authority and name of Kings So that acquiring the Estate by Conquest and claiming by no other Title than by that of Arms there is no question to be made but that they governed in the way of absolute Monarchs it being not the guise of such as come in by Conquest to covenant and capitulate with their Subjects but to impose their will for a Law upon them In the first times and in Dominion so acquired Justin hist l. 1. Arbitria Principum pro legibus erant as we read in Justin 'T is true the Royal Family was divided from the very first into two Regal Stems or Branches both honoured with the name of Kings both ruling the Estate in common by their mutual Councils of which the eldest House was that of Agidae so called from Agis son and Successor unto Eurysthenes the second that of the Eurypontidae denominated from Eurypon Pausanius l. 3. the third from Procles It was appointed so to be by Aristodemus confirmed by the Oracle of Apollo and so continued till the subjugating of all Greece to Macedon But this concludes no more against absolute Monarchie than if it should be said on the like occasion that the Roman Emperors were no Monarchs or that State to Monarchy because Carus and Numerianus Diocletian and Maximianus Constantius and Maximinus ruled the same together as after Valentinian and his Brother Valens and the two sons of Valentinian and Theodosius did by their Example And so it seems it was conceived by Cleomenes who having rooted out the Ephori and being grown almost as absolute in the State of Sparta as any of his Predecessors caused his Brother Euclidas upon the expiration of the Eurypontidae to be made King with him â—â—â—tarch in Agis Cleemeâ— which certainly he would not have done had he believed that the assuming of a partner would have made him less For that the Spartan Kings were as absolute Monarchs as any others of those times when there was almost no Form of Government in the World but that doth appear by Plutarch where speaking of the condition of that Government in the time of Eurypon whom he calls Eurytion he saith that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficiently Montarchical if it were not more Plutarch in Lycurgo And hereto Aristotle doth agree who stiles the Government of Sparta under Charilaus before whose times by reason of the negligence and connivence of some former Kings the People were become too head-strong to be kept in order Aristot Polit. lib. 5. cap. 12. by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tyranny or absolute command of Charilaus in the State of Sparta But whatsoever it was in the first foundation it held not very long in so good condition For Eurypon the Nephew of Procles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Lycurg affecting to be plausible and gracious with the common people improvidently let loose the reins of Government and was the first that laid aside that sole and absolute power of a King whereupon followed great disorder and distraction which continued long For the People finding themselves at liberty became very bold and disobedient some of the Kings which did succeed being hated to the very death because they did indeavour the recovery of their old authority others being forced to dissemble and wink at any thing either in hope thereby to gain the love of the People or because indeed they were not strong enough to rule them And this did so increase the stomach of the dissolute and rebellious multitude that Eunomus the Father of Lycurgus being the fifth King from Procles and the third from Eurypon was slain amongst them in a tumult As such a dear and costly rate did Eurypon procure the favour and good will of the rascal rabble by which he purchased nothing but the loss of Royalty besides the empty honour of having the second house of the Royal Family to be called by his name the Eurypontidae Things growing thus from bad to worse and both the Kings and People waxing weary of that disorder and confusion which did reign amongst them both parties cast their eyes upon Lycurgus of whose integrity and wisdom they had conceived a great opinion For the People finding that their Kings had nothing but the name and title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nothing else whereby they differed from the rest sent many a several message to him to require his counsel And on the other side the Kings were as desirous that he should return being then gone abroad to travel in hope that the authority of his presence would bridle and restrain the People from their insolency and disobedience towards them But herein they were both deceived Id. ibid. For Lycurgus seeing how things stood resolved to apply himself to neither party but presently began to project and cast how he might change and alter the whole frame of Government which to effect he armed himself and his Associates and possessed the market-place and so proceeded to the alteration which he meant to make Id ibid. et in Agis Cleomen Charilaus who was then King being forced to flie for sanctuary to the Temple of Juno But Plato saith there was another motive which induced him to attempt this change which was the ill success the other Kings his kindred of the house of Hercules had found at Argos and Messene where by degrees degenerating from a
they were and by whom intrusted Next they attempt to place such Counsellors about the Kings as they might confide in beginning with such Kings as were under Age and the first trial which they made was in appointing one Cleandrides to be about King Plastonax the 19. of the elder House as his chief Counsellor and Director without whose approbation nothing must be done Plutarch in Pericles Another of their usurpations and incroachments was to restrain their Kings in the point of Marriage and to impose some fine or disgrace upon them if they presumed to marry against their liking Anaxandrides the 15. of the elder House had married a Lady of brave parts but it was her ill fortune to be barren a long time together Pausan lib. 3. in Lacon The Ephori command him without more ado 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give her a Bill of divorce and send her going Archidamus the 17. of the second House married a Wife which brought him Children But fault was found she was too little and thereupon the Ephori condemned him in a sum of money saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she would not bring them Kings but demy-Kings Plutarch in Agesilao And that you may perceive how difficult a thing it was to please them in this point Leonidas had married one that was neither barren nor too little and yet was quarrelled by the Ephori and in fine condemned for marrying with a Woman of another Nation The fundamental Laws of Sparta conferred upon the Kings the Supream command over the Military men in all Wars abroad Id. in Agis Cleomenes The Ephori did not only dispose it otherwise and gave it unto such whom they desired to oblige unto them as you heard before but kept the Kings at such a bay that they neither could lead forth the Armies without their consent nor tarry longer in the Camp than they list to let them and if the action did miscarry the Kings were either fined or imprisoned for it Agesilaus being a verry stirring Prince and desirous to get honour in the Wars was not permitted to set forwards till he had bought the Ephori with a sum of money and yet being in the height of his good success was called back again Id. in Agesilao and glad to be conformable to the said Commands And so it fared with Agis and Clcomenes both on the like occasions And for the fining of their Kings besides what we have seen before in the former instances Plistonax being betrayed by Cleandrides whom the Ephori themselves had placed about him and his Army forced to disband and turn home again is presently condemned in so great a sum that he was not able to discharge it Id. in Pericles Aristot Polit. l. 2. cap. 7. By means whereof the Kings were brought at last unto that condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle truly noteth that they were forced to court and bribe the Ephori upon all occasions to the great disservice of the State and sometimes to the fatal overthrow of their chief designs So that it is no marvel if considered rightly either that the Ephori kept their state and rose not up to reverence their King when he came before them though all the residue of the people and the Senate did it as we read in Xenophon De Repub. Lacedaem Plut. in Agesilao or that Agesilaus used to rise up to them as often as they came unto him about any business as we find in Plutarch or that the Kings esteemed it such a point of Sovereignty that when they were commanded to attend the Ephori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did refuse to go upon the first and second summons and stirred not till the third command as Cleomenes bragged in the said Historian Id. in Agis Cleomen Which trust me was a point of no small importance And yet they staid not here they went furrher still They thought it not enough to condemn their Kings in vast and unproportionable sums of money unless they laid restraints on their persons also and had command upon their bodies And therefore it is noted by Thucydides not without good reason that they did not only punish with imprisonment their great and principal Commanders Thucydid hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that it was lawful for the Ephori to do the like unto their Kings Which to avoid Pausanias was inforced to retire himself and live a voluntary exile in another Countrey Nothing remains but they take authority to depose Plutarch in Lysander and in fine to murther them and if they gain not this all the rest is nothing And this they are resolved to gain or be foully foiled nor did they fail in the attempt when they went about it They quarrelled at Leonidas as before I told you for marrying with a Woman of another Countrey without so much as seeking for their approbation And that they may be sure to effect their business Religion is pretended and a star must fall only to warrant their proceedings Which preparations bring past they cite him to appear before them and on default of his appearance they deposed him instantly and conferred the Kingdom on Cleombrotus Id. in agis Cleomenes But these men being out of Office he came out of Sanctuary and was restored again by the next years Ephori Who to make proof that their Authority was as great as their Predecessors thought it not argument enough to restore one King except they did depose and destroy another And thereupon laid hands on Agis of the other House and inhumanly haled him to the common Prison and there most barbarously murdered him with his Mother and Grand-mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. And this saith Plutarch was the first time that ever the Ephori put a King to death And so perhaps it was the first but the last it was not For Archidamus the Brother of Agis being recalled from banishment by Cleomenes to the end he might enjoy the Kingdom which did by right belong unto him was presently seised on by the murtherers and dispatched in private for fear he should revenge the death of his slaughtered Brother Id. ibid. By which it is most evident without further proof that the Spartan Aristocracie was become a Tyranny and of all Tyrannies the most insupportable because meerly popular Or if more proof should be desired both Aristotle and his Master Plato will not stick to say it though they both died before these two last Tragedies were acted on the stage of Sparta For Plato being to declare what he conceived of the Government of that Common-wealth resolves that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de legibus l. 4. approach more near to Tyranny than to any other Form whatever the Power and Empire of the Ephori being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly Tyrannical and no otherwise And Aristotle who had studied the condition of that State
exactly though at the first he seemed to think that it was very well compounded of the three good Forms yet upon full debate thereof he concludes at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Polit. l. 2. c. 4. that the Dominion of the Ephori was an absolute Tyranny Assuredly had they lived to have seen that day wherein the Ephori embrued their hands in the blood of their Princes under pretence of safety to the Common-wealth they would have voted it to have been a Tyranny in the highest degree and then the most unsufferable Tyrants that ever wretched State groaned under For though the Kings of Sparta were so lessened by Lycurgus Laws that little more was left unto them than the name and Title yet they were Kings and held so sacred by their Neighbours even their very Enemies that none did ever offer to lay hands upon them in the heat and fury of their fights Plutarch in Agis Cleom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reverence they did bear to those beams of Majesty which most apparently shined in them The Ephori being grown to this height of Tyranny were the more ready for their fall which followed not long after that most barbarous fact upon the persons of their Princes The Kings had long since stomached them and their high proceedings Id. in Agesil bearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Heritable grudge betwixt them as my Author calls it ever since they took upon them to controul their Masters but either wanted opportunity or spirit to attempt any thing to their prejudice and therefore thought it safer to procure their favours than run themselves upon a hazardous Experiment Pausanias the 20. of the Elder House was the first that ever did attempt either by force or practice to subvert the Office the insolencies of the which were then grown so great that being a stout and active Prince he was not able to endure them That he had entertained such thoughts is affirmed by Aristotle where he informs us that Lysander had a purpose to take away the Kingly Government or rather to acquire it to himself as we find in Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Lysandâ—o Aristot Polit. lib. 5. c. 1. and that Pausanias had the like to destroy the Ephorate But what he failed to bring about his Successors did at last accomplish Of which Cleombrotus and Agis joyning their hands and heads together did proceed so far that going into the Market place well attended by their Friends and followers they plucked the Ephori from their seats and substituted others in their rooms whom they conceived would be more pliant to their prefent Enterprises which was the first actual attempt Plutarch in Agis Cleom. that ever had been made against them by the Kings of Sparta But evulgato imperii Arcano when so great a mystery of State was once discovered that the Ephori were but mortal men and might as easily be displaced and deposed as any of the other Magistrates Leonidas immediately upon his restitution to the Kingdom made the like removal and displaced those who had taken part against him with the former Kings Id. ibid. So that the ice being broken and the way made open Cleomenes son unto Leonidas had the fairer way to abrogate the Office utterly which at last he did For being a brave and gallant Prince and seeing that the project he was bent upon for the reduction of the Common-wealth to its primitive honour could not be brought about but by their destruction he fell upon them with his Souldiers as they sat at supper and killed four of them in the place the fifth escaping shrewdly hurt to the nearest Sanctuary Id. ibid. That done he went into the Market place and overthrew all the Chairs of the Ephori saving only one which he reserved for himself as his Chair of State and sitting in the same in the sight of the people gave them an account of his proceedings and the reasons which induced him to it Declaring how the Ephori were at first appointed by the Kings themselves that for long time they governed only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings Ministers and no otherwise that many years after this Asteropus one of the Ephori building upon a new foundation and being the first Author of that dangerous change they took the Government unto themselves and exercised the same in their own names only that though they had usurped a power which belonged not to them yet had they managed it discreetly the might perhaps have held it longer and with better liking but that licentiously abusing the authority which they had usurped by suppressing the lawful Governors ordained of old by taking upon them to banish some of the Citizens and to put some to death without law and justice and finally by threatning those who were desirous to restore the Government to its antient Form they were no longer to be suffered that for his part he should have thought himself the happiest King that ever was if possibly he could have cured his Countrey of that foul affection withou grief or sorrow but being it was not to be done that way he thought it better that some should be put to death than the whole Common-wealth run on to a swift destruction This said he presently dissolved the Assembly and seriously betook himself to the Reformation which formerly he had projected and in short time reduced the people to the antient Discipline the staee and reputation of the Common-wealth to its ancient height Thus have we made a brief discovery of the Spartan Ephori upon what grounds first instituted and on what destroyed by what foul practices and unlawful means they gained the Sovereignty of the State and by what they lost it how and by what degrees they came from low and mean beginnings to so strange a Tyranny and with what suddenness they lost their power and their lives together But in all this there is not any shew or colour for that which is affirmed by CALVIN no ground for nor verity at all in that Assertion that the Ephori were at first ordained to oppose the Kings to regulate their proceedings and restrain their power but rather that they were ordained as indeed they were to curb the Senate to be the Ministers of the Kings and subservient to them to sit in Judgment for them and discharge such Offices as the Kings pleased to trust them with in their times of absence If Calvins popular Magistrates have no more Authority than the Spartan Ephori according to the rules of their Institution they will have little colour to controul their Princes and less for putting a restraint on the Regal power The most they can pretend to must be usurpation and that will hold no longer if it hold so long than they have power to make it good by blood and violence which I hope Calvin did not aim at And if they have no other ground
than an unjust Title prescription will not serve the turn for nullum tempus occurrit Regi as our Lawyers tell us when a couragious Prince is concerned in it and oppressed by it If any Popular spirits entertain such hopes if nothing else will satisfie their vast ambitions but to be equal with their Kings and Supream Governours and at last above them let them remember what became of the Spartan Ephori and that there was a Cleomenes which called them to a sad account for all those insolencies and affronts which they had put upon himself and his Predecessors And let all Kings and Supream Governors take heed by the example of these Spartan Princes how they let loose the reins of Government and lay them on the necks of the common people which if unbridled once and left at liberty will not be easily induced to receive that Bit into their mouths which before they champed on and that they give no way to such popular Magistrates as Calvin hath presented to us who whatsoever colour and pretence they make aim at no other mark than the Royal power though out of too much modesty they disclaim the Title and must be either Kings or nothing Of which invasions and encroachments on the Supream Power our Author gives another hint in the Roman Tribunes the truth and fitness of which supposition must be looked on next CHAP. III. Of the Incroachments of the Tribunes on the State of Rome and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Tribunes of the People why first Instituted in the State of Rome 2. And with what difficulty and conditions 3. The Tribunes fortifie themselves with large immunities before they went about to change the Government 4. the Tribunes no sooner in their Office but they set themselves against the Nobility and the Senate contrary to the Articles of their Institution 5. The many and dangerous Seditions occasioned by the Tribunes in the City of Rome 6. The Tribunes and the people do agree together to change the Government of the State 7. By what degrees the people came to be possessed of all the Offices in the State both of power and dignity 8. The Plots and Practises of the Gracchi to put the Power of the Judiciature and Supream Majesty of the State into the hands of the People 9. The Tribunes take upon them to commit the Consuls and bring all the Officers of the State under their command 10. The Office and authority of the Tribunes reduced unto its antient bounds by Corn. Sylla and at last utterly destroyed 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand ALthough the reasons which induced the people in the State of Rome to desire some Officers of their own and the considerations which induced the Senate to give way unto it are obvious to the eyes of every Reader which hath perused the Roman stories yet I shall briefly lay it down the better to remove the intimation which we find in Calvin that they were purposely ordained to oppose the Consuls The hory then in brief is this The people having not long before expulsed their Kings and got some reputation by their prowess in those petit States which bordered nearest to the City found quickly that the liberty which they expected was nothing but a golden dream not able to protect them from the common Gaols and that their reputation in the Wars would not pay their Debts or save them from the hands of their cruel Creditors For serving in the Wars at their own proper charges and having little else to subsist upon but their Trades or labor they were fain sometimes to take up money upon Usury And though they did return from the Wars with Victory and shewed those honourable scars which they had received fighting in defence of their Countrey and the Common-wealth yet this did edifie but little with their hungry Creditors Plutarch in M Coriolano who did not only sell their goods if they were not solvent but apprehended their persons also and either laid them up in the common Prisons or made them serve instead of Bondmen and made them subject to the whip and other base corrections fit for none but Slaves And somewhat to this purpose the old man complained as we read in Livy declaring to the people who were apt to hear it how his Patrimony had been seized on by the merciless Usurers his person apprehended by them and that he was not only made a Slave but marked out for slaughter Livit. hist l. 2. Inde ostentare tergum foedum recentibus vestigiis verberum shewing withal upon his back the miserable prints which the whip had left This made the people murmur and at last to mutiny and in tumultuous manner minaciter magis quam suppliciter rather with threats than supplications to require the Senate to take some course for their relief resolving otherwise to go no more unto the Wars serve the State who would The Senate promised fair as there was good cause the Volsci pressing hard upon them to their very gates and by that promise won the people and obtained a Victory But when the Wars were done and performance looked for instead of finding a redress of their former grievances the rigour of the Law took place creditoribus tradebantur and they were seised on by their Creditors as in former times the Senate thinking it unreasonable to make the Law submit to the necessities of particular men and against Law to defraud any man of the Debts which were due unto them Dionys Halicreass lib. 6. But a new War approaching a new promise made and that neglected also when the Wars was ended the people seeing no relief was like to come from the hands of the Senators Longè aliâ quam primè instituerant viâ grassabantur began to lend an ear to some desperate Counsels and fell to contertain such hopes as formerly they durst never dream of For drawing themselves into a body under the conduct of Sicinius a troublesome and seditious person they forsook the City and encamped upon an Hill adjoyning resolving as they gave it out to seek new dwellings and that there was no place in Italy but would afford them air and water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ground in which they might be buried There is no question to be made but if the Senate had beheld the action with neglect and scorn as Appius and C. Martius did advise they should Dionys Halicarn l. 6. Platarch in Corlolano the People out of love to their Wives and Children would have returned to their Houses or if they had presented them in time with any tolerable mitigations of the former Laws they might have taken off their edge and appeased the Tumult But giving way unto their fury till it grew too high and shewing in their resolutions far more fear than courage the people got the better of them and thought they stood upon the higher ground as indeed
rely upon Calvins word He saith the Tribunes were set up to oppose the Consuls but the best Writers do affirm that they were instituted only to protect the people and to protect the people in such cases only when they did suffer any Tort or unjust oppression He reckoneth them for instances of such popular Magistrates as were ordained to moderate and restrain the vast power of Kings and other Supream Magistrates but the best Writers do affirm that the Tribunes were not instituted till the Kings were outed nor instituted at the first to restrain the Consular power though by degrees they did restrain it as they pleased and finally that they were again abridged of their power and Tyranny as soon as Monarchy were restored and the State brought to be obedient to one Sovereign Prince He seems to intimate that the Consuls were not wronged by such oppositions as the Tribunes daily made against them and that the Tribunes did no more in such oppositions than by their place and Office they were bound to do But the best Writers do affirm that the Consuls made complaint from time to time of those wrongs and insolencies which those proud creatures of the people did afflict them with and they complained not without cause as their stories tell us So that there is but little ground for the supposition touching the first creation of these mighty Tyrants which Calvin trimly puts upon us less for the application of it to his end and purpose What other power soever they enjoyed or exercised more than the power of interceding when any Bill at Ordinance was to pass the Senate by which the people might have suffered in their goods and liberties was an incroachment on the Consuls and wrested from them by strong hand sometimes with blood but never without dangerous Tumults The best use can be made of such false surmises especially when they are false and factious too and some good uses may be made of the strongest poysons is that an Item may be taken by all Kings Princes and Supream Governors to have a care of their Estates and neither suffer any Tribunes or men of Tribunitian spirits or such as challenge to themselves Tribunitian power to grow up under them or live within the verge of their Dominions The Tribune and the Tribunitian spirit are no friend to Monarchy and have so much of Pompey in them who restored the Office that they will never be content to endure an Equal much less to suffer a Superior For further proof of which if more proof be requisite and for discovering to the World with what Arts and practices those factious and seditious spirits did attain their height it would be a most excellent piece of service to all Sovereign Princes if a just Tribunitian History were composed by some man of judgment for the recovery of this Age from the present maladies and a Memento to the future But this I leave to those who have time and leisure and other fit abilities to go through with it I have another Task in hand and the Demarchi call upon me to pass on to Athens where we are like to find worse work than we met with hitherto Worse work I mean in this respect that we are like to find less ground for the Supposition for otherwise we are like to find no work at all as will appear more evidently by that which followeth CHAP. IV. Of what Authority the DEMARCHI were in the state of ATHENS and of the danger and unfitness of the instances produced by CALVIN 1. Athens first governed by Kings and afterwards by one Sovereign Prince under other Titles 2. The Annual Magistrates of Athens what they were and of what Authority 3. By whom and what degrees the State of Athens was reduced to a Democratie 4. Of the authority of the Senate and the famous Court of the Areopagites 5. What the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of what Authority 6. The Demarchi never were of power to oppose the Senate nor were ordained to that end 7. Calvins ill luck in making choice of three such instances which if true would not serve his turn 8. The danger which lieth hidden under the disguise of such popular Magistrates as are here instanced in by Calvin 9. What moved Calvin to lay these dangerous Stumbling-blocks in the Subjects way 10. The dangerous oppositions and practices which have hence ensued in most parts of Europe 11. The sect of CALVIN professed Enemies to Monarchy and the power of Princes THE State of Athens as were all others at the first was under the Government of Kings and of them of the race of Cecrops from whom his Successors were called Cecropidae Tacit. Annal. lib. 3. and they as other Kings in those antient times ut libitum imperitabant governed the people under them by no other Rule than their own discretion Theseus the tenth from Cecrops was the first King of Athens which let go his hold and parted with so many of the Regal rights as made the Kings weak and the Subjects wanton For having a desire to incorporate all the Inhabitants of Attica into the City of Athens the better to unite them against forein force and to assemble them together as occasion served he was fain to win them to it by large promises of giving them some share in the publick Government without which bait the wealthier sort and such as had authority in their several Burroughs could not be drawn into the City Plutarch in Theseo Yet still he kept unto himself and to his Successors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we find in Plutarch the chief Commandery in the Wars and the preservation of the Laws together with a superintendency in matters which concerned Religion the main points of Soveraignty And in this state things stood till the death of Codrus the seventh from Theseus who giving up his own life to preserve his Countrey became so honoured and admired amongst his people that they resolved for his sake to have no more Kings for fear they should never meet with any who might be worthy to succeed him which was one of the prettiest wanton quarrels that ever was picked against a Monarchy The Princes which succeeded after his decease they called not Kings but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governors but the change was only in the name and in the manner of their getting the Supream Authority For being once invested with the Supream Power they held it during life without check or censure as is affirmed by Africanus an ancient Writer who laying down the succession of the King of Athens African apud Euseb Chron. edit Scaliger Euseb in Chro. to the death of Codrus adds this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that after them succeeded the perpetual Archontes who held the Government during life The like Eusebius doth affirm and all Authors else which treat of the affairs of Athens The difference was that formerly the Kingdom was successive meerly entailed upon the
people or actually did make head against them in behalf of the people if at any time they were oppressed and injured by it cannot be found I dare with confidence affirm in any Author of good credit either Greek or Latine 'T is true there were some People-pleasers in the State of Athens whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who by applying themselves to the peoples humour and seeming zealously assected to their power and profit could lead them whither they would and to what they lifted and sometimes did oppose themselves for the people sake not only against the Senate but all other Magistrates Of these it is that Arstotle doth make frequent mention in his books of Politicks and seems to prophecy that if not looked into in time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would change the State into a Tyranny But these were neither of Officers of State nor Justice Aristot Politic l. 5 c. ◠nor indeed any Officers at all though many times they did ill Offices to the Commonwealth the better to advance the hopes of the popular faction and by it themselves And it is true which Aristotle tells us in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the people had not only power to elect their Magistrates Id. ibid. l. 2. c. 12. but to call them also to accompt in case of mal-administration and had their proper Officers appointed to that end and purpose But then it is true withal but amongst them we meet not these Demarchi of whom Calvin dreams or any others which stood up in behalf of the common people but only in behalf of the Common-wealth Of this sort were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superadded to the nine Archontes and of authority to call them to an after-reckoning if they found them guilty of extortion Jul. Pollux l. 8. c. 9. sect 16. Id. ibid. sect 13. and of this sect were also those whom they called Logistae some of the which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith mine Author were purposely appointed to observe and enquire into the Acts of the Senate and to proceed against them when their time was out according as they saw occasion which kind of Overseers had an eye also on the Areopagites And this is that which is observed by Aeschines the famous Orator where speaking of the Fundamental constitutions of the Common-wealth he tells us that it was ordained by the Legislators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschin in Orat Contra Demosth Ctesiphon that even the Senate of five hundred should give up an account of their ministration and that the holy Council of the Areopagites should be obnoxious to the censure of the Logistrae for by that very name he calls them Of any account they were to give to these Demarchi or any thing they did de facto or might do de jure with reference to the case and benefit of the common people nothing but silence to be found in all Antiquity And to say truth it was not necessary that any popular Magistrates should be made of purpose to save the people from the pride and Tyranny of the higher Courts which were accountable to the people upon all occasions and were to be accountable to them according to the fundamental institution of the Common-wealth The State of Athens being one of the absolutest Democraties which was ever exant and so accounted of by all who write of Politicks had little need or use of such popular Magistrates which Calvin fancieth in that place which may be serviceable to the people in an Aistocratie but in a popular estate of no use at all Which makes we wonder by the way why Plato should affirm against right and reason that the State of Athens in his time and the times before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an Aristocratie Plato in Meneximo when by the current of all Writers and the course of story it appears most evidently that it was not only a Democratie but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Cimone the purest and most unmixt Democratie that was ever read of Thus have we proved the first of the three points propounded in the beginning of this work viz. that the Ephori the Demarchi and the Roman Tribunes were not ordained at first for those ends and purposes which are supposed by the Author but more particularly that neither the Ephori of Sparta were first instituted to oppose the Kings nor the Tribunes first ordained to oppose the Consuls nor the Demarchi of Authority to oppose the Senate And we have proved which is directly contrary unto Calvins aim that the Ephori were at first ordained to ease the Kings and to be aiding to them against the Senate who began sensibly to encroach on the Regal power that the Tribunes were first instituted to no other end but to preserve the people from unjust oppression and that their opposition to the Consuls was accounted always to be against the rules of their Institution and a breach of Articles And as for these Demarchi whom we spake of last that neither by their Institution nor by Usurpation they did oppose against the Senate in behalf of the people but executed their commands upon the people as their duty bound them So that the great imagination which the Author had of shewing to the World a view of such popular Magistrates as might encourage men of place and eminence to think themselves ordained after these Examples to moderate the licentiousness of Kings and Princes is fallen directly to the ground without more ado as being built upon a weak nay a false foundation not able to support the building And more than so in case the instances proposed had been rightly chosen and that the Ephori in Sparta had been first ordained to oppose the Kings the Tribunes to oppose the Consuls and the Demarchi to keep under the Athenian State yet these would prove but sorry instances of such popular Officers as were ordained ad moderandum Regum libidinem to moderate the licentiousness of Kings and Sovereign Princes for proof of which they were produced The Ephori were not instituted in the State of Sparta till the Kings were brought under the command of the Senate and the State become an Aristocratie in which the Kings had very little left them of the Royal dignity but the empty name and were in power no other than the Dukes of Venice save that they were to have the command of the Armies which those Dukes have not And for the Tribunes 't is well known to every one who hath perused the Roman story that there were no such creatures to be found in Rome till the Romans had expulsed their Kings and were under their command of Consuls Monarchy being changed to an Optimatie and the peoplebound by solemn Oaths never to admit of a King amongst them The like may be affirmed also of the Demarchi of Athens supposing that they were of as great Authority as either the Ephori or the Tribunes
himself that whatsoever had been done in the alteration suffragio meo comprobavi he had confirmed and approved as a thing well done Calvin in Eplstola ad Cardinal Sadolet and therefore thought himself to be no less obliged to defend the action than if it had been done at first bh his own command For doubtless that of Tully is exceeding true Nil refert utrum voluerim fieri vel gaudeam factum Cicero in Philip 2. between the doing of a soul and disloyal act and the approbation of it when it is done is but little difference But to proceed our Author being thus made a party in the cause and quarrel of Geeva thought himself bound not only to justifie unto others what himself approved but also to lay down such grounds whereby the Example might be followed and their disloyalty and rebellion the less observed because they did not go alone without company In which respect and 't is a thing to be observed althoughthat Book of Institutions hath been often printed and received many alterations and additions as before was noted yet this particular passage still remains unaltered and hath continued as it is from the first Edition which was in the year 1536. when the Rebellion of Geneva was yet fresh and talked of as an ill Example Nor was the man deceived in his expectation For as he grew into esteem and reputation in the World abroad so he attained at last to that power and Empire over the souls and consciences of his followers that his Errors were accounted Orthodox his defects Perfections and the revolt of the Genevians from their natural Prince must by no means be called Rebellion because projected and pursued by such popular Officers to whom it appertained of common course to regulate the Authority of Kings and Princes And though he doth not say expresly that there either are or ought to be such popular Officers in every Realm or common-wealth but brings it in upon the by with his ifs and ands yet ifs and ands are not allowed of in the Laws to excuse Rebellions Bacons History of King Henry the seventh and by the setting up of that dangerous Si quis si qui sintâ—populares Magistratus as his words there are he seems to make a Proclamation that where there were such Popular Officers it was their bounden duty to correct their Princes after the manner of Geneva where there were none the people were God help them in an ill condition unless some other means were thought of for their ease and remedy Upon which Principles of his his folowers raised such Positions and pursued such practices as have distracted and embroyled the most parts of Europe and made it of a Garden to become a Wilderness For finding that they could not easily create such popular Magistrates to lord it over Kings and Princes who had not been accustomed to the like Controlments they put that power of regulating the Supream Authority either upon the body of the people generally whereof you were told before from Buchannan or upon such to whom they should communicate or transser their Power as occasion served whereof you may hear further in that which followeth And that not only in the case of civil Liberty for which the Examples of the Ephori and the Roman Tribunes were at first found out and that of the Demarchi thrust upon the Readers for the like foul end but specially in such matters which concerned Religion wherein the extraordinary calling of some men in the holy Scriptures must serve for Precedents and Examples to confirm their practices From hence it was that Buchannan doth not only subject his King unto the Ordinary Judges and Courts of Justice as before was noted but fearing that Kings would be too potent to be so kept under adviseth this Buchann de jure Regni Eorum interfectoribus praemia decerni that Rewards should publickly be decreed for those who kill a Tyrant and Kings and Tyrants are the same as heretofore in the word and notion so now in the Opinion of the Presbyterian or Calvinian faction as usually are proposed to those who kill Wolves or Bears From hence it was that the inferiour or subordinate Magistrate is advanced so high as to be entituled to a Power adversus Superiorem Magistratum se Rempub. Ecclesiam etiam armis defendere Paraeus in Epistola ad Rom. cap. 13. of taking Arms against the King or Superiour Magistrate in defence of himself his Countrey and true Religion which though they are the words of Paraeus only yetthey contain the mind and meaning of all the rest of that faction as his son Philip doth demonstrate In Append. ad Cap. 13. Epist ad Rom. Cambden Annal Eliz. An. 1559. Hence was it that John Knox delivered for sound Orthodox doctrine Procerum esse propria autoritate Idololatriam tollere Principes intra legum rescripta per vim reducere that it belonged unto the Peers of each several Kingdom to reform matters of the Church by their own Authority and to confine their Kings and Princes within the bounds prescribed by Law even by force of Arms. Hence that Geselius one of the Lecturers of Roterdam preached unto his people Necessaria Respons Jean de Serres inventnire de Fr. History of the Netherlands Thuan. hist l. 114. Camden Annal An. 15 59. Laurea Austriaca Continuati Thuan. hist l. 8. that if the Magistrates and Clergy did neglect their duty in the reformation of Religion necesse est id facere plebeios that then it did belong to the common people who were bound to have a care thereof and proceed accordingly And as for points of Practice should we look that way what a confusion should we find in most parts of Europe occasioned by no other ground than the entertainment of these Principles and the scattering of these positions amongst the people Witness the Civil Wars of France the revolt of Holland the expulsion of the Earl of East-Friezland the insurrections of the Scots the Tumults of Bohemia the commotions of Brandenburg the translation of the Crown of Sweden from the King of Pole to Charles Duke of Finland the change of Government in England all acted by the Presbyterian or Calvinian party in those several States under pretence of Reformation and redress of grievances And to say truth such is the Genius of the Sect that though they may admit an Equal as parity is the thing most aimed at by them both in Church and State yet they will hardly be persuaded to submit themselves to a Superiour to no Superiours more unwillingly than to Kings and Princes whose persons they disgrace whose power they ruinate whose calling they endeavour to decry and blemish by all means imaginable First for their calling they say it is no other than an humane Ordinance and that the King is but a creature of the peoples making whom having made they may as easily destroy and unmake again Which as it is the
darling Doctrine of this present time so is it very eagerly pursued by Buchannan who affirms expresly Quicquid juris populus alicui dederit Buchann de jure Regni idem justis de causis posse reposcere that whatsoever power the people give unto their King or Supream Magistrate they may resume again upon just occasions Their Power they make so small and inconsiderable that they afford them very little even in matters of Temporal and no Authority at all in things Spiritual Calvin professeth for himself that he was very much agrieved to hear that King Henry the eighth had took unto himself the Title of Supream Head of the Church of England accuseth them of inconsiderate zeal nay blasphemy who conferred it on him and though he be content at last to allow Kings a Ministerial power in matters which concern the Reformation of Gods Publick Worship yet he condemns them as before of great inconsiderateness Calvin in Amos cap. 7. Qui facerent eos nimis spirituales who did ascribe unto them any great authority in spiritual matters The designation of all those who bear publick Office in the Church the calling of Councils or Assemblies the Presidency in those Councils Ordaining publick Fasts and appointing Festivals which anciently belonged unto Christian Princes as the chief branches of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which is vested in them are utterly denied to Kings and Princes in their Books of Discipline Insomuch that when the Citizens of Embden did expel their Earl they did it chiefly for this reason Thuan. hist l. 114. Quod se negotiis Ecclesiasticis Consistorialibus praeter jus aequitatem immisceret that he had intermedled more than they thought fit in Ecclesiastical causes and intrenched too much upon their Consistory As for their power in Temporal or civil Causes by that time Knoxes Peers and Buchannans Judges Paraeus his inferiour Magistrates and Calvins popular Officers have performed their parts in keeping them within the compass of the Laws arraigning them for their offences if they should transgress opposing them by force of Arms if any thing be done unto the prejudice of the Church or State and finally in regulating their Authority after the manner of the Spartan Ephori and the Roman Tribunes all that is left will be by much too little for a Royd'Ivitot or for a King of Clouts as we English phrase it Last of all for their persons which God held so sacred that he gave it for a Law to his people Israel not to speak evil of their Princes saying Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Let us but look upon these men and we shall find the basest attributes too good for the greatest Kings Calvin calls Mary Queen of England by the name of Proserpine Calvin in Amos cap. 7. and saith that she did superare omnes Diabolos that all the Devils of Hell were not half so mischievous Beza affords Queen Mary of Scotland no better Titles than those of Medea and Athaliah Beza in Epist ad Jo. of which the last was most infamous in divine the other no less scandalous in humane stories the one a Sorceress and a Witch the other a Tyrant and Usurper The Author of the Altare Damascenum whosoever he was can find no better attribute for King James of most blessed memory than infensissimus Evangelii hostis Didoclaviuâ— in Epistola ad â—â—ctor the greatest and deadly Enemy of the Gospel of Christ And Queen Elizabeth her self did not scape so clear but that the zealous Brethren were too bold sometimes with her Name and Honour though some of them paid dearly for it and were hanged for their labour How that seditious Hugonot the Author of the lewd and unworthy Dialogue entituled Eusebius Philadelphus hath dealt with three great Princes of the House of France and what reproachful names he gives them I had rather you should look for in the Author than expect from me being loath to wade too far in these dirty puddles save that I shall be bold to add this general Character which Didoclavius gives to all Kings in general viz. Naturâ insitum est in omnibus Regibus Christi odium that all Kings naturally hate Christ which may serve for all This is enough to let us see how irreconcileable an hatred these of the Calvinian faction bear against Kings and Princes how well they play the part of the very Antichrist in exalting themselves against whatsoever is called God and that the special reason why they affect so much to be called the Saints is out of a strong probable hope to see the day in which they shall bind Kings in chains and all the Princes of the earth in fetters of iron Finally such is their disaffection unto sacred Monarchy which they have sucked out of the grounds and principles here laid down by Calvin that we may justly say of them what was most truely said of the ancient Romans quasi nefas esset Regem aliquem prope eorum terminos esse Jâ—stin hist l. 29. they have bestirred themselves so bravely in defiance of the Regal Government as if they did account it an unpardonable sin to suffer any King though most good and gracious to border near them Which lest they should not be of power to compass by their popular Magistrates or by the Judges or the Peers or the People severally which make the main Battel for this Combat let us next look on the Reserve and see what hopes they have to effect the business by the three Estates conjoyned in Parliament or by what other name soever we shall call their meeting which Calvin in the last place doth reflect upon but cautiously with a qua forte or a peradventure as in that before CHAP. V. What are the three Estates in each several Kingdom in which CALVIN speaks and what particularly in the Realm of England 1. Of the division of a People into three Estates and that the Priests or Clergy have been always one 2. The Priests employed in Civil matters and affairs of State by the Egyptians and the Persians the Greeks Gauls and Romans 3. The Priests and Levites exercised in affairs of Civil Government by Gods own appointment 4. The Prelates versed in Civil matters and affairs of State in the best and happiest times of Christianity 5. The Clergy make the third Estate in Germany France Spain and the Northern Kingdoms 6. That antiently in the Saxon times the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm were called to all publick Councils 7. The Prelates an essential fundamental part of the English Parliament 8. Objections answered and that the word Clerus in the Legal notion doth not extend unto the Prelates 9. That the inferior Clergy of the Realm of England had anciently their Votes in Parliament to all intents and purposes as the Commons had 10. Objections answered and that the calling of the Clergy to Parliaments and Convocations were after different maners and by several Writs
did absent themselves of their own accord so many things have been transacted in the Parliament excluso Clero when the Clergy have been excluded or put out of the House by some Act or Ordinance A precedent for this hath been found and published by such as envied that poor remnant of the Churches honour though possibly they will find themselves deceived in their greatest hope and that the evidence will not serve to evince the cause The Author of the Pamphlet entituled The Prerogative and practice of Parliaments first laying down his Tenet that many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Arch-bishops and Bishops should not consent unto them which is a point no man doubts of Printed at London 16.8 p. 37. consideriong how easily their Negative may be over-ruled by the far greater number in the House of Peers adds that at a Parliament holden at St. Edmundsbury 1196. in th reign of Edw. 1. a Statute was made by the King the Barons and the Commons Excluso Clero and for the proof hereof refers us unto Bishop Jewel Now Bishop Jewel saith indeed that in a Parliament solemnly holden at St. Edmundsbury by King Edward 1. An 1296. the Arch-bishops and Bishops were quite shut forth and yet the Parliament held on and good and wholesome Laws were there enacted the departing or absence of the Lords Spiritual notwithstanding In the Records whereof it is written thus Defence of the Apolog. pt 5. c. 2. §. 1. Habito Rex cum Baronibus suis Parliamento Clergo excluso statutum est c. the King keeping the Parliament with his Barons the Clergy that is to say the Arch-bishops and Bishops being shut forth it was enacted c. Wherein who doth not see if he hath any eyes that by this reason if the proof be good many good Acts of Parliament may be made though the Commons either out of absence or opposition should not consent unto them of whose consent unto that Statute whatsoever it was there is as little to be found in that Record as the concurrence of the Bishops But for Answer unto so much of this Record so often spoken of and applauded as concerns the Bishops we say that this if truly senced as I think it be not was the particular Act of an angry and offended King against his Clergy not to be drawn into Example as a proof or Argument against a most clear known and undoubted right The case stood thus A Constitution had been made by Boniface the 8th Ne aliqua collecta ex Ecclesiasticis proventibus Regi aut cuivis alii Principi concedatur Matth. Westm in Edw. 1. that Clergy-men should not pay any Tax or Tallage unto Kings or Princes our of their Spiritual preferments without the leave of the Pope under pretence whereof the Clergy at this Parliament at St. Edmundsbury refused to be contributory to the Kings occasions when the Lay-Members of the House had been forwards in it The King being herewith much offended gives them a further day to consider of it adjourning the Parliament to London there to begin on the morrow after St. Hilaries day and in the mean time commanded all their Barns to be fast sealed up The day being come and the Clergy still persisting in their former obstinacy excluso è Parlamento Clero Concilium Rex cum solis Baronibus c populo habuit totumq Antiq. Brit. in R. Winchelsey statim Clerum protectione sua privavit the King saith the Historian excluding the Clergy out of the Parliament advised with his Barons and his people only what was best to be done by whose advice he put the Clergy out of his protection and thereby forced them to conform to his will and pleasure This is the summa totalis of the business and comes unto no more but this that a particular course was advised in Parliament on a particular displeasure taken by the King against the body of his Clergy then convened together for their particular refusal to contribute to his wants and Wars the better to reduce them to their natural duty Which makes not any thing at all against the right of Bishops in the House of Peers or for excluding them that House or for the validity of such Acts as are made in Parliament during the time of such exclusion especially considering that the King shortly after called his States together Wlsingh in Edw. 1. Anno 1297. and did excuse himself for many extravagant Acts whch he had committed against the liberties of the Subject whereof this was one laying the blame thereof on his great occasions and the necessities which the Wars which he had abroad did impose upon him And so much as in answer unto that Record supposing that the words thereof be rightly senced as I think they are not and that by Clerus there we are to understand Arch-bishops and Bishops as I think we be not there being no Record I dare boldly say it either of History of Law in which the word Clerus serve to signifie the Arch-bishops and Bishops exclusive of the other Clergy or any writing whatsoever wherein it doth not either signifie the whole Clergy generally or ther inferiour Clergy only exclusive of the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Prelates Therefore in answer unto that so much applauded Cavil of Excluso Clero from what Record soever it either hath been hitherto or shall hereafter be produced I shall propose it to the consideration of the sober Reader whether by Clerus in that place or in any other of that kind and time we must not understand the inferiour Clergy as they stand distinguished in the Laws from my Lords the Bishops For howsoever it be true that Clerus in the Ecclesiastical notion of the word doth signifie the whole Clergy generally Arch-bishops Bishops Priests and Deacons yet in the legal notion of it it stands distinguished from the Prelates and signifieth only the inferiour Clergy Thus do we find the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm divided into Prelates men of Religion and other Clerks 3. Edw. 1. c. 1. the Seculars either into Prelates and Clerks 9 Edw. 2. c. 3. 1 Rich. 2. c. 3. or Prelates and Clerks Beneficed 18 Edw. 3. c. 2. or generally into the Prelates and the Clergy 9 Edw. 2. c. 15. 14 Edw. 3. c. 1. 3. 18 Edw. 3. 2.7 25 Edw. 3.2.4 8 Hen. 6. c. 1. and in all acts and grants of Subsidies made by the Clergy to the Kings or Queens of England since the 32 of Henry 8. when the Clergy Subsidies first began to be confirmed by Act of Parliament So also in the Latin ideom Regist Warham Regist Cranmer Statut. ◠Eliz c. 17. ever since Stat. 1. Phil. Mar. c. 8. which comes nearest home Nos Praelati Clerus in the submission of the Clergy to King Henry VIII and in the sentence of divorce against Anne of Cleve and in the instrument of the grant of the grant of the
together can conclude on any thing unto the prejudice of the third Bodinus that renowned States-man doth resolve it Negatively and states it thus nihil à duobus ordinibus discerni posse quo uni ex tribus incommodum inferatur Bodin de Rep. l. 3. c. 7. si res ad singulos ordines seorsum pertinet that nothing can be done by two of the Estates to the disprofit of the third in case the point proposed be such as concerns them severally The point was brought into debate upon this occasion Henry the 3d. of France had summoned an Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ondinum to be held at Bloys Anno 1577. the Form and Order of the which we have at large by Thuanus Lib. 63. But finding that he could not bring his ends about so easily with that numerous body as if they were contracted to a narrower compass he caused it to be mov'd unto them that they should make choice of 36 twelve of each Estate Tonanus in hist temp l. 63. quox Rex cum de postulatis decerneret in consilium adhibere dignaretur whom the King would deign call to Council for the dispatch of such Affairs and motions as had been either moved or proposed unto him Which being very readily assented to by the Clergy and Nobility who hoped thereby to find some favour in the Court and by degrees to be admitted to the Privy Council was very earnestly opposed by Bodinus being then Delegate or Commissioner for the Province of Veromandois who saw full well that if businesses were so carried the Commons which made the third Estate would find but little hopes to have their grievances redressed â—â—iin de Rep. â— 1. c. 7. their petitions answered And therefore laboured the rest of the Commissioners not to yield unto it as being utterly destructive of the Rights and Liberties of the common people which having done he was by them intrusted to debate the business before the other two Estates and did it to so good effect that at the last he took them off from their resolution and obtained the cause What Arguments he used in particular neither himself nor Thuanus telleth us But sure I am that he insisted both on the ancient customs of the Realm of France as also of the Realm of Spain and England and the Roman Empire in each of which it was received for a ruled case nihil à duobus ordinibus statui posse quo uni ex tribus prejudicium crearetur that nothing could be done by any of the two Estates unto the prejudice of the third And if it were a ruled case then in the Parliament of England there is no reason why it should be otherwise in the present times the equity and justice of it being still the same and the same reasons for it now as forcible as they could be then Had it been otherwise resolved of in the former Ages wherein the Clergy were so prevalent in all publick Councils how easie a matter had it been for them either by joyning with all the Nobility to exclude the Commons or by joyning with the Commonalty to exclude the Nobles Or having too much conscience to adventure to so great a change an alteration so incompatible and inconsistent with the Constitution of a Parliament how easily might they have suppressed the potency and impair the Priviledges of either of the other two by working on the humours or affections of the one to keep down the other But these were Arts not known in the former days nor had been thought of in these last but by men of Ruine who were resolved to change the Government as the event doth shew too clearly both of Church and State Nor doth it help the matter in the least degree to say that the exclusion of the Bishops from the House of Peers was not done meerly by the practice of the two other Estates but by the assent of the King of whom the Laws say he can do no wrong and by an Act of Parliament whereof our Laws yet say quae nul doit imaginer chose dishonourable that no man is to think dishonourably Plowden in Commentar For we know well in what condition the King was when he passed that Act to what extremities he was reduced on what terms he stood how he was forced to flye from his City of London to part with his dear Wife and Children and in a word so overpowred by the prevailing party in the two Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him as his case then was to deny them any thing And for the Act of Parliament so unduly gained besides that the Bill had been rejected when it was first brought unto the Lords and that the greater part of the Lords were frighted out of the House when contrary unto the course of Parliament it was brought again it is a point resolved both in Law and Reason that the Parliament can do nothing to the destruction of it self and that such Acts as are extorted from the King are not good and valid whereof we have a fair Example in the book of Statutes 15 Ed. 3. For whereasz the King had granted certain Articles pretended to be granted in the Form of a statute expresly contrary to the Laws of the Realm and his own Prerogative and Rights Royal mark it for this is just the case which he had yielded to eschew the dangers which by denying of the same were like to follow in the same Parliament it was repealed in these following words It seemed good to the said Earls Barons and other wise men that since the Statute did not proceed of our Free will the same be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. Or if it should not be repealed in a formal manner yet is this Act however gotten void in effect already by a former Statute in which it was enacted in full Parliament and at the self-same place where this Act was gained that the Great Charter by which and many other Titles the Bishops held their place in Parliament should be kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. it shall be holden for none CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or control the actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the Kings make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or
expresly and in terminis to represent the three Estates of the Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen This makes it evident that the King was not accounted in the times before for one of the three Estates of Parliament nor can be so accounted the present times For considering that the Lords and Commons do most confessedly make two of the three Estates and that the Clergy in another Act of Parliament of the said Queens time are confessed to be one of the greatest States of the Realm which Statute being still in force Statut. 8. Eliz. cap. 1. doth clearly make the Clergy to be the third either there must be more than three Estates in this Kingdom which is against the Doctrine of the present times or else the King is none of the Estates as indeed he is not which was the matter to be proved But I spend too much time in confuting that which hath so little ground to stand on more than the dangerous consequences which are covered under it For if the King be granted once to be no more than one of the three Estates how can it choose but follow from so sad a principle that he is of no more power and consideration in the time of Parliament than the House of Peers which sometimes hath consisted of three Lords no more or than the House of Commons only which hath many times consisted of no more than eighty or an hundred Gentlemen but of far less consideration to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever than both the Houses joyned together What else can follow hereupon but that the King must be co-ordinate with his two Honses of Parliament and if co-ordinate then to be over-ruled by their joynt concurrence bound to conform unto their Acts and confirm their Ordinances or upon case of inconformity and non-compliance to see them put in execution against his liking and consent to his foul reproach And what at last will be the issue of this dangerous consequence but that the Lords content themselves to come down to the Commons and the King be no otherwise esteemed of than the chief of the Lords the Princeps Senatus if you will or the Duke of Venice at the best no more which if Sir Edward Dering may be credited as I think he may in this particular seems to have been the main design of some of the most popular and powerful Members then sitting with him for which I do refer the Reader to his book of Speeches Which dangerous consequents whether they were observed at first by these who first ventured on the expression or were improvidently looked over I can hardly say Certain I am it gave too manifest an advantage to the Antimonarchical party in this Kingdom and hardned them in their proceeding against their King whom they were taught to look on and esteem no otherwise than as a Joint-tenant of the Sovereignty with the Lords and Commons And if Kings have partners in the Sovereignty they are then no King such being the nature and Law of Monarchy that si divisionem capiat interitum capiat necesse est Laciant Institut Div. l. 1. c. if it be once divided and the authorities thereof imparted it is soon destroyed Such is the dangerous consequence of this new Expression that it seemeth utterly to deprive the Bishops and in them the Clergy of this Land of all future hopes of being restored again to their place in Parliament For being the Parliament can consist but of three Estates if the King fall so low as to pass for one either the Bishops or the Commons or the Temporal Lords must desert their claim the better to make way for this new pretension and in all probability the Commons being grown so potent and the Nobility so numerous and united in bloud and marriages will not quit their interesse and therefore the poor Clergy must be no Estate because less able as the World now goeth with them to maintain their Title I have often read that Constantine did use to call himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop or superintendent of his Bishops Euseb de vita Constant and I have often heard our Lawyers say that the King is the general Ordinary of the Kingdom but never heard nor read till within these few years that ever any King did possess himself of the Bishops place or Vote in Parliament or sat there as the first of the three Estates as anciently the Bishops did to supply their absence By which device whether the Clergy or the King be the greater losers though it be partly seen already future times will shew This Rub removed we next proceed to the examination of that power which by our Author is conferred on the three Estates which we shall find on search and tryal to be very different according to the constitution of the Kingdom in which they are For where the Kings are absolute Monarchs as in England Scotland France and Spain Bod in de Repuô l. 1. c. the three Estates have properly and legally little more Authority than to advise their King as they see occasion to present unto his view their common grievances and to propose such remedies for redress thereof as to them seem meetest to canvass and review such erroneous judgments as formerly have passed in inferiour Courts and finally to consult about and prepare such Laws as are expedient for the publick In other Countreys where the Kings are more conditional and hold their Crowns by compact and agreement between them and their Subjects the reputation and authority of the three Estates is more high and eminent as in Polonia Denmark and some others of the Northern Kingdoms where the Estates lay claim to more than a directive power and think it not enough to advise their King unless they may dispose of the Kingdom also or at least make their King no better than a Royal Slave Thus and no otherwise it is with the German Emperors who are obnoxious to the Laws Thuan. hist sui temp l. 2. and for their Government accomptable to the Estates of the Empire insomuch that if the Princes of the Empire be persuaded in their consciences that he is likely by his mal-administration to destroy the Empire and that he will not hearken to advice and counsel ab Electorum Collegio Caesaria potestate privari potest Anonym Script ap Philip. Paraeum in Append ad Rom. 13. he may be deprived by the Electors and a more fit and able man elected to supply the place And to this purpose in a Constitution made by the Emperor Jodocus about the year 1410. there is a clause that if he or any of his Successors do any thing unto the contrary thereof the Electors and other States of the Empire sine rebellionis vel infidelitatis crimine libertatem babeant Goldast Constit Imperial Tom. 3. p. 424. should be at liberty
without incurring the crimes of Treason or Disloyalty not only to oppose but resist them in it The like to which occurrs for the Realm of Hungary wherein K. Andrew gives Authority to his Bishops Lords Bonfinius de Edict publ p. 37. and other Nobles sine nota alicujus infidelitatis that without any imputation of Disloyalty they may contradict oppose and resist their Kings if they do any thing in violation of some Laws and sanctions In Poland the King takes a solemn Oath at his Coronation to confirm all the Priviledges Rights and Liberties which have been granted to his Subjects of all ranks and Orders by any of his Predecessors and then adds this clause quod si Sacramentum meum violavero incolae Regni nullam nobis obedientiam praestare tenebuntur which if he violates his Subjects shall no longer be obliged to yield him Obedience Which Oath as Bodin well observeth Bodin de Rep. lib. 2. cap. 8. doth savour rather of the condition of the Prince of the Senate than of the Majesty of a King The like may be affirmed of Frederick the first King of Danemark who being called unto that Crown on the ejection of K. Christian the 2d An. 1523. was so conditioned with by the Lords of the Kingdom that at his Coronation or before he was fain to swear that he would put none of the Nobility to death or banishment but by the judgment of the Senate that the great men should have power of life or death over their Tenants and Vassals and that no Appeal should lie from them to the Kings Tribunal nor the King be partaker of the confiscations nec item honores aut imperia privatis daturum Id. ibid. c. nor advance any private person to Commands or Honours but by Authority of his great Council Which Oath being also taken by Frederick the second made Bodinus say that the Kings of Danemark non tam reipsa quam appellatione Reges sunt were only titular Kings but not Kings indeed Which Character he also gives of the King of Bobemia Id. ibid. p. 88. But in an absolute Monarchy the case is otherwise all the prerogatives and rights of Sovereignty being so vested in the Kings person ut nec singulis civibus nec universis fas est c. that it is neither lawful to particular men nor to the whole body of the Subjects generally to call the Prince in question for Life Fame or Fortunes Id. ibid. p. 210. and amongst these he reckoneth the Kingdoms of France Spain England Scotland the Tartars Muscovites omnium pene Africae Asiae imperiorum and of almost all the Kingdoms of Africk and Asia But this we shall the better see by looking over the particulars as they lie before us But first before we come unto those particulars we will look backwards on the condition and Authority of the Jewish Sanbedrim which being instituted and ordained by the Lord himself may serve to be a leading Case in the present business For being that the Jews were the Lords own people and their King honoured with the Title of the Lords Anointed it will be thought that if the Sanhedrim or the great Council of the seventy had any Authority and power over the Kings of Judah of whose jus Regni such a larger description is made by God himself in the first of Sam. cap. 8. the three Estates may reasonably expect the like in these parts of Christendom Now for the Authority of the Sanhedrim it is said by Cardinal Baronius that they had power of Judicature over the Law the Prophets and the Kings themselves Baron Annai Eccl. An. 31. sect 10. Erat horum summa autoritas ut qui de lege cognoscerent Prophetis simul de Regibus judicarent Which false position he confirms by as false an instance affirming in the very next words horum judicio Herodem Regem postulatum esse that King Herod was convented and convicted by them for which he cites Josphus with the like integrity I should have wondred very much what should occasion such a gross mistake in the learned Cardinal had I not shewn before that as he makes the Sanhedrim to rule the King so he hath made the high Priest to rule the Sanhedrim which to what purpose it was done every man can tell who knoweth the Cardinal endeavoureth nothing more in his large Collections than to advance the dignity and supremacy of the Popes of Rom. But for the power pretended to be in the Sanhedrim Id. in Epist dedicator and their proceedings against Herod as their actual King Josephus whom he cites is so far from saying it that he doth expresly say the contrary For as Josephus tells the story Hyrcanus was then King not Herod and Herod of so little hopes to enjoy the Kingdom that he could not possibly pretend any Title to it But having a command in Galilee procured by Antipater his Father of the good King Hyrcanus he had played the wanton Governor amongst them and put some of them to death against Law and Justice For which the Mothers of the slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did often call upon the King and people in the open Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Herod might answer for the murther before the Sanhedrim Joseph Antiq. Judic l. 14. cap. 17. Which being granted by the King he was accordingly convented by them and had been questionless condemned had not the King who loved him dearly given him notice of it on whose advertisement he went out of the Town and so escaped the danger This is the substance of that story and this gives no Authority to the Court of Sanhedrim over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Others there are who make them equal to the Kings though not superiour Magnam fuisse Senatus autoritatem Regiae velut parem saith the Learned Grotius Grotius in Matth. cap. 5. v. 22. And for the proof thereof allege those words of Sedechias in the Book of Jeremy who when the Princes of his Realm required of him to put the Prophet to death Jerem. 38.5 returned this Answer Behold he is in your hand Rex enim contra vos nihil potest for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Which words are also cited by Mr. Prynne to prove that the King of England hath no Negative Voice but by neither rightly For Calvin who as one observeth composed his Expositions on the book of God according to the Doctrine of his Institutions would not have lost so fair an evidence for the advancing of the power of his three Estates Prynne of Parl. pt 2. p. 73. Hookers Preface had he conceived he could have made it serviceable to his end and purpose But he upon the contrary finds fault with them who do so expound it or think the King did speak so honourably of his Princes ac si nihil iis sit
negandum as if it were not fit to deny them any thing Calvin in Jerem. c. 38. ver 5. Not so saith he it rather is amarulenta Regis querimonia a sad and bitter complaint of the poor captivated King against his Counsellors by whom he was so over-ruled ut velit nolit cedere iis cogitur that he was forced to yield to them whether he would or not which he expresly calls inexcusabilem arrogantiam an intolerable piece of sawciness in those Princes and an exclusion of the King from his legal Rights Let us next take a view of such Christian Kingdoms as are under the command of absolute Monarchs And first we will begin with the Realm of France the Government whereof is meerly Regal if not despotical such as that of a Master over his Servants which Aristotle defineth to be a Form of Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the King may do whatsoever he list Aristot Politic. l. 3. according to the counsel of his own mind For in his Arbitrary Edicts which he sendeth abroad he never mentioneth the cosent of the People or the approbation of the Council or the advice of his Judges which might be thought to derogate too much from his absolute power but concludes all of them in this Regal Form Car tel est nostre plaisir for such is our pleasure And though the Court of Parliament in Paris do use to take upon them to peruse his Edicts View of France by Dallington before they pass abroad for Laws and sometime to demur on his Grants and Patents and to petition him to reverse the same as they see occasion yet their perusal is a matter but of meer formality and their demurs more dilatory than effectual It is the Car tel est nostre plaisir that concludes the business and the Kings pleasure is the Law which that Court is ruled by As for the Assemblie des Estats or Conventus Ordinum it was reputed anciently the Supream Court for Government and Justice of all the Kingdom and had the cognizance of the greatest and most weighty affairs of State But these meetings have been long since discontinued and almost forgotten there being no such Assembly from the time of King Charles the eighth to the beginning of the reign of King Charles the ninth Thuanus hist sui temp which was 70 years and not many since And to say truth they could be but of little use as the World now goeth were the meetings oftner For whereas there are three Principal if not sole occasions of calling this Assembly or Conventus Ordinum that is to say the disposing of the Regency during the nonage or sickness of the King the granting Aids and Subsidies and the redress of the grievances there is now another course taken to dispatch their business The Parliament of Paris which speaks most commonly as it is prompted by power and greatness appointeth the Regent Contin Thuani An. 1610. View of France the Kings themselves together with their Treasurers and Under-Officers determine of the Taxes and they that do complain of Grievances may either have recourse to the Courts of Justice or else petition to the King for redress thereof And for the making new Laws or repealing the old the naturalization of the Alien and the regulating of his Sales or Grants of the Crown-Lands the publick patrimony of the Kingdom which were wont to be the proper Subject and debates of these Grand Assemblies they also have been so disposed of that Conventus Ordinum is neither troubled with them nor called about them The Chamber of Accompts in Paris which hath some resemblance to our Court of Exchequer doth absolutely dispose of Naturalizations Andr. Du Chesn and superficially surveyeth the Kings Grants and Sales which they seldom cross The Kings Car tel est nostre plaisir is the Subjects Law and is as binding as any Act or Ordinance of the three Estates and for repealing of such Laws as upon long experience are conceived to be unprofitable the Kings sole Edict is as powerful as any Act of Parliament Of which Bodinus doth not only say in these general terms Bodin de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 8. Saepe vidimus sine Ordinum convocatione consensu leges à Principe abrogatas that many times these Kings did abrogate some ancient Laws without the calling and consent of the three Estates but saith that it was neither new nor strange that they should so do and gives us some particular instances not only of the later times but the former Ages Nay when the power of this Assemblie des Estats was most great and eminent neither so curtailed nor neglected as it hath been lately yet then they carried themselves with the greatest reverence and respect before their King that could be possibly imagined For in the Assembly held at Tours under Charles the 8. though the King was then no more than 14 years of age and the Authority of that Court so great and awful that it was never at so high an eminence for power and reputation quanta illis temporibus as it was at that time yet when they came before the King Monsieur de Rell being then Speaker for the Commons or the third Estate did in the name of all the rest and with as much humility and reverence as he could devise promise such duty and obedience such a conformity of his will and pleasure such readiness to supply his wants and such alacrity in hearking unto his Commandments that as Bodinus well observes his whole Oration was nothing else quam perpetua voluntatis omnium erga Regem testificatio but a constant testimony and expression of the good affections of the Subject to their Lord and Sovereign Id. ibid. But whatsoever power they had in former times is not now material King Lewis the thirteenth having on good reason of State discharged those Conventions for the time ensuing Instead whereof he instituted an Assembly of another temper and such as should be more obnoxious to his will and pleasure consisting of a certain number of persons out of each Estate but all of his own nomination and appointment which join'd with certain of his Council and principal Officers he caused to be called L' Assembly des Notables assigning to them all the power and privileges which the later Conventions of the three Estates did pretend unto right well assured that men so nominated and intrusted would never use their powers to his detriment and disturbance of his heirs successors But to proceed Bodinus having shewn what dutiful respects the Convention of Estates in France shewed unto their King adds this Note nec aliter Hispanorum conventus habentur that the Assembly of the three Estates in the Realms of Spain carry themselves with the like reverence and submission to their Lord the King Nay major etiam obedientia majus obsequium Regi exhibetur the King of Spain hath more obedience and observance
from his three Estates than that which is afforded to the Kings of France Id. ibid. which being but general and comparative is yet enough to let us see that the Assembly of Estates in the Realms of Spain which they call the Curia is very observant of their King and obsequious to him and have but little of that power which is supposed by our Author to be inherent in the three Estates of all the Christian Kingdoms But this Bodinus proveth more particularly ascribing to the King and to him alone the power of calling this Assembly when he sees occasion and of dissolving it again when his work is done according as is used both in France and England And when they are assembled and met together their Acts and Consultations are of no effect further than as they are confirmed by the Kings consent Which he declareth in the same Form eadem formulâ quâ apud nos that hath accustomably been used by the Kings of France which is authoritative enough that is to say decernimus statuimus volumus We will and we appoint and we have decreed The Kings of Spain Id. ibid. p. 90. though not so despotical in their Government as the French Kings are are as absolute Monarchs and have as great an influence on the three Estates to make them pliant to their will and to work out their own ends by them as ever had the French Kings on their Courts of Parliament a touch whereof we had before in the former Chapter And this we may yet further see by their observance of the pleasure of King Philip the 2d Who having maried the Lady Elizabeth Daughter of Henry the 2d of France Convocatos Castellae reliquarum Hispaniae Provinciarum Ordines calling together the Estates of Castile and his other Provinces of Spain Thuan. hist sui temp l. 23. he caused them to swear to the succession of his Son Prince Charles whom he had by the Lady Mary of Portugal and after having on some jealousies of State put that Prince to death caused them to swear to the succession of another Son by the Lady of Austria And for the power of his Edicts which they call Pragmaticas they are as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament or any kind of Law whatever Examples of the which are very obvious and familiar in the Spanish Histories For though there be a body of Laws in use amongst them partly made up of some old Gothish Laws and Constitutions and partly of some parts of the Law imperial yet for the explanation of the Laws in force if any doubt arise about them or for supplying such defects which in the best collection of the Laws may occur sometimes the Magistrates and Judges are to have recourse to the King alone and to conform to such instructions as he gives them in it And this is it which was ordained by Alfonso the tenth qui etiam magistratus ad judices Principem adire jussit quoties patrio jure nihil de proposita causa seriptum esset as Bodinus hath it Bodin de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 8. 'T is true that for the railing of supplies of money and the imposing of extraordinary Taxes upon the Subject the Kings of Spain must be beholden to the three Estates without whose consent it cannot legally be done But then it is as true withal Id. ibid. p. 90. that there are customary Tributes called Servitia which the King raiseth of his own Aurhority without such consent And their consenting to the extraordinary is a thing of course the Spanish Nation being so well affected naturally to the power and greatness of their Kings whom they desire to make considerable if not formidable in the opinion of their Neighbours that the Kings seldom fail of moneys if the Subjects have it Finally that we may perceive how absolute this Monarch is over all the Courts or Curias of his whole Dominions take this along according as it stands verbatim in the Spanish History Spanish Hist 67. by Iyrannel The King of Spain as he is a potent Prince and Lord of many Countreys so hath he many Councils for the managing of their affairs distinctly and apart without any confusion every Council treating only of those matters which concern their Jurisdiction and charges with which Councils and with the Presidents thereof being men of chief note the King doth usually confer touching matters belonging to the good Government preservation and increase of his Estates and having heard every mans Opinion he commands that to be executed which he holds most fit and convenient Next let us take a view of Scotland and we shall find it there no otherwise I mean in reference to the point which is now in question than in France or Spain For besides that Bodinus makes it one of those absolute Monarchies ubi Keges sine controversia omnia jura Majestatis habent per sese Bodin de Repub l. 2. c. 7. Cambden in Britan. descript in which the Kings have clearly all the Rights of Majesty inherent in their own persons only it is declared in the Records of that very Kingdom that the King is directus totius Dominus the Sovereign Lord of the whole State and hath all authority and jurisdiction over all Estates and degrees as well Ecclesiaestical as Lay or Temporal And as for those Estates and Degrees convened in Parliament we may conjecture at their Power by that which is delivered of the Form or Order which they held it in Form of holding the Parl. in Scotland which is briefly this As soon as the Kings Writ is issued out for summoning the Estates to meet in Parliament he maketh choice of eight of the Spiritual Lords such on whose wisdom and integrity he may most rely which eight do chuse as many of the Temporal Lords and they together nominate eight more out of the Commissioners for the Counties and as many out of the Commissioners for the Towns or Burroughs These 32 thus chosen are called Domini pro Articulis Lords of the Articles and they together with the Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal and principal Secretaries of State and the Master of the Rolls whom they call Clerk Register do admit or reject every Bill but not before they have been shewn unto the King if they pass there they are presented afterwards to the whole Assembly where being throughly weighed and examined and put unto the Votes of the House such of them as are carried by the major part of the Voices for the Lords and Commons sit together in the same House there are on the last day of the Sessions exhibited to the King who by touching them with his Scepter pronounceth that he either ratifieth and approveth them or that he doth disable them and make them void But if the business be disliked by the Lords of the Articles it proceeds no further and never comes unto the consideration of the Parliament
one is fundamental and held by the two Houses on no worse a title than a fundamental Constitution which is as much as any reasonable Parliamentarian need desire to have Therefore in Answer to the Fuller not taking notice of his foolish and seditious inferences we will clear those points 1. That the two Houses of Parliament are not co ordinate with the King but subordinate to him And 2. That the power of making Laws is properly and legally in the King alone As for the first we had before a Recognition made by Act of Parliament by which the Kingdom of England is acknowledged to be an Empire governed by one supream Head and King to whom all sorts and degrees of people ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience 24 H. 8. c. 12. which certainly the Lords and Commons had not made to the dethroning of themselves their Heirs and Successors from this co-ordinative part of Sovereignty if any such co-ordination had been then believed Or if it be supposed to excuse the matter that King Henry VIII being a severe and terrible Prince did wrest this Recognition from them which yet will hardly serve for a good defence what shall we say to the like recognition made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign 1 Eliz. c. 1. when she was green in State and her power unsetled and so less apt to work upon her people by threats and terrors Assuredly had the Houses dream't in those broken times of that co-ordinative Sovereignty which is now pretended they might have easily regained it and made up that breach which by the violent assaults of King Henry VIII had been made upon them which was a point they never aimed at Besides if this co-ordinative Majesty might be once admitted it must needs follow that though the King hath no Superiour he hath many Equals and where there is equality there is no subjection But Bracton tells us in plain terms not only that the King hath no Superiour in his Realm except God Almighty but no Equal neither and the reason which he gives is exceeding strong Quia sic amitteret praeceptum cum par in Parem non habeat potestatem Beacton de leg Angl. l. 1. c. 8. because he could not have an Equal but with the loss of his Authority and Regal Dignity considering that one Equal hath no power to command another Now lest the Fuller should object as perhaps he may that this is spoken of the King out of times of Parliament and of the Members of the Houses seorsim taken severally as particular persons but when they are convened in Parliament then they are Sovereigns and no Subjects first he must know that by the Statute of Queen Elizabeth all of the House of Commons are to take the Oath before remembred for the defending of all preheminences and authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and for bearing faith and true allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and that if any of them do refuse this Oath Stat. 5. Eliz. 1. he is to have no voice in Parliament 2. He cannot choose but know that even sedente Parliamento both the Lords and Commons use to address themselves to his Sacred Majesty in the way of supplication and petition and certainly it is not the course for men of equal rank to send Petitions unto one another and that in those Petitions they do stile themselves his Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects Which is not only used as the common Complement which the hypocrisie of these times hath taken up though possibly it might be no otherwise meant in some late addresses but is the very phrase in some Acts of Parliament 25 Hen. 8. c. 22. c. as in the Acts at large doth at full appear 3. They may be pleased to know how happy a thing it was for the Realm of England that this Fuller did not live in former times For had he broached this Doctrine some Ages since he would have made an end of Parliaments Princes are very jealous of the smallest points of Sovereignty and love to Reign alone without any Rivals their Souls being equally made up of Pompeys and Caesars and can as little brook an Equal as endure a Superiour And lastly I must let him know what Bodinus saith who telleth us this Legum ac edictorum probatio aut publicatio quae in Curia vel Senatu fieri solet Bedin de Rep. l. 1. c. 8. non arguit imperii majestatem in Senatu vel Curia inesse viz. That the publishing and approbation of Laws and Edicts which is made ordinarily in the Court or Parliament proves not the Majesty of the State to be in the said Court or Parliament And therefore if the power of confirmation or rejecting be of a greater trust and more high concernment than that of consulting and consenting as no doubt it is the power of consulting and consenting which the Fuller doth ascribe to the two Houses of Parliament will give them but a sorry title to Co-ordinative Sovereignty This leads me on unto the Power of making Laws which as before I said is properly and legally in the King alone tanquam in proprio Subjecto as in the true and adequate subject of that Power And for the proof thereof I shall thus proceed When the Norman Conqueror first came in as he won the Kingdom by the Sword so did he govern it by his Power His Sword was then the Scepter and his Will the Law There was no need on his part of an Act of Parliament much less of calling all the Estates together to know of them after what Form and by what Laws they would be governed It might as well be said of him as in the flourish and best times of the Roman Emperors Justin Institut l. 1. c. Quod Principi placuerit legis babet vigorem that whatsoever the King willed it did pass for Law This King and some of his Successors being then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and having a despotical power on the lives and fortunes of their Subjects which they disposed of for the benefit of their Friends and followers Normans French and Flemings as to them seemed best But as the Subjects found the Yoke to be too heavy and insupportable so they addressed themselves in their Petitions to the Kings their Sovereigns to have that Yoke made easier and the burden lighter especially in such particulars of which they were most sensible at the present time By this means they obtained first to have the Laws of Edward the Confessor contain'd for the most part in the Great Charter afterwards and by this means that is to say by pouring out their prayers and desires unto them did they obtain most of the Laws and Statutes which are now remaining of the time of King Henry the 3d and King Edward the first Many of which as they were issued at the first either in Form
themselves to be ordained by Gods Word to that end and purpose cujus se lege Dei Tutores positos esse norunt as he says they do then neither any discontinuance or non-usage on their parts nor any prescription to the contrary alledged by Kings and supream Princes can hinder them from resuming and exercising that Authority which God hath given them whensoever they shall find a fit time for it But first I would fain learn of Calvin in what part of the Word of God we shall find any such Authority given to those popular Magistrates by what Name soever they are called in their several Countreys as he tells us of Not in the Old Testament I am sure though in the institution of the seventy Elders there be some hopes of it For when Moses first ordained those Elders it was not to diminish any part of that Power which was vested in him but to ease himself of some part of the burthen which did lie upon him And this appears plainly by the 18th Chapter of the Book of Exodus For when it was observed by Jethro his Father in Law that he attended the businesses of the people from morning till night he told him plainly ultra vires suas negotium esse that the burthen was too heavy for him vers 18. and therefore that he should chuse some Vnder Officers and place them over Thousands over Hundreds and over Fifties and over Tens Vers 21. Leviusque sit tibi partito in alios onere that so it might be the easier for him those Officers bearing some part of the burthen with him Yet so that these inferiour Officers should only judge in matters of inferiour Nature the greater matter being still reserved to his own Tribunal Which Counsel as it was very well approved by Moses so was it given by Jethro and approved by Moses with reference to the will and pleasure of Allmighty God Vers 23. And what the Lord God did in it we shall find in the Book of Numbers Chap. 11. For when Moses made complaint to God that the Burthen of all the people was laid on him Vers 11. where note it is the burden still which he makes complaint of and that he was not able to hear all the people alone because it was too heavy for him Vers 13. God willed him to make choice of seventy of those Officers which before he had placed over the people and to present them to him in the Tabernacle of the Congregation where he would give unto them the Spirit of Government ut sustenent tecum onus populi to the end that they might bear the burthen of the people with him Vers 17. Nothing in all this but the easing of the Supream Magistrate of some part of the Burthen which was before too heavy for him without any diminution of his power in the least respect Nor doth it make for Calvins purpose that God said to Moses that he would take of the Spirit which was upon him and put it on the seventy Elders Vers 17. the Spirit resting upon Moses in as full a measure as at first it did not lessened by the communication of it to those Vnder-Officers And so the point is stated by two learned Writers though otherwise of different persuasions in the things of God Estius in difficiliora sacrae setipturae loca Num 11. v. 17. Deodat Annot. in Num. 11. By Estius for the Pontificians it is so determined Non significatur per hoc quod minus haberet Moses de spiritu quam antea sed significatur quod ex eodem spiritu gratiae quo repletus Moses populum illum regebat etiam alii adjutorium essent habituri ad eundem populum regendum The very same with that of Deodatus for the Protestant or Reformed Writers Not that the gift of the Spirit saith he should be in any manner truly or really diminished in Moses but because that infallible conduct of the Spirit of God which until then had been peculiar to Moses should be made common to all the seventy in the publick Government And much less did it derogate from the spirit and power of Moses that the Seventy were indued by God with the gift of Prophesie Vers 25. that being but a personal Grace and perhaps but temporary to those persons neither to gain them at the first the greater estimation amongst the people whom they were to govern never pretended to by any of their Successors in that Magistracy for the times ensuing And therefore when Moses was told of it he made light of the matter and was so far from envying at it that he seemed to wish that all Gods people might be able to prophesie to one another Vers 29. conceiving rightly nihil abesse dignitati suae personae Estius in Num. 11. v. 29. as my Author hath it that it did nothing derogate from his power and dignity though Joshua out of an honest zeal to his Masters greatness might fear it tended or might tend unto the diminution of his Masters dignity and credit as is observed by Deodate What power these seventy Elders had in succeeding times when they were drawn into a body and made up that great Court which was called the Sanhedrim and how far they were then from curbing and restraining the power of those several Kings under which they lived hath been shewn already Now if the Old Testament do give so little countenance to that great Authority which Calvin hath assigned so peremptorily to his three Estates or any other popular Magistrates in their several Countreys I am sure the New Testament doth afford them less in which obedience to the Supream Magistrate is punctually and frequently required of all sorts of persons Let every soul be subject to the higher powers saith the Apostle of the Gentiles Rom. 13.1 If every soul then neither any Papal Presbyterian or popular pretender can challenge any exemption from that obedience and subjection to the higher powers which is required of them in this Text and much less exercise any jurisdiction or Authority over them whereby they may be brought in subjection to him Hyeroym in Rom. 13. St. Jerom tells us that this Rule is given by the Apostle for fear lest some presuming on that Christian Liberty unto which they were called might possibly refuse to yield obedience and pay their just Tributes to those higher powers to which the Lord had made them subject And therefore he desires to humble them and bring them unto a better understanding of their Christian Duty ne forte propter superbiam magis quam propter Deum contumeliam patiantur Lest the reproach or punishment which they suffered for it should be imputed rather to their pride and arrogancy than their zeal to God Now what St. Jerom tells us in the general only is by St. Chrysostom prest particularly with reference almost to all degrees and Estates of men Consost in Kom Hem. 23. Here the Apostle sheweth saith he that these
things are commanded to all men both Priests and Monks and not to temporal men only which he declareth in the beginning when he said Let every soul be subject to the highest powers although thou be an Apostle although thou be an Evangelist although thou be a Prophet although thou be whatsoever thou art Which said he gives this reason for it That Religion is not overthrown by this subjection If no Apostle could pretend to an exemption from those common duties which Subjects owe unto their Princes then certainly the Pope who pretends to sit in Peters Chair and to challenge all the priviledges which belonged unto him must needs be in as great subjection to a Christian Emperor as the Apostles were in their times to any Heathen King If those things were required of Priests and Monks as he says they were then must the Papal Clergy whether they be Monastick or secular Priests perform those duties and yield that due obedience unto those Kings and Princes under whom they live which are here required But so it is that partly by strong hand and partly by taking their opportunities in the darker Ages of the Church the Pope hath not only freed his Clergy from the power of Princes in matters even of Civil nature and concernment but challengeth for himself a power above them and exercised it for a long time with great pride and Tyranny contrary to the Apostles Rule and the Fathers Commentary If to Evangelist or Prophet could challenge any such exemption as the Father plainly saith they could not then much less can the Presbyterian Minister pretend unto it though he be both a Prophet and an Evangelist also in his own conceit Which notwithstanding the Scotish Presbyterians had got unto so great a head in the minority of King James in all matters which related to Ecclesiastical congnizance and to that cognizance they reduced all matters they commonly declin d the Kings judgment and his Courts of Judicature as altogether incompetent appealing from them either to their own Presbyteries or to the next general Assembly of their own appointing and standing so wilfully to those Appeals that some of them had like to have paid dear for it after that Kings coming into England if the King had not been more merciful to them than that they deserved at his hands If no man whatsoever he be can lawfully acquit himself from this subjection as is said by Chrysostom what will become of Calvins popular Magistrates and of the great Authority which he gives them over Kings and Princes those popular Officers being included equally with the rest of the people in St. Pauls injunction It s true that Calvins popular Officers may seem to have some colour for it both from our English Translation and the vulgar Latin by which obedience is required sublimioribus potestatibus to the higher powers and all such popular Officers whatsoever they be may warrantably be lookt upon as higher powers in respect of the residue of the people But first the words in the Original viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not so properly signifie the higher as the supream powers and so the word is rendâ—ed in the first of S. Peter cap. 1. ver 13. in which submission is required to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Supream or unto such as are sent by him c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Peter in the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in the plural number both words proceeding from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Nominative Case and consequently being of the same sense and signification But secondly permitting them the benefit of these Translations yet will they find but little colour for that coercive power that Sovereign Authority and Jurisdiction which Calvin hath assigned to the three Estates or any other popular Officers over Kings and Princes For though such popular Officers may warrantably be lookt upon as higher powers in respect of the residue of the people as before was said yet are they lower powers in respect of the King from whom as they receive all the Authority which they have whatsoever it be so unto him they are to render an accompt of their actings in it whensoever he pleaseth So that these popular Officers may be compar'd not unntly unto the Genera subalterna in the Schools of Logick each of them being subordinate to one another the Constable to the Mayor or Bayliff in a Corporate Town or to the Justices of the Peace in the County at large the Mayors and Justices to the Judges in their several Circuits the Judges in their several Circuits and their Courts of Judicature to the Lord Chancellor for the time being and he unto the three Estates when convened in Parliament till they end all in genus summum in that supream power which is subordinate to none and unto which the rest are Species subalternae as the Logicians phrase it in their several Orders till they end all in Specie infimâ even in the lowest of the People Less comfort can I give them from the Apostle of the Jews from the words of St. Peter in which submission is required as before was said to every ordinance of man whether it be unto the King as unto the Supream or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Now those which are thus authorised and sent by Kings to the ends and purposes before mentioned may very properly be resembled unto Jehosophats Commissioners in the Kingdom of Judah or the itinerary Judges in the Realm of England 2 Chron. 17.7 and can neither claim nor exercise any other Authority than what in their Commissions and instructions is assigned unto them And certainly no King did or will ever grant any such Commission whereby his Under-officers and Inferior Magistrates may challenge any power above him or exercise any jurisdiction or Authority over him If any thing in this Text may be thought to favour Calvin in this strange opinion it is that Kings are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humana creatura saith the vulgar Latin an Ordinance of Man as the English read it and being but a Creature of the Peoples making the rest may think themselves as good men as he The Rhemists will have Kings to be called humane Creatures because Elected by the people or holding their Sovereignty by birth and carnal propagation ordained for the wealth peace and prosperity of the Subjects to put a difference betwixt that humane Superiority and the spiritual Rulers and Regiments guiding and governing the people to an higher end and instituted by God himself immediately Christ having expresly constituted the form of Regiment used ever since in the Church Whereunto Dr. Fulk for want of a better doth return this Answer viz. That though there be great difference between the government of
Princes and Ecclesiastical Governors yet the Apostle calleth not Princes an humane Creation as though they were not also of Gods Creation for there is no power but of God but that the form of their Creation is in mans appointment All the Genevians generally do so expound it and it concerns them so to do in point of interesse The Bishop of that City was their Sovereign Prince and had jus utriusque gladii as Calvin signified in a Letter to Cardinal Sadolet till he and all his Clergy were expelled the City in a popular Tumult Anno 1528. and a new form of Government established both in Church and State So that having laid the foundation of their Common-wealth in the expulsion of their Prince and the new model of their Discipline in refusing to have any more Bishop they found it best for justifying their proceedings at home and increasing their Partizans abroad to maintain a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ and to invest the people and their popular Officers with a chief power in the concernments and affairs of State even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of Kingdoms But for this last they find no warrant in the Text which we have before us For first admitting the Translation to be true and genuine as indeed it is not the Roman Emperor and consequently other Kings and Princes may be said to be an humane Ordinance because their power is most visibly conversant circa humanas Actiones about ordering of humane Actions and other civil affairs of men as they were subjects of the Empire and Members of that Body politick whereof that Emperor was head Secondly to make Soveraign Princes by what name and Title soever called to be no other than an humane Ordinance because they are ordained by the people and of their appointment must needs create an irreconcileable difference between St. Peter and St. Paul by which last the Supream Powers whatsoever they be are called the Ordinance of God The Powers saith that Apostle are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God Upon which words Deodate gives this gloss or comment That the Supream Powers are called the Ordinance of God because God is the Author of this Order in the world and all those who attain to these Dignities do so either by his manifest will and approbation when the means are lawful or by his secret Providence by meer permission or toleration when they are unlawful Now it is fitting that man should approve and tolerate that which God approves and tolerates But thirdly I conceive that those words in the Greek Text of St. Peter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so properly translated as they might have been and as the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred by the same Translators somewhat more near to the Original in another place For in the 8th Chapter to the Romans vers 22. we find them rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the whole Creation and why not rather every Creature as both our old Translation and the Rhemists read it conform to omnis Creatura in the vulgar Latine which had they done and kept themselves more near to the Greek Original in St. Peters Text they either would have rendred it by every humane Creature as the Rhemists do or rather by all Men or by all Man-kind as the words import And then the meaning will be this that the Jews living scattered and disperst in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and other Provinces of the Empire were to have their conversation so meek and lowly for fear of giving scandal to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived as to submit themselves to all Man-kind or rather to every Man unto every humane Creature as the Rhemists read it that was in Authority above whether it were unto the Emperor himself as their supream Lord or to such Legats Prefects and Procurators as were appointed by him for the govenment of those several Provinces to the end that they may punish the evil-doers and incourage such as did well living conformably to the Laws by which they were governed Small comfort in this Text as in any of the rest before for those popular Officers which Calvin makes the Overseers of the Sovereign Prince and Guardians of the Liberties of the common people If then there be no Text of Scripture no warrant from the Word of God by which the popular Officers which Calvin dreams of are made the Keepers of the Liberties of the common people or vested with the power of opposing Kings and Sovereign Princes as often as they wantonly insult upon the people or willingly infringe their Priviledges I would fain learn how they should come to know that they are vested with such power or trusted with the defence of the Subjects Liberties cujus se Dei oratione Tutores positos esse norunt as Calvin plainly says they do If they pretend to know it by inspiration such inspiration cannot be known to any but themselves alone neither the Prince or People whom it most concerneth can take notice of it Nor can they well assure themselves whether such inspirations come from God of the Devil the Devil many times insnaring proud ambitious and vain-glorious Men by such strange delusions If they pretend to know it by the dictate of their private Spirit the great Diana of Calvin and his followers in expounding Scripture we are but in the same uncertainties as we were before And who can tell whether the private Spirit they pretend unto and do so much brag of 1 Ring 22.22 may not be such a lying Spirit as was put into the mouths of the Prophets when Ahab was to be seduced to his own destruction Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus as Lactantius notes it All I have now to add is to shew the difference between Calvin and his followers in the propounding of this Doctrine delivered by Calvin in few words but Magisterially enough and with no other Authority than his ipse dixit enlarged by David Paraeus in his Comment on Rom. 13. into divers branches and many endeavours used by him as by the rest of Calvins followers to find out Arguments and instances out of several Authors to make good the cause For which though Calvin scap'd the fire yet Paraeus could not Ille Crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic Diadema For so it hapned that one Mr. Knight of Brodegates now Pembroke Colledge in Oxford had preach'd up the Authority of these popular Officers in a Sermon before the University about the beginning of the year 1622. for which being presently transmitted to the King and Council he there ingenuously confessed that he had borrowed both his doctrine and his proofs and instances from the Book of Paraeus above mentioned Notice whereof being given to the University the whole Doctrine of Paraeus as to that particular was drawn into several Propositions which in a full and frequent Convocation
the Body of Christ Nay their labour was blessed by God first for the Conversion and then for the Resormation of this Church and Kingdom and therefore I hope there is no sober Protestant in England but will heartily say Amen to that Prayer of Mr. Beza's who although no great Adorer of Episcopacy yet considerdering the Blessings that God brought to this Nation by their Ministry put up this devout Petition Si nunc Anglicanae Ecclesiae instauratae suorum Episcoporum Archiepiscoporum auctoritate suffultae perstant quemadmodum hoc illi nostra memoria contigit ut ejus ordininis homines non tantum insignes Dei martyres sed etiam praestantissimos pastores ac Doctores habuerit fruatur sane istâ singulari Dei beneficentia quae utinam sit illi perpetua Theod. Bez. ad Tract de min. Evang. Grad ab Hadr. Sarav cap. 18. Fruatur Anglia ista singulari Dei Beneficentiâ quae utinam sit illi perpetua Let England enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I pray to God may be perpetual to it There are others that envy them their Honours and Dignities For though the Holy Spirit of God does oblige all Christians to esteem their Bishops very highly or more than abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in love for their work sake 1 Thes 5.12 13. and reason it self dictates that the honours confer'd upon Representatives and Embassadors redound to the Prince that delegates and imploys them though Jews Heathens and Mahomâ—tans ever paid the profoundest Veneration to their Priests Caliphs and Musti's and our Relig ous Ancestors in the Saxon Danish and Norman times set the highest value upon their Bishops yet the Religion of this Age is to load them with all possible Calumnies and Reproaches and with Corah and his Complices to charge them with taking too much upon them and to disdain to set them with the Dogs of their Flocks The Priests were Judges in Egypt and so were the Magi and Areopagites who were sacred persons in Persia and Athens and it was no other wise with the Druids amongst the Ancient Britains and Gauls For Caesar tells us how their Office extended to things Temporal as well as Religious Sacrificia publica privata procurant religiones interpretantur Druides a bello a besse consueverunt ni que tributa una cum reliquis pendunt St quod admissum est facinus si caedes facta si de haereditate de finibus controversia est iidem decernunt Caesar Com. lib. 6. that they did not only order publick and private Sacrifices and expound Religion and instruct Youth but were free from Contribution and Warfare and all burthens of State and determined all Controversies both publick and private and executed the place both of Priests and Judges for if any offence were committed as Murther or Man-slaughter or any Controversie arose touching Lands or Inheritance they sentenced it rewarding the Vertuous and punishing the Wicked The Patricii the noblest Romans were ambitious to be admitted into the College of the Priests and when the Government became Monarchical the Emperors took upon them the pontifical Dignity thinking it no diminution of them Grandeur to be imployed about the Service of the gods but rather conceiving the Priesthood too noble an imployment to be confer'd upon a Subject But we need no other Testimonies to convince us of the Rights of Church-men for the management of the civil concerns of human Society that the holy Scriptures Amongst the Jews the Civil and Ecclesiastical power were not so distinguished but one and the same person exercised both For not to expatiate upon particular instances Melchisedeck Eli Samuel Ezra Esdras were all Priests and had the power not only of Ecclesiastical but Civil jurisaictior Neither could Samuel have hewed Agag in pieces with his own hand 1 Sam. 15.33 if it had been unlawful for persons dedicated to the sacred Offices of Religion to havè intermeddled in causes of blood Which very instance proves that Clergy-men are not excluded from managing the highest secular concerns by any immutable Laws of God or Nature And if there are any Canons or Councils that forbid them to meddle in things of that kind that so they may the better attend upon the sacred Offices and Exercises of Religion let those be obligatory to the persons unto whom they were delivered but not be pleaded or produced to the prejudice of English Bishops who have distinct Priviledges and Laws For there have been Constitutions that have forbidden Church-men to Marry to make Wills to be Executors of mens Wills and Testaments to be the Wards of Orphans c. And these Constitutions are of as great force to bind the Clergy of England as the Council of Toledo to thrust the Bishops out of the House of Lords in Causes of Attainder and Blood Let the Archbishops of Ments and Colen with other Princes of the Empire look to it if it be unlawful for Ecclesiastical persons to adjudge Criminals to death It will be infinite to shew how St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the Godly Bishops of all Ages had no Supersedeas given them to intermeddle in things civil and secular because of their Wisdom and Knowledge in things Sacred and Divine Certainly the Holy Spirit of God did not conceive it unfit that Worldly matters and Controversies should be committed to Church-men for it is highly reasonable to think that those who are the Pastors of mens Souls will be the best Judges in determining their civil Rights It could not indeed be expected whilst the Empire was Heathen that Bishops should be busied and employed in Secular affairs unless it were in those Controversies which arose among the Christians themselves wherein St. Paul gives direction that they should rather determine their Contentions by a private Arbitrement of their own than by the publick judgments of their Enemies 1 Cor. 6. But when Kings became Christians Soz. lib. 1. c. 9. we find persons making their Appeals from the Tribunals of Princes to the Consistory of Bishops For then Bishops had power to reverse the sentence of death and to stay the hands of Executioners when the poor Criminals were going to receive the reward of their Iniquities just as the Praetors and Consuls of Rome would submit their Fasces those Ensigns of Authority when they did but casually meet with some of the Priests Constantine granted the Bishops this priviledge that condemned Malefactors might appeal unto their Courts and when such appeals were made the Bishops had power as well to deliver them over into the hands of Justice as to extend unto them a Pardon or Reprieve For the priviledge confer'd on them was as well for the punishment and terror of the Wicked as for mitigating the rigour of Justice and encouraging Criminals to Vertue and Repentance Mr. Selden himself who was none of the best Friends to Church-men grants that for four thousand years the Civil and Ecclesiastick jurisdiction went always hand in hand
together Ex hisce simul sanè ex primo secundo libro hoc satis puto constabit per Annos amplius M. M. M. M. tam sacrorum regimen qua forense esset atque à functione facrâ ritè distinctum quam profanorum five res spectes five personas juxta jus etiam divinum ex Ecclesiae Judaicae populorumque Dei anteriorum disciplinâ perpetuâ ad eosdem attinuisse judices seu Magistratus ejusdem Religionis atque ad synedria eadem neutiquam omnino ex juris istius instituto aliquo sacrorum prosanorum instar Ecclesiarum seu Spiritualium laicorum seu teorporalium Nominibus nullatenus discriminata Seld. de syn praefat libr. secundi And so it did till Pope Nicolas made the one independent upon the other So that their disunion is a Popish Innovation for till his time the Judges of Church and State ever sate together affairs Sacred and Religious were scan'd and determined in the morning and those that were Secular and Civil in the afternoon There was not till that time any clashing between Moses and Aaron no prohibitions out of one Court to stop or evacuate the proceedings of another and then it was that Justice run down like a stream and Righteousness like a mighty River If it be said that there are many corruptions among Church-men and especially in Ecclesiastical Courts The answer is That Callings must be distinguish'd from persons or else those two noble professions of Law and Physick will fall under the same condemnation with Divinity No man of any sobriety will condemn either of those professions because there are some Empericks in the World who kill mens Bodies and some Petifoggers that intangle and ruine their Estates And I hope Divines may have some grains of allowance granted them as well as the Inns of Court and Chancery and the College of Physicians if they cannot let that Calling which is most innocent cast the first stone It cannot be hoped that there will in this Age be a Revival of the primitive usage of these two Jurisdictions But yet this ought to be seriously regarded by all who have any belief of a Deity and regard for their native Country I mean that either our English Monarchs might be totally excused from their Coronation-Oath or not be put upon a necessity of violating thereof Their Oath in favour of the Clergy is that they will grant and keep the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward their Predecessor according to the Laws of God Rushw Hist Collect. part 1◠pag. 204. the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Ancient customs of the Realm But how this Oath is observed when the Bishops are infringed in their ancient and indisputable priviledges let it be considered by all persons of sober mind and principles And let it be declared what order of men in the whole Nation the King can rely upon with so much safety and confidence as upon the Bishops and that not only upon the account of their Learning Wisdom Sanctity and Integrity qualifications not every day to be met withal in State-Politicians but upon the score of Gratitude and Interest For 't is from their Prince that they derive their Honours Dignities Titles Revenues Priviledges Power Jurisdictions with all other secular advantages and upon this account there is greater probability that they will be faithful to his Concerns and Interests than those who receive nothing from him but the common advantages of Government But this argument is known too well by our Anti-Episcopal Democraticks And perhaps 't is the chief if not the only reason of their enmity against an Order of men of so sacred and venerable an Institution As for this little Treatise the Author of it is too well known unto this Nation to invite any Scholar to peruse it It was written when the Bishops were Voted by the House of Lords not to be of the Committee in the Examination of the Earl of Strafford For then it was that Dr. Heylyn considered the case and put these few Sheets as a MSS. into the hands of several of the Bishops that they might be the better enabled to assert and vindicate their own Rights It was only intended for private use and therefore the Reader is not to expect so punctual an accuracy as he may find in other Treatises of this Learned Author It has been perused by some persons of good Eminency for judgment and station in the Church of England and by them approved and commended All that is wished by the Publisher is that it may produce the effects which he proposes to himself in exposing it to publick view and that those Lords who are now Prisoners in the Tower and from whose tryal some have laboured to exclude the Bishops were able to give unto the World as convincing Evidence of their Innocency as that great and generous States man did who fell a Sacrifice to a prevailing Faction and whose Innocent Blood was so far from being a lustration to the Court as some thought it would have proved as it drew after it such a deluge of Gore as for many preceding years had never been spilt in this Kingdom But 't is not my design or desire to revive any of the Injustice or Inhumanities of the last Age. Suffice it to say that it was for this Apostolical Government of Bishops that King Charles the First lost his Kingdoms his Crown his Life And the exclusion of Bishops from Voting in causes of blood was the prologue to all those Tragical mischiefs that happened to that Religion and Renowned Prince And those who have the least veneration for his present Majesty cannot certainly conceive him a King of such slender and weak abilities as to permit Himself and Family to be ruined by those very methods with which his Father was before him De jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR The Right of Peerage vindicated to the BISHOPS OF ENGLAND SINCE the restoring of the Bishops to their place and Vote in the House of Peers I find a difference to be raised between a Peer of the Realm and a Lord of the Parliament and then this Inference or Insinuation to be built upon it that though the Bishops are admitted to be Lords of Parliament yet they are not to be reckoned amongst the Peers of the Realm the contrary whereof I shall endeavour to make good in this following Essay and that not only from the Testimony of approved Writers but from unquestioned Records Book-Cases Acts of Parliament and such further Arguments as may be able to evince the point which we have in hand But first perhaps it may be said that there is no such difference in truth and verity betwixt a Lord of Parliament and a Peer of the Realm but that we may conclude the the Bishops to be Peers of the Realm if they be once admitted to
Page 477 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers ibid. 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland Page 478 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. ibid. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. Page 479 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. Page 480 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII Page 481 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry ibid. CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred Page 483 2. The Lords day and the other Holy-days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 484 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer-book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment Page 485 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Reign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day Page 486 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath ibid. 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath Page 487 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented Page 489 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof Page 490 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland Page 491 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his Declaration about Lawful sports on the Lords day Page 493 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred ibid. 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy-days have stood in Scotland since the Reformation of Religion in that Kingdom Page 494 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James Page 496 14. An exortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History Page 497 Historia Quinqu-Articularis Or a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the Blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof Page 505 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome Page 506 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills of men ibid. 4. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine Page 507 5. The Error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continued by the rigid Lutherans ibid. 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lie hidden under the Decree and the incompatibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment ibid. 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the Will abused by Pelagius and his followers Page 508 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it ibid. 9. The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spiritual matters ibid. 10. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ Page 509 CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestination and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation Page 510 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way ibid. 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other Page 511 4. The Historians judgment interposed between the Parties ibid. 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences ibid. 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following Page 512 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees ibid. 8. The judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace ibid. 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin ibid. 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it Page 513 CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings Page 314 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof ibid. 3. The several judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega ibid. 4. The different judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedom of the Will were lost in Adam ibid. 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God Page 515 6. The opinion of Frier Catanca in the point of irresistibility ibid. 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected ibid. 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties Page 516 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the five Controverted Points ibid. 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches Page 517 CHAP. IV. The judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in Five Points betwixt the
Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves Page 518 2. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge ibid. 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus parallell'd by that of Bishop Overal Page 519 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors Page 520 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer Page 521 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it Page 522 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. ibid. 8. The Doctrine of the Synodists in the said Points Page 523 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God ibid. 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin Page 524 CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius Page 525 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity-Chair at Leiden his Commendations and death Page 526 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference ibid. 4 The said five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort Page 527 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange Page 528 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves Page 529 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions ibid. 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines Page 530 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both Page 531 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing Page 532 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermnation of the poor Remonstrants ibid. 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced Page 533 CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the opposite Party 1. An Introduction to the said Objections Page 534 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of S. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther ibid. 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by King James Page 535 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it ibid. 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same Page 536 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridley ibid. 7. What moved King James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them Page 537 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party ibid. 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine which may incline a man to sediti us courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin Page 538 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop ibid. 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant Page 539 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation Page 541 2. His miserable fall Page 542 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus ibid. 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy ibid. 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies Page 543 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly Page 444 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present point and the grounds on which he builded the same ibid. 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines Page 545 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal Page 546 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to fight in the eighth of Saint Mark. ibid. CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing
doctrins An Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same ibid. 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale Page 627 CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled Page 628 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James Page 629 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition ibid. 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it Page 630 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession ibid. 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their Predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament Anno 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons of it Page 631 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-Calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland ibid. 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon Calvanists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud Page 632 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that King was more incensed heainst the party of Arminius than against their perswasions ibid. 10. The Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges Page 633 11. The publishing of Mountagues Answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his Appeal Licensed by the Kings appointment Page 634 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England ibid. A Postscript to the Reader concerning some particulars in a Scurrilous Pamphlet Entituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. Page 635 The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion c. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Obedience laid down by Calvin and of the Popular Officers supposed by him whereby he overthroweth that Doctrine 1. THe purpose and design of the work in hand Page 645 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin Page 646 3. And that not only to the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants Page 647 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it Page 649 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some particular Officers ordained of purpose to regulate the power of Kings Page 650 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine as to the point of Obedience Page 651 7. Several Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him Page 653 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and the Scholars ibid. 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience Page 654 10. The method and distribution of the following work Page 655 CHAP. II. Of the Authority of Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The King of Sparta absolute Monarch at the first Page 656 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government Page 657 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings ibid. 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate Page 658 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori Page 659 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages Page 660 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government Page 661 8. By what degrees the Ephori incroached on the Spartan Kings Page 662 9. The insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny Page 663 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them Page 664 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand Page 665 CHAP. III. Of the Incroachments of the Tribunes on the State of Rome and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Tribunes of the People why first Instituted in the State of Rome Page 666 2. And with what difficulty and conditions Page 667 3. The Tribunes fortifie themselves with large immunities before they went about to change the Government Page 668 4. The Tribunes no sooner in their Office but they set themselves against the Nobility and the Senate contrary to the Articles of their Institution Page 669 5. The many and dangerous Seditions occasioned by the Tribunes in the City of Rome Page 670 6. The Tribunes and the People do agree together to change the Government of the State Page 671 7. By what degrees the People came to be possessed of all the Offices in the State both of power and dignity Page 672 8. The Plots and Practices of the Gracchi to put the power of the Judicature and Supream Majesty of the Senate into the hands of the People ibid. 9. The Tribunes take upon them to commit the Consuls and bring all the Officers of the State under their command Page 673 10. The Office and Authority of the Tribunes reduced unto its antient bounds by Corn. Sylla and at last utterly destroyed Page 674 11. An Application of the former passage to the point in hand Page 675 CHAP. IV. Of what Authority the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of the danger and unfitness of the instances produced by Calvin 1. Athens first governed by Kings and afterwards by one Sovereign Prince under other titles Page 676 2. The Annual Magistrates of Athens what they were and of what Authority Page 677 3. By whom and what degrees the State of Athens was reduced to a Democratie Page 678 4. Of the Authority of the Senate and the famous Court of the Areopagites Page 679 5. What the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of what Authority Page 680 6. The Demarchi never were of power to oppose the Senate nor were ordained to that end ibid. 7. Calvins ill
luck in making choice of three such instances which if true would not serve his turn Page 681 8. The danger which lyeth hidden under the disguise of such popular Magistrates as are here instanced in by Calvin Page 682 9. What moved Calvin to lay these dangerous stumbling-blocks in the Subjects way Page 683 10. The dangerous positions and practices which have hence ensued in most parts of Europe Page 684 11. The sect of Calvin professed Enemies to Monarchy and the power of Princes Page 685 CHAP. V. What are the three Estates in each several Kingdom of which Calvin speaks and what particularly in the Realm of England 1. Of the division of a People into three Estates and that the Priests or Clergy have been always one Page 687 2. The Priests employed in Civil matters and affairs of State by the Egyptians and the Persians the Greeks Gauls and Romans Page 688 3. The Priests and Levites exercised in affairs of Civil Government by Gods own appointment Page 680 4. The Prelates versed in Civil matters and affairs of State in the best and happiest times of Christianity Page 690 5. The Clergy make the third Estate in Germany France Spain and the Northern Kingdoms Page 692 6. That anciently in the Saxon times the Ecclesiasticks of this Realm were called to all publick Councils Page 694 7. The Prelates an essential fundamental part of the English Parliament ibid. 8. Objections answered and that the word Clerus in the Legal notion doth not extend unto the Prelates Page 698 9. That the inferior Clergie of the Realm of England had anciently their Votes in Parliament to all intents and purposes as the Commons had Page 700 10. Objections answered and that the calling of the Clergie to Parliaments and Convocations were after different manners and by several Writs Page 703 11. The great Disfranchisement and Slavery obtruded on the English Clergy by the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament Page 705 12. A brief discussion of the question whether any two of the three Estates conspiring or agreeing together can conclude any thing unto the prejudice of the third Page 706 CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or controll the Actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the King make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet Page 708 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch Page 710 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the Persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Page 711 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King Page 712 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or regulated by the three Estates Page 713 6. Of what Authority they have been antiently in the Parliaments of Scotland Page 714 7. The King of England always accounted heretofore for an absolute Monarch Page 715 8. No part of Sovereignty invested Legally in the English Parliaments Page 716 9. The three Estates assembled in the Parliament of England subordinate unto the King not co-ordinate with him Page 719 10. The Legislative power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone Page 720 11. In what particulars the power of the English Parliament doth consist especially Page 723 12. The Kings of England ordinarily over-rule their Parliaments by themselves their Council and their Judges Page 724 13. Objections answered touching the power and practice of some former Parliaments and the testimonies given unto them Page 726 14. No such Authority given by God in Holy Scripture to any such Popular Magistrates as Calvin dreams of and pretends Page 727 15. The Application and Conclusion of the whole Discourse Page 728 De jure Paritatis Episcoporum The Right of Peerage vindicated to the Bishops of England Page 739. FINIS