of his and the King's Enemies Out of doubt this Petition proceeds from Devotion not from Malice And if the Scots when they Invaded England upon a Treacherous Plot and Conjuncture with the like Faction here that so both might have their Ends against the King and the Church were not God's Enemies and the Kings the Prayer meddles not with them If they were as for my part I must believe if I judge by their Actions they deserve all that can be prayed against them so long as they continue in that Disobedience And yet the Prayer was not as 't is said against their Nation by Name No God forbid their Nation hath I doubt not very many devout Servants to God and Loyal Subjects to their King But it was aginst that prevailing Faction among them which in that great Rebellious Action became Enemies both to God and the King Now follows the Conclusion Whosoever will Impartially Examin what hath proceeded from himself in these two Books of Canons and Common Prayer what Doctrine hath bin Published and Printed these Years past in England by his Disciples and Emissaries What gross Popery in the most material Points we have found and are ready to shew in the Posthume Writings of the Prelates of Edinburgh and Dunblaine his own Creatures his nearest Familiars and most willing Instruments to advance his Counsels and Projects shall perceive that his Intentions were deep and large against all the Reformed Kirks and Reformation of Religion which in his Majesties Dominions was Panting and had by this time rendred up the Ghost if God had not in a wonderful way of Mercy prevented us The Conclusion is like the rest much said in it and nothing proved Where first I desire no favour but an Impartial Examination of a Discreet Pious and Judicious Reader of all things done by me in the one Book or the other Next for the Doctrine which hath been Printed these Years past though little or none hath been Published by any Disciple or Emissary of mine I perswade my self the Intelligent and Impartial Reader will find it to be as sound and Orthodox as any that hath been Printed in any so many Years since the Reformation And if they whom I was necessarily to trust in that Business have slipped any thing they are subject to answer the Laws in that behalf Thirdly what gross Popery they have found in the Posthume Writings of the Prelates of Edinburgh and Dunblaine I know not This I know 't is an Easie but a base thing to abuse the Dead who cannot answer for themselves And they which are so over-bold with the Living may easily and justly enough be suspected not to hold over-fair quarter with the Grave But whereas it is said that these worthy Men for such they were were my Creatures my nearest Familiars my willing Instruments and the like This I do here avow for truth I was a meer Stranger to Dr. Forbys late Prelate of Edinburgh The first time that ever I saw him was when I attended as a Chaplain in Ordinary upon King James of blessed Memory in the Year 1617. At which time I heard him Preach very learnedly before his Majesty After that time I never saw him till I attended his Majesty that now is as Dean of his Chappel into Scotland in the Year 1633. In the mean time I had contracted no Friendship no Letters had passed between us Then he Preached again very Learnedly and his Majesty resolved to make him Bishop of Edinburgh which was done accordingly and to my Remembrance he lived not above a Year after or very little more And this was all the near Familiarity that was between him and me With the Bp. of Dunblaine Dr. Wedderborne I confess I had more and longer Acquaintance for he lived some Years in England and was recommended unto me as a Man that had very good parts and Learning in him He lived long with Mr. Isaac Casaubon who was not like to teach him any Popery and who certainly would not have retained him so long or so near unto him had he not found him a deserver After I came acquainted with him I wished him very well for his worth sake and did what I could for him to enable him to live But sure if my Intentions were so deep as they are after said to be he could be no fit Instrument for me he being a meer Scholar and a Book-Man and as unfit for as unacquainted with such Counsels and Projects as these Men would make me Author of And if my Intentions were so deep out of doubt I had Brains enough to make a wiser Choice of Instruments to advance them This for the Men. But for the Matter if any posthume Papers of theirs be other than they ought their Credit must answer for them to the World as their Conscience hath already done to God And for my own part I protest I do not nor ever did know of any such Papers which they had or left behind nor do I believe they left any behind them but such as were worthy their Learning and Integrity But my Intentions they say were deep and large against all the Reformed Kirks Surely the deeper the worse if they were so ill But as I cannot be so vain to assume to my self any such depth So I humbly thank God for it I am free from all such wickedness The worst thought I had of any Reformed Church in Christendom was to wish it like the Church of England and so much better as it should please God to make it And the deepest intention I had concerning all or any of them was how they might not only be wished but made so As for the Reformation of Religion in his Majesties Dominions which they say was panting and had given up the Ghost if God had not in a wonderful way of Mercy prevented them First this is under Favour most untrue and a base and most undeserved Scandal put upon his Majesty's Government Secondly I shall take leave to Prophesy that unless after all this Tumbling the People can be 〈◊〉 that all stand for matters of Religion both Doctrine and Discipline and that rather with addition to the Churches Power than detracting from it as they then did when these Men say the Reformation was pantting and giving up the Ghost I much doubt that neither they nor their Childrens Children after shall see such Happy Days again for all things as these were which they so unthankfully to God and their King murmured against and as these Men yet snarl at And for the Spirit which prevented them in this Action in such a wonderful way of Mercy if ever they awake out of this Lethargy for better it is not they will then see whence he is and whither he tends They add to this That if the Pope himself had been in his place he could not have been more Popish nor could he more Zealously have Negotiated for Rome against the Reformed Kirks to
And I humbly pray your Lordships cast your Eyes upon the Frontispiece of the Book of Martyrs Printed An 1642. since this Parliament began and when I was safe enough from having any Hand in the Business and there you shall see as dangerous Pictures as have been charged upon me or any my Chappel Windows Upon Occasion of Mr. Genebrand's Calendar Mr. Pryn took occasion to tell the Lords that I had made Notes upon the Calendar in the Missal I desired they might be read It was thought too tedious They were nothing but some Additions of my own reading to the Occurrences on some Days And because the Calendar in the Missal was open and large I thought fit to Write them there 5. The Fifth Instance is in Dr. Pocklinton his Censure of ....... and of Flaccius Illyricus And that this Book was Licensed by my Chaplain Dr. Bray And he was Censured in this Honourable House for that and like slips of his Then it was inferred at the Bar That it must be taken as my Act if it were done by my Chaplain But Inferences are no sworn Proof And I conceive no Man can by Law be punished criminally for his Servants Fact Unless there be Proof that he had a hand in it Then it was urged but without any Proof too that Dr. Pocklinton was preferred by me To which I shall answer when Proof is made And if I had 't is far enough from Treason 6. The next Instance was about the calling in of Thomas Beacons Disputation of the Mass. The Witness Mr. Pryn. He says the Book was Licensed and that a Papist thereupon said doth my Lord of Canterbury License such Books That I was informed of these Words and the Book called in the next Day First Mr. Pryn is single in this part of the Testimony for the Words Secondly if any Papist did say so it was not in my Power to stop his Mouth and they which License Books must indure many and various Censures as the Readers of them stand affected Thirdly if any Papist did so speak I have reason to think it was to do me a Mischief as much as in him lay Fourthly this is a very bold Oath For he swears that I was Informed of these Words He was not present to hear it and then he can have it but by Hearsay and no Religion teaches him to swear that for Truth which he doth but hear Lastly the Book was called in because it was slipt out contrary to the late Decree for Printing Yea but Mr. Pryn Swears and so doth Michael Sparks the other Witness that the Book was sent to the Printer before the Decree But first Sparks his Oath is uncertain for he says Mr. Pryn sent him the Book before the Decree and then by and by after says it was about that time Now the Book is somwhat large so that it might be sent him before the Decree and yet not be Printed till after and that a good space too And Secondly Mr. Pryn himself confesses the Book was sent when the Decree was in agitation 7. The Seventh Instance was about Arminianism as maintained by me against the Declarations of both Houses of Parliament and of King James concerning Vorstius and Bertius First I have nothing to do to defend Arminianism no Man having yet charged me with the abetting any point of it Secondly King James his Declaration is very Learned But under Favour he puts a great deal of difference between Vorstius and Bertius And his Majesty's Opinion is clear with the Article of the Church of England and so Expressed by himself And to which I ever Consented And the Passage in the Conference at Hampton-Court was then read to the Lords and yet for the Peace of Christendom and the strengthning of the Reformed Religion I do heartily wish these Differences were not pursued with such Heat and Animosity in regard that all the Lutheran Protestants are of the very same Opinions or with very little difference from those which are now called Arminianism And here comes in Michael Sparks who says He was called into the High-Commission about a Book of Bishop Carletons I cannot punctually remember all Particulars so long since But he confesses the Business was in the High-Commission And so not singly chargable against me Besides he is single in this Business He says he was Eleven Years in the High-Commission and never Sentenced This is more than I know But if it be so he had better luck than some Honester Men. For a bitterer Enemy to his power the Church-Government never had He was Mr. Pryn's Printer He says I was a Dean then and he thinks of Hereford I was never Dean of Hereford But howsoever this is a dangerous Oath let him think of it He Swears that I was a Dean then and a High-Commissioner or else what had I to do in the Business Now it is well known I was never a High-Commissioner till I had been a Bishop some Years For the Book it self Sparks says nothing what was the Argument of it But so far as I remember it was expresly against the King's Declaration And so I Answer'd Mr. Brown when he summed up the Evidence against me in the House of Commons And though in his Reply he seemed to deny this yet I remember no Proof he brought for it 8. The last Instance was pregnant and brought forth many Particulars As First Dr Featly's Parallels against Bishop Mountague But this was Still-born at least it says nothing of me Secondly Mr. Pryn's Perpetuity and against Dr Cosens both burnt But he doth not say absolutely burnt but as he is informed and he may be informed amiss And howsoever he says it was done by the High-Commission not by me Thirdly some Sheets of Dr. Succliff's Book Prohibited the Press at Oxford I hope Oxford is able to give an Account for it self And whereas it was here said at the Bar They hoped I would shew some repressing of the contrary part I would satisfie their Hopes abundantly could I bring Witnesses from Oxford how even and steddy a Hand I carried to both parts Fourthly Mr. Burton questioned about his Book called The seven Vials But himself confesses that upon Sir Henry Martin's Information that as that Cause was laid the High-Commission had no power in it he was dismissed Fifthly That about his Book Intituled Babel no Bethel he was questioned at a Court out of Term. This was very usual whensoever the Court was full of Business to hold one Court-day out of Term. This is Warranted by the Commission And warning of it was always publickly given the Court-day before that all whom it concerned might take notice of it and provide themselves Sixthly he says he was there railed at by Bishop Harsnet 'T is more than I know that Bishop Harsnet railed at him but if he did I hope I am not brought hither to Answer all Mens faults Seventhly he says he claimed the Petition of
Peace of both Kingdoms which must be little less than a Miracle if he do As for my Hand that it was at the Warrant of Restraint of the Commissioners sent from the Parliament c. This also is but a meer clamour to bring me into further hatred which hath been their aim all along For why else is my Hand picked out alone whereas the Hands of all for ought I know that were then present at the Committee were subscribed to that Warrant And yet it seems no Hand hath troubled them but mine And for these Commissioners seeking the Peace of the Kingdom I will not offer to enter upon their Thoughts what they sought but leave it to future times that will discover the success of things and by it open the aim of the Agents how they sought the Peace of these Kingdoms But yet they go on For when we had say they by our Declarations Remonstrances and Representations manifested the Truth of our Intentions and Lawfulness of our Actions to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England when the late Parliament would not be moved to assist or enter into a War against us maintaining our Religion and our Liberties Canterbury did not only advise the breaking up of that High and Honourable Court to the great grief and hazard of the Kingdom but which is without Example did sit still in the Convocation and make Canons and Constitutions against us and our Just and Necessary defence They did indeed offer by many Pamphlets Printed and sent into England to manifest the Truth of their Intentions which was to join close with their Party here and come and gain some good Booty in England And this end they have obtained But the lawfulness of their Actions they neither have nor can make good to any Impartial and Judicious Reader of them And whereas they say they have made the lawfulness of them manifest to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England you must know that they are only such English as joyn with them in their Plot or at least in Affection to Religion And 't is easie to make any thing that fits their Humour and comes from their Associats manifest enough But God forbid these should be all the good Subjects of England which it may too justly be feared are none of them And yet it cannot be denied but that England hath at this day much too many of these good Subjects They add further that the late Parliament would not assist nor enter into a War against them I believe that is true and I leave the Parliament to give their own Reasons why they would not But I am sure that which follows is most untrue That I gave Advice for the breaking of it up as appears by that which I have formerly set down and will not repeat And I shall ever wish from my Heart that the Kingdom may never be hazarded more than it hath been by my Counsels and then by God's Blessing it shall be a happier Kingdom than the youngest now alive are like to see it if things go on in the Track they now are Next they say that without all Example I sat still in Convocation though the Parliament were risen Without Example What is that to them if it were so But the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury have sate in Convocation and made Canons too when no Parliament hath been sitting as is most manifest by the Records of that See Yea but there is no Example of it since the Reformation Be it so Nor is it for all that forbidden in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy 25 H. 8. so they sit by the King 's Writ And yet here I was so careful as that I caused the great Lawyers of the Kingdom to be consulted abaut it and followed their Judgments as is before expressed And for the Canons which were made they were not against them One branch indeed of the first Canon is against Subjects bearing Arms against their King offensive or defensive under any pretence whatsoever But this as it is the Antient Doctrine which the Church of Christ hath ever Taught in all times and places So is it not against them at all unless they against Christian Religion and Natural All giance bear Arms against their King But if they do or have done so the Canon that was not made against them hits them full And in this Case let them pretend what they list their Defence can neither be Just nor Necessary Yea but they say farther that I Ordained under all highest pains That hereafter the Clergy shall Preach four times in the Year such Doctrine as is contrary not only to our Proceedings but to the Doctrine of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks and tending to the utter Slavery and Ruine of all States and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This goes high indeed if it were as full in proof as 't is loud in expression But here is not one shew of Proof added either from Reason or Authority Divine or Humane more than their bare word And therefore I must answer it in the same Key First then 't is true that in the Preface of the first Canon every Minister is injoyned under a Penalty to Publish to his People the Exposition of Regal Power contained in that Canon and this once every quarter of a Year So then if the Doctrine contained in that Canon be true and it was approved for Truth by the whole National Synod of England then all this high Charge falls low enough Besides it will concern them to consider well what their Proceedings have been For as for this Canon it is according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church And they surely were both Pious and Sound Divines that lived in it and I for my part shall hold no Man a Sound Divine that runs contrary to it Now that the Primitive Christians were of Opinion that Subjects ought not to take Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any pretence whatsoever which are the words in our Canon which they are so angry with no not for or under pretence of Religion see the Proofs in the Margin For in the most bitter Times of Persecution for the very highest points of Religion whatever Miseries they indured they still contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience And that too not out of any want of Power but will to hurt And if the Doctrine of other Reformed Churches be contrary to this they shall do well to shew it and then I 'll give such farther Answer as is fit But if the Canon be contrary to the Judgment of sound Politiques I know not which they call sound For if they mean such as are of their Feather I think their Judgments are alike Sound that is neither And if they mean Learned and well experienced Politiques I believe they will be able to shew none of
how such a Carriage as this through the whole Course of my Life in private and publick can stand with an Intention nay a Practice to overthrow the Law and to introduce an Arbitrary Government which my Soul hath always hated I cannot yet see And 't is now many Years since I learned of my great Master In humanis Aristotle Periculosum esse that it is a very dangerous thing to trust to the Will of the Judge rather than the written Law And all Kingdoms and Commonwealths have followed his Judgment ever since and the School-Disputes have not dissented from it Nay more I have ever been of Opinion that Humane Laws bind the Conscience and have accordingly made Conscience of observing them And this Doctrine I have constantly Preached as occasion hath been offered me And how is it possible I should seek to overthrow those Laws which I held my self bound in Conscience to keep and observe Especially since an endeavour to overthrow Law is a far greater Crime than to break or disobey any particular Law whatsoever all Particulars being swept away in that General And my Lords that this is my Judgment both of Parliaments and Laws I beseech your Lordships that I may read a short Passage in my Book against Fisher the Jesuit which was Printed and Published to the World before these Troubles fell on me and before I could so much as suspect this Charge could come against me and therefore could not be purposely written to serve any Turn I had leave and did read it but for Brevities sake refer the Reader to the Book it self As for Religion I was born and bred up in and under the Church of England as it yet stands Established by Law I have by God's Blessing and the Favour of my Prince grown up in it to the Years which are now upon me and to the Place of Preferment which I yet bear And in this Church by the Grace and Goodness of God I resolve to Dye I have ever since I understood ought in Divinity kept one constant Tenor in this my Profession without variation or shifting from one Opinion to another for any worldly Ends And if my Conscience would have suffered me to shift Tenets in Religion with Time and Occasion I could easily have slid through all the difficulties which have pressed upon me in this kind But of all Diseases I have ever hated a Palsie in Religion well knowing that too often a Dead-Palsie ends that Difease in the fearful forgetfulness of God and his Judgments Ever since I came in Place I laboured nothing more than that the External Publick Worship of God too much slighted in most parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be being still of Opinion that Vnity cannot long continue in the Church where Vniformity is shut out at the Church-Door And I evidently saw that the Publick neglect of God's Service in the outward Face of it and the nasty lying of many Places Dedicated to that Service had almost cast a Damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the Body needs External helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the uttermost of my Knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People Nor did any Command Issue out from me against the one or without the other that I know of Farther my Lords give me leave I beseech you to tell you this also That I have as little Acquaintance with Recusants of any sort as I believe any Man of Place in England hath And for my Kindred no one of them was ever a Recusant but Sir William Webb Grandchild to my Uncle Sir William Webb sometimes Lord Mayor of London and him with some of his Children I reduced back again to the Church of England as is well known and I as able to prove One thing more I humbly desire may be thought on 't is this I I am fallen into a great deal of Obloquy in Matter of Religion and that so far as that 't is charged in the Articles That I have endeavoured to advance and bring in Popery Perhaps my Lords I am not ignorant what Party of Men have raised this Scandal upon me nor for what End nor perhaps by whom set on But howsoever I would fain have a good Reason given me if my Conscience lead me that way and that with my Conscience I could Subscribe to the Church of Rome what should have kept me here before my Imprisonment to indure the Libels and the Slanders and the base usage in all kinds which have been put upon me and these to end in this Question for my Life I say I would fain know a good Reason of this For first My Lords Is it because of any Pledges I have in the World to sway me against my Conscience No sure For I have nor Wife nor Children to cry out upon me to stay with them and if I had I hope the Call of my Conscience should be heard above them Or Secondly Is it because I was loth to leave the Honour and the Profit of the Place I was risen unto Surely no For I desire your Lordships and all the World else should know I do much scorn Honour and Profit both the one and the other in comparison of my Conscience Besides it cannot be imagined by any Reasonable Man but that if I could have complyed with Rome I should not have wanted either Honour or Profit And suppose I could not have so much of either as here I had yet sure would my Conscience have served me that way less of either with my Conscience would have prevailed with me more than greater against my Conscience Or Thirdly Is it because I lived here at ease and was loth to venture the loss of that Not so neither For whatsoever the World may be pleased to think of me I have 〈◊〉 very painful Life and such as I could have been very well content to change had I well known how And had my Conscience led me that way I am sure I might have lived at far more ease and either have avoided the barbarous Libellings and other bitter and grievous Scorns which I have here indured or at the least been out of the hearing of them Nay my Lords I am as Innocent in this business of Religion as free from all Practice or so much as thought of Practice for any alteration to Popery or any way blemishing the True Protestant Religion Established in the Church of England as I was when my Mother first bare me into the World And let nothing be spoken against me but Truth and I do here Challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell to say their worst against me in point of my Religion In which by God's Grace I have ever hated Dissimulation and had I not
hated it perhaps it might have been better with me for worldly safety than now it is But it can no way become a Christian Bishop to halt with God Lastly If I had any purpose to blast the True Religion Established in the Church of England and to introduce Popery sure I took a very wrong way to it For my Lords I have stayed as many that were going to Rome and reduced as many that were already gone as I believe any Bishop or other Minister in this Kingdom hath done and some of them Men of great Abilities and some of them Persons of great Place And is this the way my Lords to introduce Popery I beseech your Lordships consider it well For surely if I had blemished the True Protestant Religion I could not have setled such Men in it And if I had purposed to introduce Popery I would never have reduced such Men from it And though it please the Author of the Popish Royal Favourite to say That scarce one of the swaying Lord Prelats is able to say that ever he Converted one Papist to our Religion yet how void of Charity this Speech of his is and how full of Falshood shall appear by the number of those Persons whom by Gods Blessing upon my Labours I have setled in the True Protestant Religion Established in England And with your Lordships leave I shall Name them that you may see both their Number and their Condition though I cannot set them down in that order of time in which I either Converted or Setled them 1. And first Hen Birk-head of Trinity Coll. in Oxford was seduced by a Jesuit and brought up to London to be conveyed beyond the Seas His Friends complained to me I had the happiness to find him out and the blessing from God to settle his Conscience So he returned to Oxford and there continued 2. 3. Two Daughters of Sir Rich Lechford in Surrey were sent to Sea to be carried to a Nunnery I heard of it and caused them to be brought back before they were got out of the Thames I setled their Consciences and both of them sent me great thanks since I was a Prisoner in the Tower 4. 5. Two Scholars of St John's Coll. in Cambridge Topping and Ashton had slipped away from the College and here at London had got the French Embassadour's Pass I have the Pass to shew I found means to get them to me and I thank God setled both their Minds sent them back to their College Afterwards hearing of Topping's Wants I allowed him Means till I procured him a Fellowship And he is at this time a very hopeful Young Man as most of his time in that University a Minister and Chaplain in House at this Present to the Right Honourable the Earl of Westmerland 6. 7. 8. Sir William Web my Kinsman and two of his Daughters and the better to secure them in Religion I was at the Charge their Father being utterly decayed to Marry them to two Religious Protestants and they both continued very constant And his Eldest Son I took from him placed him with a careful Divine maintained him divers Years and then setled him with a Gentleman of Good Worth 10. 11. The next in my remembrance was the Lord Maio of Ireland who with another Gentleman whose name I cannot recal was brought to me to Fulham by Mr. Jefford a Servant of his Majesty's and well known to divers of your Lordships 12. The Right Honourable the Lord Duke of Buckingham was almost lost from the Church of England between the continual cunning Labours of Fisher the Jesuit and the Perswasions of the Lady his Mother After some Miscarriages King James of ever Blessed Memory Commanded me to that Service I had God's Blessing upon me so far as to settle my Lord Duke to his Death And I brought the Lady his Mother to the Church again but she was not so happy as to continue with us 14. The Lady Marchioness Hamilton was much solicited by some Priests and much troubled in Mind about it My Lord spake with me of it and though at that present I was so overlaid with Business that I could not as I much desired wait upon that Honourable Person my self yet I told my Lord I would send one to his Lordship that should diligently attend that Service and that I would give him the best direction I could And this I did and God be thanked she dyed very quietly and very Religiously and a good Protestant And my Lord Marquess told me he had acknowledged this Service of mine to an Honourable Lord whom I now see present 15. Mr. Chillingworth's Learning and Abilities are sufficiently known to all your Lordships He was gone and setled at Dowaye My Letters brought him back and he Lived and Dyed a Defender of the Church of England And that this is so your Lordships cannot but know For Mr. Pryn took away my Letters and all the Papers which concerned him and they were Examined at the Committee 16. 17. Mr. Digby was a Priest and Mr. James Gentleman a School-master in a Recusant's House This latter was brought to me by a Minister as far as I remember in Buckinghamshire I converted both of them and they remain setled 18. Dr. Hart a Civilian Son to a Neighbour of mine at Fulham He was so far gone that he had written part of his Motives which wrought as he said that Change in him I got sight of them shewed him wherein he was deceived had God's Blessing to settle his Conscience and then caused an able Divine to Answer his Motives and give him the Copy 19. There were beside these Mr. Christopher Seburne a Gentleman of an Ancient Family in Hereford-shire and Sir William Spencer of Yarnton in Oxfordshire The Sons and Heirs of Mr. Wintchome and Mr. Williscot whom I sent with their Friends good liking to Wadham-College in Oxford and I received a Certificate Anno 1638. of their continuing in conformity to the Church of England Nor did ever any of these relapse again to Rome but only the Old Countess of Buckingham and Sir William Spencer that ever I heard of And if any of your Lordships doubt of the Truth of any of these Particulars I am able and ready to bring full proof of them all And by this time I hope it appears that one of the swaying Prelats of the time is able to say he hath Converted one Papist to the Protestant Religion And let any Clergy Man of England come forth and give a better account of his Zeal to this present Church And now my Lords with my most humble Thanks for your Lordships favour and patience in hearing me I shall cease to be farther troublesom for the present not doubting but I shall be able to Answer whatever shall be particularly objected against me After I had ended this Speech I was commanded to withdraw As I went from
which I answered at both times First that the Statute of Ed. 6. spake of other Images and that Images in Glass-Windows were neither mentioned nor meant in that Law The Words of the Statute are Any Images of Stone Timber Alabaster or Earth Graven Carved or Painted taken out of any Church c. shall be Destroyed c. and not reserved to any Superstitious Use. So here 's not a Word of Glass-Windows nor the Images that are in them Secondly that the Contemporary Practice which is one of the best Expounders of the meaning of any Law did neither destroy all coloured Windows though Images were in them in the Queens time nor abstain from setting up of new both in her and King James his Time And as the Body of this Statute is utterly mistaken so is the Penalty too which for the First and Second Offence is but a small Fine and but Imprisonment at the King's Will for the Third A great way short of Punishment for Treason And I could not but wonder that Mr. Brown should be so earnest in this Point considering he is of Lincolns-Inn where Mr. Pryn's Zeal hath not yet beaten down the Images of the Apostles in the fair Windows of that Chappel which Windows also were set up new long since that Statute of Edward 6. And t is well known that I was once resolved to have returned this upon Mr. Brown in the House of Commons but changed my Mind lest thereby I might have set some furious Spirit on Work to destroy those harmless goodly Windows to the just dislike of that Worthy Society But to the Statute Mr. Brown added That the Destruction of all Images as well in Windows as elsewhere were Condemned by the Homilies of the Church of England and those Homilies confirmed in the Articles of Religion and the Articles by Act of Parliament This was also urged before and my Answer was First that though we Subscribed generally to the Doctrine of the Homilies as good Yet we did not express or mean thereby to justifie and maintain every particular Phrase or Sentence contained in them And Secondly that the very Words of the Article to which we subscribe are That the Homilies do contain a Godly and a wholesom Doctrine and necessary for those Times Godly and wholesom for all Times but necessary for those when People were newly Weaned from the Worship of Images Afterwards neither the Danger nor the Scandal alike Mr. Brown in his Reply said That since the Doctrine contained in the Homilies was wholesom and good it must needs be necessary also for all Times But this worthy Gentleman is herein much mistaken Strong Meat as well Spiritual as Bodily is good and wholesom but though it be so yet if it had been Necessary at all Times and for all Men the Apostle would never have fed the Corinthians with Milk and not with Meat The Meat always good in it self but not necessary for them which were not able to bear it 4 The Fourth thing which Dr. Featly Testifies is That there were Bowings at the coming into the Chappel and going up to the Commanion-Table This was usual in Queen Elizabeth's Time and of Old both among Jews as appears in the Story of Hezekiah 2 Chro. 29. 28. and among Christians as is evident in Rhenanus his Notes upon Tertullian And one of them which have written against the late Canons confesses it was usual in the Queens Time but then adds That that was a Time of Ignorance What a Time of such a Reformation and yet still a Time of Ignorance I pray God the Opposite be not a Time of Prophaneness and all is well Mr. Brown in the Summ of his Charge given me in the House of Commons instanced in this also I answered as before with this Addition Shall I Bow to Men in each House of Parliament and shall I not bow to God in his House whither I do or ought to come to Worship him Surely I must Worship God and Bow to him though neither Altar nor Communion-Table be in the Church 5 For Organs Candlesticks a Picture of a History at the back of the Altar and Copes at Communions and Consecrations All which Dr. Featly named First these things have been in use ever since the Reformation And Secondly Dr. Featly himself did twice acknowledge that it was in my Chappel as it was at White-Hall no difference And it is not to be thought that Queen Elizabeth and King James would have endured them all their Time in their own Chappel had they been introductions for Popery And for Copes they are allowed at Times of Communion by the Canons of the Church So that these all or any are very poor Motives from whence to argue an Alteration of Religion 2. The second Witness against my Chappel was Sir Nathaniel Brent But he says not so much as Dr. Featly And in what he doth say he agrees with him saving that he cannot say whether the Picture at the Back of the Communion-Table were not there before my time 3. The third Witness for this Charge was one Mr. Boreman who came into my Chappel at Prayers time when I had some new Plate to Consecrate for use at the Communion And I think it was brought to me for that end by Dr. Featly This Man says first he then saw me Bow and wear a Cope That 's answer'd Secondly That he saw me Consecrate some Plate That in that Consecration I used some part of Solomon's Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple And that in my Prayer I did desire God to accept those Vessels No fault in any of the Three For in all Ages of the Church especially since Constantine's Time that Religion hath had publick allowance There have been Consecrations of Sacred Vessels as well as of Churches themselves And these Inanimate things are Holy in that they are Deputed and Dedicated to the Service of God And we are said to Minister about Holy Things 1 Cor. 9. And the Altar is said to Sanctifie the Gift S. Matt. 23. which it could not do if it self were not Holy So then if there be no Dedication of these Things to God no separation of them from common use there 's neither Thing nor Place Holy And then no Sacriledge no difference between Churches and common Houses between Holy-Tables so the Injunction calls them and ordinary Tables But I would have no Man deceive himself Sacriledge is a grievous Sin and was severely Punished even among the Heathen And S. Paul's Question puts it home would we consider of it Thou which abhorrest Idols Committest thou Sacriledge Rom. 2. Thou which abhorrest Idols to the very defacing of Church Windows dost thou Thou of all other Commit Sacriledge which the very Worshippers of Idols punished And this being so I hope my use of a part of Solomon's Prayer or the Words of my own Prayer That God would be pleased to accept them shall not be reputed Faults But
Reader And if they do not make themselves of another Religion I shall never endeavour to make them 13. By a Pack of such Witnesses as were never produced against any Man of my Place and Calling Messengers and Pursevants and such as have shifted their Religion to and again Pillory-men and Bawds And these the Men that must prove my Correspondence with Priests 12. In the midst of these upon occasion of the Ceremonies at the Coronation it was pressed against me That I had altered the King's Oath 14. And last of all That I had shewed my felf an Enemy to Parliaments Upon both these I did very much enlarge my self But here also that I may not be a burden in repeating the same thing I desire the Reader to look upon them in their proper places where I doubt not but my Answer will give him full satisfaction that I did not the one nor am the other But my Lords there are other strange Arguments produced against me to prove my Compliance with Rome which I most humbly desire your Lordships may not be forgotten 1. As first my Lords it hath been Charged upon me That I made the Oath recited in the first of the late Canons one Clause whereof is this That I will never give my Consent to subject this Church to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome Whence the Argument drawn against me must be this and can be no other That I did endeavour to bring in Popery because I made and took a solemn Oath never to give my Consent to subject this Church of England to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome I beseech your Lordships mark the force of this Argument And they which follow are as pregnant against me 2. Secondly My Book against Fisher hath been charged against me where the Argument must lie thus I have endeavoured to advance Popery because I have written against it And with what strength I have written I leave to Posterity to judge when the Envy which now over-loads me shall be buried with me This I will say with St. Gregory Nazianzen whose Success at Constantinople was not much unlike mine here save that his Life was not sought I never laboured for Peace to the Wrong and Detriment of Christian Verity nor I hope ever shall And let the Church of England look to it for in great Humility I crave to write this though then was no time to speak it That the Church of England must leave the way it 's now going and come back to that way of Defence which I have followed in my Book or She shall never be able to justifie Her Separation from the Church of Rome 3. Thirdly All the late Canons have been charged against me and the Argument which is drawn from thence must lie thus The Third of these Canons for suppressing the Growth of Popery is the most full and strict Canon that ever was made against it in the Church of England Therefore I that made this Canon to keep it out am guilty of endeavouring to bring it in 4. Fourthly I have by my Industry and God's great Blessing upon my Labours stayed as many from going and reduced to the Church of England as many that were gone to Rome as I believe any Minister in England can truly say he hath done I named them before and had Scorn enough put upon me for it as your Lordships could not but both see and hear where the Argument lies thus I converted many from Popery and setled them in the Religion established in England Therefore I laboured to bring in Popery which out of all doubt can be no sober Man's way 5. Fifthly The Plot discovered to Sir William Boswell and my self by Andreas ab Habernfield hath been charged against me That Plot for altering of Religion and by what ways your Lordships have heard already and is to be seen at full in Rome's Master-piece Now if this Plot in the Issue proved nothing but a confused Information and no Proof of any Particular as indeed it did What 's become of Rome's Master-piece But if it had any reality in it as it appeared to be a sad Plot not only to me but to all Men that saw the short Propositions which were first sent with an absolute Undertaking to prove them then it appears expresly that I was in danger of my Life for stiffly opposing the bringing in of Popery and that there was no hope to alter Religion in England 'till I was taken out of the way And though in conclusion the Proofs failed yet what was consulted and it seems resolved concerning me is plain enough And then the Argument against me lies thus There 's no hope to bring in Popery 'till I am taken out of the way therefore I did labour to bring it in Do not these things my Lords hang handsomly together 6. Lastly There have been above Threescore Letters and other Papers brought out of my Study into this Honourable House they are all about composing the Differences between the Lutherans and the Calvinists in Germany Why they should be brought hither but in hope to charge them upon me I know not and then the Argument will be this I laboured to reconcile the Protestants in Germany that they might unanimously set themselves against the Papists therefore I laboured to bring Popery into England Now that your Lordships have heard the Arguments and what Proof they make against me I must be bold to put you in Mind of that which was said here at the Barr April 16. 1644. That they did not urge any of these particular Actions as Treason against me but the Result of them all together amounted to Treason For answer to which I must be bold to tell your Lordships That if no Particular which is charged upon me be Treason the Result from them cannot be Treason which will appear by these Reasons following 1. First The Result must be of the same Nature and Species with the Particulars from which it rises But 't is confessed no one of the Particulars are Treason Therefore neither is the Result that rises from them And this holds in Nature in Morality and in Law In Nature and that both for Integral and Essential Parts for neither can the Body of a Bear and the Soul of a Lion result into a Fox nor the Legs of a Bull the Body of a Horse and the Head of an Ass result into a Man In Morality and that is seen both in Vertues and Vices For neither can many Actions of Liberality Meekness and Sobriety rise up into a Result of Fortitude neither can many Actions of Malice Drunkenness and Covetousness result into Treason In Law 't is so too For be there never so many particular Crimes yet there is no Law in this Kingdom nor any where else that I know that makes a Result of different Crimes to be Treason where none of the Particulars are Treason by Law So this imaginary Result is
with that which they most feared And I pray God this Clamour of venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in For the Pope never had such an Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and Dishonour by good Report and evil Report as Deceivers and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6. 8. Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And First this I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but in my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present Account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any Man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law Established as any Man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his Life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his Affection to Religion and his Grounds for it as fully as any Man in England The Second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a Fashion taken up to gather Hands and then go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and Clamour for Justice as if that Great and Wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent Man and pluck his Blood upon their own Heads and perhaps upon the City 's also and this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without any Check God forgive the Setters of this with all my Heart I beg it but many well-meaning People are caught by it In St. Stephen's Case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him And Herod went the same way when he had killed St. James Yet he would not venture on St. Peter till he found how the other Pleased the People But take heed of having your Hands full of Blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other Sins makes Inquisition for Blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us that God remembers that 's not all he remembers and forgets not the Complaint of the Poor That is whose Blood is shed by Oppression ver 9. Take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for Blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26. 15. The Third Particular is the Poor Church of England It hath Flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when Storms have Driven upon them But alas now it is in a Storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than the Storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to Shivers with Wedges made out of it 's own Body and at every Cleft Profaneness and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his Second Book de Contemptu Vitae cap. 4. Men that introduce Profaneness are Cloaked over with the Name Religionis imaginariae of Imaginary Religion For we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion And that Church which all the Jesuites Machinations could not Ruine is fallen into Danger by her own The last Particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was Born and Baptized in the Bosom of the Church of England Established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to Die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion And therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to Die What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all Men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am Accused of High-Treason in Parliament a Crime which my Soul ever abhorred This Treason was Charged to consist of two Parts An Endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no Witness of my Heart and the Intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this Hour and Instant of my Death in which I hope all Men will be such Charitable Christians as not to think I would Die and Dissemble being Instantly to give God an Account for the Truth of it I do therefore here in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels take it upon my Death that I never Endeavoured the subversion of Law or Religion And I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocency in this and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been Accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the Benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the Misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good Reason for it For Corruptio Optimi est Pessima there is no Corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the Best Thing within it self for the better the thing is in Nature the worse it is Corrupted And that being the Highest Court over which no other hath Jurisdiction when it is misinformed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all Remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those Bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God First and then of every Man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Which said with a distinct and audible Voice he Prayed as followeth O Eternal God and Merciful Father look down upon me in Mercy in the Riches and fulness of all thy Mercies look down upon me But not till thou hast nailed my Sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the Blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the Wounds of Christ that so the Punishment due unto my Sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost
First how it works upon them by whole Countries together you may see by what happened in Asturia Cantabria Galaecia no small parts of Spain For there the People so he tells me that was an Eye-Witness and that since the Council of Trent are so addicted to their Worm-eaten and Deformed Images that when the Bishops commanded New and Handsomer Images to be set up in their rooms the poor People cryed for their Old would not look up to their New as if they did not represent the same thing And it works upon the Learned too more than it should For it wrought so far upon Lamas himself who bemoaned the former passage as that he delivers this Doctrine That the Images of Christ the Blessed Virgin and the Saints are not to be Worshiped as if there were any Divinity in the Images as they are Material things made by Art But only as they represent Christ and the Saints for else it were Idolatry So then belike according to the Divinity of this Casuist a Man may Worship Images and ask of them and put his Trust in them as they represent Christ and the Saints For so there is Divinity in them though not as things yet as Representers And what I pray did or could any Pagan-Priest say more than this For the Proposition resolved is this The Images of Christ and the Saints as they represent their Exemplars have Deity or Divinity in them And now I pray A. C. do you be Judge whether this Proposition do not teach Idolatry And whether the Modern Church of Rome be not grown too like to Paganism in this Point For my own part I heartily wish it were not And that Men of Learning would not strain their Wits to spoil the Truth and rent the Peace of the Church of Christ by such Dangerous such Superstitious Vanities For better they are not but they may be worse Nay these and their like have given so great a Scandal among us to some ignorant though I presume well-meaning Men that they are afraid to Testifie their Duty to God even in his own House by any outward Gesture at all Insomuch that those very Ceremonies which by the Judgment of Godly and Learned Men have now long continued in the Practice of the Church suffer hard Measure for the Romish Superstitions sake IV. Pag. 292. And for the Calvinists if they might be rightly understood they also maintain a most True and Real Presence though they cannot permit their Judgment to be Transubstantiated And they are Protestants too And this is so known a Truth that Bellarmin confesses it lib. 1. de Euchar. cap. 2. s. quinto dicit For the Calvinists at least they which follow Calvin himself do not only believe that the true and real Body of Christ is received in the Eucharist but that it is there and that we partake of it Verè Realiter which are Calvin's own Words And yet Bellarmin boldly affirms that to his reading no one Protestant did ever affirm it And I for my part cannot believe but 〈◊〉 had read Calvin and very carefully he doth so frequently and so mainly oppose him Nor can that place by any Art be shifted or by any Violence wrested from Calvin's true meaning of the Presence of Christ in and at the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist to any Supper in Heaven whatsoever But most manifest it is that quod legerim for ought I have read will not serve Bellarmin to excuse him For he himself but in the very Chapter going before quotes four places out of Calvin in which he says expresly That we receive in the Sacrament the Body and the Blood of Christ verè truly So Calvin says it four times and Bellarmin quotes the places and yet he says in the very next Chapter That never any Protestants said so to his Reading And for the Church of England nothing is more plain than that it believes and teaches the true and real presence of Christ in the Eucharist V. Pag. 376. Secondly if the Religion of the Protestants be in Conscience a known false Religion then the Romanists Religion is so too for their Religion is the same Nor do the Church of Rome and the Protestants set up a different Religion for the Christian Religion is the same to both but they differ in the same Religion and the difference is in certain gross Corruptions to the very endangering of Salvation which each side says the other is guilty of VI. Pag. 377. After these Reasons thus given by him A. C. tells me That I neither do nor can prove any Superstition or Error to be in the Roman Religion What none at all Now truly I would to God from my Heart this were true and that the Church of Rome were so happy and the whole Catholick Church thereby blessed with Truth and Peace For I am confident such Truth as that would soon either command Peace or confound Peace-Breakers But is there no Superstition in Adoration of Images None in Invocation of Saints None in Adoration of the Sacrament Is there no Errour in breaking Christ's own Institution of the Sacrament by giving it but in one kind None about Purgatory About Common-Prayer in an unknown Tongue none These and many more are in the Roman Religion if you will needs call it so and 't is no hard work to prove every of these to be Errour or Superstition or both VII Pag. 320. For a Church may hold the Fundamental Point Literally and as long as it stays there be without controul and yet Err grosly dangerously nay damnably in the Exposition of it And this is the Church of Rome's Case For most true it is it hath in all Ages maintained the Faith unchanged in the expression of the Articles themselves But it hath in the Exposition both of Creeds and Councils quite changed and lost the Sense and the Meaning of some of them So the Faith is in many things changed both for Life and Belief and yet seems the same Now that which deceives the World is that because the Bark is the same Men think this old decayed Tree is as sound as it was at first and not weather-beaten in any Age. But when they can make me believe that Painting is true Beauty I 'll believe too that Rome is not only Sound but Beautiful VIII Pag. 128. For the Church may import in our Language The only True Church and perhaps as some of you seem to make it the Root and the Ground of the Catholik And this I never did grant of the Roman Church nor ever mean to do But a Church can imply no more than that it is a Member of the whole And this I never did nor ever will deny if it fall not absolutely away from Christ. That it is a True Church I granted also but not a Right as you impose upon me For Ens and Verum Being and True are convertible one with another and every thing that hath a Being is truly that Being
Witness I laboured nothing but the Settlement of the Decent External Worship of God among us which whatever some other Men think I know was sunk very low and if in labouring this I did err in any Circumstance for in matter of Substance I am sure I did not that may be forgiven me for Humanity sake which cannot free it self from Error But that which brought all these Distractions both upon Church and State was the bringing in of the Scots and the keeping of them here at a vast charge only to serve Turns and those very base ones And to the debasing and dishonour of this whole Nation as well as the King And how far this Lord had his Hand or his Head in this Treacherous Business he best knows Sure I am his Lordship is thought one of the chief Moulders of this Leaven of the Pharisees But my Lord thinks himself safe enough so he can cry me up among the Rabble to be the Author of all And not content with this he insults farther upon me as follows Yet to magnifie his Moderation presently after the breaking of the last Parliament he told a Lord who sits now in my sight that if he had been a Violent Man he wanted no occasion to shew it For he observed that the Lord Say never came to Prayers and added that I was in his knowledge as great a Separatist as any was in England What ever it was I said was not to magnifie my Moderation Nor do I remember that ever I spake these words Yet First if any Lord will say upon his Honour that I did say these very Words I will bear him and the Peerage of the Realm that Honour as that I will submit and believe his Testimony against my own Old now and Weak Memory Next upon enquiry made by some Friends of mine I find that the Words I should speak are said to be these that if I listed to take any advantage against this Honourable Lord I had as much exception to him as to any Separatist in England These Words are neither so Bold nor so Vncivil as those in the Charge and perhaps I might speak these though I remember it not For during the last Parliament not so few as Ten or a Dozen several Lords came to me of themselves as I sat there and complained grievously of this Lord's absenting himself from the Prayers of the Church and some of them wondred he was not questioned for the Scandal he gave by it And if any of them would be so mean as to urge me to speak by speaking Broad themselves and then carry the Tale to this Noble Lord he did that who ever he were which I hope was not the Noblest of his Actions and if I did say these latter Words of this great Lord I must and do say them again and I heartily beseech God that this Sin be not laid to my Charge that I questioned him not when the Times were calmer For had I done that I had done my Duty and if I had not cured him perhaps I might have prevented so much common danger to this Church as his Lordship hath procured since that time both by his Example his Counsel and his Countenance And for the Words I doubt not but he himself will be found to have made them good before I have done examining this Speech of his Lordship In the mean time my Lord proceeds My Lords how far he hath spit this Venom of his against me I am not certain but I may well fear where it might do me greatest Prejudice I shall therefore intreat your Lordships Favour and Patience that I may give you in these things which so nearly concern me a true account of my self which I shall do with Ingenuity and Clearness and so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear I am not such a one as this Waspish Man was willing to make the World believe I have spit no Venom against his Lordship much less have I spit any thing far For this Report which is here called Venom is common through the Kingdom And I have already told you what divers Lords said to me during the last Parliament And that is no more than hath been avowed unto me by very many others and some of very good Quality so the spreading was to me not from me But yet my Lord fears I spread it where it might do him greatest Prejudice I know not what my Lord means by this unless it be that I should spread it to his Majesty And if that be his meaning I will tell his Lordship truth what I know therein I was present when I heard some Lords more than once tell the King that the Lord Say was a Separatist from the Church of England and would not come at her Common-Prayers And one of these Lords afterwards told me he did conceive it was a great danger to this Kingdom when Noblemen should begin to separate in Religion and that his Majesty had need look to it To this last which was spoken to me in private but I will depose the Truth of it I could not but assent And to the former I then said I had heard as much as was then told his Majesty but I was not certain of it And I doubt not but these Lords sit in his Lordship's sight as well as that Lord who told him the other of me And not in his Sight only but in his Affections also as things go now But however they carry it with him now this they said of him then Nor will I here pick a Thanks to tell this Lord what Service I did him to his Majesty when he was thought to be in danger enough though I was chidden by a Great one that stood by for my Labour I shall therefore intreat the Christian Reader 's Favour and Patience that having hitherto given him a most true and clear Account of that which my Lord charges me with and doth nearly concern me So I may proceed to the rest which I do with all Ingenuity and Truth And so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear that I am not such a Waspish Man as my Lord would fain render me to the World But if I have been a Wasp in any Court wherein I have had the Honour to sit yet his Lordship should not have called me so considering what a Hornet all men say he is in the Court of Wards and in other Places of Business Where he pinches so deep that discreet Men are in a doubt whether his Aim be to sting the Wards or the Court it self to Death first For no Man can believe 't is for the good of the King And if I fail in this endeavour of mine to clear my self I must desire the Courteous Reader to ascribe it not to my Cause which is very good against his Lordship but to the narrowness of my Comprehensions and my Weakness compared with his
Lordships great Abilities And now my Lord charges as hard as he can Thus For the first of these which he Charges upon me it may be he was willing to have it thought that I would not joyn in Prayer with your Lordships but refused such a Communion which is altogether false For I should most willingly joyn in Prayers with you And farther I will add that I do not think but some set Form of Prayers by some Men in some Cases may be lawfully used For this First I was not willing to have any thing thought of this Lord which is not true and if it be altogether false as his Lordship says it is that he will not joyn in Prayers with the rest of the Lords in Parliament but refuses such a Communion I would fain know why his Lordship doth not joyn in Prayer with them For most undoubtedly he may if he will And since it is most true that he hath not come to Prayers in the House with the rest of the Lords not so much as once either in the last Parliament or this I think it may reasonably be concluded without any Falshood that his Lordship will not joyn no not in such a Communion with them Where it is to be observed he says he refuses not such a Communion with them He refuses not yet he will not joyn And he refuses not such a Communion A Communion I have cause to doubt he doth refuse but not such a Communion as goes no farther than Prayers yet to these he comes not At the Sacrament I believe he will be more scrupulous of whom or with whom he receives that Indeed his Lordship adds that he would most willingly joyn in Prayers with their Lordships And though this be most strange that he should never do that which he would most willingly do an opportunity being offered him every Day Yet my Lord is pleased to add farther what his Judgment is of set Forms of Prayer And he tells you that he thinks some set Forms by some Men in some Occasions may be lawfully used Surely the Church of England is much beholding to this Lord very much and the State too For the set Forms of Prayer which she enjoyns were compiled by some of those who suffered no less than Martyrdom for the Reformation of Religion The same Form of Prayer was established by Act of Parliament and yet as if Church and State were all at a loss this Noble Lord who confesses some set Forms Lawful condemns this Form by his Actions at least in continual and professed abstaining from it Some Forms but not this by some Men but not these in some cases but not in God's Publick Service in the Church may be Lawfully used And yet for all these petty Somes of Restraint I know his Lordship's Parts so great that I dare not say as he says of me that his Lordship is of narrow Comprehensions But his Lordship will now tell us what that is in which he is not satisfied But this is that which I am not satisfied in that a certain number of Men should usurp an Authority unto themselves to frame certain Prayers and Forms of Divine Service and when that is done under the Name of the Church to enjoyn them upon all Persons in all Times and upon all Occasions to be used and no other And upon this Ground which makes it the worse because these come from the publick Spirit of the Church when the Bishop or his Chaplain shall frame them and others proceed from the private Spirit of this or that particular Man Now truly since my Lord does not think some set Forms of Prayer unlawful I am very sorry his Lordship is not satisfied that a certain Number of Men should frame these Forms of Divine Service For all Churchmen cannot possibly meet about that or any other Church-Affair nor can any Synod or Assembly be called but there must be some certain Number of them Nor do these Men usurp any Authority to themselves herein For in all Ages of the Church from Christ downward all set Forms of Prayer used in any Church have been either made by a certain Number of Men or approved by them when some Eminent Servant of God hath Composed them first and then tendred them to the Judgment of the Church And it is very necessary that it should be so Nor would the Church of Old admit any Prayers in the publick Service and Worship of God but such as were so made and so approved lest through Ignorance or want of Care and Circumspection something might slip in that was contrary to the Faith But I fear here 's Anguis in Herba And that my Lord is not satisfied not so much because these 〈◊〉 Forms are made by a set Number of Men as because they are Churchmen though he be 〈◊〉 to express it And if that be his meaning he must rest unsatisfied still For Churchmen and none but Churchmen must actually do Publick Church-Work according to their Calling and their Warrant And yet I hope Churchmen will never be so Proud but that if any Lay Religious Man of larger Comprehensions than themselves will offer in private any help to them they will lend an open Ear to it and after with a prudent Consideration do what is fit And as this Lord is not satisfied that a certain Number of Men should make these set Forms so much less is he satisfied that when this is done they should under the Name of the Church enjoyn them upon all Persons in all Times and upon all Occasions to be used and no other No set Forms that I know are enjoyned under the name of the Church but such as the Church in Synod hath approved or tolerated till a Synod may be called And when any National-Church in a Kingdom that is Christian hath approved a set Form yet that cannot be enjoyned upon all Persons till the Soveraign Power in that State hath weighed approved and commanded it But then though Framed by a certain Number of Men that and no other lays hold on all Persons and in all Times and upon all Occasions that are Publick if Men will live in Obedience to the Church and State I say Publick leaving all Persons at all Times free to use any Form of Prayer agreeable to the Foundations of Christian Religion which shall best serve their several private Occasions And therefore I conceive my Lord is in a great Errour in that which he adds next Namely that this Ground makes it the worse because these set Forms are said to come from the Publick Spirit of the Church I cannot think so hardly of my Lord as if he could like a set Form of Prayer the worse because it comes from the Publick Spirit of the Church And therefore I will take his Words in another Sense though they be in my Judgment very obscurely set down and perhaps that is his Lordship's meaning That it makes the matter the worse because these Forms of
they do not differ from us in some Fundamental Points of Doctrine and saving Truth And then consequently whether it be not an Heretical as well as a Schismatical Separation which they make from the Church of England 1. And first there was a Creed Printed by John Turner in this present Year and the Parliament sitting This Turner is a Notorious Separatist or Brownist if you will In this Creed of his he leaves out the descent of Christ into Hell This is an Article of the Apostle's Creed And 't is an Article of the Church of England And so I presume a Fundamental Point of Doctrine Yet herein this Brownist and his Fellows differ from us And I have heard from some present that at a Committee of Lords appointed for Matters of Religion a young Lord should say openly and boldly enough that he did not believe the descent of Christ into Hell And that my Lord the Author of this Speech should second him 2. In the same Creed Turner professes he believes that Christ Instituted by his Apostles certain particular Churches here on Earth and no other So the Catholick Church the Mother of all particular both Men and Churches and out of which there can be no Salvation in the ordinary way is quite thrust out of this Brownist's Creed And this I hope is another Fundamental Point of Doctrine and saving Truth But in this I must do my Lord right and not charge him with this point Because a little before his Lordship tells of a two-fold Separation one whereof he says is from the Vniversal or Catholick Church So the Catholick Church is not yet thrust out of my Lord's Creed But then this appears that the Separatists are not yet agreed upon all the Articles of their Creed Nay some of them call the Apostle's Creed a patched Forgery And Barrow justifies it 3. Thirdly they differ from us in charging gross Corruptions upon the Church of England And these are known to my Lord for he acknowledges them and so gross that should they be true the Church of England must be faulty in Fundamental and Saving Truth As shall farther appear in my Answer to my Lord's next Passage Therefore if their Charge be true they must by my Lord 's own Confession differ from us in Fundamental and saving Truth And if their Charge be false why do they separate from us Besides all Anabaptists and Brownists agree in this that the Church of England is Antichristian And if it be so they must either differ in Fundamentals from the Church of England Or be Antichristian themselves in joyning with them Or grant that Christ and Antichrist have one and the same Foundation 4. Fourthly some of them yet living though they dare not speak it out in all Companies do cunningly insinuate That at Death Soul and Body are extinct together but shall rise again at the Resurrection first or last And that Christ shall come and live here upon the Earth again That the Martyrs shall then rise and live with him a Thousand Years And that Christ once come upon the Earth shall not for any thing they can learn out of Scripure ever depart from the Earth again 5. Fifthly one Brierly and his Independent Congregation are of this Belief That the Child of God in the Power of Grace doth perform every Duty so well that to ask Pardon for failing either in matter or manner is a Sin That it is unlawful to pray for Forgiveness of Sins after their Conversion With divers others some as bad some worse to the number of Fifty 6. Sixthly One Spisberrye yet living and of that Independent Fraternity maintains that God works all things in us and that we are but Organs Instruments and meer empty Trunks Which is to make God the Author of all the Sins which Men commit And therefore Brierly says expresly that if they do at any time fall they can by the power of Grace carry their Sin to the Lord and say here I had it and here I leave it Will not the Devil one day stop the Mouth of this Blasphemy 7. Seventhly Mr. Pryn himself who hath been a great stickler in these Troubles of the Church says expresly Let any true Saint of God be taken away in the very act of any known Sin before it is possible for him to Repent I make no doubt or Scruple of it but he shall as surely be saved as if he had lived to have repented of it And he instances in David in case he had been taken away before he had repented of his Adultery and Murther So according to this Divinity the true Saints of God may commit horrible and carying Sins dye without Repentance and yet be sure of Salvation which teareth up the very Foundations of Religion induceth all manner of Profaneness into the World and is expresly contrary to the whole current of the Scripture 8. In the Eighth place almost all of them say That God from all Eternity Reprobates by far the greater part of Mankind to eternal Fire without any Eye at all to their Sin Which Opinion my very Soul abominates For it makes God the God of all Mercies to be the most fierce and unreasonable Tyrant in the World For the Question is not here what God may do by an absolute act of Power would he so use it upon the Creature which he made of nothing But what he hath done and what stands with his Wisdom Justice and Goodness to do 9. Ninthly One Lionel Lockier now or late of Cranbrooke in Kent among other his Errors rails against teaching Children the Lord's Prayer or other Forms of Catechising And if they differ from the Church of England in the whole Catechism I think the Lord must work a Miracle before he can make his Speech good That they differ from us in no Fundamental point 10. Lastly to omit all those base Opinions in which the Brownists agree with the Anabaptists this in which they differ from them will be sufficient to prove that they differ from us in that which is fundamental unless they will say that to believe the Trinity is not Fundamental For some of them and by name one Glover deny the Deity of the Holy Ghost Which stands condemned for a gross and Fundamental Heresie in the Second General Council held against Macedonius And for the Familists of which there is Store this Day in England they deny the Resurrection of the Flesh turning it as they do many other things into a Mystery or Allegorie Perhaps more particulars might be found upon a narrow search But if there be no more these are enough to make it evident to the World that these Separatists 〈◊〉 from us in some fundamental points of Doctrine or saving Truth And as these are in fault for their Separation so I doubt the Church is to blame for not proceeding against such of them as are altogether incorrigible But whether my Lord thinks these to be
Time to write it again out of my scribled Copy but I dare trust the Secresie in which I have bound him To others I am silent and shall so continue till the thing open it self and I shall do it out of Reasons very like to those which you give why your self would not divulge it here In the last place you promise your self That the Condition you are in will not hinder me from continuing to be the Best Friend you have To this I can say no more than that I could never arrogate to my self to be your Best Friend but a poor yet respective Friend of yours I have been ever since I knew you And it is not your Change that can change me who never yet left but where I was first forsaken and not always there So praying for God's Blessing upon you and in that Way which He knows most necessary for you I rest Lambeth March 27 1636. Your very Loving Friend To serve you in Domino I have writ this Letter freely I shall look upon all the Trust that ever you mean to carry with me that you shew it not nor deliver any Copy to any Man Nor will I look for any Answer to the Quaeries I have herein made If they do you any good I am glad if not yet I have satisfied my self But leisure I have none to write such Letters nor will I entertain a Quarrel in this wrangling Age and now my Strength is past For all things of moment in this Letter I have pregnant places in the Council of Trent Thomas Bellarmin Stapleton Valentia c. But I did not mean to make a Volume of a Letter Endorsed thus with the Archbishop's own Hand March 27 1636. A Copy of my Answer to Sir Ken Digby's Letters in which he gives me an account of his Return to the Ro Communion The Testimony of the Reverend Mr Jonathan Whiston concerning the Opinion had of the Archbishop at Rome and with what Joy the News of his Death and Suffering was there received I Do remember that being Chaplain to the Honourable Sir Lionel Tolmach Baronet about the Year 1666. I heard him relate to some Person of Quality how that in his younger days he was at Rome and well acquainted with a certain Abbot which Abbot asked him Whether he had heard any News from England He answered No. The Abbot replied I will tell you then some Archbishop Laud is Beheaded Sir Lionel answered You are sorry for that I presume The Abbot replied again That they had more cause to rejoice that the Greatest Enemy of the Church of Rome in England was cut off and the Greatest CHAMPION of the Church of England silenced Or in Words to that purpose In witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand this 28th Day of September 1694. Jona Whiston Vicar of Bethersden in Kent The Testimony of the Learned and Worthy John Evelyn Esq Fellow of the Royal Society concerning the same Matter I Was at Rome in the Company of divers of the English Fathers when the News of the Arch-Bishop's Suffering and a Copy of his Sermon made upon the Scaffold came thither They read the Sermon and commented upon it with no small Satisfaction and Contempt and looked upon him as one that was a great Enemy to them and stood in their Way whilst one of the blackest Crimes imputed to him was his being Popishly affected John Evelyn FINIS BOOKS Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL SCriptorum 〈◊〉 Historia Literaria a Christo nate usque ad seculum xiv facili 〈◊〉 Digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus Gestis de Secta Dogmatibus 〈◊〉 Style de Scriptis Genuinis Dubiis Suppositiis Ineditis Deper ditis Fragmentis Deque Variis Operum Editionibus perspicue Agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christianae Religionis 〈◊〉 Cujusvis Seculi Breviarum Inseruntur suis Locis Veterum 〈◊〉 Opuscula Fragmenta tum Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Premissa denique 〈◊〉 quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae Studium spectantia Traduntur Opus indicibus necessariis Instructum Authore Gulielmo Cave SS Theol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Windesoriensi Accedit Hen. Whartoni Appendix ab ineunte Secula xiv ad Annum usque MDX VII 〈◊〉 Disquisitiones Criticae de Variis per Diversa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bibliorum Editionibus Quibus Accedunt Castigationes Theologi Cujusdam Parisiensis ad Opusculum Is Vossii de Sybillinis Oraculis Ejusdem responsionem ad Objectiones nuperae Critica Sacra 4to Censura Celebriorum Authorum sive tractatus in quo Varia Virorum 〈◊〉 de Claris. Cuiusque Seculi Scriptoribus Judicia traduntur Unde Facilimo 〈◊〉 Lector 〈◊〉 queat quid in singulis quibusque istorum Authorum Maxime Memorabile sit qucnam in pretio apud Eruditos 〈◊〉 Habiti Fuerunt Opera Thomae Pope-Blunt Baroneti Fol V Cl Gulielmi Camdeni Illustrium 〈◊〉 ad G. Camdenum Epistolae cum Appendice Varii Argumenti Accesserunt Annalium Regni Regis Jacobi 〈◊〉 Apparatus 〈◊〉 de Antiquitate Dignitate Officio Comitis Marescali Angliae Premittitur G. Camdeni Vita Scriptore Thoma Smitho S T D Ecclesiae Anglicanae Presbytero 4to Jacobi Usserii Armachani Archiepiscopi Historia Degmatica Controversiae inter Orthodoxos 〈◊〉 de Scripturis Sacris Vernaculis nunc primum Edita Accesserunt ejusdem Dissertationes duae de Pseudo-Dionysii seriptis de 〈◊〉 ad Laodiceos antehac 〈◊〉 Descripsit Digessit notis atque auctario Locupletavit Henricus Wharton A M Rev in Christo Pat ac 〈◊〉 Archiepisc Cantuariensi a sacris Domesticis 4to 1690. Anglia 〈◊〉 sive Gollectio Historiarum Antiquitus Scriptarum de Archiepiscopis 〈◊〉 Angliae a Prima Fidei Christianae susceptione ad Annum 1540. in duobus Voluminibus per Henricum Whartonum Fol. 1691 Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of 〈◊〉 By Peter Allix D D Treasurer of Sarum 4to his Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of the Albigenses 4to Dr Burnet's now Lord Bishop of Sarum Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 4to History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands 〈◊〉 8vo Life of William Bedel D D Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland together with the Copies of certain Letters which passed between Spain and England in matter of Religion concerning the general Motives to the Roman Obedience Between Mr James 〈◊〉 a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition in Sevil and the said William Bedel 8vo Some Passages of the Life and Death of John late Earl of Rochester 8vo A Collection of Tracts and Discourses from 1678 to Christmas 1689 inclusive In 2 Volumes 4to Examination of the Letter writ by the late Assembly-General of the Clergy of France to the 〈◊〉 inviting them to return to their Communion together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction 8vo Pastorall Letter to the Clergv of his Diocess concerning the
I hope your Lordships will not think that not to suffer the Printers to turn out a deserving Man at their pleasure is to exempt the Clergy from the Civil Magistrate The business my Lords was this This Corrector was principally entertained for the Latin and Greek Press especially which I had then not without great pains and some cost Erected They were desirous to keep only one for the English and him at the cheapest Among them their negligence was such as that there were found above a Thousand faults in two Editions of the Bible and Common-Prayer-Book And one which caused this search was that in Exod. 20. where they had shamefully Printed Thou shalt commit Adultery For this the Masters of the Printing-House were called into the High-Commission and Censured as they well deserved it As for this Corrector whom they would have heaved out they never did so much as complain of him to any that had power over the Press till this fell upon themselves for so gross an Abuse Nor did they after this proceed against him to make him appear faulty and till that were done we could not punish And for this Business of the Press he is single too And I have told your Lordships that which is a known Truth And Hunsford being bit in his Credit and Purse and Friends by that Censure for so gross an abuse of the Church and Religion labours to fasten his Fangs upon me in this way 2. The Second Witness is Mr. Bland But all that he says is that there was once a dismission of this Cause out of the Court and that though I disliked it yet I gave way to it because all Parties were agreed And no word of proof that I was any cause of bringing it back into the Court again What 's my fault in this 3. The Third Witness was Thorn in his own Cause And 't is plain by his own words that this Cause was depending in Court before my time And I believe were the Records of the Court here Mr. Lewis would not be found so great an Offender as Mr. Thorn would make him This I am sure of both the High-Commission and my self have been quick enough against all Ministers which have been proved to be debauched in their Life and Conversation And he says nothing against me but that I sided with his Adversaries which is easie to say against any Judge that delivers his Sentence against any Man But neither of these come home to Hunsford The next Charge is in the Case of one Mr. Tomkins about the Taxing of a Minister in a Case of Robbery and Repayment by the Country To this Mr. Newdigate is produced who says as he remembers that I should speak these words That Ministers were free from such Taxes and I hoped to see the Times in which they might be free again First this Gentleman is single Secondly he speaks not positively but as he remembers Thirdly this Tax I do humbly conceive is not by Law to be laid upon any Minister For no Man is subject to this Tax but they which are to keep Watch and Ward which Ministers in that kind are not bound unto And this I learned of the Lord Keeper Coventry at the Council-Table So I might well then hope to see Ministers free from all such Taxes by the right understanding and due Execution of our own Laws without assuming any Papal Power The last Instance of this Day was the bringing of Sir Rich Samuel into the High-Commission for doing his Office as Justice of the Peace upon some Clergy-Men First for this this Gentleman is single and in his own Case Secondly himself confesses that his bringing into the High-Commission was long after the Fact Therefore in all Probability not for that nor doth he say that I caused his bringing in He says farther That one Article for which he was called into the Commission was that he was an Enemy to the Clergy But he doth not say that I preferred these Articles against him Nor doth he tell or can I remember what the other Articles were which with this may be bad enough to merit what was there laid against him And whatsoever was done appears by his own Narration to be the Act of the High-Commission or the Council-Table and so not Chargeable upon me alone And whereas he says I blamed him much at the Council-Table Let him tell why and then I 'll give him a farther Answer And sure if I did blame him I had just Cause so to do Lastly he says I did use the Word Base to him when he came to me Sure I cannot believe I did It was not my Language to meaner Men. If it did slip from me it was in Relation to his Enmity to the Clergy not to his Person or Quality And I conceive 't is no Gentile part for a Man of Place and Power in his Country to oppress poor Clergy-Men which neighbour about him In which kind this Gentleman Pessimè Audiebat heard extreamly ill CAP. XXX THis Day thus ended I was ordered to appear again on Monday April 22. I came and my former Answers having taken off the Edge of many Men for so I was told by good Hands the Scorns put upon me at my Landing and elsewhere were somewhat a bated though when it was at best I suffered enough After I had attended the Pleasure of the House some Hours I was remitted without Hearing and commanded to attend again upon Thursday April 25. But sent back again then also and ordered to appear on Tuesday April 30. And when I came I was sent away once more unheard No Consideration had of my self or the great Charge which this frequent coming put me to I was then ordered to appear again on Saturday May 4. Then I was heard again And the Day proceeded as follows My Eighth Day of Hearing To raise up Envy against me Mr. Nicolas falls first to repeating the Titles which were given me in Letters from Oxford to which I gave answer the Day before From thence he fell again upon the former Charge My Endeavour to exempt the Clergy from the Civil Power And very loud he was and full of sour Language upon me To this General I answered with another more true That I never did attempt to bring the Temporal Power under the Clergy nor to free the Clergy from being under it But I do freely confess I did labour all I could to preserve poor Clergy-Men from some Lay-Mens Oppression which lay heavy on them And de Vi Laica hath been an old and a great and too Just a Complaint And this I took to be my Duty doing it without Wrong to any Man as sincerely I did to the best of my Knowledge And assuring my self that God did not raise me to that Place of Eminency to sit still see his Service neglected and his Ministers discountenanced nay sometimes little better than trampled on And my standing thus to the Clergy and their
I wrought cunningly to introduce that Religion by Inches And that they Prayed for me First my Lords the Opinion of Enemies is no Proof at all that I am such as they think me And secondly this is a Notable and no unusual piece of Cunning for an Enemy to destroy by commending For this was the ready way and I doubt not but it hath been Practised to raise a Jealousie against me at home thereby either to work the Ruin of my Person or utterly to weaken and disable me from doing harm to them or good for the Church of England Besides if the Commendation of Enemies may in this kind go for Proof it shall be in the power of two or three Practising Jesuits to destroy any Bishop or other Church-Man of England when they please At last he told a Story of one Father John a Benedictin that he asked him how Church-Livings were disposed in England and whether I had not the disposing of those which were in the King's Gift And concluded that he was not out of hope to see England reduced to Rome Why my Lords this is not Father John's hope alone for there is no Roman-Catholick but hath some hope alive in him to see this day And were it not for that hope there would not have been so many some desperate all dangerous Practices upon this Kingdom to Effect it both in Queen Elizabeth's time and since But if this I know not what Father John hope so what is that to me 3. The third Witness was Mr. Anthony Mildmaye A Man not thought on for a Witness till I called for his Brother Sir Henry But now he comes laden with his Brother's Language He says just as Sir Henry did before that there were two Factions in Rome the Jesuits and they abhorred me but the other the Secular Priests they wished me well as he was informed First this is so one and the same Testimony that any Man that will may see that either he informed his Brother or his Brother him Secondly here 's nothing affirmed for it is but as he was informed And he doth not tell you by whom It may be my Lords it was by his Brother Then he says This was to make my self Great and tells a Tale of Father Fitton as much to the purpose as that which Mr. Challoner told of Father John But whatsoever either of these Fathers said it was but their own Opinion of me or Hearsay neither of which can prove me guilty of any thing Thus much Mr. Anthony made a shift to say by Five of the Clock at Afternoon when I came to make my Answer And this as I have sufficient Cause to think only to help to shoar up his Brother's Testimony But in the Morning when he should have come as his Brother did he was by Nine in the Morning so Drunk that he was not able to come to the Bar nor to speak Common Sense had he been brought thither Nobile par Fratrum The Second Charge was the Consecration of two Churches in London St Catharin Cree-Church and St Giles in the Fields The Witnesses two 1. The first Witness was one Mr Willingham And he says 〈◊〉 I came to these Churches in a Pompous manner But all the Pomp that he mentions is that Sir Henry Martin Dr Duck and some other of the Arches attended me as they usually do their Diocesans in such Solemnities He says he did curiously observe what was done thinking it would one Day be called to an Account as now it is So this Man himself being Judge looked upon that Work with Malevolent Eye and God preserve him from being a malitious Witness He says That at my approach to the Church Door was read Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Psal 24. And this was urged over and over as a jeer upon my Person But this Place of Scripture hath been anciently used in Consecrations And it relates not to the Bishop but to God Almighty the true King of Glory who at the Dedication enters by his Servant to take Possession of the House then to be made his He says that I kneeled down at my coming in and after used many Bowings and Cringings For my kneeling down at my entranee to begin with Prayer and after to proceed with Reverence I did but my Duty in that let him scoffingly call it Cringing or Ducking or what he please He says farther That at the beginning I took up Dust and threw it in the Air and after used divers Curses And here Mr Pryn put Mr Nicolas in mind to add that Spargere Cinerem is in the Form of Consecration used in the Pontifical And Mr Brown in his summary Account of my Charge laid the very Consecration of these Churches as a Crime upon me and insisted on this particular But here my answer to all was the same That this Witness had need look well to his Oath for there was no throwing up of Dust no Curses used throughout the whole Action Nor did I follow the Pontifical but a Copy of Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews by which he Consecrated divers Churches in his time and that this is so I have the Copy by me to Witness and offered them to shew it Nor can this howsoever savour any way of Treason No said Mr Brown but the Treason is To seek by these Ceremonies to overthrow the Religion Established Nor was that ever sought by me And God of his Mercy Preserve the true Protestant Religion amongst us till the Consecration of Churches and Reverence in the Church can overthrow it and then I doubt not but by God's Blessing it shall continue safe to the Worlds End He says also That I did pronounce the Place Holy I did so And that was in the Solemn Act it self of the Consecration according to the usual Form in that behalf And no Man will deny but that there is a Derivative and a Relative Holiness in Places as well as in Vessels and other Things Dedicated to the Honour and Service of God Nor is any thing more common in the Old Testament and 't is express in the New both for Place and Things 1 Cor 9. Then it was urged at the Bar That a Prayer which I used was like one that is in the Pontifical So in the Missal are many Prayers like to the Collects used in our English Liturgy so like that some are the very same Translated only into English and yet these confirmed by Law And for that of Psal. 95. Venite Procidamus c. then also excepted against that hath been of very ancient use in the Liturgies of the Church From which Rejecimus Paleam numquid Grana We have separated the Chaff shall we cast away the Corn too If it come to that let us take heed we fall not upon the Devil 's Winnowing who labours to beat down the Corn 't is not the Chaff
Articles Which follow in haec Verba The Eighth Article 8. That for the better advancing of his Trayterous Purpose and Design he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of other his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or otherwise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners The Ninth Article 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and imployed such Men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosty addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and Vnsound both in Judgment and Practice and to them or some of them he hath committed the Licensing of Books to be Printed by which means divers False and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the 〈◊〉 of many of his Majesty's Subjects The Fourteenth Day of my Hearing At the ending of the former days Charge I was put off to this day which held The First Charge was concerning Mr. Damport's leaving his Benefice in London and going into Holland 1. The First Witness for this was Quaterman a bitter Enemy of mine God forgive him He speaks as if he had fled from his Ministry here for fear of me But the Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell says that he went away upon a Warrant that came to Summon him into the High Commission The Truth is my Lords and 't is well known and to some of his best Friends that I preserved him once before and my Lord Veer came and gave me Thanks for it If after this he fell into danger again Majus Peccatum habet I cannot preserve Men that will continue in dangerous courses He says farther and in this the other Witness agrees with him That when I heard he was gone into New-England I should say my Arm should reach him there The Words I remember not But for the thing I cannot think it fit that any Plantation should secure any Offender against the Church of England And therefore if I did say my Arm should reach him or them so offending I know no Crime in it so long as my Arm reached no Man but by the Law 2. The Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell adds nothing to this but that he says Sir Maurice Abbot kept him in before For which Testimony I thank him For by this it appears that Mr. Damport was a dangerous Factious Man and so accounted in my Predecessor's Time and it seems Prosecuted then too that his Brother Sir Maurice Abbot was fain being then a Parishioner of his to labour hard to keep him in The Second Charge was concerning Nathaniel Wickens a Servant of Mr. Pryns 1. The First Witness in this Cause was William Wickens Father to Nathaniel He says his Son was Nine Weeks in divers Prisons and for no Cause but for that he was Mr. Pryn's Servant But it appears apud Acta that there were many Articles of great Misdemeanour against him And afterwards himself adds That he knew no Cause but his refusing to take the Oath Ex Officio Why but if he knew that then he knew another Cause beside his being Mr. Pryn's Servant Unless he will say all Mr. Pryn's Servants refuse that Oath and all that refuse that Oath are Mr. Pryn's Servants As for the Sentence which was laid upon him and the Imprisonment that was the Act of the High-Commission not mine Then he says That my Hand was first in the Warrant for his Commitment And so it was to be of course 2. The Second Witness was Sarah Wayman She says that he refused to take the Oath Therefore he was not committed for being Mr. Pryn's Servant She says that for refusing the Oath he was threatned he should be taken pro Confesso And that when one of the Doctors replyed that could not be done by the Order of the Court I should say I would have an Order by the next Court Day 'T is manifest in the Course of that Court that any Man may be taken pro Confesso that will not take the Oath and answer Yet seeing how that party of Men prevailed and that one Doctors doubting might breed more Difference to the great Scandal and Weakning of that Court I publickly acquainted his Majesty and the Lords with it Who were all of Opinion that if such Refusers might not be taken pro Confesso the whole Power of the Court was shaken And hereupon his Majesty sent his Letter under his Signet to command us to uphold the Power of the Court and to proceed She says farther that he desired the sight of his Articles which was denyed him It was the constant and known Course of that Court that he might not see the Articles till he had taken the Oath which he refused to do 3. The Third Witness was one Flower He agrees about the business of taking him pro Confesso But that 's answerd He adds that there was nothing laid to his Charge and yet confesses that Wickens desired to see the Articles that were against him This is a pretty Oath There were Articles against him which he desired to see and yet there was nothing laid to his Charge 4. Then was produced his Majesty's Letter sent unto us And herein the King requires us by his Supream Power Ecclesiastical to proceed c. We had been in a fine case had we disobeyed this Command Besides my Lords I pray mark it we are enjoyned to proceed by the King 's Supream Power Ecclesiastical and yet it is here urged against me that this was done to bring in Popery An Excellent new way of bringing in Popery by the King's Supremacy Yea but they say I should not have procured this Letter Why I hope I may by all Lawful ways preserve the Honour and just Power of the Court in which I sat And 't is expressed in the Letter that no 〈◊〉 was done than was agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And 't is known that both an Oath and a taking pro Confesso in point of refusal are used both in the Star-Chamber and in the Chancery 5. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says That his Man was not suffered to come to him during his Soarness when his ears were Cropped This Favour should have been asked of the Court of Star-Chamber not of me And yet here is no Proof that I denyed him this but the bare Report of him whom he says he employed Nor do I remember any Man's coming to me about it The Third Charge followed it was concerning stopping of Book
all the Proof here made mentions him only by whom the Kings Pleasure is signified not him that procures the Preferment So the Docket in this Case no Proof at all The Fifth Charge was a Paper Intituled Considerations for the Church Three Exceptions against them The Observation of the King's Declaration Art 3. The Lecturers Art 5. And the High-Commission and Prohibitions Art 10 11. The Paper I desired might be all Read Nothing in them against either Law or Religion And for Lecturers a better care taken and with more Ease to the People and more Peace to the Church by a Combination of Conformable Neighbouring Ministers in their turns and not by some one Humorous Man who too often mis-leads the People Secondly my Copy of Considerations came from Arch-Bishop Harsnet in which was some sour Expression concerning Emanuel and Sidney Colleges in Cambridge which the King in his Wisdom thought fit to leave out The King's Instructions upon these Considerations are under Mr. Baker's Hand who was Secretary to my Predecessor And they were sent to me to make Exceptions to them if I knew any in regard of the Ministers of London whereof I was then Bishop And by this that they were thus sent unto me by my Predecessor 't is manifest that this account from the several Dioceses to the Arch-Bishop and from him to his Majesty once a Year was begun before my time Howsoever if it had not I should have been glad of the Honour of it had it begun in mine For I humbly conceive there cannot be a better or a safer way to preserve Truth and Peace in the Church than that once a Year every Bishop should give an account of all greater Occurrences in the Church to his Metropolitan and he to the King Without which the King who is the Supream is like to be a great Stranger to all Church Proceedings The Sixth Charge was about Dr Sibthorp's Sermon that my Predecessor opposed the Printing of it and that I opposed him to Affront the Parliament Nothing so my Lords Nothing done by me to oppose or affront the One or the Other This Sermon came forth when the Loan was not yet settled in Parliament The Lords and the Judges and the Bishops were some for some against it And if my Judgment were Erroneous in that Point it was mis-led by Lords of great Honour and Experience and by Judges of great knowledge in the Law But I did nothing to affront any 'T is said that I inserted into the Sermon that the People may not refuse any Tax that is not unjustly laid I conceive nothing is justly laid in that kind but according to Law Gods and Mans. And I dare not say the People may refuse any thing so laid For Jus Regis the Right of a King which is urged against me too I never went farther than the Scriptures lead me Nor did I ever think that Jus Regis mentioned 1 Sam 8 is meant of the Ordinary and just Right of Kings but of that Power which such as Saul would be would assume unto themselves and make it right by Power Then they say I expunged some things out of it As first The Sabbath and put instead of it the Lords Day What 's my Offence Sabbath is the Jews Word and the Lords-Day the Christians Secondly about Evil Counseilors to be used as Haman The Passage as there Expressed was very Scandalous and without just Cause upon the Lords of the Council And they might justly have thought I had wanted Discretion should I have left it in Thirdly that I expunged this that Popery is against the first and the second Commandment If I did it it was because it is much doubted by Learned Men whether any thing in Popery is against the first Commandment or denies the Unity of the God-head And Mr. Perkins who Charges very home against Popery lays not the Breach of the first Commandment upon them And when I gave Mr. Brown this Answer In his last Reply he asked why I left out both Why I did it because its being against the second is common and obvious and I did not think it worthy the standing in such a Sermon when it could not be made good against the first But they demanded why I should make any Animadversions at all upon the Sermon It was thus The Sermon being presented to his Majesty and the Argument not common he committed the Care of Printing it to Bishop Mountain the Bishop of London and four other of which I was one And this was the Reason of the Animadversions now called mine As also of the Answer to my Predecessors Exceptions now Charged also and called mine But it was the Joint Answer of the Committee And so is that other Particular also In which the whole Business is left to the Learned in the Laws For though the Animadversions be in my Hand yet they were done at and by the Committee only I being puny Bishop was put to write them in my Hand The Seventh Charge was Dr Manwaring's Business and Preferment It was handled before only resumed here to make a Noise and so passed it over The Eighth Charge was concerning some Alterations in the Prayers made for the Fifth of November and in the Book for the Fast which was Published An 1636. And the Prayers on Coronation Day 1. First for the Fast-Book The Prayer mentioned was altered as is Expressed but it was by him that had the Ordering of that Book to the Press not by me Yet I cannot but approve the Reason given for it and that without any the least approbation of Merit For the Abuse of Fasting by thinking it Meritorious is the thing left out whereas in this Age and Kingdom when and where set Fastings of the Church are cryed down there can be little fear of that Erroneous Opinion of placing any Merit in Fasting 2 Secondly for the Prayers Published for the Fifth of November and Coronation Day The Alterations were made either by the King himself or some about him when I was not in Court And the Books sent me with a Command for the Printing as there altered I made stay till I might wait upon his Majesty I found him resolved upon the alterations nor in my judgment could I justly except against them His Majesty then gave Warrant to the Books themselves with the alterations in them and so by his Warrant I commanded the Printing And I then shewed both the Books to the Lords who Viewed them and acknowledged his Ma jesty ' Hand with which not his Name only but the whole Warrant was written And here I humbly desired three things might be observed and I still desire it First with what Conscience this passage out of my Speech in the Star Chamber was urged against me for so it was and fiercely by Mr. Nicolas to prove that I had altered the Oath at the King's Coronation because the Prayers appointed for the Anniversary of the Coronation were
absolute and a perfect Answer Thirdly this Witness confesses that Dr Weeks then Chaplain to my Lord of London had the view of Dr Clark's Sermons and took Exceptions against some passages as well as my Chaplain Dr Haywood did So it seems there was cause for it Fourthly I Answer that for this and for all other of like Nature my Chaplain must Answer for his own Act and not I. He is Living and an Able Man I humbly desire he may be called to his Account For 't is not possible for me to tell your Lordships upon what grounds he did Expunge these many and different passages which are instanced against me Lastly in all the passages of Dr Clark's Sermons it is not any where distinguished which were Expunged by my Chaplain and which by Dr Weeks So that the Charge in that behalf is left very uncertain For the passages themselves as they are many so they are such as may easily be mistaken the most of them And whether Dr Clark handled them in such manner as was not justifiable either against Arminius or the Papists cannot possibly be known till each place in the Book be Examined for the Thing and my Chaplain Dr Haywood for the Meaning This made a great noise in Mr Brown's Summary Charge against me he alledging that two and twenty Passages about Points of Popery were dashed out of Dr Clark's Sermons To which I Answer'd that I conceived my Chaplain would be able to make it good there were two hundred left in for two and twenty left out And that they which were left out were not some way or other justifiable against the Papists as set down and expressed by him And if so they are better out than in For we gain nothing by urging that against the Papists which when it comes to the Touch cannot be made good against them One Passage is here added out of Dr. Featly's Sermons p. 225. Where he inveighs against too much imbellishing and beautifying the Church and not the Souls of Men c. First if there be not a care to beautifie the Soul let Men profess what Religion they will 't is a just Exception and I believe no fault found with that But Secondly for the over-much beautifying of the Church 't is a Point that might well be left out Little necessity God knows to Preach or Print against too much adorning of Churches among us where yet so many Churches lye very nastily in many places of the Kingdom and no one too much adorned to be found Nay the very Consecration of Churches cryed down as is before expressed And this Opinion that no Place is Holy but during the Service in it made Mr. Culmer though a Minister to piss in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury And divers others to do so and more against the Pillars in St Paul's nearer hand as may daily be both seen and smelt to the shame of that which is called Religion Here Mr Nicolas would fain have shovell'd it to the out-side of the Church which had been bad enough but it was the inside I spake of and the thing is known Then an Instance was made in a Book of Dr Jones The Witness that any thing was Expunged out of this was only Mr Chetwin And he confesses that this Book was Licensed by Dr Baker and he my Lord of London's Chaplain not mine Here my Friends at the Bar infer that Dr Baker was preferred by me First that 's not so he was preferred by his own Lord. Secondly if he had been preferred by me it could have made no Charge unless proof had been made that I preferred him for abusing Dr. Jones his Book And for the Docket which is the only Proof offer'd that I preferred him I have already shewed that that is no Proof Yea but they say Dr Baker was imployed by me as one of my Visitors And what then Must I be answerable for every fault that is committed by every Man that I employ in my Visitation though it be a fault committed at another time and place though I humbly desire Dr. Baker may Answer for himself before I acknowledge any fault committed by him And though I conceive this Answer abundantly satisfactory for any thing that may concern me yet Mr. Brown omitted not this Instance against me The Third Charge was personally against my self and taken out of my Speech in the Star-Chamber The words these The Altar is the greatest place of God's Residence upon Earth greater than the Pulpit for there 't is Hoc est Corpus meum this is my Body but in the other it is at most but Hoc est Verbum meum this is my Word And a greater Reverence is due to the Body than the Word of the Lord. Out of this place Mr Nicolas would needs inforce that I maintained Transubstantiation because I say There 't is Hoc est Corpus meum First I perceive by him he confounds as too many else do Transubstantiation with the Real Presence whereas these have a wide difference And Calvin grants a Real and True Presence yea and he grants Realiter too and yet no Man a greater Enemy to Transubstantiation than he As I have proved at large in my Book against Fisher and had leave to Read the Passage therein to the Lords And Mr. Perkins avows as much And Secondly the Word There makes nothing against this For after the Words of Consecration are past be the Minister never so Unworthy yet 't is infallibly Hoc est Corpus meum to every worthy Receiver So is it not Hoc est Verbum meum from the Pulpit to the best of Hearers nor by the best of Preachers since the Apostles Time And as Preaching goes now scarce is any thing heard from many in two long Hours that savours of the Word of God And St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. of a great Sin committed in his Time of not discerning the Lord's Body when Unworthy Communicants received it Where was this Why it was There at the Holy Table or Altar where they Received yet did not discern I hope for all this St. Paul did not maintain Transubstantiation Mr. Brown in his Summary Charge pressed this also upon me I answer'd as before and added that in all Ages of the Church the Touchstone of Religion was not to Hear the Word Preached but to Communicate And at this day many will come and hear Sermons who yet will not receive the Communion together And as I call the Holy Table the greatest place of God's Residence upon Earth so doth a late Learned Divine of this Church call the Celebration of the Eucharist the Crown of Publick Service and the most solemn and chief work of Christian Assemblies and he a Man known to be far from affecting Popery in the least And all Divines agree in this which our Saviour himself Teaches St. Mat. 26. That there is the same effect of the Passion of Christ and of this Blessed Sacrament
is Dead and cannot answer for himself Thus far I can for him without medling with any his Opinions He was very Honest and very Learned and at those Years he was of might deserve more than a Poor Benefice 16. Here Mr Pryn came in again and Testified very boldly that I gave many Benefices which were in the Gift of the Master of the Wards And all Preferments only to such Men as were for Ceremonies Popery and Arminianism For the First of these two the Business was thus There arose a Difference between the then Lord Keeper Coventry and the Lord Cottington then Master of the Wards about the disposing of those Benefices It grew somewhat high and came to Hearing by the King himself His Majesty upon Hearing gave the right of Sealing to the Lord Keeper but for the time till more might appear reserved the Giving to himself that he might have some of those lesser Preferments to bestow on such Ministers as attended upon his Navy then at Sea I never gave any one of these Benefices in my Life And that this Story is of Truth the Lord Cottington is yet living and can Witness it And this very Answer I gave to Mr. Brown who in summing up the Charge laid this also upon me and without mentioning what Answer I gave to it For the Second that I preferred none but such Men. 'T is known I preferred Bishop Hall to Exeter Dr. Potter to Carlile Dr. Cook to Bristol first and then to Hereford That I gave Dr. Westfield the Archdeaconry of S. Albans that I was Dr. Fells means for Christ-Church and Dr. Higgs his for the Deanery of Litchfield that I setled Dr. Downing at Hackney and Mr. Herrick at Manchester when the Broad Seal formerly given him was questioned That I gave two of my own Benefices to Mr. Palmer and Mr. Taylor two of the now Synod an Hospital to Dr Jackson of Canterbury and a Benefice to his Son in Law at his Suit I could not Name all these upon the sudden yet some I did and no one of them guilty of this Charge in the least Mr. Brown in his Summary said I could name but one or two And when in my Answer made in the House of Commons I specified more among which Mr Palmer was one Mr. Brown said in his Reply that Mr Palmer had indeed his Benesice of my giving so himself told him but it was at the Entreaty of a great Noble-Man Say it were Mr. Palmer was then a stranger to me Some body must speak and assure me of his Wants and Worth or I cannot give But if upon this I give it freely is it worth no thanks from him because a Noble-Man spake to me Let Mr. Palmer rank this Gratitude among his other Vertues 17. From hence they stepped over into Ireland and objected my preferring of Dr Chappel to be Master of the College at Dublin Here the first Witness is Mr. Walker He says that all his Scholars were Arminians This is a great sign but not full Proof He says that Dr. Chappel was at First fierce against them but afterward changed his Mind Dr. Featly said the like of Dr. Potter Some say Arminius himself was at first Zealous against those Opinions but studying hard to confute them changed his own Mind Take heed Mr. Walker do not Study these Points too hard For my own part Dr. Chappel was a Cambridge Man altogether unknown to me save that I received from thence great Testimony of his Abilities and fitness for Government which that College then extreamly wanted And no Man ever complained to me that he favoured Arminianism The other Witness was Dr. Hoyle a Fellow of the College in Dublin He says that the Doctor did maintain in that College Justification by Works and in Christ-Church Arminianism In this he is single But if it be true why did not the Lord Primate of Armagh Punish him for he says he knew it That he opposed some things in the Synod And it may be there was just Cause for it Lastly he says the late Lord Deputy liked not the Irish Articles but gave them an Honourable Burial as he says the Lord Primate himself confessed I am a stranger to all this nor doth Dr. Hoyle charge any thing against me but says that they which did this were supposed to have some Friend in England And surely their Carriage was very ill if they had none 18. Then were Letters read of my Lord Primate's to me in which is Testified my Care of the Patrimony of that Church And then a Paper of Instructions given by me to the Lord Deputy at his first going into that Kingdom For the First though it be thrust in here among matters of Religion yet I pray your Lordships to consider 't is about the Patrimony of that Church only And I thank them heartily for producing it For in this Letter is a full confession of my Lord Primate's that the motion of getting the Impropriations from his Majesty formerly objected against me proceeded from him as I then pleaded And the Letter was read For the Second my Lord Deputy a little before his first going into Ireland asked me what Service I would command him for the Church there I humbly thanked him as I had reason and told him I would bethink my self and give him my Thoughts in Writing These are they which are called Instructions They are only for the good of that poor Church as your Lordships have heard them This was all and herein my Lord shewed his Honour and I did but my Duty Though I very well understand why this Paper is produced against me After this they proceeded to the Eleventh Original Article which follows in haec Verba 11. He in his own Person and his Suffragans Visitors Surrogates Chancellors or other Officers by his Command have caused divers Learned Pious and Orthodox Preachers of God's Word to be Silenced Suspended Deprived Degraded Excommunicated or otherwise Grieved and Vexed without any just and lawful Cause whereby and by divers other means he hath hindred the Preaching of God's Word caused divers of his Majesty's Loyal Subjects to forsake the Kingdom and Increased and Cherished Ignorance and Prophaneness among the People that so he might the better facilitate the way to the effecting of his own Wicked and Traiterous Design of Altering and Corrupting the true Religion here Established 1. The First Instance to make good this Article was a Repetition of some Lecturers before-named But when they thought they had made Noise enough they referred the Lords to their Notes and so did I to my former Answers 2. The Second Instance was out of some Articles of Bishop Mountague and Bishop Wrenn and their Account given to me Bishop Wrenn Art 16 Speaks of the Afternoon Sermons being turned into Catechising And Art 5 of his Account I take it that no Lecture in his Diocess after c. It was made plain to the Lords that this was spoken of some single and factious
Lecturers and that they had their Lectures Read by a Company of Learned and Orthodox Ministers by turns As appeared by the Munday Sermon at Burye during that Learned Bishop's time Nor were any forbid to Preach in the Afternoon so the Catechising were not omitted before it or with it And the Bishop is Living to Answer it if ought were then done amiss by him In all which he did nothing as any Deputy or Surrogate of mine but as Diocesan of the Place As for the Yearly Account to the King according to his Royal Instructions in that behalf though it were pressed here again to multiply noise yet nothing being new I gave my Answer as before and to that I refer my self 3. The Third Answer was concerning Mr. Lee of Wolverhampton The Evidence was a Letter of my Secretary Mr. Dell written by my Command to my Visitors there to this Effect That whether there were Cause or no they should either punish Mr. Lee or bring him into the High-Commission Had the Words or the Sense been thus they might well say It was hard for the Judge before whom the Party was to Answer to write thus But I called to have the Letter read again and the Words were these If there were found against him that which might justly be Censured then they should punish c. And the Reason why this strict care was taken was because the Dean of Windsor his Ordinary complained unto me that Mr. Lee's Carriage was so Factious there that he could contain him in no Order If he were a Man after this approved at Shrewsbury as Mr Walker witnesses I hope the Proceedings at Wolverhampton did him good But my Lords had it so fallen out that my Secretary had forgotten my Instructions and himself too and expressed himself amiss shall that slip of his had it been such be imputed to me I believe your Lordships would not willingly answer for every Phrase of your Secretaries Letters which yet you command them to write 4. The last Instance was the Sentence in the High-Commission against Mr Barnard for Words about Pelagian Errors and Popery First if he were Sentenced in the High-Commission it was the Act of the Court and not mine as has been often said Secondly no Proof is offer'd that he was Sentenced for those Words only Thirdly the Recantation howsoever refused by him as Mr. Pryn says it was makes mention of four Points for which he was Censured of which these words are one But not the words themselves but his Unjust and Scandalous Application of them to me which deserved them not And lastly Dr Cumber Master of Trinity College in Cambridge was Prosecutor against him which Office so Grave and Worthy a Man would not I suppose have undertaken had there not been great and just Cause for it Hence they proceeded to the Sixth Additional Article which follows in these Words That whereas divers Gifts and Dispositions of divers Summs of Money were heretofore made by divers Charitable and well disposed Persons for the buying in of divers Impropriations for the Maintenance of Preaching the Word of God in several Churches the said Arch-Bishop about Eight Years last past wilfully and maliciously caused the said Gifts Feoffments and Conveyances made to the uses aforesaid to be overthrown in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer contrary to Law as things dangerous to the Church and State under the specious pretence of buying in Appropriations whereby that Pious Work was suppressed and trodden down to the great Dishonour of God and Scandal of Religion This Article is only about the Feoffments That which I did was this I was as then advised upon such Information as was given me clearly of Opinion that this was a cunning way under a Glorious pretence to overthrow the Church-Government by getting into their power more dependency of the Clergy than the King and all the Peers and all the Bishops in all the Kingdom had And I did conceive the Plot the more dangerous for the fairness of the pretence and that to the State as well as the Church Hereupon not maliciously as 't is charged in the Article but Conscientiously I resolved to suppress it if by Law it might be done Upon this I acquainted his Majesty with the thing and the danger which I conceived would in few Years spring out of it The King referred me to his Attorney and the Law Mr. Attorney Noye after some pause upon it proceeded in the Exchequer and there it was by Judicial Proceeding and Sentence overthrown If this Sentence were according to Law and Justice then there 's no fault at all committed If it were against Law the fault what e're it be was the Judges not mine for I solicited none of them And here I humbly desired that the Lords would at their leisure read over the Sentence given in the Exchequer which I then delivered in but by Reason of the length it was not then read Whether after it were I cannot tell I desired likewise that my Councel might be heard in this and all other points of Law 1. The First Witness was Mr. Kendall He says that speaking with me about Presteen I thanked God that I had overthrown this Feoffment 2. The Second Witness Mr. Miller says he heard me say They would have undone the Church but I have overthrown their Feoffment These two Witnesses prove no more than I confess For in the manner aforesaid I deny not but I did my best in a Legal way to overthrow it And if I did Thank God for it it was my Duty to do so the thing being in my Judgment so pernicious as it was 3. The Third Witness was Mr. White one of the Feoffees He says that coming as Councel in a Cause before me when that Business was done I fell bitterly on him as an underminer of the Church I remember well his coming to me as Councel about a Benefice And 't is very likely I spake my Conscience to him as freely as he did his to me but the Particulars I remember not nor do I remember his coming afterwards to me to Fulham nor his offer to change the Men or the Course so the thing might stand For to this I should have been as willing as he was and if I remember right there was order taken for this in the Decree of the Exchequer And his Majesty's Pleasure declared that no Penny so given should be turned to other use And I have been and shall ever be as ready to get in Impropriations by any Good and Legal way as any Man as may appear by my Labours about the Impropriations in Ireland But this way did not stand either with my Judgment or Conscience 1. First because little or nothing was given by them to the present Incumbent to whom the Tythes were due if to any that the Parishioners which payed them might have the more cheerful Instruction the better Hospitality and more full Relief for their Poor 2. Secondly because most of the Men they
in those places which are cited do make the Pope the great Antichrist For in the first place the Words are To the beating down of Sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdom of Antichrist Which Words cannot possibly imply that the Pope is that Antichrist In the second place he is only called the Babylonical Beast of Rome which Phrase doth not necessarily signifie The Great Antichrist For the Beast so often mentioned in the Revelation is no where called the Babylonical Beast of Rome And if that Beast do stand for the Great Antichrist I say If because those Scriptures are very dark then the Beast is primarily the Roman Empire in the Judgment of the Geneva Noters And that there should be two great Antichrists is more than any man hath yet said Here Mr. Nicolas was up again with Pander to the Whore of Babylon and his other foul Language not remembring all this while which yet I was loath to mind him of that one of his zealous Witnesses against the Whore of Babylon and all her Superstitions got all his Means which are great by being a Pander to other lewd Women and loved the business it self so well as that he was not long since men say taken in Bed with one of his Wife's Maids Good Mr. Nicolas do not dispense with all Whores save the Whore of Babylon 6. The Sixth Particular was the Articles of Ireland which call the Pope the Man of Sin But the Articles of Ireland bind neither this Church nor me And some Learned Protestants do not understand that noted place of the Apostle 2 Thess. 2. as meant of Antichrist or the Pope 7. The Seventh and Last Particular is a Repetition of Sancta Clara and Mr. S. Giles and the Letter of News which were News indeed to make them one Man though this were Answered at large but the last Day and Sir Ed. Hungerford's Testimony brought up again It 's a sign Mr. Nicolas hath indeed no down-right right Proof as he said before that so tumbles up and down in repeating the same things The Third Charge is that I say in my Book That the Religion of the Church of Rome and ours is all one This is spoken only in opposition to other Religions in regard of Christianity The Words are Nor do the Church of Rome and the Protestants set up a different Religion for the Christian Religion is the same to both c. And the like passage to this is in my Speech in the Star-Chamber And these Passages were read to the Lords So that either Papists must be denied to be Christians or else this Charge can work nothing against me The Fourth Charge is out of Chouneus his Book p. 45 46. Licensed by my Chaplain Dr. Braye where they say 't is said That Rome is a True Church and differs not in Fundamentals And that at the High Commission when this Book was question'd by some I did say that the Church of Rome and the Protestants did not differ in Fundamentals but in Circumstances And this latter part was testified by Mr. Burton and one Mr. Lane who said they were present First Suppose this be false and that they do differ in Fundamentals yet this then is but my Errour in Divinity no Practice to overthrow Religion Secondly I suppose if I did so say I did not Err For the Foundations of Christian Religion are the Articles of the Creed and the Church of Rome denies no one of them Therefore there is no difference in the Fundamentals If they of Rome differ in Exposition of some of these that must needs be a Superstructure upon or beside the Article not the Article or Foundation it self Nor did I follow my own Judgment herein but Calvin's who says expresly That in despight of Antichrist the Foundations of the Church remain'd in the Papacy it self that the Church might not wholly perish And this Passage was then read to the Lords Thirdly These two Learned Witnesses as they would be reputed are quite mistaken in their very Terms For they report me as if I said Not in Fundamentals but in Circumstantials whereas these are not Membra opposita but Fundamentals and Superstructures which may sway quite beside the Foundation And this though not the only yet is a main Failing in the Roman Fabrick in which many things are built upon unwarrantable Tradition as is expressed in my Book at large and their many Superstitions named and that Passage read also to the Lords For though they differ not in the prime Foundations yet they in many things grate close upon them and in some things fall beside them to no small Hazard of their own Souls As for Circumstantials it seems these Men have forgotten or never knew that many times Circumstantials in Religion do quite destroy the Foundation For Example The Circumstances are these Quis Quid Vbi Quibus Auxiliis Quomodo Quando 1. Quid What a Man believes And that contains Fundamentals and in the first place 2. Vbi Place a meer Circumstance yet to deny that Christ took our Flesh of the B. Virgin and that in Judaea denies the Foundation and is flat Judaism 3. Quibus Auxiliis By what Helps a Man believes and in some measure obeys as he is commanded For to believe that a Man doth this by the strength of Nature only and not by Aid and Assistance of Grace is with the Pelagian to deny the Foundation and to overthrow the Grace of Christ. 4. Quando When That 's Time a meer Circumstance Yet to deny that Christ is already come in the Flesh denies the Foundation utterly and is flat Judaism and an inseparable Badge of the great Antichrist 1 John 4. And in the Case of the Resurrection to say 't is past already which is Time St. Paul tells us 2 Tim. 2. is no less than the Overthrow of the Faith And the Rule is general That some Circumstances Dant Speciem give the very Kind and Form to a Moral Action This for their Ignorance but for the Malice of their Oath I leave them to God's Mercy Here Mr. Brown when he summed up the Evidence against me fell upon this and said that when I gave divers Instances what dangerous Errors Circumstances did sometimes breed in Religion I gave no Instance in any point of Popery But to this I Answered First That it was not material what Instances I made so I was able to make some Secondly That it was not possible for me or perhaps a readier Man to have all Instances so present with his Memory Thirdly If an Instance in Popery rank Popery will serve the turn you may take it in Transubstantiation That is either a Fundamental Point or it is not If it be not Fundamental why did the Papist put the Protestant to Death for it And why did the Protestant suffer Death If it be Fundamental as it seems by both sides it was accounted it
was nothing done against Law any Friend may privately assist another in his Difficulties And I am perswaded many Friends in either House do what they justly may when such sad Occasions happen And this Answer I gave to Mr. Brown when he Summed up my Charge in the House of Commons But Mr. Brown did not begin with this but with another here omitted by Mr. Nicolas though he had pressed it before in the Fifteenth day of my Hearing Dr. Potter writ unto me for my advice in some Passages of a Book writ by him as I remember against a Book Intituled Charity mistaken I did not think it fit to amend any thing with my own Pen but put some few things back to his Second Thoughts of which this was one That if he express himself so he will give as much Power to the Parliament in Matters of Doctrine as to the Church This Mr. Brown said took away all Authority from Parliaments in that kind But under Favour this takes away nor all nor any that is due unto them Not all for my Words are about giving so much Power Now he that would not have so much given to the one as the other doth not take away all from either Not any that is due to them For my Words not medling simply with Parliamentary Power as appears by the Comparative Words so much my Intention must needs be to have Dr. Potter so to consider of his Words as that that which is proper to the Church might not be ascribed to Parliaments And this I conceive is plain in the very Letter of the Law The Words of the Statute are Or such as shall hereafter be Ordered Judged or determined to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament in this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation Where 't is manifest that the Judging and Determining Part for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrin is in the Church For the Assent of the Church or Clergy cannot be given but in Convocation and so the Law requires it Now Assent in Convocation cannot be given but there must preceed a Debate a Judging a Voting and a Determining Therefore the Determining Power for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrine Heresie or no Heresie is in the Church But the Judging and determining Power for binding to Obedience and for Punishment is in the Parliament with this Assent of the Clergy Therefore I humbly conceive the Parliament cannot by Law that is till this Law be first altered Determine the Truth of Doctrine without this Assent of the Church in Convocation And that such a Synod and Convocation as is Chosen and Assembled as the Laws and Customs of this Realm require To this Mr. Brown in his Reply upon me in the House of Commons said Two Things The one that this Branch of the Statute of one Eliz. was for Heresie only and the Adjudging of that but medled not with the Parliaments Power in other matters of Religion If it be for Heresie only that the Church alone shall not so Determine Heresie as to bring those grievous Punishments which the Law lays upon it upon the Neck of any Subject without Determination in Parliament then is the Church in Convocation left free also in other matters of Religion according to the First Clause in Magna Charta which establishes the Church in all her Rights And her main and constant Right when that Charter was made and confirmed was Power of Determining in matters of Doctrine and Discipline of the Church And this Right of the Clergy is not bounded or limited by any Law but this Clause of 1. Eliz. that ever I heard of The other was that if this were so that the Parliament might not meddle with Religion but with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation we should have had no Reformation For the Bishops and the Clergy dissented First it is not as I conceive to be denyed that the King and his High Court of Parliament may make any Law what they please and by their Absolute Power may change Religion Christianity into Turcism if they please which God forbid And the Subjects whose Consciences cannot obey must flye or indure the Penalty of the Law But both King and Parliament are sub graviori Regno and must Answer God for all such abuse of Power But beside this Absolute there is a Limited Power Limited I say by Natural Justice and Equity by which no Man no Court can do more than what he can by Right And according to this Power the Church's Interest must be considered and that indifferently as well as the Parliaments To apply this to the Particular of the Reformation The Parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth would not indure Popish Superstition and by Absolute Power Abolished it without any Assent of the Clergy in Convocation And then in her first Year An. 1559. She had a Visitation and set out her Injunctions to direct and order such of the Clergy as could conform their Judgments to the Reformation But then so soon as the Clergy was settled and that a Form of Doctrine was to be agreed upon to shew the difference from the Roman Superstition a Synod was called and in the Year 1562. the Articles of Religion were agreed upon and they were determined and confirmed by Parliament with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation and that by a just and orderly Power Nor is the Absolute Power of King and Parliament any way unjust in it self but may many ways be made such by Misinformation or otherwise And this gives the King and the Parliament their full Power and yet preserves this Church in her just Right Just and acknowledged by some that loved her not over well For the Lord Brook tells us That what a Church will take for true Doctrine lies only in that Church Nay the very Heathen saw clearly the Justice of this For M. Lucullus was able to say in Tully That the Priests were Judges of Religion and the Senate of Law The Second Proof is That I made two Speeches for the King to be spoken or sent to the Parliament that then was and that they had some sour and ill Passages in them These Speeches were read to the Lords and had I now the Copies I would insert them here and make the World Judge of them First I might shuffle here and deny the making of them For no Proof is offer'd but that they are in my Hand and that is no necessary Proof For I had then many Papers by me written in my own Hand which were not my making though I transcribed them as not thinking it fit to trust them in other Hands But Secondly I did make them and I followed the Instructions which were given me as close as I could to the very Phrases and being commanded to the Service I hope it shall not now be made my Crime that I was trusted by my Soveraign Thirdly As I did never
all the Proof they brought for it is that it is written upon the Paper that there was an Intention to Print it but that I know not what hinder'd it But this Argument can never conclude John a Nokes knows not who hindred the Printing of a Jewish Catechism in England therefore he was displeased the Catechism was not Printed But I see every Foot can help trample him that is down Yea but they Instanced in three Particulars which they charged severally upon me The first Particular was That by this Remonstrance they sought to fill our Peoples Hearts more than our Ears A second was that they swelled to that bigness till they brake themselves But neither of these strike at any Right or Priviledge of Parliaments they only Tax some Abuses which were conceived to be in the Miscarriage of that one Parliament And both these Particulars were in my Instructions And though I have ever Honoured Parliaments and ever shall yet I cannot think them Infallible General Councils have greater Promises than they yet they may Err. And when a Parliament by what ill Accident so-ever comes to Err may not their King tell them of it Or must every Passage in his Answer be sour that pleases not And for that Remonstrance whither it tended let the World judge the Office is too dangerous for me The third Particular was the Excusing of Ireland and the growth of Popery there of which that Remonstrance An. 1628. complained This was in the Instructions too And I had Reason to think the King and his Council understood the State of Ireland for Religion and other Affairs as well as other Men. And I was the more easily led into the belief that Religion was much at one State in Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's and King James his time and now because ever since I understood any thing of those Irish Affairs I still heard the same Complaints that were now made For in all these times they had their Romish Hierarchy Submitted to their Government Payed them Tythes Came not to the Protestant Churches And Rebelled under Tyrone under pretence of Religion And I do not conceive they have gone beyond this now If they have let them Answer it who have occasioned it But to prove this great new growth of Popery there they produced first a Proclamation from the State in Ireland dated April 1. 1629. Then a Letter of the Bishop of Kilmore's to my self dated April 1. 1630. Thirdly a Complaint made to the State there An. 1633. of this growth so that I could not but know it Most true when these Informations came I could not but know it But look upon their Date and you shall find that all of them came after this Answer was made to the Remonstrance and therefore could not possibly be foreseen by me without the Gift of Prophesie Then they produced a Letter of the Earl of Straffords in which he Communicated to me Mar. 1633. that to mould the Lower House there and to rule them the better he had got them to be chosen of an equal number of Protestants and Papists And here Mr. Maynard who pressed this point of Religion hard upon me began to fall foul upon this Policy of the Earl of Strafford and himself yet brake off with this But he is gone Then he fell upon me as a Man likely to approve those ways because he desired the Letter might be communicated to me This Letter was not written to me as appears by the Charge it self For if it had no Man else needed to communicate it to me And I would fain know how I could help any of this If that Lord would write any thing to me himself or communicate any thing to another that should acquaint me with it was it in my power to hinder either of these And there were other Passages in this Letter for which I conceive his Lordship desired the Communication of that Letter to me much more than the Particular urged which could no way relate unto me And Mr. Brown in his Summ said very little if any thing to this Business of Ireland After this Mr. Nicolas who would have nothing forgotten that might help to multiply Clamour against me fell upon five Particulars which he did but name and left the Lords to their Notes Four of these Five were handled before As First the words If the Parliament prove peevish Secondly that the King might use his own Power Thirdly the violation of the Petition of Right Fourthly the Canons Fifthly that I set Spyes about the Election of Parliament-Men in Glocester-shire and for this last they produced a Letter of one Allibon to Dr. Heylin To the four first I referred the Lords to their Notes of my Answers as they did To this last that Mr. Allibon is a meer Stranger to me I know not the Man And 't is not likely I should employ a Stranger in such a Business The Letter was sent to Dr. Heylin and if there were any discovery in it of Juglings there in those Elections as too often there are and if Dr. Heylin sent me those Letters as desirous I should see what Practices are abroad what fault is there in him or me for this Then Mr. Nicolas would not omit that which he thought might disgrace and discontent me though it could no way be drawn to be any Accusation 'T was out of my Diary at Oct 27. 1640. this Parliament being then ready to begin The Passage there is That going into my upper Study to send away some Manuscripts to Oxford I found my Picture which hung there privately fallen down upon the Face and lying on the Floor I am almost every day threatned with my Ruin God grant this be no Omen of it The Accident is true and having so many Libels causelesly thrown out against me and hearing so many ways as I did that my Ruin was Plotted I had Reason to apprehend it But I apprehended it without Passion and with looking up to God that it might not be Ominous to me What is this Man Angry at Or why is this produced But though I cannot tell why this was produced yet the next was urged only to Incense your Lordships against me 'T is in my Diary again at Feb. 11. 1640. Where Mr. Nicolas says confidently I did Abuse your Lordships and Accuse you of Injustice My Lords what I said in my Diary appears not if it did appear whole and altogether I doubt not but it alone would abundantly satisfie your Lordships But that Passage is more than half burnt out as is to be seen whether of purpose by Mr. Pryn or casually I cannot tell yet the Passage as confidently made up and read to your Lordships as if nothing were wanting For the thing it self the close of my words is this So I see what Justice I may expect since here 's a Resolution taken not only before my Answer but before my Charge is brought up against me Which Words can
at Council-Table High Commission or Convocation are all Joynt Acts of that Body in and by which they were done and cannot by any Law be singly put upon me it being a known Rule of the Law Refertur ad universos quod publice fit per Majorem Partem And Mr. Pryn himself can stand upon this Rule against the Independents and tell us that the Major Voice or Party ought to over-rule and bind the less And he quotes Scripture for it too In which place that which is done by the Major part is ascribed to all not laid upon any one as here upon me And in some of these Courts Star-Chamber especially and Council-Table I was accompanied with Persons of great Honour Knowledge and Experience Judges and others and 't is to me strange and will seem so to Future Ages that one and the same Act shall be Treason in me and not the least Crime nay nor Misdemeanour in any other And yet no Proof hath been offered that I Solicited any Man to concur with me and almost all the Votes given preceeded mine so that mine could lead no Man 8. After this I answered to divers others Particulars as namely to the Canons both as they concerned Aid to the King and as they looked upon matters of the Church and Religion 9. To the Charge about Prohibitions 10. To the base Charge about Bribery But pass them over here as being answered before whither I may refer the Reader now though I could not the Lords then 11. My Lords after this came in the long and various Charge of my Vsurping Papal Power and no less than a design to bring in all the Corruptions of Popery to the utter overthrow of the Protestant Religion established in England And this they went about to prove 1 By my Windows in the Chappel An Argument as brittle as the Glass in which the Pictures are 2 By Pictures in my Gallery which were there before the House was mine and so proved to your Lordships 3 By Reverence done in my Chappel As if it were not due to God ospecially in his Church And done it was not to any other Person or Thing 4 By Consecration of Churches Which was long before Popery came into the World As was also the care of safe laying up of all Hallowed and Sacred things For which I desire your Lordships I may read a short Passage out of Sir Walter Rawley's History The rather because written by a Lay-Man and since the Times of Reformation But this Mr. Maynard excepted against both as new Matter and because I had not the Book present though the Paper thence transcribed was offered to be attested by Oath to be a true Copy But though I could not be suffered to read it then yet here it follows So Sacred was the moveable Temple of God and with such Reverence guarded and transported as 22000 Persons were Dedicated to the Service and Attendance thereof of which 8580 had the peculiar Charge according to their several Offices and Functions the Particulars whereof are in the Third and Fourth of Numbers The Reverend care which Moses the Prophet and chosen Servant of God had in all that belonged even to the outward and least Parts of the Tabernacle Ark and Sanctuary witnessed well the inward and most humble Zeal born toward God himself The Industry used in the Framing thereof and every and the least part thereof the curious Workmanship thereon bestowed the exceeding Charge and Expence in the Provisions the Dutiful Observance in laying up and preserving the Holy Vessels the Solemn removing thereof the Vigilant Attendance thereon and the Provident Defence of the same which All Ages have in some Degree imitated is now so forgotten and cast away in this superfine Age by those of the Family by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all Cost and Care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to be Served and Worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous Disposition Insomuch as Time would soon bring to pass if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains and under the Hedges and the Office of the Ministery robbed of all Dignity and respect be as contemptible as those Places all Order Discipline and Church Government left to newness of Opinion and Mens Fancies Yea and soon after as many kinds of Religions would spring up as there are Parish-Churches c. Do ye not think some body set Mr. Maynard on to prohibit the Reading out of this Passage as foreseeing whither it tended For I had read one third part of it before I had the stop put upon me 5 But they went on with their Proof By my Censuring of Good Men that is Separatists and Refractory Persons 6 By my Chaplains Expunging some things out of Books which made against the Papists It may be if my Chaplains whom it concerns had Liberty to answer they were such Passages as could not be made good against the Papists and then 't is far better they should be out than in For as S. Augustin observed in his and we find it true in our time the Inconvenience is great which comes to the Church and Religion by bold Affirmers Nay he is at a satis dici non potest the Mischief is so great as cannot be expressed 7. Then by altering some things in a Sermon of Dr Sybthorp's But my Answer formerly given will shew I had cause 8. By my preferment of unworthy Men So unworthy as that they would be famous both for Life and Learning were they in any other Protestant Church in Christendom And they are so Popishly affected as that having suffered much both in State and Reputation since this Persecution of the Clergy began for less it hath not been no one of them is altered in Judgment or fallen into any liking with the Church of Rome 9. By the Overthrow of the Feoffment But that was done by Judgment in the Exchequer to which I referred my self And if the Judgment there given be right there 's no fault in any Man If it were wrong the fault was in the Judges not in me I solicited none of them 10. By a Passage in my Book where I say The Religion of the Papists and Ours is one But that 's expressed at large only because both are Christianity and no Man I hope will deny that Papists are Christians As for their notorious Failings in Christianity I have in the same Book said enough to them 11. By a Testimony of Mr. Burton's and Mr. Lane's that I should say We and the Church of Rome did not differ in Fundamentals but in Circumstantials This I here followed at large but to avoid tedious repetition refer my Reader to the place where 't is anaswered 12. By my making the Dutch Churches to be of another Religion But this is mistaken as my Answer will shew the
was my Complaint general that my Papers were Seized but that the Papers prepared for my Defence were taken from me and not restored when I needed them and Petitioned for them He said my Third Complaint was That many of the Witnesses produced against me were Separatists I did indeed complain of this and I had abundant Cause so to do For there was scarce an active Separatist in England but some way or other his Influence was into this Business against me And whereas the Gentleman said the Witnesses were some Aldermen and some Gentlemen and Men of Quality That 's nothing for both Gentlemen and Aldermen and Men of all Conditions the more 's the pity as the Times now go are Separatists from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Established by Law And I would to God some of my Judges were not My Fourth Complaint he said was of the excessive Number of the Witnesses And he added that if I would not have so many Witnesses I should not have given occasion for it by Committing so many Crimes But First whether I have committed so many Crimes as are urged against me is yet in Question And Secondly 't is one thing to give Cause and another thing to give Occasion For an Occasion may be taken when 't is pretended as given And so I hope it will be found in my Case But the thing here mistaken is That these are all said to be Legal Witnesses whereas almost all of them have at some time or other been before me as their Judge either at Star-Chamber or Council-Table or High-Commission or as Referee And then I humbly desire it may be considered First how impossible it is for a Judge to please all Men. Secondly how improbable it is that Witnesses displeased should be indifferent in their Testimony And Thirdly how hard it is to convince a Man by such interessed Witnesses now upon the matter becoming Judges of him that Judged them And as S. Augustin speaks Quomodo potest how is it possible for one that is Contentious and Evil to speak well of his Judge From these Generals the Gentleman passed to the Particulars of the Charge and he caused the 7 8 9 10 11. Original Articles and the 7. Additional to be read That done he divided the Charge into two main Heads The one an Endeavour in me to subvert the Laws of the Kingdom And the other a like Endeavour to alter the true Protestant Religion into Popery The Evidence given in the Lords House began at the Laws and ended in Religion but this Gentleman in his Summ both there and here began with Religion and ended with the Laws The Charge concerning Religion he said would bear two Parts the Ceremonial and the Substantial part of Religion 1 And he professed he would begin at the Ceremonial where having First charged in general the Statute of the 3 and 4 of Ed. 6. 6. 10. for the destruction of Images he gave these particular Instances following to shew my Intention to alter Religion 1. The setting up of Coloured Glass with Pictures in the Windows of my Chappel the Communion-Table Altar-wise Candlesticks thereon with Reverence and Bowings 2. A Bible in my Study with the Five Wounds of Christ wrought upon the Cover in Needle-Work 3. Three Pictures in my Gallery The Ecce Homo the Four Latin Fathers and the History S John 10. of the True Shepherd entring in by the Door and the Thief by the Window 4. The Crucifix hung up in the Chappel at White-Hall on Good-Friday And what happened there upon Dr Brown's coming in and doing Reverence 5. The Copes and Bowings used in Cathedral Churches since my time 6. The Ceremonies used at his Majesty's Coronation 7. The Abuses in the Universities especially Oxford 1. The Titles given me from thence 2. Divers Particulars in the new Statutes 3. Images countenanced there by me in divers Chappels 4. The Picture of the Virgin Mary at S Mary's Church-Door 5. Nothing to be done without me in Congregations 8. The Ceremonies in some Parish-Churches and some punished for neglect of them Instances in some of Beckinton some of Lewis and in Mr Chancy of Ware 9. That I preferred no Men but such as were active for the Ceremonies 10. Passages expunged out of Books if contrary to these Courses as that in Dr. Featly's Sermons concerning Images 11. Bibles with Pictures in them 12. The severe Punishment of Mr. Workman of Gloucester only for a Sermon against Images 13. Words spoken to take Bishop Jewell's Works and the Book of Martyrs out of some parish-Parish-Churches 14. The Consecration of cree-Cree-Church and S. Giles in the Fields In all which as I humbly conceive here 's nothing especially my Answers being taken to them that can co-operate to any alteration of Religion Nor is there any Treason were all that is urged true 2 From hence Mr. Speaker this worthy Gentleman passed over from the Ceremonies to those things which he said concerned the Substance of Religion In which the Particulars which he Charged were these 1. A doubtfulness if not a denyal of the Pope's being Antichrist 2. Dislike of the Name the Idol of Rome 3. The alteration of some passages in the Publick Prayers appointed for Novemb. 5. and the Coronation Day 4. The Antichristian Yoak left out of the Brief for the Palatinat with an expression as if we and those Reformed Churches were not of the same Religion 5. That Men were punished for Praying for the Queen and the Prince 6. That the Church of Rome is a true Church 7. That the Communion-Table or Altar is the Chief Place For there 's Hoc est Corpus meum 8. Restraint of all Books against Popery Instances in a Book of Bishop Carleton's One tendred by Sir Edward Hungerford Dr. Clarke's Sermons Dr. Jones None called in but Sales That I my self did expunge some Passages out of a Sermon of Dr. Sibthorp's Popish Books seized re-delivered to the Owners That for these I must answer for my Chaplains since John Arch-Bishop of York was fined for his Commissary's Act against the Bishop of Durham who having a Patent could not so easily be put out of his Place as I might change my Chaplains 9. Three Ministers in my Diocess suspended for not reading the Book of Recreations on the Lord's Day 10. The Feoffment for buying in of Impropriations overthrown to the hindrance of Preaching and Scandal to Religion 11. Incroachment upon the Lord Chamberlain for naming of Chaplains to the King and upon the Master of the Wards for giving of Benefices 12 Familiarity with Priests and Jesuits S. Clara and Monsieur S. Giles 13. The Testimonies of Mr. Challonor Sir Henry Mildmay and his Brother Mr. Anthony what Opinion was held of me beyond the Seas for my cunning introducing of Popery 14. That an Offer was made unto me to be a Cardinal And thus far this Gentleman proceeded in points of Religion But because there hath passed divers things done at
which it is in truth of Substance But this Word Right is not so used but it is referred more properly to perfection in Conditions And in this Sense every thing that hath a true and real Being is not by and by Right in the Conditions of it A Man that is most Dishonest and Unworthy the Name a very Thief if you will is a True Man in the Verity of his Essence as he is a Creature Endued with Reason for this none can steal from him nor he from himself but Death But he is not therefore a Right or an Upright Man And a Church that is exceeding Corrupt both in Manners and Doctrine and so a Dishonour to the Name is yet a True Church in the verity of Essence as a Church is a Company of Men which profess the Faith of Christ and are Baptized into his Name but yet it is not therefore a Right Church either in Doctrine or Manners It may be you meant cunningly to slip in this Word Right that I might at unawares grant it Orthodox But I was not so to be caught For I know well that Orthodox Christians are Keepers of Integrity so St. Augustin and Followers of right Things of which the Church of Rome at this Day is neither In this Sense then no Right that is no Orthodox Church at Rome IX Epist. Dedicat. circa med For to my remembrance I have not given him or his so much as Course Language But on the other side God forbid too that your Majesty should let both Laws and Discipline sleep for fear of the Name of Persecution and in the mean time let Mr. Fisher and his Fellows Angle in all parts of your Dominions for your Subjects If in your Grace and Goodness you will spare their Persons yet I humbly beseech you see to it That they be not suffered to lay either their Weels or Bait their Hooks or cast their Nets in every Stream lest that Tentation grow both too general and too strong I know they have many Devices to work their Ends but if they will needs be Fishing let them use none but Lawful Nets Let 's have no dissolving of Oaths of Allegiance no Deposing no Killing of Kings no blowing up of States to settle Quod Volumus That which fain they would have in the Church with many other Nets as dangerous as these For if their Profession of Religion were as good as they pretend it is if they cannot compass it by good means I am sure they ought not to attempt it by bad For if they will do evil that good may come thereof the Apostle tells me Their Damnation's just Rom. 3. 8. Now as I would humbly beseech your Majesty to keep a serious Watch upon these Fishermen which pretend S. Peter but Fish not with his Net So c. X. A Passage out of the Conference at Hampton-Court referred to in the preceding History Pag. 28. Upon the first Motion concerning falling from Grace the Bishop of London took occasion to signifie to his Majesty how very many in these days neglecting Holiness of Life presumed too much of persisting of Grace laying all their Religion upon Predestination if I shall Saved I shall be Saved which he termed a desperate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good Divinity and the True Doctrine of Predestination wherein we should Reason rather ascendendo than descendendo thus I Live in Obedience to God in Love with my Neighbour I follow my Vocation c. therefore I trust that God hath Elected me and Predestinated me to Salvation Not thus which is the usual course of Argument God hath Predestinated and chosen me to Life therefore though I sin never so grievously yet I shall not be damned For whom he once loveth he loveth to the End Whereupon he shewed his Majesty out of the next Article what was the Doctrine of the Church of England touching Predestination in the very last Paragraph Scil. We must receive God's Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture and in our doings that the Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God Which part of the Article his Majesty very well approved And after he had after his manner very singularly discoursed on that place of Paul Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling he left it to be considered whether any thing were meet to be added for the clearing of the Doctor his doubt by putting in the Word often or the like as thus We may often depart from Grace But in the mean time wished that the Doctrine of Predestination might be very tenderly handled and with great discretion lest on the one side God's Omnipotency might be called in question by impeaching the Doctrine of his eternal Predestination or on the other side a desperate Presumption might be arreared by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in Grace XI A Passage out of the Arch-Bishop's Speech in Star-Chamber at the Censure of Pryn Burton and Bastwick referred to in the Preceding History Pag. 36. The Learned make but Three Religions to have been of old in the World Paganism Judaism and Christianity and now they have added a Fourth which is Turcism and is an absurd mixture of the other three Now if this ground of theirs be true as 't is generally received perhaps it will be of dangerous consequence sadly to avow that the Popish Religion is Rebellion That some Opinions of theirs teach Rebellion that 's apparently True the other would be thought on to say no more XII A Passage out of the New Statutes of the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ in Canterbury drawn by the Arch-Bishop and prescribed to that Church by the King 1636. Cap. 34. de Celebratione Divinorum Statuimus etiam ut nullus Canonicorum aliorum in Choro Ministrantium Divinorum Officiorum tempore absque Insignibus Choro Gradui convenientibus Chorum ingrediatur Singuli verò cujuscunque fuerint Gradûs aut Ordinis in ingressu Chori Divinam Majestatem devotâ mente adorantes humiliter se inclinabunt versùs Altare prout antiquis quarundam Ecclesiarum Statutis cautum novimus dein conversi Decano quoque debitam Reverentiam exhibebunt Quòd si contigerit aliquem ex quacunque causâ de loco in locum transire in Choro Reverentiam similiter in medio Chori tam versùs Altare quà m versùs stallum Decani si praesens fuerit exhibebit tum in eundo tum in redeundo toties quoties XIII A Passage out of Arch-Bishop Parker's Antiquitates Britannicae concerning Prohibitions referred to in the preceding History Pag. 326 327. edit Londin Jamque Juris Regni periti ut sui commodi Causâ Regia for a multitudine litium Infinitate replerent plerasque Causas Controversias ab Archiepiscopali Episcopali Audientiâ ad sua Judicia vocabant Ecclesiasticam Jurisdictionem decimarum
best that can be said of it is that it is a pretty fine thing if it were to the purpose But to come nearer to the Business I would have his Lordship remember that Christ taught his Apostles a set Form of Prayer St. Luc. 11. And I believe they were so religiously Dutiful as that they would not beg of Christ to teach them to Pray and when he had taught them then neglect or not practise the very Form he taught If my Lord can think this of the Apostles he may I cannot Nor can I think that Christ taught them this Form to be used as Crutches till their Legs were grown stronger For our Saviour doth not say till ye be stronger and have better Gifts Pray as I teach you but simply and absolutely when you Pray say Our Father c. That is say these very Words this very Form And what Will my Lord say that Christ taught them this Form to maintain them in Insufficiency Or did he make Crutches for their Lameness Or thereby prohibit the use of their Legs This Speech savours of more Profaneness than well become such a Professor His Lordship speaks better of them in another place There he can say there never were nor ever will be Men of so great Abilities and Gifts as they were Endued withal And I think he dares not say I am sure nor he nor any Man living can prove that the Apostles when their Gifts were at fullest did neglect or not use this Form of Prayer which Christ taught them Therefore either to use a set Form of Prayer is not to use Crutches or if it be 't is to use the same or the like Crutches which Christ made and his Apostles used And they will better beseem any good Christians to use than his own Legs be they never so good And for the set Prayers of the Church this I think I am sure of That the Men which are cry'd up by my Lord to have such excellent Gifts and Graces are in as much need of these Crutches as other Men. In the mean time my Lord every way shews his Love to the set Liturgy of the Church that makes nothing of it but Crutches which a Man if the Bath cure him would gladly hang up and leave behind him I well hoped to have found that my Lord had entertained more moderate thoughts of things appertaining unto Religion But since he himself thus proclaims it otherwise let us see how he goes forward without these Crutches This I confess I am not satisfied in yet will farther say thus much Here are with your Lordships some Bishops Men of great Parts able to Offer up this Worship unto God in the use of those 〈◊〉 which God hath endued them with And certainly they ought to serve him with the best of their Abilities which they have received Let them make use of their own Gifts nay let them but profess that they account not themselves bound to use Forms nor to this Form they use more than any other but that it is free for them to conceive Prayer or to help themselves by the use of any other Form they please as well as this prescribed And let them practise the same indifferently that so it may be manifest the Fault rests in the person and not in the Service In the negligence of him that may offer better if he will not in the Injunction of that which is offered And I will not refuse to come to Prayers For I take the Sin then to be personal and to reside in the Person Officiating only Now my Lord goes on farther and tells us That there are with your Lordships some Bishops Men of great Parts able to offer this Worship unto God c. Indeed my Lord goes far here and I am glad to hear that any Bishops can please him Are Bishops even as such Members of Antichrist so I am sure my Lord and his Followers have accounted them and their Libels Print them for such every Day and now can any Offer this Worship unto God which his Lordship would have Why then my Lord can be pleased I see that even in this Church God should be Worshiped by the Members of Antichrist Or if not then in this Passage he grosly Dissembles But what is this Worship which his Lordship would have Why it is to Pray in Publick and not by a set Form enjoyned but in the use of those Gifts which God hath Endued them with And it is most undoubtedly true which follows that they ought to serve God with the best of the abilities they have received But 't is as true that Bishops and all Ministers else ought to serve God with the best Abilities which the Church of Christ can furnish them with And I presume I shall not wrong any my Brethren not those of the greatest Parts If I say as I must that those Bishops and other Divines which Composed the set Form of our Service and enjoyned it too as far as their Power reached were Men of as great Piety and Learning and all other good Parts as any now living And it can be no Disparagement much less any fault or dulling of their own Gifts for the best of Bishops to use the set Forms ordered by them And the Phrase which my Lord uses is somewhat unusual To offer this Worship unto God We are said indeed to offer up our Prayers unto God and by so doing to Worship Honour and Serve him and him alone in that But to offer Worship to God I think is an improper Phrase at least And Psal. 110. the People are said to offer their Free-Will-Offerings with an Holy Worship or in the Beauties of Holiness And though perhaps his Lordship will not allow of this Translation yet so far he may as to see the use of the Phrase And in the Beauties of Holiness which keeps close to the Original will please him less Since a Barn with them is as good as a Church And no Church Holy with them but that which is Slovenly even to Nastiness But then 't is void of all Superstition Next my Lord proposes some Conditions which being observed his Lordship will not refuse to come to Common-Prayer I 'll examine these then For I would have all just Demands of his granted that he may come The First is Let these Bishops and others I suppose he means make use of their own Gifts Well let them on God's Name in that Dutiful Peaceable and Orderly Way make use of their own Gifts not crossing what the Church justly prescribes Secondly Let them but profess that they account not themselves bound to use Forms This Condition is somewhat hard For if they shall acknowledge they hold themselves bound to no Forms they must be bound to no Order And how Bishops will keep the Church in Order if they will be bound to observe none themselves I cannot tell Besides if they shall profess this they must profess against the constant
Times as well as now may be true enough And yet in those Ancient Times none thought Schism or Separation from the Church howsoever charged to be but a Theological Scare-crow But caused it to be examined to the bottom as 't is fit nay necessary that it should For else the most dangerous Separation that can be may go away free with this That it is but a trick of the prevalent Party to fright other Men into their Opinions by charging them with Separation Now the most dangerous Separation in a Church is where the Church it self hath little or no Power to punish Separatists And where they of the Separation are by the great Misfortune of the State become the potent and prevalent Party And whether this be not or at least were not the condition of the State and Church of England when my Lord Printed this Speech of his I leave to the indifferent Reader to judge My Lord hath Printed no more than this and therefore I will take notice of no more But yet Iam told by a very good Hand that his Lordship upon this quotation of Mr. Hales his Manuscript was pleased openly in that Honourable House of Parliament where he spake it to lend Mr. Hales one Wipe and me another But since my Lord is pleased to pass it over at the Press I shall do so too Yet with this that if my Lord did give that Gird I will make it plainly appear whenever he shall publish it that there is no shew of Truth in it But now that my Lord hath done with Mr. Hales he proceeds and tells us his own Judgment Secondly I say that there is a two-fold Separation one from the Vniversal or Catholick Church which can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith for Faith and Love are the Requisites to that Communion And I say so too that there is a two-fold Separation and that one of them is from the Vniversal or Catholick Church But that this Separation can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith I doubt comes short of Truth First because there is a great difference between Schism and Apostacy And every Apostacy is a Separation but every Separation is not Apostacy For a Man is not an Apostate properly till he fall away by denying the whole Faith But a Man may be in Heresie Schism and Separation upon the denyal of any one Article of the Faith received by the Catholick Church Secondly because should a Man agree in all and every Article of the Faith with the catholick-Catholick-Church yet he may maintain some false Opinion and incongruous both to the Verity and the Practice of Religion and Judgment of the Universal Church And be so in Love with these as that for these Opinions sake he will Separate from the whole Body Therefore Denyal of the Faith is not the only Cause of Separation from the Catholick Church since this Separation can be otherways made And my Lord within the space of Three Lines crosses himself For First he says that this Separation can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith And in the very next Words he tells us that Faith and Love are the Requisites to that Communion Two Requisites to that Communion with the Universal Church therefore two Causes of Separation from it Therefore by my Lord 's own Confession he that is so out of Charity with the Universal Church for some Opinions or Practices which he dislikes as that he will not Communicate with it is in Separation though he do not deny the Faith The other my Lord tells us is a Separation from this or that particular Church or Congregation And that not in respect of difference with them in matter of Faith or Love But in dislike only of such Corruptions in their external Worship and Liturgies as they do admit of and would enjoyn upon others In this other Particular Separation I shall meddle with neither Congregation nor Conventicle Meeting allowed or disallowed by Church or State but that Separation which is or is not made by my Lord and his Followers from the National Church of England as it stands Setled and Established by Law Not as her Service may be mangled or otherwise abused in any particular Parish or Congregation whatsoever And if this Lord dislike any the Service as 't is used in some one Parish or other and yet will come to the Service as it is Established by Law in other either Cathedral or Parochial Churches my Lord hath had great Wrong to be accounted a Separatist But if my Lord will not come to the Prayers of the Church of England by Law Established let his Pretence be what it will a Separatist he is But my Lord says that this Particular Separation is not in respect of difference with them in matter of Faith or Love Where First you may observe on the by that in my Lord's Judgment Publick Breach in Charity as well as in Faith may be Cause of this Separation too as well as of that from the Vniversal or Catholick Church before mentioned Next that this particular Separation if it be not in respect of Difference in Faith or Love in what respect is it then Why if we may herein believe my Lord 't is only in dislike of such Corruptions in their external Worship and Liturgies as they do admit of and would injoyn others Well First I 'll pray for my Lord that there be no difference in Faith and Charity but I do very much doubt there is Next either there are such Corruptions in the External Worship and Liturgies as his Lordship hath just Cause to dislike or there are not If there be not why doth he Separate from them If there be or probably seem to be why doth he not complain to the King and the Church that these Corruptions may be considered on and amended if Cause appear And this he ought to do before he Separate For I hope Christianity is not yet come to that pass though it draw on apace that a Powerful Lay-Man or two shall say there are Corruptions in the set Service of God and then be Judges of such Corruptions themselves Nor doth the Church of England admit of Corruptions in her Liturgy or labour to injoyn them upon others Now my Lord tells us farther That This is a Separation not from their Persons as they are Christians But from their Corruptions in matter of Worship as they are therewith defiled And this Separation every Man that will keep himself Pure from other Mens Sins and not Sin against his own Conscience must make This will not yet help my Lord For say this be not a Separation from their Persons as they are Christians which yet it too often proves to be And I believe if this Lord would impartially examine himself he would find to be true in himself and his Comportment But that it is from their Corruptions in matter of Worship as they are therewith defiled First these Corruptions are
not proved so 't is Petitio Principii the begging of that to be granted which is the thing in question Secondly if there be Corruptions yet it is not proved they are in the Matter but of the two rather in the Manner of Worship Thirdly were both these granted yet it will remain a Question still whether these Corruptions be such as that the Worshippers are defiled therewith And another Question whether so deeply defiled as that other good Christians shall be defiled by coming to Common-Prayer with them For I am not yet persuaded nor shall be till I be convinced That every Man that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins and not Sin against his Conscience is bound to make this Separation For I conceive many Corruptions may be tolerated nay ought to be before a Separation be made And that a private Conscience is to be both informed and reformed before it be attempted Nor can I think that he which comes to the publick Service of any Church that is not Idolatrous or peccant in the Fundamentals of Religion doth partake with other Mens Sins that frequent the same Common-Prayer or Service with him or he with them And yet my Lord is so peremptory as that without any distinction or Degrees of Corruption he delivers it positively with a great deal more Boldness than Knowledge That every Man that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins must make this Separation Every Man and must make And it is not to be conceived but that what every Man must do my Lord who seems to be so careful to keep himself pure from other Mens Sins hath done already That is hath made this Separation from the Church And my Lord for ought I see is ready to confess as much For he adds And I will ingenuously confess that there are many things in many Churches or Congregations in England practised and injoyned upon all to be practised and suffered which I cannot practise nor admit of except I should Sin against the Light of my Conscience until I may out of the Word of God be convinced of the Lawfulness of them which hitherto I could never see sufficient ground for I told you my Lord was very near confessing as much as I have said For he says ingenuously there are many things in many Churches in England practised First I told my Lord before that this Business of Separation was not to be judged by what is practised in one or more Parochial Congregations but by what ought to be practised in all the Churches of England And if my Lord dislike any thing in one Congregation he may go to another so he will endure the whole Liturgy as it is setled by Law and no Man if he will do this ought to account him a Separatist And I find by my Lord's Words that his Exception is to many Churches and I would willingly hope if his Carriage would let me that he excepts not against all Besides he tells us that many things are so practised but he is not pleased to tell us what they are And then it is not possible for me or any Man else either to know whether his Lordship's Exception be just against them or to give him satisfaction in them And it is no great sign that my Lord bears any good Mind to the Church that he is so ready to charge many things against the Church and to name none My Lord goes farther and says plainly that these many things thus practised or enjoyned also and that upon all to be practised or suffered which he cannot practise nor admit of except he should Sin against the Light of his Conscience You have heard already how much my Lord is troubled with this Enjoyning and to that I refer you In the mean time since I am the Man so particularly shot at by my Lord I shall answer for my self according to Truth and with Truth I can legally prove if need be I have not Commanded or injoyned any one thing Ceremonial or other upon any Parochial Congregation in England much less upon all to be either practised or suffered but that which is directly commanded by Law And if any Inferiour 〈◊〉 in the Kingdom or any of my own Officers have given any such Command 't is either without my Knowledge or against my Direction And 't is well known I have sharply chid some for this very particular and if my Lord would have acquainted me with any such troubled thought of his I would have given him so far as had been in my Power either Satisfaction or Remedy if any thing had been against the Light of his Conscience Though in these things I must needs tell my Lord that there is now adays in many Men which have shaken off all Church Obedience great pretensions to Light in their Vnderstandings and Consciences when to Men which see indeed 't is little less than Palpable Darkness But how it is with my Lord and his Conscience I will not take upon me to Judge but leave him to stand or fall to his own Master Rom 14. For it seems my Lord stands not simply upon the Light of his Conscience but only until he may be convinced out of the Word of God of the Lawfulness of these things which hitherto he could never see sufficient ground for And this is the Common-Plea which all of them have resort to till they be convinced which as I have had experience of many they are resolved not to be And they will be convinced in every particular out of the Word of God to the very taking up of a Rush or Straw as their grave Master T. C. taught them As if God took care of Straws or their taking of them up As if every particular thing of Order or Decency were expresly set down in the Word of God Surely if this were so St. Paul should have had nothing to set in order when he came to Corinth 1 Cor 11. And if this be so the Church hath no Power left in any thing not so much as to Command a Bell shall Tole to call the people to publick Prayers because 't is no where commanded in the Word of God So that upon this Ground if any Man shall say he hath Light enough in his Conscience to see the unlawfulness of such Humane Devices he may Separate from the Church rather than Sin against this Light So there shall be no Publick Service of God but some Ignis Fatuus or other under the Name of Light in the Conscience shall except against it and Separate from it Which is directly to set up the Light in each private Spirit against that Light which God hath placed in his Church shine it never so clearly Yet his Lordship is confident and says But my Lords this is so far from making me the greatest Separatist in England that it cannot argue me to be any at all For my Lords the Bishops do know that those whom they usually
yokes of Bondage and our other gross Corruptions be removed And I must doubt they embrace not the same Faith till they admit the whole Creed and will use the Lord's Prayer which few of them will As for the Spirit that works by Love I much fear he is a great stranger to many of these Men. For I have many ways found their Malice to be fierce and yet endless And therefore I wonder my Lord should have the Boldness to tell my Lords in Parliament that they know all these things of these Men and that they are their Brethren and concur with them in all these forenamed things whom in the mean time their Lordships do and cannot but know different from them nay separating from them in the very Worship of God Next I agree with my Lord again that I would have no pressure put upon those Men in whom the Spirit of Love causes an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State But in this I must disagree that the Separatists from the Church of England are such manner of Men. For the private Conversation of very many of them whom I could name were it fit is far from being unblamable And the Publick Conversation of all or most of them is full of offence to the State Unless my Lord think the State is or ought to be of their Humour For how can their Conversation be without great offence very great to this or any State Christian who shall have and maintain private Conventicles and Meetings in a different way of Religion from that which is Established by the State Nay which shall not only differ from but openly and slanderously oppose that which is so Established Besides no well governed State will allow of private Meetings especially under pretence of Religion which carry far without their privity and allowance For if this be permitted there lies a way open to all Conspiracies against the State whatsoever and they shall all be satisfied under the pretence of Religion The third thing in which I agree with my Lord is that I would not that for Ceremonies and Things indifferent these Men should be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country No God forbid if any thing will reclaim them But then I must disagree with my Lord in this That these Men whether such as my Lord describes them or no are thrust out of the Land or cut off from their Native Country for Ceremonies or Things indifferent For First they are not all Ceremonies for which they separate from the Church For they pretend certain gross Corruptions in the very Worship of God as my Lord a little before delivers Secondly be the Cause what it will none of them have been banished or thrust out of the Land or cut from their Native Country as is here spoken to move Hatred against the Government But 't is true they have thrust themselves out and cut themselves off and run a Madding to New England scar'd away as they say by certain gross Corruptions not to be endured in this Church Nor after they have gone a Madding enough is their return denyed to any And I know some that went out like Fools and are come back so like that you cannot know the one from the other In this Passage 't is said by my Lord that these Ceremonies and Things indifferent unto you speaking to the Lords in Parliament are not so to them but Burthens In this Passage I can agree with my Lord in nothing For First my Lord but a very little before tells of Yokes of Bondage and gross Corruptions And are they so soon become but Ceremonies and Things indifferent If they be more than Ceremonies and Things indifferent then my Lord delivers not the whole Truth And if they be but Ceremonies and Things indifferent then his Lordship and all other Separatists ought rather to yield to the Church in such things than for such things to separate from it And certainly so they would if the Spirit that worketh by Love did work in them Yea but my Lord says they are such things as though they be indifferent to others yet to them they are not but burthens And it may be they make them so for in their own Nature they are nothing less And of great use they are to preserve the Substance and the Body of Religion But this I find let any thing in the World be enjoyned by the Church Authority and it is a Burthen presently And so you see all along this Speech how earnest my Lord is in behalf of himself and these Separatists against all Injunctions of set Forms and Yokes of Bondage This is an excellent way of Religion to settle Temporal Obedience And I can as little agree with that which follows Namely that the Lords may without any Offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches take away if they will these Things indifferent to them but Burthens to these Brethren For First suppose them to be but 〈◊〉 and Things indifferent yet can they not be taken away without offence to the State or prejudic to the Churches who to please a few unruly Separatists must make an Alteration in that part of Religion which hath continued with great Happiness to this Church ever since the Reformation Secondly I will not dispute it here what Power a Lay Assembly and such a Parliament is hath to determine Matters of Religion Primely and Originally by and of themselves before the Church hath first agreed upon them Then indeed they may confirm or refuse And this course was held in the Reformation But Originally to take this Power over Religion into Lay Hands is that which hath not been thus assumed since Christ to these unhappy days And I pray God this Chair of Religion do not prove Cathedra Pestilentiae as the vulgar reads it Psal. 1. 1. to the infecting of this whole Nation with Schism and Heresie and in the end bring all to confusion I meddle not here with the King's Power For he may be present in Convocation when he pleases and take or leave any Canons as he pleases which are for the Peace and well Ordering of the Church as well as in Parliament take or leave any Laws made ready for him for the good and quiet of his People But if it come to be Matter of Faith though in his Absolute Power he may do what he will and Answer God for it after Yet he cannot commit the ordering of that to any Lay Assembly Parliament or other for them to determine that which God hath intrusted into the Hands of his Priests Though if he will do this the Clergy must do their Duty to inform him and help that dangerous Error if they can But if they cannot they must suffer an unjust Violence how far soever it proceed but they may not break the Duty of their Allegiance 'T is true Constantius the Emperour a great Patron of the Arrians was by them interested
in their Cause and medled in decernendo in determining and that before-hand what the Prelats should do and sometimes in Commanding the Orthodox Prelats to Communicate with the Arrians This they refused to do as being against the Canons of the Council of Nice And then his Answer was Yea but that which I will shall go for Canon But then we must know withal that Athanasius reckn'd him for this as that Antichrist which Daniel Prophesied of Hosius also the Famous Confessor of those Times condemned in him that kind of medling in and with Religion And so doth St. Hilary of Poictiers Valentinian also the Younger took upon him to judge of Religion at the like presuasion of Auxentius the Arrian but he likewise was sharply reproved for it by St. Ambrose In like manner Maximus the Tyrant took upon him to judge in Matters of Religion as in the Case of Priscillian and his Associates But this also was checkt by St. Martin Bishop of Tours Where it is again to be observed that though these Emperours were too busie in venturing upon the determination of Points of Faith yet no one of them went so far as to take Power from the Synods and give it to the Senate And the Orthodox and Understanding Emperours did neither the one nor the other For Valentinian the Elder left this great Church-work to be done by Church-Men And though the Power to call Councils was in the Emperour And though the Emperours were sometimes personally present in the Councils and sometimes by their Deputies both to see Order kept and to inform themselves yet the decisive Voices were in the Clergy only And this will plainly appear in the Instructions given by the Emperor Theodosius to Condidianus whom he sent to supply his place in the Council of Ephesus which were That he should not meddle with Matters of Faith if any came to be debated And gives this Reason for it Because it is unlawful for any but Bishops to mingle himself with them in those Consultations And Basilius the Emperour long after this in the Eighth General Council held at Constantinople 〈◊〉 870. affirms it of the Laity in general That it is no way lawful for them to meddle with these things But that it is proper for the Patriarchs Bishops and Priests which have the Office of Government in the Church to enquire into these Things And more of this Argument might easily be added were that needful or I among my Books and my Thoughts at liberty And yet this crosses not the Supremacy which the King of England hath in Causes Ecclesiastical as it is acknowledged both by the Church and Law For that reaches not to the giving of him Power to determine Points of Faith either in Parliament or out or to the acknowledgment of any such Power residing in him or to give him Power to make Liturgies and publick Forms of Prayer or to Preach or Administer Sacraments or to do any thing which is meerly Spiritual But in all things which are of a mixed Cognizance such as are all those which are properly called Ecclesiastical and belong to the Bishops External Jurisdiction the Supremacy there and in all things of like Nature is the Kings And if at any time the Emperour or his Deputy sit Judge in a Point of Faith it is not because he hath any right to judge it or that the Church hath not Right but meerly in case of Contumacy where the Heretick is wilful and will not submit to the Church's Power And this the Hereticks sometimes did and then the Bishops were forced to Appeal thither also but not for any Resolution in the point of Faith but for Aid and Assistance to the just Power of the Church I cannot but remember a very Prudent Speech utter'd in the beginning of the late preceding Parliament and by that Lord who now made this The occasion was A Lord offer'd to deliver a Message from the King before he was formally brought into the House and his Patent shew'd This Lord who thinks Church-Ceremonies may so easily be alter'd stood up and said He would not be against the delivery of the Message he knew not how urgent it might be but desired withal that it might be enter'd that this was yielded unto by Special leave of the House For that saith he though this be but a Ceremony yet the Honour and Safety of the Priviledges of this Great House is preserved by nothing more than by keeping the Ancient Rights and Ceremonies thereof intire And this I think was very wisely spoken and with great Judgment And could my Lord see this in the Parliament and can he not see it in the Church Are Ancient Ceremonies the chief Props of Parliamentary Rights and have they no use in Religion to keep up her Dignity yea perhaps and Truth too The House of Parliament is I confess a Great and Honourable House But the whole Church of Christ is greater And it will not well beseem a Parliament to maintain their own Ceremonies and to kick down the Ceremonies of the National Church which under God made all their Members Christians Most sure I am they cannot do it without ossence both to State and Church and making both a Scorn to Neighbouring Nations Now in the close of all my Lord tells his Fellow Peers and all others in them That if they shall thus wound the Consciences of their Brethren the Separatists they will certainly offend and sin against Christ. Soft and fair But what shall these Lords do if to Humour the Consciences of those Brethren some weak and many wilful and the cunning misleading the simple they shall disgrace and weaken and perhaps overthrow the Religion they profess Shall they not then both wound their own Consciences and most certainly sin against Christ Yes out of all doubt they shall do both Now where it comes to the wounding of Consciences no question can be made but that every Man ought first to look to his own to his Brethrens after A Man must not do that which shall justly wound his Brother's Conscience though he be his Brother in a Separation and stand never so much a-loof from him But he must not wound his own to preserve his Brother from a wound especially such a one as happily may cure him and by a timely pinch make him sensible of the ill Condition in which he is As for these Men God of his Mercy give them that Light of his Truth which they want and forgive them the boasting of that Light which they presume they have And give them true Repentance and in that Sense a wounded Conscience for their breaking the Peace of this Church And forgive them all their Sins by which they still go on with more and more violence to distract this Church And God of his Infinite Goodness preserve this Church at all times and especially at this time while the Waves of this Sea of Separation
and my Lords at the Council-Board and humbly desired That they both of the French Italian and Dutch Congregations which are born Subjects may not be suffered any longer to live in such a Separation as they do from both Church and State And have according to that which I thought might best sort with your Majesty's Intentions commanded my Vicar-General when he was lately at Canterbury to begin fairly to call them to Conform with the English Church Which business I do hereby humbly beseech your Majesty to look upon with a provident Eye not here only but much more in London for the better settling of both Church and Commonwealth in that Particular And for your Majesty's Instructions I have for my own part punctually observed them The rest of the Diocesses which I visited this Year are Rochester Salisbury Bristol Bath and Wells Exeter and Lincoln For Rochester I found no eminent thing amiss but the Bishop himself fell into a Palsie and was thereby forced to go to the Bath and so to be longer absent from his Diocess than otherwise he would have been and he is now returned God be thanked much better though not perfectly well And for the Diocess I did not find in my Visitation any noted Breach upon any your Majesty's Instructions For Salisbury I found the Bishop had taken a great deal of Care about your Majesty's said Instructions and that they might be the better both known and obeyed he hath caused Copies of them to be sent to most of the Ministers in his Diocess which hath done a great deal of good And though it be not amongst your Instructions yet I am bold to signifie unto your Sacred Majesty that I find the greatest part of Wiltshire overgrown with the Humours of those Men that do not Conform and are as backward both Clergy and Laity towards the Repair of St. Paul's Church as any part of England that I have observed The Cathedral at Salisbury is much pestered with Seats and I have given Order to remove them which I hope your Majesty will approve as well as you did at York and Durham and add your Power if mine be not sufficient For Bristol I find in my Visitation that the Bishop there hath taken very good Pains and Care since his coming thither And that some Clergy-men in Dorsetshire which gave great cause of Suspicion have quit themselves in a better manner than was expected though all be not right in those Parts Concerning Bath and Wells I must needs return to your Majesty that which I would to God I could do of all the rest namely That all your Instructions are punctually observed and the Lectures as many as are in that Diocess read not by any particular factious Persons but by a Company of Learned neighbouring Ministers which are every way conformable to the Church For Exeter where according to many Complaints that had been made here above I might have expected many things out of Order I must do my Lord the Bishop this Right that for your Majesty's Instructions they have been carefully observ'd But a great Division there is between the Dean and Chapter I have twice set them at Peace yet it breaks out again And I doubt there being so many Brothers and Brothers-in-Law in that Chapter is not the least Cause of it the rest siding together for fear of Oppression I find also there hath been and is at this present a great Difference between the Dean and Chapter and the City about Burial within the Church-yard of the Cathedral I shall do my best to set Peace between them and if I cannot as I much fear it I shall be an humble Suitor to your Majesty to take it into your Princely Consideration lest it do more Prejudice to both Bodies than is yet thought of As for Lincoln it being the greatest Diocess in the Kingdom I have now reduced that under Metropolitical Visitation also and visited it this preceding Year My Visitors there found Bedfordshire for the bigness most tainted of any part of the Diocess And in particular Mr Buckley is sent to the High-Commission for Inconformity And in Leicester the Dean of the Arches Suspended one Mr Angell who hath continued a Lecturer in that great Town for these divers Years without any License at all to Preach yet took Liberty enough I doubt his Violence hath crackt his Brain and do therefore use him the more tenderly because I see the Hand of God hath overtaken him For Lincoln it self my Vicar General certifies me there are many Anabaptists in it and that their Leader is one Johnson a Baker and that in divers parts of that Diocess many both of Clergy and Laity are excessively given to Drunkenness That the Town of Boston which was a great Nursery of Inconformity is since the calling of some of the Magistrates into the High-Commission become very Orderly and setled to Obedience But the Town of Louth somewhat to blame At Kelstern dwells the wild young Gentleman Mr South concerning whom I have lately spoken and that often with your Majesty he hath committed a horrible Incest and gotten two Sisters with Child I have called him into the High-Commission against the next Term and I hope your Majesty will give me leave to make South blow West for St. Pauls At Kensworth in Hertfordshire and some other Places many gadd from their own Churches by Troops after other Ministers Which is a common fault in the South Parts of that Diocess where the People are said to be very giddy in matters of Religion The Cathedral of this Diocess is not well ordered either for Reparation or Ornaments but the Dean and Chapter to whom that Care belongs have promised speedy amendment For Eaton College within that Diocess I do not find but that the Provost Sir Henry Wotton hath carried himself very worthily The greatest things thought to be amiss in that Society are those which are referred to me by your Majesty upon the Complaint of Kings College in Cambridge to which I have no more to say till I see whether they of Eaton will decline the Reference or no. Thus far concerning the Diocesses which I have visited this Year In all which I find one great Complaint and very fit to be redressed It is the general grievance of the poor Vicars that their Stipends are scarce able to Feed and Cloath them And which is worse the Vicars in great Market-Towns where the People are very many are for the most part worst provided for But I humbly thank your Majesty some good hath of late been done for them and I shall pursue all just and fair ways to give them Relief Humbly beseeching you to give your gracious Assistance to me and them For Winchester I find my Lord Bishop there hath been very careful for all your Majesty's Instructions and that they are well observed through that Diocess save only that in two Parishes the Bishop finds some defect
day of August 1643. That this Book Intituled ROME's MASTER-PIECE be forthwith Printed by Michael Sparke Senior John White LONDON Printed for Ri Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's ChurchYard M DC XCV ROME's MASTER-PIECE IF there be any professing the Protestant Religion within the King's Dominions or elsewhere who are yet so wilfully blinded as not to discern so sottishly incredulous as not to believe any real long-prosecuted Conspiracy by former secret Practices and the present Wars to extirpate the Protestant Religion re-establish Popery and inthrall the People in all three Kingdoms notwithstanding all visible effects and transparent demonstrations of it lively set forth in the late Declaration of the Lords and Commons concerning the Rise and Progress of the Grand Rebellion in Ireland and other Remonstrances of that nature let them now advisedly fix their Eyes Minds upon the ensuing Letters and Discoveries seised on by Master Prynn in the Arch-Bishop's Chamber in the Tower May 31. 1643. by Warrant from the close Committee unexpectedly commanded on that service and then they must needs acknowledge it an indubitable verity Since Sir William Boswell the Arch-Bishop and those who revealed this Plot were perswaded of its reality upon the first Discovery before it brake forth openly in Ireland and England Who and what the Author of this Discovery was who the chief active Instruments in the Plot when and where they assembled in what vigorous manner they daily prosecuted it how effectually they proceeded in it how difficult it is to dissolve or counterwork it without special diligence the Relation it self will best discover Whose verity if any question these Reasons will inforce belief First That the Discoverer was a chief Actor in this Plot sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarino to assist Con the Pope's Legate in the pursuit of it and privy to all the particulars therein discovered Secondly That the horrour and reality of the Conspiracy so troubled his Conscience as it ingaged him to disclose it yea to renounce that bloody Church and Religion which contrived it though bred up in preferred by it and promised greater advancements for his diligence in this Design Thirdly That he discovered it under an Oath of Secresie and offered to confirm every particular by solemn Oath Fourthly That he discovers the Persons principally imployed in this Plot the places and times of their secret Conventions their manner and diligence in the pursuit of it with all other Circumstances so punctually as leaves no place for doubt Fifthly The principal Conspirators nominated by him are notoriously known to be fit instruments for such a wicked design Sixthly Many particulars therein have immediate relation to the King and Arch-Bishop to whom he imparted this Discovery and durst not reveal any thing for Truth which they could disprove on their own knowledge Seventhly Sir William Boswell and the Arch-Bishop if not the King himself were fully satisfied that it was real and most important Eighthly Some particulars are ratified by the Arch-Bishop's Testimony in the Memorials of his own Life written with his own Hand some Years before and others so apparent that most intelligent Men in Court or City were acquainted with them whiles they were acting though ignorant of the Plot. Finally The late sad effects of this Conspiracy in all three Kingdoms in prosecution of this design compared with it are such a convincing Evidence of its reality and God's admirable hand of Providence in bringing this concealed Plot so seasonably to light by an instrument unexpectedly rarsed from the Grave of Exile and Imprisonment to search the Arch-Bishop's Papers who had seised his in former times and shut him up close Prisoner in a Foreign Dungeon such a Testimony from Heaven super-added to the premises that he who deems it an Imposture may well be reputed an 〈◊〉 if not a Monster of Incredulity The first Overture and larger Relation of the Plot it self were both writ in Latin as they are here Printed and faithfully translated word for word as near as the Dialect will permit All which premised the Letters and Plot here follow in order Sir William Boswell's first Letter to the Arch-Bishop concerning the Plot. May it please your Grace THE offers whereof your Grace will find a Copy here inclosed towards a further and more particular discovery were 〈◊〉 made unto me at the second hand and in speech by a Friend of good Quality and Woith in this place But soon after as soon as they could be put into Order were avowed by the principal Party and delivered me in writing by both together Upon Promise and Oath which I was required to give and gave accordingly not to reveal the same to any other Man living but your Grace and by your Graoe's Hand unto his Majesty In like manner they have tyed themselves not to declare these things unto any other but my self until they should know how his Majesty and your Grace would dispose thereof The Principal giving me withal to know That he puts himself and this Secret into your Grace's power As well because it 〈◊〉 your Grace so nearly after his Majesty As that he knows your Wisdom to guide the same aright and is assured of your Graces Fidelity to his Majesty's Person to our State and to our Church First Your Grace is humbly and earnestly Prayed to signifie his Majesty's Pleasure with all possible speed together with your Grace's Disposition herein and purpose to carry all with Silence from all but his Majesty until due time Secondly When your Grace shall think fit to shew these things unto his Majesty to do it immediately not trusting to Letters or permitting any other person to be by or in hearing And to intreat and councel his Majesty as in a case of Conscience to keep the same wholly and solely in his own Bosom from the knowledge of all other Creatures living but your Grace until the Business shall be clear and sufficiently in his Majesty's and your Grace's Hands to effect Thirdly Not to enquire or demand the Names of the parties from whom these Overtures do come or any farther discoveries and advertisements in pursuit of them which shall come hereafter until due satisfaction shall be given in every part of them Nor to bewray unto any person but his Majesty in any measure or kind that any thing of this nature or of any great importance is come from me For as I may believe these Overtures are verifiable in the way they will be layed and that the parties will not shrink So I make account That if never so little a glimpse or shadow of these Informations shall appear by his Majesty's or your Grace's Speech or Carriage unto others the means whereby the business may be brought best unto Tryal will be utterly disappointed And the parties who have in Conserence towards God and Devotion to his Majesty Affection to your Grace and Compassion of our Country disclosed these things will run a present and extream
to Commotion and rub over the injury afresh that he might inflame their Minds precipitate them to Arms by which the hurtful Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be slain 10. There by one Labour Snares are prepared for the King for this purpose the present business was so ordered that very many of the English should adhere to the Scots That the King should remain inferiour in Arms who thereupon should be compelled to crave assistance from the Papists which yet he should not obtain unless he would descend into Conditions by which he should permit †Universal liberty of the exercise of the Popish Religion for so the affairs of the Papists would succeed according to their desire To which consent if he should shew himself more difficult there should be a present remedy at hand For the King's Son growing now very fast to his youthful age who is educated from his tender age that he might accustom himself to the Popish Party the King is to be dispatched For an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp Poyson is kept in the Society which Cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner wherein a Poyson was prepared for the King after the Example of his Father 11. In this Scottish Commotion the Marquess of Hamelton often dispatched to the Scots in the name of the King to interpose the Royal Authority whereby the heat of minds might be mitigated returned notwithstanding as often without Fruit and without ending the business His Chaplain at that time repaired to us who communicated some things secretly with Cuneus Being demanded of me in Jest Whether also the Jews agreed with the Samaritans Cuneus thereunto answered Would to God all Ministers were such as he What you will may be hence conjectured 12. Things standing thus there arrived at London from Cardinal Richelieu Mr. Thomas Chamberlain his Chaplain and Almoner a Scot by Nation who ought to assist the College of the Confederated Society and seriously to set forward the business to leave nothing unattempted whereby the first heat might be exasperated For which service he was promised the Reward of a Bishoprick He cohabited with the Society four Months space neither was it lawful for him first to depart until things succeeding according to his wish he might be able to return back again with good News 13. Sir Toby Matthew a Jesuited Priest of the Order of Politicians a most vigilant Man of the chief Heads to whom a Bed was never so dear that he would rest his Head thereon refreshing his Body with Sleep in a Chair for an Hour or two neither Day nor Night spared his Machinations a Man principally noxious and himself the Plague of the King and Kingdom of England a most impudent Man who flies to all Banquets and Feasts called or not called never quiet always in action and perpetual motion thrusting himself into all Conversations of Superiours he urgeth Conferences familiarly that he may fish out the Minds of Men whatever he observeth thence which may bring any Commodity or Discommodity to the Part of the Conspirators he communicates to the Pope's Legat the more secret things he himself writes to the Pope or to Cardinal Barbarino In sum he adjoins himself to any Man's Company no Word can be spoken that he will not lay hold on and accommodate to his Party In the mean time whatever he hath sished out he reduceth into a Catalogue and every Summer carrieth it to the General Consistory of the Jesuits Politicks which secretly meets together in the Province of Wales where he is an acceptable Guest There Councils are secretly hammer'd which are most meet for the Convulsion of the Ecclesiastick and Politick Estate of both Kingdoms 14. Captain Read a Scot dwelling in Longacre-street near the Angel-Tavern a Secular Jesuit who for his detestable Office performed whereby he had perverted a certain Minister of the Church with secret Incitements to the Popish Religion with all his Family taking his Daughter to Wife for a Recompence obtained a Rent or Impost upon Butter which the Country People are bound to render to him procured for him from the King by some chief Men of the Society who never want a Spur whereby he may be constantly detained in his Office In his House the Business of the whole Plot is concluded where the Society which hath conspired against the King the Lord Archbishop and both Kingdoms meet together for the most part every Day But on the Day of the Carriers or Posts dispatch which is ordinarily Friday they meet in greater numbers for then all the Intilligencers assemble and confer in common what things every of them hath fished out that Week who that they may be without suspicion send their Secrets by Toby Matthew or Read himself to the Pope's Legat he transmits the compacted Pacquet which he hath purchased from the Intelligencers to Rome With the same Read the Letters brought from Rome are deposited under feigned Titles and Names who by him are delivered to all to whom they appertain for all and every of their Names are known to him Vpon the very same occasion Letters also are brought hither under the covert of Father Philip he notwithstanding being ignorant of things from whom they are distributed to the Conspirators There is in that very House a publick Chapel wherein an ordinary Jesuit consecrates and dwells there In the said Chapel Masses are daily celebrated by the Jesuits and it serves for the Baptizing of the Children of the House and of some of the Conspirators Those who assemble in the forenamed House come frequently in Coaches or on Horse-back in Lay-mens Habit and with a great Train wherewith they are disguised that they may not be known yet they are Jesuits and conjured Members of the Society 15. All the Papists of England contribute to this Assembly lest any thing should be wanting to promote the undertaken Design Vpon whose Treasury one Widow owner of the Houses wherein Secretary Windebank now dwelleth dead above three Years since bestowed four hundred thousand English Pounds so likewise others contribute above their Abilities so as the Business may be promoted unto its desired End 16. Besides the foresaid Houses there are Conventicles also kept in other more secret places of which verily they confide not even among themseves for fear lest they should be discovered First every of them are called to certain Inns one not knowing of the other hence they are severally led by Spies to the place where they ought to meet otherwise ignorant where they ought to assemble le st peradventure they should be surprised at unawares 17. The Countess of Arundel a strenuous She-Champion of the Popish Religion bends all her Nerves to the universal Reformation whatsoever she hears at the Kings Court that is done secretly or openly in Words or Deeds she presently imparts to the Popes Legat with
whom she meets thrice a Day sometimes in Arundel-House now at the Court or at Tarthal He scarce sucks such things by the Claw The Earl himself called now about three Years since this Year ought to go to Rome without doubt to consult there of serious things concerning the Design With gifts and Speeches the Jesuits watch diligently to their Masses At Greenwich at the Earl's costs a Feminine School is maintained which otherwise is a Monastery of Nuns for the young Girls therein are sent forth hither and thither into foreign Monasteries beyond the Seas 18. Mr. Porter of the King's Bed-Chamber most addicted to the Popish Religion is a bitter Enemy of the King he reveals all his greatest Secrets to the Popes Legat although he very rarely meets with him yet his Wife meets him so much the oftner who being informed by her Husband conveighs secrets to the Legat. In all his Actions he is nothing inferiour to Toby Matthew it cannot be uttered how diligently he watcheth on the Business His Sons are secretly instructed in the Popish Religion openly they profess the Reformed The Eldest is now to receive his Father's Office under the King which shall be A Cardinals Hat is provided for the other if the Design shall succeed well Above three Years past the said Mr. Porter was to be sent away by the King to Morocco But he was prohibited by the Society lest the Business should suffer delay thereby He is a Patron of the Jesuits for whom for the exercise of Religion he provides Chappels both at home and abroad 19. Secretary Windebank a most sierce Papist is the most unfaithful to the King of all Men who not only betrays and reveals even the King 's greatest Secrets but likewise communicates Counsels by which the Design may be best advanced He at least thrice every Week converseth with the Legat in Nocturnal Conventicles and reveals those things which he thinks fit to be known for which end he hired a House near to the Legat's House whom he often resorts to through the Garden-door for by this vicinity the Meeting is facilitated The said Secretary is bribed with Gifts to the Party of that conjured Society by whom he is sustained that he may the more seriously execute his Office He sent his 〈◊〉 expresly to Rome who ought to insinuate himself into the Roman Pontif. 20. Sir Digby Sir Winter Mr. Mountague the younger who hath been at Rome my Lord Sterling a Cousin of the Earl of Arundel's a Knight the Countess of Neuport the Dutchess of Buckingham and many others who have sworn into this Conspiracy are all most vigilant in the Design Some of these are inticed with the hope of Court others of Political Offices others attend to the sixteen Cardinals Caps that are vacant which are therefore detained idle for some years that they may impose a vain hope on those who expect them 21. The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest dead above three years since He had a Palace adorned with lascivious Pictures which counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was palliated a Monastery wherein forty Nuns were maintained hid in so great a Palace It is situated in Queen-street which the Statue of a golden Queen adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought all this Street and have reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is tacitly built with this hope that it might be openly finished as soon as the universal Reformation was begun The Pope's Legat useth a threefold Character or Cypher one wherewith he communicates with all Nuncios another other with Cardinal Barbarino only a third wherewith he covers some great Secrets to be communicated Whatever things he either receiveth from the Society or other Spies those he packs up together in one Bundle dedicated under this Inscription To Monsieur Stravio Arch-Deacon of Cambray from whom at last they are promoted to Rome These things being thus ordered if every thing be laid to the balance it will satisfie in special all the Articles propounded WHEREIN 1. THe Conspiracy against the King and Lord Arch-Bishop is detected and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both demonstrated 2. The imminent Dangers to both Kingdoms are rehearsed 3. The rise and progress of that Scottish Fire is related 4. Means whereby the Scottish Troubles may be appeased are suggested for after the Scots shall know by whom and to what end their Minds are incensed they will speedily look to themselves neither will they suffer the Forces of both Parts to be subdued lest a middle Party interpose which seeks the ruin of both 5. With what Sword the King's Throat is assaulted even when these Stirs shall be ended Cuneus his Confession and a visible Demonstration sheweth 6. The Place of the Assembly in the House of Captain Read is nominated 7. The day of the eight days dispatch by Read and the Legat is prescribed 8. How the Names of the Conspirators may be known 9. Where this whole Congregation may be circumvented 10. Some of the principal unfaithful ones of the King's Party are notified by name many of whose Names occur not yet their Habitations are known their Names may be easily extorted from Read If these things be warily proceeded in the strength of the whole Business will be brought to light so the Arrow being foreseen the Danger shall be avoided which that it may prosperously succeed the Omnipotent Creator grant The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Rece Octob. 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Illustrissime ac Reverendissime Domine ACcepta suae Regiae Majestati simulac Reverentiae Tuae fuisse offerta nostra lubentes ex animo percepimus Adesse vobis benignitatem Numinis hoc unicum nobis Index est quo stimulus datur ut tantò alacrius liberaliusque illa quibus vitae discrimen utriusque statusque Regni Angliae tum Scotiae eximiae Majestatis sede deturbatio intendatur effundamus detegamus Ne autem ambagibus superfluis dilatetur Oratio nonnulla quae tantum ad rem necessaria praemittemus Sciant primò bonum istum virum per quem sequentia deteguntur in pulvere isto Pontificio esse natum educatum qui in dignitatibus Ecclesiasticis aetates consumpsit Tandem praesentis Negotii expeditioni par inventus Consilio Mandato Domini Cardinalis Barbarini ad auxilium Domino Cuneo adjunctus est penes quem in officio ita diligens ac sedulus inventus ut spes magnae promotionis ipsi data fuerit Ipse verò boni Spiritus ductus instinctu ut dulcia promissa contempsit agnitisque Religionis Pontificiae vanitatibus quarum alias defensor fuerat severissimus malitia etiam sub vexillo Papali militantium notata gravari Conscientiam suam senserat quod Onus ut deponeret ad Orthodoxam
such Proceeding in this Case The very Parties that tendred this Cap presuming some good Inclination in him to accept it and to the Romish Church which he maintains to be a True Church wherein Men are and may be saved And the Second Proffer following so soon at the Heels of the First intimates That the First was in such sort entertained by him as rather encouraged than discouraged the Party to make the Second And his Second Consultation with the King concerning it insinuates That the King rather enclined to than against it or at leastwise left it arbitrary to him to accept or reject it as he best liked As for his Severity in prosecuting Papists it appears by his Epistle to the King before his Conference with the Jesuit Fisher where he useth these Speeches of his Carriage towards them God forbid that I should perswade a Persecution in any kind or practise it in the least against Priests and Jesuits For to my remembrance I have not given him or his so much as cross Language Therefore he is no great Enemy to them The Second thing which may seem strange to others is this That the Pope's Legat and Jesuits should ever hate or conspire his Death unless he were an utter Enemy to all Popery Papists and the Church of Rome which admits an easie Answer The Truth is the Bishop being very pragmatical and wilful in his Courses could not well brook pragmatical peremptory Jesuits who in Popish Kingdoms are in perpetual Enmity with all other Orders and they with them they having been oft banished out of France and other Realms by the Sorbonists Dominicans and other Orders no Protestants writing so bitterly against these Popish Orders as themselves do one against the other yea the Priests and Jesuits in England were lately at great Variance and persecuted one another with much Violence This is no good Argument then that the Arch-Bishop held no Correspondence with Priests and other Orders and bare no good Affection to the Church of Rome in whose Superstitious Ceremonies he outstripped many Priests themselves What Correspondency he held with Franciscus de Sancta Clara with other Priests and Dr Smith Bishop of Calcedon whom the Jesuits persecuted and got Excommunicated though of their own Church and Religion is at large discovered in a Book entituled The English Pope and by the Scottish Common-Prayer Book found in the Arch-Bishop's Chamber with all those Alterations wherein it differs from the English written with his own Hand some of which smell very strongly of Popery As namely his blotting out of these Words at the Delivery of the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving Take and drink this in remembrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee c. and leaving only this former Clause the better to justifie and imply a Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life And this Popish Rubrick written with his own Hand The Presbyter during the time of Consecration shall stand AT THE MIDDLE OF THE ALTAR where he may with more Ease and Decency USE BOTH HIS HANDS than he can do if he stand at the North-end With other Particulars of this kind Moreover in his Book of Private Devotions written with his own Hand he hath after the Romish Form reduced all his Prayers to Canonical Hours And in the Memorials of his Life written with his own Hand there are these suspicious Passages among others besides the Offer of the Cardinal's Cap Anno 1631. Jun. 21. 26. My nearer Acquaintance began to settle with Dr. S. God bless us in it Junii 25. Dr. S. with me at Fulham cum Ma. c. meant of Dr. Smith the Popish Bishop of Calcedon as is conceived Jun. 25. Mr. Fr. Windebank my old Friend was Sworn Secretary of State which Place I OBTAINED FOR HIM of my Gracious Master King Charles What an Arch-Papist and Conspirator he was the Plot relates and his Flight into France for releasing Papists and Jesuits out of Prison and from Executions by his own Warrants and imprisoning those Officers who apprehended them confirms About this time Dr Theodore Price Sub-dean of Westminster a Man very intimate with the Arch-Bishop and recommended specially to the King by him to be a Welch Bishop in Opposition to the Earl of Pembrook and his Chaplain Griffith Williams soon after died a Reconciled Papist and received Extream Vnction from a Priest Noscitur ex comite August 30. 1634. he hath this Memorial Saturday at Oatlands the Queen sent for me and gave me Thanks for a Business with which she trusted me her Promise then that she would be my Friend and that I should have immediate Address to her when I had occasion All which considered together with his Chaplains Licensing divers Popish Books with their expunging most Passages against Popery out of Books brought to the Press with other Particulars commonly known will give a true Character of his Temper that he is another Cassander or middle Man between an Absolute Papist and a real Protestant who will far sooner hug a Popish Priest in his Bosom than take a Puritan by the Little Finger An absolute Papist in all matters of Ceremony Pomp and external Worship in which he was over-zealous even to an open 〈◊〉 Persecution of all Conscientious Ministers who made Scruple of them if not half an one at least in Doctrinal Tenets How far he was guilty of a Conditional Voting the breaking up the last Parliament before this was called and for what end it was summoned this other Memorial under his own Hand will attest Decemb 5. 1639. Thursday the King declared his Resolution for a Parliament in case of the Scottish Rebellion The first Movers to it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland my Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And A RESOLUTION VOTED AT THE BOARD TO AS-SIST THE KING IN EXTRAORDINARY WAYS IF THE PARLIAMENT SHOULD PROVE PEEVISH AND REFUSE c. But of him sufficient till his Charge now in preparation shall come in Observations on and from the Relation of this PLOT FRom the Relation of the former Plot by so good a Hand our own Three Realms and all Foreign Protestant States may receive full Satisfaction First That there hath been a most cunning strong execrable Conspiracy long since contrived at Rome and for divers Years together most vigorously pursued in England with all Industry Policy Subtilty Engines by many active potent Confederates of all sorts all Sexes to undermine the Protestant Religion re-establish Popery and alter the very Frame of Civil Government in all the King's Dominions wherein a most dangerous visible Progress hath
MAYO WHO saith That on Thursday last being the Twentieth of July One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Three he being at Bruges in Flanders heard Proclamation made in Dutch who understands it very well That all People within that City that would go to the Governours House and give any Money to maintain the Roman 〈◊〉 in England they should have their Money repaid them again in a Years time with many Thanks HENRY MAYO This Examination was taken before 〈◊〉 EDWARD BOYCE JOHN BOYCE GEORGE TROTTER H. W. I Will conclude this first Volume with three Letters of the Arch-Bishop two of them wrote by him while Chancellor of the Vniversity of Oxford to his Vice-Chancellor there for discovering preventing and punishing the Practices of Romish Emissaries who endeavoured to seduce the Youth of that Place and the third to Sir Kenelm Digby upon his return to the Communion of the Church of Rome being so many Authentick and Vndeniable Arguments of the Arch-Bishop's Since-cerity in the profession of and Zeal for the Established Religion of the Church of England To which I will subjoyn the Testimonies of two worthy Persons yet living concerning the Opinion had of the Arch-Bishop at Rome during his Life and with what Joy they received the News of his Death and Sufferings The first Letter to Oxford was wrote upon Occasion of this following Letter Letter from Oxon to Mr Fish of Clerkenwell to convey two Oxford Youths beyond Sea Mr. Fish brought me this Letter Aug 29 1637. Sir THough unknown I have presumed to be so bold as to solicit you in a Business viz. To know whether you could send over one or two who for Religion sake are desirous to be entred into some Order beyond the Seas especially that of the Fratrum Minorum or Jesuits So expecting your Answer and unwilling to disclose my self till I have it I rest 23. Augu Yours Direct your Letter as 〈◊〉 as you can to one Richard Pully in St John's College Oxon. Superscribed thus To his very loving Friend Mr John Fish in Clerkenwell give these Leave this at one Mr Fishes at Doctors Commons to be delivered unto him London My Letter to the Vice-chancellor Dr Bayly Aug 29 1637. sent presently away for care to be had of this Business Salutem in Christo. S I R I Have yet received no Letter from you this Week If I do you shall have answer on Friday if I have so much Leisure In the mean time I send you this inclosed which came to my Hands this present Afternoon I pray examine the Business with all the care and industry you possibly can as well for the discharge of your own Duty and Credit as mine in the Government of that Place And if there be such a Man as Pully here mentioned be sure to make him fast and examine him throughly touching all Particulars that you shall think material for the discovery of these unworthy Practices for the seducing of Youths in that University or elsewhere Especially concerning the Author of this Letter and what Youths have been dealt withal after this sort either in that House or any other of the Town And whether any Jesuits or other have of late lyen hankering up and down thereabouts or be there at this present to that purpose or any other as bad In all which I desire you to use your utmost Diligence and Discretion that you can and let me have an account with all convenient speed So I leave you to God's Grace and rest Croydon Aug 29 1637. Your very Loving Friend W C A N T. My LETTER to the Vice-Chancellor Dr Frewen for watchfulness against Jesuits Febr 7 You had need be very careful of the University For while none of you think of it the Jesuits and their Instruments are busie thereabouts And at this present they have seduced a young Youth of Exeter College I have forgotten his Name but it begins with a W and the young Organist of St John's who slipt away whilst the President was at Sarum I have granted an Attachment against them if they can light upon them before they take Shipping as also against Cherriton for that I hear is his Name who seduced them You had need be very careful in these Businesses for else we shall very deservedly hear ill of it Lambeth Febr 7 〈◊〉 W Cant. Arch-Bishop Laud's Letter to Sir Kenelm Digby Salutem in Christo. Worthy Sir I Am sorry for all the Contents of your Letter save that which expresses your Love to me And I was not a little troubled at the very first words of it For you begin that my Lord Ambassador told you I was not pleased to hear you had made a Defection from the Church of England 'T is most true I was informed so and thereupon I writ to my Lord Ambassador to know what he heard of it there But 't is true likewise that I writ to your self and Mr. Secretary Cooke sent my Letters very carefully Now seeing your Letters mentioned my Lord Ambassador's Speech with you without any notice taken of my writing I could not but fear these Letters of mine came not to your Hands Out of this Fear your Second Letters took me for they acknowledged the receipt of mine and your kind acceptance of them Had they miscarried I should have held it a great Misfortune For you must needs have condemned me deeply in your own Thoughts if in such a near and tender Business I should have solicited my Lord Ambassador and not written to your self In the next place I thank you and take it for a great Testimony of your Love to me that you have been pleased to give me so open and clear Account of your proceedings with your self in this matter of Religion In which as I cannot but commend the strict reckoning to which you have called your self so I could have wish'd before you had absolutely setled the Foot of that Account you would have called in some Friend and made use of his Eye as a By-stander who oftentimes sees more than he that plays the Game You write I confess that after you had fallen upon these troublesom Thoughts you were nigh two Years in the diligent Discussion of this matter and that you omitted no Industry either of conversing with Learned Men or of reading the best Authors to beget in you a right Intelligence of this Subject I believe all this and you did wisely to do it But I have some Questions out of the freedom of a Friend to ask about it Were not all the Learned Men you conversed with for this Particular of the Roman Party Were not the best Authors you mention of the same Side If both Men and Authors were the same way can they beget any righter Intelligence in you than is in themselves If they were Men and Authors on both Sides with whom you conversed why was I whom you are pleased to Style one of your best Friends omitted True it may be you could not reckon me among
Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the Nomination of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or other wise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners I did never wittingly abuse the Power or Trust which His Majesty reposed in me Nor did I ever intrude upon the Places of any great Officers or others to procure to my self the Nomination of Persons Ecclesiastical to Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to His Majesty the Nobility or any other And though here be no Particular named yet I guess at that which is meant and will clearly set down the Truth His Majesty some few Years since assumed to himself from the Right Honourable the Lord Coventry the Lord Keeper that then was and from my Lord Cottington then Master of the Court of Wards the disposing of all such Benefices as came to the King's Gift by Title of Wardship of what value soever they were The Reason which moved His Majesty to do this was The Lord Keeper and the Lord Cottington became humble Suitors to him to end a Contention between them about the giving of those Benefices both for their own Quiet and the Peace of other His Majesties Subjects For the Course was when any thing fell void in the Gift of a Ward he of these two great Officers which came first to know of the avoidance gave the Living This caused great and oft-times undue Practising among them which were Suitors for the Benefices And many times the Broad-Seal and the Seal of the Court of Wards bore Date the same Day And then the Bishop which Clerk soever he Instituted was sure to offend the other Lord. And these Lords too many times by the earnest putting on of Friends were not well pleased one with another in the Business Upon this Suit of their own His Majesty gave a Hearing to these Lords and in Conclusion of it took the Disposal of all such Benefices into his own Hands and for ought I know with both their liking and content In the disposing of these Benefices to such Men as had served His Majesty at Sea or otherwise I was trusted by the King and I served him in it faithfully but proceeded no farther nor otherwise than he directed and commanded me But I never took the Nomination of any one to my self or my own disposing And the Truth of this as His Majesty knows so I am Confident my Lord Cottington who is yet living will Witness For the Nomination of Chaplains to the King if I had done it I think the work was as proper for the Arch-Bishop as for any Man Yet because by Ancient Custom it was conceived to belong in a great part to the Lord Chamberlain who was then the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembrook I never Named any to His Majesty but I did fairly acquaint the Lord Chamberlain with it and desired his favour But in all my time I never was the means to prefer any Man to His Majesties Service as a Chaplain or to any Promotion whom I knew to be Popishly affected or any way Corrupt in Doctrine or Manners 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and employed such Men to be his own Domestical Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosly addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and unsound both in Judgment and Practice And to them or some of them he hath committed Licensing of Books to be Printed By which means divers false and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the seducing of many of His Majesties Subjects I never chose any Man to be my Chaplain who I knew or had good Cause to suspect was Popishly affected Nor any that was unsound in Judgment or Practice Nor did I commit the Licensing of Books to any such but to those only who I then did and do still believe are Orthodox and Religious Divines and Men of very good Judgment for that Necessary and great Service And if they or any of them have by negligence or otherwise suffered any Erroneous and Dangerous Books to pass the Press they must answer both the Church and the State for whatsoever they have done amiss in that kind for it is not possible for the Archbishop to perform all those Services in Person And in the committing of them to my Chaplains and other Divines of Note I have done no new thing but that which my Predecessors have done before me This I am sure of I gave often and express and strict Command to all and every of them that they should License nothing that was contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline Established in the Church of England or might Personally or otherwise give Offence or Distaste And I hope they have Obeyed my Directions If not they must Answer for themselves 10. He hath Trayterously and Wickedly endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome And for the effecting thereof hath Consorted and Confederated with divers Popish Priests and Jesuits and hath kept secret intelligence with the Pope of Rome And by himself his Agents and Instruments treated with such as have from thence received Authority and Instruction He hath permitted and countenanced a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be Established in this Kingdom By all which Trayterous and Malicious Practices this Church and Kingdom have been exceedingly indangered and like to fall under the Tyranny of the Roman See The Article is now come of which I spake before and in my Answer to which I promised to set down the substance of that which I spake in the Parliament House to the Lords when this General Charge was brought up against me and I shall somewhat inlarge it yet without any Change of the Grounds upon which I then stood And now I shall perform that Promise And I shall be of all other least afraid to answer all that is here said concerning Religion For my Heart I bless God for it is sound that way to the uttermost of my Knowledge and I think I do well understand my Principles And my Old Master Aristotle hath taught me long since that Qui se bene habent ad divina audaciores sunt they which are well and setledly composed in things pertaining to God that is in Religion are much the bolder by it And this not only against Slanders and Imputations cast upon Men for this but in all other Accidents of the World what ever they be And surely I may not deny it I have ever wished and heartily Prayed for the Unity of the whole Church of Christ and the Peace and Reconciliation of torn and divided Christendom But I did never desire a Reconciliation but such as might stand
with Truth and preserve all the Foundations of Religion entire For I have Learned from a Prime School-Man of their own That every Vnion doth not perfect the true Reason or Definition of that which is good but that only upon which depends Esse perfectum Rei the perfect Essence of that thing So that in this particular if the substance of Christian Religion be not perfected by any Vnion that Vnion it self cannot have in it Rationem boni the true Being and Nature of Good And therefore I did never desire that England and Rome should meet together but with forsaking of Errour and Superstition especially such as grate upon and frett the Foundations of Religion But were this done God forbid but I should Labour for a Reconciliation if some Tenets of the Roman Party on the one side and some deep and imbittered Disaffections on the other have not made it impossible as I much doubt they have But that I shou'd practice with Rome as now it stands and to that end should confederate with Priests and Jesuits or hold secret intelligence with the Pope or treat with him or any Instruments Authorised by him or by any Agents is utterly untrue As I hope may fully appear by that which follows vid. init libri And First in hope that they which have observed my Life in times past will give me Credit in this time of my Affliction I do here make my solemn Protestation in the Presence of God and this great Court that I am Innocent of any thing greater or less that is charged in this Article or any part of it And I do here offer my Corporal Oath Please it the Lords to give it me in the strictest form that any Oath can be conceived that I am wholly Innocent of this Charge And let nothing be tendred against me but Truth and I do challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell to come in and Witness whatsoever they can against me in this Particular For all that I have feared in all this Charge against me is not Guilt but Subornation of Perjury Against which Innocency it self cannot be safe And I have found the deadly Hatred of some Men against me to be such as that though I cannot suspect the House of Commons of such an Irreligious Baseness yet I have great Cause to suspect some particular Men which I see make no Conscience of the Way so they may compass their End Secondly Should I practice be it with whom you will to superinduce Romish Tyranny and Superstition over the true Religion established in England I have taken a very wrong way to it For I have hindred as many from going to the Roman Party and have reduced as many from it and some of great Quality and some of great Learning and Judgment as I believe any Divine in England hath done And is this the way to bring in Romish Superstition to reduce Men from it Or is this the Reward from the State which Men must look for that have done these Services Thirdly The Book which I have Written against Mr. Fisher the Jesuit must of Necessity either acquit me of this Calumny or proclaim me a Villain to the World And I hope I have so lived as that Men have not that Opinion of me sure I am I have not deserved it And had this Book of mine been written according to the Garb of the Time fuller of Railing than Reason a Learned Jesuit would have Laughed at it and me and a Learned Protestant might have thought I had Written it only to conceal my self and my Judgment in those Difficulties But being Written in the way it is I believe no Romanist will have much Cause to Joy at it or to think me a Favourer of their Cause And since I am thus put to it I will say thus much more This Book of mine is so Written by God's great blessing upon me as that whensoever the Church of England as they are growing towards it apace shall depart from the Grounds which I have therein laid she shall never be able before any Learned and disingaged Christian to make good her Difference with and her Separation from the Church of Rome And let no Man think I speak Pride or Vanity in this For the Outrages which have been against me force me to say it and I am confident future times will make it good unless Profaneness break in and over-run the whole Kingdom which is not a little to be feared Fourthly I must confess I am in this Particular most unfortunate For many Recusants in England and many of that Party beyond the Seas think I have done them and their Cause more Harm than they which have seemed more fierce against them And I doubt not but I shall be able to prove that I have been accounted beyond Sea the greatest Enemy to them that ever sat in my Place And shall I suffer on both sides Shall I be accounted an Enemy by one part for opposing the Papist and accused for a Traytor by the other for Favouring and Complying with them Well If I do suffer thus 't is but because Truth usually lies between two Extreams and is beaten by both As the poor Church of England is at this day by the Papist and the Separatist But in this and all things else in despight of all Malice Truth shall be either my Protection from Suffering or my Comfort while I suffer And by God's gracious assistance I shall never depart from it but continue at the Apostle's Ward 2 Cor. 13. Nihil possum contra veritatem I can do nothing against the Truth and for it I hope God will enable me patiently to suffer any thing Fifthly If I had practised with the Pope or his Agents for the alteration of Religion in England surely I must have used many great and dextrous Instruments to compass my end And in a business of so great Consequence Difficulty and Danger to all that should have a Hand nay but a Finger in it no Man would venture to meddle without good pay And 't is well known that I have filled no Purse nor laid up any store to set ill Instruments on work upon that or any other unworthy design Sixthly I am a Man in Years great Years for a Man so loaded with business as I have been all my Life And it cannot be long before I must go to give God Almighty an account of all my Actions And whatsoever the Malignity of the Time may put upon me yet they which know me and my ways will easily believe that I have not so little Conscience or care of my Soul as to double with God to my very Death Nay could I have doubled thus I could easily have seen a way through all this difficulty and how to have been as gracious with the People as any even the worst of my Predecessours But I have ever held that the lowest depth of Baseness to frame Religion to