in whom there is no darknesse For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2. Peter chapter 1. verse 21. We have also a more sure word of Prophesie saith the same Apostle whereunto you doe well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place verse 19. So that the Scriptures were of purpose penned by holy men inspired by God himselfe for a direction and light to the Saints to be guided by and so they are termed by the holy Ghost So that as Peter said unto Christ in the sixth of Iohn when he asked his twelve Disciples if they also would goe away To whom shall we go saith he Thou hast the Words of eternall life Even so we may truly say whither shall we goe for light and direction to get to heaven but to the Holy Scriptures for they have the Words of eternall life in them and this saith Christ and his Apostles and yet notwithstanding all this excellent light that shineth in the Scripture the Prelates everre they are but blinde guides and preferre humane darknesse before the splendour of these sacred Oracles the Scriptures and say without the interpretation of the Fathers they cannot be knowne which is unsupportable blasphemy and as much as to tell the everliving God and truth it selfe he lies It is most veritable that they see not the light of the Scripture the eyes of whose mindes are blinded neither do they see the light of the Sun whose eyes are plucked out If our Gospel be hid saith Saint Paul it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded their mindes that is in Infidels lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the image of God should shine upon them 2 Corinth chap. 4. verse 3 4. every one knoweth the voice of that man with whom he is acquainted as soone as the sound of it commeth to his eares and shall we not know the voice of God so clearly and perspicuously speaking unto us in the Scriptures Those that are taught of God know it the true worshippers of him know and understand it those that have any familiar commerce with heaven and in heavenly things But worldly men and those that are given to the love of the same and are carelesse of heaven and happinesse they understand not the divine language nor heavenly voice Can any heare the voice of God and not assent unto it without the aid and authority of the Fathers What a contumely is this to holy Scripture Shall God have lesse authority and credit among men then the Fathers Shall we not beleeve God speaking unto us and shall we beleeve the Fathers Shall we not give credit to Gods Word and shall we beleeve men Let the dishonour of so great a contumacie against God be farre from Christian obedience Truly the Fathers being conscious of their owne imbecility and weaknesse never thought themselves worthy of so great dignity as to suppose that any honour came unto the Scriptures from their Interpretations and Expositions who in their Writings frequently exhort their Readers not to listen what they say but what the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles speake in them and no farther to receive their authority and doctrine then it is grounded upon the holy Scriptures and expressions to this purpose the Defendant saith he could accumulate infinite out of the Fathers which for brevity he omitteth fearing to be over tedious though it be a matter of greatest importance Such was the modestie of the Fathers fearing to be wise above that which was written ever-making the holy Scripture the rule and measure to be guided by And in this moderation the Fathers imitated Christ the Prophets and Apostles who ever fetch the proofe and testimony of their Doctrine from the Scriptures and not as now the Prelates do preposterously bringing authority to the Scriptures from the interpretation of the Fathers according to their owne sense To the Law and to the Prophets saith Esay chapter 8. verse 20. whosoever speaketh not according to that hath no light in him And Iosua that great Commander is injoyned by God to order and governe himselfe and the people and the whole Common-wealth according to the rule of the Scripture Iosua chapter 1. verse 7 8. Onely be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee turne not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest This Booke of the Law shall not go out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good successe And in the 23. chapter verse 6. he saith Be ye therefore very couragious to keepe and to do all that is written in the Booke of the Law of Moses that you turne not aside therefrom to the right hand nor to the left And Christ himselfe our great Master saith Iohn 5. verse 38. Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they testifie of me And in the third of the Acts verse 22 23. Saint Peter brings all men unto Christ to be taught by him not in somethings onely but that Prophet must be heard in all things and no other in Gods matters must be listened unto the words are these For Moses truly said unto the Fathers a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you heare in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And it shall come to passe that every soule which will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people And in the 12. of Iohn verse 48. our Saviour saith He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my Words hath one that judgeth him the Word that I have spake the same shall judge him in the last day And therefore doth it not stand with all good reason that we should guide and square our lives and actions by that word and rule onely by which we shall at the last day be judged Paul in the 2. of the Rom. verse 16. saith That the secrets of mens hearts shall at that day be judged according to his Gospel and shall not all our doctrines yea and our whole Religion be squared and regulated by the same all good reason would dictate so They have Moses and the Prophets saith Abraham let them hear him saith he Luke 16. verse 29. We have Christ and his Apostles we are onely to heare them in all things not the Fathers not the traditions of the Elders not the use and customes of former ages if they dissent from the holy Scriptures and written word of God For the great doctor of his Church telleth the Saduces saying Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth.
defendant there said if they commanded nothing contrary to the will and Word of God that he for his part out of the reverence duty and loyalty to his Prince would obey it The Words in the Originall are these Verum de Episcoporum autoritate locutus à bonis bene intelligi cupio Non enim litis litem moveo quatenus ab Imperatoribus Regibus Principibus Terrae quorum interest salutem civium tueri potestate Ius Imperiii in socios totumque Dei gregem adepti sunt Nam si Romani Episcopi immensam illam nullus limitibus circumscriptā autoritatē indulgentiae Principū acceptā ferrem voluntati Episcopali nihil voluntati divinae inimicum jubenti obtemperandū putem ob reverentiam Principi si volenti debitam c. So that the Defendant having thus plainly set down his minde before and knowing that all the jurisdiction that the Bishops in England now exercise over others is from the King he thought himself not onely secure from danger but expected favour at least from the Bishops and their helping hand especially when the opposing the Popes Authority in England is a thing that the King and State have ever so well allowed of And that this honourable Court may yet be farther informed of the speciall cause for which the Prelates are so displeased with the Defendant it was for the truely and narrowly disputing and discussing of the second question to wit whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop have Authority and Jurisdiction not onely over his fellow brethren but over Kings and Emperours which the Defendant there denyed for many warrantable Arguments the summe of which he desireth here to relate unto this honourable Court for his just and necessary defence and justification For by the very light of nature and unanswerable reason it is evident and manifest that where there is an equality parity amongst men there the one doth not exceed the other in power or Dominion Paris enim in Parem non esse imperium inter Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now Divine constitution hath made Bishops and Presbyters or Elders a like and equall which that it might the better appeare the Defendant propounded three things to be proved The first was that Bishops and Presbyters were by the Word of God one and the same Secondly That Presbyters had equall Authority of Government Ordination Excommunication with Bishops wherein only consists their preheminency and Authority above their brethren which things being proved it will necessarily follow That the Pope of Rome as he is Bishop doth no way exceed other Bishops and Presbyters they being in all things alike and equall unto him much lesse hath any Authority and power over Kings and Emperours And for the proofe of the first position the words Presbyter and Bishop do sufficiently evince it which is holy Scripture though diverse in sound signifie one and the same thing as not to cite the words themselves which would be large The Apostle Paul to Titus in the first Chapter doth sufficiently shew where the words Bishop and Presbyter are confounded And likewise in the first Epistle of Peter and the fift Chapter there Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing And the Epistle to the Philippians the first Chapter and the first verse doth apparently demonstrate it and divers other places might be produced dilucidating the same thing But the 20. of the Acts puts all out of controversie where Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing for office honour and function so that the idenity of their office is signifyed by those two expressions Neither is there a confusion of their names with a difference still of their functions and administrations as some would cavill for in these places where Presbyters are called Bishops the disputation is not about the title but about the office signified and specified by the title For when Saint Paul exhorts the Presbyters to have an eye to their duty and charge he useth this reason that the Holy Ghost hath made them Bishops and the truth of this is so evident that the Rhemists themselves as learned men as any Bishops in England and as able to maintaine an error are forced ingeniously to confesse it saying in expresse words in their Notes upon the 28. vers of that Chapter That in the Apostles times there was no difference between Presbyter and Bishop so that for the first position it is not onely by the Word of God clearly evident but by the very confession of the adversaries of the truth granted as a thing without controversie Now for proofe of the second position that Presbyters as well as the Bishop of Rome have the power and right of Government Ordination and Excommunication by which in these times Bishops onely exceed Presbyters the Defendant will here briefly demonstrate it referring those of this honourable Court that have a desire to search into the full truth of it to his book And for the proofe that the Government was committed unto them and that they exercised the same it is most perspicuous out of the first of Timothie 5. where the Apostle saith the Presbyters that rule well are worthy of double honour especially those that labour in Word and Doctrine By this testimony it is evident that they had rule and government in their hands And that they had power also of Ordination and imposition of hands it is likewise apparent out of the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy the first Chapter For the Apostle speaking to Timothy saith Do not neglect the gift that is in thee which is given thee for prophesie by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery Here also the Presbyters had the right of imposition of hands And that they had the power of Excommunication and Absolution it is likewise manifest from the fifth of the 1. of the Corinthians and the second Chapter of the second Epistle where the Apostle gives them the power of casting the incestrous person out and upon his repentance receiving of him in againe By all which Authorities of Sacred Writ it is sufficiently cleare and evident That the Presbyters had the Authority and power of Government and rule in the Church with the faculty also and ability of Ordination and Excommunication and all this by Divine institution and expresse words of holy Scripture howsoever this right and their due was through the fraud and deceit of the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops afterwards taken away from the Presbyters Wherefore the Defendant concluded That if there were any difference between Presbyters and the Bishop of Rome which he denied that then the Presbyters in dignity and honour exceeded and that greatly the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops for all these Priviledges of government Ordination and Excommunication are in formall words given unto the Presbyters and no where granted unto the Bishops And for farther illustration and proofe of this the Defendant
they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and
all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent
had ever been the fiction and excogitations of mens braines as some prophane and Atheisticall men thinke who suppose and say that Religion was by Policie invented to keepe men in awe then the Defendant saith that all men would willingly and without reluctation have embraced and received them given ever them admittance and free entertainment for the world ever loveth his owne Now it is notoriously knowne that no carnall men either love the Scriptures or regard them nay it hath beene alwayes the endeavour and the greatest plot and conspiracy of wicked and ungodly men and the adversaries of the truth either totally to extinguish them or to vilifie their authority as King James of renowned memory in his Apologie to all Christian Princes sufficiently declareth discovering therein the Popes double diligence in that businesse So that were there no other reason but this alone it were of conviction enough to prove the holy Scripture to be the Word of God because it so much opposeth impiety wickednesse cruelty unrighteous dealing errours and darknesse which carnall and sensuall men love more then light And whereas the Prelates with the Papists produce the authority of the Fathers for the maintaining of what they speake and in Court alledged that of Augustine Where he saith that he would not have beleeved the Scripture if the Church had not told him it was the Scripture The Defendant for his part is sorry to see such a profane Sympathie between the Prelates and Papists in these things who deale with true Christians as the Gibeonites dealt with the Israelites in the 9. of Iudges who pretended they were Ambassadours and tooke old sackes upon their asses and old tattered bottles and clouted shoes and ragged clothes and pretended they came from a far Countrey and so the Israelites not taking counsell of the Lord were cousened and deluded by them Even so the Papists and Prelates under pretence of the ancient Writers and with their old shoes mouldy bread of uncouth antiquity rob us of the truth and take away from us the bread and staffe of life by which we should safely and comfortably walk to heaven and happinesse and under the pretence of the Fathers and their authority they abuse and deceive the simple But in this cause Augustine is not very usefull unto them for his authority in this so weighty a matter is to rationall men of no great validity for the Defendant demands of any that hath but the grace of understanding that if Augustine would never have beleeved that there had beene a God without the Church had told him so must his infidelity make others Atheists also This will not be thought good reason amongst the learned for then one mans imperfections should be a rule for multitudes to go to hell and unbeliefe should be a vertue And yet it is not altogether denyed but that the perswasion and report of men may be a motive to stirre up men many times to the hearing and perusall of a thing which of it selfe doth not alwayes beget saith or but very little as dayly experience teacheth us but the thing it selfe seene or heard is that that worketh effecteth it and makes their faith so firme and stedfast that although the same parties should a thousand times after deny that to be so yet they to the death would persevere in that true beliefe As for example we see in the people of Samaria that were by the womans perswasion brought out to see Christ and in some small measure beleeved in him from her relation that he was the Messiah yet when then they had talked with him themselves they openly affirmed that then they beleeved not because the woman had told them but from more excellent reasons and grounds that they themselves had heard him And should the Samaritan woman a thousand times after that have denyed that he had beene the Messiah they would never have beene removed from their faith in Christ for all that The same may be said of Nathaniel in the first of John to whom Philip said That he had found him of whom Moses spake in the Law and the Prophets Jesus of Nazareth and Nathaniel said unto him Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip said Come and see Jesus saw Nathaniel comming unto him and saith to him Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile Nathaniel said unto him Whence knowest thou me Jesus answered and said unto him Before that Philip called thee when thou wert under the Fig-tree I saw thee Nathaniel answereth and saith unto him Rabbi Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And howsoever Philip here was an occasion of bringing Nathaniel to Christ yet the sight of Christ and his Miracles were the things onely that begat true faith in him and such a faith as all the Philips in the world could never after have removed him from it againe And so it was with Augustine perhaps that being a learned Infidell or little better a Manâ—â—nee through the perswasions of learned Christians he came to looke in the Word of God as all faith commeth by hearing but doth it therefore follow that that was onely the cause of his faith and perseverance in it or if the Church had not told him so these had beene no other meanes for him to come to the knowledge of the Scripture this doth not necessarily follow But were it granted that had not the Church told Augustine which was the Scripture and the Word of God that he had then never beleeved it to be the Word must this conclusion of necessity be gathered from thence That all men must be like Augustine in this or that the authoritie of men is greater and above the Scripture All these are poore and lame consequences and not beseeming the worthy Fathers of the Church in open Court to publish to the infinite dishonour of holy Scripture and advancing humane authoritie above it which indeed is meete blasphemy against the holy Word of God For would not every man accuse one of folly if another being a stranger and never seeing the King and meeting him in a journey with all his Nobles richly clad as it beseemeth noble Peeres so to be for the honour of their Master and the Majestie of his Court and in this company where there are so many brave personages and all so excellently apparelled and he not knowing which was the King should aske some of his retinue or some Courtier which of those were the King Now doth follow because at that time the man should not have known the King without this information from some of the attendants that the King could no other way have been known unto him or that Kings could be knowne no other wayes but by such informations No rationall creatures wil so conclude at that time he in part beleeved from the Courtiers relation that it was the King but after that he seeth the King in his Court or upon his throne with his Crowne
upon his head and with all his State and Magnificence and his Nobles in their service with the reverence that is yeelded unto him then he beleeveth no longer because the Servant told him that it was the King but because by his own reason he is evinced of it knowing that such attendance and such a guard and so great pompe dignity and State belongeth to none but Kings And it would be thought not madnesse onely but treason to say if one had not told him that it was the King otherwise the King could not be known or that he that told him was greater then the King or his Authority greater The same may be said of the Holy and ever blessed Word of God that it is a great madnesse and impiety to conclude That the Holy Scripture cannot be known to be the Word of God without the Authority of the Fathers or Church or that the Authority of either is greater then the Scriptures which to affirme is without doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almighty God and his blessed revealed will and able to provoke his indignation upon us because it is an error against the very light of nature art and reason and the apparent Words of the Scripture where the Word of God is called the immortall seed 1. Peter chap. 1. verse 23. which liveth and abideth for ever Now all seed by its inward vertue sprouteth into a blade and is by it self and his owne fruits knowne to be what it is So is the Scripture of it selfe knowne to be the Word of God and as Paul saith in the 1. of the Corinthians chapter 2. verse 4. the Word of God is in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power and maketh the hearts of the beleevers burne within them as it did to those that went with Christ to Emmaus Luke the 24. verse 32. and as the Apostle saith in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chapter verse 3. that they received the Word of God not as the word of man but as it is in the truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in those that beleeve and in the 4. of the Hebrews the 12. Paul saith that the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and Spirit and of the reines and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory and by their own native and inbred splendor doe conciliate Authority and credit to themselves neither have they any need of help from man or the Fathers Authority to prove them the word of God For before there were any Fathers the Scriptures had their Authority and were knowne to be Divine Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God no more then a Pillar maketh a Proclamation to be the Kings will and pleasure because it stands upon it but the Church or Fathers declared them so to be neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this How impious then and blasphemous are the Prelates that they dare thus vilifie the holy Scriptures and make their authority nothing And can any man of judgement see any reason why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures Or why one should beleeve that these are the workes of Augustine or Ambrose and should doubt that this is the Gospel of Luke John or that these are the Epistles of Paul Of these things the Defendant for his part can see no reason Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures themselves when the Fathers are not to be credited but as they accord with Scripture as the very Popish Canons and Papists themselves acknowledge for in the Canon Law thus speakes the Pope Patrum quantalibet doctrina sanctitate pollentium Scripta ex Canonivis sacris consideranda nec cum credâ—ndi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt Neither is Baronius his opinion other concerning the authority of the Fathers as at large may be seene in his Annales ann 34. Sect. 213. and ann 44 Sect. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same minde in his 2. Booke concerning Councels in the 12. chapter in these words Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regulae nec habent autoritate obligandi And when the very adversaries do thus fully expresse themselves that whatsoever authority is in the Fathers Books and writings it is only as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture shal any man then think or suppose that there should yet be more authority in the writings of the Fathers or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures from whence as the fountaine those streams do issue very reason will confound the fatuity of this devilish doctrine for the streames and brooks are never so pure nor good as the fountain for it is ever the fountaine that gives authority of goodnesse and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as men know and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come so that the Spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest Authority and without all controversie as it overthroweth all reason so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountaine of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift and they that shall speak so contumeliously as the Bishops doe of these Fountaines of living waters the holy Scriptures is they did the Defendant will ever maintaine they are contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures and in this opinion he will live and die Neither did they lesse offend in saying that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocrypha without the help and authority of the Fathers which point also the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to hear a little discussed it being a thing of so high nature concerning not onely the glory of God but the good of every mans soul the peace of the Church and the tranquility of the whole Kingdom And therefore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little for the further Demonstration of the justnesse of his accusation he chargeth the Prelates with viz that they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures cannot be distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers which assertion is against sense and reason it self and too impious for Prelates to speak Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament that they were written in the Hebrew tongue and that they did give witnesse of Christ and received Authority from him and that they were put into the hands and keeping of the elect and chosen people of God as a Treasury Now the Apocrypha had none of all this
honour Neither did ever the Jews account of them as Scripture yea to this day they reject them Neither for these reasons onely are they distinguished from the Apocrypha but for many others the divinity purity sublimity appears in the Canonicall Scriptures the futility folly and falsity in the Apocrypha are too too manifest and is there any man so stupid and blockish to think that this age wherein we live cannot distinguish or discerne gold from lead without the Authority of the Fathers There is a vaster difference between the Apocrypha and the Canonicall Scriptures then is between gold and lead Every mans reason will tell him an apparant difference between brasse and beanes But if any be desirous of Authority to distinguish them will not Christs and the Apostles suffice The very Papists that have not abjured all honesty and goodnesse do freely acknowledge and confesse that those onely are Canonicall Scriptures which the Apostles did either write or approve of But they did never approve of the Apocrypha The Canonicall Scriptures of the old Testament did in shadows and figures set forth that which the new Testament clearly speaks They did adumbrate the new Testament expresseth in lively colours one and the same thing They consent one with another and yeeld each other mutuall aid and help Now the Apocrypha do neither foretell the new nor are by their authority and approbation illustrated and declared Christ commends Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes as books without all exception Luke 24. and grounds his doctrine upon them but never honours nor graceth the Apocrypha with his commendations or witnesse How then can the Prelates without great contumely unto the sacred Scriptures say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers especially after the judgement of Christ himself is given and hath passed upon the Scriptures for the authorizing of them to be the word and will of God The Fathers as the learned acknowledge were for their times many of them worthy of honour but yet they were subject not to a few errors and often agreed not with themselves and are ever at variance with others and have been indeed the originall and cause of almost all the controversies with which the Churches are now tormented And therefore to conclude this point the Defendant saith that the Prelates are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture when against so much light of reason and Divine authority they say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers Neither is the third Thesis and Position freer from impudency and outrage against the Scriptures then the two former In that they say the meaning of the Scripture could not be knowne but by the Fathers For in this they doe as much as plainly affirme there is an other way to heaven then by the Scriptures which if it be not a contemning and disgracing of holy Scripture then there never was any Nay if it be not blasphemy the Defendant knoweth not what blasphemy is â—and therefore all those that desire salvation and to go to heaven must come to the Schoole of the Fathers and not to the Doctrine of the Scriptures And how then will the poor people doe to be saved that never knew what a Father was Nay how did all those goe to heaven that dyed before the Fathers For the Prelates say that the meaning of the Scripture cannot be knowen without the Fathers and without the knowledge of the Scripture there is no salvation It is most manifest by these expressions of the Prelates that they with their untempered morter would put out the light of the Scriptures and make them not onely inferiour to all mens writings but a very pack of Non-sense for wheresoever there is any sense there can something be gathered out of it especially if it be so large a Booke And howsoever there be many depths in Scripture there is also great perspicuity so that according to the ancient saying as an Elephant may swim a lamb may wade there also But if it should be so as the Prelates say that without the authority and interpretation of the Fathers the meaning of them could not be known and found out then the Defendant affirmeth they should be inferiour to all other writings yea to every Letter and Epistle that men pen with understanding for they ever carry their own sense end meaning along with them or to what end are they otherwise writ If the letter that discoverd the gunpowder Treason had not had a match and light of understanding in it that Popish plot had never been discovered till by its cruell flames it had declared it self and by the funerall of the whole Kingdome had been made known and left those that survived and lived in perpetuall mourning If every Letter writing and book then that is penned with judgement carry its own sense and meaning in it and the books for which the Defendant is now questioned and if all Proclamations Letters and Edicts of Princes are easily to be understood and carry their own interpretation with them so that none after their publication may pretend ignorance dare any man be so bold and adaciou as to say that the Letters and Proclamations of the King of heaven an God of the whole world cannot be understood when notwithstanding David saith they give light and understanding to the simple and that by reading and meditating in the Law and Testimonies of the Lord he grew wiser then his Teachers and Paul that Timothie knew the Scriptures from his youth 2. Tim. chap. 3 verse 13. and notwithstanding all this dare the Prelates affirme that the meaning of this Scripture cannot be knowne without the interpretation of the Fathers We have great cause to praise and blesse God that hath so graciously afforded us better Masters to be taught by It is good ever therefore to listen unto them Let us hear now then what the Prophets Christ and his Apostles have taught us concerning this weighty matter and of so great consequence and let us follow their example and instruction which lead us into all truth and not to listen to the contemners of holy Scripture They send those that are studious of the wayes to heaven to the Law and to the Testimonies Esai 8. to Moses the Prophets and the Scriptures not to the Traditions of the Elders and custome of Antiquity And they that bring any other doctrine are not to be listened unto neither may we bid them God speed The Word of the Lord is the way light and lanthorne to our Feet which send forth sufficiently the beames of truth and shines so clearly of it self as it may be both knowne proved expounded and unfolden by its own brightnesse They do as it were lend lustre unto the Sun from a smoaking snuffe that from the mist of the Fathers would bring light unto the Scriptures God is the Authour of the Scriptures who is the originall and fountaine of all light and
12. verse 24. and indeed from the ignorance of the Scriptures commeth all error they that follow the Scripture for their guide can never stray or straggle from the right way neither have they need to borrow the candle of the Fathers to be directed by so long as the glorious Sun of the word shineth so clearly and it was the eternall praise and commendations of the more Noble Bereans that they did dayly search the Scriptures whether the things the Apostles taught were so or no. Acts 17. verse 11. and Paul is greatly honoured with this applause in the 26. of the Acts verse 22. that he taught no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come to passe And so Christ taught his Apostles Luke 24. that all things ought to be fulfilled concerning him which were writ in Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes So that the Scriptures alone are the Foundation of all our religion and to say that the meaning of the Scriptures cannot be known without the Fathers is an unsufferable wickednesse done unto that holy booke and an infinite contempt and disgrace of it to say it hath need of the aid of man to support it Christ vanquished the Devill by the Scriptures Matth. 4. drove away the Saduces Matth. 22. and Saint Iames by the Scriptures put an end unto the great controversie of the Churches at Jerusalem and set the Churches of the Gentiles free for ever from all Ceremonies whatsoever but those God himselfe had appointed Acts 15. and onely by the Scriptures did Paul resolve all questions So that according to Gods owne instruction and direction which must ever be obeyed and listened unto the Scriptures onely and solely must be the Judge Law Square and Rule of all our Religion Words and actions Not the authority of the Fathers not the traditions of men not the practice and custome of the ancient and the name of Antiquity For they that shall preferre those things before the Word of God or at least affirme that these holy Oracles divine Records cannot be understood without the Fathers do not onely blasphemously disgrace and contemne the holy Scriptures but neglect the great Prophet whom we ought to heare in all things so that listening unto the voice of men before the words of this great Prophet and accusing the Scriptures of obscurity and saying they are the refuge of all Schismatickes and Heretickes is great impiety against God and most injurious to the holy Scriptures All which the Prelates being so highly guilty of the Defendant will never be afraid to charge them with it that they are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture withall that they are very ungratefull to the King their Master and invaders of his Prerogative Royall all which he shall make also evidently appeare to this honourable Court and how unworthily yea prophanely they have abused not onely the King their now Soveraign but his Most excellent Father of pious memory And that they are invaders of his Prerogative it is most certaine not onely by the Statutes and Lawes of the Kingdome but by this very information For by the Lawes and Statutes specified before with many others it in solemnly inacted That whatsoever Authority is here exercised under the King in his Dominions whether it be Spirituall or Temporall whether by Archbishops Bishops or any other Ecclesiasticall men it is meerly in by and from the King and so ought to be acknowledged and that all jurisdictions superiorities all priviledges and preeminencies spirituall and Ecclesicall are annexed unto the Imperiall Crowne and so to be acknowledged And whosoever doth not acknowledge that all jurisdicton and Authority both Spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth flow immediately from the Kings Majestie as Supreme head under Christ in these Churches and in his Kingdomes as the Statutes declare at large is ipso facto in a praemunire and under his Majesties high displeasure For it is the Prerogative of Princes and the priviledge that onely agrees to Kings and Potentates to be absolute in their Dominions and that all other jurisdictions and superiorityes exercised by any other in their Kingdoms are derived from them and that of themselves they have none but as from the Kings So that it is arbitrary and in the Princes power to have or not to have such jurisdictions and preeminencies under them And that they may abdicate or annihilate them when they please And whosoever shall deny this or claime any right of Government to themselves in Princes Dominions jure Divino are Delinquents against their Kings and Masters and by our Lawes and Statutes they are proclaimed enemies of the King and his Prerogative Royall and that is true the mouth of the Law hath spake it And therefore the Defendants book cannot be called a Libell without the Lawes first be proclaimed such for the Lawes say That all such persons as shall challenge any Authority to themselves in his Majesties Dominions but from the King are Delinquents against his Majestie and invaders of his prerogative Royall and his Highnesses enemies and so they are Now that the Prelates are such they sufficiently declared it in the censure of the Defendant For he reading the Statutes at the Bar they notwithstanding affirmed that they had not their Authority and jurisdiction from the King but that Jesus Christ made them Bishops and bestowed their Authority upon them and that they were jure Divino and that they were before Christian Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads for no Bishop no King and all this in a publick Court of Judicature and in a most crouded assembly So that it seemeth the King is beholding to them and not they to his Majestie And if this be not to invade the Prerogative and to be enemies of it and to be ungratefull unto his Highnesse the Defendant knoweth not what it is to be enemies of the prerogative The Lawes say it and therefore if the Defendant hath erred the Lawes have brought him into this error Neither did the Prelates own words at the Bar onely declare their disloyalty to the King and their independency on him but this very information which comes from the Prelates in the name of the Attorney Generall sufficiently demonstrates it For in it the Defendant is accused as guilty of a great crime for writing against the Hierarchy and preferring a Presbyterian parity before the Sacred Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons What the Defendant hath writ and the occasion of it concerning the Presbytery the honourable Court hath been informed in part and withall if so writing be libellous and the Defendant have erred in it the Holy Scripture is also libellous which were impiety to thinke and hath been the cause of it from which he varied nothing at all in that discourse and further the Defendant resolveth to live and die in that error concerning the parity of Ministers and Presbyters which
the Hierarchy be sacred and the Prelates be the chief members of it then they are a generation of sacred frogs the holinesse notwithstanding of the which is such as few mens impiety is greater or more dangerous to Church and State and their usurpation upon both authorities deserving severely to be punished especially for that they so abuse his sacred Majesties authority in oppressing his poore subjects and trampling upon his Prerogative so that to any eye of understanding it may sufficiently appear by that the Defendant hath said that the Prelates are not only contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture but also invaders of the Kings Prerogative Royall and enemies of his Imperiall Dignity It yet remaines to prove also that they have farther dishonoured the King their Master and King James of famous memory yea our most holy Religion and Profession and all this in the Defendants Censure For what any one of the Prelates did all the other assented to they being one Body and it was the action of them all though acted in the person of the Prelate of Canterbury which was this to magnifie the Church of Rome and defend the purity of her Doctrine affirming openly that she never erred in fundamentall points and was a true Church as much as to proclaime the King and all his Subj cts Schismatickes and Heretickes and that by the mouth of the Prelate of Canterbury which the Defendant saith is not onely injurious to the King their Master but to King Iames of famous memory his renowned Father with whom for piety and learning all the Prelates together are not to be named the same yeare his Royall excrements are mentioned King Iames that glorious and learned Prince in his Apologie to all Christian Princes and States proves the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist and the man of Sin by many unanswerable Arguments He proves likewise the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon for her abominations Spirituall Sodom for her filthinesse and uncleannesse Spirituall Egypt for her inslaving the Saints and Servants of God and all this he evinceth by irrefragable authority and thus taught he the whole world his Royall Son and all his subjects and perswaded all Christian Princes to come out of Babylon and to shake off the yoke of the Pope And in this faith he lived and died And this faith is King Charles his Son and our gracious Soveraigne now Defender of and all this is Orthodox Doctrine which our King did preach unto us and our Royall King now professeth and which all his Loyall Subjects to God and his Majestie will seale with their blouds This heroicall King notwithstanding and his divine Doctrine is stamped under foot by the Prelates to the infinite dishonour of our most pious and element Prince the eternall disgrace of his most incomparable Father and the discredit indeed of the whole Church and Kingdome if not indangering the same to the great hardening of the Papists in their Hereticall wayes and the perverting of the Kings most loyall Subjects and teaching the Papists to rebell And to all this the dignity and glory of the Scripture is offuscated by their sable mouthes So that what can any man either say or thinke of this progenie of Prelates whose contumacie and rebellion reacheth to the very clouds and what can men thinke of this degenerating off-spring of this age The one that they dare against God and the King openly breathe out their blasphemies and call evill good and good evil The other that they should out of cowardise suffer their Royall King and his most excellent Father to be abused But this Defendant hopeth that this honourable Court like that noble Nehemiah with other true-hearted loyall Subjects remaining about the King will now at last informe his Majestie of the intolerable insolence of the Prelates of which he beleeveth they were formerly ignorant or not so well acquainted and seeke by his authority for redresse against their impudencie As for this Defendant for his part he is resolved though left alone ever to say LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And although he should suffer a thousand torments from the Prelates living and dying he will ever cry LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And let the name of his learned and transcendent Father live to perpetuity And let the enemies of the King and the Gospel perish Neither will he ever suffer to the uttermost of his power That either the Kings honour or the dignity of his most illustrious Father or the glory of our most holy Profession or the honour of the holy Scriptures shall be contaminated or Babylon or superstition advanced in his Dominions and cruelty and injustice exercised by the Prelates over his poor Subjects and hold his peace All which evidently appeare in the daily proceedings of the Prelates in their High Commission and from their speech hourely there and their practises through the whole Kingdome Some of which he desireth in order to prove that the honourable Court may be the fuller informed that he hath not causlesly in his Apologie laid any crime unto their charge which they are not guilty of And now to proceed to the other things the Defendant is charged with viz. that he taxeth the High Commission Court of cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majestie to bloud-shed and are the upholders of idolatry superstition and profanenesse that he scandalously defameth the witnesses produced against him and that he hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the Oath ex officio and other the ancient formes of proceedings of the High Commission Court To all these the Defendant answereth as they lie And first whereas the Defendant chargeth them with cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance he conceiveth he hath very good reason for that his charge both in respect of himselfe and others and in regard both of the soules and bodies and estates of men all which they captive enslave or dissipate and scatter at pleasure and in as much as in them lies seeke the ruine of To say nothing of their dayly practices who condemne men without either exhibiting Articles producing of witnesses or any legall proceedings against them as if a man should be hanged without evidence given or indictment framed which is the height of injustice the Defendant saith that their very proceedings against himselfe sufficiently shew their cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and their very speeches apparantly prove all these things Neither is there such a president of wrong and cruelty in the whole world that any man of what ranke order or degree soever he be that shall write a Booke in defence of that Religion that is established by publicke authority for the honour of the King and in defence of his Prerogative against a common enemy that for this indeavour of his should be ruined he his wife and children cast into prison deprived first of all possibility of livelihood railed upon and reviled publickly