their Persons H. B. displeased that the Bishops doe challenge their Episcopall authoritie from our Saviour The challenge of Episcopall power from Christ and his Apostles neither new nor strange as H. B. pretednds Of the Episcopall succession in the Church of England Episcopall succession how esteemed and valued amongst the Antients The derivation of Episcopall discent from the Church of Rome no prejudice vnto the Hierarchy or Church as H. B. makes it The Bishops antiently called Reverend Fathers The scandalous and scornfull attributes given by H. B. to the Bishops in the generall and to some of the chiefe of them in particular A briefe replie to all his cavills against the chiefe of those particulars H. B. makes his addresse to all sorts of people to joyne together with the King to destroy the Bishops and is content to run an hazard of his own life so it may be done The ruine of the Bishops made by H. B. the only present meanes to remove the Plague A generall answere to these slanderous and Seditious passages LEt us now looke upon your dealing with my LL. the Bishops how you handle them their place their persons their proceedings who being the principall object of your malice must not expect more civill usage then the King their Master especially considering in cold blood how they have provoked you by calling you forth upon the stage However use them as you please you have one good shelter For if your stile seeme sharper then usuall wee are to blame if wee impute it not to your zeal and fidelity for God and the King being you are to encounter those who be adversaries to both Begin then zealous sir wee stand ready for you First then you quarrell with the calling and stomack it exceedingly that some of them should say in the High Commission being put unto it by your Brother Bastwick that they had their Episcopal authority from Christ and if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets And so say you they might their Capps too for any such proofe they can bring for it p. 68. What more It 's plaine that they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ Ibid. Well then what hurt of this Thus you see our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierarchy then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines since the Reformation till yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselves they very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome And this you say because it is affirmed by Dr. Pocklington that we are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from Saint Peter to Saint Gregory and from to our first Archbishop Saint Austin our English Apostle downwards to his Grace that now sits in the chaire c. p. 69. Thus also in the Newes from â—pswich you are much offended with the Prelates that they will needs be Lord Bishops jure divino by the holy Ghosts own institution and shame not to stile themselves the Godly Holy Fathers of our Church and Pillars of our faith when as their fruites and actions manifest them to be nought else but Step-fathers and Catter-pillers the very pests and plagues of both And not long after you bestow a gentle touch on Dr. Pocklington calling the Prelates as your use is the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist from whom D. Pocklington boasts they are lineally descended But whatsoever be the claime from Christ or his Apostles or the Church of Rome you have found out a fitter Author of the holy Hierarchie even the spirit that beares rule in the aire the devill Who doth not only haunt the Pallaces of Prelates perhaps he went sometimes upon your occasions but hath infused such a poison into the chaire of this Hierarchie as that man who sits in it had need to be strongly fortified with Preservatives and Antidotes of true Reall Grace not nominall and titular that is able to overcom the infection of it p. 106. This is the summe of what you say or repeat rather with a nil dictum quod and this is hardly worth the saying by so great a Rabbin the answere being made before the objection yet since you say it something must bee sayd about it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your first exception is that the Episcopall authoritie is claimed from Christ and that some of the Bishops said in the High Commission that if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets This is no more then what had formerly beene said in the conference at Hampton Court when on occasion of Saint Hieromes saying that a Bishop was not divinae ordinationis the Bishop of London Dr. Bancroft interposed that unlesse hee could prove his ordination lawfull out of the Scriptures he would not be a Bishop foure houres You see then this is no new saying devised but yesterday and contrary to what hath beene the judgement of all our Divines since the reformation as you please to tell us The learned workes of Bishop Bilson entituled The Perpetuall government of Christs Church and those of Dr. Adrian Saravia against your Patriarke Theodore Beza de diversis ministerii gradibus with many others of those times shew manifestly that you are an impudent Impostor and care not what you say so you make a noise And yet I cry you mercy I may mistake you not knowing exactly what you meane by your Our Divines For if by your Divines you meane the Genevian Doctors Calvin and Beza Viret and Farellus Bucan Vrsinus and those others of forreine Churches whom you esteeme the onely Orthodox professours you may affirme it very safely that the derivation of Episcopall authority from our Saviour Christ is utterly disclaimed by your Divines Calvin had never else invented the Presbytery nor with such violence obtruded it on all the reformed Churches neither had Beza divided Episcopatum into Divinum humanum and Satanicum as you know he doth But if by our Divines you meane those worthies of the Church who have stood up in maintenance of the holy Hierarchie against the clamours and contentions of the Puritan faction or such as are conformable unto the Articles and orders of the Church of England you do most shamelessely traduce them as your custome is and make them Patrons of that Tenet which they most opposed For tell me of a truth who is it which of our Divines that holds Episcopall authority to be derived from any other fountaine then that of Christ and his Apostles and that conceive their ordination is not de jure divino grounded and founded on the Scriptures and thence deduced by necessary evident and undeniable illation if any such there be hee is one of yours Travers and Cartwright and the rest of your Predecessours men never
them Iew then the Christian in them about the time when the declaration came forth All that my Lord the Archbishop had to doe therein was to commit the publication of it to his suffragan Bishops according to his Maties just will and pleasure and if that be the thing you except against your quarrell is not at his Act but his obedience Last of all where you say that with his right hand he is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven and that hee hath a Papall infallibility of spirit by which as by a Divine Oracle all questions in religion are finally determined that onely is put in because you have a minde to charge on him those innovations as you call them that you complaine of in the Church What innovations you have noted wee shall see hereafter when they will prove to be no other then a sicke mans dreame I onely tell you now that in all the Hierarchy you could not possibly have pitched on one lesse liable and obnoxious to the accusation For being vir antiquae fidei and antiquissimi moris take them both together you may be sure he neither will nor can doe any thing that tends to innovation either in faith or discipline In case your selfe and such as you would suffer him in quiet to restore this Church to its antient lustre and bring it unto that estate in which it was in Queene Elizabeths first time before your predecessours in the faction had turned all decency and order out of the publicke service of Almighty God I dare presume he would not trouble you nor them by bringing in new ordinances of his owne devising But this if he endeavour as hee ought to doe you charge him presently for an innovator not that he innovates any thing in the antient formes of worship in this Church established but that he labours to suppresse those innovations which you and those of your discent have introduced into the same But one may see by that which followes that it is malice to his person and no regard unto the Church that makes you picke out him to beare so great a share in these impudent clamours For where his grace had tooke great care for inhibiting the sale of bookes tending to Socinianisme and had therefore received thankes from the penne of a Iesuite as your selfe informes us that his most pious care is by you calumniated for prohibiting of such bookes as exalt the sole authority of Scripture for the onely rule of faith p. 153. I see Socinus and his followers are beholding to you for your good opinion and so you may cry downe the Prelates you care not how you doe advance the reputation of such desperate heretickes But it is now with him and the other Prelates as heretofore it was with the Primitive Christians Tanti non est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum as Tertullian hath it Nor stay you here Other particulars there are which you have a fling at You tell us of my Lord of Ely whose bookes you are not fit to carry that if he undertake an answer unto your doughty dialogue betweene A. and B. Surely he will sacrifice all the remainder of his reason if any be left in him upon it Why so For you are sure he can neuer answer it except with rayling and perverting wherein lyeth his principall faculty your owne you meane in fighting against the truth c. p. 127. Of my Lord Bishop of Chichester you give this Item that it were strange if such a mystery of iniquity as you there complaine of should be found in any but a Prelate and in this one by name for a tryed champion of Rome and so devout a votary to his Queene of Heaven p. 126. My Lord of Norwich is entituled in the Newes from Ipswich by the name of little Pope Regulus most exceeding prettily And finally you tell us of those Bishops that attend the Court whom you include unâ—er the name of Amasiahs as did your learned Counsell in his Histrio-Mastix that there 's not any thing more common in their mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the land the Kings most loyall dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects whom they accuse you say as factious seditious and turbulent persons dissaffected to present government enemies of the Kings prerogative and what not p. 48.49 So you but were it any thing materiall I could tell you otherwise and make it manifest both to you and all the world that those whom you traduce most fouly and against whom your stomacke riseth in so vile a manner are such who both for their endeavours for this Churches honour fidelity unto the service of the King and full abilities in learning have had no equals in this Church since the Reformation This could I doe if I conceived it proper to this place and time and that I did not call to minde what Velleius taught me viz. Vivorum ut magna admiratio ita censura est difficilis Nor doe you onely breath out malice but you threaten ruine you conjure all the kingdome to rise up against them and magnifie those disobedient spirits which hitherto have stood it out in defiance of them and seeme content in case their lives might runne an hazard to foregoe your owne For likening them unto the builders of the Tower of Babel p. 32. you doe thus proceede But as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so O Lord. p. 33. And more then so you tell us also by what meanes it shall come to passe viz. that it shall rise as it were from beneath them whereas their height seemes to secure them from all danger as trampling all things under feete c. yet by that which seemeth to them most contemptible shall they fall from that which is below them shall their calamity arise p. 97. However to make all things sure you stirre both heaven and earth against them You let the nobility to understand that if we sit downe thus and hide us under the hatches whilest the Romish Pirats doe surprize us and cut our throates c. What Volumes will be sufficient to chronicle to posterity the basenesse of degenerous English spirits become so unchristianized as to set up antichrist above Christ and his annointed and to suffer our selves to be cheated and nose-wiped of our religion lawes liberties and all our glories and that by a sort of bold Romish mountebankes and juglers p. 20. What then advise you to be done that in the name of Christ they rouze up their noble and christian zeale and magnanimous courage for the truth and now sticke close to God and the King in helping the Lord and his annointed against the mighty p. 23. In your addresse unto the Iudges you conjure them thus For Gods sake therefore sith his Majesty hath committed unto you the sword of Iustice
in of Poperie tooth and nayle for Poperie confederating with Priests and Jesuites for rearing up of that religion and setting up againe the the throne of Anti-Christ and all their actions you interpret to tend that way Next you crie out how much the people are oppressed contrarie to their rights and liberties affirming that the Bishops doe not onely over toppe the royall throne but that they trample the lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings subjects under their feete and cutt the people off from the free use and benefit of the Kings good lawes Which said and pressed in every place with all spight and rancour you call upon the nobles to rowze up their noble Christian zeale and magnanimous courage upon the judges to drawe forth their sword of justice upon the Courtiers nobles others if they have any sparke of pietie now to put their helping hands in so great a neede and lest all these should faile you call upon the nation generally to take notice of their Antichristian practises to redresse them withall their force and power What doe you thinke of this Alarme this Ad arma ad arma this calling of all sorts of people to combine together to rouze their spirits drawe their swords put to their hands muster upp all their force and power doe you not thinke this comes within the compasse of sedition have not you done your best or your worst rather to raise an insurrection in the state under pretence of looking to the safety of religion and the Subjects rights I wil not judge your conscience I leave that to God But if one may collect your meaning by your words and writings or if your words and writings may bee censured not onely according to the effect which they have produced but which they might you are but in a sorry taking And because possiblie when you finde your danger you will the better find your error and so prepare your selfe for a sincere and sound repentance I will a little lay it open Make you what use there of you shall thinke most fitt And first supposing that these your factious and false clamours are onely such as might occasion discord betweene my LL. the Bishops and the Commons where had you beene then there passed a Statute still in force 2. Ric. 2. cap. 5. for punishment of Counterfeiters of false newes and of horrible and false messages mistaken in the English bookes for the French Mensonges i. e. â—â—es of Prelates Dukes Earles Barons and other Noâ—â—es and great men of the Realme c. of things which by the said Prelates Lords c. were never spoken 〈◊〉 or thought pray marke this well in great slander of the said Prelates c. whereby debates and discords might arise not doth but might arise betwixt the said Lords and Commons which God forbid and whereof great perill and mischiefe might come to all the Realme and quicke subversion and destruction of the said Realme if due remedie bee not provided And for the remedy provided which in this statute was according to that of Westminster the first before remembred that in the 12. of this King Richard cap. 11. is left to the discretion of his Majesties Councell So that what ever punishment His Majesties most honourable Privie Councell may inflict upon you you have justly merited in taking so much paines to so bad a purpose as to set discord and debate betweene the Prelates and the people But where you have gone further to excite the people what say I people nay the Lords Judges Courtiers all the Nation generally to draw their powers and force together I see no reason why you should bee so angry with the High Commissioners for laying sedition to your charge or if that please you better a seditious Sermon And being a seditious Sermon then and a seditious Pamphlet now dispersed up and downe throughout the kingdome especially amongst those whom you and such as you have seasoned with a disaffection to the present governement What have not you for your part done to put all into open tumult I doe not meane to charge it on you but I will tell you how it was resolved in former times by Bracton and Glanvill two great Lawyers in those dayes viz. Siquis machinatus fuerit vel aliquid fecerit in morteÌ„ D. regis vel ad seditioneÌ„ regis vel exercitus sui vel coÌ„senserit coÌ„siliumve dederit c licet id quod in voluntate habuit non produxerit ad effectum tenetur tamen criminis laesae Majestatis Construe me this and you will find your selfe in a pretty pickle And I will tell you also two particular cases which you may find with little paines in our common Chronicles The first of one John Bennet Wooll-man who had in London scattered schedules full of sedition and for that was drawn hanged and beheaded in the fourth yeare of Henry the Fifth The other of Thomas Bagnall Jo. Scot Jo. Heath and Jo. Kennington who being all Sanctuary men of Saint Martins le Grand were taken out of the said Sanctuary for forging of seditious Bills to the slander of the King and some of his Counsell will you marke this well for the which three of them were condemned and executed and the fourth upon his plea returned to Sanctuary in the ninth yeare of King Henry the Seventh I instance only in these two because both ancient both of them hapning before the Statute 23. Eliz. 〈…〉 which being restrained unto the naturall life of the said Queene is not now in force and which as long as it continued was a strong bridle in the mouths of your forefathers in the Faction to hold them in from publishing and printing such seditious Pamphlets The common Chronicles will tell you how that most excellent Lady dealt with those who had offended her in that kinde wherein you excell Thaâ—ker and Capping Barrow Greenwood Studly Billot and Bowlar Penry and Vdall zealous Puritans all being all condemned to death and the more part executed And you may please to know for your further comfort that in King James his time May the third Anno 1619. one Iohn Williams a Barrister of the middle Temple was arraigned at the Kings Bench for a seditious book by him then but lately writteÌ„ secretly disperst abroad never printed as yoâ—urs are or which hee was condemned and executed at Charing crosse some two dayes after And it was afterwards resolved at the first censure of Mass Prynne in the Starre-chamber by the Lord Chiefe Justice that then was that had hee beene put over to his Tribunall hee had beene forfeit to the gallowes All which being represented to you I close up my addresse in the words of Tullie Miror te quorum act a imitere eorum exitus non perhorrescere So God blesse the man And yet I must not leave you so As I have raised one use for your reprehension so give mee leave to raise one more for the