they onely who breake Gods law be cursed then all those who keep his law must needs be blessed and this much Moses expresly telleth the Israelites Deut. 11. Behold saith he I set before you this day a Blessing and a Curse the Blessing if ye obey the commandements of the Lord your God The Curse if ye will not obey the commandements of the Lord your God And if God the supreme Magistrate of all the world and the creator of all men and Magistrates will not punish any man except it be for some breach of his law how can any of his deputy Magistrates without pride or presumtion arrogate more or chalenge any power prerogative or authority to punish any man for that which is no fault no offence no vice no error no evill no sinne no transgression of any law whatsoever And here now my Lord behold the conformity both of our Kings and of the lawes of our Kingdom unto the word of God in this particuler our (d) King Iames confesseth so much in his speech to the Lords commons at whitehall on Wednesday 21 Martii 1609. p. 12. pag. 13. hee saith all Kings that are not tirants or periured wil be glad to bound them selves within the Jimites of their lawes they that perswad them the contrary are vipers pests both against them and the Common Wealth Kings chalenge no more our lawes made by their owne appointment confirmed by their owne authority which by oath they are bound to maintaine and which his (e) K. Charles in his declaration to all his loving subiects published by the advice of his privy councell 1641. pag. 20. saith wee doubt not it will bee the most acceptable declaration a King can make to his subiects that for our part we are resolved not only duely to observe the lawes Our selfe but to mainetaine them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of our being Majesty professeth he will maintaine against whatsoever opposition with the hazard of his owne being gives them no more This appeares out of the first of the first of Eliz. an act to restore unto the crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall which Sir Edward Coke in Cawdreys case calls an act onely declaratory and assertory of the ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne not collatory or introductory of any new right And what jurisdiction doth that act restore or more properly declare to be restored to the Crowne Namely all such spirituall and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as by any manner spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power or authority hath heretofore beene or may lawfully be exercised for the Uisitation of the state Ecclesiasticall and for the reformation of all manner errors heresies schismes abuses faults offences contempts enormities In which wordes my Lord there are three things expressed incident to the ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne First it is Soveraigne and supreame over and above all excluding and abrogating all forreigne including but not abrogating all domesticke jurisdiction Secondly it is such a jurisdiction as may lawfully be exercised it is not then an unlawfull but a lawfull jurisdiction And Thirdly it is for the reformation of all errors heresies schismes abuses faults offences contempts enormities It is no power then to punish men for truthes for conformity to the doctrine and discipline established for vertues for obedience to the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land no but for errors heresies schismes abuses faults offences contempts enormities And this my Lord doth likewise appeare by the end of that ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne expressed in that statute which is that all thinges in the Ecclesiasticall courts by vertue of that ancient Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of the Crowne may be done to the pleasure of Almighty God to the increase of vertue and to the maintenance of the peace and unity of this realme Now my Lord if the end of that ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne be for the maintenance of the peace and unity of this realme then that ancient iurisdiction of the Crowne cannot punish men for peace and unity but for discord and dissention not for obeying the lawes of this land which is a principall meanes to maintaine the peace and unity of this realme but for violating the lawes of the land which is a forcible meanes to breed discord and dissention Againe if the end of that ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne be for the increase of vertue then that ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne cannot punish men for their vertues but for their vices for otherwise that would be a meanes to decrease vertue and to increase vice And thirdly seeing the end of that ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne is that thereby all thinges in the Ecclesiasticall courts should be done to the pleasure of Almighty God and the pleasure of Almighty God as I have before shew'd out of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is that the Magistrate shall not be a terror to good workes but to evill Therefore the ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne cannot punish men for well doing but for evill doing not for keeping but for breaking Gods lawes and the Kings not for obedience but for disobedience not for vertue but for vice And this much my Lord is evident by all lawes for all lawes doe consist of a direction and a punishment and they inflict the punishment onely upon the transgressers not upon the observers of the direction of the law and this the Apostle sheweth in his 1. Epist to Tim. chap. 1. ver 8. We know the law is good if a man use it lawfully howe 's that why thus knowing this saith the Apostle that the law is not given to the righteous but to the lawlesse and disobedient what is not the law given to the righteous yet in respect of the direction not in respect of the punishment for because he observeth the direction of the law he is freed from the punishment of the law but to the lawlesse and disobedient the law is given in respect both of the direction and punishment and because they observe not the direction of the law they and they onely are liable to the punishment of the law and thereupon if any judge shall impose the punishment of the law upon any that doth not violate the direction of the law he crosses and confounds the very law it selfe and incurres that foule fault committed by Aâ—aniae the high Priest and excepted against by Saint Paul Acts. 23. Thou sittest to judge me after the law and contrary to the law commandest thou me to be smitten And therefore my Lord seeing the nature property and purpose of all lawes is to secure the observers and to lay the punishment of the law onely upon the violaters of the direction of the law It is needlesse to alleage any more particuler lawes to prove that which is the scope and intent of all lawes Yet I cannot pretermit one and I will alleage but one law of the land more to this purpose and that 's the
deputed to the Episcopall or ordinary jurisdiction and not reserved to the jurisdiction of the crowne or cognisance of the high commission Ratio 4 My fourth reason my Lord is taken from his Majesties commission granted to and pleaded by the commissioners which gives unto them onely a particular and a limited jurisdiction consisting in certaine Ecclesiasticall causes and certaine particuler offences against certaine particular lawes and not a generall jurisdiction in and over all Ecclesiasticall causes and offences as large and spatious as the canons and Ecclesiasticall lawes themselves And this will appeare my Lord by a particular enumeration of all the severall branches of the commission it selfe But this would bee a great labour and will be altogether needlesse whether the Defendants can shew any such branch of their commission or not for if they cannot shew any such branch of their Commission then doubtlesse the labour will bee needlesse seeing the proofe lies on their side no proofe being made sufficet neganti ut neget dummodo non probetur in contrariū And if they can shew any such branch of their commission then it shall suffice to confute that branch when the defendants or their counsell shal produce it I confesse my Lord that the Commission dated 11. Iacobi extends as far as the canons ecclesiasticall lawes themselues in cases concerning the reformation of Ministers for it gives in expresse termes power and authority to the commissioners to punish a Minister for any fault committed in his owne cure or else where that is punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of the Land but I am sure my Lord that there is no such branch in the commission pleaded by the Defendants and therefore in that very respect if in no other an information lies good against the commissioners and this court hath rightly assigned me for a prosecutor in an information against the commissioners for going beyond their commission And if there were any such branch in their commission that branch under favour were void because it is contrary to the sence and meaning to the scope and drift to the very letter and text of the 1 of the 1 Eliz. the statute whereupon their commission is grounded as shall now appeare by my next and Ratio 5 Fifth reason which is taken from the 1 of the 1 Eliz. and from the 19 of the 25. of Hen. 8. reviv'd in the first of Eliz. and therefore whatsoever the 1 of the 1 Eliz. doth particularly and expressly establish by reviving the 19 of the 25. of Hen. the 8. It is to bee presumed that it doth not in the same statute afterwards by generall tearmes abrogate for that were to make that statute like the high commission sentence against me to be at variance with it selfe and to have our part contrary to another why then my Lord seeing the first of the first of Eliz. by reviving the 19 of the 25. of Hen. 8. doth particularly and expressly allow unto the ordinary with in his diocesse a generall jurisdiction in reference to the canons and Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land It is not to bee supposed that in the following parts of that statute the Parliament did afterwards by generall tearmes take that away from the ordinary and therefore those insuing generall words which enables the King to nominate commissioners and by his commissioners to reforme and correct all manner errors heresies schismes faults offences enormities which by any manner of power or authority may be reformed doe not make voide the the former statute and generall jurisdiction of the ordinary but only shew that be the fault never so great so that the ordinary by vertue of his subordinate jurisdiction cannot sufficiently punish it yet it may be sufficiently punished by the Kings supreame jurisdiction within the land without going to the Pope out of the land for by that paragraph that is invested in the crowne which by the former paragraph was abolished and extinguisht in others and in the former paragraph all forraigne usurped power onely and not the ordinary jurisdiction is extinguisht So that by those former generall wordes such grear grievous and enormous crimes onely as the ordinary by vertue of his subordinate jurisdiction cannot sufficiently punish may be brought to the high Commission court and there fully punisht and yet the former statute and generall jurisdiction of the ordinary remaine whole and intire namely that breaches of Cannons or of Canonicall obedience unto the Canons belong to the jurisdiction of the ordinary and that be within his diocesse hath power to punish any fault punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land And this interpretation My Lord is warranted first by the very title of that statute which is an act to restore unto the crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and for abolishing all forraigne power repugnant to the same not for abolishing the ordinary jurisdiction which is subordinate unto it but for abolishing all forraigne power repugnant to the same And the abolishing of the one and the restoring of the other is the whole and sole cause and occasion of that statute as is more fully exprest in the beginning of that statute where the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons do all acknowledge that from the 25. yeare of Henry the 8. at which time all forraigne usurped power was by divers good lawes and statutes abolisht and the ancient Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction fully restor'd and united unto the Crowne they were kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and axactions untill such time as the aforesaid good laws an Statutes made since the 20. yeare of Henry the eight by one act in the first and second of Philip and Mary were all cleerely repeal'd whereby as they there complaine they were againe brought under an usurped forraigne power and yet remaine in that bondage to their intolerable charges if some releife be not had and provided and thereupon they supplicate that both the foresaid statute of repeale may be repealed and the foresaid good laws and Statutes for abolishing all forraigne usurped power and for restoring the ancient Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction unto the Crowne may be revived In all which there is not any one word spoken against the Ordinary jurisdiction but onely against forraigne usurped power and this being the onely greivance and the totall occasion of that law must direct us in the interpretation of that law for occasio legis indicat mentem legislatoris sensum legis Secondly by the oath of Supremacy extant in the same statute and made for the same purpose namely to abolish all forraigne power repugnant to the jurisdiction of the Crowne not to abolish the ordinary jurisdiction which is subordinate unto it Thirdly by those generall wordes wherein the Kings jurisdiction is exprest namely by these wordes all errors heresies schismes faults offences enormities which last word doth and must qualifie all the rest and doth shew that by those wordes
obedience onely that is with such obedience as the canons require For as Bishop Bilson in his forcited treatise de perpetua Christi Ecclesiae gubernatione saith In our Church metropolitani dâ—aecesani scriptis in quaque re legibus diriguntur and againe in our Church minime sibi sumunt diaecesani ut diaecesibus suis leges constituant quod tamen presbyteriis vestris in qualibet paraecia licere contenditis He speaks against the Presbyterians sed ut quas pii principes concilia rite celebrata decreverius executioni mandari faciant And thereupon afterwards he calls the Bishops of our Church in their severall jurisdictions custodes non conditores canorum which wordes of his doe fully approve of canonicall obedience and utterly exclude all arbitrary and blind obedience out of our Church And so my Lord by the definition both of canonicall and arbitrary obedience it appeares that Canonicall obedience is such obedience as the canons require and if if it exceed the Canons never so little it is no longer Canonicall but arbitrary My fourth reason to prove that canonical obedience is such obedience as the canons require is in my apprehension of more strength and force than the three former and it is taken from the 19. and 21. chap. of 25. of Henry 8. which acts doe so limit and confine the Clergy of this land unto the canons either made by a provinciall synode in this land and confirmed by his Majesties letters patents out of his prerogative royall or else made beyond sea and received here for lawes of this land by the Kings sufferance and the subjects free consent and usage that none of the Clergy in their severall jurisdictions can goe beyond those canons without incroaching upon the supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of the Crowne and therefore the Canonicall obedience approved and required in our Church by the oath of canonicall obedience must of necessity be such obedience as those canons require because the superiour clergy cannot out of command require more nor the inferiour clergy out of obedience yeild more without prejudice to the Kings supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction This will appeare most evidently by the first of the first of Eliz. by the 19. and 21. chap. of the 25. of Henry 8. and by the oath of supremacy The first of the 1. of Elizabeth is an act to restore unto the crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall then the crowne hath a jurisdiction and an ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiastical And as the first of the first of Eliz. doth shew that the crowne hath an ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall so the 19. and 21. chap. of the 25. of Henry 8. both revived in the first of the first of Elizabeth as parts of that ancient jurisdiction of the crowne over the state Ecclesiasticall doe shew how farre that ancient jurisdiction of the crowne doth extend over the state Ecclesiasticall and they doe extend it over the whole clergy and submit the whole clergy unto it in these two points or respects First concerning canons made beyond sea and then concerning canons made in this land Concerning canons made beyond sea they so farre submit the whole Clergy unto the prerogative royall and supreme jurisdiction of the Crowne that none of the clergy in their severall jurisdictions can execute or put in use any such forreine canons untill those forreine canons are first received heere for lawes of this land by the Kings sufferance and the Subjects free consent and custome Secondly among the canons in this land formerly made they abrogate all such canons as are contrary either to the supreme jurisdiction of the Crowne or to the statutes customes or common lawes of this land and approve and establish all the rest untill they be otherwayes ordered and determined by the 32. persons there mentioned and then concerning canons hereafter to be made in this land they submit the whole clergy unto the supreme jurisdiction of the crowne in these foure particulers The first particuler is that the Clergy cannot make any canons in their severall jurisdictions but onely when they meete in a provinciall synode The second particuler is that they cannot meete in a provinciall synode untill they be first call'd thither by the Kings writ The third particuler is when the clergy are so met being so call'd and have made canons that they cannot execute or put in use nay they cannot promulge or publish any one of these canons untill those canons are first confirmed by his Majesties letters patents out of his supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction And the fourth perticular is that so farre they may goe further they cannot And then in the third place comes the oath of supremacy and that binds every Bishop every judge every Clergie-man and every other person that hath taken that oath to defend and maintaine all those foresaid particulers of the prerogative royall of the crowne over the whole Clergy For the last clause of that oath bindes every one that takes it (a) The words of the oath are to his power but they are so interpreted by the right Honorable Thomas Earle of Arundell and Surrey Earle Marshall of England and Generall of his Maiesties forces in his treatise stiled Lawes and Ordinances of warre pag 26. where he expounds the former wordes by these even to the utmost of my power and hazard of my life to the utmost of his power to defend and maintaine all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities united or annexed to the imperiall Crowne of this realme So that if any of them shall extend canonicall obedience or the oath of canonicall obedience or the archidiaconall Episcopall or Archiepiscopall jurisdiction by vertue of canonicall obedience or of the oath of canonicall obedience beyond those canons he doth incroach upon the prerogative royall of the crowne withdraw his submission from his Maiesty presume to make canons within his owne jurisdiction violate the oath of supremacy transgresse the first of the first of Elizabeth and the 19. of the 25. of Henry 8. and is therefore by that statute liable to be fined and imprison'd at the Kings pleasure And so my Lord I have by foure reasons proved that the canonicall obedience in force in our church is such obedience as the canons in force in our church doe require and that all arbitrary and blind obedience is quite excluded as a thing utterly repugnant to the word of God to the doctrine and discipline of their orthodox church to the supreme jurisdiction of the crowne and to the ancient and just libertie and freedome of every free-borne Subject And now my Lord by one syllogisme grounded upon this canonicall obedience I will acquit my selfe and all other incumbents from preaching the visitation Sermon and shew that every visiter every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop is bound to preach his owne visitation Sermon and both these by vertue of canonicall obedience so that these two wordes which the defendants have
Servanda est cum mansuetudine humilitas ut bicet vix ferendum ab illa sancta sede imponatur jugum tamen feramus pia devetione toleremus Let us in memorie of S. Peter honour the holy Romane and Apostolike See Humility with meeknesse is to be observed that although a yoke hardly to be borne be put upon us by that holy See yet let us beare and endure it with pious devotion By which words saith Scioppius thou mayest know him to be a true Ishachar of whom it is written Gen. 49.14 Ishachar is a strong Asse couching down between two burdens he bowed his shoulder to bear And our Kings he calls refractory Asses without understanding because they would not submit their backs and shoulders to these burdens but did pedibus recalcitrare kick against these horsekeepers and muletors the Popish Clergie which would put these burdens upon them And in particular he calls our late Lord and Soveraigne King Iames whom I mention with singular reverence a very Asse without understanding because he would neither suffer the bridle to be put into his mouth nor any burden to be put upon him by that chiefe horse-keeper and Arch-muleter the Pope of Rome and was moreover a ringleader to the Romish Asses to do the like both by his example and also by his exhortation unto them in these words of the third Psalme Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us And though my Lord I do not charge either the High-Commissioners your Lp. this Court the Barons of the Exchequer or the Lords of the Counsell with those shamelesse and immodest words of Scioppius which even impudency and insolency would blush to utter against the Lords Anointed and his immediate deputies and Vicegerents Yet I must tell your Lordship that all of you have a great part and share in the matter it selfe The High-Commissioners by two finall sentences as I have formerly shew'd have advanc'd the Apocryphall uncanonicall anticanonicall antidiplomaticall antiprerogative antisuprematicall postscript private letter and message of M. Doctor Ringsley Arch-Deacon of Cant. above the Canons of this orthodox Church above his Majesties Letters Patents above his royall Prerogative above a royall Prerogative invested in the Crown by God himself acknowledged by Article by Statute by Canon nay above a royall Prerogative which every one that hath taken the oath of Supremacy is bound to the utmost of his power to defend and maintain And they have fin'd imprison'd depriv'd degraded and excommunicated me for my obedience to the Canons of this Church to his Majesties Leters Pat. and to his royall Prerogative and so vertually by consequence and by necessary implication they have fin'd imprison'd depriv'd degraded and excommunicated the King himselfe for requiring such obedience of me And your Lp. and the Court by affirming the Commissioners second finall sentence the sentence of deprivation and degradation have approved of all this and the Barons of the Exchequer by imprisoning me for the 500 l. fine impos'd upon me by the Commissioners first finall sentence have done as much and the Lords of the Counsell by imprisoning me for a Petition wherein I justly complain'd both against the High-Commissioners for their former presumptions and also against your Lordship and this Court for your disobedience to his Majesties most just mandate have approved of both So that you * Quilibet homo doctus potest debet toti concilio resistere si videat illud ex malitia vel ignorantia errare Gerson 1. parte de examinatione doctrinarum Cosider 5. all joine together Regem fraenare to put a bridle upon the King yea Regem loro alligare to raine in the King and his supreame jurisdiction nay in very deed Regi jugum onus imponere to put a yoke and burden upon the King and such a yoke and burden as was never yet put upon any of his royall Predecessors If the first of the first of Eliz. 19. of 25. of Hen. 8. and Sir Edw. Coke in Cawdries Case deceive me not For by all these it appears that the Crown had ever a jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and now you all do not only exempt the state Ecclesiasticall from the jurisdiction of the Crowne but also subordinate the jurisdiction of the Crown to the state Ecclesiasticall and do both advance the postscript private Letter and message of every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop above the Canons of this Church above his Majesties Letters Patents and royall Prerogative and thereby also elevate the person of every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop above the person of the King according to this rule Cum duo Domini contraria jubent qui obedit minori resistit majori is minorem majori proefert proeponit which is an intollerable injury indignity and injustice the King himselfe but also against not only against God himselfe from whom the King hath receiv'd his Supreame jurisdiction and whose immediate Deputy the King is And therefore as my most reverend Diaecesan and Provinciall my Lords Grace of Canterbury in his Epistle before his Speech in the Starchamber termino paschae 1637. doth rightly observe against Scioppius and such as he is that blasphemy against God and slandering the footsteps of Gods Anointed are joyned together Psa 89. Because he that blasphemes God will never stick at the slander of his Prince and he that gives himselfe liberty to slander his Prince will quickly ascend to the next highest and blaspheme God So I may as truly observe against his Grace the High-Commissioners your Lordship this Court the Barons of the Exchequer and the Lords of the Counsell that justice towards the King and justice towards God are both joyned together by our Saviour in one verse Mat. 22. because he that out of conscience is just towards one will be just towards both and he that is wittingly unjust towards one will easily be unjust towards both Nay my Lord seeing the King receives his supreame jurisdiction immediately from God he that is unjust towards the King by depriving him of any part of his supreame jurisdiction must of necessity ipso facto be unjust towards God for as hee that renders unto Cesar that which is Cesars by the gift of God doth eo ipso render unto Cesar that which is Cesars and unto God that which is Gods so he that takes from Cesar that which is Cesars by the right of God doth eo ipso take from Cesar that which is Cesars and from God that which is Gods And therefore my Lord when the High Commissioners your Lordship this Court the Barons of the Exchequer and the Lords of the Counsell doe all in the former manner regem fraenare put a bridle upon the King yee doe all eo ipso Deum fraenare put a bridle upon God himselfe when ye doe all in the former manner regem loro alligare raine in the King and his supreame jurisdiction yee doe all eo ipso Deum loro