should be interpreted a confession of guilt and inability to wipe off such desperate and malicious slanders And herein I have for my warrant the authority of the same Father who having upon the grounds before mentioned long held his peace and with patience overcome the rage of his adversaries at length hee thus breaks forth Seeing thou Demetrianus Sed enim cum dicas plurimos conqueri quod bella crebriùs surgant quod lues quod fames saeviont quodque imbres pluvias serena longa suspendant nobis imputari tacere ultranon oportet ne jam non verecundiae sed diffidentiae esse incipiat quod tacemus dum criminationes falsas contemnimus refutare videamur crimen agnoscere Respondeo igitur c. Cypr. loc suprà citat saist many complaine that it is to be imputed to us Christians that warres so often rise that plague and famine doe rage and that wee have such long droughts We must no longer be silent lest now it bee not modesty but diffidence that we hold our peace and while we scorne to refute your criminations we should seeme to acknowledge the crime Upon these considerations and in imitation of that holy Father and Martyr I have set upon this worke in a calme and compendious way to endeavour the stopping of the mouth of detraction and to shew the groundlesnesse and vanity of those suspicious jealousies and clamors which of late have beene raysed in many parts of this Kingdome and which Mr. B. having first vented in the Pulpit did after send abroad gathered into one bundle in his book intituled An Apology of an Appeale c. And though I know it to be most true that among the ruder sort and common people the lowdest cry takes the most eares and that audacious errours and bold calumnies finde more free entertainment and welcome with light and weak judgments than peaceable and modest truth And that there seeme so great an indisposition and disaffection in the minds and hearts of some in these dayes either to the present Authority or to the things by it either commended or enjoyned that important truths and wholesome orders becomming once countenanced or pressed by authority in stead of credit and obedience receive nothing but clamor and detraction and that such as according but as duty bindeth them doe undertake to plead in their just cause or speake in their defence shall from many in stead of thankes gaine nothing but odious and opprobrious names and contumelies Yet withall I know and am perswaded that the iniquity of the times is not such but that truth and a good cause may yet finde equall judges who following the precept of our blessed Saviour Iudge not according to appearance Iohn 7. 14. but judge righteous judgment not taking their information of a cause from the cry of the crowde or rumor of the people which for the most part conveighs not the truth of the cause but the affections of the reporters but from right and solid grounds weighing things in the ballance not of profit or particular interest but of sound reason and abstracting the cause from the parties and from malevolent aspersions wherewith truth many times is obscured and defaced doe imbrace truth in the love of it And others there are no doubt who though led away for the present with the example of the multiutde and ensnared by the opinion they have unwarily drunk in of the worth of the broachers of error yet will notwithstanding be patient of better information and upon due consideration be ready to expresse their love to truth and peace To these sorts of men principally I addresse my selfe in this discourse whom I shall desire not to expect that verbosity much lesse that virulency opprobrious language which Mr. B. useth I leave that contention and victory to base mindes and shall study rather what is fit for me to speake than what he and such as he deserve to heare Neither doe I reckon upon their censure who judge of bookes not by the weight but by the words For as S. Austine saith well what is more talkative than vanity which yet cannot therefore Quid loquacius vanitate Quae non ideo potest quod veritas quia si voluerit etiam plus potest clamare quam veritas Sed considerent omnia diligenter et si forte sine studio partium judicantes talia essè perspexerint quae potius exagitari quâ—m convelli possint garrulitate impudent issima et quasi satyrica velmimica levitate cohibeant suas nugas et potius â— prudentibus emendari quam laudari ab imprudentibus eligant Aug. de civ l. 5. c. 27. doe that which truth can because it can cry lowder And I would to God that Mr. B. and if there bee any other of his minde and temper would as the same Father addes in that place consider all things diligently and if haply judging without partiality they shall perceive the things against which they have rayled such bitter invectives by their impudent pratings and Satyre-like or mimical lightnesse to be such as may rather be exagitated than confuted they would represse their scandalous trifles and choose rather to be rectified by the judicious than to be applauded by the unskilfull As for those who are the abettors and applauders of those contumelies and criminations cast upon the government and governors of the Church and State and so fautors and propagators of the suspitions and discontents received against them whether they bee in the same gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or only seduced by their leaders I shall only desire one boone from them namely that they would cease to have mens persons in admiration for profit sake or any other by-respect and endure with patience the examination of their complaints by the word of God and sound reason the only infallible rules of sound judgement That they would not as they are wont think those whom their popular breath hath swollen great to be the only oracles of truth and patrons of religion and godlinesse and in comparison of them contemne and vilifie all others even those of highest eminency and authority in the Church and State and reject whatsoever though never so reasonable shall proceed from them as if their doctrine were deadly and their persons Anathema Maranatha This request if they shall grant me I doubt not but the unnaturall heat of their distemper will in some measure be abated and they brought to entertaine a more reverent and dutifull esteeme of their superiours and begin to study to maintaine the peace of the Church which the proposterous zeale of boisterous spirits hath of late so much disturbed CHAP. II. A short Relation or Description of Mr. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the People The course hee hath since taken in his
approbation of many more than of their owne straine till at length their purposes were unvailed and their aime discovered which was the erecting of a seminary at Saint Antholins subordinated to a Classis or Clerolaicall Consistory who had power at least in their intentions to plant there such hopefull imps as should bee fit upon the falling of any of their purchased Impropriations to be removed transplanted into great populous places in this Kingdom in which they endeavoured so to fasten and fence these transplanted choice ones that no Ecclesiasticall censure should touch or deprive them of their maintenance by that meanes hoping in such places to use the words of a prime agent in that cause to establish the Gospel by a perpetuall decree to this end also they had sundry attempts of which these two were famous First the striving by money to purchase the place of an Head of an house in Oxford for one of their owne party for the first trayning up of their novices in their misteries And the other was in the like way their attempt for the getting of a Commissaries place there where they intended to make a speciall plantation who being after their own hearts might winke at their irregularities and secure them from the danger of that Court The scanning of which and other their attempts I leave to the indifferent and intelligent In the meane time I shall ever blesse God that put it into the heart of His sacred Majesty and the State timely to discover and prevent this their purpose before it had undermined the present government of the Church as no question it would have given a good say to it if it had without controule proceeded as it began And for this that learned and famous man in his profession Master William Noy at that time His Majesties Attorney generall deserves an honorable memory among those that are true well-willers to the Church and State whose industrie and zealous paines in this cause was a chiefe meanes of it's discovery and overthrow And that the rather because for that one peece of service sake he fell totally and finally from the grace and favour of that faction and Master B. or the Author who ever he was of that libell annexed to his Divine Tragedy as if he were some fury whose hate death could not pacifie for that and his service against Prynne tramples upon his memory and pisses as it were upon the ashes of him and his unfortunate eldest sonne whom he reserves for the last scene of that his late audaciously vented fable as if hee had beene the most remarkable prodigie of impiety by him brought upon the State But I leave him his presumptuous censurers to the judgement of God which whatsoever theirs be I am sure is according unto truth Neither will it boote Rom. 2. 2. them that which they now so much boast of their persons are accepted for there is no respect of persons with God in the day wherein hee shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ But I finde my selfe digressed to returne therfore and to conclude that which I intended by this briefe relation of the Doctrine and practices of these men it may manifestly appeare who they are that may rightly bee termed Innovators and broachers of novell opinions and practises in this Church and how easie it were by way of recrimination to cry quittance with Master B. and for his eight to charge him and his party with five times that number not such as his fond surmises ignorantly and falsely accused of novelty and superstition but really and truly such having neither Canon nor Article of the Church for them nor any solid foundation in the Word of God and which are some of them at least as dangerous to the soules of men and as great enemies to the power of godlinesse as any of those which hee taketh for such as are by him pretended to be If any man complaine of brevity or of confusion and want of order in the relation let him know I intended it rather for a taste and to shew what might be done in that way than for any full discourse which would have required more than my present leisure and have swoln my booke too much beyond its intended proportion If they judge it defective as wanting proofe and because I have not produced the Authors of those opinions which I mention I answer to the same purpose that it did not stand with my present intentions which was only to point out the things in a cursory way in which I conceive the producing of proofes and Authors might well be spared But for further answer I say that I did it for two other reasons First because the things are so well knowne yea and acknowledged by those from whom if from any contradiction was to bee expected that I could not thinke it necessary Secondly because I could not doe it without bringing some mens names and writings upon the Stage which if I had done Master B. in his next treatise would have stiled me as bad as hee hath done my betters but that did not so much diswade me as the respect I beare to many of their persons from whom though for the truths sake I must testifie my dissent yet I shall never by Gods grace expresse any disaffection to their persons or procure them any blame or blemish so long as they as I verily beleeve many of them heartily doe remain studious of true piety and of the Churches peace What I have written in this kinde God himselfe knowes whom I have served in it I have written out of love to truth and peace and of them who are mis led by these errors and therefore I say to them as Saint Augustine concluding an Epistle of his to some of Donatus partly * Erit autem vobis bic sermo quem de munere Dei novit ipse quanta pacis vestra dilectione de prompsimus correctio si velitis testis verò et si nolitis August Epist 162. in fine That this that I have done shall bee if they please a correction of their errors but if not a witnesse against them FINIS Errata PAge 40. line 18. dele wise p. 53. l. 3. dele to p. 58. l. 16. for callenge r. challenge p. 61. l 13 for thoses r. those p. 71. l. 15. for displease r. displeaseth p. 86. l. 25. for doth best r. doth least p. 149. l. 4. for fire r. five p. 153. l. 3. for that they r. they that p. 159. l. 8. for Majesties r. Majesty item l. 14.
p. 56. for sports and often elsewhere and therefore that they are not the Kings acts What doth he else but perswade the people who for all his glosse beleeve them as indeed who can beleeve otherwise to be his That His Majesty is I tremble to speak it out such as he makes them whom he intitles to those acts And then what may we Calv. Inst l. 4. c 20. et 31. Bucan loc 40 77. See Goodman p. 190. expect to follow but the practise of that doctrine which is taught in many of his Orthodoxe Authors The withstanding and opposing of their commands and deposing of their persons But this passage is better answered by the justice of authority than a Scholers pen. Let us see then what it is he findes fault with in this Declaration First he intimates that Gods truth that is the saving doctrines of Election Predestination effectuall vocation Assurance and perseverance are thereby silenced and suppressed Be it so Is it not better that some truth for a while be suppressed than the peace of the Church disturbed St. Augustine saith It is prositable to keepe in some truth for their Facile est imo utile ut â—aceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Aug. de persev SanctoruÌ„ c. 15. sakes that are uncapable and surely we might truly say of the time when this Declaration was published by His Majesty that men were uncapable of these doctrines When men begin once to strive about names to quarrell about abstruse mysteries to side one against the other and to count each other Anathema as it was with our neighbours and began to be with us was it not time to enjoyne silence to both parties All truths wee know are not of the same rank or of equall necessity some things there are which must be preached in season and out of season but those points he mentions come not within that number And though the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is ful of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons as our Church Article speakes that is if wise men in this argument Artic. 17. can be content to be wise unto sobriety and thus farre truth even in these points is not by the Declaration suppressed nor our Articles of Religion to which we all subscribe hung up upon the wall and cashier'd And though this may in some sense be called a saving doctrine yet not so as the ignorance of it should exclude from salvation However taking it in the sense he intends for those absolute and peremptory decisions desperate positions and high speculations and such as are opposite to the receiving of Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in the holy Scripture and harping upon that will of God which is secret and not declared unto us in the word of God which is the doctrine Multa etenim benè tecta latem neâ—câ—taâ— prosunt c. vid. Carm de Ingrat which he aymes at we may count this doctrine among those things of which Prosper saith that they profit being unknowne And Mr. Burton is much deceived and deceives the people when hee saith Thus the Ministery of the Gospell is at once overthrowne and nothing but orations of morality must be taught the people Indeed Mr. Burtons Gospell is thus overthrowne which consists in such daring speculations But blessed be God the Gospell of Christ by this meanes hath had a freer passage than it was like to have had if things might have beene suffered to have gone on as they begun And then is the Gospel in most vigor when the people by it are instructed what it is that God hath commanded and what they ought to doe which in contempt he calls orations of morality God doth not bring men to heaven by difficult questions the way to eternity is plaine and easie to be knowne To beleeve that Iesus Christ was raised from the dead to acknowledge him to be Lord and Christ and to live soberly righteously and religiously in this present world is the summe of saving doctrine and Christian religion and this is left written for our learning in so plaine characters that he that runs may read it And therefore it is good counsell which the son of Syrach gives Seeke not out the things that are above thy strength But what is commanded Ecclus. 3. 21. thee thinke thereupon with reverence And what the Iesuit thinks of this way of silencing Contzen polit controversies it is not much to be regarded yet it seemes Mr. B. and he jumpe in opinion here as well as in other things But how this should be a meanes to restore the Roman-Catholick religion for men to be enjoyned to hold themselves to the Articles of the Church of England and as it is in the Declaration that no man shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plaine and full meaning thereof c. This I confess is beyond my capacity But by this meanes there is not one Minister almost among a thousand that dare clearely preach of these most comfortable doctrines Of Absolute Election and Reprobation and so soundly and roundly confute So I finde it printed diverse times in the place the Arminian heresie And blessed be God that there are so few that dare and I wish that Mr. B. and those others that have dared would have shewed more obedience to his Majesty As for the comfortableness of that doctrine as they teach it let the poore tormented consciences speake which have by it beene affrighted and driven to desperation I heard one once an acquaintance of Mr. Burtons making this objection against his preaching about reprobation that said It was very fit that therefore it should bee taught that men that found in themselves the marks of reprobation should be driven to horror and despaire and have hell fire kindled in them here in this life A most comfortable doctrine no question CHAP. VII Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentals What are fundamentals in Mr. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants FOr the bookes that he saith of late times have come abroad maintaining Popery and Arminianisme My answer is that Mr. Burton knowes well enough how to get bookes printed in spight of authority and therefore he cannot lay the blame there if any such have past out without license And for those that have Bishop Mount Appeale Dr.
but to assert the Doctrine of St. Paul commanding Phil. 2. 12. us to Work out our salvation with feare and trembling and of St. Peter who tells us 2 Pet. 1. 11. That thus an entrance shall bee ministred into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ And I beleeve for I have not the Booke at hand if Mr. Shelfords justification by charity be well examined it will proove to bee no other than this at least no other than in St. Iames Iam. 2. 24. sense when he saith Yee see how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely And I would demand of any reasonable man whether the expresse words of that Apostle may not without aspersion of Popery be even openly and publikely maintained if there be no sense obtruded upon them which may crosse St. Pauls doctrine which Mr. Burton can never prove that they did whom hee chargeth with that assertion But the the truth is such is the humour that possesses many men of Mr. Burtons straine that they cannot endure any glosse upon that place of St. Iames but such as shall both make the Text like themselves full of non-sence and to turne the seeming and verball into a reall and direct contradiction of St. Paul To the third That the Pope is not Antichrist I answere that though many of the learned in our Church especially at the beginning of the ReformatioÌ„ when the greatest heat was strickeÌ„ between us and Rome have affirmed the Pope to be Antichrist and his whole religion Antichristian and that some exceeding the bounds of moderation in this point have passed abroad that with the license of authority wherein yet they are to be excused in that they have beene so intolerably provoked by the odious criminations of the adversary yet to them that calmely and seriously consider it it may not without good reason bee disputed as doubtfull whether the Pope or any of them in his person or the Papall Hierarchy bee that great Antichrist which is so much spoken of And which way soever it be determined it makes not the religion any whit the better nor frees the practises of the Popes and Court of Rome from being justly accounted and stiled Antichristian For Mr. Shelfords second Book I have not seene it and therefore will say nothing but onely that if hee seeme to set as they thinke too light by preaching and pulpits hee doth at the worst but pay them in their owne coine who have magnified it to the vilifying and contempt of publick Prayer the most sacred and excellent part of Gods worship Neither have I seene that other Booke called the Female glory nor will I spend words by way either of censure or defence of it upon sight onely of those fragments which here hee presents us with as well knowing his art and at what rate to value his credit in quotations Yet in all those panegyrick straines of Rhetorick for such for the most part they seeme rather than positiue assertions he hath not deviated so much to the one extreme as Mr. Burtons marginall hath to the other in scoffingly calling her the New great Goddesse Diana And if it bee true that hee hath not digressed in any particular Lo here the new great goddesse Diana whom the whole Pontifician world worshippeth H. B. p. 125. from the Bishop of Chichester as Mr. Burton makes him affirme I dare boldly say Mr. Burton will never bee able to finde the least point of Popery in it For it is well known that Bishop whom he as if hee had bid adieu to all civility yea and shame too termes a tried Champion of Rome and so a devout votary to the Queene of heaven hath approved himselfe such a Champion against Rome that they that have tried his strength durst never yet come to a second encounter Beside we have elsewhere other points of Pag. 67. Popish Doctrine which he saith are preached and printed of late As Auricular Confession Prayer for the dead and praying to Saints Which because I finde onely mentioned by him without any proofe to evidence the truth of his assertion I might with one word reject till hee produced the Authors which have so Preached and Printed and what it was that they have delivered touching those points But because there are many that by reason of their ignorance of the truth in these points are apt to beleeve what he affirmes and to entertaine a sinister opinion of the Churches Doctrine in them I will briefly adde some of them in this place First for Confession It cannot bee denied Of Confession but that the Church of England did ever allow the private confession of sinnes to the Priest for Booke of Common Prayer Exhortation before the Communion the quieting of mens consciences burdened with sinne and that they may receive ghostly counsell advice and comfort and the benefit of absolution This is the publike Order prescribed in our Church And it were very strange if our Church ordaining Priests and giving them power of absolution and prescribing the forme to bee used Forme of absolution in the Visitation of the sick for the exercise of that power upon confession should not also allow of such private confession To advise then and urge the use and profit of private confession to the Priest is no Popish Innovation but agreeable to the constant and resolved Doctrine of this Church and that which is requisite for the due execution of that ancient power of the Keyes which Christ bestowed upon his Church And if any shall call it auricular because it is done in private and in the eare of the Priest I know not why hee should therefore bee condemned of Popery But if Mr. Burton by Auricular Confession meane that Sacramentall Confession which the Councell of Trent hath defined to bee of absolute necessity by Divine ordinance and that which exacts that many times impossible particular enumeration of every sinne and the speciall circumstances of every sinne This wee justly reject as neither required by God nor so practised by the ancient See Bishop Ushers answer to Iesuites â—chall Church And if Mr. Burton knowes any that hath Preached or Printed ought in defence of this new pick-lock and tyrannicall sacramentall Confession hee may if he please with the Churches good leave terme them in that point Popish Innovators For the second point Simply to condemne Of prayer for the dead all prayer for the Dead is to runne counter to the constant practise of the ancient Church of Christ Prayer for the dead it cannot bee denied it is ancient saith the late learned Bishop of Winchester That the ancient Church had Commemorations Oblations and prayers for the dead the testimonies of the Fathers Ecclesiasticall Histories and ancient Liturgies in which the formes of Prayers used for that purpose are Cannon 55. found doe put out of all question and they that are acquainted with the Canons and Liturgy
of our owne Church cannot but say this Doctrine hath beene ever taught and maintained among us That is Wee praise God for all those that are departed this life in the faith of Christ and pray that they may have their perfect consummation and blisse both in body and soule c. And thus farre Prayer for the dead is no Innovation and much lesse Popish For wee maintaine no Suffrages for the reliefe of soules in the fooles-fire of Purgatory which prayers and Artic. 22. place wee condemne as fond things vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God So our Church-article speakes and in the same condemnation joines that other point of Mr. Burtons charge Invocation of Saints which Doctrine Of praying to Saints taken at the best and as the learned Papists defend it deserves that censure and as it is commonly practised by the vulgar sort among them is not foolish onely but flatly Idolatrous And therefore justly exploded and condemned by all Protestants and I dare boldly say Mr. Burton cannot produce any one of those whom hee endeavours to blemish that holds or teaches that doctrine CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blind and how quick-sighted VVEE have two changes in Doctrine yet remaining First in the doctrine of obedience to Superiours Secondly in the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords Day pag. 126. By the first hee saith Man is so set in Gods throne as all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience I verely beleeve there is none of those he meanes that have raised obedience so high but that Mr. B. would bring it downe to as low a pegge and haply considering how prone such as he are to debase it it might not be thought ill policy to exact somewhat more than of strict right it can callenge But where or by whom is this doctrine taught Of that he saith nothing here but tells us he hath spoken of it sufficiently before And indeed wee find more than enough by him spoken about this point for speaking of the connexion of the feare of the a pag. 84. Lord and of the King and from thence rightly observing that these two ought not to be separated But that God must be so honoured as wee doe also in the second place honour our Superiours And our Superiours so honoured as that in the first place we honour God Hee b pag. 8â— comes to reproove those that separate these two the second sort of whom he makes Those that separate c pag 87 the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord by attributing to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almighty himselfe So as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holiness And this he saith these parasites and paramours of the Kings Courts do c. All this is easily granted The doctrine there is no good Christian but will subscribe to yea and the use too and thinke those not onely worthy of reproofe but unworthy the name of Christians and to bee accounted none of Gods good subjects that shall goe about by flattery or otherwise to advance the power of the King to the prejudice of Gods supereminent soveraigntie or which when the commands of the one and the other come in opposition shall not as the Apostles choose rather to obey God than Act. 4. 12. man and as those ancient Christian Souldiers under Iulian the Apostate who as S. Augustine In Ps 124. Distinguebant dominum aeternuÌ„ a â—omino temporali tum subditi erant propter dominum aeternum notes were so subject to their temporall Lord for their eternall Lords sake as they still distinguished their eternall from their temporall Lord And though they would obey that wicked Emperor when he sent them to fight against his enemies yet when hee would have them to worship Idols or to burne Incense to them they preferred God before him and denyed their obedience And if any man shall presume to teach that which shall be contrary to this so sure and well grounded a truth hee shall thereby make himselfe the author of a doctrine impious against God and novell in the Church as by those places out of the Fathers which Mr. B. alledgeth and infinite more to the same purpose may be easily demonstrated Yet it seemes by him some have dared so much and that beside the Iesuits whom he calls the Masters of this mystery in their blinde p. 77. obedience there are gotten too many Doctors to be their Disciples and broachers of this new doctrine and againe Many false prophets are now pag. 82. abroad being possessed with the spirit of the Beast which so magnifieth the power of man and his authority in commanding that ipso facto all must yeeld obedience thereunto without further adoe And in the place formerly mentioned he makes the Bishops to be those Parasites and Court Paramors which ascribe such an unlimited power to the King But in a matter of this high nature to accuse onely is not sufficient If he can prove it as substantially as he hath boldly affirmed it let them goe for Iesuiticall Novell Doctors and Parasites and spare not Hic labor hoc opus est Here as it is wont the water sticks with him Proofes I can finde none but instead of proofes I finde conjectures and surmises of some ends which the Bishops may have to induce them to hold and teach this Doctrine Their ends he saith are 1. To keepe the K. from Parliament lest they might be brought Coram 2. By their flattery to endeare the K. unto them as the onely supporters of his Prerogative Royall thereby to protect themselves having incurred the hatred of the whole land 3. That they may borrow this abused regall Power to execute a lawless tyranny over the Kings good subjects 4. Lastly that they may trample the lawes and liberties of the subjects and in fine bring the whole State King and all under their girdle as being true to their principle That a Bishop ought not to Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed prae esse Decret de maj et obed Tit. 33. Innocent 3. be subject to Princes but rule over them These hee brings instead of reasons to make good this accusation and these he knowes to be sufficient to make thoses Judges I meane the people before whom he hath brought them to be tryed to passe sentence against them and pronounce them guilty Yet God be thanked the Bishops do not stand or fall by their sentence And prudent Judges if they find no greater proofes will rather judge the accuser guilty of Scandalum magnatum than upon such weake evidence to condemne the accused For all this notwithstanding it appeares not otherwise than by Mr.
factiously-minded persons It being usuall with such men of both parties to mistake the religion professed on either side and as Master B. condemnes all that of Popery and superstition that is crosse to his fancied crotchets though it be the doctrine that hath been ever taught in the Church of Christ and sometimes such as himselfe hath subscribed So the Iesuites on the other side use to charge our Church with all those tenets which they finde to bee by any among us without respect had either to the consent they have with the publickly received doctrine or to the judiciall approbation that such opinions which we many times detest as much if not more than they have from any authorised act of the Church otherwise both the Iesuite and hee might have knowne that many for some of them are but meere fictions and slanders of the things they accuse of novelty have beene ever agreeable to the doctrine of this Church For who knowes not that the names of Priests and Altars are no such strangers in our Church that any man should bee fearefull of using them such as have staggered at them have beene justly counted more nice than wise Especially the name of Priest which both our booke of Common-prayer and of Ordination have ever used and kept on foot though it sounded but harshly to some eares And for that which the Iesuite cals fiery Calvinisme if he meane the Geneva discipline founded by him or any singular opinions which hee holds wherein there hath appeared more heate than truth I confesse it hath beene and is the more is the pitty the Darling of many in England but without either Canon or countenance from Authority The Church of England in reforming of Romish errors tooke no patterne from Geneva nor followed any private mans oppinion and her wisest and most judicious sons as they honour the learning and good parts of any and of Master Calvin among yea and in some things haply above others so they have ever on the other side thought it an injury to receive their denomination from any doctrine but that which is publickly taught and avowed by our owne Church and all the innovation that may seeme to bee in them is only that by the negligence of some that have beene in place or rather from their inability than to foresee the mischiefe that now since appeares contrary tenets and practices have growne so into such fashion that the Churches true tenets and rites being revived seeme no lesse strange and new than the old English habits would be judged among our present Courtiers Or perhaps which I know not why any man should be ashamed of that learning and industry being increased and the heat of contention allayed men begin to judge of opinions not by the authors but by the truth and so some things which by some have beene blasted for Popish and superstitions and by others taken up upon their credit to be such by judicious triall are found consonant to the truth of Christian religion and our Churches doctrine Neither can any without bewraying either malice or grosse ignorance call this a warping toward Popery or that Protestantisme among us waxeth wearie of it selfe when the doctrine and profession in all this seeming variation remaines still the same and unaltered CHAP. XX. The last Innovation in the Rule of manners The Scriptures acknowledged to be the sole rule of manners and how Old Canons how in force The Act before the Communion-book doth not forbid the use of ancient and pious customes Master B. incurring the penalty of that Statute Of Cathedrall Churches The argument from them frees the rites and ceremonies there used from novelty and superstition Of the Royall Chappell His dangerous insinuations referred to the censure of Authority The Close I Am now at last gotten to the eighth and last Innovation or change which he saith is in the rule of manners which rule is changed from the Word of Christ and the examples of the holy Apostles pag. 156. wherein they followed Christ to the example of the Prelates lives and the dictates of their writings An ill change certainly But where is this rule by them prescribed That he neither doth or can tell us but according to his old wont falls a railing against his Majesties Declaration for sports upon the Sundaies and against those whom he calls Anti-Sabbatarians for allowing of it notwithstanding as hath beene already sufficiently demonstrated it is no way contrary but consonant to the Word of God which they whom he taxes allow and acknowledge as the sole rule of Christian life though not so as hee would have it that a man may doe nothing either in his civill conversation or in things pertaining to the time place manner and other circumstances in the worship of God which is not to bee found in the Scriptures though commanded by superiors invested with authority from God himself And however this is no proofe of his assertion for hee cannot bring any instance wherein they propound their owne lives for a patterne or rule of Christians practise in this no nor in any other case Nay I dare boldly say that if Master B. and such as joyne with him in opinion would give the Prelates of our Church that which our blessed Saviour commanded to bee given while the Iewish Church continued to the Scribes and Pharisees who sate in Moses seate To observe and doe that Mat. 23. 2. 3. which they command them and that only wherein they command not contrary to the duty of their places or to the Word of God They will easily dispense with them for observing any further rule or for doing after their workes though it cannot be said of them as our Saviour did of the Scribes and Pharisees that they say and doe not Having nothing more to say to this point but senselesse repetitions of his old declamatory or incendiary language For a close he brings certaine arguments framed in defence of the pretended Innovations which he answers with as much confidence and little reason as hee hath used hitherto in the charging of them for such First hee saith our changers plead That they pag. 158. bring in no changes but revive those things which ancient Canons have allowed and prescribed To this he answers That in this Land wee are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or Canon-law but by the Law of God and of the King But by his favour I must tell him that neither the Law of God nor of the King doth disallow the use of the Old Canons and Constitutions though made in the time of Popery and by the Pope or Popish Prelates which are not contrary to the Law of God or of the King which yet he hath not and indeed cannot justly charge any of those things to be which he quarrels If hee desire proofe of this let him consider whether the Stat. 25. Hen. 8. 19. doe not say as much as I affirme Where having regulated divers things touching
INNOVATIONS Unjustly charged upon the Present CHVRCH and STATE OR AN ANSVVER TO THE MOST MATERIALL PASSAGES of a Libellous Pamphlet MADE BY MR. HENRY BURTON AND INTITVLED An Apologie of an Appeale c. BY CHRISTOPHER DOW B. D. LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill M DC XXXVII To the Ingenuous Reader THis Treatise was finished and intended for the Presse at the beginning of Easter Terme last at which time it was expected that M. B. and his Confederates would have had their censure Had it then comne forth the speed it made would perhaps have made some Apology for the defects of it However in all this delay I wanted both leisure and will to adde or alter any thing and resolved to let it passe in its first dresse If it seeme incompt and lesse accurate then might haply be expected the comfort is that with all faults it is a cover fit enough for such a cup. Only one thing may seeme strange That having promised it I adde nothing particularly of the Appeale and its Apology The truth is the onely point of moment which I reserved for that part was The Legality of the Bishops exercising their Jurisdictions in their owne names and of their proceedings in the High Commission The rest excepting his often repeated railings and frivolous reasons which I never thought worthy of any serious answer I have met with in the Sermons and answered so far as I thought fit Now for that point That which was spoken in that High and Honourable Court of Star-Chamber at the Censure and the expectation of somewhat shortly to be declared by Authority for the full clearing of it Made me even when this booke was more than halfe printed to alter my first determination and suppresse those things which I once intended to publish upon that part judging it altogether needlesse if not presumption to bring my poore verdict either to second or prevent so judiciall and authentick a decision and that point excepted I held the rest not worthy a peculiar Chapter I will adde no more save the best wishes of Thine in our common Saviour C. D. THE CONTENTS OF the CHAPTERS Chap. 1. Fol. 1. AN Introduction to the ensuing Discourse containing the reasons inducing the Author to undertake it and his aime in it Chap. 2. Fol. 7. A short Relation or Description of M. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the people The course he hath since taken in his Bookes and Sermons to make himselfe plausible and the Bishops envied Of the Booke called A divine Tragedie c. Chap. 3. Fol. 14. Of this booke of his The parts of it Of the title of his Sermons The dedication of it to his Majesty and some passages in it Chap. 4. Fol. 21. Of the Sermons The Authors intention in the examination of them A generall view of their materialls Their dissonancy from the Text in every part of it Their principall argument Supposed Innovations The Authors pitching upon them as containing the summe of all Chap. 5. Fol. 32. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of K. James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James his other Order for preaching of Election c. justified Chap. 6. Fol. 38. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion M. Burtons cunning trick to colour his railing against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in M. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine Chap. 7. Fol. 43. Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentalls What are fundamentalls in M. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants Chap. 8. Fol. 58. Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blinde and how quick-sighted Chap. 9. Fol. 67. Of the Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords-day falsely accused of Novelty The summe of what is held or denyed in this point by those whom Mr B. opposeth The Churches power and the obligation of her precepts The maintainers of this doctrine have not strained their braines or conscience Chap. 10. Fol. 73. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. M. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument Chap. 11. Fol. 78. Of the 1. Proposition The Declaration no inlet to profanenesse His Majesties respect to piety in it Recreations onely permitted not imposed Of the 2. Proposition The sports allowed are lawfull on those dayes and in themselves not against the Law of the Land M. Burtons seeming respect of the Fathers Of Revelling Of mixt dancing how unlawfull and how condemned by the Ancients and by the Imperiall Edicts Of Calvins judgement in this point Of the 3. Proposition The Booke no meanes of violation of the 5. Commandement Chap. 12. Fol. 97 Ministers commanded by His Majesty to reade the Book They may and ought to obey The matter of the Book not unlawfull Things unlawfully commanded may sometimes be lawfully obeyed What things are required to justifie a subjects refusing a Superiours Command Refusers to reade the Book justly punished The punishment inflicted not exceeding the offence Not without good warrant Chap. 13. Fol. 108. Of the Innovation pretended to bee in Discipline The Courts Ecclesiasticall have continued their wonted course of Iustice St. Austines Apology for the Church against the Donatists fitly serves ours The cunning used by delinquents to make themselves pitied and justice taxed Their practises to palliate and cover their faults Mr. B's endeavour to excuse Ap-Evans Mr. Burtons opposites not censorious What they thinke of those whom hee calls Professors and the profession it selfe True Piety approved and honoured in all professions The answere to this crimination summed up The censured partiall Iudges of their own censures How offences are to be rated in their censures Chap. 14. Fol. 113. Of the supposed Innovations
a true Church and yet I beleeve hee would bee loath to agree with them in all opinions which they maintaine especially if hee knew for I have heard that in place where not many yeeres agoe he bewrayed his ignorance and was faine to be informed by a brother Minister then in presence that they held all those Tenets about Predestination Freewill and falling from grace which hee so much condemnes in those whom hee termes Arminians Neither can it be imagined that King Iames when hee acknowledged Calvin and therein did him but right to bee a most judicious expositour of Scripture ever intended to exempt him from errour when it is most manifest that hee did utterly condemne many opinions of his and that though he had been bred and brought up among those who received their doctrine and discipline from Calvin yet as himselfe professed in the Conference at Hampton-Court from the time that he was tenne yeeres old hee ever disliked their Confer p. 20. opinions and that though he lived among them he was not of them And therefore might without crossing his owne judgement enjoyne young students rather to looke into the Fathers and acquaint themselves with the judgement of the Ancient Church than to take up opinions upon trust of those moderne Authors who though as he after addes they were not without their Naevi or spots yet no man without betraying insufferable pride and ignorance will account their workes a dunghill or heape of mud where haply with much raking and prying a man may chance to light upon a Pearle so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere gather pearles out of the mud as Mr. Burton is pleased to speake I am sure other men as sound and judicious as himselfe every whit have held it a point of wisedome to draw water as neere as they can from the well-head rather than from lakes and cisternes And the truth is that King Iames of famous memory whether by the procurement of the Bishops or not it matters not for neither the Author nor the procurers need blush for it having taken some just distaste at some novell points delivered by some young Divines which trenched upon his Regall power and dignity and knowing from what pits that water was drawne and that those moderne Authors mentioned were ill affected to Monarchicall Government and injurious to the just right of Kings going hand in hand with the Iesuites in the principles of popularity Did in his Princely wisedome for the preventing of so great a danger as might ensue if such principles were drunk in at the first by young and injudicious Novices give charge to the Heads of the University of Cambridge I am sure and whether of Oxford too I know not that they should take order that young students should bee well seasoned at the beginning and well grounded in the principles of Our owne Catechisme and the Articles and Doctrine of our Church and that they should not ground their studies upon those men where they might with their first milke in Divinity sucke in such unsound opinions and dangerous to the State But rather that they would search into Antiquity and study the writings of the Fathers whose consentient Doctrine is without doubt the best and soundest Divinity And if Mr. Burton had taken this course in his studies hee had learned better obedience to his Superiours and beene lesse troublesome to himselfe and others This then is but a fetch and brought in onely to increase the heape of odium upon the Bishops with those Pag. 114. who judge of things not by weight or worth but by noise and number For there is no colour for that which he suggests that it should be done the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their the Prelats plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery seeing neither that which was done nor the end for which it was done have the least affinity with Popery but was intended for the opposing and preventing of that point of Popery or Jesuitisme which animates and armes the people against their Princes But further To this purpose saith he they procure Pag. 114. another order in King James his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops and Deanes shall handle those points And is it not great reason that those high points should bee handled with great wisedome and sobriety And who are then fitter so to handle them than the Bishops and Deanes who how contemptible soever Mr. Burton esteemes of them are presumed in reason and in the judgement of the King from whom they receive their dignities to bee the most discreet and judicious Divines Hitherto wee have no Innovation in Doctrine and much lesse any Popery For the Doctrine may bee and is still the same that it ever was from what Authors soever it is fetched and by what persons soever it be delivered So that Mr. Burton is beside the matter and hath not yet come home to the point by him proposed which was Innovations in Doctrine CHAP. VI. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion Mr. Burtons cunning trick to colour his rayling against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in Mr. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine BUt leaving King Iames hee comes to our gracious Soveraigne that now is and saith After that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name And why in King Charles his name and not by him The title calls it His Majesties Declaration and the whole tenor of it runs in His Majesties style How then shall we know it was not his This is but a cunning quirk to teach the people to decline obedience to His Majesties commands If they can be perswaded that His Majesties Declarations and Proclamations which are sent out if they concerne things that crosse their fancies be none of his acts Then to what passe things in short time will grow it is easie for any man that is but halfe witted to conjecture If men may at their liberty Father the Kings acts upon the Prelates or any other whom they favour not and then rayle at them at their pleasure and reject them as none of his His Majesty will ere long be faine to stand to his subjects courtesie for obedience to his royall commands Or if men may say of such things as come out in the Kings name that they tend to the publick dishonour of God and his word to the violation and annihilation of his commandements the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England the destruction of the peoples soules and that they are contrary to his solemne royall protestations as Mr. B. speakes about the declaration
Iacksons bookes beene licensed it passeth Mr. Burtons learning yea though Mr. Prinne should bee of his counsell to find any thing in them which is not consonant to the doctrine of the Church of England Dr. Cosens private devot Mr. Brownes sermons I have not seene conteyned in the 39. articles and the booke of Common prayer Nor which is contrary to this Declaration of his Majesty Onely here I except my Lo of Chichester his Appeale which was published some yeares before the making of the Declaration And what blemish can it bee to Authority or to the Prelates if the booke of Franciscus a S. Clara. Also that book of Fr. à S. Clara. had beene printed 23. times and in London too so long as it is not cum Privilegio And what if he were so bold as to dedicate it to his Majesty I have knowne others and Mr. Burton by name p. 117. more bold in that kind than either was fitting or as I beleeve well pleasing to his Majesty But they say it was presented to the King by a Prelate And how if his highly-esteemed author They say do mis-informe him and there were no such matter Yet granting it to be true what hurt can be in it Blessed be God his Majesty is of yeares and wisdome abundantly sufficient to be able to discerne truth from falsehood be it never so cunningly masked or disguised Lastly what if a Romanist acting his owne part like himselfe indeavour to pinne such a sense upon our Articles as may make them almost Romish Who can hinder such mens tongues and pens Much applauded by our Innovators But doe any of our Innovators approve or applaud his wresting of our Articles to serve his owne turne I thinke Mr. B. cannot name any of them that doth And yet I cannot see what harme can follow if any shall so farre approve him as to like his moderate straine his lessening the number and quality of the differences between us which most of his owne party like M. Burton study to multiply and increase and so his desire of peace and reconciliation which if salvâ veritate it might once be wrought were a most blessed and happy accomplishment Neither is that though M. Burton so terme it true Christian p. 121. zeale but a distempered heat of a contentious spirit that shall come between and make an interruption And if as hee confesseth Puritans and Calvinists be such men no matter if they had no place either in Synode or Church of England As for those who because they know better are not willing as Mr Burton and others of his straine use to call all opinions and practices Popish which are beyond their learning and crosse the principles of their Catechismes and are therefore by him in scorne termed peaceable and indifferent men and well affected to Rome as Ely and Chichester and the Arch-Prelates they by their wisdome and moderation doe more good and acceptable service to God and his Church than ten thousand such fiery spirited Zelotes who understanding nothing but that the Romish Church are not of their opinion make it their ambition and highest point of Religion to condemne whatsoever is held or practiced in that Church not because evill or erroneous but because theirs What warrant they can have from the God of peace for their courses I cannot imagine One thing I am sure of that the Apostle S. Paul doth sufficiently warrant the contrary when he commands us If it be possible and as much as in us is to live peaceably Rom. 12. 18. with all men and according to his wont makes good his precept by his owne practice and that having to doe with men Jews and Gentiles opposite not to the faith onely but even to the very name of Christianity which yet they of Rome though bad enough are not For to the 1 Cor. 9. 20 21. Iewes he became as a Iew that he might gaine the Iewes To them that were under the law as under the law that he might gaine them under the law c. Yea as he there saith he was made all things to all men that he might by all meanes save some Not that thereby he did betray the truth or joyn with either Iew or Gentile in their errors from which he laboured by all means to with-draw them but because commiserating their condition he did condescend to their weaknesse and yeelded to them in what he might that thereby hee might winne them to yeeld to him in the maine As S. Augustine expounds the place And thus to August Ep. 19. deale with them of the Church of Rome at this day not that I intend to parallel them with either how any man can without wrapping up the blessed Apostle within the same sentence justly condemne I must confesse I am altogether ignorant For whereas such are bruited abroad to comply with Papists in their errors that is meere clamour without ground or shew of truth saving that they joyne not with these hot-spurres in rayling and raging and so exasperating them but leave that part to them as most delighting and exercised in that way and lacking compassionate affections to seek to gain and reduce those that wander into the way of truth Yet here we must take heed of going too far and that we doe not while we pitty and seeke to gain the adversary become injurious to the truth and lose it as it seemes if M. Burton may be beleeved some Factionists and Factors for Rome among us so he is pleased to style the Reverend Prelates and those that oppose his crotchets have done for he saith it is a common cry among them that we and they of Rome differ not in fundamentals This is I confesse to goe farre yea and a great deale too farre if we measure Fundamentalls by M. Burtons last who under that name will comprise all matters of faith as is evident by his quotation of these words out of our 19. Art in the margent The Church of Rome hath erred in matters of faith And this is usuall with others of his party who more truly may be termed Factionists than those whō he so calls for I once lighted upon a small book set forth by one of them which bare this title Fundamentall truths and nothing but Fundamentalls in which were contained all Catecheticall Doctrines the high points of Predestination the ten Commandements of the Law yea and though some more sublimated among them will admit none ten Commandements of the Gospell But M. Burton hath beene told sufficiently if prejudice would let him see that by Fundamentalls See B. of Exon advertisement Cholmely Butterf treatises are meant those points of faith which are absolutely necessary to salvation which whosoever beleeves not cannot be saved and to admit that in the Church of Rome these points are yet to be found and believed among them is no more than not absolutely to deny salvation to all that live in communion with that
make the Commandement to speake riddles and arrant non-sense They deny that there is any Commandement given in the New Testament for the observation of the Lords day Though they acknowledge sufficient ground there to warrant the Churches institution and observation of that day And this they suppose they may justly maintaine till Mr. B. or some other of his mind in this point produce the place where it is written which if they would once do they would easily bring off the Bishops and others who agree with them to make a recantation and to subscribe to their better information That which they ascribe unto the Church in this argument is 1. The institution of the Lords day and other holy dayes that is the determination of the time of Gods publick worship to those dayes 2 The prescription of the manner of the observation of these dayes both for the duties to be performed and the time manner and other circumstances of their performance Concerning which they affirme 2. things Bishop of Ely p. 149. First That the Church hath liberty power and authority thus to do Secondly that Christians are in conscience bound to observe these precepts of the Church and that they that transgress Bern. de praec et dispens c. 12. Obedientia quae majoribus praebetur Deo exhibetur quamobrē quicquid vice Dei praecipit homo c. them sin against God whose law requires that we must obey every lawfull ordinance of the Church And as S. Bernard speakes The obedience that is given to Superiours he speakes of the Prelates and governors in the Church is exhibited to God wherefore whatsoever man in Gods stead commands if it be not for certaine such as displease God is no otherwise at all to be received than if God had commanded it For what matters it whether God by Himselfe or by his Ministers men or Angels make known his pleasure to us So hee and much more to that purpose in that place So that they which maintaine the institution of the Lords day to be from the Church doe not thereby as they are wrongly charged discharge men from all tye of obedience and give them liberty to observe it or not at their owne pleasure which no man will affirme but those onely who have learned to under-value and despise the Church of God and her rightfull Authority Now these things have beene so fully proved so plainly demonstrated already that it is needless yea impossible for me to adde any thing and as impossile for Mr. B. or any other to gain-say with any reason or evidence of truth Which because he cannot do hee betakes him to the forlorne hope of contentious spirits railing against his opposers and traducing the doctrine which he knowes not how to confute For his opposers he saith that in this point they have strained all the veines of their conscience and braines and that they are so mad upon it that no shame will stay them pag. 126. till confusion stop their mouthes But God bee praised they have not neither need they much to straine either Their conscience need not be strained at all in delivering that doctrine and acknowledging that truth which is after godliness And for their braines it is not Mr. Burtons Tit. 1. 1. Pamphlets or lawless Dialogues that can straine them No nor his larger answer which he threatens in answer to my L. of Elyes Treatise which were it not that simple and well meaning people might haply be seduced and made to thinke them unanswerable were quickly answered with that which best befits them silence and scorne As for that grave and learned Prelate whom he useth with such contempt and base language The world hath seene his humility joyned with that masse of learning which is lodged in that venerable brest that he hath not disdained to stoope to answer this railers railing dialogue of A. and B. which hee hath done like himselfe with great strength and evidence of reason and solidity of judgement and yet blessed be God hath not sacrificed the least dramme of reason which yet remaines in so great yeares to admiration quick and pregnant and will be able if need be to discover Mr. Burtons arrogancy and bold-fac't ignorance So that he must be faine to sacrifice the remainder of his modesty and honesty if any be yet left him to finde any thing to reply CHAP. X. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. Mr. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument THis is all he saith of his supposed innovations in doctrine But before I part with this last point I must annexe somewhat of his Majesties Declaration concerning lawfull sports to be used upon Sundayes as depending hereupon and being the great pretended grievance in this argument This Declaration and the publishing of it according to his Majesties Royall intent and command hath afforded Mr. Burton plentifull occasion of calumniation and caused him to utter many shamefull and slanderous invectives not onely against the Declaration it selfe but against the Royall authority commanding and those whom hee conceives procurers of it or that in obedience to his Majesty have urged the publishing of it and punished any that have obstinately refused For first hee hath endeavoured to blase the Honour of that great Patron of the Church K. Iames of Blessed memory by an odious and base insinuation of I know not what extraordinary temper wherein the King should be when this Declaration was first published a passage so unworthy and execrably scandalous that I will not so much as mention it Nor hath he dealt better but farre worse 2 with his sacred Majesty that now is in making his reviving and republishing of his Fathers Act to tend to the publick dishonour of God the annihilation of the holy Commandement touching the Sabbath p. 56. the alteration of the doctrine of the Church of England the violation of his solemne Royall protestations all which and more supposing the republishing of this Declaration to be his Majesties Act and by his Authority hee layes to his Majesties charge Indeed hee seemes not willing that the world should take notice of these blasphemies as directly sent out against his Majesty and therefore would make men beleeve that this Act was none of his Majesties But then I would Declaration concerning the dissol of the last Parliament demand of him how he knowes any Declaration or Proclamation to be set forth by his Majesty and in particular how he knows that Declaration to be his which he puts His Majesty so often in minde of Sure I am he can have no greater evidence for any than hee hath for this His Majesties name prefixed his Royall Test subscribed And who is there without danger of being found guilty of high treason can
such maner of speech but onely this That Mr. Burton hath done contrary to the duty of a Christian of a subject of a Minister and violated his oath of Allegiance and often protestations of boyalty But I answere briefely That his Majesty as his Royall Father had also done commanding publication Declar. in fine of the Declaration by order from the Bishops through all the Parish-Churches of their severall Dioceses respectively did implicitly command that Ministers should reade it For 1. how doth publication use to bee made of such things in the Church otherwise than by the Ministers reading of them But 2. I know no man of common sense but will confesse that what order any man to whom the making of such order is committed shall make that order what ever it bee is his who gave the Commission His Majesty in his Declaration authorized the Bishops to take order for the publication of it and seeing their order was that it should be read and that by the Ministers Then may it without presumption bee said That His Majesty commanded Ministers to reade it unlesse it might some way appeare that His Majesty did restrain them from making that kinde of order or limit them to doe it in some other way which hee did not in the Booke I am sure and I am confident Mr. Burton cannot prove hee did otherwise and therefore it is ridiculously false that M. Burton saith His Majesty did command no such thing as that Ministers should reade the Booke I say further that Ministers may lawfully and therefore ought to obey his Majesty in reading the Booke For 1. The matter of the Booke is not unlawfull nor against any Commandement of God as hath beene already proved 2. Supposing not granting that the things declared in that Book to be permitted were not lawfull and such as cannot be used without offence to the Divine Majesty and transgression of his Commandements and that therefore his Majesty which is sinne to imagine had unjustly granted such liberty yet will it not follow that it is unlawful to read the Declaration publish his Majesties pleasure For Ministers by reading it doe not justifie but declare what is done nor do they thereby ipso facto approve the liberty granted or the granting of it but make knowne his Majesties pleasure what ever it be which for ought I could ever learne is not by God forbidden any man to doe It is lawful somtimes for Subjects to obey their Superiours in that which by them is not lawfully commanded David sinned in causing the people to be numbred but no man can with reason say that Ioab sinned in numbring them but that on the contrary he had sinned if he had not numbred them For there the sinne was not in the act but in the motive which in David was pride and vain-glory in Ioab obedience to his Soveraigne So also and much rather in this case where the acts are not the same and what ever the other is the act required to be done by Ministers without all question is of the same nature with those in which as S. Bernard saith a Inter summa vero mela summa bona quaedam meclia sunt ad alterutruÌ„ se habentia et boni malique nomeÌ„ assumunt Media sunt ambulare sedere loqui tacere comedere jejunare vigilare dormire et si qua sunt similia In â—is mediis sc ambulare sedere loqui tacere c subditi esse et obedientes debemus ad nutum praepositorum nihil interregantes propter conscientiam quia in his nullum praesixit opus Deus sed Praelatorum dereliquit iperio disponenda S. Bern. de virt obed p. 1713 Mal. 2. 7. Subjects must be obedient to the beck of Superiours asking no questions for conscience sake because in these God hath not prefixed any worke but left them to be disposed by the commands of Superiours Againe The error of Superiours is not alwaies a dispensation to the obedience of those that are under them b Sed homines inquis sacile sallâ— in Dei voluntate de rebus dubiis praecipienda et in praecipienda fallere so pussunt Sed enim qâ—id hoc refert tua qui conscius non es praesertim cum teneas de Scripturis quia labia sacerdotis custediunt scientiam et legem ex ore ejus requirunt quia Angelus Domini exercituum est S. Bern. de praecep dispens c. 12. Superiours may erre in their judgement sometimes of the will of God in things doubtfull and may erre in commanding What is that to thee saith S. Bernard speaking of obedience to spirituall governors who art not conscious of such error especially having beene taught in the Scriptures that the Priests lips preserve knowledge and they shall seeke the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts And the like may be said for obedience to Soveraigne Princes and the Magistrates that are subordinate to them To whom we may apply that which the same Author after addes in that place c Ipsum proinde quem pro Deo habemus tanquaÌ„ Deum in his quae a pertè non sunt contra Deum audire debemus S. Bern. ibid. Him whom we have in Gods stead we must heare as God in those things which are not manifestly against God That the error then of Superiors be such as shall justifie the Subjects refusall of obedience it must according to S. Bernard and according to the truth too 1. be known to be so for he that shal be by his lawfull Superiour commanded to worship an Idoll though it be a trangression of an high nature yet if he that is commanded do not know it to be such nor that God hath forbidden it he sins if he deny his obedience 2. It must be against Gods will and Word nothing but that doth limit our obedience to Gods Vice-gerent whom God hath commanded us to obey and that for conscience sake in all things onely for him not against him If they come in opposition once then the inferiour must give place but till then he must not be denied his obedience 3. It must be apertè manifestly knowne to be against the will of God and past all doubt and peradventure The Subject may not deny his Soveraigne his obedience because he feares that which is commanded is not agreeable to Gods will or because he cannot see the word of God for it or because some doubt of the lawfulnesse of it He that will doe nothing at the command of his Superiours which is doubted of by any whether it be lawfull or no will pin up his obedience within very narrow bounds and prove but a bad subject It is our own conscience not anothers that must be our guide in matters of obedience to the Powers ordained by God In things left to our liberty we may yea we must have respect to the conscience of another That is S. Pauls doctrine For why saith he
restored to the singular benefit of Christian soules CHAP. XVIII Of the seventh pretended Innovation in the Rule of Faith What matters of Religion are submitted to the Bishops decision The Doctrine of our Articles The properties of the Bishops decisions Master Burtons clamors against the Bishops in this particular odious and shamefull Of that speech which he ascribeth to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Catholick Church What is justly attributed to the Church and how we ordinarily come to know the Scriptures to be Scriptures THe seventh Innovation he makes to be in pag. 151. the rule of Faith for whereas the perfect and compleat rule of faith is the holy Scripture as 2 Tim. 3. Our new Doctors cry up the dictates of the Church to wit of the Prelates to bee our only guides in Divinity as in Reeves Communion booke Catechisme expounded pag. 20. 206. where as he saith that authour affirmes all Ministers must submit to the judgement of the Prelates in all matters pertaining to Religion and all Prelates must submit to the judgement of the Arch-prelate And then addes his owne glosse as having a Papall infallibility of spirit whereby as by a Divine Oracle all questions in Religion are finally determined My Answer to this shall bee very briefe for that the same crimination is by Master B. objected in his Lawlesse Pamphlet intituled An Answer to a late Treatise of the Sabbath day and since by the Reverend Author of that Treatise that venerable masse of solid learning the L. Bishop of Ely so profoundly answered that my poore endeavours In his Treatise intituled An Examination vid p. 17 18 19 20 c. seeme to me altogether needles it being abundantly sufficient to referre my Readers thither for satisfaction Yet somewhat I will say for their sakes that have not that Booke at hand First it is confest that the holy Scripture is the sole and compleat Rule of Faith This is the constant and subscribed Doctrine of our Church Artic. 6. And therefore it were strange that they who themselves have so often subscribed and who exact subscription from others should goe against so confessed a truth and certainly if hee had had but the least graine of ingenuity in interpreting the writings of other men or rather if malice had not wholly filled him with ignorance and confidence hee would never have dream't of any contradiction to this Doctrine in the words by him alledged or to have stretched matters of Religion subjected to the Bishops determination to the substantiall points of Faith which no Protestant ever affirmed But somewhat sure there is in it that is in matters of Religion submitted to the Bishops judgement True and so it ever was in the Church of God But this extends not to matters of Faith or manners to be believed and done of necessitie to salvation so as to coine new articles in either kinde The power which by them is challenged and by all understanding Christians in all ages of the Church ascribed to them is no other but that which is given them by the tenth Article of our Religion whose words are That the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies and authoritie in Controversies See Preface to the Booke of Common-Prayer referring parties doubting of any thing that is conteined in that Booke to the Bishop and the Bishop doubting to the Arch-Bishop of Religion Where by the Church whoever Master B. understands is meant the heads and Governors in the Church to whom the right of direction and government doth peculiarly belong and therefore they are called Bishops or Overseers and Rulers or Guides and Leaders as being by their Office to judge of things needfull and to direct those that are under their charge Now this power of theirs hath these properties 1. It is not supreme but ministeriall not ruling but ruled by the Scriptures by which rule they are to square their determinations in all matters of Religion being altogether unlawfull for them to define any thing contrary thereunto 2. The things wherein they have power to decree ordaine alter and change any thing touching Religion in the Church is onely in matter of Ceremonie which are in comparison of the points of Faith onely circumstantiall as concerning time place gesture order and the like to bee observed in the service of God 3. In these things which they thus order and ordaine they must keepe them to those generall Rules 1. That things be dâ—â—e decently and in order 2. That nothing bee ordained contrary to the Scripture 3. That things beside the Scripture ordained be not inforced to be believed of necessitie to salvation as our Article speakes 4. Their decisions in matters of Religion are not infallible neither did they ever challenge nor any that ever I heard of among us ascribe unto them no not to the Arch-prelate any Papall insallibilitie of Spirit Neither did they arrogate any other abilitie of right and true judgement in things than is attained by ordinary meanes nor any immediatly Divine Inspiration or Assistance annexed to their Chaire all which the Pope doth Lastly the submission that is required by those that are under them Ministers and people is not absolute and such as no inferiour Priest or Christian can without sinne dissent from their judgements but in regard of externall order and for the avoiding of confusion and sects in the Church as it is not left free for every man to appoint or judge of matters of Religion or to have them after their owne way so it cannot but be a great disorder and consequently a sinne for any man out of his private humour openly to reclaime or to disobey those who are invested with the power of Judicature This being the power that is given or challenged by the Bishops it cannot but be a wonder to thinke that any man should bee so past all shame as so odiously to clamour upon this ground against the Bishops and Fathers of the Church and to deride and scorne the most Reverend Arch-Bishop of Cant. calling him the Oracle and one that hath a Papall infallibilitie of Spirit and the like But for a Priest to doe it puts it beyond all wonder and astonishment especially if wee consider these two things First which is also observed by the Reverend Bishop of Ely that See the Booke of Ordination at his Ordination he promised yea swore that hee would reverently obey the Bishops and with a glad minde and will follow their godly admonitions and submit to their godly judgements 2. That every Priest hath a power of directing those that are under his charge in matters of Religion and that the people ought to inquire the Law at their Mouthes and to submit to their judgements which to take away from them were to robbe them of a maine part of the Priestly function and yet I suppose neither challengeth any Papall infallibilitie of Spirit nor requireth any blind obedience and therefore how he can