Canon upon what authority doe they goe Surely they lay all the load upon the King Why upon the King Doth the King commaund that Ministers shall read it in their Congregations No such thing The Booke Orders that it bee published in Churches but expresseth not that it bee read by the Ministers Indeed it saith Wee further wiâ—l that publication of this our Commaund bee made by order from the Bishops c. Now the publication of the Commaund differs from the reading of the Booke The commaundement may be published and yet not the Booke read Well but it pleaseth their Lordships so to extend their order Ministers must read it But they dare not doe it as being against their Consciences If not what then They must bee suspended and are By what Law or Canon That matters not their will is so But if they alledge the Kings authority as they doe where show they the King hath given them this authority to proceed so illegally and incanonically The Booke orders no such severe and wicked Censures to be inflicted upon any in that behalfe No nor yet gives the Bishops any expresse order or power at all to punish any Minister in this case And will no lesse Censure then serve the turne then suspension excommunication deprivation and the like but they are rebells against the King If so then there is a Law to punish them But how are they rebells They resist not they doe no violence to authority All disobedience is not rebellion For then Daniel and the three children had beene rebells for not obeying the Kings Commandement But the Ministers I say that refuse to read the Booke doe not therein directly disobey the King For first the Booke expresseth no such Commaundement that Ministers shall read the Booke as before Secondly no wife and honest man can ever imagine that the King should ever intend to commaund that which mainly tends to the publicke dishonour of God and his Word to the violation and annihilation of the holy commandement touching the Sabbath to the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England which in the Homily clearly fully grounds the sanctification of the Lords day which it calls our Christian Sabbath-day upon the fourth commaundement and conseqnently to the destruction of the peoples soules For this were against all those solemne royall Protestations of the King as where he sayth Neither shall we give way for the authorising of any thing whereby any innovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine c. But the reading of this Booke by the Ministers is to bring in and that not creepingly and by stealth but by the head and shoulders as it were by a flood gate set open a mighty innovation of the unity or Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which hath beene ever since the Reformation and so from the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory constantly universally and unanimously maintayned in the Church of England untill this late faction of Anti-Sabbatarians started up to cry downe all Sanctification all power and purity of Religion And indeed the innovation of the Doctrine of the Sabbath bring in with it an universall innovation of all Religion as experience is an eye-witnesse Therefore for certaine the King never gave authority to the republishing of this Booke in case it should any way tend to any innovation or violation of the unity of Doctrine professed and maintained in our Church Againe the profanation of the Sabbath or Lords-day which the Booke seemes to give allowance unto as in sundry sports there specified is directly against the very first Act of Parliament in the first of King Charles an auspicious beginning promising a religious and gracious Raigne where it is expressely sayd For as much as there is nothing more acceptable to God then the true and sincere service and worship of Him according to his holy will and that the holy keeping of the Lords day is a principal part of the true service of God and therefore all unlawfull exercises and pastimes are prohibited upon that day Now what are unlawfull exercises and pastimes prohibited on that day Namely not only those there specified but all other unlawfull pastimes as there it is sayd What are those By name all dancing leaping rebelling and such like in termes condemned by Imperiall Edicts Decrees of Councells writings of ancient Fathers of all learned Divines both Protestants and Papists in all ages And King Iames of famous memory in his Basilicon Doron to his Sonne hath these words Certaine dayes in the yeare would be appointed for delighting the people with publicke Spectacles of all honest games and exercises of armes as also for conveening of neighbours for intertaining friendship and heartlinesse by honest feasting and merrinesse as in making playes and lawfull games in May c. So that alwayes the Sabbaths be kept holy no unlawful pastimes be used By which words it is evident that all Sports on the Sabbaths or Lords dayes are condemned as unlawfull which yet are by King Iames allowed on other dayes Now will any say that our gracious Soveraigne the Peerelesse Sonne of so Peerelesse a Father doth herein disobey his Royall Fathers instruction as to allow May-games and the like as lawfull on the Sabbath which Hee expressely and by name forbids to bee used on that day Object But the Booke for Sports was first published in Print in K. Iames his name and therein May-games and other Sports are alowed on the Sabbath dayes Answ. It s too true But if wee consider the maner of putting forth of that booke at first we shall finde how light it is to hold waight or to preponderate that learned and judicious Booke honorably Stiled Basilicon Doron First it was procured compiled and published in time of his Majesties Progresse into Scotland when he was more then ordinarily merily disposed They that were the compilers of it for we must not thinke the Kings leasure served him to doe it for their officiousnesse Populo ut placerent God rewarded them the one not long after injoying his life the other surviving out-living both his favour place in Court Againe it was never read nor yet pressed upon any Minister to be read during King Iames his raigne which lasted six yeares after the publishing of the said Booke in Print Thirdly it was not ratified under the Kings broad Seale as publick royall Acts use to be to make them authenticall Fourthly this booke was not inserted in his royall works sent to Oxford as not sutable to be ranked among so many learned and pious workes Lastly it was never in his raigne used as a snare and engine to outt good Ministers out of their Ministry and living as it is now used by the Prelates Quest. But how came it to be revived republished K. Iames being dead and this book also having no place in his royall Workes to preserve the memory of it Answer By whose
by Superstitious Idolaters in honour of Ceres and Proserpina Heathen Goddesses may bee turned into the prayse and glory of the Virgin Mary And pag. 209. The Assumption of his Lady is set forth with a picture how shee is taken up into Heaven with Verses And pag. 212. Hee seemes to hold the Virgin Mary to have beene without sinne And pag. 219. 220. Hee boldly beares himselfe upon the approbation of the Church of England in magnifying the Virgin Mary as considered not as a meere woman but as a type and Idea of an accomplisht piety And pag. 158. of Sanctity it selfe And pag. 220. hee preferres the errour of the adoring extreme before the Puritans neglecting of her in calling her Mal Gods mayd and rejecting Hayle Mary full of grace And pag. 223. hee saith Of one thing I will assure them Till they are good Marians they shall never bee good Christians And pag. 235. Of sundry Grandees hee saith All which are Canonized for Saints having erected and dedicated Temples to her memory Neither have the Princes of this our Ile beene defective in doing her all possible honour and in Consecrating Chappels and Temples to her memory And ibid My arithmeticke will not serve me to number all those who have registred their names in the Sodality of the Rosary of this our Blessed Lady the originall is derived from the battaile of Naupactan gained by Iohn of Austria and the Christians which victory was attributed to the intercession with her Sonne And pag. 236. hee recites the many holy orders of this Sodality Styling them Great worthy and pious people and concludes thus For shame let not us alone deny her that honour and prayse which all the world allowes her And pag. 247. he Invocates her saying O pardon gratious Princesse my weake indeavours to summe up thy value c. And pag. 248. Thou deservest a Quire of Queenes here another of Angels in heaven to sing thy prayses c. And I confesse O my sweetest Lady And pag. 249. To give thee an estimation answerable to thy merit is a thing impossible I must therfore be cōtent to do by thee as the ancient heathen did by the images of their gods when by reason of their height they could not place the Crownes they humbly layd them at their feet many more passages might be added as pag. 150. he cals her womans deerest mistrisse And pag. 32. a glorious Empresse And pag. 3. Empresse of this lower world And pag. 2. If Christ was faire above the Sons of men should not shee bee so above their daughters And in his Epistle to his feminine reader speaking of the Virgin Mary This is shee who was on earth a confirmer of the good and a reformer of the reprobate Al her visitants were but so many converts whose bad affections and erronious opinions the sweetnes of her discourse had rectified The Leprosy of sinne was her dayly cure and they whom vice had blinded were by her restored to their in ward sight their prostrate soules adored divine Majestical vertue residing in this Sacred Temple The knowledge of her humbled the most proud natures for the lustre of her merits rendered their owne obscure And in his Epistle to the Masculine Reader Truly I believe that the under-valuing of one so great and deare in Christs esteeme as his Mother cannot but bee displeasing to him and that the more we ascribe to her setting invocation apart the more gracious wee appeare in his sight And hee concludes it thus I will onely adde this that since the finishing of this Story I have read a booke of the now Bishop of Chicester intituled Apparatus c. and I am glad to find that I have not digressed from him in any one particular So hee Loe therefore what a Metamorphosis of our Religion is here Here is a new goddesse brought in amongst us The author glorieth that hee is the first who hath written as hee saith in our vulgar tongue on this our Blessed Virgin And God grant he be the last But he beares himself in al this upon the Church of England where I pray you At last I perceive this Church of England is the now Bishop of Chicester in his Apparatus c. From whom he hath not digressed in any particular And surely it were strange that such a mystery of iniquity could bee found but in a Prelate and in this one by name for a tryed Champion of Rome and so a devout votary to his Queene of heaven Againe they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to Superiours of which wee spake before setting man so in Gods Throne as all obedience to man must bee absolute without regard to God and conscience whose only rule is the Word of God But wee spake of this sufficiently before We will conclude with one instance more touching change in doctrine and that is concerning the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords-day wherein our novell Doctors have gone about to remoove the institution of it from off the foundation of divine authority and so to settle it upon the Ecclesiasticall or humaine power For maintenance hereof they have strained the vaines of their Conscience no lesse then of their braines And they are so mad upon it that no shame will stay them till confusion stop their mouthes It is reported that Doctor White hath sent an answer to A. B. which is now at the presse Surely hee will sacrifice all the remainder of his reason if any be left in him upon it Sure I am he can never answer it except with rayling and perverting wherein lyeth his principall faculty in fighting against the truth which be hee well assured is too hard for him and all his confederates But herein hee hath great advantage that hee may print what hee will at hand But the contrary side with much difficulty and delay Otherwise hee had had his hand full before now when he should have beene put to the taske to answer the full answer at large to his tedious Treatise of which A. B. was but a tast Well thus much of the first and grand change to wit in doctrine which our Prelates especially of late dayes have beene a hammering and now almost except the Lord Christ strike in and prevent them brought to perfection We shall bee much shorter in the rest and dispatch them in a Word because they have beene touched before The next change is innovation in Discipline which in a word is this that whereas of old the Censures of the Church were to bee inflicted upon disordered and vitious persons notorious livers as drunkards adulterers hereticks Apostates false teachers and the like now the sharpe edge thereof is turned mainly against Gods people and Ministers even for their vertue and piety and because they will not conforme to their impious orders Our Homily proves Rome no true Church as wanting the three essentiall markes the Word Sacraments and Discipline And of
FOR GOD and the KING THE SVMME OF TWO SERMONS Preached on the fifth of November last in St. MATTHEWES FRIDAY-STREETE 1636. By HENRY BVRTON Minister of GODS Word there and then 1. PET. 2. 17. Feare GOD. Honour the KING 2. TIM 4. 1 2 3. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reproove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine c. Bernard in Dedic Ecclae Ser. 3. Non miremini fratres si durius loqui videor Quia veritas neminem palpat Printed Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. SIR What the title in the front professeth FOR GOD AND THE KING the substance thereof was by me preached in two Sermons on the last fifth of November 1636. to teach my people obedience to both And for this I was by the divine providence directed to this Text Prov. 24. 21. 22. My Sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Doctrines of which text as I thought the more necessary to be preached and pressed in these times of Apostacy and defection from the due obedience both of God and the King So I deemed that day the memoriall whereof should cause all loyall subjects for ever to detest all Innovations tending to reduce us to that Religion of Rome which plotted that matchlesse treason the most seasonable for this text as wherein our Solemne acknowledgement of our sacred thankes to God for our great deliverance the fruits whereof we injoy at this day under your Royall and happy government being a strong ingagement and inducement to every good duty both to God and the King might worke the more kindly effect in the hearers a word in season being as the Wiseman saith like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Now although the generall good acceptation of the word then preached whereby the peoples hearts were much affected being instructed and exhorted to sticke closse to God and the King in all manner of duties to each that none of those of whom my text admonisheth might worke a disvnion might have beene a sufficient motive of publishing those Sermons in print for the generall good of all your Majesties loving Subjects throughout this your Kingdome yet Lo a necessity it now layd upon mee For on December 3. after my house had beene searched by a Pursuivant Constables and Wardens of the Company of Stationers for a booke which I had not then and there the Pursuivant served me with Letters Missive from the High Commission to appeare on Twesday then next ensuing before Doctor Ducke at Chesewicke there to answer to Articles against me The Articles were all of them against my preaching and in speciall and by name against my Sermons on November 5. on Prov. 34. 21. 22. Therein was objected to me that I preached against sundry Innovations which indeed was one speciall point in my text as alterations in the booke for the fift of November alterations in the new Fast-booke contrary to your Majestes Proclamation which Orders the old Fast booke set forth by your Majesties authority to be reprinted and published alterations in the Booke of Common Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament a turning out of the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progeny these words Father of thine Elect and of their seed as if they would blot out your Majesty Qeene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect and in the Epistle on Sunday before Faster for IN the name of Iesus is now put AT the name of Iesus c. alterations in setting up of Altars Images Crucifixes in bowing to the Altar in putting downe afternoone Sermons on the Lords dayes in sundry Diocesse in allowing no other Catechising but by bare Question and Answer out of the Booke without expounding of the maine Principles of Religion to the ignorant youth and people in reading of a second Service at the Altar in the upper end of the Chancell where in many great Churches the people cannot possibly heare not even in lesser Churches or indifferent without a stentorious voyce of the Minister together with sundry other things of the like nature some truely alledged which I am readie to maintaine against the Innovators and some falsely and maliciously perverted whereof I am readie to give your Majestie a true account And in the end of all the Articles I was charged to bring in a true copie of my Sermon The conclusion was a booke tendred to me to sweare to answer to those Articles Here at I startled admiring that these things should be charged upon me as crimes which both were truthes and pertinent to my text and necessarie to admonish my people of as leading them from the feare of God and of the King I also upon the suddaine apprehended that I could expect small iustice of those that were not only the countenancers but practisers yea and which is the highest degree of all iniquity open maintainers of such innovations and that in that very Court where they ought rather to bee severely Censured and Suppressed but that on the contrarie I should be there censured as a Delinquent for executing my Ministerie in speaking the trueth and reprooving of Sinne. And againe considering with my selfe that this cause was of a higher nature then to be so much as hazzarded upon the iudgement of these who were professed parties I presently reflected my thoughts upon your Sacred Majestie as not only worthie to take the cognizance of so waightie a cause and the best able both in respect of your Princelie wisdome and unpartiall iudgement to waigh it in a just ballance but also as the prime and principall person next unto God whose honour and welfarre it most neerelie concerneth and who next after God are ingaged in my text to inquire into So as my replie to Dr. Duke was Sir I humblie appeale to the Kings Majestie my Soveraigne and Patron as my judge in this cause and before whom I shall be both a Defendant and Complainant For I hold it not fit that they who are my adversaries should be my Iudges These were the verie words of my Appeale to Your Majestie as I remember Now thou my Gracious Soveraigne that which my profest adversaries in so just a cause did unjustlie and against the Law require of me namelie to bring them a copie of my Sermon that so they might at their pleasure take advantages by perverting of my words I doe here most freelie and faithfullie in all humblenesse present to Your Majestie yea and that with manie additions and inlargements like to Ieremies rowle
man but as it is indeed the Word of God When a sonne heares the counsell of his Father that is wise loving kind true and powerfull to make good what he saith it drawes on and commaunds attention Such a Father is God infinit inall his Attributes Secondly to heare as a son makes for fervent affection in loving imbracing and highly esteeming the Word of God The reason that many men doe not receive the Word of truth in the love of it is because they are none of his sons They are as Ahab they heare the truth at the Prophets mouth but they hate him and the truth As Christ said to the Iewes when they boasted that God was their Father and they were Abrahams children If God were your Father you would love me And if Abraham were your father you would doe his workes for hee rejoyced to see my day It is therefore a son-like affection that intertaines Gods Word with love whither hee checke or whither hee cherish whither hee threaten or comfort 3. To heare as a sonne is an inducement to frequent meditation of the Word heard As Prov. 7. 1. 2. 3. My sonne keepe my words and lay up my Commaundements with thee Keepe my Commaundements and live and my Law as the apple of thine eye Bind them upon thy singer write them upon the table of thine heart For the instructions of such a Father are so many Iewels As Prov. 1. 1. 9. an ornament of grace to thy head and chaines about thy necke yea a crowne of glory Prov. 4. 9. Now a man will alwayes bee minding his treasure where his Iewels bee Where the treasure is the heart will bee saith Christ. 4. To heare Gods Word as his sonne makes for diligent observation and obedience This is the true try all of Sons if they observe their Fathers commaundements If I be a Father saith God where is mine honor Our Fathers honor is our following of his counsells and obeying his Commaundements Vse 1. For tryall of our Son-ship by these former signes and markes by our reverend attention in hearing as to gods owne Word by our fervent love in intertaining his Word by our frequent meditation of it and by our diligent observation As Zach. 6. 15. 2. For instruction this is the maine duty of a Christian to bee most carefull of his behaviour and frame of spirit about the hearing of Gods Word And therefore Christ often admonisheth his disciples Take heed how ye heare and Take heed what ye heare For according to our hearing is our soule indueth with faith and seasoned with grace and illuminated with sound and saving knowledge of Christ and the whole course of our life regulated and framed 3. And lastly for reproofe and conviction those as no Sons of God but enemies and rebels that hate and despise Gods Word in the powerfull Ministry of it and doe with might and maine labour to oppose and oppresse it Such plainly shew themselves whence they come namely as those mysts and foggs from the bottomlesse pit which darken the cleare light of the Sun and Starres so doe these overclowd the beames of the Gospel that they cannot shine forth to the Church of God Or they are those froggs uncleane spirits out of the mouth of the Dragon and Beast and false Prophet whose croking cryeth downe the voyce of Gods Ministers and which doe corrupt the pure streames of the waters of life by their filthinesse In a word these are the limbs of the Beast even of Antichrist taking his very courses to beare and beat downe the hearing of the Word of God whereby men might bee saved like to the Iewes of whom the Apâ—stle sayth who both killed the Lord Iesus and their owne Prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men Forbidding us to speake to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sinnes aâ— way for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost And surely the wrath hangs over the heads of these men which must needs sease upon them ere long if they speedily repent not whereof there is little hope But leave wee them and come we to the matter of the exhortation Feare thou the Lord c. Whence the point is 1. That it is the duty of every true Christian to feare the Lord and this with a filiall feare as is implyed in this word My sonne feare thou the Lord. This filiall feare is used in Scripture for the whole worship and service of God and comprehends in it all vertues and graces of Gods spirit As Eccles. 12. 13. Let us heare the end of all Feare God and keepe his Commaundements for this is the whole man that is the whole duty which God requireth of his children So Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt sweare by his name And Esa. 29. 13. Their feare towards mee is taught by the precâ—pt of men that is the worship and service they performe unto me is taught by mans precepts Which is that â—aine worship whereof Christ convinceth the Pharises In vaine they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commanâ—ements of men And Acts 10. 35. In every nation hee that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him Thus by these places wee see how the true feare of the Lord is taken for the whole worship and service of God both internall and externall and so for every grace of Gods Spirit in us as faith hope love and the like Reasons of this point 1. Because the true feare of God is a fundamentall grace and respecteth all the Commaundements of God as the object of it As Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord he delighteth greatly in â—is Commaundements 2. Because where God is not truly worshipped there is no feare of God As in Esay 29. 13. This people draw neere me with their mouth and with their lips doe honour me but they have remooved their heart farre from me And the reasonis added Their feare towards me is taught by the precept of men 3. Because where other vertues be not the reason is because true feare is not Which argues that true feare of God is inseparably combined with other graces As Rom. 3. 10. 18. the Apostle reckoning up a bead-row of iniquities concludes with this reason There is no feare of God before their eyes So Mal. 3. 5. I will come neere to you to judgement and will bee a swift witnesse against the Sorcerers and against the adulteâ—ers and against false swearers and against those that oppresse the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherlesse and that turne aside the stranger from his right Well what 's the ground of all this wickednesse It is there added And feare not me saith the Lord of Hoasts 4. Because holy feare is the seasoning and salt of every vertue and of the whole worship of God As Psal. 5. 7. In
thy fâ—are will I worship towards thy holy Temple So Psal. 2. 11. Serve the Lord in feare Which I say is such a feare as hath in it faith love affiance and other graces 5. Lastly wee are bound to performe all obedience to God in a holy feare by vertue of the Word of God as the rule and of the Covenant God hath made with us in his Word and we with him Gods Law is so the rule of our feare and obedience to God as it is death to feare or obey him otherwise then hee hath commaunded us in his Law Els it is rebellion not obedience will worship not service to God And this wee are bound to by mutuall Couenant 1. God binds himselfe to be our God and King by Covenant in his word as Exod. 20. Secondly wee bind our selves by a reciprocall Covenant as in our Baptisme to bee his Servants and to serve him as hee hath commaunded in his Law Vse of this point is first for reproofe and conviction of the whole Romane Synagogue as being altogether devoyd of the true feare of God and consequently is no true Church of Christ â—…one of the Kings Daughter none of his spowse Why For all her feare towards God is taught by the precept of men her service of God is a Masse of Idolatry and Superstition Will-worship of mans invention and therefore though they draw neere to God with their lipps yet their hearts are farre from him And so in vaine they worship him nay they worship the Devill and not God as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. 10. 20. For all Idolatry as that of the breaden god in the Masse is the worship of the Devill They will say they worship God in the Host So did the Pagans plead for themselues that they worshipped God in their Idols Yet saith the Apostle I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devills and not to God And God disclaimes all worship of Him that is not according to His Word and He abhorres such presumptuous worshippers as those that doe not feare him So as secondly heere are justly reprooved those men as wanting the true feare of God who in these dayes shew themselves Antichrists Factors both in teaching practising and pressing new Formes of worship Secundum usum Sarum and setting them up againe in Churches as Altar-worship Iesu-worship Image-worship Crosse-worship and the like A plaine evidence that these men what ever they most hypocritically pretend and would bee accounted as a new kind of Saints dropped downe out of the cloudes as most holy and devoute persons have no true feare of God in them Yea their hearts are far from God Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an Image and Crucifix towards the sound and sillables of Iesus then towards the Lord Christ. For did they truely feare Christ they would not as they doe so desperately and furiously persecute him in his faithfull Ministers and members and make havocke and turne upside-down the very glory of Christ's Kingdome in the Ministery of His Word and power of Religion and purity of his worship which they altogether trample under and defile with their Wolvish feete Therefore forasmuch as they set up and teach a false feare and worship of God in the Churches I saith the Lord will proceede to doe a marvellous worke among the people even a marvellous worke and a wonder for the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And v. 16. Surely your turning of things upside-downe shall bee esteemed at the Potters clay But of these more in their proper place A 2. 〈◊〉 â—s for instruction to teach us wherein the true filiall feare of God consisteth namely in the true worship and service of God internall and externall according to the exact forme and prescript of his Word Not to swerve one haires bredth from it Againe that true feare of God stnads in an universall obedience to all and every of his Commandements not onely those of the first Table but those of the second nor onely those of the second but those of the first So as Thirdly this may condemne two sorts of grosse Hypocrites 1. Those that seeme exact and punctuall in observing the Commandements of the second Table they are no Adulterers no Drunkards no inordinate livers they are not notorious offenders and what then Hereupon they applaud themselves and would be esteemed of the World good Christians and with the Pharisee thanke God that in these things they are not as other men Extortioners Vnjust c. They live peacably with their Neighbors they pay every man his owne and the like But what 's all this without the feare of God Where is their Piety and Love to God expressed in the duties of the first Table Are they willingly and grosly ignorant of the knowledge of God Doe they hate contemne neglect his words Doe they despise his faithfull Ministers Doe they speake evill of the Way and Profession of Godlinesse Doe they profane the Lords Sabbaths Yea doe they comply with Idolaters in their Altar-worship and Iesu-worship and the like and yet would they bee accounted good honest men Can they be honest and good men that are enemies of God and of the Profession yea and name of holinesse and of the power of Religion and of the true Saints and servants of Iesus Christ Can they be good Christians which are enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose end is damnation whose God is their belly and which minde earthly things On the other side there is another sort of Hypocrites who place all their Religion in the outward performances and duties of the first Table professe a great deale of Religion would seeme very devout but yet are like the Pharisees who under a colour of long prayers devoure Widowes houses Of these Hypocrites there are two sorts 1. Of them that are all for outward formality but their hypocrisie bewrayeth it selfe two wayes First in that though they seeme very devoute in frequenting the Church yet it is in a false way mingling mens devices of will-worship with Gods Ordinance in dividing the Lords day betweene God and the Devill allowing to God onely two houres of the day for his publike worship and the rest of the day to the lusts of men Secondly in that they place all the service of God in reading of long Prayers and thereby exclude Preaching as unnecessary And yet they make no bones of oppressing Gods people and the Kings good Subjects with burthens intollerable to bee borne The second sort is of them that will seeme Religious and to give God his due but make no conscience of giving to all men their due they will make no scruple of Lying of over-reaching in bargaining of living in some secret raigning lust of oppressing of defrawding and the like These are so much the more to be abhorred because by their meanes Religion and the name of
meanes it was raked out of the Ashes I know not but this I am sure of that the republishing of it with some addition was the first remarkable worke which was done presently after the Lord of Canterbury tooke possession of his Grace-ship Which done his Grace was very zealous for the pressing of it to be read in all the Churches of his Province so as the vnwary and hasty reading of it hath caused the dignity of some to kisse the dust and the not reading of it hath cast some out of their livings by suspension yea and out of the Church too by Excommunication though blessed be God their dignity shineth the more gloriously So as the violent and furious pressing of it by the Prelates and their instruments hath proved a most pernicious snare to all the Ministers in England And though the Prelates with their Learned Doctors and heires apparent have pulled their wits broken their braines and sleep spent many precious howers and dayes and moneths in compiling and setting forth Treatises Histories Sermons and such like and all to ouerturne the fourth Commanndement with the Sanctification of the Sabbath day and so bring in Libertinisme and all profanesse into the Church thereby exposing our Religion to the reproch and scorne of the Papists themselves the learnedst of them confessing that their profanation of Holy-dayes caused their Catholick Religion to be Scorned of the very Turkes and hindred their Conversion so farre are we from all hope of converting Papist to our Religion by vsing the Liberty of our vaine and madde fooleries on the Lords Holy day which they detest on their Festivall dayes Yet all their sophistry decurtations of authorities wrestings wrangling windings contradictions vaine distinctions and bold asseverations will never be able to abide the test or yet the light when their drosse and false visard shall come to be puld off Againe besides the dishonour of God and of his word the violation of his holy Commaundement the precipice and downfall of the peoples soules into perdition and the reproch of our Religion and Ministry all which the publick reading of the Booke draweth after it the least whereof were cause sufficient to deterre stay Ministers from reading of it besides many other reasons there is one more and that of no small consequeÌ„ce which makes me treÌ„ble with the very thought of it namely that Ministers in reading this booke to the congregation should declare how the Iustices of Aâ—…s in their severall Circuits are commanded thâ—t no man to trouble or molest any in or for their lawfull recreation such as are there specified Alas then what shall Parents and Masters doe when their Sons or daughters and servants will abroade and take their liberty of Sports at least wise after evening prayer every Lords day and will stay out as long as they please when in the meane time their Parents or Masters being godly disposed would haue them to spend the time at home in the private duties of the day for the good of their soules Gladly would they restraine them but they may not dare not for feare of being brought before the Assises there to bee punished for their Sons or Servants offences And what 's the issue of this Doth it not ingender in youthes mindes too prone to run riot without a spurre contempt of their Parents or Masters being freed by the booke to follow their pastimes on the Lords-dayes after evening prayer so as they will attend upon no private family dutie either requisit for their soules or necessary about the house And though this liberty be dispensed only upon the Lords-dayes and their holy dayes yet it is sufficient to breed in them and traine them up to such a habit of contempt and so of a rebellious humour toward their Parents and Masters as they wil be ready to fly out upon all occasions they wil be contained within no bounds of their obedience Of this how many Masters do complaine but the Iustice that should bright them must for sooth punish those Masters if their servants complaine of restraint And among many other examples of youthâ—… Contempt and rebellion against their Masters and that upon the occasion of the Ministers reading of the said booke in the Congregation I will alledge one related to me in a letter by a reverend Minister of good credit so as no doubt is to be made of the truth of it In October last 1636. the said booke for Sports being publickly read by the minister one Master Hubberd of S. Stephens Parish upon the Lords day three Apprentises being present at the reading of it were so overjoyed at the Liberty dispensed in it as that they spent six shillings that same day at the Taverne concluded to run from their Masters hired horses on the Lords daye 3. weekes ensuing executed their plot rode away towards London were pursued overtaken and two of them brought home made this Confession O coÌ„sider this al ye my brethreÌ„ that have read the booke how many soules you have indangered if not destroyed hereby So as this is a trenching or rather a violent inroade upon the fifth Commandement which saith Honor thy Father and thy Mother c. Thus the reading of this booke to the Congregation teacheth them at once to breake two great Commandements in the Decalogue the last of the first Table and the first of the Second and so cutting in sunder the very sinewes not only of Religion but of all Civill Society at one blow And by this occasion what Ministers instructions Exhortations reprofes of youth in this kind will be of any authority with them when they teach them how to sanctify the Lords day according to his word how to feare God and to honour and obey their owne Parents and masters in the Lord as well upon the Lords dayes as upon other dayes Who then seeth not here a most dangerous overthrow of those two great Commaundements in the Law which are the very pillars both of Religion and of Civill Society and which be ing pulled downe the whole house must needs become a ruinous heape of all confusion And doth not this tend to the inuring and training up of all unbridled untaught and unseasoned youth by degrees to such a height of insolency as that upon some discontents or other occasions as Iesuites baites and seducements they are easily drawne to advance their rebellious lusts against those that bee higher in authority then their Masters and Parents which the Lord prevent Yet such like Souldiers trained up in such a licentiated disorderly campe as that of Venus or the Lady May in their sportfull intertainments are those like to prove who when they should fight for their King and Countrey will bee ready either to take their heeles as not knowing how to keepe ranke or because effeminate Sports and warlike encounters will not suite together Our Homily against wilfull Rebellion noteth how Rebels and Sabbath-breakers goe hand in hand together For there
it is said Rebels doe not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly profane and pollute the Sabbath day Serving Satan and by doing of his worke making it the Divels day instead of the Lords day And surely if this liberty of youth bee not all the sooner restrained the whole Land may rue it one day And therefore if the Prelates had any regard either to the honour of God and of his Word or to the setled peace of the Kingdome as they have but little as appeareth too palpably by their practises in disturbing and disordering of all they would have been so faire from procuring the republishing and from pressing and oppressing Ministers about the said booke as they would rather have become humble suiters to his Majesty to have set forth some severe Edict for the better Sanctification of the Lords day that so the people might be kept in better obedience both to God and to his Majestey Forasmuch also as the giving libertie of such sports whereby it is manifestly profained is without all example in any age of the world and their so pressing of it with that cursed and tyranicall tigor both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes such as are not so well acquainted with His Majesties either noble and Christian disposition or His many solemne Protestations to keepe Religion safe and sound I know not what strange Scruples on feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of His Majestie when indeed the whole burden of the blame is to be laid upon the Prelates as either the chiefe procures of these things or the not hindereâ— of them The last instance wheâ—â—in the Prelates doe indanger a division betweene the King and his good Subjects whom the Lord preserue in a perpetual bond of unity is their most impetuous and violent obtruding of new â—ites and Ceremonies which they haue begun through some whole Diocesse and exacting a new conformity in all Ministers there unto This is another snare wherewith they may catch more Ministers either to outt them of their Ministery and living or else to captivate them for ever as vassalls for whatsoever base uses their good Masters will put them unto And herein they haue made a faire progresse already as for example in two whole Counties Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space they haue made the fowlest havocke of good Ministers and their flocks now left desolate and exposed to the Wolues as sheepe without their sheepheard as our eyes have never seene For there are already Threescore Ministers in that one Diocesse suspended and betweene three and Fowrescore more have time given them now till Christ-tide by which time either they must bid their good Conscience farewell or else their precious Ministery and necessary meanes Neither I thinke can it be shewed that in all Queene Maries time there was so great havocke made in so short a time of the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole Land And now doe those Counties and Countries groane under this intolerable burthen remedilesse if God and the King doe not relieve them And our neigbours house being thus on fire doth it not concerne us all to looke to it For they say that this shall be a precedent for all England But upon what ground is all this What authority doe they shew for these outrages The King That is answered before by his solemne Protestations to the contrary But they plead the Act of Parliament for Vniformity before the Communion Booke wherein is reserved a power to the Queene with advise of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan to ordayne and publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Hereupon they ground all their Innovations But for this First obserue that this clause of the Act is limmited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her Successors of the Crowne they are still expressed Secondly admit it was intended to the Successors yet it is with that qualification as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edefying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Misteries and Sacraments Well To bring our new Rites to this Rule First doe they make to the Advancement of Gods glory What Superstitious Idolatrous worship of wooden Aultars What a complementall Crouch to Iesus when they Crucifie Christ What to bow before a Crucifix Againe for the edifying of his Church What by the Preaching and not praying in the Pulpit before and after his Sermon What by the expounding of the Catechisme What by reading a second Service at the Altar where the people cannot heare it And for due reverence to Christs Sacraments What by possessing the people with an opinion of a Popish reall presence What by offering Christ in sacrifice upon a Wooden Altar By a Priest of mans making What by drawing the people to a new adoration by bringing them up close to the new Altar But they will say all makes for them And who shall bee judges but themselves who are the Church Therefore Lastly I answer for all that no humane rationall creature can bring the least shadow of colour that this Act did giue the Queene or her succssors any power to set up Popery againe This is out of all question But now our New Reformers are tooth and nayle for setting up Popery againe witnesse their hoysing up Altars in most places as also of Images Crucifixes with adorations putting downe of the meanes of knowledge as Preaching and bringing in of Ignorance also preaching for sundry points of Popery as Auricular Confession praying to Saints yea printing of such Sermons prayer for the dead and many other All which while they set up with a high hand and so as if the King gaue them authority so to doe of which all his Solemne protestations I say doe sufficiently resolve us the contrary they must needs mightily shake and unsettle the peace of the State by these their dangerous and desperate attempts and sill the peoples minds with musings what the issue will bee and how the King will digest these things at the Prealates hands which tend to the most dangerous dividing and renting of the Kingdome asunder The next instance is their arrogating of their Episcopall title and office of Superiority from Christ and his Apostles This they did lately in the High Commission Court and that upon occasion of Doctor Bastwicks cause then before them Where hee was accused and severely censured for writting a Booke intituled Flagellum Potificis Episcoporum Latialium in which booke bee whipped that usurped authority of the Roman Hierarchy through whose sides by reason of their
precedent and proofe And for this very cause were there no more Preaching was never more necessary in this City than at this time which doth so swarme with multitudes of poore who without some present competent reliefe must needs perish so would heape upon this City yet greater Sins which is ready to sinck under the heavie burthens both of Sins and Plagues I might note againe as an 8. reason that great extraordinary increase the very first weeke of the Fast together with most hideous stormes fearfull and foule weather immoderate raine ever since it began God testifying by his reviving and renewing of the Plague by the sad and black countenance of the skies and those many great losses both by Sea Land that he abhorres such a Fast as of which his very judgemēts Speak Call you this a Fast Yea also a 9. reason because according to the Prelates practise this Fast is made a meere mock Fast wherein God is mocked to the face For doe the Prelates propose this as the principall end of their Fast to breake off their violent and tyrannicall proceedings against Gods Ministers and so against the State of Religion I feare it And so long let us never look for any good issue of this Fast but rather further judgements to be powred upon the Land For these reasons I say I could wish with all my heart to be an humble Petitioner to the King who I am perswaded would speedily hearken to such a request and would certainly answere that it was never his mynd that Preaching should be in this Fast prohibited The king prohibit Preaching Noe noe we all see who they be that prohibit Preaching even those that labour tooth and nayle to Suppresse Preaching and lay snares to intrap all painfull Preachers as the pressing of the booke for Sports for instance they being not content that the booke be read by the Curate but the Incumbent himselfe must read it or els abide extremity as Suspension from his Ministry Excommunicatiō out of the Church Sequestration from his living and Ecclesiasticall meanes the great crying Sinne of this Land at this day But I will add no more So as the Ninivites shall rise in judgement against this generation for they upon occasion of Ionas preaching proclaimed a Fast and reformed their lives and their violent dealing but these men under pretence of a Fast as Iezebel did to devoure Naboths vinyard would devoure Christs Vinyard while they Suppresse the Preaching of the Word whereby men should be convinced of their Sinnes and converted from them and bring forth good fruits of the Vine and thereby harden their necks against the Lord and strengthen their hands in violence to fill up their sinnes allway The sixt Innovation is about the meanes of the knowledge of God and of the Mistery of our Salvation That may be verified of many Prelates in these dayes which Christ charged the Pharisees with all Woe be unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for yee shut vp the Kingdome of heaven against men for yee neither goe in your selues neither suffer yee them that were entring to goe in Matth. 23. 13. Which in Luke 11. 52. is expressed thus Ye take away the Key of Knowledge And doe not our Prelates thus when they hush and silence all Lectures in whole Diocesse When they suppresse and cut short Preaching all they can When they lay snares to muzzle Gods Ministers that they may not Preach When they disgrace and traduce Preaching calling it in scorne Sermonizing When they forbid Ministers to use any prayer before their Sermons but that bare and barren forme of words in the Canon wrapping all up in the Lords Prayer When they must use no Prayer at all after the Sermon but come downe and read a second or third Service at the Altar where in great Churches halfe the people cannot heare a word When they must not preach at all in the Afternoone upon the Lords dayes When they must onely Catechise for halfe an hower and that not by expounding the Principles of Religion which may well be called the Key of Knowledge which they take away but onely by the bare questions answeres in the booke teach the children like Parats so as they can never come to give a reason of their fayth with understanding When in a great City or in the Vniversities they limit all Sermons to one hower so as the heares cannot injoy the benefit of more then one Sermon a day Yea what devises have they not put in practise to put the light of Gods word vnder a bushell if not rather altogether to quench it if it were in their power What invectives are in Shelfords ad Treatise against Preaching and the peoples knowledge How doth he find fault with the Peoples desire of Sermons And pag. 47. he Sayth Our Soli Sermonists and Solifidians so they may have a Sermon or two on the Lords dayes c. And pag. 91. he allowes of Preaching with a restriction and limitation as being not fit for every Minister but for extraordinary excellent men called by God and the Church to reforme Errours abuses or to promulge to the world new Lawes Canons And againe least this should be too great a burthen to these his extraordinary men he qualifies the matter by restraining their preaching to certaine extraordinary times in the yeare pag. 94. as Easter Whit-Suntide Christmas day and to extraordinary places too as Cathedralls and for this cause pag. 93. he would have many Ministers vnfurnished of their licences especially those that preach twice every Lords day and those that are permitted to preach to be restrained to certaine times and seasons as once a Moneth at most And he gives the reason of all because the Church is now settled and therefore doth not need preaching as once it did in its infancy So he Thus they labour tooth and nayle to cry downe Preaching For saith he p. 94. Reading is the ordinary preaching ordained by God himselfe And this is that maine marke which they al shoot at to mould up all in the Lumpe of the Communion Booke and make that the Summe and Scope the very Circle of al Religion Knowledge The Seventh innovation is in the rule of faith for whereas the sole and complete 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 be our only guides in Divinity as in Reeves Cōmunion booke Catechisme expounded pag. 20. and 206. where all Ministers must submit to the judgement of the Prelates in all matters pertaining to religion and all Prelates must submit to the Arch-Prelate as having a Papal infalibility of spirit whereby as by a Divine Oracle all questions in Religion are finally determined And here I cannot forget a speech of the chiefest Prelate of England in the High Commission who at the censure of Doctor Bastwicke for oppugning the
Iurisdiction of Bishops jure divino as being no where found in the Scripture but the contrary sayd openly that in matters of divinity wee are not tyed to the Scriptures but to the Vniversall Catholicke Church in all ages for how said hee shall wee know the Scriptures but by the Church And therefore not without some reason doth that Iesuite in his Pamphlet printed in English 1636 intituled A Direction to bee observed by N. N. make a laudable mention of that great Prelate saying Although I ought not to dissemble but doe gladly acknowledge and deservedly publish in this occasion for a patterne to others in this Realme the care of the Chiefest Prelate in England in prohibiting the sale of Bookes tending to Socinianisme So there But what meaneth the Iesuite here by Socinianisme Hee tells us plainly pag. 16. and 17. in these words First then I say that the very Doctrine of Protestants if it be followed closely and with coherence to it selfe must of necessity induce Socinianisme This I say confidently and evidently proove by instancing in one errour which may well bee termed the Capitall and mother Heresy from which all other must follow at ease I meane their hereâ—y in affirming that the perpetually visible Church of Christ descended by a never interrupted succession fromour Saviour to this day is not infallible in all that it proposeth to bee believed as revealed truthes For if the infallibility of such a publicke Authority bee once impeached what remaines but that every man is given other to his owne wit and discourse And talke not here of holy Scripture And a little after And indeed take away the authority of Gods Church no man can bee assured that any one Booke or parsell of Scripture was written by divine inspiration or that all the contents are infallibly true which are the direct errours of Socinians So hee Where wee see what his meaning is when hee commends the chiefe Prelate as a patterne to all other in prohibiting such bookes as exalt the sole authority of holy Scripture as the onely Rule of faith Thus not unde servedly hee commends him for upholding the authority of the Church to wit of the Pope primarily and next after him the Prelates as whereon depends the authority and sence of Scripture Well But is this the way of setling the faith of Christians in the true religion Nay is it not the high ready way to unsetle all to make religion a wether-cocke to be turned this way or that way as the winde of mans unstable erronious fancy shall blow move it And for proofe hereof let us but obserue what the same Iesuite faith a little after For writing of the present state of our Church and that since this new generation of Doctors and Prelates hath Sprung up amongst us I know not from what Popish root hee saith * And to speake the trueth what learned judicious man can after unpartiall examination imbrace Protestantisme which waxeth even weary of it selfe Its Professors they especially of greatest worth learning and authority declare themselves to love temper and moderation allow of many things which some yeeres agoe were usually condemned as Superstitious and Artichristian and are at this time more unresolved where to fasten then at the infancie of their Church Thus by the way hee sheweth who they bee that are the chiefe Fathers of that new-fangle religion of Protestancy of late birth in England namely those of greatest worth learning and authority as the Prelates are counted to bee who are of that temper and moderation as they allow of many things which some yeeres agoe were usually condemned as superstitious and Antichristian But how doth the Iesuite demonstrate this Pag. Twenty two Hee saith For doe not the Protestant Churches begin to looke with another face Their walls to speake with a new language Their Preachers to use a sweeter tone Their annuall publicke Tentes in their Vniversities to bee of another style and matter Their books to appeare with titles and arguments which once would have caused a mighty scandal among the brethren Their doctrine to be altered in many things and even in those very paints for which their Progenitors for sooke the then visible Church of Christ Their 39 Articles that is the summe the Confession and almost the Greed of their Faith are patient Patient They are ambitious of some sense wherein they may seeme to bee Catholicke To alledge the necessity of wife and children in these dayes is but a weake plea for a married Minister to compasse a Benefice Fiery Calvinisme once a darling in England is at length accounted Heresy yea and little lesse then Treason Men in word and writing use willingly the once fearefull names of Priests and Altars Nay if one doe but mutter against the placing of the Altar after the old fashion for a warning hee shall be well warmed by a coale from the Altar English Protestants are now put in mind that for exposition of Scripture by canon they are bound to follow the ancient Fathers And to conclude all in one maine point The Protestant Church in England willingly professeth so small Antiquity and so weake subsistence in it selfe that they acknowledge no other visible being for many Ages but in the Church of Rome So the Iesuite Behold here now Protestant Reader what testimony a Iesuite can give of the present state of our Church and that out of his owne reading and observation and which we our selves cannot deny all which hee ascribeth to the Prelates as those whom hee indigitates for men of greatest worth learning authority who declare their Innovations as Sodome her sinnes and hide them not even our enemies now their friends being witnesses who gladly feed their infants with the pappe of our new Papisme But to returne to our particular point of Innovation concerning the rule of faith which our Prelats have turned off from the holy Scripture to the authority of the Church this is the maine upshot in Dr. Whites Treatise of the Sabbath day wherein he tyes the observation of the Lord day to that limitation which the Prelates of the Church doe or shall prescribe so also all other matters of Religion And doe they not also overthrow the Scriptures as the rule of faith in that they restraine the preaching of them to their illiberall allowance inhibiting such and such points to be medled with as before is shewed doe they not place the Communion booke as a rule of faith in all matters of Religion wherin the Arch-Bishops definitive sentence must determine as Recv ibid. p. 206. The 8th innovation or Change is in the rule of manners which rule must not be any more the word of Christ and the writings and examples of the holy Apoles wherein they followed Christ for that is counted too precise and puritanicall but our Prelates have prescribed a new rule of Christian manners to wit the example of
their owne lives and the dictates of their writings the Summe whereof is to make a mixed Religion conversation of Christians which is partly holy in an external forme of godlinesse without the power thereof partly in admitting allowing approving applauding countenancing and dispensing by Episcopall authority of a heathenish kinde of life and that especially in most Sacred times as the Lords day which though dedicated wholly to the worship and service of God yet the rule of the Sanctification hereof which is the 4th Commaundement and the example of Christs and his Apostles these novellers do altogether reject as abolished instead thereof advance their new Traditions which is to allow one part of the Day for God and the rest to mans carnall Lusts Sin the world the Devil as our Homily Saith So as the due observation and Sanctification of the Lords day being a platforme and patterne of a Christian Conversation a Christian being that in his whole life in a proportion which he is on the Lords day and this platforme being defaced and broken by our Anti-Sabbatarians it followeth that together with their impions crying downe of the 4th CoÌ„maundement and so accordingly the due Sanctification of the Lords day intire without mixture of heathenish Sports and Pastimes they deface and destroy the very face beauty power of all religion so do set up a new Forme of it never allowed of as by a Law in the world before And herein doe our Apostates out strip the very Pontificians themselves who did never yet mak a Law nor take upon them to allow any other rule of Christian life than the Scriptures although they have with our innovators denyed the Scripture to be the onely and absolute rule of faith independent upon any humain power For even Bellarmine exclameth against and disclameth that dissolute profanation of Sacred dayes in practise among the Papists in their vaine Sports and Pastimes for which cause the very Turkes do scorne saith he the Christian Religion Saying O what a God have the Christians what a famous Law giver who â—ither commandeth or permitteth these things Now if the Turkes should upbrayd us in England and cast vs in the teeth with our Lord Lawgiver Iesus Christ as if he eyther commaunded or allowed Sports Pastimes upon the Lords day our answere must be that our great Lawgiver Christ doth not any way tolerate much lesse commaund any Sports or Pastimes on his Sacred day as wherewith both God is dishonoured his day profaned but out Lord-Prelates are they who doe usurpe unto themselves a Lawlesse power to dispense with that part of the Lords-day as they please wherein men may runne riot and keep their Bacchanals and their Floralia without controwle such as Christ and his word forbids to be done on any day Much more might be spoken of the Late Changes but this suffice for the present But what speakewe of Changes Our Changes doe plead that they bring in no changes but revive those things which ancient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at Gloria Patri and at the reading of the Gospell bowing at the nameing of Iesus and to the High Altar remooving the Communion Table to stand Altarwise at the East-end of the Chancell praying with the face towards the East where the Altar standeth placing of Images in Churches erecting of Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Martins instead of Preaching and the like To this we answere that we in this Land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the Law of God of the King Although I once heard a Papall Canon was alledged in opposition to a Parliamentary Statute in K. Edw. 6. his raigne alledged by the adverse Advocates it passed for Currant none gain-saying it But as for those Rites Ceremonies to be used in our Church they are by an Act of Parliament prefixed to the CommunioÌ„ booke restrained to those only which are expressed in the same booke and if any by private authority shall presume to introduce into practise any other besides these he is to suffer imprisonment for a time and if he persist perpetuall imprisonment and losse of all his spirituall promotions during his life But besides all this these men have one speciall Sancturary to fly unto that is their Cathedrall Churches where they may lay hold upon the hornes of their Altars These be their old high places not remooved These as they are commonly used bee the ancient dennes of these old Foxes to which they flie being this pursued of whom the Scripture saith Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoile the Vines These bee those nests and nurceries of Superstition and Idolatry wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her usum Sarum in life to this very day And now these are be come impregnable bulworkers to patronize our Re-builders of Babell in all their innovations Innovations Say they Wee bring in no innovations no new rites but what hath beene in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent Places even the Mother Churches of the Land Now all that wee goe about is to reduce inferiot churches to an unity and conformity to their Mother Churches So as thus bringing all to unity wee shall take off that reproach which the adversaries cast upon us in this kinde and which wee shall then retort upon themselues for their diffentions betweene their Regulars and Seculars Thus doe our Master-builders plead and so by their cunning insinnuations under a pretence of Piety and peace of unity and uniformity preaching peace peace when nothing but warre is in their heart hand as Psal. 55. 21. and 59. 7. doe so farre prevaile that before wee bee aware they will by this meanes pretrily reduce us to a perfect peace and unity with old Mother Rome againe For these Mother Churches to which all Danghter Churches must conforme are they not the naturall daughters of Rome Doe they not from top to toe exactly resemble her Her pompous Service her Altars Palls Copes Crucifixes Images superstitious gestures and Postures all instruments of musicke as at the dedication of the King of Babylons Image Long Babylonish Service so bellowed and warbled out as the heareers are but little the wiser Are not these high Places also the receptacles and nurceries of a number of idle bellies to say no worse Doe not the fat Prebends So cramme their Residenciaries that the while their starveling Flocks in the countrey doe famish for want of spirituall Food But as Erasnius said of Luther how his fault was that he meddled with the Popes Miter and the Monkes bellies But this I note by the way to show how all those that are maintained by Cathedralls are ingaged to helpe forward those Innovations that are now on foot because they make much for the supporting of their Papall Pompe But let us a