the Saduces saying Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 12. verse 24. and indeed from the ignorance of the Scriptures commeth all error they that follow the Scripture for their guide can never stray or straggle from the right way neither have they need to borrow the candle of the Fathers to be directed by so long as the glorious Sun of the word shineth so clearly and it was the eternall praise and commendations of the more Noble Bereans that they did dayly search the Scriptures whether the things the Apostles taught were so or no. Acts 17. verse 11. and Paul is greatly honoured with this applause in the 26. of the Acts verse 22. that he taught no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come to passe And so Christ taught his Apostles Luke 24. that all things ought to be fulfilled concerning him which were writ in Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes So that the Scriptures alone are the Foundation of all our religion and to say that the meaning of the Scriptures cannot be known without the Fathers is an unsufferable wickednesse done unto that holy booke and an infinite contempt and disgrace of it to say it hath need of the aid of man to support it Christ vanquished the Devill by the Scriptures Matth. 4. drove away the Saduces Matth. 22. and Saint Iames by the Scriptures put an end unto the great controversie of the Churches at Jerusalem and set the Churches of the Gentiles free for ever from all Ceremonies whatsoever but those God himselfe had appointed Acts 15. and onely by the Scriptures did Paul resolve all questions So that according to Gods owne instruction and direction which must ever be obeyed and listened unto the Scriptures onely and solely must be the Judge Law Square and Rule of all our Religion Words and actions Not the authority of the Fathers not the traditions of men not the practice and custome of the ancient and the name of Antiquity For they that shall preferre those things before the Word of God or at least affirme that these holy Oracles divine Records cannot be understood without the Fathers do not onely blasphemously disgrace and contemne the holy Scriptures but neglect the great Prophet whom we ought to heare in all things so that listening unto the voice of men before the words of this great Prophet and accusing the Scriptures of obscurity and saying they are the refuge of all Schismatickes and Heretickes is great impiety against God and most injurious to the holy Scriptures All which the Prelates being so highly guilty of the Defendant will never be afraid to charge them with it that they are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture withall that they are very ungratefull to the King their Master and invaders of his Prerogative Royall all which he shall make also evidently appeare to this honourable Court and how unworthily yea prophanely they have abused not onely the King their now Soveraign but his Most excellent Father of pious memory And that they are invaders of his Prerogative it is most certaine not onely by the Statutes and Lawes of the Kingdome but by this very information For by the Lawes and Statutes specified before with many others it in solemnly inacted That whatsoever Authority is here exercised under the King in his Dominions whether it be Spirituall or Temporall whether by Archbishops Bishops or any other Ecclesiasticall men it is meerly in by and from the King and so ought to be acknowledged and that all jurisdictions superiorities all priviledges and preeminencies spirituall and Ecclesicall are annexed unto the Imperiall Crowne and so to be acknowledged And whosoever doth not acknowledge that all jurisdicton and Authority both Spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth flow immediately from the Kings Majestie as Supreme head under Christ in these Churches and in his Kingdomes as the Statutes declare at large is ipso facto in a praemunire and under his Majesties high displeasure For it is the Prerogative of Princes and the priviledge that onely agrees to Kings and Potentates to be absolute in their Dominions and that all other jurisdictions and superiorityes exercised by any other in their Kingdoms are derived from them and that of themselves they have none but as from the Kings So that it is arbitrary and in the Princes power to have or not to have such jurisdictions and preeminencies under them And that they may abdicate or annihilate them when they please And whosoever shall deny this or claime any right of Government to themselves in Princes Dominions jure Divino are Delinquents against their Kings and Masters and by our Lawes and Statutes they are proclaimed enemies of the King and his Prerogative Royall and that is true the mouth of the Law hath spake it And therefore the Defendants book cannot be called a Libell without the Lawes first be proclaimed such for the Lawes say That all such persons as shall challenge any Authority to themselves in his Majesties Dominions but from the King are Delinquents against his Majestie and invaders of his prerogative Royall and his Highnesses enemies and so they are Now that the Prelates are such they sufficiently declared it in the censure of the Defendant For he reading the Statutes at the Bar they notwithstanding affirmed that they had not their Authority and jurisdiction from the King but that Jesus Christ made them Bishops and bestowed their Authority upon them and that they were jure Divino and that they were before Christian Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads for no Bishop no King and all this in a publick Court of Judicature and in a most crouded assembly So that it seemeth the King is beholding to them and not they to his Majestie And if this be not to invade the Prerogative and to be enemies of it and to be ungratefull unto his Highnesse the Defendant knoweth not what it is to be enemies of the prerogative The Lawes say it and therefore if the Defendant hath erred the Lawes have brought him into this error Neither did the Prelates own words at the Bar onely declare their disloyalty to the King and their independency on him but this very information which comes from the Prelates in the name of the Attorney Generall sufficiently demonstrates it For in it the Defendant is accused as guilty of a great crime for writing against the Hierarchy and preferring a Presbyterian parity before the Sacred Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons What the Defendant hath writ and the occasion of it concerning the Presbytery the honourable Court hath been informed in part and withall if so writing be libellous and the Defendant have erred in it the Holy Scripture is also libellous which were impiety to thinke and hath been the cause of it from which he varied nothing at all in that discourse and further the Defendant resolveth to live and die in that error concerning the parity of Ministers and Presbyters which
they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and
all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent
upon his head and with all his State and Magnificence and his Nobles in their service with the reverence that is yeelded unto him then he beleeveth no longer because the Servant told him that it was the King but because by his own reason he is evinced of it knowing that such attendance and such a guard and so great pompe dignity and State belongeth to none but Kings And it would be thought not madnesse onely but treason to say if one had not told him that it was the King otherwise the King could not be known or that he that told him was greater then the King or his Authority greater The same may be said of the Holy and ever blessed Word of God that it is a great madnesse and impiety to conclude That the Holy Scripture cannot be known to be the Word of God without the Authority of the Fathers or Church or that the Authority of either is greater then the Scriptures which to affirme is without doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almighty God and his blessed revealed will and able to provoke his indignation upon us because it is an error against the very light of nature art and reason and the apparent Words of the Scripture where the Word of God is called the immortall seed 1. Peter chap. 1. verse 23. which liveth and abideth for ever Now all seed by its inward vertue sprouteth into a blade and is by it self and his owne fruits knowne to be what it is So is the Scripture of it selfe knowne to be the Word of God and as Paul saith in the 1. of the Corinthians chapter 2. verse 4. the Word of God is in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power and maketh the hearts of the beleevers burne within them as it did to those that went with Christ to Emmaus Luke the 24. verse 32. and as the Apostle saith in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chapter verse 3. that they received the Word of God not as the word of man but as it is in the truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in those that beleeve and in the 4. of the Hebrews the 12. Paul saith that the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and Spirit and of the reines and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory and by their own native and inbred splendor doe conciliate Authority and credit to themselves neither have they any need of help from man or the Fathers Authority to prove them the word of God For before there were any Fathers the Scriptures had their Authority and were knowne to be Divine Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God no more then a Pillar maketh a Proclamation to be the Kings will and pleasure because it stands upon it but the Church or Fathers declared them so to be neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this How impious then and blasphemous are the Prelates that they dare thus vilifie the holy Scriptures and make their authority nothing And can any man of judgement see any reason why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures Or why one should beleeve that these are the workes of Augustine or Ambrose and should doubt that this is the Gospel of Luke John or that these are the Epistles of Paul Of these things the Defendant for his part can see no reason Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures themselves when the Fathers are not to be credited but as they accord with Scripture as the very Popish Canons and Papists themselves acknowledge for in the Canon Law thus speakes the Pope Patrum quantalibet doctrina sanctitate pollentium Scripta ex Canonivis sacris consideranda nec cum credâ—ndi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt Neither is Baronius his opinion other concerning the authority of the Fathers as at large may be seene in his Annales ann 34. Sect. 213. and ann 44 Sect. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same minde in his 2. Booke concerning Councels in the 12. chapter in these words Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regulae nec habent autoritate obligandi And when the very adversaries do thus fully expresse themselves that whatsoever authority is in the Fathers Books and writings it is only as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture shal any man then think or suppose that there should yet be more authority in the writings of the Fathers or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures from whence as the fountaine those streams do issue very reason will confound the fatuity of this devilish doctrine for the streames and brooks are never so pure nor good as the fountain for it is ever the fountaine that gives authority of goodnesse and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as men know and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come so that the Spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest Authority and without all controversie as it overthroweth all reason so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountaine of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift and they that shall speak so contumeliously as the Bishops doe of these Fountaines of living waters the holy Scriptures is they did the Defendant will ever maintaine they are contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures and in this opinion he will live and die Neither did they lesse offend in saying that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocrypha without the help and authority of the Fathers which point also the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to hear a little discussed it being a thing of so high nature concerning not onely the glory of God but the good of every mans soul the peace of the Church and the tranquility of the whole Kingdom And therefore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little for the further Demonstration of the justnesse of his accusation he chargeth the Prelates with viz that they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures cannot be distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers which assertion is against sense and reason it self and too impious for Prelates to speak Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament that they were written in the Hebrew tongue and that they did give witnesse of Christ and received Authority from him and that they were put into the hands and keeping of the elect and chosen people of God as a Treasury Now the Apocrypha had none of all this
honour Neither did ever the Jews account of them as Scripture yea to this day they reject them Neither for these reasons onely are they distinguished from the Apocrypha but for many others the divinity purity sublimity appears in the Canonicall Scriptures the futility folly and falsity in the Apocrypha are too too manifest and is there any man so stupid and blockish to think that this age wherein we live cannot distinguish or discerne gold from lead without the Authority of the Fathers There is a vaster difference between the Apocrypha and the Canonicall Scriptures then is between gold and lead Every mans reason will tell him an apparant difference between brasse and beanes But if any be desirous of Authority to distinguish them will not Christs and the Apostles suffice The very Papists that have not abjured all honesty and goodnesse do freely acknowledge and confesse that those onely are Canonicall Scriptures which the Apostles did either write or approve of But they did never approve of the Apocrypha The Canonicall Scriptures of the old Testament did in shadows and figures set forth that which the new Testament clearly speaks They did adumbrate the new Testament expresseth in lively colours one and the same thing They consent one with another and yeeld each other mutuall aid and help Now the Apocrypha do neither foretell the new nor are by their authority and approbation illustrated and declared Christ commends Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes as books without all exception Luke 24. and grounds his doctrine upon them but never honours nor graceth the Apocrypha with his commendations or witnesse How then can the Prelates without great contumely unto the sacred Scriptures say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers especially after the judgement of Christ himself is given and hath passed upon the Scriptures for the authorizing of them to be the word and will of God The Fathers as the learned acknowledge were for their times many of them worthy of honour but yet they were subject not to a few errors and often agreed not with themselves and are ever at variance with others and have been indeed the originall and cause of almost all the controversies with which the Churches are now tormented And therefore to conclude this point the Defendant saith that the Prelates are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture when against so much light of reason and Divine authority they say they cannot be distinguished and knowne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers Neither is the third Thesis and Position freer from impudency and outrage against the Scriptures then the two former In that they say the meaning of the Scripture could not be knowne but by the Fathers For in this they doe as much as plainly affirme there is an other way to heaven then by the Scriptures which if it be not a contemning and disgracing of holy Scripture then there never was any Nay if it be not blasphemy the Defendant knoweth not what blasphemy is â—and therefore all those that desire salvation and to go to heaven must come to the Schoole of the Fathers and not to the Doctrine of the Scriptures And how then will the poor people doe to be saved that never knew what a Father was Nay how did all those goe to heaven that dyed before the Fathers For the Prelates say that the meaning of the Scripture cannot be knowen without the Fathers and without the knowledge of the Scripture there is no salvation It is most manifest by these expressions of the Prelates that they with their untempered morter would put out the light of the Scriptures and make them not onely inferiour to all mens writings but a very pack of Non-sense for wheresoever there is any sense there can something be gathered out of it especially if it be so large a Booke And howsoever there be many depths in Scripture there is also great perspicuity so that according to the ancient saying as an Elephant may swim a lamb may wade there also But if it should be so as the Prelates say that without the authority and interpretation of the Fathers the meaning of them could not be known and found out then the Defendant affirmeth they should be inferiour to all other writings yea to every Letter and Epistle that men pen with understanding for they ever carry their own sense end meaning along with them or to what end are they otherwise writ If the letter that discoverd the gunpowder Treason had not had a match and light of understanding in it that Popish plot had never been discovered till by its cruell flames it had declared it self and by the funerall of the whole Kingdome had been made known and left those that survived and lived in perpetuall mourning If every Letter writing and book then that is penned with judgement carry its own sense and meaning in it and the books for which the Defendant is now questioned and if all Proclamations Letters and Edicts of Princes are easily to be understood and carry their own interpretation with them so that none after their publication may pretend ignorance dare any man be so bold and adaciou as to say that the Letters and Proclamations of the King of heaven an God of the whole world cannot be understood when notwithstanding David saith they give light and understanding to the simple and that by reading and meditating in the Law and Testimonies of the Lord he grew wiser then his Teachers and Paul that Timothie knew the Scriptures from his youth 2. Tim. chap. 3 verse 13. and notwithstanding all this dare the Prelates affirme that the meaning of this Scripture cannot be knowne without the interpretation of the Fathers We have great cause to praise and blesse God that hath so graciously afforded us better Masters to be taught by It is good ever therefore to listen unto them Let us hear now then what the Prophets Christ and his Apostles have taught us concerning this weighty matter and of so great consequence and let us follow their example and instruction which lead us into all truth and not to listen to the contemners of holy Scripture They send those that are studious of the wayes to heaven to the Law and to the Testimonies Esai 8. to Moses the Prophets and the Scriptures not to the Traditions of the Elders and custome of Antiquity And they that bring any other doctrine are not to be listened unto neither may we bid them God speed The Word of the Lord is the way light and lanthorne to our Feet which send forth sufficiently the beames of truth and shines so clearly of it self as it may be both knowne proved expounded and unfolden by its own brightnesse They do as it were lend lustre unto the Sun from a smoaking snuffe that from the mist of the Fathers would bring light unto the Scriptures God is the Authour of the Scriptures who is the originall and fountaine of all light and
send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church and that he would preserve those fountaines pure and incorrupt Now all men know how Paul planted and Apollos watered the garden of the Church and that was by preaching as is manifest in the 1. of the Cor. Notwithstanding all this viz. the charge that is laid upon them by God himselfe that they should preach the word diligently and as they love him notwithstanding also the promise that the Bishops and their Priests have made of their particular care in preaching which is onely able to save our soules and notwithstanding the curse that is laid upon them if they do not preach and notwithstanding they pray that the two fountaines may send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church Notwithstanding all the premisses the Defendant saith That the Prelates neither preach themselves nor will let others preach but silence almost whole Diocesses together and have extinguished very many of the chief burning lights amongst us and do daily suspend the remnant of the most laborious and painfull Ministers through England and Wales and have deprived the people of all soules-comfort spirituall solace without which a mans life is miserable to the infinite dishonour of God and hinderance of the Christian faith and the good institution of the people yea and to the trouble of the whole Church and State and therefore the Prelates are the onely hinderers of the instruction of the people in their Christian faith and the saving of their soules and by consequence the enemies of the Church and Kingdome for from these Priests is iniquity gone out thorow the whole kingdome and of the truth of that the Defendant now saith all the Realm can witnesse and the Prelates practices prove who make void the commandments of God by their vaine traditions and trample his holy and divine precepts under their sect and stop the course of the everlasting Gospel and therefore the enemies of Christs Kingdom and the salvation of their brethren But now more especially whereas he the Defendant is accused of long continuance to have envyed and maligned his Majesties happy government and the good discipline of the Church He the defendant protesteth in the presence of God and before the world that it is a most false accusation and that there is never a Subject in his Majesties Dominions a more honourer of the government of his imperiall Majestie and one that desireth more the good discipline of the Church and is able to produce the testimonies of all the places he hath lived in in this Kingdome both from Magistrates and Ministers for the honesty and integrity of his life and conversation and that in all respects he hath so demeaned himself as that he hath not onely been free from vice faction and schisme but from the suspition of all which testimonies he hath ready to shew to this honourable Court and the which he exhibited to the High Commission Court at that time they studied most to defame him and all this both Town and Countrey can testify as also of the indefatigable diligence in his particular calling How that he neglected no opportunity to doe the indigentest men good and how that being unwearied in his imployments he went through the heat of Summer the cold of Winter rose early and went to bed late exposing himself at all times to any danger whatsoever of plague and pestilence and all to do the meanest of the Kings Subjects good never taking penny of poor nor never of servant never suffering the most neglected creature of nature to perish for want of care or looking to but made them all an object of his pitty and of his Art giving them out of his poor competency both for their food and Physick neither can any man say that ever he asked the richest a farthing for any paines he took day or night for their preservation or that he ever murmured at the smallest content they gave him and if the Prelates had let him follow his calling this Defendant had continued in this diligent course of life till the day of his death But they picking a quarrell with him for writing in defence of the Kings Prerogative Royall against the Pope saying that while he writ against the Pope he meant them put him upon such imployments as he indeed thinks will be very little pleasing to the Prelates although he is most confident that in them he hath and shall do the King and Church good service and so he knoweth it will appear when he is dead and gone But because this book is now laid unto the Defendants charge as tending to the maintenance and upholding of Schisme and division in His Majesties Church of England and opposition against the laudable Orders and Ceremonies of the said Church howsoever there be no such thing in the said Flagello yet this Defendant desireth to give a reason unto this Honourable Court for the writing and publishing not onely of that booke but of all other his writings since And first concerning the book for which he was censured He saith that he was provoked thereunto by a Popish Jesuiticall Doctor of Physick who continually dared him into the field of Dispute and set down his own theames about which he would contend which were concerning the Popes Supremacy and the sacrifice of the Masse And it is well known to the Towns and Country where they both dwelt that the said Defendant could never be quiet for his brags and scriblings to himself and others till he had answered which was the sole cause of his ruine and the which answer of his though he had long time for peace sake neglected yea at last he was through his adversaries importunity put upon it Neither could he for the honour of the truth and the honour of his Prince both which he loves more then his life delay it any longer and therefore out of his duty to God and the King he entred the combat with the enemy To which duty he the Defendant saith he was bound by Christ himself who hath commanded to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods which commandment of Christ ties all Christians under obedience to a double duty which by them may not be neglected viz to give unto God his due and unto the King his Yet for obeying of this commandment this poor Defendant must be defamed ruined undone and left friendlesse moneylesse and in captivity and given to the Devil and yet say nothing But the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to give him leave to say as Queen Hester spake to Ahashuerosh if that he and his wife had been sold for bond-men and bond-women he had held his peace but for them to be ruined and undone because he could not see God and the King dishonoured he the Defendant cannot but speak Let the King live for ever and never let it be said that he hath such a base cowardly
with many other arguments proved that Presbyters were better men then the Bishop of Rome if there were any difference The sum of which he desireth this honourable Court to take notice of that they may more ponderously weigh the businesse in hand and see the vanity of the Information And for the arguments in brief they are these They who are most obedient to the Precepts Commands and Prohibitions of Christ and do most diligently obey the Apostles admonitions they are and so ought to be esteemed more worthy and excellent thou such as regard neither of both But the Presbyters are more obedient to the commands of Christ do more diligently obey the Apostles admonitions then the Romish Bishops Therefore they are more worthy and excellent For the major no man can deny that knows loyall and obedient Subjects to their Prince his Officers just commands are to be preferred before Rebels and them that regard neither of both Now Christ and his Apostles have commanded That all Ministers should feed the stock of Christ diligently in preaching the word and administration of the Sacraments and that they should not be Lords over his inheritance Both which precepts and prohibitions the Presbyters do more exactly observe then Romish Bishops for they neither preach themselves nor will let others and are Lords over Christs inheritance which the Lord Jesus and his Apostles have peremptorily forbid Ergo the Presbyters are more worthy then Romish Bishops Againe That name which is and hath ever been a name and title of dignity and honour is to be preferred before that which is a name of pain labour sollicitude But the name of Presbyter or Senior is and hath been ever a name of honour and dignity and a title of mighty Emperours and Princes and the name of Bishop is a name and title of labour and travell Ergo the title and name of Presbyter is to be preferred before that of the Romish Bishops For the major none that are truly noble and learned can deny And for the minor to omit many other places it will evidently appeare to any that will look upon 1 Tim. 5. There the Apostle saith The Presbyters that rule well are worthy of double honour So that it is apparent enough That honour and dignity is contained in that name which deserveth both reward reverence and respect And in the same Epistle the Apostle saith Rebuke not a Presbyter but honour him as a Father and speaking of Bishops he saith He that desireth the Office of a Bishop desireth a good work He saith indeed a good work but a work notwithstanding full of care watchfulnesse toile and labour From all which it is ratified That the name and title of Presbyter is a name full of dignity honour and splendour and the title of Bishop a compellation or name full of labour anhelation and solicitude and therefore to be preferred before the title of Bishop being far more excellent Again That name which whensoever it is joyned with the name of Bishop hath alwayes the first place and precedencie that name is most excellent But the name of Presbyter when it is joyned with the title of Bishop hath ever the precedencie Ergo it is to be preferred before it For the major the adversaries cannot deny it For they conclude and the precedencie and preeminencie of Peter before the other Apostles because he is often first named And for the minor the word of God declares it illustriously as may be seene in the 20. of the Acts and the first of Titus and the fifth Chapter of the first of Peter In all which places the names of Presbyter and Bishop being joyned together Presbyter is ever first named To all this Peter calls himselfe a Presbyter The same doth Saint John as if all Ecclesiasticall dignity were placed in that name But there are many Arguments yet remaining to prove the dignity of Presbyters to be above that of Bishops if there be any difference between them For They to whom in the most difficult controversies of the Church and greatest dissentions the Primitive Christians had ever recourse and who the Spirit of God did in a speciall manner assist and who made Decrees by which the Church of God to this day is to be regulated and governed and who the Apostles themselves made their sociates and companions in both Generall and Provinciall Councels and the which had the next place unto the Apostles in their Assemblies they are more worthy and to be had in greater honour and veneration thou the other Ministers of the Church which are neither by name nor place knowne in those holy meetings But the Presbyters are such and Therefore the Presbyters are more worthy and excellent then Bishops As for the major the adversaries cannot doubt of that which bestow dignity and honour upon their Bishops according to the place and degree they had in the first Councels And for the minor none can doubt of it who hath read Acts 15. and Acts 20. But they that desire to be satisfied concerning this Argument at large the Defendant desireth would read any of his books Lastly That the dignity of the Presbyters may yet appear above the title of Bishops it is thus evident Those to whom the keys of the Kingdom of heaven by name are committed those are more worthy and honourable then those that have not that privilege But for the Presbyters they have the privilege of the keys granted unto them by name Ergo the Presbyters are more honourable then Bishops For the major no good Christian will or rationall man can deny it And for the minor he that readeth the last of Iames shall finde it manifestly enough confirmed and proved By all which arguments the Defendant did sufficiently beat down the Bishop of Romes authority and by the very light of reason overthrew it For if that every Presbyter be by the word of God as good a man as the Bishop of Rome if not better and withall if the Presbyters neither can nor may usurp authority over their fellow brethren much lesse may they do it over Kings and Emperours and by consequence and necessity of reason it followeth that the Bishop of Rome hath no cause to arrogate such authority to himselfe over the whole Church as he doth and therefore that his rule and government is a meer usurpation and an abominable tyranny over the whole Church of God and ought of all men to be defied abominated and abhorred with all his complices as impious and blasphemous against God injurious to Kings and Princes and nocent to all the faithfull members of Jesus Christ The recapitulation of all the which Arguments this Defendant thought sit to make knowne to this honourable Court that their illustricities might in every respect see his innocency who first exempted all Bishops that acknowledge their authorities from Kings and Emperours out of the number of those against which he disputed and secondly never by name fought against any other but Romish
he is ready to prove and make good against all the host of Prelates Doctors Proctors Commissaries Officials and Surrogats this day living But the thing that the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take notice of is the contumacy of the Prelates for they call their Hierarchy and the Orders of their Bishops Priests and Deacons Sacred which if it be granted and so be indeed then the Prelates are from God and not from the King of whom they have no dependence For speaking of the King we say His Sacred Majesty because God himself hath appointed him over us for by me saith God Kings reigne and all Authority is from God and Kings are called Gods so that Kings are Sacred Persons But that the Hierarchy should be sacred and that there should be a holy Principality of Pastors and Ministers the prime and forman of which should have the Keys of Heaven Earth and Hell and that he should dispose of Kingdomes and Empires and make the greatest Potentates and Rulers his Subjects and Vassals and should have his domineering servants under him in all Common-wealths and Princes Courts to pry into their Royall proceedings to their revenues riches and treasuries to know their powers their allyes and confederates and be Counsellors of their most secret admission and should have an authority and jurisdiction independent over their Subjects and Lawes and Canons of their own making to rule by and by them to persecute and undoe them at pleasure in the number of which are Cardinals Patriarchs Prime-mates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and innumerable such like vermin a member of which monstrous body our Hierarchy is the Defendant saith this is not knowne in Sacred Writ nor never came from God but rather from the Pope and the Devill Diabolus cacavit illos Yea the Word of God is absolutely against it And that our Arch-Bishops Prime-mates and Metropolitans are members of that body let not onely our Martyrs writings and speeches and Henry Stubbridge his exhortary Epistle but even Masons booke be looked into concerning the Succession of Bishops and it will be found That he derives their Pedigree from Rome and so doth Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath wherein he saith that our Prelates are lineally descended from Saint Peters Chaire at Rome they being therefore a branch of that Synagogue and standing by the same authority the Pope pretends to stand which is as they all challenge jure Divino they are enemies to the King and invaders of his prerogative and so they are justly guilty of all those crimes they accuse the Pope of and as great enemies of God as he is all which the Defendant hath sufficiently proved in his Apology For they challenge their Authority jure Divino and say That Jesus Christ made them Bishops and the holy Ghost consecrated them and that they were before Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and the Pope sayes no more They call also their Hierarchy Sacred The Pope doth no more and for the erecting of this Sacred Hierarchy Emperors and Kings must be thrust down and made vassals of and all Kingdomes that are under their jurisdiction made slaves to it and all those stinking slavelings that depend upon it as the whole Christian world by wofull experience dayly findeth But this same tearme of Sacred Hierarchy and Sacred orders of Prelates ought here a little to be discussed That which is Sacred is from God But the Hierarchy is not from God Ergo it is not Sacred For the minor it is evident that which God hath peremptorily forbid to his Ministers and Servants and is an enemy to that is not of God and by his institution but he hath forbid Lordly dominion to all the Ministers of the Gospel saying The Princes of the Gentiles bear rule over them but it shall not be so among you you shall not Lord it over your Brethren Ergo the Hierarchy is not of God but of the Devill that is the cause of all disorder and ignorance For God forbad his Apostles and in them all Ministers to be Lords over one another and set his own example before them of service and commanded them to immitate him and to be humble and meek and told them plainly That the office of Principality and dominion belonged unto Kings and Princes and that their imployments consisted in their obedience to Kings in praying for them that they might live in all godly peace under them and that they should diligently feed the flock of Jesus Christ committed to their charge in season and out of season as they love him and will answere it at his last appearing and this was all the businesse that Christs ministers and Servants were to be taken up in they were not to be intangled with the things and affairs of this life not to be incumbred with worldly matters they have speciall commands and presidents to the contrary and their charge and duty assigned unto them from which station they must not go which is onely to feed the flock with all care and diligence with the sincere milke of the Word to preach unto them day and night and to goe before them in godly and holy example and to neglect this and to be taken up with domination and overruling their brethren and beating their fellow servants is to be Rebels against Christ and to usurp that which belongeth not unto them and which they ought not to meddle with and therefore when the Prelates doe not onely eate up and devour this forbidden fruit but challenge a right unto it from God himselfe and say they have no depencie from the King the Defendant maintaineth that it is intollerable arrogancie against God and the King and by which they are Delinquents in an elevated degree of contumacie against them both What an horrible impudencie is this in the Prelates or any Subject that vindicates their quarrell that they dare call the Hierarchie sacred especially when they derive it from Rome Whom King IAMES of Famous memory calls Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and can any man thinke that those that are lineally descended from Babylon and Antichrist that great enemy of Christ his Kingdome and Members can be Holy and Sacred Certainly if the fountaine be not holy the streames cannot be holy Yea King Iames is very large in that his Book to all Christian Princes in discovering the impiety of the Hierarchy of Rome and proves the Pope to be that man of Sin and all the Prelates of that Sea to be the Frogs that came out of the bottomlesse pit For the Nature of Frogs they being Amphibia is to live upon the Earth and in the water Now King Iames saith That the Prelates are the Frogs for they seeme to be Church men and are ever medling in States affaires creeping out of their stinking gutters and are such mighty busie bodies in other mens matters as they trouble all the Nations and Kingdoms where they dwell and inslave them all So that if