advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
Latimers Sermons Bishop Iewels Bishop Andrewes and diverse others Your afternoone Sermons on the Sondaies if performed by Lecturers are but a part of that new fashion which before wee spake off and having no foundation in the Church at all it cannot be an Innovation to lay them by And if the Curate of the place or whosoever hath the Cure of Soules bestow his time in Catechizing as he is appointed that in effect is but to change one kinde of Preaching for another So that if he that hath the Cure doth carefully discharge his office and performe his duty you have no reason to complaine for want of having Sermons in the after noone I know it is the custome of you and yours to take up Sermons more by tale then weight and so you have your number you thinke all is right But as in feeding of the body one temperate meale digested presently and concocted throughly adde's more unto the strength of nature then all that plentifull variety of delicates which gluttony hath yet invented So doe they profit best in all heavenly wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who heare many Sermons but which heare good ones For limiting the Catechizing unto halfe an houre that 's ordered by the Canon also and it is ordered by the Canon that Children shall bee taught no other Catechisme then that set forth in the booke of Common prayer Not that the Curate is to examine them by question and answere onely without expounding any of the principles of religion which is that you quarrell but to examine and instruct them as the Canon hath it Yet so that under the pretence hereof nor you nor any such as you may assume that libertie as to turne simple Catechizing for the instruction of the youth and ignorant persons of the Parish into a Catechisme Lecture of some two houres long not differing from your mornings sermons but in name alone If in great Cities and the Viniversities Sermons are limited to the same time of the day or as your owne phrase is to one houre onely assuredly it is neither new nor strange The Sermon appointed for the morning being a part of the second service is to be read or spoken in all Churches at the time appointed by the Church Nothing in this de novo that I can heare of In Oxford it was alwayes so since I first knew it the Sermon for the Vniversity and Towne being expressely at the same time Nor neede you bee offended at it if by that meanes the people in those places cannot heare above one sermon in a day it being not many but good sermons not much but profitable hearing which you should labour to commend unto them but that you would bee some body for your often preaching Our Saviour tels us of some men that thought they should bee heard by much speaking and you are one of them that teach the people that they shall be saved by much hearing Your two last innovations I shall joyne together the one being in the rule of Faith which is now made you say to be the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelates p. 151. the other in the rule of manners which must not bee any more the word of Christ but the example of the Prelates lives and dictates of their writings onely p. 156. In this you have most shamefully abused your selfe and all them that heard you The rule of faith is still the same even the holy Scriptures nor can you name a man who hath changed this rule or made the dictates of the Church to wit the Prelats the rule of faith The application of this rule that is the exposition of the Script you must acknowledge to be in the Churches power or els you are no son to the Church of Eng. For in the Articles of the Church to which you have subscribed more thē once or twice it is said expresly that the Church hath authority in cōtroversies of faith that it is vwitnes a keeper of holy writ As also that it hath authority to expound the scriptur cōditioned that it so expound one place that it be not repugnant to another And for the judgmēt of prelats I know not how you can excuse your selfe before God almighty for not submitting therunto having called God to witnes that you would so do For when you took the order of holy Priesthood it was demanded of you in the Congregation whether you would reverently obey your Ordinary and other chiefe Ministers unto whom the government and charge is committed over you following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your self to their godly judgements and you made answer that you would the Lord being your helper Either then you must first cōvince their judgements of some plaine ungodlines or else your not submitting to them must be a plaine colluding both with God and man Reeve whom you jeere at so both in your Pasquil p. 152. and in your dialogue between A. B. saith no more then this and if you say not this you have not lied unto men only but unto God Nor is this any other doctrine then what was held for currant in Ignatius his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the Priests saith he submit themselves unto the Bishop Deacons unto the Priests the people to the Priests and Deacons And then hee addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule for theirs that faithfully observe this order So he And had you kept this order you had not so engaged your self in these factious brabbles wherewith you have disturbed both your selfe and others Touching the rule of manners that any hath affirmed or written that it must bee according to the Prelates lives and dictates you produce no proofe Onely you say and say it onely that they doe countenance allow and by Episcopall authority dispense with an heathenish kinde of life especially in most sacred times as the Lords day This is no proofe I hope but an ipse dixit or a petitio Principii take it at the best although it bee an argument you are used most to And I must answer you to this in the words of Tullie Quid minus est non dico Oratoris sed hominis quam id objicere Adversario quod si ille verbo negarit ulterius progredi non passis Till you bring better proofes for your innovations your selfe must be reputed for the Innovator and all the mischiefe which you have imagined against other men will fall upon your owne pate and deservedly too Hitherto you have acted the false Accuser and have done it excellently well none better In the next place you come to play the Disputant and that you do us wretchedly none worse For first you say that it is pleaded by our changers as you please to call them that they bring in no changes but revive those things which antient Canons have allowed and prescribed as standing up at the Gloria Patri and at the reading of
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as