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
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
not abandon the Priviledges thereof from himselfe seeing hee conferres onely the exercise of ruling Seeing the direct dominion of the Empire is resident in God and consequently in the Pope And Iohn à Capistrano or of the halter saith It is for humility sake that the Pope is moved to say that he will not usurpe the regall dignitie nor the Imperiall authority Let every knee bow to the Pope as unto Christ. And Hee the Pope may excommunicate deprive the Emperor and absolve any man from his allegiance which he oweth to man by the plenitude of power which hee hath And Angelus Rocca in his Vaticana Bibliotheca pag. 5. The Chiefe Pontife or Pope is crowned with a Tiara or round bonnet which they call the Kingdome of the World and his 3. Crownes doe represent the Imperiall Regall and Sacerdotall that is the plenary and universall authority of the whole world By the round Bonnet the Imperiall power is signified by the Miter the Pontificall spirituall So hee Thus wee see this great Antichrist exalts himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped Thus hee intercepts from the King that feare and obedience which is due vnto him from the Subjects and takes it to himselfe And thus hee not onely separates the feare of God and of the King but destroyes them both in assuming and usurping them both to himselfe as being both God and the King Secondly They separate Gods feare from the King in this that they altogether free all their Votaries and infinit Orders from the terrene power of Kings and Princes As the Pharisees did nose-wipe Parents of the obedience of their Children by their device of Corban And as our Prelates right chips of the old blocke doe labour tooth and nayle to withdraw their necks from under the yoake of the Kings Lawes which their practise plainly prooveth as we touched before A second sort come here to be reprooved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if hee were God Almighty himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that Omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his Holinesse And this these Parasites and paramours of Kings Courts doe not for any true love or reverence they beare to the King but in speciall for these ends 1. That they may by this meanes nourish a heart-burning betweene the King and his good Subjects that so they may never meet together in Parliament for the redressing of those many enormities and grievances both in the Church and commonweale whereof these make-baites are the principall causes and so least they might bee brought Coram Secondly that so they may by their intoxicating flattery so indeere the King unto them as to his most intire and intimate friends and the onely Supporters of the Prerogative royall for as much as they have justly incurred the hatred of the whole Land and so lye open to all the hazards which envy may bring them into Thirdly by this meanes they are bold tousurpe a lawlesse and unlimited power over the Kings good Subjects as if their advancing of Kingly power above its limites were but to serve their owne turne in executing their lawlesse tyranny by a kind of borrowed and abused regall power And lastly that they may by this meanes trample the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects under their feet and in fine bring the whole State of the Kingdome King and all under their gâ—â—dle For they must be true to their Principles whereof this is one principall Episcopus non debet subesse Principibus sed praeesse A Bishop ought not to be subject to Princes but to rule over them And this they have sufficiently proved by their late practises wherein they exercise a transcendent power over all Lawes both of God and man but whence they have it I suppose themselves want good evidence and I hope will be afraid to say the King hath given them that Power which himselfe would never either practise or yet challenge as which God never dispensed to any humain Creature and which his Majesty hath so often solemnly protested against as we showed before And thus I say these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his throne downe to the ground Let this then in the least place teach men how to keep this knot of the feare of the Lord and of the King inviolable For to separate them destroyeth both And this is both the doctrine practise of true Christians and that of old For Tertullian saith that though the Christians were traduced to the Emperour as if they were enemies to the State yet those traducers as the Albiniani Nigrani c. Were found to be those enemies But a Christian saith hee is enemy to none much lesse to the Emperour whom knowing to be ordayned of his God hee must of necessity both love and feare and honour and wish him safe Wee therefore love the Emperour so farre as it is both lawfull for us and expedient for Him as a man next under God And whatsoever he is he hath it of God being lesse then God alone And this hee himselfe willeth For hee is so greater then all while hee is lesse then the onely true God Therefore we Sacrifice for the safety of the Emperor but to our God and his but as God hath commanded by pure prayer For the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse was not knowne in those primitive times And againe the same Author in another place speaketh to this purpose thus Placing the Majesty of Casar beneath God I doe the more commend him to God to whom alone I subject him and I doe subject him to whom I doe not equall him For I will not call the Emperor God either because I know not how to lie or because I dare not deride him or because neither himselfe will bee called God if hee bee a man It behooves man to give place to God Let it suffice him to bee called Emperour This also is a great name which is given of God Hee denyes him to bee Emperor that calls him God Vnlesse he be man he is no Emperor But saith he what need I speake more of Christian Religion and Piety towards the Emperour Quem necesse est suspiciamus c. Whom wee must of necessity honour as Him whom our Lord hath chosen that I may truely say he is the more our Caesar as hee is appointed of our God therefore as being mine I doe the more labour for his safety So Tertullian So wee also And herein may all true Christians triumph and make a holy boast against all Iesuiticall Sycophants that doe traduce them to Kings and Princes as enemies to their goverment What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason
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
this last it saith Christ ordained the authority of the Keâ—es to excommunicate notorious sinners and to absolve them which are truly penitent They abuse this power at their owne pleasure as well in cursing the godly with Bell Booke and Candle as also in absolving the reprobate which are knowne to be unworthy of any Christian society And what can the Prelates and their Court say for theÌ„selues why that of Bernard may not be applied to them which hee spake of the Prelates in his time Quem dabis mihi de numero Episcoporum qui non plus invigilet subditorum evacuendis marsupijs quaâ— vicijs extirpandis Vbi est qui flectat iram Vbi est qui praedicet annum placabilem Domini Propterea relinquamus istos quia non sunt Pastores sed traditores imitemur illos qui viventes in carne plantâ—verunt Ecclesiam sanguine suo Successores omnes cupiunt esse imitatores pauci Whom wilt thou shew mee of all the Bishops who is not more vigilant to empty the peoples purses then to root out their vices Where is hee that seekes to appease wrath Where is hee that preacheth the acceptable yeere of the Lord Wherefore let usabandon these men because they are not Pastors but Traytors and let us imitate those who living in the flesh have planted the Church with their blood So hee I will not speake of their domesticall discipline but for the present and for brevity sake passe it over But from the beginning it was not so Hierome saith A negotiating Clerke and of poore rich of ignoble glorious fly from as from a kind of plague The 3. Change is in the worship of God which they goe about to turne inside outward placing the true worship which is in Spirit and Trueth in a Will-worship of mans devising consisting in some externall complements and gesticulations as cringing crouchings bowing or standing upright at some Scriptures more than at others also a punctuall observance in these formalities as in bowing to the name of Iesus to the Communion table or rather Altar as to the Mercy-seat as they teach in their books praying with their faces towards the East thus tying God to a fixed place standing at reading of the Gospell and the like Also reading their second service at their Altar as we touched before many the like And who so wil not worship after their new fashion their new discipline is to excommunicate them or to bring them into the High-coÌ„mission a place which they make worse theÌ„ Purgatory it selfe Al which oppression being an innovation is directly contrary to the Act of Conformity before the CoÌ„munion Booke bringing the Prelats into little lesse then a Praemunire The 4. change is in the civill govermeÌ„t which they labor to reduce transferre to Ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample upon the Lawes of the Land step between the King his people exercising such a lawlesse tyranny over their bodies goods as also over their coÌ„sciences as is more intollerable then the Egyptian servitude of Israel under their Taskmasters in regard wherof the Prelates power over-swaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes the people of the Land are used rather as vassals slaves to the Prelates then as the free subjects of the King And this is the case of all England at this day the people every where groaning sighing for this their boÌ„dage their miserable vexations in the Ecclesiasticall Courts Well could they but cry mightily to the Lord and make their just complaints to his vicegerent their King as their cause requireth hee would quickly send a Moses to deliver them And so much the more should they bee sensible of this evill by how much the glory of the Kings governement over a free people according to his righteous Lawes is lamentably eclipsed his power infringed and his regall Prerogative undermined The fifth innovation is in the altering of Prayer-Bookes set foorth by publicke authority And first in the Communion Booke set forth by Parliament and commaunded to bee read without any alteration and none other they have altered Sundry things as in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progeny they have put out Father of thine elect and of their Seed as it were excluding the King Queene and Seed Royall out of the number of Gods Elect. Also in the Epistle for Sunday before Easter That in the name of Iesus they haue turned into At the name of Iesus that so it may make the fairer colour for their forced bowing to the name of Iesus for which there is neither Scripture nor ancient Father The second Booke is the Prayers set forth by authority of Parliament for Solemne thankesgiving for our deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason of the Papists on every Fifth of November where in stead of this passage Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. They in the last Edition 1635. set it downe thus Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect OF THEM which say of Ierusalem c. Now whereas the words of the Originall copy doe plainely meane That all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. This latter Booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it to those Puritans that cry Downe with Babilon that is Popery which these men call Ierusalem and the true Catholike Religion Againe in the same Prayer the old copy hath these words And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion whose faith is faction whose practise is murdering of soules and bodies and to root them out of the confines of this Kingdome c. But the new Booke hath it thus And to that end strengthen the hands of our Gratious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement and Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity WHO TVRNE RELIGION INTO REBELLION AND FAITH INTO FACTION Thus these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to be termed Rebellion and their faith Faction as the ancient copy plainly shewes it to bee but turne it off from the religion to some persons which turne religion into rebellion and faith into faction So as by this turning they plainly imply that the religion of Papists is the true religion and no rebellion and their faith the true faith and no faction Thus with altering of a word they have quite perverted the sence and so turned the Cat in the Pan so as the blame is quite taken off from the Church of Rome and laid upon a few who ever they bee who turne Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction Thus what dare not these men doe that are not afraid to alter those things which are
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