estimation to the honor and dignitie of our Christian King and the noblenes of his kingly charitie declared by his proclamation as that hereafter in your consistories and publique seates of Iudgement you would vse conferences arguments and perswasions wayes of love and gentlenes workings by clemencie and weight of reason to reclayme all that be in the ministerie to the obedience of the church lawes according as by the Kings proclamation you are required rather thē by rigour of law shaking the kings sword and pressing the kings commandement to enforce the trembling consciences of your weake brethren contrarie to the Kings most noble christian intention plainly vttered by his proclamation There be sundrie other poyntes in his Maiesties proclamation which by your Lordships worthily deserved consideration before you had begun those violēt courses which some of you have pursued in this case The peremptory day assigned to the Ministers for their conformitie by the King being of more authoritie then 1000. of your canonicall admonitious would have bene fully expired before you had troubled the Ministers about this matter otherwise then by conferences argumentes perswasions c. All Ministers who had incurred no censures of the church or penalties of the law in the Queenes tyme or since the Kings raigne before the sixth of Iuly 1604. be exempted out of the proclamation though before the day appointed they have not conformed them selves to the orders of the Church And yet many such have you disquieted The Lawes and orders of the Church remayne very vncerteyne so as it is not certeyne to what lawes and orders established the ministers should conforme them selves And yet before the day expired you have vrged some Ministers to cōforme them selves to Canons divulged since the Proclamation The Canon law is vtterly voyd within the Realme and therefore your oath of Canonicall obedience is of no force and all your Canonicall admonitions not worth a rush The old provinciall constitutions intreat of no such oath besides they litle or nothing respect any orders or ceremonies of our Church To which booke of common prayer the Ministers should subscribe in that maner and forme as by the Canon is required is not decided If they subscribe to the booke published since the Kings raigne they may then be called into question at every sessions assises for vsing an other forme then is prescribed in the Queenes booke the same remayning still in force vnrepealed if subscription be vrged to the Queenes booke then may not the Ministers yeeld therevnto because the Kinge and Bishops have concluded to reforme some things conteyned in the same as being repugnant to the holy word of God Besides the booke of common prayer of the second of Edward 6. touching ornamentes rites and ceremonies and wherevnto for the same respect both the Queenes and the Kings booke hath reference revived this last Parliament by disannulling the statute of repeale made the first of Queene Mary This book we say of the 2. of Edw. 6 establishing other ornaments rites and ceremonies then the former bookes doe some of those ceremonies also to be vsed or at least at every mans devotion and the ornaments after another maner thē ours make vs greatly to stand in doubt whether all ceremonies conteyned in every of these bookes or but some or which of them are to be vsed yea or no. Touching the late Canons of what authoritie many of them be may iustly be questioned because some of them seeme vnto vs to be contrariant or repugnant to the lawes statutes customes of the realme som to be derogatorie to the Kings prerogative royall and other some to be repugnant to the holy word of God and therefore in all these three respects to be voyd canons by the common law statutes of the realme Lastly howsoever some ministers might be within the cōpasse of the proclamation not conforming them selves before the last of Novēb to the lawes established before the 16. of Iuly neverthelesse the Bishops after the day expired ought to have attēded the Kings pleasure by what wayes and meanes he had determined to take from among the people all occasions of sectes divisions and vnquietnes much lesse before the day should they have attempted any thing vnlesse as the proclamation requireth them they had provided meete persons to bee substitutes in the places of those who wilfully had abandoned their charges These things being thus most providently nobly and Royally for the quietnes of the church set forth by the Kings proclamation it had bene a parte of very great wisedome and moderation for your Lordships in our opinions paciently to have expected the Kings further direction before by your vntimely pressing the kinges commandement authoritie and rigour of his lawes ye had indevoured the inforcing of their consciences without perswasions by weight of reason And so much the rather should your Lordships have done this that hereby ye might have satisfied all civill Magistrates Gentlemen and others of vnderstandinge that they seeing by your conferences argumentes perswasions love gentlenes clemencie and weight of reason that the cause which you maintayne not that which they impugne is good might not in any sorte have supported favoured or countenanced any factious ministers in their obstinacie as by the proclamation they are required And yet by your Lordships favour not to conceale any thing which hetherto we have as we thinke rightly conceaved of the Kinges proclamation we can not but informe your Lordships that by the same the King hath more tēdered the good estate of the ministers of their controversie in hand then ever was tēdred by any former Prince since poperie was banished For when was there in England before this time by any kingly proclamation any conference argument perswasion love gentlenes clemencie weight of reason commanded rigor of the law forbidden to be vsed by the Archbishops Bishops for the reclayming of the ministers to the lawes of the church When were any ministers by publike authoritie called as it were into open field to stand vpon arguments and weight of reason Whē was it appointed by publike authoritie that any ministers should answere and that Archbishops Bishops should oppose that the ministers should be defendants and the Bishops plaintifes When was it proclaymed by any Princes authoritie that the Archbishops and Bishops to their vttermost indevours by argumentes and weight of reason should prove vnto the ministers that the book of cōmon prayer bookes of homilies booke of cōsecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons book of Articles and other lawes orders of the church conteyne nothing in the whole or in any parte disagreeable either in doctrine or governement to the word of God All which things by the proclamation are intended should be done which things also if the Archbishops Bishops have done thē indeed we confesse the ministers that have not yeelded to conforme thēselves to be wilfull the King to be righteous for
the abandoning of sectes divisions and vnquietnes among his people if he shall allow no factious ministers in their obstinacie But if the Archbishops and Bishops have not endevoured much lesse not indevoured to the vttermost of their powers as by the king they are required by conferences arguments perswasions love gentlenes clemencie and weight of reason to reclayme al ministers to the obedience of the church lawes then wee can not see how any civill Magistrates Gentlemen or others of vnderstanding can be intended by the proclamation to be favourers supporters or contenancers of factiousnes or obstinacie in the ministers which are not conformable As for those two and twentie thousande Ministers if possible there could have bene so many who without any conferences argumentes perswasions or weight of reason vsed by the Archbishops or Bishops have turned their heeles and as Gedeons tymerous and fearfull soldiours have returned and departed early from mount Gilead before the appointed tyme came we leave them to the Lord vnto whom in this case they have stood or fallen And who is able to rayse thē vp though for a tyme they be downe Nay if of the tenne thousande if possible there were so many which bee left there should nine thousande seven-hundered bowe downe their knees to drinke water at the Bishops poole and but 300. only should stand vp to lapp water with their tongues as a dogge lappeth in that well of water which springeth to eternal life yet by these 300. only is the Lord able to save Israell and to deliver the Medianites into Gedeons hand Nay if of these 300. but two only shall stand vp clothed in sackcloth to be witnesses yet in the end shall these two witnesses bee two Olyve trees and two Candlestickes standing before God who governeth the earth out of whose mouth if any will hurt them shall fire proceed and devoure their enemies And thus much have we thought necessarie to be spoken touching our vnderstanding of the Kings pleasure and commaund declared by his Highnes proclamation yea this also have we done not onely in regard of our loyaltie vnto our christian King but also in regard of the clearing of ourselves from every vniust imputation of being favourers supporters or countenancers of factious ministers in their obstinacie praying your Lordships to cary a favourable construction of these our Demaundes Because our desire is to be fully satisfied by holy Writt and not rest our iudgementes vpon humane authoritie especially sithence both your Lordships and our selves by the experience of full fiftie yeares have both heard and seene how vnprofitably and to no good purpose this salve of humane power hath bene applied vnto the church surfeted with drinkings and eatings of that romish strumpet yea and for our parts we can not but be hartily sory that after so long a time of triall your Lordships should still remayne so vnperswasible as not once to make experiment of the powring in of some more sweete and medicinable oyle to this so deadly and desperate a wound Especiallie the sore being at this day as deepe as noysome and as full of dead flesh as the same was the very first moment that your predecessors began to stoppe the issue thereof with this kinde of humane tente And so wee will proceed to our last ground drawne out of holy Writt for the resolutenes of our iudgementes wherevpon and wherein we yet stand The third ground If thy brother be grieved for the meate now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed It is evill for the man which eateth with offence It is good neither to eate flesh nor to drink wine nor any other thing whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or made weake Let vs not therefore iudge one an other any more but vse your iudgment rather in this that no man put an occasion to fall or a stumbling block before his brother From which grounds we demand First whether your Lordships iudge not all godly Ministers true beleevers within your iurisdictions to be your Christian brethren And whetherye and they bee not all sonnes vnto one Father and servants vnto one Lord Whether your Lordships be not of opinion that the putting and not putting on of a Surplice the making the not making of a crosse vpō the childs forehead in Baptisme the wearing not wearing of a square Cap and kneeling and not kneeling in the acte of receiving bread and wine at the Lords Table be not things in their owne nature of like indifferencie as were the eating and not eating of meates drinking and not drinking of wine or any thing in the Apostles time Whether your Lordships can prove by any place of holy writt that these rules and precepts given by the Apostles of not greeving a brother for meate of not walking charitably by eating meate of not destroying him for whom Christ died with meate of not doing evill by eating meate of not eating or drinking whereby a brother stumbleth is offended or made weake and of not putting an occasion to fall before a brother by eating meate We demand we say whether these the Apostles commandements in the not doing of all things of like indifferencie with that of not eating meate and not drinking wine do not aswell bind your Lordships at this day as they did the Bishops Pastours Elders and Brethren of that time And therefore we demand If any of your Ll. had bene Archbishop of Ephesus or of Creete had bene Bishop of Ierusalem Rome or Colosse in the Apostles time whether vnder the title of order vniformitie or by right of superioritie power you might without breach or cōtradiction of the Apostles doctrine have cōmanded any brethren within your charge being weak in faith to have eaten meats forbiddē by the law or sacrificed vnto Idols Againe if any of your Lordships in the Apostles time had bene an Archbishop or a Bishop and by your Archiepiscopall or Episcopall authoritie had commaunded the Pastours Elders and Brethren vnder your chardge being weake in faith by example of the strong in faith and for conformities sake to have eaten meates sacrificed vnto Idols or forbidden by the law we demand whether such your commandement had bene a charitable commandement yea or no Yea and we demand whether the same your commandement vnder what pretence of canonicall obedience vnitie or conformitie soever might have excused the weake in faith from sinning against Christ if at your commandment they being not fully perswaded in their minds had eaten of these meates doubtingly And if the Apostles charitie were so great as that he would never have eaten flesh while the world stādeth rather then he would greeve or offend his weak brother or give him an occasion to sinne we demād how small charitie the men of our age may seeme to have who be so far frō not greeving not offending a weak brother of not giving him an occasion to sinne
by his owne knowledge This people have removed their hearte farr from me and their feare toward me was taught by the precept of man In vaine they worship mee teaching for doctrines the precepts of men From which grounds we demand Whether your Lordships can prove out of holy Writt that there can be a service yealded vnto God where God hath not given a commandement Whether the more a man thinketh to doe any thinge by his owne wisedome and not as God instructeth him the more he doe not prove him selfe to be a vile beast Whether any thing can be acceptable in the sight of God which he never required at our handes Whether God wil be honored according to mans fantasie or rather doth not detest whatsoever is not grounded vpon his worde If your Lordships for the avoyding of these demandes shall deny the feigned making of a crosse and feigned signing of the childe in the forehead with a crosse in the administration of Baptisme to be any service or to be any worship vnto God and therefore neither voluntarie service neither will-worship vnto God then we demaunde for what intent or to what end the making of a Crosse and signinge the forehead of the childe with a crosse is commaunded as a necessarie service to be performed by the Minister in that publique acte of Gods worship for if the forme and manner of Gods worship as you say be established prescribed conteyned in the booke of common prayer if also the ministration of the Sacrament commaunded in that booke be as you say no corrupt superstitious or vnlawfull worship neither conteyning any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures how should not the making of a Crosse and signing of the childe in the forehead with a crosse but be a pure a religious a lawfull worship vnto God Besides if making a crosse vpon the childes forehead and signing the forehead of the childe with a crosse be no act of gods worship in the administration of Baptisme Then we demaund how the Minister in foro coÌ„scientiae can be guiltles of taking the holy name of God in vaine when as in the act of Gods service and worship hee doth neither worship nor serve God But Sirs by your patience the Minister in obeying the authoritie of the Church when shee commaundeth him to make a Crosse herein obeyeth God Why then by your Lordships favour wee demaund whether the church doe serve God or doe but please her selfe in that her coÌ„mandment For say we where no commaundement of God there no service vnto God And therefore if the Church by such her commaundement doe but please hir selfe and not serve and please God Then we demaund whether the Church in thus pleasing her selfe and not serving â—od doe not offend God asmuch nay rather more then if shee had commaunded a voluntarie service and a will-worship vnto God But Sirs the acte of making a Crosse and signing the childe in the forehead with a crosse is no parte of baptisme for we graunt that baptisme is perfect and absolute without it But yet by your Lordships favour the question is not whether making of a crosse or signing with a crosse be any parte of baptisme but whether making of a crosse and signing with a crosse be any parte of the continued acte of the outward and divine worship given vnto God in the publick administration of baptisme For if it be a meere traditionall and no divine or religious action or if it be partly traditional and partly divine we still vrge your Lordships to prove vnto vs by the holy scriptures whether it were ever lawfull in any act of Gods worship to act a thing meerely traditionall or partly traditionall and partly divine As for the action of sitting standing kneeling going reading praying preaching and if there be any other Divine naturall or necessarie actions powers or faculties of the body or minde without which no outward service can be yealded vnto God We confesse that the Church with the Magistrates consent may determine of the comely and orderly acting of these things because Aliquo per Deum mandato omnia ea mandantur ne quibus illud mandatum commodè religiosè adimpleri non potest And therefore those divine necessarie and naturall actions before remembred depending vpon or proceeding from the powers and faculties of the bodie or mind being such as without which the outward service of God can not commodiously decently and orderly be accomplished we affirme that they be confirmed vnto vs from generall rules of holy writ And this also may serve for an answere for the having of water a vessell to conteyne water because as water of necessitie is required to the administration of baptisme so must also water we having no waters running through our churches of necessitie be coÌ„teyned in some vessell but as for making a crosse or signing the forehead of the child with a crosse in baptisme because the same by your confession is no part of Baptisme And because also the same is not properly and simply any necessary naturall or divine actioÌ„ as without which Baptisme can not be administred Nay because it is such an action as without which Baptisme very decently and orderly may be administred wee pray your Lordships to resolve vs out of holy Writt how the Minister may acte the signe in the outward acte of Gods worship And yet not breake as earst hath bene said either the second commandement by outwardly serving God otherwise then hee hath commanded in his worde or not violate the thirde commandement by taking his holy Name in vaine But by your patience Sirs this making a crosse vpon the childes forehead and this signing him with a signe of the crosse in token c. though the same be no part of Baptisme nor any parte of the outward worship of God nor any naturall nor necessarie action of the body or mind without which Baptisme can not be administred yet is the same a solemnitie an ornament apperteyning vnto Baptisme by the order of the church which ought not to be omitted and left vndone But by your Lordships favour this your Apologie is of no fresher hue nor of any deeper dye then wherewith the great Papistes and fond Canonistes have alwayes bepainted and becouloured their signing their salting their spitteling their oyling their chrismating and their other such like solemnities according to these verses Sal oleum chrisma cereus chrismate saliua Flatus virtutem Baptismatis ista figurant Haec cum patrinis non mutant esse sed ornant And therefore we pray your Lordships to resolve vs by some place of holy Writt whether the Papists and you or either of you be inabled to invent or ordeyne such solemnities ornaments signes figures of crosses to be vsed in the publique administration of Baptisme as never once came in the mind of God to have devised or vsed And so much the rather
CERTAINE DEMANDES WITH their grounds drawne out of holy Writ and propounded in foro conscientiae by some religious Gen̄tl vnto the reverend Fathers Richard Archbishop of Canterbury Richard Bishop of London William Bishop of Lincolne Garvase Bishop of Worcester William Bishop of Exeter Thomas Bishop of Peterbourough wherevnto the said Gentl. require that it would please their Lordships to make a true plaine direct honest and resolute aunswere Isai 66. 5. Heare the word of the Lord all ye that tremble at his word your brethren that hated you cast you out for my Names sake said let the Lord be glorified but he shall appeare to your ioy and they shal be ashamed Ier. 23. 27 Thinke they to cause my people to forget my Name by their dreames which they tell every man to his neighbour as their forefathers have forgotten my Name for Baall Isai 8. 16. Bind vp the Testimony seale vp the Law among my disciples Isai 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them 1605. To the Reverend Fathers c. RIght Reverend Fathers your Lordships having bene a long tyme Divinitie Readers in the schole of Christ and some of vs also a long tyme scholers brought vp in the same schole at your feete give vs leave we pray you by way of Question and not of Definition to propound these Demaundes following And as we brieflie and plainly have opposed so let your Lordships be wel pleased simply and honestly to make vs answere For we having as the men of Beraea did searched the scriptures for our satisfaction in the doubtes propounded and out of them not being able to resolve our selves our desire is to be resolved by men of greater skill and not to rest our selves vpon our owne iudgements Now then we thus propound and we thus demaund FIRST whether every supreme Christian Magistrate for every commaund to be given by vertue of his Christian Magistracie touching the worship of God ought not to have the word of faith for the ground and warrant of his commaund that so his commaund being of faith may not be of sinne Secondly whether any supreme Christian Magistrate by Authoritie of holy Writ be inabled to devise ordayne and appropriate a Ministeriall garment for the Ministerie of the Gospell without putting on of which garment he may commaund the Ministers of the Gospell neither publikely to pray to preach the Worde nor administer the Sacramentes Thirdly if it be lawfull for a soveraigne Christian Magistrate by authoritie of holy Writ to ordayne and appropriate a Ministeriall garment for the Ministers of the Gospell then we demaunde whether by Authoritie of holy Writt he may ordayne and appropriate such a Ministeriall garment as in matter and forme differeth not from that proper and necessarie Priestlie garment which the Prince chief Priest of Idolatrie hath appropriated to be worne by his Jdolatrous Priestes in their Idoll service The reason moving vs to make the first demaund respecteth some others rather then our selves For we doubt not but that every supreme Christian Magistrate will agnize that every his mandatorie action concerning the outward worship of God of what nature or qualitie soever it be if it be not sinne must be of faith And that no such action of his can be of faith vnles the same have the word of faith for the ground and warrant thereof Concerning the second Demaund For our partes we never yet read of any commaundement of any word of faith or of any godly example in holy Writt whereby the supreme Christian Magistrate is either directly or by consequence inabled to ordayne and appropriate a Ministeriall garment for the Ministers of the Gospell For howsoever by imitation of the Priestly garmentes ordayned for the Leviticall Priesthood vnder the Law your Lordships may thinke that a ministeriall garment may lawfully be commaunded for the Ministers of the Gospel neverthelesse there being an expresse commaundement given vnto Moses vnder the law for the one and no generall or particular rule delivered vnto a Christian Magistrate in the Gospell for the other we desire to be satisfied by your Lordships whether such an imitation of Leviticall garments be lawfull yea or no If your Lordships answere that the institution of a Ministeriall garment vnder the Gospel is not by imitatiō from the Leviticall law then we demaund from whence the originall and ofspring of that Ministeriall garment came If your Lordships answere that it sprange originally from Mans invention then you directly charge the Christian Magistrate to have no rule of faith for the guidance of his conscience in the institution of a ministeriall garment For your Lordships very well know and according to this your owne knowledge have a longe tyme taught vs that no devise or invention of man can be a divine rule for a Christian Magistrates conscience to be guyded by But aswell for the better clearing of the proper and right vse of the Priestlie garmentes vnder the law as also of the cleare opening of this poynt namely that no reason can bee yeelded from the vse of the priestly garmentes vnder the law for the vse of ministeriall garmentes vnder the Gospell we demaund Whether your Lordships did ever read in any parte of holy Writ that the Priestes were commaunded to eate the Passeover in any other garmentes then in their ordinary garments Whether your Lordships did ever read in any parte of holy Writ that any holy Ministeriall garment was commaunded to bee worne by him that cut of the foreskinne of the fleshe vpon the eight day Whether your Lordships have read in any place of holy Writt that the Prophetes had any proper or speciall attire enioyned vnto them as a proper and necessarie habite wherein they should exercise and without which they might not exercise their propheticall office For wee finde it written When the Prophet hasted and tooke the ashes away from his face that the King of Israll knew him that he was of the Prophetes Whereby it seemeth vnto vs that that Prophet rather by his face then by his proper Propheticall garment was discerned from other men to bee a Prophet especially in the execution of that his propheticall function And this agayne is made more manifest by those wordes which Saule vsed when meeting with Samuell in the middest of the gate of one of the Cities of Zuph he questioned with him after this maner Tell me I pray thee where the Seers house is For had the Prophets bene known in those dayes by their proper propheticall garmentes then needed not Saul in the middest of the gate and at so solemne a feast to have enquired of Samuell for the Seers house But it is written that Saule knew that it was Samuell when an ould man came vp lapped in a mantell And Isayah was commanded to loose his sackcloth from his loynes and to put off his shoe from
a multitude of Ministers who be not able to preach the worde whereas there is not one preacher but he is able to put on a ministeriall garment What then did ever any Preacher we praye you when hee was made a Minister bind him selfe by a solemne vowe to weare a ministeriall garment No. And did not every Minister when he was made a Minister binde him selfe by a solemne vowe to preache the worde Yea And how then cometh it to passe vnlesse the wearing of a ministeriall garment bee reputed more precious then is the preaching of the Worde that the not wearing of the one by a Preacher and the not preaching of the other by a Minister should bee offences in degree of peyne vnmatchable especially when as the not preaching is a breache of the ordinance of God and the not wearing of a Ministeriall garment but a transgression of the lawe of man When any husbandman shall have sowen cleane and pure wheate in his field if the envious man shall sowe tares in this case if the husbandman plucke vp the wheate and let the tares growe would you commend his husbandrie But your Lordships will sow the fieldes with purer Wheate and provide men of softer Spirits lesse Novelous better affected to the state and of more discretion and maturitie of iudgement Indeed if it may please your Lordships this is soone saide but by your leaves the thing is not so sone done yea and besides we demand what good securitie your Lordships can give vnto the King and State in this case For in a matter of so great danger as is the perill of the soules of the Kinges subiectes it were no good saftie in our opinion to trust your bare wordes for the time to come when as in time past vpon pretence of the wante of able preaching Ministers ye have thought it fitt rather then to have none at all to reteyne a number of vnpreaching ministers knowne to bee no better then idle beastes and flow bellies And if your Lordships already have such a sufficient number of learned sober wise and softe spirited Preachers to bee disposed vpon vacant benefices at your commaunde as that you bee able to furnishe the Churches of all those ministers whom you intend to deprive for not conformitie vpon an instant wee praye your Lordshippes to resolve the Kinge what charitie you have carryed towarde his people in time past when you have collated for a great parte the benifices of your owne giftes either vpon no Preachers or at leastwise vpon strawberie preachers but if your Lordshippes intende hereafter to sende foorth Preachers that shall yeeld beryes not once in the yeare onely but at the least strawe once every moneth then wee demande what thankes you would con̄ your Stewardes in case they should provide no better Cookes for the dressing of your dyners then such onely as vnder one whole monethes space could not dispatch the roasting of an egge or frying of a smelt If your Lordships thinke that the preaching Ministers not yealding to the Christian Magistrates authoritie in the not vsing of this ministeriall falsly by you so called indifferent apparell by such their disobedience may bee an example vnto the people of like disobedience in other matters Then wee demande whether your Lordshippes carry not a testimonie in your owne consciences that their abstayning from the vse of Ministeriall apparrell proceede not rather from an honest and good hearte to the obedience of GOD then of any evill affection conceyved against the authoritie of the Magistrate for before the Kingdome of England was lawfully invested in the Royal person of our Soveraine Lord King IAMES did not sundry of them abide many sharpe reproches and bitter tauntes for their Scotizing and defending the single forme of church policie vpheld by the Kings authoritie in the Realme of Scotland yea and doe not the same Ministers now at this day hartily and devoutly pray for the life and prosperitie of the King the Queene the noble yong Prince and all other the Kings Royall progenie yea and excepting this one point of their not conformitie vnto the ceremonies wherein they alleadge for them selves the conscience of the vnlawfulnes and inconvenience of the said ceremonies are they not knowne to be men worthy to be respected as the Ministers of Christ men of good reputation for learning of honest conversation and peaceable among their neighbours and men very obedient this one thing excepted to all authoritie by whose good doctrine also and example of life the Magistrates in every Countie have found it more easie to continew the common people in the dewties of their subiection and loyaltie to the supreme power Nay which is more at this very instant doe not they extraordinarily declare and testifie their love their loyaltie and their fidelitie vnto the King when by their loanes they supply the Kings want though in the meane time they them selves want and be driven to borrow to supply their owne necessities if then in these great and waightie things appertaining to the dignitie of the Kings Crowne they carefully and holily approve thē selves to be both teachers followers of the Apostles doctrine would they not aswell trow you by the wearing of a ministeriall garment subiect their neckes to the Kings authoritie if by a greater band of faith obedience to the most high and mightie God they were not drawne to the not wearing thereof Touching the reason yealded by some that ministeriall apparell is to distinguish the minister from other men it seemeth vnto vs to be a reason altogether without reason for albeit the outward forme of a Ministers ordinary apparell may lawfully and expediently differ from the outward fashion of apparell common to other men and so the Ministers person by his apparell may be knowne vnto all such as know him not by face Neverthelesse it is void of all sense that his ministeriall apparell in the publike service of that Church whereof he is a Minister should bee an inseparable note to distinguish his person from the persons of every of his people For sithence by name by face by office by place by voice yea by ordinary apparrell also every minister is or ought to be known vnto his people what a kind of foundnesse is it to imagine that a minister can better be knowne by wearing of a ministeriall garment then by the dewe execution of his ministeriall function Concerning the reason of decencie and comlines vrged by some for the vse of a white ministeriall garment in the ministerie of the Gospell because the same cometh more aptly to bee discussed in the question following we will not trouble your Lordships at this time with any other matter about the two first demandes And therefore we will proceede to the thirde which for your Lordships better remembrance we hold it not amisse to repeate againe If it bee lawfull for a soveraine Magistrate by authoritie of holy writt to ordeine and appropriate a
crosse is a token of these invisible spirituall graces then againe we pray your Lordships to resolve vs out of holy Writt whether God did ever ordeine any invisible signes to bee invisible tokens of invisible graces yea or no And if God did never ordeine such signes then we demand what authoritie man hath to ordeine such signes But if your Lordships shall answere negatively viz that the invisible signe of the crosse imaginarily pretended to bee made by the Minister is not a token of these inward and spirituall graces then wee demande whether your Lordships with your owne mouthes pronounce not that thing to be false which the booke of common prayer commandeth every Minister with his lips to proclaime to be true But Sirs by your leave the Church hath power from Christ to ordeyne rites and ceremonies and the Magistrate may command that all things be done decently and according to order in the time of prayer and administration of Sacraments Yea and so say we too Nay wee say more that the Christian Magistrate knowing any thing to be done vndecently and vnorderly shall sinne against God if by his authority he take not order for reformation of such disorder but by your Lordships favour the question is not whether the Church may ordeine Rites and Ceremonies or whether the Christian Magistrate may command such things as by the Apostles doctrine are to be done that the same be done decently and orderly but the question is whether all rites and ceremonies indefinitlie and without limitation approved by the Church and commaunded by the Magistrate to bee decent and to be in order be in deed and without contradiction absolutely decent and absolutely in order And for this cause and in this regarde only both by ministers and people without any search or inquisitiō of their agreeablenes with holy writt absolutely to be receyved as if the same by some holy oracle were immediatly sent vnto them from God For be it supposed that some rites and ceremonies ordeyned by the Church and commaunded by the Christian Magistrate be of the nature of things either vnlawfull or inexpedient or that they be vaine idle vnnecessarie and vnprofitable things in these cases we pray your Lordships to resolve vs out of holy Writt whether the Apostles rule of having all things to be done decently and according to order in the Church cease not For how should those things be done decently and orderly in the Church for the which the Church hath no warrant that the same should be done at all The Apostle then having taught the Corinthians that the thinges which he wrote were the commaundements of the Lord and concluding that all things treated of by him in the former partes of that chapter touching the right vse of spirituall giftes are to bee done decently and in order we demaund whether your Lordships from this apostolicall rule can religiouslie conclude any otherwise then thus All the commaundements and all the spirituall giftes of the Lord are to be done and vsed in the Church decently and orderly But the wearing of a Surplice in tyme of prayer and administration of Sacramentes the making of a Crosse vpon the childes forehead c. And kneeling in the act of receyving bread and wine at the Lordes Table bee spirituall giftes or at leastwise be the commaundements of the Lord Therefore these things are to be done decently and in order But now if your Lordships beeing not able to strengthen your minor proposition by any place of holy Writt shall make the same answere which the Romanistes frame in all like cases for the Authoritie of their church namely that the Ministers and people ought preciselie to observe and doe these thinges if not propter Authoritatem Apostolicam yet propter authoritatem Ecclesiae seu Christiani Magistratus sic statuentis Then doe your Lordships but as they doe even runne from the Rock and buyld vpon the Sand yea and besides flee from the poynte in question making the Church and Christian Magistrate not only to be preservers but commanders of all Evangelicall decencie and order And then might not this consequution and conclusion infallibly be true What soever thinges by the Church with consent of the Christian Magistrate be or shal be appointed for Evangelicall decencie and order in the Church the same without all exception and challendge of any vndecencie or disorder must and ought to be receyved of every member of the Church for decent and orderlie thinges But all such and such things by the Church with consent of the Christian Magistrate be appointed c. Therefore all such and such things must ought without all exception be receyved c. Yea Sirs and is not this a good consequution and doeth not this conclusion necessarilie followe For who shall be Iudge of Evangelicall decencie and order if not the Church and Christian Magistrate alone Before we answere vnto this question wee denie your proposition because the same seemeth vnto vs to be rather an inversion then a true conversion of the Apostles rule viz. Let all things be done decently and in order The meaning whereof according to the Analogie of the place we take to be this namely that all thinges or what soever thinges are to be done in the Church that the same thinges ought to bee done decently and in order But what agreement we pray you hath this rule with your proposition or what coherence hath your proposition with this rule for by what arte can you frame this your proposition vpon the Apostles foundation This your proposition wee saye namely all things or whatsoever things the Church with consent of the Christian Magistrate shall authorize for decencie and order the same are all decent and orderly things Indeed if this your propositiō could be proved true by any doctrine drawne from any other place of holy Writt we would easilie graunt the church with consent of the christian Magistrate having commanded Copes Surplices Crosses kneelings c. to be vsed in the church that this the Apostles rule did binde all those to kneele to make crosses and to weare Copes and Surplices not vngaynely disorderly or slovenly but comely hansomely and netely but seeing your proposition is false and can not by any other place of holy scripture be proved true you have drawne in the Apostles rule as it were by the hayre and pluckt it in as it were by the heeles to a wrong purpose and forced it to a wronge sense Furthermore because these wordes decencie and order mencioned in your proposition carrie a double sense we pray your Lordships to resolve vs whether by these wordes decencie order you meane simplie such a decencie and such an order as for the allowance whereof playne and evident testimonies may be founde in holy Writt that the same decencie and order is pleasing vnto God or whether you meane such a decencie and order only as for the which we having no other warrant
by this booke of common prayer of the second of Edw. 6. kneeling crossing holding vp of handes knocking vpon the breaste and other gestures are to bee vsed at least as every mans devotion serveth without blame We pray your Lordships to suffer vs without blame and danger of your late canons peaceably and quietly to enioy and possesse our libertie That so we may receyve the communion sitting standing or kneeling as everie mans devotion serveth And thus much for our full and perfect answere vnto your questions of disseysing the church of her evangelicall decencie and order and of reverence and conformitie in kneeling in the act of receyving the cōmunion wherevpon we most instantly pray your Lordships that you would be well pleased vpon your second thoughtes to heale your former errours And withall to be content not only to suppresse the vse of your Copes Surplices making of Crosses signing with Crosses tokening with Crosses kneeling c. But also to restore our possession and to give vs livery and seysin of all those decencies conformities and reverend maner of prayer preaching the word receiving and administring the Sacramentes without Copes Surplices Crosses and kneelings whereof the Churches were seysed in the Apostles tymes And which being moderated by the wisdome and authoritie of our Saviour Christ we are most assured can not be but well-pleasing vnto God But Sirs by your patience our Christian Magistrate imposeth them as matters of order according to that forme wherein he found the church at his coming and this his pleasure must commaund may satisfie vs if it should please the King not to commaund them wee for our partes could be well content not to vrge them See see what a dalliance is this in a matter of so high a qualitie and touching the dignitie preheminence of so excellent a person what was your melody yesterday and that in the presence of the King and assemblie of his Nobles was your melody but yesterday we say viz. No ceremonie no Bishop no Bishop no King and can your Lordships to day sitting Iudicially in your Consistory to censure the Ministers for not conformitie thus sudenly change your note and cry openly No commaundement of ceremonies by the King no imposition of ceremonies by the Bishop For is it not as if you should have layde the whole blame vpon the King and have spoken thus No ceremonious King no ceremonious Bishop And yet for all this do not all men know that your Lordships were too too ceremonious and too too great masters of ceremonies before ever the King saw your faces And how then cometh it to passe ceremonies having hitherto ben vpheld by your Lordlines that your Lordlines should not now stande but by ceremonies or how cometh it to passe your Lordlines heretofore being propped vp by the crowne and scepter of our late Queene that your Lordlines should now vphold the scepter crowne of our Christian King This your Lordships gradation therefore made vpon the first day from the not being of a Ceremonie to the not being of a Bishop to the not being of a King And this your protestation made vpon the next day of the being of a Kinge to the being of a ceremonie what ells doeth the one and the other argue and importe but a feare and a suspition if the King should once commande downe your lawes of Ceremonies that the Lawes of your Lordlinesse likewise would of them selves sone after fall to the ground And therefore whether the King did conceive that you might but glose and flatter with your gradation or whether poore simple and playne meaning men might be seduced by your protestation we know not neither is it our purpose to enquire Only we can not but much marveile that each of you professing him selfe to be a Gad and to be a Nathan to be a Seer and to be a Prophet vnto our christian Magistrate should thus protest thus chardge the King to be the only spirit by whom your selves doe speake and the only prophet from whom your selves doe learne Nay what a thinge is this your Lordships prophesying vnto the King in the name of the Lord That your rites and ceremonies are no way contrariant or repugnant but every way agreeable and consonant to the holy word of God and meete to be reteyned aswell for the manner and forme of Gods worship as for edification of the church should notwithstanding openly avow the Kings pleasure and the Kings command to be the fountayne and welspring of your prophesies Nay which is more your selves making for your selves Ceremonious hornes of Iron assuring the king that with the same he should be able to overthrowe and push downe al such as by your Lordships be falsely called puritanes What a thing is this that you should notwithstanding proclayme the kings minde to be as it were the only mould wherein your ceremonies were cast Nay which is more What a thing is this your Lordships assuring to your selves to bee the chiefest of the Lordes Priestes and Levites should notwithstanding put the holy Censores into his Maiesties hand and laye the holy Arcke of the Covenaunt vpon the kinges shoulders to burne incense and to beare it and to carrye it him selfe alone Nay which is more What a thing is this your Lordships by a definitive sentence publickly given read and divulged in your sacred so called Synod having not only iudicially decreed the lawfulnes of ornaments rites and ceremonies but also humbly and professedly desired the same to be cōfirmed by the Kings royal authoritie vnder the broad Seale of England that you should notwithstanding for the execution of your said Decree call to witnes the Kings commaund and the Kings pleasure As though the Kings pleasure and commaund were the only cause and not the effect of your decree and not rather your decree the only cause and not the effect of his Highnes commaund Your second canon by which the same power is iustly as we cōfesse given to our Sovereigne Lord the King in causes ecclesiasticall that the godly Kings had among the Iewes will not serve to excuse you in the making of your canons if any of them be blame worthie for the godly Kings of Iudah never had any authoritie to command what ceremonies should be ordeyned among the lewes Neither did King David neither any other of the godly kings of Iudah doe any thing in building of the Temple in distribution of offices among the Levites or in any manner services performed to the Lord but the same was sent vnto them in writing from the hand of the Lord or by the mouth of the Prophetes or by casting of Lott What soever authoritie then the godly Kings of Iudah had to command ceremonies once made to be observed the same authoritie and none other in matter of ceremonies doeth your canon yeald vnto the King And therfore we beseech your Lordships hereafter to carry such a loyall and conscionable reverence and
as that not only they content not thē selves by eating flesh themselves to grieve to offend a weak brother to give him an occasion to sinne but also cōmand a weake brother to eate that meate by eating wherof he can not but fal but stumble but grieve but offend but sinne and but destroy him selfe This kind of charitie may deserve vnhappely the name of some Synodal or Provincial charitie but certes it can neverworthely deserve to be called an Apostolicall charitie But Sirs you mistake the matter very much you deceive your selves draw not the cases rightly The vse of Crosses Copes Surplices Cappes kneelings are cōmanded by the christiā Magistrates soveraigne authority only as things indifferēt for orders sake not that men should be grieved and offended or that they should fall stumble sinne destroy them selves Touching the christian Magistrates authoritie about ordering rites ceremonies in the church we have somewhat at large argued before which we had thought might have fully satisfied your Lordships but because it pleaseth you still to presse vs with the same we must once againe plainly signifie vnto you that we beleeve that your selves do not attribute any more spirituall authoritie vnto the King to make constitute and ordeine canons constitutions rites or ceremonies then you give vnto him spirituall power to preach the word administer the Sacraments and excommunicate For we beleeve that your selves with the residue of the clergie assembled by the Kings writt in your convocation doe chalendge all spirituall power vnto your selves to make ordeine and decree all maner of canons constitutions ordinances ornaments rites and ceremonies in the Church Yea and this spirituall power we beleeve that you pretend to be derived vnto your selves and the rest of the clergie in the convocation not from any spirituall power invested in the person of our soveraigne Lord the King but onely from the spirituall power of our Saviour Christ alone And this is manifest by your Cxxxix canon for so are your words Whosoever shall hereafter affirme that the Sacred Synode of this nation in the name of Christ and by the Kings authoritie assembled is not the church of England by representation let him be excommunicated c. These wordes wee say of your canon viz. Sacred Synod is assembled in the name of Christ and by authoritie of the King plainely testifie that you hold your Synode not to be assembled by authoritie of the King in the name of the King or in the name of Christ and the King but only in the name of Christ And therefore by your owne wordes wee are inforced to beleeve that you attribute vnto the King none other authoritie then such as you attribute to the godly Kinges of Judah namely an authoritie to assemble and command your persons as they assembled and commanded the persons of the Priestes What to execute the rites and ceremonies of the Kinges of Iudah No but to execute the rites and ceremonies of God And so we beleeve your persons being assembled by authoritie and commandement of the King that your selves by your owne authoritie and that in the name and by the power of Christ and not in the name and power of the King doe ordeine decree and make canons constitutions rites and ceremonies as if they were sent vnto vs by your handes from God And thus much doe the very first words of your first canon and some words in your 140. 141. canons clearly prove For howsoever in the title of your book you vse these words Constitutions and Canons treated and agreed vpon by the Bishop of London c. Yet both in the proheme body of your first canō you affirme as followeth In your proheme or title you say thus the Kings supremacy over the church of Englād in causes ecclesiastical you say not over the church causes but over the church in causes and in the body of the same canō you say we first decree ordeine that the Archb. of Canterbury c. and in the Cxl. canon your words are these Whosoever shall affime that no maner of person c. are to be subiect to the decrees therof speaking of the Synod eccllesiasticall made ratified by the kings Maiesties supreame authority c. let him be c. your words also in your last canō are these whosoever shal hereafter affirm c. that the sacred Sinod assembled c. was a company of persons c. in making canons cōstitutions in causes ecclesiasticall c. ought to be despised c. the same being ratified confirmed and inioyned by the regall power supremacie and authoritie lett them be excommunicated Now by all these your owne words and sentences we decree ordeine decrees of the Synod making canons by the sacred Synod ratified confirmed inioyned by the regall power c. by all these words we say we can not but beleeve that you chalendge your ecclesiasticall power of ordeining decreeing making decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies to be invested in your owne persons assembled by authoritie of the King from the authoritie and power of Christ and not from any spirituall or ecclesiasticall power invested in the person of the King and derived and conveighed vnto your persons assembled by his regall writt For then how should we not beleeve also but that you iudged the Kings writt to be no civil but an ecclesiasticall and spirituall writt But howsoever as yet wee beleeve not this latter yet still we beleeve that you appropriate vnto your owne persons assembled by the Kings writt a sole power and that from our Saviour Christ to give vnto your decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies their first being and their first birthright and that you assigne vnto the King none other power but a power of their after birth of ratifying and confirming of that life being which your persons have first put into them So that the King is in this but as it were an executioner of your canons and not you the executioners of the Kings decrees Yea thus much M. Doctor Bilson in his Book intituled True difference betweene Christian subiection vnchristian rebellion Pag. 243. avoweth testifieth whose words are these We never said that Princes had any spirituall power it is a false collection of yours it is no part of our cōfession the sword which they bear we never called but external tēporall Againe to devise new rites and ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures and canons commend and such as the Bishops Pastours of the place shall advise not infringing the Scriptures or canons so for all other ecclesiasticall things causes Princes be neither the devisors nor directors of them but the confirmers and establishers of that which is good and displacers and revengers of that which is evill which power we say they have in all things be they spirituall
with by any facultie of humane authoritie Yea and whether any humane dispensation or purgative receipt may be of such validitie and operation in foro conscientiae that it may exempt the patient or the dispencer in foro conscientiae from sinne in case hee iudge his apparell crossings and kneelings to be vncleane For though the Christian Magistrate be perswaded through the Lord Iesus that there is nothing vncleane of it selfe yet to him that iudgeth it vncleane to him it is vncleane And therefore albeit the christian Magistrate may not sinne in his commandement yet may neither Minister nor people be without sinne in their obedience For the conscience only of the cōmander be he never so Christian can not be any warrant for the conscience of him that obeyeth doubtingly But Sirs it is their folly their wilfull peevishnes that having bene so long a time instructed they have no better profited in the knowledg of their christian libertie of the cleanes of the things by my faith if they continew weake longe it were not amisse to bring some of them to the stake Oh! my Lords bona verba quaesumus soft fire maketh sweet malt preach faith we beseech your Lordships but swear not by your faith For by your Lordships favour if the Apostle having aswel by doctrine as by example taught the weak brethren among the Romans and Corinthians of their Christian libertie did neither reprove them of peevishnes wilfulnes or folly neither yet condemne their ignorance of Christian libertie to be a sinne against Christ albeit the same their ignorance consisted only about the vse of meates created for the benefit of mans life wee desire your Lordships to resolve vs out of holy Writt whether ignorance of Christian libertie in the weake of our time which consisteth about the vse of things dedicated to the service of an Idoll may be a sinne against Christ for not vsing the same in the worship of the true God Besides we demand by what rule of holy wtitt your Lordships in these things may condemne an other mans servant or iudge his errour of christian libertie in this case to bee worthy of punishment For seeing ye be not able to make him stand whom God hath left weak not inabled to stand And seeing the Apostle did not prescribe vnto the weake brethren of his time any time for the amendement of their errour of the not vse of things indifferent but did rather bind him self all other for all ages to come by his example never to eate flesh while the world standeth that he might not offend his brother or cause him to fall or to stumble The Apostle we say having appointed no time no not while the world stādeth in this case all others of the same nature we demand by what rule of holy Writt your Lordships may limite a certaine time as by the eight tenth or twelfe moneth for the reformation of iudgment in this but supposed errour of not vsing Popish apparell crossings and kneelings Nay if by the decree canons of the Apostle both Ministers people be infranchised to vse and not to vse these things freely frankly without lett we then demand by what rule of holy Writ it may be lawfull for your Synode by a provinciall ordinance and constitution to change and to turne this their Christian freedome and libertie into a meere slavish servitude and necessitie And therefore we protest from your Synod and avow that your Synode in this case was not guided by the spirite of Christ and that therevpon it followeth your decrees so many of them as abate the edge of charitie whetted vpon the brethren by the Apostles rule or bringing into bondage againe servants manumissed by the authoritie of Christ that the same your decrees are both erroneous in them selves and iniurious to the church of God For vnlesse the world have bene dissolved since the Apostles tyme and that the same world stand not now which stood then or vnles the same be not charitie now and the same freedome now which the Apostle cōmended for charitie and left for freedome or vnles you would have vs winke with our eyes least we should see and stoppe our eares least wee should heare and harden our heartes least we should vnderstand consequently have no faith except it be a Synodall a Provinciall or a Canturbury-church faith we must needes speake both what wee have seene what we have heard and what we have vnderstood out of holy scriptures Namely that some of your Synodall decrees be opposite repugnant to the Apostles both christian charitie and christian libertie For if it be sinne for one brother to do any acte by doing whereof an other brothers conscience is wounded and made weak if also whosoever shall wound the weake conscience of a brother and sinne against a brother doth sinne against Christ then of necessitie be your canons of popish rites ceremonies both vncharitable canons against your brethren sinfull canons against Christ For though it were free for christians to vse Copes Surplices square Cappes Crosses c. civilly vpon their backes heads or foreheads yet if some remayne ignorant of this libertie and thinking them to be vncleane as having bene things offered to the service of an Idoll should by the example of others with wavering consciences enterprise to vse them when inwardly they thinke the vse of them to displease God if in this case we saye men shall sinne against Christ how much more shall they sinne against Christ when they shall vse them in the worship of God against which vse they have many testimonies out of holy Writt seated in their consciences by the finger of God that their vse is altogether vnlawfull in the worship of God On the other side if it be no sinne against Christ for weake brethren not to vse either these or any other relickes monumentes and memorialls of Idolatrie in the service and worship of the true God If also the weake in faith can not vse thē waveringly without sinne against Christ If lastly they have libertie and freedome by the Apostles doctrine not to vse them at all we desire your Lordships to resolve vs out of holy Writt how it may be lawfull in foro conscientiae to bring weake brethren before the seates of Magistrates to excommunicate them to revile them to speak all maner of evill against them for vsing their Apostolicall freedome for being charitable and for not committing sinne But Sirs by your patience they be not handled after any such maner simply and only for not vsing the Surplice not making a crosse not kneeling in the act of receyving the communion but for contempt of not vsing and making the same and not kneeling at the comandement of the christian Magistrate whom not to obey in things indifferent is to sinne against Christ and for this sinne they ought to be excommunicated c. Though this be a Maxime in some