Whereas it shall appear that no Christians in the world give more unto the same then we and that in very truth the cause that we maintain is for the King and Civil State against an Ecclesiasticall State that secretly and in a Mystery as we may hereafter have occasion to prove opposeth it selfe against the same If this protestation shall in any measure satisfie you Then we desire your Honourable Mediations for us to the highest If not That then we may know wherein it is defective and we shall be found ready to give all satisfaction CHAP. I. A PROTESTATION of the Kings Supremacy WE hold and maintain the same Authority and Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiasticall granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth and expressed and declared in the book of Advertisements and Injunctions and in Mr. Bilson against the Jesuites to be due in full and ample mannner without any limitation or qualification to the King and his Heirs and Successours for ever Neither is their to our knowledge any one of us but is and ever hath been most willing to subscribe and swear unto the same according to form of Statute And we desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniquity 2. We are so far from judging the said Supremacy to be unlawful that we are perswaded that the King should sin highly against God if he should not assume the same unto himself and that the Churches within his Dominions should sin damnably if they should deny to yield the same unto him yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it unto him 3. We hold it plain Antichristianism for any Church or Church Officers whatsoever either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof utterly unlawful for the King to give away or alienate the same from his own Crown and dignity to any spiritual potentates or rulers whatsoever within or without his dominions 3. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were no Members of the Church but very Infidels yea persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yeild the said supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no subject or subjects have power to separate or disjoyne it 5. We hold that neither King nor civil estate are bound in matter of Religion to be subject and obedient to any Ecclesiastical person or persons whatsoever no further then they shall be able to convince their consciences of the truth thereof out of the Word of God Yea we think they should sin against God if they should ground their Religion or any part or parcel thereof upon the bare Testimony or Judgment of any man or of all the men in the world 6. We hold that no Churches or Church-Officers have power for any crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoeer much less to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the Height of his Royal Dignity consists 7. We hold that in all things concerning this life whatsoever the Civil Jurisdiction of Kings and Civill States excelleth and ought to have preheminence over the Ecclesiasticall and that the Ecclesiasticall neither hath nor ought to have any power in the least degree over the bodies lives goods or liberty of any person whatsoever much lesse of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth 8. We hold that Kings by virtue of their supremacy have power yea also that they stand bound by the Law of God to make Laws Ecclesiastical such as shall tend to the good ordering of the Churches in their Dominions And that the Churches ought not to be disobedient to any of their Lawes so far as in obedience unto them they do not that which is contrary to the Word of God 9. We hold that though the King shall command any thing contrary to the Word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but onely peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for grace and mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekely to submit themselves to the punishment 10. We hold that the King hath power by virtue of his supremacy to remove out of the Churches whatsoever he shall discern to be practised therein not agreeable to the Word of God And if he shall see any defect either in the Worship of God or in the Ecclesiastical Discipline he ought by his royal Authority and power to procure and force the redress thereof yea though it be without the consent and against the will of the Ecclesiastical Governers themselves 11. We hold that the King hath as much Authority over the Body Goods and Affaires of Ecclesiastical Persons as of any other of his Subjects whatsoever And that by his Authority he may force them not onely to all civil duties belonging unto them but also unto Ecclesiastical afflicting as great punishment upon them for the neglect thereof as upon any other of his Subjects 12. We hold that he hath power to remove out of the Churches all Scandalous Schismatical and Heretical Teachers and by all due severity of Lawes to repress them 13. We hold that all Ecclesiastical Lawes made by the King not repugnant to the Word of God do in some sort bind the consciences of his Subjects and that no subject ought to refuse obedience to any such Law 14. We hold that the King onely hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods or general Assemblies of Ministers and by his Authority Royal to ratifie and give life and strength to their Canons and Constitutions without whose ratification no man can force any subject to yeild any Obedience unto the same 15. We hold that though the King may force the Churches to be subject and obedient unto him and to be Members of the Common-wealth yet that the Churches severally or joyntly have no power to force him or any Subject against their will to any service unto them or to any religions duty whatsoever No nor to be so much as a Member of any Church 16. We hold that the King ought not to be subject to the Ecclesiastical Censures of any Churches Church Officers or Synods whatsoever but onely to that Church and those Officers of his own Court and Houshold unto whom in reverence of their Religion and of the spiritual Graces of God he sees shining in them he shall of his own free will subject and commit the Regiment of his Soul in whom there can be no suspition nor fear of any partiality or unjust or rigorous dealing against him 17. We hold that if any Ecclesiastical Governours call them by what name you will shall abuse their Ecclesiastical Authority in the execution of their censures upon any man whosoever That the King and Civil States under him have power to punish them severely for it much more if they
cause a Sacrament because it is a mystical Rite whereby the soul spiritually feedeth upon Christ i. e. is edified in Christ These being Mystical Rites also whereby the soul is edified which it cannot be but also by feeding upon Christ It must needs follow That these Ceremonies are Sacraments The Assumption is their own for when they are urged with this That all things must be done to edification They all hold with one consent That they do edifie The tenth Argument It is a sin against Christ the sole Head of the Church for any one of his Ministers especially in the administration of Divine things either by Word or Signs solemnly to profess and acknowledge a spiritual homage to an usurped spiritual authority in the Church But to use these controverted Ceremonies in manner and Form prescribed is even in the solemn Service of Christ by solemn Signs to acknowledge a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Lord Archbishops and Bishops which is usurped Ergo It is a sin to use these Ceremonies THE Proposition may not be gainsaid For all spiritual power usurped over the Churches of God is an Antichristian authority and to profess spiritual homage thereunto is to profess spritual homage unto Antichrist which must needs be a sin The Assumption hath two parts 1. That these Ceremonies are an acknowledging by solemn signs a spiritual Homage to the spiritual authority of Archbishops and Bishops Which is most evident for it having been proved before that they are meer Ecclesiastical Religious and spiritual Actions enjoyned by an Ecclesiastical and spiritual authority They must needs be Signs of spiritual homage to the same authority For either the doing of a Religious and spiritual Action in obedience to a spiritual authority is a Sign of spiritual homage or no Actions can be a Sign thereof As therefore a Serving man being a civil person upon the Bishops pleasure wearing a Tawny Coat and a Chain of Gold holding up his Train going bare-headed before him holding a Trencher at his Table lighting him to the house of Office dressing his meat rubbing his Horses c. doth by these Actions as it were by solemn Signs acknowledge Civil homage to him being a Civil Lord and Master So a Minister of the Gospel and a Pastor of a particular Congregation being by his Office a meer spiritual man being commanded by the Bishop as he is a spiritual Lord and Master over the Church of God to wear a Tipper a square Cap a Priests Gown and Cloak a Surplice to make Crosses upon childrens faces to put Rings on Brides fingers c. and all this in their Divine Service I say a Minister doth thereby give solemn Signs and Tokens of spiritual homage to their spiritual Lordships even as by preaching the Word and administration of Sacraments and Prayer he professeth by solemn Signs a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Christ If they shall peremptorily affirm That they are only Civil matters as some in high place have done to my self then this will follow of it Whereas the Bishops command now Ministers to wear a Surplice a Priests Cloak c. he may command them to wear Tawny Coats and livery Cloaks and in their courses to wait and at end upon him as serving Creatures For there is no more Civil Authority shewed in requiring the one than the other if the one as well as the other be Civil matters Neither will it help their cause that the Magistrate requireth these things to be done For the Magistrate commanding Ecclesiastical matters to be done his commandment doth no more make them Civil than his commanding the Sacraments and other parts of Divine Worship to be administred duly doth make them Civil matters For the ratification by Civil authority the Constitutions of Ecclesiastical authority doth no more make them Civil matters than the ratification and confirmation of Civil matters by Ecclesiastical authority doth make them Ecclesiastical or spiritual matters Though therefore there is none of us that stand our in these matters but have ever been content to yield unto their Lordships all Câ—vil honour such as is given to Barons Earls Dukes and Princes yet except they were Gods and Christs we have no reason to give spiritual homage unto them which is it that in very deed they require in these things And therefore hence it comes to pass That as they turn out of their Palaces those Servants that refuse their Liveries and to do their civil Services So as though they were Lords and Masters in the Church they turn the Ministers out of their Offices and shut them out of the Church if they refuse to wear their spiritual Liveries and to do them spiritual and religious Service But I come to the second part of the Assumption 2. That the authority of our Lord Archbishops and Bishops is an usurped authority This is sufficiently proved of late by Mai. Jacob in his I. Assertion by many reasons only because the weight of the Argument leaneth upon it I will use one Reason Those Officers and Rulers in the Church that make claim to be of Divine Institution challenge to themselves Apostolical authority and jurisdiction as the only Successors of the Apostles to sit only in Moses Chair To have sole power of the Keys To cut from the visible Church and receive again To have power of creating and displacing all other Ecclesiastical Officers To be the Universal Pastors of whole Dukedoms and Kingdoms under whom all other Pastors are as Curates c. And yet for all this are such as stand and are supported only by humane Traditions and Ceremonies such as a Civil Magistrate may without sin put out of the Church and such as the true Churches of God may renounce and yet continue the true Church as Antichristian Usurpers and spiritual Tyrants I say all such Officers and Rulers exercise a usurped authority in the Church But our Archbishops and Bishops are such Rulers and Officers as are aforesaid Ergo They execute a usurped power over the Church The Proposition may easily be justified For if inferiour Officers viz. Pastors of particular Congregations have had and may have firm continuance in the Church without these humane devises and inventions If the Magistrate cannot without sin put them out of the Church And if those can be no true Churches that renounce to have particular Pastors and Ministers over them it must much more hold in such Church-Officers and Rulers as these are if their authority be lawful and good For whilest the Apostles lived they needed not any humane Traditions and devices to support their authority the Magistrates that sought to put them down sinned with a high hand And that was no Church that renounced and disclaimed their Office Authority and Jurisdiction The Assumption is as easily justified For 1. They make claim and title to all those Prerogatives before rehearsed in the first part of the Proposition and unto more than that as shall be proved if it
shall abuse it upon the Supream Majesty himself 18. If the King subjecting himself to spiritual Guides and Governours shall afterwards refuse to be guided and governed by them according to the Word of God and living in notorious sin without Repentance shall wilfully contemn and despise all their holy and religious Censures that then these Governours are to refuse to administer the holy things of God unto him and to leave him to himself and to the secret Judgement of God wholly to resign and give over that spiritual charge and tuition over him which by calling from God and the King they did undertake And more then this they may not do And after all this We hold that he yet still retaineth and ought to retain intirely and solidly all that aforesaid supream power and Authority over the Churches of this Dominion in as ample a manner as if he were the most Christian Prince in the World 19. We acknowledge King JAMES to be our onely lawful Sovereign and unto him to be due all the aforesaid Supremacy and we renounce and abjure all Opinions Doctrines Practises whatsoever repugnant or contrary to the same as Anabaptistical and Antichristian and wish they may be severely punished 20. We never refused Obedience to any Lawes or Commandements of the King or State whatsoever but onely to such as we have proved or are ready to prove if we might be heard with indifferency to be contrary to the Word of God And we are ready to take our Solemn Oathes before the Throne of Justice that the onely cause of our refusal of Obedience to those Canons of the Prelates for which we are at present so extreamly afflicted is meere Conscience and a fear to sin against God And that if by due form of reasoning we may be convinced in our Consciences of the contrary we are as willing as any Subjects in the Realm to Obey and Conform 21. We refuse Obedience onely to such Canons as require the performance of such Acts and Rites of Religion as are rejected and abandoned of all other Reformed Churches as Superstitious Disorders Such as are special Mysteries of the Romish Antichristian Idolatry Such as have been controverted in the Church ever since the last breaking forth of the Light of the Gospel out of the cloud of Popery in Luthers time Such as all Protestant Writers and Defenders of our Faith beyond the Seas and most of our own Country men have either in general or particular condemned as vain idle and unprofitable Such as all the Faithful and Painful Pastors of this Realm and in a manner all States and degrees of the same would be content were removed and swept out of the Church and for which few or none are zealous but the Prelates and their Adherents 22. We deny no Authority to the King in matters Ecclesiastical but onely that which Christ Jesus the onely Head of the Church hath directly and precisely appropriated unto himself and hath denyed to communicate to any other creature or creatures in the World For we hold That Christ alone is the Doctor of the Church in matters of Religon and that the Word of Christ which he hath given unto his Church is of absolute perfection containing in it all parts of the true Religion both for Substance and Ceremony and a perfect direction in all Ecclesiastical matters whatsoever Unto and from which it is not lawful for any Man or Angel to add or detract 23. We are so far from making claim of any supremacy unto our selves and those Ecclesiastical Officers which we desire that we exclude from our selves and them as that of which we are utterly uncapable all Princely and Lordly state pompe and power whatsoever holding it a sin for any whosoever to exercise no not by commission from the Magistrate any Authority over the Body Goods Lives Liberty of any Man whosoever for any crime or offence whatsoever So that any one of the basest and most inferiour civil officers in a Kingdom hath and ought to have in our Judgement more Authority and Power over men then any or all the Ecclesiastical Officers in the same Kingdom or in the whole World Yea we hold that the highest Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church ought to be as subject unto the basest civil officers in the Kingdom as the meanest Subject in the Kingdom And that they ought not by virtue of their office to challenge any freedom or immunity at all from any Civil Subjection whatsoever belonging to any common Subject 24. We confine and bound all Ecclesiastical power within the limits onely of one particular Congregation holding that the greatest Ecclesiastical power ought not to stretch beyond the same And that it is an arrogating of Princely Supremacy for any Ecclesiastical person or Persons whosoever to take upon themselves Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over many Churches much more over whole Kingdomes and Provinces of Christians 25. We hold it utterly unlawful for any one Minister to take upon himself or accept of a sole Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over so much as one Congregation And therefore we hold that some of the sufficientest and most honest and godly men in the Congregation ought to be chosen by the Heads of Families to be adjoyned in Commission as assistants to the Minister in the spiritual Regiment of the souls of that Congregation of which he is the pastor 26. We hold that these Ecclesiastical Officers being so chosen by the Church or Congregation are to exercise over the said Congregation only a Spiritual Iurisdiction and power consisting in a carefull oversight of the outward behaviour of the Members of their Church That it be not scandalous offensive and unbeseeming Christians And if any Member shall be delinquent they are brotherly to admonish him shewing him the nature of his crime by the word of God And if after two or three admonitions he shew no tokens of sorrow and penitencie then are they to deny unto him the pledges and seales of the Church to wit the Sacraments If this cannot humble him but that he continue obstinate in that sin then they are by the mouth of the Minister in Congregation the whole Church consenting freely thereto denounce him to be no Member of the Kingdom of Heaven and so forbear to have any further charge over him untill God shall work the grace of Repentance in him in this manner they are to proceed against all apparent and Evident crimes only as Murder Adultery Theft Blasphemie Ribaldery Lying Slandering Profanation of the Sabothes contempt of Divine Worship Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate c. Neither ought the extreamest of the Ecclesiastical Censures any whit hinder the course of justice that the Civil Magistrate is to exercise against the same crimes for if a Traytor himself should be penitent the Church ought to forgive him and lovingly to imbrace him as a Son but the Magistrate ought to execute him if he should be obstinate in that crime As the Magistrate ought to cut him off
from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of
or a Ceremony but it must needs respect him that Reâ—igion it self respecteth â—s therefore we performe civil honour unto those unto whom we performe civil Ceremonies so we performe Religious and Divine honours unto those that we obey in a Religious Ceremonie They therefore that claim and performe obedience therein do claim and performe that which is due only to God 8. Nothing intended or done by man is an honour to God but that which is an obedience unto God in some Commandement All Ceremonies therefore of Religion that are an honour unto God must be commanded by God himself and to bring in such Ceremonies into his worship as are no honour to him is to mock God 9. All Religious Ceremonies or Ceremonies of Religion are spiritual that is are ordained for spiritual uses and ends and not for civil or temporal and therefore are outward notes and testimonies of those things that make us spiritual men and they are parts of spiritual honour due unto spiritual authority and Lordship 10. All spiritual Lords may claim as their due spiritual worship and therefore may institute religious Ceremonies for look what difference there is between humane and divine Temporal and Spiritual the same difference there is between the peculiar worship due to the one and to the other if therefore Temporal Lords may require all civil rites and honors Spiritual Lords may require all Divine and Spiritual Rites and honors 11. Civil honor and reverence only cannot nor ought not to please a Spiritual Lord hence it is that the Spiritual Lords of our Church cannot content themselves with such honor that we give to civil Magistrates and Princes but we must obey them in peculiar religious duties and services and surely it is meet that if there be any such besides Christ that we performe spiritual homage unto them and they are not worthy that high style that will be content with temporalls when spiritualls are due 12. Those Ceremonies that are enjoined by true spiritual Lords are truly spiritual and holy even as spiritual and holy as the Sacraments though they consist of some things in their own nature indifferent and those Lords are not spiritual that are not able by their sole authority and word to hallow that which before was not holy 13. Those that can make a Surplice a Cope a Cross c. to be ornaments of Religion and holy Ceremonies can when it pleaseth them make a shaven Crown a Monks habit spittle in Baptism holy Water the triple Crown and all the Missal Rites as holy For they are all of the same nature And those that can find no reason to prove those unholy and unlawful would find none to prove any other external Rite to be so if they should in the same manner be imposed 14. Those that have power upon their own will and pleasure to bring into Gods Service some indifferent thing may bring in any * For all indifferent things are of the same nature indifferent thing those that may bring in without special warrant from God pyping into his Service might as well bring in dancing also those that have authority to joyn to the Sacrament of Baptism the sign of the Cross have authority also no doubt to joyn to the Sacrament of the Supper Flesh Broth Butter or Cheese and worse matters than those if they will Yea those that have power to make peculiar forms of Religion and Worship have power to make and invent a Religion and Worship of their own CHAP. VI. Of Divine Worship in special and first of true Worship THus much of Divine Worship in general both Inward and Outward and of Ceremonies wherein Outward Worship especially consisteth Now let us in special consider the same Divine Worship therefore is either true Worship or false 2. True Worship is that immediate service that the true God himself requireth to be performed unto himself In the exercise whereof consisteth true holiness and Religion 3. True Worship both for matter and manner ought to be according to the prescript rule of Gods Word only Neither hath any mortal man authority to frame according to his own conceit any form or fashion of Gods Service and Worship for the manner of Worship also must be holy and not the matter only and no man hath power to make any thing holy that God halloweth not by his Word and Spirit 4. All civil furtherances and necessary circumstances of Gods solemn Worship though they be not essentiall parts of the same nor by special Nomination commanded Yet are they to be esteemed Ordinances of God and not humane inventions As God having ordained that this Saints dwelling together both Men Women and Children of all sorts and degrees should ordinarily at appointed times meet together it must needs be presupposed to be his Ordinance that they meet together in some such ordinary places as are fittest for to receive most commodiously such Assemblies So God having ordained that his Ministers should preach or proclaim salvation to a multitude gathered together and that they should sit at his feet hath also ordained that the Ministers seat should be higher than the rest of the Peoples and the like may be said of all other such Circumstances of Divine Worship which are matters of so base and low consideration and so subject to common sence that it neither beseemeth the majesty of the Word of God in special or humane authority derived from God to make any Laws in particular about them no more than to make Laws that one should not fit in the Congregation upon anothers lap or one spit upon anothers cloaths or face or that men should not make antick faces in the Church CHAP. VII Of False Worship THus much of true Worship False Worship is such a service of God as hath no warrant from God himself Worship is false in matter or manner in whole or in part neither can the true matter of Worship sanctifie a corrupt manner or the true manner sanctifie a corrupt matter or some parts of true Worship or the whole it self sanctifie any part of false Worship that shall be adjoyned to it or mingled with it 2. Whatsoever is unholy and superstitious out of Gods solemn Service cannot be made by the sole appointment and will of man holy and good in the solemn Service of God but must needs be more unholy and superstitious therein and therefore a part of false Worship If for a man to sign himself or another in the forehead with the sign of the Cross out of Baptism be superstitious and unholy it cannot be good in Baptism but a prophane rite 3. The more light and to toyish the things seem to be that without warrant from God are brought into the Worship of God the more we should abhor conformity unto them it being a fearful presumption to serve God in a toyish manner for who is he that trembles at the Majesty of God that dares use in his Worship any toy and trifle They are deceived therefore
even for the Divine Calling and Ordinance sake CHAP. V. Concerning the Censures of the Church 1. THey hold that the spiritual keyes of the Church are by Christ committed to the aforesaid spiritual Officers and Governors and unto none other which keyes they hold that they are not to be put to this use to lock up the Crowns Swords or Scepters of Princes and Civil States or the Civil Rights Prerogatives and Immunities of Civil Subjects in the things of this Life or to use them as picklocks to open withal mens Treasuries and Coffers or as keyes of Prisons to shut up the bodies of men for they think that such a Power and Authority Ecclesiastical is fit only for the Antichrist of Rome and the consecrated Governours of his Synagogues who having no Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit to defend his and their usurped Jurisdiction over the Christian World doth unlawfully usurp the lawful Civil Sword and Power of the Monarchs and Princes of the Earth thereby forcing men to subject themselves to his spiritual vassalage and Service and abusing thereby the spiritual Keyes and Jurisdiction of the Church 2. They hold that by vertue of these Keyes they are not to make any curious Inquisitions into the secret or hidden vices or crimes of men extorting from them a confession of those faults that are concealed from themselves and others or to proceed to molest any man upon secret suggestions private suspition or uncertain fame or for such crimes as are in question whether they be crimes or no But they are to proceed only against evident and apparent crimes such as are either granted to be such of all civil honest men or of all true Christians or at least such as they are able by evidence of the Word of God to convince to be sins to the conscience of the Offender As also such as have been either publikely committed or having been committed in secret are by some good means brought to light and which the delinquent denying they are able by honest and sufficient testimony to prove against him 3. They hold that when he that hath committed a scandalous crime cometh before them and is convinced of the same they ought not after the manner of our Ecclesiastical Courts scorn deride taunt and revile him with odious and contumelious speeches eye him with big and stern looks procure Proctors to make Personal Invectives against him make him dance attendance from Court day to Court day and from Term to Term frowning at him in presence and laughing at him behind his back but they are though he be never so obstinate and perverse to use him brotherly not giving the least personal reproaches or threats but laying open unto him the nature of his sin by the light of Gods Word are only by donouncing the judgements of God against him to terrifie him and so to move him to repentance 4. They hold that if the party offending be their civil Superiour that then they are to use even throughout the whole carriage of their Censure all civil Complements Offices and Reverence due unto him That they are not to presume to convent him before them but are themselves to go in all civil and humble manner unto him to stand bare before him to bow unto him to give him all civil Titles belonging unto him and if he be a King and Supream Ruler they are to kneel down before him and in the humblest manner to censure his faults so that he may see apparently that they are not carried with the least spice of malice against his Person but only with zeal of the health and salvation of his soul 5. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers laying to the charge of any man any Errour Heresie or false Opinion whatsoever do stand bound themselves first to prove that he holdeth such an errour or heresie and secondly to prove directly unto him that it is an errour by the Word of God and that it deserveth such a censure before they do proceed against him 6. They hold that the Governours of the Church ought with all patience and quietness hear what every Offender can possibly say for himself either for Qualification Defence Apology or Justification of any supposed crime or errour whatsoever and they ought not to proceed to censure the grossest offence that is untill the Offender have said as much for himself in his defence as he possibly is able And they hold it an evident Character of a corrupt Ecclesiastical Government where the parties convented may not have full liberty to speak for themselves considering that the more liberty is granted to speak in a bad cause especially before those that are in Authority and of judgment the more the iniquity of it will appear and the more the Justice of their Sentence will shine 7. They hold that the Oath ex officio whereby Popish and English Ecclesiastical Governours either upon some secret informations or suggestions or private suspitions go about to bind mens consciences to accuse themselves and their friends of such crimes or imputations as cannot by any direct course of Law be proved against them and whereby they are drawn to be instruments of many heavy crosses upon themselves and their friends and that often for those Actions that they are perswaded in their consciences are good and holy I say that they hold that such an Oath on the urgers part is most damnable and tyrannous against the very Law of Nature devised by Antichrist through the inspiration of the devil that by means thereof the professors and practizers of the true Religion might either in their weakness by per jury damn their own souls or be drawn to reveal to the Enemies of Christianity those secret religious acts and deeds that being in the perswasion of their consciences for the advancement of the Gospel will be a means of heavy sentences of condemnation against themselves and their dearest friends 8. They hold that Ecclesiastical Officers have no power to proceed in Censure against any Crime of any Person after that he shall freely acknowledge the same and profess his hearty penitency for it And that they may not for any crime whatsoever lay any bodily or pecuniary mulct upon them or impose upon them any Ceremonial Mark or Note of shame such as is the white sheet or any such like or take any fees for any cause whatsoever but are to accept of as a sufficient satisfaction a private submission and acknowledgment if the Crime be private and a publike if the crime be publike and notorious 9. They hold that if a Member of the Church be obstinate and shew no signs and tokens of repentance of that crime that they by evidence of Scripture have convinced to be a crime that then by their Ecclesiastical Authority they are to deny unto him the Sacrament of the Supper And if the suspension from it will not humble him then though not without humbling themselves in prayer fasting and great demonstration
and all the powers of the Soul during the act of his Worship It were great presumption for any mortal Creature to prescribe any Action to man during the same Act that is no part thereof considering that every Action so prescribed must of necessity pull a part of the heart from Divine Worship III. That Authority that instituted them is but meerly humane This is most certain for if they were instituted by Divine authority they could not be esteemed matters indifferent and should not be in the power and discretion of the Magistrate to disanull them The fourth Argument If it be lawfull for a Minister of the Gospel without sin to use these Ceremonies in Divine Worship it is lawfull for him upon the same occasion to use any Jewish Turkish Paganish or Popish Ceremony whatsoever But it is not lawfull for the Minister of the Gospel to use in Divine Worship upon the same occasion any Jewish Popish Paganish or Turkish Ceremony Ergo He cannot without sin use these THe Assumption cannot for shame be denied We prove the consequent of the Proposition If any Jewish Turkish Paganish or Popish Ceremonies and Rite be a thing in its own nature as indifferent as these Ceremonies are and either have or may have by such like institution as good use then the consequent of the Proposition is true But the first is true Ergo The latter is true also The Proposition as I think cannot be denied nor the Assumption but by bringing some contrary instance in some of their Ceremonies When any such shall be given this Argument shall be further prosecuted The fifth Argument Every schismatical Action done by a Minister of the Gospel is a sin To use these Ceremonies in controversie are schismaticall Actions Ergo To use these Ceremonies is sin THe Proposition will be granted I must prove the Assumption All actions of irregularity and non-conformity to the Catholique Church wherein we live are schismatical Actions To use these Ceremonies in controversie are actions of irregularity and non-conformity to the Catholique Church wherein we live Ergo The use of these Ceremonies in controversie are schismatical Actions The Proposition cannot be denied for if we be branded with the cole of schisme justly for denying conformity in some Ceremonies but to some of our own particular Churches wherein we live though we be content to join with them that use them in Divine Worship much more Schismaticks are they that are not conformable in Rites and Ceremonies to the Catholick Church wherein they live I prove the Assumption If all the Protestants Pastors Ministers and Governors living this day in Europe and all the painfull resident Pastors of our own Country except some non-resident Idol-shepherds some that depend upon the Prelacie and some other that are forced and constrained to use them against their will do not only refuse to use these Ceremonies but esteem them vain foolish and superstitious Then the use of these Ceremonies are actions of irregularity and non-conformity to the Catholique Church But the first will be proved true Ergo The latter is true also The Proposition is evident by their own Principles For an irregularity and non-Conformity to the Pastors and Governors of Churches is an irregularity and non-Conformity to the Church for they are reputed the CHURCH-REPRESENTATIVE and if they be to be anathematized and excommunicated that deny the bishops and other ministers assembled in the convocation to be the Church of England representative then surely are all the Pastors of the visible Churches in Europe the Catholique Church representative and those particular Ministers in this Realm that shall use not only different Ceremonies but such as they have renounced and forsaken are Schismaticks and irregular persons The Assumption is evident in it self The sixth Argument All spiritual Communion with those Idolaters amongst whom we live in the mysteries of their Idolatry and Superstition is sin To use these Ceremonies in Divine worship is a spiritual Communion with the Idolatrous Papists that do not only border round about us but are tollerated in infinite numbers to live amongst us in the mysteries of their Idolatry and Superstition Ergo To use these Ceremonies is to sin The Proposition is his M. own if Master B. have made a true report of the Conference at Hampt Court for therein his Ma. confesseth That if we lived among Idolaters we ought not then to communicate with them in their Rites and Ceremonies The Assumpion is thus proved If Papists be Idolaters if we be not only in league with whole Kingdoms of Papists bordering upon us and near unto us but have many thousand professed ones living amongst us if these Ceremonies be special mysteries of their Superstition if to use the same Rites that they do in theirs in our spiritual and divine Service be spiritually to communicate with them in the same then is the Sentence of the Assumption true But we shall be able to prove as soon as any shall deny that the first and every part and parcel thereof is true Ergo The later is true also The seventh Argument To Mingle Prophane things with Divine is to sin To use these Ceremonies in Divine Worship is to mingle Prophane things with Divine Ergo To use these Ceremonies in Divine Worship is to sin THe Proposition shineth in the eyes of the very Heathen who have esteemed it a dishonour to their Religion and Worship that any prophane persons should be Actors in it much more that any prophane Actions should be mingled with it The Assumption is thus proved All peculiar Actions done in Divine Worship that are neither Civil nor holy are prophane These Ceremonies are peculiar actions done in Divine worship that are neither civil nor holy Ergo They are prophane The Proposition cannot with any shew of reason be denied there being no mean between these in such actions as are prescribed to be done in Divine Service by Canon and Law For though spitting coughing hemming c. if they be used for necessity be neither civil holy nor prophane actions yet if there should be an Ecclesiastical Canon that should require the Minister to spit at every full period or the people to hem and hauk at every transition in a Sermon they must needs then be referred to one of these three heads as shall easily be proved if it be denied The assumption is as clear For first His Ma. with words of great disgrace and contempt of those that hold the contrary hath lately protested that they are not urged as holy and Religious matters And that they are not civil Actions hath been proved before for there being an opposition in Reason between things Civil and Ecclesiastical though they have some things common to both as all Opposites have yet it is ridiculous to affirm that those things are civil that are meerly Ecclesiastical and are Actions peculiarly appropriated and tied to Divine Worship For civil Actions are performed in civil Affairs though there is a common civility
be denied 2. It is an Embleme of their own NO CEREMONY NO BISHOP Ergo No humane Tradition and Invention no Bishop Ergo The Office of a Bishop is supported by them either only or specially 3. Their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is derived from the King else it is a flat denial of his Supremacy Also themselves grant in their last Tables of Discipline That the King hath power to encrease or diminish the Circuit of a Bishopprick That he may make two or more Bishoppricks of one and one Bishopprick to be two or more Yea what should hinder but that he may devide the Bishopprick of London into eight hundred For where God hath not defined the number of Parishes that a Bishop is to raign over it must needs be a thing indifferent In which by their own Doctrines the King hath authority without sin to dispose If therefore the King may as well notwithstanding any thing in the Law of God Give the Keys of the Church to every particular Pastour of a Congregation over his own Congregation as to a Bishop over a Diocess which taketh away the very Essence of an English Bishop He may without sin take away the very Office of the Bishop which consists in having Jurisdiction over many Congregations Also it being not defined by the Word of God but left free what attire Bishops shall wear as also what maintenance they shall have The King having absolute power in things indifferent according to their own Doctrine He may turn them out of their Rochets and Parliament Robes Thrust them out of their Pallaces and put them to their stipends to live upon voluntary devotions of poor Christian People and then a man may easily imagine what the Office of a Bishop would be worth For he that hath authority to prescribe to a Bishop and other Ministers the Forms Rites and Ceremonies of their Divine Service hath also power much more to prescribe moderate and appoint their Apparel Diet and manner of maintenance So that it is clear That the King may without sin disanul the Authorities Dignities and Prerogatives of Bishops Any of which shall be if it be denied proved to be matters of greater indifferency and therefore more appertaining to his Supremacy than the prescribing of Forms of Divine Service and mystical Rites of Religion For let the King take from the Bishop all indifferent things which he may do by their own Doctrine and a Bishop will be no Bishop as shall be proved if it be denied 4. There is no true and sober Christians but will say that the Churches of Scotland France the Low-Countries and other places that renounce such Archbishops and Bishops as ours are as Anticristian and usurping Prelates are true Churches of God which they could not be if the Authority and Prerogatives they claim to themselves were of Christ and not usurped For if it were the Ordinance of Christ Jesus That in every Kingdome that receiveth the Gospel There should be one Archbishop over the whole Kingdome One Bishop over many hundred Pastors in a Kingdome and all they invested with that authority and Jurisdiction Apostolicall which they claim jure Divino to be due unto them and to reside in them by the Ordinance of Christ Certainly that Church that should renounce and disclaim such an Authority ordained in the Church cannot be a true Church but a Synagogue of Sathan For they that should renounce and deny such must needs therein renounce and deny Christ himself Thus the Assumption is cleared The eleventh Argument All Humane Traditions and Rites enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation are unlawfull These Ceremonies in controversie being but Humane Traditions are enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation Ergo These Ceremonies are unlawfull THe Proposition is freely granted of all our Adversaries hitherto If any hereafter by reason of some difficulties the cause may be thrust into by granting the same shall be so desperate as to deny the same we shall be ready to make it good at any time The assumption is thus proved Whatsoever Humane Tradition Ceremony or Action that may without sin or inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are injoyned and urged as more necessary than those Actions that are by the Word of God necessary to Salvation I say such humane Ceremonies and Traditions are injoined as necessary to Salvation But these Ceremonies are such as may without any sin or any inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are enjoyned as more necessary for Christians to do than those Actions that are necessary to Salvation by the Word of God Ergo These Ceremonies in controversie are injoyned c. as necessary to Salvation He hath no blood of shame running in his veins that will deny the Proposition The Assumption hath two parts The first is this That these Ceremonies are such as may without sin or any inconvenience to any part of the worship of God be omitted This is evident For 1. if they could not be omitted without sin in Divine Worship they were Divine and not Humane Ordinances For example Though to go clothed to the Congregation be a Civil action yet because it is a sin for any to go naked to the Congregation It is a Divine Ordinance That men should go clothed thither And in this case as in any other case of sin a man ought rather never Worship God publickly than to go naked to the Congregation For the omission of a Good Action is no sin when it cannot be done but by committing of a sin 2. Divine Worship consisting in Prayer the Sacraments and the Word no wit of man can shew wherein the bare omission of any one of these Ceremonies is inconvenient to any one of these parts for what inconvenience can a man that is not drunk with the dreggs and lees of Popish Superstition finde it to publick Prayer to be said in the Congregation without a Priests Surplice The omission of ordinary pawses and Accents points and stopps the suppressing of the voice or a loud hooping and hallowing out of the words or an undistinct sounding of them were such actions as common reason will teach are inconvenient for Prayer and so inconvenient that a man ought never to pray publickly in the Congregation as the voyce thereof that should by Canon be tied thereto And the Magistrate though there were no Canon to the contrary ought to turn such out of the Ministry that should omit such matters in prayer But for a Minister to pray without a Surplice can be in reason no more inconvenient than for him to pray without Book without a pair of spectacles upon his nose And there may be as good reason given to prove it convenient for a man that saith a thing without Book to put on a pair of Spectacles as there can be to prove it convenient for him