taxation of observing dayes and times any one that hath but halfe an eye may see that it hath respect to those Judaicall holy-dayes which were part of the ceremonial law now long since out of date as being of typical signification and shadowes of things to come Should we therefore go about to revive those Jewish feasts or did we erect any new day to an essentiall part of the worship of God or place holiness in it as such we should justly incurr that blame which the Apostle casts upon the Galatian and Colossian false-teachers But to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemnity which is merely commemorative of a blessing received without any prefiguration of things to come without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day is no other then an injurious violence Upon all this which hath been said and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alledged to the contrary I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not with all godly cherefulness observe this which that holy father styled the metropolis of all feasts To which I add that those which by their example and doctrine sleight this day causing their people to dishonour it with their worst cloathes with shops open with servile works stand guilty before God of an high and sinful contempt of that lawâ—ul authority under which they live for as much as by the statutes of our land made by the full concurrence of King and state this day is commanded to be kept holy by all English subjects and this power is backed by the charge of God submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake If now after all this I should let my pen loose to the suffragant testimonies whether of antiquity or of modern divines and reformed churches I should trye your patience and instead of a letter send you a volume Let it suffice that ever since the second hundred year after Christ this feast hath without contradiction obtained in the church of God and hath received many noble Elogies and passionate inforcements from the learned and holy Fathers of the church amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen is so remarkable that I may not omit it as that which sets forth the excesse of joyful respect wherewith the antient Christians were wont to keep this day In his oration upon the day of the Nativity of Christ Let us saith he celebrate this feast not in a panegyrical but divine not in a worldly but supersecular manner not regarding so much our selves or ours as the worship of Christ c. And how shall we effect this Not by crowning our doors with garlands nor by leading of dances nor adorning our streets not by feeding our eyes not by delighting our ears with songs not by effeminating our smel with perfumes not with humouring our tast with dainties not with pleasing our touch not with silken and costly clothes c. not with the sparkling of jewels not with the lustre of Gold not with the artifice of counterfeit colours c. let us leave these things to Pagans for their pomps c. But we who adore the word of the father if we think fit to affect delicacies let us feed our selves with the dainties of the law of God and with those discourses especially which are fitting for this present festival So that learned eloquent father to his auditors of Constantinople Whereto let me if you please have leave to add one or two practical instances One shall be of the good Emperour Theodosius lying now for eight moneths under the severe censure of Bishop Ambrose when the feast of the Nativity drew near what moan did that religious Prince make to his courtiers that he was by that reresolute Bishop shut out for his blood-guiltiness from partaking with the assembly in that holy service Histor Trâ—par 〈◊〉 â— c 3â— and what importunate means did he make for his admission had that gracious Emperour been of the diet of these new divines he would have sleighted that repulse and gladly taken this occasion of absence from that superstitious solemnity or had one of these grave monitors been at his elbow he might have saved that pious Prince the expense of many sighes and teares which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected devotion The other shall be an history of as much note as horrour Nicephor l. 7. c. 6. too clear a proof of the ancient celebration of this festivall It was under the Tyranny of Dioclesian his co-partner Maximinus that twenty thousand Christans which were met to celebrate the feast of this blessed Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia were made an Holocaust and burnt together with that goodly Fabrick to ashes on that day Lo so great a multitude as twenty thousand christians of all ages of both sexes had not thus met together in a time of so mortal a danger to celebrate this feast if the holy zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day which these novellers teach us to contemn Now let these bold men see of how contrary a disposition they are to these blessed Martyrs which as this day sent up their souls like to Manoahs Angel to heaven in those flames After thus much said I should be glad to know since reason there can be none what authority induces these gainsayers to oppose so antient and received a custome in the Church of God you tell me of a double testimony cited to this purpose the one of Socrates the Historian which I suppose is fetcht out of his 5th book of Ecclesiastical story chap. 21. where upon occasion of the feast of Easter he passeth his judgment upon the indifferent nature of all those ancient feasts which were of use in the primitive times shewing that the Apostles never meant to make any law for the keeping of festival dayes nor imposed any mulct upon the not keeping them but left men to the free observation thereof For answer whereunto I do not tell you that this author is wont to be impeached of Novatianisme and therefore may seem fit to yield patronage to such a client I rather say that take him at the worst he is no enemy to our opinion or practise we agree with him that the Apostles would have men free from the servitude of the Jewish observation of dayes that they enacted no law for set festivalls but left persons and places so to their liberty in these cases that none should impose a necessity upon other this were to be pressed upon a Victor Bishop of Rome who violently obtruded a day for the celebration of Easter upon all Churches supposing in the mean while an Easter universally kept of all christians though not on the same day this makes nothing against us who place no holiness in the very hours nor plead any Apostolical injunction for dayes nor tye any person or Church to our strict calender but
generall national provinciall were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments Emperours and Princes by whose authority those Synods were called have still given their power to the ratification and execution of them and none others and if you please to look into the times within the ken of memory or somewhat beyond it Linwoods Constitutions what Parliaments confirmed The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth the Canons of King James were never tendred to the Parliament for confirmation and yet have so far obtained hitherto that the government of the Church was by them still regulated compare I beseech you those of K. James with the present your Lordships shall find them many peremptory resolute standing upon their own grounds in points much harder of digestion then these which are but few and only seconds to former constitutions if therefore in this we have erred surely the whole Christian Church of all places and times hath erred with us either therefore we shall have too good company in the censure or else we shall be excused Fourthly give me leave to urge the authority of these Canons in which regard if I might without offence speak it I might say that the complainants have not under correction laid a right ground of their accusation They say we have made Canons and Constitutions alas my Lords we have made none We neither did nor could make Canons more then they can make laws The Canons are so to the Church as laws are for the Common-wealth now they do but rogare legem they do not ferre or sancire legem that is only for the King to do it is le Roy le Veult that of bills makes laws so was it for us to do in matter of Canons we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might be usefull but when we have done we send them to his Majesty who perusing them cum avisamento Consilii sui and approving them puts life into them and of dead propositions makes them Canons as therefore the laws are the Kings laws and not ours so are the Canons the Kings Canons and not the Clergies Think thus of them and then draw what conclusions you please As for that pecuniary business of our contribution wherein we are said to have trenched upon the liberty of subjects and propriety of goods I beseech your Lordships do but see the difference of times we had a precedent for it The same thing was done in Qu. Elizabeths time in a mulct of 3 s. the pound and that after the end of the Parliament with the same clauses of Suspension Sequestration Deprivation without noise of any exception which now is cryed down for an unheard of incroachment how legall it may be I dispute not and did then make bold to move but let the guide of that example and the zeal that we had to the supply of his Majesties necessities excuse us a tanto at least if having given these as subsidies sitting the Parliament and the bill being drawn up for the confirmation of the Parliament we now upon the unhappy dissolution of it as loath to retract so necessary a graunt we were willing to have it continued to his Majesties use But my Lords if I may have leave to speak my own thoughts I shall freely say that whereas there are three general concernments both of persons and causes merely Ecclesiastical merely Temporal or mixt of both Ecclesiastical and temporall as it is fit the Church by her Synode should take cognizance of and order for the first whcih is merely Ecclesiastical so next under his Majesty the Parliament should have the power of ordering the other but in the mean time my Lords where are we The Canons of the Church both late and former are pronounced to be void and forceless the Church is a garden or vineyard inclosed the laws and constitutions of it are as the wall or hedg if these be cast open in what State are we shall the enemies of this Church have such an advantage of us as to say we are a lawless Church or shall all Men be left loose to their licentious freedom God in Heaven forbid Hitherto we have been quietly and happily governed by those former Canons the extent whereof we have not I hope and for some of us I am confident we have not exceeded why should we not be so still Let these late Canons sleep since you will have it so till we awake them which shall not be till Dooms-day and let us be where we were and regulate our selves by those constitutions which were quietly submitted to on all hands and for this which is past since that which we did was out of our true obedience and with honest and godly intentions and according to the Universal practise of all Christian Churches and with the full power of his Majesties authority let it not be imputed to us as any way worthy of your Lordships censure A SPEECH in PARLIAMENT Concerning the power of BISHOPS IN SECULAR THINGS MY Lords this is the strangest bill that ever I heard since I was admitted to sit under this roof for it strikes at the very fabrick and composition of this house at the style of all lawes and therefore were it not that it comes from such a recommendation it would not I suppose undergo any long consideration but coming to us from such hands It cannot but be worthy of your best thoughts and truly for the main scope of the bill I shall yield it most willingly that Ecclesiastical and sacred persons should not ordinarily be taken up with secular affairs The Minister is called Vir Dei a Man of God he may not be Vir Seculi he may lend himself to them upon occasion he may not give himself over purposely to them Shortly he may not so attend worldly things as that he do neglect divine things This we gladly yield matters of justice therefore are not proper as in an ordinary trade for our function and by my consent shall be as in generally waved and deserted which for my part I never have medled with but in a charitable way with no profit but some charge to my self whereof I shall be glad to be eased Tractent fabrilia fabri as the old word is But if any man shall hence think to infer that some spiritual person may not occasionally be in a special service of his King or Countrey when he is so required by his Prince give his advice in the urgent affairs of the Kingdome which I suppose is the main point driven at is such an inconsequence as I dare boldly say cannot be made good either by divinity or reason by the lawes either of God or man whereas the contrary may be proved and inforced by both As for the grounds of this bill that the Ministers duty is so great that it is able to take up the whole man and the Apostle saith 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things and that he who
too ever killing with an ever-living death for a perpetual fruition of our torment Here is the bondage where is the liberty Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in the same cross Colos 2.15 By his death he destroyed him that hath the power of death tke Devil Heb. 2.14 So then Christ hath freed us fourthly from the bondage of Satans tyranny At the best the law is but a hard Master impossible to please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul but at the worst a cruell one The very courtesie of the law was jugum an unsupportable yoke but the spight of the law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse Cursed is every one that continues not in all that is written in the book of the law to do it Gal. 3.10 Do you not remember an unmercifull steward in the Gospell that catcheth his bankrupt fellow by the throat and saies Pay me that thou owest me so doth the law to us we should pay and cannot and because we cannot pay we forfeit our selves so as every mothers son is the child of death Here is our bondage where is our liberty Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Oh blessed redemption that frees us from the curse Oh blessed redeemer that would become a curse for us that the curse of the law might not light upon us so Christ hath freed us fifthly from the bondage of the law Moses was a meek man but a severe Master His face did not more shine in Gods aspect upon him then it lowred in his aspect to men His ceremonies were hard impositions Many for number costly for charge painfull for execution He that led Israel out of one bondage carryed them into another From the bondage of Egypt to the bondage of Sinai this held till the vail of the Temple rent yea till the vail of that better Temple his sacred body his very heart-strings did crack a sunder with a consummatum est And now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 Now the law of the spirit of life hath freed us Rom. 8.2 You hear now no more newes of the ceremonies of prefiguration they are dead with Christ ceremonies of decency may and must live let no man now have his ear bored thorough to Moses his post Christ hath freed us sixtly from the law of ceremonies Our last Master is humane Ordinances the case of our exemption where from is not so clear concerning which I finde a double extream of opinion The one that ascribes too much to them as equalling them with the law of God the other that ascribes too little to them as if they were no tie to our obedience The one holding them to bind the conscience no less then the positive laws of God the other either sleighting their obligation or extending it only to the outward man not the inward we must learn to walk a mid-way betwixt both and know that the good lawes of our superiours whether civill or ecclesiastical do in a sort reach to the very conscience though not primarily and immediately as theirs yet mediately and secondarily as they stand in reference to the law of God with our obedience to his instituted authority and therefore they tie us in some sort besides the case whether of scandall or contempt Where no man can witness there is no scandall where is no intention of an affront to the commanding power there is no contempt and yet willingly to break good Iaws without all witness without all purpose of affront is therfore sin because disobedience For example I dine fully alone out of wantonnesse upon a day sequestred by authority to a publick fast I dine alone therefore without scandall out of wantonnesse therefore not out of contempt yet I offend against him that seeth in secret notwithstanding my solitarinesse and my wantonnesse is by him construed as a contempt to the ordainer of authority But when both scandall and contempt are met to aggravate the violation now the breach of humane lawes binds the conscience to a fearfull guilt Not to flatter the times as I hope I shall never be blurred with this crimination I must needs say this is too shamefully unregarded Never age was more lawlesse Our fore-fathers were taught to be superstitiously scrupulous in observing the lawes of the Church above Gods like those Christians of whom Socrates the historian speaks of which held fornication as a thing indifferent de diebus festis tanquam de vita decertant but strive for an holy day as for their life we are leapt into a licentious neglect of civill or sacred lawes as if it were piety to be disobedient Doth the law command a Friday fast no day is so selected for feasting let a schismaticall or popish book be prohibited this very prohibition endears it let wholsome lawes be enacted against drunkennesse idlenesse exactions unlawfull transportations excesse of diet of apparell or what ever noted abuse commands do not so much whet our desires as forbiddances what is this but to baffle and affront that sacred power which is entrusted to government and to professe our selves not Libertines but licentiate of disorder Farr farr is it from the intentions of the God of order under the stile of liberty to give scope to these unruly humors of men the issue whereof can be no other then utter confusion But if any power besides divine in Heaven or Earth shall challenge to it self this priviledg to put a primary or immediate tie upon the conscience so as it should be a sin to disobey that ordinance because 't is without relation to the command of the highest let it be anathema our hearts have reason to be free in spight of any such Antichristian usurpation whiles the owner of them hath charged us not to be thus the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 so Christ hath lastly freed us from the bondage of humane ordinances Lo now ye have seen our liberation from a whole heptarchy of spirituall tyranny Stand still now awhile Honourable and beloved and look back with wondring and thankfull eyes upon the infinite mercy of our deliverer sin beguiles us conscience accuseth us Gods wrath is bent against us Satan tyrannizes over us the law condemnes us insolent superstition inthralls us and now from all these Christ hath made us free How should we now erect altars to our dear Redeemer and inscribe them Christo liberatori how should we from the altars of our devoted hearts send up the holy sacrifices of our best obediences the sweet incense of our perpetuall prayers Oh blessed Saviour how should we how can we enough magnifie thee no not though those celestiall Choristers of thine should return to bear a part with us in renewing their gloria in excelsis glory to God on high Our bodies our souls are too little for thee Oh take thine own from us and give it
reliance upon God yea even with some kind of joy it self for when we are bidden to rejoyce continually Philip. 4.4 even the dismal dayes of our mourning are not excepted Not so only saith the Apostle but we glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 Yea more then so My brethen saith St. James count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations James 1.2 Thirdly for the manner of our mourning we cannot but take notice that there is a solemn mourning and there is a private and domestical the solemn is by publick indiction of authority That only Power that can command our Persons may command our humiliation and prescribe the circumstances of the Performance of it Niniveh it self had so much divinity as to know and practise this truth How strict a Proclamation was that of the King of that Heathen City Let neither man nor beast herd nor flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sack-cloth c. As for the choise and punctuality of the time whereto this publick mourning must be limited where should it rest but in the hand of soveraignty whose wisdom is to be presupposed such as to pitch upon the meetest seasons for this Practise It is very remarkable that we finde recorded in the case of Israels Publick mourning Nehem. 8.9 10. Then Nenemiah which is the Tirshatha or governour and Ezra the Priest the Scribe and the Levites that taught the People said unto all the People This daie is holy unto the Lord your God mourne not nor weep Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our Lord neither be ye sorrie for the joy of the Lord is your strength A consideration if I may intimate it without presumption meet to be tendred to our Brethren of the neighbour Church who are wont to cast their publick fasts upon the Lords day contrary no less to the determination of the Councels of the Evangelical Churches then the practise of the Jewish For what other is this but Gods holy-day of which we may well take-up the words of the Psalmist This is the Day which the Lord hath made let us rejoice and be glad in it As it would therefore be utterly unseasonable to rejoyce in a day of mourning so must it needs be to mourn in a day of rejoycing The rites and formes of publick mournings may and were wont to vary according to the usages of severall Nations and Churches how ceremonious the Jewes were in this kind I need not tell you here was rending of garments girding with sackcloth muffling of faces prostration on floores covering with ashes houling on the house-tops cutting and tearing of hair wringing of hands and all possible gestures that might expresse depth of passion And so much of this is imitable by us as may in a grave Christian fashion testify our dejection and true sorrow of heart upon the occasion of publick calamities this solemn humiliation then being alwaies joyned with an afflicting the body by fasting for deep sorrow doth both take away appetite and disregards nature so it calls us for the time to an absolute forbearance and neglective forgetfulness of all Earthly comforts In which regard the Popish mock-fasts which allow the greatest dainties in the strictest abstinence and the Turkish which shut up in an evening gluttony are no better then hypocriticall counterfeits of a religious self-humbling those habits then those discourses or actions those contentments which are in themselves perhaps not lawfull only but commendable must now be avoided as unseasonable if not sinful How hainously did the Almighty take this mis-timed pleasure and jollity at the hands of his people the Jewes In that day saith Esay did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye And what was the issue It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord God of Hosts Esay 22.12 13 14. In matter of private mournings every man is allowed to be the arbiter of his own Time Place Measure manner of performance alwayes so as that he keep within the just bounds of piety decency discreet moderation as Bernard well adviseth in the like kind so punishing a Rebell that he do not destroy a subject Neither can I apprehend any reason if we entertain a well grounded sorrow Mat. 6.16 why we may not expresse it Not in an hypocritical way of ostentation as the vain Pharisees taxed by our Saviour which disfigured their countenances and did set a sowre face upon a light heart that they might appear unto men to fast but in a wise sober seemly unaffected deportment to instance in the case of the death of those to whom we have the dearest relation there can be no case wherein mourning can be more seasonable it is no lesse then a judgment that God denounceth against King Jehojakin They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or Ah Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or Ah his glory Jer. 22.18 And it was an hard word that God spake to Ezekiel Son of man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroak yet shalt thou neither mourn nor weep neither shall thy tears run down forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead c. Ezek. 24.16 Lo such a wise as it might have been froward disobedient unquiet it had been no greatly difficult charge to have parted with her but it seems Ezekiels was a dear pleasing loving consort even the desire of his eyes and the comfort of his life and therefore to part with her without tears must needs be a double grief to his Soul as therefore 't is unnatural and inhumane not to mourn for Parents Wives Husbands Brothers Sisters Children Friends so it cannot be unmeet to testify our mourning even by our outward habit I could never see a reason why it should not be fit to wear blacks upon funerall occasions Neither Piety nor Charity is an enemy to civill ceremonies This colour and fashion is not indecent nor justly offensive so as the mind be free from superstition and over-nice curiosity such as Balsac jeers at in his vain French Lady who affected to have not her house onely but all the vessels and utensils that belong to it put into that hew Alexand ab Alexandro Genial Dierum l. 3. c. 7. If you tell me that the Heathens mourned thus I must tell you that all did not so some Nations mourned in white others in blew others in purple and if all had done so they are no ill patterns in matters of meer civilities besides that in reason this
uncertainty still by the tradition of the Jewes either the Synagogue or the chamber is indifferently allowed to this act And why should the Sacrament of the new law be so affixed to our Churches that not necessity it self should be able to fetch these wholsom remedies home to our houses sure I am the fathers of the ancient Church were of another mind who before the fancy of opus operatum was hatched conceived such necessity of the Sacraments that Cyprian can tell you of Clinici as well as Peripateitci that others in case of extremity would have no difference made of land or water house or way bed or pavement And how is it that our liberty hath made us more strict or our straightness hath made us more free more strict for the place more free for the conceit of necessity But if privacy be so opposite to the nature of a Sacrament why may it not be avoided even in a parlour for in such a case the Church removes thither the walls you think conferr nothing the people are by the order of the Church commanded to assemble in a due frequence to the honor of either sacrament so as now I see not other difference but this Those which in the case of some private fast can be content for their preaching to change the Church into a chamber in the case of baptisme make dainty to change a chamber into a Church For geniculation in the Eucharist I am deceived if ever ceremony could complain of a more unjust displeasure or plead better desert For the Antiquity of it those that fetch it from Honorius are ill heralds They might know that Averroes an age before him could say in a misprision of the gesture Christiani adorant quod edunt and the best of the Fathers many ages before him Nemo manducat nisi prius adoraverit For the expedience what business can pass betwixt Heaven and Earth God and Man so worthy of reverence as that wherein Man receives God even the smallest gifts we receive from Princes upon our knees and now when the Prince of our peace gives himself to us shall we grudg to bow I know the old challenge Artolatry But shall others superstition make us unreverent Shall not God have our knees because Idols have had the knees of others But what do I press this to you who professed to me if I remember well your approbation hereof in our English Congregations The Sacrament is every where the same Nothing but want of use hath bred a conceit of uncouthness in that which custom would approve and commend As for confirmation by Bishops I need to say little because it little concerns you as an action appropriate to superiors neither I think do you envy it to them That the ceremony it selt is both of ancient and excellent use I know you will not deny for the one Melancton gives it the praise of Utilis ad erudiendos homines retinendos in vera agnitione Dei For the other Zuinglius can assure you Confirmationem tum fumpsisse exordium eum vulgo caeptum est infantes tingi In regard of both reverend Calvin wisheth it again restored to the Church with no small fervency all the doubt is in the restriction to Bishops wherein I will only send you to learned Bucer signum impositionis manuum etiam soli episcopi praebebant non absque ratione sive enim sit foedus Domini baptizatis confirmandum sive reconciliandi qui gravius peccaverunt sive ecclesiis ministri ordinandi haec omnia ministeria maxime decent eos quibus ecclesiarum cura demandata est This as it was done only at first by the Apostles in the case of the Samaritans so from them was by the Church derived to the Bishops as Chrysostom directs praepositis suis as Cyprian and Austin speak But what need I cite Fathers or counsels for that which worthy Calvin himself both confesses and teaches Certainly nothing but continuance and abuse hath distasted these things which if time had been their friend never wanted that which might procure them grace and respect from the World For their own sakes therefore I need not doubt to say that all these are worthy of your good intertainment much more then when they come to you with the billets of authority in their hands were they but things in the lowest ranke of indifferency the power that commands them might challenge their welcom how much more then when they have an intrinsecall worthiness to speak for them Your Letter hath well insinuated what the power of Princes is in things of middle natures whereof your Apostles rule will eternally hold not for fear but for conscience Indeed wherein is the power of royall authority if not in these things Good and evill have their set limits determined by God himself only indifferent things have a latitude allowed for the exercise of humane commands which if it might be resisted at pleasure what could follow but an utter confusion of all things This ground as it hath found just place in your own brest so were very fit to be laid by all your publick discourses in the minds of the people as that which would not a little rectifie them both in judgment and practise There is no good heart whom it would not deeply wound to hear of the least danger of the dissipation of your Church God in Heaven forbid any such mischief our prayers shall be ever for your safety but if any inconvenience should on your parts follow upon the lawfull act of authority see ye how ye can wash your hands from the guiltinesse of this evill This is I hope but your fear Love is in this sence full of suspicions and commnoly projects the worst It is Nazianzens advise Dum secundo vento navigas naufragium time tutior eris a naufragio adjutorem tibi ac sociâ—m adjungens timorem Farr farr is it from the heart of our Gratious Soveraign who holds it his chief glory to be amicus sponsae to intend ought that might be prejudiciall to your Church If his late journey his laboursome conferences his toylsome indeavours his beneficiall designes have not evinced his love to you what can do it And can any of yours think that this affection can stand with a will to hurt you I know nothing if I may except his own soul that he loves better then your Church and State and if he did not think this a fruit of his love he would be silent what shall he gain by this but that advantage which he promiseth to himself of your good in your assimilation to other churches a matter wherein I need not tell you there is both honour and strength The mention whereof drawes me towards the closure of my long letter whether to an Apology or interpretation of my self belike some captious hearers took hold of words spoken in some Sermon of mine that sounded of too much indifferency in these businesses ubi bos herbam vipera venenum
double providence of the Almighty One that God was pleased to fetch them out of Egypt in an happy suddainnesse even when they had no leasure to make up their bach The other that he sustained them with this unleavened dough till he sent them Manna in the Wildernesse The one was the bread of the poor the other the bread of Angels As therefore he would have a pot of Manna kept in the Ark for a Monument of that miraculous food wherewith he fed them in the desert so he thought good to ordain this observation of unleavened bread for a perpetuall memoriall of their provision preceding it And this was not onely a charge but a sanction under the severe penalty whether of excommunication or death or both both for the authority of the Commander and for the weight of the institution whereby God meant both to rub up their memory of a temporall benefit past and to quicken their faith in a greater spirituall favour of their future Redemption from sin and death by the blood of that true paschall lamb which should be sacrificed for them This is the ground of this institution Now let us if you please inquire a little into the ground of this alâ—usion to the leaven the nature and signification of this implyed comparison here mentioned and we shall easily find that leaven hath first a diffusive faculty so it is taken both in the good part and the evill in good Mat. 1â— 33. so the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavned Lo these same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were more then a bushel of our measure and one morsel of leaven seasons it all In evill so here immediately before my Text in an ordinary Jewish proverb A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Secondly it hath in it self a displeasing sowerness in which regard it is an ill construction attributed both to false doctrine and to evill manners To false doctrine Mat. 16.6 Take heed saith our Saviour of the leaven of the Pharises To ill manners so in the next words ye have the leaven of malice and wickedness So then here the very inference offers us these two necessary heads of our discourse 1. That sin or the sinner for it may be taken of either or both is spirituall leaven 2. That this leaven must be purged out because Christ is our passover and sacrificed for us For the first sin hath the true qualities of leaven both in respect of the offensive sowreness and of the diffusion In the former nothing can be so distastfull unto God as sin Indeed nothing can displease but it as nothing is so sweet and pleasing to him as the obedience of his faithfull ones If any edible thing could be more offensive to the palate Sin would be likened to it As indeed it is still resembled by whatsoever may be most abhorring to all the senses To the sight so it is compared to filth Esa 4.4 Psal 14.3 to beastly excrements 2 Pet. 2.22 to spots and blemishes 2. Pet. 2.13 to menstruous and polluted blood Ezec. 16.6 To the smell so to a corrupted ointment to the stench of a dead carcass what should I instance in the rest How should it be other then highly offensive to the Majesty of God when it is professedly opposite to divine justice since all sin is the transgression of the royall law even the conscience which is Gods taster finds it abominably loathsome how much more that God who is greater then the conscience who so abhors it that as we are wont to do to the potsherd which hath held poysonous liquor he throwes away and breaks the very vessel wherein it was as he that findes an hair or a coal in the daintiest bit spits it out all Did God find sin in his Angels he tumbles them down out of Heaven Doth he find sin in our first parents he hurles them out of Paradise Yea did he find our sins laid upon the blessed Son of his love of his nature he spares him not awhit but laies load upon him till he roars out in the anguish of his Soul Lo he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him and by his stripes we are healed Esa 53.5 And to whom should we rather conform our selves then to the most holy God what diet should we affect but his who is the rule of all perfection How then should we utterly abhorr every evill way how should we hate our sins with a perfect hatred And surely the more ill savour and loathlinesse we can find in our bosom sins the nearer we come to the purity of that holy one of Israel our blessed Redeemer whose stile it is Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Ps 45.7 Oh then be we perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double minded What shall we say then to the disposition of those men that can find no savour in any thing but their sins No morsell goes down sweetly merrily with them but this wo is me how do they chear themselves with the hope of injoying their sinfull pleasures how do they recreate themselves with the memory of their fore-passed filthiness how do they glory in that licentious liberty which they indulge unto themselves how do they even when they are grown old and past beastly action tickle themselves with the wanton remembrances of their younger bestialities yea so hath the delight in sin most wofully besotted them that they respect not friends estate children health body soul in comparison of the bewitching contentment they find in their sins Oh poor miserable souls Oh the wretchedest of all creatures not men but beasts let me not seem either unmannerly or uncharitable to speak from the mouth of Gods Spirit you know the word Canis ad vomitum The dog to his vomit The swine to it's mire And if they will needs be dogs how can they look for any other but dogs intertainment Foris Canes without shall be dogs Revel 22.15 But for us dear Christians let me take up that obtestation of the Psalmist Oh all ye that love the Lord hate the thing which is sin Psal 97.10 let us hate even the garment spotted with the flesh yea let us hate our selves that we can hate our sins no more And if at any time through the frailty of our wretched nature and the violence of tentation we be drawn into a sinfull action yet let us take heed of being leavened with wickedness Purge out the old leaven for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us Now as sin is leaven in respect of the sowring quality of it so also in respect of the diffusive It began with one Angel and infected Legions It began with one Woman it infected all the Generation of Mankind let it take hold of one faculty it infecteth the whole
soul and body let it seize upon one person in a family it corrupts the whole house from thence it spreads over the neighbourhood and taints whole Towns Cities Regions as it is with certain contagious diseases that have not been bounded with mountaines or Seas It is very pregnant which St. Paul speaks of Hymeneus and Philetus whose word saith he will eat as doth a canker or a gangrene 2 Tim. 2.17 ye see how a gangrene even from the least toe soon strikes the heart and the canker from a scarce sensible begining consumes the gummes eats through the cheek eats down the nose and will admit of no limits but deformity and death thus it is with sin whether intellectuall or morall Arianisme began in a family spread over the World And Antinomianisme began in one Minister of this diocesse and how much it is spread I had rather lament then speak I doubt not but many of you who hear me this day have had lamentable proofs of this truth let there be but a drunkard or a swearer in a family how soon hath this scabbed sheep tainted the whole flock Grace and Godliness is not so easily propagated sin hath the advantage of the proclivity of our wicked nature It hath the wind and tyde both with it goodness hath both against it health doth not use to be taken from others but sickness doth Since your wickednesse is of so spreading a nature how carefull should we be to prevent and resist the very first beginnings of sin It is a 1000. times more easy to keep the flood-gates shut then to drain the lower grounds when they are once over-flown 2ly How shy and weary should we be of joyning societies with the infectious whether in opinion or in manners A man that is an heretick reject saith St. Paul Tit. 3.10 If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetuous or a railer or an idolater or a drunkard with such a one eat not 1 Cor. 5.11 withdraw your selves from the tents of these men c. into their secret c. 3ly How much doth it concern all publick persons whether ecclesiastical or civil to improve their authority to the utmost for the timely preventing of the spreading of vice and for the severe censure and expurgation of those whom the Psalmist as the original word signifies calls leavened persons Ps 71.4 The palpable neglect whereof hath been a shamefull eyesore to the conscientious beholders a soul blemish to the Gospel and a just scandal upon the Church And though another mans sin cannot infect me unlesse I do partake with him in it yet a true Lot will vex his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites and even others sins may help to draw down judgments upon the community wherein they live good reason that all care should be taken for purging out the old leaven that so the old leaven being purged out the whole lump may be holy So much of the first point that sin is leaven the second followes that this leaven must be purged out if we would have any interest in Christ our passover which is sacrificed for us The inference you see doth necessarily imply so much In vain should any Jew talk of keeping a passover to God if he would eat the Lambe with Leavened bread in vain should any Christian talk of applying Christ to his soul whiles his heart willingly retains the leaven of any known sin Certainly this is a common and a dangerous cozenage whereby millions of souls cheat themselves into hell they fondly think they may hold fair quarter with Christ and yet give secret intertainment to their sins Demas thinks he may embrace the present world and yet need not leave his hold of Christ Ananias and Sapphira will closely harbour an hypocriticall sacriledg and yet will be as good professors as the best A Simon Magus will be baptized Christian yet a sorcerer still and many a one still thinks he may drink and swear and debauch and profane Gods ordinances and rob Gods house and resist lawfull authority and lie and plunder or slander his neighbour and yet hold good termes with a forward profession Yea there are those that will be countenancing their sins with their christianity as if they were priviledged to sin because they are in Christ Then which there can not be a more injurious and blasphemous fancy Certainly their sins are so much more abominable to God and men by how much more interest they challenge in a Christian profession yea if but a bare intertainment of a known sin it is enough to bar them out from any plea in Christ Vain fools now grosly do these men delude their own souls whiles they imagine they can please God with a leavened passover this is the way to make them and their sacrifices abominable to the Almighty It is to them that God speaks as in thunder and fire What doest thou taking my covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behinde thee Psal 50.16 17. To them it is that he speaks by his Prophet Esay 66.3 He that killeth an ox as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lambe as if he cut off a dogs-neck Shortly then my brethren since we are now addressing our selves to this Evangelical passover if ever we think to partake of this Heavenly feast with true comfort to our souls Let us see that we have clearly abandoned all the sowre leaven of our sins let us come with clear and untainted souls to this blessed feast and say and do with holy David I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine altar Ps 26.6 Thus long we have necessarily dwelt upon the inference and contexture of this scripture we now come to scan this divine proposition as it stands alone in it self wherein our meditation hath four heads to passe thorough 1. That Christ is a passover 2. Our Passover 3. Our Passover sacrificed 4. sacrificed for us To begin with the first The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we find is derived not from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to suffer as some of the Latine fathers out of their ignorance of Language have conceived but from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a transition well turned by our language into Passe-over For here was a double passover to be celebrated 1. The Angel's passing over the houses of the Israelites when he smote all the first born of Egypt and 2ly Israels passing out of Egypt The word admits of many senses sometimes it is taken for the time of this solemnity Act. 12.4 sometimes for the sacrifices offered in this solemnity Deut. 16.4 sometimes for the representation of the act of Gods transition Exod. 12.11 Sometimes for the Lamb that was then to be offered and eaten 2 Chron. 35.11 They killed the passover and the Priests sprinkled the blood from their hands Thus is it taken
wives be subject to your Husbands Colos 3. 1 Pet. 3. And inded how is the husband the head if he be not both more eminent and furnished with the faculty of directing the whole body A Vertuous woman saith Solomon is the crown or Diadem of her Husband Prov. 12.3 Lo she is the crown for the ornament of his head but if she be vertuous she doth not affect to be the head and if the Crown be set upon the head as the husband may give honour to the weaker vessel yet it is a pittyful head that is not better then the crown that adornes it but why urge I this none but some mamish Monsters can question it and if there be any such that would fain read the words amiss that the wife hath power over her head they are more worthy to be punished by the whip of authority then by their neighbours shame or my censure But to say as it is they are rare complaints that we hear of in this kind I would the contrary were not more frequent The man hath power over the wife and he knowes it too well and uses it too boistrously this sweet gentle and familiar power which he should exercise over his other-self is degenerated in the practise of too many into a stern Tyranny according to the old Barbarian fashion in Aristotles time which holds even still their wives are their slaves This is not for the woman to have power on her head but for the man to have power in his hand for the hand to have power on the body an unmanly and savage power to the very destruction of it self This kind of cruelty cries unto me daily for redresse and give me leave to cry out against it as the most odious and abhominable oppression that is incident into him that would be called a man for the deareness of the relation aggravates the violence to strike a beast causelesly is unmercifull a slave unchristian a stranger furious a child unmanly but our own flesh monstrous this is to do that which no man does saith our Apostle Ephes 5.29 There was in the time of Gregory 10th about 1275 as our histories tell us a brood of mad hereticks which arose in the Church whom they called Flagellantes the whippers which went about through France and Germany lashing themselves to blood A guise which though at the first cryed down is since taken up by some mis-zealous penitents of the Romish Church who do not only take pleasure but place merit in blood a lesson taken out by both of them from the Baalites 1 K. 18. Men rather more prodigall of their flesh then the lavishest of these late zelots surely what those Bigots did and do out of falsely named religion these husbands of blood as Zipporah miscalled Moses do out of a crabbed and imperious cruelty even draw blood of those bodies which a severall kinne cannot difference from their own Far far be this more then Turkish more then Paganish inhumanity from those that would pass for Christians for you my dear Brethren let it be enough for me to mention that gracious and needfull charge of our blessed Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Husbands love your wives and be not bitter to them Colos 3.19 Whiles their heads confesse your power take you heed least your power be abused to vex their hearts and to tyrannize over their bodies This for the power here signified of the Husband over the wife we descend to the signification of that power by the covering of the head an ancient custom and that which was practised among all civill Nations hence the Romans expressed the womans marriage by nubere which signifies to vail whereupon a cloud is termed nubes because it is as a vail drawn betwixt Heaven and our sight Neither doubt I but before all latinity was hatched this was alluded to by Abimelech Genes 20.16 Hu ceseth gnenaiim he is the covering of thine eyes said that Heathen King to Sarah concerning her husband a covering which both protects and limits the eye The Apostles charge then is that the womans head ought to be covered to show that she is under anothers power but how and how farre and when this covering is required will require a further disquisition which I shall the rather enter into because I see some religious and well affected women carried away with Erroneous opinions concerning this point whose tender consciences have been abused by the mis-interpretations of some ignorants to be drawn to hold that this covering must be absolute and totall and perpetuall so as if any hair at all be seen it is a violation of this charge and their duty to which purpose they urge that verse 15 as a full commentary upon this text that the hair was given the woman for a covering and upon this ground they are apt to censure them who take liberty to expose any of their hair though never so moderately to others view I beseech you dear Brethren and Sisters misconstrue me not as one that affect to be a Patron of ruffianly and dissolute fashions of excess or immodesty in this kind these I hate from my soul and must tell those vain dames that where such bushes are hanged out 't is an argument that something is exposed to sale but as I would not have you inordinately wild so I would not have you scrupulously superstitious in restraining the due bounds of lawfull Christian liberty and placing sin where God never meant it That I may therefore lay some grounds of this my just determination know first that in the use of garments and these outward appendances of the body there is much latitude and variety according to the severall guises of Nations and degrees of persons there are Countries the extremity of whose cold climate is such that it is no boot to bid both sexes be covered yea muffled up for their own safety there are others so scorching that will hardly admit of any covering either for head or body there are some whose hair is so large that is able to hide them there are others whose curled heads are alike short in both sexes and give no advantage to the covering of either he that made these differences of climates and people hath not thought fit to confine them to one universall rule only contenting himself with a generall prescription of decency which in all Countries must be regulated according to the custom or convenience of the place For certainly these sacred ceremonies must follow the rule of the civill for that which is held a token of subjection to our Princes and other superiors in all Countries is so used in the service of the King above all Gods the Turks and all Mahumetans therefore not uncovering their heads to their Bashaes or their Grand Lord keep their heads covered in their devotions and only by bowing or prostration testifie their humble subjection to God The French Divines preach with their hats on ours uncovered both pretend good reason and
an unquestionable Author tells us one whose eyes beheld that Saint did not only converse with those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Let him if he can deny Cyprian the holy Martyr and Bishop of Carthage writing familiarly to the Presbyters and Deacons there sometimes gravely reproving them sometimes fatherly admonishing them of their duties in divers of his Epistles Let him deny that his contemporany Cornelius Bishop of Rome acknowledgeth 46. Presbyters committed by the Catholique Church to his charge Shortly let him if he stick at this truth deny that there was any Christian Church of old any History All which duly considered I would fain know what reason can be shewed why that ancient yea first government by the Bishop and his Presbytery received and with all good approbation and successe used in the Primitive Church and derived though not without some faulty omissions and intertextures which may easily be remedied untill this present day should not rather take place then a government lately and occasionally raised up in the Church for the necessity or convenience of some special places and persons without any intention of an universal rule and prescription If you shall say that this Government by Bishops hath been found by sad experience hitherto a block in the way of perfect Reformation destructive to the power of Godliness and pure Administration of the Ordinances of Christ give me leave to answer That first I fear the Independent part will be apt to say no less of the Presbyterian boldly pressing their defects both in constitution and practise and publiquely averring the exquisitely-reformed way to lye betwixt the Episcopal and Calvinian which they have had the happiness to light upon neither want there those who upon challenge of further illumination tax those Semi-separatists as comming far too short of that perfection of Reformation which themselves have attained Secondly I must in the fear of God beseech you here to make use of that necessary distinction betwixt Callings and Persons for it oftentimes falls out that the Calling unjustly suffers for that whereof only the Person is guilty Let the Calling be never so holy and the rules of Administration never so wise and perfect yet if the person in whose trust they are be either negligent or corrupt or impotent in ordering his passions and carriage it cannot be but all things must go amiss and much disorder and confusion must needs follow to the Church of God and if such hath been the case in some late times why should the blame be laid upon the calling which both is innocent and might have been better improved Give me a Bishop such there have been and such there are let D. Potter the late Bishop of Carlile for instance be one that is truely conscionable pious painful zealous in promoting the glory of God ready to encourage all faithful Preachers and to censure and correct the lazie and scandalous carefull of the due imposition of his hands meek and unblameable in all his carriage and now tell me how the government of such an one regulated by the holy and wholsome Lawes of our Church can be said to be obstructive to the successe of the Gospel or to destroy the power of Godliness certainly if all be not such the fault is in the men their Calling doth not only admit of but incites them to all vertue and goodness whereof if they be defective let the Person take off the blame from the Function Neither doubt I to affirme that it may well be made good that the perfectest Reformation which the Church of God can be capable of here upon earth may consist with Episcopacy so regulated as it may be if it please the High Court of Parliament to pitch upon that course And indeed how can it be conceived that the careful inspection of one constant prudent and vigilant overseer superadded to a grave and judicious Presbytery should be any hindrance to the progress of godliness Especially when he is so limited by the bounds of good lawes and constitutions that he cannot run out without the danger of a just censure There are already many excellent rules of Government if they were awaked and actuated by full authority and where there is any deficiency more might be easily added to make the body of Church-Lawes complete To give a tast of what may be effected with very little or no alteration of one Forme of Government to another I remembred one of our Brethren of Scotland in a Discourse tending to the advancing of the Presbyterian way tells us that Dr. Montague the late worthy Bishop of Winchester asked King James of blessed memory whose sweet affability the world well knew How it came about that there were so few heresies and errors of doctrine broached and prosecuted to the publique disturbance of the Church of Scotland Unto which the wise and learned King is said to have returned this Answer That every Parish hath their Pastor ever present with them and waâ—ching ever them That the Pastor hath his Elders and Deacons sorted with him That he with them once a week meets at a set time and place for the censure of manners or what ever disorder falls out in the Parish so as he by this means perfectly knowes his flock and every abberration of them either in matter of opinion or practise And lest any Error or Heresie may seize upon the Pastor they have their Presbyteries consisting of severall Shrivalties which meet together in the chiefe Town or City next to them every week also once and have there their exercise of Prophesying after which the Moderator of the said meeting asks and gathers the judgments of all the said Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtfull point that is then and there propounded And if the said Presbyters be divided in their opinions then the question is under an injoyned silence put over to the next Synod which is held twice a year unto that all the Pastors of that Quarter or Province duely resort accompanied with their Elders the Moderator of the former Synod begins the Action then a new Moderator is chosen for the present or as it seldome falls out the last Moderator by Voices continued Any Question of doubt being proposed is either decided by that meeting or if it cannot be so done is with charge of silence reserved till the National Synod or Generall Assembly which they hold every year once Whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himself or his Commissioners and some of all Orders and Degrees sufficiently authorized for the determining of any controversie that shall arise amongst them Thus he And certainly this bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the wel-willers to that discipline But let me adde that we either have or may have in this very same state of things with some small
but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on the one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguisht the enemies of it into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of the Burroughs The one whereof goes about to root up the very foundation of Religion the other to crop the branches and blossomes and clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and blesse God for it and beseech him to prosper it in those hands that shall undertake and prosecute it but for the other give me leave to say I do not finde many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer then fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been too credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Feltmakers and such like trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and to defye and revile her government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours From hence that inundation of base and scurrilous libels and pamphlets wherewith we have been of late overborne in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you that you will be sensible of this great indignity Do but look upon these reverend persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting upon these benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down in writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offred to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that truth of God which they have taught and written and shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose but alas this is but one of those many scandalous aspersions and intolerable affronts that are daily cast upon us Now whither should we in this case have recourse for a needful and seasonable redresse The arme of the Church is alas now short and sinewless it is the interposing of your authority that must rescue us You are the Eldest sons of your dear Mother the Church and therefore most fit most able to vindicate her wrongs you are amici Sponsae give me leave therefore in the bowels of Christ humbly to beseech your Lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woful and dangerous conditions of the times And if the government of the Church of England be unlawful and unfit abandon and disclaim it but if otherwise uphold and maintain it Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffred to gather head who knowes where they will end My Lords if these men may with impunity and freedom thus bear down Ecclesiastical authority it is to be feared they will not rest there but will be ready to affront civil power too Your Lordships know that the Jack Straws and Cades and Watt Tylers of former times did not more cry down Learning then Nobility and those of your Lordships that have read the history of the Anabaptistical tumults at Munster will need no other Item let it be enough to say that many of these Sectaries are of the same profession Shortly therefore let me humbly move your Lordships to take these dangers and miseries of this poor Church deeply to heart and upon this occasion to give order for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolencies and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives wherewith we are thus impetuously overflown Which in all due submission I humbly present to your Lordships wise and religious consideration A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT In Defence of the CANONS MADE IN CONVOCATION My Lords I cannot choose but know that whosoever rises up in this cause must speak with the disadvantage of much prejudice and therefore I do humbly crave your Lordships best construction were it my Lords that some few doubting persons were to be satisfied in some scruples about matter of the Canons there might have been some life in the hope of prevailing but now that we are borne down with such a torrent of generall and resolute contradiction we yield but yet give us leave I beseech you so to yield that posterity may not say we have willingly betraid our own innocence First therefore let us plead to your Lordships and the World that to abate the edge of that illegality which is objected to us it was our obedience that both assembled and kept us together for the making of Synodicall acts We had the great Seal of England for it seconded by the judgments of the oracles of law and justice and upon these the command of our superiour to whom we have sworn and owe canonical obedience Now in this case what should we do Was it for us to judg of the great seal of England or to judg of our Judges alas we are not for the law but for the Gospell or to disobey that authority which was to be ever sacred to us I beseech your Lordships put your selves a while in to our condition had the case been yours what would you have done If we obey not we are rebels to authority if we obey we are censured for illegall procedures Where are we now my Lords It is an old rule of Casuists nemo tenetur esse perplexus Free us one way or other and shew us whether we must rather hazard censure or incurr disobedience In the next place give us leave to plead our good intentions since we must make new Canons I perswade my self we all came I am sure I can speak for one with honest and zealous desires to do God and his Church good service and expected to have received great thanks both of Church and Common-wealth for your Lordships see that the main drift of those Canons was to repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless discourses of some either ignorant or parasiticall I am sure offensive Preachers to suppress the growth of Socinianism Popery Separatism to redress some abuses of Ecclesiastical courts and officers In all which I dare say your Lordships do heartily concurr with them And if in the manner of expression there have been any failings I shall humbly beseech your Lordships that those may not be too much stood upon where the main substance is well meant and in it self profitable In the third place give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of the continuall practise of the Christian Church since the first Synod of the Apostles Act. 15. to this present day wherein I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiasticall Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods