it that after the Schism made by Pope PIVS V. little or nothing for many years together comparatively with those of the other party was writ against it that being newly translated into the Latine tongue about the year 1618. it gave great content to the more moderate sort of Papists amongst the French as Bishop Hall informeth us in his Quo Vadis and being translated into Spanish at such times as his late Majesty was in Spain it gave no less contentment to the learned and more sober sort amongst the Spaniards who marvelled much to see such a regular order and form of Divine Worship amongst the English of whom they had been frequently informed by our English Fugitives that there was neither form nor order to be found amongst us But on the other side the Genevians beginning to take up the cry called Puritans upon that account in the 6. or 8. year of Q. ELIZABETH animated by Billingham and Benson conntenanced by Cartwright and headed by the Earl of Leicester followed it with such a violent impetuosity that nothing could repress or allay that fury neither the patience and authority of Arch-Bishop Whitgift the great pains and learning of Bishop Bilson the modesty of M. Hooker nor the exactness of D. Coâ—ens all which did write against them in Q. ELIZABETHS time was able to stop their current till the severity of the Laws gave a check unto them Nor was King JAMES sooner received into this Kingdom but they again revived the quarrel as may appeare by their Petitions Admonitions and other Printed Books and Tractates to which the learned labours of Bishop Buckridge Bishop Morton and D. Burges who had been once of that party but regained by K. James unto the Church were not by them thought to give such ample satisfaction that they must be at it once again during the life of K. James in their Alâ—are Damuscenam in which the whole body of the English Liturgie the Hierarchy of Bishops the Discipline and Equâ—nomy of the Church of England was publickly viâ—â—ified and decried How egerly this game was followed by them after the first ten years of his late Majesty K. Charles till they had abolished the Liturgie destroyed the discipline and pluckt up Episcopacy both root and branch is a thing known so well unto you that it needs no telling And this I hope hath satisfied you in your first enquiry viz. why and in what respects it was said in the Preface to my Ecclesia Vindicata That the Papist was the more moderate adversary and for the other words which follow viz. That the Puritan faction hurried on with greater violence c. which you find in the 17. Sect. of it they relate only to the violent prosecution against the Episcopal Government in which how far they out went the Papists is made so manifest in that and the former Section that it is no small wonder to me that you should seek for any further satisfaction in it read but those Sections once again and tell me in your second and more serious thoughts if any thing could be spoken more plainly or proved more fully then that the Puritan â—action with greater violence and impetuosity were hurried on towards their design that is to say the destruction of Episcopal Government then the Papists were Secondly You seem much unsatisfied that I maintained against M. Burton That the Religion of the Papists is not rebellion nor their faith faction But this when I maintained against M. Burton I did it not in the way of laying down my own reasons why it neither was nor could be so but in the way of answering such silly Arguments as he here brought to prove it was but now that I may satisfie you and do right both to the Church and State you shall have one Argument for it now and another I shall give you when I shall come in order to answer yours The Argument which I shall give you now is briefly this shall be founded on a passage of the Speech made in the Star Chamber by the late Arch Bishop at the sentencing of D. Bastwick M. Burton c. in which he telleth us That if we make their Religion to be Rebellion then we make their Religion and Rebellion to be all one and that is against the ground both of State and the Law for when divers Romish Priests and Jesuites have deservedly suffered death for Treason is it not the constant and just profession of the State that they never put any man to death for Religion but for Rebellion and Treason only Doth not the State truly affirm that there was never any Law made against the life of a Papist quatenus a Papist only And is not all this stark false if their very Religion be Rebellion For if their Religion be Rebellion it is not only false but impossible that the same man in the same act should suffer for his Rebellion and not for his Religion And this â—aith he K. James of ever Blessed Memory understood passing well when in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs he saith I do constantly maintain that no Papist either in my time or in the time of the late Queen ever dyed for his conscience therefore he did not think their very Religion was Rebellion thus he And if for all this you shall thus persist and say that the Popish Religion is Rebellion you first acquit Papists from suffering death banishment or imprisonment under the Raign of the three last Princes for their several Treasons and Rebellions and lay the guilt thereof upon the blood-thirstiness of the Laws and of the several Kings and Parliaments by which they were made And secondly you add hereby more Martyrs to the Roman Kalender then all the Protestants in the world ever did besides 36. But this you do not only say but you prove it too at the least you think so Your argument is this 1. That Religion which defineth the deposition of Princes and absolving their subjects from their fidelity by the Pope because they deny Transubstantiation c. is rebellion doctrinal But such is the Popish Religion that is to say the Popish Religion defineth the Deposition of Kings and absolveth their Subjects from their fidelity by the Pope because they deny Transubstantiation c. The Minor you say is evident but I am willing to believe that you mean the Major that this only is an escape of the pen because you do not go about to prove the Major but the Minor only To the whole Sylogisme I answer first that it is of a very strange complection both Propositions being false and therefore that it is impossible by the Rules of Logick that the conclusion should insue that the Proposition or the Major as they generally call it is altogether false may be proved by this that the thing which teacheth cannot be the thing which is taught no more then a Preacher can be said to be the word by him preached or the Dog which
were subject to the Pope Neither indeed was there any need at that time of this Councel that any such Definitions should be made no new Heresie or any new doctrine which by them might be called Heresie being then on foot for Luther did not rise in Germany till this Counsel was ended which might create any disturbance to the peace of that Church If any such priviledges were arrogated by Pope Leo the 10. that none should be accounted members of Christ and his Church but such as were subject to the Pope which you cannot find definitively in the Acts of that Councel you must rather have looked for it in the Bulls of that Pope after Luther had begun to dispute his power and question his usurped authority over all the Church In one of which Bulls you may finde somewhat to your purpose where you shall find him saying that the Church of Rome is Mother and Mistress of all Christians and that her doctrines ought to be received of whosoever would be in the Communion of the Church If this be that you mean much good do it you with though this be rather to be taken for a Declaration then a Definition 45. But if your meaning is as perhaps it may be that the Papists Faith may be called Faction because they appropriate to themselves the name of the Church and exclude all other Christians from being members of Christ and his Church which are not subject to the Pope as indeed they do take heed you lose not more in the Hundreds then you got by the County for then it may be proved by the very same Argument if there were no other that the Puritan Faith is Faction and so to be accounted by all that know it because they do appropriate unto themselves the name of the Church as the old Affrican Scismaticks confined it intra partem Donati For proof whereof if you please to consult Bâ—shop Bancrofts book of Dangerous Positions anâ— Proceedings c. part 3. chap. 15. you will find them writing in this manner viz I know the state of this Church make known to us the state of the Church with you Our Churches are in danger of such as having been of us do renounce all fellowship with us It is long since I have heard from you saith one Blake of the state of the Church of London Another By M. West and M. Brown you shall understand the state of the Churches wherein we are A third If my offence may not be passed by without a further confessiâ—n even before God and his Churâ—h in London will I lye down and lick the dust off your feet where you may see what it is which the heavenly-mindednesse the self-denial meeknesse and Humility which the brethren aim at and confesse it c. I have received saith the fourth a Letter from you in the name of the rest of the Brethren whereby I understand your joining together in choosing my self unto the service of the Church under the Earl of Leicester I am ready to run if the Church command me according to the holy Decrees and Orders of the Discipline Lay all which hath been said together and tell me he that can my wits not being quick enough for so great a nicety whether the Papists Faith or that of the Puritans most properly and meritoriously may be counted Faction 46. The third thing in which you seem unsatisfied in what I say concerning Popery is whether it be true or not that the Popes Decretals the body of the Canon Law is to be accepted as not being abrogated which being made for the direction and reiâ—lement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendome and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative royal or the municipal laws and statutes of this Realm of England These words I must confesse for mine owning Hist Sab. pa. 2. ch 7. p. 202. and not 210. as your Letter cites it your parenthesis being only excepâ—ed and you name it this Kingdome in stead of the Realm of England though both expressions be to one and the same effect In which you might have satisfied your self by M. Dow who as you say gives some reason for it out of a Statute of Hen. 8. But seeing you remain still unsatisfied in that particular I shall adde something more for your satisfaction In order whereunto you may please to know that in the Stat. 29. Hen. 8. ch 19. commonly called the Statute of the submission of the Clergy it is said expresly First that the Clergie in their convocation promised the King in verbo Saâ—erdoris not to enact or execute any new Canons but by his Majesties royal assent and by his authority first obtained in that behalf and secondly that all such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial as were made before the said submission which were not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customes of this Realm nor to the dammage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal were to be used and executed as in former times By which last clause the Decretal of preceding Popes having been admitted into this Land and by several Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England and the main body of the Canon-law having for a long time been accounted for a standing rule by which all proceedings in the Courts Ecclesiastical were to be regulated and directed remain still in force and practice as they had done formerly But then you are to know withall that they were no longer to remain in force and practice then till the said preceding Canons and Constitutions as appears by the said Act of Parliament should be viewed and accommodated to the use of this Church by 32. Commissioners selected out of the whole body of the Lords and Commons and to be nominated by the King But nothing being done therein during the rest of the Kings reign the like authority was granted to King Edw. 6. 3. 4. Edw 6. c. 11. And such a progresse was made in it that a Sub-committee was appointed to review all their said former Canons and Constitutions and to digest such of them into form and order as they thought most fit and necessary for the use of this Church Which Sub committee consisted of eight persons only that is to say Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Bishop of Eli Dr. Richard Cox the Kings Almoner Peter Martyr his Majesties professor for Divinity William May and Rowland Taylor Doctors of the Law John Lucas and Richard Gooderick Esquires who having prepared and digested the whole work into form and order were to submit the same to the rest of the 32. and finally to be presented to the King for his Royal Assent and confirmation And though the said Sub-committee had performed their parts as appears by the Book entituled REFORMATIO LEGUM ECCLESIASTICARUM ex authoritate primum Regis HENRICI VIII inchâ—aâ—a Deinde
any little outward lustre they then cried on the other side O the pride of the Clergie But tell me M. Baxter if you can at the least in what the turgidness or the high swelling pride of the Prelates did appear most visibly was it in the bravery of their apparel or in the train of their attendance or in their lordly port or lofty looks or in all or none Admitting the worst and most you can of these particulars would you have men that shine in an higher Orb move in a lower Sphere then that in which God hath placed them oâ— being ranked in order and degree above you would you not have them keep that distance which belongs to their places or because you affect a Paritie in the Church and perhaps in the State would you have all men brought to the same level with your self without admitting sub and supra in the Scale of Government If they were your Fathers in God why did you not look upon them with such reverence as becometh children If your superiors in the Lord why did you not yield them that subjection which was due unto them If fixt in place and power above you by the Laws of the Land only and no more then so why did you not give obedience to those Laws under which you lived and by which you were to be directed Take heed I beseech you M. Baxter that more spiritual pride be not found in that heart of yours then ever you found worldly and external pride in any of my Lords the Bishops and that you do not trample on them with a greater insolence calco Platonis fastum sed majore fastu as you know who said in these unfortunate dayes of their calamity then ever they exprest towards any in the times of their Glory Were it my case as it is yours I would not for 10000 worlds depart this life before I had obtained their pardon and given satisfaction to the world for these horrible scandals 25. This leads me from your uses of reproofs or reprehension which for my better method I have laid together to that of Exhortation which comes next in order For having told me of my many reproaches against extemporary prayers the holy improvements of the Lords day c. with my uncharitable as well as unjust speeches against my brethren you adde how confident you are that they are matters which I have exceeding cause in tears and sorrow to bewail before the Lord and for which I am very much obliged to publish my penitential lamâ—ntations to the world and that if it were your case you would not for 10000 worlds dye before you had done it This is good counsel I confess if it were well grounded and as divine â—hysick as could be given if it were properly administred as it ought to be But let me tell you M. Baxter you goe not the right way to work in your Application you should first convince me of my errours before you presse me to a publick Recantation of them and make me sensible of my sins before you preach repentance to me or can require such a solemn and severe repentance as you have prescribed It was in the year 1635. that the History of the Sabbath was first published which if it doth contain such matters of Reproach against the holy improvements of the Lords day as you say it doth why hath it not been answered in all this time my errors falsities and mistakes layd open in the sight of the world It is true that in the Postscript of a Letter writ from Dr. Twisse to the late Lord Primate bearing date May 29. Anno 1640. I find it signified with great joy no question that M. Chambers of Clouford by Bath hath long agoe answered Dr. Heylins History of the Sabbath but knew not how to have it printed But this was nothing but a flourish a cup of hot water as it were to keep life â—nd soul together till the pang was over For M. Chambers might as well know how to get his Book printed had he been so pleased as M. Byfield of Surry could get a Book of his printed in answer to that of Dr. White then Lord Bishop of Ely which came out at the same time with that History Or if he could not get it printed before that time which the Doctor speaks of I am sure he might have done it since the Presse being open to all comers but to none more then unto such as write against the Government and established Orders of the Church of England And it is more then 20. years since I published that Book so much complained of against M. Burton in which I answered all his Objections against the preheminence of Bishops their function in the Church the exercise of their Jurisdiction and cleared them from the guilt of all innovations in Doctrine Discipline and Forms of Worship which M. Burton in a furious zeal had laid upon them Why hath not that been answered neither in which the differences between us are so briefly handled that it would have required no great study but that the truth is mighty and prevaileth above all things Giue me but a satisfactory answer to those two Books not nibling at them here and there like a Mouse at a hard piece of Cheese which he cannot Master and then you may take further time to look into the History of Episcopacy and that of Liturgies Give me I say a full and satisfactory answer to those two Books and you shall find I have a malleable soul that I shall be as ready to publish my penitential Lamentations to the world as Origen did his in the Primitive times and cast my self as Esebollus did before the dores of the Church and call upon the Congregation passing in and out to trample on me for an unsavoury piece of salt calcate me tanquam salem insipidum fit only to be thrown on the common dunghil Till you do this you have done nothing but must leave me in the same state in which you found me and when you doe it I hope you will give me leave to use your own words and say that if I have erred it hath been through weaknâ—sse not by partiality much lesse by any willful opposition to a manifest truth 26. This said you fall into rapture and cry out Oh the holy breathings after Christ the love to God the heavenly mindedness the hatred of all known sin the humility self denial meekness c that you have discerned as far as effects can shâ—w the heart to others in abundance of those people that differ from you in some smaller things Here is a Panegyrick indeed fit only for Angelical spirits or such at least as live only on the food of Angels How well accommodated and applyed to the present subject we shall best perceive by consulting some of the particulars Some of your holy breathings we have seen before and shall see more in that which follows tell me then what you think of
you have attributed to them as far as the effects can shew the heart to others I have before took some pains to let you see how easily men may be mistaken when they behold a man through the spectacles of partiality and defection or take the visible appearances for invisible graces the fraudulent art fiâ—â—s and deceits of men for the coelestial gifts of God And as for that which you have inferred hereupon viz. that if he love them he will scarcely take my dealing well You should first prove the Premises before you venter upon such a strange conclusion and not condemn a Christian brother upon Ifs and Ands. 32. In the next place you please to tell me that you are not an approver of the violence of any of them and that you do not justifie M. Burtons way and that you are not of the mind of the party that I most oppose in all their Discipline as a Book now in the Press will give the world an account In the two first parts of which Character which you have given us of your self as I have great reason to commend your moderation and hope that you will make it good in your future actions so I can say little to the last not having heard any thing before of the Book you speak of nor knowing by what name to call for it when it comes abroad But whereas you tell us in the next that you are sure the Church must have unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government or not at all I take you at your word hold there and we shall soon agree together Vnity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government no man likes better then my self bring but the same affections with you and the wide breach which is between us in some of the causes which we mannage on either side will be suddenly closed but then you must be sure to stand to the word ancient also and not to keep your self to simplicity only if unity and charity will content you in the ancient Doctrine in the simplicity thereof without subsequent mixtures of the Church I know no doctrine in the Church more pure and ancient then that which is publickly held forth by the Church of England in the book of Articles the Homilies and the Chatechism authorized by Law under the head or rubrick of Confirmation Of which I safely may affirm as S. Augustine doth in his Tract or Book Ad Marcellinum if my memory fail not his qui contradicit â—ut à Christi fide alienus est aut est haereticus that is to say he must be either an Infidei or an Heretick who assenteth not to them If unity and charity in the simplicity of Worship be the thing you aim at you must not give every man the liberty of worshiping in what form he pleaseth which destroys all unity nor cursing many times in stead of praying which destroyes all charity the ancient and most simple way of Worship in the Church of God was by regular forms prescribed for the publick use of Gods people in their Congregations and not by unpremeditated indigested prayers which every man makes unto himself as his fancy shall lead him which I hope I have sufficiently proved in my Tract of Liturgies And if Set Forms of Worship are to be retained as I think they be you will not easily meet with any which hath more in it of the ancient simplicity of the Primitive times then that by which we did officiate for the space of fourscore years and more in the Church of England And finally if the ancient simplicity in Government be the point you drive at what Government can you find more pure and ancient then that of Bishops of which I shall only present you with that Character of it which I find in that Petition of the County of Rutland where it is said to be That Government which the Apostles left the Church in that the three ages of Martyrs were governed by that the thirteen ages since have alwayes gloried in by their succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves members of the Catholick and Apostolick Church that our Laws have established so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were baptized as certainly Apostolical as the observation of the Lords day as the distinction of Books Apocryphal from Canonical as that such Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters c. An ample commendation of Episcopal Government but such as exceedeth not the bounds of truth or modesty Stand to these grounds for keeping unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government in the Church of God and you shall see how cheerfully the Regal and Prelatical party whom you most oppose wil join hands with you and embrace you with most dear affections 33. But you begin to shrink already and tell me that if I will have men live in peace as brethren our Union must be Law or Ceremonies or indifferent Forms This is a pretty speculation I must needs confesse but such as would not passe for practicable in any well-governed Common-wealth unless it be in the Old Vtopia or the New Atlantis or the last discovered Oceana For how can men possibly live in peace as brethren where there is no Law to limit their desires or direct their actions Take away Law and every man will be a Law unto himself and do whatsoever seemeth best in his own eyes without control then Lust will be a law for one Felony will be a law for another Perjury shall be held no crime nor shall any Treason or Rebellion receive their punishments for where there is no law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no punishment punishments being only due for the breach of Laws Thus is it also in the service and worship of Almighty God which by the hedge of Ceremonies is preserved from lying open to all prophaneness and by Set Forms be they as indifferent as they will is kept from breaking out into open confusion God as S. Paul hath told us is the God of Order not of Confusion in the Churches If therefore we desire to avoid confusion let us keep some order and if we would keep order we must have some forms it being impossible that men should live in peace as brethren in the house of God where we find not both David hath told us in the Psalms that Jerusalem is like a City which is at unity in it self and in Jerusalem there were not only solemn Sacrifices set Forms of blessing and some significant Ceremonies prescribed by God but Musical Instruments and Singers and linnen vestures for those Singers and certain hymns and several times and places for them ordained by David Had every Ward in that City and every Street in that Ward and every Family in that Street and perhaps every
remedies That which concerns me in relation to Bishop Burlow is my acquitting him from shewing any partiality in summing up the conference at Hampton Court a matter never charged upon him by the Puritan faction more then twenty years after his death and more then thirty years after the publishing of that Book which as the Church Historian saith to have been complained of so doth he only say not prove it and affirmations or complaints are no legal evidences where there are any reasons of strength to evince the contrary but what he wants shall be supplied by the Antagonist who fearing to be prevented in it puts the best legg forwards crying out with more hast then good speed That he will Answer the Doctor Admit him to his Answer and he will tell us That the times were evil that the prudent did think themselves obliged to be silent and that God did so order the matter that they lost no credit by a quiet committing their cause to him How so Because saith he D. Burlow lying on his death bed did with grief complain of the wrong which he had done to D. Reynolds and others that joyned with him in that conference If this be prooved we will admit of all the rest but if this be not proved all the rest is nothing And for the proof of this he is able as he saith to give a satisfactory account to any person of ingenuity who desires it of him I would have took him at his word desiring earnestly to be satisfied in the truth thereof presuming that I might lay claim to so much ingenuity as would entitle me to a capacity of obtaining that favour 20. But in this point I reckoned without my host for though I pressed my desire so far as to conclude that if he did not gratifie me with an Answer I should think he could not yet I am stil as far from satisfaction as at first I was I must first gratifie him in answering such demands as he puts unto me impertinent to the cause in hand and such as the nature of the point in issue cannot bind me too by any Rule of Disputation in the Schools of Logick or else the evidence desired must not be produced I gave some reason why I was not willing to name the parties who received or paid the pension given by Bishop Williams towards the maintenance of a Scholer two of the parties to my knowledg and the third for any thing I know to the contrary being still alive otherwise I could not only name the men but produce the acquittance And for the words relating to Bishop Prideaux they were spoke at a great Table in the Court in the hearing of many and being spoken in the Court must refer only to such Sermons as were preached at the Court and not to all which had been preached elswhete by that learned Bishop The Sermons will be shortly published if not done already and will be able to speak as much for themselves as can be desiâ—ed of me to do The witness in the cause touching Bishop Burlow may appear securely without drawing danger to himself and will be heard no Question both with love and freedom For if he be a lover of the English Prelacy Liturgie and Ceremonies who is to attest unto this truth I know of none who can refuse to give credit to it but if he take up the report at the second hand from one who told him that he took it from the Doctors mouth and not from the man himself that spake it his witness may be lyable to just exception and then we are but as we were without proof at all He vaunts it somewhere in his Book That he is furnished with a cloud of Witnesses to justifie his cause against you but in this point and the next that follows his Witnesses are all in a cloud shadowed as Aeneas and his followers were from the sight of Dido so that no mortal eye can see them Et idem est non esse et non apparere was the Rule of old 21. Upon no better grounds then this he lays a fouler reproach on the late most Reverend and still Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as being turned out of the Divinity Schools with disgrace by D. Holland in publicis commitiis for but endaevouring to maintain That Bishops differed in order and not in degree only from inferiour Presbiters I reproved him for this in my first Letter and told him how much he would be troubled to produce his Author he shifted it off by saying that he means no otherwise by being turned out of the Schooles with disgrace then that he was publiquely checkt by the said D. Holland for maintaining the said opinion and having M. Prinnes Breviate for the truth of this he thinks it a sufficient proof also to confirm the other but is it possible that any man who pretends but to a grain of ingenuity or learning should dare to lay so base a calumnie on so great a person and hope to salve the matter by such a ridiculous explication as may justly render him contemptible to the silliest School-boy Assuredly if he received a publique check be that same with being disgracefully turned out of the Schools there must be more turned out of the Schools with as much disgrace because as much reprehended and checkt as he of whom the foulest mouth could never raise so leud a slander The Doctor of the Chair in the Divinity Schools at Oxon would be more absolute in his decisions and determinations were this once allowed of then all the Popes that ever sate in Peter's Chair since they first laid claim to it 22. But he goes on and adds that this disgrace was put upon him for maintaining such a novel Popish Position as that before Not Novel I am sure for the ancient Writers call the solemn form of consecrating a Bishop by no other name then that of Ordinatio Episcopi and if the Bishop at his Consecration doth receive no Order his consecration ought not to be styled an Ordination And if it be not Novel then it is not Popish for id verum quod primum as they Father it unlesse he will be pleased to make Popery Primitive and intitle it to the Eldest times of Christianity But Popish if it needs must be then must the Form of Consecration of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. be accounted Popish for which it stands acquitted by the Book of Articles and the two Parliaments of K. Edw. 6. Queen Eliz. must be Popish also by which that Form of Consecration was confirmed and Ratified Twice in the Preface to the Book we find mention of three Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons and this distinction made as antient as the very times of the Apostles And in the Book it selfe besides the three distinct forms of Ordination the one for Bishops the other for Priests and the third for Deacons in one of the Prayers used at the Consecrating of a
your Adversary calls Arminians who constantly adhered to the determinations of the Church of England according to the Literal and Grammatical sense and the concurrent Expositions of the first Reformers I grant indeed that the Book being afterwards re-printed was dedicated with a long Epistle to Arch-Bishop Bancroft But that intituleth him no more to any of the propositions or opinions which are there maintained then the like Dedication of a Book to an Eminent Prelate of our Nation in denyal of Original Sin intituled him to the maintenance of the same opinion which he as little could digest they are your Adversaries own words in the Epistle to the Lecturers of Brackley as the most rigidly Scotized Presbyterian Nor stays he here for rather then lose so great a Patron he will anticipate the time and make Dr. Bancroft Bishop of London almost 18 moneths before he was and in that Capacity agreeing to the Lambeth Articles An errour which he borrowed from the Church Historian who finding that Richard Lord Elect of London contributed his Assent unto them puts him down positively for Dr. Richard Bancroft without further search whereas he might have found upon further search that the meeting at Lambeth had been held on the 26th of November 1595. that D. Richard Flesher Bishop of Worcester was then the Lord Elect of London and that D. Bancroft was not made Bishop of that See till the 8th of May Anno 1697. 38. The next Considerable preferments for learning the Clergy he makes to be the two Chairs in the Universities both to be occupied by those who were profest Enemies to such Doctrines as he calls Arminianism Which if it were granted for a truth is rather to be looked on as an infelicity which befell the Church in the first choice of those Professors then to be used as an argument that she concurred with them in all points of Judgement That which was most aimed at in those times in the preferring men to the highest dignities of the Church and the chief places in the Vniversities was their zeal against Popery and such a sufficiency of learning as might enable them to defend those points on which our separation from Rome was to be maintained and the Queens interess most preserved The Popes supremacy the Mass with all the points and niceties which depended on it justification by faith the marriage of Priests Purgatory and the power of the civil Magistrate were the points most agitated And whosoever appeared right in those and did withal declare himself against the corruptions of that Church in point of manners was seldome or never looke into for his other opinions until the Church began to find the sad consequents of it in such a general tendency to innovation both in doctrine and discipline as could not easily be redressed From hence it was that we find a non-conformist though â— moderate one in the chaire at Oxon a Mother but a violent Patron of in-conformity in a Professorship in Cambridge so many hankering after Calvin in almost all the Headships of both Vniversities And it was hardly possible that it should be otherwise Such of the learned Protestants as had been trained up under the Reformation made by King Edw. 6. and had the confidence and courage to stand out to the last in the Reign of Queen Mary were either martyred in the flames or consumed in prisons or worn out with extremity of Grief and disconsolation And most of those which had retired themselves beyond the Seas returned with such a mixture of outlandish Doctrines that it was hard to find amongst them a sufficient number of men so qualified as to fill up the number of Bishops and to be dignified with the Deanrys of Cathedral Churches By means whereof there followed such an universal spreading of Calvinism over all parts of the Church that it can be no matter of wonder if the Professors of the Vniversity should be that way byassed And yet as much as the times were inclined that way I believe it will be hard if not impossible for your Antagonist to prove that those Professors did agree upon such a platform of Gods decrees as he and others of the same perswasions would fain obtrude upon us now In Cambridge D. Whitaker maintained the supra-Lapsarian way of Predestination which D. Robert Abbot of Oxon condemned in the person of Perkins And I have heard from persons of very good Esteem that Dr. Abbot himself was as much condemned at his first coming to the Chair for deviating from the moderation of his Predecessor D. Holland who seldome touched upon those points when he might avoid them For proof whereof it may be noted that five onely are remembred by Mr. Prynne in his Anti Arminianism to have maintained the Calvinian tenents in all the time of that Professor from the year 1596. to the year 1610. whereas there were no fewer then 20. who maintained them publickly in the Act as the others did in the first six years of D. Prideaux And as for D. Overal one D. Overal as your Adversary calls him in contempt afterwards Dean of S. Pauls Bishop of Lichfield and at last of Norwich that his opinion were not that for which you are said to stickle I am sure it was not that for which he contends that he did not Armintanize in all things I am sure he Calvinized in none 39. Proceed we next to the Consideration of that Argument which is derived from the censures inflicted in either Vniversity upon such as trod the Arminian path so soon as they began to discover themselves Exemplified in Cambridge by the proceedings there against Barret Barrow and Simpson in Oxon by the like against Laud Houson and Bridges Of Barret Simpson and Bridges I shall now say nothing referring you to the 23. Section of this discourse where you will find a general answer to all these particulars In the case of Dr. Laud and Dr. Houson there was somewhat else then that which was objected against the other Your Adversary tells us of D. Housons Suspention for â—â—urting onely against Calvin If so the greater the injustice and the more unjustifiable the suspension for what was Calvin unto us but that he might be flurtad at as well as another when he came cross unto the discipline or Doctrine of the Church of England But Mr. Fuller tells you more particularly that at a Sermon preached in St. Maries in Oxon he accused the Geneva Notes as guilty of mis-interpretation touching the divinity of Christ and his Mesiah-ship as if symbolizing with Arrians and Jewes against them both and that for this he was suspended by D. Robert Abbot propter Conciones publicas minus Orthodoxas offensione plenas Which though it proves this Reverend person to be rufly handled yet it makes nothing to the purpose of your mighty Adversary which was to show that some such Censures of Arminianism might be found in Oxon as had been met withal in Cambridge nor doth he speed
Dr. Abbot said of that Treatise that it was the most accurate piece of Controversie which was written since the Reformation If you are not affrighted with this Apparition I dare turn you loose to any single Adversary made of flesh and blood These words if spoken by D. Abbot being spoken by his Ghost not the Man himself For D. Abbot dyed in March Anno 1617. And Crakanthorps Book dedicated to King Charles as your Author noâ—eth came not out till the year 1625. which was eight years after Nor can your Antagonist help himself by saying he means the other Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury who lived both at and after the coming out of the Book for he speaks positively by name of that Dr. Abbot whom King James preferred to the See of Salisbury At the Ridiculousnes of which passage now the the first terrible fright is over you may make your self merrier if you please then Mr Fuller is said to make himself with the Bishop of Chichester 49. To set out the next Argument in the fairer Colours he tells us of some Act Questions were appointed by the Congregration to be disputed of at the Publick Acts which were maintained by the Proceeders in a Calvinistical way And this he â—sherâ—th in with this Interrogation Whether the Vniversity did not know the opinions of the Church of England or would countenance any thing which had so much as the appearance of a contrariâ—ty thereunto Had this Question been particularly propounded voted and allowed in the General Convocation of that University as M. Prinne affirms they were it might be Logically inferred as M. Prinne concludes from those faulty premises that the Judgement and Resolution of the whole University is comprised in them as well as of the men that gave them For which see Anti-Armin p. 241. But I hope your Adversary will not say the like of the Congregation in which onely those Articles are allowed of consisting of no other then the Vice-Chancellor the two Proctors the Regent Masters and some Regents ad plaâ—itum few of which the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors Excepted onely are so well studied in those Deep points of Divinty as to be trusted with the Judgement of the University If any be now living as no doubt there be who heard this Question maintained negatively by D. Lloyd Anno 1617. viz An Ex Doctrina Reformatorum sequatur deum esse Authorem Peccati He may perhaps be able to tell what satisfaction the Calvinians received in it But he must be as bold a Man as your Antagonist who dares affirm That the Arminian Doctors shewed themselves rather Angry then able Opponents Howsoever you have here some Arminian Doctors in the year 1617. At what time D. Laud was so far from sitting in the Saddle as your Author words it that he had scarce his foot in the stirrup being at that time advanced no higher then the poor Deanry of Glocester 50. And as the Bishop so the Duke was but Green in favour when those Arminian Doctors shew'd themselves such unable Opponents his first honours being granted to him but the August before and his Authority at that time in the blossome onely so that I must needs look upon it as an act of impudent injustice in your Antagonist to ascribe the beginning of those doctrines which he calls Arminian to Laud and Buckingham and a high degree of malice in him as to affirm that the last had so much of an Herod as would not have suffered him so long to continue with friendship with the former if he had not had too little of a St. John Baptist And yet not thinking he had given them a sufficient Character he tells us within few lines after that their â—â—â—rishing was the decay of Church and State that neither body could well recover but by spewing up such evil instruments Whether with more Puritanical Passion or unmannerly zeal it is hard to say Methinks the fellow which dares speak so scandalously of such eminent persons should sometimes cast his eye on those who have suffered condign punishment for such libellous language Scandalum magnatum being a crime which the most moderate times have published in most grievous manner For my part I must needs say to him as Cicero once did to Marcus Antonius Miror to quorum facta immittere earum exitus non per horrescere that I admire he doth tremble at the Remembrance of the punishments of so many men whose facts he imitateth But as Abigal sayes of the Churle her Husband that Nabal was his name and Folly was with him so I may say that there is somewhat in the name of your Adversary which betrayes his nature and showes him to be I will not say as she did a man of Belial but a man of scorn For if Hickman in the Saxon Tongue signifie a Scorner a man of scorn or one that sits in the seat of the scornful as I think it doth this fellow whom a charitable man cannot name with patience hath showed himself abundantly to be vere scriptor sui nominis as the Historian once affirmed of the Emperour Pertinax Let me beseech your pardon for these rough expressions to which my pen hath not been accustomed and which nothing but an invincible indignation could have wrested from me And then for his part let the shame and sence thereof work so far upon him as to purge out of him all Envy Hatred Malice and uncharitableness from which good Lord deliver us for the time to come 51. And here I might have took my leave both of him and you in reference to the Historical part of his tenpenny trifle which we have before us so far forth as it concerns your selfe and your particular ingagings But finding some other passages in it relating to the late Archbishop and the other Prelates which require Correction I shall not let them pass without endeavouring to rectifie his Errata in them And first he asks How was the late ArchBishop an obedient Sonne of the Church of England who put Mr. Sherfield a Bencher of Lincolne Inne and Recorder of Salum to so much cost and a disgraceful acknowledgement of his fault and caused him to be bound to his Good behaviour for taking down a Glasswindow in which there were made no less then seaven Pictures God the Father in form of a little old Man clad in a blew and red Coat with a Pouch by his side about the bigness of a Puppet A question easie to be answered and my Answer is that the Archbishop did nothing in it but what became a true Sonne of the Church of England and more then so that he had not shewed himselfe a deserving Father in this Church if he had done otherwise For take the story as it stands apparell'd with all its circumstances and we shall find such an encroachment on the Episcopal power and jurisdiction as was not to be expiated with a gentler sentence They had a Bishop in the City continually Resident amongst
zeal and ignorance A writing is subscribed on the 10th of May by Finch Lord Keeper Manchester Lord Privy Seal Littleton Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Banks Atturney General Witsield and Heath his Majesties Serjeants at the Law in which it was declared expresly that the Convocation being called by the Kings writ ought to continue till it was dissolved by the Kings Writ notwithstanding the dissolution of the Parliament But what makes this unto the purpose Our Author a more learned Lawyer then all these together hath resolved the contrary and throw it out as round as a boul that after the dissolution of the Parliament the Clarks of Diocesses and Cathedrals desisted from being publick persons and lost the notion of Representatives and thereby returned to their private condition The Animadvertor instanced in a convocation held in the time of Queen Eliz. An. 1585. which gave the Queen a Benevolence of two shillings in the pound to be raised on the Estates of all the Clergy by the meer censures of the Church without act of peachment Against which not able to object as to the truth and realty of it in matter of Fâ—ct he seems to make it questionable whecher it would hold good or not in point of Law if any turbulent Clergy-man had proved Recusant in payment and having slighted by the name of a blâ—ck â—wan a single instance of an unparliamented inpowred Convocation he imputes the whole success of that â—ash adventure rather unto the popularity of so Peerless a Princess the necessity of her occasions and the tranquillity of the times then to any efficacy or validity in the act it self And to what purpose all this pains but to expose the poor Clergy of the Convocation An. â—640 to the juster censure for following this unquestioned precedent in granting a more liberal benevolence to a gracious soveraign by no other authority then their own 34. If the â—ppealant still remain unsatisfied in this part of the Churches power I shall take a little more pâ—ins to instruct him in it though possibly I may tell him nothing which he knows not already being as learned in the Canons as in the common Law In which capacity I am sure he cannot chuse but know how ordinary a thing it was with Bishops to suspend their Clergy not onely ab officio but a Beneficio and not so onely but to sentence them if they saw just cause for it to a deprivation Which argues them to have a power over the property of the Clergy in their several Diocesses and such a power as had no ground to stand on but the authority of the Canons which conferred it on them And if our Author should object as perhaps he may that though the Canons in some cases do subject the Clergy not only to suspentions but deprivations of their cures and Benefices â—in which their property is concerned yet that it is not so in the case of the Laity whose Estates are not to be bound by so weak a thred I must then lead him to the Canons of 1603 for his satisfaction In which we find six Canons in a row one after another for providing the Book of Common Prayer the Book of Homilies the Bible of the largest Edition a Font for Baptism a fair Communion Table with a Carpet of Silk or other decent stuff to be laid upon it a Pulpit for Preaching of Gods Word a Chest to receive the alms for the Poor and finally for repairing of the Churches or Chappels whensoever they shall fall into any decay all these provisions and reparations to be made at the charges of the several and respective Parishes according to such rates as are indifferently assest upon them by the Church wardens Sides men and such other Parishioners as commonly convened together in the case which rates if any did refuse to make payment of they were compellable thereunto on a presentment made to the Ordinary by the said Church-wardens and other sworn Officers of the several and respective Parishes And yet those Canons never were confirmed by Act of Parliament as none of the like nature had been formerly in Queen Eliz time though of a continual and uncontroled practise upon all occasions The late Lord Primate in * a Letter more lately published by D. Barnard assures the honourable person unto whom he writ it that the making of any Articles or Canons at all to have ever been confirmed in that Kingdom by Act of Parliament is one of Dr. Heylyns Fancies And now it must be another of the Doctors Fancies to say that never any Articles or Canons had ever been confirmed by Act of Paliament in England though possible they may relate unto the binding of the subject in point of Poperty 35. But our Author hath a help at Maw and making use of his five fingers hath thrust a word into the proposition in debate between us which is not to be sound in the first drawing up of the issue The Question at the first was no more then this whether such Canons as were made by the Clergy in their Convocations and authorized by the King under the broad Seal of England could any further bind the subject then as they were confirmed by Act of Parliament And Secondly Whether such Canons could so bind either at such times as the Clergy acted their own Authority or after their admission to King Hen. the 8. in such things as concerned Temporals or temporal matters otherwise then as they were confirmed by national Customes that is to say as afterwards he expounds himselfe until they were consirmed by Act of Parliament Which points being so clearly stated by the Animadvertor in behalf of the Church that no honest evasion could be found to avoid his Argument the Appealant with his five fingers layes down life at the stake and then cryes out that the Animadvertor arrogates more power unto the Church then is due unto it either by the laws of God or man maintaining but he knows not where that Church men may go beyond Ecclesiastical Censures even to the limbs and lives of such as are Recusants to their Constitutions p. 2. so 53. And having taken up the scent he hunts it over all his Book with great noise and violence assuring us that such Canons were constantly checkt and controlled by the Laws of the Land in which the temporal Estate life and limbs of persons were concerned p. 2. fol. 27. As also that the King and Parliament though they directed not the proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts in cases of Heresie which is more then his History would allow of yet did they order the power of Bishops over declared Hereticks without the direction of the Statute not to proceed to limb and life p. 2. fol. 45. And finally reduceth the whole Question to these two Propositions viz. 1. The proceedings of the Canon Law in what touched temporals of life limb and estate was alwayes limited with the secular Laws and national Customes of England And