to know more of the Secret History of the Transactions preceeding and accompanying the Grand Rebellion than the whole 〈◊〉 besides who hath confidently Related that when the Earl of Strafford enter'd into the Service of King Charles I. and began to be employed as Chief Minister of State he covenanted with him that no Session of Parliament should be called or held during his Ministry Now the 〈◊〉 of this Report appears from what the Arch-Bishop hath wrote in his Diary at Dec. 5. 1639. that the first movers for calling a Parliament at that time were the Earl of Strafford and himself Nothing also can reflect more Honour upon the Memory of any Person that what the Arch-Bishop in the following History cap. 9. relateth of the Earl's rejecting the unworthy Proposition made to him by Mr. Denzell Hollis in the Name of the Leading Men of the House of Commons a matter wholly unknown before But to proceed with Prynne soon after the Martyrdom of the Arch-Bishop whether prompted by his unwearied Malice or by his eternal itch of scribling or incited by the Order of the House of Commons made March 4. 1644 5. desiring him to Print and Publish all the Proceedings concerning the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Trial He immediately set himself to Defame the Arch-Bishop and justifie the Proceedings of the Rebel Parliament against him more at large To which purpose he Published in 1646. in 66 Sheets in Folio his Necessary Introduction to the History of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Trial Which in the Preface he calleth A New Discovery of sundry Plots and hidden Works of Darkness Containing bitter Invectives and Accusations against the whole Proceedings of the Court from the time of the Treaty about the Spanish Match to that day and labouring to prove that both King James and Charles designed to overthrow the 〈◊〉 Religion and to introduce Popery using Arch-Bishop Laud as their chief Instrument in that bad Design An Accusation which neither himself nor any other Man in his Wits ever believed Soon after this in the same Year 1646. was Published by the same Author Canterbury's Doom or the First Part of a compleat History of the Trial of the Arch-Bishop in 145 Sheets in Folio containing as himself acknowledgeth only the History of the Preliminaries of the Trial till the commencement of it together with the Commons Evidence his Answers to it and their Replies upon him in maintenance of the first general Branch of their Charge of High Treason against him to wit his Trayterous endeavours to alter and subvert God's True Religion by Law Established among us to introduce Popery and to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome The remaining part of the Trial he engaged by Promise made both in the beginning and end of that Book to Compleat and Publish with all convenient speed but never made good his Vndertaking nor as I believe ever did intend it For he well knew that however what was urged against the Arch-Bishop at his Trial in this matter and was largely amplified in his History in proof of the Arch-Bishop's endeavour to subvert the Established Religion carried with it some shew of Truth in the Judgment of a then miserably deluded People who were cheated into a Belief cursed be the wilful Authors of that Cheat which in great measure yet continueth that good Works Building Repairing Consecrating and Adorning Churches bowing at the Name of Jesus prosiration to God in Prayer wearing Copes retaining the use of Canonical Hours in Prayer and such like Decent Vsages and Ceremonies were downright Popery for these and such like were the Proofs of that Accusation brought against the Arch-Bishop Yet that all which they did or could produce in confirmation of their other Heads of Accusation against the Arch-Bishop carried not with it the least appearance of proof For which Reason Prynne began the History of his Trial with the Charge and Proofs of Popery although that was not the first but the last Head of Accusation brought against him and canvassed in the course of his Trial. However the Godly Cheat once begun was by any means to be continued and therefore it was pretended by Prynne and other Adversaries of the Arch-Bishop that although to give him his due for such are Prynne's own words pag. 462. the Arch-Bishop made as full as gallant as pithy a Defence of so bad a Cause and spake as much for himself as was possible for the Wit of Man to invent and that with so much Art Sophistry Vivacity Oratory Audacity and Confidence without the least acknowledgment of Guilt in any thing c. yet that after all the Crimes objected being undeniably proved against him and himself thereupon despairing of being able to justifie and clear his Innocence either to the then present or to succeeding times did burn all the Notes of his Answers and Defence before his Death of purpose to prevent their publication after it Which Calumny Prynne hath twice in Epist. Dedic and pag. 461. repeated pretending to have received the knowledge of it from the Arch-Bishop's own Secretary Mr. Dell. The falsity of this base Report appears sufficiently from this History wrote by the Arch-Bishop and now Published He had begun to compose it before the end of the Year 1641. and continued it from time to time till the 3d of January 1644 5. which was the seventh day before his Execution For on the 4th of January being acquainted that Sentence had passed upon him in the House of Lords he conveyed the Original Copy of his History into safe hands and prepared himself for Death That he had begun it before the end of 1641. and augmented it from time to time appears evidently from several places of it And although in the Narration of his Trial many things said or alledged in the Recapitulation on the last days be interwoven with the History of every days Trial yet all those passages were added by him afterwards on the blank pages which he had for that purpose left over-against every written page in the Original Copy and from thence were according to his directions transcribed in the other Copy into one entire Narration Hence it comes to pass which the Reader will easily observe that the Arch-Bishop writing down the Transactions of every day as they happened hath left so many plain Indications of haste and sometimes of heat Some things seem to have been wrote while his Spirits had not yet recovered a sedate Temper many improprieties of Language committed and other defects admitted which the Arch-Bishop himself being sensible of had wrote in the first leaf of his Book Non apposui manum ultimam W. Cant. That the most Reverend Author wrote this History for the publick Vindication of himself cannot be doubted Nay himself more than once affirmeth that he intended it for the Vindication of himself to the whole Christian World and chiefly indeed for the defence of himself and the Church of England in Foreign parts where
to be there at Seven in the Morning as if need be I can prove by sufficient Witness and at that Hour I came By this accident I came late and found a Resolution taken to Vote the dissolution of that Parliament and the Votes entred upon my Lord Cottington being in his Speech when I came into the Council-Chamber All Votes concurred to the ending of that Parliament save two The Persons dissenting were the Earls of Northumberland and Holland I co-operated nothing to this breach but my single Vote Yet the very next day Libels were set up in divers parts of the City animating and calling together Apprentices and others to come and meet in St. George's Fields for the Hunting of William the Fox for the Breach of the Parliament This setting up of Libels and animation of the baser People continued I acquainted his Majesty and the Council with it But upon Munday night following being May 11. Five Hundred of them came about my House at Lambeth to offer it and me violence By God's Merciful Providence I had some Jealousie of their intent and before their coming left the best Order I could to secure my House and by the Advice of some Friends went over the water and lay at my Chamber in White-Hall that Night and some other following So I praise God no great hurt was done One young Fellow only had a little hurt with a Dag who was after taken and Executed Thus you see how the malignity of the Time fastned and continued upon me For this Libelling in a very base and most unworthy manner continued against me But not one of them charged me with any one Particular save the breaking of the Parliament of which I was not guilty During this Parliament the Clergy had agreed in Convocation to give his Majesty six Subsidies payable in six Years which came to Twenty Thousand Pound a Year for six Years but the Act of it was not made up His Majesty seeing what lay upon him and what fears there were of the Scots was not willing to lose these Subsidies and therefore thought upon the continuing of the Convocation though the Parliament were ended but had not opened those Thoughts of his to me Now I had sent to dissolve the Convocation at their next sitting haste and trouble of these businesses making me forget that I was to have the King 's Writ for the Dismissing as well as the Convening of it Word was brought me of this from the Convocation-House while I was sitting in Council and his Majesty present Hereupon when the Council rose I moved his Majesty for a Writ His Majesty gave me an unlooked for reply Namely that he was willing to have the Subsidies which we had granted him and that we should go on with the finishing of those Canons which he had given us power under the Broad Seal of England to make And when I replyed it would be excepted against in all likelyhood by divers and desired his Majesty to Advise well upon it The King Answered me presently That he had spoken with the Lord Keeper the Lord Finch about it and that he assured him it was Legal I confess I was a little troubled both at the difficulties of the Time and at the Answer it self that after so many Years faithful Service in a business concerning the Church so nearly his Majesty would speak with the Lord Keeper both without me and before he would move it to me And somewhat I said thereupon which pleased not but the Particulars I do not well remember Upon this I was Commanded to sit and go on with the Convocation At first some little Exception was taken there by two or three of the Lower House of Convocation whether we might sit or no. I acquainted his Majesty with this doubt and humbly besought him that his Learned Council and other Persons of Honour well acquainted with the Laws of the Realm might deliver their Judgment upon it This his Majesty Graciously approved and the Question was put to them They answer'd as followeth under their Hands The Convocation being called by the King 's Writ under the Great Seal doth continue until it be dissolved by Writ or Commission under the Great Seal notwithstanding the Parliament be Dissolved 14. Maij 1640. Jo. Finch C. S. H. Manchester John Bramston Edward Littleton Ralph Whitfield John Bankes Rob. Heath This Judgment of these great Lawyers setled both Houses of Convocation So we proceeded according to the Power given us under the Broad-Seal as is required by the Statute 25 H. 8. Cap. 19. In this Convocation thus continued we made up our Act perfect for the gift of six Subsidies according to Ancient Form in that behalf and delivered it under Seal to his Majesty This passed Nemine Refragante as may appear apud Acta And we followed a President in my Lord Arch-Bishop Whitgift's time An. 1586 who was known to be a Pious and a Prudent Prelate and a Man not given to do boisterous things against the Laws of the Realm or the Prerogative of the Crown but one that went just and fair ways to both Nor did this Grant lye dead and useless for divers Processes are yet to be seen for the fetching in of that which was so Granted to the Queen's use in case any Man refused payment Together with this Act for Subsidies we went on in deliberation for certain Canons thought necessary to be added for the better Government and more setled Peace of the Church which began to be much disquieted by the proceedings of some Factious Men which have since more openly and more violently shewed themselves In the Debates concerning these Canons I dare be bold to say never any Synod sate in Christendom that allowed more freedom either of Speech or Vote The Canons which we made were in number seventeen and at the time of the Subscription no Man refused or so much as checked at any one Canon or any one Branch in any one of them Saving a Canonist or two who excepted against two or three Clauses in some of the last of the Canons which concerned their Profit and their Carriage towards the Clergy in which they were publickly and by joint consent over-ruled in the House And excepting Godfrey Goodman Lord Bishop of Glocester who was startled at the first Canon about the Proceedings against the Papists This Canon is very express for the use of all good and Christian means to bring them out of their Superstitious Errors and to settle them in the Church of England This Canon would not down with my Lord of Glocester And the Morning before the Subscription was to be he came over to Lambeth to me and after great expressions of his dislike I gave him the best Counsel I could that he would keep himself out of that scandal which his refusing to Subscribe would bring both upon his Person his Calling and the Church of England in these broken times especially But I fell so short of
be made of this Canon what their Reason was they best know I returned Answer belike in this sort That the Canon stood behind the Curtain and would not be throughly understood by every Man yet advised the Printing in regard of the necessary use of it For let this Canon be in force and right use made of it and a National Church may ride safe by God's Ordinary Blessing through any Storm which without this Latitude it can never do The next Charge is in 2. The Title prefixed to these Canons by our Prelates For there 't is thus Canons agreed on to be proponed to the several Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And is thus changed by Canterbury Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical c. Ordained to be observed by the Clergy He will not have Canons to come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or from the Kings Prerogative I perceive they mean to sift narrowly when the Title cannot scape But truly in this Charge I am to seek which is greater in my Accusers their Ignorance or their Malice Their Ignorance in the Charge or their Malice in the Inference upon it The Title was Canons agreed upon to be proponed to the Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And this was very fit to express the Prelates intendment which for ought I know was to propose them so But this Book which was brought to me was to be Printed And then that Title could not stand with any Congruity of Sense For no Church uses to Print Canons which are to be proponed to their Synods but such as have been proposed and agreed on Nor did this altering of the Title in any the least thing hinder those worthy Prelates from Communicating them with their Synods before they Printed them And therefore the Inference must needs be extream full of Malice to force from hence that I would not have Canons come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or the King's Prerogative Whereas most manifest it is that the fitting of this Title for the Press doth neither give any Power to Prelates nor add to the King's Prerogative more than is his due nor doth it detract any thing from the Authority of Synods For I hope the Bishops had no purpose but to Ordain them in Synod to be observed by the Clergy c. and Approved and Published by the King's Consent and Authority After this comes 3. The formidable Canon Cap. 1. 3. threatning no less than Excommunication against all such Persons whatsoever shall open their Mouths against any of these Books proceeded not from our Prelates nor is to be found in Copies sent from them but is a Thunderbolt forged in Canterbury's own Fire First whether this Canon be to be found in the Copies sent from your Prelates or not I cannot tell but sure it was in the Copy brought to me or else my Memory forsakes me very strangely Secondly after all this Noise made of a Formidable Canon because no less is threatned than Excommunication I would fain know what the Church can do less upon Contempt of her Canons Liturgy and Ordinations than to Excommunicate the Offenders or what Church in any Age laid less upon a Crime so great Thirdly suppose this Thunderbolt as 't is called were forged in Canterbury's Fire yet that Fire was not outragious For this Canon contains as much as the 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Canons of the Church of England made in the beginning of the gracious Reign of King James And yet to every one of those Canons there is an Excommunication in Facto affixed for every one of these Crimes single Whereas this Canon shoots this one Thunderbolt but once against them all And this I would my Accusers should know that if no more Thunderbolts had been forged in their Fire than have been in mine nor State nor Church would have Flamed as of late they have done 4 Our Prelates in divers Places witness their dislike of Papists A Minister shall be deposed if he shall Rushw. be found negligent to convert Papists Cap. 8. 15. The Adoration of the Bread is a Superstition to be condemned Cap. 6. 6. They call the Absoluteness of Baptism an Errour of Popery Cap. 6. 2. But in Canterbury's Edition the Name of Papists and Popery are not so much as mentioned Here 's a great general Accusation offered to be made good by three Particulars The general is that in the Copy of the Canons which their Prelates sent there 's a dislike of Papists But none in the Edition as it was alter'd by me Now this is utterly untrue for it is manifest cap. 1. 1. There is express care taken for the King's Majesty's Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to it And again in the same Canon That no Foreign Power hath in his Majesty's Dominions any Establishment by the Law of God And this with an Addition That the Exclusion of all such Power is just And Cap. 2. 9. 't is Ordained that every Ecclesiastical Person shall take the Oath of Supremacy And Cap. 10. 3. All Readers in any Colledge or Schools shall take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And sure I think 't is no great matter whether Papists or Popery be Named so long as the Canons go so directly against them This for the General Now for the three Particulars And first That which was in Cap. 8. 15. That a Minister shall be deposed if he be found negligent to convert Papists I did think fit to leave out upon these two Grounds The one that the Word Negligent is too general an Expression and of too large an extent to lay a Minister open to Deposition And if Church-Governours to whom the execution of the Canons is committed should forget Christian Moderation as they may Pati humana a very worthy Minister might sometimes be undone for a very little Negligence for Negligence is Negligence be it never so little Besides I have learned out of the Canons of the Church of England that even gross Negligence in a matter as great as this is is punished but with Suspension for three Months The other Ground why I omitted this clause is Because I do not think the Church of Scotland or any other particular Church is so blessed in her Priests as that every of her Ministers is for Learning and Judgment and Temper Able and Fit to convert Papists And therefore I did think then and do think yet that it is not so easie a work or to be made so common but that it is and may be much fitter for some able selected Men to undertake And if any Man think God's Gifts in him to be neglected as Men are apt to overvalue themselves let them try their Gifts and labour their Conversion in God's Name But let not the Church by a Canon set every Man on work lest their Weak or Indiscreet Performance hurt the Cause and blemish the Church The
hated it perhaps it might have been better with me for worldly safety than now it is But it can no way become a Christian Bishop to halt with God Lastly If I had any purpose to blast the True Religion Established in the Church of England and to introduce Popery sure I took a very wrong way to it For my Lords I have stayed as many that were going to Rome and reduced as many that were already gone as I believe any Bishop or other Minister in this Kingdom hath done and some of them Men of great Abilities and some of them Persons of great Place And is this the way my Lords to introduce Popery I beseech your Lordships consider it well For surely if I had blemished the True Protestant Religion I could not have setled such Men in it And if I had purposed to introduce Popery I would never have reduced such Men from it And though it please the Author of the Popish Royal Favourite to say That scarce one of the swaying Lord Prelats is able to say that ever he Converted one Papist to our Religion yet how void of Charity this Speech of his is and how full of Falshood shall appear by the number of those Persons whom by Gods Blessing upon my Labours I have setled in the True Protestant Religion Established in England And with your Lordships leave I shall Name them that you may see both their Number and their Condition though I cannot set them down in that order of time in which I either Converted or Setled them 1. And first Hen Birk-head of Trinity Coll. in Oxford was seduced by a Jesuit and brought up to London to be conveyed beyond the Seas His Friends complained to me I had the happiness to find him out and the blessing from God to settle his Conscience So he returned to Oxford and there continued 2. 3. Two Daughters of Sir Rich Lechford in Surrey were sent to Sea to be carried to a Nunnery I heard of it and caused them to be brought back before they were got out of the Thames I setled their Consciences and both of them sent me great thanks since I was a Prisoner in the Tower 4. 5. Two Scholars of St John's Coll. in Cambridge Topping and Ashton had slipped away from the College and here at London had got the French Embassadour's Pass I have the Pass to shew I found means to get them to me and I thank God setled both their Minds sent them back to their College Afterwards hearing of Topping's Wants I allowed him Means till I procured him a Fellowship And he is at this time a very hopeful Young Man as most of his time in that University a Minister and Chaplain in House at this Present to the Right Honourable the Earl of Westmerland 6. 7. 8. Sir William Web my Kinsman and two of his Daughters and the better to secure them in Religion I was at the Charge their Father being utterly decayed to Marry them to two Religious Protestants and they both continued very constant And his Eldest Son I took from him placed him with a careful Divine maintained him divers Years and then setled him with a Gentleman of Good Worth 10. 11. The next in my remembrance was the Lord Maio of Ireland who with another Gentleman whose name I cannot recal was brought to me to Fulham by Mr. Jefford a Servant of his Majesty's and well known to divers of your Lordships 12. The Right Honourable the Lord Duke of Buckingham was almost lost from the Church of England between the continual cunning Labours of Fisher the Jesuit and the Perswasions of the Lady his Mother After some Miscarriages King James of ever Blessed Memory Commanded me to that Service I had God's Blessing upon me so far as to settle my Lord Duke to his Death And I brought the Lady his Mother to the Church again but she was not so happy as to continue with us 14. The Lady Marchioness Hamilton was much solicited by some Priests and much troubled in Mind about it My Lord spake with me of it and though at that present I was so overlaid with Business that I could not as I much desired wait upon that Honourable Person my self yet I told my Lord I would send one to his Lordship that should diligently attend that Service and that I would give him the best direction I could And this I did and God be thanked she dyed very quietly and very Religiously and a good Protestant And my Lord Marquess told me he had acknowledged this Service of mine to an Honourable Lord whom I now see present 15. Mr. Chillingworth's Learning and Abilities are sufficiently known to all your Lordships He was gone and setled at Dowaye My Letters brought him back and he Lived and Dyed a Defender of the Church of England And that this is so your Lordships cannot but know For Mr. Pryn took away my Letters and all the Papers which concerned him and they were Examined at the Committee 16. 17. Mr. Digby was a Priest and Mr. James Gentleman a School-master in a Recusant's House This latter was brought to me by a Minister as far as I remember in Buckinghamshire I converted both of them and they remain setled 18. Dr. Hart a Civilian Son to a Neighbour of mine at Fulham He was so far gone that he had written part of his Motives which wrought as he said that Change in him I got sight of them shewed him wherein he was deceived had God's Blessing to settle his Conscience and then caused an able Divine to Answer his Motives and give him the Copy 19. There were beside these Mr. Christopher Seburne a Gentleman of an Ancient Family in Hereford-shire and Sir William Spencer of Yarnton in Oxfordshire The Sons and Heirs of Mr. Wintchome and Mr. Williscot whom I sent with their Friends good liking to Wadham-College in Oxford and I received a Certificate Anno 1638. of their continuing in conformity to the Church of England Nor did ever any of these relapse again to Rome but only the Old Countess of Buckingham and Sir William Spencer that ever I heard of And if any of your Lordships doubt of the Truth of any of these Particulars I am able and ready to bring full proof of them all And by this time I hope it appears that one of the swaying Prelats of the time is able to say he hath Converted one Papist to the Protestant Religion And let any Clergy Man of England come forth and give a better account of his Zeal to this present Church And now my Lords with my most humble Thanks for your Lordships favour and patience in hearing me I shall cease to be farther troublesom for the present not doubting but I shall be able to Answer whatever shall be particularly objected against me After I had ended this Speech I was commanded to withdraw As I went from
own Innocency I would desert my Defence before I would indure such Language in such an Honourable Presence Hereupon some Lords shewed their dislike and wished him to leave and pursue the Evidence Mr. Brown in summing up the Charge made this a great matter The denial of the Pope to be Antichrist But I did not deny it nor declare any Opinion of my own And many Protestants and those very Learned are of Opinion that he is not 'T is true I did not I cannot approve foul Language in Controversies Nor do I think that the calling of the Pope Antichrist did ever yet Convert an Understanding Papist And sure I am Gabriel Powel's Peremptoriness to say no worse in this Point did the Church of England no Good no Honour in Foreign parts For there he affirms That he is as certain that the Pope is Antichrist as that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Redeemer of the World As for the thing it self I left it free to all Men to think as their Judgment guided them As appears by the Licensing of Dr. Featly's Sermons where he proves the Pope in his Opinion to be Antichrist Where he calls him also the Whore of Babylon Which surely I should never have suffer'd to be Printed had I been her Pander And for Bishop Hall I only told him what King James had said and left him to make what use he pleased of it The Third Charge was out of a Paper which Bishop Hall about the time when he wrote his Book in defence of Episcopacy sent unto me containing divers Propositions concerning Episcopal Government In which either he or I or both say for that Circumstance I remember not That Church-Government by Bishops is not alterable by Humane Law To this I answer'd that Bishops might be regulated and limited by Human Laws in those things which are but Incidents to their Calling But their Calling so far as it is Jure Divino by Divine Right cannot be taken away They charge farther that I say this is the Doctrine of the Church of England And so I think it is For Bishop Bilson set out a Book in the Queen's time Intituled The Perpetual Government And if the Government by Bishops be Perpetual as he there very Learnedly proves thorough the whole Book it will be hard for any Christian Nation to out it Nor is this his Judgment alone but of the whole Church of England For in the Preface to the Book of Ordination are these words From the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Where 't is evident that in the Judgment of the Church of England Episcopacy is a different not Degree only but Order from Priesthood and so hath been reputed from the Apostles times And this was then Read to the Lords And the Law of England is as full for it as the Church For the Statute in the eighth of the Queen absolutely confirms all and every part of this Book of Ordination Where also the Law calls it The high Estate of Prelacy And Calvin if my old Memory do not fail me upon those words of St. John As my Father sent me so send I you c. says thus upon that place Eandem illis imponit Personam ac idem Juris assignat And if our Saviour Christ put the same Person upon the Apostles and assigned to them the same Right which his Father gave him it will prove a sour work to throw their Successors the Bishops out of the Church after Sixteen Hundred Years continuance And in the mean time cry out against Innovation For either Christ gave this Power to his Apostles only and that will make the Gospel a Thing Temporary and confined to the Apostles Times Or else he gave the same Power though not with such Eminent Gifts to their Successors also to propagate the same Gospel to the end of the World as St. Paul tells us he did Ephes. 4. Now all the Primitive Church all along gives Bishops to be the Apostles Successors and then it would be well thought on what Right any Christian State hath be their Absolute Power what it will to turn Bishops out of that Right in the Church which Christ hath given them The Fourth Charge was an Alteration made in a Brief for a third Collection for the distressed Ministers and others in the Palatinat The Queen of Bohemia was pleased to do me the Honour to write to me about this and because two Collections had been before her Majesty desired that this third might be only in London and some few Shires about it I out of my desire to relieve those distressed Protestants and to express my Duty to the Queen became an humble Suitor to his Majesty that this Collection also might go thorough England as the rest had done And 't is acknowledged by all that this I did Now the Witnesses which Accuse me for some Circumstances in this business are two 1. The First is Mr. Wakerly He says that Mr. Ruly who was employed by the Queen of Bohemia about this Collection was roughly used by me upon occasion of this Clause put into the Brief and which he says I caused to be altered This first is a bold Oath for Mr. Wakerly was not present but Swears upon Hearsay Secondly what kindness I shewed him and the Business is mentioned before and if for this kindness he had been practising with Mr. Wakerly about the Brief as I had probable Reason to suspect I cannot much be blamed if I altered my Countenance towards him and my Speech too which yet these Witnesses for the other agrees in this have no Reason to call rough Carriage only upon Mr. Ruly's unthankful Report He says That these words the Antichristian Yoak were 〈◊〉 out First this is more than I remember and the Briefs I had not to compare nor is there any necessity that two Briefs coming for the same thing with some Years distance between should agree in every Phrase or Circumstance Secondly if I did except against this passage it was partly because of the fore-recited Judgment of King James of which I thought his Son King Charles ought to be tender And partly because it could move nothing but Scorn in the common Adversary that we should offer to determine such a Controversie by a Broad Seal I remember well since I had the Honour to sit in this House the naming of Tithes to be due Jure Divino cast out the Bill A Prudent Lord asking the Peers whether they meant to determine that question by an Act of Parliament The other part of the Clause which they say was altered was the Religion which we with them profess Whence they infer because with them was left out that I would not acknowledge them of the same Religion which follows not For we may be and are of the same Religion and yet agree not with them in those Opinions in
Reader And if they do not make themselves of another Religion I shall never endeavour to make them 13. By a Pack of such Witnesses as were never produced against any Man of my Place and Calling Messengers and Pursevants and such as have shifted their Religion to and again Pillory-men and Bawds And these the Men that must prove my Correspondence with Priests 12. In the midst of these upon occasion of the Ceremonies at the Coronation it was pressed against me That I had altered the King's Oath 14. And last of all That I had shewed my felf an Enemy to Parliaments Upon both these I did very much enlarge my self But here also that I may not be a burden in repeating the same thing I desire the Reader to look upon them in their proper places where I doubt not but my Answer will give him full satisfaction that I did not the one nor am the other But my Lords there are other strange Arguments produced against me to prove my Compliance with Rome which I most humbly desire your Lordships may not be forgotten 1. As first my Lords it hath been Charged upon me That I made the Oath recited in the first of the late Canons one Clause whereof is this That I will never give my Consent to subject this Church to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome Whence the Argument drawn against me must be this and can be no other That I did endeavour to bring in Popery because I made and took a solemn Oath never to give my Consent to subject this Church of England to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome I beseech your Lordships mark the force of this Argument And they which follow are as pregnant against me 2. Secondly My Book against Fisher hath been charged against me where the Argument must lie thus I have endeavoured to advance Popery because I have written against it And with what strength I have written I leave to Posterity to judge when the Envy which now over-loads me shall be buried with me This I will say with St. Gregory Nazianzen whose Success at Constantinople was not much unlike mine here save that his Life was not sought I never laboured for Peace to the Wrong and Detriment of Christian Verity nor I hope ever shall And let the Church of England look to it for in great Humility I crave to write this though then was no time to speak it That the Church of England must leave the way it 's now going and come back to that way of Defence which I have followed in my Book or She shall never be able to justifie Her Separation from the Church of Rome 3. Thirdly All the late Canons have been charged against me and the Argument which is drawn from thence must lie thus The Third of these Canons for suppressing the Growth of Popery is the most full and strict Canon that ever was made against it in the Church of England Therefore I that made this Canon to keep it out am guilty of endeavouring to bring it in 4. Fourthly I have by my Industry and God's great Blessing upon my Labours stayed as many from going and reduced to the Church of England as many that were gone to Rome as I believe any Minister in England can truly say he hath done I named them before and had Scorn enough put upon me for it as your Lordships could not but both see and hear where the Argument lies thus I converted many from Popery and setled them in the Religion established in England Therefore I laboured to bring in Popery which out of all doubt can be no sober Man's way 5. Fifthly The Plot discovered to Sir William Boswell and my self by Andreas ab Habernfield hath been charged against me That Plot for altering of Religion and by what ways your Lordships have heard already and is to be seen at full in Rome's Master-piece Now if this Plot in the Issue proved nothing but a confused Information and no Proof of any Particular as indeed it did What 's become of Rome's Master-piece But if it had any reality in it as it appeared to be a sad Plot not only to me but to all Men that saw the short Propositions which were first sent with an absolute Undertaking to prove them then it appears expresly that I was in danger of my Life for stiffly opposing the bringing in of Popery and that there was no hope to alter Religion in England 'till I was taken out of the way And though in conclusion the Proofs failed yet what was consulted and it seems resolved concerning me is plain enough And then the Argument against me lies thus There 's no hope to bring in Popery 'till I am taken out of the way therefore I did labour to bring it in Do not these things my Lords hang handsomly together 6. Lastly There have been above Threescore Letters and other Papers brought out of my Study into this Honourable House they are all about composing the Differences between the Lutherans and the Calvinists in Germany Why they should be brought hither but in hope to charge them upon me I know not and then the Argument will be this I laboured to reconcile the Protestants in Germany that they might unanimously set themselves against the Papists therefore I laboured to bring Popery into England Now that your Lordships have heard the Arguments and what Proof they make against me I must be bold to put you in Mind of that which was said here at the Barr April 16. 1644. That they did not urge any of these particular Actions as Treason against me but the Result of them all together amounted to Treason For answer to which I must be bold to tell your Lordships That if no Particular which is charged upon me be Treason the Result from them cannot be Treason which will appear by these Reasons following 1. First The Result must be of the same Nature and Species with the Particulars from which it rises But 't is confessed no one of the Particulars are Treason Therefore neither is the Result that rises from them And this holds in Nature in Morality and in Law In Nature and that both for Integral and Essential Parts for neither can the Body of a Bear and the Soul of a Lion result into a Fox nor the Legs of a Bull the Body of a Horse and the Head of an Ass result into a Man In Morality and that is seen both in Vertues and Vices For neither can many Actions of Liberality Meekness and Sobriety rise up into a Result of Fortitude neither can many Actions of Malice Drunkenness and Covetousness result into Treason In Law 't is so too For be there never so many particular Crimes yet there is no Law in this Kingdom nor any where else that I know that makes a Result of different Crimes to be Treason where none of the Particulars are Treason by Law So this imaginary Result is
Fundamental Points or whether he know that the Brownists do differ from us in them I shall not take on me to declare till his Lordship open himself farther In the mean time his Lordship goes on to tell us wherein these Brownists fail though they do not differ in Fundamental Points to his Knowledge Their failing is in this They hold that there is no true Church in England no true Ministry no true Worship which depend the one upon the other they say all is Antichristian Here is their Error they distinguish not between the bene esse or Purity of a true Church and the esse or true being of it though with many Defects and gross Corruptions But conclude because such things are wanting which are indeed necessary to the well-being of a true Church and to be desired therefore there is none at all in being Here my Lord shews a great deal of sharp and good Apprehension And distinguishes very rightly between the entire being of a true Church which is her bene esse and the true Being of a Church which is her esse only And my Lord doth farther fairly acknowledge that this is the Brownists Error To conclude no Church in being because it hath many Defects and gross Corruptions in it to hinder its well-being So then my Lord here grants two things First that to hold there is no True Church in England no True Ministry no true Worship which depend one upon another but that all is Antichristian is an Error And Secondly that it is the Brownists Error How and how far these Three No True Church no True Ministry no True Worship depend one upon another And in what cases it may in some Exigents be otherways I will not now dispute nor divert from the main Business 1. First then if it be an Error to say there is no True Church no True Ministry no True Worship in England Then I hope it will be found Truth to say there is a True Church a True Ministry and a True Worship in England And he that shall avow the contrary must needs differ from the Church of England in Fundamentals For these Contradictions a True Church and no True Church a True Ministry and no True Ministry a True Worship of God and no True Worship cannot be built up but upon different Foundations And as for that which my Lord affirms is added by the Brownists That there are many Defects and gross Corruptions in it So long as this is said and not proved 't is enough without farther Proof to deny both the Defects and Corruptions both the many and the gross As I doubt not but the Church of England can make good against both my Lord and all the Brownists in England 2. Secondly if to affirm this be the Brownists Error then I would fain know of my Lord how he can say the Brownists do not differ from or with us in any fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth For if this be no fundamental Point or no saving Truth that we be in and of a true Church that this Church hath a true Ministry to be between God and us in all the Duties of their Function whether upward to God in Prayer and Spiritual Sacrifice or downward to us in the Word and Sacraments that in this Church and by this Ministry there is a true Worship and that without gross Corruptions What can be accounted next the Creed it self fundamental or saving So that in one Line my Lord is pleased to say the Brownists do not differ with us in any fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth and in the very next Line his Lordship confesses they differ from us in these three things which if not several yet altogether as they depend one upon another are saving and fundamental Nor can this cautelous close help my Lord one jot that he adds The Brownists do not differ from us in any fundamental point of Doctrine or saving Truth as his Lordship knows For were his Lordship of a shallow or narrow Comprehension 't were another matter But since he is so full of understanding in these things 't is impossible but he must know these three together are fundamental and being so he must needs know also that the Brownists differ with us in Fundamentals which is that which he denyed If therefore my Lord will say he knows not this to be the Brownists Error why doth he take upon him to say it is If he will grant that he knows it he must needs know withal if he will not shut out the Light of his Conscience of which a little before he is so tender that the Brownists or Separatists call them what you will differ from us in some fundamental Points of Doctrine or saving Truth Thus far then my Lord relates the failing of the Brownist I hope he will be so careful as not to fail with them himself Yes sure for he adds I hold no such Opinion but do believe to the contrary That there are in England many true Churches and a true Ministry which I do hear and with which Churches I could joyn in Communion were those Yokes of Bondage which are laid upon them taken off and those Corruptions removed which they do contrary as I think to their Duty yield unto and admit of And this I am sure no Separatist in England holds that deserves that Name And therefore I hope your Lordships will in that respect let me stand right in your Opinions Here my Lord tells us he holds no such Opinion but does believe to the contrary But I doubt he so believes to the contrary as that he is of the same Opinion For he believes that there are in England many true Churches and a true Ministry And so do all the Brownists For no doubt but they believe that all their Congregations or Conventicles are true Churches in England and that the Ministers which they hear are true Ministers And this is plainly my Lord's Belief For he saith he believes there is a true Ministry in England 〈◊〉 he doth hear But what Ministers they are which he doth hear he does not say Or if this be not my Lord's meaning but that there are some true Churches and some true Ministers in England though ordained as in England they are yet my Lord continues a Separatist still For his Lordship doth not say either that he doth or that he will or that he can joyn in Communion with any of these Churches or this Ministry which he says are true But only that he could joyn with them if If what Why if these Yokes of Bondage were taken off which are laid upon them and those Corruptions removed By the Yokes of Bondage he means the Injunction of a set Form of Prayers which he hath so often mentioned in this Speech But what Corruptions he means I know not till his Lordship shall be pleased to tell us Only this I conceive I may add That all things are not Corruptions in the Church
which my Lord calls so That if these Corruptions be fundamental they may be such too as may keep these Churches which he speaks of from being true Churches and the Ministry from being a true Ministry But if these Corruptions be of a very light Allay as I verily believe they are if there be any then his Lordship ought not to separate but to joyn in Communion with them for all these either Yokes or Corruptions The Apostle indeed tells us of a Church without Wrinkle Ephes. 5. But that is a Triumphant Church in Heaven not a Militant upon Earth And for the Yokes which my Lord speaks of they are not Yokes of Bondage as he pleases to call them but Yokes of Obedience which whenever they shall be broken the wild Asses of the Wilderness will over-run all My Lord goes farther and says That in these true Churches this true Ministry does yield unto and admit of these Yokes and these Corruptions contrary as he thinks to their Duty But it seems they think not so or if they do think so why do they not remonstrate their Grievance Sure if their Conscience tell them they do against their Duty they ought to inform their Conscience or forbear the Work To inform their Conscience I am sure is fit for them if they need it Though it seems my Lord would rather have them forbear the Duty the doing whereof he calls their yielding unto and their admitting these things which he calls Yokes and Corruptions As for that which follows and which my Lord says he is sure of that no Separatist in England that deserves that Name holds that which his Lordship says here he doth believe In that also I conceive his Lordship is utterly mistaken For I believe there is no Separatist in England Brownist or other deserving that Name but he holds and will say as much as my Lord believes namely that there are in England many true Churches that is Assemblies or Congregations of their own Brotherhood And a true Ministry To wit those which themselves have made And that they do hear them that is such as these Yea and that they could joyn in Communion with some other Churches were those Yokes of Bondage which are layd upon them taken off and those Corruptions removed That is upon the matter if they would become as themselves are then they would joyn with them And this 〈◊〉 of all doubt they think they ought to do and neither yield unto such Yoeks nor admit of such Corruptions So that my Lord may see every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in England even they which most deserve that Name hold that which his Lordship believes And therefore no question can be made but that my Lord deserves that Name as much as any of them even while he says he is sure no Separatist in England that deserves that Name holds as he doth But to come to the quick The Brownists and Separatists deal plainly with God and the World and say expresly that the whole Church of England as it stands established by Law is peccant both in the Doctrine Liturgy and Discipline of it and in such a degree as that they neither will nor can joyn in Communion with it And therefore separate from it and betake themselves to their own private Opinions and Congregations But my Lord he Equivocates both with God and Man And tells us he believes there are true Churches in England and a true Ministry which he hears And this no Separatist that understands himself but will say as fast as he But let his Lordship come home to the Business directly and plainly Let him say that the Church of England is a true Church That the Ministry of it is a true Ministry That the Doctrine Liturgy and Discipline of it as it stands established now by Law are free from any such Corruptions as give just cause for a Separation And when he hath said this let him joyn in Communion with it as he ought to do and then he shall wrong my Lord very deeply that says he is a Separatist But for all this which he hath yet said for himself 't is manifest that a Separatist he is And I doubt hath hereby proved himself whether I will or no the greatest Separatist in England And therefore he hath little cause to hope as he says he doth that he shall stand right in their Lordships Opinions or any other Man's that is not possest with the same Humour Yet my Lord hath two Requests to make I will now end with two Requests The one that your Lordships will please to pardon me for troubling you with so long a Discourse concerning my self I have not used it heretofore and I am not like to offend again in the same kind It is but once and your Lordships will consider the occasion In this Suit were there need I would joyn with my Lord. For though I have a great deal of hard Measure put upon me in this Speech yet I have the more reason to be content with it because this whole Discourse of my Lord's well weighed is more against himself than me And such Trouble of his Lordship's I hope all Men well affected to the present Church of England will easily Pardon And this I doubt not but their Lordships and all Men else will the rather do when they consider the Occasion Which certainly I gave not personally in the House But a Guilty Conscience it seems would needs be meant The Second Request is to entreat of you that where you know there is one and the same God worshipped one and the same Faith embraced one and the same Spirit working Love and causing an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State in your Brethren who in all these concur with you you will not suffer them for Ceremonies and Things indifferent to you but not to them but Burthens which without offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches you may take off if you will to be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country For if you thus shall wound the Consciences of your Brethren you will certainly offend and sin against Christ. In this second Request I can easily agree with my Lord in some things but must differ in other And First I agree with all my Heart that I would have no pressure at all much less cutting off from their Native Country put upon them who are known to worship the same God to embrace one and the same Faith and one and the same Spirit working Love But in this I must disagree that the Separatists for they are the Men of whom this Lord speaks thus and says they are your Brethren and concur with you in all these are not known to be such For though he be one and the same God whom they worship yet the Worship is not one and the same For my Lord says plainly that our set Forms are Superstition And that he cannot joyn in Communion with us till our
all the Envy they could upon me alone Thirdly Here 's the same Phrase used by my Lord of London that was used a little before by me Namely that these Canons would be for the good of the Kirk And yet here 's never a wise Observation upon it as was upon me that they would be for the good not of that Church but of the Church Now for the force of Mr. Henderson's Logick for these Arguments out of doubt are his Ross writ to the Prelate of London to have from Canterbury an Explanation of some passages of the Service-Book because the Press staid and he obtained them Therefore this Book was Canterbury's work as is before asserted Certainly if Mr. Henderson had any Learning in him he would be ashamed of this stuff Ross sent to me for the Explanation of some things which perhaps were my Additions or Alterations in that Book and used the Prelate of London for his means and the Press staid and I know not what As if any of this could make me Author of that Book Which yet if I were I would neither deny nor be ashamed of Howsoever he should do well to let Canterbury alone and answer the Learned Divines of Aberdeen who have laid him and all that Faction open enough to the Christian World to make the Memory of them and their Cause stink to all Posterity 5. But say they the Book it self as it standeth interlined margined and patched up is much more than all that is expressed in his Letters and the Changes and Supplements themselves taken from the Mass-Book and other Romish Rituals by which he makes it to vary from the Book of England are more pregnant Testimonies of his Popish Spirit and Wicked Intentions which he would have put in Execution upon us than can be denyed In the next place the Book it self is brought in Evidence and that 's a greater Evidence than all that is expressed in my Letters A greater Evidence But of what Not that the Book was of my sole making which they have hitherto gone about to prove and which the former part of this Argument would seem to make good But now these Interlinings and Margins and Changes and Supplements are pregnant proofs of my Popish Spirit and Wicked Intentions First I Praise God for it I have no Popish Spirit And God bless me as to the utmost of my knowledge I had no Wicked Intentions in any thing which I did in or about that Service-Book For the other stuff which fills up this Argument That these Changes and Supplements are taken from the Mass-Book and other Romish Rituals and that by these the Book is made to vary from the Book of England I cannot hold it worth an Answer till I see some particulars named For in this I could retort many things could I think it fit to put but half so much Gall into my Ink as hath made theirs black In the mean time I would have them remember that we live in a Church Reformed not in one made New Now all Reformation that is good and orderly takes away nothing from the old but that which is Faulty and Erroneous If any thing be good it leaves that standing So that if these Changes from the Book of England be good 't is no matter whence they be taken For every line in the Mass-Book or other Popish Rituals are not all Evil and Corruptions There are many good Prayers in them nor is any thing Evil in them only because 't is there Nay the less alteration is made in the Publick Ancient Service of the Church the better it is provided that nothing Superstitious or Evil in it self be admitted or retained And this is enough till I see particulars charged Yet with this That these Variations were taken either from the first Book of Edw. 6. which was not Popery or from some Antient Liturgies which savour'd not of Popery The Large Declaration professeth that all the variation of our Book from the Book of England that ever the King understood was in such things as the Scottish Humours would better comply with than with that which stood in the English Service That which the Large Declaration professeth I leave the Author of it to make good Yet whosoever was the Author thus much I can say and truly That the Scottish Bishops some of them did often say to me that the People wou'd be better satisfied by much to have a Liturgy composed by their own Bishops as this was than to have the Service-Book of England put upon them But to what end is this added out of the Large Declaration Why 't is to cast more hatred upon me For thus they infer These Popish Innovations therefore have been surreptitiously inserted by him without the King's knowledge and against his Purpose This is as false as 't is bold For let them prove that any one particular be it the least was so added by me to that Book and let no Justice spare me In the mean time here I take it upon my Salvation that I inserted nothing without his Majesties Knowledge nor any thing against his Purpose Our Scottish Prelates do Petition that somewhat may be abated of the English Ceremonies as the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage and some other Things But Canterbury will not only have those kept but a great many more and worse super added which was nothing else but the adding of Fuel unto the Fire I cannot remember that ever any such Petition was shewed to me This I remember well that when a deliberation was held whether it were better to keep close to the English Liturgy or venture upon some additions some of your Scottish Bishops were very earnest to have some Alterations and some Additions And they gave this for their Reason Because if they did not then make that Book as perfect as they could they should never be able to get it perfected after Canterbury therefore was not the Man that added this Fuel to your Fire And whereas to heap on farther hatred it is said That I did not only add more but worse Ceremonies I can say nothing to that Because I know no one Ceremony in the one Book or the other that is Bad. And when they give an Instance in the Ceremonies which they say are worse in their Book than in ours I shall give such answer as is fitting and such as I doubt not shall be sufficient And now it seems they 'll come to particulars For they say 1. This Book inverteth the Order of the Communion in the Book of England as may be seen by the numbers setting down the Order of this new Communion 1. 5. 2. 6. 7. 3. 4. 8. 9. 10. 11. Of the divers secret Reasons of this Change we mention one only injoyning the Spiritual Sacrifice and Thanksgiving which is in the Book of England pertinently after the Communion with the Prayer of Consecration before the Communion and that under the Name of Memorial or
Oblation for no other end but that the Memorial and Sacrifice of Praise mentioned in it may be understood according to the Popish meaning Bellarm. de Missa l. 2. c. 21. not of the Spiritual Sacrifice but of the Oblation of the Body of the Lord. This Book they say Inverts the Order of the Communion in the Book of England Well and what then To Invert the Order of some Prayers in the Communion or any other part of the Service doth neither pervert the Prayers nor corrupt the Worship of God For I hope they are not yet grown to be such superstitious Cabbalists as to think that Numbers work any thing For so the Prayers be all good as 't is most manifest these are it cannot make them ill to be read in 5. 7. or 3. place or the like unless it be in such Prayers only where the Order is essential to the Service then in hand As for Example to read the Absolution first and the Confession after and in the Communion to give the Sacrament to the People first and read the Prayer of Consecration after In these Cases to Invert the Order is to Pervert the Service but in all other ordinary Prayers which have not such a necessary dependence upon Order first second or third work no great effect And though I shall not find fault with the Order of the Prayers as they stand in the Communion-Book of England for God be thanked 't is well yet if a Comparison must be made I do think the Order of the Prayers as now they stand in the Scottish Liturgy to be the better and more agreeable to use in the Primitive Church and I believe they which are Learned will acknowledge it And therefore these Men do bewray a great deal of Will and Weakness to call this a New-Communion only because all the Prayers stand not in the same Order But they say there are divers secret Reasons of this Change in the Order Surely there was Reason for it else why a Change But that there was any hidden secret Reason for it more than that the Scottish Prelates thought fit that Book should differ in some things from ours in England and yet that no differences could be more safe than those which were in the Order of the Prayers especially since both they and we were of Opinion that of the two this Order came nearest to the Primitive Church truly I neither know nor believe As for the only Reason given of this Change 't is in my Judgment a strange one 'T is forsooth for no other end they say but that the Memorial and Sacrifice of Praise mentioned in it may be understood according to the Popish meaning not of the Spiritual Sacrifice but of the Oblation of the Body of the Lord. Now Ignorance and Jealousie whither will you For the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving no Man doubts but that is to be Offer'd up Nor doth any Man of Learning question it that I know but that according to our Saviour's own Command we are to do whatsoever is done in this Office as a Memorial of his Body and Blood Offered up and shed for us S. Luc. 22. Now 't is one thing to Offer up his Body and another to Offer up the Memorial of his Body with our Praise and Thanks for that infinite Blessing So that were that Change of Order made for this end which is more than I know I do not yet see how any Popish Meaning so much feared can be fastned upon it And the Words in that Prayer are plain as they are also in the Book of England That we offer and present unto God our Selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto him What is there here that can be drawn to a Popish Meaning unless it be with the cords of these Mens Vanity Yet thus much we have gained from them That this Prayer comes in the Book of England pertinently after the Communion Any approbation is well of that Antichristian Service-Book as 't is often called And I verily believe we should not have gained this Testimony of them for it but only that they are content to approve that to make the greater hatred against their own Next they tell us 2. It seems to be no great matter that without warrant of the Book of England the Presbyter going from the North end of the Table shall stand during the time of Consecration at such a part of the Table where he may with the more ease and decency use both his Hands Yet being tryed it importeth much As that he must stand with his hinder parts to the People representing saith Durand that which the Lord said to Moses Thou shalt see my hinder parts Truly this Charge is as it seems no great matter And yet here again they are offended that this is done without warrant of the Book of England How comes this Book of England to be so much in their esteem that nothing must be done without warrant from it Why 't is not that they approve that Book for they will none of that neither But 't is only to make their Complaint more acceptable in England Yet they say this very remove of the Presbyter during the time of Consecration upon tryal imports much The Rubrick professes that nothing is meant by it but that he may use both his Hands with more ease and decency about that work And I protest in the presence of Almighty God I know of no other Intention herein than this But these Men can tell more They are sure it is that he may turn his hinder parts to the People representing that which the Lord said to Moses And what Warrant have they for this Why Durand says so Now truly the more Fool he And they shall do well to ask their own Bishops what acquaintance they have with Durand For as for my self I was so poorly satisfied with the first Leaf I Read in him that I never medled with him since Nor indeed do I spend any time in such Authors as he is So I have nothing to do with this Yea but they find fault with the Reason given in the Rubrick For they say He must have the use of both his Hands not for any thing he hath to do about the Bread and the Wine for that may be done at the North end of the Table and be better seen of the People But as we are taught by the Rationalists That he may be stretching out his Arms represent the extension of Christ on the Cross. But the Reason given in the Rubrick doth not satisfie them For they say plainly They have no use of both their Hands for any thing that is to be done about the Bread and the Wine Surely these Men Consecrate these Elements in a very loose and mean way if they can say truly that they have not use of both their Hands in this work Or that whatsoever is done may as well be done at the
with Truth and preserve all the Foundations of Religion entire For I have Learned from a Prime School-Man of their own That every Vnion doth not perfect the true Reason or Definition of that which is good but that only upon which depends Esse perfectum Rei the perfect Essence of that thing So that in this particular if the substance of Christian Religion be not perfected by any Vnion that Vnion it self cannot have in it Rationem boni the true Being and Nature of Good And therefore I did never desire that England and Rome should meet together but with forsaking of Errour and Superstition especially such as grate upon and frett the Foundations of Religion But were this done God forbid but I should Labour for a Reconciliation if some Tenets of the Roman Party on the one side and some deep and imbittered Disaffections on the other have not made it impossible as I much doubt they have But that I shou'd practice with Rome as now it stands and to that end should confederate with Priests and Jesuits or hold secret intelligence with the Pope or treat with him or any Instruments Authorised by him or by any Agents is utterly untrue As I hope may fully appear by that which follows vid. init libri And First in hope that they which have observed my Life in times past will give me Credit in this time of my Affliction I do here make my solemn Protestation in the Presence of God and this great Court that I am Innocent of any thing greater or less that is charged in this Article or any part of it And I do here offer my Corporal Oath Please it the Lords to give it me in the strictest form that any Oath can be conceived that I am wholly Innocent of this Charge And let nothing be tendred against me but Truth and I do challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell to come in and Witness whatsoever they can against me in this Particular For all that I have feared in all this Charge against me is not Guilt but Subornation of Perjury Against which Innocency it self cannot be safe And I have found the deadly Hatred of some Men against me to be such as that though I cannot suspect the House of Commons of such an Irreligious Baseness yet I have great Cause to suspect some particular Men which I see make no Conscience of the Way so they may compass their End Secondly Should I practice be it with whom you will to superinduce Romish Tyranny and Superstition over the true Religion established in England I have taken a very wrong way to it For I have hindred as many from going to the Roman Party and have reduced as many from it and some of great Quality and some of great Learning and Judgment as I believe any Divine in England hath done And is this the way to bring in Romish Superstition to reduce Men from it Or is this the Reward from the State which Men must look for that have done these Services Thirdly The Book which I have Written against Mr. Fisher the Jesuit must of Necessity either acquit me of this Calumny or proclaim me a Villain to the World And I hope I have so lived as that Men have not that Opinion of me sure I am I have not deserved it And had this Book of mine been written according to the Garb of the Time fuller of Railing than Reason a Learned Jesuit would have Laughed at it and me and a Learned Protestant might have thought I had Written it only to conceal my self and my Judgment in those Difficulties But being Written in the way it is I believe no Romanist will have much Cause to Joy at it or to think me a Favourer of their Cause And since I am thus put to it I will say thus much more This Book of mine is so Written by God's great blessing upon me as that whensoever the Church of England as they are growing towards it apace shall depart from the Grounds which I have therein laid she shall never be able before any Learned and disingaged Christian to make good her Difference with and her Separation from the Church of Rome And let no Man think I speak Pride or Vanity in this For the Outrages which have been against me force me to say it and I am confident future times will make it good unless Profaneness break in and over-run the whole Kingdom which is not a little to be feared Fourthly I must confess I am in this Particular most unfortunate For many Recusants in England and many of that Party beyond the Seas think I have done them and their Cause more Harm than they which have seemed more fierce against them And I doubt not but I shall be able to prove that I have been accounted beyond Sea the greatest Enemy to them that ever sat in my Place And shall I suffer on both sides Shall I be accounted an Enemy by one part for opposing the Papist and accused for a Traytor by the other for Favouring and Complying with them Well If I do suffer thus 't is but because Truth usually lies between two Extreams and is beaten by both As the poor Church of England is at this day by the Papist and the Separatist But in this and all things else in despight of all Malice Truth shall be either my Protection from Suffering or my Comfort while I suffer And by God's gracious assistance I shall never depart from it but continue at the Apostle's Ward 2 Cor. 13. Nihil possum contra veritatem I can do nothing against the Truth and for it I hope God will enable me patiently to suffer any thing Fifthly If I had practised with the Pope or his Agents for the alteration of Religion in England surely I must have used many great and dextrous Instruments to compass my end And in a business of so great Consequence Difficulty and Danger to all that should have a Hand nay but a Finger in it no Man would venture to meddle without good pay And 't is well known that I have filled no Purse nor laid up any store to set ill Instruments on work upon that or any other unworthy design Sixthly I am a Man in Years great Years for a Man so loaded with business as I have been all my Life And it cannot be long before I must go to give God Almighty an account of all my Actions And whatsoever the Malignity of the Time may put upon me yet they which know me and my ways will easily believe that I have not so little Conscience or care of my Soul as to double with God to my very Death Nay could I have doubled thus I could easily have seen a way through all this difficulty and how to have been as gracious with the People as any even the worst of my Predecessours But I have ever held that the lowest depth of Baseness to frame Religion to
apply this term unto are the Brownists as they call them by another Name and they know their Tenents The truth is they differ with us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth I know Here then my Lord is 〈◊〉 to say that all that he hath hitherto said is so far from making him the greatest Separatist in England that it cannot argue him to be any at all For my part I would to God it were so But let 's examine whether it be so or not First then this I humbly conceive is certain That he whoever he be that will not Communicate in Publick Prayers with a National Church which serves God as she ought is a Separatist But the Church of England as it stands established by Law serves God as she ought Therefore my Lord by his general absenting himself from her Communion in Prayers is a Separatist And this is by his own confession For he says a little before and that expresly that this is a Separation which every Man must make that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins And I cannot doubt but his Lordship hath made that which he says he must make All that can be said for my Lord herein is this First That my Lord Charges the Church of England with Corruptions in the Worship of God and such Corruptions as he must Separate from her But is it sufficient for a Separation for a particular Man barely to say there are such Corruptions in the Liturgy when he doth neither prove them to be such nor so much as name them what they are Surely no. And I think these Gnats which his Lordship strains at may be swallowed without any Offence to God or Man So far are they from being a just Cause of Separation Therefore for all this my Lord is a Separatist Yea but my Lord charges upon the Church of England that she injoyns her Liturgy upon all Men by a certain Number of Men usurping Authority to themselves and imposing this Injunction under the name of the Church I have made answer already to this Power of the Church to compose a set Form for publick Service and I hope made it manifest that this Authority is not usurped And then that can be no just Cause of a Separation Nay I must doubt whether if such Authority were usurped by some Church-Men in any National Church the injoyning of the Service after it is made supposing always that it contain no Idolatry or Fundamental Error be for the Injunction alone a sufficient Warrant to my Lord or any other to Separate Therefore my Lord 's forsaking the publick Service of the Church upon no better Grounds than these makes him a Separatist by his own Confession without any Man calling him so As for his Lordship's being the greatest Separatist in England I have at the beginning of this Tract clearly related to the uttermost of my Memory what and upon what occasion I spake of his Lordship in this kind But whether I said it or not my Lord for ought I see will hardly escape being so For he is the greatest Separatist from the Church that absents himself with most will and least cause And this if I mistake not is my Lord's Case for he separates with most will that says Men must and ought to Separate And upon least Cause because as yet he hath Named none at all but Corruptions in general which any Man may say and the Injunction of a set Form which is no cause Therefore for ought I yet see it may truly be said of his Lordship that he is the greatest Separatist in England Especially if you add to this how busie and active his Lordship is and for many Years hath been to promote this Cause of Separation And I have some very good grounds to think that his Lordship hath been and is the great Cause and enlarger of all the Separation that now is in Church Affairs And of all the Disobedience thereby bred or cherished against Soveraign Power Next my Lord appeals to my Lords the Bishops and tells them that they know that they whom they usually apply this Name Separatist unto are the Brownists as they call them by another Name I know not all things which the rest of my Learned Brethren the Bishops know Yet I think both they and I know this that the Name Separatist is a common Name to all Hereticks or Schismaticks that separate for their Opinions sakes either from the Catholick or from any particular Orthodox Church And if my Lord himself who it seems is well acquainted with them or any of my Lords the Bishops do know that this Name is usually applyed to the Brownists be it so That I am sure is not material unless it be for that which my Lord closes this passage withal Namely that my Lords the Bishops know the Tenents of the Brownists and that the truth is they differ from us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or Saving Truth that his Lordship knows I doubt not but my Lords the Bishops know the Tenents of the Brownists so far forth at least as they be Tenents and not varied from and so far as they are their General Tenents to which all or most of them agree And so far as they are plain and univocal Tenents and not such as shall equivocate with the very Faith it self But such Tenents of the Brownists as these are it may be all my Lords the Bishops know not Now if the Truth be as my Lord says it is for ought he knows that the Brownists differ from us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth Then out of all doubt Majus peccatum habent their Sin and my Lord 's too is the greater that they will so Uncharitably and with so great Heat and setled Violence and to the great scandal of Religion first separate themselves from and now labour utterly to overthrow that Church which by my Lord 's own Confession here differs not from them in any Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth For sure if they differ not from us we differ not from them But this is only Argumentum ad Hominem and is sufficient to convince this Lord I think in his own way But I doubt the Truth is quite another thing Namely that the Church of England is very Orthodox and that the Brownists or Separatists call them as you will do Separate upon false and unchristian Opinions And that besides Matters of Opinion and breach of Charity they do differ from us in some Fundamental Points of Doctrine and saving Truth My Lord a little before tells us of Corruptions in the Liturgy of the Church but names none And should I charge the Brownists with difference from the Church in Fundamental Points of Doctrine and yet name none I should run into the same fault for which I there taxed my Lord I shall therefore give some Instances of some of their Opinions and then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether
you believe many Men and not of the meanest Note pass over in gross without ever throughly entring into the due Consideration thereof And truly I believe so too that among too many Men on both sides neither the Points nor the Obligations to them are weighed as they ought But that 's no Warrant pardon my Freedom that your self hath consider'd them in all Circumstances or that you have consider'd them better now than you did before when the Dislike of that imposing Jurisdiction was your first Motive to free your self from it by joining to the Church of England And whereas you say That you have return'd into that Communion who from your Birth had right of possession in you and therefore ought to continue it unless clear and evident proof which you say surely cannot be found should have evicted you from it Truly Sir I think this had been spoken with more advantage to you and your Cause before your adhering to the Church of England than now for then right of possession could not have been thought little But now since you deserted that Communion either you did it upon clear and evident proof or upon apparent only If you did it then upon clear and evident proof why say you now no such can be found If you did it but upon apparent and seeming proof a semblance of very good Reason as your self calls it why did you then come off from that Communion till your proof were clear and evident And why may not that which now seems clear and evident be but apparent as well as that which then seem'd clear unto you be but semblance now Nor would I have you say That clear and evident proof cannot be found for a Man in this case of Religion to forego the Communion which had right of possession in him from his Birth For the Proposition is an universal Negative and of hard proof And therefore though I think I know you and your Judgment so well that I may not without manifest wrong charge you that you did in this great Action and so nearly concerning you ad pauca respicere which our Great Master tells us breeds facile and easie rather than safe and warrantable Determinations yet it will lie upon you not only in Honour without but also in Conscience within to be able to assure your self that you did ad plurima if not ad omnia respicere The thing being so weighty in it self and the miserable Division of Christendom never sufficiently to be lamented making the Doubt so great that you who have been on both sides must needs lie under the Dispute of both sides whether this last Act of yours be not in you rather a Relapse into a former Sickness than a Recovery from a former Fall But against this the Temper of your Mind you say arms you a-against all Censures no slight Air of Reputation being able to move you In this I must needs say you are happy For he that can be moved from himself by the changeable Breath of Men lives more out of than in himself and which is a Misery beyond all expression must in all Doubts go to other Men for Resolution not to himself as if he had no Soul within him But yet post Conscientiam Fama And though I would not desire to live by Reputation yet would I leave no good means untried rather than live without it And how far you have brought your self in question which of these two Conscience or Reputation you have shaken by this double Change I leave your self to judge because you say your first was with a semblance of very good Reason And though you say again That it now appears you were then mis-led yet you will have much ado to make the World think so The way you took in concealing this your Resolution of returning into that Communion and the Reasons which you give why you so privately carried it here I cannot but approve They are full of all Ingenuity tender and civil Respects fitted to avoid Discontent in your Friends and Scandal that might be taken by others or Contumely that might be returned upon your self And as are these Reasons so is the whole frame of your Letter setting aside that I cannot concur in Judgment full of Discretion and Temper and so like your self that I cannot but love even that which I dislike in it And though I shall never be other than I have been to the Worth of Sir Kenelm Digby yet most heartily sorry I am that a Man whose Discourse did so much content me should thus slide away from me before I had so much as suspicion to awaken me and suggest that he was going Had you put me into a Dispensation and communicated your Thoughts to me before they had grown up into Resolutions I am a Priest and would have put on what Secrefie you should have commanded A little Knowledge I have God knows a little I would have ventur'd it with you in that serious Debate you have had with your self I have ever honoured you since I knew your Worth and I would have done all Offices of a Friend to keep you nearer than now you are But since you are gone and setled another way before you would let me know it I know not now what to say to a Man of Judgment and so resolved For to what end should I treat when a Resolution is set already So set as that you say no clear and evident proof can be found against it Nor can I tell how to press such a Man as you to ring the Changes in Religion In your power it was not to change in mine it is not to make you change again Therefore to the Moderation of your own heart under the Grace of God I must and do now leave you for matter of Religion but retaining still with me and entirely all the Love and Friendliness which your Worth won from me well knowing that all Differences in Opinion shake not the Foundations of Religion Now to your Postscript and then I have done That I am the first and the only Person to whom you have written thus freely I thank you heartily for it For I cannot conceive any thing thereby but your great Respect to me which hath abundantly spread it self all over your Letter And had you written this to me with a Restraint of making it further known I should have perform'd that Trust But since you have submitted it to me what further Knowledge of it I shall think fit to give to any other person I have as I took my self bound acquainted his Majesty with it who gave a great deal of very good Expression concerning you and is not a little sorry to lose the Service of so able a Subject I have likewise made it known in private to Mr. Secretary Cooke who was as confident of you as my self I could hardly believe your own Letters and he as hardly my Relation To my Secretary I must needs trust it having not
wrong Notions are generally entertained of the Constitution of our Church as being for the most part taken from the Writings of some Puritanical Divines among us For this Reason the Arch-Bishop earnestly desired which desire is thrice in this Work expressed that it might be carefully and exactly Translated into Latin and Printed that he might thereby appeal to the Judgment of the Learned in all parts of Christendom To this end himself had procured the Liturgy which he had composed for the Church of Scotland to be turned into Latin that it might be Published with it To the end saith he that the Book may be extant and come to the view of the Christian World and their Judgment of it be known I have caused it to be exactly Translated into Latin and if right be done me it shall be Printed with this History This Latin Translation of the Scotch Liturgy as also the English Original Copy of the first draught of it are now in my Hands and shall one or both of them be hereafter God willing published in the Collection of Memorials It should seem that when the Arch-Bishop designed a Latin Edition of his History he despaired that the generality of this Nation then miserably distemper'd in Matter of Religion would ever so far regain the use of their Wits as to be able to pass an impartial Judgment upon his Cause But God be thanked the Church for which he suffered and which was ruined with him was in a short time after beyond hope Re-established and therewith Sobriety returning into the minds of Men no place is now so fit for the publication of this History as our own Island and no Language more proper for it than our own which is the Original wherein it was wrote It should seem that what was already wrote of this History in May 1643. when Prynne searched the Arch-Bishop's Chamber in the Tower and seized his Papers found there escaped his ravenous Hands Whether after the Arch-Bishop's death and the completion of it the Copy of it came into his hands I cannot certainly affirm the Reason of my uncertainty I shall relate presently but do believe that it did Which if it did I suppose he having got notice of it seized it by Vertue of an Order of the House of Commons March 4. 1644 5. empowering him to send for all Writings c. relating to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Trial. To proceed all the Arch-Bishop's Papers taken from him by Prynne either out of his Study at Lambeth soon after his Commitment or out of his Chamber and Pockets in the Tower or seized after his Martyrdom remained in Prynne's hands until his Death When Arch-Bishop Sheldon well knowing that the Papers of his Predecessor Arch-Bishop Laud had been unjustly seized and detained by him procured an Order of the King and Council deputing Sir William Dugdale and some others to view his Study and taking thence all the Books and Papers formerly belonging to Arch-Bishop Laud to deliver them into his hands This was accordingly done and the Books and Papers being seized brought to Arch-Bishop Sheldon although very much diminished in number and embezeled since they had come into Prynne's hands For he seems either to have Printed many of them from the Originals to save the labour of transcribing them or to have burned them or otherwise employed them to common uses when once Printed So that very few of those Papers which Prynne had published in the several Pamphlets and Books before named came into Arch-Bishop Sheldon's hands And not a few even of those which had not been Published were found wanting Particularly the Papers of Arch-Bishop Laud concerning the Conversion of his Godson Mr. William Chillingworth which the Arch-Bishop saith were taken away from him by Mr. Prynne and being by him produced at the Committee for drawing up his Charge were there Examined Whether the Copy of this History was seized at this time in Mr. Prynne's Study or came to Arch-Bishop Sheldon by other means I cannot certainly affirm But this I am assured of that Arch-Bishop Sheldon having about this time got into his Hands the Copy of this History and having now gained also the other Papers of Arch-Bishop Laud sent for the truly Reverend and Learned Dr. William Sancroft then Dean of St. Pauls and delivered both to him ordering him to Publish the History with such Papers as were necessary to it with all convenient speed This Dr. Sancroft willingly undertook but upon Reading of the History found the Copy to be so very vitious that it would not be sit to be Published till the Original might be recovered whereby the defects of it might be supplied and corrected Hereupon they set themselves to search after the Original which at last they found in St. John's Colledge in Oxford having been deposited there as I suppose by Dr. Richard Baily formerly President of that Colledge and Executor to the Author After this was done a new scruple was started concerning the Language wherein it should be Published Arch-Bishop Sheldon was desirous it might be Translated into and Published in Latin in complyance with the Desire and Intention of the Author The Dean of St. Pauls on the other side was of Opinion that it would be more useful to the Publick and serviceable to the Memory of the Author to Publish it in English This difference of Opinion protracted the Edition of it from time to time until at last Arch-Bishop Sheldon continuing resolved in his Opinion the Dean yielded to his Authority and only desiring that some Learned Civilian might be joyned with him who might render the Forms of Pleading in apt Latin Expressions prepared himself for the undertaking But in the interim Arch-Bishop Sheldon dying the Dean was most deservedly chosen to succeed him in the Arch-Bishoprick Whereby being involved in constant Publick Business both of Church and State he was forced to lay aside his design of publishing this History yet not without hopes of finding at some time or other opportunity to perform it for which Reason he devolved not the care of it upon any other but kept it by him and in the mean time endeavoured to get into his Hands all other Papers relating to Arch-Bishop Laud or his Cause But in vain did he hope to find so much leisure while the Administration of the chief Office in the Church took up his whole care and thoughts What he could not then do he hoped to accomplish after his Retirement into Suffolk in August 1691. Yet neither then did he set about it until the middle of the Year 1693. when opening his Papers he began to collate the Copy with the Original to divide the History into Chapters to examine the Citations to write down several Directions and Memoranda's for his own use in preparing the Edition to Note what places deserved to be amended or considered to write several Observations on the 〈◊〉 to draw up a Catalogue of the Memorials to be added as an Appendix to the