Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A45087
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The true cavalier examined by his principles and found not guilty of schism or sedition
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Hall, John, of Richmond.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing H361; ESTC R8537
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103,240
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144
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had before built upon to wit continual peace by continual submission to the present Monarch Whereas if any party of the Subjects might take upon them to withdraw obedience when they thought their Governour defective in Title then since it should seldom happen but that there might be some objections in that respect made by some discontented party or another it would also follow that for want of constant means how peace and agreement should for every time present be preserved that course which they had designed whereby it should be continually and at all times preserved would contradict it self and come to nothing And therefore having endeavoured that this peace as they thought should never be interrupted even by the course formerly mentioned that is laying so great imputation and leaving such small hopes of enjoyment on those that should attempt it they were less regardful to speak of any way to be taken after it was interrupted and the publick peace now setled in another hand lest by any express allowance of a lawful obedience to him afterwards they should as we said seem to cast more hopes and encouragements upon such like enterprises And that their intentions hereby were onely to deter from such ambitious rising and not from giving obedience to any in possession we shall not find that any name of odium is found out and given to such as live in subjection to Usurpers which doubtless they would have done had they conceived them as guilty in their obedience as he in his entrance or command 8. And if we shall appeal to matter of fact we shall find the Cavalier party all along constant to the sure way of preservation of publick peace by their adherence to the party possessed and by opposing of such as would upon the allegation of Usurpation or want of title in him or his Ancestors or for want of Election or Authority derived from the people make all his commands and rule unlawful And in order to this was that maxime so often found in the mouths of that party at such time as many personal defects and imputations were laid to the charge of the late King That the Crown was to be obeyed and fought for although it stood upon a May-Pole Which speech as it had been taken from the Duke of Norfolk so was it by him used in defence of his Loyalty to his present Sovereign whom the other party called both Tyrant Usurper 9. And if we do impartially look upon the reason and ground of all Politick Constitutions of this kind We shall find all contrary construction to arise from mistake or prejudice For first is there any thing more available to the continuance of publick peace then that submission should be continued to the Monarch in possession And then that there might be one always in possession so as to make use of this submission and that without danger of publick disturbance through strife about the person to enjoy it was it not again necessary that by publick Edict it should be beforehand appointed to whom it should succeed that all might be more deterâ—ed from seeking it Which succession being not by the Law of God entailed on any one Family amongst Christians now as amongst the Jews it formerly was on the Linage oâ— David will it not still rationally and equitably follow that the possessor should have most right of any to have this entail setled on his Family and do we not accordingly find that all Nations that have due regard to future peace and quiet have joyned with the possessor in setling it accordingly and will it not onward still follow that in order to maintain the first Principles we should be loyal to the Family so setled â—o as to the utmost of our powers to defend them in their possession against all opposers justly charging them with the imputation of Treason and Rebellion that are desturbers of publique peace in favour to the claim of any other whatsoever But then again will it not from the same Principles still follow that in case my loyal endeavors shall not have their wished success but that the other party shall set up another Monarch and that in such full possession as now to be quietly and generally submitted to as in the Seat of Justice the Laws being executed in his name as they were in the others before that then present peace depending on present obedience and present obedience on present Power and Command therefore I that was before a Loyalist in maintenance of the power in being am now a Rebel if I change my principles I continue not loyal to him that is so having in that regard changed conditions with those that were Rebels before who by their adherence to the present power and maintenance of peace thereby are now become the true Royalists 10. If we shall examine the grounds and intentions of our own fundamental constitutions concerning this Government and Governors therein we shall find them to be the same Namely the design of peace by submission to the present Monarch without regard to the stile of King or Family of which he was of And to this end it may be observed that in the Act made in Henry the Eighths time wherein his Supremacy is asserted it is set down 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. Where by divers sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realmâ— of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people being bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience c. By which words we may easily discover some determination touching the present dispute by observing what is therein set down as the foundation and original of this Government to wit that it is and always hath been an Empire or Monarchy as well over all estates in it self as independent of any other And then as it is called an Empire as well as Realm so may that Heâ—d thereof be called Emperor or the like as well as King he whosoever he is that is at any time Monarch or Head thereof is he to whom all sorts of people been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience It is no part of the fundamental Law to appropriate it for perpetuity to the family of Plantagenet Tudor Stuart or the like no authentick Record to be brought for that that as it must be excepted as a secondary constitution made in order to preserve the first he must give it place when the other is indangered As for the first I conceive that if King and Parliament should enact that this Government should be a Monarchy no longer it would be void not onely as contrary to the Law of God and Reason but as a thing without their jurisdiction even as overthrowing
But shall your Church lye fallow till that Infant King or green head of the Church come to years of discretion Do your Bishops your â—ierarchy your succession your Sacraments your being or not being Hereticks for want of Succession depend on this new found Supremacy-doctrine brought in by such a man meerly upon base occasions and for shamefull ends Impugned by Calvin and his followers derided by the Christian world and even by chief Protestants as Doctor Andrews Wâ—tton c not held any necessary point of Faith And from whom I pray you had Bishops their authority when there were no Christian Kings Must the Greek Patriarchs receive spiritual jurisdiction from the Greek Turk Did the Pope by the baptism of Princes lose the spiritual power he formerly had of conferring spiritual jurisdiction upon Bishops Hath the Temporal Magistrate authority to preach to assoil from sins to inflict Excommunications and other censures Why hath he not power to excommunicate as well as to dispense in irregularity as our late Soveraign Lord King James either dispensed with the late Archbishop of Canterbury or else gave Commission to some Bishops to do it And since they were subject to the Primate and not he to them it is cleer that they had no power to dispense with him but that power must proceed from the Prince as superior to them all and Head in the Protestants Church in England If we have no such authority how can he give to others what himself hath not Your Ordination or Conseâ—ration of Bishops and Priests imprinting no character can only consist in giving a power authority jurisdiction or as I said before Episcopal or Priestly functions If then the temporal Magistrate confers this power c. he can nay he cannot chuse but ordain and consecrate Bishops and Priests as often as he confers authority or jurisdiction and your Bishops as soon as they are designed and confirmed by the King must ipso facto be ordained and consecrated by him without intervention of Bishops or matter and form of Ordination Which absurdities you will be more unwilling to grant then well able to avoid if you be true to your own doctrines The Pope from whom originally you must beg your succession of Bishops never received nor will nor can acknowledg to receive any spiritual jurisdiction from any temporal Prince And therefore if jurisdiction must be derived from Princes he hath none at all and yet either you must acknowledg that he hath spiritual jurisdiction or that your selves can receive none from him And afterwards again sect 22. he saith But besides this defect in the personal succession of Protestant Bishops there is another of great moment which is that they want the right form of ordaining Bishops and Priests because the manner which they use is so much different from the Roman Church at least according to the common opinion of Divines that it cannot be sufficient for the essence of Ordination as I could demonstrate if this were the proper place of such a Treatise and will not fail to do if D. Potter give me occasion In the mean time the Reader may be pleased to read the Author cited here in the margent and then compare our form of Ordination with that of Protestants and to remember that if the form which they use either in consecrating Bishops or in ordaining Priests be at least doubtful they can never have undoubted Priests nor Bishops For Priests cannot be ordained but by true Bishops nor can any be true Bishop unless he be at first Priest I say their Ordination is at least doubtful because that sufficeth for my present purpose For Bishops and Priests whose Ordination is notoriously known to be but doubtful are not to be esteemed Bishops or Priests and no man without sacrilege can receive Sacraments from them all which they administer unlawfully And if we except Baptism with manifest danger of invalidity and with obligation to be at least conditionally repeated so Protestants must remain doubtful of Remission of sins of their Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and may not pretend to be a true Church which cannot subsist without undoubted true Bishops and Priests nor without due administration of Sacraments which according to Protestants is an essential note of the true Church And it is a world to observe the proceeding of English Protestants in this point of their Ordination For first An. 3 Ed. 6. cap. 2. when he was a Child about twelve years of age it was enacted That such a form of making and consecrating of Bishops and Priests as by six Prelates and six other to be appointed by the King should be devised Mark well this word devised and set forth under the Great Seal should be used and none other But after this Act was repealed 1 Mar. Sess 2. Insomuch as that when afterwards An. 6 7 Regin Eliz. Bishop Bonner being indicted upon a Certificate made by Doctor Horn a Protestant Bishop of Winchester for his refusal of the Oath of Supremacie and excepting against the Indictment because Dr. Horn was no Bishop they were all at a stand till An. 8 Eliz. cap. 1. the Act of Ed. 6. was renewed and confirmed with a particular Proviso That no man should be impreached or molested by means of any Certificate by any Bishop or Archbishop made before this last Act whereby it is cleer that they made some doubt of their own Ordination and that there is nothing but uncertainty in the whole business of their Ordination which forsooth must depend on six Prelates the Great Seal Acts of Parliament being contrary one to another and the like So that you see all along the authority and interposition of the Magistrate is scoffed at and by them made ineffectual in the ordering of the affairs of the Church nay the Church must be no Church if not wholly and independently governed by the Clergy and a Clergy too that do particularly derive their Ordination and power from a forein Head and according to Rights and Ceremonies then abolished If none but true Priests can administer the Sacraments nor none but true Bishops make true Priests nor none but the Pope make true Bishops but that the authority of the Magistrate doth interpose why then no true Sacraments nor no true Church by their doctrine And to that purpose he doth put a mark upon the word devised as deriding the Civil power therein 38. If we shall add to this what was before him observed by Father Parsons concerning the institution of the Service-book and objected against the validity and use of it as well as the power to abolish their Mass and other Ceremonies it will make us wary in condemning less Alterations now made by a greater Power while yet we shall commend conformity to a less Power in a matter of greater alteration For he alleadgeth in his Book of the Three Conversions of England par 2. chap. 12. sect 25. That the Reformation and Service-book were made by the then Protector to Edward the