charge of raising Sedition when the malice hath been greater then the matter and no other special crime could be found So Saint Paul was accused for being a pestilent fellow and a raiser of sedition Tertullian saith Christians in his time were called hostes publici enemies of all Common-wealths and Suetonius doth most impiously say Judaeos impulsore Christo assiduò tumultuantes In vits Claudii l. 15. hist and so Tacitus saith that Nero Reos quaesitissimis poenis affecit quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat unde quamquam adversus sontes novissima exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur tanquam non utilitate publica sedin saevitiam unius absumerentur thus happeneth to all a like measure who lye under the publick hatred It is true that the change of Religion in Germany and in other parts of Christendome was driven on in a tumultuary course and was not wrought in such a calm as it was in England where these changes went formerly in an orderly and quiet passage under the conduct of a Royal power and a prudent Council of State Religion changed as it were by degrees and insensibly all things seeming to remain in the same course and state as before and as one observed it was in those times so carried with us ut Catholicam religionem sine sensu Plebs exueret cultu in specie eodem manente The Parliaments in England in those times gave much countenance and authority to those alterations with the People The Kings and Queens would hardly have effected it Regiâ manu notwithstanding their power and the love they had of their People The Parliaments were wrought not onely to ratifie Riba Jinera del Schismad Ingla terra but to be petitioners for those changes in Religion A stranger writeth that when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown religion was not altered with violence and bloud as in France Scotland and the Low-countryes but changed and established by Laws by Royal mandates and with Parliamentary concurrence which saith he hath been a subtil and powerfull invention armed with the authority of Prince and Kingdome for the sure rooting and settlement of sects and heresies These quiet alterations formerly were even marvellous in our eyes Lord Chanc. S. Albans of the union between England and Scotland and as it were a selicity peculiar unto our nation as was said of that change upon the death of Queen Elizabeth and the coming in of King James who acknowledging to the Lords of England their great loyalty in his coming to the Crown said that it was a success above the course of nature to have so great a change with so great a quiet In Germany France Scotland and other parts of Europe many of the Contrivers and Actors in the reformation of religion did neither sapere ad sobrietatem neither agere cum sobrietate especially when they were strongly opposed and perceived divers designs for their destruction for some of them had a mixture in their heads of the Anabaptistical leaven and were infected with that fury Insomuch as Bucer a man of great learning and moderation would often say unto them that in their great heat of zeal in rectifying the service of God and reforming the Church good order and discipline failing amongst them the tumultuous and seditious persons were not chastised neither any order and decency in the service of God observed and therefore their laudable endeavours would not long last neither happily succeed for the discreet and moderate men amongst them and those in greatest authority were oftentimes compelled to suffer many enormities and outragious actions lest by enforeing correction and discipline they should lose the assistance and affection of their own party Tacitus The Captains durst not take the boldness to punish as the fouldiers did to offend voluntary obedience maketh the command and power weak as is that power which cannot subsist by its own streng Before Luther was in his grave and when his reformation was but in the infancy some who seemed or were reputed his disciples brake out of their pretended integrity through an over zealous and irregular desire of reformation into abominable opinions and furies tending to the destruction of all Goverment in Church and Common-wealth And Luthers doctrine also meeting with divers of weak and turbulent Spirits over greedy of reformation and abounding with wild zeal or Spiritual pride all the precious liquor they received turned into gall and vinegar and from these did seeds soon spring up which raised a swarm of * These Anabaptists then started up and declared that they had speech with God who commanded them to destroy all the wicked and to taise a new world in which the godly onely should live and reign Sleidans Comment lib. 3. Fox Acts and Monuments Anabapâ—iâ—ts and other fanatick Sectaries which made themselves a new Gospel of Licentiousness and Rebellion and scorned Luther and his doctrine at last And although after they had done much mischief they were suppressed yet they scattered such seeds as the fruits thereof do now exceedingly afflict the Church and cause great disturbance which to plous men is the greatest persecution August de Civit Dei l. 18. c. 51. for this afflicteth their hearts and souls qui patiuntur hanc persecutionem non in corporibus sed in cordibus est persecutio intrinseca extrinseca Caus 7. quast 1. cap. 48. By this we may see what hath moved Princes and Common-wealths not to tolerate divers religions or any thing different from the religion established Platina Mahometanaem sectam latè sparsisse se dum religionis nostrae capita inter se diffident sic factum est ut ad Mahometanos partìm vi partim spome deficerent populi hinc amissam Ecclesiam Antiochenam Alexandrinam Hierosolymitanam August de Civ Dei lib. 18. cap. 51. Multi volentes esse Christiani propter eorum diffentiones haesitare coguntur multi Maledici in his inveniunt materiam blasphemandi Christianum nomen quia tales Christiani appellantur The Devil saith Saint Austin doth stir up Hereticks who under the Christian name do resist the Christian doctrine The Romans had ever a circumspect eye and carried a severe hand on those qui nova sacra peregrinos ritus introducebant and they ordained Valer. Max. ne qui Dii nisi Romani Dii neque ullo modo quà m patrio colerentur * By the Divine law he that sacrifi ceth to any god saving to the Lord onely shall be destroyed Exod. 22. The Prophet or dreamer shall be put to death who doth intice to the service of other gods Deut. 13 5. and the ichabitants and the city shall be destroyed that serve other gods Deut. 13.15 16. For as Livie saith the wisest and most skilful in all divine and humane lawes held nothing so forcible to overthrow Religion as when the Divine service is celebrated after some strange and forreign course and not
acts if force of fraud used to procure the absence of one of the members may make all their acts invalid C 28. de Elect. plus nocet unius contemptus quam contradictio multorum according to the rule in the Canon Law which sayeth also si eos vocatos non fuisse constiterit sed contemptus infirmanda erit penitus electio taliter celebrata Stew Chron. Upon which Gardner Bishop of Winchester his assertion seemeth to be grounded who being prisoner in the Tower wrote to the Lords in Palliament claiming his priviledge of Parliament and said that if the Rulers in a General Councel let any mans repair thither who of right ought to be there whatsoever is there concluded is by a universal Law taken to be of no force by excluding one member wrongfully that should furnish the body The body ought to be entire and compleat The Interpreters of the Civil and Canon Law say when we name a People we are understood properly to intend the whole or at the least the major part and when we mention the Chapter Capitulum we are presumed to intend the whole body or number appellatione rei venit res integra qui de quantitate lequitur de toto loqui censetur quando natura rei subjecta materia hoc exigit vel alioqui actus esset elusorius But seeing all the members of a Parliament or of any great Assemby or Corporation cannot come alwayes together therefore by a universall Law or custome the presence or concurrence of the major part of the whole or of those who are present most commonly doth prevail L. 3. 4. F. de Decurionibus L. 3. F. de Decretis qui à duabus partibus Cardinelium electus fit Romanus Pontifex habetur In aliis electionibus quod fit à majori saniori parte Capituli valet consueta forma servata De electione cap. 6. Decretal By the civil Law there must be in their Senate Councel house and Municipal Courts two third parts of the whole number present for pasting any act of importance duabus partibus adhibitis Totius quia illa decreta non valent quae non legitimo numero decurionum coacto facta sunt But those acts had the force of Lawes to binde all men which were examined ab omnibus proceribus in gratiosissimo Coetu L. 8. Cod. de legibus collectis omnibus recitantur cumomnes consenserint tunc demùm in sacro nostri numinis Consistorio recitari ut universorum consensus nostrae seremtatis authoritate firmetur This was the course observed in makeing their Lawes for if men when they choose arbitrators or Law-makers when they constitute Judges L. si in tres L. item si unus F. de recept arbitâ—is L. Pluribus F de Pro. curatoribus L. si plutes l. cum plures F de Administ Tut. L. 37. F. dere judic or Princes when they grant a delegated power in private mens causes are never supposed to approve of that which one man or the fewer number of them do order or decroe unlesse somewhat appear to the contrary but onely of that which is agreed by the major part all beeing present at the deliberation and debate quia tunc judicare intelliguntur cum omnes adsint licet omnes non consentiunt There is then much greater reason for the presence of the major part of the whole number in the supream Courts Councils and Parliaments ubi de summà Reipublicae agitur And so may we presume was the intention of all Law-givers and founders of Common-wealths although not expressed unlesse necessity in some special cases and accidents doth otherwise require In such accidents the Law sayeth L. 45. Cod de Decurionibus paucorum absentia sive necessaria sive fortuita non debilitat quod a majori parte ordinis salubritèr fuit constitutum But in Parliaments there is most reason for the presence of all the members for many respects and cheifely because all every County City and Borough who are to send their own Deputies Representatives be not without being heard bound by the votes of others in all things as well concerning their own particular as the Common Interest who are peradventure ignorant and regardless of their condition and men whom they never knew nor to their election gave their consent For in other Assemblies Councels and Courts there is not as in Parliament of all Persons states and degrees either personally or virtually by representation and intendment of Law the presence and as it ought to be to make a just and compleat Parliament according to the ancient and continued Laws and customes of this Realm and of other Kingdomes And therefore the excluding of the Bishops and in them the whole Clergy ever reputed one of the three estates in all Kingdomes and called Brachium Ecclesiasticum seu spirituale must needs be injust and prejudicious to the Church and common-wealth and make a maimed and dismembred Parliament the Clergy being barred from having their own Representatives and Deputies in Parliament whereby the Common-wealth is deprived of their advice and assistance which may be and oftentimes hath been found to be of excellent use in respect of their great learning and judgment wherewith many of them in all times have been amply adorned and many of them of great fame for their piety and martyrdome and have as appeareth in histories shewed their love to their Countrey by many acts and testimonies and in some times to their own destruction for opposing the most powerful persons when the greatest men of the Laity who for the most part are of much inferiour abilities have shrunk off and been silent I cannot therefore perceive how we may approve of the opinion of those who hold that good Acts of Parliament may be made excluso Clero and take the example of Edward the first for a Law who because the Clergy would not still supply him with mony after they had given him many great summs he put them out of his protection and then called a Parliament without admitting them This being the case it is an ill argument à tali facto ad jus faciendi As if we should say the King and the Peers can hold a just Parliament and make Laws and Levies of monies without the Commons because long time after the Norman Conquest Laws were made without them which are still reputed good Laws In England as well as in other parts of Christendome in the time of the Saxons Bishops were called to their Parliaments and after the Norman Conquest they were called as other were who held by a Barony Their tenure as well as their function did warrant it In the Constitutions of Clarington in the time of Henry the second it is said according to the Canon Law Chronic. Gervasti alii that Bishops as other Barons who hold of the King in Capite debent interesse Judiciis Curiae Regis quousque pervenitur ad mortem
tua res agitur licet aedes demoliri vicini ne ad nos incendium veniat The Romans would not suffer an increase of power by iniquity L. 49. F. ad leg Aquil. l. 3. F. de Incendio l. 7. F. quod vi aut clam Salust Cicero Majestatis erat Populi Romani non pati cujusquam regnum per scelus crescere It was none of the least branches of the Romans glory who were the mirrour of magnanimity that their Common-wealth might truely be reputed Patrocinium orbis terrae potiùs quam Imperium Regum Nationum portus perfugium But yet the Romans were seldome losers by protecting and ayding others for by that occasion they got much of their dominions Salust Cicero Populum Romanum sociis defendendis terrarum omnium potitum fuisse God gave them as some say universal dominion for their excellent vertues and laws others say it was given them to scourge the tyranny and vices which did raign amongst other nations and to end the discord and contentions amongst them From the discord of Citizens Strangers take their opportunity against them Livius The Carthaginians first passed into Cicily to take part with one side in a Civil war but they endeavoured to make a prey of both For sometimes neighbour Princes have as in the fable plaid the part of the Kite between the Mouse and the Frog and ended their strife by gaining that and more then that for which they did contend as the Turk did in Hungarie when they called for his assistance And thus other Princes have dealt with the Italians at war amongst themselves until strangers got all or spoiled all they left behind them Other Princes when their Neighbours have been in Civil war have endeavoured to break the course thereof and joyned with one side lest when both were weakned the whole should fall into the hand of some potent neighbour or enemy of theirs The Roman General Quintius offered his assistance to the States of Greece Livius lib. 34. to destroy Nabis the Usurper of Sparta lest the contagion thereof should spread farther and take hold of the other Common-wealths and Cities of Greece CHAP. XVII Of the King and of his power in Parliament THese pretended Patrons of Popular liberty or rather of licentiousness and confusion can find no way so meet in their conceit for maintaining their Plots as parity in Ecclesiastical Government which being once established in the Church by the example thereof King James book to his Son the Politick and civil State should be drawn to the like And therefore they will have an actual power to be joyntly in the People with their Soveraign in making of Lawes which they call their Legislative power in Parliament so as they would leave unto the King little or no power with his negative voice and would weaken all his rights in Parliament but especially his right of dissolving Parliaments They would make him inferiour to the Roman Tribunes of the people Livius Plutarch for any one of them by his negative voice could cross that which his Colleagues proposed to the People and any two of them could stop all proceedings and dissolve all the solemn assemblies of the people called by the authority of the other Tribunes But say what they can they cannot find his Legislative power to be any other thing then the Regal power and a principal part and branch thereof although in many cases it be very justly restrained in the use and exercise thereof to the Kings sitting in his Parliament his Supream Court and Councel with all the estates of the Kingdome but this is not in respect of any power or original and habitual right inherent in the people The Commons are called by their Writ ad faciendum consentiendum his quae de Communi consilio Regni nostri ordinari contigerit as were the people by the ancient Canons of the Church called to the election of their Pastors and Prelates Distinct. 63. c. 1. c. 12. c. 8. c. 36. non quod debent imeresse ut eligentes sed ut consentientes nullus invitis pepulis non petentibus ordinetur ne Lpiscopum non optatum aut contemnant aut odiant Is eligatur qui à Clericis electus à Plebe expetitus fuerit nec alitèr ascribitur Matthias Apostolorum Collegio Acts 1.15 6.2 Cpyrianus nec aliter septem Diaconi creantur quà m Populo vidente approbante Haec exempla ostendunt sacerdotis ordinationem non nisi sub Populi assistentis conscientia fieri oportere And thus by the same reason and equity it is that Lawes which bind the estates and lives of men and are for the common good of all and singular Persons should be made in the great Council and supream Court of the Kingdome by the advice and assent of all the Estates of the Kingdome By which course the just rights and liberties of the people are preserved and taxes and levies of money on the people imposed onely by Parliamentary authority as they ought to be For thus the People are induced and ingaged to a willing observation of those lawes and submission unto those impositions for the making and raising whereof they have given their consent It was said long since by a wise man that in ancient time and to the honour of England Commines it was best governed of any Kingdome the People least oppressed the Kings living upon their own revenues subsidies granted but onely for war with France or Scotland and the war undertaken by the advice of Parliament by which means the King was the stronger and better served and he addeth also that Princes cannot levy on their Subjects without their consent If we look upon our most ancient Statutes or rather Charters of our Kings and the form and stile of them we shall find no Character of any legislative power in any but in the King neither so much as the Peoples concurrence or consent in any Parliamentary way It appeareth in our ancient Histories Mat. Paris Hoveden alii that during the Raign of diverse Kings after the Norman Conquest the Kings when they called their great Councel or Parliament the summons went only to the Prelates Earls and Barons and in some of those Histories there is mention of calling the Commonalty and diverse sage and wise men In Kings Johns time the first summons upon record appeareth to the Prelates and Peers S. Rob. Cotons collections and something may be gathered although darkly of the admittance of the Commons Before that time every man by his tenure held himselfe to his great Lords will in whose assent his dependent Tenents was included These were long after the Conquest taxed and assessed by the consent of their Lords of whom they held who enjoyed great Regalities in their Signiorîes and were to their vassalls totidem Tyranni saith Mat. Paris These great Lords did so curb and restrain
a long time the King that there was great danger they would have raised an Aristocracy or several petty Principalities so lofty was their carriage towards their King which in time would have strangled the Monarchy and all under the pretence of the publick good which drew on that long and destructive war called the Barons war and made it the more plausible and popular After these combustions ended and the King the Lords and people were reduced to reason and moderation which often was wanting on both sides then the Statutes made in the time of King Edward the First and Edward the second had these words Statutes made by the King in Parliament at the request and petition of the Commenalty with the assent of the Prelates and Pears And so in the Fifth year of Edward the Third at the instance and special request of the Commons with the assent of the Prelates and Peers we have ordained and established and so in the succeeding raign of Richard the Second and in the first of Henry the Fourth Thus did the force and efficacy of our Lawes proceed from the Kings Legislative power acting by and with the concurrence of the three Estates in Parliament contributing their assistance according to their respective duties and the trust reposed on them This concurrence doth serve excellently for the direction regulation and in some respect for the qualification not for the diminution but for the support of the Kings power and rights The absoluteness and generality of this Regal power being also in many cases often restrained in the administration of Justice in the inferiour Courts of Justice by the Common Law of England and by the Lawes and customes of other Kingdomes And therefore the assistance and concurrence of all the Estates in Parliament cannot amount unto the raising of any coequality or competition of power the influence of the Soveraign power is that which giveth life to the making and to the execution of all Lawes both Houses of Parliament acting according to their duties and not exceeding their bounds the rights and prerogative of the King is neither restrained nor obscured but guided strengthned and carried with greater vigour and Majesty for his and the Peoples most good and security If our Kings had any co-partners in the Legislative power or were less in Parliament then when they were out our Judges have been much out and deceived him and others in affirming oftentimes to the Kings that in no time they were so high in their Royal estate as when they sate in Parliament The Canon-Lawyers say the Pope is greater when he sitteth in a General Council in respect of the amplitude of knowledge and the spirit of discerning After the Romans had transferred all their Supream power to their Emperours yet did the Senate afterwards make divers Lawes called Senatus consulta which were often concomitant or subsequent to the Imperial Edicts yet this was never held to be a conferring or communicating of any part of the Legislative Imperial power no otherwise the Kings of France do grant to the Parliament of Paris when their arrests concurr with the Kings Edicts which are there usually ratified Cujacius Pet. Faber Semest lib. 1. cap. vult Optimi Principes non dabant ullam constitutionem sine authoritate sententia Juris-consultorum Edicta Principum Romanorum sic Regum Galliae plerumque subsequebantur Senatus Consulta Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem leges condere soli Imperatori concessum est legis interpretatio solo digna Imperio est Imperator solus conditor Interpres Legum est Institut Jura nat gens Lust Cod. de legibus Tit. F. de origine Juris Lib. Feud constitut Lethaeri Fred. Imperator licet Augustus Caesar constituit viros prudentes ad jus interpretandum ut major juris authoritas haberetur The Emperours since have made their Lawes hortatu consilio Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Ducum Marchionum Comitum Palatinorum caeterorumque Nobilium Judicum yet this was never holden to be a communicating of their legislative power Long time in the French Monarchy Lawes and Edicts were made by the King per suum magnum Concilium as in England and so were causes Civil Criminal and Fiscal determined and judged by our Kings or his Council or by his delegated poer to others before the Courts were established at Westminster as appeareth by our Histories and Records The three Estates in France and Spain did never in the former times when they were most in use and power challenge any part of the legislative power neither did their Historians and Lawyers ever grant it to be in them for ought appeareth Bodin doth acknowledge that in England the excellent institution and use of Parliaments hath longest continued De. Repub. and saith that legum rogatio probatio non arguit Imperii majestatem licet autoritatis speciem Ordines Angliae autoritatis quaendam habeant jura Majestatis summum Imperium est in Principe And so a learned Hollander Grov de Jure belli lib. 1. C. 3. no slatterer of Monarchy saith they are greatly deceived qui existimant cùm Reges acta quaedam sua nolunt rata esse nisi à Senatu vel alio caetu aliquo probentur L. 8. F. de Constitutionib L 1. Cod. de legib partitionem fieri potestatis The supream Senate is as the Emperour in the Golden Bull calleth the Princes Electors partem corporissui columnas latera solidacque Imperii Bases jus dandi suffragii in Comitiis Imperii Germanici non trahit secum majestatis communicationem cum majest as indivisibilis sit nec Electoribus Principibus aut Statibus Imperii communicari poterit Tamen nihil majestati detrahitur si in partem solicitudinis Imperatoris invocentur exemplo veterum Imperatorum Romanorum qui et si habuerint summam potestatem ut quodcunque Imperator Edicto statuit legis habebat vigorem nihil tamen magni ponderis sine consilio consensu Senatus expediebant * Arumns ad aur bul non obstat quod dicitur in L. 1. F. de constitutionibus Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem quia sequitur in fine legis non quiequid de voluntate presumptum est sed qùod concillo magistratum suerum Rege auâ—â—ritatem praestante habita super hoc deliberatione tractatu recle fuerit definitum Bracton Fleta L. 8. Cod de Legibus Bartolus ali L. 1. F. de legibus Moreover long before the Empire was established in Germanie when the Roman Emperours granted unto diverse Princes and States of the Empire that without them and that form by him prescribed lawes should not be made or held effectual nisi supradictà formà observatà ita ut universorum consensus nostrae serenitatis autoritate firmetur c. It was never holden by the interpreters of the lawes that the Emperours did or could by his grants
inconstant in the use and observation of them Julius Caesar said of Cato his mortal enemy that he shewed himself both a good man and a good Citizen by opposing the changes of the State and Government Salust mutationes in Republica caedes hostilia portendunt especially if the changes and alterations are driven on by violent and pertinacious Spirits who if they obtain their desire in having any antient Laws and customes changed their Countrey shall find the smart as did the Roman State Valerius Max. lib. 9. cap. 1. when the Senate yielded thereunto quia non providerunt ad quod tenderet pertinax studium eorum quò se usque effusura esset victrix legum audacia Livius lib. 1. tentari patientiam tentatam contemni ut si jugum acceperint obnoxios premat As some men ask unreasonable things but to draw others to yield unto that which is reasonable so others by granting unto some men more then reason doth require do imbolden them to press more unjust and insolent demands The alterations in the State and Government procured by those who have the supream authority if they are not discreetly handled and effected by degrees in an orderly course and carried still on with the ease and contentment of the people they will in short time be disquieted and either turne back into the old way like sheep driven or violently run head-long into some new Salust Jus quod invaluit quod viget quod inharet animis hominum non semel sed pedetentim tollendum esse quoniam Populus non facile dediscit aut deutitur quod insnevit And therefore those Innovators who try experiments upon a State and upon the peoples disaffection to the present government and thereupon lay the cheif foundation of their designs without some other stronger assurance have often failed and have found themselves and others with them utterly ruined through the suddain and violent ebbing and flowing of the Peoples passions and affections The fear of this caused the Roman State when they had expulsed their King Tarquin not to rest upon the Peoples present violent hatred of the Regal Government and their oath freely taken never to admit Monarchy but for the future security of their usurped Government the Senate gave the People the spoil of all the Kings goods and of theirs who adhered unto him ne quis expers sceleris esset saith Livie that there might not be any who had not a hand in that foul fact and thus to set farther all hope of reconciliation with their King yet unto this the Senate added as the most effectual means to assure the Peoples affection their continual carefor provision of corn victuals and all necessaries at cheap rates together with freeing the Commons from heavy taxes and burthens and laying them upon men of most wealth and ability and upon Commodities superstuous and least necessary For the State being not come unto full growth and maturity might by many accidents have been destroyed Livius had it not been fostered and trained up por tranquillam moderationem Imperii et per multa blandimenta Plebi por id tempus ab Senatu data by a gratious Goverment and by entertaning the Commons at that time with courtesies and favours By which smooth dealing and indulgence of the Senate and Nobles the City was afterwards kept in liking of their new Government notwithstanding the strong opposition of the Tarquines and their party so as the meanest as well as the highest who were most ingaged and interessed continued altogether in the hatred of Monarchical Government and in the love of the new The alterations in the Church and the government thereof how pernicious they are we find especially being wrought by faction violence and tumults Vim Patriae afferri as Cicero saith These cause great distractions in the minds of men raise daily cross and counterspirits occasion the Religion professed and established to be traduced and do open an entrance to Atheism and to the weakning of all those facred bonds which preserve all Laws and obligations in humane society For then oaths are not regarded by those men nor the consciences of any other men in their pressing these Alterations in the Church neither the conscience of their Soveraign nor his solemn oath at his Coronation which oath is a supporter and an Epitome of out Magna Charta the confirmation of all our liberties By which oath the King is obliged to save and keep inviolable all the rights and liberties of his People and also those of the Church This oath they inforce the King to break in as much as concerneth the Church and the rights thereof and leave the People to the challenge of their rights and liberties by and from the vertue of this broken oath In both Kingdoms of England and Scotland he took an oath Episc Winton Tontur Ton. de conservandà in statu suo illo colendi Dei formulà quae publicè recepta utriusque gentis legibus stabilita esset Their consciences some of them would seem much to regard this in which respect they pretend that they cannot admit the Common-Prayer Book neither those Ceremonies in the Church which are by Law established and yet most of them although they cannot swallow a ceremony they can devour that which is holy and account it no snare Prov. 20.25 even as easily as they can digest their wilful breach and violation of the oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance in ordine ad spiritualia for the advancement of the holy cause and the Kingdome of Christ But Calvin giveth them a rule for their consciences concerning Church Government and concurreth with Melanchthon men in great esteem when their Presbytery was in the infancy viz. aliquando aliquod onus aliquam servitutem tolerandam esse si non sit iniquitatis sed pressurae lest by being over indulgent to our weak and erroneous consciences we give an offence to others violate the Peace of the Church and shew our contempt of Authority and of that which hath been established with prudence and piety We ought well to consider what things are of Divine right and precept and what are properly positive and Ecclesiastical constitutions what things are of Divine Right according to the matter and substance and are of humane institution according to their forms prescribed All are of weight although not equally What ought to be perpetual in the Church and what is changeable by positive Laws What is Moral what is Ceremonial lest the defects of our judgement cause us to abound in our own sense and lead us into an erroneous or perplexed conscience Some things are of Divine institution and right yet do not alwayes belong unto faith Bish of Winchest Epist to P. Moulin they belong to the agenda or practise of the Church to the credenda or points of faith they may not properly be referred Somewhat may be wanting that is of Divine right at least in