granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as
well as you Pope Boniface tels us of Saint Peter that he was taken in consortium individuae Trinitatis and doubtlesse you deride him for it yet in effect you take as much unto your selfe Gods cause and yours are so alike of such neere kinne to one another that they are hard to be distinguished Our Saviour Christ hath no advantage of you but that hee was the first-begotten and therefore is your elder brother As for the King according to the Puritan tenet he 's but a Minister of the State onely a sworne Bailiffe of the Common wealth and to be called unto accompt when the people please the Saints i. e. your selfe and such as you being kings indeed to whom the earth belongs of right and the fulnesse of it and at whose feete in case the Presbyterian discipline were once established all Kings and Princes of the world must lay downe their scepters Huic disciplinae omnes orbis Principes Monarchas fasces suos submittere parere necesse est As your friend Travers stated it in his booke of Discipline Yes marry Sir now I perceive there 's somewhat in it why Gods cause Christs the King and yours are so linked together So farre we have gone after you or with you rather to see how you could justifie your Appeale as it related to the incompetencie of the Iudges wee must next looke upon you whilest you pleade your cause as it reflects upon the illegality of their proceedings And this you branch into two parts also for you are excellent at making a division the one generall which concernes their usuall practise in all other cases the other particular in your owne case p. 11. It had beene fitter sure you had left out the generall and fallen on the particular onely for in such things which are you say their usuall practise what cause have you to make appeale more then other men And should all other men take liberty to decline the Court that would dislike their course and manner of proceedings his Majesty might quickly call in the Commission as an vnnecessary thing of no use at all This therefore onely was put in to beget an Odium to that Court and buzze into the peoples heads who if once seasoned with your leaven are apt to credit it that the proceedings there are contrary to pieâ—y to law to charity and utterly against the liberty of the Kings good subjects But being put in we must doe what we can to rase it out againe and therefore speake what is it that you are agrieved at in their usuall practise Your first exception is against the oath ex officio in which you say they doe transgresse in three particulars first in regard it is exacted of the delinquent before a copy of the Articles or Libell is exhibited unto him and secondly in that the deponent is not permitted to have a copy of the Articles before he doth depose unto them that he may answer to them by advise of Counsell both which you say are contrary unto the practise of all the other Courts of Iustice Thirdly in that the oath exacted is contrary both unto faith and charity to faith in that an oath so taken must needes be taken for a rash oath and so against the nine and thirtieth Article of the Church of England to charity in that it makes a man to accuse his brother and betray himselfe and so against that generall maxime nemo tenetur prodere seipsum p. 11. and 12. This is the summe of what you say for that which followes of putting in Additionals to the information on the discovery of new matter was not worth the saying and all this is no more but quod dictum prius that which hath formerly beene alledged and already answered your learned Counsell furnished you with these particulars when you were both delinquents in that Court together and he might doe it easily without much study They were collected before hee was borne and by some that had as evill will to the Church as he and spred abroad amongst that party in Queene Elizabeths time but very learnedly refelled by Dr. Cosin then Deane of the Arches to whom for brevities sake I might well referre you Yet since your libell is made publicke and dispersed abroad I will in briefe lay downe such answers as are made by him to your severall cavils adding a little of mine owne and one thing specially for your satisfaction which he could not know of In answer to the first he tels you if you would have learned that though the Articles or Libell be not exhibed inscriptis before the oath yet that the generall heads are signified and opened to the party criminall which was observed as you confesse in your particular For you informe us in the beginning of your Apologie that the occasion of your Appeale was upon the reading of certaine Articles unto you by the Register of the Court before Doctor Duck and by his appointment who thereupon tendred unto you an oath to answer to the said Articles This was as much favour as could be showne you and more then needed The reason why the Articles are not given in scriptis is chiefely upon observation that some of those to whom that favour hath beene showne have used it onely as a meanes to instruct their confederates for the concealing or the disguizing of the truth a thing of dangerous consequence in punishment of Schismes Heresies and such other things which this Court takes notice of themselves upon perusall of the Articles remaining still as obstinate in the refusall of the oath as they were before Nor is it generally contrary to the practise of the Common-law as it is pretended the grand inquest taking an oath before the Iudges that they shall diligently inquire and truely present all offenders against any such point as shall be given them in charge and yet the charge not given till the oath be taken As to the second touching the advise of Counsell to draw up the answer that 's universall neither in law nor practise For on inditements at the common law upon life and death there is no counsell given the party to draw up his answer And in proceedings in the Starre-chamber Chancery and Court of requests however they commence suites there by bill and answer yet when they come to interrogatories the parties first take oath to answer truely to the points and then the Interrogatories are proposed unto them peece by peece in the Examiners office Besides that in such Cases as principally doe concerne the high Commission it hath not beene thought sit to admit of Counsell for drawing up an answer unto the Articles objected the better to avoide delaies and that foule palliating of schismes and errors which might thence arise As for the first part of the third exception it 's true that vaine and rash swearing is condemned by the nine and thirtieth Article but then it resteth to be proved that taking of an oath to answer to
Acts of Court I see no cause at all why you should demand them For having at the first declined the judgement of that Court by the refusall of the oath and your said Appeale and afterwards contemptuously neglected your appearance on the second summons what cause had you to expect any favour from them or to consult those Acts which you cared not for Especially considering you continued still in your disobedience and desired the Articles not to answer to them but thereby as you say your selfe to perfect your Appeale or rather as it may be thought to scatter them abroad in imperfect copies with such false answers to them as you pleased to make Your selfe and such as you have long used the art of getting the first start upon mens affections non ignari instandum famae prout prima successerint fore vniversa But come we now unto the maine of your Appeale in reference to the illegality of proceedings in your owne particular for all that hath beene answered hitherto was but the vantage as it were which you cast in out of your abundance to make up the reckoning It is pretended that being charged with sedition you were not bound to answer to it And why Because sedition is no ecclesiasticall offence against the Church but a civill against the King and State and therefore to be tried onely in his Majesties Courts of Civill Iustice and not before the High Commissioners who have no cognizance thereof Your Enthimeme doth halt extreamely For there are many matters punishable in either jurisdiction which since you are ignorant I will name you some Vsury contrary to the statute 21. Iac. c. 17. is punishable at the Common-law and it is also punishable in the Court Christian as in the 109. Canon The selfe same Canon reckoneth drunkennesse and swearing as punishable by the Ordinary upon presentment and yet are punishable by the Civill Magistrate by vertue of two severall statutes viz. 4. Iac. 5.21 Iac. and 21. Iac. 20. So for prohibited either workes or recreations on the Lords day the parties so offending are by the Statute 1 Car. c. 1. 3. Car. c. 1. to be convented and corrected by the Iustices of the Peace and yet there is a salvo there for the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to proceed as formerly All persons that offend against the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. either in depraving the Booke of Common prayer or else not using it as they ought to doe or using any other forme of prayer N. B. then is there prescribed c. are punishable either by enditement at the Common-law or by the censures of the Church According as complaint is first made unto either Court I could informe you of many such particulars were it convenient So that you see your proposition is not true in that full latitude wherein you propound iâ— viz. because sedition is to be tryed in the Courts of civill Iustice therefore in you and as it was an offence by you committed it was not to be censured in the High Commission For Sir I hope you can distinguish betweene sedition in the field or in the Market-place and a seditious Sermon for Sermon I must call it for feare of angring you in the Church or Pulpit Had you behaved your selfe seditiously in any other place no better dealing with you then by the Constable first and so on But if you preach seditiously and make the House and Ordinance of God onely a Pandar to your discontent or your ambition I hope my Lords the Iudges will not be offended if your Superiours in the Lord doe chastise you for it yet this at last you make a just gravamen upon the which you might appeale But had you thought indeed as you say you doe that the Ecclesiasticall Commssioners could take no cognizance of the crime objected to you you might with better hopes have labored for a prohibition as formerly you did upon weaker grounds then runne your selfe so hastily on a new experiment of making an Appeale when you were not grieved Lastly you pleade that being the matter charged upon you was Sedition and so if true your life might have beene called in question you were not bound to take the oath propounded to you and this you ground upon a Passage of Arch-Bishop Whitgift in the conference at Hampton Court saying as you report his words that in matter of life liberty and scandall it is not the course of that Court to require any such oath wherein you doe most shamelessely misreport the words of the said Arch-Bishop All that he said is this which will helpe you little viz. If any Article did touch the party any way either for life liberty or scandall he might refuse to answer neither was he urged thereunto He doth not say as you make him say that in those cases there recited it was not the course of that Court to require any such oath but that the party might refuse to answer to those Articles which did so concerne him It is the custome of the Court to give an oath unto the party to answer truely to such Articles as shall be propounded and the indulgence of the Court at the examination that if the party will he may chalenge any of them as not being bound by law to answer to them and his refusall if the law binde him not to answer is to be allowed You might then subtile Sir have tooke the oath and yet demurred on any such Article when you came unto it And so farre we have traced you in your Apologie wherein is nothing to be found but poore surmises which being proved onely by an Aio might have beene answered with a Nego but that I am resolved to dissect you throughly and lay you open to the world which hath so long beene seduced by you CHAP. II. The Kings authority restrained and the obedience of the subject limited within narrow bounds by H. B. with the removall of those bounds The title of the Sermon scanned and the whole divided H. B. offended with the unlimited power of Kings the bounds by him prescribed to the power of Kings both dangerous and doubtfull The power of Kings how amplified by Iewes Christians Heathens What the King cannot doe and what power is not in him by Mass Burtons doctrine The Positive Lawes of the Realme conferre no power upon the King nor confirme none to him The whole obedience of the subject restrained by H. B. to the Lawes of the Realme and grounded on the mutuall stipulation betweene King and people The dangerous sequells of that doctrine A Pravis ad praecipitia Wee are on the declining hand out of the Hall into the Kitchin from an Apologie that was full of weakenesse unto a Sermon or rather a Pasquill farre more full of wickednesse yet were we guided either by the Text or Title we might perswade our selves there were no such matter nothing but piety and zeale and whatsoever a faire shew can promise But for the
reach you may see in the first of Sam. and 8 chap. though in concreto a just Prince will not breake those lawes which he hath promised to observe Princes are debtors to their subjects as God to man non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendo as S. Austine hath it And we may say of them in S. Bernards words Promissum quidem ex misericordia sed ex justitia persolvendum that they have promised to observe the lawes was of speciall grace and its agreeable to their justice to observe their promise Otherwise we may say of kings as the Apostle of the just Iusto lex non est posita saith the Apostle and Principi lexnon est posita saith the law of nature Doe you expect more proofe than you use to give Plutarch affirmes it of some kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not governe onely by the law but were above it The like saith Dion of Augustus Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was sure and had an absolute authoritie aswell upon his lawes as upon himselfe Besides in case the power of kings were restrained by law after the manner that you would have it yet should the king neglect those lawes whereby you apprehend that his power is limited how would you helpe your selfe by this limited power I hope you would not call a Consistorie and convent him there or arme the people to assert their pretended liberties though as before I said the Puritan tenet is that you may doe both Your learned Councell might have told you out of Bracton an ancient Lawyer of this kingdome omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And Horace could have told you that kings are under none but God Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis as he there hath it You may moreover please to know what Gregorie of Tours said once to a king of France Si quis e nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si vero tu excesseris quis te corripiet c. If any of us O king offend against the rules of justice thou hast power to punish him but if thou breake those rules who hath power to doe it We tell you of it and when you list you please to heare us but when you will not who shall judge you but he that tels us of himselfe that he is justice This was you see the ancient doctrine touching the power and right of kings not onely amongst Iewes and Christians but in heathen states what ever new opinion of a limited power you have pleased to raise But you goe further yet and tell us of some things the king cannot do and that there is a power which the king hath not what is it say you that the king cannot doe Marry you say he cannot institute new rites and ceremonies with the advise of his Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or the Metropolitan according as some pleade from the Act of Parliament before the Communion booke pag. 65. Why so Because according to your law this clause of the Act is limited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her successours of the Crowne This you affirme indeede but you bring no proofe onely it seemes you heard so from your learned councell You are I see of Calvins minde who tels us in his Commentarie on the 7 of Amos what had beene sayd by Doctor Gardiner after Bishop of Winchester and then Ambassadour in Germany touching the headship or Supremacie of the king his master and closeth up the storie with this short note inconsiderati homines sunt qui faciunt eos nimis spirituales that it was unadvisedly done to give kings such authority in spirituall matters But sir I hope you may afford the king that power which you take your selves or which your brethren at the least have tooke before you who in Queene Elizabeths time had their Classicall meetings without leave or licence and therein did ordeine new rites new Canons and new formes of service This you may doe it seemes though the kings hands are bound that he may not doe it And there 's a power too as you tell us that the king neither hath nor may give to others Not give to others certainely if he have it not for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is But what is this you first suppose and take for granted that the Bishops make foule havocke in the Church of God and persecute his faithfull servants and then suppose which yet you say is not to be supposed that they have procured a grant from the king to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of religion by law established And on these suppositions you doe thus proceede Yet whatsoever colour pretext or shew they make for this the king to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the power that is in the king is given him by God and confirmed by the lawes of the kingdome Now neither God in his law nor the lawes of the land doe allow the king a power to alter the state of religion or to oppresse and suppresse the faithfull ministers of the Gospell against both law and conscience For kings are the ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before p. 72.73 So you and it was bravely said like a valiant man The Brethren now may follow after their owne inventions with a full securitie for since you have proclaimed them to be faithfull ministers no king nor Keisar dares suppresse them or if he should the lawes of God and the law of the land to boote would rise in judgement to condemne him for usurpation of a power which they have not given him But take me with you brother Bâ—â— and I perhaps may tell you somewhat that is worth your knowledge And I will tell you sir if you please to hearken that whatsoever power is in the king is from God alone and founded on the law of nature The positive lawes of the land as they conferre none on him so they confirme none to him Rather the kings of England have parted with their native royalties for the peoples good which being by their owne consent established for a positive law are now become the greatest part of the subjects liberties So that the liberties possessions and estates of the kings leige people are if you will confirmed by the lawes of the land not the kings authoritie As for the power of kings which is given by God and founded on the law of nature how farre it may extend in the true latitude thereof we have said already Whether to alter the state of religion none but a most seditious spirit such as yours would put unto the question his majesties pietie and zeale being too well knowne to give occasion to such quaeres Onely I needes must
expect a particular answer And lest your expectation should be frustrate I will see you satisfied First for your language such it is as one may thence conjecture easily what foule heart it comes from They that have pure hearts cannot possibly have so impure a mouth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the abundance of the heart it is that the mouth speaketh And though your rayling accusation doth deserve no other answere than the Lord rebuke thee yet I must tell you now being thus put to it that you are much mistaken in the man you drive at And you had come more neere unto him and the trueth it selfe had you bestowed that character on him which Possidonius gives you of S. Austin viz. Profactibus studiis favens erat exultans bononum omnium indisciplinationem pie sancte tolenans fratrum ingemiscens que de iniquitatibus malorum sive eorum qui intra ecclesiā sive eorum qui extra ecclesiam constituti sunt dominicis lucris semper gaudens damnis moerens which may thus be Englished He was a favorer of learning a friend of goodnesse and good men and suffered with great both patience and pietie the inconformable aversenesse of his brethren from the publicke discipline and grieved at the iniquitie of ill men whether they were within the pale of the Church or without the same as one that alwayes was affected with the successes of Gods Church according as it gained or lost as it thrived or faded This character if your malice will not suffer you to apply unto him give me leave to doe it and disproove any of it if you can And I will adde withall though you grieve to heare it that both for the sinceritie of his conversation as a private man and for the pietie of his endeavours as a publicke person you would be shrewdly troubled to finde his equall in this Church since the first reformation of religion in K. Edwards time And for a witnesse hereunto I dare call your selfe who making all the search you could into him and that with a malicious eye which commonly is wont to spie the smallest errour you have not yet detected him of any personall default as a private man And as for those particular charges which you lay unto him as a publicke person they are so poore more than the clamour that they make that they are hardly worth the answering Next for your charges which that you may the better see I meane to take them all as they lye in order and speake as briefely to them as you would desire First for the enterteinment of his Majestie at the universitie tell me I pray you of all loves how would you have contrived it better had you beene master of the Ceremonies for that place and time Would you have had a sermon Why the king had one Would you have fitted him with Academicall exercises there was as little want of that Orations in the fields the Church the Colledges the Convocation and the Library Would you have left out playes When did you ever know an Academicall enterteinment of the king without them Would you have had the playes in Latine Consider that the Queene was a principall guest and they were commanded to be in English But sir conceale your griefe no longer I know what t is that troubles you and makes you call it scurrillous enterlude and say that it was made in disgrace of pietie All that offends you is that Melancholico a Puritan passion in one of the commedies was in conclusion marryed to Concupiscentia In case you doe not like the wedding why did you not come thither to forbid the banes The Spartans used to shew their drunken slaves unto their children the better to deterre them from so base a vice And how know you but that the representing of that humour on the open stage may let men see the follies of it and so weane them from it But however the person you so grossely abuse could not possibly have leisure farther than in the generall to command all things should be without offence which he most carefully did That which you next except against is the audatious presumptuous speech that you so much talke of And what was that Assuredly no more than that his Grace then Bishop of London threatned your learned Counsell Mr. Prinne to lay him by the heeles for his too much sawcinesse Not as you say and would have simple folke beleeve you for bringing a Prohibition from the Courts of law but for his insolent and irreverent behaviour intendring it unto the Court of the high Commission Your selfe Mass Burton are not called in question for your preaching but for your factious and seditious preaching nor was hee threatned because he tendred to the Court a Prohibition but because he tendred it in such a malapert and ungracious manner This makes a difference in the case Had he behaved himselfe contra bonos more 's before an Ordinary Iustice he must have either found out suerties for his good behaviour or beene committed for his fault no remedy And will you not allow the Court of high-Commission or any Prelate in the same as much if not a little more authority then a common Iustice Perhaps you thinke because Mass Prinne is of a factious Tribunitian spirit he must be Sancrosanct and uncontrolable as the Tribunes were When you can proove his calling to so high a place you may doe well to chalenge the prerogatives belonging to it In the meane time suffer him to be taken up and censured as hee hath deserved Next for his Majesties declaration about lawfull sports you have no reason to charge that on my Lord Archbishop as if it were a matter of his procuring or if it were to reckon it amongst his faults His sacred Majesty treading in the steps of his royall Father thought fit to suffer his good Subjects to enjoy that innocent freedome which before they did in using moderate and lawfull recreations on the Sunday after the divine and publicke Offices of the Church were ended both for morning and evening and of the which they had been more deprived in these latter dayes then before they were And it was more then time perhaps that somewhat should be done to represse your follies who under a pretence of hindering recreations upon that day had in some parts put downe all feasts of dedications of the Churches commonly called Wakes which they which did it did without all authority A pious and a Princely Act however you and such as you traduce it every day in your scandalous pamphlets Nor doth it more belong to a Christian King to keepe the holy dayes by the Church established whereof that is one from being prophaned by labour and unlawfull pleasures then to preserve them quantum in ipsis est at lest from being overcome with Iudaisme or superstition And you might see how some out of your principles came to have as much if not more of
advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
instruction of others those most especially whom you have seduced My use shall be that they continue stedfast in their full obedience to God the King Gods deputie the Prelates of the Church being Gods Ministers and the Kings and that they doe not suffer themselves to bee carryed up and downe with every blast of doctrine by the subtletie of those who onely labour to deceive them I know it is a fine perswasion to make the common people think that they have more then private interest in the things of God and in the government of States nothing more plausible nor welcome to some sort of men such whom you either make or call free Subjects This Buchanans device to put the sword into the hands and managing of the people in that his most seditious maxime Populo jus est imperium eui velit deferat And such the doctrine of Cleselius one of your brethren in the cause a furious Contra-Remonstrant of Roterdam who laid it for a doctrine before his audience that if the Magistrates and Ministers did not do their parts to preserve Religion then the people must licet ad sanguinem usque pro ea pugnarent what blood soever should bee spent in pursuite thereof Such grounds were also laid in Queene Elizabeths time by those who then were held as you thinke your selfe the Grand supporters of the cause men like to Theudas in the Acts who thought themselves as you doe now to be some great Prophets and drew much people after them so many that they threatned to petition to the Queenes highnesse with no fewer then 100000. hands But what became of these jolly fellowes They perished as many as followed after them redacti sunt ad nihilum and are brought to nothing nothing remaining of them now but the name and infamy Nor can I promis better to those who pursue their courses and either furiously runne or else permit themselves to bee drawne along into those rash counsailes which as they are begunne in disobedience and prosecuted equally with pride and malice so can we not expect that they should have a better end then calamitous ruine And therefore I shall earnestly beseech and exhort all those who have beene practised with by this kind of spirits if such at least may cast their eyes on any thing which is not made to feede their humour that they would seriously endeavour the Churches peace and conscionably submit themselves to their superiours in the Lord not following with too hastie feete those Ignes fatui who onely leade them on to dangerous precipices and dreadfull down-falls The greatest vertue of a Subject is his free obedience not grudgingly or of necessity or for feare of punishment whether it be unto the King as unto the chiefe or unto Governours as unto them which are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well Suspition as it is in Kings the sicknesse of a tyrant and so his Majestie King Iames conceived it so is it in a Subject the disease and sicknesse of a mischievous braine apt upon every light surmise to entertaine undutifull and pernitious counsailes The safest man is he that thinkes no evill and entertaines not rashly those unjust reports which are devised and spread abroad by malicious wits of purpose to defame their betters that they themselves might gaine applause and be cryed up and honoured yea tantum non adored by poore ignorant men who doe not understand aright what their Projects ayme at Lastly I must informe both you and them that howsoever it was thought not to bee unfit that at this present time an Answer should be made unto all your quarrells that so the people whom you have seduced might see the errour of their courses yet neither you nor they must expect the like on all or any of those factious provocations which every day are offered to the publicke governement Things that are once established by a constant law are not at all to be disputed but much lesse declamed against or if they bee will finde more shelter from the lawes then from their Advocates These scandalous and seditious pamphlets are now growne so rife that every day as if wee lived in the wild of Africke doth produce new Monsters there being more of them divulged at this present time then any former age can speake of more of these factious spirits quam muscarum olim cum caletur maxime then there are Scarabees and Gad-flies in the heat of Summer And should the State thinke fit that every libell of yours and such men as you should have a solemne Answer to it you would advance your heads too high and thinke you had done somthing more then ordinary which should necessitate the state to set out Apologies That as it would encourage you to pursue your courses so would it suddenly dissolve the whole frame of government which is as much endangered by such disputations as by disobedience And yet I would not have you thinke that you are like to find those daies whereof Tacitus speaks ubi sentire quae velis quae sentias loqui liceat in which you may be bold to opine what you list and speake what ever you conceive much lesse to scatter and disperse in publick what ever you dare speake in private Princes have other waies to right themselves and those which are in authority under them then by the pen and such as will fall heavier if you pull them on you Kings the governors of states as they participate of Gods power and patience so doe they imitate him in their justice also and in their manner of proceeding against obstinate persons God is provoked every day so Kings God did sometimes expostulate with his faulty people and so doe Kings God sometimes did imploy his Prophets to satisfie the clamours and distrusts of unquiet men and thus Kings doe also But when the people grew rebellious and stif-necked and would not heare the Charmers voice charme hee never so wisely God would no longer trouble himselfe in seeking to reclaime them from their peevish folly but let them feele the rod and the smart thereof till the meere sense of punishment had weaned them from it So howsoever it bee true convitia spreta exolescunt that scandalous pamphlets such as yours and those which if not yours are now spread abroad have many times with much both moderation wisdome been slighted and neglected by the greatest persons yet if the humor be predominant and the vein malignant it hath beene found at other times as necessary that the tongue which speaketh proud words be cut off for ever Nor would I have you so farre abuse your selfe as to conceit that none of these seditious Pasquils which are now cast into the world doe concerne the King For as Saint Paul hath told us that whosoever doth resist the power resists the ordinance of God because there is no power but it is from
them Iew then the Christian in them about the time when the declaration came forth All that my Lord the Archbishop had to doe therein was to commit the publication of it to his suffragan Bishops according to his Maties just will and pleasure and if that be the thing you except against your quarrell is not at his Act but his obedience Last of all where you say that with his right hand he is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven and that hee hath a Papall infallibility of spirit by which as by a Divine Oracle all questions in religion are finally determined that onely is put in because you have a minde to charge on him those innovations as you call them that you complaine of in the Church What innovations you have noted wee shall see hereafter when they will prove to be no other then a sicke mans dreame I onely tell you now that in all the Hierarchy you could not possibly have pitched on one lesse liable and obnoxious to the accusation For being vir antiquae fidei and antiquissimi moris take them both together you may be sure he neither will nor can doe any thing that tends to innovation either in faith or discipline In case your selfe and such as you would suffer him in quiet to restore this Church to its antient lustre and bring it unto that estate in which it was in Queene Elizabeths first time before your predecessours in the faction had turned all decency and order out of the publicke service of Almighty God I dare presume he would not trouble you nor them by bringing in new ordinances of his owne devising But this if he endeavour as hee ought to doe you charge him presently for an innovator not that he innovates any thing in the antient formes of worship in this Church established but that he labours to suppresse those innovations which you and those of your discent have introduced into the same But one may see by that which followes that it is malice to his person and no regard unto the Church that makes you picke out him to beare so great a share in these impudent clamours For where his grace had tooke great care for inhibiting the sale of bookes tending to Socinianisme and had therefore received thankes from the penne of a Iesuite as your selfe informes us that his most pious care is by you calumniated for prohibiting of such bookes as exalt the sole authority of Scripture for the onely rule of faith p. 153. I see Socinus and his followers are beholding to you for your good opinion and so you may cry downe the Prelates you care not how you doe advance the reputation of such desperate heretickes But it is now with him and the other Prelates as heretofore it was with the Primitive Christians Tanti non est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum as Tertullian hath it Nor stay you here Other particulars there are which you have a fling at You tell us of my Lord of Ely whose bookes you are not fit to carry that if he undertake an answer unto your doughty dialogue betweene A. and B. Surely he will sacrifice all the remainder of his reason if any be left in him upon it Why so For you are sure he can neuer answer it except with rayling and perverting wherein lyeth his principall faculty your owne you meane in fighting against the truth c. p. 127. Of my Lord Bishop of Chichester you give this Item that it were strange if such a mystery of iniquity as you there complaine of should be found in any but a Prelate and in this one by name for a tryed champion of Rome and so devout a votary to his Queene of Heaven p. 126. My Lord of Norwich is entituled in the Newes from Ipswich by the name of little Pope Regulus most exceeding prettily And finally you tell us of those Bishops that attend the Court whom you include unâ—er the name of Amasiahs as did your learned Counsell in his Histrio-Mastix that there 's not any thing more common in their mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the land the Kings most loyall dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects whom they accuse you say as factious seditious and turbulent persons dissaffected to present government enemies of the Kings prerogative and what not p. 48.49 So you but were it any thing materiall I could tell you otherwise and make it manifest both to you and all the world that those whom you traduce most fouly and against whom your stomacke riseth in so vile a manner are such who both for their endeavours for this Churches honour fidelity unto the service of the King and full abilities in learning have had no equals in this Church since the Reformation This could I doe if I conceived it proper to this place and time and that I did not call to minde what Velleius taught me viz. Vivorum ut magna admiratio ita censura est difficilis Nor doe you onely breath out malice but you threaten ruine you conjure all the kingdome to rise up against them and magnifie those disobedient spirits which hitherto have stood it out in defiance of them and seeme content in case their lives might runne an hazard to foregoe your owne For likening them unto the builders of the Tower of Babel p. 32. you doe thus proceede But as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so O Lord. p. 33. And more then so you tell us also by what meanes it shall come to passe viz. that it shall rise as it were from beneath them whereas their height seemes to secure them from all danger as trampling all things under feete c. yet by that which seemeth to them most contemptible shall they fall from that which is below them shall their calamity arise p. 97. However to make all things sure you stirre both heaven and earth against them You let the nobility to understand that if we sit downe thus and hide us under the hatches whilest the Romish Pirats doe surprize us and cut our throates c. What Volumes will be sufficient to chronicle to posterity the basenesse of degenerous English spirits become so unchristianized as to set up antichrist above Christ and his annointed and to suffer our selves to be cheated and nose-wiped of our religion lawes liberties and all our glories and that by a sort of bold Romish mountebankes and juglers p. 20. What then advise you to be done that in the name of Christ they rouze up their noble and christian zeale and magnanimous courage for the truth and now sticke close to God and the King in helping the Lord and his annointed against the mighty p. 23. In your addresse unto the Iudges you conjure them thus For Gods sake therefore sith his Majesty hath committed unto you the sword of Iustice
draw it forth to defend the lawes against such innovators who as much as in them lieth divide betweene the King and the people p. 31. In that from Ipswich you and your brethren in that made it call out upon the nation generally saying O England England if ever thou wilt bee free from Pests and Iudgements take notice of these thy Antichristian prelates desperate practises innovations and Popish designes to bewaile oppose redresse them with all thy force and power Then those of the better sort O all you English Courtiers Nobles and others who have any love or sparke of religion piety zeale any tendernesse of his Majesties honour or care for the Churches Peoples or the Kingdomes safety yet remaining within your generous brests put to your helping hands and prayers to rescue our religion faithfull Ministers now suspended from the jawes of these devouring wolves and tyrannizing Lordly Prelates c. All sorts of people thus implored to promote the cause you labour to perswade the King in your Epistle Dedicatory before the Pasquill how deepely he is ingaged to close with God and his good subjects against all these innovators and disturbers of the peace and distracters of the vnity of his kingdome especially considering whose Vice-gerent he is and before whose woefull Tribunall hee must give a strict accompt how hee hath mannaged so weighty a charge in the Epistle to your Apologie Finally in your Pasquill p. 141. You tell us how it doth concerne our gracious Soveraigne our Nobles and Magistrates of the land to strengthen their hands with judgement and justice to cut of these workers of iniquity and to roote them out of the confines and limits of the Kingdome c. applying so to them a passage in the booke of prayers for the Gunpowder day intended by the Church against all such as are so treacherously affected as those traytors were Here is enough a man would thinke to effect the businesse yet this is not all For should there come a Parliament you would adventure your owne life to make sure worke on 't Assuring us that if it were a law in England as once amongst the Locrians that whosoever would propound a new law should come with an halter about his necke that if it pleased not the Senate the hangman was ready to doe his office and that if opportunity served you would come with an halter about your necke with this proposition that it would please the great Senate of this land to take into their sad consideration whether upon such woefull experience it were not both more honorable to the King and more safe for his kingdome c. That the Lordly prelacy were turned into such a godly government as might suite better with Gods word and Christs sweet yoke p. 109.110 Nay so transcendent is your malice that you propose a speedy execution of them as the only remedy to divert Gods judgements for thus you state the question in the newes from Ipswich Is it not then high time for his Majesty to hang up such Arch traytors to our faith Church Religion and such true-bred sonnes of the Romane Antichrist And anon after more expressely Certainely till his Majesty shall see these purgations rectified superstition and idolatry removed c. and hang up some of these Romish Prelates and inquisitors before the Lord as the Gibeonites once did the seaven sonnes of Saul wee can never hope to abate any of Gods Plagues c. And to the same effect in your addresse to the nobility All the world feele in what a distracted state things do stand what a cloud of divine displeasure hangs over us how ill wee thrive in our affaires c. Certainely if such be suffred to goe on thus as they doe God must needes destroy us p. 24. Finally that you may seeme to shew some compassion on them before the executioner doe his office you thus invite them to repentance Certainely hell enlargeth her selfe for you and your damnation sleepeth not if you speedily repent not p. 81. Of your Pulpit-libell Hanging and hell and all too little to appease your malice which is advanced so high that no chastizement of their persons but an utter abolition of the calling will in fine content you You may remember what you preached once at a fast in London Where pleading for reformation under Ioshua's removall of the accursed thing you told the people that the maine thing to be removed was that damnable Hierarchy of Bishops who made no matter of sincking Church and State so they might swimme in honours and worldly wealth This is the thing you aime at and so greatly long for which to effect you care not what strange course you run so you may effect it Scelus omne nefasque hac mercede placent Thus have I briefely summed together those most uncharitable and unchristian passages which every where occurre dispersed and scattered in your Pamphlets And having summed them up dare make a chalenge unto all the world to shew me if they can such a rayling Rabsakeh so sanguinarian a spirit so pestilentiall a disease in a Christian Church All the marre-Prelates and make-bates of the former times with those which have succeeded since though Masters in this art of mischiefe come so short of this that I perswade my selfe you doe condemne them in you heart as poore spirited fellowes in whom there is too much of that Christian prudence which you so deride p. 28. But I forget my first intent which was to muster up your raylings and produce them onely but not to quit you with the like though should I use you in your kinde and lay the whip on the fooles back it were a very easie errour and such as possibly might receive a faire construction Nam cujus temperantiae fuerit de Antonio querentem abstinere maledictis To speake of such a thing as you and not flie out a little were a kind of dulnesse Yet I shall hold my hand a while until we meete againe at the halfe turne where possibly I may be bold to tell you more of my opinion Meane time I hope you doe not thinke that all this barking at the Moone will make her either hide her head or chang her course or that by all this noise and clamor you can attract the Nobles Iudges Courtiers or any other to take part with you and follow those most desperate counsels which you lay before them The world is growne too well acquainted with these dotages to be moved much at them Nor could my Lords the Bishops but expect before hand what censures would be passed upon them by such tongues as yours if once they went about to suppresse your follies and to reduce the Church to that decent order from which your selfe and your accomplices have so strangely wandered Howsoever their great care deserve better recompense yet was it very proper you should doe your kinde and they may count it for an honour that such a one as your selfe