have his obedience perfect indeed the Abbot bid him thrust his naked arme into a great seething pot full of meat pull out the lowest peece of meat that was in the pot and added that if the scalding liquor did not hurt his naked arme then his obedience was perfect indeed Malmesburiensis in his second book de gestis Pontificum Anglorum in the life of Elstan saith that the Monke did doe so and his hand and arme received no harme and thereby as by a miracle his obedience was knowne to be perfect indeed In the third place they extend it to thinges wicked and ungodly Cardinall Bellarmine de Pontifice Rom. lib. 4 cap. 5. tells us that if (x) Si autem Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes malas misi vellet contra conscientiam peccare the Pope should so farre forth erre as to command vices and to forbid vertues the Church were bound to beleeve that vices are good and vertues are evill unlesse she will sinne against her owne conscience and Cardinall Cusanus excitat lib. 2. Serm. 2. excitat lib. 6. serm super respice domine de caelo vide requires every man to yeild both implicite faith blind obedience not onely to the Popes erronious doctrine but also to the erronious doctrine of his own prelate and that without any further search or inquiry after the truth (y) Quam firma est aedificatio ecclesiae quia nemo potest decipi etiam per malum praesidentem si dixeris domine obedivi tibi in praeposito hoc tibi sufficiet ad salutem Tu enim per obedientiam quam facis praeposito quem ecclesia tollerat decipi nequis etimasi praeceperit alia quam debuit praesumit enim ecclesia de illa sententia cui si tu obedieris magna erit merces tua Obedientia igitur irrationalis est consummata obedientia prefectissima scil quando obeditur sine inquisitione rationis sieut iumentum obedit domino suo how strong saith he is the building of the Church for no man can be deeeiued no not by an evill prelate If thou say unto God O Lord I have obeyed thee in my prelate this shall suffice thee unto salvation for thou canst not be deceived by thine obedience which thou yeildest unto thy prelate whom the church suffereth though he command thee other thinges than he ought to doe for the Church presumeth his sentence to be good which sentence if thou obey thy reward shall be great Obedientia igitior irrationalis est consummata obedientia perfectissima Therefore saith hee obedience unreasonable obedience without reason blind obedience is consummate and most perfect obedience that is saith he when thou obeyest thy prelate without seeking a reason even as an horse obeyeth his Master Suppose now my Lord that the Pope should teach the Church and the Bishop should teach those of his diocesse and the generall of the Jesuites should teach those of his order not such doctrine as * Defens fidie lib. 6. cap. 6. mysteria patrum Iesuit p. 159. 160. 161. Swarez teaches that it is lawfull for any man actually to depose and kill a King by the Popes sentence First excommunicaed deposed and devested of his Subjects allegiance and fealty But such doctrine as * Mr. Anthony Arnoulds plea. pag. 11. 12 Varade Principall of the Iesuites in France taught Barriere namely that to murder Henry the fourth of France though a Catholique and not excommunicate was a meritorious worke and that for that deed hee should goe straight unto Paradise or that to murder any other good King good Magistrate good man is a meritorious worke and that for that deed hee that doth it shall goe straight unto Heaven In this case according to this doctrine what were the Church the Bishops subjects and the Jesuites bound to doe onely vi mandati virtute obedientiae without any reference to those manifold subtilties distinctions and subdistinctions in the Jesuites King-killing doctrine why the Church saith Bellarmine it tied in conscience to beleeve and obey the Pope though he teach vertue to be vice and vice to be vertue otherwise she sinnes against her conscience The Bishops subjects must obey him without requiring a reason as an horse having a bridle on his head followes his Master and this saith Cusanus is perfect obedience and after the fact is done if they say unto God O Lord wee have obeyed thee in our prelate they have every one his quietus est this shall suffice them unto salvation nay their reward shall be great And the Jesuites even by their vow are bound to obey their generall even as Iesus Christ himselfe ubique in omnibus every where and in all thinges yea when he commands them to kill and murder And hereupon Campian in that one of his three (z) Generalis praepositi nostri dâ—creto quod ego tanquam mandatum caelitus missum a Christo ipso sancitum veneror Praga Romam ubi Generalis nostri perpetua sedes est Roma deinde in Angliam contendi Campian Epist prefixed before his ten reasons directed to Queene Elizabeths counsell saith that he came over into England iussu sui Generalis tanquam iussu ipsius Christi at the command of his generall as at the command of Christ himselfe and what to doe Even by his owne confession as Sir Edward Coke in Caudreys case saith to make a party for the Catholicke cause that is to withdraw the Queenes subjects from her allegiance and to reconcile them to the Church of Rome which as Sir Edward Coke there saith is treason and punishable with death by the common lawes of the Land And if any will further see the fruites and effects of this arbitrary and blind obedience let him cast his eyes upon Felton at the command of Pope Pius Quintus setting up upon the Bishop of London his gates an excommunication against his owne Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth that peerelesse Lady Let him cast his eyes upon Iacob Clement murdering King H. the 3. upon Francis Ravaillac murdering King Henry the fourth both of France And lastly upon the Gun-powder treason plotted and contrived by the advice and approbation of Henry Garnet superiour of the Jesuites here in England and of Oswold Tesmond Iohn Garrard and other Jesuites as appeares by the 2. of the third of Iames. And this is the reason my Lord that such monstrous impieties and such matchlesse villanies are done by the inferiour at the command of the superiour in the Church of Rome not in the Church of England because the Church of Rome doth approve and embrace arbitrary and blind obedience and the two parts and kinds thereof uncanonicall and anticanonicall and extends it to thinges fond and frivolous ridiculous and absurd yea wicked and ungodly which the Church of England doth utterly reject and contents her selfe with Canonicall
twenty nine chapter of Magna Charta most fully and strongly confirmed 3. Caroli by the Kings Majesty in his answer to the Commons Petition of right in these wordes let right be done as is desired according to that twenty nine chapter of Magna Charta Now what saith that twenty nine Chapter of Magna Charta No freeman saith that chapter shal be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold or liberties or free customes or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed neither will we passe upon him nor condemne him saith the King but by the lawfull iudgement of his Peeres or by the law of the land That is under your Lordships the Courts correction whose office it is to interpret statutes unlesse that party be first convicted found culpable of the breach of some law of this land by a legall proceeding either at the common law or else in some other court and whosoever shall either condemne or punish any freeborne subject of this kingdome either for his obedience to the lawes of this land or for that which is no breach of any law of this land he doth violate that twenty nine chapter of Magna Charta and for that he stands excommunicate by a double excommunication the one deliver'd publikely here in Westminster Hall (f) Tempore Bonifacii Archie◠regnante tunc in Anglia H. 3. videlicet anno Dom. 1253. Id ibus Maii. inaula Westmon 15. Epis leguntur sententiam de qua hic sit mentio fulminasse Lyndew Prov. lib. 5. tit de sententia excom cap. cum malum Parag. Item excom verbis ab omnibus Daniell in the life of H. 3. 37. Henry 3. by Bonifacius then Archbishop of Cant. assisted with 14. other Bishops all in their pontificalls and tapers in their hands which after the excommunication denounced they threw upon the ground and as they lay there smoaking they cried so let all them that incurre this sentence be extinct and stincke in hell and all this was done in the presence of the Commons Nobles yea and of the King himselfe who at the same time with a loud voyce said as God me helpe I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King crowned and anointed inviolably observe all these things and the excommunication it selfe is set downe at the end of the statutes made 52. H. 3. in the booke of statutes at large put out by judge Rastall the other is extant in the same booke at the end of the statutes made 25. Edward 1. and uttered by Robert Winchelsee Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his time both against the violaters of this renowned law of Magna Charta often confirmed not onely by the following Kings the successours of Henry the third and Edward the first but also by the Pope him selfe as appeares out of the fift booke of Lyndewodes provinciall titulo de sententia excommunicationis cap. Cum Malum parag Item excommunicatj And besides the former confirmations and excommunications the authority of Magna Charta was made sacred and inviolable as it were 25. Edward 1. first by decreeing that that charter under the Kings seale should be sent unto all the Cathedrall Churches throughout the Realme there to remaine and to bee read before the people twice a yeare And secondly by enacting that that Charter should ever after be propugnated and vindicated by the sentence of excommunication to be denounced twice a yeare by all Archbishops and Bishops in their Cathedralls against all those that by word deede or counsell did doe contrary to the foresaid charter or that in any point did breake or undoe it and if the same Bishops or any of them should be remisse in the denuntiation of the said sentence that then the Archbishops of Cant. and Yorke for the time being should compell and distraine them to the execution of their duties in forme aforesaid as appeares by the 3. and 4. chap. 25. Ed. 1. And surely my Lord those two former solemne excommunications were those other continuall semiannuall excommunications might have beene hitherto and may hereafter bee rightly and justly denounced against the violaters of this 29. chap. of Magna Charta for this 29. chapter that no free man is to be punished but for the breach of some law is good Divinity accords excellently with the word of God The Apostle Rom. 4.15 telles us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law causeth wrath that is punishment and how doth the Law cause wrath or punishment not simply singly of it selfe not observ'd but transgrest and therefore in the next words the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there is no Law there is no transgression And as where there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no law there there cannot bee any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any transgression of Law so where there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no transgression of law there there cannot be any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any fault or offence and where there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no fault or offence there there ought not to be any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any wrath or punishment Nay my Lord though there be a law yet if that law be not transgrest there cannot justly be any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any wrath or punishment At most though there may bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proposita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denuntiata wrath proposed or denounced in the Law to terrifie all persons from sinne which is nothing but the binding power of the Law yet justly there cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imposita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflicta wrath imposed or inflicted by the Judge upon any person to punish him for sinne untill the Law be transgrest and sinne committed by that person And this the Apostle Rom. 5.12 doth most acutely divinely shew by imputing the punishment partly to the Law and partly to the transgression of the law to the Law as to a just rule inflicting punishment upon the transgression to the transgression as to a meritorious cause deserving that punishment according to the just rule of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By sin which is the transgression of the law Death the wrath punishment of the law entred into the world So then my Lord this is most certainely and most undoubtedly true wheresoever there is any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any wrath or punishment any fining or imprisonment any deprivation degradation excommunication or any other censure sentence mulct or punishment whatsoever rightly and justly inflicted There there must of necessity of necessity my Lord there there must be some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some fault or offence Wheresoever there is any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any fault or offence there there must of necessity of necessity my Lord there there must be some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some transgression of Law Wheresoever there is any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any transgression of Law there there must of
obedience onely that is with such obedience as the canons require For as Bishop Bilson in his forcited treatise de perpetua Christi Ecclesiae gubernatione saith In our Church metropolitani dâ—aecesani scriptis in quaque re legibus diriguntur and againe in our Church minime sibi sumunt diaecesani ut diaecesibus suis leges constituant quod tamen presbyteriis vestris in qualibet paraecia licere contenditis He speaks against the Presbyterians sed ut quas pii principes concilia rite celebrata decreverius executioni mandari faciant And thereupon afterwards he calls the Bishops of our Church in their severall jurisdictions custodes non conditores canorum which wordes of his doe fully approve of canonicall obedience and utterly exclude all arbitrary and blind obedience out of our Church And so my Lord by the definition both of canonicall and arbitrary obedience it appeares that Canonicall obedience is such obedience as the canons require and if if it exceed the Canons never so little it is no longer Canonicall but arbitrary My fourth reason to prove that canonical obedience is such obedience as the canons require is in my apprehension of more strength and force than the three former and it is taken from the 19. and 21. chap. of 25. of Henry 8. which acts doe so limit and confine the Clergy of this land unto the canons either made by a provinciall synode in this land and confirmed by his Majesties letters patents out of his prerogative royall or else made beyond sea and received here for lawes of this land by the Kings sufferance and the subjects free consent and usage that none of the Clergy in their severall jurisdictions can goe beyond those canons without incroaching upon the supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of the Crowne and therefore the Canonicall obedience approved and required in our Church by the oath of canonicall obedience must of necessity be such obedience as those canons require because the superiour clergy cannot out of command require more nor the inferiour clergy out of obedience yeild more without prejudice to the Kings supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction This will appeare most evidently by the first of the first of Eliz. by the 19. and 21. chap. of the 25. of Henry 8. and by the oath of supremacy The first of the 1. of Elizabeth is an act to restore unto the crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall then the crowne hath a jurisdiction and an ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiastical And as the first of the first of Eliz. doth shew that the crowne hath an ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall so the 19. and 21. chap. of the 25. of Henry 8. both revived in the first of the first of Elizabeth as parts of that ancient jurisdiction of the crowne over the state Ecclesiasticall doe shew how farre that ancient jurisdiction of the crowne doth extend over the state Ecclesiasticall and they doe extend it over the whole clergy and submit the whole clergy unto it in these two points or respects First concerning canons made beyond sea and then concerning canons made in this land Concerning canons made beyond sea they so farre submit the whole Clergy unto the prerogative royall and supreme jurisdiction of the Crowne that none of the clergy in their severall jurisdictions can execute or put in use any such forreine canons untill those forreine canons are first received heere for lawes of this land by the Kings sufferance and the Subjects free consent and custome Secondly among the canons in this land formerly made they abrogate all such canons as are contrary either to the supreme jurisdiction of the Crowne or to the statutes customes or common lawes of this land and approve and establish all the rest untill they be otherwayes ordered and determined by the 32. persons there mentioned and then concerning canons hereafter to be made in this land they submit the whole clergy unto the supreme jurisdiction of the crowne in these foure particulers The first particuler is that the Clergy cannot make any canons in their severall jurisdictions but onely when they meete in a provinciall synode The second particuler is that they cannot meete in a provinciall synode untill they be first call'd thither by the Kings writ The third particuler is when the clergy are so met being so call'd and have made canons that they cannot execute or put in use nay they cannot promulge or publish any one of these canons untill those canons are first confirmed by his Majesties letters patents out of his supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction And the fourth perticular is that so farre they may goe further they cannot And then in the third place comes the oath of supremacy and that binds every Bishop every judge every Clergie-man and every other person that hath taken that oath to defend and maintaine all those foresaid particulers of the prerogative royall of the crowne over the whole Clergy For the last clause of that oath bindes every one that takes it (a) The words of the oath are to his power but they are so interpreted by the right Honorable Thomas Earle of Arundell and Surrey Earle Marshall of England and Generall of his Maiesties forces in his treatise stiled Lawes and Ordinances of warre pag 26. where he expounds the former wordes by these even to the utmost of my power and hazard of my life to the utmost of his power to defend and maintaine all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities united or annexed to the imperiall Crowne of this realme So that if any of them shall extend canonicall obedience or the oath of canonicall obedience or the archidiaconall Episcopall or Archiepiscopall jurisdiction by vertue of canonicall obedience or of the oath of canonicall obedience beyond those canons he doth incroach upon the prerogative royall of the crowne withdraw his submission from his Maiesty presume to make canons within his owne jurisdiction violate the oath of supremacy transgresse the first of the first of Elizabeth and the 19. of the 25. of Henry 8. and is therefore by that statute liable to be fined and imprison'd at the Kings pleasure And so my Lord I have by foure reasons proved that the canonicall obedience in force in our church is such obedience as the canons in force in our church doe require and that all arbitrary and blind obedience is quite excluded as a thing utterly repugnant to the word of God to the doctrine and discipline of their orthodox church to the supreme jurisdiction of the crowne and to the ancient and just libertie and freedome of every free-borne Subject And now my Lord by one syllogisme grounded upon this canonicall obedience I will acquit my selfe and all other incumbents from preaching the visitation Sermon and shew that every visiter every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop is bound to preach his owne visitation Sermon and both these by vertue of canonicall obedience so that these two wordes which the defendants have
my Parishoners because I am their spirituall father and they my spirituall sonnes to preach the Archdeacons visitation Sermon then I may likewise command them to preach either monethly or weekely in mine owne Parish and so free my selfe from both those labours and yet legally discharge them both by my Parishioners for quod quis legitime facit per alium idem est ac si faceret per se nay further then that Parson or Uicar in whose Parish sir Henry Martin did dwell dum viveret might have commanded him to have Preacht in his cure weekely or monethly and that Archdeacon Bishop and Archbishop within whose Jurisdiction Sir Henry Martin did dwell dum viveret might have commanded him to have preacht their visitation Sermon for hee was a spirituall sonne to all them as well as I am to the Archdeacon neither shall Sir Henry Martin si revivisceret interpose any limitation qualification restriction or exception to overthrow any of these consequences or collections from his major proposition but I by the same will overthrow his major proposition and free my selfe from preaching the visitation Sermon Thirdly if the foresaid proposition bee good Divininity then it will confound and make common the offices of Apostles Bishops Presbyters and Laymen which the word of God makes and all antiquity * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iggat Epistola ad Trall in and ever since the Apostles time held distinct and different The most learned Bishop Bilson in his forecited Treatise De perpetua Christi Ecclesiae gubernatione observes that there were eight things in the Apostles whereof foure were ordinary and perpetuall and foure extraordinary and temporary The foure extraordinary and temporary are these To bee sent immediately by Christ to have infallibility of judgement a power to worke miracles and to bee sent over the whole world The foure ordinary and perpetuall are these a power to preach the word to adminiminister the Sacraments to ordaine Ministers and to excommunicate All the eight were onely in the Apostles The foure ordinary and perpetuall onely in Bishops two of them namely a power to preach the word and to administer the Sacraments onely in presbyters and none of all the former in Lay men But if the former proposition be good Divinity then every parochiall Presbyter may command any of his Parishioners to do the forsaid foure ordinary workes namely to preach the word to administer the Sacraments to ordaine Ministers and to excommunicate any man both in his owne Parish and over the whole world and then every Archdeacon Bishop and Archbishop may command all them that are under their authority to doe like And so every Parish Priest Archdeacon Bishop and Archbishop shall have not onely Episcopall and Archepiscopall authority by his bare word to make licensed preachers over all England which is contrary to the Canons but also Apostolicall power to send licensed Preachers over the whole world which is the usurpation and presumption which the Pope of Rome challengeth to the prejudice of all the Bishops Archbishops and Churches of Christendome and to the diminishing of the supreame jurisdiction of all the temporall Princes through the world Whence my Lord will arise an intollerable confusion of all the foresaid functions and every lay man by the Command of his spirituall superiour shall be enabled to excommunicate any man even Kings and Princes and then surely every Clergie man may doe as much and then neither Clergie nor Laity can justly except aginst Pope Pius Quintus for excommunicating Queene Elizabeth nor against Felton for setting up that excommunication upon the Bishops of Londons gates Neither shall sir Henry Martin si revivisceret interpose any limitation qualification restriction or exception to overthrow any of these consequences or collections from his major proposition but I by the same will overthrow his major proposition and free my selfe from preaching the visitation Sermon Confutatio 4 But in the fourth place my Lord to deale gratiously and indulgently with Sir Henry Martin and not to stretch his words so farre as by true Logick sound reason and good consequence they reach but onely so farre as he intended them certainely his intent was to prove that the Archdeacon might thereby command me to preach his visitation Sermon and it was knowne unto him that I was not a licensed preacher for he together with the other Commissioners saies as much in the fift article extant in the Defendants plea and it was also knowne unto him that by the 36. 49. and 52. canons made 1. Iacobi no incumbent may preach or expound any Scripture no not in his owne cure untill he be first made a lycensed preacher either under the seale of one of the Universities or else under the hand and seale of a Bishop or an Archbishop and it was likewise known unto him that these * Graviter peccat qui obedientiam infringit praesertim si veniat contra leges sive constitutiones per superiorem rite rationabiliter editas promulgatas Lyndewode Prov. lib. 1. tit de Constitut cap. Quia incontinentiae ver obedientiae canons were made by a provinciall Synod called together by the Kings writ and confirmed by his Majesties Letters Patents out of his Prerogative Royall out of a Prerogative Royall invested in the Crowne by God himselfe acknowledged by Article by Statute by Canon nay out of a Prerogative Royall which he and I by the oath of Supremacy were both bound to the utmost of our powers to defend and maintaine So that by the former argument drawne from the fift commandement Sir Henry Martin would bring into this orthodoxe Church arbitrary or blind obedience and the worst part or kinde thereof not that onely which is uncanonicall pretercanonicall or ultra canonicall but that also which is anticanonicall or contracanonicall even contrary to the * Hic dicit Glossa Hebraica si dixerit tibi quod dextra sit sinistra vel sinistra dextra talis sâ—ntentia est tenenda quod pater manifeste falsum Quia sententia nullius hominis cuiuscunque sit authoritatis est tenenda si contineat manifeste falsitatem vel errorem Et hoc patet per id quod praemittitur in textu Indicabunt tibi iudicii veritatem Postea subdiâ—ur docuerint te iuxta legem eius Ex quo patet quod si dicant falsum declinent a lege Dei manifeste non sunt audiendi Lyran. in 17. cap. Devt Canons Statutes Articles oath of supremacy and to the word of God and thereby doth himselfe and would make me preferre the single command of my spirituall father the Archdeacon above and before the joynt command of all my spirituall fathers met in a provinciall Synod 1. Iacobi nay above the command of all the fathers gathered together in Parliament 1. Eliza. 25. Henry 8. yea before the command of the King himselfe Gods immediate deputy who is Pater patriae pater reipublicae yea and Pater Ecclesiae too
alligare raine in God and his jurisdiction and when ye doe all in the former manner regi jugum onus imponere put a yoake and a burden upon the King ye doe all eo ipso Deo jugum onus imponere put a yoke and burden upon God himselfe And how neere this comes to the cheife * D. Downeham of Anti-Christ 1. Book 5. chap. character of the man of sinne who exalts himselfe above all that is called God above God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above God by nature above God by deputation above God and Gods immediate Deputy the King I leave it to your Lordship and the Court as it was then to inquire onely not determine because in this case ye are all both parties and offenders and in both those respects incompetent Judges But now my Lord in the last place let us see whether Sir Henry Martines argument be not directly contrary to the fift commandement to the very text whence it is taken The question is whose duty it is to Preach the Archdeacons visitation sermon the Archdeacons or the incumbents Sir Henry Martin out of the fift commandement would prove it the incumbents duty to preach the Archdeacons visitation sermon and not the Archdeacons because the Archdeacon is the incumbents spirituall father and the incumbents are the Archdeacons spirituall sonnes and by the fift commandement the spirituall sonne is to teach the spirituall father and not the spirituall father his spirituall sonnes and therefore by the fift commandement the incumbents and not the Archdeacon are to Preach the Archdeacons visitation Sermon Confutatio 5 For answer hereunto it is certaine my Lord that the fift commandement speakes primarily and literally of naturall fathers and naturall sonnes and by consequence and analogy of spirituall fathers and spirituall sonnes and then if by the fift commandement it be the duty of the naturall father to teach the naturall sonne then by consequence analogy it is the duty of the spirituall father to teach the spirituall son if by the fift commandement it be the duty of the naturall son to teach the naturall father then by consequence and analogie it is the duty of the spirituall sonne to teach the spirituall father The tenne Commandements for their brevity are called ten words Deut. 4. and for that reason in Greeke the decalogue and therefore if any thing bee obscure and darke in them it is to be cleared out of the larger commentaries of Moses the prophets and the Apostles let us then see how these divine commentators resolve this question betweene the naturall father and the naturall son and between the spirituall father and the spirituall son In the 6. and 11. chapters of Deut. God commandeth the Israelites to lay up his words in their hearts and to teach them their children when they sit in their houses and when they walke by the way and when they lye downe and when they rise up and Proverbs 1. Solomon saith my sonne heare thy fathers instruction and forsake not thy mothers teaching and Ephesians the sixt chap. Saint Paul sayes Ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath 11. verse but bring them up in the instruction and information of the Lord and in the first Epistle to Tim. 2. chap. the same Apostle delivereth one text which decides the question betweene all kindes of faâ—hers and all kindes of sonnes I permit not saith hee a woman to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor to exercise or usurpe authority over the man whence it appeares that they are to teach others who have authority over others and then the naturall father is to teach the naturall sonne the spirituall father the spirituall sonne the aeconomicall father the master of the family the aeconomicall son the Magistrate the politick father the politicke sonne and not on the contrary and Saint Paul of purpose as it were interpreting the fift commandement makes this one reason why the spirituall sonne is to honour his spirituall father Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. and in this very thing consists the spirituall paternity and filiation 17. verse they are both wrought by the spirituall seede of Gods word the spirituall father begets and the spirituall son is begotten by the spirituall seede of Gods word Saint Paul telles the Corinthians I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved children I admonish you for though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ yet ye have not many fathers for in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4. and to the Gal. he saith my little children of whom I travaile in birth againe untill Christ be formed in you 14.15 verse Gal. 4.19 and how is that done why by preaching the Gospel Gal. 3.1 And therefore my Lord seeing Sir Henry Martin by his chimicall interpretation will extract the contrary out of the fift commandement make it every spirituall sonnes duty to teach his spirituall father the Parishioners duty to teach the incumbents the incumbents duty to teach the Archdeacon the Archdeacons duty to teach the Bishop the Bishops duty to teach the Archbishop the Archbishops duty to teach the Patriarches the Patriarches duty to teach the Apostles the Apostles duty to teach Christ and Christs duty to teach God I thinke I may truly say that Sir Henry Martin hath found out that in this commandement which God never put into it just as Anah found out Mules in the wildernesse as hee kept his father Zibeons Asses Gen. 36. the one found out a creature which God never made the other a sence which God never intended And therefore seeing so eminent a man so transcendent a lawyer who was vox legis lex legis rex legis and Deus legis a kind of omnipotent Lawyer who could creare legem de non sege annihilare legem in non legem could not yet find out any one good argument either in the civill or canon Law no nor in the word of God neither nisi afferat sensum ad scripturam and such a sence as is repugnant both to the analogy of the place and of faith too I thinke it is more than probable that neither the canon civill or divine law will afford my adversaries any one good argument against me in this whole controversie The second Argument The Defendants second Argument my Lord is taken from custome they say it is the custome that the Incumbents should preach the Arch-deacons Visitation Sermon And this they say both in their third Article and in the first part of their first finall sentence extant in their Plea And in speeding the Commission at Canterbury they brought up ten or twelve Processes to prove this custome But after they had brought them up they durst not so much as shew them either at informations or at the finall hearing of the