A DECLARATION DEMONSTRATING AND INFALLIBLY PROVING That all Malignants whether they be Prelates Popish-Cavaleers with all other ill-affected Persons are enemies to GOD and the KING Who desire the suppression of the Gospel the advancement of superstition the diminution of the Kings Prerogative and Authority with the oppression of the Subject All which is evinced by strong Proofes and sufficient Reasons By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick LONDON Printed in the Yeare MDCXLIII The simply Portrareture of Mr John Bastwick Dr of Phisick sate Captayne of a foote Company A Declaration of Iohn Bastwick Doctor of Physick infallibly proving that all who desire the suppression of the Gospel the advancement of superstition c. are enemies to God and the King THe said Defendant saving and reserving to himselfe now and at all times hereafter all advantages and benefits of exceptions to the incertainty and insufficiencie and other imperfections of the said Information For answer thereunto so far forth as concernes the said Defendant he saith He doth with all thankfulnesse acknowledge his Majesties great care and zeale at all times for the maintenance and defence of the true Christian faith and Religion and the service of Almighty God love charity and concord among his Subjects and withall that his people and all loyall Subjects have great cause daily to praise God for the happy government they have under him and for that they may for futurity promise unto themselves under his Royalty and Principality especially when he hath so graciously made knowne his pious intentions for the good and welfare of Church and State in that his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the causes which made him dissolve the last Parliament published by his Majesties speciall command in which Declaration pag. 21. his Majestie thus speakes For we call God to record before whom we stand That it is and alwayes hath beene our hearts desire to be found worthy of that Title which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne Defender of the Faith Neither shall we ever give way to the authorizing of any thing whereby innovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and flourished ever since c. These words and solemne protestations of our most pious King cannot but stirre up the hearts loves and affections of all his true loyall Subjects both incessantly to pray for his happy life reign and preservation and also to the utmost of their powers to yeeld all subjection obedience yea and their lives and liberties for the honour of his Crowne and Dignity in the number of which Subjects the said Defendant professeth himselfe to be being willing and ready at all times and upon all occasions not onely to lose his liberty livelihood and estate but millions of lives if he had them in defence of his Empire and Prerogative Royall and doth againe and againe acknowledge and that with the thankfulnesse his renowned Highnesses zeal and care for the maintenance of the true Religion love charity and concord amongst his Subjects and beseech the King of kings and Lord of lords long to continue him among us and to put into his royall heart to remove all scandals in Church and State which have beene such hinderances of the propagation of the Christian Faith and true Religion established in his Majesties kingdoms of the which he is Defender in his dominions and the right instruction of the people in the same who alone are most of the Prelates in generall and the Arch-Prelates in speciall being so farre from seeking the right and due instruction of the people in the true Christian Faith and Religion as the Information would infer as they spend their whole endeavours to take away all the possibility and meanes of instruction which is the preaching of the word that is onely able to save our soules and without which no man can beleeve or come to life eternall as thousand places in sacred Writ witnesse and among other that in the 26. of the Acts where Christ saith unto Paul Rise and stand upon thy feet For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and witnesse both of the things which thou hast seene and of those things in which I will appeare unto thee delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me And Paul was not disobedient to this heavenly vision but preached unto all men that they should repent and turne to God and do workes meet for repentance And this was and is the onely way that God hath appointed to save our soules by for Faith commeth onely by hearing and this preaching was all that Paul did I came not to baptise saith he but to preach the Gospel so that preaching is the effect of all the ordinances and in another place he saith Wo be me if I preach not the Gospel And in the sixth of the Acts the Apostles told the Church That it was not reason that they should leave the word of God and serve tables and therefore they resolved continually to give themselves to prayer and to the ministery of the Word And in the 4. of the Acts when the Rulers commanded Peter and John not to speak nor teach in the Name of Jesus They answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye for we cannot but speake the things which we have heard Here we see the whole office and care of the Apostles was to preach the Gospel and this is onely the work taske and duty of Ministers to publish the same word of life And Paul set his owne example before them for his sedulity in preaching day and night and commands them to follow him in that and chargeth Timothie and Titus and all Ministers in them to be instant in season and out of season in preaching the Word and they that neglect that duty are no Ministers of Christ nor of the Gospell Yea the Bishops themselves and all their Priests as they call them as we may see in the Booke of Ordinations solemnely promise before God and the Church that they will be diligent in the preaching of the Word of God and publishing of the Gospel And for the better stirring of them up to that Duty and Office they reade the 20. Chapter of the Acts concerning the charge that was given the Elders and Bishops of Ephesus for their diligent preaching of the Gospel And in most of all their Prayers before their Sermons they beseech God to blesse the two fountaines of all learning in this kingdome and that he would
they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and
of Baptisme children promise there by their God-Fathers and God-mothers or they doe it for the children to be Baptized that they will forsake the Devill and all his workes the pompes and vanities of this wicked world and are there signed with the signe of the Crosse that innocent Ceremonie as they call it that he shall continue Christs faithfull Souldier and fight under his Banner all the dayes of his life against the World the Flesh and the Devill by the which promise he is bound to the utmost of his power alwayes to oppose all errours wickednesse and prophanenesse Now if any in conscience of his promise either speake or write in defence of the truth as it ought to be defended or if he doe but put in practice that which he hath promised in opposing of Errour Superstition Prophanenesse Idolatrie or the iniquities of the times the Prelates severely punish them for it as their dayly proceedings witnesse and if this be not a daring cruelty also and great injustice there is none exercised upon the earth for what is injustice and cruelty if punishing of men for doing their duty and keeping their promise and performing that which the Prelates themselves have tied them to by speciall promise be not They teach all Christians in another Ceremonie of standing up at the Gospel and at Gloria Patri and at the Creed to shew their readinesse and promptitude in fighting for the faith of Jesus and their holy Religion against Heresie Poperie and all Innovations all which our Gracious King declares himselfe that hee will never allow of or suffer and the neglect of this Ceremonie will cost a man an undoing Now if any being taught by this Ceremonie come forth to the combat and but oppose themselves against Popery Errours or Innovations in defence of the Faith and the honour of their King they are punished most severely for it by the Prelates both in the high Commission and other Courts and Bils and Informations and Articles are exhibited and made against them as evill doers and troublers of the State and all for doing that they teach them by their Ceremonies and binde them by promises and oath to do which is Hyperbolicall tyrannie injustice and cruelty in those reverend Fathers It seemes they would have Christians like Saint George a horsebacke ever mounted but never moving and if they doe chance to stirre or dare be so bold as to move they immediately are cast downe and breake either their eares or their noses or their foreheads and it may be they are also whipped to the bargaine for being so bold some mischiefe for the most part followes their endeavours and that for doing their duty and that which they were taught by Ceremonies and is not this arrogant tyrannie cruelty and injustice in the Prelates to punish and that severely both the neglect and the doing also of their duty and that they are injoyned to doe Without all doubt there is no such cruelty in the world as is dayly practised by the Prelates and in their Courts of the which there might mightie Volumes be made but the Defendant hath instanced in these few things onely because they are knowne to most men and obvious every day and the Defendants condition and his cause can sufficiently witnesse their unrighteous dealings and that in divers respects for they dealt with him against the very light and law of nature and as they would not be done by to make him accuse himselfe to admit his sworne and capitall enemies and which first informed them against him out of meere malice as was proved by many to be prosecutors and witnesses against him yea to speake as it is that the Prelates themselves should be Accusers Parties Witnesses Jury and Judge in their owne Cause as they were this the Defendant saith is unrighteous dealing to which may be added the defending of the Popes quarrell to condemne him for one thing and putting those things likewise in the Records of the Court for which by the whole Court he was freed from As for example the Defendant was condemned onely for his book now in the order of the Court or Sentence it is put in that he was condemned for the other things also which howsoever they were in themselves very ridiculous yet it is great injustice to superadde them and so to deal with him Neither is that a small part of injustice to punish and condemne the innocent and justifie the wicked both which are an abomination to the Lord. Now they condemned the Defendant for writing against the Pope and adjudged his Booke to be burnt and justified his adversaries and Choâ—ny who writ in defence of the Church of Rome and it is their dayly practice to condemne bookes that are writ for the Honour of Religion accusing them to be factious pamphlets but Bookes that are writ for the advancement of Popery and Superstition and in defence of the Pontificalitie of Prelates and the magnification of the Church of Rome to the trampling downe of Regall Au hority and for the murdering and killing of Kings for the bringing in of Innovations into a Kingdome and for suppressing of true Religion many of which are not to be named of these Bookes a man may buy shipfulls of them in Pauls Church yard all which tend to the ruine of the Kingdome and perverting of Religion and the seducing of the Kings good Subjects And all other Bookes of Arminians Sosinians and a thousand such blasphemous treatises are bought and sold publikely in every Stationers shop with the Prelates very good liking And the greatest enemies of the truth such as Bellarmine Baronius Tyrrian Cajetan are not onely publickly vented but are before the King and in the Universities and indeed in every Pulpit magnified with glorious titles as the learned Cardinal incomparable Bellarmine those grand impostors and perverters of the wayes of God and such as have abused King JAMES of Famous memory and blasphemously defamed our most Holy Religion All these Authours and many more with their Bookes the Defendant saith are daily approved of and commended by the Prelates and such as extoll the Church of Rome patronized by them and maintained And what is it then to advance Popery if all these doings of the Prelates be not and what is it to favour prophanesse and irreligion if the punishing and silencing of those that write and speake against the iniquity of the times be not let all men judge of this with serious reason and they will soon perceive that in this accusation of the Prelates the Defendant hath no way wronged them And for their intemperance and want of wit it is notoriously also known who raile most shamefully and unhumanely upon all honest men that come before them as their very speeches in their censure may witnesse Judges of old were wont to give Sentence in lesse matters being full of compassion with teares in their eyes neither do we read of any Judges since Christs time but of Ananias the High
fellow in his Kingdoms that will suffer his Imperiall Majestie to be trampled upon the suffer it in silence For his own part this Defendant confesseth that he is but poor and the Prelates have made him so but as rich in Loyalty as any Subject in his Highnesses three Dominions and as Iob said concerning God though the Lord should kill him yet he would trust in him so this Defendant saith Though the King should leave him to the mercylesse fury of the Prelats yet he will ever honour him with his ife and all that ever he hath and as he was borne under obedience under obedience he will die and will ever say vivat Rex let the King live for ever and our gracious God put it into his Royall breast to look into the devilish plots of the Prelates that doe not onely equalize the painted Tombes in Christs time but far exceed them in cruelty and wickednesse This he is resolved living and dying to doe invito Diabolo to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods for he is bound to this duty by Christ himselfe neither will he ever rebell against his blessed will Now the things that belong unto God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and by whom alone kings raigne is an absolute command and Soveraignty over his Church and who requires of all his Subjects that they should love him with all their hearts with all their Soules and with all their mights and that they should not serve him by any of their own inventions And for the manner of his worship he hath abundantly declared it in Sacred Writ And Saint Paul writing unto Titus warnes him sharply to rebuke his auditors that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed unto the commandments of men that turne from the truth and chargeth the Corinthians that they should not be servants of men nor wise above that which is written and sayes unto the Colossians wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Why as though living in the world are ye subject unto ordinances and Christ himself saith In vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men By all which it is manifest if Christians will give unto God that which is his and will not worship Him in vaine as they must love him with all their hearts so he onely must rule in them and they must give him his own worship and such service onely both for matter and manner as he requires at their hands and commands from them and not serve him according to mens precepts and devices for in his worship they must not be the servants of men for he is the onely King and Lawgiver in his Church and this is his prerogative Royall which no man may meddle with and this is to give unto God that which is Gods and this duty he the Defendant saith all Christians are bound unto Againe for all Subjects duties toward the King the Defendant saith that must also freely and willingly be yeelded and that by speciall precepts for they are commanded to fear God and honour the King and to be subject unto his Authority in all things in the Lord and to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars Now in regard of his duty both to God and the King and also of his speciall Oath of allegiance the Defendant saith he could do no lesse then that which he did in writing his book being provoked thereunto by an enemy of both And so much the rather because himself and all Christians are commanded to give a reason of their hope to whomsoever shal demand it of them earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints he saith in all these respects he could do no lesse in answering that Popeling then that he did by giving unto God the right of his government in the hearts and consciences of men and taking it from the Pope that Vicar rather of hell then of Christ and by giving the King that jurisdiction and authority of regiment in his Dominions and over his Subjects which God hath conferred upon him Both which Authorities Spirituall and Temporall the Pope and Popish Bishops most blasphemously arrogate unto themselves trampling all Divine Lawes and Kinglie regality under their polluted feet making Kings and Emperours their Vassals which is a most horrible arrogancy and usurpation and not to be suffered by either Kings or their Subjects And therefore when this Defendant did nothing but that which by his speciall duty he was bound unto If this by the Informers be thought either Schisme Faction or Sedition he this Defendant is resolved to live and die in it and never to think any a good Subject that is not of his minde He doth withall freely confesse unto this honourable Court that he looked for no ill usage of the Prelates for this his indeavour which when he found at their hands it was the occasion of the writing of many other books since that time amongst the which there is one called Apologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos c. Dedicated unto the privie Counsell but whether the book that is annexed unto the Bill be the same that the Defendant knoweth not but a book with that Title he confesseth he writ wherein he set downe the proceedings of the Prelates against himself and their dealings towards other of their brethren the theame of which book he the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take a briefe relation of at this time that they may the better be informed of the falsity of the Information And first for the principall theame and matter of the booke it is the State of the questions in his Flagello Pontificis for which he suffered with the summe of the Arguments he produced for the confirmation of the truth The questions arising between the Babylonian and the Defendant concerning the authority of the Pope were these The first whether Christ did constitute Peter sole Monarch of the Catholick Church The second whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop hath Authority and jurisdiction over Kings and Emperors Thirdly whether Popish Bishops be true Bishops or no and of the discussing of these questions the Defendant saith his adversary was the sole cause In the handling of the which the Defendant further affirmeth that he used all the caution that was possible as he supposed for man to use prefacing in his book that being to dispute about the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he desired candidly to be understood of all men for while he disputed of Episcopall Authority he medled nor contended not against such Bishops as acknowledge their Authority and jurisdiction from Kings and Emperours into whose hands the government of States Kingdomes and Common-wealths is by God committed For if the Popes themselves would acknowledge their immense and unlimited authority from Kings and Emperors he the
Bishops and with their owne Arguments wounded them And therefore he could not but take it unkindly that when in this combat they should have helped him against the common enemy they defending him fell upon the poore Defendant to his perdition saying that he meant them that he was erronious and factious in his opinions Now if the Defendant hath erred in the discussing of these truths the Scripture that word of life hath brought him to it which were blasphemy to thinke and therefore when they adjudged this booke to be burnt they might as well have burnt the Scripture also yea all antiquity and the gravest and learnedst of ancient Fathers whose testimonies also he hath made publicke for the greater vindication of the truth against errour and cruelty But that the integrity of the Defendant may yet more clearly appeare he most humbly entreateth this Illustrious Tribunall to heare how the businesse was carried against him at his Arraignment before the Prelates Barre at Lambeth and how submissively he demeaned himself these and how superciliously they carried themselves towards the Defendant on the contrary side When it came to his part to speake for himselfe the Advocate having formerly denied to plead his case any farther then about the witnesses testimonie which he also did very jejunely being an Advocate of such excellent parts of learning and eloquence as he was and also at the Bar renouncing it saying That the Defendant should plead himselfe which when it was put upon him he then first related unto the Assembly the Theame of the booke which was the maintenance of the Kings Prerogative royall Then he told them the occasion of his writing of it that he was provoked thereunto by a Pontifician who often had dared him into the list of dispute which at last he could not deny as he was a Christian and as he was a Subject for by the Word of God he told them and by the Law of the land and his speciall oath he was bound unto it which oath he also read at large in open Court the which also all the Bishops of England and all the Judges of the kingdome had taken and were equally bound with him to observe Then before he entered into the combat with the adversary he showed what caution he used that being to write against the Bishop of Rome and Italian Bishops it was onely as they arrogate their authority over their brethren and the Church of God yea over Kings and Emperours jure divino against such Bishops onely he affirmed he did dispute and read the words of exception formerly cited at the Barre as for such Bishops as acknowledge their jurisdiction power and authority from Kings and Emperours he said he had no controversie against them as he there againe and againe declared himself in the number of which he the Defendant said ours were for all the Bishops of England and in his Majesties Dominions had and received or at least wise ought so to do their authority and jurisdiction over their brethren from him For proofe of which he cited and read publickly the Statutes and Acts of Parliament as follow First that of the first of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein the Oath of Allegiance was ratifyed in the which Statute there are these words That all jurisdiction all Superiorities and all Priviledges and preeminencies spiritual and temporall are annexed to the imperiall Crown which by Oath he being bound to maintaine could do no lesse being provoked by an adversary of regall dignity He read also the Statute which was inacted in the 37. of Henry the eight which is That Archbishops and Bishops and all other Ecclesiasticall persons have no other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which they received and had by the King from the King and under his Royall Majestie He read also the Statute made in the first of King Edward the sixt in these words That all jurisdiction and Authority spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth come from the Kings Majestie as supreme head in the churches and Kingdoms of England and Ireland and that by the Clergie of both the Kingdomes it ought no otherwise to be held or esteemed of and that all Ecclesiasticall Courts within the said Kingdomes ought to be held and kept by no other power and Authority either domesticall or forrain then that which comes from his most excellent Majestie And that whosoever did not acknowledge and venerate this authority that the same men are ipso facto in a praemunire and under the Kings high displeasure and indignation as the words of the Statute run and the mouth of the law speaks and then with some reason also which the Defendant produced besides the Word of God he shewed That no Romish Bishops had authority over their fellow brethren nor could jure divino challenge it much lesse over Kings and Emperors and therefore so long as the Defendant had the word of God the Laws of the Kingdom and reason it self on his side he told them he thought himself reasonably secure from all danger in that place And then applying his speech unto the right Honourable and noble Lord the Earle of Dorset then present the Defendant told his honour that he could not but wonder that he should stand there at the Bar as a Delinquent for maintaining the Religion established by publick Authority the honour of the King and the glory of his Majesty and that one Chouny a Sussex man a laick as well as himself should write a book and set it forth by publick authority maintaining the Church of Rome to be a true Church and never to have had so much in her as the suspition of error in fundamentall points and that this book should be dedicated to the Prelate of Canterbury and patronized by him which book the Defendant both read and exhibited in Court by which notwithstanding the King himself and all his Subjects were made Shismaticks and hereticks to the infinite dishonour of God our Gracious King and King Iames of blessed memory and our most holy profession and Religion This as the Defendant told the Lord of Dorset struck an amazement in him and especially when the authour of it must be favoured and countenanced by Canterburie and for the defending of the honour and dignity of our church and the honour of the King the Defendant should stand as an evil doer Now when the Defendant was come thus far was then approaching more closely unto them all intending more fully in the pleading of his cause to have set forth their unjust dealing they told him that he railed and Imperiously commanded him to hold his peace which was the reason of his Apologericus ad Praesules Anglicanos where he took liberty to write that and publish it to the view of all the world which he would have then spoke But after they had silenced him they then fell a thundering against him every one as he pleased all of them joyning in this one onely excepted that
all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent
the Saduces saying Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 12. verse 24. and indeed from the ignorance of the Scriptures commeth all error they that follow the Scripture for their guide can never stray or straggle from the right way neither have they need to borrow the candle of the Fathers to be directed by so long as the glorious Sun of the word shineth so clearly and it was the eternall praise and commendations of the more Noble Bereans that they did dayly search the Scriptures whether the things the Apostles taught were so or no. Acts 17. verse 11. and Paul is greatly honoured with this applause in the 26. of the Acts verse 22. that he taught no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come to passe And so Christ taught his Apostles Luke 24. that all things ought to be fulfilled concerning him which were writ in Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes So that the Scriptures alone are the Foundation of all our religion and to say that the meaning of the Scriptures cannot be known without the Fathers is an unsufferable wickednesse done unto that holy booke and an infinite contempt and disgrace of it to say it hath need of the aid of man to support it Christ vanquished the Devill by the Scriptures Matth. 4. drove away the Saduces Matth. 22. and Saint Iames by the Scriptures put an end unto the great controversie of the Churches at Jerusalem and set the Churches of the Gentiles free for ever from all Ceremonies whatsoever but those God himselfe had appointed Acts 15. and onely by the Scriptures did Paul resolve all questions So that according to Gods owne instruction and direction which must ever be obeyed and listened unto the Scriptures onely and solely must be the Judge Law Square and Rule of all our Religion Words and actions Not the authority of the Fathers not the traditions of men not the practice and custome of the ancient and the name of Antiquity For they that shall preferre those things before the Word of God or at least affirme that these holy Oracles divine Records cannot be understood without the Fathers do not onely blasphemously disgrace and contemne the holy Scriptures but neglect the great Prophet whom we ought to heare in all things so that listening unto the voice of men before the words of this great Prophet and accusing the Scriptures of obscurity and saying they are the refuge of all Schismatickes and Heretickes is great impiety against God and most injurious to the holy Scriptures All which the Prelates being so highly guilty of the Defendant will never be afraid to charge them with it that they are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture withall that they are very ungratefull to the King their Master and invaders of his Prerogative Royall all which he shall make also evidently appeare to this honourable Court and how unworthily yea prophanely they have abused not onely the King their now Soveraign but his Most excellent Father of pious memory And that they are invaders of his Prerogative it is most certaine not onely by the Statutes and Lawes of the Kingdome but by this very information For by the Lawes and Statutes specified before with many others it in solemnly inacted That whatsoever Authority is here exercised under the King in his Dominions whether it be Spirituall or Temporall whether by Archbishops Bishops or any other Ecclesiasticall men it is meerly in by and from the King and so ought to be acknowledged and that all jurisdictions superiorities all priviledges and preeminencies spirituall and Ecclesicall are annexed unto the Imperiall Crowne and so to be acknowledged And whosoever doth not acknowledge that all jurisdicton and Authority both Spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth flow immediately from the Kings Majestie as Supreme head under Christ in these Churches and in his Kingdomes as the Statutes declare at large is ipso facto in a praemunire and under his Majesties high displeasure For it is the Prerogative of Princes and the priviledge that onely agrees to Kings and Potentates to be absolute in their Dominions and that all other jurisdictions and superiorityes exercised by any other in their Kingdoms are derived from them and that of themselves they have none but as from the Kings So that it is arbitrary and in the Princes power to have or not to have such jurisdictions and preeminencies under them And that they may abdicate or annihilate them when they please And whosoever shall deny this or claime any right of Government to themselves in Princes Dominions jure Divino are Delinquents against their Kings and Masters and by our Lawes and Statutes they are proclaimed enemies of the King and his Prerogative Royall and that is true the mouth of the Law hath spake it And therefore the Defendants book cannot be called a Libell without the Lawes first be proclaimed such for the Lawes say That all such persons as shall challenge any Authority to themselves in his Majesties Dominions but from the King are Delinquents against his Majestie and invaders of his prerogative Royall and his Highnesses enemies and so they are Now that the Prelates are such they sufficiently declared it in the censure of the Defendant For he reading the Statutes at the Bar they notwithstanding affirmed that they had not their Authority and jurisdiction from the King but that Jesus Christ made them Bishops and bestowed their Authority upon them and that they were jure Divino and that they were before Christian Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads for no Bishop no King and all this in a publick Court of Judicature and in a most crouded assembly So that it seemeth the King is beholding to them and not they to his Majestie And if this be not to invade the Prerogative and to be enemies of it and to be ungratefull unto his Highnesse the Defendant knoweth not what it is to be enemies of the prerogative The Lawes say it and therefore if the Defendant hath erred the Lawes have brought him into this error Neither did the Prelates own words at the Bar onely declare their disloyalty to the King and their independency on him but this very information which comes from the Prelates in the name of the Attorney Generall sufficiently demonstrates it For in it the Defendant is accused as guilty of a great crime for writing against the Hierarchy and preferring a Presbyterian parity before the Sacred Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons What the Defendant hath writ and the occasion of it concerning the Presbytery the honourable Court hath been informed in part and withall if so writing be libellous and the Defendant have erred in it the Holy Scripture is also libellous which were impiety to thinke and hath been the cause of it from which he varied nothing at all in that discourse and further the Defendant resolveth to live and die in that error concerning the parity of Ministers and Presbyters which
he is ready to prove and make good against all the host of Prelates Doctors Proctors Commissaries Officials and Surrogats this day living But the thing that the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take notice of is the contumacy of the Prelates for they call their Hierarchy and the Orders of their Bishops Priests and Deacons Sacred which if it be granted and so be indeed then the Prelates are from God and not from the King of whom they have no dependence For speaking of the King we say His Sacred Majesty because God himself hath appointed him over us for by me saith God Kings reigne and all Authority is from God and Kings are called Gods so that Kings are Sacred Persons But that the Hierarchy should be sacred and that there should be a holy Principality of Pastors and Ministers the prime and forman of which should have the Keys of Heaven Earth and Hell and that he should dispose of Kingdomes and Empires and make the greatest Potentates and Rulers his Subjects and Vassals and should have his domineering servants under him in all Common-wealths and Princes Courts to pry into their Royall proceedings to their revenues riches and treasuries to know their powers their allyes and confederates and be Counsellors of their most secret admission and should have an authority and jurisdiction independent over their Subjects and Lawes and Canons of their own making to rule by and by them to persecute and undoe them at pleasure in the number of which are Cardinals Patriarchs Prime-mates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and innumerable such like vermin a member of which monstrous body our Hierarchy is the Defendant saith this is not knowne in Sacred Writ nor never came from God but rather from the Pope and the Devill Diabolus cacavit illos Yea the Word of God is absolutely against it And that our Arch-Bishops Prime-mates and Metropolitans are members of that body let not onely our Martyrs writings and speeches and Henry Stubbridge his exhortary Epistle but even Masons booke be looked into concerning the Succession of Bishops and it will be found That he derives their Pedigree from Rome and so doth Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath wherein he saith that our Prelates are lineally descended from Saint Peters Chaire at Rome they being therefore a branch of that Synagogue and standing by the same authority the Pope pretends to stand which is as they all challenge jure Divino they are enemies to the King and invaders of his prerogative and so they are justly guilty of all those crimes they accuse the Pope of and as great enemies of God as he is all which the Defendant hath sufficiently proved in his Apology For they challenge their Authority jure Divino and say That Jesus Christ made them Bishops and the holy Ghost consecrated them and that they were before Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and the Pope sayes no more They call also their Hierarchy Sacred The Pope doth no more and for the erecting of this Sacred Hierarchy Emperors and Kings must be thrust down and made vassals of and all Kingdomes that are under their jurisdiction made slaves to it and all those stinking slavelings that depend upon it as the whole Christian world by wofull experience dayly findeth But this same tearme of Sacred Hierarchy and Sacred orders of Prelates ought here a little to be discussed That which is Sacred is from God But the Hierarchy is not from God Ergo it is not Sacred For the minor it is evident that which God hath peremptorily forbid to his Ministers and Servants and is an enemy to that is not of God and by his institution but he hath forbid Lordly dominion to all the Ministers of the Gospel saying The Princes of the Gentiles bear rule over them but it shall not be so among you you shall not Lord it over your Brethren Ergo the Hierarchy is not of God but of the Devill that is the cause of all disorder and ignorance For God forbad his Apostles and in them all Ministers to be Lords over one another and set his own example before them of service and commanded them to immitate him and to be humble and meek and told them plainly That the office of Principality and dominion belonged unto Kings and Princes and that their imployments consisted in their obedience to Kings in praying for them that they might live in all godly peace under them and that they should diligently feed the flock of Jesus Christ committed to their charge in season and out of season as they love him and will answere it at his last appearing and this was all the businesse that Christs ministers and Servants were to be taken up in they were not to be intangled with the things and affairs of this life not to be incumbred with worldly matters they have speciall commands and presidents to the contrary and their charge and duty assigned unto them from which station they must not go which is onely to feed the flock with all care and diligence with the sincere milke of the Word to preach unto them day and night and to goe before them in godly and holy example and to neglect this and to be taken up with domination and overruling their brethren and beating their fellow servants is to be Rebels against Christ and to usurp that which belongeth not unto them and which they ought not to meddle with and therefore when the Prelates doe not onely eate up and devour this forbidden fruit but challenge a right unto it from God himselfe and say they have no depencie from the King the Defendant maintaineth that it is intollerable arrogancie against God and the King and by which they are Delinquents in an elevated degree of contumacie against them both What an horrible impudencie is this in the Prelates or any Subject that vindicates their quarrell that they dare call the Hierarchie sacred especially when they derive it from Rome Whom King IAMES of Famous memory calls Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and can any man thinke that those that are lineally descended from Babylon and Antichrist that great enemy of Christ his Kingdome and Members can be Holy and Sacred Certainly if the fountaine be not holy the streames cannot be holy Yea King Iames is very large in that his Book to all Christian Princes in discovering the impiety of the Hierarchy of Rome and proves the Pope to be that man of Sin and all the Prelates of that Sea to be the Frogs that came out of the bottomlesse pit For the Nature of Frogs they being Amphibia is to live upon the Earth and in the water Now King Iames saith That the Prelates are the Frogs for they seeme to be Church men and are ever medling in States affaires creeping out of their stinking gutters and are such mighty busie bodies in other mens matters as they trouble all the Nations and Kingdoms where they dwell and inslave them all So that if
the Hierarchy be sacred and the Prelates be the chief members of it then they are a generation of sacred frogs the holinesse notwithstanding of the which is such as few mens impiety is greater or more dangerous to Church and State and their usurpation upon both authorities deserving severely to be punished especially for that they so abuse his sacred Majesties authority in oppressing his poore subjects and trampling upon his Prerogative so that to any eye of understanding it may sufficiently appear by that the Defendant hath said that the Prelates are not only contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture but also invaders of the Kings Prerogative Royall and enemies of his Imperiall Dignity It yet remaines to prove also that they have farther dishonoured the King their Master and King James of famous memory yea our most holy Religion and Profession and all this in the Defendants Censure For what any one of the Prelates did all the other assented to they being one Body and it was the action of them all though acted in the person of the Prelate of Canterbury which was this to magnifie the Church of Rome and defend the purity of her Doctrine affirming openly that she never erred in fundamentall points and was a true Church as much as to proclaime the King and all his Subj cts Schismatickes and Heretickes and that by the mouth of the Prelate of Canterbury which the Defendant saith is not onely injurious to the King their Master but to King Iames of famous memory his renowned Father with whom for piety and learning all the Prelates together are not to be named the same yeare his Royall excrements are mentioned King Iames that glorious and learned Prince in his Apologie to all Christian Princes and States proves the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist and the man of Sin by many unanswerable Arguments He proves likewise the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon for her abominations Spirituall Sodom for her filthinesse and uncleannesse Spirituall Egypt for her inslaving the Saints and Servants of God and all this he evinceth by irrefragable authority and thus taught he the whole world his Royall Son and all his subjects and perswaded all Christian Princes to come out of Babylon and to shake off the yoke of the Pope And in this faith he lived and died And this faith is King Charles his Son and our gracious Soveraigne now Defender of and all this is Orthodox Doctrine which our King did preach unto us and our Royall King now professeth and which all his Loyall Subjects to God and his Majestie will seale with their blouds This heroicall King notwithstanding and his divine Doctrine is stamped under foot by the Prelates to the infinite dishonour of our most pious and element Prince the eternall disgrace of his most incomparable Father and the discredit indeed of the whole Church and Kingdome if not indangering the same to the great hardening of the Papists in their Hereticall wayes and the perverting of the Kings most loyall Subjects and teaching the Papists to rebell And to all this the dignity and glory of the Scripture is offuscated by their sable mouthes So that what can any man either say or thinke of this progenie of Prelates whose contumacie and rebellion reacheth to the very clouds and what can men thinke of this degenerating off-spring of this age The one that they dare against God and the King openly breathe out their blasphemies and call evill good and good evil The other that they should out of cowardise suffer their Royall King and his most excellent Father to be abused But this Defendant hopeth that this honourable Court like that noble Nehemiah with other true-hearted loyall Subjects remaining about the King will now at last informe his Majestie of the intolerable insolence of the Prelates of which he beleeveth they were formerly ignorant or not so well acquainted and seeke by his authority for redresse against their impudencie As for this Defendant for his part he is resolved though left alone ever to say LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And although he should suffer a thousand torments from the Prelates living and dying he will ever cry LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER And let the name of his learned and transcendent Father live to perpetuity And let the enemies of the King and the Gospel perish Neither will he ever suffer to the uttermost of his power That either the Kings honour or the dignity of his most illustrious Father or the glory of our most holy Profession or the honour of the holy Scriptures shall be contaminated or Babylon or superstition advanced in his Dominions and cruelty and injustice exercised by the Prelates over his poor Subjects and hold his peace All which evidently appeare in the daily proceedings of the Prelates in their High Commission and from their speech hourely there and their practises through the whole Kingdome Some of which he desireth in order to prove that the honourable Court may be the fuller informed that he hath not causlesly in his Apologie laid any crime unto their charge which they are not guilty of And now to proceed to the other things the Defendant is charged with viz. that he taxeth the High Commission Court of cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majestie to bloud-shed and are the upholders of idolatry superstition and profanenesse that he scandalously defameth the witnesses produced against him and that he hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the Oath ex officio and other the ancient formes of proceedings of the High Commission Court To all these the Defendant answereth as they lie And first whereas the Defendant chargeth them with cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance he conceiveth he hath very good reason for that his charge both in respect of himselfe and others and in regard both of the soules and bodies and estates of men all which they captive enslave or dissipate and scatter at pleasure and in as much as in them lies seeke the ruine of To say nothing of their dayly practices who condemne men without either exhibiting Articles producing of witnesses or any legall proceedings against them as if a man should be hanged without evidence given or indictment framed which is the height of injustice the Defendant saith that their very proceedings against himselfe sufficiently shew their cruelty injustice want of wisdome and temperance and their very speeches apparantly prove all these things Neither is there such a president of wrong and cruelty in the whole world that any man of what ranke order or degree soever he be that shall write a Booke in defence of that Religion that is established by publicke authority for the honour of the King and in defence of his Prerogative against a common enemy that for this indeavour of his should be ruined he his wife and children cast into prison deprived first of all possibility of livelihood railed upon and reviled publickly
Priest and Festus the Governour that they ever did revile those that were brought before them or give them any ill language And the one was a Jew and the other a Heathen both enemies of Christ and Christians But for Christian Judges and them Spirituall ones for such contumeliously to abuse their brethren as they did the Defendant and daily doe others and to give them over to the Devill and to perpetuall chaines for every triviall thing yea even for a misprision or a very surmise and to make a man an offender for a word and to ruine them their wives and children for such things and that with scoffes reproaches tants and mocks this the Defendant affirmeth in the Prelates is both cruelty injustice intemperance and want of wisdome and so he nothing doubteth but this honourable Court and all rationall men will judge Neither doth his gracious Majestie or this honourable Court as he truly beleeveth know how they abuse his poor Subjects neither will God take this well at their hands for it no way beseemeth those that would be thought the Fathers of the Church so to do For if we look upon Timothy and Titus whose successors they would be thought to be and the rules that they followed and were guided by we shall finde a vast difference between them Saint Paul in his second epistle to Timothy chapter 2. telleth him That the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meeknesse instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth c. And in another place the same Apostle saith A Bishop must be patient and no brawler Now when the Prelates so exorbitantly behave themselves trampling all Apostolicall Canons under their feet and so basly revile the good subjects of the King their brethren trampling also the sacred scriptures under their feet hat with as great contempt as the Papists themselves doe advancing Popery every way and the Defenders of it can any deny that these are intemperate imprudent unjust men and furtherers and upholders of Popery and whereas the Defendant is charged in the information That he accuseth the Prelates as upholders of Idolatry superstition and prophanesse and that he defameth the witnesses brought against him and hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the oath Ex officio The Defendant humbly intreateth the honourable Court that with patience they would hear his answer to these things and then he will come to the last thing that concerneth him the Letany and the occasion of the writing of it What he himself hath done he is ever resolved to seale with his best blood and to justifie and make good whatsoever he shall accuse the Prelates of Amongst the which he acknowledgeth that he chargeth them to be advancers of Popery idolatrie superstition and prophanesse And so they are as hath been already sufficiently evinced and by that which followeth shall yet more illustriously appear For what is it to advance Popery and idolatry if that the Prelates daily do it not without men will think that Popery onely that advanceth the Popes Supremacy and they Protestants onely that go no farther in opposing that Hereticall religion when that is among many Divines counted one of the least controversies in Theology between Papists and us true Catholicks Greater matters I wosse hundreds are there between us And howsoever the King blessed be God and his predecessors by the blood of their Subjects and the sacrificing of themselves have shaken off the yoake of the Pope yet his poor Subjects are under many Popes which deal worse with them then ever Popes did to Kings in the midst of their swellingst pride and arrogancy yea every parish Priest and base fellow that is but a Prelates Servant can ruine and undo the honestest man upon any information So that for the Subjects condition it is worse and they are in a far more deplorable predicament then they were in under the Pope by this change for now they have neither their consciences their liberties their purses their bodies their limbs or lives in any security but as the Prelates and their creatures please are deprived of all who seek continually for their blood and starve many of them in prisons and expose them to infinite miseries and calamityes so that they are as sheep to the slaughter slain all the day long And of their deadly crueltie against those that fear God the whole Kingdome can witnesse and how that they make theâ— every where most odious But now to the matter the Defendant chargeth the Prelates with viz. that they are advancers of Idolatry who can doubt of it that knoweth the very rudiments of Divinity or iâ— the least measure hath been acquainted with the Lawes of God For as God onely is and must be the object of all Divine worship as the first commandment teacheth for him onely we are to serue Matth. 4. as Christ also commandeth and to worship any other or to trust in any thing else is iâ—olatry in a high degree for we must love him with all our hearts and all our Soules and trust onely in him So likewise for the manner of his worship that must also be as he commandeth not as we vainely conceive For he hath said Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image or the likenesse of any thing in Heaven above or in the earth beneath thou shalt not bow down to it or worship it By which precept for the very manner of his worship it is not left to our disposing that we should after our inventions serve him Neither is he to be served any other way or by any other means then he hath in his Word prescribed which is a large commentary upon that text So that no man that hath eyes can pretend any longer that he seeth not the truth And among all learned and Orthodox Divines this is accorded and assented unto That those that by their own inventions as by Images Crucifixes Altars Ceremonies or Syllables and letters or whatsoever other meanes serve him without expresse command from God go about to worship him are Idolaters and such worship is idolatry and of this kinde of service and adoration are the Samaritans guilty of whom it is said that they worshipped the true God and so they did in many things according to the Law of Moses and had Circumcision and the Passeover and looked for the Messias to come But because they added their own inventions to that worship and brought in their own devices with it and set up a will worship therefore they were esteemed the enemies of God and proclaimed idolaters Ye worship saith Christ you know not what So that they that according to their own pretences and inventions serve God worship they know not what and therefore are idolaters and all such Divine worship as is not prescribed by God such service is idolatry Of which kinde and nature is altar-worship crucifix-worship table-worship place-worship ceremony-worship bread-worship Syllable-worship and all such like-worship and indeed all will-worship and whether or no the Prelates be not advancers of Altars and Crucifixes and place-worship ceremony and bread-worship and such trash let all the Kingdome judge And all these are Popery saving the worshipping of altars for the Defendant yet never saw the Papists so basly idolatrous as to worship a naked altar indeed where there is a Crucifix upon an altar they bow but never to the altar or table alone as he is most confident the Papists themselves wil acknowledge therefore so grosse the Prelats are in their Popish performances that they exceed them in idolatry And so it is that those that are most vainly superstitious amongst them they are in the readiest way to preferment and others of a contrary minde most contemned and vilipended which sheweth sufficiently what favourers of Popery the Prelates are Yea for all manner of Popery they affect it and defend it and maintaine it and the Authours and Abetters of it And as to all other the residue of the offences and misdemeanours complained of in the said Information and examinable in this Honourable Court this Defendant saith that he is not guilty of them or any of them in manner and form as by the said Information is supposed All which matters this Defendant is ready to averre and prove as this Honourable Court shall award And humbly prayeth to be dismissed out of the same with his costs and charges against the Prelates by vexation in this and his former suit in the High Commission most wrongfully sustained FJNJS
send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church and that he would preserve those fountaines pure and incorrupt Now all men know how Paul planted and Apollos watered the garden of the Church and that was by preaching as is manifest in the 1. of the Cor. Notwithstanding all this viz. the charge that is laid upon them by God himselfe that they should preach the word diligently and as they love him notwithstanding also the promise that the Bishops and their Priests have made of their particular care in preaching which is onely able to save our soules and notwithstanding the curse that is laid upon them if they do not preach and notwithstanding they pray that the two fountaines may send out streames for the watering of the garden of the Church Notwithstanding all the premisses the Defendant saith That the Prelates neither preach themselves nor will let others preach but silence almost whole Diocesses together and have extinguished very many of the chief burning lights amongst us and do daily suspend the remnant of the most laborious and painfull Ministers through England and Wales and have deprived the people of all soules-comfort spirituall solace without which a mans life is miserable to the infinite dishonour of God and hinderance of the Christian faith and the good institution of the people yea and to the trouble of the whole Church and State and therefore the Prelates are the onely hinderers of the instruction of the people in their Christian faith and the saving of their soules and by consequence the enemies of the Church and Kingdome for from these Priests is iniquity gone out thorow the whole kingdome and of the truth of that the Defendant now saith all the Realm can witnesse and the Prelates practices prove who make void the commandments of God by their vaine traditions and trample his holy and divine precepts under their sect and stop the course of the everlasting Gospel and therefore the enemies of Christs Kingdom and the salvation of their brethren But now more especially whereas he the Defendant is accused of long continuance to have envyed and maligned his Majesties happy government and the good discipline of the Church He the defendant protesteth in the presence of God and before the world that it is a most false accusation and that there is never a Subject in his Majesties Dominions a more honourer of the government of his imperiall Majestie and one that desireth more the good discipline of the Church and is able to produce the testimonies of all the places he hath lived in in this Kingdome both from Magistrates and Ministers for the honesty and integrity of his life and conversation and that in all respects he hath so demeaned himself as that he hath not onely been free from vice faction and schisme but from the suspition of all which testimonies he hath ready to shew to this honourable Court and the which he exhibited to the High Commission Court at that time they studied most to defame him and all this both Town and Countrey can testify as also of the indefatigable diligence in his particular calling How that he neglected no opportunity to doe the indigentest men good and how that being unwearied in his imployments he went through the heat of Summer the cold of Winter rose early and went to bed late exposing himself at all times to any danger whatsoever of plague and pestilence and all to do the meanest of the Kings Subjects good never taking penny of poor nor never of servant never suffering the most neglected creature of nature to perish for want of care or looking to but made them all an object of his pitty and of his Art giving them out of his poor competency both for their food and Physick neither can any man say that ever he asked the richest a farthing for any paines he took day or night for their preservation or that he ever murmured at the smallest content they gave him and if the Prelates had let him follow his calling this Defendant had continued in this diligent course of life till the day of his death But they picking a quarrell with him for writing in defence of the Kings Prerogative Royall against the Pope saying that while he writ against the Pope he meant them put him upon such imployments as he indeed thinks will be very little pleasing to the Prelates although he is most confident that in them he hath and shall do the King and Church good service and so he knoweth it will appear when he is dead and gone But because this book is now laid unto the Defendants charge as tending to the maintenance and upholding of Schisme and division in His Majesties Church of England and opposition against the laudable Orders and Ceremonies of the said Church howsoever there be no such thing in the said Flagello yet this Defendant desireth to give a reason unto this Honourable Court for the writing and publishing not onely of that booke but of all other his writings since And first concerning the book for which he was censured He saith that he was provoked thereunto by a Popish Jesuiticall Doctor of Physick who continually dared him into the field of Dispute and set down his own theames about which he would contend which were concerning the Popes Supremacy and the sacrifice of the Masse And it is well known to the Towns and Country where they both dwelt that the said Defendant could never be quiet for his brags and scriblings to himself and others till he had answered which was the sole cause of his ruine and the which answer of his though he had long time for peace sake neglected yea at last he was through his adversaries importunity put upon it Neither could he for the honour of the truth and the honour of his Prince both which he loves more then his life delay it any longer and therefore out of his duty to God and the King he entred the combat with the enemy To which duty he the Defendant saith he was bound by Christ himself who hath commanded to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods which commandment of Christ ties all Christians under obedience to a double duty which by them may not be neglected viz to give unto God his due and unto the King his Yet for obeying of this commandment this poor Defendant must be defamed ruined undone and left friendlesse moneylesse and in captivity and given to the Devil and yet say nothing But the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to give him leave to say as Queen Hester spake to Ahashuerosh if that he and his wife had been sold for bond-men and bond-women he had held his peace but for them to be ruined and undone because he could not see God and the King dishonoured he the Defendant cannot but speak Let the King live for ever and never let it be said that he hath such a base cowardly