FOR GOD and the KING THE SVMME OF TWO SERMONS Preached on the fifth of November last in St. MATTHEWES FRIDAY-STREETE 1636. By HENRY BVRTON Minister of GODS Word there and then 1. PET. 2. 17. Feare GOD. Honour the KING 2. TIM 4. 1 2 3. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reproove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine c. Bernard in Dedic Ecclae Ser. 3. Non miremini fratres si durius loqui videor Quia veritas neminem palpat Printed Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. SIR What the title in the front professeth FOR GOD AND THE KING the substance thereof was by me preached in two Sermons on the last fifth of November 1636. to teach my people obedience to both And for this I was by the divine providence directed to this Text Prov. 24. 21. 22. My Sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Doctrines of which text as I thought the more necessary to be preached and pressed in these times of Apostacy and defection from the due obedience both of God and the King So I deemed that day the memoriall whereof should cause all loyall subjects for ever to detest all Innovations tending to reduce us to that Religion of Rome which plotted that matchlesse treason the most seasonable for this text as wherein our Solemne acknowledgement of our sacred thankes to God for our great deliverance the fruits whereof we injoy at this day under your Royall and happy government being a strong ingagement and inducement to every good duty both to God and the King might worke the more kindly effect in the hearers a word in season being as the Wiseman saith like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Now although the generall good acceptation of the word then preached whereby the peoples hearts were much affected being instructed and exhorted to sticke closse to God and the King in all manner of duties to each that none of those of whom my text admonisheth might worke a disvnion might have beene a sufficient motive of publishing those Sermons in print for the generall good of all your Majesties loving Subjects throughout this your Kingdome yet Lo a necessity it now layd upon mee For on December 3. after my house had beene searched by a Pursuivant Constables and Wardens of the Company of Stationers for a booke which I had not then and there the Pursuivant served me with Letters Missive from the High Commission to appeare on Twesday then next ensuing before Doctor Ducke at Chesewicke there to answer to Articles against me The Articles were all of them against my preaching and in speciall and by name against my Sermons on November 5. on Prov. 34. 21. 22. Therein was objected to me that I preached against sundry Innovations which indeed was one speciall point in my text as alterations in the booke for the fift of November alterations in the new Fast-booke contrary to your Majestes Proclamation which Orders the old Fast booke set forth by your Majesties authority to be reprinted and published alterations in the Booke of Common Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament a turning out of the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progeny these words Father of thine Elect and of their seed as if they would blot out your Majesty Qeene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect and in the Epistle on Sunday before Faster for IN the name of Iesus is now put AT the name of Iesus c. alterations in setting up of Altars Images Crucifixes in bowing to the Altar in putting downe afternoone Sermons on the Lords dayes in sundry Diocesse in allowing no other Catechising but by bare Question and Answer out of the Booke without expounding of the maine Principles of Religion to the ignorant youth and people in reading of a second Service at the Altar in the upper end of the Chancell where in many great Churches the people cannot possibly heare not even in lesser Churches or indifferent without a stentorious voyce of the Minister together with sundry other things of the like nature some truely alledged which I am readie to maintaine against the Innovators and some falsely and maliciously perverted whereof I am readie to give your Majestie a true account And in the end of all the Articles I was charged to bring in a true copie of my Sermon The conclusion was a booke tendred to me to sweare to answer to those Articles Here at I startled admiring that these things should be charged upon me as crimes which both were truthes and pertinent to my text and necessarie to admonish my people of as leading them from the feare of God and of the King I also upon the suddaine apprehended that I could expect small iustice of those that were not only the countenancers but practisers yea and which is the highest degree of all iniquity open maintainers of such innovations and that in that very Court where they ought rather to bee severely Censured and Suppressed but that on the contrarie I should be there censured as a Delinquent for executing my Ministerie in speaking the trueth and reprooving of Sinne. And againe considering with my selfe that this cause was of a higher nature then to be so much as hazzarded upon the iudgement of these who were professed parties I presently reflected my thoughts upon your Sacred Majestie as not only worthie to take the cognizance of so waightie a cause and the best able both in respect of your Princelie wisdome and unpartiall iudgement to waigh it in a just ballance but also as the prime and principall person next unto God whose honour and welfarre it most neerelie concerneth and who next after God are ingaged in my text to inquire into So as my replie to Dr. Duke was Sir I humblie appeale to the Kings Majestie my Soveraigne and Patron as my judge in this cause and before whom I shall be both a Defendant and Complainant For I hold it not fit that they who are my adversaries should be my Iudges These were the verie words of my Appeale to Your Majestie as I remember Now thou my Gracious Soveraigne that which my profest adversaries in so just a cause did unjustlie and against the Law require of me namelie to bring them a copie of my Sermon that so they might at their pleasure take advantages by perverting of my words I doe here most freelie and faithfullie in all humblenesse present to Your Majestie yea and that with manie additions and inlargements like to Ieremies rowle
thy fâ—are will I worship towards thy holy Temple So Psal. 2. 11. Serve the Lord in feare Which I say is such a feare as hath in it faith love affiance and other graces 5. Lastly wee are bound to performe all obedience to God in a holy feare by vertue of the Word of God as the rule and of the Covenant God hath made with us in his Word and we with him Gods Law is so the rule of our feare and obedience to God as it is death to feare or obey him otherwise then hee hath commaunded us in his Law Els it is rebellion not obedience will worship not service to God And this wee are bound to by mutuall Couenant 1. God binds himselfe to be our God and King by Covenant in his word as Exod. 20. Secondly wee bind our selves by a reciprocall Covenant as in our Baptisme to bee his Servants and to serve him as hee hath commaunded in his Law Vse of this point is first for reproofe and conviction of the whole Romane Synagogue as being altogether devoyd of the true feare of God and consequently is no true Church of Christ â—…one of the Kings Daughter none of his spowse Why For all her feare towards God is taught by the precept of men her service of God is a Masse of Idolatry and Superstition Will-worship of mans invention and therefore though they draw neere to God with their lipps yet their hearts are farre from him And so in vaine they worship him nay they worship the Devill and not God as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. 10. 20. For all Idolatry as that of the breaden god in the Masse is the worship of the Devill They will say they worship God in the Host So did the Pagans plead for themselues that they worshipped God in their Idols Yet saith the Apostle I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devills and not to God And God disclaimes all worship of Him that is not according to His Word and He abhorres such presumptuous worshippers as those that doe not feare him So as secondly heere are justly reprooved those men as wanting the true feare of God who in these dayes shew themselves Antichrists Factors both in teaching practising and pressing new Formes of worship Secundum usum Sarum and setting them up againe in Churches as Altar-worship Iesu-worship Image-worship Crosse-worship and the like A plaine evidence that these men what ever they most hypocritically pretend and would bee accounted as a new kind of Saints dropped downe out of the cloudes as most holy and devoute persons have no true feare of God in them Yea their hearts are far from God Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an Image and Crucifix towards the sound and sillables of Iesus then towards the Lord Christ. For did they truely feare Christ they would not as they doe so desperately and furiously persecute him in his faithfull Ministers and members and make havocke and turne upside-down the very glory of Christ's Kingdome in the Ministery of His Word and power of Religion and purity of his worship which they altogether trample under and defile with their Wolvish feete Therefore forasmuch as they set up and teach a false feare and worship of God in the Churches I saith the Lord will proceede to doe a marvellous worke among the people even a marvellous worke and a wonder for the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And v. 16. Surely your turning of things upside-downe shall bee esteemed at the Potters clay But of these more in their proper place A 2. 〈◊〉 â—s for instruction to teach us wherein the true filiall feare of God consisteth namely in the true worship and service of God internall and externall according to the exact forme and prescript of his Word Not to swerve one haires bredth from it Againe that true feare of God stnads in an universall obedience to all and every of his Commandements not onely those of the first Table but those of the second nor onely those of the second but those of the first So as Thirdly this may condemne two sorts of grosse Hypocrites 1. Those that seeme exact and punctuall in observing the Commandements of the second Table they are no Adulterers no Drunkards no inordinate livers they are not notorious offenders and what then Hereupon they applaud themselves and would be esteemed of the World good Christians and with the Pharisee thanke God that in these things they are not as other men Extortioners Vnjust c. They live peacably with their Neighbors they pay every man his owne and the like But what 's all this without the feare of God Where is their Piety and Love to God expressed in the duties of the first Table Are they willingly and grosly ignorant of the knowledge of God Doe they hate contemne neglect his words Doe they despise his faithfull Ministers Doe they speake evill of the Way and Profession of Godlinesse Doe they profane the Lords Sabbaths Yea doe they comply with Idolaters in their Altar-worship and Iesu-worship and the like and yet would they bee accounted good honest men Can they be honest and good men that are enemies of God and of the Profession yea and name of holinesse and of the power of Religion and of the true Saints and servants of Iesus Christ Can they be good Christians which are enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose end is damnation whose God is their belly and which minde earthly things On the other side there is another sort of Hypocrites who place all their Religion in the outward performances and duties of the first Table professe a great deale of Religion would seeme very devout but yet are like the Pharisees who under a colour of long prayers devoure Widowes houses Of these Hypocrites there are two sorts 1. Of them that are all for outward formality but their hypocrisie bewrayeth it selfe two wayes First in that though they seeme very devoute in frequenting the Church yet it is in a false way mingling mens devices of will-worship with Gods Ordinance in dividing the Lords day betweene God and the Devill allowing to God onely two houres of the day for his publike worship and the rest of the day to the lusts of men Secondly in that they place all the service of God in reading of long Prayers and thereby exclude Preaching as unnecessary And yet they make no bones of oppressing Gods people and the Kings good Subjects with burthens intollerable to bee borne The second sort is of them that will seeme Religious and to give God his due but make no conscience of giving to all men their due they will make no scruple of Lying of over-reaching in bargaining of living in some secret raigning lust of oppressing of defrawding and the like These are so much the more to be abhorred because by their meanes Religion and the name of
of my body which is every day threatned by Pursuivants to bee haled to Prison if Your Majesties Iustice and good Lawes doe not all the better safeguard mee But prison or not prison I heartily thanke my Lord Iesus Christ who hath accounted mee faithfull and called me forth to stand for his cause and to witnesse it before all the World by publishing my said Sermons in Print that thereby also I might cleere both the cause and my credit which they haue publikely before hearing branded with sedition All which I humbly commit to Your Majesties Royall Patronage as Who next under God are most interessed in the Cause Now the Lord Iesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords so unite and combine your heart unto Himselfe that You being guided by His Spirit of Wisedome and Vnderstanding of Councell and strength and of the feare of the Lord You may doe Valiantly and prosper in stopping the course of all Innovators and Backe-sliders into Popery that so with and under Christs Kingdome Yours may be established in Righteousnesse to You and your Royall Posteritie untill time shall be no more Which is the daily Prayer of Your Majesties dutifull Servant and Subject HENRY BVRTON FOR GOD AND THE KING PROVERBES 24. 21. 22. My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both THis time is a time of sorrow and humiliation but this day a day of joy and festivity to bee celebrated in this our anniversary thankfull remembrance of a great and memorable deliverance as on this day 31. yeeres agoe So as this day falling in so sad a season is like a starie peeping and shining forth through the cloudes of a dolesome duskie night and by and by ready to be overclouded againe Such is our joy such is our sorrow this long that short this a summer and a winter plague that a widowes joy a blaze and away Yet sith God is pleased in the midst of judgement to remember Mercy there is no reason that this calamitous time should so farre dampe us as to deprive both us of our comfort and God of his glory this day Therefore wee may say with David Why art thou cast downe o my soule I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Or as Psal. 101. I will sing of Mercy and Iudgement And surely that joy is soundest which is seasoned with some sorrow As saith the Psalmist Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling It 's good to be merry and wise as saith the Proverbe Sadnesse is as salt that seasoneth our mirth and preserues it from corruption Well blessed be God who in the midst of many sad dayes hath sent us this joyfull day to sing praise unto him for that mercy which hath made it a day of joy unto all good Christians and all good Subjects in this land Sutable therefore to the occasion of this day and season I have made choice of this Text It comprehends one of those wise Sentences Counsells or Proverbs which King Solomon a Preacher also inspired with the spirit of Wisedome from God hath left recorded for instruction of the Church of God in all ages If wee seeke to find the coherence or dependance of these words wee may quickly loose our selues and our labour For this Booke of the Proverbs is fitly compared to a bagg full of sweete and fragrant spices which shuff led and shaken together or taken single doe yeeld forth a most pleasant and comfortable odour Or to the Starres in the firmament each in itselfe glorious and independent of another yet all receive their light from the Sunne Like as Eccles. 12. 11. The words of the wise are as goads and as nayles fastened by the Masters of assemblies which are given from one Shepheard This one Shepheard is Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse who inlightens all the Prophets Or heere are studds of silver in borders of gold Cant. 1. 11. Or apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25. 11. And these things belong to the wise v. 23. The words recited containe three things in generall 1. an Exhortation 2. an Admonition 3. a reason of the admonition The Exhortation in these words My son feare thou the Lord and the King The admonition in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change the reason of the admonition in these words For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both In the Exhortation these particulars are considerable 1. The Person Exhorting and that is King Solomon instructing the people as from Gods owne mouth 2. The persons exhorted to wit all Gods people represented heere in the singular number under the name of one sonne and this by a neere bond of relation by a strong cord of affection distinguishing him from others and appropriating him as Gods owne peculiar My Sonne The duty exhorted unto is feare the object of this feare is twofold 1. The Lord. 2. The King In all which we are to observe three things 1. The order of this feare first the Lord and secondly the King 2. the connexion of these two as things inseparable in this duty of Feare Feare the LORD and the KING 3. The speciall property of this duty as peculiar to the child of God above all other Mysonne feare THOV the Lord and the King as if Solomon should have said My sonne how ever the sons of Belial the men of the world cast off all feare both of God and man yet feare THOV the Lord and the King This is the resolution of the Exhortation 2. In the Admonition wee are to note three things 1. The admonition it selfe meddle not 2. Who they be of whom Gods children are admonished namely such as are said here to be giuen to change 3. The antithesis or opposition betweene these changlings and them that truely feare God and the King 3. In the reason of the admonition annexed which is taken from the dangerous condition that these who are given to change are obnoxious unto wee observe 1. The matter of their danger in these words Calamity and ruine then the manner of their calamity and ruine set downe 1. In it's suddennesse and 2. in its certainty It shall rise suddenly and lastly the unexpected meanes of their ruine contrary to all outward appearance And who knoweth the ruine of them both That is though there be no outward appearance of ruine to these men but that all things prosper with them and seeme to be on their side yet their ruine shall be from both these as wee shall further open by and by Now having distributed the words into their severall parts and that without curiosity taking them as they lie naturally in the text come wee briefely to give you the sence of the words First My sonne a compellation frequent and familiar
you whom yee shall feare feare him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you him feare Where Christ exhorts us to this feare of God by a threefold motive 1. that hee calls us friends And surely such as truely feare God are the friends of Christ from whom no feare of men can divide them as we sayd before 2. hee forewarnes us that we may not bee unarmed with this feare of God least otherwise wee bee on a suddaine surprised and overthrown before wee be aware when the great red Dragon with all his terror presents himselfe before the woman ready to bring forth a masculine birth which with the mother he threatens to devoure And so much the more when the Dragon is 〈◊〉 powerfull as with his tayle to draw the third part of the Starres of heaven and to cast them to the earth that is when the greatest part of those who in their heavenly Orbes and Motions are as Starry lights shining in their doctrine and life are either by the Dragons threats or the traines and wiles of his dog-like flattering tayle cast from their heavenly station to the earth when the love or feare of earthly things swayes more with them to draw them downewards then of heavenly to fixe them on Christ. Thirdly Christ in the forenamed place redoubles his premonition Yea I say unto you feare HIM by which hee would intimate unto us of what force the feare of man is to draw us away from our station with God if wee bee not well rooted in the feare of God Thirdly here is an use of caution to those that are apt to be censorious of those to whom God hath given a greater and more extraordinary measure of Christian zeale and courage for Christ. For such a vertue as it is more eminent so it drawes upon it a great deale of envy especially from those which as they idolize their counterfeit discretion and Christian prudence as they tearme it and all because they love to sleep in a whole skin and are loth to hazard a haire of their head for Christ so on the other side they clevate and slight the noble zeale and courage of those whom they see so farre to out strip them in this heroick grace and invincible love to Christ yea they are ready to tearme it rashnesse and indiscretion especially if the successe proove an imprisonment or other vexation from those who with their might bearedowne the right and then they applawde and hugge their owne prudence and discretion when in the meane time they injoy their peace and cease at home For as an evill attempt if it hit well is called a vertue so the best actions being attended with an issue not answerable are deemed by unjust judges vicious and erronious Fourthly and lastly is the true feare of God such a rare and excellent vertue and so invincible overcōming all other feares Then this makes for exceeding consolation to the Church of God especially in declining times of Apostacy and when the truth is openly persecuted and oppressed and Idolatry and Superstition obtruded insteed thereof when notwithstanding wee see many Ministers of Iesus Christ though but few comparatively in respect of the whole multitude to stand stoutly to their tacklings and rather then they will betray any part of Gods truth and of a good conscience they will part with their Ministry liberty livelyhood and life too if need were This is that which keepes Christs cause in life This gives Gods people cause of rejoycing that they see their Captaines to keepe their ground and not to fly the field or forsake their colours or basely yeeld themselves to the enemy Here is hope that the cause will prevaile at length But if all should yeeld or fly then the field were lost without recovery Yet how many doe like Demosthenes who seeing his party beginne to bee put to the worst takes his heeles and being asked why hee fled so fast Oh saith he that I may preserve my selfe to fight another time Then sure hee would doe great feats But in the meane time the enemy is master of the field and now there is no more place of fighting So prudent Souldiers and captaines among us seeing Christs side in mans judgement to be distressed by the enemies prevailing power thinke it good discretion rather to yeeld to the present extremity and so to reserve themselves for better times when in the meane time the cause is by them betrayed and themselves soled captive that their captaine Christ will never trust to such captaines againe as to commit the leading of his people under the false colours of their empty pretences Yea and the people too are willing and perswade their Ministers to yeeld in those smaller matters as they conceive rather then to forgoe their Ministry not waighing either the dangerous consequēces of such beginnings or the worthlessenesse of such Ministers as shall doe such certaine evill that a supposed and but supposed onely good may come thereof Whose damnation is just as the Apostle speaketh For Rome was not build in one day And Rome being about to bee rebuilt in this land cannot bee done all at once but it must bee by degrees although the builders doe every day get ground and their building goes on a maine with an incredible celerity But I trust they make more hast then good speed And me thinkes I see the issue of their building in that of the Tower of Babell of which the Lord said Behold the people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to doe and now nothing will bee restrained from them which they have imagined to doe Even so our new Babel-builders upon a strong combination and faction against Christ and his Kingdome have begun to build a Tower reaching to heaven in their high imagination as if they would as the Giants of old pull Christ out of his Throne and all outward likelyhoods conspire unto their more than hoped for successe which no externall meanes can prevent but as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so ò Lord. Yet as wee said before Gods children must take heed for their parts that they bring not so much as a sticke or a stone to this building but that they hinder and stop the beginning and creeping in of Idolatry and Superstition which else is as a breaking in of the Sea that so overflowes the land and so gaines more ground every tide till it grow incurable This we have seene in these Innovations First Pewes at Chancel-ends must be remooved that so none may sit above God Almighty Though this at first dash brings the Reall Presence Well what 's next It 's fit to remoove the Table Altarwise This was with much hard tugge effected in Saint Gregories by Pauls at least for the neere neighbourhood it
it is said Rebels doe not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly profane and pollute the Sabbath day Serving Satan and by doing of his worke making it the Divels day instead of the Lords day And surely if this liberty of youth bee not all the sooner restrained the whole Land may rue it one day And therefore if the Prelates had any regard either to the honour of God and of his Word or to the setled peace of the Kingdome as they have but little as appeareth too palpably by their practises in disturbing and disordering of all they would have been so faire from procuring the republishing and from pressing and oppressing Ministers about the said booke as they would rather have become humble suiters to his Majesty to have set forth some severe Edict for the better Sanctification of the Lords day that so the people might be kept in better obedience both to God and to his Majestey Forasmuch also as the giving libertie of such sports whereby it is manifestly profained is without all example in any age of the world and their so pressing of it with that cursed and tyranicall tigor both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes such as are not so well acquainted with His Majesties either noble and Christian disposition or His many solemne Protestations to keepe Religion safe and sound I know not what strange Scruples on feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of His Majestie when indeed the whole burden of the blame is to be laid upon the Prelates as either the chiefe procures of these things or the not hindereâ— of them The last instance wheâ—â—in the Prelates doe indanger a division betweene the King and his good Subjects whom the Lord preserue in a perpetual bond of unity is their most impetuous and violent obtruding of new â—ites and Ceremonies which they haue begun through some whole Diocesse and exacting a new conformity in all Ministers there unto This is another snare wherewith they may catch more Ministers either to outt them of their Ministery and living or else to captivate them for ever as vassalls for whatsoever base uses their good Masters will put them unto And herein they haue made a faire progresse already as for example in two whole Counties Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space they haue made the fowlest havocke of good Ministers and their flocks now left desolate and exposed to the Wolues as sheepe without their sheepheard as our eyes have never seene For there are already Threescore Ministers in that one Diocesse suspended and betweene three and Fowrescore more have time given them now till Christ-tide by which time either they must bid their good Conscience farewell or else their precious Ministery and necessary meanes Neither I thinke can it be shewed that in all Queene Maries time there was so great havocke made in so short a time of the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole Land And now doe those Counties and Countries groane under this intolerable burthen remedilesse if God and the King doe not relieve them And our neigbours house being thus on fire doth it not concerne us all to looke to it For they say that this shall be a precedent for all England But upon what ground is all this What authority doe they shew for these outrages The King That is answered before by his solemne Protestations to the contrary But they plead the Act of Parliament for Vniformity before the Communion Booke wherein is reserved a power to the Queene with advise of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan to ordayne and publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Hereupon they ground all their Innovations But for this First obserue that this clause of the Act is limmited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her Successors of the Crowne they are still expressed Secondly admit it was intended to the Successors yet it is with that qualification as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edefying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Misteries and Sacraments Well To bring our new Rites to this Rule First doe they make to the Advancement of Gods glory What Superstitious Idolatrous worship of wooden Aultars What a complementall Crouch to Iesus when they Crucifie Christ What to bow before a Crucifix Againe for the edifying of his Church What by the Preaching and not praying in the Pulpit before and after his Sermon What by the expounding of the Catechisme What by reading a second Service at the Altar where the people cannot heare it And for due reverence to Christs Sacraments What by possessing the people with an opinion of a Popish reall presence What by offering Christ in sacrifice upon a Wooden Altar By a Priest of mans making What by drawing the people to a new adoration by bringing them up close to the new Altar But they will say all makes for them And who shall bee judges but themselves who are the Church Therefore Lastly I answer for all that no humane rationall creature can bring the least shadow of colour that this Act did giue the Queene or her succssors any power to set up Popery againe This is out of all question But now our New Reformers are tooth and nayle for setting up Popery againe witnesse their hoysing up Altars in most places as also of Images Crucifixes with adorations putting downe of the meanes of knowledge as Preaching and bringing in of Ignorance also preaching for sundry points of Popery as Auricular Confession praying to Saints yea printing of such Sermons prayer for the dead and many other All which while they set up with a high hand and so as if the King gaue them authority so to doe of which all his Solemne protestations I say doe sufficiently resolve us the contrary they must needs mightily shake and unsettle the peace of the State by these their dangerous and desperate attempts and sill the peoples minds with musings what the issue will bee and how the King will digest these things at the Prealates hands which tend to the most dangerous dividing and renting of the Kingdome asunder The next instance is their arrogating of their Episcopall title and office of Superiority from Christ and his Apostles This they did lately in the High Commission Court and that upon occasion of Doctor Bastwicks cause then before them Where hee was accused and severely censured for writting a Booke intituled Flagellum Potificis Episcoporum Latialium in which booke bee whipped that usurped authority of the Roman Hierarchy through whose sides by reason of their
namely the Sanctity of the life of the authors and prime Fathers of their Religion But as the heathen Seneca saith Qui genus jactat suum aliena jactat The Iewes were never a whit the more holy for calling Abraham Father But alasse our new Masters account those Martyrs fooles in suffering for such toyes as the denyall of the Reall Presence and the like wherein they of Rome and our new Romanists can well agree and for which they never meane to bee but to make Martyrs Come wee therefore to those usurpations of the Prelates in succeeding ages For wee meddle not with that rigidnesse and stiffenesse which hath beene used all along with all extremity against such godly and peaceable ministers whose conscience could not yeeld to that Conformity which the Law of the Land seemes to require And yet this I confesse if such bee the affinity or rather consanguinity between our Prelates and those of Rome that neither Gods Law nor mans Law nor Religion nor Conscience can containe them within those lists which humane Lawes have confined them unto but according to that Principle which they derive from their originall and that Spirit of Rome which breatheth in them they are so stroÌ„gly biassed to wheele about to their Roman mistresse as every element hath a naturall effection and inclination to its proper place and resteth not out of it and if it bee not possible for them to governe as Fathers as the Law intended but that they must needs tyrannize as Lawlesse Lords and lift themselves up in a transcendent degree above the Kings Lawes so comming betweene Him and his people as they intercept from the people that gratious influence of protection which properly and by right appertaines unto euery good Subject from his naturall Prince against all such usurping Tyrants and if they can doe no other but show what kind they come of in labouring to overthrow the true Religion to corrupt the worship of God with Superstition and Idolatry to trouble the peace of the Church to captivate mens consciences with their humane invention and their bodies with their vexatioÌ„s in persecuting God faithfull Ministers lawlessely in stopping the course of the Gospell by all the wiles and wayes which eyther the pollicy or power of man can take and if they cannot choose but hate the power of Religion and the very name of holinesse and cry against it and downe with it with might and maine because it crosseth the course of their lives and if they cannot but seeke the ruine of Christs Kingdome being altogether Spirituall and a Kingdome of righteousnesse and not of this world because their owne is of this world a Kingdome of pride and pompe a Kingdome of outward riches and glory no way sutable to the Kingdome of grace and so they cannot stand together but the one must fall and in a word if they cannot content themselves with that title of Iurisdiction which the King by his Lawes hath conferred upon them but they must needs pretend to hold it from Christ and his Apostles than which nothing is more derogatory to the honor of Christ nothing more contrary to his Word nothing more opposite to the example of Christ and his Apostles while under pretence of their jurisdiction from Christ they exercise such Lordly tyranny as the Gentiles did which Christ prohibited to his Apostles So as such a claime from Christ is blasphemous as making Christ the author of their Antichristian usurpations All these things and many more well considered I confesse were it a Law in England as it was once amongst the Locrians that whosoever would propound a new Law should come with a halter about his necke that if it pleased not the Senate the hang-man was ready to doe his office and the oportunity served I should come with an halter about my necke with this Proposition that it would please the great Senate of this Land to take into their said consideration whither upon such wofull experience it were not both more honorable to the King and more safe for his Kingdome and more conducing to Gods glory and more consisting with Christian Liberty and more to the advancement of Christs Kingly office which by usurping Prelates is troden downe that the Lordly Prelacy were turned into such a godly government as might suite better with Gods Word and Christs sweet yoake I speake not this God is record out of any base envy to their Lordly honour and Pompe which is farre beneath my envy but rather for the good of their soules Brunâ— Sigâ—inas when a Bishopricke was offered him refused it saying A Bishopricke was altogether to bee forsaken of that man that would not bee set at Christs left hand And Pope Marcellus 2 as Onuphrius relates in his life smiting his hands upon the table sayd I doe not see how they who possesse this high place can bee saved And one saith Hee who loveth primacy upon earth shall find confusion in heaven And how many doe wee read of that have some refused and others disburdened themselves of their Bishopricks Claudius Espencâ—â—â— in Timotheum Digress lib. 3. cap. 4. presents us many notable examples of pious and learned men who refused Bishopricks in good earnest and not with a counterfeit Nolo Nolâ— And our Saviour Christ saith It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaâ—â—n But this is strange Divinity in these dayes But I speake this wishing their salvation not destruction And this by the way But according to our Text wee are professedly against all those usurpations and innovations which the Prelates of later dayes have haled in by the head and shoulders being besides and agaisnt the Law of the Land and much more against the Law of God And these innovations or changes wee may reduce to eight generall heads 1. Innovation in Doctrine 2. Innovation in Discipline 3. Innovation in the worship of God 4. Innovation in the Civill governement 5. Innovation in the altering of Books 6. Innovation in the meanes of knowledge 7. Innovation in the rule of faith 8. Innovation in the rule of manners First they have laboured to bring in a Change in Doctrine as appeareth by these instances 1. By procuring an Order from King Iames of famous memory to the Vniversities that young Students should not read our moderne learned writers as Calvin Beâ—â— and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and Schoolemen This I say must needs bee of the Prelates procuring it being no part of that noble Kings meaning that Schollers should bee debarred from the reading of those excellent and orthodox authors whom himselfe so much approoved and magnified both for their great learning sound judgement and religious lives For did not that excellent King give the right hand of fellowship to those reformed Churches which those authors had either planted or watered with their famous labours when hee sayd Hee would exhort all those reformed Churches to joyne with HIM in a Common Councell
this Kingdome that they may never prevaile against us and triumph in the ruine of thy Church and give us grace to avert these and the like judgements from us This Lord wee earnestly crave at thy mercifull hands together with the continuance of thy powerfull protection over our dread Soveraigne the whole Church and these Realmes and the conversion or confusion of all implacable enemies and that for thy deare Sons sake our onely Mediator and Advocate Thus the conclusion prayer of the Homily this Prayer of the 5. of Novem. being well weighed together we see unlesse in so praying we play the most notorious hypocrites dissemblers before God and men in what a sacred bond all the Magistrates in the Land from the highest to the lowest do ingage thēselues unto the great God of heaven earth to roote out the whole Babilonish Sect of Iesuites and Seminary Priests out of these confines limits of these Kingdomes and not to suffer them to roost here to the great dishonour of God scandall of our Religion danger to the State destruction of the soules of Gods people and of the Kings Nor this onely but if our Prelates as they plainely shew by their open practises be found to be fast friends to Rome confederates with Iesuites Priests active Agents factors for the rearing up again of that religion which is rebellion that faith which is faction cōsequētly that practise which is murdering of soules bodies for the advancing of that Babilonish antichristian sect which say of Ierusalē down with it down with it even to the ground while they labour by all wayes and wiles yea by an open Lawlesse force to beat downe the Kingdome of Christ in the Ministery of the word as too lamentable experience can witnesse and to destroy all true religion holinesse piety then how doth it concerne our Gracious King our Nobles and Magistrates of the Land to strengthen their hands with judgement justice to cut off these workers of iniquity to root them out of the confines limits of this Kingdome that they may never prevaile against us and triumph in the ruine of the Church by reducing vs under the Babylonian and Antichristian yoake againe which they labour with might and maine to effect as their notorious practises plainly tell us And how should all the Kings good people in the Land make this their dayly prayer which is publickly used once in the yeare teach it to their children that so at the least wise it may be propagated intire to all posterity so vindicated from the injury of time which our Innovators would bring upon it and never give over thus praying till it shall please God to returne a gracious answere in the fulfilling of it Yet are they not cōtent herewith but like themselves they practise the like in the last Fast-booke that contrary to the Kings expresse Proclamation which ordereth the booke for the former Fast to be reprinted and published as it followeth The third Prayer Booke which they have pitifully mangled is that which was set forth by the King for that Publick Fast in the first of his Raigne for the averting of the great Plague of Pestilence that thē devoured many thousands in this City elswhere in our Land which his late Proclamation commaundeth to bee reprinted and published and so read in Churches every Wednesday But doe they or durst they alter that Booke which the Kings Proclamation hath so lately commaunded to be reprinted and published Yes even that and that in such wise as I see not with what warrant any Minister may read it as being not according to the Proclamation Now the Alterations in the new Booke bee these In the first collect is left out this remarkable pious Sentence intirely Thou hast delivered us from Superstition and Idolatry wherein wee were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere and comfortable light of thy blessed Word by the which wee are taught how to serve and honour thee and how to live orderly with our neighbours in truth and vertty Lo here these men would not have Popery to bee called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God to commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties to God and man Secondly that collect which begins thus It had beene the best for us c. is wholly left out in the new Booke And wot yee why Alas therein is commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God So as this collect would not have suited well with such a Fast wherein all preaching is prohibited in all places infected And in the very last page Order for the Fast these words are left out in the new Booke To avoid the inconvenience that may grow by Fasting Some esteeming it a meritorious worke others a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end c. What Doe they esteeme their Fast a meritorious worke Must the condemnation hereof bee expunged And doe they account their Fast a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end It seemes so too For the end of a true Fast is reformation of our evill wayes as the King of Nineveb proclaimed and which hee and his people performed But these men it seemeth have no such purpose propound no such end to themselves as the reformation of all their violent oppressions and outragious tyrannizing over Gods Ministers and people to the utter overthrow of Religion and setting up of Idolatry and Superstition in the worship of God which one sinne alone is enough to bring the Pestilence and all other plagues upon a Land Beside these they have guelded the Booke in sundry other particulars as in the Collects and Prayers for the Royall Progeny they have left out the mention of the Lady Elizabeth and her children expressed in the former booke They have left out the collect for the Kings Navy and for seasonable weather whereas there was never more need to pray for seasonable weather than since this fast beganne when so many tempestuous stormes and immoderate raines have beene as have indangered Ships in the very harbour Shipwrackt some of great price and caused great Floods threatning a Famine by drowning the Seed under the clods Also sundry Psalmes and Collects besides are omitted and a whole passage in the Exhortation applyable enough to the present occasion Now whither it bee for these alterations wherein both the Kings Order in his Proclamation is not observed and God is dishonoured by leaving out such our humble acknowledgements both of his mercies in delivering us from Superstition and Idolatry and bringing us into the cleare and comfortable light of his blessed Word and of our sinnes in not hearkning to His Word continually Preached unto us and the like and Gods Ministers and people are abused by having such Bookes