humbly and piously according to the godly and holesome Canons and constitutions of their Mother the Church that so from her and her Governours and from the Kings most sacred Majesty they may to their comfort and commendation receive the commendation of modest and discreet men and such as are farre from any humour of Innovation and let this subtile Innovator with his popular devices goe by who with Iudas of Galile and boasting Theudas seekes with faigned words and deceitfull speeches to beguile simple and well meaning soules and to draw much people after him But by reading of the holy Scriptures which now GOD be praised for it almost every one with Timothy knowes of a childe they understand what befell such seducers and their followers and therefore they have no list either in piety or reason to follow them for they as many as obeyed them were dispersed and brought to nought To conclude I desire to make any sober man and indued with common reason my judge whether he would thinke that the Lords Archbishops and Bishops and the whole Convocation house men of singular wisedome piety and learning as their yeares breeding and education gives them should bee at so much trouble and charge to sit so long together to consider of the state of the Church and to consult with the Kings Majesty about the same as by the words in his Majesties Writ may appeare and then to devise and frame Canons and lawes usefull and necessary for the good pious and peaceable Government thereof and that the Kings Majesty also according to his supreme power in all causes Ecclesiasticall as well as temporall should give his royall assent under the broad seale of his kingdom for confirmation of them as all Princes and Monarchs have done in the first sixe generall Councels if after all this is done all such their Lawes and Canons so made and established should be turned into Tennis Balls for Vicars Parsons and Parishioners to tosse and bandy up and down and question at their pleasure and not to have them executed nor allowed before they be maintained rationibus cogentibus I believe otherwise but that I leave to whom it concernes There is one thing more which I cannot choose but touch upon this Author for For mee thinkes that modesty and discretion which he commended in the Alderman of Grantham he hath not reserved for our commendation in himselfe For thus he twitteth the Vicar The Communion you out of the Booke of fast 1. of the King are pleased to call Second Service In my poore opinion modesty and discretion might have taught him to have forborne such petulant language Surely the man could not but know but that the booke of Fast was not compiled nor ordered to be read publikely in every Congregation without the appointment of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury nor without his Majesties gracious directions and royall Confirmation thereof and if the Vicar having such authority for his warrant doe call the Communion the second Service me thinkes in common discretion and ordinary civility he ought not to have a Ieere cast upon him by a bettter man than this Secretary can bee for the reflection of the jest and scorne you are pleased transcends the Vicars head quite and cleane and strikes hie and aloft upon the toppes of hills and mountaines from whom hee may bee taught to learne to keepe better distance Well the Vicar is pleased having so good authority to call it the Second Service but this man is not pleased Truly I cannot but pitty the Vicar that has met with a man so hard to please When the poore man did president himselfe in his actions and setting the Lords Table Altarwise by the Kings Chappell and Quires in Cathedralls the man is not pleased hee will upon Vmbrages have it ordered otherwise if this feigned Letter deserved any credite when the Vicar performes the reverence appointed by Canon to that blessed Name of Iesus he is pleased So it bee done So and So with such limitations and hedgings and inclosures as the canon never allowed or thought on except it meant to build with one hand and pull down with another otherwise he is not pleased Now he does but conforme his speech to such language as he heares used by the chiefest and most eminent personage in all our Cathedrall Churches and by the Kings Majesty our supreme Governours in all things belonging or in any wise appertaining to matters of the Church whether they bee Rites or Ceremonies words or actions and yet he is not pleased He wil have his Vicar neither doe nor so much as speak as they doe but he will be displeased and lend him a smart jerke for so doing What trow you has put the mans mouth so out of taste that he can in no sort rellish what was done by the Archbishop that then was and what he did by his Majesties authority that now is whom God of his infinite mercy long preserve I hope he hath more learning than to conceive the Second Service to be a new thing and so to be ashamed of the name For besides the Liturgies of Saint Basil and Saint Chrysostome and others used in the Greeke Church and those that have beene used at all times in the Westerne Churches wherein he sees with his eyes both the First and Second Service distinct one from another He may also observe the use hereof in the Primitive Church if he please to consult with Saint Iustin Martyr Tertullian Origen Saint Cyprian Saint Ambrose Saint Augustine or read a Councell which hee will not deny but hee is bound to read the Nicene Councell and hee shall perceive there the first and second service distinguished one from another Hee shall finde one service wherein there was sola Oratio he shall finde a Second service wherein â—â— And I looked and there was none to helpe and I wondred that there was none to vphold Esa. 63.1 But those mine enemies which would not I should raigne over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luc. 19.27 Vnum vos poscimus omnes Cap I. pag. 1.2 3 Cap. II. 3. ad 7. Cap. III. p 7. ad 9. Cap. IV. p 9. ad 15. Cap. V. p. 15. ad 18. Cap. VI. p. 18. ad 22. Cap. VII p. 22. ad 25. Cap. VIII p. 25. ad 29. Cap. IX p. 29. ad 36. Cap. X p. 36. ad 43 Cap. XI p. â—3 ad 60. Cap. XII p. 60 ad 66. Cap. XIII p. 66. ad 71. Cap XIV p. 71 Cap. XV. p 79. ad 84. Cap XVI p. 84. ad 93. Cap. XVII p. 93. ad 97. Cap. XVIII p. 97. ad 104. Cap. XIX p. 104. ad 110 Cap. XX p. 110. ad 115. Cap. XXI p. 115. ad 121. Cap. XXII p. 121. ad 130. Cap. XXIII p. 130. ad 137. Cap. XXIV p. 137. ad 147. Cap XXV p 147. usque ad finem The Letter By that time that you have gained some more experience in the cure of soules you shall
pernicious purpose must in reason be in the heart of this Scribe otherwise it was utterly impertinent to scare the poore Vicar with such terrible and astounding words And better had it beene to have kept such mortall bolts as these in store and not to discharge them so soone before discretion had brought him within eye-reach of the right marke Had this man beene so wise as the Vicar was to president himselfe by what he sees done in the Kings or Bishops Houses or Chappels he would have kept these shafts in his Qâ—iver and bestowed them as he sees M. Casaubon and our learned Bishops by the Kings direction doe upon grosse and impious abuses cleerely discovered as well in Altars as in Sacrifices and not therewith to strike through Oblations sacrifices and Altars themselves together with the holy and reverend use and users thereof from whom he hath his Priesthood Orders Faith and Religion too if he have any at all In shooting after this blinde heedlesse fashion not the judgement only and learning but the discretion and piety of the Archer to his Mother the Church and to all reverend antiquity stands in greater hazzard of the shot than the unremarkable actions of a simple Vicar They are not Altars which still stand in the Churches of sound Protestants and may remaine in some of ours or to make use of their Covers and Ornaments Tables may bee placed in their roomes of the same length and fashion the Altars were of as this Author tels us with which practise he also concurreth in opinion they are not Altars I say or Sacrifices or Oblations that true Christians and good Protestants have in execration but the grosse and vile abuses of these Against abuses onely good Christians protested and from thence received they their names This the most learned Bishop in his Apologie for King Iames of happy memory putteth the Cardinall in minde of Salva protestatione hac haud ulla est fides Nostra nisi quae Vestra est vel esse debet vetus 〈◊〉 illa Catholica The Protestant holds the same Catholicke faith which is or ought to bee the same in Rome and over all the Christian world The Protestant hath the abuses and Novelties only which are crept into the Romane Church in detestation not the things themselves no not the name of the very Masse it selfe For as the same Reverend Bishop telleth the Cardinall in the Kings name In missa si missa fiunt quae sum 〈◊〉 antiatione vestra ibi submissa â—unt bono fi loco res essent non valde de nomine litigaret Rex The King would like well enough of the Masse if her Priests would â—hrive her of Transubstantiation the name should beget no reall difference Those therefore were not well advised nor throughly informed of the doctrine of our Church and of pious antiquity that by their violent and unlearned clamours incited the people unto that horrible out-rage committed in breaking downe of Altars and caused them to boggle and spie umbrages and scandals at the things themselves where none at all could have beene found if these Arietes gregis had partaken as much of the mild temper of the sheep as they did of the Rams horne But where simplicity and ignorance is armed nothing can be expected but a violent confusion and the like disorder This disorder committed de facto as the Author speakes the supreme Magistrate thought meet to punish not by a kind of law but by a law yet in force to punish the same de jure in case it should be committed The law was made by Queen Mary and is this If any shall unlawfully contemptuously or maliciously of their owne power or authority pull downe deface spoile or break downe any Altar or Altars c. such person or persons are to be punished as in the law is expressed Queene Mary who made this law did repeale the law made by King Edward for the authorizing of the Book of Common Prayer Queene Elizabeth who did establish King Edwards law for authorizing the Book of Common Prayer did repeale Queene Maries repeale thereof but that part of the Statute which concerneth the punishing of such disorderly people that of their own authority riotously pull down Altars c. the said Queene Elizabeth of famous memory repealeth not but it is still in force that the Magistrate whom it concernes may proceed against delinquents that violate the Lords Table standing Altar-wise or break or deface the pictures of Christ or of Saints in Church-windowes or crosses or the like upon that Statute if any should so offend which God foâ—bid if Sergeant Rastales hand and starre point and lead me not into an errour CAP. XXI Altars crept not into the Church Altars Consecrated with more ceremony and regarded with more reverence than any part of the Church appeareth out of Bishop Iewell On the Altar stood the Crosse of CHRIST in the Primitive Church and in Saint Chrysostomes time and remained there in Queene Elizabeths Raigne sometime steps unto the Altar drawne with Curtaines Archbishops and Bishops and all sorts of people doe reverence towards the Altar Barbarous Souldiers kisse them Penitents prostrate before them Saint Ambrose willing to be made a Sacrifice for them THe drift of the Author in this Epistle is the disgrace of Altars To this purpose he hath framed these words to serve his turne two wayes 1. By the manner of their comming in and that was creeping 2. By the meanes of their creeping in and that was by Complying with the Iewes For as much as the most ancient and holy Fathers of the Primitive Church and the most learned and pious Fathers of our own Church have Christian Altars and Sacrifices in due honourable and reverend estimation there is no cause at all why a man not bigge with selfe love nor made to kindle a faction quae jam plus satis calescit should picke a quarrell first with them then with their name then with their comming in by phrasing it so contemptuously in that terme of creeping whereby is implyed their comming into the Church in some base secret undue and unobservable manner I dare be bold to say that no man of judgement and learning though hee look over Antiquity as the Devill lookt over Lincolne will say and meane to justifie what hee saies by sound proofes out of good antiquity that Altars crept into the Church It were not amisse if this Pen-man would looke the face of his actions in the envious mans tares these he shall finde crept up among the Wheat no man knowing how when the honest Husband-man and his servants thought no hurt but were at rest and asleepe The case is not so with Altars the Husband-men themselves that labour faithfully in the Lords Vineyard the Governours of Christs Church and the true and only successors of the Apostles brought them in by the speciall direction of Gods holy Spirit I shall not need to spend much time in proofe hereof
in true and legall right but his So that now the kind patron that has an handfull of Meale to give his Priest need not run both his hands over with birdlime and then take it up and give it freely for all is his the whole materiall is his The Relativum formale fled when the Priest was banished and the Evangelicall Minister came in He may keepe all with a good conscience moulded out of a Logick Axiom May not all sacrilegious persons blesse this Man and wish Many a good Letter like this may he write for this Letter is there writ the cheapest and gainfullest that ever was procured Herewith they can seize upon all revenewes belonging to Priests and in the end if need be arrest Heaven Happy men by thy boone that hast done thus much for them But shall I ring you another peale Wretched Man that thou art thou makest this people to trust in a lye Thy Wine is of the Vine of Sodome thy clusters are bitter thou pleasest them with Apples of Sodome and feedest them with ashes thou leadest them by crooked paths and the way of truth thou hast not made knowne unto them Be not deceived God will not be mocked nor stript of his owne by a Logick Axiom which I leave to the Moderator of Sophisters to canvasse as nothing appertaining to this cause The ground and foundation that Church and Churchmen build upon for the revenues belonging to God and to those that serve at his Altar is laid upon a Rock Christ Iesus Whatsoever is or was given devoted consecrated and dedicated to him is his and his Priests and he that takes away or secretly with Achan purloines but a Priests garment call them Babilonish garments if you will or but a peece of gold nay but a shooe-latchet that person hath trespassed and is become execrable in the sight of God and doubtlesse his sin will finde him out And there is not a sacrilegiously-disposed wretch in this Kingdome but knowes or may know that those coales which their predecessors in that vice have stollen from Gods Altars hath burnt the houses of most of them and turned them to ashes and layd them on ruinous heaps And those that goe by and aske why hath the Lord done thus to these noble and renowned houses can receive no other answer but that they have taken the houses of God in possession and therefore God hath performed his word and made them like unto a wheele and turned them topsie turvey so that there remaines not a stone upon a stone which is not cast downe Wherefore let not the sound of that Logick Axiom mis-understood or mis-applyed be heard in the eares or taken into approbation of any good Christian. The Sacrifices which Papists offered upon their Altars are taken away and therefore Altars themselves by taking away of Relativum formale are also taken away and nothing remaines but materiale tantum wood or stone therefore doe not you call them any more Altars saith he to the Vicar O good Sir remember the abuse of a good thing is not nor ever was or can be the Relativum formale of a good matter The Sacrifices of Papists were abuses and were not the formale relativum of Altars S. Cyprian tels you that the use of Altars is to sanctifie the Eucharist upon and that without an Altar it cannot be consecrated and that therefore Hereticks have no Sacraments among them because they have no Altars The consecration of the holy Eucharist by Gods owne Priests who for this purpose doe or did daily Assistere Altari wait at his Altar is rather the Relativum formale than any thing else this is not taken away God be blessed for it when the Sacrifices that Papists offered upon their Altars were taken away and therefore Altars are not taken away Therefore doe not you open a doore to let in all profanenesse and impiety by forbidding Gods people to speake like the people of God and by reading such a Logick Lecture as will assuredly if it should be learned which God forbid undoe all the people of God in the ruine of their Altars Priests and Churches To conclude For as much as God hath put into the hearts of the Governours of our Church to restore the Lords Table to his ancient and true place it had in the Primitive Church and also to the honour and reverence which of right belongs unto it in regard of the presence of our Saviour whose Chaire of State it is upon Earth and to inclose it with Rayles not only to keepe it at all times from all manner of profanation but also if it might be to strike the minds of all beholders with some reverence and respect to keepe their true distance and to make a difference betweene place and place person and person holy and profane that their preparations and dispositions may be suitable Let no man then that hath the feare of God before his eyes to whom God hath given wit elocution learning place in Church or Common wealth lend the Devill and his Imps sacrilegious or factious persons the service and use of these to disturbe so holy and godly a purpose and so fully conformable to the beauty and awfull Majesty that the houses of God were in in the Primitive Church CAP. XXV Canons of our Church need no private mans confirmation Rationibus cogentibus The edicts of Princes Articles of our Creed our baptisme Eucharist will be unsetled if men may require to have these maintained rationibus cogentibus Ecclesiasticall and temporall authority receive more prejudice by having the same disputed than suffering it to be railed against To what distresse the Vicar is put to maintaine the Canon of bowing at the name of IESVS The Author ill advised to make a jeere of the first and second Service IF you doe not allow and practise these things except they be maintained rationibus cogentibus the Church is not beholden to you either for your allowance or practise neither will the Common wealth or Prince if need require With this proviso Iudas of Galilee will admit of the Edict of Augustus Caesar Licinius allow of Christianity Iulian allow of Iesus of Galile Vicisti Galilaee Ebion and Cerinthus allow of S. Pauls Epistles Wat Tyler and Iack Straw allow of Lawyers and the Lawes of this Realme Carthright and his holy brood allow of Church governement of Supremacy of Kings over their Presbytery and of the common Lawes of the Land over the Dictats of their Consistory Wherefore if you will not allow of what is by law appointed nor practise it nor be the meanes that others practise it unlesse it be maintained rationibus cogentibus and in the opinion of the men of Gâ— you make Soveraigne authority and Lawes Ecclesiasticall and temporall to depend upon a Spiders thread For if you or the Vicar could frame such Arguments as were in themselves every way exactly demonstrative and such as in reason must overmaster and controle the understanding and compell