Acts of Court I see no cause at all why you should demand them For having at the first declined the judgement of that Court by the refusall of the oath and your said Appeale and afterwards contemptuously neglected your appearance on the second summons what cause had you to expect any favour from them or to consult those Acts which you cared not for Especially considering you continued still in your disobedience and desired the Articles not to answer to them but thereby as you say your selfe to perfect your Appeale or rather as it may be thought to scatter them abroad in imperfect copies with such false answers to them as you pleased to make Your selfe and such as you have long used the art of getting the first start upon mens affections non ignari instandum famae prout prima successerint fore vniversa But come we now unto the maine of your Appeale in reference to the illegality of proceedings in your owne particular for all that hath beene answered hitherto was but the vantage as it were which you cast in out of your abundance to make up the reckoning It is pretended that being charged with sedition you were not bound to answer to it And why Because sedition is no ecclesiasticall offence against the Church but a civill against the King and State and therefore to be tried onely in his Majesties Courts of Civill Iustice and not before the High Commissioners who have no cognizance thereof Your Enthimeme doth halt extreamely For there are many matters punishable in either jurisdiction which since you are ignorant I will name you some Vsury contrary to the statute 21. Iac. c. 17. is punishable at the common-Common-law and it is also punishable in the Court Christian as in the 109. Canon The selfe same Canon reckoneth drunkennesse and swearing as punishable by the Ordinary upon presentment and yet are punishable by the Civill Magistrate by vertue of two severall statutes viz. 4. Iac. 5.21 Iac. and 21. Iac. 20. So for prohibited either workes or recreations on the Lords day the parties so offending are by the Statute 1 Car. c. 1. 3. Car. c. 1. to be convented and corrected by the Iustices of the Peace and yet there is a salvo there for the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to proceed as formerly All persons that offend against the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. either in depraving the Booke of Common prayer or else not using it as they ought to doe or using any other forme of prayer N. B. then is there prescribed c. are punishable either by enditement at the Common-law or by the censures of the Church According as complaint is first made unto either Court I could informe you of many such particulars were it convenient So that you see your proposition is not true in that full latitude wherein you propound iâ— viz. because sedition is to be tryed in the Courts of civill Iustice therefore in you and as it was an offence by you committed it was not to be censured in the High Commission For Sir I hope you can distinguish betweene sedition in the field or in the Market-place and a seditious Sermon for Sermon I must call it for feare of angring you in the Church or Pulpit Had you behaved your selfe seditiously in any other place no better dealing with you then by the Constable first and so on But if you preach seditiously and make the House and Ordinance of God onely a Pandar to your discontent or your ambition I hope my Lords the Iudges will not be offended if your Superiours in the Lord doe chastise you for it yet this at last you make a just gravamen upon the which you might appeale But had you thought indeed as you say you doe that the Ecclesiasticall Commssioners could take no cognizance of the crime objected to you you might with better hopes have labored for a prohibition as formerly you did upon weaker grounds then runne your selfe so hastily on a new experiment of making an Appeale when you were not grieved Lastly you pleade that being the matter charged upon you was Sedition and so if true your life might have beene called in question you were not bound to take the oath propounded to you and this you ground upon a Passage of Arch-Bishop Whitgift in the conference at Hampton Court saying as you report his words that in matter of life liberty and scandall it is not the course of that Court to require any such oath wherein you doe most shamelessely misreport the words of the said Arch-Bishop All that he said is this which will helpe you little viz. If any Article did touch the party any way either for life liberty or scandall he might refuse to answer neither was he urged thereunto He doth not say as you make him say that in those cases there recited it was not the course of that Court to require any such oath but that the party might refuse to answer to those Articles which did so concerne him It is the custome of the Court to give an oath unto the party to answer truely to such Articles as shall be propounded and the indulgence of the Court at the examination that if the party will he may chalenge any of them as not being bound by law to answer to them and his refusall if the law binde him not to answer is to be allowed You might then subtile Sir have tooke the oath and yet demurred on any such Article when you came unto it And so farre we have traced you in your Apologie wherein is nothing to be found but poore surmises which being proved onely by an Aio might have beene answered with a Nego but that I am resolved to dissect you throughly and lay you open to the world which hath so long beene seduced by you CHAP. II. The Kings authority restrained and the obedience of the subject limited within narrow bounds by H. B. with the removall of those bounds The title of the Sermon scanned and the whole divided H. B. offended with the unlimited power of Kings the bounds by him prescribed to the power of Kings both dangerous and doubtfull The power of Kings how amplified by Iewes Christians Heathens What the King cannot doe and what power is not in him by Mass Burtons doctrine The Positive Lawes of the Realme conferre no power upon the King nor confirme none to him The whole obedience of the subject restrained by H. B. to the Lawes of the Realme and grounded on the mutuall stipulation betweene King and people The dangerous sequells of that doctrine A Pravis ad praecipitia Wee are on the declining hand out of the Hall into the Kitchin from an Apologie that was full of weakenesse unto a Sermon or rather a Pasquill farre more full of wickednesse yet were we guided either by the Text or Title we might perswade our selves there were no such matter nothing but piety and zeale and whatsoever a faire shew can promise But for the
you where it is said what Law what Statute so resolves it that no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters patents under the great Seale of England None of the Acts of Parliament made by King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt or Queene Elizabeth speake one word that way The act of the Submission of the Clergie 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19. on which your fond conceipt is grounded if it hath any ground at all saith not as you would have it say the Clergie shall not put in ure c. any constitutions of what sort soever without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe but that without the Kings royall assent and authority in that behalfe first had they should not enact or put in ure any new Canons by them made in their Convocations as they had done formerly This law observed still by the Clergy to this very day not meeting in their Convocation untill they are assembled by his Majesties writ directed to the Archbishop of either Province nor when assembled treating of or making any Canons without the Kings leave first obteined nor putting any of them in execution before they are confirmed by his sacred Majestie under the broad Seale of England Is there no difference gentle brother betweene enacting new Canons at their owne discretion and executing those which custome and long continuance of time have confirmed and ratified If you should bee so simple as so to thinke as I have no great confidence either in your law or wisedome you may be pleased to understand that by the very selfe same statute All Canons which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes statutes and customes of the Realme nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings prerogative Royall shall be now still executed and used as they were before the making of that act till the said Canons should be viewed by the 32. Commissioners in the same appointed which not being done as yet although the said Commission was revived by Parliament 3 4. to Edw. 6. c. 11. all the old Canons quallified as before is said are still in force So that for exercise of any Episcopall jurisdiction founded upon the said old Canons or any of the new which have beene since confirmed by the King or his predecessours there 's no necessity of speciall Letters Patents under the broad Seale of England as you faine would have it There was another Statute of King Henry the eight concerning the Kings highnesse to bee the supreame head of the Church of England and to have authority to reforme all errors heresies and abuses in the same But whatsoever power was therein declared as due and proper to the King is not now materiall the whole act being repealed A. 1. 2. Ph. and M. c. 8. and not restored in the reviver of Qu. Eliz. 1. Eliz. c. 1. in which you instance in your Margin Nor can you finde much comfort by that Statute 1. Eliz c. 1. wherein you instance if you consider it and the intention of the same as you ought to doe You may conjecture by the title of it what the meaning is For it 's intituled An act restoring to the Crowne the antient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and spirituall and abolishing all forreine power repugnant to the same The preamble unto the act makes it yet more plaine Where it is sayd that in the time of King Henry the eight divers good Lawes and Statutes were made and established aswell for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forreine powers and authorities out of this Realme c. as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperiall Crowne thereof the antient jurisdictions authorities superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging and apperteining by meanes whereof the subjects were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forreine power and authority as before that was usurped Which makes it manifest that there was no intent in the Queene or Parliament to alter any thing in the ordinary power Episcopall which was then and had long before beene here established but to extinguish that usurped and forreine power which had before beene chalenged by the See of Rome and was so burdensome unto the subject The body of the Act is most plaine of all For presently on the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction spirituall and Ecclesiasticall heretofore used within this Realme there followeth a declaration of all such jurisdictions c. as by any spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power and authority hath heretofore or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner errours heresies schismes c. to bee for ever united and annexed to the imperiall crowne of this Realme Then in the next words followeth the establishment of the High Commission it being then and there enacted that the Queenes highnesse her heires and successours shall have full power and authority by vertue of the said act by letters Patents under the great Seale of England to assigne name and authorise c. such person or persons being naturall borne subjects to her highnesse her heires and successours as her Majestie shall thinke meete to exercise use occupie and execute under her highnesse her heires and successours all manner of Iurisdictions priviledges and preheminences within these her Realmes of England c. and to visit reforme order redresse correct and amend all such errours heresies schismes abuses offences contempts enormities whatsoever which by any manner Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power authority or jurisdiction can or may be lawfully reformed c. Plainely in all this act there is nothing contrary to that ordinary jurisdiction which is and hath beene claimed and exercised by Episcopall authority in the Church of England nothing at all which doth concerne the purchasing or procuring of Letters Patents for their keeping Courts and Visitations as you seduced by your learned Counsaile beare the world in hand My reason is because whatever jurisdiction was here declared to be annexed unto the crowne is called a restoring of the antient jurisdiction unto the same and certainely the ordinary Episcopall power of ordination excommunication and such like Ecclesiasticall censures were never in the crowne in fact nor of right could be and therefore could not be restored And secondly because whatever power is here declared to be in the Queene her heires and uccessours shee is inabled to transferre upon such Commissioners as shee or they shall authorise under the great Seale of England for execution of the same Now we know well that there is no authority in the high Commission which is established on this clause derogating from the ordinary Episcopall power and therefore there was none supposed in
tell you that you tye up the kings hands too much in case he may not meddle with a company of Schismatickes and refractarie persons to all power and order onely because you have pronounced them to be faithfull ministers of the Gospell Such faithfull ministers of the Gospell as you and yours must bee suppressed or else there never will be peace and unitie in the Citie of God And yet I see you have some scripture for it more than I supposed kings being as you tell us from S. Paul the ministers of God for the good of their people and no more then so I thought S. Paul had also told us that the King is a minister of God an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill yea more than so too brother B. and it may concerne you viz. if thou doe that which is evill be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vaine Aut undequaque pietatem tolle aut undequaque conserva Take the whole text along good sir or take none at all and if you take all be afraid as you are advised verbum sapienti I must goe forwards with you yet from the authoritie of the king to the obedience of the subject which you doe presse indeede but on such false grounds as in conclusion overthrow the whole frame of government The absolute obedience of the subject you have dashed alreadie and reckon it amongst those Innovations in point of doctrine which you have charged upon the Prelates and in the place thereof bring in a limited or conditionall obedience of your owne devising Your first condition or limitation rather is viz. that our subjection unto the king is to be regulated as by Gods law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good laws of the king p. 38. the king as you informe us p. 42. having entred into solemne and sacred covenant with all his people to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the kingdome prescribe require as on the other side the people swearing no other obedience to the king than according to his just lawes pag. 39. and 40. In which restraint there are two things to be observed first that wee are to obey the king no farther than there is law for it and secondly no farther than that law seemes good So that in case the king commands his people any thing for which he hath no positive law to warrant his command and of this sort are many Proclamations orders decrees injunctions set out from time to time by the kings authoritie and Prerogative royall by brother Burtons rule the people are at liberty to obey or not And on the other side in case the said command bee grounded on some positive law which they like not of whether it be a Penall statute or some old Act of Parliament almost out of use by the reviving of the which they may be prejudiced in purse or otherwise this is no good law in their judgement and so no more to be obeyed than if the kings command were founded on no law at all But your next limitation is farre worse than this though this bad enough For in the next place you have grounded all obedience on the peoples part upon that mutuall stipulation which the king and his subjects make at his Coronation Where the king takes an explicite solemne oath to mainteine the antient lawes and liberties of the kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those lawes established consequently and implicitely all the people of the land doe sweare fealtie allegiance subjection and obedience to their king and that according to his just lawes pag. 39. your inference from hence is this that if the king so solemnely by sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under his royall hand doe bind himselfe to maintaine the lawes of his kingdome and therein the rights and liberties of his subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the king according to his just lawes p. 40. So that according to your doctrine the people is no longer to obey the king than the king keepes promise with the people Nay of the two the people have the better bargaine the king being sworne explicitely and solemnely to maintaine their liberties the people onely consequently and implicitely to yeeld him subjection Is not this excellent doctrine think you or could the most seditious person in a state have thought upon a shorter cut to bring all to Anarchie for if the subject please to misinterpret the kings proceedings and thinke though falsely that he hath not kept his promise with them they are released ipso facto from all obedience and subjection and that by a more easie way then suing out a dispensation in the Court of Rome You tell us p. 129. of the kings free subjects and here you have found out a way to make them so a way to make the subject free and the king a subject and hard it is to say whether of the two be the greater Contradiction in adjecto I have before heard of a free people and of free states but never till of late of a free subject nor know I anyway to create free subjects but by releasing them of all obedience to their Princes And I have read too of Eleuthero Cilices which were those people of Cilicia that were not under the command of any king but never reade of an Eleuthero Britannus nor I hope never shall I will but aske you one question and so end this point You presse the kings oath very much about maintaining of the lawes of the Kingdom as pag. 39.40 and 42. before recited as also pag. 72. againe and againe and finally in your addresse to my LL. the Judges is it by way of Commemoration or of Exprobration if of Commemoration you forget the Rule memorem immemorem facit qui monet quae memor meminit But if of Exprobration what meant you when you needed not to tell us that in a point of Civill Government it is a dangerous thing to change a Kingdom setled on good lawes into a tyranny and presently thereon to adde a certaine speech of Heraclitus Viz. That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls I only aske the question take you time to answere it CHAP. III. An Answere to the Challenge of H. B. against His Majesties Actions and Declarations The King accused for breach of promise touching the Petition of Right but falsly His Majesties Declaration before the Articles censured by H.B. as tending to suppresse the Trueth and advance the contrary errours Of the law of Amnestie His Majesties Declaration about Sports condemned and censured H. B. fall's scandalously fowle upon King James by reason of the like Declaration by him set forth H. B. makes the people jealous of the Kings intentions His Majestie accused for the restraint of Preaching in infected places contrary to his
hath declaimed against them Regâ—um est cum bene feceris male audire And it is very well observed by our incomparable Hooker to be the lot of all that deale in publicke affaires whether of Church or Commonwealth that what men list to surmise of their doings be it good or ill they must before hand patiently arme their mindes to endure Besides being placed on high as a watch-tower they know full well how many an envious eie will be cast upon them especially amongst such men as brother B. to whom great eminences are farre more dreadfull then great vices and a good name as dangerous as a bad Sinistra erga eminentes interpretatio nec minus periculum ex magna fama quam ex mala And herein they may comfort and rejoyce their hearts that whatsoever sinister and malicious censures are now passed upon them yet there will one day come a time in which all hearts shall be open all desires made knowne and when no counsels shall be hid and then the Lord shall make it knowne who were indeed on his side and who against him In the meane time suspence of censure and exercise of charity were farre more sit and seemely for a Christian man then the pursuite of those uncharitable and most impious courses whereby you goe about to bring the Church of God and the Rulers of it into discredit and contempt I know assuredly how gloriously soever you conceive of your owne deere selfe that you are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no searcher of the heart nor no discerner of the spirits And therefore I am bold to tell you what I have learned from Venerable Bede viz. ut ea facta quae dubium est quo animo fiant in meliorem partem interpretemur that all mens actions whereof we know not the intent should be interpreted to the better How much the rather should this rule be in use amongst us in points of counsell the hearts of Kings for he hath had his share in the declamation being unsearchable in themselves and unseene to us the resolutions of the Church grounded on just and weighty reasons being to be obeyed and not disputed much lesse rashly censured This counsell if it come too late to you may yet come soone enough to others and to them I leave it CHAP. V. An Answer to the quarrells of H. B. against the Bishops in reference to their Iurisdiction and Episcopall government H.B. endites the Bishops in a Premunire for exercising such a jurisdiction as is not warrantable by the Lawes The Bishops not in danger of any Statute made by King Henry the eight The true intention of the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. The Court of High-Commission in the same established The Statute 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. on what ground enacted repealed by Qu. Mary and so still continueth The use of excommunication taken away by that statute of King Edward A finall answer to the cavills about the exercise of Episcopall jurisdiction Why H. B. and the Brethren doe seeme to pleade so hard for the Kings supremacie the Bishops chalenged for oppressing the Kings leige people the Iudges for not sending out their Prohibitions to reteine them H. B. the onely Clergie man that stands for Prohibitions King Iames his order in that case The quality of their offence who are suspended by their ordinaries for not publishing the book for sports The Bishops charged with persecuting Gods faithfull Ministers and how deservedly HAving made knowne your good affections unto the calling and the persons we must now see what you have to say against the proceedings of the Bishops in their place and calling For sure you would not have it thought that you have lifted up your voyce so like a Trumpet to startle and awaken the drowzie world and that there was no cause to provoke you to it No there was cause enough you say such as no pure and pious soule could endure with patience their whole behaviour both in the consistory and the Church being so unwarrantable For in their consistory they usurpe a power peculiar to the supreme majestie and grievously oppresse the subject against law and conscience and â—n the Church they have indeavoured to erect a throne for Antichrist obtruded on it many a dangerous innovation and furiously persecuted the Lords faithfull servants for not submitting thereunâ—o Therefore no wonder to be made if being called forth by Christ who hath found you faithfull to stand in his cause and witnesse it unto the world you persecute the Prelacie with fire and halter and charge them with those usurpations oppressions innovations and persecutions which you have brought in readinesse to make good against them hoping in very little time to see their honour in the dust and the whole government of the Church committed to the holy Elders whereof you are chiefe In case you cannot prove what you undertake you are contented to submit to the old Law amongst the Locrians let the Executioner do his office I take you at your word and expect your evidence first that the Prelates have usurped a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie which is the first part of your charge How prove you that Marry say you because of sundry statutes as in King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeths time which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction unto the Crowne of England so as no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England pag. 68. So farre the tenor of the Law if you tell us true or rather if your learned Counsell rightly informed Dr. Bastwicke in it from whose mouth you tooke it Now for the practise of our Prelates you tell us that they neither have at any time nor never sought to have any the Kings Letters patents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe pag. 69. There be your Major and your Minor The conclusion followes So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forreine power altogether excluded in the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. And it is flatly against the oath of supremacie in the same statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes highnesse her heires and lawfull successors and to their power to defend all jurisdictions priviledges c. granted to the Queenes highnesse her heires c. p. 70.71 In fine you bring them all in a premunire leave them to the learned in the law of which if you were one or that your learned Counsell might sit Iudge to decide the controversie Lord have mercy upon them For answer hereunto wee would faine know of
superstition and stiling the conformable ministers of this Church a generation of Idolatrous sacrificing Masse-priests You know what he in Tacitus replied on the like occasion Tu linguae ego aurium Dominus sum And you may raile on if you please for any answere we shall give you but neglect and patience Onely I will be bold to tel you that were it not for those Cathedralls howsoever you vilifie and miscall them we had not onely before this time beene at a losse amongst ourselves in the whole forme and order of divine service heere established but possibly might have had farre more Recusants in this kingdome then now wee have Which if you take to be a Paradox as no doubt you will you may remember that it was affirmed by Marquesse Rhosny Ambassadour here for King Henry the fourth of France having observed the majestie of our divine service in Cathedrals that if the same had bin observed by the Protestants in France there had not been so many Papists left in it as there were at that time For your particular instances in the Cathedrall Churches of Durham Bristol Saint Pauls and Wulpher Hampton 161. though I trowe Wulpherhampton bee no Cathedrall but that you have a minde to match your friend the Minister for his Cathedrall Church at Dâ—ver the most that you except against are things of ornament which you are grieved to see you more rich and costly then they have been formerly Judas and you alike offended at any cost that is bestowed upon our Saviour either on his bodie or about his Temples both of you thinking all is lost that is so disposed of and that it would doe better in the common bagg whereof hee was and you perhaps have beene the bearers And so I should proceed to the third Argument which you have made in the behalfe of these Innovations as you cal them drawn from the furniture fashion of his M â—â— Chappell and to an answer thereunto But we have met with them already partly in answere to your own wretched seditious comparison of his Majesties Chappell and the Altar there to Julian the Apostates Altar and Nebuchadnezzars golden image and partly in reply to the selfe same answers made to the sold Argument by your friend the Minister your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true yoake-fellow in this cause whither I referre you So having traced you up and downe from one end of your Pasquill unto the other and looked upon those factious and seditious doctrines which you have preached unto the people nothing remaineth but that I lay before you and your Audience a word of Application and so conclude THE CONCLUSION Containing an addresse to H. B. and representing to him the true condition of his crime and punishment thereto belonging if he should be dealt withall according to the Law in that behalfe Oldnols case The Puritanes use to practise on the people for the accomplishment of their designes Scandalum magnatum what it is and how punished Seditious writings brought within the compasse of Treason and severall persons executed for the same Many of the Principall of the faction hanged up by a particular Statute in Q. Elizabeths time The power ascribed unto the people by the Puritan doctrine An Exhortation to the People to continue in obedience to God the King and his publike Ministers No further Answeres to be looked for to those pestilent libells which every day are cast abroad The close of all IT pleased King James of blessed memory to leave unto the World at once both a complaint for and commendation of the Church of England It is a signe saith he of the latter dayes drawing on even the contempt of the Church and of the Governours and Teachers thereof now in the Church of England which I say in my conscience of any Church that ever I read or knew of present or past is most pure and neerest the Primitive and Apostolicall Church in Doctrine and Discipline and is sureliest founded upon the Word of God of any Church in Christendome Which commendation as the Church doth still retaine so may it take up the complaint in more grievous manner those times being modest then in respect of these and those contempts which he complaines of being now growne to such an height Supra quod ascendi non possit that greater cannot be imagined Wherein as the Triumviri whom at first I spake of have well played their parts so there is none of any age nor all together in all ages which hath shewne greater malice unto the Church and to the Governors and Teachers of it then you Mas Burton Not to the Bishops only and inferiour persons whom either for their place or calling you were bound to honour but to the supreame Governor thereof your Soveraign and Patron as you please sometimes to call him your carriage towards whom I shall first lay down according as before delivered and after tell you my opinion freely what I thinke therein First for the King you call His royall power in question and are offended very much that any one should attribute unto him an unlimited power as you meane unlimited or that the Subject should be taught that his obedience must be absolute that being say you a way to cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe unto the ground You tell us of some things the King cannot doe and that there is a power in government which he neither hath nor may transferre upon another You had my censure of this before in the Second Chapter Yet I will here be bold to tell you that as it is a kind of Atheisme to dispute pro and con what God can doe and what hee cannot though such disputes are raised sometimes by unquiet witts so it is a kind of disobedience and disloyalty to question what a King can doe being Gods Deputie here on earth especially to determine what he can and what he cannot Then for the obedience of the Subject you limit it to positive lawes the King to be no more obeyed then there is speciall Law or Statute for it the Kings Prerogative Royall being of so small a value with you that no man is to prize it or take notice of it further then warranted by Law and which is worse you ground this poore obedience which you please to yeeld him upon that mutuall stipulation which is between the King and people and thereby teach the people that they are no longer to obey the King then he keeps promise with the people This ground of obedience laied you next proceed unto the censure of his Majesties actions complaining that in your commitment unto Prison his Majestie had not kept his solemne covenant made with his people touching their Petition which you call of right That by his Declaration before the Articles the Doctrines of Gods Grace and mans salvation have beene husht and silenced and that by silencing those needlesse controversies there is a secret purpose to suppresse Gods truth
and to bring in the contrary errours as did the Arian Emperours by their law of Amnestia His Majesties Declaration about lawfull sports upon the Sunday you taxe as tending manely to the dishonour of God the prophanation of the Sabbath the annihilation of the fourth Commandment and charge him that thereby and by his silencing of those doctrines before remembred and restraint of preaching on the Fast-dayes in infected places hee hath given way to Innovations contrary to his solemne promise made unto his people His Majesties Chappell Royall and the furniture thereof you liken unto Nehu chadnezzars golden Image and Julians Altar the King himselfe to Nebuchadnezzar the Apostate Julian and that Idolatrous King Ahab incouraging the people both by particular instances and a generall exhortation to stand stoutly to it Finally you lay down a most odious and disloyall supposition touching the setting up of Masse in his Majesties Chappel and what is to be done when that comes to passe And ever and anon informe him as if you meant to terrifie and affright him with it how much the people doe beginne to stagger in their good opinion of his Majestie that they grow jealous of some dangerous plot that all the people of the Land by your commitment to the prison may be possessed with a sinister opinion of the Kings justice and constancie in keeping his solemne Couenant made with his people as in that Petition of right and if hee observe his word no better it will be said of him in succeeding Annalls that hee had no regard to sacred vowes and solemne Protestations Thus having taught the people that all obedience to the King is founded on a mutuall stipulation betweene him and them and telling them how often and in how great matters he hath broke the Covenant made betweene them you have released the people ipso facto of all obedience duetie and alleageance to their Soveraigne Lord and thereby made them free subjects as you please to call them so free that it is wholy in their pleasure whither they will obey or not Thus have I briefely layed together your carraige and behaviour towards our Lord the King wherein expressely contrarie to the Statute of Westminster that no man tell or publish any false newes or tales whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander may growe betweene the King and his people or the nobles you have as much as in you was made a breach betweene them For though the Lord be praysed no such discord bee yet is your crime no lesse then if it were the law forbidding such false tales not onely by the which discord or slander doth arise but by which it might Oldnoll a yeoman of the Guard was on this very Statute endicted in Queene Maries time pour parrols horrible slanderous parrols del Roigno for horrible and slanderous words against her Highnesse unde scandalum in regno inter dominam Reginam Magnates vel populum suum â—riri poterit c. And howsoever no dissension did arise on the said false tales yet seeing there was occasion given he was proceeded with and punished according to that Statute as you may finde in Iustice Dier p. 155. So farre the lawes provide to prevent all discord and the occasions of the same but for preventing of sedition and seditious either words or writings they are more severe of which how far you have been guiltie we shal see annon Mean time you may take notice if at lest you will that it hath beene the antient practise of those men whose stepps you follow to put into the peoples mindes seditious humours thereby to make themselves of power against the Magistrates and sometimes also to terrifie and affright the Prince or supreame Magistrate with the feare of uproares the better to accomplish what they had projected This was the device of Flacius Illyricus the father of the stiffe or rigid Lutherans in high Germany whom as you follow in his doctrines deprovidentia Praedestinatione Gratia Libero arbitrio Adiaphoris and such heads as those so doe you also follow him in his fiery nature and seditious Principles One of which was Principes potius metu seditionum terrendos quam vel minimum pacis causa indulgendum that Princes should be rather terrified with the feare of tumults then any thing should bee yeilded to for quietnesse sake The other was ut plebs opiniones suas populari seditione tueretur that the common people ought to take up armes against the magistrat in maintenance of those opinions which they were possessed of Which as Paraeus tells us hath beene the practice ever since of all his followers whereof you are chiefe And for your odious supposition of setting up of Masse in the Kings Chappell let mee tell you this That it is Criminall if not Capitall to use Ifs and And 's and suppositions in matters of so high a nature and such as in some cases hath beene judged high Treason Sir William Stanley a man as of especiall merit so in especiall favor with King Henry the seventh found it no jesting matter to use Ifs and And 's in things which doe so neerely concerne a King For saying onely that if he thought the young man Perkin Warbeck to bee the undoubted sonne of King Edward the fourth hee never would beare armes against him he was condemned of treason and executed for the same the Judges thinking it unsafe to admitt ifs and ands in such dangerous points So for your dealing with the Bishops you labour to expose them as much as in you is to the publicke hatred and to stirre up the people to effect their ruine Not to repeate those scandalous and odious names which passim almost in every page you have cast upon them to bring them into discredit and contempt with the common people you have accused them of invading his Majesties supreme authoritie and left them as you thinke in a Premunire the better to incense his Majestie against them also whom having exasperated as you hope against them you call upon him in plaine termes to hang them up as once the Gibeonites did the 7. sonnes of Saul at least to joyne with God and his good subjects Courtiers Nobles Judges Magistrates and the rest together to cut them off and roote them out Which if hee will not doe you tell him roundly that for his owne part he will make a very sorrie accompt to almightie God for the great charge committed to him and then that God for his part will rather adde unto then decrease our Plagues till he hath utterly destroyed vs. But fearing lest this should not edifie with so wise a Prince you practise next upon the people And knowing that there is nothing which they prize so highly as the defence of their religion and lawfull liberties you lay about you lustilie to let them see how much they are in danger of loosing both For this cause you accuse the Prelates allmost every where for bringing
raile against the times to cry downe all the orders of holy Church and to distract the people with needlesse controversies in despight of his Maiesties Declaration which he cared not for or would interprete for his purpose And had this happinesse withall that whatsoever he said there did instantly become Gods truth and therefore not to be suppressed by Prince or Prelate The Presse which was devised at first for the advancement and increase of learning was by him made a meanes to disperse his pasquills that they might flye abroad with the swifter wing and poyson mens affections whom he never saw And howsoever some of his unlicenced Babels were guilty of sedition and tended to incense the Commons against the King yet being dedicated to the Parliament As himselfe relates it P. 45. he came off bravely and brought his adversaries to a non-plus Fortunate man one of the sonnes no question of the young white henne to whom both Presse Pulpit prostitute themselves and yet account it as an honour that hee hath abused them Too fortunate indeed had it so beene carried But not long after this brave man of Armes that dares encounter with Goliah as hee boasts himselfe received the foile being first suspended for his preaching and afterward imprisoned and brought into the High Commission for his printing as hee relates the story p. 52. Oh but by Gods great blessing and the Kings good Lawes he was fetch 't off those shelves where else as he complaineth he had suffered shipwracke by a Prohibition P. 53. for that hee was beholding to his friend Mast Prynne who both aduised him to it had led the way and having Layton's valour in admiration thought it a farre more Noble suffering to lose one eare or two by sentence in the Starre-Chamber then lend an eare to the censure of the High Commission so fared it with his learned Counsaile whose punishment might have perswaded him to more moderate courses but that he had a strong desire to fill up the measure of his iniquities and having beene a stickler in the same cause with him conceived it most agreeable to the rule of fellowship that he must suffer with him also Tully indeed did so resolve it Ut qui in eadem causa fuerunt in eadem item essent fortuna and certainly it was very fit that it should be so nor was it possible to stay him being once resolved only he wanted opportunity for the accomplishment of his designes which the last Gun-powder day did present unto him that day being by him thought most proper for their execution whom he had long before condemn'd and meant to blow up now without helpe of Powder In that more mercifull indeed than Faux or Catisby they purposing to blow up the three estates together he but at once The place designed for this dispatch that which he had so long abused the Pulpit the way of bringing it about that which hath alwaies served his turne on the like occasions a seditious Sermon wherein he had drawn up together what ever spirit of malice he had found disâ—â—rsed in al or any of those scurrilous and pestilent Pamphlets which had bin published to the world since Martins time of purpose to defame the Clergy and inflame the people his own store being added to it Nor did he thinke it was enough thus to disgorge his stomacke of purpose to excite his audience against their superiors and startle them with dreadfull feares as if hoth tyranny and Popery were likely in short time to be thrust upon them that was an undertaking fit for private persons whose gifts might be confined to one place or Parish For his part he was now the generall Superintendent of all the Churches the forlorne hope the Centinell perdue of the whole brother-hood and therefore the most choyce and materiall poynts of the Declamation like the Enclyclicall Epistles of the elder times must briefely be summed up and scattered all abroad the Kingdome as Newes from Ipswich Nay lest one title of his word should fall to ground the Declamation presently must become a Libell and was by him thought fit to have been printed as soone as spoken for the generall god as he assures us of all his Majesties loving Subjects throughout the Kingdome and printed at the last it was and with a monstrous impudence dedicated to his Maiesty and Copies of the same given forth as he saith himselfe in hope that it might come at last to his Maiesties hands Two things there were especially which did embolden him thus to preach and publish his owne personall quarrells as the truth of God First an opinion of some extraordinary calling from above the same perhaps that Hacket was possessed with in Queene Elizabeths reigne This he avoweth in his Epistle to the King I heartily thanke my Lord Jesus Christ who hath accounted mee faithful called me forth to stand in his case and to witnesse it before the World by publishing my said Sermons in Print c. And in that directed to the true-hearted Nobility where he speaks more plainly Certainly I am one of the watch-men of Israel though the meanest yet one that hath obtained mercy to bee faithful Nor have I inconsiderately or rashly rushed upon this businesse but have been by a strong hand drawn into it Yea my Lords know assuredly that Christ himselfe my great Lord Master hath called me forth to be a publike witnesse of this great cause who will certainly maintaine both it and me against all the Adversaries of God and the King The second was a confidence that no man durst to question so great a prophet greater then which was never raised up from the dead to preach to Dives and his brethren And this he lets us know in his Apologie p. 7. I never so much as once dreamed saith he that impiety and impudencie it selfe in such a Christian state as this is and under such a gratious Prince durst ever thus publikely have called me in question and that upon the open stage c. No marvell if so strange a calling seconded by so strong a confidence spurred him bravely on and made him lift up both his voice and hand against what ever is called God and how know wee but that in some of his spirituall raptures he might faine an hope that his dread name should be as famous in the stories of succeeding times as Muntzers or King John of Leidens But these imaginations failed him too as his Court-hopes did For contrary to what he dreamt such filthy dreamers S. Jude speakes of Vpon the Third of December next ensuing a Pursuivant as he tells the storie served him with letters missive from the high Commission to appeare before Doctor Duck at Cheswick then and there to take his oath to answere to such Articles as were laid against him Bold men that durst lay hands upon a Prophet of such an extraordinary calling who if his power had been according to his spirit would have
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as
Title Sir I hope you know your owne words in your doughtie dialogue betweene A. and B. you know the proverbe Fronti rara fides the fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences For whereas you entitle it for God and the King you doe therein as Rebells doe most commonly in their insurrections pretend the safety of the King and preservation of Religion when as they doe intend to destroy them both The civill warre in France raised by the Duke of Burgundy and Berry against Lewis the eleventh was christned by the specious name of Le bien Public for the Common-wealth but there was nothing lesse intended then the common good And when the Iewes cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini they did but as you doe abuse the people and colour their ambition or their malice choose you which you will with a shew of zeale So that your Title may be likened very fitly to those Apothecaries boxes which Lactantius speakes of quorum tituli remedium habent pixides venenum poysons within and medecines writ upon the Paper So for your Text we will repeat that too that men may see the better how you doe abuse it 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 Prov. 24.21 22. A Text indeed well chosen but not well applyed For had you looked upon your selfe and the Text together and followed the direction which is therein given you you had not so long hunted after Innovations as for these many yeares it is knowne you have and so might possibly have escaped that calamitie which is now like to fall upon you But it 's the nature of your humour as of some diseases to turne all things unto the nourishment of the part that is ill affected Meane while you make the Scriptures but a nose of wax as Pighius once prophanly called it by wresting it maliciously to serve your turnes and so confirme the vulgar Papists in contempt of that which were it not for you and such as you they might more easily bee induced both to heare and reverence Now for the method of your Sermon I meane to call it so no more though you observe no method in it but wander up and downe in repetitions and tautologies as your custome is I must thus dispose it The passages therein either of scandall or sedition I shall reduce especially unto these two heads those which reflect upon the Kings most excellent Majestie and those which strike directly against the Bishops That which reflects upon the King either relates to his authoritie or his actions That which doth strike against the Bishops is to be considered as it is referred either unto their place or to their persons or finally to their proceedings and these proceedings are againe to bee considered eyther in reference to their Courts and behaviour there or to their government of and in the Church and carriage in that weighty office wherein you charge them with eight kinds of Innovations most of the generall kinds being sub-divided into several branches For a conclusion of the whole I shall present unto your selfe by way of Corollarie or resultancie out of all the premisses how farre you are or may prove guilty of sedition for that Pulpit pasquill of yours and so commend you to repentance and the grace of God In ripping up whereof as I shall keepe my selfe especially to your Pulpit-Pasquill so if I meete with any variae lectiones in your Apologie or Epistles or the Newes from Ipswich or your addresses to the Lords of the Privie Councell and my Lords the Iudges I shall use them also either for explication or for application Such your extravagancies as cannot easily be reduced to the former heads I either shall passe over or but touch in transitu This is the order I shall use First for the King you may remember what I told you was the Puritan tenet that Kings are but the Ministers of the Common-wealth and that they have no more authority then what is given them by the people This though you doe not say expresly and in terminis yet you come very neare it to a tantamont finding great fault with that unlimited power which some give to Kings and as also with that absolute obedience which is exacted of the subject One of your doctrines is that all our obedience to Kings and princes and other superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Your reason is because the King is Gods Minister and Vice-gerent and commands as from God so for God and in God Your doctrine and your reason might become a right honest man But what 's your use Your first use is for reprehension or refutation of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then rebells and to deserve to be hanged drawne and quartered that refuse to obey them pag. 77. So pag. 88. a second sort come here to be reproved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almightie himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his holinesse So pag. 89. Thus these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe to the ground Finally you reckon it amongst the Innovations wherewith you charge the Prelats in point of doctrine that they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to superiours setting man so in Gods Throne that all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience whose onely rule is the word of God pag. 126. In all which passages however you pretend the word of God the fundamentall Lawes of state and conscience yet clearely you expresse your disaffection unto the soveraignty of Princes and in effect leave them no greater power then every private man shall thinke fit to give them Besides there is a tacite implication also that the King exercises an unlimited power which cannot possibly consist with the subjects conscience the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome or the word of God It had beene very well done of you to have told the people what were the fundamentall lawes of State which were so carefully to be preserved within what bounds and limits the authority of Kings is to be confined and to have given them a more speciall knowledge of the rule of conscience For dealing thus in generalls onely Dolosus versatur in generalibus you know who sayd it you have presented to the people a most excellent ground not onely
to dispute but to disobey the Kings commands Now Sir I pray you what are you or by what spirit are you guided that you should finde your selfe agreeved at unlimited power which some of better understanding then your selfe have given to Kings or thinke it any Innovation in point of doctrine in case the doctrine of obedience to our superiours bee pressed more home of late then it hath beene formerly Surely you have lately studied Buchannan dejure regni or the vindiciae writ by Beza under the name of Iunius Brutus or else perhaps you went no further then Paraeus where the inferiour Magistrates or Calvin where the three estates have an authority to controule and correct the King And should the King be limited within those narrow bounds which you would prescribe him had you power he would in little time be like the antient Kings of Sparta in which the Ephori or the now Duke of Venice in which the Senate beare the greatest stroke himselfe meane time being a bare sound and an emptie name Stet magni nominis umbra in the Poets language Already you have layd such grounds by which each private man may not alone dispute but disobey the Kings commandements For if the Subject shall conceive that the Kings command is contrary to Gods word though indeede it be not or to the fundamentall lawes of state although hee cannot tell which be fundamentall or if he finde no precedent of the like commands in holy Scripture which you have made to be the onely rule of conscience in all these cases it is lawfull not to yeeld obedience Your selfe have given us one case in your Margin pag. 77. we will put the other Your reprehension is of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of state yet presse men to obedience to them your instance is of one which was shrewdly threatned how true that is we meane to tell the world hereafter for refusing to doe that which was not agreeable to the word of God viz. for refusing to read the booke of sports as you declare it in the Margin pag. 26. whether you referre us So then the case is this The King permits his people honest recreations on the Lords day according as had beene accustomed till you and your accomplices had cryed it downe with order to the Bishops to see his declaration published in the Churches of their severall diocesses respectively This publication you conceive to bee repugnant to Gods word though none but a few factious spirits ever so conceived it and that your doctrine of the Sabbath be contrary to all antiquity and moderne Churches and therefore by your rule they doe very well that refuse to publish it It 's true indeed in things that are directly contrary to the law of God such as carry in them a plaine and manifest impietie there is no question to be made but it is better to obey God then man But when the matter chiefly resteth either in misapplying or misunderstanding the word of God a fault too incideÌ„t to ignorant unstable men to none more then to your disciples their teachers too or that the word of God be made a property like the Pharisees Corban to justifie your disobedience unto Kings and Princes your rule is then as false as your action faulty So for your second limitation that 's but little better and leaves a starting hole to malicious persons from whence to worke on the affections of the common people For put the case the King in necessary and emergent causes touching the safety of his empire demand the present ayde of all his subjects and any Tribunitian spirit should informe them that this demand is contrary unto the fundamentall lawes of state according to your rule the subject is not bound to obey the king nay he might refuse it although the busines doth concerne especially his owne preservation But your third limitation that of conscience is the worst of all For where you make the word of God to be the onely rule of conscience you doe thereby conclude expressely that neither Ecclesiasticall or Civill ordinances doe binde the conscience and therein overthrow the Apostles doctrine who would have Every soule be subject to the higher powers not for wrath onely but for conscience sake So that in case the king command us any thing for which we finde not some plaine precept or particular warrant in the word of God as if the King command all Lecturers to read the service of the Church in their â—oodes and surplices before their Lectures such his command is plainely against conscience at least the Lecturers are not bound in conscience to submit unto it because there is no speciall precept for it in holy Scripture And certainely this plea of conscience is the most dangerous buckler against authoritie which in these latter ages hath beene taken up So dangerous that were the plea allowed and all the judgements of the king in banco permitted to bee scanned and traversed in this Court of Conscience there were a present end of all obedience Si ubi jubeantur quaerere singulis liceat peunte obsequio imperium etiam intercidit as he in Tacitus If every man had leave to cast in his scruple the balance of authority would be soone weighed downe Yet since you are so much agreived at the unlimited power which some gives to Kings will you be pleased to know that Kings doe hold their crownes by no other Tenure than Dei gratia and that what ever power they have they have from God by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice So say the Constitutions ascribed to Clements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Irenaeus also an antient father Cujus jussu homines nascuntur ejus jussu reges constituuntur And Porphyrie remembreth it amongst the Tenets of the Essees a Iewish Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man ever did beare rule but by Gods appointment Holding then what they have from God whose deputies they are and of whose power they are partakers how and by whom doe you conceive they should be limited doubtlesse you meane to say by the lawes of the Land But then if question be demanded who first made those lawes you must needes answere also the kings themselves So that in case the kings in some particulars had not prescribed limits unto themselves and bound their owne hands as it were to enlarge the peoples neither the people nor any lawes by them enacted could have done it Besides the law of Monarchie is founded on the Law of nature not on positive lawes and positive lawes I trow are of no such efficacie as to annihilate any thing which hath its being and originall in the law of nature Hence is it that all soveraigne Princes in themselves are above the lawes as Princes are considered in abstracto and extent of power and how farre that extent will
reach you may see in the first of Sam. and 8 chap. though in concreto a just Prince will not breake those lawes which he hath promised to observe Princes are debtors to their subjects as God to man non aliquid a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendo as S. Austine hath it And we may say of them in S. Bernards words Promissum quidem ex misericordia sed ex justitia persolvendum that they have promised to observe the lawes was of speciall grace and its agreeable to their justice to observe their promise Otherwise we may say of kings as the Apostle of the just Iusto lex non est posita saith the Apostle and Principi lexnon est posita saith the law of nature Doe you expect more proofe than you use to give Plutarch affirmes it of some kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not governe onely by the law but were above it The like saith Dion of Augustus Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was sure and had an absolute authoritie aswell upon his lawes as upon himselfe Besides in case the power of kings were restrained by law after the manner that you would have it yet should the king neglect those lawes whereby you apprehend that his power is limited how would you helpe your selfe by this limited power I hope you would not call a Consistorie and convent him there or arme the people to assert their pretended liberties though as before I said the Puritan tenet is that you may doe both Your learned Councell might have told you out of Bracton an ancient Lawyer of this kingdome omnem esse sub Rege ipsum sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And Horace could have told you that kings are under none but God Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis as he there hath it You may moreover please to know what Gregorie of Tours said once to a king of France Si quis e nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si vero tu excesseris quis te corripiet c. If any of us O king offend against the rules of justice thou hast power to punish him but if thou breake those rules who hath power to doe it We tell you of it and when you list you please to heare us but when you will not who shall judge you but he that tels us of himselfe that he is justice This was you see the ancient doctrine touching the power and right of kings not onely amongst Iewes and Christians but in heathen states what ever new opinion of a limited power you have pleased to raise But you goe further yet and tell us of some things the king cannot do and that there is a power which the king hath not what is it say you that the king cannot doe Marry you say he cannot institute new rites and ceremonies with the advise of his Commissioners Ecclesiasticall or the Metropolitan according as some pleade from the Act of Parliament before the Communion booke pag. 65. Why so Because according to your law this clause of the Act is limited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her successours of the Crowne This you affirme indeede but you bring no proofe onely it seemes you heard so from your learned councell You are I see of Calvins minde who tels us in his Commentarie on the 7 of Amos what had beene sayd by Doctor Gardiner after Bishop of Winchester and then Ambassadour in Germany touching the headship or Supremacie of the king his master and closeth up the storie with this short note inconsiderati homines sunt qui faciunt eos nimis spirituales that it was unadvisedly done to give kings such authority in spirituall matters But sir I hope you may afford the king that power which you take your selves or which your brethren at the least have tooke before you who in Queene Elizabeths time had their Classicall meetings without leave or licence and therein did ordeine new rites new Canons and new formes of service This you may doe it seemes though the kings hands are bound that he may not doe it And there 's a power too as you tell us that the king neither hath nor may give to others Not give to others certainely if he have it not for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is But what is this you first suppose and take for granted that the Bishops make foule havocke in the Church of God and persecute his faithfull servants and then suppose which yet you say is not to be supposed that they have procured a grant from the king to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of religion by law established And on these suppositions you doe thus proceede Yet whatsoever colour pretext or shew they make for this the king to speake with all humble reverence cannot give that power to others which hee hath not himselfe For the power that is in the king is given him by God and confirmed by the lawes of the kingdome Now neither God in his law nor the lawes of the land doe allow the king a power to alter the state of religion or to oppresse and suppresse the faithfull ministers of the Gospell against both law and conscience For kings are the ministers of God for the good of his people as wee shewed before p. 72.73 So you and it was bravely said like a valiant man The Brethren now may follow after their owne inventions with a full securitie for since you have proclaimed them to be faithfull ministers no king nor Keisar dares suppresse them or if he should the lawes of God and the law of the land to boote would rise in judgement to condemne him for usurpation of a power which they have not given him But take me with you brother Bâ—â— and I perhaps may tell you somewhat that is worth your knowledge And I will tell you sir if you please to hearken that whatsoever power is in the king is from God alone and founded on the law of nature The positive lawes of the land as they conferre none on him so they confirme none to him Rather the kings of England have parted with their native royalties for the peoples good which being by their owne consent established for a positive law are now become the greatest part of the subjects liberties So that the liberties possessions and estates of the kings leige people are if you will confirmed by the lawes of the land not the kings authoritie As for the power of kings which is given by God and founded on the law of nature how farre it may extend in the true latitude thereof we have said already Whether to alter the state of religion none but a most seditious spirit such as yours would put unto the question his majesties pietie and zeale being too well knowne to give occasion to such quaeres Onely I needes must
new orders or bringing in new fashions never knowne before If you have any other pedegree as perhaps you have from Wiclif Hus the Albigenses and the rest which you use to boast of keepe it to your selfe Non tali auxilio the Church of England hath no neede of so poore a shift Nor did shee ever think it fit further to separate herselfe from the Church of Rome either in doctrine or ceremonie then that Church had departed from herselfe when shee was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her head And so King Iames resolved it at Hampton Court That which remaineth touching the poison which the spirit hatt ruleth in the aire hath infused into the chaire of the Hierarchae and your distinction betweene nominall and reall grace for which I make no question but you doe hugge your selfe in private is not worth the answering I shall produce your raylings as I goe along but not confute them as knowing little credit to begotten by contending with you and farre lesse by scolding But where you seeme to be offended with the Bishops â—hat they should stile themselves the Godly holy Fathers of the Church I hope you know the title is not new nor first used by them All ages and all languages have so entituled them The Gretians everused to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Reverendos in Christo Patres the English our Reverend fathers in God all of them as of common course you cannot but know it As for that patch which followes after viz. the Pillars of our faith and your conceit upon them both of Caterpillers and stepfathers those you may heare amongst the scoffes reviling and reproachfull termes which with a prodigall hand and a venemous penne you cast upon them every where in your severall Pasquills to which now I hasten To begin therefore where we left for fathers you have made them Step-fathers for Pillars Caterpillers their houses haunted and their Episcopall chaires poysoned by that spirit that bear's rule in the ayre These we have told you of before goe on then They are the limbs of the beast even of Antichrist taking his very courses to beare and beate downe the hearing of the Word of God whereby men might bee saved p. 12. Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an image or crucifixe towards the sound and syllables of Iesus than towards the Lord Christ. Pag. 15. Miscreants 28. the traines and wiles of his the dragons dog-like flattering tayle pag. 30. New Babel-builders 32. blind watchmen dumbe doggs plagues of soules false prophets ravening wolves theeves and robbers of soules which honorary attributes you bestow upon them from the Magdeburgians pag. 48. Either for shame mend your manners or never more imprison any man for denying that title of succession which you so bely by your unapostolicall practise pag. 49. If the Prelats 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 all pag. 63. The Prelates actions tend to corrupt the kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies and sinister opinions towards the king as if he were the prime cause of all those grievances which in his name they doe oppresse the kings good subjects withall pag. 74. These factors for Antichrist practise to divide kings from their subjects and subjects from their kings that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe pag. 75. Antichristian mushromes pag. 83. They cannot be in quiet till res novas moliendo they may set up Popery againe in her full equipage 95. tooth and nayle for setting up of Popery againe 66. trampling under their feete Christs kingdome that they may set up Antichrists throne againe p. 99. According to that spirit of Rome which breatheth in them by which they are so strongly biassed to wheele about to their Roman Mistresse pag. 108. the Prelates confederate with the Priests and Iesuits for rearing up of that religion pag. 140. by letting in a forraigne enemie which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto pag. 75. The Prelates make the mother Cathedralls the adopted daughters of Rome their concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing idolatrous Massepriests throughout the land p. 163. Nothing can now stay them but either they will breake all in peeces or their owne necke p. 164. All this sir in your Pulpit-pasquill So also in your Apologie Iesuited Polypragmaticks and sonnes of Belial and in the newes from Ipswich Luciferian Lord Bishops Execrable traytors devouring wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by Christians Finally in your Pulpit libell you seriously professe that you are ashamed that ever it should bee sayd you have lived a minister under such a Prelacie p. 49. Great pittie sir you had not lived a little in king Edgars time amongst whose Lawes it was ordeined that that mans tongue should be cut out which did speake any slanderous or infamous words tending to the reproach of others Hitherto for the generalls And there are some particulars on which you spend your malice more than all the rest you descant trimmely as you thinke in the Newes from Ipswich on my Lord of Canterbury with your Arch-pietie Arch-charitie if Belzebub himselfe had beene Arch-Bishop Arch-Agent for the devill and such like to those A most triumphant Arch indeed to adorne your victories His costly and magnificent enterteinment of the king at Oxford you cry out against in your sayd Pulpit libell for a scurrilous enterlude made in disgrace of that which is the greatest beauty of our religion to wit true pietie and learning and will him in this shrift to confesse how unseemely it was for him that pretendeth to succeed the Apostles p. 49. You taxe a certaine speech of his as most audacious and presumptuous setting his proud foote on the kings lawes as once the Pope did on the Emperours necke p. 54. in marg and tell him that the best Apologie hee can make is that his tongue did runne before his wit and that in the flames of his passion he had sacrificed his best reason and loyaltie p. 55. You tell us also that the republishing of the booke for sports with some addition was the first remarkable thing which was done presently after the Lord of Cant. did take possession of his Grace-shippe pag. 59. that with his right hand hee is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven p. 121. Having a Papall infallibility of spirit whereby as by a divine oracle all questions in religion are finally determined pag. 132. However in your generall charges I left you to runne riot and disperse your follies according as you would your selfe yet now you are fallen on a particular and a particular as eminent in vertue as hee is in place you may perhaps
the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For
granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
or if he had a sentence to reverse that also Or if you will not trouble your selfe in thinking of it will you be pleased to heare what our late Soveraigne King James hath observed therein If saith he Prohibitions should rashly and headily be granted then no man is the more secure of his owne though he hath gotten a sentence with him for as good have no law or sentence as to have no execution thereof A poore Minister with much labor and expence having exhausted his poore meanes and being forced to forbeare his studie and to become non-resident from his flocke obtaines a sentence and then when he lookes to enjoy the fruites thereof he is defrauded of all by a Prohibition And so he is tortured like Tantalus who when he hath his Apple at his mouth that he is gaping to receive it then must it be pulled from him by a Prohibition and hee not suffered to taste thereof So farre the Royall Advocate hath pleaded the poore Clergies cause And did he nothing as a Judge Yes he declared it to be his Office to make every Court containe himselfe within his own limits and thereupon admonished all other Courts that they should be carefull every of them to containe themselves within the bounds of their owne jurisdictions the Courts of Common law that they should not be so forward and prodigall in multiplying their Prohibitions But you will say perhaps that your exception lieth against the stopping of the course of Prohibitions not so much if at all in reall as in personall actions and that you are offended only because by this meanes the Kings Innocent Subjects are not relieved as you and Mr. Prynne once were from the unjust oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiasticall and High Commission Why what 's the matter There is you tell us a great persecution in the Church and many a faithfull godly Minister hath beene of late suspended from his ministery and outed of his benefice by the Prelates in the Courts aforesaid no remedy being to be had as in former times from the Common Law For as the common rumor goeth at least you make a rumour of it the course of Justice is stopped in these cases there being none dares open his mouth to pleade a cause against the Prelates So you in your addresse to my Lords the Judges p. 29. For an example of the which as well the persecution as the want of Remedie you instance in the Ministers of Surrey who are suspended of their ministerie and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all law and conscience yet are so disheartned and over-awed that they dare not contend in law against their Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winton for feare of further vexations and are out of hope of any faire hearing in an ordinary legall way p. 70. of your Pasquill What want of remedie can you or they complaine of if they have not sought it or rather if their conscience tell them and those with whom they have advised advertise them that in such cases as this is the Judges cannot by the law award a Prohibition if they should desire it Doe you conceive the case aright If not I will take leave to tell you His Maiestie having published his Declaration about lawfull pastimes on the Sunday gives order to his Bishops that publication thereof be made in all their severall diocesses respectively The Bishops hereupon appoint the Incumbent of every Church to read the booke unto the people that so the people might the better take notice of it and finding opposition to the said appointment made by some refractory persons of your owne condition presse them to the performance of it by vertue of that Canonicall obedience which by their severall oathes they were bound to yeeld unto their Ordinaries But seeing nothing but contempt and contempt upon contempt after much patience and long-suffering and expectation of conformitie to their said appointment some of the most pervers amongst them have in some places beene suspended aswell a benificio as officio for an example to the rest No man deprived or outed as you say of his meanes and livelihood that I heare of yet This is the Case Which being meerly Ecclesiasticall as unto the ground being a contempt of and against their Ordinarie and meerely Ecclesiasticall as unto the Censure which was suspension I cannot see what remedie you can find for them amongst the Lawyers but that which every man might give them good and wholsome Counsaile And call you this a persecution when a few refractarie persons are justly punished in a legall way for their disobedience For howsoever they and you pretend that the Command was contrary to the Law of God and could not be performed with a safe conscience yet this was onely a pretence their reading of the booke had the Contents thereof displeased them being no more an Argument of their approbation of any thing therein contained then when a Common Crier reades a Proclamation which perhaps he likes not It must be therefore some Association had and made amongst them to stand it out unto the last and put some baffle or affront on that authoritie which had imposed it Such also is the persecution doubtlesse which you so complaine of in the two whole Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space as you say there hath beene the foulest havock of Ministers and their flocks c. as ever our eyes have seene there being already as you tell us 60 Ministers suspended and betweene 60. and 80. more having had time given them till Christ-tide take head of Christmasse by all meanes by which time as you say they must either bid their good conscience fare-well or else their pretious Ministery and necessary meanes In all Queene Maries time no such havock made in so short a time oâ— the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole land p. 65. The same is also told us in the Newes from Ipswich Nay more then so you tell us how one or two godly Ministers some of your Associates were threatned by Docter Corbet Chancellor of that diocesse with Pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read His Majesties Declaration about lawfull sports In this you doe as shamefully belie the Chancellor as you have done the Bishop in all the rest of whose proceedings in that diocesse I will present you with a short account that you may see how grosly you abuse the world And first you may be pleased to know that the Clergie of that Diocesse comprehending all that are in spirituall dignitie or office and all Parsons Vicars Curates and Schoole-masters taking in the Lecturers with all amount unto the number of 1500. or thereabouts So that in case there had beene 60. of that Fifteene hundred suspended by the Bishop as you say there were had this beene such a terrible persecution as you give it out for But yet it is not so as you tell us
advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy mysteries and Sacraments This you restraine unto the person of the Queene affirming p. 66. that it is not to be extended to her successours in the Crowne How truely this is said hath beene showne elsewhere And were it so in point of Law yet a good Church man as you are could not choose but know that in the Articles of the Church it is acknowledged and agreed on that the Church hath power to decree Rites or ceremonies Art 20. and more then so that every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine change and abolish ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Art 34. These Articles you have subscribed to more then once or twice and therefore cannot choose but know that other ceremonies may be used in the Church then those which are expressed in the Common prayer booke Nor were these Articles confirmed onely in the Convocation the power and authority of the which you regard but little but were confirmed and subscription to the same exacted by Act of Parliament as your unlearned Counsaile can at large informe you It s true some such as you have quarrel'd with the 20. Article as if that clause of giving power unto the Church to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith were not coequall with the Article but thrust in of late and for that cause by some undue and sinister practise the booke of Articles was lately printed in the Latine tongue and that clause left out But in the antient Copies published in the yeare 1563. the Article is intire and whole according as it is in all those bookes of Articles to which you severally subscribed Nor saith that Article any more as to the matter of ordaining ceremonies then what is afterwards affirmed in the 34. Article as before was said nor more then what hath positively beene affirmed by your owne Divines as you please to stile them Calvin whose judgment in this point you neither may nor can decline hath said as much upon these words of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse et decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires cannot be done saith he without rules and Canons by which as by some certaine bondes both order and decorum may be kept together Paraus yet more plainely and unto the purpose Facit ecclesiae potestatem de decoro et ordine ecclesiastico libere disponendi et leges ferendi So that you see the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies in things that appertaine to order decency and uniformity in Gods publicke service and which is more a power of making lawes and Canons to inforce conformity unto the same in the opinion of your owne Doctors And if it please his Majesty with the advice of his Commissioners or Metropolitane to ordaine new ceremonies or if the Church thinke fit to adde further rites to those which are received already I know no remedy either in Law or conscience but that you must submit unto them Which said we will proceede to those other Innovations which you have falsly charged upon the Prelates The fourth change is you tell us in the civill government which they labour to reduce and transferre to ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample on the lawes of the land and step between the King and his people the Prelates power overswaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes pag. 129. You make the like out-cry to my LL. the Iudges saying Doe not your wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian power and jurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes c. doe thereby begin to overtop the Royall throne and trample the Lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feete p. 29. Quid dignum tanto What is the ground of all this noise Nought els it seemes but that the high Commissioners thinke that Court of too high a nature to be affronted by such fellowes as your Learned Counsailes of which you tell us p. 129. and that my LL. the Iudges out of their honourable love to Iustice are not so easily moved to send their writs of prohibition to that Court as some of their Predecessours were before them And is there not good reason thinke you For if as Dr. Cosin pleades the case his Majesties supreame Royall authority and power ecclesiasticall granted by Commission to others be as highly vested in his Crowne as is his Temporall then will it be probably gathered both of them being in their severall kindes supreme and the exercise of them committed over to others under the great Seale that the one of them is not to be abridged restrained or controuled by the other And you may also know if you please to know it how that it was affirmed once by K. Iames of blessed memorie in his speech at Whitehall before both houses of Parliament An. 1609. That the high Commission was of so high a nature that from thence there was no appellation to any other Court Both Courts being thus supreme in their severall kindes and neither of them being to be abridged restrained and controuled by the other as long as the Iudges in the high Commission keepe themselves within their bounds to causes of ecclesiasticall cognizance what reason have you of complaint in case you cannot get a Prohibition as before you did Most likely that my LL. the Iudges are growne more difficult in that kinde as for diverse other reasons so most especially because they see the Iudges in that other Court so carful as not to meddle in any thing which may entrench upon the Courts of common Law or the subjects liberty Call you me this an overtopping of the Royall throne a trampling of the Lawes liberties and just rights of his Majesties subjects under their feete Cannot so insolent a wretch as you be denied a Prohibition from the Courts of Law or may not Mr. Prynne be threatned for his sawey and irreverent carriage by the high Commission but presently you must raise an outcry ac si Anniball ad portas as if the libertie of the subjects was indangered in the free use and benefit of the Lawes as you please to phrase it yet this amongst the rest you have made a cause of your seditious libelling against Church and State as if the one were like to devoure the other and all were in a way to ruine but for such Zelots as your selfe the carefull watchmen of the times But good Sir be assured there is no such danger For as the reducing of the civill government so ecclesiasticall which you so much feare there must be other meanes to doe
it then by a difficulty of obtaining Prohibitions from the Common Law And it is never more likely to be effected then when your selfe sit chiefe in your longed for Consistory with your Lay-elders round about you Then Kings and Queenes and whatsoever is called God must cast themselves before your foote-stoole as you your selves have told us in your publicke writings And as for businesse the Lawyers howsoever you count them now will have too little to maintaine them For this is reckoned by your Brethren amongst the excellencies of your discipline both for the wealth of the Realme and quiet of the subjects that thy Church is to censure those who are apparentle troublesome and contentious and without reasonable cause which you meane to judge of upon a meere will and stomacke doe vex and molest their brother and trouble the Country Where will your Civill government be then and who shall send out Prohibitions when that comes to passe CHAP. VII The foure last Innovations charged upon the Bishops examined severally and confuted The Alterations said to be in the Common Prayer-book Father of thine Elect and of their seede left out and why Of bowing in the name of Iesus The alterations said to be in the booke of Prayer for the fifth of November Prayers intended first against Recusants aswell appliable to the Puritans as some Lawes and Statutes The religion of and in the Church of Rome whether it may be said to be Rebellion and how the Prelates are chalenged in that respect The Arguments produced by H. B. to prove that the Religion of the Ch. of Rome is rebellion are either false or may be turned upon himselfe Of alterations in the Fast-booke The Letany of K. Edward altered because it gave offense and scandall to those which were affected to the Ch. of Rome Some prayers omitted in the Fast-booke and the reason why The Lady Eliz and her Children why left out in the present Collect. IN nova fert animus Your minde is still upon your Metamorphosis more changes yet and the next head of changes is altering the formēs of prayer particularly the booke of Common prayer that for the fifth of November and lastly that for the fast set forth by his Majesties appointment An. 1636. And first you say in the Communion booke set forth by Parliament and commanded to be read without any alteration and none other they have altered sundrie things p. 130. Ho there Who told you that the Common-prayer-booke was set forth by Parliament Thinke you the Knights and Burgesses of the house of Commons were busied in those times in making or in mending Prayer-bookes The Statute 2. 3. Edw. 6. c. 1. will tell you that the Common prayer booke was set forth in that very word by the Archbp. of Cant. and certaine of the most learned and discreete Bishops and other learned men of this Realme and being so set forth was by authority of Parliament confirmed and ratified as it related to the Subject Which course was after taken in the review of the said booke both in the fift and sixt of King Edward the sixt and in the first of Queene Elizabeth Being set forth then by the Clergie it was as you informe us commanded to be read without any alteration that was indeed done by authority of Parliament Doe you observe that ordinance do not you alter it and chop and change it every day at lest if you vouchsafe to reade it as perhaps you doe not And if it must be read without any alteration and none other why doe you quarrell at the reading of the second Service at the Communion Table before and after Sermon being there so ordered or use another forme of prayer then is there appointed Remember what you tell us here for you and I must talke about it in the next generall change Meane time what are the sundry things which you say are altered in the booke set forth by Parliament You tell us but of two and you talke of sundry How shall I credit you hereafter if you palter thus in the beginning But for those two what are they I beseech you Marry you say that in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progenie they have put out Father of thine elect and of their seede as it were excluding the King Queene and Seede Royall out of the number of Gods elect p. 130. This you have told us of in your Epistle to the King and in your Apologie and the Newes from Ipswich The Queene is more beholding to you then I thought shee had beene you take such speciall care for her Election But Sir a word before we part Who told you that this Collect was set forth with the booke allowed by Parliament I trow King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeth had no royall progenie so that this Collect could not bee then in Esse when the booke was made The first time it was made and used was at the happie entrance of King Iames on this Realme of England neither set forth nor ratified by any Parliament that hath beene since Now King Iames had at his first comming hither a royall seede but when his Majestie the King came unto the crowne he was then unmarried and after he was married had not children presently you know well enough Would you have had the collect passe as it did before Father of thine elect and of their seed when as the king whom you must needs meane by Elect in that place and prayer had no seede at all I hope you see your folly now your most zealous folly which made you in the Newes from Ipswich on the recitall of this supposed alteration to crye out O intollerable impietie affront and horred treason Most bravely clamoured The other alteration which you charge them with is that in all the common prayer bookes printed since the yeare 1619. in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter they have turned in the Name of Iesus to at the name of Iesus to countenance as you say their forced bowing to the name of Iesus you are still for to it Such change there is indeede but yet no alteration from the booke or text The Bishops Bible as they call it out of the which the Epistles and Gospells were first taken readeth at the name and so doth Bishop Iewell too citing this very text in the place and passage noted to you in the last Chapter And if you looke into the Bible of the last translation you finde that it is therein also at the name of Iesus so that you have no reason to repine at this which is a restitution onely of the proper reading and no change at all The second booke which they have altered as you say is that appointed to bee read on the fifth day of November published by authority of Parliament p. 131. set forth by act of Parliament p. 41. in the Margent ordered by Parliament in the second p. of your apologie ordered set forth and published
the Gospell bowing at the name of Jesus and to the high Altar removing the communion table to stand Altarwise placing of Images in Churches erecting Crucifixes over the Altars commanding of long Mattins instead of preaching and the like This said you answere hereunto that wee in this land are not to be ruled by the Popes Canons or the Canon Law but by the law of God and the King And that there are no other rites and ceremonies to be used in our Church then those that are allowed by the Act of Parliament prefixed to the communion booke and are expressed in the same booke But Sir you may bee pleased to knowe that the commanding of long prayers is warranted by that Act of Parliament which you so insist on the prayers being made no longer then that Act commandeth and that our bowing at the name of Jesus is enjoyned by the 18. Canon which being authorized by his Majestie is the law of the King and being grounded on the second of the Philipians is the law of God Our standing at the Gospell and praying with our faces towards the East have beene still retained by our Church not out of any speciall Canon but ex vi Catholice consuetudinis by vertue of the constant and continuall custome of the church of God The placing of the holy Table Altar-wise and standing at the Gloria Patri have generally beene observed in Cathedrall Churches since the Reformation it being granted by a good friend of yours the Author of the holy Table that in some Cathedrall Churches where the steps were not transposed in tertio of the Queene and the wall on the backeside of the Altar untaken downe the table might stand as it did before along the wall For bowing to the high Altar I know no such matter either in practice or in precept for bowing towards it wee have the practice of antiquitie but no present precept Your friend and fidus Achates the good minister of Lincolnshire could have told you this that although the Canon doth not enjoyne it yet reason pietie and the constant practice of antiquitie doth that Church-men doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Liturgie and the Lay-men are commanded to doe it in Saint Chrysostomes Homilie and finally if there bee any proud Dames quae deferre nesciant mentium religioni quod deferunt voluptati as Saint Ambrose speakes that practice all manner of curtesies for maskes and dances but none by any meanes for Christ at their approach to the holy Table hee declares them Schismatickes bequeathing them unto Donatus with a protest that hee will never write them in his Calendar for the Children of this Church For Images in Churches and Crucifixes over the Altars finde you of all loves that the Church hath any where commanded them or any of the Prelates in their visitatioÌ„s given order for their setting up if not why do you charge it on her and bring not any proof at all that shee hath imposed it So that your answer being thus come to nothing the objection by you brought on the Churches part remaines unanswearable Viz. that the Prelates of the Church have brought in no changes but onely have revived those things which the antient Canons have allowed and prescribed the Law of God the King and the Act of Parliament either inabling them to doe so or not gainsaying it Secondly you object on the Prelates part that they bring in no Innovations no new rites but what hath been in use ever since the Reformation and that in the most eminent places even the Mother Churches of the land so as all that they goe about is to reduce inferiour Churches to an unitie and conformitie to their Mother-Churches that bringing all to unitie they may take of that reproach which the Adversaries cast upon us in this kinde This is their Plea indeed you say wondrous honestly Would you could hold long in so good a veine and not flie out unto your wonted arts of Scandall and false clamours upon noe occasion For having pleaded thus you make an answere presently that the Cathedrals are the old high places not yet removed the antient dennes of those old foxes the nests and Nurceries of superstition and Idolatrie wherein the old Beldame of Rome hath nuzzled up her brood of Popelings and so preserved her VSVM SARVM to this very day p. 159. and finally that the Prelates make these mother Cathedralls being Romes adopted daughters their Concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing Idolatrous Masse-priests throughout the land p. 163. But Sir consider in cold blood that this is not to answere but to rayle downe Arguments His sacred Majestie in his resolution of the case about Saint Gregories Church neere the Cathedrall of Saint Paul did determine positively that all Parochiall Churches ought to be guided by the Pattern of the mother Church upon the which they doe depend and yet hee did declare his dislike of all Innovations and receding fromantient constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons Which makes it manifest that he conceived not this conformitie with the mother Churches to com within the compas of an Innovation But wherefore tell wee you of his Majesties pleasure which are not pleased with any thing that his Majestie doth except it may bee wrested to advance your purposes The Minister of Lincolnshire and any thing from him will be far more welcome and something you shall have from him to confute your follies who can doe more with you I am sure then the world besides Now he good man the better to pull downe the authoritie of his Majesties chappell hath told you somewhat of the authoritie of the Mother Churches What 's that Marry saith he In the name of God let the same offices be said in all the Provinces as are said in the Metropoliticall Church aswell forthe ordâ—r of the service the Psalmody the Canon as the use and custome of the ministration this he tels us was the old rule of the antient Fathers For this he cites good store of Evidence in his margin as his custome is and then concludes that it is a current direction in all Authors where you may see that by the rule of the old Fathers and your friends to boote whatever is the use and custome of the Ministration in the Metropoliticall Church the same is universally to bee received throughout the provinces And therupon we may conclude that by the old rule of the Antient Fathers by the direction of all authors and the authoritie of your good frend the minister of Lincolnshire in case the things that you complain of have bin and are retained in the ministration by the Mother Churches they ought to be retained also in Parochiall Churches especially if it be so ordered by the higher powers the Bshops and Pastours of the same Your scandalous and opprobrious speeches wee regard not heere in attributing to the Mother Churches those most odious names of high places dennes of foxes nurseries of
in of Poperie tooth and nayle for Poperie confederating with Priests and Jesuites for rearing up of that religion and setting up againe the the throne of Anti-Christ and all their actions you interpret to tend that way Next you crie out how much the people are oppressed contrarie to their rights and liberties affirming that the Bishops doe not onely over toppe the royall throne but that they trample the lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings subjects under their feete and cutt the people off from the free use and benefit of the Kings good lawes Which said and pressed in every place with all spight and rancour you call upon the nobles to rowze up their noble Christian zeale and magnanimous courage upon the judges to drawe forth their sword of justice upon the Courtiers nobles others if they have any sparke of pietie now to put their helping hands in so great a neede and lest all these should faile you call upon the nation generally to take notice of their Antichristian practises to redresse them withall their force and power What doe you thinke of this Alarme this Ad arma ad arma this calling of all sorts of people to combine together to rouze their spirits drawe their swords put to their hands muster upp all their force and power doe you not thinke this comes within the compasse of sedition have not you done your best or your worst rather to raise an insurrection in the state under pretence of looking to the safety of religion and the Subjects rights I wil not judge your conscience I leave that to God But if one may collect your meaning by your words and writings or if your words and writings may bee censured not onely according to the effect which they have produced but which they might you are but in a sorry taking And because possiblie when you finde your danger you will the better find your error and so prepare your selfe for a sincere and sound repentance I will a little lay it open Make you what use there of you shall thinke most fitt And first supposing that these your factious and false clamours are onely such as might occasion discord betweene my LL. the Bishops and the Commons where had you beene then there passed a Statute still in force 2. Ric. 2. cap. 5. for punishment of Counterfeiters of false newes and of horrible and false messages mistaken in the English bookes for the French Mensonges i. e. â—â—es of Prelates Dukes Earles Barons and other Noâ—â—es and great men of the Realme c. of things which by the said Prelates Lords c. were never spoken 〈◊〉 or thought pray marke this well in great slander of the said Prelates c. whereby debates and discords might arise not doth but might arise betwixt the said Lords and Commons which God forbid and whereof great perill and mischiefe might come to all the Realme and quicke subversion and destruction of the said Realme if due remedie bee not provided And for the remedy provided which in this statute was according to that of Westminster the first before remembred that in the 12. of this King Richard cap. 11. is left to the discretion of his Majesties Councell So that what ever punishment His Majesties most honourable Privie Councell may inflict upon you you have justly merited in taking so much paines to so bad a purpose as to set discord and debate betweene the Prelates and the people But where you have gone further to excite the people what say I people nay the Lords Judges Courtiers all the Nation generally to draw their powers and force together I see no reason why you should bee so angry with the High Commissioners for laying sedition to your charge or if that please you better a seditious Sermon And being a seditious Sermon then and a seditious Pamphlet now dispersed up and downe throughout the kingdome especially amongst those whom you and such as you have seasoned with a disaffection to the present governement What have not you for your part done to put all into open tumult I doe not meane to charge it on you but I will tell you how it was resolved in former times by Bracton and Glanvill two great Lawyers in those dayes viz. Siquis machinatus fuerit vel aliquid fecerit in morteÌ„ D. regis vel ad seditioneÌ„ regis vel exercitus sui vel coÌ„senserit coÌ„siliumve dederit c licet id quod in voluntate habuit non produxerit ad effectum tenetur tamen criminis laesae Majestatis Construe me this and you will find your selfe in a pretty pickle And I will tell you also two particular cases which you may find with little paines in our common Chronicles The first of one John Bennet Wooll-man who had in London scattered schedules full of sedition and for that was drawn hanged and beheaded in the fourth yeare of Henry the Fifth The other of Thomas Bagnall Jo. Scot Jo. Heath and Jo. Kennington who being all Sanctuary men of Saint Martins le Grand were taken out of the said Sanctuary for forging of seditious Bills to the slander of the King and some of his Counsell will you marke this well for the which three of them were condemned and executed and the fourth upon his plea returned to Sanctuary in the ninth yeare of King Henry the Seventh I instance only in these two because both ancient both of them hapning before the Statute 23. Eliz. 〈…〉 which being restrained unto the naturall life of the said Queene is not now in force and which as long as it continued was a strong bridle in the mouths of your forefathers in the Faction to hold them in from publishing and printing such seditious Pamphlets The common Chronicles will tell you how that most excellent Lady dealt with those who had offended her in that kinde wherein you excell Thaâ—ker and Capping Barrow Greenwood Studly Billot and Bowlar Penry and Vdall zealous Puritans all being all condemned to death and the more part executed And you may please to know for your further comfort that in King James his time May the third Anno 1619. one Iohn Williams a Barrister of the middle Temple was arraigned at the Kings Bench for a seditious book by him then but lately writteÌ„ secretly disperst abroad never printed as yoâ—urs are or which hee was condemned and executed at Charing crosse some two dayes after And it was afterwards resolved at the first censure of Mass Prynne in the Starre-chamber by the Lord Chiefe Justice that then was that had hee beene put over to his Tribunall hee had beene forfeit to the gallowes All which being represented to you I close up my addresse in the words of Tullie Miror te quorum act a imitere eorum exitus non perhorrescere So God blesse the man And yet I must not leave you so As I have raised one use for your reprehension so give mee leave to raise one more for the
them Iew then the Christian in them about the time when the declaration came forth All that my Lord the Archbishop had to doe therein was to commit the publication of it to his suffragan Bishops according to his Maties just will and pleasure and if that be the thing you except against your quarrell is not at his Act but his obedience Last of all where you say that with his right hand he is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven and that hee hath a Papall infallibility of spirit by which as by a Divine Oracle all questions in religion are finally determined that onely is put in because you have a minde to charge on him those innovations as you call them that you complaine of in the Church What innovations you have noted wee shall see hereafter when they will prove to be no other then a sicke mans dreame I onely tell you now that in all the Hierarchy you could not possibly have pitched on one lesse liable and obnoxious to the accusation For being vir antiquae fidei and antiquissimi moris take them both together you may be sure he neither will nor can doe any thing that tends to innovation either in faith or discipline In case your selfe and such as you would suffer him in quiet to restore this Church to its antient lustre and bring it unto that estate in which it was in Queene Elizabeths first time before your predecessours in the faction had turned all decency and order out of the publicke service of Almighty God I dare presume he would not trouble you nor them by bringing in new ordinances of his owne devising But this if he endeavour as hee ought to doe you charge him presently for an innovator not that he innovates any thing in the antient formes of worship in this Church established but that he labours to suppresse those innovations which you and those of your discent have introduced into the same But one may see by that which followes that it is malice to his person and no regard unto the Church that makes you picke out him to beare so great a share in these impudent clamours For where his grace had tooke great care for inhibiting the sale of bookes tending to Socinianisme and had therefore received thankes from the penne of a Iesuite as your selfe informes us that his most pious care is by you calumniated for prohibiting of such bookes as exalt the sole authority of Scripture for the onely rule of faith p. 153. I see Socinus and his followers are beholding to you for your good opinion and so you may cry downe the Prelates you care not how you doe advance the reputation of such desperate heretickes But it is now with him and the other Prelates as heretofore it was with the Primitive Christians Tanti non est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum as Tertullian hath it Nor stay you here Other particulars there are which you have a fling at You tell us of my Lord of Ely whose bookes you are not fit to carry that if he undertake an answer unto your doughty dialogue betweene A. and B. Surely he will sacrifice all the remainder of his reason if any be left in him upon it Why so For you are sure he can neuer answer it except with rayling and perverting wherein lyeth his principall faculty your owne you meane in fighting against the truth c. p. 127. Of my Lord Bishop of Chichester you give this Item that it were strange if such a mystery of iniquity as you there complaine of should be found in any but a Prelate and in this one by name for a tryed champion of Rome and so devout a votary to his Queene of Heaven p. 126. My Lord of Norwich is entituled in the Newes from Ipswich by the name of little Pope Regulus most exceeding prettily And finally you tell us of those Bishops that attend the Court whom you include unâ—er the name of Amasiahs as did your learned Counsell in his Histrio-Mastix that there 's not any thing more common in their mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the land the Kings most loyall dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects whom they accuse you say as factious seditious and turbulent persons dissaffected to present government enemies of the Kings prerogative and what not p. 48.49 So you but were it any thing materiall I could tell you otherwise and make it manifest both to you and all the world that those whom you traduce most fouly and against whom your stomacke riseth in so vile a manner are such who both for their endeavours for this Churches honour fidelity unto the service of the King and full abilities in learning have had no equals in this Church since the Reformation This could I doe if I conceived it proper to this place and time and that I did not call to minde what Velleius taught me viz. Vivorum ut magna admiratio ita censura est difficilis Nor doe you onely breath out malice but you threaten ruine you conjure all the kingdome to rise up against them and magnifie those disobedient spirits which hitherto have stood it out in defiance of them and seeme content in case their lives might runne an hazard to foregoe your owne For likening them unto the builders of the Tower of Babel p. 32. you doe thus proceede But as then so now the Lord is able by an uncouth way which they never dreamed of to confound them and their worke to their eternall infamy Even so O Lord. p. 33. And more then so you tell us also by what meanes it shall come to passe viz. that it shall rise as it were from beneath them whereas their height seemes to secure them from all danger as trampling all things under feete c. yet by that which seemeth to them most contemptible shall they fall from that which is below them shall their calamity arise p. 97. However to make all things sure you stirre both heaven and earth against them You let the nobility to understand that if we sit downe thus and hide us under the hatches whilest the Romish Pirats doe surprize us and cut our throates c. What Volumes will be sufficient to chronicle to posterity the basenesse of degenerous English spirits become so unchristianized as to set up antichrist above Christ and his annointed and to suffer our selves to be cheated and nose-wiped of our religion lawes liberties and all our glories and that by a sort of bold Romish mountebankes and juglers p. 20. What then advise you to be done that in the name of Christ they rouze up their noble and christian zeale and magnanimous courage for the truth and now sticke close to God and the King in helping the Lord and his annointed against the mighty p. 23. In your addresse unto the Iudges you conjure them thus For Gods sake therefore sith his Majesty hath committed unto you the sword of Iustice
draw it forth to defend the lawes against such innovators who as much as in them lieth divide betweene the King and the people p. 31. In that from Ipswich you and your brethren in that made it call out upon the nation generally saying O England England if ever thou wilt bee free from Pests and Iudgements take notice of these thy Antichristian prelates desperate practises innovations and Popish designes to bewaile oppose redresse them with all thy force and power Then those of the better sort O all you English Courtiers Nobles and others who have any love or sparke of religion piety zeale any tendernesse of his Majesties honour or care for the Churches Peoples or the Kingdomes safety yet remaining within your generous brests put to your helping hands and prayers to rescue our religion faithfull Ministers now suspended from the jawes of these devouring wolves and tyrannizing Lordly Prelates c. All sorts of people thus implored to promote the cause you labour to perswade the King in your Epistle Dedicatory before the Pasquill how deepely he is ingaged to close with God and his good subjects against all these innovators and disturbers of the peace and distracters of the vnity of his kingdome especially considering whose Vice-gerent he is and before whose woefull Tribunall hee must give a strict accompt how hee hath mannaged so weighty a charge in the Epistle to your Apologie Finally in your Pasquill p. 141. You tell us how it doth concerne our gracious Soveraigne our Nobles and Magistrates of the land to strengthen their hands with judgement and justice to cut of these workers of iniquity and to roote them out of the confines and limits of the Kingdome c. applying so to them a passage in the booke of prayers for the Gunpowder day intended by the Church against all such as are so treacherously affected as those traytors were Here is enough a man would thinke to effect the businesse yet this is not all For should there come a Parliament you would adventure your owne life to make sure worke on 't Assuring us that if it were a law in England as once amongst the Locrians that whosoever would propound a new law should come with an halter about his necke that if it pleased not the Senate the hangman was ready to doe his office and that if opportunity served you would come with an halter about your necke with this proposition that it would please the great Senate of this land to take into their sad consideration whether upon such woefull experience it were not both more honorable to the King and more safe for his kingdome c. That the Lordly prelacy were turned into such a godly government as might suite better with Gods word and Christs sweet yoke p. 109.110 Nay so transcendent is your malice that you propose a speedy execution of them as the only remedy to divert Gods judgements for thus you state the question in the newes from Ipswich Is it not then high time for his Majesty to hang up such Arch traytors to our faith Church Religion and such true-bred sonnes of the Romane Antichrist And anon after more expressely Certainely till his Majesty shall see these purgations rectified superstition and idolatry removed c. and hang up some of these Romish Prelates and inquisitors before the Lord as the Gibeonites once did the seaven sonnes of Saul wee can never hope to abate any of Gods Plagues c. And to the same effect in your addresse to the nobility All the world feele in what a distracted state things do stand what a cloud of divine displeasure hangs over us how ill wee thrive in our affaires c. Certainely if such be suffred to goe on thus as they doe God must needes destroy us p. 24. Finally that you may seeme to shew some compassion on them before the executioner doe his office you thus invite them to repentance Certainely hell enlargeth her selfe for you and your damnation sleepeth not if you speedily repent not p. 81. Of your Pulpit-libell Hanging and hell and all too little to appease your malice which is advanced so high that no chastizement of their persons but an utter abolition of the calling will in fine content you You may remember what you preached once at a fast in London Where pleading for reformation under Ioshua's removall of the accursed thing you told the people that the maine thing to be removed was that damnable Hierarchy of Bishops who made no matter of sincking Church and State so they might swimme in honours and worldly wealth This is the thing you aime at and so greatly long for which to effect you care not what strange course you run so you may effect it Scelus omne nefasque hac mercede placent Thus have I briefely summed together those most uncharitable and unchristian passages which every where occurre dispersed and scattered in your Pamphlets And having summed them up dare make a chalenge unto all the world to shew me if they can such a rayling Rabsakeh so sanguinarian a spirit so pestilentiall a disease in a Christian Church All the marre-Prelates and make-bates of the former times with those which have succeeded since though Masters in this art of mischiefe come so short of this that I perswade my selfe you doe condemne them in you heart as poore spirited fellowes in whom there is too much of that Christian prudence which you so deride p. 28. But I forget my first intent which was to muster up your raylings and produce them onely but not to quit you with the like though should I use you in your kinde and lay the whip on the fooles back it were a very easie errour and such as possibly might receive a faire construction Nam cujus temperantiae fuerit de Antonio querentem abstinere maledictis To speake of such a thing as you and not flie out a little were a kind of dulnesse Yet I shall hold my hand a while until we meete againe at the halfe turne where possibly I may be bold to tell you more of my opinion Meane time I hope you doe not thinke that all this barking at the Moone will make her either hide her head or chang her course or that by all this noise and clamor you can attract the Nobles Iudges Courtiers or any other to take part with you and follow those most desperate counsels which you lay before them The world is growne too well acquainted with these dotages to be moved much at them Nor could my Lords the Bishops but expect before hand what censures would be passed upon them by such tongues as yours if once they went about to suppresse your follies and to reduce the Church to that decent order from which your selfe and your accomplices have so strangely wandered Howsoever their great care deserve better recompense yet was it very proper you should doe your kinde and they may count it for an honour that such a one as your selfe