is made by these Men as if it were Contra Regem against the King in Right or in Power But that 's a meer ignorant shift for our being Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right takes nothing from the King 's Right or Power over us For though our Office be from God and Christ immediately yet may we not exercise that Power either of Order or Jurisdiction but as God hath appointed us that is not in His Majesty's or any Christian King's Kingdoms but by and under the Power of the King given us so to do And were this a good Argument against us as Bishops it must needs be good against Priests and Ministers too for themselves grant that their Calling is Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet I hope they will not say that to be Priests and Ministers is against the King or any his Royal Prerogatives Next Suppose our Callings as Bishops could not be made good Jure Divino by Divine Right yet Jure Ecclesiastico by Ecclesiastical Right it cannot be denied And here in England the Bishops are confirmed both in their Power and Means by Act of Parliament So that here we stand in as good Case as the present Laws of the Realm can make us And so we must stand till the Laws shall be repealed by the same Power that made them Now then suppose we had no other string to hold by I say suppose this but I grant it not yet no Man can Libel against our Calling as these Men do be it in Pulpit Print or otherwise but he Libels against the King and the State by whose Laws we are established Therefore all these Libels so far forth as they are against our Calling are against the King and the Law and can have no other purpose than to stir up Sedition among the People If these Men had any other Intention or if they had any Christian or charitable desire to reform any thing amiss why did they not modestly Petition his Majesty about it that in his Princely Wisdom he might set all things right in a Just and Orderly manner But this was neither their Intention nor Way For one clamours out of his Pulpit and all of them from the Press and in a most virulent and unchristian manner set themselves to make a Heat among the People and so by Mutiny to effect that which by Law they cannot and by most false and unjust Calumnies to defame both our Callings and Persons But for my Part as I pity their Rage so I heartily pray God to forgive their Malice No Nation hath ever appeared more jealous of Religion than the People of England have ever been And their Zeal to God's Glory hath been and at this day is a great honour to them But this Zeal of theirs hath not been at all times and in all Persons alike guided by knowledge Now Zeal as it is of excellent use where it sees its way so it is very dangerous company where it goes on in the dark And these Men knowing the Disposition of the People have laboured nothing more than to misinform their knowledge and misguide their Zeal and so to fire that into a Sedition in hope that they whom they causlesly hate might miscarry in it For the main scope of these Libels is to kindle a Jealousie in Mens Minds that there are some great Plots in Hand dangerous Plots so says Mr. Burton expresly to change the Orthodox Religion established in England and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition in the room of it As if the external decent worship of God could not be upheld in this Kingdom without bringing in of Popery Now by this Art of theirs give me leave to tell you that the King is most desperately abused and wounded in the Minds of his People and the Prelates shamefully The King most desparately For there is not a more cunning trick in the World to withdraw the Peoples Hearts from their Sovereign than to persuade them that he is changing true Religion and about to bring in gross Superstition upon them Aud the Prelates shamefully For they are charged to seduce and lay the Plot and be the Instruments For his Majesty first This I know and upon this occasion take it my Duty to speak There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere in his Religion nor more constant to it than the King And he gave such a Testimony of this at his being in Spain as I much doubt whether the best of that Faction durst have done half so much as his Majesty did in the Face of that Kingdom And this you my Lord the Earl of Holland and other Persons of Honour were Eye and Ear Witnesses of having the happiness to attend Him there And at this day as his Majesty by God's great Blessing both on him and us knows more so is he more settled and more confirmed both in the Truth of the Religion here established and in Resolution to maintain it And for the Prelates I assure my self they cannot be so base as to live Prelates in the Church of England and labour to bring in the Superstitions of the Church of Rome upon themselves and it And if any should be so foul I do not only leave him to God's Judgment but if these Libellers or any other can disdover that his base and irreligious falshood to shame also and severe Punishment from the State And in any just way no Man's Hand shall be more or sooner against him than mine shall be And for my self to pass by all the scandalous reproacbes which they have most injuriously cast upon me I shall say this only First I know of no Plot nor purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly I have ever been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And to these two I here offer my Oath Thirdly If the King had a mind to change Religion which I know he hath not and God forbid he should ever have he must seek for other Instruments For as basely as these Men conceive of me yet I thank God I know my Duty well both to God and the King And I know that all the Duty I owe to the King is under God And my great happiness it is though not mine alone but your Lordships and all his Subjects with me that we live under a Gracious and a Religious King that will ever give us leave to serve God first and Him next But were the days otherwise I thank Christ for it I yet know not how to serve any Man against the Truth of God and I hope I shall never learn it But to return to the business what is their Art to make the World believe a change of Religion is endeavoured What Why forsooth they say there are great Innovations brought in by the Prelates and such as tend to the advancing of Popery Now that the Vanity and Falshood of this may appear I shall humbly
serve his turn and theirs whether the Times bear the like Necessity or not And since every thing that is fit and is for publick Good ought not by and by without more Experience of it to be made up into a Law then much less that which appears so yea though it appear never so evidently yea and to the wisest Parliament that ever sat 'T is true they may make such a thing into a Law and 't is fit for the most part so to do but to say they ought to do it is more than I can believe For no Parliament is or can be so wise as to be infallible and no Evidence can be so apparent unto them in those things of infinite variety for the publick Good and in which is so much uncertainty but that they may both piously and prudently forbear the making of some of them into a Law if they please But no Man may forbear that which he ought to do when he ought to do it And till that time comes he ought not This Lord hath now done and so have I And I shall end with my Prayers to God that this Act of Parliament now made to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the Parliament how fit soever it seems and how much soever it appears to this Lord to be for the publick Good do not turn to the decay of Religion and the great Damage and Detriment of King and Peers of Church and State Amen A SPEECH Delivered in the STAR-CHAMBER On Wednesday the Fourteenth of June 1637. AT THE CENSURE OF J. Bastwick H. Burton and W. Prinn CONCERNING Pretended Innovations IN THE CHURCH By the Most Reverend Father in GOD WILLIAM LAUD Then Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury TO HIS MOST Sacred Majesty CHARLES By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious and Dread Sovereign I Had no purpose to come in Print but Your Majesty commands it and I obey Most sorry I am for the Occasion that induced me to speak and that since hath moved You to command me to Print Nor am I ignorant that many things while they are spoken and pass by the Ear but once give great Content which when they come to the Eyes of Men and their often Scanning may lie open to some Exceptions This may fall to my Lot in this particular and very easily considering my many Diversions and the little time I could snatch from other Imployment to attend this Yet chuse I rather to obey Your Majesty than to Sacrifice to mine own Privacy and Content Since then this Speech uttered in publick in the Star-Chamber must now come to be more publick in Print I humbly desire Your Sacred Majesty to Protect me and it from the undeserved Calumny of those Men whose Mouths are spears and arrows and their Tongues a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. Though as the wise Man speaks their foolish Mouths have already called for their own stripes and their Lips and Pens been a snare for their Souls Prov. 18. 6 7. The Occasion which led me to this Speech is known There have of late been divers Libels spread against the Prelates of this Church And they have not been more bitter which is the Shame of these raging Waves than they are utterly false which is Our Happiness But I must humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider That 't is not We only that is the Bishops that are struck at but through our sides Your Majesty Your Honour Your Safety Your Religion is impeached For what Safety can You expect if You loose the Hearts of Your People And how can You retain their Hearts if You change their Religion into Superstition And what Honour can You hope for either present or derivative to Posterity if You attend Your Government no better than to suffer Your Prelates to put this Change upon You And what Majesty can any Prince retain if he lose his Honour and his People God be thanked 't is in all Points otherwise with You For God hath blessed You with a Religious Heart and not subject to Change And he hath filled You with Honour in the Eyes of Your People And by their Love and Dutifulness He hath made You safe So that Your Majesty is upheld and Your Crown flourishing in the Eyes of Christendom And God forbid any Libellous Blast at Home from the Tongues or Pens of a few should shrivel up any growth of these We have received and daily do receive from God many and great Blessings by You And I hope they are not many that are unthankful to You or to God for You. And that there should be none in a Populous Nation even Enemies to their own Happiness cannot be expected Yet I shall desire even these to call themselves to an Account and to remember that Blasphemy against God and slandering the Footsteps of his Anointed are joined together Psal. 89. For he that Blasphemes God will never stick at the Slander of his Prince and he that gives himself the liberty to Slander his Prince will quickly ascend to the next Highest and Blaspheme God But then as I desire them to remember so I do most humbly beseech Your Majesty to account with Your self too And not to measure Your Peoples Love by the Vnworthiness of those few For a Loyal and Obedient People You have and such as will spare nor Livelihood nor Life to do You Service and are joyed at the Heart to see the Moderation of Your Government and Your Constancy to maintain Religion and Your Piety in Exampling it And as I thus beseech You for Your People in General so do I particularly for the Three Professions which have a little suffer'd in these Three most Notorious Libellers Persons And first for my own Profession I humbly beg of Your Majesty to think Mr. Burton hath not in this many Followers and am heartily sorry he would needs lead The best is Your Majesty knows what made his Rancour swell I 'll say no more And for the Law I truly Honour it with my Heart and believe Mr. Prynn may seek all the Inns of Court and with a Candle too if he will and scarce find such a Malevolent as himself against State and Church And because he hath so frequently thrust mistaken Law into these Pamphlets to wrong the Governors of the Church and abuse your good and well-minded People and makes Burton and Bastwick utter Law which God knows they understand not for I doubt his Pen is in all the Pamphlets I do humbly in the Church's Name desire of Your Majesty that it may be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by Your Majesty That our keeping Courts and issuing Process in our own Names and the like Exceptions formerly taken and now renewed are not against the Laws of the Realm as 't is most certain they are not that so the Church-Governnors may go on chearfully in their Duty and the Peoples Minds
Sacred Majesty Moreover I do likewise with hearty sorrow confess that I did let fall some passages that might be taken to the disparagement of the Government of the Church in making erroneous and heretical opinions the way to preferment All which with the main current of my discourse might sound to sedition in the Ears of the present assembly By this my great and inexcusable offence I do freely acknowledge that I have deserved the sharpest of Censures and severest of punishments and therefore that his Royal Majesty hath justly rewarded me for the same it being an offence of so high a nature And I have nothing at all to plead but the Royal Mercy of my gracious Sovereign for my restitution to this famous University This my Confession and Submission I do most humbly tender to the favourable acceptance of this Venerable House craving the Pardon of the University in general so more especially of our most Honorable Chancellour whom with all humility I beseech to present this my acknowledgement to his Majesties Sacred hand as the pledge and ingagement both in present and for the future of my readiest obedience William Hodges I Thomas Hill do freely and sincerely acknowledge before this Venerable Assembly of Convocation that in a Sermon lately by me preach't in St. Maries I did let fall divers scandalous Speeches partly in opposition to His Majesties Injunctions by odious Justling together the names of certain Factions in the Church and imputing Pelagianisme and Popery to the one side Partly in disparagement of the present Government of State and Church by making foul and erroneous Opinions the readiest steps now-a-days to Preferment As also in disparaging the whole Order of Bishops in point of Learning and Religion making them favourers of unsound and erroneous Doctrine and disfavourers of sound Doctrine As likewise in imputing to a great part of our Clergy only Politique and Lunatick Religion Besides private glances against particular Persons concerning some Speeches delivered in their late Sermons in all which passages in my Sermon I confess to have given just offence to the University and to deserve the sharpest of Censures Wherefore with all humble submission I beseech the whole University represented in this Venerable House to pass-by this my willful errour of undiscrect and misguided Zeal and do faithfully promise henceforward to abstain from all such scandalous aspersions and intimations as tending only to the disparagement of the Church and the Distraction and disquiet of the University And this my Submission I humbly crave may be accepted which I do here make willingly and from my heart with true sorrow for what is past Thomas Hill VVHEREAS Upon Information given to his Majesty concerning Misdemeanours of the Delegates in hearing and determining the Cause of Appeal set on foot by Mr. Forde against Mr. Vice-Chancellour his Majesty was pleased to give Order that as soon as I came unto the University notice should be given unto the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bp. of London our Chancellour that upon Examination of the business I might receive such Censure as the merits of the Cause should deserve and his Lordship upon my voluntary appearance acknowledgement of my Errours and humble submission to his Lordship has been pleased to remit me back to the University and hath ordered that in the presence of Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the Governours of Colleges and Halls I should make the like Recognition of my Errors and offensive Carriage in that business I with all humility and thankfulness acknowledge his Lordship's favour and do freely and ingenuously confess that in the hearing of that Cause I did declare my self in the maintenance of Mr. Ford's appeal with more Vehemency than did become an indifferent man not without disrespect to Mr Vice-Vhancellour and some other Misdemeanours For which inconsiderate Carriage I am very heartily sorry and do humbly crave pardon of Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the University and do seriously promise that from henceforth I will avoid all partakings or factious endeavours against the quiet and Government of the University and as much as shall be in my power will be assisting to the orderly proceedings of those who are in authority and set over me in this place Francis Hyde Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God VVIth all Humility let me beseech your Lordship amongst other faults of mine to pardon this one of Presumption And having sealed me a pardon for my boldness I must again beseech your Honourable favour to entertain this the necessary Testimony and tender of my heartiest thanks and most humble Service Let all the World forget me when I forget to be grateful having been bless'd with as great a favour from your fatherly hands as I could in reason or modestly sue for The re enlivening of dying hopes the seasonable refreshing of a whithering branch the happy recovery of a man as low in present being of his decayed fortunes as punishment and desert could set him the work your Lordships mine the benefit my expressions may come below the greatness both of the Benefit I enjoy and of the Favour I have received but my Prayers and continual Devotions shall not I shall make up in these the defects of the former and in these I shall pray God to bless me so through the course of my Studies and Endcavours as that I may be able to approve my self From Exon. Coll. in Oxon. Febr. 22. 〈◊〉 Your Lordships in all thankfulness and faithful Service to be commanded VVilliam Hodges S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I am very sorry that I have this Occasion to write to the University which I love so well that it cannot but trouble me to hear of any thing ill done in it I have divers ways heard what disorders and tumults have accompanied the publick Disputations toward the end of the last Lent to the great scandal of the University and tending to the breach of all Government there The noise of these great Disorders was like enough of it self to be heard far and to add to this Unhappiness these Misdemeanours were then committed when they might be seen by some which meant not to conceal them Insomuch that the report of them is come to his Majesties Ears who is highly displeased with this ill carriage and the more because he thought the care and the pains which he lately took to settle some breaches of Government there would not so soon have been forgotten as it seems to him they are Upon this his Majesty hath directed his Princely Letters to me and by them required me to look both to the punishment of these Distempers and the preventing of the like hereafter According to these his Majesties Royal Commands I do pray and require you Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the rest of the Governours to look carefully to your several Charges both publick and private not only for the Honour of the University which it seems by some
Honours to their Schools and Universities for a popular Applause or out of meer Bounty or for honour or for opinion of merit by which the Art of Clergy-men transported them heretofore But the very truth is that all wise Princes respect the welfare of their Estates and consider that Schools and Universities are as in the Body the noble and vital parts which being vigorous and sound send good Blood and active Spirits into the Veins and Arteries which cause health and strength Or if feeble or ill affected corrupt all the Vital Powers whereupon grow Diseases and in the end death it self What inconveniencies have grown in all Ages by the ill Government and Disorders of Schools your Books can inform you And to come home to your selves have not our late Parliaments complained Nay hath not the Land exclaimed that our great Schools of Virtue were become Schools of Vice This I mention unwillingly but withal do most willingly tell you to your eternal praise That fince it pleased his Majesty to take to heart a Reformation and by advice of your never too often named Chancellor sent you down some temporary Orders whereby to reduce you to some reasonable moderation thereupon by the Wisdom and Resolution of you the worthy Governours and by the inclinable conformity of all the Students in general it is now come to pass that Scholars are no more found in Taverns or Houses of Disorder nor seen loytering in the Streets or other places of Idleness or ill Example but all contain themselves within the Walls of their Colleges and in the Schools or publick Libraries Wherein I must confess you have at length gotten the start and by your Virtue and Merit have made this University which before had no Paragon in any forreign Country now to go beyond it self and give a glorious Example to others not to stay behind And if those temporary and unperfect Orders produced so good effect what may now be expected from this Body of Laws and Statutes so compleat and so digested that no former Age did ever enjoy the like Thus you have understood how the Goodness of our great King how the Care and respect of your Chancellor and how the worth and substance of the work it self may forcibly induce you to congratulate your own Happiness And therefore I might here forbear to trouble you any longer with a harsh interrupted Speech but that I cannot omit to put you in mind of one thing which I know you will hear with willingness and attention because it tendeth chiefly to the honour of our God and then by his power to the honour of our King and thence to the comfort of every true hearted Subject who will readily acknowledg with Reverence and thankfulness the great blessings we now enjoy above all other Nations I will tell you but what I know for I speak within my Element I have seen our neighbouring Countries in great Prosperity and Renown their Cities stately built and strongly fortified with Walls raised up to Heaven full of People full of Trade so full of peace and plenty that they surfeited in all excess but from hence they are since fallen partly by the boundless Ambition of great Princes partly by the Factions and Divisions in Religion and generally by their Disorders into such condition that men of great Honour sent in remote Employment found whole Provinces so sack'd and depopulated that in divers Journeys they incountred scarce a Man and of those they found dead some had Grass in their Mouths and Stomachs and some were torn in pieces by Beasts and ravenous Fowls and those that were alive had no other Care or Study than how to save themselves from Fire and Sword In general there is such Desolation that without a kind of Horror the Horror thereof cannot be express'd Now we by God's Blessing are in a better Case we sit here in God's House thankful in true Devotion for this wonderful Favour towards us We enjoy Peace and Plenty we are like to those who resting in a Calm Haven behold the Shipwrack of others wherein we have no part save only in compassion to help them with our Prayers which we all ought to do as interested in their sufferings lest the like may fall on us What then remaineth but seriously to consider how all these great Blessings are conferred upon us not for our Merits or for our more virtuous and Holy Lives but only by God's favour to his true Religion and under him by the happy Government of our Gracious King which should confirm us all to a Constancy in our Obedience and to a ready subjection to all those Rules and Orders which his Majesty shall prescribe for the Publick good Wherein this general Admonition may fruitfully be applied to the Business now in hand whereof I make no doubt So I crave your pardon and your good acceptance of that which I have rudely spoken but with a true affection to this whole Body whereof though I had my Education from another-Nurse yet I had the Honour to be an Adopted Son and as I suppose one of the ancientest that lives amongst you at this day It remaineth that Mr Vice-Chancellour perform his part and proceed to the Subscriptions and Depositions of you the Heads John Coke DIE Mercurii inter horas secundam tertiam post Meridem viz. vicessimo secundo die Junii Anno Dom. 1636. unà fuerunt in Hospitio venerabilis Viri Doctoris Pink S. Theologiae Professoris Vicecancellarii Vniversitatis Oxon. notoriè sito situato in Collegio Sanctae Mariae Winton in Oxon. vulgo voca't Collegio Novo Reverendus in Christo Pater Dominus Johannes Episcopus Oxon. honoratissimi dignissimi venerabiles Viri Dominus Johannes Cook Eques auratus Serenissimae Regis Majestati Secretarius Principalis Dominus Henricus Martyn Eques auratus Judex Admiralitatis Curiae Praerogativae Thomas Rives Legum Doctor Regis Advocatus Commissionarii Domini Regis specialiter missi ad exhibendum Librum Statutorum Vniversitatis eorum confirmationem sub magno Sigillo Angliae Coram quibus comparuerunt venerabilis Vir Christopherus Potter Collegiae Reginae Praepositus Mr. Loughe Mr. Stannix Socii Collegii praedicti qui ante Convocationem eodem die habendam pro Statutorum Confirmatione Protestationem suam in scriptis Communi Sigillo Collegii sui munitam exhibuerunt eamque in Personâ suâ legit Mr. Stannix coram Commissionariis praedictis Doctore Pink Vice-Cancellario tum praesente sub hâc verborum formulâ Protestatio Declaratio Praepositi Scholarium Collegii Reginae in Vniversitate Oxon. de Jure Titulo Interesse suis in Electione Nominatione Principalis Aulae Sancti Edmundi in Vniversitate Oxon. per quam palà m publicè in quocunque celebri dictae Vniversitatis Coetu vel alibi intimari notum fieri in perpetuam rei memoriam obnixe rogant se solos in solidum habuisse habere debere
Tables and attend them too Therefore the Work was not unlawful in its self for them for then it had been Sin in them to do it at all at any time For that which is simply evil in and of it self is ever so therefore the most that can be made of this Example is that it was lawful very lawful and and charitable too for the Apostles to take care of those Tables themselves and they did it For all the Provision for the Poor was brought and laid at the Apostles feet Acts 4. 35. which doubtless would never have been done had it been unlawful for the Apostles to order and to distribute it But when they found the encreasing Burthen too heavy for both the one Work and the other then though both were lawful yet it was more expedient to leave the Tables than the Word of God with which the World was then as little acquainted as now 't is full of and I pray God it be not full to a dangerous Surfeit Now this as I conceive in Humility states the Bishops Business For to me it seems out of Question that it is most lawful for Bishops to be conversant in all the Courts Councils and Places of Judicature to which they have been called since the Reformation in the Church and State of England till they find themselves or be found unable to discharge the one Duty and the other And then indeed I grant no serving of Tables no nor Council Tables is to be preferred But then you must not measure Preaching only by a formal going up into the Pulpit For a Bishop and such Occasions are often offer'd may Preach the Gospel more publickly and to far greater Edisication in a Court of Judicature or at a Council Table where great Men are met together to draw things to an Issue than many Preachers in their several Charges can and therefore to far more Advancement of the Gospel than any one of his Lordship's Sect at a Tables end in his Lordship's Parlour or in a Pulpit in his Independent Congregation wheresoever it be And when he hath said all that he can or any Man else this shall be found true that there is not the like Necessity of Preaching the Gospel lying upon every Man in Holy Orders now Christianity is spread and hath taken Root as lay upon the Apostles and Apostolical Men when Christ and his Religion were Strangers to the whole World And yet I speak not this to cast a Damp or Chilness upon any Man's Zeal or Diligence in that Work No God forbid For though I conceive there is not the same Necessity yet a great Necessity there is still and ever will be to hold 〈◊〉 both the Verity and Devotion which attend Religion and Non 〈◊〉 est Virtus quam quaerere parta tueri So there may be as great Vertue in the Action though perhaps not equal Necessity of it Besides Deacons were not Lay Men but Men in Holy Orders though inferiour to the Apostles as appears by Stephen's undertaking the Libertines and Cyrenians in the Cause of Christ and Philip's Preaching of Christ in Samaria and Baptizing And if they were of the Seventy as Epiphanius thinks they were Haer. then they were Presbyters before they had this Temporary Office if such it were put upon them Therefore if to meddle with these things were simply unlawful in themselves or for Men in Holy Orders Or if all meddling with them were such a Distraction as must needs make them leave the Preaching of the Gospel then these Seventy might not discharge the Office to which they were chosen and if this be so then this Lord must needs infer that the Apostles and all which chose them did sin in Instituting such Men to take care of the Tables and to distract them from Preaching of the Word which they thought unfit for themselves to do And yet I hope my Lord will not say this in his privatest Conventicle Nay yet more though this Care was delivered over to the Deacons in ordinary yet Calvin tells us plainly that in things of moment they could do nothing Nec quicquam without the Authority of the Presbyters So they meddled still Next this Lord shews since the Apostles did not think fit to distract themselves with Business about these Tables how they ought to apply themselves And this he sets down in the Apostle's Words Acts 6. 4. But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and the Ministery of the Word And yet I hope this Lord doth not think the Apostles by this word continually meant to do nothing else but Pray and Preach For if they did one of these two continually without any intermission then they could do nothing else which is most apparently false And indeed which it seems this learned Lord considered not this word continually is not in the Text. For in the Greek the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will be constant and instant in Prayer and Ministration of the Word which may and ought to be done though neither of them continually and which many of God's Servants have done and yet meddled some way or other with temporal or worldly Affairs The Argument is over The rest of this Passage is this Lord's Rhetorick which I shall answer as I repeat it Did the Apostles saith his Lordship Men of extraordinary Gifts think it unreasonable for them to be hindred from giving themselves continually to Preaching the Word and Prayer by taking care of the Tables of the poor Widows No sure they they did not think it unreasonable that is this Lord's word to make the present business of the Bishops more Odious as if it were against common Reason But there 's no such word in the Text. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not meet Now many things may not be meet or comely which yet are not altogether unreasonable Nay which at some times and upon some occasions may be meet and comely enough nay perhaps necessary for the very Gospel it self and therefore no way unreasonable howsoever at this time unfit for the Apostles and worthily refused by them Well the Rhetorick goes on Did the Apostles thus and can the Bishops now think it reasonable or lawful for them Yes the Times and Circumstances being varied and many things become fit which in some former Times were not they can think it both reasonable and lawful nay necessary for some of them What To contend for sitting at Council Tables No God forbid perhaps not to sue for sitting there but certainly not to contend for it but to sit there being called unto it and to give their best Advice there never unlawful and oft-times necessary And here let me tell this Lord by the way that the Bishop which he hath sufficiently hated was so far from contending for this that though he had that Honour given him by His Majesty to sit there many Years yet I do here take it upon my Christianity and Truth that he did
be quieted by this Assurance that neither the Law nor their Liberty as Subjects is thereby infringed And for Physick the Profession is honourable and safe and I know the Professors of it will remember that Corpus Humanum Man's Body is that about which their Art is conversant not Corpus Ecclesiasticum or Politicum the Body of the Church State or Commonwealth Bastwick only hath been bold that way But the Proverb in the Gospel in the Fourth of St. Luke is all I 'll say to him Medice cura teipsum Physician heal thy self And yet let me tell Your Majesty I believe he hath gained more by making the Church a Patient than by all the Patients he ever had beside Sir both my self and my Brethren have been very coursely used by the Tongues and Pens of these Men yet shall I never give Your Majesty any sow'r Counsel I shall rather manifie Your Clemency that proceeded with these Offenders in a Court of Mercy as well as Justice Since as the Reverend Judges then declared You might have justly called the Offenders into another Court and put them to it in a way that might have exacted their Lives for their stirring as much as in them lay of Mutiny and Sedition Yet this I shall be bold to say and Your Majesty may consider of it in Your Wisdom That one way of Government is not always either fit or safe when the Humours of the People are in a continual Change Especially when such Men as these shall work upon Your People and labour to infuse into them such malignant Principles to introduce a Parity in the Church or Commonwealth Et si non satis sua sponte insaniant instigare And to spur on such among them as are too sharply set already And by this means make and prepare all Advantages for the Roman Party to scorn Vs and pervert Them I pray God bless Your Majesty Your Royal Consort and Your hopeful Posterity that You may Live in Happiness Govern with Wisdom Support Your People by Justice Relieve them by Mercy Defend them by Power and Success And Guide them in the true Religion by Your Laws and most Religious Example all the long and lasting Days of Your Life Which are and shall be the daily Prayers of Your Sacred Majesty's most Loyal Subject and Most Dutiful Servant as most bound W. Cant. Arch-Bishop LAVD's SPEECH AT THE CENSURE OF J. Bastwick H. Burton and W. Prinn My LORDS I Shall not need to speak of the infamous Course of Libelling in any kind Nor of the Punishment of it which in some Cases was Capital by the Imperial Laws as appears Cod. l. 9. T. 36. Nor how patiently some great Men very great Men indeed have born Animo civili that 's Sueton. his word laceratam existimationem The tearing and rending of their Credit and Reputation with a gentle nay a generous Mind But of all Libels they are most odius which pretend Religion As if that of all things did desire to be defended by a Mouth that is like an open Sepulchre or by a Pen that is made of a sick and a loathsom Quill There were Times when Persecutions were great in the Church even to exceed Barbarity it self Did any Martyr or Confessor in those Times Libel the Governours Surely no not one of them to my best Remembrance yet these complain of Persecution without all shew of cause and in the mean time Libel and Rail without all measure So little of kin are they to those which suffer for Christ or the least part of Christian Religion My Lords It is not every Man's Spirit to hold up against the Venome which Libellers spit For S. Ambrose who was a stout and a worthy Prelate tells us not that himself but that a far greater Man than he that 's King David had found out so it seems in his Judgment 't was no matter of ordinary Ability Grande inventum a great and mighty Invention how to swallow and put off those bitter Contumilies of the Tongue And those of the Pen are no whit less and spread farther And it was a great one indeed and well beseemed the greatness of David But I think it will be far better for me to look upward and practise it than to look downward and discourse upon it In the mean time I shall remember what an Antient under the name of S. Hierom tells me * Indignum est praeposterum 'T is unworthy in it self and preposterous in demeanour for a Man to be ashamed for doing good because other Men glory in speaking ill And I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God I have done nothing as a Prelate to the uttermost of what I am conscious but with a single Heart and with a sincere Intention for the good Government and Honour of the Church and the maintenance of the Orthodox Truth and Religion of Christ professed established and maintained in this Church of England For my Care of this Church the reducing of it into Order the upholding of the external Worship of God in it and the setling of it to the Rules of its first Reformation are the Causes and the sole Causes whatever are pretended of all this malicious Storm which hath lowred so black upon me and some of my Brethren And in the mean time they which are the only or the chief Innovators of the Christian World having nothing say accuse us of Innovation They themselves and their Complices in the mean time being the greatest Innovators that the Christian World hath almost ever known I deny not but others have spread more dangerous Errors in the Church of Christ but no Men in any Age of it have been more guilty of Innovation then they while themselves cry out against it Quis tulerit Gracchos And I said well Quis tulerit Gracchos For 't is most apparent to any Man that will not wink that the Intention of these Men and their Abettors was and is to raise a Sedition being as great Incendiaries in the State where they get Power as they have ever been in the Church Novatian himself hardly greater Our main Crime is would they all speak out as some of them do that we are Bishops were we not so some of us might be as passable as other Men. And a great trouble 't is to them that we maintain that our Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right Of this I have said enough and in this place in Leighton's Case nor will I repeat Only this I will say and abide by it that the Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right tho' not all Adjuncts to their Calling And this I say in as direct opposition to the Church of Rome as to the Puritan Humour And I say farther that from the Apostles times in all Ages in all Places the Church of Christ was governed by Bishops And Lay-Elders never heard of till Calvin's new-fangled Device at Geneva Now this
defire your Lordships to give me leave to recite briefly all the Innovations charged upon us be they of less or greater Moment and as briestly to answer them And then you shall clearly see whether any cause hath been given of these unsavory Libels and withall whether there be any shew of cause to fear a change of Religion And I will take these great pretended Innovations in order as I meet with them First I begin with the News from Ipswich Where the First Innovation is that the last Years Fast was enjoyned to be without Sermons in London the Suburbs and other infected Places contrary to the Orders for other Fasts in former times Whereas Sermons are the only means to humble Men c. To this I say First That an after-Age may without Offence learn to avoid any visible Inconvenience observed in the former And there was visible Inconvenience observed in Mens former flocking to Sermons in Infected Places Secondly This was no particular Act of Prelates but the business was debated at the Council-Table being a matter of State as well as of Religion And it was concluded for no Sermons in those Infected Places upon this Reason that Infected Persons or Families known in their own Parishes might not take occasion upon those by-days to run to other Churches where they were not known as many use to do to hear some humorons Men Preach For on the Sundays when they better kept their own Churches The Danger is not so great altogether Nor Thirdly is that true that Sermons are the Only means to humble Men. For though the Preaching of God's Word where it is performed according to his Ordinance be a great means of many good Effects in the Souls of Men Yet no Sermons are the only means to humble Men. And some of their Sermons are fitter a great deal for other Operations Namely to stir up Sedition as you may see by Mr. 〈◊〉 for this his printed Libel was a Sermon first and a Libel too And 't is the best part of a Fast to abstain from such Sermons 2. The Second Innovation is That Wednesday was appointed for the Fast-day and that this was done with this Intention by the Example of this Fast without Preaching to suppress all the Wednesday Lectures in London To this I answer First That the appointing of Wednesday for the Fast-day was no Innovation For it was the day in the last Fast before this And I my self remember it so above forty years since more than once Secondly If there be any Innovation in it the Prelates named not the day my Lord Keeper I must appeal to your Lordship The day was first named by your Lordship as the usual and fittest day And yet I dare say and swear too that your Lordship had no aim to bring in Popery nor to suppress all or any the Wednesday Lectures in London Besides these Men live to see the Fast ended and no one Wednesday Lecture suppressed 3. The Third Innovation is that the Prayer for seasonable weather was purged out of this last Fast-Book which was say they one cause of Ship-wrecks and tempestuous weather To this I say First in the General this Fast-Book and all that have formerly been made have been both made and published by the command of the King in whose sole Power it is to call a Fast. And the Arch-Bishop and Bishops to whom the ordering of the Book is committed have power under the King to put in or leave out whatsoever they think fit for the present Occasion as their Predecessors have ever done before them Provided that nothing be In contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England And this may serve in the General for all Alterations in that or any other Fast-Book or Books of Devotion upon any particular Occasions which may and ought to vary with several times and we may and do and will justifie under his Majestys Power all such Alterations made therein Secondly For the particular When this last-Book was set out the weather was very seasonable And it is not the custom of the Church nor fit in it self to pray for seasonable weather when we have it but when we want it When the former Book was set out the weather was extreme ill and the Harvest in Danger Now the Harvest was in and the weather good Thirdly 〈◊〉 most inconsequent to say that the leaving that Prayer out of the Book of Devotions caused the Shipwrecks and the Tempests which followed And as bold they are with God Almighty in saying it was the cause For sure I am God never told them that was the cause And if God never revealed it they cannot come to know it yet had the Bishops been Prophets and foreseen these Accidents they would certainly have prayed against them Fourthly Had any Minister found it necessary to use this Prayer at any one time during the Fast he might with ease and without Danger have supplied that want by using that Prayer to the same purpose which is in the Ordinary Liturgy Fifthly I humbly desire your Lordships to weigh well the Consequence of this great and dangerous Innovation The Prayer for fair weather was left out of the Book for the Fast Therefore the Prelates intend to bring in Popery An excellent Consequence were there any shew of Reason in it 4 The Fourth Innovation is That there is one very useful Collect left out and a Clause omitted in another To this I answer First As before It was lawful for us to alter what we thought fit And Secondly Since that Collect made mention of Preaching and the Act of State forbad Sermons on the Fast-days in infected Places we thought it fit in pursuance of that Order to leave out that Collect. And Thirdly For the branch in the other which is the first Collect though God did deliver our 〈◊〉 out of Romish Superstition yet God be blessed for it we were never in And therefore that clause being 〈◊〉 expressed we thought fit to pass it over 5. The Fifth Innovation is That in the sixth Order for the Fast there is a passage left out concerning the abuse of Fasting in relation to Merit To this I answer That he to whom the ordering of that Book to the Press was committed did therefore leave it out because in this Age and Kingdom there is little Opinion of Meriting by Fasting Nay on the contray the Contempt and Scorn of all Fasting save what humorous Men call for of themselves is so rank that it would grieve any Christian Man to see the necessary Orders of the Church concerning Fasting both in Lent and at other set times so vilified as they are 6. The Sixth Innovation is That the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Children are dashed that 's their phrase out of the new Collect whereas they were in 〈◊〉 Collect of the former Book For this First The Author of the News knows full well that they are left out of the