alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it
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
all by Parliament and yet the Parliament did nothing in it All that was done by Parliament was that the day of that deliverance was appointed for a kinde of holy day wherein the pâ—ople were to meete together to set forth Gods glory and it was there enacted also that upon every such day that very statute of the institution should be read publickly to the Congregation Of any forme of prayer set forth or afterwards to be set forth ne gry I am sure in all that statute The booke was after made and published by the Kings authority without the trouble of a Parliament However being set out and published though not by Parlament you cannot but be grieved at the alterations Well what are they First you complaine that whereas in the former booke there was this passage Roote out that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. in the Edition A. 1635. it is set downe thus Roote out that Babilonish and antichristian Sect of them which say of Hierusalem c. Here 's of them added more then was And this you thinke doth make a great and fearefull difference For whereas in the Originall it was plainely meant that all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. this latter booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it on those Puritans that cry downe with Babilon that is Poperie which these men call Hierusalem and the true Catholick Religion p. 130 131. It seemes you have a guilty conscience you would not start so much at this else Quid prodest non habere conscium habenti conscientiam sayd the Father rightly That Babylonish Sect which say and that Babylonish Sect of them which say make 's so little difference that were you not guilty to your selfe of many ill wishes against Hierusalem you would not have so stomacked at the alteration And being that it is confessed by you their Oracle that the Puritans doe cry downe with our Hierusalem by them called Poperie they come within the compasse of the prayer take which forme you list either that Babilonish Sect or that Babilonish Sect of them Nor is it strange that so it should bee For howsoever the Iesuites Priests and their confederates were at first intended yet if the Puritans follow them in their designes of blowing up the Church and State and bringing all into a lawlesse and licentious Anarchie the prayer will reach them too there 's no question of it The Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. Confirmatorie of the Common prayer booke hath ordained severall penalties for such as shall deprave the said booke of Common prayer or obstinately refuse to use it or use any other forme of prayer then that there appointed as also a particular mulct of 12d toties quoties upon every man that doth absent himselfe from Church on Sundaies and holy dayes This was intended at the first against Recusants there being then no Puritans in rerum natura And may not therefore all the penalties therein contained be justly laid upon the Puritans if they offend in any of the kinds before remembred The like may also be affirmed of the High Commission established hereby at the first for the correction and reduction of the Papists being then the onely opposite partie to the Church and yet you know the High Commissioners may take a Puritan to taske if they finde him faulty That which you next complaine of is that whereas in the old booke the prayer went thus Cut off these workers of iniquity whose Religion is rebellion whose faith is faction it is now altered into this who turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction Hereupon you inferre that these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to bee termed rebellion and their Faith faction as the antient Copie plainely shewes it to be but turne it off from the Religion to some persons which turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction so as by this turning they plainely imply that the Religion of Papists is the true Religion and no rebellion their Faith the true faith no faction p. 131. You make another use of it in your Apologie and tell us that it tendeth to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons traytors and to usher in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry p. 3. Here is a change indeede you say right in that but that which you inferre thereon is both false and scâ—ndalous For taking it for granted that they by whose authority the said clause was altered thought it not fit to call the Religion of the Church of Rome rebellion or the Faith therein professed faction must it needs follow thereupon that by so doing they imply that that religion is the true religion and that faith the true faith There 's a non sequitur with a witnesse There is a kinde of religion amongst the Turkes Because I cannot say that their religion is rebellion doe I imply so plainely as you say they doe that therefore their religion is the true religion And there 's a faith too questionlesse among the severall Sects of Christians in the Easterne Muscovite and African Churches Because I thinke not fit to say of any of them that their faith is faction must I conclude astringently therefore the faith profest by each particular Sect is the true faith You might well tax me should I say the one and I may laugh at you for concluding the other Adeo argumenta ex falso petita inepto habent exitus as Lactantius hath it Your use is yet more scandalous then your inference false For how doth this tend to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons and Traytors The treasons and the traytors stand as before they did unlesse the staine be laid more deepe upon them then before it was Before the imputation seemed to rest on the faith it selfe which being a generall accusation concerned no more the guilty then it did the innocent But here it resteth where it ought upon the persons of the Traytors who are not hereby justified or their crime extenuated but they themselves condemned and the treason aggravated in an higher manner That which comes after of ushering in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry is but your ordinary flourish one of your generall calumnies and needes not a particular answer O but say you and undertake to make it good the very religion is rebellion and the faith is faction and therefore there was somewhat in the chang which deserved that censure That their religion is rebellion you prove two wayes First because the Iesuites and Seminary priests refuse to take the oath of Supremacie which is injoyned to all Papists 3. Iac. c. 4. You must needes shew your law you have such store of it For speake man was the oath of Supreamacie enacted 3. Iacobi Then am I out againe for my bookes tell me it was 1 Elizabethae In your Apologie you place the oath of
commanded fire from heaven to have burnt them all or sent them further off with a noli me tangere But caught or not caught all was one For though it was no time to move the Court for a Prohibition being out of Terme yet he bethought himselfe of another way to elude his Judges and that was by a strange Appeale being neither a gravamine nor a sententia to decline that Court and put the cause immediately into his Majesties hands where he might be he thought both a defendant and complainant as he saith himselfe p. 1. of the Apologie A fine invention doubtlesse but more sine then fortunate For on a new Contempt as himselfe informes us he was suspended by the high-Commissioners both from his Benefice and Office and the suspension published as he now complaines in his own Parish Church to his intolerable disgrace and scandall Indignum facinus Therfore that all the World might knowted and on what suspended Lo a necessitie so he saith is laid upon him as formerly to Preach now to Print his Sermon for Sermon he will have it called whosoever saith nay And printed at the last it was as before was said and therewithall was printed also an Apologie for the said Appeale with severall addresses to the Kings most Excellent Majestie to all the true-hearted Nobilitie of His Majesties most honorable Privie Counsell and to the Reverend and Learned Judges the Copies of them both being spread abroad for the greater consolation of the Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and there dispersed like Simeon and Levi brethren in evill in the tribes of Israel This is the substance of the storie which I have here laid downe together by way of preface that with lesse interruption I might ply the Argument presented to us both in the Sermon and Apologie For howsoever neither of them be considerable in regard of the Author who since his being thrust out of the Court hath beene an open and professed enemie of the Publicke Government yet in relation to the Church and Rulers of it whom he endeavoureth to expose to the common hatred and next in reference to the people whom he hath laboured to possesse with false and sinister conceits of the present state it hath beene thought convenient by authority that an Answer should be made unto them The preservation of Religion is a thing so Sacred that we cannot prize it to the height and therefore they that labour to preserve it are of all men the most to be esteemed and honoured Proximus diis habetur per quem deorum majestas vindicatur as the Historian rightly noted So that wee cannot blame poore men if they are startled and affrighted at those scandalous rumors which are diffused and spread amongst them to make them think that Religion is in no small danger or if they hold a Reverend esteeme of those who seeme to them to have a principall care thereof and the safety of it Onely they are to be admonished not to be too credulous in matters of so high a nature till they are throughly certified of the trueth thereof that they conceive not ill of the Church their mother upon the light and false reports of every male contented spirit or thinke them Champions of Religion who are indeed the bane and disturbers of it That Faction in the Church which Mast Burton and his Copesmates have so much laboured to promote hath since the first beginning of it accused the Church of England of the selfe same crimes whereof they now pronounce her guilty nor haue they found any new matter wherewithall to charge her than that which their fore-fathers had beene hammering on in the times before them yet they cry out with no lesse violence but farre more malice than their fathers did and fill the minds of iealous and distrustfull people with doubts and feares of innovations of and in the worship of God the whole doctrine of Religion as if the bankes were broken downe and Popery were breaking in a maine upon us onely because they can no longer be permitted to violate all the orders of Gods Church here by Law established The Papists and these men how different soever they may seeme to bee in other matters have as it were by joynt consent agreed in this to charge this Church with novelties and innovations the one especially in the poynts of Doctrine the other principally in matters of exteriour order the service of God But as we say unto the one that in the reformation of this Church we introduced no novelties into the same but onely laboured to reduce her to that estate and quality wherin she was in her originall beauty and the Primitive times so may we say unto the other that all those Innovations which they have charged upon the Church in their scandalous Pamphlets are but a restitution of those ancient orders which were established heere at that Reformation This that the world might see and see how scandalously and seditiously they traduce the Church I was commanded by authority to returne an Answer to all the challenges and charges in the said two Sermons and Apology of Master Burton For being it was the leading Libell in respect of time the principall matters in the Newes from Ipswich being borrowed from Master Burtons Sermon and that those many which have followed are but a repetition of and a dilating on those poynts which are there conteined it was conceived that bee being answered the rest would perish of themselves On this command I set my selfe unto the Work and though I knew no credit could bee gotten from such an Adversary Vbi vincere inglorium est atteri sordidum and that there are a sort of men who hate to be reformed in the Psalmists Language yet being so commanded I obeyed accordingly cannot but account it an especiall honour to mee to bee commanded any thing in the Churches service Besides J could not but be grieved to see my dearest Mother traduced so fowly in things whereof I knew her guiltlesse and it had argued in mee a great want of Piety not to have undertaken her defence herein being called unto it From which two great and grievous crimes defect of piety and true affection to the Church our mother and disobedience to the commands and orders of the higher powers no lesse than from the Plague and Pestilence good Lord deliver us Having thus rendred an account both of the reasons why the Sermon and Apology of Master Burton have been thought worthy of an Answer and why for my part J have undertaken a Reply unto him I must now settle close unto the businesse beginning first with the Apology so farre forth as it justifieth his said Appeale and leaving those particulars which he doth charge upon the Prelates to be considered of more fully in due place and time CHAP. I. Containing a particular answere to the severall Cavills of H. B. in defence of his Appeale Appeales unto His Majestie in what case
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
Declarations and the former practise and thereunto the increase of the Plague imputed His Majesties Chappell paralleld with Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julian the Apostates Altar H. B. incourageth disobedient persons and makes an odious supposition about setting up Masse in the Kings Chappell FRom your restraint and curtailling of the Kings authoritie proceed wee to your censure of His Actions and Declarations which wee have separated from the other because in this wee have some intermixture of your invectives against the Bishops your scandalous clamours against whom in reference to their place and persons are to follow next And first wee will begin with the Petition of Right as having some resemblance to the former point on which you please to play the Commentator and spoile a good text with a factious glosse It pleased His Majestie being Petitioned amongst other things in Parliament 1628 that no Free-man and not a Free Subject as you phrase it should be imprisoned or detained without cause shewed and being brought to answere by due course of Law to passe His Royall assent to the said Petition What Comment do you make thereon That no man is to be imprisoned if hee offer bayle p. 52. You do indeed resolve it so in your own case too and fall exceeding fowle on His Sacred Majestie because your Comment or Interpretation could not be allowed of Now your case was thus During that Session you had printed a seditious Pamphlet as all yours are entituled Babell no Bethel tending to incense the Commons against the King for which being called before the High Commission order was made for your commitment And when you offered bayle it was refused you say by my Lord of London that then was affirming that the King had given expresse charge that no bayle should be taken for you That thereupon you claimed the right and Privilege of a Subject according to the Petition of Right but notwithstanding your said claime were sent to Prison and there kept Twelve dayes and after brought into the High Commission This is the case as you relate it p. 52. and 53. And hereupon you do referre it unto the consideration of the sagest whether that which he fathered on the King were not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse the by-standers and consequently all the people of the land with a sinister opinion of the Kings Justice and Constancy in keeping His solemne Covenant made with His people as in that Petition of Right And you have noted it in the margin p. 53. for a most impious and disgracefull speech to bring the people into an hard conceit of His Majestie who but a little before had signed the Petition of Right This is yet pressed againe both in the same and the next page as also in your addresse unto the Judges as if the King had violated His solemne promise made unto the people and beare down all the rights and liberties of the Subject mentioned in the said Petition by suffering or appointing a Seditious Phamphletter to be sent to prison without bayle But tell me Sir I pray you for I know not yet how you could plead the benefit of that Petition or how it could advantage you in the smallest measure It was petitioned that no Subject being a Free-man should be committed to the prison without cause shewed and being brought to answere in due course of Law Tell me of all loves how doth this concerne you or how can you complaine of being imprisoned contrary to His Majesties answere unto that Petition the cause of your commitment being shewne unto you which was that Booke of yours formerly mentioned and you being brought to answere in the High Commission according to due forme of Law as your selfe informe us Here was no matter of complaint but that you have a mind to traduce His Majestie as if he had no care of His Oathes and promises more of which treacherous Art to amate the people wee shall see hereafter Besides Sir you may please to know that your case was not altogether such as those which were complained of in the said Petition there being alwayes a great difference made between a man committed on an Ecclesiasticall and a Civill crime And I will tell you somewhat which reflects this way It appeares in the Diarie of the Parliament 4. H. 4. what time the Statute 28. Edw. 3. mentioned in the Petition which you call of right was in force and practise how that the Commons exhibited a Petion that Lollards arrested by the Statute 2· H. 4. should be bayled and that none should arrest but the Sheriffe and other lawfull Officers and that the King did answer to it Le Roys ' advisera This I am bold to let you know take it as you please Next for His Majesties Declarations you deale with Him in them as in the Petition if not somwhat worse His Majestie finding by good tokens that some such wretched instrument as your selfe had spread a jealousie amongst the Commons in that Parliament that there was no small feare of an Innovation in Religion as also that by the intemperate handling of some unnecessary questions a faction might arise both in the Church Commonwealth thought fit to manifest himself in two Declarations Of these the first related unto the Articles of Religion in this Church established wherein His Majestie hath commanded that in those curious and unhappy differences which were then on foote no man should put his owne sense or Comment to be the meaning of the Article but take it in the literall and Grammaticall sense shutting up those disputes in Gods promises as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and the generall meaning of the Articles according to them The second did containe the causes which moved His Majestie to dissolve the Parliament Anno 1628. wherin his Majestie protesteth that he will never give way to the authorising of any thing wherby any Innnovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unitie of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth So farre his Majestie And those his Majesties Declarations are by you either peevishly perverted in defence of your disobedience or factiously retorted on his Majestie as if not observed or scandalously interpreted as if intended principally to the suppression of Gods trueth I will begin first with that particular mentioned last of which you tel us plainly that Contzen the Jesuite in his Politicks prescribes this rule of silencing Controversies as an excellent way for the restoring of their Roman Catholik Religion in the Reformed Churches p. 114. As also from the Centuries that the Authors of corruptions and errours do labour to compose all differences with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or silencing of all Disputes that by such counsells the Emperor Anastasius being a favourer of the Arian heresy was moved to burie the principall heads of Controversie in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finally that the Arian Bishops
expect a particular answer And lest your expectation should be frustrate I will see you satisfied First for your language such it is as one may thence conjecture easily what foule heart it comes from They that have pure hearts cannot possibly have so impure a mouth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the abundance of the heart it is that the mouth speaketh And though your rayling accusation doth deserve no other answere than the Lord rebuke thee yet I must tell you now being thus put to it that you are much mistaken in the man you drive at And you had come more neere unto him and the trueth it selfe had you bestowed that character on him which Possidonius gives you of S. Austin viz. Profactibus studiis favens erat exultans bononum omnium indisciplinationem pie sancte tolenans fratrum ingemiscens que de iniquitatibus malorum sive eorum qui intra ecclesiā sive eorum qui extra ecclesiam constituti sunt dominicis lucris semper gaudens damnis moerens which may thus be Englished He was a favorer of learning a friend of goodnesse and good men and suffered with great both patience and pietie the inconformable aversenesse of his brethren from the publicke discipline and grieved at the iniquitie of ill men whether they were within the pale of the Church or without the same as one that alwayes was affected with the successes of Gods Church according as it gained or lost as it thrived or faded This character if your malice will not suffer you to apply unto him give me leave to doe it and disproove any of it if you can And I will adde withall though you grieve to heare it that both for the sinceritie of his conversation as a private man and for the pietie of his endeavours as a publicke person you would be shrewdly troubled to finde his equall in this Church since the first reformation of religion in K. Edwards time And for a witnesse hereunto I dare call your selfe who making all the search you could into him and that with a malicious eye which commonly is wont to spie the smallest errour you have not yet detected him of any personall default as a private man And as for those particular charges which you lay unto him as a publicke person they are so poore more than the clamour that they make that they are hardly worth the answering Next for your charges which that you may the better see I meane to take them all as they lye in order and speake as briefely to them as you would desire First for the enterteinment of his Majestie at the universitie tell me I pray you of all loves how would you have contrived it better had you beene master of the Ceremonies for that place and time Would you have had a sermon Why the king had one Would you have fitted him with Academicall exercises there was as little want of that Orations in the fields the Church the Colledges the Convocation and the Library Would you have left out playes When did you ever know an Academicall enterteinment of the king without them Would you have had the playes in Latine Consider that the Queene was a principall guest and they were commanded to be in English But sir conceale your griefe no longer I know what t is that troubles you and makes you call it scurrillous enterlude and say that it was made in disgrace of pietie All that offends you is that Melancholico a Puritan passion in one of the commedies was in conclusion marryed to Concupiscentia In case you doe not like the wedding why did you not come thither to forbid the banes The Spartans used to shew their drunken slaves unto their children the better to deterre them from so base a vice And how know you but that the representing of that humour on the open stage may let men see the follies of it and so weane them from it But however the person you so grossely abuse could not possibly have leisure farther than in the generall to command all things should be without offence which he most carefully did That which you next except against is the audatious presumptuous speech that you so much talke of And what was that Assuredly no more than that his Grace then Bishop of London threatned your learned Counsell Mr. Prinne to lay him by the heeles for his too much sawcinesse Not as you say and would have simple folke beleeve you for bringing a Prohibition from the Courts of law but for his insolent and irreverent behaviour intendring it unto the Court of the high Commission Your selfe Mass Burton are not called in question for your preaching but for your factious and seditious preaching nor was hee threatned because he tendred to the Court a Prohibition but because he tendred it in such a malapert and ungracious manner This makes a difference in the case Had he behaved himselfe contra bonos more 's before an Ordinary Iustice he must have either found out suerties for his good behaviour or beene committed for his fault no remedy And will you not allow the Court of high-Commission or any Prelate in the same as much if not a little more authority then a common Iustice Perhaps you thinke because Mass Prinne is of a factious Tribunitian spirit he must be Sancrosanct and uncontrolable as the Tribunes were When you can proove his calling to so high a place you may doe well to chalenge the prerogatives belonging to it In the meane time suffer him to be taken up and censured as hee hath deserved Next for his Majesties declaration about lawfull sports you have no reason to charge that on my Lord Archbishop as if it were a matter of his procuring or if it were to reckon it amongst his faults His sacred Majesty treading in the steps of his royall Father thought fit to suffer his good Subjects to enjoy that innocent freedome which before they did in using moderate and lawfull recreations on the Sunday after the divine and publicke Offices of the Church were ended both for morning and evening and of the which they had been more deprived in these latter dayes then before they were And it was more then time perhaps that somewhat should be done to represse your follies who under a pretence of hindering recreations upon that day had in some parts put downe all feasts of dedications of the Churches commonly called Wakes which they which did it did without all authority A pious and a Princely Act however you and such as you traduce it every day in your scandalous pamphlets Nor doth it more belong to a Christian King to keepe the holy dayes by the Church established whereof that is one from being prophaned by labour and unlawfull pleasures then to preserve them quantum in ipsis est at lest from being overcome with Iudaisme or superstition And you might see how some out of your principles came to have as much if not more of
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