would have nothing omitted whereof men ought not to be ignorant nothing handled of those things which we may not or cannot know spoken All therefore that I will here adde is that by questioning and suspending Master B. for this cause nothing was done contrary to either of His Majesties Declarations nor was it any pernitious practise nor laying of any burden upon the King which is injurious or dishonorable to His Majesty as I doubt not but Master B. will be told by those to whom hee referres it who are best able to judge of matters of such moment To this he addes another instance in the same place but it concerned not His Grace but Bishop Mountague and besides it is notable for nothing but his impudent bragging of his silencing the High Commission Court by his brave retort and recharge of sedition upon them which if true were enough if there had beene nothing else to justifie that which followes of his committing to prison without Bayle or maineprise And it is so ridiculous for any to thinke the Petition of Right which he and his brethren use so much to talke of is by this or the like act infringed that I should justly incurre the imputation of folly to answer it For who ever dreamt that His Majestie by signing that Petition intended to barre himself from giving power to his Commissioners to commit an offender to prison without bayle And therefore it could be no impious or disgracefull speech nor such as could bring any people which were not willing to catch at any thing for that purpose into a hard conceit of his Majestie which he saith was uttered by my Lord of London that then was That the King had given expresse charge for him which hee might very well doe being informed of his offence and throughly acquainted with the temper of the man But this only by the way The other accusation intended against His Grace is for his Entertainment of our Royall Soveraign at Oxford which both for the magnificence and for the orderlinesse so every way commendable so acceptable to his Royall and Most Gracious Master and so full an expression of a gratefull affection toward so Munificent a Patron so lively a demonstration of his Graces admirable dexterous wisdome and ability to manage great affaires that I had thought Envy her selfe would have been strucken speechlesse with admiration or if she could have spoken would have lost her wont and have come in with her panegyrick But Master B. can see nothing in it to please him the persons entertayned the Entertayner the place the time all serve him only for furniture of a satyricall declamation and make the Entertaynment an iniquitie not to be purged till he dye But stay was this the first time that ever His Majestie or His Royall Predecessours being entertained in the Vniversities have beene presented with a Comedy And why then should it bee a crime for His Grace to entertaine His Majestie in the same manner Why may not a Comedy made and acted by young Students passe for a Scholasticall exercise now as well as heretofore Nay why should not a Comedy bee thought more requisite at that time than at others in regard the entertainment was intended also for His Majesties Royall Consort and others not so capable of other Academicall exercises and yet there wanted not that which Master B. esteemes the only piece of Piety a godly and learned Sermon neither was there any Comedy which was halfe so scurrillous as these Sermons or the Ipswich libell nor so much in disgrace of true piety and vertue unlesse we doe as he doth mistake and call the turbulent and seditious humors the uncharitable and supercilious censurings or the vaine senselesse crotchets traditions maintained used by those of his faction by the names of vertue and piety These perhaps might there receive what they deserve disgrace and laughter But that true vertue and piety were disgraced no man can say either truly or without laying that aspersion upon the religious Majesty of our Dread Soveraigne as the hearts of loyall Subjects abhorre once to conceive That Hee who if ever any made good his Title of Defender of Faith should with patience nay with contentation and delight behold true vertue and pietio disgraced in a scurrilous enterlude Shall wee dare once to imagine that His Majestie was either of so weake a judgement as not to discerne or so weake in power as not to punish such presumptuous boldnes as should offer so great an indignitie to Religion in his sacred presence O Blush at this Mr. B. and though not in your Shrift which is too Popish for you confesse how unseemly this is for you that pretend you are for God and the King either for shame mend your manners or never more professe to His Majestie that you are his most loyall Subject and faithfull Servant which you so belie with your disloyall practises Surely for my O Blush at this yee Prelates c. Mr. B. part I am ashamed that ever it should be said you have lived a Minister under such a Prince and such a Prelacie and so farre forgot your duety to both But perhaps it was the time which caused his dislike this happening when the Plague was at London otherwise hee had past a milder censure upon it but it troubled his zeale to see or heare of any rejoycing when the City wherein he was had cause of mourning And truly it cannot bee denyed but that Gods Judgements sent abroad and among others this of the Plague doe call for weeping and mourning and amendment of life not for feasting and much lesse for wicked mirth But blessed be God the plague that then was and yet remaines was not at that time in such heat and height to cause a generall mourning all the Kingdome over No nor to cause such a mourning in that Citie where it was as that all sober mirth and feasting all marriages should be there prohibited in that time which though in some great calamities it be very necessary in so moderate and fatherly a chastisement as this would have argued impatience and have beene injurious to that mercie which in the midst and height of this judgement our Gratious God was pleased to remember Yea I appeale to Mr. B. owne conscience whether both at that time and after when the plague was hotter than at that time it was he himselfe was not present at some feasts or good cheare whether hee did not at a full table cry out upon the times and upon the Government and Governours of the Church and State and heare them traduced and that with as much content and delectation as His Majestie and his traine could take at a Comedie And why then must it bee imputed as an inexpiable crime in a place so remote from danger for any to entertaine His Majestie with a feast and Comedie Let no man sucke poyson out of the sweet flower of candid sinceritie Mr. B.
a true Church and yet I beleeve hee would bee loath to agree with them in all opinions which they maintaine especially if hee knew for I have heard that in place where not many yeeres agoe he bewrayed his ignorance and was faine to be informed by a brother Minister then in presence that they held all those Tenets about Predestination Freewill and falling from grace which hee so much condemnes in those whom hee termes Arminians Neither can it be imagined that King Iames when hee acknowledged Calvin and therein did him but right to bee a most judicious expositour of Scripture ever intended to exempt him from errour when it is most manifest that hee did utterly condemne many opinions of his and that though he had been bred and brought up among those who received their doctrine and discipline from Calvin yet as himselfe professed in the Conference at Hampton-Court from the time that he was tenne yeeres old hee ever disliked their Confer p. 20. opinions and that though he lived among them he was not of them And therefore might without crossing his owne judgement enjoyne young students rather to looke into the Fathers and acquaint themselves with the judgement of the Ancient Church than to take up opinions upon trust of those moderne Authors who though as he after addes they were not without their Naevi or spots yet no man without betraying insufferable pride and ignorance will account their workes a dunghill or heape of mud where haply with much raking and prying a man may chance to light upon a Pearle so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere gather pearles out of the mud as Mr. Burton is pleased to speake I am sure other men as sound and judicious as himselfe every whit have held it a point of wisedome to draw water as neere as they can from the well-head rather than from lakes and cisternes And the truth is that King Iames of famous memory whether by the procurement of the Bishops or not it matters not for neither the Author nor the procurers need blush for it having taken some just distaste at some novell points delivered by some young Divines which trenched upon his Regall power and dignity and knowing from what pits that water was drawne and that those moderne Authors mentioned were ill affected to Monarchicall Government and injurious to the just right of Kings going hand in hand with the Iesuites in the principles of popularity Did in his Princely wisedome for the preventing of so great a danger as might ensue if such principles were drunk in at the first by young and injudicious Novices give charge to the Heads of the University of Cambridge I am sure and whether of Oxford too I know not that they should take order that young students should bee well seasoned at the beginning and well grounded in the principles of Our owne Catechisme and the Articles and Doctrine of our Church and that they should not ground their studies upon those men where they might with their first milke in Divinity sucke in such unsound opinions and dangerous to the State But rather that they would search into Antiquity and study the writings of the Fathers whose consentient Doctrine is without doubt the best and soundest Divinity And if Mr. Burton had taken this course in his studies hee had learned better obedience to his Superiours and beene lesse troublesome to himselfe and others This then is but a fetch and brought in onely to increase the heape of odium upon the Bishops with those Pag. 114. who judge of things not by weight or worth but by noise and number For there is no colour for that which he suggests that it should be done the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their the Prelats plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery seeing neither that which was done nor the end for which it was done have the least affinity with Popery but was intended for the opposing and preventing of that point of Popery or Jesuitisme which animates and armes the people against their Princes But further To this purpose saith he they procure Pag. 114. another order in King James his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops and Deanes shall handle those points And is it not great reason that those high points should bee handled with great wisedome and sobriety And who are then fitter so to handle them than the Bishops and Deanes who how contemptible soever Mr. Burton esteemes of them are presumed in reason and in the judgement of the King from whom they receive their dignities to bee the most discreet and judicious Divines Hitherto wee have no Innovation in Doctrine and much lesse any Popery For the Doctrine may bee and is still the same that it ever was from what Authors soever it is fetched and by what persons soever it be delivered So that Mr. Burton is beside the matter and hath not yet come home to the point by him proposed which was Innovations in Doctrine CHAP. VI. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion Mr. Burtons cunning trick to colour his rayling against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in Mr. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine BUt leaving King Iames hee comes to our gracious Soveraigne that now is and saith After that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name And why in King Charles his name and not by him The title calls it His Majesties Declaration and the whole tenor of it runs in His Majesties style How then shall we know it was not his This is but a cunning quirk to teach the people to decline obedience to His Majesties commands If they can be perswaded that His Majesties Declarations and Proclamations which are sent out if they concerne things that crosse their fancies be none of his acts Then to what passe things in short time will grow it is easie for any man that is but halfe witted to conjecture If men may at their liberty Father the Kings acts upon the Prelates or any other whom they favour not and then rayle at them at their pleasure and reject them as none of his His Majesty will ere long be faine to stand to his subjects courtesie for obedience to his royall commands Or if men may say of such things as come out in the Kings name that they tend to the publick dishonour of God and his word to the violation and annihilation of his commandements the alteration of the Doctrine of the Church of England the destruction of the peoples soules and that they are contrary to his solemne royall protestations as Mr. B. speakes about the declaration
INNOVATIONS Unjustly charged upon the Present CHVRCH and STATE OR AN ANSVVER TO THE MOST MATERIALL PASSAGES of a Libellous Pamphlet MADE BY MR. HENRY BURTON AND INTITVLED An Apologie of an Appeale c. BY CHRISTOPHER DOW B. D. LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill M DC XXXVII To the Ingenuous Reader THis Treatise was finished and intended for the Presse at the beginning of Easter Terme last at which time it was expected that M. B. and his Confederates would have had their censure Had it then comne forth the speed it made would perhaps have made some Apology for the defects of it However in all this delay I wanted both leisure and will to adde or alter any thing and resolved to let it passe in its first dresse If it seeme incompt and lesse accurate then might haply be expected the comfort is that with all faults it is a cover fit enough for such a cup. Only one thing may seeme strange That having promised it I adde nothing particularly of the Appeale and its Apology The truth is the onely point of moment which I reserved for that part was The Legality of the Bishops exercising their Jurisdictions in their owne names and of their proceedings in the High Commission The rest excepting his often repeated railings and frivolous reasons which I never thought worthy of any serious answer I have met with in the Sermons and answered so far as I thought fit Now for that point That which was spoken in that High and Honourable Court of Star-Chamber at the Censure and the expectation of somewhat shortly to be declared by Authority for the full clearing of it Made me even when this booke was more than halfe printed to alter my first determination and suppresse those things which I once intended to publish upon that part judging it altogether needlesse if not presumption to bring my poore verdict either to second or prevent so judiciall and authentick a decision and that point excepted I held the rest not worthy a peculiar Chapter I will adde no more save the best wishes of Thine in our common Saviour C. D. THE CONTENTS OF the CHAPTERS Chap. 1. Fol. 1. AN Introduction to the ensuing Discourse containing the reasons inducing the Author to undertake it and his aime in it Chap. 2. Fol. 7. A short Relation or Description of M. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the people The course he hath since taken in his Bookes and Sermons to make himselfe plausible and the Bishops envied Of the Booke called A divine Tragedie c. Chap. 3. Fol. 14. Of this booke of his The parts of it Of the title of his Sermons The dedication of it to his Majesty and some passages in it Chap. 4. Fol. 21. Of the Sermons The Authors intention in the examination of them A generall view of their materialls Their dissonancy from the Text in every part of it Their principall argument Supposed Innovations The Authors pitching upon them as containing the summe of all Chap. 5. Fol. 32. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of K. James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James his other Order for preaching of Election c. justified Chap. 6. Fol. 38. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion M. Burtons cunning trick to colour his railing against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in M. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine Chap. 7. Fol. 43. Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentalls What are fundamentalls in M. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants Chap. 8. Fol. 58. Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blinde and how quick-sighted Chap. 9. Fol. 67. Of the Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords-day falsely accused of Novelty The summe of what is held or denyed in this point by those whom Mr B. opposeth The Churches power and the obligation of her precepts The maintainers of this doctrine have not strained their braines or conscience Chap. 10. Fol. 73. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. M. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument Chap. 11. Fol. 78. Of the 1. Proposition The Declaration no inlet to profanenesse His Majesties respect to piety in it Recreations onely permitted not imposed Of the 2. Proposition The sports allowed are lawfull on those dayes and in themselves not against the Law of the Land M. Burtons seeming respect of the Fathers Of Revelling Of mixt dancing how unlawfull and how condemned by the Ancients and by the Imperiall Edicts Of Calvins judgement in this point Of the 3. Proposition The Booke no meanes of violation of the 5. Commandement Chap. 12. Fol. 97 Ministers commanded by His Majesty to reade the Book They may and ought to obey The matter of the Book not unlawfull Things unlawfully commanded may sometimes be lawfully obeyed What things are required to justifie a subjects refusing a Superiours Command Refusers to reade the Book justly punished The punishment inflicted not exceeding the offence Not without good warrant Chap. 13. Fol. 108. Of the Innovation pretended to bee in Discipline The Courts Ecclesiasticall have continued their wonted course of Iustice St. Austines Apology for the Church against the Donatists fitly serves ours The cunning used by delinquents to make themselves pitied and justice taxed Their practises to palliate and cover their faults Mr. B's endeavour to excuse Ap-Evans Mr. Burtons opposites not censorious What they thinke of those whom hee calls Professors and the profession it selfe True Piety approved and honoured in all professions The answere to this crimination summed up The censured partiall Iudges of their own censures How offences are to be rated in their censures Chap. 14. Fol. 113. Of the supposed Innovations
should be interpreted a confession of guilt and inability to wipe off such desperate and malicious slanders And herein I have for my warrant the authority of the same Father who having upon the grounds before mentioned long held his peace and with patience overcome the rage of his adversaries at length hee thus breaks forth Seeing thou Demetrianus Sed enim cum dicas plurimos conqueri quod bella crebriùs surgant quod lues quod fames saeviont quodque imbres pluvias serena longa suspendant nobis imputari tacere ultranon oportet ne jam non verecundiae sed diffidentiae esse incipiat quod tacemus dum criminationes falsas contemnimus refutare videamur crimen agnoscere Respondeo igitur c. Cypr. loc suprà citat saist many complaine that it is to be imputed to us Christians that warres so often rise that plague and famine doe rage and that wee have such long droughts We must no longer be silent lest now it bee not modesty but diffidence that we hold our peace and while we scorne to refute your criminations we should seeme to acknowledge the crime Upon these considerations and in imitation of that holy Father and Martyr I have set upon this worke in a calme and compendious way to endeavour the stopping of the mouth of detraction and to shew the groundlesnesse and vanity of those suspicious jealousies and clamors which of late have beene raysed in many parts of this Kingdome and which Mr. B. having first vented in the Pulpit did after send abroad gathered into one bundle in his book intituled An Apology of an Appeale c. And though I know it to be most true that among the ruder sort and common people the lowdest cry takes the most eares and that audacious errours and bold calumnies finde more free entertainment and welcome with light and weak judgments than peaceable and modest truth And that there seeme so great an indisposition and disaffection in the minds and hearts of some in these dayes either to the present Authority or to the things by it either commended or enjoyned that important truths and wholesome orders becomming once countenanced or pressed by authority in stead of credit and obedience receive nothing but clamor and detraction and that such as according but as duty bindeth them doe undertake to plead in their just cause or speake in their defence shall from many in stead of thankes gaine nothing but odious and opprobrious names and contumelies Yet withall I know and am perswaded that the iniquity of the times is not such but that truth and a good cause may yet finde equall judges who following the precept of our blessed Saviour Iudge not according to appearance Iohn 7. 14. but judge righteous judgment not taking their information of a cause from the cry of the crowde or rumor of the people which for the most part conveighs not the truth of the cause but the affections of the reporters but from right and solid grounds weighing things in the ballance not of profit or particular interest but of sound reason and abstracting the cause from the parties and from malevolent aspersions wherewith truth many times is obscured and defaced doe imbrace truth in the love of it And others there are no doubt who though led away for the present with the example of the multiutde and ensnared by the opinion they have unwarily drunk in of the worth of the broachers of error yet will notwithstanding be patient of better information and upon due consideration be ready to expresse their love to truth and peace To these sorts of men principally I addresse my selfe in this discourse whom I shall desire not to expect that verbosity much lesse that virulency opprobrious language which Mr. B. useth I leave that contention and victory to base mindes and shall study rather what is fit for me to speake than what he and such as he deserve to heare Neither doe I reckon upon their censure who judge of bookes not by the weight but by the words For as S. Austine saith well what is more talkative than vanity which yet cannot therefore Quid loquacius vanitate Quae non ideo potest quod veritas quia si voluerit etiam plus potest clamare quam veritas Sed considerent omnia diligenter et si forte sine studio partium judicantes talia essè perspexerint quae potius exagitari quâ—m convelli possint garrulitate impudent issima et quasi satyrica velmimica levitate cohibeant suas nugas et potius â— prudentibus emendari quam laudari ab imprudentibus eligant Aug. de civ l. 5. c. 27. doe that which truth can because it can cry lowder And I would to God that Mr. B. and if there bee any other of his minde and temper would as the same Father addes in that place consider all things diligently and if haply judging without partiality they shall perceive the things against which they have rayled such bitter invectives by their impudent pratings and Satyre-like or mimical lightnesse to be such as may rather be exagitated than confuted they would represse their scandalous trifles and choose rather to be rectified by the judicious than to be applauded by the unskilfull As for those who are the abettors and applauders of those contumelies and criminations cast upon the government and governors of the Church and State and so fautors and propagators of the suspitions and discontents received against them whether they bee in the same gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or only seduced by their leaders I shall only desire one boone from them namely that they would cease to have mens persons in admiration for profit sake or any other by-respect and endure with patience the examination of their complaints by the word of God and sound reason the only infallible rules of sound judgement That they would not as they are wont think those whom their popular breath hath swollen great to be the only oracles of truth and patrons of religion and godlinesse and in comparison of them contemne and vilifie all others even those of highest eminency and authority in the Church and State and reject whatsoever though never so reasonable shall proceed from them as if their doctrine were deadly and their persons Anathema Maranatha This request if they shall grant me I doubt not but the unnaturall heat of their distemper will in some measure be abated and they brought to entertaine a more reverent and dutifull esteeme of their superiours and begin to study to maintaine the peace of the Church which the proposterous zeale of boisterous spirits hath of late so much disturbed CHAP. II. A short Relation or Description of Mr. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the People The course hee hath since taken in his
or not prison is the better temper and more like the ancient martyrs were but his cause like theirs which as St. Austine long since observed and not the suffering is that which makes true Martyrs otherwise there is nothing more wicked or more perverse than for men not to know how to be ashamed of their punishment but to seek praise in their just sufferings which to use the words of the Father argues a strange blindnesse and a damnable animosity But this was but a flourish to shew his confidence in the goodnesse of his cause for had he beene thus christianly-resolute he would not have refused to have beene examined in the Starre-chamber and so forced that Honorable Court after long patience to take the things informed against him pro confesso and so proceed to sentence upon him CHAP. IIII. Of the Sermons The Authors intention in the examination of them A generall view of their materialls Their dissonancy from the Text in every part of it Their principall argument Supposed Innovations The Authors pitching upon them as containing the summe of all I Come now to the Sermons themselves The text is Pro. 24. 21 22. My son feare thou the Lord and the King and medle not with them that are given to change For their calamitie shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Here I intend not to play the Critick to carpe or catch at every trifle or to censure every solecisme or word misplaced but to passe by such slips as are common incidences to humanity And therefore I will not scan the difference betweene an exhortation and an admonition or whether Serm. pag. 3. Salomon speakes here in his owne or the person of God or in which soever whether he intend to distinguish him to whom he directs his speech from others and to appropriate him as Gods own peculiar Pag. 4. and so whether the Doctrine of finall perseverance in grace can here find a good foundation Pag. â—0 Or how his fourth point viz. That a man that truly feares God is a man of a thousand an eminent person a goodly object or spectacle to be looked upon is drawn from this text when I am sure the word Thou upon which he seems to ground it therefore writes it in great letters is not at all in the Originall but onely as it is wrapt up in the Verb. Neither will I reckon up the many other impertinencies and inconsequencies which every where throughout his discourse are obvious to a judicious eye These and the like niceties so I account them in comparison whether Logicall or Theologicall shall make no difference betweene us Though perhaps in an accurate disquisition or to a curious examiner they may bee judged not unworthy the discussing and that he who takes upon him to be the great and disdainfull censor of learning and learned men deserves the lash for smaller failings Neglecting these then as beneath my intentions when I at once in a generall view behold the text and the discourse upon it and see what a strange body he hath joyned to such an head Horac de Arte Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam jungere si velit c. I cannot but thinke of that strangely-deformed monster which Horace saith if a Painter should draw would move laughter in the beholders From which were not the matter more serious and of an higher consequence I could hardly refraine so monstrous a disproportion there is betweene the one and the other For what better text could there be pickt out of the whole Bible to perswade Piety to God Obedience to the King and which is a part of our obedience to him submission to such as are in authority under him And what readier way can bee devised to extirpate the feare of God and true religion and piety out of mens hearts than is here taken in these Sermons For example to mocke at the devout gestures and pious expressions of holy reverence in Gods service To call that due and lowly reverence which is done at the mention of that sweet and blessed Name by which alone men can bee saved a Pag. 66. complementall crouch to Iesus and in a blasphemous jeere a Pag. 15. 25 c. Iesu-worship And that honour which is tendred to God toward that place where of all others he manifests himselfe most graciously b Ibid. c. Altar-worship c Pag. 33. Adoration of the Altar-God d Pag. 98. false-shewes will worship a kind of Courtship a complement c To stile the singing of praises to God e Pag. 163. chanting and the musicke which is used to allay distracting and disturbing thoughts to raise our dull affections and to stirre them up to a devout chearefulnesse in praising of God f Ibid. piping Yea to deride the whole service of God ever allowed and approved in our Church under the name of g pag. 160. long Babylonish service And the solemne prayers of the Church appointed and used at the Fast h pag. 148 c. Mocking of God to the face and the fast it selfe a mock-fast What a dis-heartening must this needs bee to men and what an allay to that little fervour which is in them to Gods worship when their best performances both for matter and manner shall bee thus derided and scorned Yea what a doore is here opened to let out all Religion and feare of God and to let in all prophanenesse and atheisme when they shall bee taught thus to conceive of religious duties and the publicke service of God And what is if this bee not to make men to abhorre the offering of God Againe there is 1. Sam. 2. 17. scant any one thing that argues a greater want of the feare of God and true religion than an unbridled tongue If any man among you seeme to Iames 1 26. be religious and bridleth not his tongue that mans religion is in vaine And yet how hath this man given his tongue the reines and that in publicke and in the house of God and standing in the place of God and entitling him the Author of such licencious wickednesse to utter the impure vomit of an exulcerated heart in most odious and shamefull railings What opprobrious language what bitter termes and titles of reproach hath he used against those whom hee conceives opposite to him in opinion ayming principally at the R. Bishops and Fathers of the Church whose dignity he contemnes calling them Enemies and rebels to God fogges and mists risen from the bottomlesse pit frogges pag 11. and 12. and uncleane spirits crept out of the mouth of the Dragon limbs of the Beast even of Antichrist Paralleling them with the Iewes who killed the Lord Iesus and their owne Prophets c. a pag. 32. Babel-builders factors of b pag. 15. Antichrist c pag. 83. Antichristian mushromes d pag. 121. Lukewarme e pag. 28. Miscreants f pag. 148.
Neuters g N. Ips causers of the plagues continuance and other judgements which as it is in his Epitome we must never looke to have removed till some of them be hanged and indeed what not that may either vent his owne or move others splene against them Neither hath he beene contented to keepe himselfe in generalls but hath shot out the poysoned shafts of his serpentine tongue against particular persons a thing hatefull and intolerable in a publicke sermon as not to speake of those of lower ranke of whom the meanest is farre above him in every kind of worth The L. Bishop of Norwich a man eminent for his learning and approved to his Sacred Majesty by his long and faithfull service upon whom hee bestowes these titles An h pag 71. usurper a bringer in of forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome The L. Bishop of Chichester that mirrour of learning hee calls a i pag. 126. Tried Champion for Rome and joyning him with that thrice Venerable the L. Bishop of Ely whom in contempt hee calls Dr. White saith k pag. 121. They are men well affected to Rome when it is well knowne they have done more reall not railing service to this Church against Rome then ever Mr. Burton or any or all his faction ever did or could but I am beneath their worth thus to compare them But if ever hee shewed himselfe his crafts-master in the art of reviling lying and slandering it is against the most reverend Father in God the Lord Archbishop of Cant. his Grace Against whom he hath with an impudent forehead framed such odious lyes endeavouring to load him with so many false and foule aspersions and using so insolently base and reproachfull termes against his person his chaire and dignity that he may seeme to use a phrase of his owne to have strained the veines of his conscience no less than of his braines in the venting and inventing p. 126. of them and perhaps hee thought he could not sufficiently raile upon an Archbishop unless hee proved himselfe an arch-railor and peereless in his faculty The particulars at least the chiefe of them I shall hereafter meete and answer and therefore I forbeare here to relate them Yet further It was wisely and truly observed by that worthy Prelate and late glory of our Church Bishop Andrewes upon this same Bishop Andrewes serm p. 95. text That they that in the end prove to be seditious marke them well they be first detractors Ever as at first it did so doth it still begin in the gain-saying in the contradiction of Corah So began he This Moses and this Aaron they take too much upon them doe more than they may by Law they would have somewhat taken from them So Absolon Here is no body to doe any justice in the land So Ieroboam Lord what a heavy yoake is this on the peoples neck Meddle not with these detractors So he And indeed what more powerfull detractive of obedience from the Soveraigne power can there bee invented than to fill the peoples heads with conceits of the Kings neglect of religion his p. 56. c. oathes and protestations to perswade them that as if unable to rule hee suffers his royall throne Appeale p. 29. to bee overtopped by others his Lawes trampled on and himselfe swayed to acts against justice p. 54. p. â—6 and religion what greater incentive what readier way to kindle the fire of sedition than to cast contempt and scorne upon those in authority under him to make them hated as contemners of law oppressors persecutors enemies of God and all goodness What lowder alarme to rebellion than the noyse of the losse of the setled religion and the imputation of the present calamities to those who under his Majesty have the government of the Church Lastly whereas the text advises men not to joyne side or meddle with those that are given to change and that under a great penalty Mr. Burton though himselfe expound it of changes in Church or State that hee might in all points run counter to his text under the colour of crying out against changes becomes a projector himselfe and a ring-leader to others and that with so great confidence and zeale that he would adventure with an haltar about his neck to the great Senate p. 110. of this land with this proposition That the Lordly Prelacy might bee changed into such a government as might better suit with Gods word and Christs sweet yoake Thus from a detractor he is become not a medler with changers that were little for so great a Captaine as hee would seeme to be but a p. 31. leader and fore-man of their company which is just as that reverend Prelate said When men by their detraction have made the present State naught no remedy but we must have a better for it and so a change needs What change A good one you may be sure from a Lordly Prelacy to Christs sweet yoke So Mr. B. But I 'le tell you his meaning in his words that understood the text better than Mr. Burton and was well acquainted with such mens intentions You shall change for a fine new Church-government A presbytery would doe much better for you than an Hierarchy And perhaps not long after a government of States than a Monarchy And then adds Whom you find thus magnifying of changes and projecting new plots for the people be sure they are in the way to sedition and if that bee not lookt to in time the next newes is the blowing of a trumpet and Shebaes proclamation Wee have no part in David It begins in Shimei and ends in Sheba And what ever faire colours he puts upon it the change he aymes at is neither so agreeable to the word of God nor Christs sweet yoake as is the present Church-government nor the Presbytery save intitle less Lordly than the Prelacy Nay there is no Prelate nor all of them together that doth or will challenge that power and dominion which is exercised in that discipline to which not the people onely but the King himselfe must be subject yea and deposed too if hee will not submit As by their practice at Geneva where it had its first beginning is most apparent Mr. Calvin himselfe relating both of his urging Epist 71. the oath which Mr. Burton and others so much startle at and cry out against and his putting one of their foure Syndicks which is the chiefe Magistracy among them out of his place till by his publick repentance he had given satisfaction to the Presbyterian Consistory But this onely by the way To our purpose By this the Reader may judge how well Mr. Burton hath suited his text with a discourse which is fraught with matter of so farre different nature as I know not how better to resemble it than to that deformed monster I mentioned out of the Poet where the body
but to assert the Doctrine of St. Paul commanding Phil. 2. 12. us to Work out our salvation with feare and trembling and of St. Peter who tells us 2 Pet. 1. 11. That thus an entrance shall bee ministred into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ And I beleeve for I have not the Booke at hand if Mr. Shelfords justification by charity be well examined it will proove to bee no other than this at least no other than in St. Iames Iam. 2. 24. sense when he saith Yee see how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely And I would demand of any reasonable man whether the expresse words of that Apostle may not without aspersion of Popery be even openly and publikely maintained if there be no sense obtruded upon them which may crosse St. Pauls doctrine which Mr. Burton can never prove that they did whom hee chargeth with that assertion But the the truth is such is the humour that possesses many men of Mr. Burtons straine that they cannot endure any glosse upon that place of St. Iames but such as shall both make the Text like themselves full of non-sence and to turne the seeming and verball into a reall and direct contradiction of St. Paul To the third That the Pope is not Antichrist I answere that though many of the learned in our Church especially at the beginning of the ReformatioÌ„ when the greatest heat was strickeÌ„ between us and Rome have affirmed the Pope to be Antichrist and his whole religion Antichristian and that some exceeding the bounds of moderation in this point have passed abroad that with the license of authority wherein yet they are to be excused in that they have beene so intolerably provoked by the odious criminations of the adversary yet to them that calmely and seriously consider it it may not without good reason bee disputed as doubtfull whether the Pope or any of them in his person or the Papall Hierarchy bee that great Antichrist which is so much spoken of And which way soever it be determined it makes not the religion any whit the better nor frees the practises of the Popes and Court of Rome from being justly accounted and stiled Antichristian For Mr. Shelfords second Book I have not seene it and therefore will say nothing but onely that if hee seeme to set as they thinke too light by preaching and pulpits hee doth at the worst but pay them in their owne coine who have magnified it to the vilifying and contempt of publick Prayer the most sacred and excellent part of Gods worship Neither have I seene that other Booke called the Female glory nor will I spend words by way either of censure or defence of it upon sight onely of those fragments which here hee presents us with as well knowing his art and at what rate to value his credit in quotations Yet in all those panegyrick straines of Rhetorick for such for the most part they seeme rather than positiue assertions he hath not deviated so much to the one extreme as Mr. Burtons marginall hath to the other in scoffingly calling her the New great Goddesse Diana And if it bee true that hee hath not digressed in any particular Lo here the new great goddesse Diana whom the whole Pontifician world worshippeth H. B. p. 125. from the Bishop of Chichester as Mr. Burton makes him affirme I dare boldly say Mr. Burton will never bee able to finde the least point of Popery in it For it is well known that Bishop whom he as if hee had bid adieu to all civility yea and shame too termes a tried Champion of Rome and so a devout votary to the Queene of heaven hath approved himselfe such a Champion against Rome that they that have tried his strength durst never yet come to a second encounter Beside we have elsewhere other points of Pag. 67. Popish Doctrine which he saith are preached and printed of late As Auricular Confession Prayer for the dead and praying to Saints Which because I finde onely mentioned by him without any proofe to evidence the truth of his assertion I might with one word reject till hee produced the Authors which have so Preached and Printed and what it was that they have delivered touching those points But because there are many that by reason of their ignorance of the truth in these points are apt to beleeve what he affirmes and to entertaine a sinister opinion of the Churches Doctrine in them I will briefly adde some of them in this place First for Confession It cannot bee denied Of Confession but that the Church of England did ever allow the private confession of sinnes to the Priest for Booke of Common Prayer Exhortation before the Communion the quieting of mens consciences burdened with sinne and that they may receive ghostly counsell advice and comfort and the benefit of absolution This is the publike Order prescribed in our Church And it were very strange if our Church ordaining Priests and giving them power of absolution and prescribing the forme to bee used Forme of absolution in the Visitation of the sick for the exercise of that power upon confession should not also allow of such private confession To advise then and urge the use and profit of private confession to the Priest is no Popish Innovation but agreeable to the constant and resolved Doctrine of this Church and that which is requisite for the due execution of that ancient power of the Keyes which Christ bestowed upon his Church And if any shall call it auricular because it is done in private and in the eare of the Priest I know not why hee should therefore bee condemned of Popery But if Mr. Burton by Auricular Confession meane that Sacramentall Confession which the Councell of Trent hath defined to bee of absolute necessity by Divine ordinance and that which exacts that many times impossible particular enumeration of every sinne and the speciall circumstances of every sinne This wee justly reject as neither required by God nor so practised by the ancient See Bishop Ushers answer to Iesuites â—chall Church And if Mr. Burton knowes any that hath Preached or Printed ought in defence of this new pick-lock and tyrannicall sacramentall Confession hee may if he please with the Churches good leave terme them in that point Popish Innovators For the second point Simply to condemne Of prayer for the dead all prayer for the Dead is to runne counter to the constant practise of the ancient Church of Christ Prayer for the dead it cannot bee denied it is ancient saith the late learned Bishop of Winchester That the ancient Church had Commemorations Oblations and prayers for the dead the testimonies of the Fathers Ecclesiasticall Histories and ancient Liturgies in which the formes of Prayers used for that purpose are Cannon 55. found doe put out of all question and they that are acquainted with the Canons and Liturgy
counterfeit these and what danger it may bee for men to question or reject these I leave to bee judged by those that are best able and armed with Authority But if it were his Majesties sure it was procured by some ungracious persons and ill-affected to Religion And who can they bee but the Prelates and yet hee knowes not upon which of them to lay it but hee would have the people to know whom to guesse at For hee saith it was done presently after the L. of Cant. tooke possession p. 59. of his Grace-ship and that his Grace was very zealous for the pressing of it to be read in all Churches of his province All which might very well bee and yet his Grace have no hand in the procuring of it But though I cannot affirme it be it so for I beleeve his Grace holds it no dishonor to bee the meanes of procuring or urging obedience to any Act which so just and religious a King shall avow to be his Yet must he needs for that bee degraded and deprived of that honourable Title which the King the State and Church have given him and his Predecessors ever enjoyed Must hee needs slip from his Grace presently and become the jeere of presumptuous detraction Malicious pride whither wilt thou Durst any but a wicked Edomite a Doeg thus draw out the sword of his tongue against the Lords High Priest Shall not the Ephod and Tiara inscribed Holinesse to the Lord bee a sanctuary from the violence of reprochfull taunts If pride and malice had not Disâ—at aliquando reticere qui nunquam didicit loqui Hieron advers Helvid quite bereft this man of reason or modesty and made his tongue cast his bridle He though hee never knew how to speake would have here learned to hold his peace And of all others have spared him to whose obedience he is bound by his spirituall sonne-ship if I may reckon those for sonnes who thus spit at their Fathers by the sacred tie of holy Orders and by all those names that may command reverence and esteem I speake this of the dignity of his place To which if wee joine the worth and eminency of his person so in all things suitable to so great a height of Authority and dignity so in all things becomming his Gracious Title I cannot but wonder what spirit possest this man thus to rob him of his deserved honour yea to use him with such contempt and scorne as hee hath done throughout these Sermons and the rest of his books But what doe I goe about to vindicate His Honour or to speake in his praise who is above the reach of my praises as well as of his revilings It shall suffice me that so judicious and religious a Majesty hath past his Royall sentence upon his merits and judged him most worthy to sit in the highest Chaire of this Church To proceed then The Declaration it selfe hee hath used in the same manner that hee hath done the Authors of it stiling it by all the names hee could devise to make it odious and to harden others in their obstinacy against it For answere whereunto I shall briefly oppose these five following Propositions to his so many unjust criminations First The Declaration is no in-let to profanenesse or irreligion or hindrance of the due sanctification of the Lords day 2. That the sports permitted by it to be used are lawfull and such as are not prohibited either p. 57. by Gods law or the law of the Land 3. That it is no meanes of breaking the fifth p. 61. Commandement nor doth allow any contempt of Parents or Masters authority over their children and servants 4. That the reading of it by Ministers in their p. 55. severall Congregations was injoyned and intended by his Majesty and that it is a thing that may lawfully be done by them 5. That such as refuse to publish it accordingly are justly punished and their punishment no cruelty or unjust persecution CHAP. XI Of the 1. Proposition The Declaration no inlet to profanenesse His Majesties respect to Piety in it Recreations onely permitted not imposed Of the 2. Proposition The sports allowed are lawfull on those dayes and in themselves not against the Law of the Land Mr. Burtons seeming respect of the Fathers Of Revelling Of mixt dancing how unlawfull and how condemned by the Ancients and by the Imperiall Edicts Of Calvins judgment in this point Of the 3. Proposition The Book no meanes of violation of the 5. Commandement FOr the first It is most evident to any impartiall Reader that shall peruse the Declaration that his Majesty intending onely to take away that scandall which some rigid Sabbatarians had brought upon our Religion to the hindering of the conversion of Popish Recusants and to allow especially to the meaner sort such honest recreations as might serve for their refreshment and better enabling them to goe through with their hard labours on other dayes His Majesty I say in this his charitable intention did not forget his wonted respect to Piety and the service of God or due sanctification of the Lords day For first Hee doth straitly charge and command every person first to resort to his owne Parish Church Secondly Hee doth expressely provide that none shall have the benefit of the liberty granted that will not first come to the Church and serve God thereby excluding all Recusants and idly profane persons who absent themselves from Gods house and service Thirdly He doth enjoine that they to whom it belongeth in office shall present and sharply punish all such as in abuse of this his liberty will use the exercises allowed before the ends of all Divine-services for that day Which things rightly cónsidered if they be as well put in execution as they were piously intended by his Majesty are so farre from hindering that they are a great furtherance of the due service of God upon that day in as much as thereby many that otherwise would not may bee allured and compelled to present themselves in the Church at the publicke worship of God Yea by this meanes the publike worship and service of God shall have its due honour and be preferred before even our otherwise honest and lawfull recreations so as till that be ended these cannot be used nor by any that have not first in that tendred their duty to God and if any shall presume to doe otherwise those in Authority have power to punish them and barre them from the benefit of their liberty which for ought I know no Law or Canon before did ever enable them to doe It is manifest in that his Majesty doth onely permit and not impose the use of recreations upon Bishop of Ely p. 255. any which notwithstanding devout Christians who are piously affected and able may upon the Lords day sequester themselves from secular businesse and ordinary pleasures to the end they may the more freely attend the service of God and apply their mindes
for answer to the great noyse he makes of Councels Fathers and Imperiall Edicts which if he had cited in particular haply I should have shaped him a more full answer and have given my readers better satisfaction But I list not to make mens objections for them neither need I give other than a generall answer where the objection is made in such generall rermes As for that he addes that all learned Divines Protestants and Papists and in all ages do condemne them It is so palpably false that it needs no confutation otherwise it were easie to produce a large Catalogue of Authors of both sorts that are so farre from condemning them that they allow and approve them in themselves considered as not prohibited on the Lords day if they be not used with excess nor have any other accidentall evill that may make them unlawfull But I suppose all his learned Divines are reduced to one who to him is instar omnium Mr. Calvin and such as follow him hee I confesse is downe right of his side and though he allow as much recreation of other kinds upon Sundayes as we yet dancing hee 'l have none neither Epist ad Facell p. 64. in folio then nor at any other time being made a heynous crime and deeply censured insomuch as one of their Syndicks or chiefe Magistrates for being present at a dancing was deprived of his place for a time by their Inquisition or Motly Consistory But for his judgement I say that it weighs not much in this case for First he was not indifferent in judging of things indifferent Secondly why should his opinion sway in this more than in the point of the Sabbath surely there can no reason be given why we may not reject him in this as well as Mr. Burton and others use to doe in that That which he alledgeth out of King Iames of famous memory his Basilicon Doron saith nothing for his purpose and it is so farre from crossing the intent of the Declaration that it speakes rather for it for when he saith he would have no unlawfull pastimes used on that day what is more said than in this Declaration which is for no other but lawfull sports And therefore neither did K. Iames crosse his owne judgement nor our Gracious Soveraigne the Peereless Sonne of so Peereless a Father herein disobey his Royall Fathers instructions as Mr. B. labours to make the world beleeve nor yet though hee falsely affirmes it doth that judicious King expresly and by name forbid May-games as unlawfull on that day Here is one marginall that I cannot passe viz. Bellarmine in his Sermons in many places copiously declameth against such profanations as saith he we have else where expressed at large where this elsewhere is he tells us not but we finde it in the booke called A Divine Tragedy which though it went abroad without his name it seemes he is willing the world should take notice of to bee his and though the stile and straine speake so much to the judicious yet thinks fit to put it past peradventure As for the places of Bellarmine which he citeth I know not what he meanes by that which Mr. B. translates mummeries and dancings for I have not those Sermons by me but if he meane as hee seemes to expound himselfe Bacchanals drunkenness and disorders we joyne with him and condemne them simply at all times but especially on sacred festivals But I do not thinke him so farre a Puritan to use Mr. B's owne phrase to condemne all dancing either simply or on Festivalls if it bee after divine Service ended or that hee hath said any thing to contradict that which I finde delivered by a prime Casuist and one of his owne society with whose words I will conclude this Proposition Rustici non sunt prohibendi à choreis c. vid. Filliuciū Tract 30. p. 215. Country people saith hee are not to bee kept from dancings on Holy-dayes so that they be had after service because otherwise they would be idle which is worse and because they are done according to the custome of the country and publickly before others and so for the most part the occasion of lust is taken away and lastly because they are meanes to conciliate affection betweene young men and maids and so making mariages betweene them Yet the abuses if there be any must be taken away and modesty maintained as much as may be This he and though he be a Iesuit I know not why wee may not be of his mind And thus as farre as Mr. Burton drawes mee and further I intend not to goe I have cleared my second Proposition That the sports by the Declaration permitted are lawfull and for ought that Mr. B. hath alledged to the contrary not prohibited either by the Law of God or of the Realme I will dispatch the rest with more brevity For the third It is a part of Mr. Burtons declamation against this Declaration That it is a 3 p. 62. And to the same purpose he hath spoken very largely in Divin Trag. p. 32. 33. trenching or rather a violent inrode upon the fifth Commandement which saith Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. That it breakes two great Commandements in the Decalogue at once the last of the first table and the first of the second and so cuts asunder the very sinewes not onely of Religion but of all civill society at one blow Thus hee speakes and I have heard some simple people muttering some such thing but no man to speake out in so broad language as Mr. B. But no matter who speakes it sure it is an evill thing and worthy to be abolished that shall thus violate Gods Commandements by couples and were it not that this charge is as his others use to be a little defective in one thing which we call truth I should not so much as I do dislike those men that refuse to publish it Let us then consider his proofes All that I finde by him alledged though there bee more than enough of it may well be resolved into his private opinion boldly vented and faced with certaine interrogatives which perhaps hee mistooke for good reasons in the Pulpit where no man would or durst contradict him For I finde him speaking in many more words after this manner Should Ministers in p. 61. their Congregations declare how the Iustices of Asize in their circuits are commanded that no man trouble or molest any in or for their lawfull recreations Alas then what shall Parents and Ministers doe when their sons and servants will abroad and take their liberty of sports at leastwise after evening prayer every Lords day and will stay out as long as they please A heavy case no doubt and because the man by the moane he makes seemes to bee in some distress I 'le resolve his doubt and free him from his perplexity Alas what shall they doe Marry give them such correction as befits such rebellious