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
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
Pastimes are prohibited upon that day and therefore dauncing leaping and the rest which the Book alowes of p. 57. For this you are beholding to your learned Counsell the first that ever so interpreted that Statute and thereby set the Statute and the Declaration at an endlesse odds But herein you goe farre beyond him for he only quarrelled with the living who had power to right themselves You lay a scandal on the dead who are now laid to sleepe in the bed of peace and tell us of that Prince of blessed memory King James that the said Booke for Sports was procured compiled and published in the time of his progresse into Scotland when he was more then ordinarily merrily disposed p. 58. When he was more then ordinarily merrily disposed Good Sir your meaning Dare you conceive a base and disloyall thought and not speake it out for all that Parrhesia which you so commend against Kings and Princes p. 26. Leave you so faire a face with so foule a scarre and make that peereles Prince whom you and yours did blast with daily Libells when he was alive the object of your Puritanicall I and uncharitable scoffes now he is deceased Unworthy wretch whose greatest and most pure devotions had never so much heaven in it as his greatest mirth I could pursue you further were you worth my labor or rather if to Apologize for so great a Prince non esset injuria virtutum as he in Tacitus were not too great an injurie to his eminent virtues and therfore I shall leave your disloyal speeches of the King deceased to take a further view of those disloyall passages which doe so neerely concerne the King our now Royall Soveraigne For lest the people should continue in their duty to him being the thing you feare above all things else you labour what you can to take them off at lest to terrify his Majesty with a feare to lose them For you assure us on your word because you would have it so p. 64. that pressing of that Declaration with such cursed rigour as you call it both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes as not being well acquainted with His Majesties either dispositions or protestations still you bring in that I know not what strange scruples or feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of his Majestie And in the Apologie giving distast to cal your Majesties loyall subject who hereupon grow jealous of some dangerous plot p. 6. You would faine have it so else you would not say it Quod minus miseri volunt hoc facile credunt But hereof and how you encourage men to stand it out wee have more to come A man would think that you had said enough against your Soveraigne charging him with so frequent violating of his protestations and taxing in such impudent manner his Declaration about sports as tending mainly to the dishonour of God the prophanation of the Sabbath the annihilation of the fourth Commandement and the alteration of the doctrine of the Church of England Yet that which followes next is of farre worse nature no lesse a crime then pulling down of preaching and setting up Idolatry pretty Peccadillo's For Preaching first it pleased his sacred Majestie out of a tender care of his peoples safety to ordaine a fast by his Royall Proclamation to provide that in infected parishes there should be no Sermon the better to avoid the further spreading of the Sicknesse which in a generall confluxe of people as in some Churches to some Preachers might bee soone occasioned This his most royall care you except against as an Innovation contrary to his Majesties publick Declarations p. 146. and in the Newes from Ipswich you tell us also that it is a meanes to inhibit preaching and consequently to bring Gods wrath upon us to the uttermost p. 147. You call it scornfully a mock-fast p. 148. a mock-fast and a dumb-fast distastfull to all sorts of people in the Ipswich newes and in plaine language tell the King that this restraint with other innovations which you have charged upon the Prelates do fill the peoples minds with jealousies and fears of an universal alteration of religion p. 147. What peoples minds are filled so I beseech you sir but those whom you and such as you have so possessed I trow you have not had the people to confession lately that you should know their minds and feares so well as you seeme to do But know or not know that 's no matter the King is bound to take it upon your word especially considering that the restraint of preaching in dangerous and infected places and on the day of fast when men come empty to the Church and so are farre more apt to take infection then at other times is such an Innovation as certainly the like was never heard of in the holy Scripture or any of the former ages and withall so directly contrary unto his Majesties solemne Protestations made unto his people Here 's a great cry indeed but a little wooll For how may wee be sure that the holy Scripture and all former ages have prescribed preaching as a necessary part of a publike fast yea as the very life and soule of a fast as you please to phrase it both in your Pulpit Pasquill p. 144. and the newes from Ipswich That so it was in holy Scripture you cite good store as viz. 2 Chron. 6.28.29.30 Chap. 7.17.14 Numb 25.6 to 10. Ioel. 1. 2. Zeph. 2.1.2.3 all in the margin of the Newes book Of all which texts if there be one that speakes of preaching let the indifferent Reader judge The Scripture being silent in it how shall we know it was the custome in all former ages For that you tell us in the same margine of the Newes book that so it was 1. Iacobi Caroli Most fairly proved I never knew till now but that the world was older then I see it is Men talk of certain thousands that the world hath lasted but we must come to you for a new Chronologie The world my masters and all former ages which comes both to one contain but 34 yeares full not a minute more An excellent Antiquarie No marvell if his Majesty be taxed with innovations changing as he hath done the doctrine of the Sabbath first set on foor Anno 1596 and the right way of celebrating a publike fast for which you have no precedent before the yeare 1603. Nor can I blame the people if they feare an alteration of religion when once they see such dreadfull Innovations break in upon them and all his Majesties solemne protestations so soon forgotten neglected Yet let me tell you sir that fast and pray was the old rule which both Scriptures and the Church have commended to us as in the texts by you remembred and that delivered by Saint Paul 1. Cor. 7.5 Oratio jejunium sanctificat jejunium orationem
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as
Title Sir I hope you know your owne words in your doughtie dialogue betweene A. and B. you know the proverbe Fronti rara fides the fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences For whereas you entitle it for God and the King you doe therein as Rebells doe most commonly in their insurrections pretend the safety of the King and preservation of Religion when as they doe intend to destroy them both The civill warre in France raised by the Duke of Burgundy and Berry against Lewis the eleventh was christned by the specious name of Le bien Public for the Common-wealth but there was nothing lesse intended then the common good And when the Iewes cryed Templum Domini Templum Domini they did but as you doe abuse the people and colour their ambition or their malice choose you which you will with a shew of zeale So that your Title may be likened very fitly to those Apothecaries boxes which Lactantius speakes of quorum tituli remedium habent pixides venenum poysons within and medecines writ upon the Paper So for your Text we will repeat that too that men may see the better how you doe abuse it My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Prov. 24.21 22. A Text indeed well chosen but not well applyed For had you looked upon your selfe and the Text together and followed the direction which is therein given you you had not so long hunted after Innovations as for these many yeares it is knowne you have and so might possibly have escaped that calamitie which is now like to fall upon you But it 's the nature of your humour as of some diseases to turne all things unto the nourishment of the part that is ill affected Meane while you make the Scriptures but a nose of wax as Pighius once prophanly called it by wresting it maliciously to serve your turnes and so confirme the vulgar Papists in contempt of that which were it not for you and such as you they might more easily bee induced both to heare and reverence Now for the method of your Sermon I meane to call it so no more though you observe no method in it but wander up and downe in repetitions and tautologies as your custome is I must thus dispose it The passages therein either of scandall or sedition I shall reduce especially unto these two heads those which reflect upon the Kings most excellent Majestie and those which strike directly against the Bishops That which reflects upon the King either relates to his authoritie or his actions That which doth strike against the Bishops is to be considered as it is referred either unto their place or to their persons or finally to their proceedings and these proceedings are againe to bee considered eyther in reference to their Courts and behaviour there or to their government of and in the Church and carriage in that weighty office wherein you charge them with eight kinds of Innovations most of the generall kinds being sub-divided into several branches For a conclusion of the whole I shall present unto your selfe by way of Corollarie or resultancie out of all the premisses how farre you are or may prove guilty of sedition for that Pulpit pasquill of yours and so commend you to repentance and the grace of God In ripping up whereof as I shall keepe my selfe especially to your Pulpit-Pasquill so if I meete with any variae lectiones in your Apologie or Epistles or the Newes from Ipswich or your addresses to the Lords of the Privie Councell and my Lords the Iudges I shall use them also either for explication or for application Such your extravagancies as cannot easily be reduced to the former heads I either shall passe over or but touch in transitu This is the order I shall use First for the King you may remember what I told you was the Puritan tenet that Kings are but the Ministers of the Common-wealth and that they have no more authority then what is given them by the people This though you doe not say expresly and in terminis yet you come very neare it to a tantamont finding great fault with that unlimited power which some give to Kings and as also with that absolute obedience which is exacted of the subject One of your doctrines is that all our obedience to Kings and princes and other superiors must be regulated by our obedience to God Your reason is because the King is Gods Minister and Vice-gerent and commands as from God so for God and in God Your doctrine and your reason might become a right honest man But what 's your use Your first use is for reprehension or refutation of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of the State yet so presse men to the obedience of them as they hold them for no better then rebells and to deserve to be hanged drawne and quartered that refuse to obey them pag. 77. So pag. 88. a second sort come here to be reproved that on the other side separate the feare of the King from the feare of the Lord and those are such as attribute to Kings such an unlimited power as if he were God Almightie himselfe so as hereby they would seeme to ascribe that omnipotency to the King which the Pope assumes and his Parasites ascribe to his holinesse So pag. 89. Thus these men crying up and exacting universall absolute obedience to man they doe hereby cast the feare of God and so his Throne downe to the ground Finally you reckon it amongst the Innovations wherewith you charge the Prelats in point of doctrine that they have laboured to make a change in the doctrine of obedience to superiours setting man so in Gods Throne that all obedience to man must be absolute without regard to God and conscience whose onely rule is the word of God pag. 126. In all which passages however you pretend the word of God the fundamentall Lawes of state and conscience yet clearely you expresse your disaffection unto the soveraignty of Princes and in effect leave them no greater power then every private man shall thinke fit to give them Besides there is a tacite implication also that the King exercises an unlimited power which cannot possibly consist with the subjects conscience the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome or the word of God It had beene very well done of you to have told the people what were the fundamentall lawes of State which were so carefully to be preserved within what bounds and limits the authority of Kings is to be confined and to have given them a more speciall knowledge of the rule of conscience For dealing thus in generalls onely Dolosus versatur in generalibus you know who sayd it you have presented to the people a most excellent ground not onely
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
did the like in the Councell of Seleucia called by Constantius an Arian Emperor who did therein suppresse by perpetuall Amnestie the mention of Homousios and Homoiousios that so they might coine a new faith and utterly extinguish that of the Councell of Nice p 115. This you ascribe indeed unto the Prelates as an Art of theirs but you must needs intend it of the King whose Act it was Nor doe you only misinterpret his Majesties most pious Act in an undutifull scandalous manner but you pervert both this and the other also to serve your turne and sometimes factiously retort them on His Majestie as if not observed What ever thing you challenge or except against that is forthwith proclaimed to be against his Majesties Declarations so solemnly set out and published for satisfaction of his people as Viz. in your two Epistles to his Sacred Majestie in your Apology p. 6. in your addresse to the Nobility p. 23.24 and to the Judges p. 28.30.31 and in your Pulpit Pasquill p. 51.52.54.64.65.67.72.146 and finally no lesse then thrice in the Newes from Ipswich As for example His Majestie intended by the first that before the Articles to silence those disputes which might nourish faction and in the other to nourish in his Subjects a good opinion of his constancie to the Religion here established but you and such as you will abuse them both You were convented as you tell us unto London house for Preaching on the point of Predestination and there it was objected to you that you had done therein contrary to his Majesties Declaration pag. 51. which in the Margin there you affirme to be A dangerous and false charge laid upon the King And thereupon you answered that you never took the Kings Declaration to be by him intended for the suppressing of any part of Gods trueth nor durst you ever conceive a thought so dishonourable to the King as to think him to be an instrument of suppressing Gods trueth No doubt you had good ground for so quick an answere and what was that His Majestie in his Declaration about the Parliament had profest as much p. 52. Here is the King against the King one Declaration against another both by you abused both made to serve your turne as occasion is But why do you thus construe his Majesties words Because say you it was no part of his Majesties meaning to prohibit Ministers to Preach of the saving Doctrines of Grace and Salvation without the which the very Gospel is destroyed p. 51. the ministery of the Gospel overthrowne and nothing but orations of moralitie to be taught the people And doth the whole ministerie of the Gospel the saving doctrines of Grace and Salvation depend alone upon those difficult and dangerous points of Gods secret counsells Are all the Doctrines of the Gospel matters of meere moralitie save those at which Saint Paul did stand astonished and cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth and heigth Cannot Christ Crucified profit us rather you and your disciples unlesse wee must be taught that the greatest part of mankind is cast off for ever without any regard had to their sinnes and all the promises of the Gospel made unto them of none effect Or do you think that Faith and an honest life will become unprofitable unlesse wee vexe poore people with the noise of doubtfull disputations which Saint Paul prohibited Take heed Sir I advise you as a speciall friend least that befall you which Saint Austin did once complaine of Viz. lest honest though unlearned men get heaven whilest you with all your subtilties are excluded thence Surgunt indocti et rapiunt coelum et nos cum doctrinis nostris sine corde ecce ubi volutamur in carne et sanguine But to what purpose do I seek to charme so deafe an Adder Be the Kings purposes never so sincere and pious yet you are bold to quarrell with his Declaration and to cry out vnto the people that the Doctrines of Gods Grace and mans salvation are husht and banished out of Citie and Countrie and that there 's not a Minister one amongst a thousand that dare cleerely and plainly according to the word of God and the Articles of our Church preach of these most comfortable doctrines to Gods people and so soundly and roundly confute the Arminian heresies as you call them repugnant thereunto p. 116. But so you will not leave the King he must heare more yet His Declaration about lawfull recreations on the Lords day is the next you quarell with In this you fall more fowly on him then you did before more then a civill honest man would or could probably have done upon his equall and yet you ground this too on his Declaration For thus you say No wise and honest man can ever imagine that the king would ever intend to command that which mainly tendeth to the dishonor of God and his word to the violation and annihilation of the holy Commandement touching the Sabbath and to the alteration of the doctrine of the Church of England How so Because say you this were against all those solemne Royall protestations of the King c. p. 56. Stay here a little I beseech you How doth this businesse of the Sabbath touch the Declaration about dissolving of the Parliament which is cited by you Yes in a very high degree because say you it is a mighty Innovation in the doctrine of the Sabbath which hath beene ever since the Reformation and so from the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory constantly universally and unanimously maintained in the Church of England pag. 57. Qui semel verecundiae limites c. And if you proceed on a little you will shortly blush at nothing For the point in hand Men of farre more credit then I trow you are assure us that your new doctrine of the Sabbath was never known in England untill the yeere 1596 and being made known then not before was neither universally nor unanimously received as you informe as For had it beene a Doctrine constantly maintained ever since the Reformation as you falsly say assuredly Arch Bp. Whitgift had never called in those Books which maintained that argument as it 's well knowne he did in his visitation Anno 1599. nor had Judge Popham done the like at the Assises in Saint Edmonds bury in the yeere 600. You must tell likelier tales then this or all the old wives in your Parish will beshrew you for it who cannot but remember with what harmelesse freedom they used to behave themselves that day in their yonger times You stay not here but as before you set the King against himselfe one Declaration of the Kings against another so next you set the King against the Parliament and tell us that the prophanation of the Sabbath or Lords day which the Books seemes to give allowance to as in sundry sports here specified is contrary unto the Statute 1. Caroli in which all unlawfull Exercises and
new orders or bringing in new fashions never knowne before If you have any other pedegree as perhaps you have from Wiclif Hus the Albigenses and the rest which you use to boast of keepe it to your selfe Non tali auxilio the Church of England hath no neede of so poore a shift Nor did shee ever think it fit further to separate herselfe from the Church of Rome either in doctrine or ceremonie then that Church had departed from herselfe when shee was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her head And so King Iames resolved it at Hampton Court That which remaineth touching the poison which the spirit hatt ruleth in the aire hath infused into the chaire of the Hierarchae and your distinction betweene nominall and reall grace for which I make no question but you doe hugge your selfe in private is not worth the answering I shall produce your raylings as I goe along but not confute them as knowing little credit to begotten by contending with you and farre lesse by scolding But where you seeme to be offended with the Bishops â—hat they should stile themselves the Godly holy Fathers of the Church I hope you know the title is not new nor first used by them All ages and all languages have so entituled them The Gretians everused to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Reverendos in Christo Patres the English our Reverend fathers in God all of them as of common course you cannot but know it As for that patch which followes after viz. the Pillars of our faith and your conceit upon them both of Caterpillers and stepfathers those you may heare amongst the scoffes reviling and reproachfull termes which with a prodigall hand and a venemous penne you cast upon them every where in your severall Pasquills to which now I hasten To begin therefore where we left for fathers you have made them Step-fathers for Pillars Caterpillers their houses haunted and their Episcopall chaires poysoned by that spirit that bear's rule in the ayre These we have told you of before goe on then They are the limbs of the beast even of Antichrist taking his very courses to beare and beate downe the hearing of the Word of God whereby men might bee saved p. 12. Their feare is more towards an Altar of their owne invention towards an image or crucifixe towards the sound and syllables of Iesus than towards the Lord Christ. Pag. 15. Miscreants 28. the traines and wiles of his the dragons dog-like flattering tayle pag. 30. New Babel-builders 32. blind watchmen dumbe doggs plagues of soules false prophets ravening wolves theeves and robbers of soules which honorary attributes you bestow upon them from the Magdeburgians pag. 48. Either for shame mend your manners or never more imprison any man for denying that title of succession which you so bely by your unapostolicall practise pag. 49. If the Prelats had any regard either to the honour of God and of his word or to the setled peace of the kingdome as they have but little as appeareth too palpably by their practises in disturbing and disordering all pag. 63. The Prelates actions tend to corrupt the kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies and sinister opinions towards the king as if he were the prime cause of all those grievances which in his name they doe oppresse the kings good subjects withall pag. 74. These factors for Antichrist practise to divide kings from their subjects and subjects from their kings that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe pag. 75. Antichristian mushromes pag. 83. They cannot be in quiet till res novas moliendo they may set up Popery againe in her full equipage 95. tooth and nayle for setting up of Popery againe 66. trampling under their feete Christs kingdome that they may set up Antichrists throne againe p. 99. According to that spirit of Rome which breatheth in them by which they are so strongly biassed to wheele about to their Roman Mistresse pag. 108. the Prelates confederate with the Priests and Iesuits for rearing up of that religion pag. 140. by letting in a forraigne enemie which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto pag. 75. The Prelates make the mother Cathedralls the adopted daughters of Rome their concubines whereon to beget a new bastard generation of sacrificing idolatrous Massepriests throughout the land p. 163. Nothing can now stay them but either they will breake all in peeces or their owne necke p. 164. All this sir in your Pulpit-pasquill So also in your Apologie Iesuited Polypragmaticks and sonnes of Belial and in the newes from Ipswich Luciferian Lord Bishops Execrable traytors devouring wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by Christians Finally in your Pulpit libell you seriously professe that you are ashamed that ever it should bee sayd you have lived a minister under such a Prelacie p. 49. Great pittie sir you had not lived a little in king Edgars time amongst whose Lawes it was ordeined that that mans tongue should be cut out which did speake any slanderous or infamous words tending to the reproach of others Hitherto for the generalls And there are some particulars on which you spend your malice more than all the rest you descant trimmely as you thinke in the Newes from Ipswich on my Lord of Canterbury with your Arch-pietie Arch-charitie if Belzebub himselfe had beene Arch-Bishop Arch-Agent for the devill and such like to those A most triumphant Arch indeed to adorne your victories His costly and magnificent enterteinment of the king at Oxford you cry out against in your sayd Pulpit libell for a scurrilous enterlude made in disgrace of that which is the greatest beauty of our religion to wit true pietie and learning and will him in this shrift to confesse how unseemely it was for him that pretendeth to succeed the Apostles p. 49. You taxe a certaine speech of his as most audacious and presumptuous setting his proud foote on the kings lawes as once the Pope did on the Emperours necke p. 54. in marg and tell him that the best Apologie hee can make is that his tongue did runne before his wit and that in the flames of his passion he had sacrificed his best reason and loyaltie p. 55. You tell us also that the republishing of the booke for sports with some addition was the first remarkable thing which was done presently after the Lord of Cant. did take possession of his Grace-shippe pag. 59. that with his right hand hee is able to sweepe downe the third part of the starres in heaven p. 121. Having a Papall infallibility of spirit whereby as by a divine oracle all questions in religion are finally determined pag. 132. However in your generall charges I left you to runne riot and disperse your follies according as you would your selfe yet now you are fallen on a particular and a particular as eminent in vertue as hee is in place you may perhaps
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