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
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
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
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
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
in of Poperie tooth and nayle for Poperie confederating with Priests and Jesuites for rearing up of that religion and setting up againe the the throne of Anti-Christ and all their actions you interpret to tend that way Next you crie out how much the people are oppressed contrarie to their rights and liberties affirming that the Bishops doe not onely over toppe the royall throne but that they trample the lawes liberties and just rights of the Kings subjects under their feete and cutt the people off from the free use and benefit of the Kings good lawes Which said and pressed in every place with all spight and rancour you call upon the nobles to rowze up their noble Christian zeale and magnanimous courage upon the judges to drawe forth their sword of justice upon the Courtiers nobles others if they have any sparke of pietie now to put their helping hands in so great a neede and lest all these should faile you call upon the nation generally to take notice of their Antichristian practises to redresse them withall their force and power What doe you thinke of this Alarme this Ad arma ad arma this calling of all sorts of people to combine together to rouze their spirits drawe their swords put to their hands muster upp all their force and power doe you not thinke this comes within the compasse of sedition have not you done your best or your worst rather to raise an insurrection in the state under pretence of looking to the safety of religion and the Subjects rights I wil not judge your conscience I leave that to God But if one may collect your meaning by your words and writings or if your words and writings may bee censured not onely according to the effect which they have produced but which they might you are but in a sorry taking And because possiblie when you finde your danger you will the better find your error and so prepare your selfe for a sincere and sound repentance I will a little lay it open Make you what use there of you shall thinke most fitt And first supposing that these your factious and false clamours are onely such as might occasion discord betweene my LL. the Bishops and the Commons where had you beene then there passed a Statute still in force 2. Ric. 2. cap. 5. for punishment of Counterfeiters of false newes and of horrible and false messages mistaken in the English bookes for the French Mensonges i. e. â—â—es of Prelates Dukes Earles Barons and other Noâ—â—es and great men of the Realme c. of things which by the said Prelates Lords c. were never spoken 〈◊〉 or thought pray marke this well in great slander of the said Prelates c. whereby debates and discords might arise not doth but might arise betwixt the said Lords and Commons which God forbid and whereof great perill and mischiefe might come to all the Realme and quicke subversion and destruction of the said Realme if due remedie bee not provided And for the remedy provided which in this statute was according to that of Westminster the first before remembred that in the 12. of this King Richard cap. 11. is left to the discretion of his Majesties Councell So that what ever punishment His Majesties most honourable Privie Councell may inflict upon you you have justly merited in taking so much paines to so bad a purpose as to set discord and debate betweene the Prelates and the people But where you have gone further to excite the people what say I people nay the Lords Judges Courtiers all the Nation generally to draw their powers and force together I see no reason why you should bee so angry with the High Commissioners for laying sedition to your charge or if that please you better a seditious Sermon And being a seditious Sermon then and a seditious Pamphlet now dispersed up and downe throughout the kingdome especially amongst those whom you and such as you have seasoned with a disaffection to the present governement What have not you for your part done to put all into open tumult I doe not meane to charge it on you but I will tell you how it was resolved in former times by Bracton and Glanvill two great Lawyers in those dayes viz. Siquis machinatus fuerit vel aliquid fecerit in morteÌ„ D. regis vel ad seditioneÌ„ regis vel exercitus sui vel coÌ„senserit coÌ„siliumve dederit c licet id quod in voluntate habuit non produxerit ad effectum tenetur tamen criminis laesae Majestatis Construe me this and you will find your selfe in a pretty pickle And I will tell you also two particular cases which you may find with little paines in our common Chronicles The first of one John Bennet Wooll-man who had in London scattered schedules full of sedition and for that was drawn hanged and beheaded in the fourth yeare of Henry the Fifth The other of Thomas Bagnall Jo. Scot Jo. Heath and Jo. Kennington who being all Sanctuary men of Saint Martins le Grand were taken out of the said Sanctuary for forging of seditious Bills to the slander of the King and some of his Counsell will you marke this well for the which three of them were condemned and executed and the fourth upon his plea returned to Sanctuary in the ninth yeare of King Henry the Seventh I instance only in these two because both ancient both of them hapning before the Statute 23. Eliz. 〈…〉 which being restrained unto the naturall life of the said Queene is not now in force and which as long as it continued was a strong bridle in the mouths of your forefathers in the Faction to hold them in from publishing and printing such seditious Pamphlets The common Chronicles will tell you how that most excellent Lady dealt with those who had offended her in that kinde wherein you excell Thaâ—ker and Capping Barrow Greenwood Studly Billot and Bowlar Penry and Vdall zealous Puritans all being all condemned to death and the more part executed And you may please to know for your further comfort that in King James his time May the third Anno 1619. one Iohn Williams a Barrister of the middle Temple was arraigned at the Kings Bench for a seditious book by him then but lately writteÌ„ secretly disperst abroad never printed as yoâ—urs are or which hee was condemned and executed at Charing crosse some two dayes after And it was afterwards resolved at the first censure of Mass Prynne in the Starre-chamber by the Lord Chiefe Justice that then was that had hee beene put over to his Tribunall hee had beene forfeit to the gallowes All which being represented to you I close up my addresse in the words of Tullie Miror te quorum act a imitere eorum exitus non perhorrescere So God blesse the man And yet I must not leave you so As I have raised one use for your reprehension so give mee leave to raise one more for the