it is said Rebels doe not only leave the Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also doe by their workes of wickednesse most horribly profane and pollute the Sabbath day Serving Satan and by doing of his worke making it the Divels day instead of the Lords day And surely if this liberty of youth bee not all the sooner restrained the whole Land may rue it one day And therefore if the Prelates 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 of all they would have been so faire from procuring the republishing and from pressing and oppressing Ministers about the said booke as they would rather have become humble suiters to his Majesty to have set forth some severe Edict for the better Sanctification of the Lords day that so the people might be kept in better obedience both to God and to his Majestey Forasmuch also as the giving libertie of such sports whereby it is manifestly profained is without all example in any age of the world and their so pressing of it with that cursed and tyranicall tigor both without and against all Law and all example and that also in the Kings name is very dangerous to breed in peoples mindes such as are not so well acquainted with His Majesties either noble and Christian disposition or His many solemne Protestations to keepe Religion safe and sound I know not what strange Scruples on feares causing them to stagger in their good opinion of His Majestie when indeed the whole burden of the blame is to be laid upon the Prelates as either the chiefe procures of these things or the not hindereâ— of them The last instance wheâ—â—in the Prelates doe indanger a division betweene the King and his good Subjects whom the Lord preserue in a perpetual bond of unity is their most impetuous and violent obtruding of new â—ites and Ceremonies which they haue begun through some whole Diocesse and exacting a new conformity in all Ministers there unto This is another snare wherewith they may catch more Ministers either to outt them of their Ministery and living or else to captivate them for ever as vassalls for whatsoever base uses their good Masters will put them unto And herein they haue made a faire progresse already as for example in two whole Counties Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space they haue made the fowlest havocke of good Ministers and their flocks now left desolate and exposed to the Wolues as sheepe without their sheepheard as our eyes have never seene For there are already Threescore Ministers in that one Diocesse suspended and betweene three and Fowrescore more have time given them now till Christ-tide by which time either they must bid their good Conscience farewell or else their precious Ministery and necessary meanes Neither I thinke can it be shewed that in all Queene Maries time there was so great havocke made in so short a time of the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole Land And now doe those Counties and Countries groane under this intolerable burthen remedilesse if God and the King doe not relieve them And our neigbours house being thus on fire doth it not concerne us all to looke to it For they say that this shall be a precedent for all England But upon what ground is all this What authority doe they shew for these outrages The King That is answered before by his solemne Protestations to the contrary But they plead the Act of Parliament for Vniformity before the Communion Booke wherein is reserved a power to the Queene with advise of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan to ordayne and publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Hereupon they ground all their Innovations But for this First obserue that this clause of the Act is limmited to Queene Elizabeth and not extended to her Successors of the Crowne they are still expressed Secondly admit it was intended to the Successors yet it is with that qualification as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glory the edefying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Misteries and Sacraments Well To bring our new Rites to this Rule First doe they make to the Advancement of Gods glory What Superstitious Idolatrous worship of wooden Aultars What a complementall Crouch to Iesus when they Crucifie Christ What to bow before a Crucifix Againe for the edifying of his Church What by the Preaching and not praying in the Pulpit before and after his Sermon What by the expounding of the Catechisme What by reading a second Service at the Altar where the people cannot heare it And for due reverence to Christs Sacraments What by possessing the people with an opinion of a Popish reall presence What by offering Christ in sacrifice upon a Wooden Altar By a Priest of mans making What by drawing the people to a new adoration by bringing them up close to the new Altar But they will say all makes for them And who shall bee judges but themselves who are the Church Therefore Lastly I answer for all that no humane rationall creature can bring the least shadow of colour that this Act did giue the Queene or her succssors any power to set up Popery againe This is out of all question But now our New Reformers are tooth and nayle for setting up Popery againe witnesse their hoysing up Altars in most places as also of Images Crucifixes with adorations putting downe of the meanes of knowledge as Preaching and bringing in of Ignorance also preaching for sundry points of Popery as Auricular Confession praying to Saints yea printing of such Sermons prayer for the dead and many other All which while they set up with a high hand and so as if the King gaue them authority so to doe of which all his Solemne protestations I say doe sufficiently resolve us the contrary they must needs mightily shake and unsettle the peace of the State by these their dangerous and desperate attempts and sill the peoples minds with musings what the issue will bee and how the King will digest these things at the Prealates hands which tend to the most dangerous dividing and renting of the Kingdome asunder The next instance is their arrogating of their Episcopall title and office of Superiority from Christ and his Apostles This they did lately in the High Commission Court and that upon occasion of Doctor Bastwicks cause then before them Where hee was accused and severely censured for writting a Booke intituled Flagellum Potificis Episcoporum Latialium in which booke bee whipped that usurped authority of the Roman Hierarchy through whose sides by reason of their
the rule whereby God doth governe the best patterne of a Kings government and the reason is this Wee are to bee subject to our King in the performance of all due services by that bond or tye which not onely Gods Law and Ordinance but also the Kings Law doth put upon us You may remember I showed you before how Gods Law is the rule of our feare and service which wee performe unto his Majesty and to goe beside or transgresse this rule brings us under the guilt and penalty of rebellion I showed you also how wee are bound to serve God as our King by vertue of mutuall stipulation which God makes with us and we with him Semblably our subjection unto the King is to be regulated as by Gods Law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good Lawes of the King And note the completenesse of this correspondence It stayes not here but holds also in that mutuall stipulation or Covenant which the King and his Subjects make at his Coronation Where the King taking an explicit solemne oath to maintaine the ancient Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those Lawes established So consequently and implicitly all the people of the Land doe sweare fealty allegiance subjection and obedience to their King and that according to his just Lawes To this purpose it is that his excellent Majesty in the Petition of Right which he subscribed with his owne royall hand hath these words worthy to be written in golden characters The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realme and that the Statutes be put in due execution and His Subjects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof hee holds himselfe in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative And after that in full Parliament he concluded with these words Soit droit fait come est desire Let right be done as is desired And then in his Majesties speech following And I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties O blessed King ever may'st Thou live crowned with all blessings in Thy Royall selfe and Posterity being knit unto Thy people in this indissoluble bond And herein His Sacred Majestie shewed himselfe a Peereles Sonne to His Peerelesse Father who in his speech to the Parliament 1609. besides sundry other rare passages to the same purpose hath these words The King bindes himselfe by a double oath to the observation of the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Tacitly as being a King and so bound as well to protect the People as the Lawes of his Kingdome and expresly by his Oath at His Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdome is bound to observe that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his government agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge c. And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdome leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soone as hee leaves off to rule according to his lawes And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common Wealth Which words beseeming a just King I have heere set downe as an honourable testimony of such a Father of such a Sonne and all to be for the stronger reason to all subjects to performe all due obedience to their Soveraigne For if your Gracious King doe so solemnly by Sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under His Royall hand bind himselfe to maintaine the Lawes of his Kingdome and therein the Rights and Liberties of His Subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the King according to his just Laws So much of the proofe of the point Now to the Uses Here 1. Not onely Papists but the religion of Popery it selfe come under the guilt and condemnation of Rebellion forasmuch as the maine Principle of Popery is to exalt and acknowledge the Pope as supreme over all Powers as Emperors Kings Princes States c. And therefore not unworthily is their Religion branded for Rebellion and their faith for Faction and their practise murdering of soules and bodies And though some Papists will take the Oath of Allegiance as subjects to their King yet they refuse the Oath of Supremacy as acknowledging their subjection to the King upon no other termes but as subordinate to the Pope as Supreme And so the Pope and not the King is the Papists King and Soveraigne And yet how is their rebellious religion nay which is rebellion it selfe fostered and fomented in our Land to the infinite dishonour not onely of God but of the King and His Supremacy and danger of the Kingdom if God in mercy doe not prevent it The ancient Church before Antichrist the great usurper mounted aloft acknowledged no Supreme above the Emperour or every absolute Prince in his Kingdome but onely God 2. For Exhortation Heere let all good Christians and royall subjects learne to yeeld all feare honour obedience to their Soveraigne following the direction and exhortation of the Apostle Let every soule be subject to the higher powers And render to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Feare to whom feare Honour to whom honour And for the better stirring up of all those duties which subjects owe to their Soveraigne Let us often meditate of these reasons and motives fore-mentioned by the Apostle and especially considering That the King is Gods Minister to doe Iustice to punish the evill and to countenance and reward the good as also because hee attends continually upon this great office And lastly considering in speciall how our Gracious Soveraigne hath entered into Solemne and sacred Covenant with all his people to bee their King and Protector and to governe them according to his good and just lawes and to maintaine all their just Rights and Liberties and according to the Patterne of God himselfe whose vicegerent hee is to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the Kingdome prescribe and require With what alacrity then and readinesse ought all Subjects to expresse their loyalty to their Prince and with all adde their dayly and fervent prayers and supplications for the life of our gracious King that under the shadow of his righteous and religious government wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty It followeth Feare the King that is with a filiall feare as the feare of the Lord is only keeping the difference that the one is a religious filiall
the pranks that they play in many places of the Kingdome are by speciall warrant from the King or whither the King by some generall warrant dormant hath given them this unlimited power which they at their pleasure doe exercise For instance Will Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich say that hee hath any warrant from the King speciall or generall for making such havocks and hurliburlies in those two great Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke to the intollerable dishonour of God injury to his Ministers and people and tending to most dangerous consequences If hee have not any warrant but doth it of his owne head or by the instigation of any other Arch-Prelate then let him looke to it least he come to suffer as an usurper a bringer in of a forraigne power an Innovator Oppressor Persecutor and troubler of the peace of the Church and Kingdome If he say he hath warrant for 〈◊〉 let him 〈◊〉 it But I hope hee will not father his desperate courses upon the King What will hee say that the King gives him a power to exercise such unheard of tyranny and injustice upon the Kings peaceable Subjects and Christs faithfull Ministers and that against the Kings Lawes and peoples Rights all which the King hath sworne againe and againe and solemnly protested to maintaine inviolable as his owne Crowne Never therefore let any man dare to pretend any such thing so dishonourable to his Majesty Againe suppose which yet is not to bee supposed that the Prelates should so farre prevaile as to procure a grant from the King to doe all those things which of late they have done tending to the utter overthrow of the Religion by Law established Yet whatsoever colour pretext or â—ow could 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 unto 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 But what doe I speake of this If all the Prelates in England did never so boldly affirme that what they doe in these extravagant courses of theirs it is by warrant from the King I would be so fat from giving any credit unto them herein that I should be the first that should addresse my humble complaint to his Majesty of such dishonour done unto him and humbly petition his Majesty to vindicate his honour from the least suspition of his giving way to or countenancing the Prelates in such their practises as cry up to heaven for vengeance upon their heads This I have urged the more both in reverence to his Sacred Majesty whose honour I cannot indure should receive the least blemish and also in reference to the point in hand because such usurpation of the Prelates cendeth directly to make a division betweene the King and his subjects cantrary to that which we teach here that good Subjects must cleave to their God and King without separation and defection which is by the ligaments of good Lawes which being broken they are as the resolution of the nerves in the naturall body or the cutting in sunder of the sinewes whereby the head and members are united and compacted in one intire body And therefore this claime which the Prelates make of their Prelation and Iurisdiction over Christs Ministers jure divino being repugnant not only to the cleare Scripture forbidding all such domination as they practise as Math. 20. 25. c. Marke 10. 42. c. 1. Pet. 5. i. c. for which they have neither the example of Christ nor of his Apostles nor of any ancient Bishops but principally of Diotrephes 3 Iohn 10. whom they imitate in affecting of preeminence in opposing Iohn the Apostle in exommunicating the Preachers in prating against them with malicious words and the like but also to the Kings Crowne to the Lawes of the Land and consequently to the Liberties of the Subjects I know not with what warrant or Conscience any Minister of Christ can submit to the Practises of these men tending to the ruine of the Kingdome of Christ in this Land and consequently of the whole Kingdome and State Now all these instances alledged are so notorious some of them fresh in memory and many witnesses of them yet living being done but the other day and others yet present before our eyes that they cannot bee denyed and their notoriousnesse makes them the more pernicious as teÌ„ding to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them feares and jealousies with sinister affections towards their King as if hee were the prime cause of all those grievances which the Prelates in his name doe oppresse the Kings good Subjects withall But Trust in the Lord as it is my dayly prayer that hee will preserve the hearts and affections of his people closse and intire to their King and that he will discover both to the King and his people these treacherous practises of the usurping Prelates that so neither the King may thinke evill of his good people nor they have the least jealousy that his Maiesty approveth and countenanceth much lesse willeth and commaundeth his Prelates to coÌ„mit these their intollerable outrages Well come weenow to a second use which is of Exhortation and admonition to all good Subjects above all things to beware of those that cunningly insinuate themselves betweene the barke and the tree that labour to divide the head from the body and the body from the head by casting bones betweene the King and his good Subjects And here Beloued let me in the name of the Lord admonish you that whatsoever passages or outrages you see to bee done by the Prelates although they doe never so boldly pretend the Kings name for it yee believe them not Let never any Sinister opinion concerning his Sacred Majesty creepe into the closset of your brests and as a Snake either sting or poyson your true loyal hearts towards him And therfore beware of all those Factors for Antichrist whose practise is to divide Kings froÌ„ their Subjects subjects from their King that so betweene both they may fairely erect Antichrists throne againe where it had beene in a good measure throwne downe and cast out yea by this time utterly rooted out of this Land if he had not had such strong Sticklers as his Iesuites and Priests yea the Prelates themselves as their practises plainly show to keep him in life and to set him upon his feet againe But yee Beloved abhorre these Factors And if ever they should so farre prevaile as to open a wide breach to let in a forraigne enemy which these their practises and proceedings pretend and tend unto then
for they feare not the King they honour him not they love him not they obey him not How Doe not these novellers honour love feare the King Who seeme more True Yet as was shewed before these are the most dangerous enemies of the King who under a pretence of honor and love doe machinate the overthrow of his Kingdome and State as by altering the State of religion and by that meanes alienating and unsettling the hearts of his Subjects by filling them with feares and suspicions as if the King gave these novellers authority so to doe which farre bee it from every good Subjects heart once to imagine For the King and Novellers here doe stand in opposition one against the other Can those be the Kings friends that goe about to divide betweene him and his good Subjects Or to expose his Kingdome to Gods displeasure by corrupting his worship and oppressing his truth It s impossible Therefore to joyne with such is to partake with the Kings false friends and fawning enemies Now for the close of all with application to this present occasion in the thankefull memory of this dayes deliverance from the Gunpowder plot a deliverance never to bee cancelled out of the Calender but to bee written in every mans heart for ever this serveth first for caution to all to take heed how they any way partake with those that bee given to change And to the end wee may the better take heed I will propose onely two examples which it concernes us most at this present to take notice of The first of the Gun-powder Plotters who if their plot had taken effect had prooved notorious Changers For as Popery it selfe is a religion of Changes as from antiquity of truth to novelty of error though they falsely pretend the contrary like the Gibeonites with their old shooes and mouldy bread as if they had come from farre when they dwelt hard by so it can rest no where but is a Mother pregnant in plotting and producing of changes in States Kingdomes Common-weales only unchangeable in this that she makes her selfe Supreme and Sole Mistresse where ever the cometh Accordingly those her Sons whom she had fostered as fit sparkes for such a combustion were set on worke to produce the most monstrous Change that ever the world saw on such a suddaine if it had taken place But our God though he winked at them and suffered them to come to the very upshot of their hope strikes in on a suddaine and in the very nick puts a divine sentence in the lippes of the King who by a strange interpretation of a word in one of their own Letters to a Popish Noble-man not according to the Grammaticall sense of the Letter smelling a sent of fire from the mention of burning the Letter and the danger is past thereupon sent the Lord Chamberlaine to search about the Parliament-house and under it Where entring into the Sellar underneath the upper-house hee found a great many Billets and Faggots heaped up not yet suspecting what lurked underneath But the last search was made for more privacy by Sr. Thomas Knevet who first met with Faux and his Lanthorne with his Matches about him ready against the next morning to blow up King Queene Prince Peeres Nobles Knights Burgesses assembled then and there in Parliament and making him sure first entred the Sellar and found no lesse then 36. Barrells of Gun-powder lying Couchant under Billets and Barres of Yron Thus through Gods mercy the change was prevented the change of a Noble Kingdome into an Anarchy and Babilonian tyranny a change of Christs Religion into Antichrists of Tables into Altars of Preaching Ministers of the Gospel into sacrifising Masse-Priests of light into darkenesse of Christ into Belial of the Temple of God into a temple of Idolls of fundamentall just lawes of a Kingdome into Papall Canons of the Liberty of the Subjects into the servitude of slaves of Regall Edifices and Monuments into vast solitude ruinous heapes Yea what tongue can tell or what heart conceive the miserable changes that must have ensued upon that desperate designe if it had beene effected But blessed be God who hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth but hath turned the Change another way for in stead of taking us in their snare themselues were taken therein in stead of blowing up the heads and bodies of this Kingdome together with the house and all their owne bodies were quartered and their heads set upon the top of the Parliament-house to their perpetuall infamie and in stead of a day of lamentation and woe and crying in the streets wee keep it a day of rejoycing of solemne thankesgiving and of singing of Psalmes ever since till this every day And ever may wee so in all thankfullnesse celebrate the memory of this day that wee may never provoke God to deliver us up into the hands of those mercilesse Philistimes Finally as the Lord hath made our Fifth of November a glorious day by such a deliverance So on the other side Hee hath branded their fifth of November with the note of a perpetuall curse and ignomy as in that fall of the House in the Black-Friers on their fifth of November when one of their Popish Priests or Predicants would presume to Preach like a Roman Fox to the English Geese the house by the speciall judgement of God suddenly falling upon their heads which flew both the Preacher and some hundreds of the hearers So as wee have cause to remember that Fifth of November also to the glory of our God who alone avenged his cause on those Idolaters But notwithstanding all these things so remarkable both Gods great mercy in delivering vs on our fifth of November and also his severe and just judgement in noting the fifth of November in their Calender with purple Letters died in the blood of so many persons Yet doe they relent Are their Consciences convicted Is their malice abated alas no such thing But as the Prophet told the King of Israel when God had given him the Victory over the King of Syria Goe strengthen thy selfe and marke and see what thou dost for at the returne of the yeere the King of Syria Will come up against thee And so it prooved For the servants of the King of Syria said unto him Their Gods are Gods of the hills but let us fight on the plaine and wee shah be stronger than they So the Pontificians not succeeding that way they try another way What is that way Wee cannot better compare it then to that of Baalam who when hee could not by all his Inchantments conjure up from hell one curse upon Gods people then hee goes a politicke way to worke hee giues Balack the King of Moab crafty counsell to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel to eate things sacrificed to Idolls and to commit fornication as yee may see Numb 25. 1. 2. c. This indeed was the
Ministers for the Suppressing of those very truthes or doctrines of our Church clearly though briefly expressed in the 39 Articles and especially that of Election Predestination as before wee noted Now will any man Say that the Declaration is prefixed to the Articles that they should bee void and of none effect or that they should bee as a nose of wax or a Dâ—lphicke Oracle to bee taken in two contrary senses It s impossible And therefore it is too great impiety to fasten such a diabolicall practise upon the Sacred person of so noble a King as the author of it But in the meane time a fearefull innovation of doctrine is by this very meanes broken in upon us Now the doctrines of Gods free grace and mans salvation are husht and banished out of Citty and Countrey For where is there a Minister almost among a thousand that dare cleerly 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 repugnant thereunto Although both by Gods Word and by our Ordination we are bound thereto So as the matter of our preaching must bee but morality at the best The mistery of God touching his Grace may not be opened as it ought And to this purpose Mountagues Appeale the first part allowing altogether of Arminianisme the second of Popery was published and that by the speciall approbation and allowance of the Prelates But it pleased our Gratious Soveraigne to call it in Also the Historicall Narration being a notorious packe and plot of knavery for the conclùding of the Arminian Tenents to be the doctrins of the Church of England was by them published being allowed in London house Although the Archbishop that then was called it in Also D. Iacksons bookes were to maintaine Arminianisme So that booke of a namelesse author called Gods love to mankinde although it hath no expresse priviledge yet it goes abroad by connivence being printed as they say in London Also Cosens Private Devotions which did maintaine prayer for the dead till after the out-cry being questioned in Parliament that point was purged out but yet the whole booke is popish weares the Iesuites badge in the front of it Also a Sermon of one Browne preached in Oxford in the prayer whereof printed before the Sermon is an expresse prayer for the dead And it passeth for currant uncensured Also the booke of Franciscus à S. Clara which hath beene now thrice printed and that in London as they say much applawded of our Innovators and most boldly dedicated to the Kings Majesty and they say presented to the King by a Prelate the scope whereof is to reconcile our Religion and so to cast of the old man that is the Calvinisticall to reduce our Church to Mother Rome againe In so much as he indeavors by shuffling and packing and false dealing with his paraphrases upon all our 39. Articles to make his owne game so faire as he hopes to win us backe againe to Rome Yea he saith we agree in justification inherent by workes which is to reconcile light with darknesse And Article 37. hee labours to reduce our King unto Subjection to the Apostolicke Sea the Pope That 's their ayme indeed as being the principall Fundamentall wherein consists the unity of all Churches under one Head the Pope And all this according to the sence of Trent Now let any man but of common sence judge The Pope being cast out of this Kingdome with all his false doctrines can any man imagine that the Articles of our Religion could beare any such sence as to bring us backe againe to Rome to bring our King under the Popes girdle againe to conspire with all those blasphemous doctrines and decrees of that most Antichristian Councell of Trent What man in the world were he not a Iesuited Divell incarnate but would have blushed and beene ashamed to have undertaken such a monstrous Task as this to reconcile the Articles of our Religion with the Councell of Trent How comes it then to passe that till now of late all our grave and learned Divines yea Prelates and others have maintained an immortall warre and which can never admit of a Truce against the Pope and all his Antichristian heresies packed up in that Diabolicall Councell of Trent And their learned workes doe still live and that with triumphant Lawrells upon their heads standing to this day unanswered and unanswerable And yet one Franciscus a St. Clare with the very breath of Ipse dixit will on a sudden overthrow all the writings of those Worthies and by a Romish racke serue up our very Articles to speake whatsoever language Mother Trent will have them For this take another instance or two One is our Eleventh Article which shewes our Iustification to bee by faith without the concurrence of workes in justification and whereas our Homily by him alledged Probl. 22. versus finem Saith That the habit or act of Faith in us doth not justifie us for this were to attribute justification to some vertue or act in us c. Videtur saith hee negare jusâ—itiam inhaerentem sed vere nihil minus intenditur quia â—â—aâ—im subditur Deus est qui justificat This seemes saith hee to denie inherent righteousnesse but in trueth nothing lesse is intended because it is by and by added It is God that justifieth Now see this mans impudent non-sence The whole scope of the Homily is to set forth most clearely the formall cause of our justification to bee by imputation of Christs Righteousnesse which Gods free mercy accounteth ours not in any worke of grace in us in whole or in part no not in faith it selfe as it is an habit or act inherent in us but as an instrument apprehending and applying Christ. And it utterly and expresly excludeth al inherent righteousnesse in us and all merit of workes as the greatest arrogancy and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God So as the Homily setting downe these two as opposite one to the other namely Faith as a vertue in us doth not justifie us and It is God that justifieth with what mouth of impudency can any man Say that the Homily intended nothing lesse then to exclude justification by workes But hee hath gotten a Dispensation from the Father of lies and from the Pope to coyne brutish lies at his pleasure Adde wee a second instance which is that of the 24. Article concerning Prayer in an unknowne tongue in the congregation in these words It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the Custome of that Primitive Church to have publike prayer in the Church or to Minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understood of the people Now what doth Franciscus paraphrase upon this Namely that this Article determineth it is repugnant to the Scriptures that is not to the doctrine of
FOR GOD and the KING THE SVMME OF TWO SERMONS Preached on the fifth of November last in St. MATTHEWES FRIDAY-STREETE 1636. By HENRY BVRTON Minister of GODS Word there and then 1. PET. 2. 17. Feare GOD. Honour the KING 2. TIM 4. 1 2 3. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reproove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine c. Bernard in Dedic Ecclae Ser. 3. Non miremini fratres si durius loqui videor Quia veritas neminem palpat Printed Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. SIR What the title in the front professeth FOR GOD AND THE KING the substance thereof was by me preached in two Sermons on the last fifth of November 1636. to teach my people obedience to both And for this I was by the divine providence directed to this Text Prov. 24. 21. 22. 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 The Doctrines of which text as I thought the more necessary to be preached and pressed in these times of Apostacy and defection from the due obedience both of God and the King So I deemed that day the memoriall whereof should cause all loyall subjects for ever to detest all Innovations tending to reduce us to that Religion of Rome which plotted that matchlesse treason the most seasonable for this text as wherein our Solemne acknowledgement of our sacred thankes to God for our great deliverance the fruits whereof we injoy at this day under your Royall and happy government being a strong ingagement and inducement to every good duty both to God and the King might worke the more kindly effect in the hearers a word in season being as the Wiseman saith like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Now although the generall good acceptation of the word then preached whereby the peoples hearts were much affected being instructed and exhorted to sticke closse to God and the King in all manner of duties to each that none of those of whom my text admonisheth might worke a disvnion might have beene a sufficient motive of publishing those Sermons in print for the generall good of all your Majesties loving Subjects throughout this your Kingdome yet Lo a necessity it now layd upon mee For on December 3. after my house had beene searched by a Pursuivant Constables and Wardens of the Company of Stationers for a booke which I had not then and there the Pursuivant served me with Letters Missive from the High Commission to appeare on Twesday then next ensuing before Doctor Ducke at Chesewicke there to answer to Articles against me The Articles were all of them against my preaching and in speciall and by name against my Sermons on November 5. on Prov. 34. 21. 22. Therein was objected to me that I preached against sundry Innovations which indeed was one speciall point in my text as alterations in the booke for the fift of November alterations in the new Fast-booke contrary to your Majestes Proclamation which Orders the old Fast booke set forth by your Majesties authority to be reprinted and published alterations in the Booke of Common Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament a turning out of the Collect for the Queene and Royall Progeny these words Father of thine Elect and of their seed as if they would blot out your Majesty Qeene and Royall Progeny out of the number of Gods Elect and in the Epistle on Sunday before Faster for IN the name of Iesus is now put AT the name of Iesus c. alterations in setting up of Altars Images Crucifixes in bowing to the Altar in putting downe afternoone Sermons on the Lords dayes in sundry Diocesse in allowing no other Catechising but by bare Question and Answer out of the Booke without expounding of the maine Principles of Religion to the ignorant youth and people in reading of a second Service at the Altar in the upper end of the Chancell where in many great Churches the people cannot possibly heare not even in lesser Churches or indifferent without a stentorious voyce of the Minister together with sundry other things of the like nature some truely alledged which I am readie to maintaine against the Innovators and some falsely and maliciously perverted whereof I am readie to give your Majestie a true account And in the end of all the Articles I was charged to bring in a true copie of my Sermon The conclusion was a booke tendred to me to sweare to answer to those Articles Here at I startled admiring that these things should be charged upon me as crimes which both were truthes and pertinent to my text and necessarie to admonish my people of as leading them from the feare of God and of the King I also upon the suddaine apprehended that I could expect small iustice of those that were not only the countenancers but practisers yea and which is the highest degree of all iniquity open maintainers of such innovations and that in that very Court where they ought rather to bee severely Censured and Suppressed but that on the contrarie I should be there censured as a Delinquent for executing my Ministerie in speaking the trueth and reprooving of Sinne. And againe considering with my selfe that this cause was of a higher nature then to be so much as hazzarded upon the iudgement of these who were professed parties I presently reflected my thoughts upon your Sacred Majestie as not only worthie to take the cognizance of so waightie a cause and the best able both in respect of your Princelie wisdome and unpartiall iudgement to waigh it in a just ballance but also as the prime and principall person next unto God whose honour and welfarre it most neerelie concerneth and who next after God are ingaged in my text to inquire into So as my replie to Dr. Duke was Sir I humblie appeale to the Kings Majestie my Soveraigne and Patron as my judge in this cause and before whom I shall be both a Defendant and Complainant For I hold it not fit that they who are my adversaries should be my Iudges These were the verie words of my Appeale to Your Majestie as I remember Now thou my Gracious Soveraigne that which my profest adversaries in so just a cause did unjustlie and against the Law require of me namelie to bring them a copie of my Sermon that so they might at their pleasure take advantages by perverting of my words I doe here most freelie and faithfullie in all humblenesse present to Your Majestie yea and that with manie additions and inlargements like to Ieremies rowle
feare the other a Civill filiall feare The point in briefe is True Subjects beare to their King such a feare as children to their parents Not a feare with terror as the Apostle sayth to Parents Provoke not your children to wrath The name of a Father is a name of love and hath in it the bowels of a naturall affection which is above all other kinds of humaine affections Now a King is the Father of his Countrey and all his loving and loyall Subjects are as so many Children into him Hee is the Father of the great family of his Kingdome Hee is the great Lord Steward whom God hath set over his family to provide for them and to protect them He is the Shepherd of the people to feed them rule them as Dauid Psal. 78. 71. 72. Now the sheep are affrayd of the wolfe not of the Shepherd Therefore saith the Apostle If thou doest evill be affrayd So as a good Subject so feareth as hee is not affrayd because he lives in obedience to God and his King Againe this filiall feare in a Subject towards his Prince doth necessarily imply an excellent and eminent love towards the King yea greater love then naturall Children beare unto their Parents namely as they are members of the great politicke body united to the King as the Head There being a neerer tye of affection betweene the Head and the members then betweene a Father and his child And therefore it is worthily sayd by that faithfull servant of God M. Perkins A good Subject is more to love the life of his Prince then his owne life And great reason for the King is the breath of our nostrills Lam. 4. 20. Hee is more worth than ten thousand of us 2. Sam. 18. 3. Vse 1. Let this be for exhortation to all good Subjects to feare their King as Sonnes their Father as their carefull Shepherd to provide for them under God and to preserve them from wolves 2. This may condemne those that would perswade Kings to rule in a terrible and formidable manner as over a sort of slaves Contrary to the Apostle Rulers are not a terror to the good Rom. 13. 3. Such are dangerous persons that would turne filiall feare in Subjects to servile For according to the old saying Oderunt dum metuunt Againe hereunto wee may fitly joyne the next Point which is That the true feare of a King as it is a filiall feare so it is a feare of adherency a feare full of loyalty and fidelity which makes a true Subject to sticke so close to his Prince at all times and in all conditions as nothing can make a separation The King and his Subjects are united with strong ligaments as the head and body And this feare of adherency is a speciall gift of God as we reade 1. Sam. 10. 26. There went with Saul a band of men whose hearts God had touched But such as cleave not unto the King are branded for children of Belial who despisâ—d their King vers 27. So wee read also of David when hee was in great distresse and straits by reason of his unnaturall and traiterous Sonne Absalom and those many tribes of Israel that had revolted to him from their King yet some cleave unto him as 2. Sam. 15. 15. The Kings servants said unto the King Behold thy servants are ready to doe whatsoever my Lord the King shall appoint And vers 21. Ittai said to the King when hee went about to perswade him to goe back and to take care for his safety as verse 19. 2â— As the Lord liveth and as my Lord the King liveth Surely in what place my Lord the King shall bee whether in death or life even there also will thy servant bee Here was a faithfull servant and loyall subject indeede And great reason every good subject should sticke close to his King in all difficulties First we are bound hereunto by a strong bond of conscience as before Rom. 13. 5. And this Conscience is grounded upon the true Religion and feare of God which is the surest bond of all obedience This was that bond which tyed the Christians of old to performe such faithfull military service unto the heathen Emperours and those also who where otherwise cruell persecuters of the Church and Apostates from Christ. As wee see in the Example of Iulian who when hee commanded his band of Christians to march against his enemies those of the heathen they straight obeyed and put their lives in hazard But if he commanded them to fight against the Christians their brethren then they layd downe their Armes and cast themselves downe at the Emperors feete and offered their naked bodies rather to suffer whatsoever torments A second reason why a good subject ought to sticke close to his King in all difficulties because this is the meanes to make a Kingdome invincible and terrible to the enemies Therefore it was an old saying Divide and Rule Divisions in a state expose it to forraigne enemies But unity of heart and affections betweene the subjects and their Soveraigne makes a Common-Wealth happy and perpetuall When my selfe was once at the High Commission falsly charged by a great Prelate of Sedition in that said hee I had dedicated a Booke to the Lower house of Parliament thereby to incense the Commons against the King I presently answered No my Lord I dedicated my Booke to the whole Parliament to wit to the King and both the Howses I doe not divide the head from the body my Lord but I pray God unite them together Hereat he was mute and all his raylings and false charges were at an non-plus So it seem'd some there were not farre off who went about at that time to divide the King from his people And yet another of them said Amen to my prayer being convinced of this trueth that divisions or heart-burnings betweene the King and his subjects are most perillous Vse 1. Here then those are justly and severely censurable even as traytors to the King and State who play the make-baites betweene the Prince and people And these are the Iesuites and Seminary Priests or else those of their faction who herein combine with them as Samsons foxes tyed tayle to tayle with a fire-brand to set the whole State in a combustion by stirring up and fomenting the fire of dissention betweene our gratious Soveraigne and his loving and loyall Subjects And this they labour to doe two wayes either by incensing the King with a hard opinion of his best Subjects those especially that are most religious and pious humble and peaceable in his Kingdome or else on the other side by incensing the people with a sinister opinion of their Soveraigne thus playing lack of both sides being Ambidexters and know to make advantage every way The first of these wayes it hath beene an old practise of Satan the Accuser of the brethren to suggest and whisper into Kings eares evill and false
reports especially of Gods people who where ever they be are the Kings best subjects What a faire tale could Haman tell the King concerning the Iewes that they were a people scattered over his Provinces had their Lawes divers from other people so as they might hereby trouble the peace of his Kingdome and that they were factious for they observed not the Kings Lawes and therefore that it was not for the Kings profit to suffer them Hereupon seducing the King by his sycophants tōgue he procures a Decree for their utter extirpation It is observed by the Centurists in their Preface before the 5. and 6. Centurie that this arte of satan̄ was much practised in those times against those that were most religious and pious and that it prevayled much to the corrupting and overthrowing of Religion And herein were the Arrians the chiefe sticklers in Princes Courts I will set downe one passage for many Et hoc quoque c. This also is remarkable in this present Century that it presents before our eyes those artes whereby false teachers doe mount on high and afterwards obtaining their desire they domineere as they list For they creep into Courts and by their hypocrisy false tales and detractions of sincere teachers and by a kind of collusion with Courtiers they doe surprise the mindes of the great ones and Magistrates For there is no office or service that they promise not unto them For commonly grave constant faithfull Ministers Professors of the Word of God are hated in Courts and great mens houses because they defend the truth more stisfely and taxe sins more freely to which Courts and great ones are more obnoxious than to them seemes fit Parasites and Court Gnathoes interpret these things to redound to the reproach and diminution of the Magistrates authority and to tend to tumults and seditions And they speake pleasing and plausible things being blind watchmen dumbe dogs plagues of soules false Prophets ravening wolves the eves and robbers of soules c. Therefore with no great adoe they make havocke of the most able Ministers such as teach truly seriously gravely and savingly in the Church of God and such as are of their owne Sect they preferre and place them in the Chaires So there and much more to this purpose But what need wee turne over antiquity Have wee not examples enow neerer home What then 's more common in Amasiahses mouthes then declamations against the good Ministers of the Land the Kings most loyall loving dutifull faithfull obedient peaceable subjects How do they heare of such Declamers Factious Seditious Turbulent Disafected to the present goverment enemies of the Kings Prerogative and what not By this meanes oftē inculcated they seeke to ingratiate themselves and to bring into disgrace the true servants of Iesus Christ. Nor are they content to abuse our pious Princes eares in the Pulpit but also on the Stage O pyous holy reverend grave gracious Prelates whose Academicall Entertainment of pious and religious Kings and Princes in stead of learned and Scholasticall disputations or exercises intable to the condition of a learned Academy is a scurrilous Enterlude and this in disgrace of that which is the greatest beauty of our religion to wit true piety and vertue O blush at this ye Prelates and in your shrift confesse how unseemly this was for YOV that pretend to succeede the Apoles Eyther for shame mend your manners or never more imprison any man for denying that title of succession which you so bely by your vnapostolicall practise And may not that be applied to you which Bernard taxed Pope Eugenius with where telling him of his pompe Oves quid capiunt Si auderem dicere Demonum magis quam ovium passcua haec What good do the sheep receive If I durst speake these are the pastures rather of Devils then of the sheep Scilicet sic factitabat Petrus Sic Paulus ludebat Did Peter thus I pray you Did Paul play such play Surely for my part I am ashamed of you that ever it should be sayd I haue lived a Minister under such a Prelacy Nay as if this had not been sufficient this is done in the very heat and height of Gods Tragedy still in Acting in the Imperiall City when we were all mourning yea and every moment as dying men Was this a time then of Entertaining the Court and poysoning their eares with Enterludes and thereby provoking the Lord further to plague the Kings good people when you should rather have mooved his Majesty whō you wee al know to be forward enough to hearken to such a motion to have called a true Fast with Prayer and Preaching over the Land And was that a time of Enterludes Why did you not feare some Plague to grow in such a mighty assembly When notwithstanding Preaching is made dangerous by you for feare of the plague which should be a meanes as it hath beene formerly to drive away the plague by bringing the people to true humiliation and reformation Whereas your guelded Fast-book contrary to the Proclamation I am sure brought us for a hansell a double increase of the Plague that weeke to any weeke since the Plague began and most terrible weather withall to the Kings great losse and the Mercheants the angry countenāce of heaven ever since pouring Gods wrath upon this your hypocritical Mockfast But by the way take this with you As when the Lord calls to Fasting you fall a Feasting So there is a hand writing over you on the wall the Prophet Esay will tell you from the Lord Surely this iniquity shall never be purged away from you till ye dye sayth the Lord. But now do not exclame as if I spake against such intertainment of our Gracious Soveraigne his noble Court as is indeed honorable grave and sutable to such a Majesty Traine for whom I am ready to Sacrifice my deerest blood if need were Let not malice sucke poyson out of the sweet flower of candid sincerity But this by the way Secondly as Iesuites and their Faction the Popes Factors doe labour to divide the King from his good Subjects by poysoning his gentle eares with their Serpentine breath in their malicious detractions So on the other side they so carry the matter with the Subjects as to cause disunion of affection betwene them and their Soveraigne As first the Iesuites and Priests by seducing the people to their Superstition and Idolatry which of it selfe is a drawing of their hearts away as from their God so from their King Secondly the Prelates who do so interpret and presse the Kings Acts which his Majesty intendend for good as if hee prohibited the Ministers to preach of the saying Doctrines of grace Salvation without which the very Gospel is destroyed For example I my selfe was convented by a Pursivant to London house and there by his Lordship charged for preaching of the Goulden Chaine of Salvation Rom. 8. 29. 30. as it lay in
against his King or lifted up a hand against his Sacred Person But wee can fill large volumes of Examples if need were of Iesuites Priests and Prelates that have beene notorious traitors to their Emperours and Kings and some of them that have laid violent hand upon the Lords anointed And howsoever they cry thiefe first and their cry being lowder prevailes most especially being ushered in with the very name of Puritan as of old the very name of Christians was crime enough yet they which thus abuse the eares of pious Princes both by base flattery and mallicious traducing of good men the Kings good Subjects unto His Majestie incensing him against them that so they may more easily worke their owne mischievous ends these will be found to bee the great theeves as will appeare by that which now followeth in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change These words are an admonition to all that feare the Lord and the King not to meddle with them that are given to change that is not to have fellowship or partnership with them as before was opened The point we learne hence is That the true servants of the Lord subjects of the King ought not to joyne with those that are given to change whither it bee in the State of Religion or of the Common-weale This is confirmed first with sundry places of Scripture As Prov. 22. 28. Remove not the ancient Land-marke which thy Fathers have Set. This alludes as Divines interprit to the alteration of the State of the true Religion of good Laws So Eccl. 10. 8. Who so breaketh an hedge a Serpent shall bite him An hedge is a bounder or fence betweene man and man This is forbidden with a curse Deutr. 27. 17. And the Princes of Iuda were reprooved as those That remooved the Bound to wit of the Lawes Hose 5. 10. Which Zanchie expounds as the other And the Ordinary Glosse expounds it of Trelates which would be accounted Princes that remoove the bounds that is Preach other doctrine then they have received from the Apostles So as the Doctrines of the Apostles are the ancient Bounds which must not bee remooved Now with Innovators such as feare the Lord and the King must not meddle nor pertake and that for sundry waighty reasons 1. Because the accessory is equall with the principall both in fact and punishment As Obad. 11. Edom is as deepely charged as the Heathen actors for but looking on while they spoiled his brother Iacob and took no compassion on him much les ayded him against his enemies And in our Law misprison of Treason that is concealement of it is punishable as treason So when wee see wicked men goe about by their Innovation to undermine and overthrow the State of Religion and of the Common-weale if wee be silent and doe not detect them nor labour to defeate them but out of a base feare hold our peace when the State of things cal upon us to speak we shal be found guilty before God though the State take no notice of it of the same Sinne with them and so pertake of the like punishment 2. Because Innovation of Religion and the Republike is and ever hath beene held dangerous to a State especially when the change is for the worse As 1. in point of civill government to change a Kingdome setled on good Lawes into Tirany is very dangerous And ever States have beene wary hereof Insomuch as the Locrians ordained that who so would moâ—ion a nâ—w Law should come with an halter about his necke that is it were not liked hee should be hanged in his halter And it was the speech of Heraclitus Ephesius That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls Because a City may stand without walls but without Lawes it cannot For a State can no more stand without good Lawes as it were the Soule of it then the body can live without the soule Lycurgus therefore to preserue his Lawes unto perpetuity covenanted with his Citizens that they should alter nothing till his returne whereupon he voluntarily became a perpetuall exile from his Countrey Aristotle compares changes in a State which at first seeme but small and insensible to the expenses of a howse and the wasting of a mans substance by little and little which in a short time consumes all And in his Third Booke ibid. Shewing the difference betweene a King and a Tyrant hee saith The Citizens defend with Armes their King but Strangers a Tyrant For Kings doe rule according to Law and over willing Subjects But Tyrants against their wills So as Kings have a Guard of their people but Tyrants against them So hee Whereby we see the usefulnesse of good Lawes as combining King and peoples as the head and members Secondly in point of Religion A notable example hereof we have in Deut. 13. Where if Sonnes of Belial have drawne a City of Israel to Idolatry upon the inquiry of the Truth all Israel is to smite the Inhabitants of that Citie with the sword destroying utterly all therein both man and beast with the edge of the sword and the whole City with all the spoile therein shall be consumed with Fire and made a heape for ever that so Israel may be guiltlesse and blessed of God So for all Ieroboams policy which yet to carnall judgement seemed very subtily and safe for his Kingdome the erecting of his Calues proved the bane of his House and Kingdome for ever And the like ruine fell upon Ierusalem afterward with the Babilonian Captivity for 70. yeeres And the cause was partly changing of the Lawes whereof before and partly and especially changing of Religion as these two changes goe commonly hand in hand together So Iere. 2. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way So vers 11. Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my people have changed their glory for that which doeth not profit And Esay puts all together Saying The earth is befiled under the Inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the ordinance broken the Everlasting Covenant Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein c. Innovation in Religion breeds oftentimes troubles and distractions especially after a long settling And for this cause the first Reformers of our Religion were very tender of settling such an exact reformation in all things as perhaps they desired As the Lord Cromwell having set forth the Psalter in English with omission of the Letany there was such discontent about it as hee was forced to put it in againe Some indulgence must be given According to that observation of Beatus Rhenanus upon Tertullian it was needfull saith hee in ancient times to give indulgence to Christians in many things who commonly when they were old were converted from Paganisme to our Religion with great difficulty relinquishing
for the extinguishing and remaunding to hell those damnable Heresies which then began to spring up among them by the meanes of those Seeds men Arminius and Vorstius And were not the learned Workes and Writings of those Worthies of the Reformed Churches next after the Scriptures the most fit to cope with those Heresies as being better exercised against them And doth not the King pag. 377. call that the Orthodox faith which the reformed Churches did professe and whereof Calvin Beza Zanchie Iunius and others were the planters and founders amongst them And in particular did not King Iames commend Calvin as the most judicious and sound Expositer of the Scripture Nay can any man bee so impious as to imagine King Iames should doe any act in prejudice of Calvin Zanchie Beza P. Martyr and the rest whose names and reputation Arminius himselfe laboured tooth and nayle to disgrace that so hee might advance his owne cause Did not King Iames write to the States against Arminius calling him that Enemy of God How then can any man be so injurious to the memory of that Orthodox King as to thinke hee ever intended to inhibit young Students the reading of those excellent judicious learned illustrious lights of the Church and to restraine them to the ancient Fathers and Schoole-man in whose writings though many things be good and excellent yet their workes are not without their navi or spots so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere Gather Pearles out of the mud as Virgil saith of the reading of Ennius And young Students have not the maturity of judgement to put an exact difference to make choise of the things that are excellent and to leave the refuse And 〈◊〉 the same King Iames applies that old Verse to this purpose Quo semel est imbuta recens seruabit odorem Testa diu The vessell will tast a long time after of that liquor wherewith it is first seasoned And what shall become of the little brooks if their fountaine bee corrupted So the King And wee know that the Fathers and Schoole-men being commended and presented to young men in the habits of venerable antiquity are apt to beget in them the greater reverence and credence to their writings in comparison of those that are moderne and as it were but of yesterday And therefore young Students had need rather to bee admonished not to meddle with Fathers and Schoole-men till they come to riper yeeres and bee well seasoned with the pure liquor of Trueth both immediately drunke in from the fountaines of the Scriptures and derived by those uncorrupt Conduit-pipes the Divines of the Reformed Churches An unexpert Sea-man must not adventure his vessell on the Seas without an experienced Pilot that knowes the Shelues or shallowes and Rocks least he commit ship-wrack before he be aware Againe wee know what a learned Champion King Iames was against Popery Now an injudicious Reader not being well grounded aforehand comming to read some Fathers and Schoole-men may in some passages perhaps foysted in by the false fingering of the Monks as many of the writings in the volumes of the Ancients are factious and spurious bee infected with the poyson of Popish error and Superstition before hee be aware Therefore how can wee imagine that any such Order was the Kings but rather that it proceeded from some of the Prelates about him thereby the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their plot so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery And to this purpose they procure another order in King Iames his name for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops Deanes shall handle those points And after that there is set forth a Declaration before the Articles of Religion in King Charles his name which though as wee noted before it was farre from his Majesties pious intention to inhibit any part of Gods truth to bee preached but the contrary heresies yet the Prelates perverted and extended it to an universall silencing and suppressing of all those saving Doctrines of Election Predestination effectuall vocation by grace assurance perseverance in opposition to the contrary Arminian heresies so as neither Prelates nor Presbyters must meddle with them Thus the Doctrines of the Gospell must be for ever husht layd a sleep Thus our Articles of Religion to which all our Ministers subscribe are hanged up upon the wal and cashered as the heathen Oracles of old Thus the Ministry of the Gospell is at once overthrowne and nothing but orations of morality must be taught the people And herein doe our Prelates follow the rule of Contâ—en the Iesuite in his Politicks who prescribes this rule of silencing Controversies as an excellent way for restoring their Roman-Catholicke Religion in the Reformed Churches For if truth and error bee both suppressed truth by and by vanisheth but errour doth by necessary consequence come instead thereof and prevaile As if a man should bee hoodwinck it for the space of 24. houres that hee should neither see the day nor the night by this meanes all is night to him Nor is this a devise of yesterday but Satan had broached it long agoe For the Centuriators observe that the Authors and Advocates of corruptions and errours procuring by their flattery and faire showes to great men an opinion of great learning and so much the greater by reason of their high Grace and dignity which makes them the more admired and being the Patrons of great mens vices therefore those errors being opposed by the Orthodox they labour to compose all Controversies with an Amnestia or silencing of all disputes and by that meanes they wickedly presume to reconcile Christ with Belial Truth with Errour a believer with an infidell So as the Emperor Anastasius being a favourer of the Arrian heresy was mooved by such counsels to bury the Controversies of the principall heads of Doctrine under an Amnestia But in vaine This counsell is not of God but of men Vnder this cloake and patronage of Amnestia doe corruptions and other plagues of the Church of God increase Let therefore all Potentates of this world learne that the most waighty Controversies of the Articles of faith cannot be abolished or quieted by Amnesties but rather let them be determined by the Word of God c. So they The like did the Arrian Bishops in a Councell at Seleucia called by Constantius an Arrian Emperor who did therein suppresse by a perpetuall Amnestia the mention of homousios and homotousios that so they might coyne a new faith and utterly extinguish that of the Councell of Nice Thus wee see the antiquity of this practise But wee have before sufficiently cleared our gratious Soveraigne from having the least intention of Suppressing any part of Gods truth by that his Declaration but only of the coÌ„trary errors although the Prelates do pervert presse it upoÌ„
this last it saith Christ ordained the authority of the Keâ—es to excommunicate notorious sinners and to absolve them which are truly penitent They abuse this power at their owne pleasure as well in cursing the godly with Bell Booke and Candle as also in absolving the reprobate which are knowne to be unworthy of any Christian society And what can the Prelates and their Court say for theÌ„selues why that of Bernard may not be applied to them which hee spake of the Prelates in his time Quem dabis mihi de numero Episcoporum qui non plus invigilet subditorum evacuendis marsupijs quaâ— vicijs extirpandis Vbi est qui flectat iram Vbi est qui praedicet annum placabilem Domini Propterea relinquamus istos quia non sunt Pastores sed traditores imitemur illos qui viventes in carne plantâ—verunt Ecclesiam sanguine suo Successores omnes cupiunt esse imitatores pauci Whom wilt thou shew mee of all the Bishops who is not more vigilant to empty the peoples purses then to root out their vices Where is hee that seekes to appease wrath Where is hee that preacheth the acceptable yeere of the Lord Wherefore let usabandon these men because they are not Pastors but Traytors and let us imitate those who living in the flesh have planted the Church with their blood So hee I will not speake of their domesticall discipline but for the present and for brevity sake passe it over But from the beginning it was not so Hierome saith A negotiating Clerke and of poore rich of ignoble glorious fly from as from a kind of plague The 3. Change is in the worship of God which they goe about to turne inside outward placing the true worship which is in Spirit and Trueth in a Will-worship of mans devising consisting in some externall complements and gesticulations as cringing crouchings bowing or standing upright at some Scriptures more than at others also a punctuall observance in these formalities as in bowing to the name of Iesus to the Communion table or rather Altar as to the Mercy-seat as they teach in their books praying with their faces towards the East thus tying God to a fixed place standing at reading of the Gospell and the like Also reading their second service at their Altar as we touched before many the like And who so wil not worship after their new fashion their new discipline is to excommunicate them or to bring them into the High-coÌ„mission a place which they make worse theÌ„ Purgatory it selfe Al which oppression being an innovation is directly contrary to the Act of Conformity before the CoÌ„munion Booke bringing the Prelats into little lesse then a Praemunire The 4. change is in the civill govermeÌ„t which they labor to reduce transferre to Ecclesiasticall while they seeke to trample upon the Lawes of the Land step between the King his people exercising such a lawlesse tyranny over their bodies goods as also over their coÌ„sciences as is more intollerable then the Egyptian servitude of Israel under their Taskmasters in regard wherof the Prelates power over-swaying the subjects right in the free use and benefit of the Lawes the people of the Land are used rather as vassals slaves to the Prelates then as the free subjects of the King And this is the case of all England at this day the people every where groaning sighing for this their boÌ„dage their miserable vexations in the Ecclesiasticall Courts Well could they but cry mightily to the Lord and make their just complaints to his vicegerent their King as their cause requireth hee would quickly send a Moses to deliver them And so much the more should they bee sensible of this evill by how much the glory of the Kings governement over a free people according to his righteous Lawes is lamentably eclipsed his power infringed and his regall Prerogative undermined The fifth innovation is in the altering of Prayer-Bookes set foorth by publicke authority And first in the Communion Booke set forth by Parliament and commaunded to bee read without any alteration and none other they have altered Sundry things as in the Collect for the Queene and the Royall Progeny they have put out Father of thine elect and of their Seed as it were excluding the King Queene and Seed Royall out of the number of Gods Elect. Also in the Epistle for Sunday before Easter That in the name of Iesus they haue turned into At the name of Iesus that so it may make the fairer colour for their forced bowing to the name of Iesus for which there is neither Scripture nor ancient Father The second Booke is the Prayers set forth by authority of Parliament for Solemne thankesgiving for our deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason of the Papists on every Fifth of November where in stead of this passage Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. They in the last Edition 1635. set it downe thus Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect OF THEM which say of Ierusalem c. Now whereas the words of the Originall copy doe plainely meane That all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem c. This latter Booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it to those Puritans that cry Downe with Babilon that is Popery which these men call Ierusalem and the true Catholike Religion Againe in the same Prayer the old copy hath these words And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion whose faith is faction whose practise is murdering of soules and bodies and to root them out of the confines of this Kingdome c. But the new Booke hath it thus And to that end strengthen the hands of our Gratious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Iudgement and Iustice to cut off these workers of iniquity WHO TVRNE RELIGION INTO REBELLION AND FAITH INTO FACTION Thus these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to be termed Rebellion and their faith Faction as the ancient copy plainly shewes it to bee but turne it off from the religion to some persons which turne religion into rebellion and faith into faction So as by this turning they plainly imply that the religion of Papists is the true religion and no rebellion and their faith the true faith and no faction Thus with altering of a word they have quite perverted the sence and so turned the Cat in the Pan so as the blame is quite taken off from the Church of Rome and laid upon a few who ever they bee who turne Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction Thus what dare not these men doe that are not afraid to alter those things which are
by authority of Parliament which it seemes they make but light account of published as Authentick Acts not to bee altered by private spirits But who they bee it 's hard for me to divine it pertaines to those to find them out of whom Salomon saith It is the honour of Kings to search out a matter Now having fallen upon this so important a passage wherein the Innovators would not have the Romish Religion to be called Rebellion or their faith Faction the like but labour all they can to wash this Blackamore white while by their index expurgatorius they purge out of all our authentick records all monuments and memorialls of this Strumpets Staines painting her haggs face with the counterfeit colours of Christs Spowse I will crave leave in this place briefely to show how truly according to the judgement of our Church grounded upon manifest and undeniable proofes the Romish or Popish Religion is here in this Booke set foorth by the Parliament called Rebellion and their faith Faction First that the Popish religion is rebellion is prooved by the universall practise of Papists both Iesuites Priests and other Recusants For whereas in 3. Iacobi cap. 4. the Oath of Supremacy is injoyned to all Papists all Iesuites and Seminary Priests refuse it and all Iesuited Papists and if any Papist doe take it hee is excommunicated for it And their reason is Because they hold and adhere to the Pope as the onely Supreme head and Soveraigne over all powers on earth this being the prime and fundamentall Article of their Creed and so consequently they hold and teach those doctrines concerning the Popes usurped power over Kings Princes in deposing them and disposing of their Kingdomes in Excommunicating them and so exposing them to the rebellion of their people as being now freed from their allegiance Secondly that the Popish religion is rebellion is prooved by their writings positions and doctrines which they professe and teach concerning the Popes usurped power and Soveraignty over all Kings and Kingdomes of the earth Here of the Reader may take a briefe and full view both in Doctor Iohn White his Defence of the way chap. 6. and in Doctor Crakenthorpe his Treatise of the Popes temporall Monarchy Cap. 1. First Dr. Iohn White in answere to the Iesuites bold challenge hath in the said place collected no lesse then 40. instances of Popish Authors who exalt the Popes power over Kings in deposing them and exposing their Persons to the danger of Rebells Traytors and Murderers commending and highly magnifying as a meritorious act the killing of Kings as of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth of France as there is to bee seene Therefore saith hee I say still and heere write it in capitall Letters that THE CHVRCH OF ROME TEACHETH DISLOYALTY AND REBELLION AGAINST KINGS AND LEADES HER PEOPLE INTO ALL CONSPIRACIES AND TREASONS AGAINST STATES AND KINGDOMES This I shew by the Doctrine and Assertions of the chiefest Divines therein So hee Let the Reader peruse the whole chapter at large where among other remarkable things is this Passage out of Capistranus that so soone as any one King for Apostacy from the faith by judgement is denounced Excommunicate IPSO FACTO HIS SVBIECTS ARE ABSOLVED FROM HIS GOVERNMENT AND FROM THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE So there The second Learned Author of ours is Dr. Crakenthorpe who in the fore-named place hath collected the Sentences of many Poopiâ—h Authors concerning the same point Some of them saying That Christian Kings are Dogges which must be ready at the Sheepheards hand to wit the Pope or else the Sheepheard must presently remooue them from their office This saith Becanus doth reason teach this doth the Councell of Lateran Decree And Scioppius that Reges Catholici sunt Asini cum tintinnabulis Catholik Kings are Asses with bells about their necks as being the fore-asses which leade the way to other inferiour Asses The whole Chapter is worth the reading being full fraught with such stuffe Yea the Popes owne Decretalls are full of the like arrogancies What should I speake of their Bookes of the Sacred Roman Ceremonies wherein are setdown the severall Offices which Emperors Kings Princes according to their severall rankes must performe to the Pope either at his Coronation or when he rideth in Soleme Procession in his Pontificalibus how the Emperor or some great King must lead the Popes horse and if the Pope bee carried on a Seat then foure great Princes whereof the Emperor if present must be one or some great Prince for the honor of the Saviour Iesus Christ shall cary the Seat with the Pope upon their shoulders Also which stirrop the Emperor must hold How the Elect King of Romans must implore the favour and grace of the Apostolicke Sea and offer himselfe to performe whatsoever Oathes of fidelity to the Roman Church How the Chore sings the Antiphona The Lord hath chosen him and hath exalted him above the Kings of the earth And the like By these and many more it plainly appeareth that the Popish Religion is Rebellion and that Papists are an Antichristian Sect as is expressed in the sayd Prayer Againe as their Religion is Rebellion so their faith is faction as there is added For proofe hereof I referre the Reader to Doctor Crakenthorpe Of the fifth generall Councell Chapter 13. where hee learnedly prooveth that the Church of Rome holdeth no doctrine by faith And this from the Councell of Lateran under Leo 10. wherein they layd another foundation then Christ the Popes words in steed of Gods and Antichrists insteed of Christs For before that Councell of Lateran though they believed the same heresies and errours yet it was because they thought the Scripture to bee the maine ground thereof but in this Councell they must believe all these things because the Pope hath so resolved and defined So as though the Materialls of Popery were the same yet the formality and foundation of their faith and Church was quite altered So as from hence Papists are so truly called from the Pope as the prime Head Rocke and foundation of their faith For as wee make Christ and his Word so they on the contrary make the Pope that is to say Antichrist and his word the ground and foundation of faith In regard whereof as the faith and religion is from Christ truely called Christian and they truely Christians So the faith and religion of the other is from the Pope or Antichrist truely and properly called Papisme or Antichristianisme and the Professors of it Papists or Antichristians And the ground of all this is because they hold the Popes judgement to bee Supreme and infallible and so build their faith on him as on the foundation thereof which their owne Church never did till the time of Leo the tenth It is not then the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda but the Lyon of the Lateran Synod who is the foundation of the faith of Papists and from whom therefore they justly
tooke their name of Papists to distinguish them from true Christians which from that time they have held to this day And thus all the members of the present Roman Church doe both erre and are hereticks and which is the worst degree of heresy are Papists that is Antichristian hereticks not only holding and that in the highest degree of pertinacy those heresies which are contrary to the faith but holding them upon that foundation which quite overthroweth the faith thus and much more this learned Dr. of our Church So as here is a cleare demonstration that the faith of all Papists at this day is a Popish faction And our Homilies doe affirme So much For in the Second part of the Homily for Whit-Sunday we read thus THe true Church is an universall congregation or fellowship of Gods faithfull and Elect people built upon the foundation of the Apostles Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe Corner-Stone And it hath alwayes three notes or markes whereby it is knowne Pure and Sound Doctrine the Sacraments ministred according to Christs holy institution and the right use of Ecclesiasticall Discipline Now if ye well compare this with the Church of Rome not as it was in the beginning but as it is presently and hath been for the space of nine hundred yeares and odd you shall well preceive the state thereof to be so far wide from the nature of the true Church that nothing can bee more For neither are they built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets retaining the sound and pure doctrine of Christ Iesus neither yet doe they order the Sacraments or else the Ecclesiasticall Keyes in such sort as he did first institute ordaine them To be short look what our Saviour Christ pronounced of the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospell the same may bee boldly and with safe conscience pronounced of the Bishops of Rome namely that they have forsaken and daily doe forsake the Commandements of God to erect and set up their owne constitutions Which thing being most true as all they which have any light of Gods Word must needs confesse wee may well conclude according to the rule of Augustine That the Bishops of Rome and their adherents are not the true Church of Christ much lesse then to be taken as chiefe heads and rulers of the same Whosoever saith hee doe dissent from the Scriptures concerning the Head although they be found in all places where the Church is appointed yet are they not in the Church a plaine place concluding against the Church of Rome Where is now the Holy Ghost which they so stoutly doe claime to themselves Where is now the Spirit of truth that will not suffer them in any wise to erre If it bee possible to bee there where the true Church is not then is it at Rome otherwise it is but a vaine bragge and nothing else Saint Paul saith if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ the same is not his And by turning the words it may bee truly said if any man bee not of Christ the same hath not the Spirit Now to discerne who are truely his and who not wee haue this rule given us that his sheepe doe alwayes heare his voice And Saint Iohn saith Hee that is of God heareth Gods voice Whereof it followeth that the Popes in not hearing Christs voice as they ought to doe but preferring their owne Decrees before the expresse Word of God doe plainly argue to the world that they are not of Christ not yet possessed with his Spirit Also their intollerable pride sheweth the same c. So and much more the Homily Wherein as it is plainely prooved that the Church of Rome is no true Church of Christ as being built upon another foundation then the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone And preferring their owne Decrees before the Word of God and so consequently the Popish Faith is a meere Fiction So let our Innovators well consider whether they bee any members of the true Church of Christ that thus pleade for and take part with the church of Antichrist labouring by all meanes to bring her into favour againe with us while they audaciously presume to alter the authentick Booke set forth and commanded by Parliament for publike and solemne Thankesgiving of our great deliverance on the Fifth of November from the Popish Powder-plot as if neither their Religion were Rebellion nor their faith Faction And the Homily concludes thus TO conclude Yee shall briefely take this short lesson wheresoever ye find the spirit of arrogancy pride the spirit of envie hatred contention cruelty murder extortion witchcraft necromancy c. assure your selues that there is the spirit of the Devill and not of God albeit they pretēd outwardly to the world never so much holinesse For as the Gospel teacheth us the Spirit of Iesus is a good Spirit an holy spirit a sweet Spirit a lowly Spirit a mercifull Spirit full of charity and love full of forgivenesse and pity c. The Rule that wee must follow is this to judge them by their fruits which if they be wicked and naught then is it vnpossible that the tree of whom they proceed should be good Such were all the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part as doth well appeare in the Story of their lives and therefore they are worthily accounted among the number of false Prophets and false Christs which deceived the world a long while The Lord of heaven and earth defend us from their tyranny and pride that they never enter into his Vinyard againe to the disturbance of his seely poore flock but that they may bē vtterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the world and he of his great mercy so worke in all mens hearts by the mighty power of the holy Ghost that the comfortable Gospell of his Sonne Christ may be truely preached and truely followed in all places to the beating downe of sinne death the Pope the Devill and all the Kingdome of Antichrist that like scattered dispersed sheep being at length gathered into one fold we may in the end rest together in the bosome of Abraham Isaak and Iacob there to be partakers of eternall and everlasting life through the merits and death of Iesus Christ our Saviour Amen And of the like effect is that Prayer which some of Romes factors have so altered Be thou still our mighty protector and scatter our cruell enemies which delight in blood infatuate their Counsell and root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalē Downe with it Downe with it even to the ground And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the land with judgement and justice to cutt off these workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion whose faith is faction whose practise is murthering of soules bodies and to root them out of the confines limits of
this Kingdome that they may never prevaile against us and triumph in the ruine of thy Church and give us grace to avert these and the like judgements from us This Lord wee earnestly crave at thy mercifull hands together with the continuance of thy powerfull protection over our dread Soveraigne the whole Church and these Realmes and the conversion or confusion of all implacable enemies and that for thy deare Sons sake our onely Mediator and Advocate Thus the conclusion prayer of the Homily this Prayer of the 5. of Novem. being well weighed together we see unlesse in so praying we play the most notorious hypocrites dissemblers before God and men in what a sacred bond all the Magistrates in the Land from the highest to the lowest do ingage thēselues unto the great God of heaven earth to roote out the whole Babilonish Sect of Iesuites and Seminary Priests out of these confines limits of these Kingdomes and not to suffer them to roost here to the great dishonour of God scandall of our Religion danger to the State destruction of the soules of Gods people and of the Kings Nor this onely but if our Prelates as they plainely shew by their open practises be found to be fast friends to Rome confederates with Iesuites Priests active Agents factors for the rearing up again of that religion which is rebellion that faith which is faction cōsequētly that practise which is murdering of soules bodies for the advancing of that Babilonish antichristian sect which say of Ierusalē down with it down with it even to the ground while they labour by all wayes and wiles yea by an open Lawlesse force to beat downe the Kingdome of Christ in the Ministery of the word as too lamentable experience can witnesse and to destroy all true religion holinesse piety then how doth it concerne our Gracious King our Nobles and Magistrates of the Land to strengthen their hands with judgement justice to cut off these workers of iniquity to root them out of the confines limits of this Kingdome that they may never prevaile against us and triumph in the ruine of the Church by reducing vs under the Babylonian and Antichristian yoake againe which they labour with might and maine to effect as their notorious practises plainly tell us And how should all the Kings good people in the Land make this their dayly prayer which is publickly used once in the yeare teach it to their children that so at the least wise it may be propagated intire to all posterity so vindicated from the injury of time which our Innovators would bring upon it and never give over thus praying till it shall please God to returne a gracious answere in the fulfilling of it Yet are they not cōtent herewith but like themselves they practise the like in the last Fast-booke that contrary to the Kings expresse Proclamation which ordereth the booke for the former Fast to be reprinted and published as it followeth The third Prayer Booke which they have pitifully mangled is that which was set forth by the King for that Publick Fast in the first of his Raigne for the averting of the great Plague of Pestilence that thē devoured many thousands in this City elswhere in our Land which his late Proclamation commaundeth to bee reprinted and published and so read in Churches every Wednesday But doe they or durst they alter that Booke which the Kings Proclamation hath so lately commaunded to be reprinted and published Yes even that and that in such wise as I see not with what warrant any Minister may read it as being not according to the Proclamation Now the Alterations in the new Booke bee these In the first collect is left out this remarkable pious Sentence intirely Thou hast delivered us from Superstition and Idolatry wherein wee were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere and comfortable light of thy blessed Word by the which wee are taught how to serve and honour thee and how to live orderly with our neighbours in truth and vertty Lo here these men would not have Popery to bee called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God to commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties to God and man Secondly that collect which begins thus It had beene the best for us c. is wholly left out in the new Booke And wot yee why Alas therein is commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God So as this collect would not have suited well with such a Fast wherein all preaching is prohibited in all places infected And in the very last page Order for the Fast these words are left out in the new Booke To avoid the inconvenience that may grow by Fasting Some esteeming it a meritorious worke others a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end c. What Doe they esteeme their Fast a meritorious worke Must the condemnation hereof bee expunged And doe they account their Fast a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end It seemes so too For the end of a true Fast is reformation of our evill wayes as the King of Nineveb proclaimed and which hee and his people performed But these men it seemeth have no such purpose propound no such end to themselves as the reformation of all their violent oppressions and outragious tyrannizing over Gods Ministers and people to the utter overthrow of Religion and setting up of Idolatry and Superstition in the worship of God which one sinne alone is enough to bring the Pestilence and all other plagues upon a Land Beside these they have guelded the Booke in sundry other particulars as in the Collects and Prayers for the Royall Progeny they have left out the mention of the Lady Elizabeth and her children expressed in the former booke They have left out the collect for the Kings Navy and for seasonable weather whereas there was never more need to pray for seasonable weather than since this fast beganne when so many tempestuous stormes and immoderate raines have beene as have indangered Ships in the very harbour Shipwrackt some of great price and caused great Floods threatning a Famine by drowning the Seed under the clods Also sundry Psalmes and Collects besides are omitted and a whole passage in the Exhortation applyable enough to the present occasion Now whither it bee for these alterations wherein both the Kings Order in his Proclamation is not observed and God is dishonoured by leaving out such our humble acknowledgements both of his mercies in delivering us from Superstition and Idolatry and bringing us into the cleare and comfortable light of his blessed Word and of our sinnes in not hearkning to His Word continually Preached unto us and the like and Gods Ministers and people are abused by having such Bookes